- gamertag: [none]
- user homepage:
Part I: Creation
This is my take on the origins of the Flood. This is the first part detailing their creation and spread up to a point. The story follows the perspective of the Alpha Gravemind and the Precursors. It may be a slow part, but it will pick up.
I am the Alpha, the first, the original. My creators labeled me a "compound mind", my aggressors classified me as a "Gravemind", but I am neither. I am only I. Do you have questions? I have the answers. Will you listen?
Many hundreds of thousands of years ago, before Humanity, before Covenant, before Forerunner resided the Precursors. They were my creators. My masters were exceptional in all they did, no error could ever be found in all of their creations. Still, they did not boast of their feats, they shared with all they met. Their place of origin is unknown, even to me. All I know now is that they did not reside in this galaxy. What I do know, is their world.
Matris, the Motherworld of the Precursors. It was a paradise. Blue, clear oceans teamed with life as did green decedent forests. It was not unlike the world of Earth, the cradle of life for humanity. My creators lived at one with nature, nature was integrated in all the made. Their buildings of column-held temples, triangular roofed towers, and pyramids all seamlessly blended with the land. A grand river ran through the capital that was dammed, riddled with canals, and relied on as a source of life by the Precursors. My story begins here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The main science compound in Matris' capital city of Septimus was housed in a grand tree. The tree housed a complex hive of science, discovery, and projects being led by the brightest of the Precursor society. One such breakthrough was founded by Ada, a young brilliant mind. His discovery? Resurrecting life. His overseer Runae, a cool, calculative woman who took science very seriously. While the concept of bring back the dead was astounding, the key to perfecting the concept had not yet been found. Now, a glimpse of hope was found. As Runae entered Ada's lab, she bluntly said,
"Show me."
"Gladly Overseer." Ada replied. He walked to a white table and grasped a small jar containing a wilted flower and a small glass slab. He placed both items in front of the overseer who eyed them with a analytical eye.
"What am I seeing Ada?" she asked.
"Observe Overseer Runae." said Ada as he grabbed a small brush and brushed it against the glass slab. Suddenly, the wilted flower slowly started to rise up and have it's natural red color return, only with a small brownish tint.
"Impressive," Overseer Runae said, "Have you tried it on any other organic subjects such as deceased animals?"
Ada's once excited face grew serious when the Overseer asked that question.
"No Overseer and I would rather not," Ada responded bluntly, "The ability to revive flesh and blood is not something I would want to attempt. Even if it worked, they revived creature wold be nothing like it formerly was. It would be more trouble than it's worth."
Understandable," Runae admitted, "In any case, continue your research."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, events would not transpire in my creator's favor. My confines of the complex would not last. By the actions of a careless cleaning personal member, I was freed. He knocked the glass slab on the ground releasing my first form, a single cell.
I was a heptagonal shape in the beginning, seven microscopic tendrils protruded from my form. Inside the cell were a mutated nucleus, mitochondria,and other key elements found in all cell life. I had one purpose, bring back life from the beyond. Carried by gusts of air, I was released from the lab into the city. From the city I arrived in the as-of-yet inhabited jungle miles away from Septimus. I had no target, I had no mind, what happened next was solely the will of the fates.
I landed on a small flower, one that was already alive. Once I made contact with the flower, it changed, I changed. I was now at one with the flower. The plant was transformed into a grotesque brown, multi-tentacled being. However, I was in control. Even still, I could not predict the next event.
A small insect, one that could be compared to a bee on Earth, was flying above me. It landed on me in an effort to pollinate and my influence began immediately. Not even the tough exoskeleton of the bee could stop me from spreading my effects. My tendrils penetrated the bee's exoskeleton and released billions of new cells that originally sparked life back in dead cells. However, he cells found already living cells and went for those instead. The result was...painful for the bee. On a microscopic level, the cells altered DNA, changing, destroying, and reconstructing the bee inside and out. When it was finished, the bee was I. I was the bee. We were one.
But I now experienced a new sensation. The bee's memories, it's functions in it's society, it's hive's locations, everything it knew I knew. Filled with curiosity, I sent it back to it's hive. It's jruney took many days, during those days the small creature swelled up in size. Growing in the bee were smaller versions of itself, copies that carried my infulence.
The construct was magnificent, an engineering marvel only an insect could appreciate, I could now do so as well. As I entered the hive, I looked around through the bee. I saw the mass clumps of it's former species working to produce honey. However, the bee had grown so much that it violently exploded and released it's copies. The copies fluttered around and spread their influence on all the bees in the area. They quickly changed and transformed and continued the process. Once the creatures knew what was occurring, it was too late for them. Their hive fell in an hour and ended with the transformation of their queen. Even the physical hive itself was altered, the once perfectly symmetrical oval colony of bees was turned into a misshapen, brown-green slab of organic mass.
And yet, I was not horrified. I was like my creators, I created new life. That is what they did with me and I now felt satisfied. I called back my creations so that I may marvel at them. As they drew closer, I started to think, an ability i could not do as a minuscule cell. Their memories and knowledge passed onto me and with it came the realization of the scope of the world I inhabited. Numerous other species roamed the jungle, surely I could spread my influence and show my creators. They would be pleased.
Once the bees found me, much had changed. My flower forms roots grew in size and soon found the roots of the other flowers, plants, and tree's around me. They in turn transformed and resembled me, organic mass clinging to their trunks or stems and slowly morphing into a new form of life. The bees brought their former hive with them and layed it before me. Curiously I layed a tentacle on the massive structural and absorbed it. My flower form twisted around the hive and the hive and I became one. It was the beginning of a new way of life.
Over the years I searched out for new forms of life to add to our collective. An arachnoid nest of rodent sized spiders was the first to be found by us. Their pods were transformed by my bees and those inside mutated into a new breed of creatures. The non-transformed species quickly fell under my influence. I now had land-based organisms under my sway, my creators would be pleased. Once the spiders were mine, they found actual rodents. The rodents found larger beasts. The larger beasts found more.
All through this, I grew in knowledge and capacity. No longer was I a small flower, but a large expansive ecosystem of my own. It did not take long for my creators to take notice. However, that is where the troubles began.
To be continued
[Edited on 03.29.2010 8:47 PM PDT]