Laken: 1000 Years From Now
A Story from a Thousand Years Ahead
Ada's grief turns into anger at the Seraphic fortress. Laken calls Darkon a hero whose sacrifice will be remembered; she answers that he should still be with them. He was family. She fears that the Order will keep taking people she loves, perhaps Laken himself, for its greater good. After she leaves, Laken tells the Hero to give her time. Then he offers the story behind their bond. It begins, he says, a thousand years from now, when he led Legion specialists against a secret laboratory. The player reenacts Laken's part in that history rather than taking the present Hero into the laboratory.
Fethor, a Legion scout, guides Commander Laken's squad by comlink. The operation begins with augmented guards and cybernetically enhanced dogs, followed by the collection of experimental data from the scientists. An entry code must be found and tested on doors until the main laboratory is located. Then Laken's force defeats Dr. Eisenbacke. In the ensuing scene, Laken orders the prisoner removed and the laboratory searched so that they can learn what its experiments involved.
A child's whimper changes the raid. The squad finds a young girl among the laboratory vats, and Laken realizes she has been subjected to the experiments. He angrily demands Eisenbacke's return, but the girl begs him not to hurt her father. The child is Ada. Laken's horror shifts toward the question of whether she has ever felt safe. Removing his helmet, he approaches gently and promises that nobody will hurt her now.
The Family Ada Chose
Laken remembers that Ada would hardly leave his side after the rescue. He had promised to protect her. Over the following years, he says, he rose through the Future Legion without equal and was crowned “Dage the 3rd,” leading its empire. Alongside that rise runs a quieter story: Ada asks him to play hide-and-seek. The quest sequence searches beneath a couch and inside a closet before finally finding her behind a curtain. These searches belong to their game, after the laboratory rescue, rather than another rescue from Eisenbacke.
When Laken finds her, he has a surprise of his own. He reveals tattoos resembling hers, explaining that they show they are family and that she will never be alone again. Ada tells him that her father treated her as an object for experiments rather than as a daughter. She is glad to have Laken now and says that the family someone chooses can be better than the one they were born into. The markings give physical form to his promise that she will not be left alone.
As Ada grows older, protection alone no longer satisfies her. She wants to fight for people who cannot defend themselves and prevent others from suffering as she did. The player, still reenacting Laken, spars with her three times: first in practice, then with Ada armored, and finally with her preferred scythe. The following scene celebrates her progress as the apprentice surpassing the master. Laken tells her he is proud, and Ada looks forward to her first mission beside him.
The Oracle's Warning
A summons interrupts the training. The Legion Oracle has seen immense destruction and says a squadron must be sent a thousand years into the past to stop it. Laken is her choice to lead: strong, trustworthy, and among the few who might succeed and return alive. He accepts, excited that Ada's first mission could be such an adventure. The Oracle immediately objects to bringing her. In this conversation she calls Laken Dage's second in command, whereas his earlier narration called him the crowned Dage the 3rd. The account supplies both titles without explaining their exact relationship.
Laken refuses to leave Ada. He does not know when he will return from the past, and he will not abandon her. The Oracle acknowledges that she cannot command him, but warns that taking the girl will lead to ruin. Returning to his conversation with the Hero, Laken confirms that he brought Ada anyway. She is his only family, and he believes he made the right choice for her. His later dialogue says that their arrival altered their own timeline so profoundly that they can no longer return to it; despite that cost, he does not regret keeping them together.
The Hero rejects the idea that Ada caused Darkon's death, saying that Darkon acted to defeat Envy and recover Dage's fragment. Asked what became of it, Laken supplies the next development: the fragment is being made into a weapon. He claims it is the only thing capable of hurting Dage's immortal form, like diamond cutting diamond, and expects they will need it when they face him. This later conversation establishes recovery and a weapon in preparation. It does not show the weapon finished, demonstrate its claimed power, or resolve the coming confrontation.