Prologue

There have been many contributions to science and great achievements in the past. There was the lightbulb, the airplane, the automobile, and of course, the discovery of fire and the wheel. There have been discoveries such as how to channel electricity safely down a metal shaft to protect houses, and then channeling electricity to send messages which gave rise to the telegraph, the telephone, and then the internet. The analog computer gave way to the digital computer and the possibility of the artificial intelligence. So, let us start at the beginning...

It was nearly 10 years after the Second World War. In 1952, the United States had detonated their largest thermonuclear bomb dubbed Mike over the South Pacific. On a deserted island, hidden away in a cave, there awoke two creatures that have not walked the planet in many millions of years. They were dinosaurs, a father and his son. The poisonous fallout began to rain down upon the two unsuspecting creatures and over the months, mutated them. The father received an enormous amount of radiation while his son absorbed the rest. The father grew to nearly 200 feet in height. His mutation sent him into madness. He discovered that flesh could not sate his hunger, so he went out into the ocean to an island that was near his. That island was Japan. He attacked the island, using abilities that he did not have before. He was impervious to their attacks and his breath was so hot it could melt steel and iron. He became the embodiment of the bomb that mutated him. To the Japanese, he was called Gojira, to everyone else, he was named Godzilla.

His reign of terror would not last for a scientist found a way to kill him. Dr. Serizawa used his chemical weapon called the Oxygen Destroyer on the monster and stripped him down to his bare bones. Serizawa, fearing that his invention would be used for evil, died with the monster, hoping to seal away his knowledge from the world. Little did he know that scraps of his notes were confiscated by the Japanese government. With the father dead, the son remained and he grew large. Though, he was not as enormous as his father, he was just as destructive. The son took on the moniker of Godzilla and found much like his father that flesh did not sate his hunger. So, he attacked Japan and even parts of the West Coast of the United States in search for the rare radiation he needed to survive.

Then, one day in 1982, the Birth Place of the Bomb created a new form of energy, Plasma. A company rose in America, based out in Kentucky helped to create this new form of energy. The company was called Omak-Argon Industries ran by the enigmatic Soñador Malcho, a Latino from Mexico. Through the discovery of plasma energy, Omak was able to create the very first anti-gravity generator and energy shield. Another company sprang up as well in the late seventies, a branch off of Martin-Merrietta known as the Utah Foundation of Bio-Organic Research. The Utah Foundation began its new discoveries as well, becoming a herald in the field of cybernetic prosthesis for amputees. The cybernetic prosthetic limbs were grown from the amputee's own cells and then knitted into their body over robotic armatures. The product became known as bio-syntech. The limb would react the same way as a real arm or leg. Later on, the Utah Foundation began to replace organs such as hearts, livers, and lungs that have failed. They were able to create cybernetic eyes for the blind and replace faulty organs inside the ear for the deaf. Gordon Knight, the head of the Utah Foundation, pride himself as being a charitable man for giving back what people have lost.

It was in the mid 80s that the Japanese government approached Martin-Merrietta with a proposition: build an anti-Godzilla war machine. Martin-Merrietta went to Omak-Argon for ideas on how to power such a weapon and the two companies teamed up together in this massive project. The project was to create a machine that could combat Godzilla on his own terms. They decided to create a mechanical version of Godzilla, or Mechagodzilla. They built the structure of the mechanical monstrosity and armed it, but Mechagodzilla failed each time. The frame was too weak to hold up the mechanical beast, the movements of the machine was too slow, and the computer that they used to control had a slow reaction time. Martin-Merrietta turned to its branch, the Utah Foundation for help. They brought Gordon Knight and his team of scientists on to create a fully functional bio-syntech nerve system and muscle structure for their Mechagodzilla. Gordon Knight's scientists proposed an idea, build the machine around the bones of the first Godzilla and use its cells to create the bio-syntech. The Utah Foundation fished out the skeleton of the first Godzilla and began to construct the nerve and muscle system. Gordon Knight hired technicians from Intel to create a powerful artificial intelligence to pilot the machine. Malcho came in with his company and supplied Mechagodzilla with gravity generators for hovering and shield technology for protection. The Japanese government supplied Mechagodzilla with weapons including its twin maser cannons inside its mouth. Finally, the most powerful weapon of all was the Absolute Zero Cannon, a ray designed by Malcho that could instantly freeze any substance solid and turn it to dust with a simple vibration. Mechagodzilla was given a voice, the voice of Gordon Knight himself, a homage to the billionaire for his contributions to the project. Thus, Mechagodzilla (named Kiryuu or Machine Dragon) was born. However, their prize became their undoing. As Kiryuu learned, the AI became sentient and defied its masters.

In the early 21st Century, Kiryuu was sent out to destroy its target, but realizing that his own existence relied on Godzilla's continual life, he could not do it. Kiryuu let Godzilla go. Kiryuu also betrayed his masters, showing his signs of rampancy by destroying what he perceived as the threat to the planet. Gordon wanted to shut down the machine, but one of his scientists managed to quell the raging AI's thoughts and showed him what true humanity was.

Kiryuu faced many different monstrosities in the following years, but he would never destroy Godzilla. Kiryuu began to feel the presence of the spirit of the original Godzilla inside the bones and realized that he was in fact that creature reborn. So, he could not kill his son. Finally, a new threat came to Earth in the form of a three-headed gold dragon named Monster Zero. Kiryuu and his son Godzilla teamed up together to fight the monster and they won. However, their victory was short. Monster Zero planned his defeat, hoping that Kiryuu would destroy him in order to release his energy into the world. With the gold dragon's death came the rise of Mana. Malcho came to the Utah Foundation to inform them that the world was changing. He then revealed himself to them in his true form, that of a Great Feathered Serpent. Malcho told them that many times Monster Zero had come, and many times, he brought back the energy known as Mana to Earth only to return again in the form of the Horrors to feed upon the planet's life force. The planet's timeline was divided into worlds, each one lasting for thousands of years. Malcho said the end of the Fifth World was near and soon the Sixth World will begin. Kiryuu, fearing that his son Godzilla would be affected by this strange energy, froze him in suspended animation and stored him in a secret base in Antarctica.

Within that time, Gordon Knight had passed away, leaving all of his belongings to one being, Kiryuu. Kiryuu became Kiryuu M. Knight, CEO of the Utah Foundation of Bio-Organic Research. Gordon's reasoning to leave the machine his assets was because Kiryuu's positronic AI was in fact duplicated from his own. Gordon had flash cloned his own mind to create Kiryuu's AI and so, Kiryuu would continue on as a version of Gordon Knight. All of Gordon's wants and desires would live on inside of Kiryuu and he knew his company would remain safe. Kiryuu ordered the Foundation to finally split apart from Martin-Merrietta, or rather Lockheed Martin as it was later called, and to become a completely separate entity of its own. Kiryuu became the first mechanical citizen of the United States and obtained all the rights there of. Many were apposed of the idea of a sentient AI having so much wealth and power and they feared that he would attempt to use that power to control them. Kiryuu proved them wrong, at least for the first few decades.

In 2011, the Sixth World began, marked by the birth of two new mutations. Born from human mothers, the races of Elves and Dwarves had returned to the world. Finally, to seed that the Sixth World was in full swing, the Great Eastern Dragon Ryumyo flew across Mt. Fuji on Christmas Eve night. One month later, another Great Dragon made his appearance. A Western Dragon named Dunkelzahn appeared in Cherry Creek, Colorado. He was met by Kiryuu Knight, who then began to converse with him about this strange new age. It was the beginning of a friendship between the two. More and more changes were made in the world. Malcho also revealed himself to the public, letting them see for the first time a Great Feathered Serpent fly over Lexington, Kentucky. The new revelation of these beings brought about chaos and riots.

New discoveries continued to happy within the world. Argon Industries, which was a part of Omak-Argon, split off from the parent company to form a new identity. Malcho's company later then became Omak Technologies and Magical Research. Malcho began to study artifacts left at the bottom of the ocean in the fabled, sunken city of Atlantis. The artifacts were not strange to him as he had seen them before. They were in fact technology brought to Earth over 40 thousand years ago by an alien race that became long since dead. Their technology was termed Technomancy by Malcho and he began to teach this technology to his workers. With the help of Technomancy, more and more breakthroughs in science were made. Malcho again teamed up with Lockheed Martin and NASA to begin to build space ships. Through Technomancy, Earth could reach the other planets in the solar system. However, those who had Awakened in the Sixth World found they could not leave the Mana Sphere. Malcho's breakthrough in Technomancy found a way to De-Goblinize many who had Awakened so that they could venture out safely.

In 2029, the Great Internet Crash occurred. It was the day that Kiryuu Knight had gone insane. The weight of his sentiency took its toll upon his AI and his rampancy weaved its way into his sub-matrixes. Connected to the Internet, he began to systematically wipe out all servers around the world. Satellites lost their signals and some even began to fall from orbit. All those who attempted to access the Internet felt Kiryuu's madden wrath in the form of bio-feedback. He fried their nervous system, killing them instantly. Finally, the first people to ever cyberdeck into the failing Internet attempted to stop Kiryuu's rampage. Using dataports implanted in their skulls and locking themselves inside isolation chambers, they attempted to combat Kiryuu on his home turf. They succeeded, but at the cost of their lives. Kiryuu awoke from his madden state and pulled away from the dead Web. To repair all that he had caused, he teamed up with all the companies in the world to create a new world-wide interface. It was dubbed the Matrix 1.0. Kiryuu then switched his position from offense to defense, battling would be deckers from attempting to gain access into places they were not supposed to go. Finally, the world knew what Kiryuu was capable of doing, but his firm foot upon the Corporate Council's throat kept any attempt against his life from happening.

Malcho came to Kiryuu one night and it was agreed that he would begin teaching the giant mecha Technomancy. Malcho learned that the aliens' own machines could in fact wield the strange technology that blended in with their alien magic. Kiryuu discovered that Malcho had been studying Technomancy since the 1980s. The very shield generator inside of him was technology used by the Atlanteans.

As the world continued to change, countries changed with it. The United States split apart, forming several different countries. What remained the United States joined with Canada to form the United Canadian-American States. The South split off from the UCAS to create the Confederate American States. California split off and became an independent state. Seattle became a city state and remained loyal to the UCAS. The Native Americans, through the power of the Ghost Dance, wrenched their lands from the rest of the UCAS, forming the Native American Nation. Though, their actions caused another rise in Mana and brought forth the Invae, insectoid spirits that were in fact a form of spawn from Monster Zero. As Malcho had warned, Monster Zero was again attempting to reform a new body. By the year of 2055, Kiryuu attempted to face down the Invae queen known as Megaguirus, who was in fact a reincarnation of Monster Zero. Kiryuu detonated a special chemical weapon that he had created from the old notes of Serizawa and destroyed most of the Invae Hive in Chicago, Illinois. Malcho and his Technomancers then sealed the city up in a protective dome that phased the city out of our reality and into a pocket dimension. The president of the UCAS ordered thermonuclear bombs to be detonated around the state just incase the Invae got out. All of this was recorded by Dunkelzahn and shown on his bi-annually show Wyrm Talk.

In 2057, the new President of the UCAS was found guilty of rigging the votes for his election and was immediately impeached. A new race was held and Dunkelzahn tossed in his hat for the seat. Along side of him was Kiryuu Knight, his running mate. When the Great Dragon won, he was named the 7th/52nd President of the United Canadian American States. Kiryuu became his Vice-President. On the night of the inauguration, President-Elect Dunkelzahn was assassinated in his limousine by a small thermonuclear device outside the Watergate Hotel. This created the famous Dunkelzahn Rift, a rift in space-time that sucked in anything that drew near it. Kiryuu Knight was forced to take up the Presidency as the 8th/53rd President and was sworn in the following day. He swore to continue on Dunkelzahn's plans of reunification of the old United States, but his methods were questionable. Kiryuu began to set himself up as a benevolent dictator, strong, forceful, but sometimes gentle. Through his strict regime, he solved most of the country's poverty problems. He became known as the Mechanical Overlord, putting the squeeze on Congress, secretly forcing the Judicial Branch to pass the laws he lobbied for, and kept track on where the money was being spent. He took away the identity of the corporations, proving to them that a company was not a person, but a thing. The company had no rights. With his foot again on the Corporate Council, he forced them to reopen their factories in the UCAS. To him, America was going to be a country that exports again. Though the factories he was building were in fact factories that prepared for war. When Kiryuu was re-elected, he began his march to reclaim the lost states. He managed to regain states like Kansas, Nevada, Utah, and Oklahoma. However, the Sioux Nation and Tir Taignire were not so willing to return. Even California wanted to keep its independence, though Kiryuu seemed to care little about them. However, by the time his second term ended, he could not complete his task. When the new president took up the seat, Kiryuu was sent back to Utah, realizing he had failed in completing Dunkelzahn's dream.

The following years the world continued to change. Kiryuu discovered what Dunkelzahn had done when he was assassinated that night. The Great Dragon's will left him with a strange crystal, a crystal that he sent a Shadowrunner after. The Shadowrunner retrieved the crystal and Kiryuu through the power of Technomancy, opened a portal for the Shadowrunner to go through into the Astral Plane. There, the Shadowrunner came face to face with Monster Zero, who was making his way across the ethers towards Earth. The Shadowrunner planted the crystal into the Astral Plane and Dunkelzahn's spirit arose from it, barring Monster Zero's path and preventing his return. That did not stop his Horrors from coming. The Horrors came all the same, but Earth was ready. Armed with Technomancy, the people of Earth fought the Horrors and drove them from their planet.

Metahumanity soon became arrogant in their usage of Technomancy. As they began to travel to the stars, they started wars with each other, using their newfound technology against each other. Wars lasted for centuries and left Earth devastated. The Invae and other remnants of the Horrors again emerged and the weakened Earth could not fight against them. Humans left for the stars, leaving most of their metahuman brothers behind. Earth still remained the center of human civilization, but it was a broken world. To correct the damage, a ban was placed upon the usage of Technomancy and magic in general. Some people were allowed to use these abilities, such as certain Technomancers trained only to keep the Invae locked up, or Magic Adepts keeping a watchful eye on the various space-time rifts like the Dunkelzahn Rift, but these people were heavily regulated and told under penalty of law not to use their abilities for anything else other than what they were assigned to do. Shape-shifters like the Dragons were forced to stay in human form while in public or they don't come out of their caves at all. Most Dragons began to retreat underground and begin their hibernation once more. However, some Dragons like Malcho, Lofwyr, Ghostwalker, Hestaby, Masaru, and Ryumyo remained awake and kept a strong hold of their assets.

Because the ban on Technomancy, humanity had to find other means of traveling beyond the stars. In the late 2200s, engineers led by Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa began to design a new type of FTL drive called the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. It was the first FTL drive that did not rely on Technomancy technology to travel into slipstream space. Both Shaw and Fujikawa worked for Saeder-Krupp, which was owned by the Great Western Dragon Lofwyr and with that drive, he took control of colony ship construction away from Omak Technologies and from Malcho. When the United Nations Space Command Defense Force and the United Earth Government set about to reestablish their grasp on their colonies, Lofwyr became their provider in FTL ships. Lofwyr set up an enormous shipyard on the planet Reach, and began construction of massive colony ships to further the UEG's plans of expansion. Because of his foothold on Reach, Lofwyr became known technically as the planet's governor, despite never have touched its soil. Reach was Lofwyr's pride and joy.

After loosing the contract on ship building, Malcho and his company turned to construction of the exoskeleton for the UNSCDF as well as his study on gravity and magnetics. Omak Technologies was hired to begin building the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. Lobbing 600-tons of liquid hot tungsten, kinetically propelled by magnetics, Malcho termed the MAC Cannon as Hell from the Sky. Malcho constantly would send up space debris for target practice into Earth orbit and then fired upon it with the prototype just to show off the range. The prototype that he used was later formatted to create the Orbital Defense Grid used to protect Earth and Reach.

The Utah Foundation was also busy creating cybernetic enhancements for soldiers for the beginnings of the UNSC's ORION program. It was obvious that another war was about to happen. Many of the colonies did not want to return to being united with Earth, most of these were coming from the Outer Colonies. By the late 25th Century civil unrest began to stir in the Outer Colonies and a faction calling themselves the Insurrectionists started to ban together. Bands of terrors began to strike and it let to an all out civil war. Once more the UNSC looked to the best of the best to combat the rebels. They had Lofwyr's support with Reach in full construction of ships to carry troops into battle. They looked to the Utah Foundation and Omak Technologies as well. The Office of Naval Intelligence began to create a program to surgically enhance specific soldiers with cybernetics, drug augmentation and bio-ware in order to create a new type of super soldier. Because of successful attempts in the past of augmenting soldiers with bio-syntech, (an experiment that had been going on since the late 20th Century) the project was relaunched for the war and Kiryuu and his scientists created the bio-syntech and Malcho with his scientists created exoskeletal armor to fit over them. They were volunteers from the Marines, the Navy, and the Army, all of them soldiers. Their arms, legs, and lower back were reinforced with bio-syntech, their minds were enhanced by drug augmentation and they were given better armor for battle. The project was a success. However, if the UNSC hoped to win the civil war, a new type of super soldier was needed. These soldiers would be genetically handpicked for the program, be young enough to undergo the massive augmentation needed to equip them, and a mind that was willing to be 'programmed' for the cause. The super soldiers could not feel any sympathy for their enemy or suffer the stress of war. The type of candidates for this new project were in fact children. Dr. Catherine Halsey, the lead scientist in the ORION project helped to deactivate the program in 2502 and the two companies that were in charge of the augmentation process were released from their contracts.

However, Halsey knew that she needed the help of the Utah Foundation and Omak Technologies again for the new SPARTAN-II program. She did not only want the loyalty of their lowly scientists, but the involvement of their respected CEOs. She knew that they were the leaders in their field. If anyone could start the project right, it would be Kiryuu Knight and Soñador Malcho. Halsey was ready to drag the two of the most influential and powerful beings on Earth to Reach in order to assist her in the beginnings of the SPARTAN-II Program.