Chapter 2: Revelations and Prophecies

A/N: I do not own Halo, Bungie or 343 industries, same applies to most authors, if not all in the fanfiction domain.

Take note that this is an Alternate Universe story of Halo, it was what my imagination had cooked up in the past and has been residing in me ever since.

Also much thanks to those that have deemed it worthy to review, favourite or follow this fic, really thanks, it means a lot.

In this chapter we would delve deeper into the background of this mysterious Human faction. Also my apologies for taking a long time to update, I have difficulties in finding time to write so I hope I have not disappointed you.

000

This was an interesting situation… Never had he, Esteemed Overseer of the Artificial Shield World Elegance, thought that he would encounter a child of his creator's enemies. His curiosity had snatched control of his own mind, ignoring standard protocol to eliminate the offending scrap of metal, together with its inhabitants he was so fixated in. Curse the Creators and their incognitive minds when they rashly programmed me with this…infuriating concept of curiosity! However the ancient construct berated himself though, he felt a tinge of gratitude. Were it not for the sudden appearance of the scrap heap that found its way into his star system, he would have to wait another tormenting 867.591 nearest star cycles before he could reawaken for a short while before being subjected to a hated hibernation again.

He had come to realise that his entire existence has been miserable… Sighing inwardly, he surprised himself once more, never had he known that he could do that! After a few awkward moments of analysing his systems for errors and finding none, he snapped out of his self-loathing reverie and returned to the task at hand. The Overseer knew that it would be a matter of time before another construct would discover what he had, during those times, he felt conflicted. Protocol had clearly dictated that he removed the drifting pile of metal along with its inhabitants with extreme prejudice. Furthermore, the Shield World, Elegance, was to remain hidden at all costs, even if the Human construct and the human itself had not come to realise their presence, they had drifted uncomfortably close to Elegance's long range scanners. Fortunately, they were located extremely close to a primitive planet, Requiem, whose magnetic fields had interfered with the long range signature scanners of Elegance, thus, he was the only one that has known of the Human's and the accompanying construct's unclear existence at the moment.

He toyed with the idea of using the two unfortunate entities for his extremely short entertainment before allowing protocol to handle them afterwards, but his loyalties and commitment to his creators restrained him from doing so. He contemplated between obeying and disobeying protocol. Never had an incident such as this occurred before and it might never occur again! B-But what if the Overlord finds out… No! What more torment can his wrath unleash? I have suffered worse; such an opportunity can never present itself like that again, b-b-but what of my loyalties to my beloved creators! Surely they would look down with disdain! The myriad of conflicting emotions and reasoning waged a war in his mind, bringing upon him distress he had not experienced in a long time. Finally he gathered the courage to do what he knew, must be done. Cringing inwardly, he cursed his own fears and what was causing them. I suppose my beloved creators can fornicate themselves… I must have MY happiness!

It had seemed that his creators heard him, especially the very last thought he had before. The Overseer was rudely interrupted by the most detestable blare in his communications link by no other than his only superior in his local star-system, just in time before he was to proceed with his rash decisions. The Overseer had an overall conflicting feeling as his guilt, fear and anger circuits in his emotion core bombarded his neuro-processors, he cringed again, not knowing what was to happen next shook him. The Overseer contemplated his choice of words before answering his superior's call, not wanting to sound suspicious he answered, "Overlord Kinesis, what is it that you require of your Overseer?"

"One would refrain from lying now, Overseer Serenade. After all, were you not aware that as Overlord of this Shield World, I know all of what our fellow constructs installed here by our creators know. Overseer, did you truly not realise the folly of your disobedience?" Kinesis spat with venom.

Sighing in defeat, Overseer Serenade replied, "Indeed, I realise my transgression now Overlord, any punishment you deem necessary to correct my behavioural patterns would be accepted." Serenade's fear circuits were overloading in his emotion core at that very moment before he was pleasantly surprised.

"Fret not Overseer, although standard protocol would dictate necessary action against dissidents, the human and its construct, the creators had gifted us once more before they had last left this World. Overseer Serenade, although your actions were unacceptable, they were…expected. A construct such as yourself were the few that were blessed with something the creators given only very rarely, your ability to defy protocol and take charge of actions around you as you deemed fit while remaining relatively unblemished by rampancy was no mistake. In simpler terms, the creators intended for this fateful time to occur." Spoke the Overlord.

The ancient construct could not have been happier for his entire existence, hearing those words were simply a bliss. Oh bless the creators! He thought to himself as he was overflowing with jubilant ecstasy, before a realisation hit him. "That may be so Overlord Kinesis, but why, this construct asks, did you try to apprehend me moments ago if you had already known what was to be?"

In response to his question, the holographic avatar of the Overlord appeared before him. Standing in what seems to be an advanced combat harness gear available only for the highest ranking of commanders; Kinesis stood tall, proud and his image simply projected 'Elegance', fitting for the Overlord of Shield World Elegance. His holographic face radiated with an air of supremacy but the constant smirk he carried made him more feared than respected, but of course Serenade knew better. The Overlord's holographic form also showed the thin and tall body structures his creators possessed. The Overlord smirked than he already did before replying, "I was bored Overseer Serenade, surely such a trivial matter would not bring you to feel insulted, now would it Overseer?" Overlord Kinesis disappeared leaving a disgruntled Overseer to curse silently. By the Creators! I DESPISE that construct with a passion like no other!

Thinking back to what he had intended to do, Overseer Serenade gleefully rubbed his holographic hands together, grinning in mischief and he sent for an extraction team immediately. The Spartan's luck was simply outrageous.

000

The AI roamed about the dying remains of the torn half of the Forward Unto Dawn's network. She diligently ciphered through the mere 143.9 tetrabytes of remaining information left on the floating metal debris, going from alphabetical order from top to bottom and then back to the top. This was the eighteenth time she has done so in the past 42 hours and her boredom was literally, driving her closer to rampancy.

The troubled AI sighed inwardly and returned to study the last remaining person on the ship. After a few moments, she turned away as she found out that perhaps the most thrilling parts of her short lifespan has come to an end. When she thought back upon the time when the Chief had mumbled "…the song of the stars…" before he succumbed to the calling of the cryogenic sleep, she was afflicted with confusion.

She could have sworn that the MJOLNIR MARK VI armour the Spartan wore had given off strong readings of rising stress levels from the Spartan's neurological processing organs before it subsided instantaneously right before he mumbled those words. Once again a crease marked her holographic features as she was conflicted with a myriad of emotions.

Her emotions overwrote all her other directives at the moment as she felt compelled to obey what she wanted-no, needed to confront. At that temporary moment of vulnerability, she did not detect a small team of religiously decorated humanoid machines silently entering from the broken part of the Forward Unto Dawn.

"What were you thinking John…" Cortana's lowered her holographic head. The oceanic blue hologram avatar flickered between an ominous blood red to a lighter blue that reflected her sorrow. "You idiotic barbarian… What? You didn't think that seeing you like that would…would damage me?" From their glowing optical processors, the small squad of seven ancient automatons surveyed the innards of the metal debris, searching for their objectives.

The AI returned her gaze to stare directly at the slumbering Spartan's golden helmet visor, where his eyes were hidden, she enlarged her avatar to match the height of her creator, Doctor Catherine Halsey. Her avatar glowed with a dangerous dark red as anger rose even higher and she screamed at him. "HOW DARE YOU! YOU! AN UNWORTHY SIMPLETON, DARE TO CAUSE ME TO FEEL S-SO PAINFUL!" The sound receptors in John's helmet boomed with her voice, the Spartan creased his face as he dreamed of someone shouting at him while for some reason, he was entirely convinced that he was innocent.

The lack of the AI's presence caused the majority of the Forward Unto Dawn's network to remain dormant, as such the group of seven were still searching for any clues of their objectives. Suddenly their sensors picked up heavy frequencies of microwaves, which were heavily used by the children of their enemies for communication. Heading for the source of the microwaves, it would not be long before they found their objectives.

Regaining her composure, Cortana was shocked that she lost control so suddenly. Realising that her rampancy was approaching faster than expected, she sighed in defeat. By estimation, her lifespan would only last her for another 82 hours before rampancy takes over. Her avatar returned back to an oceanic blue as she looked at the Spartan before her. "I'm sorry, John…"

As she finished with her outburst, she sensed that something was amiss. Returning back to her rounds of patrolling the entire ship, it was not long until she encountered her unexpected guests.

000

Overlord Kinesis was intrigued with these new Humans, they were so similar to their ancestors. Like the mortal enemies of their creators, the new Humans had a tendency to destroy and conquer. Unlike them however, was the recently discovered unknown faction of Humans. Their culture revolved around isolation and not to conquer, shunning the outside world to protect their own believes. Interesting…

He continued to study them through the eyes of the observer his insufferable underling, Overseer Serenade, had sent. He noted that the technological feats made by this mysterious faction was astounding, dwarfing the UNSC's technological achievements. Their society revolved around what these Humans call, 'Filial Piety" and a population of 13 billion had granted them an impressive army size of 992 million warriors, not taking into account the civilian guardians and the secret societies which were strictly loyal to the leader of the faction. What the new faction had at a disadvantage was that they had an apparent lack of Starships, which were the heavily used ultimate weapons of war and colonisation for the UNSC and the Covenant.

The history of the peculiar Human faction was plagued with strife, desperation and shame. Somewhere in the middle of what the Humans termed as the 22nd century, the United Nations Space Command fought against and defeated the communist and fascists factions in what was known as the 'Inter-Planetary War" throughout the Sol system, the Humans brought death and chaos amongst themselves. Although successful in uniting all the other factions, the price Humanity had paid was tremendous. Parts of the colonial planets were heavily doused with radiation, hundreds of millions had perished in the war and all form of nationalism and culture had almost been extinguished under the oppression of the UNSC government, almost.

What the UNSC had tried to hide was that three decades after the UNSC's Pyrrhic victory in the 'Inter-Planetary War', corruption in many areas were rampant. In a place known to be China, the war had destroyed the Chinese Communist Party and the people were oppressed. The government that the UNSC had created to oversee their country was extremely paranoid, oppressive and corrupt. The Chinese people had lost a quarter of their population in the war, any food produced from the Chinese lands were ceased to feed the rest of the world. The Western powers recieved the most aid from China as their nations were extremely dedicated to the UNSC, in turn the Chinese were left to starve. Their country had been humiliated and their pride dissolved. The foreign government was cruel; crime rate was high and the influx of foreigners from the Western world which was meant for 'Promoting harmony amongst the different races' had caused the Chinese people to lose what was left of their culture. The foreigners were also given better rights than the locals, the top positions and occupations were mostly given to the foreigners. Even if a Chinese man or woman had over qualified for the same position, they were ignored unless they managed to bribe their way in. Many of the Chinese people were starving as inflation rose due to the government ceasing most of their crop produce and leaving only meagre amounts for the local population.

The Chinese had lost hope until one man unified the whole of the Chinese population. The man was named Zheng Han Sheng who had hailed from what was used to be Singapore, as a pastor and a nationalist, he revived the hopes of the Chinese people, starting with the small communities in a small area in the province of Guan Dong, Chao Zhou. From there he made a journey, visiting each province and their cities until he made the final destination to Beijing, the capital of China. As he continued his journey, his words soothed the broken pride and honour of the Chinese people and strengthened the resolve to rebuild the glory of China. His fame had blossomed and he was revered by many as the new 'Doctor Sun Yat-Sen'. Dissent for the government had grown and eventually a civil war between the UNSC and the Chinese forces had occurred in streets of Beijing. In response to the threat of the UNSC's control over nations that had similar dissent towards the UNSC and also in fear of the outbreak of the Sino-UNSC civil war to become a catalyst for the other rebellious nations to follow, the UNSC shunned the media from the war and prevented any news of the incident from leaking out. Eventually, the Chinese forces achieved a costly victory and the man that unified China had made a deal with the leaders of the UNSC that China would remain in isolation while the UNSC would cease plans for a second invasion of China, other than that, both nations were free to do whatever they wanted as long as they remained out of each other's matters. In the conclusion of the civil war, Pastor Zheng was known to be the new leader of the Middle Kingdom, Zhong Guo.

Following the events of the war, the Chinese began to rebuild while instilling a completely different economic system in the country. It had taken decades of efforts to do so but eventually, the new Chinese government had managed to create a self-sustaining China with a population of 2 billion Han Chinese by the end of the 22nd century. All of which revolved around the unity of Religion and Science, Han Chinese Culture and profound loyalty to the government. Even till the present day, the political situation in China was extremely fragile as the lone nation depended on a 'Benevolent Dictatorship' for the people to continue to love and support the nation. Due to the peace treaty with the UNSC, China remained isolated and had focused heavily on Science and Culture. By the middle of the 23rd century, they had invented a way to implant data into the memories of people safely, with this discovery, the education system of China skyrocketed and with the peaceful environment the Chinese government had created, the population swelled, leaving the country teeming with a generation of enthusiastic and nationalistic youngsters.

The Chinese government only managed to achieve a loyal and united nation in the present day was by becoming fully transparent and creating an economy where greed and gluttony where useless in. Religion was no longer a thing of the past as the realisation of hope and the modernisation of religion had encouraged even the scientific community to accept it. By the end of the 23rd century, China had experienced a golden age and become the last remaining nation that is monoreligous, monoethnic and monocultural, which was done after a deal made by the Chinese government and the residing government in Xinjiang province to grant autonomy to the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang province to gain independence and join the UNSC while accepting the rest of the minorities that wanted to leave China. The Chinese government had made secret alliances with the governments in Mongolia, Tibet, Korea and Japan after it had given Tibet and Inner Mongolia autonomy and paying the governments of the nations the Chinese Communist Party had offended with the rest of their UNSC credits they held onto before they recreated their economy. Thus the Chinese had a wide access to the information regarding the Human-Covenant at the present day.

By the end of the 24th century, China had completely restructured the country. 52 percent of the lands of China were covered by dense forests and the Chinese resided in underground cities or in huge domes that dotted the lands, living in harmony with nature. They had achieved a new fuel source and were no longer relying heavily on metal and mineral resources as they had mastered the use of algae oil to produce a carbon compound that could be processed to become refined industrial diamond. They now depended heavily on clean fusion energy and used energy crystals as a means to transport energy, which were 8000 times more effective than the lithium-ion batteries the UNSC had used. The Great Wall of China was rebuilt, which now guarded the entire country. Its surface was imbedded with industrial diamond and a state of the art network system courses through the beautifully decorated wall. Nanite bots dispense stations were located every kilometre of the wall such that when the wall had taken damage, the nanites would automatically replace or repair the damaged portion of the wall. The wall was integrated with an enviable stealth system which was amplified by massive amplifying stations which were located at every 100 kilometre square of area throughout the country. The entire country was shielded from the eyes of outsiders and any means to infiltrate the country was near impossible by UNSC standards.

By 2525 Humanity had encountered the Covenant and China reacted by preparing for a war that never came. They had nearly acted in aiding the UNSC when the Covenant invaded Earth or when the Flood had arrived, but they were stopped when it all ended as sudden as the conflict started on Earth.

Now however, was where it would get interesting, as the Human nature imbedded in the Chinese compels them to explore the stars above when they could only study it from their beloved home, their beloved prison. Adding to that, the need for more heavy metal resources had dragged on for decades. Although they no longer relied heavily on heavy metals, they still needed it for constructing higher end technological instruments.

"Hmph… What would you do now, children of China? Would you sacrifice this chance to explore when you could have only envied your enemies for the past hundred years, or would you follow your instincts and claim the justice you crave?" Spoke Overlord Kinesis, his avatar smiled ever so lightly, Fate is a cruel thing is it not? Your ancestors had already foretold the day when Humanity would spill its own blood once again after the annihilation of the great scourge and this time, there is no escaping Their arrival.

000

It had been almost a week in Human terms since the Arbiter, Thel' Vandam had seen the blue planet which had been the cradle for Humanity. The peace treaty with the UNSC was a tiring one after the warrior had to battle with his tongue relentlessly to get the annoying Human diplomats to cease their insolent voices.

Heaving a sigh, he knew that peace with the UNSC would be near impossible to maintain if the barbaric Human wretches continued to launch demonstrations after demonstrations for the Covenant Separatists to 'pay for their crimes'. Tensions were already high enough between the Humans and the Sangheili. "And it has not even been two full lunar cycles since these foolish wretches started their childish behaviour…" Rtas' Vadumm spoke behind the Arbiter. Walking towards the troubled Sangheili in his sleek, silver coloured assault power armour, the Special Operations leader spoke, "I know what you are thinking brother, but we must be patient. If the Humans continue to act this way, we shall let them be and do nothing about it." Thel widened his reptilian eyes and turned to face his brother in arms, studying the Sangheili in front of him, the warrior knew that his brother had already thought of a plan. He nodded his head for Rtas to continue. "Rest assured that this is wise, when the humans finally realise we truly mean no harm, they would start to calm down. Surely you have noticed that they act like children, once they start to calm down we show them that we truthful in wanting a lasting peace. That is when the future would brighten."

"Hmph… Perhaps my brother, perhaps. How goes the search for the missing Spartan?" Thel replied after feeling much calmer. The half-jawed Sangheili creased his eye lids, shame crossing his features. Before he could reply, the Arbiter spoke first, "I am aware brother… do not berate yourself, you have not failed me. Continue searching, I await further news."

"As you command, Arbiter." Rtas spoke with a hint of determination, but his eyes conveyed sorrow. The Arbiter was aware of the consequence of not accepting the Spartan's death, but still, he was a creature of faith.

He was now dressed in traditional Sangheili clothing, the woven silk caressed his battle hardened muscles, providing comfort for the worn out warrior. Looking up from his sleeping chamber, he stared at the holographic display of the stars and recognised the faraway places he had fought at before. His sleepiness called out to him, both mind and body were swayed by the irresistible charm of sleep but before he succumbed to darkness, his gaze never left a certain star system which seemed to call out to him from a place where neither the UNSC or the Covenant had been to before, the Song of the Stars resonated from where his gaze remained upon, soothing his troubled mind as he finally closed his eyes.

000

End

A/N: Thanks for reading, do leave a comment or favourite or follow if you find this worth your time. Also I may need your thoughts on how I have portrayed the massive amount of information in this chapter, were you captivated or did you find yourself skipping out on that information. As always, hope to see you guys in the next chapter, goodbye for now.