Forging BLADE

Forging BLADE (, Xenoblade X Short Story - Creation of BLADE) is a short story for Xenoblade Chronicles X written by Yuichiro Takeda, one of the game's scenario writers. The original Japanese text can be found in the Special section of the official website.

The first part of the story describes Tatsu's ordinary life until his capture by the Ganglion. The following parts, 2 to 5, follow Nagi and the crew of the White Whale as they eke out an existence after crash-landing on the new planet, Mira.

Part 1: Upon that Nameless Planet
The majority of sapient races were unaware of the full extent of the world: the Nopon simply understood the planet as a land that went on and on. Tatsu, a young Nopon, is traveling on an adventure with his melon-shaped companion Ron on a mission to scout for food and goods for their Dodonga Caravan.

While they initially act carefree, collecting Fullbelly Geckos and other plants throughout the land, they are suddenly caught off-guard by a Tectinsula that had just risen from the ground to eat them. Ron and Tatsu split up, and the Tectinsula chases after Tatsu. Tatsu runs from the beast, but it nearly manages to eat him after a long chase. However, Tatsu unintentionally triggers a trap that roasts the indigen alive. (Meanwhile, Ron would try to go home after leaving Tatsu to die, but he ended up getting lost and becoming a guard Nopon for an unknown group of kind xenoforms.)

Mysteriously, Tatsu manages to eat everything except the Tectinsula's shell, despite the monster being several times larger than him. However, he'd forgotten about the trap—and those who had set it. The two Prone pointed rifles at him, angry that he'd stolen their prey.

They attempt to take Tatsu, but he manages to flee back to the forest, towards the Dodonga Caravan encampment. When he arrives, he finds the caravan burnt to the ground and trampled, with no sign of his family or any other Nopon around. As he worries for his family, the two Prone manage to capture him, tie him up, and carry him in a basket back to their base.

Tatsu, now a prisoner, has little else to do but stare at the night sky from his basket. As he does so, he finds a shooting star shoot across the sky, and wishes upon the star that a beautiful girl would cook him, rather than the Prone. However, the shooting star was in fact an interstellar ark, the White Whale, crashing onto his planet.

Part 2: A Sphere of Water Suspended in Space, Our Beautiful Blue Birthplace... Earth
Kentaro Nagi wakes up in darkness, remembering the course of events that brought him to the new planet.

The Earthlife Colonization Project was a project designed to help Earth's life flourish on other celestial bodies to prevent the complete annihilation of their homeworld. It was formed when the Earthlings were aware of an endless struggle between two factions that was projected to destroy their planet.

The two factions were of countless other sentient alien races, which had divided themselves into two distinct factions based on the physical structures that compose their bodies. They were locked in an endless struggle, one that would likely reach the Earth.

The Coalition government was formed in order to both repel the alien forces and ensure the escape and survival of Earth's life. For the former task, Skells were created: giant mobile bipedal mechs with the ability to carry powerful weaponry. Over ten years, a considerable amount were manufactured in order to protect Earth. For the latter task, a group of interstellar arks were created to allow the people of the world to escape from the conflict.

Unfortunately, the two alien forces had a strength that vastly outmatched the power of the Earthlings, since the people of Earth had vastly underestimated the scale of the two forces. The White Whale, captained by Nagi, began its journey to escape and find a new place to survive.

Two years after the destruction of Earth, one of the factions, the Ghosts, manages to attack the habitat unit of the White Whale. A young man had saved the ship from being destroyed by the force and their bioweapons, but he and his Skell vanished afterwards.

While the immediate threat was gone, a strange planet suddenly appears in front of the ship. The planet wasn't on any star charts, and nobody had noticed the planet until after the enemy had attacked them. The planet's gravitational pull pulls the White Whale into the planet, while Nagi issues orders to minimize damage to the ship during planetfall until the ship crashes.

As Nagi remembers these events, Commander Jack Vandham manages to find Nagi and tell him that he, Nagi, Second Lieutenant Mei, and the rest of the crew were in the remains of the ship's bridge, which was breached during the landing. Luckily, the planet was completely habitable, and the people on the ship had likely survived thanks to the ship's many gravity generators that absorbed the impact of the crash.

As the ship's captain, Nagi gives orders to his crew and devises goals for his people: to find the Habitat Unit, the DM Engine that provided the ship's power, and the Lifehold that stored the people the White Whale brought to the new planet: if that system shut down, everybody would die.

While he made these plans, various human-sized indigenous Scirpos entered the bridge. Thanks to Nagi's directions, the crew managed to shoot them out. However, he was wholly unprepared when a gigantic Tyrant that appeared outside the bridge, forcing its way in...