>>- I am the Reader of the Stars.
>>- I know nothing else.
>>
I have slept for over 100,000 years.
>>
I only remember fragments;
The great Flood, the devourer of life.
The war between we and out brother species, the ones we would one day guide to be the Reclaimers of all our knowledge.
The Bender of Light - the traitor to the Mantle.
And the seven weapons.
I woke up on this strange planet.
None of the great, majestic Forerunner structures remained. Their great, towering spire eaten away.
There was a blue figure in the back of my mind, but she was keeping, mostly, away.
Maybe I told her to.
There was my armor, too.
Angular in it's pattern, and yet simple.
I was looking at my reflection on a polished, metal floor.
It felt impossibly cold, but comfortable. Hard, yet... almost soft.
A looked atthe small spikes on my helmet, the dark holes before my eyes.
The whole thing was silvery-white. And it had some green in the tiny symbols and lines,
The tiny details.
I didn't know fully who, or what, I was.
I knew I missed the towers, the impossible buildings. The hard light,
I knew I was female and that the the blue one was my ally.
But the main thing I knew:
I had to get off that planet.
I had to find what had become of the Humans, and the others.
Something else drifed up from the murky depths of my mind, my old memories, half-forgotten.
This planet was not safe.
I knew the putrid smell that pooled around me.
I had to get off that planet.
- II
>> "Uncomfortable Silence"
Later, as I fled the swampy, stinking test facility... I began to remember more.
How my kind had burned worlds.
I continued my search for some sort of transport.
Later, I was standing in the remains of some sort of tunnel, covered in yet more of those patterns.
A crouched and ran my fingers over one; a circle with three angled lines sprouting from evenly-spaced areas of the shape.
Inside the circle, three other shapes sat. They looked familiar... important somehow.
I kept moving.
Soon I discovered a sort of access door, it was squat and seemed to glare at me, two green lights on either side.
I reached out to touch it's surface, then took my hand back when it slid open with a soft sigh and a click.
It was dark on the other side, but before I could decide to turn back, the room lit up.
Yet more symbols, I noted.
The blue figure swiftly guided me through a maze of tunnels.
Then it opened out into a huge cavern.
I walked over to flickering console, and prodded the glowing symbol what seemed appropriate.
Turning to my left, I saw to pairs of metal lines extend for either side of the cavern, almost meeting at the midde.
Looking more closely, I was two thicker sections to these huge rods, that were shining light into the cold air.
Why? I thought, then blinked as the light seemed to solidify and merge into a pale blue ribbon of light, bridging the gap.
I crouched just before the light, and reached out to touch it. It distorted slightly, but resisted.
To my surprise, I felt I had almost expected this.
Deciding the only way to progress was to cross the 'hard' light bridge, I set my right foot on it's pale surface, but made sure to walk over where the rod below was, in case it failed somehow.