Chapter 1:
500 CE: ēkvnv
The guardian of the Creek Indians looked up at the night sky. 26 years old, he looked nothing like a native. He looked from star to star and took a deep breath.
Lighting flashed, striking the man. The dust settled. All that remained was scorched earth.
1500 CE: East Amerika
26 Year old Quartermaster Kalem Vrede stood on deck of the Girmand. He glanced behind him and sighed, before stepping overboard. Lightning flashed. He was declared lost at sea the following morning.
1889 CE: Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
26 year old Pemberton Medicine Company security guard Kalem Bakea stood in a courtyard sipping a cool drink. He listened to a church bell ringing as clouds gathered overhead. Lightning flashed. He was gone.
Present Day (c. 2015 CE): Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
26 year old Atlanta Police Officer Kalem Aminci stood in a field. He checked his watch and squinted up at the sky. He shook his head and took a step to the left. He tore the patches off of his uniform and dropped them on the ground. Lightning came out of nowhere and hit him. They found his patrol car within the hour. He was never seen again.
2531 CE: New Terminus, Georgia, UEG, Earth, Sol System
A man appeared out of nowhere in a small lot. He was predominantly fair complexioned with hazel eyes that could seem green in the right light, his hair a golden brown. Six feet one. Two hundred pounds even. 26 Years old.
He looked around. People were walking on a sidewalk bordering the lot. Mostly civilians in business attire. He got a few glances for his archaic uniform, but was mostly ignored.
"Good to be back," he muttered to himself. He turned the corner with the familiarity of someone who knew the street. He walked for a few minutes before walking up to a large glass and steel building.
It had a large sign: Michael Caldwell Public Library. Inside were rows upon rows of transparent computer monitors. There was also the occasional glass case with a book in it. Kalem walked up to a screen and started typing away. An alarm went off for a second before he swiped it away, earning a stern glare from a librarian. He continued typing away for a few minutes before abruptly stopping.
He walked over to a bench and sat down.
HIGHCOM Facility Alpha-4: ONI Signal Corps office.
"Sir! We have a remote system intrusion!" a startled Signal Corpsman reported.
A Colonel Kalinaw strode in, "What is it? Innie hack?"
"I'm not sure sir, it appears to have stopped almost as soon as it breached our system. It…left a message."
Colonel Kalinaw looked startled. "Put it on screen."
"Aye, sir. Here it is."
The words "Come get me" were up on the screen before the room full of ONI technicians.
Colonel Kalinaw squinted, "That's all? Where is it coming from?"
"It appeared to originate in a library a few miles from here, sir."
"Pull surveillance footage, scan facial recog and get me any flags. Also get an ONI Security Tac-Team in place at that library. I want to cordon off the area until we catch whoever was behind this."
A chorus of "Aye, sirs" rang out.
5 minutes later: Kalinaw's office
"Sir, one flag came up at the library. Caucasian male, six foot 1 inch, some sort of paramilitary uniform. He was flagged because his identity is unknown."
"What do you mean, unknown? He could be more than one person?"
"No, sir, there is no identity listed for him. We backtracked to find his origin, but it's like he appeared out of nowhere. He just walks out of an empty lot, cool as could be. We tried satellite image, but it appears to have been jammed around the window of when he appears."
"He must be wearing a disguise, and he possibly has the assistance of an illegal AI." Kalinaw responded.
"It seems likely, sir."
"Is he still in the library?"
"Yes, sir, just sitting on a bench."
"Move in ONI Security."
"Aye, sir." The corpsman turned around and left.
At the Library.
Everyone panicked when a Pelican hovered over the roof. Then soldiers in riot armor stormed the library from all entrances.
"ON THE GROUND" The soldiers yelled.
The library goers were quick to comply. All except one, who simply got on his knees and raised his hands over his head.
He was quickly surrounded before a bag was placed over his head and he felt a slight pinch in his neck as he was sedated.
Kalem woke up an hour later chained to a chair. To his left was a wall made of black glass. All other sides were steel plating and a door. In front of his was a table with a screen on it.
He sighed, "This ought to be good."
After what seemed like eternity, the screen flickered to life, revealing a man in black fatigues, with colonel insignia.
"Hello, there. May I be the first to welcome you to ONI."
"Thank you, I trust you got my message."
"Indeed, and as you can see, we followed your instructions."
Kalem grinned, "Yes, well I did ask for it."
"Would you mind answering some questions? You're a bit of a mystery to us and we at ONI hate mysteries."
"Well, be assured I'll cooperate. I have no want to be subjected to ONI's advanced interrogation techniques. However, I'll only talk to certain people."
Kalinaw decided to humor the mystery man, for the moment, "And those people are?"
"Dr. Catherine Halsey, Colonel Herzog, Vice Admiral Parangosky, Agent Avi, or Master Chief John-117, well, scratch that last one. The others, though, that's who I'll talk to. Anything I talk about will quickly go into Section 0 territory, so I suggest that you get some of them down here as well, perhaps I'll talk to them."
"Section 0? I'm not sure I follow." Replied Kalinaw, with a carefully blank face.
"I'm sure you do. They aren't acknowledged to the public, but to my knowledge they act as ONI Internal Affairs as well as an archive for sensitive information deemed extremely dangerous."
They were quickly delving into dangerous territory, so Kalinaw attempted to change the subject. "Why did you hack our system?"
"Why? I wanted to set up a meeting, and I figured that would get your attention the fastest. You have nothing to fear from me, I have come to help you, and that's all I'll say until I see one of the people that I mentioned."
Kalinaw looked like he was about to say something, but was cut off by the screen shutting off.
Kalinaw stood up as his door opened. Two men in suits walked in. "Section 0, we're taking custody here."
Kalinaw's eyes widened, "Understood."
One agent went in to the Interrogation Room and disconnected the shackles from the chair. "Follow me," the first agent ordered.
Kalem nodded and followed, and was himself followed by the second agent. They walked for a long time, going down several separate elevators until they reached a set of nondescript blast doors. The first agent scanned his hand at the doors and they silently slid open.
Kalem was ushered inside and put into a room identical to the one he was in previously, and shackled to the chair. The agents left the room as the screen flickered to life. Instead of a face however, it was just an ONI logo.
"Hello, mystery man, I am Agent 83. I will be conducting your interrogation."
"Okay, shoot. Just not…literally."
If Kalem could see the face of Agent 83, it would be one without humor.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Kalem."
"Last name?"
"I change it fairly often, and none of them would be in your database anyway."
"Try us."
"Aminci, Bakea, and Vrede, those are the most recent ones."
"Very well, where are you from?"
"I've been on Earth for quite a while, but as to where I'm from, sorry, that's classified."
"We'll get back to that one. How and for what purpose did you hack the ONI Signal mainframe?"
"I just used my superior knowledge of internal security protocols to hack into it. As for they why, I wanted to get in touch with certain elements of ONI, and this got your attention quickest without causing harm. "
"So you're telling us you hacked into the most secure network in the UNSC in a few minutes without an AI?"
"Yes, well, not the most secure. I didn't hack you after all."
"What is the purpose of getting our attention? What do you want?"
"I want to help the UNSC. With the Covenant, and with the Flood. I want to join ONI."
"You seem to know entirely too much."
"You have no idea how much I know that I shouldn't. I know more than I would if I was just an accomplished hacker or a spy."
The door slid open, revealing Dr. Catherine Halsey, "Then what are you?"
"Ahh, Dr. Halsey, it's good to finally meet you," said Kalem. "How is Miranda doing?"
Halsey stopped short you do know too much, again who or what are you?"
"Well in short, I'm a time travelling Forerunner-human hybrid genetically engineered to appear completely human. I think that sums it up nicely.
Halsey stepped back outside.