Celestial Centurions

Raven - On board the ship, Grah'Nak

Her footsteps rang down the hallway, resounding off the walls and ringing back into her ears as if the ship didn't want her to be there. The loud echoes diminished though, as she approached the end, where the hallway simply ended, opening up into a massive chamber... Originally this ship was a cargo ship, and those two rooms, the cargo hold, and the main corridor, were the ONLY two rooms in which they didn't need to raise the ceiling height...

Ravens face was blank and expressionless as she strode towards the center of the mostly empty cargo hold... But it wasn't a cargo hold anymore. She stopped as she reached the center and knelt ceremoniously in front of a massive, carved, throne... The thing itself wasn't very beautiful to look at. It wasn't made of precious metals, or the bones of their enemies... No, it was the first Throne. The first Chieftain had made it from the Ironwood trees that grew nearly everywhere in the forest... He cut the limbs from the tree and fashioned them by hand, into his throne, and melted his own armor, pouring it over the throne to hold the joints together, rather than nails, or ties...

Bane now sat on the throne. He had claimed it by trial of combat long ago, and no one had taken it from him yet, though a few had tried. He had thought about adding their armor to the mold, but the third deceased challenger had SO MUCH armor, there would have been more metal than chair at that point...

Bane acknowledged the presence of his wife, Raven, silently. It was an unspoken ritual that was performed flawlessly by the two, but only in public. In private, they were much less formal...

Raven stood silently... "Everything is in place, and the engineers expect the ship to be ready within a day. There was a problem with the airlock, but the seals have been replaced, and realigned."

She knew that isn't what Bane wanted to know... But that's what she told him, letting him know that's all she was willing to discuss at the moment. Tribal leaders did not argue in front of their underlings. Especially not when such radical changes were taking place...

Bane nodded, silently, only his helmet moving... "Good. Is that all?"... His voice was a deep rumble across his helmet comm. He never needed to raise his voice, simply because his voice resonated within his massive chest, amplifying naturally into a deep, sooty, growl...

Raven didn't reply to his probing question... She wasn't ready to talk about it. Only the two of them would know, at least for now. When it was impossible to hide anymore, she would acknowledge it, but for now it had to remain between them... Until they reached where they were going, no one could know...

She was pregnant...

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Bane - On board the ship, Grah'Nak

He had initially rejected the idea of allowing an outsider to grace the expedition he had dreamed of for so long... Especially an outsider from an exiled tribe. And while Bane hadn't had any hand in the exile of the Northern tribe, he particularly wished he had... The small individuals that came from those mountains seemed rugged, but wily and scared, like the big mountain sheep that wandered the peaks of the frozen land...

His wife had been the one to convince him otherwise... "If you want him gone, at any time, it would be no trouble to dispose of him... But, it may be wiser in the long run to have greater numbers if we encounter more like the forerunners and their humans... "

At first, Bane was hesitant, but he conceded to her advice. Indecision could kill a warrior faster than a bad decision... The Northerner was allowed access to the area, but not the Tribes resources, nor anywhere on the ship, until he proved himself capable. Bane hadn't pressured the newcomer into combat, but he was anxious to see him perform... He doubted the Northerners had any time for fighting in the snow, but then again, some tribes adapted in very interesting ways to their surroundings.

"Rise..." his voice rumbled out, like the bones of a mountain as they shifted beneath the skin of the earth. But that was all he said... That was all he needed to say.

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Harlan - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

Harlan rose after Bane had spoken.
Bane truly was the giant he had heard of, but even giants were just creatures, and creatures could be hunted, it was merely how you hunted them that differed.

Still, Harlan hoped that he wouldn´t face Bane in the trial by combat to join the tribe, since Harlan knew that the chieftain of a tribe was always the strongest, and a tribe as large as this, must have a powerful chieftain indeed.

Harlan looked at Bane, and said with his husky voice,
"I thank you for this chance."
Harlan was not one for courtesy, but in this situation in the midst of enemy camps, on a expedition he hoped to join, courtesy was the way to go. Despite being a hunter from a northern tribe and being exiled, he still knew how to pay his respects.

Knowing what most likely were to happen, he looked around to see the most likely challenger would be for him to prove himself against. Bane would be unlikely, since he were the chieftain, and the chieftains were unlikely to just duel anybody.

Raven was a possibility, since she were beside Bane, but she was the one Harlan least wanted to face. He had heard the stories, and she seemed like a capable warrior, but an even stronger tactician, and would not be an easy conquest.

And so Harlan waited for Bane to either accept now, so he could move on, or rule the trial by combat.

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Raven - On Board the ship, Grah'Nak

Raven smiled as she replied, a very natural action for one who faked all sorts of emotions, using them as her weapons... Her tactical advantage... As she smiled, she replied for Bane, a formality as Bane was regarded far too highly to address an outsider directly...

"The trial is presented to every warrior who appeals to join our Tribe... It is not the trial you should be thankful for. You should be thankful for your life..."

She paused for dramatic effect, and then resumed... Satisfied that the Northerner wasn't going to reply with a hasty remark. "You will be fighting Black Bears." she raised her arm and motioned in the general direction of an extremely large brute. As she mentioned his name his head turned, and he lumbered over to face the challenger... Black Bears nodded, acknowledging his chieftain who nodded respectfully in return, a rare thing.

Black bears squared his shoulders and nodded to the little Northerner as he slowly lumbered closer... His height seeming to increase as he approached.

Black Bears nodded once more to his opponent before balling his massive paws up... A half second after they curled into massive fists, a round plate curled over the gauntlets turning his fists into deadly, crushing, maces... "I am Black Bears. Fight well and you may join us... "

Raven watched as Bears squared his massive 10 foot tall shoulders... In reality, he was only 9 feet tall, but his armor gave him extra height, girth, and nearly added 4x his own weight... He was the most heavily armored fighter in the Tribe, and had never lost a fight. But Bears interest had never been in fighting, nor leading the Tribe. Bear was a simple minded warrior. He liked  simple things, and so he took orders, and he obeyed. But no one laughed at him for his irregularity... Not if they liked their limbs attached to their bodies...

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Harlan - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

There were two ways to fight one who were bigger and stronger than one self, and this scenario was almost too similar to fighting a bear. Normally Harlan would exhaust the bear by injuring it in small skirmishes, then striking once the prey was weakened.

That way was impossible in the present scenario, and so Harlan was forced to do the dangerous thing and fight Black Bears directly.

Harlan drew a bola from his pockets, which he held in his right hand, while the left was holding his scythe, a masterfully crafted tool for hunting and slaughtering all manner of creatures that roamed the tundra of his homeland.

Harlan replied to Raven

"I am thankful for both my life and my trial, and I am ready for the trial to begin"

Harlan disliked this situation somewhat, but he knew that sometimes to survive, you had do stuff that you did not like. He would rather just say precisely what he wanted, but he knew that would most likely get him killed, and he would rather survive than die.

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

She watched as Bears squared into his full on fighting stance. Bears name came from him fighting off two full grown black bears when he stumbled across their den on a hunting trip. The massive creatures singled out a smaller companion on the hunting trip, but Bears leapt onto the backs of the charging animals and strangled one and broke the neck of the other... One with each arm...

Bears ambled slowly towards his target ignoring the talk from the Northerner to Raven. His mind was simple and filled with one goal... Bears reached out, spreading his arms, preventing the little northerner from easily getting beside or behind his hulking mass... Although if he did the giant only had to sweep his arms and let the weight of his armor do the work...

Bears face didn't change behind his helmet. He simply focused on his target and moved forwards...

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Harlan - On bord the ship, Grah´Nak

Harlan threw the bola aiming at the knees of Blackbear, so if they hit Bears would find it almost impossible to walk, but right after he threw the bola, Harlan thrust his scythe at Bear with the end of the scythe, in a blinding jab at the brutes throat.

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

Black Bears watched the small weapon wrap around his legs... He wasn't sure what it was at first, so he stopped his forward movement... After a second he realized what it was for and almost laughed, and as he flexed his leg muscles and stepped once more, he shredded the simple hunting weapon, meant for disabling much weaker targets... But in those two seconds of distraction he missed the stabbing motion of the scythe, and only just noticed it as it reached him...

He wasn't too concerned with the curved blade of the weapon, even though his armor had a few wide joints where the blade could reach... The joints contained woven kinetic fiber. Flexible and vulnerable to high impact blows, but nearly invulnerable to any cut from a weapon...

Black Bears watched as his opponent approached him, as he pulled back his right arm like a giant piston, ready to smash forwards and crush his opponent with the 2 ton weight of the giant, armored warrior behind the blow.

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Bears movements were as perfect as they were simple, but Harlan knew that the risky play was coming up since he was now in close proximity to the hulking warrior. As Harlan was closing in on Bear, he made a slashing motion, at the neck, which Harlan knew were covered in armor, but the point were not to slash him, rather it were to hook onto the armor and swing, which would allow Harlan to reach Bears back.

The whole plan relied on two things. Harlan being able to dodge the punch of Bear, and Harlans scythe being able to cling to the the armor covering the joints.

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

Raven saw Bears preparing to end the battle... The brute was slow, but his mind was quick, and he had always been quite capable at close range.

Bears lifted his left arm to a vertical guard, using the bulky metal of his armguard to block the incoming strike to his neck while pushing out his fist/mace to swing his crushing blow at the fast moving target. It was a precision attack... Much more so than any weapon Bears may have been able to wield... Bears first swing missed the challengers head by a fingers width, the speed of his arm only a fraction slower than the target.

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Harlan swung all his weight on the shaft of the sickle and used Bears arm, rather than his neck, to fling him behind Bears. Knowing that bear could not strike him at that moment, he released the sickle he had used to fling past bear with and took out another bola.
He threw one end of the bola, letting it swing around Bears neck twice before locking it into place with his other hand as he discarded the sickle...

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

She watched as the smaller northerner used speed and leverage to swing around Bears arm using the curved scythe like a climbing tool... She watched as he pulled out another rope like weapon and let it sling around Bears neck, grabbing hold of much of his armor and becoming lodged before the other end swung around... The Northerner managed to catch the other end and proceeded to pull on it...

Bears spun around as if to track his opponents path of movement, but didn't realize his opponent had swung around onto his back until he heard the metallic clanking of the chain like cord wrapping around his bevor... He recalled his mace like coverings from his hands so he could use his fingers once more, and reached up to try to grab the cord as he shook his body, trying to free himself of his pesky hitch hiker... The two ton monster nearly fell once as the weight of his opponent nearly dislodged, the momentum of his own flailing nearly tugging him over on top of his opponent...

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Harlan - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

He knew what would become of his if Bears weight were to fall on him, so he clung to Bears as if we truly were climbing... Only this mountain had a high likelihood of falling over on top of him... With nothing more to do than hold on and look for an opening to slide his last weapon (his dagger) into, he waited...

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

She watched as Bears fell over, slowly, like a giant tower struggling to stand even though it was doomed to fall regardless of its toil... She watched as the Northerner disappeared but for his feet, beneath the armor of Bears... She almost laughed, but quickly decided now was not a good time. She looked from the fight to Bane, whose chin was now resting on his palm, lazily... He knew the outcome of the fight... She knew he'd expected something similar to this, though maybe not exactly /this/...

Raven returned her gaze to the fight as Bears ripped his bevor off, yanking the snagged bola with it... He yanked the plate metal from the front of his armor, and lifted it over his head along with his opponent, freeing himself, and began to sit up while struggling a smidge to lift the heavy suit of armor from a lying position... He grunted as he finally sat upright, and began to slowly roll to his feet once more, with the Northerner hanging off the end of the bola still, like a caught fish...

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He quickly dropped to the floor from the dislodged armor and rolled away, before quickly rising to his feet.
Harlan took both of his daggers out, from the sheaths they were in behind his back. Thanks to Bears removing some armor, Harlan now had somewhere he could strike.

Yet knowing that Bear now had some open spots, Harlan kept his distance. He needed to wait for the attack of Bear.
Rushing Bear, would just provide Bear with a target like the first swing that Bear missed, most likely purposefully.

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

She had thought about calling the fight off, but Bears knew the limits of the test. He knew when it was proper to end it, and when a newcomer had shown he was worthy... He obviously didn't think the northerner had proven himself yet, so she let the duel continue...

Bears stood, now free of the pesky weight of his competitor and the restraining tangled bevor... The whole piece had come free at once, but the bola was till tangled around it... Bears looked at the two pieces and grabbed the chain of the bola and swung it once before letting it go in the direction of his opponent... It wasn't an aimed throw, but then again the distance wasn't far, and the large rounded plate that once protected his neck and chin was a heavy projectile...

As he launched his makeshift weapon at the northerner, Bears made a charge at him, lowered to his hands and knees much like a rough sport his tribe used to play... He rushed at his opponent intending to tackle him once more, facing him this time so he could deal the deadly barrage of crushing blows he was known for... The primal roar that accompanied his charge echoed through the ship as his helmets speakers amplified his battle cry...

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Harlan - On board the shop, Grah´Nak

Harlan threw one of his own daggers aimed at the throat of Bear, but the time he took to threw would cost him dearly.
Harlan had tried to dodge the bola piece, but had not succeeded to the level of which he had hoped, for as he threw his dagger, he was struck by the edge of the projectile armor.

His lower rib on the right side was either broken or heavily bruised, yet Harlan knew that he had to dodge the charge by Bear.
Harlan started to run towards his sickle which were on the floor, hoping that he could dodge the charge and reach his weapon before he was crushed...

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

Bears hadn't expected the armor piece to land its blow, but when it did, the force apparently did some unforeseen damage... His opponent had thrown a dagger of some sort at him in exchange, and the weapon flew well, but the blade didn't manage to bite into its target. Instead it bounced off the mammoth warrior as he charged forwards, barreling at the little hunter as he scrambled off to the side.

There wasn't much distance between him and his target, but Bears had enough time to see why his opponent had scrambled to the side. The curved weapon was at his opponents grasp by the time he saw it. Bears didn't worry about the little curved weapon... Most of his opponents weapons were made for unarmored game... Not armored, trained, warriors like himself... So far, if he had stood there rather than engaged his target, nothing could have seriously damaged him or his armor... The northerner may as well have beaten on a wall... But it was a test for the northerners survivability, not Bears... To see if he could survive in a fight... And so far, he had...

Bears lowered his head and prepared to charge into his opponent head on, literally...

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Harlan - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

Harlan saw Bear lower his head, and for the first time came a little smile on Harlans face. The reason for the smile, was that Bear now actually reminded him of a Bear. The battle had changed with the bare neck and changed stance of Bear. Harlan stood with his dagger in one hand, and the sickle in the other.

As Bear came charging at Harlan, he barely dodged it, but he managed.
Harlan aimed for the side of the neck with sickle as he swung it.
His aim was to cleanly slice into Bears neck, decapitating his opponent...

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

Bears did laugh out loud as he missed his primal charge, and felt the subtle "smack" of metal on the mesh of his undersuit... The northerner simply didn't realize how useless his tools were here.

If the northerner took his weapons and sawed at the weakest point in Bears armor... Bears would die of boredom before he died from the blade... The idea of the Tribal armor was to create protection for life support skin so that you could survive space, or underwater, or other extreme conditions for extended periods of time without having to worry about it being torn, punctured, sliced open, or burned... Not to mention protecting the life support skin, meant protecting your OWN skin...

Every warrior in the Stargazer tribe had armor that covers everything, and where plates can't be, because of joints and such, there's a kinetic mesh that prevents anything less than energy based weapons from doing any slicing or cutting damage... The only tools that could harm an armored warrior are energy based, or simply so powerful, they ignore the mesh or pulverize the plates, crushing the softer organic material inside...


Bears let his momentum end as he stood up to his full height once more, turning slowly towards the northerner... He was only a few meters away now, closer to Raven and the Chief than his opponent... He took in the sight of his opponent through the optical sensors in his helmet, since there weren't actually any openings in his helmet... He watched the northerner for just a moment and turned to Raven, inclined his head, and shook his shoulders out letting his muscles loosen back up again... He then abruptly turned and walked off, without a word...

The northerners trial was over.

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Harlan - Onboard the ship, Grah´Nak


Harlan did not sigh, nor did he complain, he slowly walked and picked up his gear. Harlan knew where the problem was with the trial, and he was very annoyed at his own mistakes since he knew he could have won it... At least with better gear...
His weapons were meant to hunt and scavenge and not battle with, and that had made a difference, and Harlan had not been able to show that he was good enough to close the gap.

Harlan slowly turned around, so that he faced Bane, since Bane were the one to give the verdict of the trial by combat. While he turned around, he checked himself to see how bad the injury he had sustained was. It were bruised badly, but thankfully it were not broken. Harlan had heard the laugh of Bear, and it had annoyed him deeply, since it showed to Harlan how reliant Bear were on the armor. Knowing that, if Harlan had played it better, he would have won.

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Raven - On board the ship, Grah´Nak

Raven watched Bears leave, then returned her attention to the northerner.

"Welcome aboard... " she said, bluntly, before walking forwards, and past him into the massive hallway.... Her duties, as the voice of the chief, done...

Raven had witnessed Black Bears hold back from the fight. She knew the gentle giant wouldn't kill the northerner, but she felt like he had gone too easy on him. Bears was a seasoned warrior and could have easily crushed the northerner, so maybe that was his way of saying he wanted the northerner aboard?

She decided she would ask him later. She had to know what was going on... Especially if that meant her warriors were getting soft on each other.