Amalgamous Contagion

While patiently waiting for Shining Armor to return, for once I found myself growing curious of Skorri's and Rasputin's world. Being in my mind, they no doubt sensed this.

About time you took an interest in history!

I simply sighed, having already been used to this during the months I waged war against the caribou. Can I just get the simple stuff? Like, what I'd be facing as I get back to your home, and who could I trust?

I suppose I never did go over it now did I? A good thought on your part, especially since Rasputin kept referring to the Traveler as O.

It is a accurate representation of the Traveler.

Yes, cause everyone refers to him as O. A sigh from Skorri. Seriously, I feel like I'm the only one with normalcy here.

You do realize how that sounds in what's basically the equivalent of the Internet?

Fair point I suppose. So to start from the beginning, at one point in our time, humanity had a faulty space probe on Mars. Whether it was by a stroke of luck, or the Traveler's hidden hand, humanity was able to quickly start up a repair mission to Mars. Upon landing, a Taikonaut, Cosmonaut, and an Astronaut stepped out from the spaceship. Upon landing, they found wind and rain on mars. It'd be at this point that they could all go back in and simply just report the findings they've got. Curiosity, however, pushed the Astronaut forwards, despite what the Taikonaut and Cosmonaut insisted on doing. Knowing fighting among each other on Mars was pointless with uncertain chances of death looming, they followed the Astronaut, continuing to try and convince him to leave.

She then made a mental picture, showing a large orb above three of the men. The Astronaut simply moved on, and within a few hours of Earth time discovered the Traveler terraforming Mars. His curiosity and perseverance had paid off, stunning the Taikonaut and Cosmonaut to utter silence, as they stood witness to the first rains of Mars. They then went back to the craft, having completely forgotten the space probe, and went back to Earth eager to report their findings. Though as they went, they once more found themselves surprised. The Traveler was following them, and an already mostly terraformed Mars, which was visibly being transformed to its fullest without the Traveler's direct help, behind it.

After their long journey back to Earth, humanity entered a golden age. The maximum capacity of normal human life tripled, technology exploded, sentient AIs became a reality in the golden age. Nations everywhere united within a week's span of time, for what point would an independent nation exist, if all other nations had the same ideals as the nation? Hatred and intolerance disappeared from the everyday life of humanity, and humanity became one of pure reasoning. As such, they found no reason to not conquer the stars anymore. During this golden age, every planet, every moon was colonized by humanity, and given life so that even when they abandoned the planet or moon, one day they'd hope to find a new civilization birthed among their own star.

But something happened. I quickly guessed.

Even with the technological warminds, AIs built for war such as Rasputin, and hundreds of inventions that already were doing the things SIVA could do, they stood no hope against what was to come. Skorri then made a mental image for me, four unknown, and vastly different aliens standing in a black background. One was reminiscent of a spider, the other was reminiscent of a cyborg, another looked like a mutant zombie, and the last alien looked like a titan, but as I was sure Inigo would put it, 'a thiccer titan'.

An ancient enemy of the Traveler known as the Darkness, and the four races following in its wake known as the Hive, Fallen, Vex, Cabal, swept through the solar system. All life on every planet except Earth disappeared as fast as they came. Whether or not the Traveler had sensed it coming or not, it waited in ambush for the Darkness on Earth, and fought it back, intending on saving humanity. The Traveler won, pushing back the Darkness, though not without its own injuries. Broken, the Traveler entered a stasis in Russia, creating a field of arc light that fended off the minions of Darkness, and allowed humanity to rebuild itself under it.

Skorri then showed another image, of many white diamonds with a blue eyes in the shape of a diamond surrounding the Traveler, a circle serving as a pupil for each and every one of the blue diamond eyes. As one final gift, the Traveler released the ghosts. AIs gifted with the light of the Traveler, to revive the risen again and again so that they can grow, and protect humanity with their strength. As I've stated here and there, some didn't, while most did. Most of those risen became the Vanguard, while those with a letter of recommendation from one of their own became the strongest warriors of light known as Iron Lords. While towns were built outside of the Traveler's field, such as the fabled town of Palamon, the minions of Darkness paid no heed to them, as humanity knew their one goal was the Traveler itself.

You're sure the four races are directly under the control of the Darkness?

That's something humanity itself still isn't sure about. For the only race that paid more attention to towns were the Hive, though they were in rarity on Earth. There’s the House of Devils, a group of Fallen that have assaulted the city, though there were many other houses that sat in envy, like Winter or Wolves. The Vex were- and no pun intended- simply vexing, and the Cabal were just conquistadors. The Darkness hasn't shown any other armies at all ever since the collapse. Then we Iron Lords found SIVA and... well you know the rest from there. I then felt worry, which I assumed was Skorri's.

I just hope the Vanguard doesn't do anything stupid. We're still weak in power, so taking Earth's very own moon is impossible for humanity as it was even with we Iron Lords. Knowing the consensus without people with common sense, guardians are most likely going to drop fast. Especially since Timur isn't there to tell the stubborn bastards otherwise.

What is the consensus?

A group of idiotic mortals who convinced everyone that risen should stay on the battlefield, and not have a hand in militarization. She spat the word mortals out with venom in her voice. Sure the city has been around for only one or two centuries before I got killed, but a group of mortals dictating the military is the worse thing to have compared to near immortal veterans. Especially since most of them haven't fought any of the four races. Did you know they tried to get lady Perun to be the hunter vanguard? A millennium of teaching guardians, and doing paperwork is NOT suited for any hunter. Thank the Traveler we got her, before she became some mindless tutor arguing with the consensus. She's way too powerful to be locked in some tower.

I felt my own disgust building up quickly with hers. And everyone's fine with this?

I think you'll be glad to hear that the consensus has come under fire for a lot of problems in the city. I expect it to disband or become full of guardians before the third century.

Thank god for that. Actually, should I be saying Traveler now since there's a actual god for me to talk about?

God works fine. Anyways, to sum up what you should expect when we get there, Cabal are all about war, Hive are extremely aggressive fighters, Fallen will shove a grenade up your ass when you least expect it, and Vex are random. Pretty much anything that's remotely human is your friend there. Well, the Traveler isn't human, but you get what I mean!

I get what you mean. Now let’s get back to training. I then started moving to a clear area to train.

Oh, and by the way Aaron?

Yeah?

Do relieve yourself from time to time. While I get your nervousness, it's not stopping the constant flow of dirty fantasies.

Oh give me a break on that already! It's not as if you always had somebody always being around for everything you do.

I laughed, Skorri's humor overwhelming my annoyance.Funny you mention that actually. You remember Reidi?

DON'T tell me about your escapades. The last thing I need to do is to fantasize about an old fart.

Ah, kids these days...

Anyways what about you Rasputin? What's your story in that universe?

The data regarding my time before the Iron Lords invaded the SIVA complex is missing. I hardly remember what I've done during the collapse. Though I can tell you about this AI I had with me called Charlemagne.

Go on.

Charlemagne was perhaps one of the best AIs I had in storage, almost on par with my capabilities. He was a very kind and understanding AI, and insisted on letting me entrust him with fulfilling the mission of destroying, or permanently hiding any remnants of SIVA upon taking my leave. He was also the one to help destroy the majority of invading Iron Lords.

Wait, so it wasn't you who went and slaughtered us?

That is true. Charlemagne took control of the frames, while I had the turrets. His combat strategies, as you have seen, are near perfect.

I took a few seconds to contemplate what he said. Then distrust surfaced from me.

I don't like him Rasputin.

Explain.

He's the greatest AI from what we're getting here. He's perfect... too perfect in fact. Call it my paranoia, but he smells of megalomania.

Your concerns are justified. However, I am certain that once we come back, we'll have the complex quickly restored to its full potential.

I think I'd be in agreement here on that. Surely the greatest warmind to live wouldn't be outclassed by a mere AI right?

I'm just saying, an always is a never, and he's sounding an awful lot like an always.