Heart of Chaos - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Prologue
Approximately 13,000 years before Array Activation
The Galactic Center

Incredible light surrounded the two million ships that approached the center of the galaxy. The massive slipspace bubble that contained them all was starting to unfold. The end of their trip was in sight. Multiple connecting jumps between the Ecumeme and what was now positively identified as the Prison had the Warrior-Servants edging for battle. They had spent a long time in transit, an expensive time. Moving this much mass was taxing on the Ecumene's reconciliation budget. Such mass being picked up and moved took much energy.

Of course, this meant nothing to the Promethean known as Shadow-of-a-Sundered-Star. Economics, budgetary complaints, and the quibbling of the Builders couldn't even pierce his concentrated mind. The Forerunner, also known as the Didact, stood at the head of his command bridge peering out at the unfolding bubble. Thousands of Warrior Servants flanked him going about their duties.

“Didact,” one quipped. A female named Trial-of-Nulled-Strike moved symbols around her console. “We revert to realspace in three minutes.”

“And so we shall see the Prison.” the Promethean announced. “Very well. Give orders to the fleet to prepare to split into formation. I want us around that station before its defenses activate.”

“I will do as you command.” Trial nodded. “Your Prometheans are standing by.”

The Didact nodded. His combat skin folded around him and he breathed deep before turning to his men. He had several million of them aboard his flagship, the Mantle's Approach. Each would march to the end of Living Time to fulfill their duties. They were just about there in any case.

“Warriors! You have trained long and hard to serve the Mantle and all that it asks of you! Since you were all babes you know of the horrors that this galaxy may present. This is beyond anything that we ever could have expected. You're ready for this though. I can feel it. We pierce the Prison, kill the bastard once and for all. Prometheans will be heading the assault on the station, but I need those defenses down. That's what the fleet will be for. No surrender, brothers and sisters! The Mantle protects all!”

“The Mantle protects!”

“Reverting to realspace now!”


Two million assault and support ships appeared seemingly in the middle of nothing. It was exactly where they needed to be. The black hole was beyond massive. It covered the viewscreen of every ship in the fleet. Two million ships were dwarfed by the massive sphere of nothing. The light of stars curved around the photon sphere of the event horizon. The light from stars of times ancient were stuck here forever. Indeed, the history of the universe was trapped here.

The Didact was not impressed by the immensity of it all.

“Helm, locate the station.”

“We arrived in a good location. Heading four degrees by 19 degrees. It is on an equatorial orbit.”

“Have half the fleet hold position near the orbiting star.”

“Aye.”

“I want the rest of the fleet moving in now!”

The Didact left as he spoke his orders. The ten thousand warrior servants on the bridge turned with him and flanked their commander. They would make for their boarding crafts.


One million Fortress-class vessels broke towards the event horizon. They were still safe where they were, but they needed to get much closer. That station was the key to getting to the Prison. Within a hour of flight, they could see it. It was a massive skeletal structure that resembled a dead flower in space with petals that extended from one end. It was of no construction that the Forerunners could ever decipher. It was not even of Precursor make. Whoever built this station was… different.

One of the command vessels chimed in. “This is Conquering Vengence! We have positive identification of Caretaker vessels! They are moving to intercept!”

“Then it will be a glorious death in combat!” The Komata Badu's commander said. “Requesting permission to engage Caretakers!”

“This is Mantle's Approach. You have permission to engage! All fleet commanders open fire on enemy vessels! Burn the squids!”

One million lances of energy shot from the Ecumene fleet. They crossed space at the speed of light intercepting the enemy vessels. They were bulbous craft that seemed more like jellyfish than spacecraft. An ocean-going alien race crewed them. They had pledged themselves to this Prisoner to millions of years. A servant race. No more than slaves.

Then there's no guilt in freeing them from servitude, Commander Isolate-with-Stride-and-Power thought as he ordered another lance of energy to slice a Caretaker vessel in half. Engine coolant and water flash froze in the vacuum. It was ironic to think that a race that evolved in an ocean was terrible at ship to ship combat in space, since they were closer together than one would think. In the time it took to complete that thought, thirty percent of all Caretaker vessels surrounding the station had been wiped out completely.

The Forerunner vessels changed tactics. Now that forty percent of their vessels were clear of enemy fire, they could begin the assault of the station's defenses. A thick shield surrounded the structure itself. It was more to keep intruders out than to protect the station. Four hundred thousand vessels took charge and converged on the massive structure. Even their ships seemed small in comparison.

“To all attacking vessels, I want all fire to be concentrated onto a single point. Warrior servants will be inserting into the craft upon shield piercing!”

“The Didact commands it!” The Polliandus said. “Open fire immediately!”

Energy beams thinned and narrowed as the shield around the station was struck. An aura of deep cobalt surrounded the Prison. Electric storms formed as excited particles formed from the interaction of energy on the film. Eventually, parts of the shield flickered.

“There is our opening!” The Didact roared. “All Warrior-Servants move in now! Throw ourselves upon the breach in the shield!”

All across the fleet, millions upon millions of insertion craft blasted away from their parent ships to punch through the gap opened by the fleet's cannons. The Didact knew that it was partially a suicide move. Not every group would make it through.

Well over twenty million groups of Warrior-Servants streaked towards the breach moving at close to the speed of light. An ancilla controlled each boarding craft and they communicated with each other so that it was more or less single file.

The Caretakers though realized what the Forerunner planned to do. The remainder of their fleet opened fire on the boarding craft. Several scored hits. Each destroyed craft puffed in an explosion. Thousands died in a single stroke per craft. By the time the first pod crossed the breach, the Warrior Servants sustained two million casualties to defensive fire.

The Caretakers were relentless though, choosing to swoop around the Forerunners and blast the rearward craft. This was effective and their jellyfish-shaped craft maneuvered well to counteract the Forerunner advance.

“Didact, Xorda fightercraft and killing our rear guard!” A Promethean warrior cried.

“We have no choice!” The Didact responded. “Either we advance or we all die!”

The Warrior-Servants punched through the break in the shields before it could repair itself. Support craft continued to fire on the station's shielding to keep it from coming back. The station which seemed small at a distance was gigantic, easily larger than any 10 Fortress-class vessels put together. This station was well over five hundred kilometers in length. The closer the ships got, the more intricate the designs appeared. Layers upon layers of what looked like carvings of alien faces and characters that didn't even resemble Forerunners in the slightest. The insertion teams were moving far too quickly to even notice it.

“Warriors! To that exposed section! We land and enter!”

The single stream of pods broke away like a fountain each spreading to different portions of what looked like an exposed interior over twenty kilometers wide. The ships landed quickly and effectively dropped off their Warrior-Servants. The Didact jumped from his craft and landed on the alien metal. The gravity was high, but not unpleasant to him.

He saw many more of the pods land. Several though were being shot at by defenses of the station. The weapons they used were enough to make him stare in shock. The turrets, if they could truly be called such, fire what appeared to be black holes themselves. Entire portions of space collapsed into tiny singularities that were fired at the pods. When the bubble of whatever ancient weapon it was collapsed, the evaporating hole in spacetime exploded with incredible energy that wiped scores of Warrior-Servant ships out entirely, atomizing them in a powerful explosion.

“Does the Mantle's Approach hear me?”

“We do!” the Promethean aboard responded. “The Xorda are proving to be little challenge, but the station is now opening fire at us!”

The station fired two glowing things that the Didact could not comprehend. Twin orbs of light streaked away at an incredible rate towards the distant battlefields. After a time, what appeared to be a supernova erupted.

“By the Mantle… did this thing… just fire neutron stars?” It was the Didact's lieutenant, Endurance-of-Will that said this. Endurance was a longstanding and close friend of the Didact. It took much to frighten her. This weapon launched an attack that destroyed two hundred and fifteen ships. The Didact's ancilla whispered the casualties into the Promethean's ear.

“Dammit! We have little time! This station's ripping our fleet apart! Leave the Xorda! They pose no threat! Warriors! To me! We storm the station! There isn't a damn thing this Prisoner can do to stop us!”

'Then I welcome you into my home'.

The words. The Didact perceived them as being right in front of him, but there was no speaker. The noise they made could not be understood. It came from far away and near. Loud and soft, scratched but clear. Every syllable that forced itself into his understanding clawed at his brain and soothed him at the same time. Pain was an understatement. Several weak willed Warrior-Servants dropped dead simply by the strain of listening to it. They simply fell over and twitched.

“What the hell is this?” Endurance asked. “They're dead!”

“This thing's speaking to us!” the Didact said. “It's challenging us!”

'Come. Fail as those that came before you did.'

Two hundred more dead, brains hemorrhaged at the sound of its voice.

“Move! Leave them!” The Didact said. He led a charge towards two massive doors, the panels being two kilometers high. How they would get in though was something of a mystery. He consulted his ancilla on the matter.

But before a suggestion was given, it opened on its own. Nearly noiselessly a fissure appeared in it and an entire army of Xorda Caretakers spilled into the area. Each clad in an environmental suit which gave the impression of pitch black floating orbs with a single white eye. Weaponry was attached all over their suits. Both sides opened fire at exactly the same time. Whole salvos from millions of Warrior-Servants created an almost solid wall of blue white energy that streaked towards the attackers. The Carteakers came down with bloody streaks trailing them. Several simply exploded from taking too many energy blasts. As the Forerunners made a marching advance to the station's interior, the aliens made a comeback. They in turn fired their own weapons, needle-like shards and nuclear weaponry, into the approaching horde. Several sustained energy weapons also streaked towards the Warrior-Servants.

Explosions rocked the Forerunners. Whole columns vanished into fire.

“Maintain discipline!” the Didact roared. “Cowards will be dealt with! We take the control center!” Another row fell to the needle shards. They cried in pain as the weaponry punched through their armor and burrowed deep into their skin. The shards then detonated blowing the Warriors apart, raining blood and armor bits on their allies. Several columns were noticeably spooked now.  

“Didact! We have lost seven percent of our fleet reserves! Those station cannons need to be eliminated!” Mantle's Approach said in panic. “Requesting we call in some of our reinforcements to bolster our defense!”

“You will do no such thing!” the Didact said. “We are not endangering the other half of our fleet! We are right at the edge of our objective!”

“I… understand…” the Promethean responded. “What would you have us do?”

“Buy us some more time! We're almost in! I need War Sphinxes! I request a full wing at once!”

“Understood! War Sphinxes are inbound as we speak!”

Seventy-two angular pods burst through the exposed panel of the station six minutes and five thousand lives later. They unfolded into massive war machines. The War Sphinxes stood at three times the high of a hardy Warrior-Servant, had an experienced pilot at the controls, and had enough weaponry to level a city with sufficient time. With ten one could secure a region. With twenty, one could control a continent. Seventy two however would be enough to subjugate an entire world and beyond. They were going to be used to concentrate force on an area just over four square kilometers.

“Sphinxes! Select targets and fire at will!” The Didact roared. “Send the bastards to hell!”

They went to work. The Sphinxes crossed the distance in mere seconds. Their hardlight wings unfolded and sliced Xorda in half. The squid-like aliens didn't stand a chance. The Sphinxes engaged them in close combat – something these pathetic creatures had no experience in.  

For a solid hour the Forerunners pressed up to the door with the War Sphinxes giving cover by slaughtering any Caretaker that poked their head through the doors. The surface around the massive portal was littered with Xorda bodies that lay in their deflated environmental suits. Entire pools of water formed in the carved sections of the walkway. Dying Xorda gasped in the air as their gills couldn't filter anything at all from it.

The Warrior-Servants continued to fire as the Didact and Endurance-of-Will took their own forces towards the massive door. Endurance raised both of her arms, each holding a Z-110 Energy Pistol. Two Boltshots she lovingly cared for called Closed Fist and Open Hand. Each fired bolts of hard light that streaked towards attacking Caretakers. Inside her combat skin, Endurance grinned in the slaughter she initiated. The bolts guided themselves towards their targets, putting them down in spirals of blood. She roared in joy as she tore down the opposition.
The Didact was flanked by ten elite Prometheans that he hand-selected for the mission. Each armed with a Signet, a handcrafted weapon that Shadow-of-a-Sundered-Star placed together each bit of metal at a time. Their weapons unfolded as they took aim at the Caretakers. Running at an impressive clip, the Prometheans opened fire on moving targets, each hitting their mark without fail.

“Didact! We've lost ten percent of our fleet strength!”

One hundred thousand ships were gone, and millions of lives aboard them. He couldn't concentrate on that. He was so close.

“We will not abandon this mission!” he screamed. “Warriors forward! Crush them under your heels! I want all Sphinxes to engage any and all targets! Tear them asunder!”

Xorda fighters braved taking dives at the Promethean soldiers. Blobs of plasma cut into the army, vaporizing Prometheans and wounding dozens more which fell to the ground in pain.

But against all the odds, the Didact, Endurance, and his elite Prometheans made it inside of the door. It led to what he was hoping to find – a computer room. If it could be called a computer room.

The Xorda were still poring overhead. The Didact fired his weapons, a Binary Rifle that he waved through the air to cut swathes into the now retreating Caretakers. They had taken this room. The aliens had been so adamant to try and defend it, but why?

Massive explosions of matter and antimatter continued to go on outside. The stations' defenses launched singularities as well as neutron weaponry. It seemed like the Caretakers were pulling back to the nearby stars that orbited the black hole. The Didact had to smile at the thought of them seeking refuge, only to be taken down by his forced he stationed there as an escape route.

“Didact! Down!” Endurance shouted. The Warrior-Servant fired her Z-110s just over the Forerunner commander's head. They holed an alien with hard light. Water evaporated into steam from the breaches in the suit. The alien inside collapsed and died with tentacles twitching.

“We must seal this door!” one of the elite Prometheans said! “Didact! We need Huragok!”

“Agreed!” the Didact nodded. He ordered his ancilla to request reinforcements. Within thirty seconds, the Mantle's Approach launched what seemed like conical shards. The self-guided munitions accelerated to incredible speeds and punched through the station's shields. The supporting vessels gave another push. The Adumate gave its life to let the Huragok through, keeping the shield breach open long enough before being blown away by an artificial nova.

The Huragok pod landed in front of the massive door. It didn't pierce the ancient flooring, instead bouncing on the ground and sliding through the gate halting not a hundred feet away from the Didact. The conical pod unfolded as parts of it drifted away to let out the Huragok, six-eyed biological computers that floated with gas sacks. They chirped as they floated through the air, eager to get to work.

“Let's hope they know what to do!” another Promethean said. Cut-of-a-Striking-Hand was his name. Not a day over two thousand. Not bad for a warrior. Brash, but easily with potential.

“Give those Huragok cover as they access the system!” The Diact roared. He pulled his Binary Rifle to his shoulder and burned holes through three Caretakers.

Several thousand Warrior-Servants made it through the door, though millions were still out there holding off whatever was being thrown at them. The Didact realized that as soon as those doors closed, there would be no way to get them in unless they could open the doors again.

The Huragok quizzically looked at what they determined was the computer console, though it in no way resembled one. When they got close, they started chirping to one another twitching their tentacles. One of them blinked four of its six eyes and started to sing to the machine.

Harmonics. The damn gasbags managed to realize the computer worked through pulses of sound waves instead of physical input! The other engineers caught on and began to follow suit, raising and lowering the pitches of their voices to try and talk to the computer. Something clicked as the system responded. Several flashes of light in different colors came about, and a song of deep pitch responded. The Huragok altered their tenor and hummed back. Some formed harmony with one another and acted as a duet or a trio. How many voices did the creators have? Could a single being even access the computer at all?

A fighter tried to clear the doorway with no success. The Caretaker ship did not approach at the correct angle and hit one of the walls. It split in half, roiling in flame as the debris flew over the Prometheans' head and slammed into the far wall. Burning fuel tumbled to the stonework below.

“This is taking too long.” Endurance said.

“We have no choice but to wait!”

The Huragok stopped. They all bobbed their heads. The doors slid shut. Several hundred more Prometheans managed to get through before the portal was sealed. Whoever was on the outside needed to fend for themselves. Several commanders cried of this and the Didact ordered them quiet.

“The Huragok appear to have cracked the system.” his ancilla whispered. “They are now manipulating the controls.”

“We need access to the conduit to access the Prison itself.”

The ancilla communicated with the Engineers. A series of clicks, trills, and hums came from the Didact's combat skin. The Huragok all turned to face him, eyes wide and awaiting instruction. One purred in response and got to work. The machine bellowed to it again, this time in the Ultrasonic spectrum, which thankfully the Engineers could understand. They could also see the Ultraviolet signals this 'console' was emitting. They were being given instructions by the 'machine'.

The Warrior-Servants stood uncomfortably with Light Rifles held at the ready, each standing and watching the corridors wondering if Caretakers would come, but no more did.

Endurance shifted her weight. “Something is wrong.”

“What is it?”

“It's just a feeling, Didact. The Huragok are speaking to that computer a lot.”

“For all we know it is the only way to interface with it. Mantle's Approach, what is your status?”

“Damaged but operational, Didact! We have sustained damage, but all systems are functioning! We have pulled back away from the station and are holding position thirty million kilometers away!”

“I gave you no such order to do so!”

“You didn't?”

“Do not test my patience in a time such as this! Who gave you that order?”

“The Huragok, Didact!”

“The Huragok told you?!”

'How easy it is to corrupt a creature that simple.'

The voice of it. It spoke once more. Several Warrior-Servants died at once at its thunderous presence. One of the Huragok began to scream and attack its fellows. It managed to kill another before the Didact vaporized it with a shot of his rifle.

“We've been tricked.” he said, and he realized it far too late. “It's corrupted the Huragok!”

“Corrupted?” Endurance of Will asked. “What do you mean?!”

“It's done… something to them!” he told his ancilla, “Order them to open the doors again!”

“They will not listen.” it responded. “They are actively ignoring my orders!”

One of the Huragok rumbled in happiness and reported its work to the Didact.

“It says that it disabled access to this panel and all others. It says that reactivation requires remote unlocking.”

“What?! No!” The Didact screamed in horror. “No! Unlock it you bastards! Unlock the machine!”

'You will not.'

All the Huragok died at once. Their gas sacks exploding and their brains simply shutting down.

'I will wait eons more if I must. You will not take me.'

“I order all ships to return now! Disregard any and all orders relayed by Huragok! If they attempt to override, kill them!”

“Mantle's Approach acknowledges! We are returning at flank speed now! Inbound in ten minutes!”

'How fragile. If this was the best you could do, I am disappointed. Hundreds of years of planning, millions of lives. To fail at the end of your journey.'

Choruses of screams all around him. Forerunners were killing themselves and others to make the pain stop. The Didact could only imagine what was going on outside the doors. How many more were dying just to make the noise stop.

“We're trapped!” Striking-Hand said. “We can't get out!”

“We will find another way! Follow me!” The Didact picked a hallway and went down it. The surviving Warrior-Servants followed. The remained continued to battle themselves or lay dead with blood mixing into a small lake.

The hallways were massive, each hundreds of feet high. The great black hole ironically provided all of the lighting. The Didact could see the edge of the event horizon as he looked up. Starlight curved around it. It was intensely bright, and resembled sunrise around a planet, except that sunrise came from every angle around the event horizon. The light illuminated the hallway clearly. The beauty could not dispel the horror of the situation though.

Twenty minutes of running later, they had a means to escape. The hallway came to what appeared to be fully exposed space. Knowing the high tech nature of the station, it was not quite so. There was a direct plunge through the station though. Perhaps this was once a docking center for massive ships that came here. The Didact made a quick decision.

“Warriors! We jump!”

“Did you say 'jump'?” Endurance asked.

“Try to keep up.” the Forerunner smirked. “Mantle's Approach, I want recovery craft moving now to our position! We are leaving the station!”

“The shield will not allow for that!”

“We aren't using ships! Track my coordinates and send craft once we are clear!”

He looked at the gap below. It went on for what seemed to be forever. The darkness below seemed to be calling to him. Urging him to jump. He couldn't keep it waiting. He jumped. His faithful Warrior-Servants followed him.

'Unexpected.'

The Didact and the rest of the Forerunners gained speed, quickly falling past unknowable layers of the station. They passed machines that could barely be recognized. Ancient hallways that still bore marks of their creators. In the time it took them to fall, the Didact began to wonder just what the Prisoner had been imprisoned for, and more importantly, where its jailors went. A tomb orbiting silently in the void. The Didact realized then that this tomb would hold the bodies of millions of Warrior-Servants. He had failed them. The mission had been a complete loss. The Prisoner had so easily beaten them. It barely did anything and his fleet had been torn apart. The ancilla informed him that on approach, a further twenty five percent of the surviving vessels sustained losses. He did not ask for the casualties.

The Warrior Servants continued to pick up speed, becoming like speeding meteors passing through the station. Some failed to maneuver around the shifting geometry of the station and were killed instantly from impact. Most however steered and cut through the air well enough until they shot through the bottom of the exposed section after nearly ten minutes of free-fall. The Didact looked above and saw the station rise up and away from them. Below him was the curve of the supermassive void. He could see bent light from the stars form a bulge around it. Red shifted photons from millions of years ago drew his attention. Only then he saw his ships coming for him.

“You have passed the shield, Didact! You're alive!”

“Our velocity must have been slow enough to prevent activation. A poor hole in their defenses. We wasted lives getting here.”

“I am sending recovery craft now!”

'I will give you more than that.'

“Wait, something's wrong.” A Fortress-Class said. “Gravitational fluctuations! We're losing power!”

“Engines have seized up!” Another said. “We're losing altitude!”

“What is this dark magic?” The Didact said.

“Didact, we're losing the fleet! It's getting pulled into the singularity!”

“That's impossible! We're outside of it's hazard zone!”

“This is the Acoustina! We have lost all power! Repeat, we have lost power!”

“Getting pulled in! Emergency power isn't working!”

“Mantle's Approach! Pick up! Now!”

“They've arrived!”

Support vessels shaped like flat wedges slid in from the distance. Each unfolded into shards to take in the Warrior-Servants that fell from the station. Thousands were wrapped in the hard light skin of the recovery craft and were plucked away.

The Didact's feet locked to the floor of his vessel as the craft began high G maneuvers that outperformed the small craft's ability to compensate. “All Prometheans are to report to the Mantle's Approach! We leave now!”

“We're retreating?!” Endurance-of-Will asked.

“Do you not see what became of our fleet?” He consulted the ancilla. “We've lost seventy percent of all our fleet vessels. Seventy percent! I am not throwing away more Promethean lives! It… was a mistake to come here.”

It was something that Endurance did not have a chance to hear very often. The Didact, the supreme commander of the Ecumene military, just admitted that he was wrong. This admission though did not make her feel smug. It horrified her.

The recovery craft streaked back towards the surviving Forerunner ships. Hundreds of craft dipped and dodged around debris caused by the battle. Death outlined against the accretion disk. It was a horrible place to die, and the Didact did not want to be one of the bodies out in the void.

'A gift for you, general of generals. Do not trespass upon my home again.'

“That thing's opening up!' a Forerunner ship cried out. 'The station is moving!'

“By the Mantle! It's sucking up the accretion disk!”

The arms of the skeletal station extended. Stellar material from the disk was snatched away from its orbit and was dragged up towards the construct. The energy gathered in the middle of the extended arms' reach. It gathered into a large ball that soon dwarfed the station itself. It grew larger and larger, increasing in brightness and in instability. It grew to thousands of kilometers wide in mere seconds.

“That's not possible.” the Didact breathed, more to himself than the elite Prometheans around him.

“Get those Slipspace drives powered up! Get us out of here!”

“I cannot! The Huragok have locked me out of the system!”

“No!” The Didact screamed.

The sphere of energy, now more than ten thousand kilometers wide, far larger than the station that held it, collapsed in a near instant. The stellar material compressed to a point, then the station fired it. It was so subtle that it was not even noticeable at first. It wasn't until a new sphere of absolute darkness appeared in the sky that the Forerunners realized there was no retreat. A new multi-stellar mass black hole appeared at the center of the Forerunner fleet. Before the fleet could even realize what was happening, one hundred and forty were pulled past the event horizon and were torn apart by the tidal forces. Several more were already past saving and could only fire their engines in vain trying to get away from their inevitable doom.

“Mantle's Approach! Pick us up now!”

“We are at a safe distance, Didact. We are at your position now!”

The massive starship dropped out of the black right next to the rescue craft. It dropped down over them and swallowed the small ships in its massive landing bays. It was more accurate to say the ship fell on the Didact. The jolt was sudden, but the Prometheans survived the deceleration. “Jump to Slipspace now! Damn the reconciliation! Just point us anywhere except for here!”

“What about the Second Fleet?” the helmsman asked. “The ones stationed at the orbiting star?”

“Send a quick message, and then we depart! Quickly! We have no time!”

In the time it took for that pointless exchange, more Forerunner ships were pulled apart by the artificial black hole. Their commanders frantically tried to regain control before the ships were pulled down by the massive gravitational dip. The ships spiraled around in a decaying orbit before they hit the point of no return. To the outside observer, the massive Forerunner craft appeared to slowly sink towards the darkness, and then simply stopped. Their image moved no more. The crew though died a painful death as their atoms were ripped apart.

The Mantle's Approach could do nothing. Between the station weaponizing supernovas, neutron stars, and generating black holes with masses of several stars, they were way out of their league. What concerned the Didact as the Mantle's Approach tunneled into the Slipsptream was that they had no idea any of this was waiting for them. The damned pyramid on that forgotten planet hadn't given them any indication as to the station's defenses. They went into it blind and he had paid dearly for it. Tens of millions dead. Warriors and Huragok wasted. An assault that barely lasted four hours came to a crushing halt. The damn thing laughed in their faces and flicked them away as if they were bugs.

As if the parasite they recently discovered was no longer enough. First the Flood, and now this.

Endurance-of-Will saw this. She chose not to act on it. She did however place a hand on her old lover's shoulder. “I'm sorry.”

“I should be saying that.” Shadow-of-a-Sundered-Star said. “That was an absolute catastrophe. We have taken far too many losses in the war against the Humans. I dishonor the memories of the dead by doing… this. Please. Don't speak to me right now.”

She removed her hand and looked over her weapons. The Open Hand and Closed Fist were stained with alien blood. Her entire combat skin was drenched. This should have been the stain of victory – a battle hard fought. Instead it was a horrible defeat that did more than simply kill Forerunners and destroy ships: they had shown that damn thing their weakness. They had stared into the eyes of a god and blinked. She could read the Didact's mind. There would be no going back to that thing. Not now. They had far too much to worry about now. The war with the Humans still being wrought. The discovery of the Prisoner had been… badly timed. It would seem that there would be little chance to kill this being.

Now one million ships short, this would force the Forerunners to concede many battles to those primates. He would never speak of what happened here. Only the Strategem of the Ecumene would hear his report. Those few, and of course the Master Builder. It was only one more thing to add on the list for the proposals for the Shield Worlds.

So many dead. The number felt staggering. His ancilla told him the final body count. Four hours and that much death.

The worst part hit him not then, but seven jumps later as he made his way back to the council chambers that the Prisoner did something. It used him and his Forerunners to change something in the bowels of its cage. It spoke to him as if freedom was guaranteed. It simply needed to work up the desire to actually step out. The Didact's mouth went dry as he was admitted to the council. The Forerunners would not be able to stop the Prisoner. He hoped to the Mantle that the Master Builder's own pet project could do what forty three million Warrior Servants could not.

Even then, he sincerely doubted that even the murderous devices Faber has conceived of would not even work.

The Prisoner would simply laugh.