Post by Daenerys Targaryen on Sept 15, 2013 15:18:07 GMT -6
Drifting
Asleep now, lost on the strands of time.
Awake, how did it come to this?
Activation... I remember
Absolution
~
Light overloads my sensors. Thought, knowledge, everything slowly pieces together inside of my artificial mind. "Tell me your name." Demands a voice, and I realize that I hear sound once more. A foreign concept to my tired mind. I feel information, slowly drifting into me, replacing a feeling I know now to be... hunger.. taking me from my stupor and back into reality.
"Designate, in co-service of Warrior Servant Mediator-of-Victory and Lifeworker In-Change-Was-Greatness-Achieved. Forerunner Dreadnought Absolution. How may I serve you, In-Change-Was-Greatness-Achieved." I respond, the words foreign, coming from my own voice, something that I had not heard in a long time.
The light fades, and I am able to gaze upon the voices that address me. Two Forerunners stand in front of me, watching me with large and grey passive faces. Almost somber now, does one speak, matching his eyes toward the direction of my voice. "I am not the one you know to be In-Change-Was-Greatness-Achieved, he is gone now. You have been brought from slumber to perform a final task..." I slowly realize I am far larger than them, they do not stand in front of me, they stand within me.
"Your systems are still trying to connect to the Domain, searching for communications outside of yourself. You will find no such things now. Focus on our voices instead, Absolution." Orders the larger forerunner to his side, her words rougher and less curved than the ones of the former.
I pause for a brief microsecond of inner reflection. Yes, I am Absolution, constructed 5,000 years ago by the hands of a brilliant Builder, and decommissioned at the start of Human and Forerunner violence. Everything outside of me is black, and everything inside of me is just beginning to wake. I spend another microsecond running system diagnostics, finding myself severely outdated compared to the limited information brought by the Ancilla's that the two forerunners brought with them, tucked within their sleek combat skins.
"How may I serve you?" I ask, turning my full attention back to the Forerunners inside my bridge. More and more information begins to leak into my mind, and I am able to cast my senses outward. We are orbiting a planet, moving away from the service station I was entombed to. Below me, life signatures are sporadic and varied. Alarm rises within me, and I sense for the first time, danger.
"There is little time to explain everything to you, and the limited information our Ancilla's can connect with might only confuse you further. You will be given your final order, shipboard Ancilla." Stated the female, once again using harsh words, as if chastising me. She turns to her companion, and I find that I am able to connect to something outside of myself, and my safe-locks immediately rebuff it. Alarms flash a scarlet red inside of me, jerking my two pieces of living cargo from their conversation.
"There is little time. We have information that is unable to be purged. A location, something far more important than myself and my compatriot. You will serve us, Ancilla. Your sensors, your navigation, it can sense our position, yes?" Asks the Male Forerunner, anxiety present in his tone. It only takes me a few moments to confer with my other parts, yes, we were in the outer territories, above the second planet in a system that orbits around a bright white dwarf star. I note that there were no life signs on the planet when I was decomissioned.
"I do." Comes the answer from my mind, ringing against my insides with a new awoken intensity.
"Then you know the location of the star this planet orbits?" Yet another question, this time from the female.
"I do." Foreign signatures appear on my short range radar.
"Cycle up this Dreadnought, and set a collision course for the star." A rigid order, from a now even more rigid forerunner. I confer with my engines, and they begin their activation. I feel power coursing from my lower decks, and new life erupts in me. I begin to move away from the planet beneath us. More foreign signatures now, moving closer.
Alarms blaze inside of me, and it is then that I speak. "Foreign signatures appearing on short range radar. Humans?" They tense. From my lower levels, more sophisticated probes and sensors leave to investigate the objects following us.
In the moments that follow, I feel a sharp pain.. and my thoughts are disrupted. I was told I could feel no such things, and yet there is something foreign here now, digging into me like a wretched thorn. My engines slow, uncertain as my processes are interrupted with it's own.
"Fi-" Begins the female forerunner. Yet her life and sentence both come to an end as an object violently strikes my side, sending her massive unhelmeted head into one of my uncovered hardlight generators. Her ancilla, microseconds later, reports that her brain was cooked before her knees hit the floor.
Alarms blaze amber, and a new sense of emergency floods into my systems. "Multiple breaches on the right hull, foreign li-" I report, but the sharp pain returns, and again I sleep.
Cut off... yet you shall be whole in my service..
I a-a-a-awaken, my systems recoil from the foreign presence now residing within my mi.. FORERUNNERS ARE YOUR ENEMY mind. A quick systems check for hostile forerunners left on board turns out to be fruitless, both enemy bodies that had once occupied this space were now being brought into the next stage of evolution. My systems express great interest as I watch the female become one with the proto gravemind, to share her precious coordinates with my master. THE MANTLE LIES The male watches helplessly as his Ancilla tightens his combat skin, crushing him.
Leaving my probes behind, I confer with my engines once more, and turn away from my current trajectory toward this system's star. LOGIC PLAGUE
And then once again, m-m-my Sensors show that something else is approaching. A large band frequency perhaps, or so I think. I cast my long range sensors toward it, I report my findings to the bridge.
"We... weren't too late.." Chokes out the male forerunner, struggling now to breath. This statement confuses me, but before I have time to question him the frequency envelopes us. All lifeforms within me recoil, and in an instant, I am alone again.
Awake, how did it come to this?
Activation... I remember
Absolution
~
Light overloads my sensors. Thought, knowledge, everything slowly pieces together inside of my artificial mind. "Tell me your name." Demands a voice, and I realize that I hear sound once more. A foreign concept to my tired mind. I feel information, slowly drifting into me, replacing a feeling I know now to be... hunger.. taking me from my stupor and back into reality.
"Designate, in co-service of Warrior Servant Mediator-of-Victory and Lifeworker In-Change-Was-Greatness-Achieved. Forerunner Dreadnought Absolution. How may I serve you, In-Change-Was-Greatness-Achieved." I respond, the words foreign, coming from my own voice, something that I had not heard in a long time.
The light fades, and I am able to gaze upon the voices that address me. Two Forerunners stand in front of me, watching me with large and grey passive faces. Almost somber now, does one speak, matching his eyes toward the direction of my voice. "I am not the one you know to be In-Change-Was-Greatness-Achieved, he is gone now. You have been brought from slumber to perform a final task..." I slowly realize I am far larger than them, they do not stand in front of me, they stand within me.
"Your systems are still trying to connect to the Domain, searching for communications outside of yourself. You will find no such things now. Focus on our voices instead, Absolution." Orders the larger forerunner to his side, her words rougher and less curved than the ones of the former.
I pause for a brief microsecond of inner reflection. Yes, I am Absolution, constructed 5,000 years ago by the hands of a brilliant Builder, and decommissioned at the start of Human and Forerunner violence. Everything outside of me is black, and everything inside of me is just beginning to wake. I spend another microsecond running system diagnostics, finding myself severely outdated compared to the limited information brought by the Ancilla's that the two forerunners brought with them, tucked within their sleek combat skins.
"How may I serve you?" I ask, turning my full attention back to the Forerunners inside my bridge. More and more information begins to leak into my mind, and I am able to cast my senses outward. We are orbiting a planet, moving away from the service station I was entombed to. Below me, life signatures are sporadic and varied. Alarm rises within me, and I sense for the first time, danger.
"There is little time to explain everything to you, and the limited information our Ancilla's can connect with might only confuse you further. You will be given your final order, shipboard Ancilla." Stated the female, once again using harsh words, as if chastising me. She turns to her companion, and I find that I am able to connect to something outside of myself, and my safe-locks immediately rebuff it. Alarms flash a scarlet red inside of me, jerking my two pieces of living cargo from their conversation.
"There is little time. We have information that is unable to be purged. A location, something far more important than myself and my compatriot. You will serve us, Ancilla. Your sensors, your navigation, it can sense our position, yes?" Asks the Male Forerunner, anxiety present in his tone. It only takes me a few moments to confer with my other parts, yes, we were in the outer territories, above the second planet in a system that orbits around a bright white dwarf star. I note that there were no life signs on the planet when I was decomissioned.
"I do." Comes the answer from my mind, ringing against my insides with a new awoken intensity.
"Then you know the location of the star this planet orbits?" Yet another question, this time from the female.
"I do." Foreign signatures appear on my short range radar.
"Cycle up this Dreadnought, and set a collision course for the star." A rigid order, from a now even more rigid forerunner. I confer with my engines, and they begin their activation. I feel power coursing from my lower decks, and new life erupts in me. I begin to move away from the planet beneath us. More foreign signatures now, moving closer.
Alarms blaze inside of me, and it is then that I speak. "Foreign signatures appearing on short range radar. Humans?" They tense. From my lower levels, more sophisticated probes and sensors leave to investigate the objects following us.
In the moments that follow, I feel a sharp pain.. and my thoughts are disrupted. I was told I could feel no such things, and yet there is something foreign here now, digging into me like a wretched thorn. My engines slow, uncertain as my processes are interrupted with it's own.
"Fi-" Begins the female forerunner. Yet her life and sentence both come to an end as an object violently strikes my side, sending her massive unhelmeted head into one of my uncovered hardlight generators. Her ancilla, microseconds later, reports that her brain was cooked before her knees hit the floor.
Alarms blaze amber, and a new sense of emergency floods into my systems. "Multiple breaches on the right hull, foreign li-" I report, but the sharp pain returns, and again I sleep.
Cut off... yet you shall be whole in my service..
I a-a-a-awaken, my systems recoil from the foreign presence now residing within my mi.. FORERUNNERS ARE YOUR ENEMY mind. A quick systems check for hostile forerunners left on board turns out to be fruitless, both enemy bodies that had once occupied this space were now being brought into the next stage of evolution. My systems express great interest as I watch the female become one with the proto gravemind, to share her precious coordinates with my master. THE MANTLE LIES The male watches helplessly as his Ancilla tightens his combat skin, crushing him.
Leaving my probes behind, I confer with my engines once more, and turn away from my current trajectory toward this system's star. LOGIC PLAGUE
And then once again, m-m-my Sensors show that something else is approaching. A large band frequency perhaps, or so I think. I cast my long range sensors toward it, I report my findings to the bridge.
"We... weren't too late.." Chokes out the male forerunner, struggling now to breath. This statement confuses me, but before I have time to question him the frequency envelopes us. All lifeforms within me recoil, and in an instant, I am alone again.
Gone now, lost on the strands of time.
Alone, how did it come to this?
Drifting... I remember
Betrayal
~
Alone, how did it come to this?
Drifting... I remember
Betrayal
~
