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Ring Of The Forerunners Part I
Posted By: Locke<Locke1588@aol.com>
Date: 24 December 2002, 11:01 pm
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Author's note: This is my first time publishing something on HBO. I would appreciate feedback.
Location: Earth
Year: 2025
Time: 0585
A huge asteroid was on a supposed collision course with earth. The United States government decided to keep the asteroid a secret to keep earth calm, even though they knew it would annihilate all life on earth within 2 hours and 35 minutes.
The Spacefront Guild and NASA were given permission to fund the "Noah Project". A select group of volunteers were to be put in a large ship, created on little notice, using experimental space travel technology, and a hibernation device that had only been tested on monkeys. The ship was then to be launched to a solar system where life might exist, and land in a strange world. The journey would take an estimated time of 502 years. 502 years of having their bodies perfectly preserved. It was a risk that might spare 100 or so humans- if it worked.
The impact day came, and the ship was launched. The 2 crewmembers set a course for the system and then went into hibernation. They had only traveled so far when the asteroid reached its destination. Almost... It missed Earth. All those people were put on a very risky 500-year journey for nothing.
The government could never tell anyone the terrible thing they had done.
Location: Halo
Year: 2525
Time: 0600 hours
The two Forerunners stood in the center of the massive, rotating hologram. The hologram was a map, really. A map of the amazing ring world called HALO, something ancient forerunners had built 1,000 years ago. But now these forerunners would complete their work. Halo would serve as a cage for the experimental "perfect" species: The Flood. After a millennium of interference by the Ascendants, Halo's purpose could now be fulfilled. After the first Ascendant attack on halo billions of years ago, the ascendants had been temporarily defeated.
One of the Forerunners, Shang-Zaer, motioned to an area of the huge hologram. Red lights were flashing all over the hologram. A battle was raging on in one of the valleys. A hive of Flood had escaped their lab. Shang-Zaer smiled, and the other Forerunner seemed angry. <The visiting ambassadors will not be pleased with your ability to control the Flood!>.<Oh, that's where you're wrong!> said Shang-Zaer. <The rebel Flood has just given me an opportunity to kill two spores with one blaster shot! I'll impress the visiting ambassadors and test out all 300-monitor prototypes! >. <Spores? Monitor Prototypes?> Shang-Zaer frowned. <You obviously don't know much about the Flood!> <And you do? I thought you were only the robotics engineer here!>
Shang-Zaer lifted a small device with several buttons. He pressed some of the buttons, and a blue force field appeared around the two Forerunners. A cage door slid open on the other side of the room, and out stumbled a yellowish-mutated creature. It had thin legs, and a HUGE head, about 4 feet wide starting at the forehead. Pulsing veins could be seen all around the head. The Inspection Forerunner shivered in disgust. <What is it? > <Their reproductive cycle. A number of spores can fuse into this strain of Flood that we call a carrier. The carrier can then spawn more spores, which can grow into carriers or infest hosts>. <Please don't tell me they reproduce by-> the head of the carrier burst open like a garbage bag. Remains of the head spattered against the force field. Five squid like creatures burst out of the head, and began running around on the floor. The force field de-activated. <AWWW! THAT'S DISGUSTING!> <Beautiful isn't it? That's why they multiply and spread so fast! And that's also why we designed the monitor prototypes. We need a "monitor" droid that can oversee the progress of the Flood on HALO, and keep our experiment from infesting the galaxy. We built 300 prototypes to find the perfect one- and this battle is the perfect time to do just that>.
<Why are you so cautious about controlling a non-sentient species? > <Ah! I thought you'd ask! The chosen droid must also be able to activate Halo's built-in super weapon if the Flood gets too powerful>. <And the super weapon would be...? > One of the monitor prototypes drifted up to Shang-Zaer. He spoke with a butler-sounding accent. "Sir, all monitor prototypes are mobilized and ready to begin the test. The Flood has already infested 31 of our own forerunners". Shang-Zaer motioned his hand toward the other forerunner. <Ah- that's my call to the battlefield>.
The inspector would never know what the super weapon was.
Meanwhile:
Covonet cruiser above the Ice planet Thor
Light from the star reflected of the sleek, purple, cruiser. A fleet of banshees descended from the hangar, approaching the hapless planet, a white marble in space. The planet was home to a semi-intelligent race with no technology, but good aim with native spears. Prophet Arnaka had foreseen that this race would make perfect "cannon fodder" for the alliance of species known as the Covonet. Once armies of this race were rounded up in the approaching cruisers, the Covonet would finally have enough troops to attack the forerunner structure known as Halo.
Surface of the ice planet Thor
Four small creatures holding spears leapt swiftly out of the cave. Just outside was a very rare geographical feature: a crack in the ice. A large, fury, walrus like creature, was using its trunk to drink from the water in the ice crack. The small creatures ducked down and advanced on their prey. The ice crack was no big deal, it was the walrus creature they were after. The grunts were starving.
One grew tired of waiting to receive the precious pile of food that lay ahead. He jumped out from behind the snowdrift and threw his spear at the walrus creature. The spear stabbed him in the back, and the creature let out a long moan of pain. The corpse suddenly began slipping and sliding across the ice. All four grunts jumped forward, racing to the food. The massive corpse slid off the ice into the freezing water. Startled, the grunt that had thrown the spear jumped into the freezing water to retrieve the meat, killing him instantly.
The three remaining grunts curiously stepped up to the crack and looked down into the freezing water, cocking their heads to one side. Suddenly a purple scout banshee streaked through the white misty sky and began descending. The grunts looked up just in time to see a plasma missile hit the ground just behind them. The explosion threw them all forward into the crack of ice.
Several grunts ran howling out of the cave to avenge their friends. They soon spotted a large number of purple dots approaching in a line. Covonet ghosts. While the grunts with arrows and spears made a hopeless effort against the banshee, others swarmed together to combat the incoming ghosts, running down the side of a snowy hill to meet the attackers. When the ghosts arrived and saw the armed grunts, they immediately began firing away. One grunt threw his spear directly into the motor of a ghost owned by Captain Salivar, the elite leader of this squad. A huge fireball flared up from engine. The Jackal driving it disintegrated, And the two passengers were throw backward onto the ice as what was left of the ghost flipped over. Captain Salivar found his balance, and drawing his rifle, he barked orders to his squadron. "Use the ghosts as fire cover! I want all these grunts cleared out of here in 5 minutes so the lieutenant commander can land!" He ducked behind the crashed ghost, armed his rifle, and began firing off a round of shots at the incoming grunts, hitting their feet so they flipped over and landed on their backs.
Another wave of grunts with spears and clubs advanced down the hill like a swarm moving in unison. Ghosts were flipping and blowing up everywhere, because the grunts had finally realized the needed to target the engines. Elites and Jackals were firing away at the incoming wave of grunts as a wind of spears flew down from the hilltop. Suddenly, a small communicator's device on Salivar's armor began beeping. He ducked his head down behind the fallen ghost, exposing only one hand and the weapon. He continued to fire randomly into the wave of grunts as he pressed a button on the communicator.
The face of a disgusting, blue snail like creature appeared on the communicator: Lieutenant commander Nahara. The Covonet usually used this species as engineers, but Nahara was too good for that. He had an excellent, strategic mind. The creature spoke in a disgusting, slurred voice. "Captain Salivar! I have been informed that you have attacked the grunts! You were strictly told not to-" "Nahara! They resisted, so I had to give my men the order to fire!" "I see! We will have to send our priests to make a treaty with a different tribe! But we cannot let word of our attack on a friendly tribe spread to the other grunts! You must annihilate all the grunts you find here! And hurry up and clear them out. The next tribe we find is to be armed and launched right away! We'll come back for the rest later!" "What's the hurry?" Asked Salivar as he blasted a grunt's head off without even noticing. "Some prophet rescheduled the attack date. We need as many troops as we can in the shortest time possible. I guess he thought the Forerunners would interfere!" "That's just what we need!" said Salivar in a mocking voice. Nahara interrupted before Salivar could continue his complaints. "Is my landing ground clear yet?" "Almost" Answered Salivar as he watched the only banshee rain missiles down upon the grunt village. "Excellent. I'll be arriving in three minutes! Oh, and Salivar, radar detected another vessel approaching Halo. Large, and pointy. The species that built it could not be identified. We're not alone Salivar".
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