0615 hours 25 November 2552
Slipspace
UNSC Able Medbay
Captain Brian Jackson, Commander Aaron Wilson and Specialist Samuel Rogers stood transfixed at the Arrow of Apollo hovering inside the faraday cage. When alerts sounded.
"Energy surge detected." a technician called "its coming from inside the…." he was unable to finish as the arrow blinked and reappeared outside the cage near the ceiling.
"Marines inside now!" called Brian as both him and Aaron drew their sidearms and took aim at the arrow. Outside the room two marines rushed in among their DMRs at the levitating arrow but no one fired yet.
Free from the faraday's effects the translucent glow slowly faded from the Fletching moving forward up the solid gold shaft to concentrate at the tip of the head before the beam shot downward to the floor and a being appeared.
Brian and Aaron shifted aim to the…woman? While the marines continued aiming at the arrow while glancing at the being that had just appeared. When it flickered Brian lowered his pistol "its a hologram." he said looking the projection over "a damn sophisticated one."
"Greeting children of Earth." The projection said, using her hands to smooth her uniform as her hands shifted down her frame, the strange segmented black uniform shifted to mimic Captain Jackson's light grey "I mean you no harm."
"Who are you?" asked Brian "what are you?"
The hologram turned to look at Brian "I am Servitor Genesis, formerly the artificial intelligence Pasicfica of the war cruiser Atlantis."
"So you're an AI of a cruiser Atlantis and your name is Genesis. Did I understand that right?" asked Samual "who do you serve?"
At that the AI's features fell "yes you are correct. As to who I served it was a Human. His name was Lord of Admirals Forthencho Oborune." she said.
The humans looked at each other in confusion before Brian spoke up "we don't recognize the name or the rank of the man you serve."
The AI face cracked into a small smile "no i imagine you wouldn't he has been dead for approximately one hundred and ten thousand of your years at the end of the Human-Forerunner wars."
"Wait wait wait a hundred and ten thousand years? That's impossible." said Samuel. "Humans have only existed for at the most twenty thousand years. Our science history has long been proven."
The hologram held her hand up pointing at a monitor, its screen lit up showing super massive cities more advanced than anything any of them have ever dreamed of. Millions if not billions of people, thousands of planets. And wars dozens if not hundreds of them until humans united truly under one banner.
The video shows humans encountering aliens when Aaron yelled "stop!"
Everyone jumped at the sudden cry and the video froze. "Roll it back a few frames." Aaron said, his eyes narrowing.
The screen ticked backwards until Aaron said "there."
On the screen showed a handful of humans shaking the three fingered hands of a species they all recognized as "the Prophets of the Covenant." and the humans just stared in shock.
Pacifica's inner digital brain scanned through the information she had pulled from the marines and brought up the Kig yar and Unggoy species as part of the alliance against the forerunners. Short archive videos of the multiple species fighting in space and on the ground in a devastating war.
"The Human and Forerunner war raged across the galaxy for nine hundred and seventy eight years, the war spurred on by humans and their allies to create galactic wide quarantine zones to combat the flood." the Ai looked at the accumulated humans "the forerunners didn't see the flood as a danger and thus treated humanity as the aggressors forcing us to fight a two front war. The forerunner's technological edge won the war for them, but not before discovering the threat of the flood."
The AI looked at the humans watching the screen as a abbreviated version of nearly fifteen hundred years played and she continued "Once the leaders of the Forerunners discovered humans and their allies were not trying to fight a war against them but rather stop the spread of the flood rather then wipe humanity out they simply dismantled the human and their allies empires. Genetically regressing humans from an established galactic power to this."
The scene shifted from the desperate war against the flood and the forerunners to what they recognized in their own historical text as early human life with alien caretakers showing humans how to domesticate animals and simple building techniques. "The forerunners Gene manipulation forced this to happen in sixty years. However not all humans had been captured during the war; individual ships and hidden facilities had gone dark. And plans were set in motion to liberate our people while the forerunners were caught up in the war against the flood."
The scene shifted to buried asteroid bases and stealth ships quietly monitoring the forerunners fleet deployments as they tried and failed to stop the flood from encroaching into their space. Forerunner ships and human ships and their crews infected by the flood fought against the besieged forerunner ships." Here the AI's voice took on a slightly bitter tone "the forerunner flood war lasted three centuries ending with the creation and activation of the halo array."
A massive ring structure appeared on the inside; it showed forest mountains, lakes and oceans. "Twelve rings were created and placed around the galaxy. Autonomous drones left behind by the hidden humans to watch the Forerunners war, they witnessed the Forerunners home system fall to the flood and it changed something in them. They began taking genetic samples and even live subjects of species around the galaxy to a facility just outside the galaxy they referred to as the Ark. When humans discovered the purpose of these rings they gathered together and left the galaxy behind four warships and eight massive colony ships containing all that survived of our people."
A short video of eight massive ships escorted by four predatory warships made the jump away from the galaxy. "Our drones were left behind to bear witness as the forerunners' plans fell one-by-one until they saw the rings as their only way of winning and they fired off the halo array. The ten modern humans watched as a pulse fired from the rings swept over the galaxy and organic life that could support the flood died." They watched the camera feed of a drone over the Sangheili world as their ancient allies and modern enemy liquified the atomic force that held the organic cells together to fall apart. The drone was knocked off course and before it could recover slammed into an asteroid. Dozens of species likewise died as did the flood infected forms. They saw the wave wash over a Forerunner world as both sides turned into a liquid mass; the only thing moving was what the AI had called Infection forms moving about the liquified remains of the battlefield.
"In an attempt to keep ourselves hidden on the edge of this new galaxy we submerged our ships in the oceans of the world known as Kobo'lign named after our original master of Fleets. And new less advanced ships were built and armed with the most advanced kinetic weapons humanity had ever produced before the use of energy,plasma or beam."
A new video began showing what the UNSC personnel instantly recognized as upscaled Battlestars using drone fighters and robotic infantry alongside human ground and marine force "The robotic fighters and ground troops had the downloaded personalities of men and women who died in the long wars against the flood and the Forerunners however that's where it started to go wrong. The human mind is not capable of being digitized and given an immortal "soul" for lack of a better word and they began to change."
The video cut to robotic ground and space forces turning on their human comrades leading to a war and exodus of the war ravaged world. Twelve cruisers of survivors including Genesis in the cruiser Hera led the fleet to find a new world for her people.
"In order to ensure humanity remained knowledgeable of the threat in the forerunners, flood, and downloaded personalities each captain transcribed not only their personal journey but warnings mixed in to be taught as a religion to future generations so that none would forget the dangers that can arise and those that already exist."
The explanation finally done the humans stare aimlessly as their minds process what exactly they had learned. Samual speaks up first "so what is all this about the tomb of Athena and bringing the Arrow there to point the way to earth?"
Genesis looks at the Samual "Athena is the resting place for another of my Servitor siblings. She guards the navigational data for a Relay station outside both galaxies.
"If that's the case why have you never shown yourself to the humans here? They would be your organic crew's direct descendents." said Aaron "we are more like cousins once removed."
"Because Mr. Wilson." Said Genesis "none of the humans here had the gene markers unique to our home world of Erde-Tyrene removed when they Colonized Kobo'lign it caused severe neurological effects on the planet and to save our species the specific gene was removed."
"Major Darcy" realized Brian "when he picked up the arrow…"
Genesis nodded "it was a security protocol to ensure the relay never fell into the hands of the flood or surviving forerunners." she looked between the men "when your Major James Darcy picked me up i took a skin cell sample and when i saw the Erde Gene.." she lowered herself so she was the same height as Brian "i went a bit crazy in my excitement when i tried to speak to your Marines over their internals… I believe you call them implants." she winced "before I knew what happened I had accessed all of the interconnected servers of the marines. I apologize for any harm I may have caused to your men." she bowed her head.
"No serious damage was done and Darcy's marines are as tough as diamond." said Brian looking at the now dark monitor "so are we sure these forerunners and flood are all dead?"
"What about these ancient humans?" inquired Aaron "are there any chance some of them are still around? And how come we have discovered any of their ruins or drifting wreckage from their wars?"
"The forerunners's Sentinel drones were very thorough in the ten thousand years the Galaxy lay lifeless as the flood forms starved." The monitor came to life showing a massive city along its edges. It could be seen the planet's ecosystem was beginning to reclaim the land. They watched as a series of asteroids from the local belt were nudged, ending in multiple asteroid impacts erasing most if not all of the city and its remains from the planet. It switched to entire fleets of ships in space being remotely piloted into stars or gas giants. "This happened over the course of thousands of years." said Genesis "every trace of humanity and dozens of other species were erased from history. Once it was finished seedships carrying cloning material for the species of the galaxy reseeded life to hundreds of worlds. As a sign of penance for the forerunners they opted not to recreate themselves as punishment for destroying the galaxy's life. As for my ancient creators, I don't believe any of them or their descendants survived in your home galaxy."
"Why have you never revealed yourself to the humans here? Surely you could have helped them through their cylon wars?" Brian asked
"If i had been active i would have but i have been on standby to prevent insanity for approximately forty thousand of your years." Genesis said "I woke up when your major picked me up and I detected the Erde gene." she said, answering their next question.
"These ships you mentioned" said Brian " suburged in the ocean of Kobo'lign do you think they would still be there? If what you said was true they would be a great asset in the war we are fighting against the covenant. Hell, the information you possess could end the war."
"I believe they would be barring anything outside of my calculations." said Genesis "they sho... "
The Ables intercom interrupted her "emergence from slipspace in ten minutes"
"We will handle this when we arrive at Kobol." said Brian
Authors notes
SURPRISE i had some free time and before i knew it… i had 1800 words lmao so after editing and adding/removing some bits and pieces here you go enjoy
Reviews for chapter 52
Guest yes indeed it does and it's up next
I hope this clears up the universe location
Chronus i'll try and make it more pronounced pov changes