CH19
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Dancing in the moonlight…
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(Here we end the rest of our war, as momentum slows… things here are far more different, but not to worry it'll end soon…)
(I hope you have all enjoyed the story, we're wrapping things up soon, and I need to finish the rewrite. It sucks…)
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Reverence (Forerunner world)
Arbiter Vadam watched from as the gunship descended alongside his and the humans, they were under escort by 50 Forerunner Guardian class drones. The silver armoured drones with blue reticules and white glowing shields.
The entire covenant and human fleets had arrived at the Forerunner planet to meet with the great Inheritor, the god like being had not directly communicated with them, but he had sent them the message by a Monitor- Transcendent Vector.
The AI monitor had been the companion of the forerunner for nearly 100,000 plus, ever since he had awoken from his stasis, he had the AI protecting him, and training. The monitor was now waiting for them to meet with them.
The gunship finally made its way to forerunner city, the massive spires of angled buildings and shaped structures stood with perfect stature. The city emanated a gleaming light in its surroundings, beautiful and wonderful.
"This is the power of the gods, entrancing is it not?" Amity asked.
Thel watched and replied. "Yes it is, but I still cannot believe that such a find would have eluded us for millennia when it had sat here before us."
"Be at ease Grand Arbiter, our people have now found our salvation and our ascension; the gods will gift us with the promise of peace and power, reverence and immortality. Though not now, we still have a great duty to perform for the great one."
"I see what task had he placed before us?"
"He had placed a duty that we must perform, though not as of now, I believe he would have us prepare for the future."
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Karl and Grey along with the entire group of Spartans had joined together for this critical mission; they were summoned by the forerunner for an unknown purpose. Though there could have been many logical answers seeing as how the Spartans had represented human strength and resilience, against over all and everything that stood in their path.
The pelican landed alongside the covenant phantom, the ships landed quickly and gracefully. The hatch opened on the gunships, the passengers stepped out, their feet striking the compounded floor beneath them, the smooth and mysterious floor looked amazingly clean.
The two forces stood side by side as they began to move into the temple grounds, Amity couldn't help but praise the gods for their divine constructs and efforts. The Spartans weren't as liking to the sounds that the prophet was making but they couldn't bring themselves to stop him.
As they walked through the delta arched hallway, they could see the many markings of the forerunners and their creations, the constant buzz of energy and light, the holographs of symbols and machines.
Dr Valerie Haley and Elizabeth Halsey watched from the front of the group, they themselves were impressed by the geometrical designs and shapes corresponding to the mysterious forerunners. Liara and Mordin along with Rana Thanoptis found themselves embellished as well by the sheer power that surrounded the complex.
"Technology even inconceivable by even prothean race. Such designs, geometrical mappings created through the use of subspace, inter-universal quantum complex reactions and physical accumulation, amazing, no astounding." He said observing the details of the forerunners.
"Yes, this is quite impressive." Liara said mystified.
"Well, we shouldn't keep the Inheritor waiting now should we?" Amity said.
The scientist as they remembered their manners put the ideas back in their heads for now; there was an important meeting that had to be done first and foremost.
They continued their walk to the end of the hallway, the intricate designs became more and more complex and beautiful, immersed within all of these geometrical designs a single being levitating within the main chamber.
His hair was bleached white, eyes glowed with power, an aura seemed to emanate of the entire chamber. The two forces watched with amazement and astonishment, the Spartans was amongst them.
The entity glowed as brightly and as entrancing as anything that anyone had seen, the being glided down with grace, no sound resounded as he landed on his feet, armour that glowed as brightly still, no one was sure if the young looking being was blind. His eyes still glowed whitish blue; there was only a pause until he looked at them.
"Welcome to the sanctum of the light, may faith and will guide you, be resolute in your faith, and I welcome you. I am the Inheritor, Vincent of True Sight."
The prophet was the first to respond. "Greetings to you as well great and enlightened one, I have returned as you said, the armies of the covenant attempt to reform, and I guide them to your will. We now stand by your side as the faithful."
Thel responded as well. "My lord, I am Grand Arbiter Vadam, I have listened to your words, and so I bring justice with our faith, we stand by your side." He said in a revered tone.
"Yes, I know of you arbiter, honour and strength, faith and belief, you fight for your people for the holy truth, and still in your heart from the treachery you remain. I welcome both of you in my home, let the path of true light guide you both, and I forgive the mistakes of all."
His attention turned to the UNSC persons, the Spartans straightened up, in a strong posture they stood, amongst them the SPIIs. Halsey and the others waited and watched with amazement and intrigue, though Vincent the Inheritor turned his attention to one person in particular of the Spartans.
"Grey, once again we meet, though not within a fight."
"Yes, it is finally nice to meet you when your life isn't under threat."
"How have you been?"
"Not bad, the war going on hasn't been kind upon the young, many have died and we're still fighting, the war will soon reach its end, and I hope that you might join us at the meeting with the council."
"Ah, I remember them, there is little that I do not know, and they are something I understand so easily, the turians will not break yet. Though you will prevail, now I must attend to my other guests."
With a nod the forerunner turned his sights upon Fred. "Leader of soldiers, leader of men, guidance comes from your judgement and wisdom and skill. Guide your brethren and continue the fight, for there shall be seven at the beginning and only seven at the end." His words resounded through them all.
Fred wasn't sure what to make of such a prophecy; he simply stood there amazed and confused. The next person in line was Linda, he stood and faced her.
"May your sight, be true and be your hunt end well, you are the pathfinder, there is no little feat, and no scale as great. You shall find any and all, look inside yourself and you shall find your strength."
He walked on leaving another Spartan in confusion. He continued to walk until he came to Kelly.
"Your faith races as fast as your heart does, there is nothing that may stop you, when threatened, you rush to your enemy. You move faster than the wind and there are few that may ever reach you, but never catch you."
He walked over to where Halsey and the scientists were, walking over, he faced Halsey.
"You, the one who creates and sacrifices, have given your children cause, as their mother and not only their overseer. But their guardian, you have done what many have yet to accomplish, and you have sacrificed much of your morals to reach the end. I know of what must be done, the gods gave me the same view the aspect of all life.
As the concealment of these warriors and their creation you abided to sacrifice their innocence as children and through them you forged the greatest of weapons. And yet still they live, to protect as they were created to, they live for all, to survive is their key, and their survival depended upon you.
I see that there is still one, the last of all the greatest, he watches with a cold stare, near the edge of the abyss, he still lives. Wait for him, upon the last run, for he shall return. There is still another legend, not one born of the augmentation, but one born of flesh, she comes from one and only one. For she shall guide the fate of humanity in its coming war, though not now…"
His attention turned away from Halsey, she felt somewhat surprised and scared, her mind had always attained logic, but what the Inheritor had said seemed different, there was still one more yet to come…
Vincent came over to Liara, his eyes focused upon her blue forehead.
"Young as you are, you have a great journey ahead, the way of war, the path of loneliness, and then the path of love, to the day of reverence. You are beautiful in mind and soul, do not let the loneliness of what you wish to accomplish ever halt your good spirit. The path of the enlightened is only gained through patience and resolution, never forget."
Liara was intrigued at the words given to her, they seemed almost as if listening to a good friend someone warm, caring…
He walked over to the professor. "You are energetic." He stated.
He walked off leaving everyone surprised at this; he walked to the next person. Rana had been hoping there might have been something she could wait for.
"There is much to learn on the path to a better future, you have much to live for, and so little time. Hazards approach at every angle and at every turn, do not allow yourself to be fooled by others and keep vigilant in your mind. There is someone else who will be waiting for you at the end of the path."
The asari seemed interested in the words he spoke, but she decided not to ask.
He walked to the steps of his atrium once more.
"You all know something others do not, I shall join you in the talks with the council soon, the covenant has yet to fully assemble and there is still much we need to prepare for. I shall meet with you here once more tomorrow, the Spartan V shall hold the defensive positions for Nova Stratus, there is little to worry about today. You are free to explore my world, but please I advise you speak to my overseer for any questions." He said gesturing to the sudden appearance of the Monitor unit.
"I am Transcendent Vector, guardian of this facility, I welcome you all here." He said courteously.
They all left the forerunner citadel; Vincent knew of the coming events the ones he would fear that might decide the fate of all.
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11/3/2554
Nearly three weeks later an asari republic vessel arrived into UCAF space, a white flag treaty is held at the N.1 parallel, asari begin a communication between the council and humanity.
12/3/2554
UNSC and UCAF begin talks with representatives, the asari express concern of the conflict and ask for a given treaty as casualties heavily mount on the turian side.
The hierarchy casualties stand at 275,000 - 300,000
The human casualties stand at 85,000
13/3/2554
UNSC and UEG arrive with delegates to represent the UNSC in total with remaining colonies
Talks become heated with the turian hierarchy as talks for disarmament fail.
Turian hierarchy agrees to withdrawal as soon as the UNSC and UCAF disarm majority of weapons and allow for council to review over weaponry
The council also puts forwards talks to the New Covenant Empire; talks are stalled as the turians attempted an attack in the Pyros Region
15/3/2554
Talks end with only a word of warning, commander of the Spartan IVI (151st) asks that no turian vessel is ever to be seen in the next 3 months or UCA forces will repulse and act accordingly.
The numbers of troops within UCAF regions are revealed at nearly 40 million combat capable with an auxiliary of 210 million.
Turian forces are held in disbelief and consider the UCAF warning as false, though not as pleased; the turians begrudgingly adhere to the warning given.
21/3/2554
Reconstruction of the city of New Faith is rebuilt; the quarian people are advocated for full citizenship and integration into the UCA.
The new covenant begin talks with the Inheritor known as Ascendant, the talks begin a change with the war as the Ascendant calls for peace, the talks are mixed as there are many areas to cover and much to know.
25/3/2554
Treatment of the quarian immune system is completed, the gene base for the quarians are unlocked by Dr Valerie Haley and her research team.
Turian forces break treaty…
1/4/2554
Conflict once again arises in the UCA space, the UNSC supports the UCA to push turian forces back to Sigma Relay
Commando units stranded in the Choral system finally overpower turian forces and destroy critical outposts and bases. They also discover a plot of bio weapons and experiments, T1 division is sent as a response to destroy locations.
5/4/2554
UCAF begins a full scale invasion to the other side of the Sigma relay, war hits the planet of Amphora, and supply to remaining turian forces is cut.
11/4/2554
Amphora as the critical point of refuelling and restocking within the segment of space is the main location of all fuel depots and supply, without the planet the turian forces become unable to attack Sigma and retake the relay.
The captive world is constantly attacked by the turians for the remainder of the war…
The GUARDIAN program also took place on Amphora as it was in council space, ships disguised as simple freighters and cargo transports managed to sneak through the turian defences to locate their targets.
11/7/2554
Turians begin recall of troops from the Nova Stratus front; the war had cost them over 350,000 in casualties with another 150,000 POW
Human casualties at this point reach 111,000 with 35,000 POW
15/11/2554
Celebrations begin for the founder's day of the people of Nova Stratus, though not as festive with the war, they change their attitudes to welcome their new citizens into their interstellar community.
The quarian people enter the Nova Stratus community with their founding alongside the populations celebrations. There are nearly 19.5million quarians that have become part of the community and highly accepted by the people.
Anomia- Caldera City- City Park 15/11/2554
Duran watched the night skies, empty as usual, the time went by the last few months, quicker than he could have ever imagined, and the people of Nova Stratus were celebrating their founder's day. It had begun only a few moments ago.
"So enjoying the sight's I see?" A voice said from behind.
A woman dressed in a fine set of clothes, nothing fancy, a simple parka and a pair of regal jeans; she had piercing blue eyes and a fiery red coloured hair.
"Tanya, when did you get that new shell?" He asked.
"I always had this one stored aboard the Aspire, I just never bothered with it, and besides you know how I feel about having to plug my neural cortex into the system drives, that old piece of junk hurts." She replied.
"I'm probably guessing this is just for founder's day?" He asked.
"Yeah I guess it is, besides you know that this place was also when I met Grey and Thom, though Thom is MIA, he still remembered to meet me here before then." She said in a nostalgic tone.
"Huh, surprisingly I never thought of you as the one to keep memories, I thought that doing so would only increase higher chances of rampancy?"
"Not in the MKIIV shells, we never go to that point due to our more advanced core properties, and also processors had to be adjusted specifically to adapt to all the different types of data we process, I had my shell adjusted by the Huragok some years ago." Tanya replied.
"Good to hear, so where are the other?"
"Oh they're on their way, I hear that Valerie and Halsey finished their talks with the Spartans, there's also a few interesting couples." She said with a grin.
Then as if on cue a group appeared at the private area of the park, the mass of dressed military jackets and black coloured parkas and as well as light skin titanium armour that many of the Spartans wore. Halsey was talking to Fred and Linda, and Grey was with Valerie, Valerie who was holding his arm…
The Spartans had all gathered at the park area, Grey knew that he was supposed to be with the 151st company right now, but they had leave in the city. Karl was also here and many of the command Spartans along with their subordinates.
"Ready?" He asked.
"You know it."
Grey reached into a bag on the ground and set up a tripod, he then lifted out an old M40 grenade launcher and loaded a round into it.
The whole world timed their shots…
3
2
1
…
"BOOM"
A score of thousands of shells lit the skies up, as the propelled themselves to the reaches of the heavens, they detonated in a flurry of lights and sounds.
All over Nova Stratus space, every world was alight; the literal downpour of lights followed in their wake, and the heavens began to cry out once more. The night of star fall, the night of solace began.
And soon ended…
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UCAF HIGH COM
"So it is agreed then? The main fleets are to arrive at the citadel and confront the council?" A voice asked.
"Yes, this is the only way to ensure that no mistakes are made again, those fools let the hierarchy do what they wish, so it's time we showed them otherwise."
A murmur of agreement followed, and soon an image of the citadel appeared.
"We will deploy the special operation branch to confront the council in one week, this is now operation: REVELATION."
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(That's all folks; we'll be back sooner or later…)
We're going to go talk to the council!