Disclaimer: I own nothing except the cardboard box I live in.

Prelude

The Forerunner known as Zukanee groaned as his personal alarm went off. Being one of the greatest and smartest races still had it's down points, one of them being lack of sleep. But, that is to be expected when you take on the honor, and the workload, of a Ship's Master. He had been greatly appreciative when he was first granted this privilege, but now that the promotion had handed him the full extent of the workload, well, now he wasn't too sure.

Zukanee's alarm went again, and he hit the intercom button. A voice crackled out, "Sorry to wake you, Ship Master, but we've reached our objective."

"Alright, I'll be right there." He snapped off the intercom, and stood up. Much like the rest of his race, he had brownish skin with his hair cut short, and was probably almost 6' 4". He quickly washed his face, moving gently over the many scars from the many campaigns he had fought. How else do you think one becomes a Ship's Master. He put on his many symbols of honor, to instill a sense of awe in the crew, and moved at a brisk pace to the elevator to the bridge.

The ship, The Sacred Flame, a recon ship, was not very big, and as such it did not take long to move to the command center, built in the middle of the ship. The ship had been only just made, this being its maiden voyage. Its first ever mission was to recon an orbital station that had dropped out of contact just after making an emergency call. The last transmission told of a new life form that had just been found on the planet below, and that they were proceeding to investigate. After a little while, the emergency call had been sent out. It was a cacophony of screams.

Zukanee stepped onto the command center, and proceeded to walk to his place in the center. The second-in-command, one Bosh, saluted by banging his fist to his heart. "Sir!", he said as he saw the Ship's Master arrive.

"What is it? Anything to explain why they sent out an emergency call?", asked Zukanee.

"No, sir."

"Sir! We've picked an escape pod on the sensors. Preliminary scanners show no life forms aboard!", cried a tech officer.

"Let's draw it in and visually confirm it. I'm taking no chances of leaving crewman out here to die!", Zukanee calmly said, "Get an emergency fireteam down there as fast as possible, in case the thing that attacked them is trying to make a run for it." Little did he know that he was sending them to their deaths, and therefore sealed his own.

Soon the fireteam sat in the hangar, watching the escape craft being lowered down to them by gravity beams. They all stood ready but relaxed, thinking that nothing could be wrong. They could not be farther from the truth. The one who opened the hatch was first, and never knew what hit him. As soon as the hatch was opened, these things lunged out. They were like balloons, and popped like them too, resting on a bunch of tentacles. They lunged, and in one foul sweep took out all of the emergency fireteam. Then something else came out.

Watching from the cameras on the command center, Zukanee saw what he first thought were corpses fall out of the hatch. But then they began to walk. Not only walk, but leap high in the air as if to crush their enemies by weight alone. Then he saw them reach the lift to the command center.

He hoped against hope that they would not know how to work it, that they were too dumb. But activate it they did. The Ship Master had only enough time to retrieve his weapon and send a report detailing the creatures when the lift came.

In one swift movement the Forerunner command crew all turned to open fire as the things came running out of the elevator, but there were too many. Zukanee was attacked by one of the balloon things, and cried out as it sliced open his skin and slid something deep under it, heading it to his spine. The pain almost knocked him unconscious, but he fought his way back.

"If I go down, I'm taking you with me!", he cried. With his last ounce of strength he hit the engine override button. The whole ship, along with the newly discovered life form and any crew members still alive, exploded into its own miniature sun, and then was gone.

Thus did the Forerunners discover their doom, the alien life form known as the Flood