Metal Gear Solid V: Chronicles of Outer Heaven (MGS/Valkyria Chronicles)

Metal Gear V DLC: The Iron Flame

Selvaria Bles Side Ops

---

Selvaria Ops 1: The Knight-Errant Huntress and Her Wolfdog

---

Knight-Errant Huntress Selvaria Bles
January 18th, 1934
Outskirts of Tiluca, Imperial Territory of North Frankia

Roughly 8 Months Prior to Arrival

-

They go by many names. Land Raiders, Knight Walkers, Steel Riders, all these and countless more.

Throughout history, nations all over the world have uncovered what must be thousands of these massive war machines. Shaped in the human form and forged from impossibly hardened metals, these towering juggernauts of steel and thrumming ragnite are just one of the images seared into the imaginations of we who inherited the land from the Valkyrur.

While almost none of these ancient suits of armor are able to be awoken present day, this lack of ability has never precluded the people of Europa, and beyond, to build pale imitations of these god machines.

Inferior copies they may be, but Knights and their Walkers were a terrible necessity if not in war, but for the very survival of civilization.

Great beasts of cataclysmic power roamed the world, and before the great crusades of pacification a thousand years ago, it would've been unthinkable to travel beyond the solid walls of men.

In the current age of industry and technological progress, such dangers have greatly lessened. Still, humanity had learned its lessons well despite the no longer ever present threat of monster attacks.

Railcars carried no less than three canons, emplaced machine guns, and at least a platoon of heavy lancers even for the most common cargo.

Roads too were heavily patrolled by heavily armed hunters along with the clanking, crushing tread of a Knight Walker. And where chapters were unavailable, the invention of the tank had begun to be seen as an affordable alternative as hunter support.

Then there were those like myself. Errant Huntsmen.

Wanderers with no allegiance to any but our most recent contract.

There weren't many of us, but for those people who lived out in the wilderness, it was due to our intervention that nameless towns and villages continued to survive.

Towns like Tiluca, a small village that consisted primarily of Darcsen whose primary trade was in lumber, pelts, and meat.

There had been a notice posted in the city of Amiens, that this far flung frontier village bordering Gallia, required the services of a Knight and their Walker. There was word of a pack of Girros seen wandering the area. Normally not a problem even without Knight Support, but for the pack being led by an especially large specimen.

I was no closer to finding Father, and I needed the money. It wasn't much, but there was enough of reward to cover for White Witch's maintenance fees and my own expenses.

That meals and housing were included as part of the deal sold me as well.

Father's cooking left much to be desired compared to Mother's skill. In this sense I had no compunction against commonly low quality Darcsen meals as long as there was plenty of it to fuel my dietary needs.

This is how I found myself clanking and stomping my Walker up the small, poorly maintained dirt road leading to the village.

Cockpit opened to allow a fresh breeze to run through the normally sweltering furnace of my admittedly old Walker's internals, it was my new companion who first noticed the presence of several people warily waiting up ahead.

"Snnf?" DD chuffed, sitting snugly on my lap to nose my inside of my elbow with a wet sniff.

I hadn't had him with me for long, but the most recent clue I'd found regarding my vanished Father was impossibly good at communicating with people.

He was intelligent and well trained. And in carrying a version of my Father's symbol, led me to believe that he must still be out there somewhere. Or at least someone who knows of him and belongs to his rarely toted…

Outer Heaven.

Whatever that may be.

I'd found him lost and wandering the streets of Frankia, and by chance I had offered him what I could of my meager portion of stale bread, cheese, meat, and lettuce.

I saw the insignia on his strange harness and I saw the recognition alight in his single eye when he spotted the patch I bore as my personal, Knightly Crest.

It seemed he was just as lost as I was, searching for a home he didn't know how to return to.

It was only prudent that I took him with me. And he'd proven superbly helpful in not just my duties as a huntress, but as a companionable charmer of sorts.

Case in point, the moment I slowed my Walker to a kneeling halt, DD languidly stretched over my lap before almost lazily hopping out to jump from the cockpit, to the raised knee, and landed on the dirt path with his tongue lolling and tail wagging.

"Woof!" He barked once in a compelling tone, laying down on his belly in a non-threatening posture as he beckoned the two blue haired girls over.

By the time I'd hopped out of the cockpit, the normally deadly canine was nothing but a well trained puppy who patiently allowed the two girls to run their hands along his back and fuzzy cheeks.

"Your dog is so handsome! What's his name Lady Knight?" The first of the two, a mixed Darcsen Bastian girl looked up at me with gleaming yellow eyes, her furry second set of ears raised high in exuberance.

"DD." I nod, moving forward to shake my hand with the slightly older girl who shyly refuses to make eye contact.

"I'm Knight-Errant Selvaria Bles. You've had trouble with Girros, I have heard?" I ask, gesturing at the older girl and giving her permission to pet my companion.

DD made socializing easy. Being so… 'statuesque' in figure and more than a little odd looking with my coloring, having an easily approachable wolfdog made human interaction much more bearable.

"Mhm! I'm Imca. If you could follow me I'd be happy to show you to our village. I'm sure you must be tired after your long trip. It isn't exactly easy to get all the way out here." The long haired darcsen said softly, playing idly with the back of her long ponytail as her other hand was used to offer a handful of freshly picked berries from her pouch.

So far so good.

If these girls were able to leave the village and forage, I doubt that the pack has set their lair too close by.

"DD, follow." I command and the wolfdog lifts himself off the ground, eagerly stepping forward and looking back at the two girls in askance.

I myself climb back into the cockpit of White Witch to slowly stomp my Walker several dozen feet behind the two excited chattering teens.

This job was starting to look like a smooth one. I could only hope it continued in this vein.

---

AN: A short introductory thingie to showcase a few AU elements :3