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Drowning in Sorrow by Phoenix89uk
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Drowning In Sorrow - Prologue & Chapter One
Date: 17 September 2003, 1:04 PM
Drowning in Sorrow...
A Halo Fan Fiction by Phoenix89uk
Prologue
The Forerunner scientist looked up from his work. This genetic work was hard - especially with the timescale he had been given. Why they needed such a powerful weapon was beyond him - there was no enemy in this galaxy - his race had conquered all the others in the vicinity, too. Sighing, he continued twisting and reforming the DNA to create a powerful biological weapon. This was his 47th attempt - each creature he had made was dangerous, but not virulent enough for his masters. This, however, was to be his masterpiece - a mixture of viruses, parasites & poisonous chemicals. As he completed the strand, he saw it begin to multiply into a tiny, yellow-green spore. "At least it's alive," he thought to himself. Now, all he could do was wait for the spore to grow.
Chapter One - Evolution
Some weeks later, the spore had multiplied so much it had formed into some sort of pupa, which was very large. It seemed very delicate - the instant he touched the metre-wide bag it quivered and flexed. He didn't even dare to insert a viewing tube to see what his larvae were doing - for he knew there was more than one in the pupa. A few more hours would do it - the pupa was stretched beyond belief already. Suddenly, however, he saw the pupa quiver, shake and finally exploded in a shower of yellow-green flesh, blood and ten things, which landed on him and pushed him to the floor. He felt an indescribable pain as the things inserted a penetrator into his spinal cord - and took over his body.
Soon after, the Forerunner government officials called on the laboratory to see how the project was coming on. However, the sight they saw when they entered the room was not exactly what they had expected. In one corner was a grotesque creature, which seemed to have short, stubby legs, a large torso, which was extremely bloated, and two short, thin tentacles. There were also about seven smaller creatures on tiny little legs. They didn't seem to have eyes, but as soon as they entered the room, the larger creature waddled over to them and exploded, and the little creatures all began milling over them - each attempting to gain control of one of them. The officials tried to pull them off, but still more had come from the larger creature, and soon all ten Forerunners were on the floor, overpowered.
The Forerunner civilian liked this spot. The view was spectacular - he felt he could see the entire planet from here. However, today he swore he could hear a strange squelching noise coming from a nearby grate - and she went to investigate. Before she could get there, however, it burst open, and some green-yellow creatures popped out. There seemed to be thousands of the grotesque creatures, and it seemed that some floodgate in hell had been opened. She didn't see much else, however, as one of the larger creatures knocked her round the head with a long tentacle, and she lost consciousness.
The infection form could only think of one thing - hunger. It had never eaten anything - and was nearing the end of its tether. It spied a star ship, with many, many creatures going aboard - perfect fodder. It scuttled up the entry ramp, and began the process of choosing a suitable victim.
As the ship approached, the Forerunner security team scanned for the ship's ID number. However, all it could get over the link was static - it was as if something had destroyed the ship's AI - but that was impossible - the AI's were the latest technology. The ship landed anyway, however, on the newest place the Forerunner had colonised - the moon of the gas giant Threshold, Basis. As it came in to land, however, it seemed to lurch around much more than was usual. The dock master called for a security team before he gave the door clearance to open.
Never, in all his time as head of security, had the Forerunner seen anything like these. Strange, yellow-green creatures spilled down the ramp in frenzy, wave after wave of huge, small and medium creatures - it was like a Flood, the amount of bodies they left. Eventually, however, the creatures overran the dock. Soon, the moon was covered in a Flood of the creatures, and they had been announced as a threat to all life in the universe. A threat to be defended against. A threat to be exterminated.
Drowning in Sorrow - Chapter Two - The Rings of Power
Date: 19 September 2003, 4:16 PM
Drowning in Sorrow...
A Halo Fan Fiction by Phoenix89uk
Chapter 2 - The Rings of Power
The intelligence officer looked at the plans. It was a brilliant idea - but looked so... so delicate - not at all like what it would end up being like. The Flood outbreak had finally been brought under control - and the Forerunners latest weapon was under lock and key back on Terra for the time being, but the Forerunner leaders had decided that the weapon would have to be kept away from all friendly life forms until they had found a way to control it. There had been many designs - but this one was the best. The proposed installations would provide space for experimenting, a prison for the Flood, and a defence system that would prevent any outbreaks leaving the installations. The cost, however, was proving a problem - the project would cost well over a trillion units - and use up millions of man-units of time. Still, the supreme emperors had decided to go ahead with the project - and she had been placed in charge of constructing the rings.
She had decided to build a test ring in the Sol system, seeing as Terra was where the Flood was being kept for the time being. That installation, installation T1, had been a great success. All that was needed now was for her to give the go ahead for the seven actual project rings - and that had been done 12 units ago.
Twenty Years Later...
The engineer looked at her project - her almost complete project. It had been a very long time in the making, but now was almost complete - only installation 04 had to be completed. She had designed the rings to be beautiful, but strong - she remembered her calculations for speed & size - they had taken up well over 65 GU's of computer space - the largest design she had ever drawn up - and she had designed the machine that had given Terra her moon, Luna.
The Flood was now being moved into their prisons on the ring worlds, and all that was left to do was to complete the AI systems - which she was doing now - naming them, in fact. The Alpha ring would be under the control of 010 Guardian Angel. Installation 02 would be monitored by 121 Dark Power. Installation 03 would be manned by 232 Electric Storm, Installation 04 by 343 Guilty Spark, and the other three still had to be named. The computer gurus were particularly pleased by these AI constructs - they had been built to carry each ring's control programs within them, should they ever have to be removed from the Libraries and placed into a core, and they were all capable of surviving any blast - including the ring pulse lasers after they had hit their targets. These pulse lasers would be used for two purposes - to either assist the flood if they ever used them as a biological weapon, or as a defence against them should they break loose. The power that would be unleashed when each ring hit its target would be immense - the wormholes had been specifically placed to give the largest blast possible. All that was now left was to move everything onto the rings. Several people who had seen the plans had commented that the rings looked slightly like the rings on top of an angel's head - the heads being the planets they orbited. He liked that idea, and that was what the rings of the project had come to be known as - The Halos.
The test firing was now about to be put into action - just a minor blast, which wouldn't actually effect any life in the galaxy permanently, but that was supposed to knock most life forms out momentarily. It was the Emperor himself who was reuniting the test index with the Alpha ring's core as she thought. As he placed it into the terminal, Guardian Angel announced that the detonation was five seconds away...
Deep in space, she saw her dream come true. Alpha Halo sent out its beam to all the other rings, and she saw the orange cones build up in the centre of each ring. This was the year 97448BC - and it was her best year in existence. The cones of the pulse lasers each fired - and hit the strategically placed black holes, which exploded, and sent pieces of carved rock and energy beam deep into space. It went perfectly - her nausea passed after 5 milli-units - the exact predicted time. All that was left now was to complete all the rings, and create the full power indexes...
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