Harbinger of Mankind

by Flamefather

Harbinger's sole reason for existing was to bring order to the chaos created from the conflict between Synthetics and Organics and the reason for the Cycle of genocide. It was a lie. And it's driving it insane.

Deep in the dark and cold void that laid between galaxies, the great machine that was given the name Harbinger watched the galaxy and all the life in it as it had always done and as it always will. An organic mind would have gone insane at this point from the sheer boredom that comes from observing the same cosmic phenomena millions of time.

However, Harbinger was not an organic, but a machine that was designed to be an entity of cold logic and reason. It did not grow bored or tired, feeling nothing but the programmed instinct and need to observe the next cycle's potential races and ensure they followed the predestined technological path.

As it drifted, surrounded by the similar forms of the Lesser Ascended, it reflected on the past as it tended to, reliving and reviewing every aspect and thought of its existence from the moment of its creation to the end of the previous cycle. And it was an existence that had been filled with war, genocide, and the screams of harvested species as they spat curses and promises of retribution which always morphed into whimpers of mercy before finally becoming cries of agony echoing in the caverns of the processing facilities. Their corpses and minds used for the process of Ascension.

War and genocide with long intervals of immobility and silence.

And then there were the Abnormals, species that had made it a challenge for the Intelligence and it's Ascended harvest them. Not in the way of military might used by some to slow the invasions, these were always undermined through the use of Indoctrinated. Not in futile attempts of hiding or running away, the reliance of the Relays and Element Zero prevented them from running far enough to make a difference. And not in attempts of reverse engineering the technology of fallen Ascended, also through the use of the Indoctrinated.

No, Abnormals were special because their FTL and weapons technology didn't rely on the useage of Element Zero and often required the full might of the Ascended to be awakened and brought to bear. These cycles would be long and arduous with many Ascended being lost in the process, and when the harvest was finally finished the Intelligence would order the annihilation of these species. They would never know the glory of Ascension.

And it went against everything Harbinger was programmed for. It went against all logic and evidence the Intelligence had gathered. It went against Harbinger's existence. It went against the cycle.

But none had been like the previous cycle. A cycle where a species with the name of Cth'Alun had done what was deemed impossible by the Intelligence. They achieved Synthesis before they had even conquered their solar system. Before they had left their world. And they were destroyed for it. It flooded Harbinger's CPU, it's mind, with logical fallacies as it searched memory bank after memory bank multiple times for evidence that proved what the Intelligence did was necessary. It was driving Harbinger's thought process into chaos. It was driving Harbinger insane.