Considerations
Greater Ark, Petal 03, Surface Transit Rail 014
97,445 BCE
I watched as another structural pylon was attached. Enduring had pushed himself to assist as much as he could, with me accompanying him of course. His duties were comprised mainly of overlooking constructive efforts on the Ark. By overlooking, I mean managing the constructors with my assistance. The work was boring, but it was better than constantly running from place to place.
For the 72nd time Enduring moved to a different spot to observe the construction. For some reason he was restless. It would be fine for him to wait in one spot but no.. he just has to move around constantly. I mean what's the point of physically moving when you can just see the construction from one of the constructors?
I suppose he probably wanted to make sure no animals would get in the way, though the constructor drones were more than capable of scaring any local fauna away. Maybe he just wanted to enjoy the living sections of the Ark before heading inside again.
From the time we had arrived, I saw little signs of the Forerunner population on the Ark. Empty hallways and areas. But as time passed, the Ark appeared to grow in activity.
During short travels in the transit rail system I saw distant figures moving around. It was this and the fleet maneuvers in orbit above us that kept me sane. Having nothing to do aside from giving Enduring help when he needed was frustrating. The other Ancillas on the Ark were either too far away to reach or just didn't care enough to converse with me.
I was drawn out of my thoughts by another one of Enduring's requests. It turned out that it wasn't actually a request as I thought.
"The transit rail section looks to be completed"
A short system inquiry told me otherwise. "It's not, the thing still has approximately.. 2 hours to go." I finished my verdict and went back to haphazardly reflecting.
The wildlife of the Ark intrigued me for a time, but then the more elaborate movements of the ships in space above caught my attention. I found out some time earlier that a Forerunner Contender Class Ancilla had gone rogue not too long before the war started. It wasn't difficult to make the conclusion that it was Mendicant Bias. A new Ancilla was commissioned in its place, Offensive Bias. I never found out about why they named the other one so similarly.
But yeah, Offensive Bias was placed in charge of the remaining Forerunner fleets. You'd think that they would have learned their lesson with Mendicant going rampant and all, but.. no they didn't.
I gave a 34% probability that Offensive will be affected by the logic plague, but there's a 66% chance that it won't. Exact numbers are fun. Enduring didn't care too much about the chances, he told me bluntly that the only way to match up with Mendicant was with a similar Ancilla.
"Ancilla."
It's probably only a matter of time before the two go up against one another. Whether I look forward to that, depends on having a viable escape route.
"Ancilla?"
Viable methods of escape likely range from ships to slipspace portals if-
"Ancilla!" Enduring finally lost his cool and mentally shouted at me.
"What's going on?" I redirected myself to focus on our surroundings, which somehow changed from a grassy hill to the lifeless metal of a transit rail platform.
"The rail is finished."
2 hours passed by in the span of… well I can't say exactly how much time.
"Oh okay.. do you want to take a ride on it?"
"Test it."
"You mean getting on it and going somewhere."
"..Yes."
I summoned a transit capsule from a nearby station and unlocked it as it came by.
"It's here, where do you want to go?"
"Choose a location."
"What?" Enduring's answer left me somewhat confused. I tried to ask for clarification. "What kind of location do you want to visit?"
"Any in range of this system."
No such luck. I pulled up the map for the rail system and took a moment to decide. The choices were limited, severely limited. I could choose between different stops on the same petal or head directly to the station where Lifeworkers were stationed at. I now knew exactly what to do.
The curved door slid shut and we started to move rapidly across the surface of the Ark. I eagerly waited.
"Which place did you choose?"
"A special one, nothing dangerous." I left him befuddled as the car gained speed. "You should find it interesting."
The only thing left was to tune any nonessential requests out and marvel at the speed the landscape was passing by. Simple things still had an immeasurable value to them, in entertainment. The 'day' on the Ark was ending. Each petal of the Ark has a plasma shaft which makes up the day and night cycle. Now how exactly the plasma did that was unknown to me, but I could still appreciate the beautiful dimming of light on the land.
I checked one last time at our distance from the station.
Close enough.
(^*^*^*^*^*^)
I treasured Enduring's reaction when the car stopped at the Lifeworker station.
Our time together had taught me that he did not enjoy being the focus of others. Oh well, it wasn't as if I could check if anyone was here at the time.
"But.. why here!"
I feigned confusion.
"I thought you said to go to a place of my choice?"
"Yes.. but… this?!"
"This place has a great view."
Enduring was forced to stop communicating with me as one of the equally surprised Lifeworkers present asked him a question.
"What are you doing here?"
"I… came here by mistake." His response did not fully satisfy the Lifeworker, meanwhile I was laughing inside at his reaction.
"You came to a Lifeworker monitoring station by mistake?"
"Err yes."
"Might I inquire on what the mistake was?"
"My Ancilla mistaken this location for a storage depot." I stopped laughing.
"I see.."
"Don't turn around now!" I tried to prevent Enduring from leaving. "I wasn't joking about this place having an excellent view of the area!"
"You weren't then." He showed no signs of stopping.
I kept trying nonetheless. "Trust me on this one, please?"
He stopped.
"You're absolutely sure that this station has a stunning overlook of the area?"
"It does!"
I mentally sighed in relief as Enduring turned back around.
"Never mind what I said before, this is the place I intended to stop at."
"Are you preforming maintenance?" The Lifeworker looked relived to see us leave, until Enduring turned around. By now I was able to determine that it was a he from communication with the other present Ancilla.
Whatever the reason, he really didn't want us to stay.
"An… inspection. I am here to inspect this station for any possible issues."
"An inspection?"
"Yes, now excuse me for I have important duties to attend to." Enduring practically bit the last few words out. Before the worker could ask anything else, he stormed by them.
"This had better be worth it."
"It is."
The Lifeworker station, or monitoring station as the other one had called it, was a small enclosed area with large viewports to the outside. Life filtered in through the shaded glass, falling over consoles and other displays. Enduring chose a small console to 'inspect' while not so inconspicuously looking around. "I don't see what you wanted me to see."
"The index report for this area listed something unique, look down."
"Look down?"
It became clear that Enduring could not be driven any further, and that we were running out of time. I really did not want him to miss this. So I did something he would later mentally berate me for. Taking control of the armor, I manually moved him closer to the windows. "You need to look down there."
"What are you doing!" His voice cut out as he looked down at the area around the station. A large cluster of huts stood in the distance, I magnified his view. In the distance small figures could be seen moving around, socializing. "I didn't even know they had life like this on the Ark!"
"..Neither did I." While Enduring knew that the Ark contained a large selection of life, he didn't know of any that gathered in communities. It looked like I had caught his attention. "Can you identify those out there?"
"Already done. Those are humans."
"I… what are they doing here?" The curiosity collapsed into wariness and… resentment?
"What do you mean? The Ark is supposed to house life is it not?"
"Yes but.."
His rapid change genuinely confused me. Was there something wrong with humans being on the Ark?
"But what?"
"The humans… are the last species I expected to find on the Ark."
"Why are they?"
"Long ago we fought a war with them, a destructive one."
"They were more advanced than they are now?"
"Yes."
"So what exactly happened to them when they-" I stopped.
"They were subject to devolution after their surrender."
The far away humans still continued with their activities, unaware that they were being watched.
"It sounds cruel."
"Cruel?"
"The Forerunners basically reduced them to… this.. for losing a war?" A bitter feeling resonated through me, I couldn't tell exactly why. Looking at a former space faring species just felt.. wrong. All of that effort spent on developing a civilization, completely reduced to nothing. What gives the Forerunners the right to do what they do? The Mantle?
One of the Lifeworkers approached from behind. "Is the task completed?"
"It is." Enduring responded flatly. He turned around and left the station, sparing no glances at anything else.
No matter how horrible the war was, did it really necessitate this?
I was still thinking about it long after we had left the Lifeworker station.
(^*^*^*^*^*^)
The first signs of what went for a nighttime on the Ark appeared. The capsule moved silently on it's rail to another destination. I isolated myself from Enduring's mind, I really did not feel like talking after what was revealed earlier. Enduring noticed but said nothing. I suppose we both could just stare at the night outside for the rest of time.
Humans, Forerunners, Flood. A destructive war, before and now.
Maybe it was a good thing that I was just an Ancilla in a piece of armor, I didn't have any obligations to worry about these things. All that was expected was for me to help Enduring. These issues should have passed by easily, but instead, they stuck with me.
Mendicant's words from before, surfaced again. Maybe he was right, about some things.
But he was wrong as well. The Forerunners saved life according to their beliefs, they built massive structures like the Ark to save them. Or was it only a few that did so?
Halos, powerful indiscriminate weapons, also capable of being a refuge for life. The Ark being no different. A permanent solution to counter the Flood, and a way to rebuild after. Could they have resolved the problem before having to resort to mass destruction? Would the war with the Flood gone any different if Mendicant had not gone rampant? Was I overthinking this?
Too many questions.
It would almost be kinder to not exist.
Yeah I'm overthinking this.
Flood controlled ships approaching the outer reaches of the Greater Ark. Please Evacuate Immediately
Fleet contact in 7 minutes
A booming voice similar to Mendicant broadcasted to all Ancillas. I thought for a second that it was him, before realizing that the context of what was being said. Looks like my alone time just got removed completely. The faint outlines of ships began to appear far out from the Ark. Strangely enough there were oddly shaped structures moving with the Flood ships? I managed to briefly access the network before being shut out without warning.
In the short time that I did however, it was clear that this was an already lost fight. There were just too many ships inbound, unless Offensive had some miracle to pull off, there just wasn't a chance. Other than the grand scheme of things, we needed to find a way off the Ark, and fast. Being on a transit rail system was possibly one of the worst places to be during a widespread attack.
"Enduring the Ark is under attack." I knew I probably should've phrased it better, but it usually was beneficial to be straightforward. Luckily for both of us, Enduring did not react too strongly.
"Then the Flood has found us."
"What else could it be?"
Through the transparent walls of the capsule, the previously far off shapes grew closer. The sensors on the armor were too weak to determine what exactly they were, I remedied this by establishing a connection with nearby surface installations. With a more powerful set of sensor arrays, I could now 'see' clearly.
While the composition of the mysterious structures was indeterminable, they were estimated to be traveling at speeds far beyond what any ship was capable of.
"Are those… star roads?"
"The structures out there?"
"Find a location to stop, now!"
The structures, or star roads, were headed directly at the Ark and other nearby ships. The Halo and the Ark however, appeared to be the primary targets. Almost graceful in their trajectory, the road like structures tore into the Forerunner ships. Some strands separated to surround groups while others just sliced cleanly through. The onslaught of the Flood controlled ships after mopped up any remaining ships. It was almost beautiful, in its own twisted way. The Halo ring began to slowly maneuver to face the attackers.
I snapped out of my shock and searched for a place to stop. The only problem was that there wasn't any.
Either it was a malfunction of sorts or just bad luck, we had passed by the last closest area. The next one would take minutes to reach, time which we didn't have. So I did the only thing that I could, I stopped the capsule where it was. The abrupt drop in momentum nearly sent me and Enduring sprawling.
"No other places to stop at near us. Just jump out and run!"
"Have you gone mad?"
Enduring, after another look at the ensuing pandemonium in the sky, smashed one of the windows with his fists. He hesitated when looking at the drop below. "Just JUMP!"
My words galvanized him into action and he leapt off. I made sure to adjust his posture as to make sure he did not land on his head.
His landing, while not exactly perfect, did not result in any injuries. I made sure to give him some words of encouragement lest he hesitate again. "Start running as fast as you can! I'm working on what to do next!" After I set a waypoint for him, he complied without another second to waste and ran.
If we weren't involved in a crazy scramble to survive, I would have taken the time to appreciate his movement. Personal armor significantly enhances the physical capabilities of its wearer, running and jumping extreme distances becomes a novel thing to do. This combined with decreased reaction time and reflexes, makes for one hell of a runner. Boulders and uneven terrain are insignificant in face of these capabilities.
I directed Enduring towards the closest ship docking area, changing and altering his path as needed. The battle in the sky raged on, but it was clear that the Forerunners had lost. The star roads that had ravaged the Forerunner fleets now turned their attention to the Ark and the Halo.
"How far!"
"Just keep moving!"
An increase in radiation drew my attention, it seemed to be coming from… oh no
They were going to use the Halo ring here? This close to the Ark?
Just as I started to tell Enduring, the Halo fired.
The firing of a Halo was nothing like I had expected, there was no explosion or shockwave. Though there was however, a bright pulse of invisible energy that rushed outwards from the ring. As it touched Flood ships and chunks of star roads, there was an instantaneous effect. The energy wave seemed to vaporize anything in its path, completely obliterating any star road structure and sterilizing Flood infested vessels.
The after effects of the radiation affected both of us. Enduring tripped and fell onto the ground while I experienced vertigo. Logic told me that the world couldn't behave in the manner that I perceived of it, yet I was still disoriented.
I recovered much faster than Enduring
"Wh… What… happened.." His mental processes were sluggish. I chalked it up to be a direct result of the Halo ring firing.
"Get back up and move it before we get killed!" Unfortuantly he didn't get back up and run. I had severely underestimated the effects of the Halo ring on living being, particularly one Forerunner. I tried again. "Enduring if you don't move within the next few seconds we'll be done for!"
This got him up, for a few seconds. And then he promptly collapsed onto the ground again. Why can't things just go to plan for once!
Only one option remained and that was for me to manually move him around. Taking control again, this time completely, I got to 'my' feet and continued running. Controlling the armor directly was disturbingly similar to wearing weighted clothing once I realized that the weight was in fact a living Enduring inside. A few close encounters with tripping convinced me to avoid any kind of jumping.
Trees and foliage were shoved to the side as I gained momentum, all that mattered now was to reach my destination. I maintained a careful speed, as to not injure Enduring with excessive force.
The ground began to shift precariously, leaving me with no choice but to slow down.
"What.. are you doing!… again!" Enduring picked possibly the worst time to recover. He struggled but was powerless against the exoskeleton's strength. My attempts to reassure him failed spectacularly.
The trees gave away to a worn path, a sign that I was getting closer.
I gave the sky above me a glance, which proved to be a mistake. Star roads were piercing through the Ark's megastructure, tearing up massive sections of metal. Pieces of what looked originally like a Halo were scattered around in the background. The ground beneath me gave one last quiver before cracking apart.
Before we could fall into the newly created chasm, the artificial gravity failed, resulting in us floating away instead of falling. At last, I returned control to Enduring.
"Well... I guess this is it?"
"By the Mantle…"
I checked Enduring's vital signs, very aware of the fact that we were now helplessly floating into space.
Still, having something to be occupied with was better than contemplating our current… situation.
"The Ark…"
"Didn't stand a chance against those star roads."
A few pieces of debris smashed into us but fortunately the armor could shrug them off. I considered sending out a distress call but relented, Enduring could make the decision. Because I was not going to be responsible if something like the Flood came for us.
"Shall I send a call out for rescue?"
"Yes."
I sent it out. It was highly unlikely that anyone would come, one lone call in a sea of chaos. All that remained now was to look into the destruction around us and the abyss of space. Enduring was astonishingly calm even as the occasional piece of Ark bumped into us.
"It's probable that we won't be rescued."
"I know.."
"…You're not going to talk about what happened earlier?"
"Why would I?"
"I thought you took offense to me taking control."
"I used to, but in light of all this, I might make an exception." Was he.. joking? This was an unprecedented discovery, a Forerunner, making a lighthearted quip. There may be hope yet, if we survived this.
"So generous of you."
"I know."
We both paused to look again at the strewn pieces of the Greater Ark. The battle between the Flood and the Forerunners had concluded as quickly as I expected it to. A lost cause
"I just wanted to say, its been.. an experience. All of this."
"Truly."
"…Enduring?"
"Yes?"
"Do you want to go into hibernation? The armor can't keep you alive for too long."
"Perhaps."
"I'll stay awake, for the rescue, if it comes."
"I never thought that the last thing I would say, would be with an Ancilla."
"You're not dying, not yet." My words were never heard before he became unconscious. Not that it mattered anyway. We were essentially back at where we had started, months ago on that distant relay station. Except now I was alert instead of being inactive. I'm not sure what to say about this.
I checked again on my distress call, no problems found.
Did I feel anything? Fear? At being stranded in the remains of a once great civilization?
The answer is unclear.
Now I will wait, and act when the time comes again.
A/N: Lost in Space! No pun intended… I'm serious.
Anyways, welcome to chapter 3 of this story I had simmering in my head and decided to put on paper for no apparent reason at all. I attempted to replicate the effects of being near a halo pulse, having read Shadow of Intent. There's this similar scene in the novel which involves being near a Halo like construct.
Leave a review if you think my work to be decent enough, it helps.
Fun Fact #3:
The Battle of the Greater Ark was almost completely in Mendicant's favor. The usage of star roads is comparable to noclipping solid objects through things. Ships and weapons would be rendered almost useless by these overpowered neural constructs. What remained of the Forerunner Encumene would almost wiped out in this battle.