OOC – I followed the assumption that the pre-starlancer era had followed a timeline similar to our own, with the same games, history, etc. Thus, when I accessed the history, it would’ve brought it up. And how could a person like me resist playing games from the past?
I love that DX quote, it made me crack up, that and: ‘I guess that means I DON’T get the job?’

IC-
For the Fruit of life, this was not what I was expecting.
I could sense the power within her, she had a mother’s touch, and the heart of an angel. But still, not what I was expecting.
“Well, big things come in small packages” Ara said
“In rare cases” I retorted “you don’t run when you see someone with a small gun, do you?”
“Irrelevant point” Ara shot back.
“Your right” I admitted “It is an irreliv- ah, that’s where he got to”
I had finally located Viator’s ship.
Gathering the scattered energy, I re-formed myself.
Personally, I didn’t think Id be seeing the gates of hell for a while, at least until the time came to drag the confederates there.
It struck me as odd that Viator came here, of all places. I knew of only one being who could live in an environment anything like this. Well, 3 in fact.
The only one that fit was Hades. And honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had appeared at the gates himself. But what DID, was the next best thing.
Cerberus the Three-headed guardian canine from hell.
“This just isn’t my day is it?” I moaned.
I placed Erin behind me, floating in the air, still dead to the world.
I walked forward, putting myself in a direct path between the dog and Erin.
“Back off” I said, calmly “I am here to see Viator”
What came next was expected
“Viator is with Lillith” Cerberus replied, no less aggressive.
Well, is he lying, or what?
only one way to find out
I gathered energy, not a hard feat considering the heat and all-around darkness around me.
“Please” Cerberus started “Stoppp---“
He never got the chance to finish, the time-stop was in effect. At least temporarily.
I drew closer, looking at the massive hound, studying it.
“Trimmed nails” I muttered “No anger in the eyes”
I placed my hands on his nose
“Viator’s scent patterns” I said “But no taste residue. Well, he didn’t drag him physically. I think we can trust him.”
Ara nodded, and I resumed the timeline.
Cerberus jumped.
“How, it.?” He stuttered “Oh, nevermind”
I chuckled, definitely not malignant.
“Well” I said “Shall we go?”
“No” cam a voice from behind me “You are not leaving”
I turned and pulled Erin towards Cerberus. Away from the confederate that had appeared out of nowhere.
“Cerberus” I said “Take Erin and get out of here”
I was surprised at Cerberus’ chosen method of teleportation. It looked more destructive than I had anticipated.
“Futile” Said the Confederate, evilly “I shall soon have both you and her in my grasp”
“I doubt that” I shot back “I’m not going back to the confederates”
“Then I will be forced to destroy you” He replied “I will destroy you in every possible way that is known to man, and even some ways that are inherently impossible”
I lowered my centre of gravity, Araminta projecting an active shield of fire around us.
“Bring it on” I said.
He charged at me, screaming in a frenzied rage.
I produced a glowing ball in my right hand, and smashed it into the confederate’s face just as he was about to pounce on me.
As expected, he shattered into a million sparks of white light.
“Too easy” I said, turning away
“Or not” Ara added, panicked.
I ducked, and the Confederate went flying over my head.
He was still reforming when he landed, the shattered sparks taking human form and rematerialising.
“That’s a neat trick” I muttered, pondering how powerful these people had become.
He charged again, this time quicker than before.
I conjured two shielded antimatter balls, one in each hand, and threw.
The impact was blinding, and destructive. The confederate now had a sizable hole in his belly, and no right arm. For a moment, at least.
The confederate was then bathed in an aura of white light, and when it faded, it was like he had never been harmed.
“Great” I groaned
Again he was coming at me, even quicker.
I stood side on, in an ancient fighting style that originated from the Dom-Kavash. It was time to see how good they really were.
He swung, surprisingly resorting to melee combat. Something I thought rare for a Confederate. But he was good.
I parried like I had learned, filling in from other martial arts where the Dom-Kavash failed, which was rare, trust me.
Neither of us tired, working our way all around the entrance halls of Hell.
I flung another antimatter ball, this one colliding with his neck, blowing his head clean off. And he healed again, as though I had done nothing.
“You’re really starting to piss me off” I yelled, swinging with an energy sword I had summoned.
He ducked, and punched upwards, knocking the sword out of my hands.
Ara dematerialised, leaving me to fight him, trying to find the weakness in his fighting.
I felt a slight tug as Ara went further, making me wonder what she was up to.
Ara, where are you off to?
I received no answer, but I could tell she was concentrating.
“ARRRGH” I screamed, punching his neck, sending him reeling backwards.
Ara reappeared, dropping a crystal on my head as she went.
It was a soul crystal
It clicked, Ara you genius!
I took the crystal and thrust it into the confederate’s chest.
He screamed, trying to teleport away but failing. His form dematerialising in missions f pinpricks of light and swirling around, trying desperately to escape the crystal.
Finally the last one was bound, and I lowered my arm, my hand clenched around the captured soul.
I looked around, realising that I was still in the middle of no-where.
“Well” I said “Time for some fancy teleportation”
I dematerialised, trying to find the life-signature of Cerberus.
The search was not long, finding them in a very odd temporal distortion that I did not have the time to identify.
I anchored, appearing in a massive chamber with Cerberus, Viator, the Unconscious Erin, and a naked god-like creature.
I searched for a name.
Lillith.
“Great” I said “It seems the running joke of the century is naked people”
Lillith didn’t bat an eyebrow.
“First things first” I said, holding up the soul crystal with the confederate inside “Anyone want this?”

OOC- 10 points to whoever guesses what the quote was, and where its from

“I will destroy you in every possible way that is known to man, and even some ways that are inherently impossible”

Administrator Breen, Half-Life 2.

Been a long time, but i finally got off my ass and started to add another chapter.

IC - Jake:

Cerberus had returned carrying Erin on his back, her limp body unresponsive and lifeless. Adam may have taken more than enough to end Erin's life. I shook her, trying desperately to wake her up. Tears were forming in my eyes as i tried endlessly to revive her from her death-like state. It was when I introduced nanites into her bloodstream, she regained conciousness. She was struggling to breathe, barely holding onto life itself.

For all we could have done, and all that could have been. She pulled me close, and whispered in my ear.
"The destiny and choice is all becoming clear, the currents of the sea, the time is drawing near, it washes us away, it makes us disappear, and as I decend from grace, pulled by a massive undertow, I will take my place, in the great below."

I was speechless, never had I heard Erin speak like that, and it was then that I realised that she truly was what I had feared, she was the Fruit of Life. A sudden fear of losing her swept over me, consuming my every survival instinct, and I went into a panic, trying over and over to repair her damaged body.

With that, Arania teleported in, startling me out of my reverie.

“Great” he said “It seems the running joke of the century is naked people”

Lillith didn’t bat an eyebrow.

“First things first,” Arania said, holding up the soul crystal, “anyone want this?”

I pondered the concept when an idea came to mind.

"Lillith, can you purify this soul?" I said, almost choking on tears.

Lillith looked at me with a mother's eyes.

"I can try, but what use do you have for it, my child?" Lillith's words were soothing, the same as a mother talking to her child.
"I want to use it to re-order Erin's body, to try and correct what Adam has done."

Lillith looked away into the distance for a moment, Then, without warning she took the crystal and bathed it in an orange glow. She then knelt down beside Erin and touched her hand to Erin's forehead. I prayed to someone that this would work. I couldn't stop Adam without her.

Edited by - Love Shark on 1/26/2005 11:11:34 PM

okay, im gonna be leaving soon, so im wanting to wrap this baby up. i dont wanna have just one guy writing it, (even though that seems like the way it is now) so im gonna try and finish the storyline.

anyway, time to finish what i started last post.

IC - Jake:

Lillith's brow furrowed with concentration, trying to repeair the damage inflicted on Erin by Adam. I could sense that she was having trouble, when the soul crystal shattered in Lillith's hand.

"This soul was too corrupt, it was barely human to begin with, and lacked any real redeeming features."

Arania nodded an agreement on that comment.

"There is really only one way to recover her physical state, other than defeating Adam." Lillith's voice rung througout the palace, the subtle undertones of fear and resignation coming through clear to my ears.

"What is it? What do I have to do?" I asked, knowing subconciously that I would have to sacrifice something in order to get Erin back.

"I have done my best to repair her soul, it is as it was before Adam tampered with her, however, it came at a cost, her body is no longer able to sustain life. Either recover the missing pieces from Adam, or find her a new body."

I knew that if I gaver her a new body, her strength would not be the same. There had to be another way. I knew it, deep within me, there was another way to save her. I engaged every nanite to strengthen the neural connections, to augment my mind as much as possible. That's when it hit me. The answer was with me all along, throughout my entire body, the source of my abilities.

"Lillith, is there any way of using nanites or cybernetics to repair or replace the damaged systems?" I asked, hope prevailent in my voice.

Lillith pondered this for a moment. My bloodshot eyes looked at her, hoping that she would say that it was possible.

"In the terms of human science, it would be possible, but we are not in the domain of man anymore." Lillith's voice reeked of doubt.

"What do we have to lose? What is the worst that could happen? the nanites are designed to augment, not destroy." I had boundless optimism in my tones.

Lillith knelt down beside me, like a mother standing next to a child whose favourite pet is about to be put down.

"There are some things that human science cannot fix, it was the greatest flaw in your race, a boundless hope that anything was possible, that everything could be realised if the technology was avaliable. Sadly, in this realm, it is not so. Adam has removed components that no Creator could fix."

"No Creator could fix it, but you never said anything about no human could fix."

"That is not the point, we spawned your race, there is no physical way that you could ever surpass us. There is no way that you could be better than us. The creator of a race is always superior to the spawn."

"I beg to differ, Robotics and AI, when combined spawn beings whose charateristics are as good, or even greater than the creator race, humanity."

"But it is not hard to beat humanity in any stakes. Your race is a weak inferior caste of being spawned by an inferior process."

I began to sense the same contempt in Lillith as I had felt in Marduk. I turned away from Lillith and began to introduce nanites into Erin's bloodstream.

"What are you doing? You will kill her! You do not understand, it is impossible to repair what a creator has rendered useless!" Lillith's voice was panicked.

"You still are doubting one of the greatest races created. The dark shadow usually has some tricks up it's sleeves."

Lillith stood up. Arania was watching silently from the other side of the room, his face showing a certain worry about the welfare of Erin.

"Jake, how do you plan on saving her?" He asked me, walking over as Lillith walked out of the room.

"I dunno, I'll probably just use the same technique that i used when I augmented myself."

I could feel the nanites repairing Erin's body, implants replacing glands that had been removed, the critical building blocks being replaced with miniscule equivilants.

I looked to Arania, and he nodded his approval. What came next would shock me to the core. Arania was next to me at one point, and had disappeared. He was embedded in the wall the next time I saw him, Lillith using her strength to knock him out of the way.

"There is no way to correct what a Creator has made crooked." Lillith's voice was deep, echoey and disembodied. "Now, To prevent the demise of the Creator race, step away from the Fruit of Life."

Indigo, hovering above, began whispering thoughts into my mind.

The Fruit of Knowlege, held by man, the keystone and pinnicle of human technology. All the power of man acheivements, contained in your body, controlled by your pure soul.
Your point?
The Fruit of Life, Guarded by angels, heavenly servants of the divine overlord. But there is no Divine overlord, only petty squabbling beings, supposedly superior to humanity.
Continue
Adam controls demons, so he cannot guard the Fruit of Life. The only way to obtain the Fruit of Life is to defeat the Angels guarding the Fruit.
Wait, are you saying that-
I'm saying that you may have to get Lillith out of the way, she needs to be taught a lesson in the power of humanity. Marduk had some fun, didn't he?

I stood up, allowing the nanites in Erin's bloodstream to do their work. Lillith took a step back, realising what I had decided. I unleashed a massive concussive wave, knocking Lillith into her throne, when Cerberus appeared to protect its master. I transported it out of the palace, and Lillith winced, holding her hand to her chest. I saw a weak point, a way to get a clean win without taking another life.

"Cerberus is more than a guardian, He's your Deamon. How about this. You let me finish, and I let Cerberus return after I'm finished, OK?"

Lillith nodded, falling off the throne, bent over double. Arania had picked himself up and was tending to Erin, life slowly returning to her body. I rushed over, her eyes fluttering open as I brushed her hair away from her face.

"Where am I? last thing I remember was a naked guy who was stealing my soul, then you standing iver me Jake..."

I almost burst into tears of joy to know that she was alright, i gave her a massive bear hug, innapropriate for the time, but she appreciated the gesture.

"I've missed you to Jake."

Lillith was still on the floor, writhing in pain. I could not be that cruel. I returned Cerberus to the chamber. Lillith recovered almost instantaniously. I turned to her before Arania transported us out.

"There is the proof that the children can acheive greater things than what their parents have. It is a common part of nature, part of the evolutionary chain."

"But we created you as an inferior caste!" Lillith cried out

"Maybe every other creation was the mistake, which was finally corrected in humanity. Maybe."

Arania teleported us back to our ship, leaving Lillith to lick her wounds.

-:-
God is dead, and no-one cares

Edited by - Love Shark on 2/2/2005 2:07:47 AM

As we blasted away from the burning hole that was Lillith’s domain, I allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Two creators, and no closer to any sort of resolution” I muttered
“They were arrogant creatures” Araminta said “I was surprised that you didn’t kill Lillith for even touching you”
“I have not the energy” I said “And I could not be bothered. She will get what is coming to her in due time”
I stood up, turning my head away from the window as the jump drives engaged.
“What do we do now?” I pondered
“One creator is left” Araminta stated “He may hold some answers, but I fear that we will come to the same end that we found in Lillith and Marduk”
“No, he will be no help whatsoever” I said “Everyone, and everything in this world is mortal, to some degree”
“Your not” Ara said
“It may seem that way, but I can die” I countered “In my case it’s more about choosing to let go, than being forced to”
“But what about Adam” Ara asked “How do we defeat him?”
“I do not know” I said “I really don’t know. But if he exists, then he must have a creator of some kind that holds the key”
“He seems like a creator unto himself” Ara remarked
“Everything has an origin” I said “Finding the origin is what is hard. In some it can be found with ease. But in the more powerful ones, the origin becomes progressively harder to find”
“Like In you” Ara said “you’ve got to be more than one hundred years old in total”
“Don’t remind me” I groaned “It all seems so long ago now”
“Well, we have to find Adam’s weakness” Ara concluded “Or all is lost”
I had a brainwave
“Well, there has got to be some sort of origin for this world, this universe” I said “A governing Authority”
“Like God?” Ara asked
“It could be” I said “But if there was, I think the confederates probably got him when they discovered this world”
“Probably” Ara agreed “But he must have left something behind. The Confederates hold knowledge of their governed worlds down to the subatomic level. Something powerful enough to create a reality has got to have something similar”
“We COULD just break into the confederates database and use that” I mused
“Can anyone say ‘Suicide’?” Ara rebuked “Even you’re not that good!”
“Joking Ara” I said “But we have to find the Origin”
“And where do you propose we start looking?”

Millions of light years away, inside the Nexus on Earth, a small light flickered on.
The repair effort on the planet was running smoothly, and the humans were working alongside the Ayans in what could be called symbiosis. But the little robot, dubbed ‘A.K.’, now holding the Prometheus AI, buried under tons of rubble, had yet to be found. At least by any normal person.

Prometheus looked around, confused to be inside some sort of room rather than buried under the rubble he had seen fall onto him at the start of the Ikshion Attack.
“Heh” I mused “Last time I saw you, you were inside Viator’s Head”
“Ah” Prometheus’s form bowed “The maker”
“To the point” Ara said, before I could respond “We need some data pertaining to the location of the Origin”
“Origin?” Prometheus said, confused “Centre of any sort of graph is the top hitter”
“Origin pertaining to the Realm of God” I elaborated.
Prometheus thought for a while.
“Kingdom of God, artwork” Prometheus hit off “Depictions, holy text. No definite locations that I can decipher”
“Origin pertaining to Creation” I tried
“Garden of Eden” Prometheus said.
“Well, that makes sense, the Garden is where the Origin is” Ara said “Where is the Garden?”
“The Garden is a myth” Prometheus said “As far as I can tell”
“Cross-Reference the Garden hits with known locations” I said
“Nothing”
I racked my brain, drawing nothing but blanks.
“The Garden of Eden pertaining to Forerunner” Ara said.
“Forerunner civilisation” Prometheus read off “Dated twenty-three billion years old, space-fairing, no known cause of disappearance. Homeworld is called ‘Parinker geldis sin’ roughly translated: ‘Garden of Purity’”
“Garden of purity” I said, exited “Eden! Where is the Forerunner homeworld?”
“I do not have that data on record sir” Prometheus said
Cue sinking feeling
“You have NO idea?” I said, desperate
“There are two possible locations, according to their maps” Prometheus said “one is on the outskirts of Sol”
“Pass” I said “Someone would’ve seen it”
“The other” Prometheus said “Is located approximately eighty million light-years from the Edge of the Calium Galaxy. Unmapped territory”
“Do you have definite co-ordinates?” Ara asked
“Yes, with three astronomical units’ margin of error” Prometheus said, handing the co-ordinates over.
I looked over the co-ordinates, memorising them
“Ill see you later Prometheus” I said “ill leave a note with Gaia to tell the Rescue team where to find you”
“Thank you” Prometheus said, as I closed the connection.

I clambered into the cockpit.
“You may or may not be happy to know” I said
“We found the Origin” Ara finished
“The What?” Erin asked
“The console of the Universe” I explained “Sort of. I hoped we will be able to find some answers there”
“And its not like we have much to lose” Ara concluded “The civilisation that lived there disappeared long ago”
“We could end up stuck there” Viator muttered
“Do you have any better ideas?” I said

hey, i'm around, i've just been... distracted lately, schoolwork, the flu, annoying students; that sorta thing, so my creativity has been around zilch for quite awhile, i'm still trying to get up the gumption to add another chapter to my unpopular untitled story, it sort of died but i'm gonna try and add some more, some time.

I have to point out this quote

---

The other is located approximately eighty million light-years from the Edge of the Calium Galaxy. Unmapped territory

---

thats the location of abydos from the stargate movie.

Well, i had to get a another location beyond what we knew, and Calium (Yes, abydos from the stargate movis is indeed in calium. but not in the series for some reason, in the series abydos is in this galaxy...) is the furthest galaxy i know of, and acording to my mapping of most galaxies, they are usually around that distance from rim to rim. i wouldve given the galaxy a name, but no-one wouldve known where to look, so i just took a far-away galaxy and put something futher out.

For those who have been folowing, theres been 63,917 words (pertaining to the story) typed here. thats a lot. (and to those who are writing this, or have written in it, im compiling this story into a Word file and editing it to be comprehensive, and to flow better. I was also thinking of removing the freelancer references from it and replacing them with similar ones. anyone object to that?)

-:-
God is dead, and no-one cares.

nope, would be prettyt cool if you could make it into a comprehensive story and repost it.

OOC: well, its started. anyway, lets get on with the show.

IC - Jake:

What shall we use to fill these empty spaces, where we once used to talk, love and live? How shall I fill the final places? How should I complete this god-fosaken wall?

These were the words running in my head, during our journey to the Forerunner home world.

The Forerunner were extinct, no physical trace remained, only books of lore and myth spoke of them, and they were told to be of great power, but their world had reached a point where they almost annihilated themselves. The mighty Forerunner civilisation crumbled, and their decendants went forth and began to populate the universe. This was, in essence, the beginnings of the Creator race, and the Forerunners evolved, and gained the ability to create their own races, and began to do so, but their number began to decline. I was not sure the reason for it, but for some reason, they began to disappear, into thin air, and only after the impure merging of a Creator and an Olympi, did the Creators see their own demise.
In their xenophobic reactions, one of the Creators tried to purify the mistake of one of his own. Little did he know, was that in doing so, he created a being more pure than any, and that when the mistake survived and bore a race with the pure one, then that race would be one of th emost powerful in the whole universe.

Through the purity of Eve, and the pure destructive power of Adam, humanity was born, many of us barely cope with the conflict programmed into our genetics. There are three forms of humans born from Adam and Eve. Your regular, run of the mill human is so obsessed with the small things in life, their sentience overrides the base programming in their system, and these humans formed the Coalition, and the survivors of the Alliance. Then there was the darker shadows of humanity, those weak to Adam's dark rage; The Confederates. Gaining more and more power by the day, the Confederates were a force which must be stopped in order to restore peace to the universe.

Then there is a rare breed, found in small cases in the population of all humans; The Pure. Composed of Eve's purity, the Pure are the shining example of all humanity, and those who would lead their race out of the dark times and into the greener pastures. The pinnicle of these, were two select individuals, each a designated soul in the human race, to carry the combined power of Adam's Dark power and Eve's heavenly presence. These individuals were prophesised to topple the fallen Creator Adam, and restore the order to the Creator race.

The Garden turned out to be full of useful information... obtaining it was another story.

>:Input?_
>:_

The small input on the data console in the middle of the ruins printed an output very similar to Daedalus. The grand ruins of the Forerunner capital streched for miles in all directions, but there was no time to take in the sights; we needed to stop Adam and the Confederates, who had joined forces through the Ikshions.

>:Input?_
>:Query_

We had to ask this omnipotent knowlege bank.

>Query....:Input_
>:How do we defeat Adam?

The console appeared to do nothing, but I could feel the presence of something massive.

>Defeating Adam... Impossible. Creator race immortal:Input?_
>:_

Either the Creators where right, or this machine was screwy.

>:Weakness of Adam?_

Again, the machine appeared to think.

>Weakness of Adam...Weakness stems from conception:Input?_
>:Clarify_
>Clarification:
>Adam's linage...Son of mortal and Creator:
>:Clarify_
>Unable to extract data:
>:Cause?_
>Casue...Data transfer terminated by host:
>:_

The machine was thinking for itself? It was protecting its offspring?

>:What is the goal of host?_
>host Goal...To protect the life of Forerunner decendants:
>:Host is failing goal_
>Data Error...unknown statement...host cannot fail:
>:host has failed to protect over 152 Creators, direct decendants of the forerunners_
>Incorrect Data...151 Creators unprotected...1 in danger of chronotonicdesabilisation:
>:How do we defeat Adam to save the Creator race?_
>Impossible..only one generation may survive...Children outlive Elders:
>:How do we defeat Adam and save the third generation?_
>Gain Access to the Tree of Life...Instrctions at base of Tree:

There. we had an answer. but there was still some things to look at, Arania was incredibly curious about this world.

-:-
God is dead, and no-one cares.

I looked around, taking in the endless expanse that was, remarkably, the ‘Garden of Eden’
Not that it could be called a garden, it was a city. The only sign of life was the buildings, apart from that…

“It says we have to find the Tree of Life” Viator said, walking away from the terminal “Whatever that means”
I turned, and sighed
“If the tree was here, its long dead by now” I said, pacing “Everything here is dead”
The Sun shone bright and white in the sky, bathing the city in an eerie light, and casting weird shadows that appeared to jump at every turn.
“There is something here” I said “Something, conscious”
“How?” Viator asked “You just said everything is dead”
“I didn’t say it was alive” I said “I said it was awake”
Araminta shivered, and I felt the same anxiety.
“Viator, stay here” I muttered “Better yet, stay in the ship, I’m going exploring”
I walked forward, leaving the clearing behind.
“What do you think it is?” Araminta asked, shivering
“Whatever it is” I began “It’s not benign”
“Evil?” she asked “Then why are we looking for it?”
I kept walking, stumbling more than once over rubble strewn on the ground
What do you hope to find?
I don’t know. I don’t even know what the sentience is
Sentience?
Its thinking
I paused, realising what I had just said.
“That can’t be right” I muttered.
“What?” Araminta asked
“I can’t tell what’s here” I replied “There’s something intelligent here. It, It doesn’t want me to know what it is”
“WHAT?” Araminta screeched
I pressed on, walking through a dark hallway.
“What do you mean” Araminta demanded.
I walked out of the hallway into the light.
“There is something here” I said “Something, its, its, it’s alive”
The sunlight dimmed, and I looked up.
“What on earth is that?” Araminta asked.
The Sun of the system, a relatively young and bright star, was being blocked by something.
“It’s a Dyson Ring” I said, turning around and continuing to jog along the path.
“A what?” Ara asked
“A massive structure, a type of Dyson Sphere, built around a star in order to harvest significant portions of its energy”
“The Forerunner built a Dyson sphere?” Araminta said
“No” I replied “my guess is that they didn’t have the resources, or time, to finish it. So they made a ring”
The Sunlight was almost completely blotted out now, and I could clearly see the Edge of the ring. The sun was being blocked by what appeared to be some sort of pylon radiating from the edge.
“We don’t have long” I said “Barely five minutes before the Ring blocks the star completely”
“Find life in five minutes, we can’t do thaaaaaa” Araminta didn’t finish as We went sliding into a cave.
I slid into a ditch, and righted myself.
Araminta started glowing, compensating for the dark.
I squinted, trying to focus on what I could swear was a solid shadow.
What is that?
“Leave this place” A voice echoed “You will find nothing here”
“Who are you?” I demanded
“Ancient” The voice replied “This world is corrupt. Find the Tree of Life. Your answer is there”
“I asked who you were” I said again.
“Leave this place” It said “Leave this place or Die”
The Shade vanished.
Well, it agreed with the computer about the Tree
Um, what IS THAT?
I looked forward, and felt a surge of adrenalin.
There was a massive head rearing up. Reptilian.
I jumped, leaping out of the Cave.
Now would be a REALLY good time to leave
The creature reared out of the cave, spreading its wings and roaring.
“DRAGON!” I screamed, running.
I dared not to look back. I just kept running.
The dragon roared behind me, and I spun around, aiming a force blow at its side.
I heard the thump as the dragon shrugged the blow off. A blow that could have destroyed a confederate Carrier.
“Oh S***” Ara and I said in unison.
The dragon roared again, breathing a stream of fire at me.
I blocked the breath, deflecting the fire away.
Hang on
Araminta gripped my shoulder, almost painfully.
I leaped, flying far into the air.
The dragon leaped up, following me.
I felt Ara streamline herself as I soared over the ruins.
Next time, let me do the flying
I grinned as I fell towards the ground, landing not far from the ship.
Abandoning logic, I ran, exhausting myself running for the ship.
“FIRE THE ENGINES UP” I roared, running full pelt at the gangplank “THERE’S NOTHING HERE, APART FROM THAT!”
The dragon had reached the clearing, and was rearing up on its hind legs.
I scrambled up into the cockpit.
“Get us the F**K off this planet” I said
The ship lifted off, and the light dimmed in the clearing.
I looked up, and saw the Edge of the ring start to block the sun out.
I heard another roar, and the dragon lunged.
The ship lurched and groaned under the weight.
“What on earth IS that?” Indigo exclaimed
“Your big brother” I mused, trying to channel more energy into the engines.
The dragon’s head suddenly appeared in the window.
Viator hesitated, before firing, point blank
The dragon roared, and blood splattered the window.
I kicked the forward reactor module, and the engines roared to life.
For once, I felt impressed as the sheer raw acceleration of the X-Axis Reflex Fighter rocketed us out of the atmosphere.
I breathed, trying to clear my head.
Ara flapped over to the side of the cockpit, gazing at the ring. The ring now eclipsing the planet below.
I concentrated. Trying to find life on the ring.
The surprise was incredible. Although we couldn’t see it from this angle, the entire inner surface of the ring was a massive biosphere.
I saw my vision blur, and the Exhaustion of not having rested for weeks caught up with me.
“The tree…” I slurred “Is on the ring”
I grabbed onto the seat as my vision almost faded out.
“Wake me when we get there” I said, before passing out.


Edited by - Arania - PFY on 2/10/2005 11:43:06 PM

Edited by - Arania - PFY on 2/10/2005 11:45:33 PM

tsk tsk tsk, using halo as a reference are we?

well, yeah. forerunner was from halo, and the original idea for the ring was (Notice i NEVER actually called it 'Halo'), but i just turned it into a dyson ring. and i couldnt really come up with a better name for the creators.
I think i need to lay off the halo...