Halo's Ark
A/N: First Halo story, and I like where I'm going with this. I'm planning to have two sequels, but I'll have to see how far I go with this one first. Hopefully I can think of something for the other two I have…Anyways, enjoy and review please! No flames!
Plot: The Ark is destroyed, and so is any chance of activating the Halos by remote activation. The Arbiter leads the Elites home, and someone finds Cortana's beacon, so Spartan-117 is back amongst humanity again. A new threat is rising, however. The other 6 Halo rings will once again become the battlefield for the continuation of humanity and Elites alike. The Master Chief and the Arbiter must take an especially trained group of soldiers to fight against the Monitors, Sentinels, and the Flood. To bypass the encrypted Forerunner technology security systems, however, the Chief and Arbiter must persuade two mysterious children to help them. They are the only ones with access to private files and all restricted files as well. Their backgrounds, however, will conflict with their decisions.
Another Ark, to replace the one that was destroyed. Only one of the Forerunners or their biological children can stop it.
I have defied gods and demons.
I am your shield. I am your sword.
I know you. Your past, your future…
This is the way the world ends.
November 25th
The Forerunners gave me a journal today. I don't know why. Possibly so I will have a record of what happens today so I can read it in the future. My mother and father said that I am 44 years old today. there is no celebration; I never have had one after I turned 10 years old. Leader said that my survival lessons will start tomorrow. As is expected, I obey.
Leader's daughter, Amy, gave me a name last year: Ashley. It means "from the ash tree." It fits, because every tree I plant in the Ark turns out to be an ash tree. Mother tells me to cut a clip of my hair and put it in a gold locket she has. 'Only the one you will fall in love with will claim your heart.' she says. To prove that it will come true, Father takes the locket now and casts it into space and it is lost. Only the one destined to find it will, in the near future or the distant future.
It is time to go. Swarm calls to me and complains that I write too much. Now the other Monitors come, watching me write. I guess I should put their names in here as well. The Monitor of Installation 01 is 3489 Electrical Current. Monitor of 02 is 6832 Dispersing Cloud; 03 is 4903 Bolt Thunder; 04 is 343 Guilty Spark; 05 is 2401 Penitent Tangent; 06 is 1823 Magnetic Force; and 07 is 5671 Storm Lightning. Cloud and Lightning are the only Monitors given female personalities; the others all have male personalities.
Leader comes into my room now. He says that plans have changed: I must start training now. This first entry might also be my last for a while. Training is strenuous, and my body will be sore and strained. But my mother's and father's genes are in my body, so I will pass through the training. Amy is Leader's daughter, but she must go through training too, so we may become Swarm's caretakers, as well as the Ark's. Goodbye.
December 25th
So I lied about me not writing for a while. Oh well. It doesn't matter. My mentor is Pearl. Her husband, Dysis, is Amy's mentor.
Pearl has beautiful pearly white hair and mischievous blue eyes. Dysis has short and ruffled silver hair (like Amy) and equally mischievous emerald eyes. Their children are an adorable girl and boy of 3 and 5. The girl has her mother's and father's hair colors: pearly white with silver streaks, and unusual golden eyes from her grandfather. The boy has his grandfather's (Leader) hair color when Leader was much younger, a deep chocolate color. He has both his mother's and father's eye color – one blue eye and one green eye. They are Amber and Diamond. They are also Amy's niece and nephew. She loves them dearly, as do I.
Leader says my training is coming along well, and he would like for me to (with Amy, of course) go on an assessment trip tomorrow, with all the Monitors, including Swarm. I think that it will be enjoyable.
We are supposed to do something called "hide-and-seek." 7118 Ominous Swarm will lead the other Monitors into a building which Amy and I are supposed to scout out first. Then we are to hold our position using only a limited amount of rubber bullets against an unknown number of holographic targets. Until Leader deems it so, we are to do everything in our power to protect all 8 Monitors and not get stunned by the holographic targets.
I require rest. Sleep comes first, so I can ace the assessment tomorrow…………...
December 26th
Leader said that it's good for future generations if I brought my journal with me today. Amy and I are in this transportation carrier that Swarm and the other Monitors are lifting. The building where our supposed "stronghold" will be is in the middle of a planet called Onyx. I've only heard about it once before. Pearl had said something about a "sword" and "shield."
It comes from one of Leader's favorite sayings:
"I have defied gods and demons.
I am your shield. I am your sword.
I know you; your past, your future.
This is the way the world ends."
Suspiciously enough, amber and Diamond are sent with us. Cloud is emitting soft music so the babies can sleep.
Pearl had not acted like herself today. She and Dysis had thrown together a huge assortment of things that the Monitors would need to bring for all 4 of us. Amy said that Dysis had told her to ALWAYS look out for her niece and nephew. As if she wouldn't! But he had made her swear, and so she had.
Dysis had given me 15 holographic folders with information threatening to overfill it. He had said my mother and father had kept me out of the dark long enough. Amy, being Leader's daughter, had already been told about the contents. My parents, being only engineers, hadn't been permitted to.
In my arms, Diamond stirs. I coo softly to him while also writing all of this down. Amy just hugs Amber gently, as she is still asleep. I wonder why Pearl and Dysis had the children given to us secretly. Was something going to happen that Pearl and Dysis didn't want them to be a part of? What about Leader and Amy's mother? And what about my parents? Swarm says we are here.
January 1st
Current, Cloud, Thunder, Spark, Tangent, Force, and Lightning are going to leave soon. When Swarm told me why, I couldn't believe it. Leader and the other Forerunners are dead. "They activated the Halo rings and wiped out all of the other sentient life forces in the universe except for you, Amy, and the children," says Swarm to me now. We, the last of true Forerunner blood, are the only survivors.
Not knowing what the Halo rings truly are, I access the first holographic file from the ones Dysis gave me. Even through the grief and sorrow I can numbly feel, I know that both Pearl and Dysis would want me to be exposed to all of the information that Amy already knows.
--
File 1
File name: "Swords and Shield"
Date: unknown
Classified: above black
The old saying was right. To destroy the Flood, there must be swords and a shield. The swords will "attack", and the shield will "protect." Halo. That will be the name of the artificial ring-worlds that will be the swords. Onyx will be the "shield world" where Forerunners and Reclaimers can escape to. Taken from a future book, the Ark will be artificially built too, like the Halos. It will serve three purposes.
The Halo rings may be remote-activated from the Ark ONLY by a Reclaimer.
Replacement Halo rings will be built at the Ark and sent to where the former one was.
It will be the home of surviving Forerunners and 7118 Ominous Swarm.
To ensure that future Reclaimers will be safely guided to each Control Room, a Monitor has been created for each Installation. The Monitors have been uploaded with information dealing with each individual Halo ring that they are assigned to.
An Activation Index is needed for the firing of each Halo ring, and each Index is located in the Library and only a Reclaimer may take it out. To kill the Flood's entire food source – that is the goal and purpose of the Halo rings. The Activation Index, after retrieved by the Reclaimer, should be used to fire the Halo rings.
The purpose of the Halo rings is to eradicate the galaxy of any sentient life. Anything sentient can easily become food for the Flood. The Flood is a deadly parasitic life form that will kill all life in the universe. To absorb everything and all knowledge in existence is the goal of the Flood. We must stop it.
The Halos are almost completed, and so is the Ark. Each Monitor will be interfaced soon with one Forerunner child, or perhaps two. If the second oldest child survives past her 44th year, then she will also be used to interface with the Monitors.
---
My heart is thumping painfully against my chest. The "second oldest child" was and is me. I remember my 44th year of life clearly. This was the year I met Swarm, and also when I met Amy and her AI, Comet. Comet is essentially Amy's clone, because her brain was carefully cloned so Leader could create an artificial intelligence for his youngest daughter. Although they are, in truth, the same being, they are best friends and very close.
My parents had brought me to meet Leader for the first time. He had been wearing a long luminescent blue cloak that had Forerunner language inscribed in gold threading. His silver hair gleamed in the sun of the Ark and his dark amber eyes were looking at one of the "fabled" Monitors, 7118 Ominous Swarm. Like all of the other Monitors, his "eyepiece" was a different color.
Current's is yellow; Cloud's brown; thunder's grey; Spark's pale blue; Tangent's red; Force's green; and Lightning's orange. Swarm's eyepiece was and is white.
I can still remember what Swam had said to me . . .
'"Hello. I am 7718 Ominous Swarm, Monitor of the Ark. You are Ashley, daughter of Engineers Nos. 18432 and 18433, correct?"
"Yes, I am," I had said hesitatingly.
"Splendid! You are aware that now I am your guardian and you my charge, and you are my guardian and I am your charge?" I remember looking at Leader, confused.
"You and 7718 are now responsible for looking after each other. Anything that concerns one will concern the other," Leader had told me.
Swarm had suddenly then come up right in my face, startling me immensely. I had noticed that his metallic body had been intricately designed with Forerunner symbols, and he had some sort of antigravity device that allowed him to fly around however he wanted. He had then proceeded to open a compartment above his piece, and I took out the data chip that was ejected out.
It was as purple as my eyes, and it had Forerunner language written as red as my hair on it.
"That is your new personal data chip which you may use at any time. I had been told ahead of time to prepare something for you, and so I had."
I had accepted his story and slid it into my data port in the base of my portable AI carrier. Of course, though, my AI, Moon, was secretly created in the same way as Comet, and she instantly downloaded all programs and files that could only be accessed by either me or her.
"Ashley," Moon whispered through our telepathic link. "It's not just a personal data chip specially created for this meeting. Swarm has secretly passed along encrypted files for our viewing only. Looks like there's something that Leader wants to hide from you but Swarm's giving you a back way in."
But what would Leader keep from me? I have done nothing to wrong him or my parents!
"I don't know what, but you'd better watch it – Swarm's preparing to interface with you," Moon warned.
I blinked, and saw that Swarm was indeed ready to interface. Another data chip had ejected, and I took it and inserted it into the data port in the back of my head. Temporarily blinded by the white light that suddenly lit up in my vision, I waited until it subsided. A freezing chill in my nervous system chilled me to the core, but then I heard Swarm say, "This is a perfect environment for me to stay in for a very long period of time. You may tell Leader that the interfacing is complete. I will now return to my body, but I will leave behind a part of myself so we may stay in contact."
I ejected the data chip and returned it to Swarm's floating body. Facing Leader, I said, "The interface is complete. We are now connected."
He nodded and looked pleased. "Good. 7118 may go with you and your family. He will be your new companion."'
That's how and why swarm is always with me. Amy has Comet, Amber, and Diamond, and that's good for her.
--
There are other sentient races in the galaxy. They come from different planets and are currently attempting to unite and live in harmony. They are comprised of the Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Sangheili, Yanme'e, Jiralhanae, Lekgolo, Huragok, and Prophets.
On a planet called Earth, another sentient race exists. They call themselves Homo sapiens, or will, once their race advances in time and technology. Us Forerunners call them humans, as they will call themselves in time. Humans are very similar in structure and appearance to Forerunners. Te differences are that Forerunners do not age as quickly as humans; Forerunners can live forever, provided that they do not get any fatal injuries or fire a Halo ring. The human's skeletal structure is also far weaker and prone to break.
Additional files:
Halo rings 1-7
The Ark
Reclaimers
Forerunners
Monitors
The Covenant
Security protocols & encryption files
Flood
Interior of Ark
Interior of all Halo rings
Swords and Shield (current
Gravemind
Sentinels
Activation Index
Replacement Halo rings and Ark
A/N: How'd ya all like it? R&R please! You all know how to do it! NO FLAMES!!!!!