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Halo Installation 01
Posted By: FOrunnER
Date: 17 January 2004, 2:56 AM


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Halo Installation 01



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Hey guys. Sorry for my lack of writing in the past....long time. I'm sorry to say that neither of my former series the Second War or Spartan III's will be continuing. I've just lost my drive to finish those. I hope you guys enjoy this one though.

Peace Out
-FOrunnER
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The Ninth Era, 500 Units, Unknown System en route to Gas Giant, Aboard Covenant Flagship Reclaimer

       Narbo Nabamee, a gold clad elite, stared out of the view screen. His ship, the Reclaimer, had just jumped in system only two units (minutes) ago, stars winkled in the inky blackness, and a large orange gas giant blocked half the view screen. Dozens of moons slowly circled around it, creamy white ones with frozen oceans, blood red ones with lava pools on the surface, blue ones with nitrogen rich atmospheres. It gave the illusion of jewels orbiting a giant golden globe. Both awe inspiring and beautiful. It had the ability to captivate you, make you realize that there were so many wonders out there that you couldn't hope to explore them all in two life times. And to think that only one race had given birth to it all, and subsequently had the power to end it just as fast. Adrenaline flooded Nabamee's brain. Such power at the tips of your fingers was unimaginable...unthinkable...overwhelming. If they could harness the power of the gifts the Forerunner had left them, it would mark the dawn of a new era for the Covenant species. They could wipe this universe clean, and rebuild it to there will, creating a haven where the Great Ones spirits could rest in piece.
       Immediately he regained control of himself and straightened his posture. He was letting his mind wander to far. For them to be able to have the pleasure of making such a Universe they would first have to find and gain control of all the Halos, a feat that alone could take thousands of years. Then they would have to find the Great Temple, another feat that could take thousands of years. There Engineers estimated that the Covenant Empire, which had been around for roughly three-thousand years, had only explored 20% of the Galaxy. From what the prophets said, this galaxy was only one of trillions in the ever-looping Universe, the Halo(s) and the Great Temple could be anywhere in the vast expanse. He would not live to see this great haven that the Prophets had foretold of, but he would make sure that future generations of Covenant would.
       He looked down from his command platform at a red clad Elite seated at the navigation console, "You, move us at mark 5088x0401 alongside the planet, then launch the exploration team".
       The red elite nodded and punched a series of buttons on his console, the engines rumbled as he feed power to them. Nabamee turned to the other gold clad Elite standing beside him, his second in-command and personal consultant, "Orsolee, you will be in charge of the ship while I am gone".
       Orsolee looked at him, "Gone?"
      "I will be accompanying the exploration team. I want to lay eyes on The Key myself, make sure my personal drop ship is prepared and ready to fly", he explained.
      "Excellency, it is not wise that you go. I am sure that the Prophets would highly disagree with an officer of your caliber to risk yourself in a possibly dangerous.....", Nabamee shot him a look that could stop plasma in its tracks
      "I have full authorization from the Council themselves to do whatever is necessary to make sure that The Key is found. The chances of success will be greatly increased if I go along, given my previous ground-combat experience", he faced the Elite so that both 8' foot tall warriors could look each other eye to eye, "If you ever question my orders again, no matter how loyal you have been the previous years, you will be executed. Slowly. Painfully. Do you understand?"
       Orsolee returned his stare, he didn't buckle, however he was not defiant either. Either one of those would have him killed. If he buckled it would be a sign of weakness, weak warriors were no warriors, and quickly disposed of. Defiance would show that he was not capable of following orders, therefore also of no use. Master of his emotions, his reply was neutral, "I understand Excellency, I will see to it that your ship is prepared to fly". He bowed then exited the bridge.
       Nabamee grinned. Orsolee was smart and honorable, which was why off duty they were close friends. However that didn't mean he wouldn't have executed him, they both knew that. They had an obligation to the Covenant empire to root out any wildcards or weak links, anything else was dishonorable. He looked back at the view screen and at the gas giant that was steadily getting closer.......



Same time, Unknown System, near Halo Installation 01

       At the same half-way across the Galaxy, a basketball sized hole appeared in space. The Slipspace hole expanded and stretched, motes of green light bathing the surrounding space. A metallic gray construct shot out from the hole at blinding speed just before the hole closed. It continued on its course for nearly seventy minutes before it finally slowed. The metallic glob slowly powered up, the central 'eye' glowing a faint blue-white. Diagnostics scrolled down the AI's view screen.

      [DIAGNOSTICS: POWER CELL INTACT
       PRIMARY SLIPSPACE DRIVE INTACT
       INTELLICANE CODE RETRIEVED: sec. protocol activated as per directive X11A-Source Coding. Retrieving memory banks......
WARNING: Flood escape probability at 99.99999%. Raising Power and Awareness levels to MAXIMUM drive. Secondary Protocol override. New Primary Protocol: Warn Halo Installation 01 Monitor of Crisis. Proceed by following Flood Outbreak Control Procedure B IMMEDIANTLY!!]

       At that moment the human equivalent of a jolt 'woke' the AI known as 343 Guilty Spark. It took him a moment for his memory banks to upload, then he remembered. "Oh dear..."
       The AI turned around and flew towards a large terrestrial planet, covered in a thick sulpher-oxide atmosphere that covered it in a hazy brown fog, three pasty white moons directing the tides of the liquid hydrogen oceans below the fog. In any normal situation he would have liked to tour the Forerunner stations there, for he had not explored any of Halo 01's substations in a millennia, but his primary protocol forced him in a tight orbit to come around on the dark side of the planet....and there it was. The HQ installation of all Forerunner installations in the Universe, next to the Great Temple. Because Halo 01 was positioned on the dark side of the planet, the Halo was in a state of permanent night.
       Once he was within three hundred meters of the rings artificial gravity well, his systems came into contact with the outer teleportation grid. The same type of emergency grid he had used to escape Installation 04's demise. Channeling the kinetic teleportation waves, he found a path through the outer grid and into the inner grid, then towards his destination. Once he plotted his course, he disappeared in a flash of amber light. He reappeared on a sandy beach bordering one of the Installations oceans. Directly in front of him was a large gray structure built into a cliff face. A platform jutted out nearly fifty feet from the cliffs face, gradually sloping down to create a ramp, pillars supporting it. Angular spires graced upwards from the structures front, reaching towards the night sky. Instead of using the main entrance, which was quite large (big enough to fit five Scorpions side-by-side) he moved to a vent jutting out of the face a few meters from it, designed specifically for units of his classification to travel though.
       After floating through the constricting vent passageway's he dropped out into a large cavernous room. Actually, large was an understatement. MASSIVE would be more accurate, the dome shaped roof was hundreds of kilometers above Spark's 'head', the bottom being another hundred kilometers below him. Slightly lumpy objects lined the walls of the room, held in place by service clamps. Unafraid of heights, Spark hovered over to one of the clamps near the front of the room, instead of holding one of the lumpy objects, this one held another globe-shaped figure. A spark of energy shot out from 343 and hit the other AI's surface, and soon enough the AI woke with a jolt. Without a word spoken, 343 turned around and exposed his 'backside', and a data port. The other AI inserted a connecting cable, and uploaded 343's memory banks.
       "Oh dear", it murmured. A few seconds later, every lumpy object in the room opened up to reveal an army of Sentinels......

P.S. Yes, I do actually intend to finish this series.





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