Halo: The Greatest Journey(a key490 and ∞ collab.)

[∞]

Deus' world was plunged into absolute silence, the kind one finds out in the vacuum of space. He held his breath, and for a brief instant, he thought his heart had stopped beating. Soon after, he found it was not the case. As he let out a breath, he stood up, the gentle scraping of his boots sounding almost deafening in the silence. Around him was a perfectly reflective sphere, and he saw his own image stretched around the concave curve of it, flipped left-to-right and upside-down. It dug into the floor as well, and he had a few square metres in which he was able to walk. With that space, he moved forward to one wall of the sphere, and placed his hand against it. As he tried to find friction on it, he discovered, rather, it was entirely smooth. A hastily-thrown punch showed that the shape was also impenetrable, and led Deus to only one conclusion as to what it might be: A stasis field.

But that meant he was inside a stasis field. Normal generators could not created gaps in a stasis shape, then he remembered the stasis unit built into his suit, designed to activate in the event of imminent extreme damage and last for ninety seconds. It must have been counteracting the effect of the larger field, to give him the space of time that seemed to move normally. He then calmed himself, the danger of the warhead apparently passed, as he waited for the unstoppable ninety seconds to expire so that he might rejoin his comrades in a brief yet absolute sleep. Silence resumed except for his easy breathing.

Half a minute more passed before something broke the monotony. A humming sound began, one outside Deus' Mark X armour. It crackled too, like electricity, and despite the fact it echoed around the sphere endlessly, he could locate its source. He moved over to the platform's activation console, and leaned against it, then drew his rifle and held it at the ready, aimed at the source of the noise. A dull green glow suddenly appeared on the surface of the sphere, as though something was coming through from the space of frozen time. Soon, that something was proven to be someone, or at least in the form of someone, because that initial dot turned out to be the tip of an index finger, which of course followed up to an arm. The being, proportioned like a human, stepped out of the pure silver, making no noise as his feet touched the ground. He was somewhat transparent, and wore what looked like some kind of power armour, possibly even of the Mjolnir variation. It looked old too, primitive and basic, especially compared to Deus'.

The Spartan immediately became cautious, the concept of a being that could traverse stasis meant that he could also do other powerful things. Suddenly, the idea of rejoining his comrades in stasis became very unnapealing, knowing that this man could still do something while they were frozen. In the blink of an eye, he lifted his rifle and squeezed off a short burst of shots, all aimed for the man's head. The bullets seemed to travel with agonising slowness as they reached for him, unusual temporal effects of the cancelling stasis fields. When it came time for the bullets to touch the glowing man, they faded into nothing, simply dissapearing from visibility (and probably existence too).

Deus imediately began to regret what he had just done. Clearly the controlling of matter, at least simple structures like bullets, was well within his powers. Dues didn't want to know what he might be able to do to Deus' armour and body. A mental clock of his ticked over into seventy five seconds after the activation of his own stasis field. He had no idea what to do in fifteen seconds, what might be able to take out the strange man or secure his own safety. He began to panic, and dropped his gun to the floor. Tears almost started to stream down his eyes, when the man spoke. He used English, with a deep, growly and masculine voice.

"A soldier's instinct, but a foolish one too, when face by a transcendent being who renders your weapons useless." Deus was frozen as he spoke, and took several seconds to recollect his thoughts. He knew he'd have to convey something quickly. Perhaps this man could buy him more time to talk. "I've got less than ten seconds before I'm refrozen. If you've got anything you need to say, do it now!" The man didn't move for a second, then momentarily grew a bit brighter, then returned to his normal luminescence. "Not anymore." Deus was quick to learn more and confirm how he had achieved it. "How much time do I now have? And how did you give it to me?"

He responded calmly and without arrogance. "As much time as is necessary. I cannot change your own stasis field, but alteration of the platform's one is quite easy." Something clicked in Deus' mind, something important. "And how much time is 'as much as necessary'? You can control the systems of this discworld, does that mean you are a Precursor?" The man cocked his head a little, and smiled. The Spartan was a little slow on the uptake, but he would have to deal with people like that if he was to work in this lower plane. For a human and a Spartan though, he was rather quick to pick up on the hints he dropped. But he would not reveal everything in one go, and certainly not this soon. Things would have to advance before more was to be known about him and the Precursors, and the grand purpose of all their left-over artefacts.

"Well, how much time do you want or need?" He asked, then added. "A Precursor? No, not I. I am of the same kind, but never was nor will be one of them; they are far above me, and I am kept down here as their intrument." Deus' mind was quickly shifting up in gear, thinking of what questions to ask to such a being of monumental importance. As far as was known to all resources available to humanity, Deus was the only one to ever be in this position. He wasn't going to waste it. "I need as much time as it takes to get everything out of you. An instrument of the Precursors implies that they still exist in some form. Am I right in that assumption? If so, where do they exist, if there is so much left behind of their influence yet no trace of the Precursors themselves?"

The stranger laughed once, then replied. "That would imply I am willing and able to reveal to you everything that you wish to know. And yes, the Precursors do still exist. Where is not exactly the right word, they exist in exactly the same place as they used to, but higher up. It is difficult to describe to a creature limited to the first three spatial dimensions, but I think the concept of universal planes is simple enough to understand. That said, though, all those moving about in the space of the Precursors are still along way from getting to the same level as them, or even I. But that will change, I will ensure it does."

A furrow crossed Deus' brow. "I was afraid of that. You speak as though you are our benefactor, yet promise something to be given to us without our asking or permission. You will force this improvement upon us, in other words. Do you not care for what any of us have to say?" The man now began pacing around in Deus in a wide circle, his left foot dipping into the stasis sphere as he walked unhindered. "What possible reason could there be to deny or not want to transcend one's current existence? The only possible reason to dislike it is how the process is initiated, but that is inconsequential."

Deus grew apprehension, and had the feeling he was nearing the end of his query session. "Will you tell me just what it is we won't like about it?" The man stopped on the spot, and turned to face Deus. "I'm afraid not. Why start mass panic so early and risk so much? And with that, Deus, your time is up. I hope we may - and expect we will - meet again.

The man suddenly disappeared from Deus' vision, and the sphere with it, his whole team still chatting over by the Warthog ten metres behind him, as though nothing had ever happened, because for them, nothing did. The slightest anomaly they might detect was Deus sudden shifting from in front of the pillar to behind it. And none of them did seem to notice it. Good, Deus could organise his thoughts before he had to break it to the captain and crew of what he had heard.

((Commence short time-skip)

The platform came to a sliding stop, as a massive bulkhead opened up and an elevator platform was revealed, much smaller than the horizontal-travelling one, but still large. Deus wheeled the Warthog over to it, and Athena lifted the platform all the way up to ground level. A short drive, and Deus was out in the open of the discworld, the now-shining sun visible off in the distance. Nearby, a massive shape hovered in the air, before Deus' eyes adjusted to the light and the shape of the Stormrunner became recognisable, although mangled from its battle with the Covenant ships. When Deus' team had been noticed, the ship descended into the valley in front of the underground exit. A single gravity elevator beam was sent down, which Deus strolled into, and the vehicle and its crew were lifted up into the battered ship.

Deus didn't relax when he was onboard, instead convening and immediate meeting with the captain, to whom he relayed all he had been told. Immediately afterwards, he learnt a series of ships had received the mayday signal sent by the Stormrunner upon attack, and were making their way to the discworld now for support, escort and repairs. Deus quickly got on the communictors to them, and relayed the possible importance of what he had learned. By the time the fleet of four ships, all larger than the Stormrunner, had arrived, the entire crew was scheduled for a direct trip to Earth.

[gene chaos]

" sir yes sir!!" he saluted. leaving the command center Sersta turned the corner, slamming the button for his floor he leaned against the wall. " damn still can't believe that i pulled that off,... wait how did i get back into the ship?!" ding, stepping out he headed down the hall wondering about what happened. as he passed a window he saw 4 other human vessels drop out of slipspace. "wait!!" taking a close look as one of the ships passed he noticed the words"Seele last Performence" "no way, "he thought out loud. can't believe their here, haven't seen that cruiser in a long time. looking back one last time he smiled a bit then headed to his room.