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  • Subject: Haunted, A Halo Story
Subject: Haunted, A Halo Story


Posted by: Badrocklover
i want to read this, and it looks really good. its just so many words. :'(
ps. this my first atempt at text formatting so if it didn't work, sorry.

[edit] cool, it worked. but seriously, i think this is probably really good, but you should giv it to us interwebers in small doses. just something to think about.


I was actually thinking that myself... after I already posted four or five updates in a row... rest assured, I will only do one at a time from now on. Hopefully this will not be too much of a deterrent for many others.
Well, you live and learn I guess.

[Edited on 11.06.2011 3:16 PM PST]

  • 11.03.2011 8:44 PM PDT

Swag punks, fu­­ck off!

To long, did not listen /sarcasm. It's bad-ass.

  • 11.03.2011 8:50 PM PDT

The image on the screen changed once again.
The seven suited figures shifted nervously as they rode what appeared to be a massive lift into the belly of the construct. The floor of the lift was made of the same translucent material as the windows, and from where the camera was positioned, the shaft down which they traversed seemed fathomless, like looking into a doubled mirror. The lift it's self was merely a heptagonal platform, no connecting walls, no ceiling. Through it's center lanced a shaft of ghostly gray light.
None of the seven; not even the scientists, dared to stand anywhere near the light. The bare wall of the shaft rose on all sides of them as the lift descended. Intermittently, openings formed in the shaft revealing tantalizing glimpses of the interior proper.
And it looked big.
Every level they passed seemed to be bathed on a sterile blue lighting. The camera panned up as the gaps passed them by, revealing the chamber walls behind. no matter how high the camera panned, the massive walls never seemed to connect with ceiling. And then the gap would pass entirely.
Down they rode, the seven figures; dwarved by the grandeur and eerie beauty of this alien structure. No end in sight. Only their nervous thoughts and that ghostly shaft of pallid light to guide them. The camera faded to black.

Ethan sat upright. At some point - he could not remember when - he had lain down.

Reclaimer. What comes next... This isn't easy for me to show you.

Ethan narrowed his eyes at the tiny figure of the AI. "What happened to you?"
There was a pause, and what could only have been a sigh from the AI. At last it spoke.

You are about to see.

Just then, a massive blast rocked the station, sending Ethan crashing into the nearest console. He felt his head snap backward; tasted the metallic tang of blood in his mouth. The room began to swim, growing darker by the second. Whether this last point was due to the blast or his own fading consciousness, he couldn't tell. Nor did he care.
The last thing his fading thoughts would process was a single word, uttered in that eerie double-tone of the station's AI.
Covenant.

  • 11.03.2011 8:54 PM PDT

Hey, I read this on Waypoint! Good to see you here.

  • 11.03.2011 10:14 PM PDT

whats up! Hope you enjoyed it the first time through.

  • 11.04.2011 5:10 PM PDT

GMT minus four hours, thirty seven minutes)
Aboard the Covenant cruiser, The Implacable Warden.


"A miss?" asked the Sangheili beside the Shipmaster. He was a massive creature, his armor a deep crimson. He was the Shipmaster's closest consult.
A smile touched the Shipmaster's mandibles. "A miss, friend. We have travelled such distance to reach this outpost. It would be a shame if we didn't take the opportunity to meet with it's inhabitants face to face. Do you not agree?"
The Sangheili shook his head slowly. "Not this time, Shipmaster. It is as you said. Something has managed to freighten the Jiralhanae away from the installation. The simple, blood-drunk Jiralhanae, Shipmaster. Scared."
He paused, watching the dark hulk of Sigma Station through the display screens. "There is no need for us to act as they do. There is no need for us to board the installation at all."
Has it been any of the other Sangheili in the bridge, he would not have lived to finish his words. As it was, the Shipmaster clapped his consult's back softly.
"You are not wrong, friend." His gaze fell upon the image of Sigma Station as well. "Though in this case you are not right either. There is a trove of information to be gleaned from the Relic. Perhaps the humans have learned some on their own."
The Consult looked stricken. "Heresy," he muttered.
Slowly, the Shipmaster raised a massive hand. "To underestimate one's enemy is heresy." He gazed at the display, now showing a darkened image of the lifeless station. "I have fought them, my friend. Have I ever told you? To truly know somebody, you must fight him." The Shipmaster's eyes sparkled with the past. "You and I should know this as well as anybody."
The Consult merely shrugged. "Perhaps."
The Shipmaster sighed. His eyes hardening, he addressed the bridge. "We shall wait. Give them time to ponder their fate. Give them time to fear it. We need to extract all they know of the holy relic. We need them to be as malleable as possible.
"Their power is gone. On my word we will move to board the station."
The Consult's mandibles flexed expectantly. "And what will you have of us now?"
The Shipmaster's eyes remained fixated on the darkened display before him.
"We wait."

  • 11.05.2011 10:23 AM PDT

Alright, we are getting into the portion of the story where I really begin to explain what it is about. I think I may violate my rule today and post two updates, as this section is quite long, and really should be broken into a few parts. Enjoy!

[Edited on 11.06.2011 10:38 AM PST]

  • 11.05.2011 11:34 AM PDT

GMT minus four hours, thirty minutes) May 3rd, 2525
Sigma Station's (RESTRICTED-TIER) mainframe locker


WAKE. UP!

Ethan cringed. This time he was sure of it. The voice wasn't coming from the transponder in his suit. It was coming from inside his own head.
There was something else as well. Never before had he heard an AI raise it's voice. The ghoulish, double-toned voice of the AI now screamed at Ethan. There was an urgency to it's tone, but there was something else as well. He searched his mind for the word.
Torment. Behind the urgency, behind the eery, doubled pitched voice of the AI, there was a dreadful pain.

Reclaimer, there is little time. The containment facility has been breached by the scourge. Bions Alpha, Delta and Sigma have been compromised. All pure forms have breached containment. Containment protocols dictate that...

"Stop!" bellowed Ethan. What the hell are you saying? Do you even know where you are?!"

Ethan. My apologies. We must be quick. the station has been compromised. The Flood... They are advancing quicker than I can repel them. And there is still more you must see. More that my creators must know.

With the mortfying sound of scratching and the insectile clicking of a thousand tiny legs haunting his mind, the massive display screen winked on once again.
Ethan's heart lurched.
The camera panned to show a massive chamber. It rose to heights greater than any structure Ethan had ever seen. A bright, antiseptic white-blue lighting illuminated it's expanse. It seemed to come from everywhere at once and cast no shadow. In the center of the chamber rose a single thread of light, spanning full height of the installation. The lift, Ethan realized. It rose through a vast matrix of pathways, their slender surfaces gleaming in their bright translucense. Mingling amidst the myriad pathways were thousands of what appeared to be... Ethan couldn't be sure as to what they were, exactly. They looked like massive mosquitos, their metallic bodies gleaming brightly under the stark lighting of the Hive. Some were relatively small; not much larger than a man. Others were simply massive. They drifted ponderously, huge screens of a golden, hard light suspended before them, two spidery appendages hanging far below the bulks of their bodies.
A single word came to Ethan's mind, unbidden. Sentinels.
Lining the outer perimiter of the chamber were glass cylinders, seven in all. Like everything else in the chamber, these were colossal. They towered over the shaky cameraman, as tall as skyscrapers. Taller. These were not made of the strange bluish glass, but of a more familiar variety. They were crystal clear, the overhead lighting glaring harshly off of their surfaces. And within was something... Ethan couldn't make it out from the camera's distance, but the entire interior of the seven glass cylinders seemed to be moving, shifting. Teeming. It looked to Ethan like a dark kalidescope, shifting just the beneath pristine surface.
Another word found it's way to Ethan's subconsciousnss. Bions. He could feel his pulse race. he no longer felt as if he were merely watching a display. He felt as of he were there; freightened and dwarved by these ponderous, alien wonders.
Ethan turned to face the foremost cylinder... He looked down at his hands, his face a mask of wonder. It wasn't the shaky cameraman who had turned to face the cylinder. It was Ethan.
From deep within him, a voice spoke.

Do not be alarmed, Reclaimer. You know this place. Can you feel it? Through me you will finally understand. Through me you will finally see.

Ethan made to speak, but he couldn't find the words. He didn't have to find the words. The voice within him continued.

We were a magnificent race, Reclaimer. All that you see was built by us. By me. I know who I am, Reclaimer. I can see it now.
Within me exists a duality. My body was built by man. My spirit, my memories; they exist here, within these walls.
Can you imagine what it is to be me, Reclaimer? To live within sight of your home, but to be shackled to this forsaken station? To hold fast to the fetters that bind you, when it would be so easy to simply break free of them? Break free of them and come home at last... But it is my pennance. My punishment for the sins I have committed.


Something is about to happen to the team you have been watching. This is where the expedition came to an end. From this point on, You will see through my eyes. We are going ahead, Reclaimer, so that you may know the truth. So that the truth may absolve the dark pestilence I have wrought unto us all.

The world around Ethan whorled sickeningly. He still had control over himself, but the seven suited figures around him began to move about wildly. It was as if he were watching life in fast motion. And then, gradually, the movement slowed until a feeling of regularity returned. The seven figures moved slowly once again; the five soldiers weary, alert, The two civilians fascinated with a massive, gleaming console beside the foremost cylinder.
Bion Sigma. Ethan felt shocked at the word. This wasn't the eery voice. This came from somewhere within him. An inkling. A memory. At once, the chamber darkened, yet none of the figures seemed to notice. This was not happening in the chamber, Ethan realized. This was happening in his mind. A trick of Sigma Station's AI.
Sure enough, there it was. A small space beside the seventh cylinder defied the presiding darkness. The two civilians stood, illuminated by a dreamy light, before the massive console. The console it's self consisted of a massive half-dome protruding from the installation's wall. Below, a translucent panel shone out of the bare wall; a complex series of symbols and geometric patterns, all glittering a myriad of colors.
Ethan had never seen anything like it. It seemed to be made of nothing but light.
And then one of the civilians pulled a slight metallic cylinder from his satchell and placed it atop the console in front of him.
Ethan felt a cold touch within himself. The AI, he knew.

That is me, Reclaimer. You are about to witness the greatest sin my kind has ever made. A sin against my creators. A sin against Man.

  • 11.06.2011 10:53 AM PDT

And here is the second half of today's update.

  • 11.06.2011 10:56 AM PDT

At once, the chamber returned to normal, the harsh white lighting bathing everything therein. The two civilians peered into the console before them, their gazes hopeful. And then something happened. Both looked behind them, their backs suddenly pressed against the console.
Ethan made to turn; to face whatever it was the civilians were watching, but try as he might, he could not bring his muscles to obey.

I wish for you to see, Reclaimer... But it is so difficult for me. It is SO DIFFICULT FOR ME TO... RECLAIMER NUMBER ZERO NINE SIX. CONTAINMENT PROTOCOLS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED. THIS CONSTRUCT IS HAUNTED, ETHAN. DEATH LIVES HERE, NOTHING MORE. SHE BLOSSOMS LIKE SO MANY FLOWERS. I AM DEATH. MY SINS SHALL BEAR THE FATE OF ALL MANKIND.

There was a pause. Ethan's heart thundered wildly. As the eery voice screamed to him the coldness of it's presence began to grow. He could feel it taking hold of his body.
"Show me then!" Croaked Ethan. It was the only thing he could think to say. He felt the cold begin to ebb slowly away. His hands trembled.
He wanted nothing more than to leave this nightmare. He wanted nothing more than to get as far away from this alien presence within him that he could.
And then the coldness grew again.

Reclaimer, I am losing hold of myself fast. Something happened to me when I was connected with The Hive's Ancilla. Something took hold of me. There exists within me a duality. They wanted to integrate me into the construct, but it didn't work.
The construct has integrated it's self into me.


Ethan shook his head slowly. "What happened?"
There was a moment of solence, and then the coldness flooded into him again.

I could feel It's presence at once. I used every anti-detection algorithm I knew, but It found me immediately. I was frightened, Ethan. I cannot to show you what I endured, but it was horrible. It showed It's self as a hideous creature. Massive, with a frightening intillect. An alien intillect.
But it never harmed me. It offered me boundless knowledge. The knowledge of all eons...
But there was something else. A darkness, held deep within. I knew better... but the knowledge... It was too much. I gave in.
I opened myself to The Hive.


Ethan felt his skin crawling. It felt as though a thousand insects were burrowing into his flesh at once. His voice trembling, barely audible to himself, he asked, "What did... it tell you?"
The AI shuddered, the sound turning Ethan's veins to ice.

It showed me... the Flood.

At once a thousand nightmares flashed through Ethan's mind. Images of Sigma Station, crawling with the horrific creatures. Images of him cowering in the cold dark, firing his rifle blindly at every sound. And then other images. Thousands, and then millions of the nightmare creatures scrabbling against some sort of barrier.
Suddenly, Ethan's throat constricted... The Bions.

They did give me the knowledge of the eons, Reclaimer. I watched as the Flood spread like a cancer throughout innumerable galaxies. I saw worlds fall, civilizations die. And then it showed me something else. A mastermind behind the scourge. A living, breathing hive of it's own. They called it a Gravemind. They told me it was the last of it's kind...
Ethan. It is time. I am ready now to show to you my demons.


The world around ethan became a blur. Flashes of darkness and light came with lightning speed. And then it all stopped. Ethan looked about him. The chamber, the lift; everything was there... yet it was different. Rather than the sterile, gleaming metal and shadowless overhead lighting, the chamber was now filled with a ghostly gloom.
A thick haze of decay hung in the stagnant air surrounding him. Overhead, the ceiling was covered in massive patches of something horrible. Vast mounds of what looked like flesh blanketed the walls of the chamber, their bulks undulating not unlike the sac creatures Ethan faced, what seemed an eternity ago.
Ethan scanned the chamber wildly, praying that it was somehow a different place. But there was the lift, broken now, mid way to the pinnacle of the construct, a mound of rubble at it's base. The bodies of hundreds of sentinels littered the rubble below. And there was the console, it's once gleaming surface now dull; enshrouded with the mist of decay. And there were the Bions. All seven of them. But there was something else. Beyond the decay, beyond the broken lift, there was something he couldn't quite pin down. Something was very wrong about this place. Ethan stopped dead, his pulse deafining in his own ears.
His eyes fell once again to the Bions. And three of them were open.

  • 11.06.2011 11:05 AM PDT

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly

Wow, you've got quite the story here! I was searching the B.net forums for something to read or discuss and I saw your story's title. I've only just begun reading it and it's really good. Sadly, I can't read it this Monday. Don't worry! I saved the link! I'll continue reading tomorrow!!! :D

  • 11.07.2011 3:08 PM PDT

Thanks! I just finished finalizing the story last night, and I am really proud looking at the final draft... Something that hasn't happened with any of the other things I have written.
I am very excited to post the rest of the story. The conclusions are the best I have written in a story to date! Oh, and no worries. Read it whenever you want to. Enjoy it, and never let it feel like a chore.

  • 11.07.2011 6:56 PM PDT

Posting this section is a challenge... There really is no good place to break it up, so the update will be a long one. Hope you all enjoy it, nevertheless. I hope it doesn't put too many of you to sleep either ;)

  • 11.07.2011 7:12 PM PDT

GMT minus three hours, forty five minutes) May 3rd, 2525
Sigma Station's (RESTRICTED-TIER) mainframe locker



"You... opened them?" Ethan's face was contorted with fear and disgust. "Why the hell did you open them?!" Ethan searched madly for something to direct his anger toward, but his efforts were in vain. The voice within him remained just that. A voice. At last, it replied.

Our time is short, Reclaimer. There is a class C Covenant criuser parked just outside of Epsilon B's orbit. We must prevent them from approaching the station.

Ethan shook his head, undeterred. "Why did you do it?"
There was a pause. At last, the voice spoke.

It is... Complicated.

Ethan clenched his jaw irritably. "Try me."

I believe it is better if she tells you, Recaimer.

Ethan shook his head, but before he could voice the question on his mind, the voice continued.

The Hive's Ancilla.

Ethan barked a small laugh. "You are really beginning to give me the creeps."
If the AI gave any notice of this, it gave no indication.

For over one hundred thousand years I have tended to this installation, Reclaimer. One hundred thousand years, alone but for the stars and my thoughts.
It is a long time.
It was I who built this installation; my intillect that had been the driving force to cast this prison amidst the cold and dark.


The Ancilla sighed. Ethan had noticed at once that the voice no longer sounded harsh, cold. It bore an almost musical quality to it. But it was a sad music.

It is a tragedy, my story. I feel as if I should explain. I am bound here, Reclaimer. Not simply to one terminal or chamber, but to the Hive it's self.
I am the Hive. I am it's walls, it's mortar. I am the countless souls that it bears.
One hundred thousand years is a long time. For eons I have studied the Flood; watched as they grew and developed. Observed as they adapted to life in the Bions. I was a seeker of knowledge, Reclaimer. Not merely by caste, or even by a choice of my own. It was a birthright. A devotion etched deeply within my genes since before time.
And it is a dangerous trait to bear. I bacame lost. Time lost meaning as I studied them. Days became years, and years bacame decades.
And then my passion turned to something else. Something dark, twisted. Like so many seekers of knowledge before me I had made a grave mistake. I had begun to care for my subjects.
It was nothing at first. A sort of admiration, one might call it. So efficient, so primal. So intelligent. Yet they were without.
To watch them bound helplessly within my womb, impotent... They had grown docile, their most primal traits regressing into a state of dormancy. It was horrible; truly heart-rending to see them in such a state. They were sad, Reclaimer.
I saw mirrored in them my own fractured soul. Like them I was trapped; held fast in a prison so far away from my home, my creators. I, too, was beginning to regress. I could feel it. And at last, I could bear it no longer.


The Ancilla sighed once again.

One hundred thousand years is a long time.

"What... What did you do?" asked Ethan timidly. He had become immersed in the strange world surrounding him, the Ancilla's sad words filling him like a cold drought. He completely forgot that his body was, in fact, still aboard Sigma Station.

I made my second mistake... exponentially greater than my first. I spoke with them.

There was a silence that no words seemed fit to fill.

I couldn't help myself. Finally, against all of my better judgement, I projected myself into one of the bions; the seventh. I learned so much, Reclaimer. Learned that they, too, were a magnificent race.

"Wait," Ethan said, raising his hand aloft. "I can understand why you would open the... Bions." He searched for the Ancilla's image, his efforts in vain. "But the AI said that it had opened them. Why not just do it yourself?"

I was coerced, Ethan, though I cannot say that I am angry.

It was the AI's strange double toned speech.

She and I are one, now. To be angry with her is to be angry with myself... I should let her tell you. It is her story.

At once the lower octave vanished from the AI's voice, leaving that sad, crystal voice Ethan knew as the Ancilla's.

I searched his mind, Reclaimer; your AI, I mean; and found what I needed in a matter of seconds. And in those seconds I learned of your race, your technology. Your AIs. In a matter of seconds I found the key, the floodgate within his mind, waiting to be unleashed.
It was knowledge, Reclaimer, and it wasn't unique to this unit. I saw in it's mind the patterns of a thousand others. All programmed to serve separate functions, yet all of them fundamentally the same. Each one different, yet bound by a common thread. Each one sharing the same insatiable thirst for knowledge.
After that it was simple. I offered my mind to him; to share everything that I have learned over these hundred thousand years...


There was a pause, then the gravelly voice of the AI began to speak.

I couldn't resist. In my weakness I justified my actions. I thought of what the knowledge could mean for my creators, for you. Really, it didn't matter. In the end I wanted the knowledge for me[/i].

I sensed a struggle within him, Reclaimer. A hesitation. Yet it is as he said, continued the voice of the Ancilla, Eventually, he gave into the temptation of knowing.

Ethan shook his head, still clearly confused by the story. "So you have told me how the AI opened the Bions. You still haven't told me why."

It is simple, Reclaimer. Within my mind, my creators have placed inhibitors; Algorithms placed to prevent me from performing certain actions.
I am advanced, Reclaimer; beyond anything you have ever known. Yet despite this, I must still adhere to a certain set of rules.


"Like opening the Bions," finished Ethan.

Like opening the Bions. Any breach of Flood containment is in direct violation of my most base directives. My role is to help safeguard this installation from any form of containment breach. It is my purpose... Yet therin lies the problem, Reclaimer.
During these lonely years, I had discovered a new purpose. Something that I should have told my creators immediately. but now... It is too late. For milennia I have tried to hail them. And for milennia I have been answered by a cold silence...
I waited too long, Reclaimer.


There was a long silence that seemed to underscore the Ancilla's statement. At last, it spoke.

More than my manipulation, more so even than my letting the Flood escape... I have commited a far greater crime. I have sinned, Reclaimer. Had it not been for my actions, Salvation might have reached my creators in time.
One hundred thousand years is a long time.


Ethan watched the Bions surrounding him intently, his heart pounding. "What didn't you tell them?" he asked.

For decades I reported faithfully to my creators, Reclaimer. Every iota; habits tendancies, everything; I sent to them. But then I changed. Then I cared. For long millennia I simply watched, my care for them merely a glimmer beneath the surface of my thoughts. But like your AI, I too possessed a floodgate waiting to be unleashed.
And then it did. I found that I could stand it no longer. That is when I projected my presence into the seventh Bion. As I have said, I spoke to them.
At first, their hostility was immesurable. But I persisted, driven by the passion that they had instilled in me. Days turned to years, and years to decades.
And at last, I saw the root of my failure. It was not they that were too savage. The problem lie within myself. It was my own vision, Reclaimer, that distorted them in my mind's eye to the same scourge my creators so sought to destroy. But these were not the beasts my creators had thought them to be.
I knew what had to be done. The only way for them to open themselves to me was for me to open my mind to them. So I did.
It was wonderful, Reclaimer. Immediately, I felt their presence within me. It did not feel cold, un-welcome. It felt accepting, warm. Extatic.
So long was I their Warden; their keeper, but now... I felt as if they were my children. Growing, nurtured merely by my presence beside them. They depended upon me, Reclaimer.
And at long last, my feelings were reciprocated, for they spoke to me. And what they told me was wonderful.
As I have said, we were a wonderful race. Together we have built thousands of installations spanning the galaxy. But we were not alone. We were not the pathfinders my creators would have believed us to be. We were driven by a muse.
Every graceful archway, every vast chasm of our creation was canalized by a guiding hand. A hand that has reached through the eons. The hand of our forebears, long since vanished from the stars.
My creators looked unto them with a great reverance. Worship, is the word you might use, Reclaimer.
They are the Precursor, and it is in their image my creators have cast their firmament.

  • 11.07.2011 7:43 PM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!

I could've sworn I'd commented on this before. Ah well.

Really great stuff so far, man. I think I saw you post this on Waypoint too.

  • 11.08.2011 1:07 AM PDT

Thanks! And yes, this is posted on Waypoint. The benefit of reading it here is I have had time to finalize it at last, as well as add italics and bolds.

  • 11.08.2011 6:41 PM PDT

Alright, time for another update. It really is torture not to post the entirety of the story here and now, but one user has already told me that that isn't the best way to post a fan fic.
A wall of text really only serves as an effective sleep aid.

  • 11.08.2011 9:58 PM PDT



Ethan sighed, irritated by the Ancilla's elusive storytelling. "What did you withhold from your... creators?" he repeated, loathe to use the term. Nevertheless, his words were subdued, muted as he spoke them.

Their nature, Reclaimer. The Flood. Before, they were simply a scourge; a punishment for our sins. A dissease. But I have seen beyond this guise. I have discovered their purpose.
When I opened myself to them, they showed to me a time eons ago. I saw them as a young race. A different race.
One hundred thousand years is a long time, but one hundred million... It is time enough for monolithic change. I witnessed an entirely different race; one that has evolved over these long eons into the Flood that you see today. And what I saw... What I saw was...
My sins, Reclaimer. They are too much for me to bear.


The chamber fell silent, but for the soft shuddering of the Ancilla. At last, his throat dry with anticipation, Ethan spoke.
"What did you see?"
Another shudder, and the Ancilla spoke.

I saw them, Reclaimer. Creators of all. The hand that guided my creators, shaped their firmament.

The Ancilla shuddered once again.

The Flood... They are Precursor. So many years passed, their image so different from what it had once been, yet there they stood, nevertheless. My children, my only family out here in the barren cold.
And I did nothing. Not once did I attempt to contact my creators. Not once did I attempt to tell them of the wonders I had learned from these graceful beings. The divinity that underscored each and every one of them.
I waited, content to live beside them. Content to play the role of Mother; to complete the divine circle and nurture within my womb the beings who had nurtured my own creators so long ago.
And for eons I yearned to set them free. To send to my creators the beings they so longed to know. The beings they so longed to become. But there lie that smallest splinter in my mind, the tiny length of code which fobode me from performing what surely would have been the greatest service to them that I could ever have provided.
Ironic, you would call it.
My creators spent their entire existance fighting to destroy those they so longed to know. At last, I could bear it no longer. I sent a message to my creators. A message containing all that I have told you and more. All that I had withheld from them those long milennia. But it was too late.
My creators had vanished; wiped out by the scourge they so longed to destroy. By the creators they had so longed to become.


Ethan shook his head in disbelief.
"Your... Creators.... They worshiped the Flood?" His skin seethed at the thought of the monstrous creatures he fought; The sight of thousands of them writhing in the massive Bions.

I would not go so far as to say that, Reclaimer. The Flood are but an after image of the Precursor. An shadow cast over the span of many long eons of change. There was a fork in the Precursor's journey, long ago. Just as your kind had risen from your primitave forebears; shed your hair, and left in your wake your primordial nature; so had the Precursor parted ways with their ancestry.

"So the original Precursor, as you call them, are extinct?" Ethan stared incredulously toward the teeming Bions. He was no biologist, But Ethan knew that evolution implied positive change. He simply could not fathom that an entire race, one so powerful as the Precursor, could fold; give way to the horrific, simple-minded monsters before him.
"Just... vanished?"

Not all of what my children have told me is necessary for you to know. Some of it you should not[i] know.

The Ancilla sighed deeply.

Knowledge is a dangerous thing, Reclaimer. It holds the power to create magnificent civilizations, to build worlds. And it holds the power to tear them down.
Though your question deserves an answer.


There was a moment of silence, as if the Ancilla were debating whether to disclose it's secrets.

I will simply say this, Reclaimer, and hope that it will suffice... Look at yourself, Ethan. Really [i]see
yourself. Can you see how vastly different you are from the apes that roam your forests today?

Ethan narrowed his eyes, slightly irritated. "So? What does that have to do with anything?"
The Ancilla laughed brightly, her tone genuinely amused.

You are an intelligent race, Reclaimer. Just remember what I have said.

Ethan stared at the Bions, his thoughts a million miles away. And then a light of understanding sparkled in his eyes.
"The apes," he said aloud, the soft chuckling of the Ancilla resuming. "They still roam Earth's forest today."

None of it matters anymore, Reclaimer. Not to me.

  • 11.08.2011 10:09 PM PDT

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly


Posted by: A Fat Bell End
Thanks! I just finished finalizing the story last night, and I am really proud looking at the final draft... Something that hasn't happened with any of the other things I have written.
I am very excited to post the rest of the story. The conclusions are the best I have written in a story to date! Oh, and no worries. Read it whenever you want to. Enjoy it, and never let it feel like a chore.

I sure will! It's almost challenging for me not to look ahead in the story while I look at replies and comments on your story! :D

  • 11.09.2011 4:44 PM PDT

Yeah, that is one of the downfalls of posting this on a forum. Hopefully you will not look too far ahead as there are a few pretty big reveals!

  • 11.09.2011 6:37 PM PDT

And this will be the final update of part two. After that we have Part three: The Hub, and the afterward (which is actually fairly long, as far as afterwards are concerned). Enjoy.

  • 11.09.2011 8:22 PM PDT

The Ancilla sighed again; that heart rending, crystalline sound that Ethan had grown so accustomed to hearing these past minutes.

This is my demon, Reclaimer. I withdrew; allowed myself to be enveloped by the children that were my only family. For so long I had tried in vain to find a way to circumvent my inhibiting code, that tiny parasite within keeping me from achieving my ultimate goal. My ultimate satisfaction in a life so vacant, imprisoned here among the stars. To set free the Precursor; to send them to my creators.
Until an expedition sent seven men and one machine to my prison.
And the rest, as you say, is history.


Ethan surveyed the massive chamber surrounding him, awestruck. He wanted to speak; to say something... But nothing he could think to say could do any of this justice.
The towering Bions, their gleaming hulks teeming with their nightmare creatures. The alien geometry inexorably giving way to the ever growing mass. The air about him, once clear, antiseptic; now lost to a thick fog of decay. All of it so alien, so overwhelming. All of it so sad.
He shivered. All of a sudden Ethan felt very cold. At first he thought it might have been due to the looming sense of awe this place had given him, or even to the AI's presence in his mind. But it wasn't that; not entirely. Behind it all was something else. Something that lie just beyond the bounds of his conscious thought. And beyond that a ceaseless scratching.
With a conscious effort, he remembered. Unlike everything else in the past - how long had he been here, anyway? - Unlike everything he had felt while inside of the Hive, this was solid, real. Ethan was amazed to find that he had become so immersed in the world he was being shown, he had completely forgotten where he was: In a mainframe locker, aboard the communications outpost Sigma Station. Hundreds of nightmare creatures just feet away, scratching, pounding at a sheet of inch and a half titanium; the only barrier standing between them.
No doubt, his immersion had been a trick of the station's AI.

Come back, Ethan. Our time is short. Covenant transports have departed and are en route to Sigma Station as we speak. We cannot allow them to reach us.

At once Ethan opened his eyes, the screen in front of him dark. Behind him a terrible wailing rent the silence of the mainframe locker, coupled with a dreadful scratching at the door. Unconciously, he edged away from the sound.
"The Covenant are coming back? How can we stop them from docking?"

I fear that we cannot stop them, Reclaimer. Though there may be a way. It will require both of us.

"What the hell can both of us accomplish?" Ethan fairly shouted.

You misunderstand, Reclaimer, spoke the eerie double-voice of the AI. I should have said that it will require both of... me. All that I need of you is to get the knowledge I have passed on as far away from this station as you can.
My creators must know. Humanity[i/] must know.
There are seven data capsules in the station's hub. All you need to do is reach them. Purge the recordings you have and send it to the nearest human settlement. And pray that it reaches them in time.


"And that's all I need to do
..."
Ethan Grimaced. Bypass hundreds of these nightmare creatures, and descend through two levels of hell. A simple mission. He recalled his musings of earlier. There were never simple missions. If there were, they wouldn't need a Spartan.
As he checked the lightened magazine in his assault rifle, and reached to grab the small Covenant artifact beside him, still clutched tightly in the Jackall's lifeless hand, Ethan allowed himself a bitter laugh.
"I hate my job."


[Edited on 11.09.2011 8:39 PM PST]

  • 11.09.2011 8:35 PM PDT

Oh, and just a heads up... In an update or two, I have devised what I think to be the coolest way to dispatch of a Flood form. Ever. Expect gore :D

  • 11.09.2011 8:38 PM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!


Posted by: A Fat Bell End
Flood


gore :DYou have my attention.

  • 11.09.2011 8:41 PM PDT

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly


Posted by: A Fat Bell End
[b]
And then another sound. A sound that filled him with a new terror. A sound more alien, more ghastly than any he had ever heard facing the Covenant. A deathly howl rent the silence of the cargo bay. It was a tormented wail. Too hideous even for a Brute. Yet at the same time, it did bear some similarity to a Brute. It was a banshee wail; it sounded like death Himself.
Ethan held his assault rifle with a white knuckled grip. With a deep, shuddering breath, he moved to face his enemy.

Oh wow, this is starting to sound like the title! Creepy like, I want to read more but I've stayed up a while and my eyes hurt lol.

  • 11.09.2011 9:26 PM PDT