"I don't want to ever do that again." I snorted as Douglas whined about their journey through slipspace.
Since their ship had yet to be refitted to our specs, they had to sit in cryo for a month as we cleaned up and cleared Etran's debris field. There had been little left, but we made sure there were no Flood spores left anywhere. Not even one.
After that, we'd returned to the Ark to let the SpiritofFire's crew rest and relax as we repaired their ship. They'd all been amazed by the view and had already begun mingling with the local Forerunners who'd shed their armor to live somewhat normal lives.
Speaking of armor, I'd had Cutter, Red Team, and Professor Ander fitted with their own armor. They were interesting to be around when not behind a screen, and it would be interesting to learn more about them.
Red Team had, of course, been on edge the entire time. Not once had Douglas relaxed; Jerome and Alice had tried, but not Douglas.
Cutter had de-aged to a few years younger after the Lifeworkers got their hands on him. He spent most of his time making sure the Builder didn't change too much of his ship, since he'd grown very fond of her and her crew.
Ander had been busy chasing me, asking questions for the past few days. She'd figured out how to use her armor pretty quickly and got along well with the onboard Ancilla. Speaking of Ancilla.
Serina had obviously been upgraded, just like her ship. She was now the Ancilla within Cutter's armor, as the two spent most of their time going over their ship to keep the 'spirit' intact.
Right now I was busy hiding from Anders on my ship, since I'd grown very tired of her questions.
[Gift from beyond the veil, 1x Random Gold Ticket!] (Gang_Goose)
Great, at least I had something to do other than wander the ship or the Ark. Spin it!
[Spinning, spinning, spinning, done!
[Tinker - Melee Weapons]
|Elite Ability|
Allows you to build technological constructs or contraptions related to melee weapons, like fire swords, vibration blades, grenade hammers, etc. If it's a melee weapon and not magic, you can probably build it.
Eh, not too good, not too bad.
I ignored the barrage of questions Anders sent my way through her armor as I went looking for Cutter. I found him not on his ship, but relaxing in the village with some crew members.
"Ah, Commander. Do you need something?" He asked as I shook my head. I deactivated my helmet and grinned when Cutter nearly choked on his drink. I'd pat him on the back, but I might break through the armor and snap his spine, so better not.
Once he recovered, he joined his crew in looking at me in shock.
"Are you a human?" He finally asked, and again, I shook my head.
"No, I'm another alien. Just look a lot like humanity is all. Any other questions?"
Cutter thought for a moment, but Serina spoke up first. "How did you take control of the Spartan's armor and my ship?" I set down a small holo-projector as Mendicant Bias appeared. That made the few Forerunners present tense, but they didn't say a word.
"That would be the work of this guy, Mendicant Bias. A shard of him, at least." I said as Cutter set down Serina's projector, and the two Ancilla began speaking about something in their own language; better to ignore them for now.
"What is this place?" Cutter gestured to the Ark. "What are you people, and how do you have all this technology?" I thought of the best way to go about this, and got up. "Come on, if you're gonna learn history, Anders is too."
Once we'd gathered Anders, Serina, and Red Team, who tagged along, I brought the humans to what was called the Hall of Remembrance. Basically a library, but Tragic Solitude insisted we give it a fancy name.
As we entered, they gazed at the massive murals that told the story of the Forerunners and their downfall. I began at the start.
"Forerunners trace their origins back to a small collection of twelve star systems in the Orion Complex. Around that time, the dominant species of the galaxy, the Precursors, also seeded humanity, who grew alongside the Forerunners.
After an astroengineering accident reduced their original home world to a radiation hellhole, the Forerunners began surpassing humanity in both wisdom and technology. As the Forerunners began to expand into the wider galaxy, they discovered remnants of the now-gone Precursors and believed themselves worthy of their Mantle of guardianship of all life.
The Precursors were not gone, however, and did not approve of the Forerunners' arrogance. It is believed the Precursors intended humanity to bear the Mantle, but none know for sure.
Regardless, this sparked a bloody genocide that was led by the then dominant rate of Warrior Servants. The Forerunners fought and killed every Precursor within the galaxy before finally ending the war in the satellite galaxy of Path Kethona.
Once the war ended, time erased the true history of it, and most simply believed that the Precursors had departed peacefully after the Forerunners took hold of the Mantle. Those who investigated were silenced by Warriors and Builders.
For the next ten million years, the Forerunners dominated the galaxy with a forced peace under the Mantle. They, of course, waged many civil wars against each other and between races, but that isn't important.
Eventually, the Forerunners were at war with Humanity after a sudden spike in human aggression. They went from world to world, burning planets down to glass, causing the Forerunners to rally against this supposed act against the Mantle.
Of course, the Forerunners were beyond humanity, and once defeated, they devolved the humans and exiled them to their ancient home world of Erde Tyrene. It was only after the war that some Forerunners discovered why humanity was fighting.
They discovered that humanity was not expanding, but running from an extragalactic parasite they called the Flood. Humanity had been pushed so far by the Flood that they were attacking new worlds to find safe places to live, and burning any world they found already infected.
When the Council asked for proof, not much was found since humanity had pushed the parasite beyond the galaxy. Even so, enough was found that the Didact deemed them a threat, calling for the creation of Shield Worlds to guard them should the Flood return.
The Council overruled this, electing instead to follow the plan of the Master Builder. The plan was to forge massive superweapons capable of sterilizing the galaxy, starving the Flood by killing its food.
The Librarian and her Lifeworkers were outraged, and so were allowed to preserve all the species they could. I personally helped index thousands of worlds full of life, all in the hope of preserving them should the worst happen.
In the end, the Flood did return nine millennia later. The Ecumene could not fight them, however; weakened by the Master Builder's decimating of the Warrior Servants, the Ecumene was unable to mount a proper defense against the parasite.
Though still able to force a stalemate with the Flood, their strict adherence to the Mantle's role of protecting life meant the Forerunners were unwilling to destroy the Flood, instead treating it like a disease.
For three centuries, they held the Flood back as increasingly more dangerous things were used against them. Sentinels, Prometheans, Supernova, Ancilla- more advanced than you can imagine.
Nothing worked; all it did was stem the tide as the Flood consumed the galaxy.
In the end, after a thousand plans were tried and failed, the Forerunners lit the rings. The galaxy was cleansed of all sentient life capable of sustaining the Flood, and the war was over.
Even then, large swathes of Flood remained. The IsoDidact and I led the charge alongside Mendicant and Offensive Bias to cleanse what remained of the Flood. For the next thousand years we did so, as the reseeding of all life began.
Even then, not all were saved, and many worlds no longer existed. In the end, however, all life was seeded anew, and half of the Forerunners left the galaxy. They rightly saw how the Mantle had been abused by the Forerunners, and decided to leave and let life find its own way.
Those who still wished to make a change stayed with me, here on the Ark. For millennia now we have kept the galaxy safe, both from the Flood and other things that had tried to enter. We have watched the races of the galaxy grow and flourish, and we await the day we can pass down the Mantle to you, humanity."