Finally a new chapter. Sorry for the long wait here is the next one although I had planed that this one actually shouldn't have been released for another 2 or 3 chapters. As always please leave a comment, I like to know what you think of my work.

And here is the link for the wiki with background info for my fanfic vesion of the prehumans: wiki/The_Prehistoric_Human_Empire

A world of past glory

The 03/14/2581. Orion arm, unnamed system

Near the very borders of the Milky Way galaxy in the Orion Arm rested a solar system like all the other that made up the galaxy but unlike many others this one had been very special and would be it again. This system had a dark past but had also been the very heart of a once mighty civilization, a place of great beauty, culture and power. Now it was dead, almost devoid of even the lowest form of life. This system was the old capital system of the Prehistoric Human Empire. And now they had return to their once beautiful worlds.

Numerous slipspace vortexes opened up a few thousand kilometers from the gravity well that the old capital world, Charum Hakkor, generated. Through these portals came thousands if not hundreds of thousands of warships and transport ships in all seizes. A Gaia Titan-class fleet carrier exited from the largest of the vortexes, followed closely by a few smaller vessels. The sheer size of the carrier made the other ships look like tiny bugs in compensation. The massive ship opened a few of its many hangar bays and dozens of trios of Scythe gunboats shot out at great speed, spreading out through the solar system to scout and patrol for enemy activity.

On the bridge of the massive carrier stood Admiral Shan Qruall and second in command of this fleet. He was responsible for the fleets movements went smoothly and without too much trouble. He preferred of course not to encounter any problems at all but that was just dream won't come true of course. The plan for this fleet was to split up into countless smaller fleets and scout some of their old important systems for Flood or Forerunner activity while a few Atlas-class ultra-heavy transporters would begin to set up automated defense systems around the solar system and construct minor repair docks, in case some ships would be damaged during the coming raids on forerunner controlled worlds after the smaller fleets have reported back from their scouting missions.

So here he stood in front of his command chair and looked at the large hologram that displayed the entire solar system, a few bridge officers stood around the large circular hologram projector and gave orders to the rest of the fleet. The hologram focused in on the fleet as it slowly entered orbit around Charum Hakkor to await further orders. Admiral Qruall was in a rather bad mood. He had been so ever since the fleet departed from Fortenchos Gate, the end of the only safe path into the open star cluster that made up the human empire. Why he was mad could be answered quite easily. It was because the real commander of the fleet was missing. Of course he couldn't really complain to the commander. She was after all the Empress and the ruler of the empire. Add to it that she said she would have a few thousand Praetorian Guards tagging along with her. Qruall really didn't want to get on the bad side of those guards if the rumors about them were anywhere true. Qruall shivered at the dark and disturbing rumors of the royal guard. Many new members of the imperial palace servants have ended up dead within the first few weeks of their work because they had accidently entered a forbidden area or something like that and then had been so infinitely unlucky that a Praetorian Guard had spotted them and executed the poor servants on the spot. During the Great Rebellion, where the outer worlds and most of the Sinners had rebelled against the crown, the Guard had bombarded a city with more than 1 billion citizens just to kill 3 to 5 Sinners that was hiding somewhere in the city and just to make sure that all rebels had been dealt with, they proceeded to butcher everyone else on the planet, rebel or not.

So Admiral Qruall had all reason to not voice his complains about the Empress being away from the fleet she was support to lead. But for now he had other things to take care of and instead pondered about how to split the fleet into raiding and scouting fleets. An alarm pulled him back from his thoughts and he looked at the large circular hologram. Somehow an unknown heavy cruiser sized ship had appeared right next to his own ship and was making its way up to the front. All personal on the massive bridge had been stunned by the sudden appearance of the unknown ship, no slipspace activity had been reported, but it only took them a second or two to shake off the shock and rushed to their posts to get the massive carrier ready for combat and boarding attempts. But a communication officer could soon after report that the unknown ship was transmitting a high level security code that marked it as friendly. The crew and its captain could sign in relief that it wasn't some kind of Forerunner or Flood scouting party but everyone's jaw nearly hit the floor when the cruiser sized ship came into view through the large windows at the front of the massive bridge.

Admiral Shan Qruall would ever have believed it if anyone had told him that this legendary ship was really the real deal. Right in front of his flagship, no more than a kilometer or two, was a sleek and elegant designed ship, its hull seemingly made in one piece of some kind of metal that Qruall never had seen or heard of before. More than half of the ship was formed into one giant canon, the dreaded slipspace canon. This ship was the legendary Mystery-class warship. With his trained eyes on ship types, seizes and roles, Qruall would say that is type of ship would act best as some kind of heavy support role. It was after all only armed with four heavy antimatter canons, a number of anti-fighter batteries of a design completely unknown to him and as stated before the slipspace canon. The size of the crew couldn't be that big considering that only the midsection seemed like it could hold any kind of crew at all. He would guess that it maximum could hold a bit over a thousand at most.

The admiral was pulled out of his train of thoughts again this time at the sound of the Mystery-class trying to hail him. It took him a few moments before he had collected himself and ordered a communication officer to open a channel.

A window facing Qruall appeared on the large circular hologram. Qruall let out a small gasp when he saw who had appeared on the screen and quickly threw himself down to one knee and turned his head away from the holographic projector. Everyone else on the bridge looked confused at their admiral before they too looked at the screen and quickly fell to their knee and looked away, just like the admiral, in outmost respect. A light laughter as sweet as the finest honey was heard over the speakers before the Empress, Juel Talma, spoke.

"Rise everyone and return to your posts." Juel said to everyone with a small smile. All on the bridge got on their feet, bowed a final time, and returned to their work, all besides Admiral Shan Qruall who stood idly and waited for whatever the Empress had to tell him.

"So Admiral Qruall, surprised to see me already?" The smile widened on her lips as she tried to get more comfortable on the small throne that Qruall thought was the command chair of her ship, she was after all clad in her praetorian combatsuit. Just to the right behind the throne stood the Royal Commander of the Praetorian Guard, AAA-707. The only indication that it was him was the small cape with the symbol of the Praetorian Guard hanging from his left shoulder down to his wrist, covering most of the left side of his chest, his entire left arm and the left side of his back. Without this cape he would look completely like all other male Praetorian guards. As always he stood completely still, not moving a muscle and just stared straight forward with his hands folded behind his back. It gave Qruall the chills whenever that guy showed up.

"Y-yes your highness, I'm very surprised to see that you have already arrived." Qruall forced himself to look away from the Royal Commander and turn his attention on the Empress. "I was told that you would be delayed and therefor passed command of the fleet to me."

"Yes, I was delayed, admiral. I just needed to get this ship in fighting condition before I moved out with my honor guard and joined up with the fleet." Juel said while waving a hand in the air as if getting a 75 millennia old legendary warship outfitted for combat once more was nothing special to her.

"R-right... So now that your have arrived what is your order, your highness?" Qruall asked. The empress didn't answer right away but instead turned her head a little to see something out of Qruall view through his side of the transmission.

"According my crews scans of Charum Hakkor, our dear old capital, there is no traces of life of any kind on the planet. The entire the ecosystem have collapsed but there should still be ruins of our old civilization scattered across the continents." She turned her attention back on the admiral. "I want to go down there and see them with my own eyes. Would you like to accompany me, Admiral Shan Qruall?" The admiral nodded. How could he ever decline a request from her majesty? But being in the present of the Praetorian Guard wasn't something he was looking forward to.

"O-of course your majesty, I'll depart right away." Juel just nodded before ending the transmission. Qruall to a deep breath before giving command to his second and ordered his personal guard to meet him in one of the many hangers.

A few minutes later a Shadow Wasp dropship left the massive fleet carrier heading towards Charum Hakkor. Half way there it was joined by another dropship, taking the lead and guiding Qrualls own dropship to the ground.

_Ω_

Qruall walked down the ramp of his dropship, now fully dressed in his Triarii combatsuit, closely followed by a squad of Principes troops. Qruall noticed that Juel and her troops had already exited their own dropship not far away. Juel stood near the edge of a cliff looking down at the valley below in her elegant Praetorian armor, created just for her shape, now with its helmet on. Her spiked steel colored crown was attached to her helmet, shining beautifully from the rays of the low hanging sun. Like AAA-707 the spiked crown was the lonely indication that it was empress Juel. Qruall stopped for a moment to take in the beauty of the scenery in front of him. He quickly got his servitor to take a photo and save it. It wasn't every day that you got to experience such a view with the empress of all people after all. He walked towards his empress but was stopped a few meters away from her when the Royal Commander stepped in between them, his hard light halberd hung loosely in his right hand. The admiral gulped as the pitch black visor stared straight into his very being, scanning him for any weaknesses and debating how to finish him off the quickest way possible. Minutes passed by without anyone moving and simply stared at each other until AAA-707 suddenly moved to the side and gesturing for him to move forward. Qruall hesitated for a few moments. The sudden move from the Royal Commander seemed so random. Qruall Shook his head and pulled himself together and step forward, past the commander of Praetorian Guard, who kept sending armor piercing stares at his back.

Qruall stopped a few steps behind Juel and bowed respectfully. "Your majesty." He said before standing up again. A hand gestured from Juel told him stand by her side. He moved to her right and looked out over the huge valley beneath them. Once a large river had cut the great valley in two but the river was now as dry as a dessert and like everywhere else on the planet, devoid of life. Ruins from a city could be seen on both sides of the river. A few craters was scattered across the valley where large energy blast had hit the ground from orbit.

"What happened here?" Qruall asked out loudto no one practically. Of course he already knew the answer to his question. It must have been a Forerunner bombing but why would have bombed the city like that? As far as he could tell the city had no strategic value at all and it didn't seem like it had had the strength to withstand any kind of major assault. He guessed that the city had tried to surrender to the Forerunners in the hopes that they would spare their lives. Sadly they had thought wrong and they had paid with their lives for that mistake. The battle had taken place more than a hundred thousand years ago so he could be gravely mistaken.

"There's another place I need visit before we return from to the fleet." Juel said before she turned on her heels and headed back towards her dropship, the praetorian guards following at a slow phase.

"And there's that, if I may ask, your majesty?" Qruall turned his back to the valley and dead city and moved towards his men, who all stood near his personal dropship.

Juel looked over her shoulder and shot the admiral a small smile, or that's what Qruall thought he did under that pitch black visor. "Oh nowhere important, just making sure that a sudden prisoner still is in its cell that's all." Qruall stopped for a moment process what his Empress had just said to him. His eyes widen when realized who she was talking about.

"Your majesty, are you referring to THAT?" Juel had made up the ramp of her ship and turned to face the admiral.

"Yes, yes I am." The ramp closed and the Empress ship took off with great speed. Qruall signed to himself and made his way into his ship before ordering it to follow the Empress.

_Ω_

Juel, Qruall and their troops stood in a large empty hall deep down under the surface of the planet. Juel was boiling with rage and it was rubbing off on her guard through the telepathic network they shared. Ancestors have mercy on those who boarded the Empress' flagship right now. They would be ripped to pieces. Qruall and his soldiers had moved far into the background as to not be the target of the rage that radiated from royal guards.

"Where? Where is it!?" Juel yelled at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing in the empty hall. "Where's the stasis chamber with the Prisoner of Charum Hakkor?" Juel yelled again and looked in the direction of qruall and his men. Her death stare of rage was soon followed be all the praetorian guards. Qruall and his soldiers took a few steps back of fear.

"M-maybe… Maybe the Forerunners took it?" It was all he could come up with at the moment but to his disappointment the Empress shook her head.

"No, the Forerunners would have been able to move it." She dropped the death stare and relaxed, as did the praetorian guards much to everyone's joy. "The stasis chamber was attached to Precursor constructs and this actually leads to my next question. Do you know what it is, admiral?" Juel kicked to ruble on the floor before looking back at Qruall, waiting for an answer.

"N-no, your majesty, I don't." Qruall shook his head. Juel laughed at that and Qruall could only look confused at her. When her laugher died out she titled her head to the side and gave him her question.

"Charum Hakkor was home to countless Precursor structures and ruins but have you seen any since we arrived?" She was right. Charum Hakkor was once covered by precursor structures but so far they had only seen what was left of their own civilizations ruins. Precursor constructs was said to be indestructible so what had happened to them? Unknown to Qruall he would figure it out a lot faster than he had thought. Juel and the Praetorian Guard froze for but a second but it was long enough for Qruall to notice it. One of the guards suddenly pulled out a cube shaped machine, no larger than it could fit in the guard's hand, and threw it into the air in front of Juel. The cube stopped midair and started to glow from all sides before it released a pulse of energy and created a true copy of the solar system.

"What's happening?" Asked Qruall when he got closer to Juel.

"Some of the servitors on my ship detected a small abnormally in the systems celestial bodies' rotation around the sun." Juel said as lines and curves appeared on the hologram they stood inside of, showing how Charum Hakkor and other celestial bodies should have been. The celestial bodies started to move backwards while insane and nearly impossible calculations were solved here and there until it all came to a stop and a new object had appeared on the hologram. A massive ring shaped construct, 30.000 kilometers in diameter, clearly of Forerunner design had entered the system through a slipspace portal. A Halo.

"W-what is that?" Qruall almost whispered. Juel just shook her head "Whatever it is it's what destroyed the Percursor structures and wiped out all life in the system. That is if the scans are correct of course." Juel signed and shook her head. She felt sick that the Forerunners could do something like that and for what purpose? Had their ancestors put up that much of a fight to have driven the Forerunners to such extreme measures? Or was it something else entirely… The Flood perhaps. The Prisoner had clearly escaped from its prison because of that ring. What had happened after that was impossible to say at the moment. She needed to get in touch with the Lord of Admirals Aldu Tasmor. Hopefully he had successfully conquered the Capital by now or at least gathered some information about the status of Forerunner and Flood activities in the galaxy. But right now she needed this planet and the others terraformed so they could begin preparations for colonization.

"Admiral, order the fleet to launch all Orbs of Life at once. I want all solid planets habitable within 48 hours" With that said she headed towards the exit and back to the surface.

_Ω_

The two Shadow Wasps soon left the thermosphere of Charum Hakkor just in time to spot the last of the hundreds of small stations surrounding the planet. As soon as the two dropships were a few hundred kilometers away from the Orbs of Life a powerful energy field spread out from all of them, enclosing the planet. Time inside the circular dome sped to hundreds of thousands of times faster than normal. Matter converters on the stations changed the very surface and layers of the planet. Desserts turned into seas and the once scotched and barren earth turned into fertile land. All this happen over the next 10 hours. First the surprise attack on the Capital and now the colonization of their old capital system. The Prehistoric Human Empire had truly returned. And Juel could not stop herself from letting an evil smile cross her lips as she sat on her throne and lusted for Forerunner blood and the destruction of everything they had ever created.