//------------------------------// // Chapter 6- I listened // Story: Harmony Installation // by Jhonn //------------------------------// "Kind !!" - Violet shouted, as she ran faster, she needed to find Kind fast and thus go to the shelter, things could go very wrong if more enemies get to finish the job. Running for an hour, climbing trees and hillsides without stopping was already taking its toll on its resistance. Then, just before crossing a small river, something appeared on top, resembling a blue and golden light, but the trees did not allow to see clearly its shape. Then she began to blink as she moved in a direction to the other side of a small slope, confused, Violet followed the light with the hope that the gods are helping her. After walking a few minutes, the light stopped in the distance, just above a huge tree. Hurrying up, Violet saw that something seemed to be at the foot of the tree, immediately, Violet recognized it as Kind's clothes. "Kind !!, are you okay? !!" Violet shouted, worried, but just when she arrived, a sigh of relief came from her when she noticed that she had just fainted from exhaustion. Kind was not a sporting person, and the distance that she walked tired even to Violet, so she understood her by her state. Shaking it a little, Kind began to open his eyes, slowly and tiredly. "Violet? ... "- Kind asked. "Yes darling, it's me, you had us all worried" - Violet said while hugging Kind. "I'm so sorry, when I realized I had separated from the group, I did not recognize this part of the forest" - Kind said between sobs while returning the hug. Violet was like a second mother, she had taken care of her as a child, and her son was the most wonderful person she had ever met. When she found out that they were attacking the village, the last thing she saw was Night fighting with a soldier and being hurt, that started to break her. "Quiet, I'm here, we have to go back to the others" - Violet said while comforting her. "How did you find me, Violet ?, the forest is very big and in the chaos, nobody could see where it was going, nor do I know where we are" -said Kind, as he got up with Violet's help. "A golden light guided me to you, I spent hours looking for you, I feared the worst" - Violet said while helping Kind to stand up. Then, Violet remembered the light, and that maybe she was still up on the tree. Looking slowly upwards, she found the same light, except that now the light was dimmer, now she could see better what it was that produced the light. Kind, worrying about the sudden tense attitude of his friend, also turned to the same direction, only to be surprised and excited. "They listened to me ..." - Kind said breathlessly, while tears formed in his eyes. Surprised, Violet turned to see Kind. "What do you mean by that?" Violet said in a whisper, avoiding to provoke the strange object. Before even answering, the mysterious object began to make a dull sound, while descending, Violet, worried, prepared to attack, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "The stars have fallen for us" - Kind said, with a smile and tears, while pointing to the object, which had a star shape. While Elián and Newblood walked towards the cave, Newblood received several more detailed reports of the world in which they were. Apparently, they were not as primitive as Newblood initially thought, or at least not in the strict sense of the word. They had airships that they used for trade, war, and transport, as well as recreation, magic was a marvel to replace special machines to fly, in addition to reports of a very strange field in mountains not far from their position. Using just eye contact, there was nothing, but the scanners said something was definitely there, and something very big, the size of a modern city. By having them keep an eye on that area from orbit, Newblood ordered the fleet to focus on building several fortress ships, in case they had to evacuate the planet at some point, since their current ships did not have the infrastructure for something of that size, better safe than sorry. In addition, there was something quite worrying, the other ships that were not in the solar system reported normally the state of their surroundings, even mapping a good portion. But for some reason, the ships in the system they were in had problems leaving the gravitational field, even trying to use the Slipspace, failing in the attempt. They could not leave the system, maybe that's why their entry was very violent, but something like that is very unusual, and even more so when there was no apparent explanation. Secretly it was also one of the reasons to build ships to evacuate in the event of a disaster. Also, Newblood began to consider the creation of a shield world in the planet where they were, being the only intelligent life, at least if they were going to interfere with the survival of a species, they could secure their future by protecting everyone at once. And entering into the topic of "protection", Newblood did not know exactly how to proceed with the political situation of the planet, the most powerful species were in a very violent war, affecting more species, even causing them to be endangered by the campaign of extermination by cats. Elian could command a simple Sentinel-class vanguard and decimate the battlefield, although perhaps sending the Sentinel more powerful could even destroy several covenant cruisers and a capital ship before falling would be too much for simple wooden ships, the Sentinel would be a good dissuasive to calm the tension, even if by force. But they could not do it, some could start to brown them, even ancient humans saw the Sentinels Retrievers as gods, religious fanatics were the last thing they needed, if the covenant is an example. Maybe they could simply help in isolated cases, evacuating little by little the survivors, taking tactics of guerrilla warfare and systematically saving the most isolated peoples without attracting attention. But on the other side, Newblood wondered why Elián did not make the quickest decision and use his superiority to bring peace, all in a few hours, maybe less, they have the ability to do so. But no, that was not the style of Elián, or the mantle for the case, although it would also be more informative to observe the development of the situation for future cases, all information was welcome, especially information about magic. They still did not have data on the behavior of the magical nature, even with the analysis of Elián's body, the only thing they could find out without dissecting Elián, was monitoring his body. Elian's armor is easily the most complete and advanced in all Forerunner history, even the Ur-Didact's armor paled in comparison to Elian's armor. Thanks to Newblood had all the time in the world, without a task other than to investigate a way to return to the human world and explore, Newblood devoted much of his time in the construction of the Quetzal armor, in honor of a beautiful bird. Able to enter and exit the Slipspace, in addition to supporting the effects of the halo and the composer, nothing more than a UNSC nova bomb could damage the armor, the shields were an experimental technology. Since in the Slipspace its 11 dimensions make the existence of matter impossible, making anything without a special shield be disintegrated instantly, the Quetzal armor takes advantage of that nature. When exceeding a certain limit, the armor would activate a second shield under the primary, making whatever happens through the first defense, be disintegrated by the 11 dimensions of the second shield. In addition to its "impenetrable" defense, the armor had an interesting weapon system. Similar to the Prophet's Sentinels in halo wars, the Quetzal armor has small guardians integrated, which also served as an additional physical shield, launching an attack powerful enough to melt centimeters of titanium, let alone other metals. Although they were not powerful enough to damage Forerunner armor, they could maintain a good fight with several Sentinels. Besides that, the armor is able to keep its user in dream sleep, it can also turn basic needs into something unnecessary, making it so much to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom something more like an option than a need. Elián would go crazy if he finds out that his armor is so detailed, so he will only be informed in extreme cases, as well as an emergency insurance, Newblood manufactured an AI that will only be activated as tactical support in case Newblood is indisposed. But thanks to Newblood he created the armor under the pretext of aesthetics (and to help Elián with his problems to adapt with his body) helped to conceal that that armor will turn out to be one of the most advanced things at present. Parallel to these thoughts, Newblood worked frantically to create a translator, because the civilization of the planet did not have any type of signal or something they could use, Newblood settled for the memories of the corpse that the Sentinels took. Thanks to a process similar to the composer, Newblood managed to extract as much as he could from the memories, trying not to be very invasive, but thanks to the magical nature of the poor man, the Forerunner technology had not been able to even contain the magical traces, It's like trying to hold air with one hand. The need to better understand the nature of magic was already a necessity rather than an option, at least Newblood could convince Elian to finally take advantage of its magical nature. Curious for Newblood, all this was thought of in just under a second. Something that Elián may or may not understand, is the immense capacity for analysis that the most advanced AIs of the Forerunner is capable of. When Newblood was created, its processing speed was such that practically the time stopped, leaving it to process all the information and its situation. In the beginning, it had been very confusing, it was a copy of Elián, thanks to the lack of practice, he accidentally left his memories in Newblood, basically creating a clone. But also Newblood knew that it was not what he thought, thanks to the immense information available and his capacity beyond what he is sincerely capable, I accept the idea that now, it is something new. Thanks to that, Newblood spent little less than a second waking up from his analysis. Something instant for Elián, unaware that, in reality, Newblood was now close to 30 years old. The speed at which an AI matures is according to the information it obtains, the more it analyzes, the older, mature and experienced it is. And Newblood, with the memories of Elián and the Forerunner advances, had spent almost two decades analyzing, testing, devising and plotting a future, in a second in real time. To compensate for his obvious maturity, he had created a personality that suited someone for Elián, who had only been a few days to process his situation. To be honest, it was quite depressing for Newblood, he had had trouble accepting his new reality, but the time and his research to find some way to return home helped him to overcome his situation and his new role. But even if Newblood knew the truth, at least he could show Elián his reality, it simply could not be done, there were many things that the Forerunners simply could not do. Returning to reality, Newblood observed Elián, his humanoid form had been coupled quite well, measuring one meter and sixty. The armor, thanks to the gods, had been transformed by magic to conform to its new form. He did not have much muscle mass, so he was physically "normal", thin and of medium height. Under the helmet, his hair was an opaque silver, or that is Newblood if Elián retained its original color. When they arrived, Elián did not bother to observe his new body, since at least by the user, the armor could not be removed, and Newblood created it so that it is practically imperceptible to the user who is wearing a suit of armor. And since the armor marked everything well, he did not worry, but maybe later Elián took off his helmet to observe his face. "We already have a way of communicating Newblood?" - Elián asked, taking Newblood out of his thoughts. "I'm still working on that, but at least we can communicate with simple terms, but the more material the translator has, the better" - said Newblood while trotting a little faster. "One less thing to worry about, but, seriously, it is necessary to build evacuation ships? I understand that it is better to be prepared, but reports say that for some reason we can not leave the solar system, why do more? actually, we have a lot of ships "- said Elián. "Yes we have to evacuate, we would have ships that could accommodate even an artificial environment for greater comfort, I do not know about you, but I would prefer to spend god knows how long surrounded by nature to endless corridors with nothing to do, I would go crazy" - said Newblood. Elián, considering that, being honest, Newblood was right, he just shrugged, time is something they had plenty of. As they walked, they saw in the distance the cave surrounded by Sentinels, all simply floated in a circle, patrolling around. "How is the search for the missing member?" - Elián asked. "At this moment they are meeting, the girl had fainted and just now woke up, in less than half an hour they should be here, or better we teleport them?" - asked Newblood. "Talk to them, inform them about their situation, so we can gain a little bit of their confidence if we show that we help gather the few survivors" - Elián said as he stopped a few meters from the entrance of the cave. "Okay, are you ready? It's the first contact with others since you came here" - asked Newblood. Considering the words of Newblood, Elián simply observed what was ahead, then I speak. "True, but it is also exciting, you are right in that it is very difficult to find a way home, we do not know how much time does not cost, or if we ever achieve it, but thanks to that, I can help these people" - said Elián with calm. Before Newblood considered it appropriate to speak, Elián continued. "It is better to take what I have and do something with that, to regret and waste my attention on a task that may be useless, I can help these people, since on the other side we did not find anything, for a few moments I thought we were just we" "But now, seeing was I not only wrong, I understand that this kind of thought is useless when someone else needs help, if it's not me, who is going to do it?" - Elián asked, although Newblood was not sure what to answer. "Also, if I'm going to be here, at least I'm going to have fun, do not worry, I'll go alone, when necessary I'll call you to introduce you" - Elián said with a smile, although Newblood could not see her for the armor, something said I was smiling "Father, we are totally surrounded and overcome, they could attack now, but why do not they?" - asked Hornhope. "I'm not sure son, but do not let your guard down, those strange creatures I've never seen them, they have nothing to say who they serve, they do not have the colors of any nation's flag either" - said Tree Heart, still holding his sword. "I do not catch their scent, it's as if they were not there" - said Nightstar, nervously looking at the entrance of the cave. Before anyone could respond, heavy steps were heard from the entrance. No one among those who were present in the cave managed to recognize what had entered. It was a biped, so it must be some kind of soldier, but what covered it looked like armor, but even the best blacksmith could never match such a work, it looked more like a golem made entirely of metal. He was not very tall, maybe the same height as Night and Hornhope, but clearly he was very heavy, his feet left a slight mark on the rock. "The danger happened, now you are safe, I would like to talk to your leader" - said the strange being, his voice seemed a melody, even unnatural. Tree Heart, recovering from the shock, analyzed the situation better. Surrounded and injured, these people could easily kill them, and they also seemed to be quite dangerous. But they are offering their help, they are even trying to talk to a representative before continuing something else. They were in a desperate situation, but, although hope is very small, Tree Heart decided to take it. Before his son or Nightstar could stop him, Tree Heart put down his weapon and walked into the presence, stopping only a few meters away. As he suspected, that man was not very tall, he was the same height as his son, but now Tree Heart had a better view of his armor. Smooth and without signs of a blacksmith's hammer, he had blue lights that covered him almost as if they were veins, but the strangest thing was the floating metal plates on his back, they looked like arrowheads, but nothing held them, and he did not detect magic either that came from man. "I am Tree Heart, the head of the village, and on behalf of all those who remain, I thank you with all my heart for your help, but if you allow me to ask, who are you?" While the others watched the exchange, everyone nervously waited for the next step of the intruder, even Nightstar was very nervous. "your town is on the verge of destruction, his town is one of the few that are left and if they are destroyed, they will disappear with time, that is something that I can not allow" - said the man, leaving everyone in shock. "Wow, subtle" - said Newblood with sarcasm in the communicator. "I'm sorry, I panicked, how the hell do you tell people that their species is dying?!" - Elián said in a low voice, forgetting that their conversation could only be heard by them. "I understand, do not be alarmed, leave me from here" - said Newblood, as he walked to the entrance of the cave. Before Tree Heart was able to answer, something strange was approaching the cave, it looked like a dog, but a much larger one, almost the size of a small bear. Before they all got ready, they saw that the strange animal was very similar to the man they had in front, but only in the strange lights that marked his body, besides that strange armor that made part of the skin for both of them. "What my teacher is trying to say, is that we simply want to help you end this conflict that has claimed so many lives, and as a sign of our sincere will ..." - said the creature, to everyone's surprise, but before that Tree can reply to them, circles of golden light started to form right in the middle of them. "The stars? What are you talking about Kind?" Violet said as she took a defensive position because of that thing she was attacking. Now that that thing did not shine that much, Violet could not deny that it had a form that made it look like a star. "A shower of stars, before fainting, I'm not sure why I know, but they are not here to hurt us, we can trust them" - Kind said, as she slowly approached the strange thing. "Wait! You do not know if that thing is some magical artifact sent to finish the job" - Violet said with fear, as she pulled Kind by the arm. Before any of them could do anything else, something caught their attention. "Safe targets, permission to teleport to the site called the clear" - said a metallic, monotonous voice. Slowly, Violet understood that that voice came from the artifact, but Violet did not know how that thing knew the name and location of her refuge, it was a well-kept secret, but something else caught her attention, he asked for permission, in addition, she and Kind were targets, but targets for protection. "Teleportation ... that's very advanced magic, even my mother can only do it after preparing a matrix for two days" - Kind said with a surprised whisper. As Kind said, if they had an advanced magical power, besides knowing their position, if they wanted, they could kill everyone, it would not be difficult, but they had helped to find Kind, at least, Violet could give the benefit of doubt, for now. "Very well, we accept" - Violet said, muttering. "Granted permission, initiating teleportation, please do not be alarmed" - said the object, before rare rings of light surrounded their bodies. Preparing for an attack, Tree and the others pointed their spears at the light, but instead of offensive magic, two people appeared. "KIND / MOM / SISTER !!!" - shouted Tree, Night and Horn, running to where they suddenly appeared. None of them managed to say much before they were embraced by their loved ones. After a few questions to confirm his well-being, Tree turned to face the two entities in his cave. "I thank you for your help, thanks to you, our family is complete, although I did not doubt you, Violet, I am glad you are well" - said Tree, as he bowed slightly to the entities, while Night and Horn did the same equally grateful. "Please, do not bow, we just did what anybody would do in our situation" - said the man with the silver armor. "I apologized for the discourtesy, but I thought it was a noble sent to help, maybe the white roses?"- Tree asked. Leaving Elián and Newblood confused, they simply ignored the latter, cataloging it as the name of the country's national guard. "We do not belong to any government, we are, so to speak, others like you"- said the strange metallic animal cryptically. "I am Elián, and my partner is Newblood, and we are the Forerunner" - said Elián.