Eight: The World's Demise
The Fleet only found out that the Didact had been retrieved from his Cryptum after the fact. Many of them were of the opinion that that was long overdue, but just as fast, they learned he had been lost in Flood-controlled space because of the Master Builder.
There were shrieks of wrath and snarls of vindication throughout the fleet - at last, the Master Builder's treachery was too great for the Ecumenical Council to ignore.
John tried not to show his wrath in his voice. The Librarian was just the messenger. "What do you want with us, then?"
"Can you spare a ship? Before this…" She failed to find the words to encompass her own rage and grief, so she continued, "he imprinted a Manipular. Not my intent, but I have hopes that it will be enough. This first-form is being called before the Supreme Mantle Court to bear witness on behalf of the Didact. It is hoped that after, he will be able to assume the Didact's mantle and use his memories to lead the defense."
"Tell us where."
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John and a few of the Hive arrived on the home world of Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting in Keeper of Secrets, another of their stealth corvettes. The planet wasn't far from the Orion Complex, but it wouldn't be too much longer, maybe a few years tops, before the Flood arrived.
If something worse didn't happen first. The Gultanr were reporting that the end was perilously near, but how near exactly they couldn't quite say.
John hoped it was sooner rather than later. Burns covered more than half of Forerunner-controlled space, more than half of the galaxy, and the ancilla called Mendicant Bias had gone missing over forty years ago - along with a Halo ring.
No one had told him the ancilla had been brought online, much less that he had disappeared, until it was too late. Through the Librarian and her contacts, the Forerunner fleets had been instructed to assume that Mendicant Bias had been subverted by the Flood. They also had been ordered to use a modified form of the Cole Protocol (though it wasn't actually called that): on the rare occasion they were able to escape the Flood, they jumped on randomized vectors, but they did so in a pattern of at least three quick jumps before turning for Forerunner space, they were absolutely forbidden from going anywhere near the capital or the Ark without special dispensation, and self-destructing their ships with all their crew was better than being captured by the Flood.
He disembarked from the Keeper alone, leaving the others onboard to keep the engines hot. With so many worlds falling to the Flood, they might need to bug out fast.
John had seen more impressive Forerunner homes, but he disregarded it, instead presenting his credentials to the facility's primary ancilla. The Librarian had made it clear that Bornstellar's father was far from pleased about his son being imprinted by the Didact or being called to testify on his behalf.
He entered the house and found that the family was already waiting. The one who must have been Bornstellar looked down at him; he recognized the echoes of the Didact in his appearance and demeanor.
And also when he spoke. "Spartan. The Mantle would be better served if you were on the front line fighting rather than here as a simple courier."
"I am aware. But it came as a request from the Librarian herself." John swept an arm back towards the ship. "Keeper of Secrets awaits your inspection."
The imprint seemed to fade or Bornstellar grew in strength, because the first-form came back to the fore. But even so, he assumed his armor and bade a quiet farewell to his family, then followed the human back to the ship. His expressions were small but interesting; it seemed that the Didact's imprint spoke deeply to him.
Keeper sealed shut behind them and lifted off right away. At once, Bornstellar turned to him and asked, "Where is the Didact truly?"
"...We do not know. Not exactly. Reports indicate the Master Builder abandoned him in Flood-controlled space, but whether or not he is actually dead is a matter for debate. You may avail yourself of our data while we travel, if you wish, and the Librarian has provided an ancilla for you."
John dropped the first-form off in one of the officer's quarters; most of them were empty, as he had come with only a skeleton crew, leaving the bulk of his forces to continue eradicating as much of the Flood as they could. Ancient Sorrow - the archeon-class ancilla currently running the Keeper - knew to provide a new set of armor for Bornstellar, alongside the Librarian's ancilla. He consulted the ship's ancilla. [How much use do you think he will be?]
'He lacks the Didact's… I hesitate to use the word arrogance,' said Sorrow, 'but that is the only word I can come up with that encompasses all I am referring to. But perhaps that will be to his benefit.'
[Not if he can't get the other officers to obey him. That arrogance kept him on top, kept people from questioning, though it didn't stop some.]
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Maethrillian was still larger than anything John had ever seen. The Ark - both of this one and the one he remembered - was longer and wider for sure, but the Forerunner capital was still bigger at least in terms of pure volume. Ships glittering like stars raced around it, but space itself beyond seemed strangely black.
A shiver raced down John's spine, a whisper of the Gultanr's gifts.
Something is wrong.
Even so, he had a task to complete. He contacted Bornstellar and his ancilla directly. "We are approaching the Capital," he said in the young Forerunner's ear, watching Maethrillian grow larger as they drew near, "We have been instructed to deliver you to-"
A slender, silver ribbon rose slowly over the planet as Keeper moved closer. Then another appeared, and another. John didn't even need to give the order. Sorrow fired the bottom thrusters to change their angle of approach, and they all watched through his eyes in mounting horror. What he originally believed to be orbital arches resolved themselves into a line of perfect rings stretching away into space on the other side of the spheroid.
'No. No no no no no…'
'Halos?! Halos at the capital?!'
'Even the Master Builder forbade such a thing!'
John stood silent and still on the bridge of the Keeper, staring in shock, awe, terror (and how would he ever be a true SPARTAN again if he kept feeling things like that). He had not been this close to one fully functional Halo since before he became a Gravemind, much less eleven. All of them were in downstar orbits – Mendicant Bias had the twelfth – he is coming, coming here, full complement of rings in the vision-
The Flood within shrieked and demanded retreat, but he mastered it as he always did. [Sorrow,] he said, [Keep the engines hot.]
'Understood.'
"-tan? Spartan?"
"My apologies, Bornstellar," he said, keeping his voice level, "My attention was pulled elsewhere. We have been instructed to deliver you to a conciliar residence, where you may rest and take more substantial nourishment before the trial."
"What troubles you?"
The Didact's perception. It deserved an answer. "You have read about the Halos being gathered for decommissioning?" When he sensed the Forerunner's affirmation, he stated flatly, "This is the parking star that the rings have been ordered to."
There was a sharp inhale on the other end of the line.
"You see why we are… concerned."
"Indeed." There were unmistakable traces of the Didact's imprint in his voice when he spoke. "Why are they here? The Ecumenical Council knows what they can do, they commissioned the damned things - another star would surely have been more suitable."
Déjà pulled up the records in an eyeblink. "It seems like they are intending to collect Mendicant Bias's rogue Halo, and that they hope to prevent the rest from following in his footsteps by keeping an exceedingly close eye on them. There are new powers on the rise, and they know essentially nothing of the Flood and its horrors - or perhaps they simply do not know to fear it."
'The Capital's fate is sealed.'
'Countless generations – lost!'
[All ancillae, start pulling and storing data with the Fleet, all historical information you can retrieve - and do the Domain as well. We will open the way. But all of you, get here - get here now.]
Keeper of Secrets dropped Bornstellar off at his residence on the edge of one of the discs, then ascended once more and cloaked, settling into a narrow orbit around the spheroid. John settled into a hard-light chair on the bridge of the corvette, and focused on pushing through what felt like a heavy curtain between him and the Domain.
The Domain itself seemed to reach back, and almost overwhelmed him with a massive outpouring of data, mixed with its own thoughts and emotions. It seemed almost to be weeping. You must remember! For all those who come after, remember all as it used to be! Joy and sorrow, success and failure, victory and defeat - you must remember! All was lost there - all was lost! Remember - for both our worlds!
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The Fleet arrived over the space of an hour, sometimes single ships, sometimes in groups, but they all stood off from the capital, still processing a simply enormous amount of data, both from local storage and from the Domain.
Even so, when Mendicant Bias and his rogue Halo appeared in system, they immediately swung around and fired on it. But the rampant ancilla expected an immediate assault, not necessarily from them but from someone. His Sentinels were already swarming about over the ring, under its shields, and absorbed the attacks that the shields did not. Most of the damage done was superficial at best, and what little that wasn't was not enough to halt Halo's progress.
[Sorrow, get us close to the surface and raise Bornstellar! With the Didact gone, he's all we've got, and we are not leaving him here to die!]
'Working.'
Keeper of Secrets streaked for the main council complex even as chaos exploded around them. Everyone was panicking, even the Fleet - they knew what was really coming - but they kept working anyway, still firing on the ring while retrieving all they could, both in terms of information and personnel.
'Bornstellar is on the move,' Déjà piped up, 'It seems that he encountered a shard of Mendicant Bias inside the Capital, but the Didact's imprint opened up an escape route.' She brought up a map of the relevant area and highlighted the path he was taking. Sorrow was already bringing them around.
'Spartan, there's a portal opening directly to the Ark.'
[I thought we told them not to do that!]
'Nothing we can do to stop it now - no physical Flood presence in the system.'
[Yet.]
The Portal flared open, tethers of hard light binding it in place, holding it stable. Forerunner ships seemed to be routing through it, because several fortress-class vessels emerged from it and started targeting all the Halo rings.
Bornstellar emerged from the council complex, along with half a dozen councilors and Warrior-Servants, and raced for the Keeper, which was swinging around and opening up to admit them. Once they were aboard, the ship sealed up and raced for the Portal.
The rest of the Fleet was doing the same, albeit at a slower pace so they could collect ships fleeing Maethrillian. The Halos had split off, meanwhile; some of them were moving through the Portal to escape, but the others - under Mendicant Bias's control - were forming up around the Capital, preparing to fire. The energy was just starting to build.
Keeper was through first out of the Fleet, streaking into the Portal alongside the first of the Halo rings. Even so, John didn't relax until the last of their ships was away - just before the rings fired.
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Of the Forerunners rescued by Keeper of Secrets, only Bornstellar seemed to be keeping it together. The others - Splendid Dust of Ancient Suns, Glory of a Far Dawn, and others who declined to name themselves - all seemed to be in shock over the attack, and when they were awake, they wandered the ship without really seeing anything. The Warrior-Servants recovered their composure quickly at least, and accepted John's command on Bornstellar's instructions.
Even so, there was nothing for them to do until they arrived at the Ark - which took longer than it should have, even for such a distance. Slipspace was massively disrupted, both by the passage of the Halos and by the Flood itself, it seemed.
But Keeper of Secrets arrived at the Ark intact, which is more than could be said for some. John looked at it for the first time - and froze in place.
No. No no no no no...
The Ark wasn't right.
It was too big, much too big, and it had only six petals to the other Ark's eight. The biomes weren't right either, or rather they were in the wrong places and too big, just like the Ark itself. Its position relative to the Milky Way was off as well, ever so slight, but enough for him to notice.
The others picked up on his panic, read his memories versus the reality. All the ancillae ran the numbers, but since she started first, Déjà also finished first. 'There must be another Ark, with another complement of rings,' she said, 'If this is not the one, then that is the only probable explanation.'
'Another Ark? We nearly beggared the ecumene building this one!'
'We should search for it-'
[No,] John said immediately, [We say nothing. I don't know what happens to this one, but if by chance it is destroyed by the Flood, we can't leave any data behind for it to find. Act as if all is normal over transmissions. I will speak with the Librarian personally.]