Exerpt from a story that will probably never see the light of day cause I'm busy with other stuff. · 10:38am Nov 12th, 2014
2300 hours April 09, 10,002,554 (Forerunner calendar) /
Shield world Serenity, core unit command center
main oracle containment pod
Parameters: Z-9 signal destruction reached, reactivating Monitor 344.
Slowly there was life in the bleak darkness. Blue lights flickered as they began to glow, worn from millions of years of neglect. With it, came the slow warm up of the rest of the facilities within and outside the inner world began to relight, their communications coming online. It was startling to discover, however, that a majority of them were still offline or damaged to nonoperational parameters. What was more alarming was that the Monitor itself hadn't turned back on. Automatic systems began to take action.
Grey metal and blue energy kept flaring to life, a cluster of machines whirling to life, and a lone object of silver coloration and a blue singular eye moving towards the inactive oracle. Two long straight limbs unfurled on either side of its face as its crest like body lifted the inactive leader unit and cleared away the piles of rubble that had lead to its deactivation during the final years of the war that had driven its creators extinct. Ages passed as the drone tirelessly worked on restoring the Monitor to operational status while other drones began repairs on their brethren, and then the central command facility. First to come online was the oracles processor, which almost blew a fuse as its systems started updating to account for the loss of information it had missed while deactivated.
>CC: Central command has been restored, automatic repairs underway.
>CC:Monitor 344- Traitor Core of shield world Serenity, installation 129 restored. Turning over command to Tc.
>TC-344: Run diagnostics.
>CC: Shield world Serenity at ten percent operational capacity, manual reactivation of facility(s) A2 to Z1
>TC: Maintain repairs, status report on the Z-9 directive.
>CC: Central anti-flood system, The Arc has become damaged beyond repair, sensors detected the destruction of Monitors 343, 686, 001, 007, 117649, and 049.
>TC: run communication diagnostics.
>CC: Communication with monitor 859, Static Carillon can be reached with the current state of communications, shall I open a line?
>TC: Not yet, I would like a full status report of this facility, as well as a remapping of the world between the outer shell and the inner core.
Slowly the monitor itself began to rise, a round sphere with a heavy duty metallic casing, yet smaller than a forerunner child's toy ball. It wasn't exactly miraculous that the outside casing of the monitor had survived, it already survived worse than some rubble landing on it. Though its engines whined in protest while two more drones, sentinel class, fussed over him along with the first. Unlike the rest of the facility it's eye was an unsettling dark yellow rather than the bright neon blue that seemed present on all the other machines. It wasn't uncommon on monitors, they were each a full fledged artificial intelligence who often far out lived their makers and maintained lines of service that often required some form of physical difference in order to separate one monitor from another.
There was a slight buzz and groan as metallic doors shifted up enough for the small group to pass, "is surface scanning in operational condition to report?" Traitor Core questioned, and a negative response came from the inner workings of the machine, "Unacceptable. I will scout out the area myself, equip two larger class Sentinels to escort duty. No telling if there will be anything dangerous above. Anything else to report?"
"System detects an error in the day and night cycles. One unit who has been hacking into our cycle for nearly a thousand years, but contact ceased recently. Additional unknown user logged into our system as of three hours twenty seven minutes and thirty eight seconds ago and set the cycle to permanent night."
"Trace them, and begin override on their command." 344 demanded.
"Not possible." The system responded.
"Not possible?"
"Tracking is in progress, but this intruder is embedded too deeply in our system routines to manage extraction without file damages."
"Give me a path to the nearest exit when the intruder program has been located."
"Progress underway,"the system droned, and repairs continued...
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ONE HOUR LATER
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He was repaired, or at least as repaired as he was going to get without a proper working forge. His laser was still faulty, but the drones had managed to get two super sentinels up and working, and the system had tracked down the general vicinity of the unknown hacker as well as clear the rubble of black stone bricks that was oddly flooding the doorway. 344's primary engine kicked up a slightly higher whine as it ascended the hole that the facility as buried in, it seemed that a medieval era race of some sort had stumbled upon a facility entrance some time in the past, and had built a palace on top of it. Correlated data suggested that it was to hide that knowledge from the general public, but Traitor Core was far from satisfied with the results. It was correlation, not fact after all.
The small orb was comical next to the two ultra sentinels guarding either side of him. But those were soon discarded for a set of smaller sentinels when they discovered how cramp the hallway naturally was. Instead, the two monolith machines guarded the entrance against further intruders while a small guard followed the monitor down the hallways, and closer towards the source.
"Energy readings showing a pulse from the intruder." the system warned through a quip through a drone, which came across as a slight buzzing noise of static from one of the normal sentinels, "Intruder distance reduced by forty meters, personalized slipspace warp detected for 0.1 seconds. Second energy source detected."
"Engage in stealth operations." 344 commanded, and immediately the sentinels engines went silent, drawing instead on reserve power as monitor and drones went onward, rounding a corner they saw something rather spectacular.
It was a black horse in blue armor, only it had wings and a horn. That didn't make it special, however, what really did draw the point, however, was that her mane was positively moving with energy that took the form of a starry night. Across from the pony, was a purple one with a violet mane, that was without such a massive signature. And as she snorted, stomping a hoof to the ground in challenge, the taller of the two snarked, "You're kidding right?"
The purple mare charged, and so did the black, but at the last second the purple one warped out, jumping through a mass of slipstream numbers that was impossibly precise, and lifted up a series of familiar gray orbs as she concentrated on them.
It was alarming that 344 knew what they were after a second of realization. Not one but five matter manipulators of his creators, He darted forward but it was too late, the purple mare had been kicked aside, by the black, and the orbs crushed. It wouldn't destroy them, but it would alter their purposes, strip them of the safety coverings that they were supposed to be left in.
Laughter erupted, but 344 drowned it out as he yelled, "Do you not care for proper safety containment?"
Silence, and then the black mare asked, "What in the hay is that thing?"
Five mares erupted from the hallway door opposite of all the action, and yet five more of the smaller horse like beings ran in.
"Great..." 344 muttered, "Jusssst great."
At first I couldn't understsnd what was happening, but then I reread it.
Interesting idea, but it needs a bit more clarity if it is to become a story.
Probably one of the rare few fics that will need an index on terms and vocabulary if I ever get around to doing this one. Just releasing it so that way people know I'm not dead, to get the plane blog off my profile, to see if its something worth continuing to write someday in the future(when one of my current fics are actually completed!), and finally to hold some followers over while I work on a fic that has a long overdue update on Aria's fiction.
I wouldn't mind seeing this, and as an avid Halo fan, I understand it.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
I'm not a halo fan, but I do so love a good story.
I would love to read what happens next