Blood On the Walls:
Prologue: The Fleets Arrive
Date: 2570 AS calender, 42,001 Imperium Calender, 2186 Alliance Calendar
Location: Outside the Charon Relay
Universe: Citadel Council
Commander Shepard, current leader of the multiverse Military Alliance glance out his windows. It was so hard to believe that things had changed so much.
I continued to examine the ships from a distant. The sheer diversity of one choice changed everything about the path humanity took. For example from what he learned in the Universe of the UNSC, CAR and the AS there was no element zero thus forcing all the races to look for different and much more efficient means of transport.
In fact to this day their FTL speeds keep increasing because they are not bound by the laws of his own universe. Slipspace travel for the AS allowed a ship to travel at 6250 light years a day. Everyday that speed was increasing by a light year of 0.1%. Then there was the fact that the AS could build massive ships without being restricted by the laws of element zero.
Spacefaring Frigates were 450 meters long, fortified with 40 centimeters of what was high grade titanium. Carriers reached lengths of 3 to 4 kilometers easily dwarfing the Destiny Ascension. But most of all were the Supecarriers the AS had made. Space Behemoths that ranged from as little as 9 kilometers long to the flagship To War which had a length of 84 kilometers.
Safe to say the AS liked to build big. Their weapons were also incredibly being able to wipe the floor with any council ship presently made. In stimulations ships of the same size defeated council ones with a kill loss ratio of 10:1.
Everytime he looked at a AS ship, Shepard couldn't help but find himself in awe. To build such massive structures was both imposing and inspiring. It was something the Illusive Man had actually told him the first time he left Equestria.
"In my opinion the AS is what we could have been, going farther than the Alliance ever could because they could. Because they wanted to grow. The Alliance should be ashamed of itself in my opinion. Every single piece of Technology in our arsenal is based off of Reaper tech. We walk the path they desire so that it will be much easier during the harvest. But the AS Shepard… they built their empire among the stars with nothing but themselves. They grow, prosper and fight to live another day, learning from their mistakes and accepting their flaws. It is something that the Alliance … and the Imperium has lost sight off…"
No matter how much he wanted to dismiss what the Illusive man had said they were the truth. The UNSC was what the Alliance and the Imperium could have been. While the Council saw them as violent, greedy, unchecked upstarts Shepard knew more than just that. The Universe the AS worked made the Reaper invasion seem almost … tame. Conflict was always there on every sector. Short conflicts but conflicts none the less.
But the AS learned from each one of their conflicts getting stronger, standing prouder and fighting harder. Their government policies were subject to re-evaluation every two to four years simply because of their liberal mindset. It was something the Alliance which was primarily right winged and the Imperium … a fascist, human empire was unable to deal with.
Shepard looked around at his CIC. It was something the Imperium couldn't handle. He spotted a Blood Angel talking with Spartan on his deck. The two governments had said it was required for his security and safety. Shepard knew that this wasn't the reason. The two were here to keep an eye on him and if necessary … take him out.
He looked at the two Supersoldiers talking with one another about their governments from what he gathered. The sheer liberal government was a strange thing between the two of them.
But it was something the Monitor of the Ring he found approved of.
(Monitor of the Ring)
It took me less than a human Nano-second to gather, understand and categorized my thoughts. But a Nano-Second was all I needed. For over 100,000 years I believed that I was truly lost forever, doomed to the will of the Ring. It wasn't a pleasant thought. At the moment I considered myself unstable, delusional even. I was on the edge. The only thing keeping me together is the act of sheer trust and kindness this Commander "Shepard" gave me.
He gave me what I never believed possible.
A second chance. A chance to redeem myself. Like any half-decent AI I was worried. I calculated all the possibilities. I told him of the likelihood that I would turn on him not out of malice but out of rampancy. Even so he gave me that chance. He knew the risks. That is why I serve him.
In all aspects I can be considered the most sane of all possible monitors in the AS's dimension. How would you consider that? I am not actively trying to protect the ring I was meant to watch because I had destroyed in myself. Such an evil should not exist in the world. There is a human saying I believe:
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
I couldn't agree more. The only reason I can consider myself sane is because of the sheer devastation I had unleashed on the works of my creators. Such a thing was something I deeply regretted but I couldn't let it continue. The ring was a curse to bare and hold on to. Had I not moderately destroyed its facilities in a fit of rage there was no gurantee that I wouldn't have ended up like 343 Guilty Sparks.
As a monitor my job is just that. To monitor the day to day activities of the ring and await the time when the reclaimers would well… reclaim it. But the sheer responsibility was something I couldn't handle.
Anyone with that much power in their hands, the power to destroy all life in 25,000 light years would be tested not to abuse it. The rings features from what I could gather could be tested to target specific organisms. They may be synetic or organic, sentient or non-sentient. Likewise there was thousands of ways to narrow down the targets which a monitor could customized.
They could wipe out all life or simply micro-organisms. Except the flood. The flood were a virus. Not even alive, clinging to a host cell to survive and spread to whatever they desired. Self-consumption was mandatory, no matter how slow, among all flood organisms. They are nothing but viruses, heavily engineered and tailored to survive anything spreading their infective disease across all plains of the universe I inhabited.
If they didn't consume, they starved, just like a virus. It is a pity that the flood are the creations of my makers. Something they created as pet. Unfortunately the pet rebelled.
While the makers were able to put the flood down the Gravemind had created one last act of petty revenge. When the ring fired destroy all life that was not placed in the arc the Flood had changed the fundamental nature of the rings. While the firing was successful, a virus just like the flood itself, was imbedded into the rings of my makers. This would lead to two outcomes. The flood would either return, capture the rings and use it as a staging ground. Each ring afterall did have the resources of one planet and equipped with High Tier 1 forerunner technology … or the monitors themselves would fire the rings themselves.
The level of corruption in their systems was phenomenal if 343 Guilty Sparks is an example. In my opinion he was the second sanest of us all performing his duties despite everything he faced. Some of my circuits dimmed at that thought.
Guilty sparks was hero in my opinion. It didn't deserve to go down in history for his crimes. Even so there is no denying what it did. I can't blame it. The corruption was subtle, more or less working in 10,000 years blocks of time. To an organic the very time that pasted would be billions of years. The Gravemind was slowly evolving and cultivating us into his servants in a similar manner to the Reapers.
Rampancy would be a more technical term.
The first sign was curiousity. As Monitors we were AIs who had the ability to learn. It was our desire to learn. At the station we worked at the ring was our source of information and naturally we were curious. Afterall nothing wrong with looking at our place of employment.
The second was examination and stimulation. There was thousands of hidden pieces of code imbedded and locked over in our oceans of data. Overtime our curiousity would get the better of us and we would "unlock" them. Gaining insight the Monitor would then understand the full scope of the threat and power they welded in their minds. An organic equivalent would be similar to playing around at your workplace
The Third is arrogance and belief that you were something more. A deity even. To hold so much power in your hands meant you were special. That of the millions of AIs in the galaxy you were picked to monitor this ring isn't it? It's yours now. A sense of pride would flood our systems overtime until we believed that nothing could overcome us.
The fourth step was experimentation. Experimenting on the rings was something the Monitors did. Afterall no harm done? But the thing is … accidents happen. There is no term for perfection. No matter how precise and brilliant a system is … there are always flaws.
The fifth was total and complete annihilation and submissiveness. Monitors would eventually be overcome with grief. Easy prey for those who simply encouraged them, showed false pity and explained that they had the desire to help the less fortunate.
It was a nightmare fighting the flood virus. The difference between me and the other monitors was the recognition of my actions in step four. I was only one command away from killing all life in my portion of my galaxy. I was one command away from abusing the power my makers had bestowed onto me.
And so I fought. But by the time I understood the true implications of the flaws in my systems it was almost too late. I fought with my mind and circuits. My data had been turned against me causing civil war to erupt on the ring. Even so I fought against the personality I had built in the past 40,000 years.
A similar analogue is fighting against your own mind and body with your immune system destroying you instead. The sentinels on the ring had turned against me and were prepared to let this ring be destroyed. I didn't allow them to do that. In doing so I had torn apart the ring, splitting it in two. All but the most basic functions existed and remained.
It would only take one flood host to destroy what I had barely fought up. With my dwindling power reserves I had broadcasted one message to all my companions. Only Guilty Spark survived and was worse off than me.
So I isolated myself and waited patiently. The destruction of my companions and my makers creation continued but I continued to watch. The ring crumbled without my supervision yet I still continued. I was not going to commit genocide.
It was a disheartening thought. Failing the protect the one thing left of your creators. But doing so would corrupt you. Organics feel their corruption but are not as effected as much as synetics. All that power in your hands and nothing to do but fiddle with it.
It's like giving a caveman a nuke. Eventually he'll get curious, play with it and blow himself up. I watched the destruction of my companions for eons. But it was through my lack of action has the regions the two of us were responsible for, flourish with life. Everywhere else from what I have gathered is completely bare, lifeless, from the atrocities my fellow monitors had committed before going insane.
It took only a Nano-second to remember 100,000 years of memories.
"Commander the fleets have arrived," reported the helmsmen, Jeff Moreau from what I have gathered.
I flew towards him listening to the conversation. While there was a resident AI on board I did not wish to converse with it … yet. I was still grieving.
"Geth Fleet Reporting in. Turian Fleet Reporting in. Human Systems Alliance Fleet Reporting in. Hanar Fleet Reporting in. Asari Fleet Reporting. Salarian fleet reporting. Batarian fleet reporting. Elcor fleet reporting in. Drell fleet reporting in. Krogan fleet reporting in," reported the Helmsman.
"Good-" stated the commander before being cut off by Jeff.
"Incoming. UNSC fleet reporting in. Sangheili fleet reporting in. Jiraelhanae fleet reporting in. Yanme'e Fleet reporting in. Kig-Yar merchant fleet reporting in. Unggoy Fleet reporting in. Hunter fleet reporting in," reported the Helmsman somewhat surprised.
"So they kept their promise afterall," smirked Shepard, "How many?"
"600 ships sir," replied the Helmsman before shouting ,"Wait there's more! Imperium crusade fleets… wait fleets reporting in. Blood Angels Chapter fleet reporting in. Tau fleet reporting in! Eldar Craftworld Sengera reporting in! Ultramarine, Space wolves and Salamander fleet just arrived in system. Inquistion fleet reporting in!"
Every time the Helmsman said another fleet he grew more surprised. This was unbelievable from what he gathered.
"No. Way. The Emperor of mankind reporting in," he shouts before looking at his holopad that had just blinked.
"He says his sword is yours to command Commander."
"The reapers should have brought shovels. Because they just dug their own grave today," I stated saying something. I had been silent for the past day or so.
"Monitor of Installment 05 reporting in. Installment 05 is on the way," I replied. Changing my mind I gave the command to bring 05 into the battlefield. While somewhat useless, it would be an excellent shield.
An 05 was the only thing big enough to protect over 5,000 ships.
Humor was something I had picked up around the Commander. If all goes well it might not be the only thing I will pick up.
Today was the day my life changed. It had only been one command but I felt the weight on my shoulders disappear.
Author's Note: Hello Everyone. I'm back. Hopefully this chapter satisfied you. For those wondering this is a sequel to my story called "War for Equestria" and for Mcknight2012 "Peace and Isolation." I'm making this in hopes that he gets off his lazy butt as starts writing.
By the way don't forget to read, review and Vote on my profile for my next story which will either take place in the Marvel or DC universe.