How and Why they disappeared by Aaron Nestor
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The life of the Holy ones
Date: 6 November 2004, 1:55 AM
The ring itself was like a living thing. Gabriel had always known this. He had felt the beating of its soul as he walked its artifical lands. His before kin had built the great structure, one of hundreds. It was a fortress world, as the others called it, but he felt no safer. He knew that beneath his feet squirmed thousands upon millions of the only thing that his people feared most, the Flood.
These parasitic forms could tap into the very soul of his own kind and transform them into a form with no shape. He had seen it happen many times before to a clumsy technician who accidentally released a floodgate. The Sentinels would destroy the soul before it could be transformed. Many of his own had left to the home world and to other colonies. Only he and a thousand others remained to maintain and examine the species and their ways. He many a day he walked the soft vegetated ground next to a sheer drop off and harmonious water fall. A bridge like expansion, really a transfer tube for the "blood" of the construct, crossed over the hilt of the mighty fall. He walked across and through a long valley. It led to a large exhuast system, which vented unwanted heat deep into space. Underneath the structure is a large area where the waste release is kept in order. He kept going until he entered a large cavern built into the mountain. He followed this passage to a light bridge, which was in service all the time. He crossed and kept and following until he stepped out into light again. He crossed into a valley where another exauhast system was located. He walked inside and down a passage, which led into the work area. A large blue flash erupted from the bottom of the chamber and shot into the sky. The heat from it made his skin tingle, and led goose bumps up and over his body. A passageway opened up into one of the walls. He walked through and followed a winding narrow path down deep into the recesses of the construct. As he neared the bottom many of his brethren appeared working furiously to store the last of the flood into the new containment areas. These new areas had vents, which could be opened to release the Flood into space, rendering them helpless to the vacuum. The Flood species were kept in a cyro state until they were safely secured in the cells. Guards stood on either side of the door. Their armor was bulky with no soft spots where the infectious forms could penetrate. They carried weapons which could easily rupture the tiny beings. They nodded as he walked past, but kept a straight stance as if waiting for an attack. Gabriels' journey led him deep into the false world. He rode many lifts into deep places. He was headed to the Control Room. There he would be able to find out when he could leave the dangerous place. As the lift came to a hault a shudder shook him to his core. That shudder could only be one thing. Gabriel quickly ran off the lift and out into a large room. Here steam rose up through a tube, and his good friend Josh was checking for cracks when the shudder. He looked up to see Gabriel running towards him yelling.
"The Flood have been released, run!" Josh did just as he was told. He dropped his data pad and ran for the lift. Gabriel entered the same lift and it began to rise to the surface. They ran through room after room with the same chaos in each one.
The surface was a beautiful sight to see from the lower levels. A siren sounded every where as the Floods known release spread. Gabriel kept running, to where he didn't know but where ever it was it was safer than staying still. He reached down and grabbed his weapon. As he ran thoughts ran through his head. What happened to the powerful guards who were trained from birth to defend against the Flood. What of the mighty Sentinels. And what would happen to them.
How could this of happened. They were so careful on handling the creatures. But now was not the time to think of that. A swarm of Sentinels flew over head. And a blue orb floated down to them.
"Greetings masters, my duties will now have to be carried out. We must hurry the Flood are spreading."
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