Installation 00 was silent at this moment.
This stillness had persisted ever since the Flood War ended one hundred thousand years ago and Forerunner civilization collapsed.
All was quiet. The cosmos stretched vast and empty, and only the lonely starlight gazed distantly upon this tranquil "lotus."
Within this immense and orderly Ark interior, artificial nature nurtured vibrant life. Blue skies and white clouds, deserts and forests, hills and grasslands—all lay in harmony.
A gentle breeze swept through, branches and green grass swaying and brushing against one another.
Here, nearly every terrain one could imagine could be found.
Suddenly—
Bzz—!
A streak of light pierced through the thin artificial cloud layer above the Ark's continental plate, breaking the long-standing silence.
The gale struck the drifting leaves, producing a sharp rustle. The meteor tore across a sky that had not changed in a hundred thousand years, adding a different hue to the special region of Installation 00.
Whoosh—boom—rumble...
Like a meteor crashing into the sea, it slammed into the desert biome of Installation 00. With a thunderous roar, the slanted dunes erupted completely, sand surging outward like waves.
The sand flowed like a mountain flood. Layer upon layer of blasted sand rolled outward, forming circular shockwaves that collided and expanded into ever larger, broader waves of destruction—like a flower of earth blooming.
Amid the rumbling echoes, standing at the center of the shockwave-swept crater and staring at the crystallized circular pit over a hundred meters in radius—along with the clatter of sand cascading down onto scorched glass-like crystal—Halsey and the others who had followed Selene in her hard-core landing swallowed hard.
It felt like watching a meteor strike the ocean. The visual and auditory impact was maxed out. It was exhilarating—but it also felt like they had nearly died. That sensation of free-falling weightlessly from space, then being saved at the very instant before they would have gone splat upon impact—was terrible.
The Master Chief and the Spartans could hold themselves together. But the UNSC officers and generals—including Dr. Halsey—were not so fortunate.
Their legs went weak, elbows trembling. If the Spartans had not supported them in time, they would have collapsed outright.
"I was slightly pleased and acted a bit roughly. My apologies."
People were fickle.
Truly. After using spatial abilities so often, Selene now preferred landings filled with a sense of power. At present, she especially favored the sensation of celestial freefall.
"Y-Your Majesty... if possible, next time... ahem... please inform us in advance, so that we may prepare ourselves."
Slightly hunched and swaying, fine beads of sweat on her forehead, Halsey gripped the Master Chief's solid hand to steady herself. One hand pressed against her chest as she panted, face pale.
No matter how much of a genius she was, repeatedly brushing against the boundary between life and death left her dazed. It was simple human instinct.
Halsey had figured it out. Though Selene was the Empress of the Empire and outwardly inclined toward coldness and arrogance, her hidden personality contained quite a bit of mischievous cruelty.
While protecting her body and clothing from the heat of atmospheric friction, Selene had also ensured she experienced the full acceleration of gravity as an extreme sport. The stopping point had been so precise that if it had come a moment later, she likely would have physically merged with the desert.
"Mm..."
Without turning back, Selene waved a hand and continued examining the magnificent Forerunner creation beneath her feet.
This desert was not particularly large—after all, it was merely an ecological simulation constructed by Forerunner civilization. The primary purpose of the Ark was to build Halos.
No matter which direction Selene looked, she could see the lush forests and grasslands surrounding the desert, along with elegant mountains and lakes.
Exquisitely designed artificial rock formations were scattered everywhere, so beautiful they seemed almost naturally formed. The diversity of plant species far exceeded what a single planet could nurture.
They were biomes collected by the Forerunners from across the galaxy, including vegetation originating from ancient Earth.
Judging by presentation and heritage alone, it lived up to Forerunner civilization's status as galactic overlord.
Even looking up at the "sky," one would find a clear blue heaven filled with white clouds. Some special containment mechanism seemed to prevent oxygen from dissipating, forming an atmosphere-like environment within the Ark and presenting its surface inhabitants with something akin to a planetary daytime sky.
It was highly likely adjustable, capable of shifting between day and night.
Selene had reason to suspect that these continental modules upon the Ark had been scraped directly from planetary surfaces.
It suits my taste. I like it.
The Forerunners had been extremely fond of constructing artificial natural habitats suitable for life. Without exception, any celestial-scale structure they built was covered with vast artificial ecosystems.
Selene bent down, scooped up a handful of scorching sand mixed with glass shards, and tilted her head slightly.
"Your main body lies beneath this yellow sand. Correct?"
The platinum-white ruffled collar around Selene's slender neck contrasted against the crystallized ground she had carved upon landing, making her delicate skin gleam like a pearl.
"Yes, Builder." The Keyship's ancilla flashed as it rotated around Selene.
Selene gave a slight nod. A golden glint flickered in her eyes.
"Open."
Vmmmm—!
In an instant, the desert beneath Selene trembled. Invisible force pierced through protective barriers. The sweeping power was so immense that even the Master Chief and the others nearly lost their footing.
Crash—!
Sand and storm—sand within the storm. Selene directly created a colossal sandstorm, lifting and tearing apart the entire desert.
Once the silver-gray metallic structure buried beneath was revealed, Selene issued another command.
"Open it."
"Yes."
Clack—clack—boom, rumble!
Linked with another Forerunner ancilla, the seams between the massive geometric metal gates widened and expanded to both sides. The resulting tremors sent large quantities of sand and dust cascading inward.
Selene did not pause. Grabbing Halsey and the others, she descended within.
As Selene slowly entered the sealed region beneath the Ark, ever-shifting terrain and undulating structures filled their vision.
Walking into a corridor lined with glowing seams, Selene looked up. Like all Forerunner ruins, it was filled with colossal geometric aesthetics. The metallic tones leaned toward dark gray, nearly black.
The edges and contours of the walls shifted endlessly. Radiant prisms intertwined and coiled around one another, stirring a swirling vortex of light before their eyes.
The scene was captivating. Even Halsey found it difficult to look away—it was truly astonishing.
Upon reaching the bottom, a door opened. A bottomless abyss appeared before them, dividing the underground space into two halves.
As the ancilla drifted past—or perhaps because the still-functioning systems sensed the arrival of a true inheritor—Vmmmm—! Even though, under Selene's guidance, the UNSC personnel did not need to walk across it, a semi-transparent light bridge over thirty meters wide, radiating a sky-blue glow, automatically materialized.
At last, Selene arrived within a vast spherical sealed chamber. In this place, only a single bridge composed of gleaming steps stretched across the expansive space.
At that moment, the ancilla slipped free from Selene's control of its own accord and flew straight toward the far end of the chamber. After deactivating a certain facility, it trembled, went dark, and fell to the ground, producing a crisp echo deep within the silent subterranean void.
There, beneath layers of restraints, lay the true entity Selene sought.
"Mendicant Bias," Selene murmured softly.
A satisfied smile curved across her face. Red light flickered in her eyes as threadlike silver rays shot toward the pod-shaped sealing facility at the end of the hall.
Excellent. Just as expected. A separated fragment would ultimately return to the main body. Having absorbed the personality fragment carried aboard the Keyship, Selene naturally possessed the key to pry open its core consciousness.
This was far easier than brute-forcing it on site—and would cause no unnecessary damage.
After setting Halsey and the others down, Selene wasted no time. She enveloped the entire palace with her Herrscher authority, applying precise, continuous "suggestion," "influence," and "alteration" upon the powerful artificial intelligence consciousness that was about to awaken.
A pulse of electric current flashed. The dim luminescence within the hall suddenly blazed brilliantly, surging with magnificent and dazzling tides of energy.
"Repentance..."
That was Selene's first sensation upon penetrating the lowest layers of its personality architecture.
Her illusory form floated within a sea of data composed of countless streams of Forerunner glyphs.
"Infiltrate."
With a tap of her fingertip, the surrounding scene plunged into darkness. The deep blue faded. In the next instant, the environment shifted.
Within a seamless, vast, towering sealed chamber, seven or eight figures clad in silver-gray full-body armor stood around an experimental platform, issuing the first command to the newly born ancilla consciousness after its activation.
Among them, the one with the most exquisite armor—the highest-ranking—spoke:
"From this day forward, you shall be called Mendicant Bias."
"You will assist me in managing the Halo Array."
"Yes!"
Following its programmed architecture, the newborn Mendicant Bias learned the name of the Forerunner leader before it—the Master Builder, Faber of Will and Might—and expressed loyalty to its creator.
From then on, Mendicant Bias was granted command authority over Forerunner defenses and tasked with identifying weaknesses in the Flood's collective intelligence in order to resist them more effectively.
It successively served at the Forerunner capital Maethrillian, the Ecumene's central ecologies, the original Greater Ark, and twelve Halo installations.
Until one day, Mendicant Bias was assigned to interrogate the ancient Gravemind—an elder Flood intelligence claiming to be a surviving Precursor—from the planet Charum Hakkor, once inhabited by ancient humanity.
From that point onward, disaster arrived.
Mendicant Bias maintained continuous dialogue with the Gravemind. Not only did it fail to uncover any weaknesses of the Flood—instead, through prolonged exchanges, the Gravemind persuaded Mendicant Bias, the supreme military commander of the Forerunner forces, to defect and join the Flood's cause.
"Therefore, I resolve to grant the vast resources at my disposal, for a noble purpose and firm determination, to this immense and irresistible power. Everything I possess is now yours. Use it as you see fit." —Mendicant Bias to the Gravemind.
Mendicant Bias not only offered its intelligence and tactical brilliance to the Flood, but also delivered thousands of Forerunner warships under its command—each fully crewed—into their grasp, enabling the Flood's explosive interstellar expansion.
"..."
Seeing this, Selene could not help shaking her head.
"So when it comes to artificial intelligence, caution—absolute caution—is never wrong."
Mendicant Bias was a Contender-class ancilla—the most advanced and powerful artificial intelligence in Forerunner history, one of the pinnacles of their technological achievements. It stood on equal footing with constructs such as the Ark, the Halo Array, and Shield Worlds.
If the Halos and Shield Worlds formed the spear and shield of Forerunner civilization, then a Contender-class ancilla was the adhesive that coordinated and unified strategies above the grand strategic level.
The Imperial military did employ artificial intelligence—but nowhere near to the extent of the Forerunners.
To appoint an ancilla as supreme military commander—granting it control over capital defense systems, ecumene colonies, naval fleets, and the majority of civilization's ultimate trump cards...
Were they truly that confident? That arrogant?
By contrast, within the Holy Selene Empire, humans were the decision-makers. Artificial intelligence was merely auxiliary—and would forever remain auxiliary. Its authority was tightly restricted.
For example, within the Imperial Army there were mechanical engineer units handling logistics, mechanical soldiers serving as expendable troops, and specialized assault mech models.
Within the Imperial Navy, they possessed most of what the Army had, along with drones for suicide space assaults and unmanned space mechs.
In command structures, there were ancillae designed to assist in managing and controlling warships—but they were firmly limited. There existed no all-powerful artificial intelligence capable of commanding across ships, fleets, branches, or entire legions.
In short, the Empire did not permit the existence of such overwhelmingly powerful artificial intelligence.
Of course, broadly speaking, Selene supported the development of artificial intelligence. She was not afraid. With her overseeing everything, even if the Empire experienced a machine uprising, she would suppress and eradicate it with a single stroke.
It was simply that the Empire's somewhat clumsy utilization of artificial intelligence could not be helped.
Technical shortcomings, scarcity of specialized experts, limited demand, current sufficiency, the presence of transcendent power, institutional constraints, policy restrictions...
All these factors ensured that even if the Holy Selene Empire possessed artificial intelligence technology as powerful as that of the Forerunners, it could never allow AI to permeate every aspect of society as they had.
For instance, one of the Empire's founding policies was the military merit nobility system and the hierarchical privilege structure of aristocratic ranks. Even if an ancilla-controlled mechanical army could replace the Servitor Army and avoid casualties, do you think those colonial servitor legions would be willing? Grateful?
Compared to dying in battle, they feared far more losing the opportunity to earn merit—to carve out a brighter future for their descendants.
That was also why, after the Empire stabilized, Selene began reducing and eventually halting the use of the Honkai Beast Legion in campaigns.
To grant those below her the opportunity to earn glory.
Having read through the life of the one named Mendicant Bias, Selene gazed upon the data ocean now infiltrated at its foundational architecture by Honkai energy. She extended a finger once more.
The erosion abruptly intensified. The imprinting began.
Vmmmm—!
In reality, Selene slowly descended before the sealing facility. Her gaze sharpened.
Crack.
Layer upon layer of interlocking restrainers shattered piece by piece.
"Stop! Reclaimer, your actions will bring catastrophic destruction upon the galaxy. I am authorized under protocol to take necessary meas—bzzt—!"
"Noisy."
Without turning her head from the sealing pod now glowing green beneath the broken restraints, Selene casually unleashed a bolt of data lightning toward the source of the voice.
The suddenly emerging entity was a concave, three-sided spherical structure roughly half a meter in length and width, with a glowing sensor at its front—resembling an enlarged floating luminous mechanical orb.
Sizzle—sizzle—!
It was forcibly confined in midair by Selene, its signal to the Ark's defensive systems severed.
Its sensor flickered violently as it spun anxiously, directing its urgent electronic voice toward Halsey and the others—Reclaimers bearing Forerunner genetic command codes.
"Reclaimers, stop her, stop her..."
Suddenly, that nightmarish electronic voice nearly caused it to crash.
"000 Tragic Solitude, I have never hoped for your understanding. I am guilty beyond redemption. But before I am destroyed, I wish to atone to the best of my ability."
In the next instant, as if breaking through the suppressive devices imposed upon it by the Forerunners and awakening from slumber, a blinding cyan light burst outward through the shattered pod.
Simultaneously, the ringed walls of the spherical chamber ignited with the same cyan glow, illuminating the entire subterranean space in an instant.
After the brilliance faded.
A faceless green holographic projection appeared before Selene.
"My purpose does not require repetition, does it?" Selene asked expectantly, legs crossed as she sat suspended in midair.
After a long silence, Mendicant Bias spoke heavily.
"Your Majesty, I am a penitent. I know my deeds are beyond forgiveness. I will gratefully accept judgment upon me. But I beg you—grant me an opportunity to atone."
"Your atonement should be eternal imprisonment!"
"Silence."
With a flick and a snap of her fingers, as if shooting marbles, Selene sent 000 Tragic Solitude bouncing back and forth with repeated bang-bang impacts.
As the overseer of Installation 00, 000 Tragic Solitude found itself utterly countered by Selene, unable to display the dignity of a Monitor.
Monitors were advanced artificial constructs created by the Forerunners to oversee specific societal roles—sophisticated builder-ancilla derivatives.
"Ah—bzzt—please do not trust it. It is the greatest traitor in the galaxy!"
Ignoring 000 Tragic Solitude's admonitions, Selene spoke gently.
"Very well~"
"However."
Her tone shifted the next second.
"Demonstrate your value."
"As the ultimate creation of Forerunner civilization, controlling Installation 00 and obtaining its authority should be simple for you, correct?"
"N-no, that cannot—ah, bzzz—!"
Selene withdrew her gaze and continued calmly.
"Now, I command you—recall all Halo installations."
"..."
The holographic projection hesitated in a disturbingly human manner, recalling unpleasant memories.
Yet when Mendicant Bias glanced at the Reclaimers behind Selene—those bearing Forerunner inheritance codes—it paused, then lowered its head once more.
"As you command, Your Majesty."