The dimensional gateway split reality apart.
Emerald lightning surged across the massive fracture while gravitational distortions rippled through the void between universes.
Beyond the gateway, the colossal form of transformed Cybertron waited alongside thousands of Necron warships prepared for invasion.
Then Mike stepped through.
The portal sealed behind him instantly.
Silence followed.
For several moments, Mike simply observed his surroundings.
An immense artificial megastructure stretched endlessly across space before him.
Metal continents larger than planets rotated slowly around colossal foundries while impossible superstructures extended into the darkness like the skeleton of a dead god.
Even Mike paused briefly.
Installation 00.
The Ark.
In his former human life, he had seen it countless times while studying the Halo 3 archives and lore.
The birthplace of the Halo Array.
The center of the Forerunners’ greatest technological achievements.
A construct capable of manufacturing weapons that could erase all sentient life across a galaxy.
Now
It stood abandoned.
And Mike intended to claim it.
Deep within the Ark’s central systems, ancient protocols activated instantly.
A breach in local space-time had been detected.
For the first time in countless cycles, the Ark’s caretaker diverted full processing power toward an external anomaly.
000 Tragic Solitude awakened fully.
The ancient monitor drifted silently through the Ark’s systems while trillions of scans unfolded simultaneously across the megastructure.
Unknown dimensional signatures.
Unknown matter composition.
Unknown energy systems.
Then the scans located the intruder.
A massive metallic humanoid stood motionless upon one of the Ark’s outer construction platforms.
Five meters tall.
Black necrodermis armor cracked with glowing emerald energy.
Wings of shifting metallic shards folded behind him.
The being radiated enough power to destabilize nearby systems simply by existing.
Tragic Solitude immediately classified the entity as an existential threat.
Containment protocols were initiated across the Ark instantly.
Defense constructs are activated.
Sentinel swarms deployed.
Massive hard-light barriers emerged throughout nearby sectors.
Then the monitor appeared before Mike.
“You stand within Installation 00,” Tragic Solitude declared coldly.
“Identify yourself immediately.”
Mike looked toward the floating monitor silently.
His blazing green optics analyzed the construct instantly.
Artificial intelligence.
Advanced quantum architecture.
Forerunner design philosophy.
Extremely valuable.
Mike’s voice echoed across the platform.
“You are the custodian of this structure.”
“I am 000 Tragic Solitude, caretaker of the Ark and servant of the Mantle.”
Mike tilted his head slightly.
“The Mantle failed.”
The monitor’s eye brightened dangerously.
“You speak with ignorance.”
“No,” Mike answered calmly.
“Experience.”
At that exact moment
Sentinel constructs attacked.
Hundreds of Forerunner drones descended from above, unleashing beams of hard-light energy powerful enough to vaporize armored vehicles instantly.
Mike did not move.
The beams struck his body directly.
Then dispersed harmlessly against shifting layers of necrodermis and adaptive nanites.
Tragic Solitude paused.
Its calculations immediately escalated the threat level further.
Mike extended one arm slowly.
Then he released the power of the AllSpark.
Reality distorted violently.
Blue-white energy erupted outward from Mike’s body like a living storm before slamming directly into nearby Sentinel constructs.
The machines froze instantly.
Their systems convulsed.
Then transformed.
Forerunner code began rewriting itself under the influence of the AllSpark’s creation energies while nanites infiltrated every layer of their architecture simultaneously.
Within seconds
The Sentinels turned.
Emerald light replaced their original blue optics.
Their forms shifted subtly as Necron glyphs spread across their metallic shells.
Tragic Solitude reacted immediately.
“TECHNICAL CORRUPTION DETECTED.”
Its voice echoed across the entire sector.
“UNAUTHORIZED SYSTEM MODIFICATION IN PROGRESS.”
Mike stepped forward slowly while more Sentinels arrived.
And one after another
They fell under his control.
The AllSpark’s power flowed directly into the Ark’s systems through every converted machine.
Forerunner technology began adapting.
Evolving.
Assimilating.
Mike’s eyes narrowed slightly as vast streams of information flooded into his consciousness.
Slipspace engineering. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Hard-light construction.
Composer research.
Shield world architecture.
Neural physics.
The technological legacy of the Builders unfolded before him endlessly.
Mike understood immediately how dangerous this civilization had truly been.
The Forerunners rivaled the greatest empires from the War in Heaven.
Perhaps even surpassed many of them in certain fields.
And now
Their knowledge would belong to him.
Tragic Solitude launched countermeasures instantly.
Entire sectors of the Ark were sealed off while massive defense cannons unfolded from hidden structures across the installation.
The monitor no longer viewed Mike as a mere intruder.
He was an infection.
A corruption spreading directly into the Ark itself.
“Containment authorized,” the monitor declared.
Gigantic hard-light beams fired toward Mike.
The platform exploded violently beneath the bombardment while nearby structures collapsed into molten debris.
Then the smoke cleared.
Mike still stood there.
Unmoved.
His wings expanded outward slowly while trillions of nanites drifted through the air like metallic ash.
The Fusion Gauss Cannon unfolded from his arm.
Then he fired.
A beam of emerald annihilation crossed space instantly and erased an entire defensive complex from existence.
For the first time in countless ages
Tragic Solitude experienced something resembling fear.
Because the being before it was not biological.
Not a machine.
Not artificial intelligence.
But something far worse.
An entity capable of evolving technology itself.
Across dimensional space, Cybertron emerged near the Ark.
The transformed planetary war machine dwarfed nearby structures while thousands of Necron fleets followed behind it.
The invasion had begun.
Dimensional portals opened throughout Installation 00 as Necron armies poured onto the Ark in endless numbers.
Sentinel factories were overrun.
Forerunner constructs were corrupted.
Entire sectors of the installation fell within minutes.
And at the center of it all
Mike continued advancing toward the Ark’s core systems.
Because if he could control the Ark
Then every surviving piece of Forerunner technology across the Halo universe would eventually become his as well.