Author's note: This is my first published story in this website
Disclaimer: i don't own AVP, Halo, Dead Space nor Mass Effect. This fanfic is for entertainment and no profit what-so-ever
Prologue - The Past
During Earth's Archean Era 3.2 billion years ago, when procaryotic cells were the dominant species, the Mala'kak sought to control much of the galaxy. These tall, bipedal space jockeysexplored and studied many systems and planets, to include the newly-evolved Earth.
The intelligent Mala'kak performed various experimentations and genetic engineering during their distant travels. One of their creations, a man-sized xenomorphspecies that had an armored exoskeleton and acidic blood, developed a hostile and unpredictable disposition.
The Mesoproterozoic Era heralded Earth's first supercontinent—Rodinia. Blue-green algae drifted throughout the troubled waters that churned over unstable tectonic plates as more continents struggled to inhale their first breath of air. This Calymmian Period thundered through a moment of time 1.6 billion years ago.
At the same time, the xenomorphs had established successful hives around the Mala'kak and reproduced at an alarming rate. The dangers posed by their very existence could no longer be controlled or avoided. The xenomorph population eventually spread off-world and threatened life elsewhere.
A tribal, predatory warrior-species called the Yautjacrossed paths with the Mala'kak, and their encounters quickly escalated into war. Both sides, having realized that the xenomorphs were superior biological weapons, strategically planted eggs on ships and planets in attempts to wipe each other out. Once the Mala'kak homeworld was discovered by the Yautja, fleets of egg-carrying vessels were sent there to ensure total destruction.
The once-prosperous Mala'kak were doomed to certain extinction.
Evolution hurled another intelligent species into the cosmos—a race of spacefarers similar to the nonexistent Mala'kak known as the Precursors.Their technological advances soared quickly to new heights once they'd discovered and harnessed the remnants of Mala'kak technology. They traveled further, faster and applied new logic to theorems that nearly defied all the known laws of physics.
Precursor efforts to expediate galactic evolution across a wide composition of species were brought to fruition—the hand of undeniable science swept across the Milky Way and seeded life throughout the galaxy. As species bloomed, bred, fought and advanced, the Precursors assumed a role of guardianship over galactic life itself with system of regulation called The Mantle.If a particular species was deemed problematic or unworthy to climb the ranks of the order of life, they would be completely exterminated.
The Precursors would later be responsible for the creation of another species known as the Kh'raak.This mighty species had a single purpose in life: to prevent an element of chaos by harvesting certain advanced species, before the prospects of synthetic races could ever become a reality. Precursors understood the concept of synthetics but feared the plausibility of inorganic life that would become fully aware. The threat involved would be difficult to overcome—and so it was established that no civilization should ever have the opportunity to attempt it.
The Kh'raak were designed to to harbor similar views and ambitions to that of the Precurors. Their stalwart organic cells defied the natural aging process after maturity was attained, also like their creators. In a sense, they both had an element of immortality.
They thrived within orbiting, gas-rich Magellanic Clouds dubbed the Kar ("dark" in Precursor language) outisde the Milky Way. From there, they were released once every 50,000 years for the harvest.
During one of these harvest cycles, a humanoid race known as the Forerunners on the world of Ghibalb was slated for extermination.
The Forerunners learned of the plan to wipe them out and declared war on the Precursors. Their campaign was thorough and deadly; in the end, the Forerunners were victorious. A small number of Precursors escaped and became fugitives in the Kar.
Prior to the destruction of their race, however, the Precursors had designed another intelligent race known as humans and placed them on a planet called Erde-Tyrene, or "Earth." They were also chosen for elimination, but it would not be enforced by the Kh'raak; instead a parasitic species known as The Flood was sent to the humans.
The escaped Precursors created a "shield world" within the Kar, alongside the Kh'raak. For millions of years to follow, the Kh'raak continued to be released on their scheduled cycles. They replenished their energies on a cosmic substance known as "dark energy," a fifth fundamental force that influences all matter. A plan was proposed by the Precursors to eventually confront the Forerunners and wipe them all out.
The Precursors created a biological weapon to cause a fatal disease on the Forerunners, known as the "necromorph infection." This zombie-like stasis would animate and disfigure corpses that would aggressively attack the non-infected—effective also in aspects of psychological warfare, as it would normally terrify the enemy.
Their plan backfired and the Precursors ultimately infected themselves. As time took its course on their animated corpses, and with no other species to infect—the Precursors went extinct.
During the Early Paleolithic Period around 150,000 B.C., humanity, which was composed of many species of the human genus, moved their civilization outward along the Orion Arm—presumably to flee Forerunner control. The former Precursor world Charum Hakkor was then established as their capital.
They also discovered an ancient being, known as the Timeless One, who was held prisoner within a stasis capsule, and transported it back to Charum Hakkor. Human scientists eventually found a possible way to communicate with him, and tried to establish further contact by asking it various questions—but no useful responses were ever given.
Humanity also formed an alliance with the worm-necked San 'Shyuum species, and gained access to their advanced technology. At their height, humanity's technological advancement, combined with their understanding of Precursor technology, nearly rivaled that of the Forerunners.
During this same period, the Kh'raak sent waves of cargo ships across the Milky Way Galaxy to release The Flood. By 110,000 BCE, humanity discovered the parasite's true nature and went to war against it. They asked the Timeless One back on Charum Hakkor about the Flood—and the answers that they'd finally received were so traumatizing that many even committed suicide.
Humanity was made aware of a "cure" for the Flood: according to the Forerunners, they sacrificed a third of their total population and implanted the humans with destructive, artificially programmed genes used to target the Flood on a genetic level. In reality, however, the Flood had receded by its own volition after the sacrifice; no cure was ever created or used by humanity.
After losing so many planets to the spreading Flood, humanity desperately invaded a minor sector that belonged to the Forerunners. The resistance there responded violently to this aggression and waged war against the humans as well as their San 'Shyuum allies. Stretched too thin due to fighting two wars at once, the humans were finally driven to their capital, Charum Hakkor. After successfully holding off the enemy at their gates for five painful decades, humanity was in the end defeated at the hands of the Forerunners, led by the Didact. However, due to humanity's actions, The Flood was driven away from the galaxy for nearly ten thousand years.
As punishment for threatening the Forerunners, nearly all of humanity was wiped out and the remnants of their civilization and technology were thoroughly dismantled. The remnants of the human species were exiled to Earth, where they were overseen by the Librarian; while many Forerunners wanted to see humanity completely exterminated, the Librarian had always been considered their greatest protector.
With the assistance of the Librarian and a geas she had them imprinted with, over twenty of their ancient species made a noticeable recovery and formed separate populations on Earth. This included the heavy-browed Neanderthal k'tamanush, the grassland-dwelling b'ashamanush, the one meter tall Florian hamanush and finally the bronze-skinned, upright chamanush. This blatant meddling was noted to have considerably distorted Earth's natural fossil records.
The Forerunner victory proved disastrous for the rest of the galaxy. The humans destroyed all their research data and physical evidence concerning The Flood, including their alleged "cure." Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting speculated that it may have been humanity's last act of revenge to leave the Forerunners exposed and unprepared as they faced the impending threat that eventually led to the firing of the Halo Array.
Nearly an eon after the war with the humans, a Forerunner survey team on the planet Seaward encountered The Flood. After contact, the Forerunners immediately recognized the grave danger that The Flood posed to the rest of the Milky Way, and formed plans to containthem altogether—extermination wasn't an option, and was forbidden in the principles of the Mantle. Their attempts to contain The Flood was a complete failure, as their methods were more suited to vector and disease control instead of an all-out physical warfare. Any other decisions after this disastrous encounter were made too late.
With the weakened Forerunners unable to contain The Flood outbreak, the rest of the galaxy entered a state of war. During the three centuries of conflict that followed, the Forerunners analyzed The Flood for weaknesses in laboratories such as the gas mine located in the atmosphere of Threshold. As Forerunner scientists realized that conventional naval tactics were ineffective against the parasitic onslaught, they were forced to develop a new strategy and technology.
The Sentinels were deployed as an aggressive means of reducing Flood numbers through surgical strikes and localized tactics. The Forerunner fleet command considered the use of naval battle groups to enact premature stellar collapse within compromised planetary systems—a last resort which would engulf entire worlds in a violent supernova. It was realized that these tactics were too sluggish and would never effectively stop the Flood's alarming expansion. It had to be deprived of all hosts, which would eliminate its potential to grow.
The Forerunners were reluctant to use the Array. Their culture demanded that life must be protected under the Mantle—it was never meant to be arbitrarily obliterated by unauthorized means. This controversy led to heated, anguished debates and civil war. It was later decided that the Array was the only means of successfully stopping The Flood.
The Gravemind, an intelligent final Flood-stage entity, cunningly convinced a Contender-class AI, 032 Mendicant Bias, to unite with The Flood. Mendicant Bias soon led his massive fleet in a direct attack on the Maginot Line—the final barrier that marked what the Forerunners could protect and what they were forced to abandon. The panicked Forerunners exhausted every fathomable alternative and finally activated the Halo Array. The unavoidable decision brought their own destruction upon them as well as sentient life of sufficient biomass within the Milky Way. The only exception to the Array's destructive radius were species that were safely placed on the Ark.
Once The Flood had been completely eliminated, the stored species that the Forerunners had previously placed on Installation 00 were all returned to their home planets by the sentinels.
The Kh'raak returned to the galaxy proper after the Halo Array was fired. They broke their own protocol and refused to wait for the the next scheduled intelligent species to be harvested. They eventually created advanced portal-devices for instantaneous space travel, known as mass relays. The clever Kh'raak also constructed a mysterious Citadel to attract civilization. When the time was right, the organized destruction could be done in a single area.
One of the Kh'raak, known as Nazara or "Sovereign" was on standby in deep space when an intelligent race of Prothean beings crossed his path. The Protheans were alarmed at the Kh'raak's strengths and defenses—and when they fled from it, they effectively brought Sovereign directly to their homeworld.
Sovereign contacted Kha'tamm, or "Harbinger" to bring more Kh'raak to his aid. An all-out war ensued between the Kh'raak and the Protheans. Massive amounts of civilians as well as Prothean military were sacrificed as a distraction while heavy weapons concentrated on destroying the Kh'raak, one by one. Their strategy proved to be futile as the Prothean Empire quickly dwindled.
The Kh'raak learned that the Protheans had bestowed a nickname—a title on them, that would mean fear, and death, to those who would hear it whispered in the millenia to come.
That name was the Reapers.