Empress Augustine

Circinius IV, Solarian Hideout 09

May 9th, 2525

Watching over an exploding population from the depths of a holographic screen, Augustine sat in her throne of leather and silk. Everything about herself and in the essence of what was happening was doing so effectively in her vision. Through the assistance of Mack and the AI he was building, she oversaw fifteen large outposts filled with her people dwelling inside them peacefully. Through the graces of technology, each and every Solarian was given the opportunity to learn, grow, and live in their own rights. Once, there was a tribal mindset that drove their baser instincts; one of primal desires and sensual needs. Now there was a unified people brought by the will of Augustine herself. By using her foresight as the Sky-Mother and through the leadership of her original title, the vision of her Empire was slowly coming to reality.

By the building of her throne, the furniture was not only comforting to witness the numbers of a population, but she could at least utilize the capabilities such technology that Mack could provide. There was a holographic projector that was off to the side of the seat and its controls could be pressed from within the holographic container. Her eyes had screened through countless trillions of gigabytes of data that flowed from the AI's that were in constant work on projects and items she could look at in development.

The main sects of data were specifically regarding her people:

Infantry weapons, armor, and equipment for the Covenant War and the training required to raise a soldier with that kind of caliber and the skills needed for pilots and operators. There were many evaluations, equipment productions, and the scanning of personnel to get the dimensions of the trooper classes correct. Exosuits were noted to be produced on the record, but a more technologically adept individual was needed to be upgraded to the configurations settled for such a task. Mechs and higher tiers of warrior, pilot, and specialist needed more time than what they had in a years timeline.

Let alone having the resources to sustain such a force.

Turning to the infantry regimental designs of the front-line troops, Augustine observed what her people would become when war knocked at their corner. Due to the anatomy of her people, specific care was given for the armor designs for the legs and the feet. As expected from any avian race, their legs were hind shaped, feet clawed like talons in the shape of the animals they once were. To protect the feathered layer that was attached to their skin, a thin layer of silk was made to attach to the armor that would be strapped to the sealing locks of the interior design, allowing comfort for the trooper wherever they went. Regarding the design of the suit itself, it was a sealed with the basic metallic alloys that all UNSC Marine BDU armor was made from: a Combat Skin.

Returning to the image of the Solarian trooper design, she could definitely see that by the clawed hands, the long and lanky arms, and the thin crest of the torso was enough to see the layered anatomy of the avian body figure. No Solarian at the time was obese, all were skinny or bore a muscular architecture that signified ability to fight and defend one's tribe or clan. It was evident in the protected layering of the long neck and the pointed helmet design that the neck was the most important aspect of the races. Even their tail feathers had protection throughout the armoring of the avian body.

All races in the Solarian culture were given this chance to bear the crested armor, the combat particular subrace of the Solarians were what she called so aptly: The Owlfolk. By their glowing violet eyes and purple feathers, the race itself was capable of greater things; especially when their necks could turn all the way around and their atonement to the powers, she bore were stronger in them. They were just as tall as she was at a height of eight feet, bearing dimmed colorations of feathers, and facial features that coated many a similarity to that of a barn owl. Many bore blue, purple, and bright green feathers with shining bioluminescent spots along their coats.

Their power to see is why she chose to stay in the AI designated outpost nine, the Owlfolk held their homes in the peak of the mountain and flourished in the starlight. What was once a large cavern had been converted by the masses of robotic drones. It was now a center of stellar architecture and a design that was inspired by the sages of the tribe. What had been a mossy cavernous grotto in site 09 had turned into a militaristic observatory with astronomic sensors; giving the owlfolk the starlight they craved. Star charts were their main source of value that even the AI didn't want to interfere with. Even as the tribe, with education and training, they had turned into valuable members of a House; a Clan that brought interstellar value to the tech of the mountainous sector.

Before Augustine could be able to think any more on the owlfolk, the sounds of approaching footsteps startled her from the long-term plans.

When she turned her attention to the movement ahead, her glowing eyes witnessed a bowing and approaching owlfolk coming before her. The tall and violet owl linked itself in silken robes and brightly tailored to the starlight of the system trailing the body. With its head held low, Augustine would see the cooing sound of a looming expression of deep respect.

"Empress, I have come to bring you news..." Trilled the owl before her. Immediately, Augustine knew she was being spoken to by a female of the tribe who held the role of a shaman. They were the ones who discovered the power first among their race and became fairly attuned to the foresight of the stars. Sometimes Augustine would be surprised by what they would see in the future, especially in tune to several immediate events that were predicted by their vision and even by their perception to what she would give them.

"You may freely speak, Shaman of the House of Starlight." Augustine replied.

With an accepting chirp, the female lifted her head and revealed her cyan feathers and riveting golden eyes, power enough to bring the Empress respect. "The prophesies are revealing a great conflict. Our planet shall burn as foretold by your word, the Sky-Mother has spoken truth and we see it." The shaman hinted. "Yet there is hope, The Sky-Mother shows us more."

Looking to the Shaman in curiosity, Augustine leaned into her seat and looked closely at the female. "What hope have the House of Starlight seen before them?" Augustine asked, this was a surprise for the Empress; especially when this was something even she did not give to them.

"We see... a human of the world becoming one of us. He shall be a guide to which our homes shall be found, but he will always be a source where danger shall find him. Even now he is in danger... of his own kind."

Augustine knew exactly what they had meant, but the mere fact that there was a... prediction from the owlfolk implied a great deal on Griffin's place. It was especially eerie that they knew what he was; a guide to all. His own words repeated in her mind, giving her more insight to keep him closer. However, when she realized the fullest extent of the latter statement, did she realize the fullest extent of what it meant.

"Even now you say... thank you for your insight, Shaman."

"I am Shaman Eterna, thank you for listening to House Starlight's prophesy... my Empress. May the light of The Sky-Mother be with you." The shaman replied, bowing fully in prostration to the Empress before departing the female's vision.

Once the door was closed, Augustine opened a direct channel to Mack.

"Prep a few Pelicans and send your machines to the academy, lock down that site and bring Griffin here. He is in danger."

Darkness, deep in the recesses of the mind was where Griffin found himself again. While understanding where he was in his own mind, there was still no fundamental understanding as to the when and the how these explanations could be possible.

Alone to his thoughts, Griffin would begin walking the darkness of his mind, observing the way he felt himself think. These mental exercises were a small past-time opportunity for the young man to experiment with himself, following any allusions to his reality, dissuading the practical from the impractical; and even planning for the next step. Looking further into the darkness, Griffin would seek his synapses of the mind to find what triggered his systems to change... what was there to uncover. If there was a sign that there was anything to discover the neural physics of his own personal psyche.

This was something he rarely ever done... for what laid dormant had activated during the changes of his body or the activation of the creation of life. And so, he pressed onwards, pushing into the darkness and seeking what his own inner self couldn't in a waking thought. Without Forthencho, there was something even more odd to all of this. As he would seek the mental imaging of his own causes to the power that grant him such abilities, something was... there.

In the darkness, there was something there in the back of his mind that waited.

Once Griffin became aware of the essence that was there, a chill ran all over his body as it revealed itself. It was at that moment, the young human's muscles locked in place, stilled, and held in place by an invisible force. Griffin let out a voiceless cough as his body was hoisted up by an invisible force and hovered above some kind of ground. As he was held in place, a throbbing headache followed, causing the man to scream in existential pain like a searing burn in the back of his brain. The second he blinked, everything went from pitch darkness...

To an environment filled with biomass. Griffin recognized the environment around him... as if he was here in the middle of it all.

Forerunner structures surrounded him and then...

"No...no-no-no... this can't be." Griffin spoke, but it wasn't in the voice of himself... it was the voice of Forthencho.

"Yes... yes you are. Everything that you were... everything that you are. It all belongs to us now." Spoke the voice physically and mentally to Griffin. It caused the man to let out an ear piercing scream as he knew what revealed itself to him. He could feel himself and Forthencho in the same mind, both pieces of a whole... broken and pinned before the creature that held him. He now felt the creature piercing his mind, holding him still as the biomass that he was pinned by absorb him slowly. There was the excruciating pain that came with the Flood biomass consuming his flesh slowly, beginning with the fingers and snapping all the way into his limbs.

He could see the faces of his friends, even the lifeless eyes of Augustine among the masses absorbed into the wall of bodies he now joined...

"You may have me... but the Galaxy will exterminate you..." Griffin replied back, his mind and voice speaking against the familiar tones of The Flood. At that moment, Griffin realized what was happening... The Primordial was there, and he had absorbed Forthencho's body in death. There was a fact that made Griffin contradict the flood as he felt it deceive him... Forthencho was composed and his essence sent as an engram... not as an essence of the flood.

"Another lie... a mixing of memories... a mixing of minds to confuse the reality." Griffin spoke, his voice now being his own as he realized the situation... if he was even capable of that anymore. "You will not win here... I know how you intend to play with truth to suit your perception of the future... to continue the eternal will of your kind."

"Do not think I do not know what you do... you will join the chorus. The unending tide, your voice in the choir of the unending, eternal darkness. The Mantle sees your choices... and we hunger for your return."

"I will not go there! The Mantle controls, it does not create! It manipulates! You are nothing!"

"We are The Flood. There is no difference. Until all time and space are rolled up and life is crushed in the folds... no end to war, grief, or pain. In a hundred and one centuries... unity again, and wisdom. Until then... sweetness."

Griffin Phoenix

Circinius IV, CAMS

May 9th, 2525

A tight gasp of air woke Griffin from his deep sleep. Opening his eyes would lead to the sights and sounds of his room, dark and deep in the night. However, given the account of the events in his mind, the young man would raise his hand and clasp his temple. There was a throbbing pain along the creases of his head; as if he had suffered a concussion from a blow that never existed. Was it all real? Did that happen in his mind? When Griffin twisted his body in an attempt to move his lower body around to stand upright at the side of the bed...

A prickling sound would bring the young man to look at the adjacent wall. Immediately, there was an Infection Form that was there, pulsing, waiting...

Before it leaped from the wall and impacted Griffin.

The young man screamed in sheet and utter pain as it patched to him, wrapping tendrils around parts of his body and pulsing its sharp points into him. He could feel the creature piercing his spinal chord and making him spasm uncontrollable. The warmth of blood filled his skin and the coolness of death spread through his skin.

Except, when he opened his eyes, the feelings he was going through didn't happen, but the mental image brought more pain into his head. Griffin felt his body and clean skin, no sign of any Flood marks or fluids. It was as if he had experienced an hallucination, something that made the young man shiver and crawl back into his bed. He would shake his head and look up and down the area, knowing there wasn't anything Flood-like in the area but terrified over what was happening. However, in effect of the assumed hallucination, Griffin would begin to hear indescribable whispers in the distance. His mind was playing tricks on him, causing the young man to break his curled stance and attempt to get up from the furniture.

It was why Griffin started to make his way into the armory.

In the darkness of the barracks, Griffin could hear indescribable whispers beginning to grow louder in his mind. Many of them contained the identities of people he knew, even friends and family from long before he came here. Too much was happening in his mind...

Until the voice of Augustine started to speak.

"...iffin...Griffin!"

"Augustine..." Griffin spoke, his voice in the mind was now many at once. He shivered at the idea of what he was becoming, what it implied. "Help... me..." He voiced, struggling to get into the armories chambers.

"I sense your pain... what is happening? What is going on with your voice?"

At the single thought leading into what could possibly happen, the mere thought of The Primordial, The Flood, caused him to throw himself into the armory and lock it down. "I... do not know. The Primordial... The Flood... I think it... spoke to me." Griffin grunted, walking to a nearby table and gripping his armor and weapons. He would put on the incomplete armor sets and ground the hilts to his side. With a rather long and bright cape, Griffin would turn on the helmet and cause its systems to go on... an ODST visor would come in activation to its place.

"You need to get out of there and come to us, they are coming for you."

"What do you mean...?"

"The human known as John Smith, he is coming for you... with an escort. They were in your room a second ago and didn't find you there, they'll be locking the place down soon. We can speak of this later, survive! Mack will be coming for you!"

It was at that moment, Griffin's helmet would activate and soon... Mack's voice came into the speakers.

"Hey ya know you got thirty men coming after your hide."

"I've noticed." Griffin grunted, squinting at the spread out blips of red hostile indicators in his coms. "What are my options?" Griffin asked.

"Sounds like you need to complete yer weapons chief, they are in my blind spots on the network and they are tapped in the system. Can't risk them tracing our sessions to the outpost."

"Seems like I've missed out..." Griffin chuckled. Soon, he would stagger to the armory padlocks and ripped out the circuitry with a pair of pliers. In cutting the controls to the door, Griffin tried his very best to turn and make it to the table in order to focus his mind into something other than a mess of psychological trauma. "Mack, send what help you can... if you have a Pelican ready... send for it with whatever help you have right now."

"Reinforcements are being sent for you, our AI will ensure this will be a dark mission."

"Thank you Mack, now if you have anything useful I can make in whatever time I have left before they trace my location, send them into my helmet. I need to focus my mind on something while we blow through time." Griffin spoke, shaking his head. What came next was a large dataset of information before Griffin smiled at the designs. "You really have been busy."

"Just get to finishing up the completion of your armor, they will be there soon," Mack ordered.

"Alright-alright!" Griffin sighed, before taking the M6G Magnum and starting on the upgrades. "Just tell me, will you be with me through the whole way?" He asked.

"Through thick and thin, both over hill and plan."

Smith was absolutely livid by how every system in the academy was locked down so quickly. There was no ability to take hostages, no swift measure to detect Phoenix in the grid, and all of his agents had no fucking clue on how to find out where the sneaky bastard went. What was even more pressing, no alarm had been sounded and no UNSC security force had been detected entering the perimeter. Even better, the lockdown ensured there were no witnesses to the events at play, even from the blast shield doors that always had a window open. He still had radio contact with his team, even as the URF fighters merely combed through any open space for a fleeting cadet. He knew the cadet had been running somewhere, the motion tracker displayed as much before it went silent.

And through the dark and empty halls, only the taps and knocks of cadets in their rooms were heard as they tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

General Garvin gave him a mission with a large contingent of freedom fighters made out specifically to capture Cadet Phoenix. Something was wrong, he would not act on something so immediately out of desperation or quick intentions. If the cadet would not come with them, then the young man would be terminated.

However, something kept Smith from wanting to kill the boy. The Phoenix kid radiated an energy and aura of determination that persisted constantly with insubordination, a rebel at heart but a soldier in spirit. That was deplorable in the eyes of any UNSC soldier and marine, yet the man beat them in solo combat, thrust himself as well as General Black away in tactics; and survived the ODST's in direct confrontation. There were a hundred things wrong going on in how Smith saw this playing out. A rebel cadet would join the URF wholeheartedly, but Phoenix was different, especially in his reasoning for fighting.

Smith knew Griffin would never fight for them, and he knew that killing the boy would only deprive the universe of another good soul.

"The boy is near the Armory."

"Take him." Smith whispered into the comms. At that moment, Smith motioned fifteen of his men to start rushing down the halls to where the armory would be.

"We will blow the door, it's locked down." Another masked URF soldier would speak, rushing to the center mass of the bulkhead to place down a satchel charge against the locking mechanism in the center of the door.

"Then do it, just don't set the charge too high, we need him alive." Smith ordered, now taking a hidden position as the rest of the thirty URF fighters took position an aimed their rifles at the door. Before the satchel charges were placed, there was a sound that caused the men to back up and pull up their pistols. That was the moment the Armory blast door began to open. What was across the entrance of the dim lighting, the tall figure of Griffin was there, but there was something different...

There, before the URF fighters, a tall, white-armored ODST trooper began walking into the view of the men.

"I'm afraid I am not going with you." The voice of Griffin spoke before the men. Instantly, Smith widened his eyes as the man knew they were coming.

"How did you know?" Smith asked, staying behind cover where he was.

"Luck, mostly. I've always figured you were a Rebel, Smith; a spy. The UNSC has always been vulnerable to intrusions, but your insights and clues were a dead giveaway." Griffin replied, his visor flickering every moment he looked in their general direction. Many in the room now knew the ODST had their locations, and he was preparing to fight. "Garvin always believed he was so clever, but it is too easy to tell that his position would be filled by one of the URF."

Instinctively, the mention of the words of Garvin caused the entire platoon to lock their weapons at Griffin.

"How and when did you come across that information?" James, a commando of the URF, demanded.

"I have my ways." Griffin replied.

"He knows too much," the commando spoke to Smith.

"Possibly, but if he knew all of this, he would have acted on it." Smith replied.

"I am acting on it, right now." Griffin implied, speaking up in a manner that brought the attention of Smith. "By telling you that there are greater things to worry about than the UNSC." Griffin alluded, causing the rebels to look back at each other.

"What do you mean?" Smith asked.

"What I mean is that Harper Garvin is a coward and a sellout. A bigger threat looms on the horizon and he would rather serve the threat than stay with humanity and fight it." Griffin replied. "And I won't stand with cowards." Replied the young man.

Smith was about to say more when one of the commandos would cock his rifle and aim.

"Last chance Griffin, or I won't be held responsible for what happens next." Smith implied, aiming his pistol at the young man.

"Oh, but you will. You will be responsible." Griffin implied, soon lifting an arm and nearing his hand towards what looked like a hilt being held by a holster. "And I am sorry you could not know me more... but this ends today."

In an instant, the URF fighters unloaded their weapons at the man in front of him. However, what they saw from a falling body, vanished like a hologram and caused the men to stop firing.

Before they knew it, Griffin would be seen coming out from the left side of the door, rushing out with his pistol aimed high. The URF fighters fired at the man, but he would vanish and appear on the other side of the entryway, enough time for a loud BOOM to sound off from his pistol and impact a nearby wall. What they heard next, five men would fall to the ground, armor-piercing shotgun rounds pierced the wall and their armor, killing them instantly and leaving the carved-up bodies in a puddle of their own blood.

"Kill the bastard!" James roared.

In a rush to gun down the young man, they would begin to see that the holographic illusions split their teams and caused the man to outmaneuver them. With a blast and hail of bullets, Griffin leaped through heaps of lines of fire and pumped single bursts into the directions of commandos and fighters. Sprays of blood and guts littered the concrete padding, and the screams of the fighters deafened the silence.

Griffin knew exactly where each opponent was at, not even when they were all in cover or charging down the line. When a rebel rushed his flank, Griffin ducked back and took out a knife. There, the man rushed forward and jabbed the sharp weapon into the guts of the rebel. Griffin soon looked at the aimed weapons of ten more guys in better positions and realized his mistake. Rushing into cover, the man almost got hailed by bullets again. Even in cover, there was already enough pinning gunfire that forced the man to wait.

Closing his eyes, the young man pressed a holographic key into his arm. It was here, Griffin's suit activated and the young man would open his eyes and moved.

In an instant, Griffin would appear over five men approaching his former location. His activation of the suit made him faster, stronger, and far more powerful in leaping over the men and having the literal drop on the fighters. With five separate shots, the bullets ripped into the men and caused them to fall dead. As Griffin landed on the floor, he would raise his other arm and lower his off hand. What came out would be a slot that pulled out of his armor at the arm and locked swiftly in place...

The next second would be a single shot from Griffin's arm, and the next an explosion of fire thirty feet away from him; an attachable grenade launcher. In the smoggy aftermath, Griffin would only be seen walking down the hallway of dead and burned bodies. However, in the throngs of dead bodies, two men remained in cover. Aiming his pistol at the URF soldier, Griffin locked the pistol into a different mode, a single shot that he aimed down with his sights. Before that man knew what hit him, a single bullet ran through the wall and a cloud of red would be the only thing left before the body came to the ground.

With only one combatant left to worry about, Griffin turned his attention to Smith. He could see the man was shivering behind cover, demonstrating that he had not even fired his sidearm. Griffin would walk up fifteen meters near the logistics instructor and aim his pistol at the man. For a few minutes, the young man contemplated his decisions, but, in the end, Griffin lowered his pistol and started to walk to the exit to the facility.

However, there would be a tiny blip in the motion tracker behind Griffin that caused him to turn around.

Several painful sensations flashed into Griffin's mind before he had the chance to know he had been shot multiple times. Due to the number of painful singes that riddled his mind, Griffin would fall to the ground, thumping as his armor made impact. The young man heaved as he held his side and struggled to move. When he looked up to see what was happening, the limping figure of James would struggle to make it to the young man. The second Griffin tried to aim his gun at the man, the rebel kicked his pistol to the side.

"Garvin will have fun with you." The rebel spoke. "But first... you owe me a kidney." He growled, aiming a rifle to the other side of his stomach.

Before James pulled the trigger, James' face would explode in a mess of bloody gore. All Griffin would see in front of him would be Smith, his pistol aimed at the bloody mass of James. Smith would walk over to the bloody mess of Griffin and saw where the bullets hit:

Three shots to the sides, one in the chest, and three in the shoulder.

So much blood was oozing from Griffin's body that Smith would sigh and bend over to the dead body of James, taking out a large pack of biofoam and applying the medical material into the wounds of the young man.

"Thank... you..." Griffin coughed. His breathing shortened and calmed as the biofoam cooled his skin like a wave of snow; the cool touch allowed the flesh that was seared in the metals of the bullet casings. Before he could do any more first-aid, distant sounds of boots started to come into the building. When Smith looked up at the incoming noises, the clatter was enough to signal that there was more than a large number of people coming inside.

What came through the dark halls were nothing more than fifteen ODST's rushing into the room with their sidearms aimed all at the man. It was here that Smith dropped the biofoam and waited for the lead trooper to brief him. Due to the circumstance, the older man stiffened with the situation at hand. If they knew he was a rebel... but when he looked at the tags of their armor, Smith nearly widened his eyes.

There were no tags to speak of, not even a name-mark on the armor plating identifying an individual trooper. These were not troopers.

"Who are you?" Smith asked, his hands still raised. The ODST's were about to fire, when Griffin raised his hand.

"He is... okay... now... let him be..." Griffin wheezed, just as one of the ODST's started to pick him up and drag the man away from Smith.

Looking at the situation at hand, with all of the ODST's who were not ODST's, taking a cadet away that killed URF fighters, it looked very suspect on what was even happening in the first place. Was this kid the son of some secret society or an ONI project? Hundreds of irrational implications went through his mind trying to find out what would explain the situation, but there was little time to have some kind of answer.

"Cadet Phoenix, what is going on?" Smith asked.

"In your eyes... I am being taken to a secure location... in the Academies eyes... I have been kidnapped by URF soldiers." Griffin replied, being dragged away. "You still have a chance... Smith... I wonder how you will... do... with it..." In that moment, the young man lost consciousness and went limp. Three of the troopers would rush to the human's side and carry him while the rest of the group swiftly made their exit with the cadets body.

Not wanting to chase after them yet, Smith would only move to one of the nearby windows aimed towards where the group was leading off to.

Already, the URF troopers stationed outside were already dead and leaving in their wake was a Pelican lifting off with Griffin's body being worked on. As the Pelican closed and went away into the distance, Smith would look down and pick up a vial from within his pocket. Holding the container, the officer would lift his hand and look into the contents of the glass:

Griffin's Blood.

Smith would take out his communications device and place it inside James body... before setting the body on fire and letting the device be next to three grenades.

Looking back towards the darkness of the night, Smith would put the container in his pocket before walking into the academy to draft his report to General Black... with the evidence burning and soon exploding in a series of gore in the vacant chamber. Something was going on that was much bigger than what General Garvin was letting on and exactly what Griffin was alluding to. He needed to know exactly what was happening here, and Griffin was only the start.

Investigating his blood would be the first step.

That's a wrap for the time being!

Alright everyone, considering I love bearing down the scare factor, I hope you enjoy a few of the hallucination scenes and why I made this story rating for Mature Audiences. Due to the many implications that are in the story, I would like to put on a few points:

Did I pull some Cyberpunk references in this chapter? Yes, yes I did lmao.

Will I tell you where they are? The only hint I'll give you is to play the video of Cyberpunk Edgerunner's clip of the Cyberpsycho vs NCPD.

Why are the Solarians able to prophesize future events? Look into the Precursor's philosophy of Living Time. That is the only hint I'll give you lol.

Are there going to be big implications from Smith's sample of Griffin's blood? I will leave that up to you to decide lmao.

Will there be investigations into Griffin's "abduction?" Yes, you bet your ass there will be.

How will it turn out? See the next chapter for more info!

Thank you all so much for viewing, and if you love this series or want to contribute; please don't hesitate to kidnap the Fav and Follow button below!

See y'all in the next one Chooms,

-True

(PS: This semester has been very heavy busy, so I do apologize for not posting too frequently lmao. However, I will be doing a Hackathon for the weekend, if anyone will be in Dallas, do not be afraid to shoot me a DM or contact me through Discord! [Tag: TrueForgiveness#3882] )

With that being said,