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The Mind That Made War (part 1)
Posted By: Traumatised Marine<rbecalick@hotmail.com>
Date: 8 March 2003, 12:06 PM
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The White Prophet examined the data on a glowing holo panel before him. He could have been described as the leader of the Covenant, but the leadership system of the Covenant was extremely complex, it shifted and changed more than grains in a sandstorm. A better description would have been to say that he was the most respected, therefore he had the most authority. However that respect would only last as long as he was willing to hold on to it, or when someone more able than him took it.
This data was important news, and it was going to affect the course of the Covenant Empire forever. They had discovered another descendant race.
This race however, was different from all the other races that had been discovered before.
The White Prophet eased his head back slightly, allowing his ornate head decoration to lean a touch.
He considered the 'other races.'
When the race now known as the Prophets had first discovered the remnants of the ancient race that called themselves the Forerunner, and the technology that the ancient race had left behind for the Prophets to find, they had also regained a lost and crucial part of their history.
They discovered that they were descendants of the Forerunner and that Forerunner were wiped out many eons ago for reasons the Prophets were still unsure of. However before this happened the Forerunner sent life to many planets, in the hope that some species would evolve to become sentient, and therefore venture into space.
In venturing into space they would discover and reclaim their heritage that the had Forerunner left behind for them.
When the Prophets first found their heritage, they realised that their species was one of many descendants from this single, extinct race.
It was in the Prophets' nature to seize opportunities when they came fourth, as the Prophets were very cunning in that sense, they had foresight and clever judgement.
This was their greatest opportunity. Though they did not know for sure, there was a chance that they were the first of these descendant races to discover their lost heritage. If this was so, then they had an immediate advantage over all the other descendant races. All they needed was swift and strong action, and they could go out and gain control of all the other races, holding a whole galaxy of species under their claws. So they agreed to unite with the purpose of going out, discovering all these other races, and taking leadership of them. And so the Covenant was born.
And they were right, they were the first to discover the technology.
The Prophets discovered the other descendant races one by one, as they explored the galaxy with their inherited slipspace travel technology passed down by the Forerunner. They absorbed each race into their empire with the temptation of the benefits of their technology. When that didn't work, some force was employed.
So one by one the number of species in the Covenant grew.
The discoveries of each of these races were known as chapters.
There was the 1st Chapter [Elites] (Whom were the first that the Prophets made contact with.)
The 2nd Chapter [Jackals]
The 3rd Chapter [Scientists]
The 4th Chapter [Grunts]
The 5th Chapter [Hunters]
The 6th Chapter [Brutes] (Whom were only recently discovered)
All of these races were descendants of the Forerunner, which was why they shared the same basic characteristics; limbs, spines, brains situated in heads, etc. (Bar the Scientists, who ended up being forced to take a different evolutionary path because of the such low gravity of their planet, which meant they had no need for a skeletal structure.)
Another thing about these races was they had been yet to craft complex mechanics or machinery from their surroundings.
However this meant by no means that these races were not intelligent or further back in their physical development, some were in fact incredibly intelligent.
The 1st Chapter [Elites] for example, had a very sophisticated and rich culture, a good language system, and they even crafted ornate blades from strong metals that they would mount to their forearms when they reached a certain level of maturity. Sword fighting was a crucial part of their culture. The only thing was that the 1st Chapter had little interest in leaving their planet, they were evolved well to their homeworld, and they lived in ecological harmony with it. There was no motivation to go beyond their atmosphere.
The 6th Chapter [Brutes] were similar, they did not craft many tools, they were perfectly adapted to their environments, and didn't require manipulating other objects around them to survive. However their social communities were extremely diverse, with an effective leadership system and tribal relationships, and they had also a reasonably developed language. The fact that they were not interested in going into space did not mean they were not very intelligent.
The 3rd Chapter [Scientists] were amazingly intelligent, they could grasp incredibly complex concepts and could manipulate things around them with incredible dexterity (because of their tentacles.)
But they reproduced slowly, and lacked the numbers or the ability to acquire resources to go into space.
The Prophets knew very well that only foolish leaders would let those they ruled over know all that they knew. After all, knowledge is power.
If the races they controlled knew the truth, that they were all descendants of the same race, then they might try to rise up and try to take control themselves.
So the Prophets weaved a false religion to blind the other races from the truth, saying that 'The Gods' had created life, and given them their technology as gifts, and that the Prophets were the messengers of
'The Gods' who had been bestowed the task of finding the other races and leading them in accordance with the will of 'The Gods'.
This religion was based on the truth, but it was twisted to give the Prophets a greater authority because of the threat of the wrath of some greater, immortal deities whom they represented.
And this religion worked, and the races they found all accepted the religion blindly, and followed it with obedience. Because they were confronted with so much new technology and concepts that they had never seen before, they willingly ate the false explanations. Becoming more pawns under the control of the Prophets, who knew the real truth.
But this new race, this new race was different from all the others the Prophets had found, they had taken a path that set them aside from the others, the only other race that had done what this race had managed was the Prophets themselves.
This race had travelled into space.
It went further than this, because not only had they managed to leave their homeworld, but they had already colonised a number of planets in their little part of the galaxy. They had their own fledgling empire, with it's own weapons and it's own warships.
The thing that had surprised the Prophets most, however, was the fact that this race had discovered how to travel in slipspace.
At first the Prophets had been worried that this new race had also discovered the technological heritage that had been left by the Forerunners for them to find.
However it was then that the Prophets realised that if this race had indeed found their heritage, then they would know how to create and harness plasma weapons and plasma engine systems effectively, how to emulate gravitational fields, how to warp the light spectrum to create cloaking devices, and how to create energy shields (as these were all technologies the Forerunner had discovered and left behind.)
This new race didn't have plasma or anti gravity or cloaking devices or even energy forcefields, they only knew how to travel in slipspace, and even so their ability to navigate and travel in slipspace was poor and inaccurate.
This proved that this race had not found their heritage, and had discovered slipspace themselves. This was good news, because it meant the Covenant still had the upper hand over this new race technologically.
Then again, the fact that this race had not been handed their technology, that they had discovered it and implemented it themselves, was perhaps the most frightening realisation of all.
They had created this interstellar empire off of their own backs with know help, demonstrating incredible ingenuity and technological progression.
The White Prophet had been the one who had issued the swift (but strictly discreet) research and collection of data on this new race, which he now had before him. Now he believed he and the Prophet Council had nearly enough knowledge about this race to make a decision.
The decision on how they should proceed to deal with the new race.
This new race called themselves in their own tongue, 'Humans.'
All he needed was one last piece of information. And that information was waiting for him right at that moment.
The White Prophet directed his anti-grav chair via his neural link, sending it through the exit of his chamber.
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