We Will Never Die: Rebooted (A Halo Spartan Quest)

Earth 2
Earth 2:

-[X]Artificial Intelligence: You remember seeing a hologram that directed you when you were in the city, a Hologram named E.D. You learned he was the Cities dumb A.I who helps care for the city along with city oficials and officers. Rolled: 1D100 => 70

It took you a very short time to understand Artificial Intelligence… in fact, most would call what you did nothing short of incredible.

With a small search on waypoint to look up AI theory, you just followed the instructions.

You created an AI of your own. Something to help you and your father with tasks, hack into things that should not be gotten into by a child and keep its mouth shut.

It was a Dumb AI, you didn't have the equipment to map your neural pathways to create a truly Smart AI.

It was merely… a test. A test that was amazing.

You called him Ulysses. And you made a computer that would connect to a tablet you carried to his databanks.

It was a simple matter of programming.

Your father was concerned about… you being taken away from him, but you told him that you would stay… he was your father after all, why would you leave?

Reward: You have created the AI Ulysses, who is tasked with keeping you safe.

AI Mechanics is now set to Spartan Rank. You may now create AI's if you wish.

Warning, If you create a Smart AI, roll for Rampancy on birth.

-[X]Dream: In your Dreams, you sea a man doing math... solving problems... saving lives. He was a kind man... but also, a bit strange. Rolled:1D100 => 65

The Man smiled at you. "I thought you would be more focused on Robotics?" He said quietly. "But the mind is a fickle thing. One that I have no control over." He smiled. "Hello."

You looked at the man. "What are you, a projection of my unconscious mind?"

"Oh don't be ridiculous, this is something far more bizarre… The Buddha was right, reincarnation is a thing, much as I considered it preposterous… But we learn something new every day." He then clicked his teeth. "A Subject for another time."

"Why are you here… this seems a bit odd, don't you think that you reincarnated into a child?" You stated.

"It's not preposterous at all… merely another step." He replied. "Call me Light by the way I never liked my real name anyway… I preferred to be a hero, who saved people… rather than… well." He shook his head. "Something else entirely."

"But your memories and skill may bleed into my own?" You stated.

"Yes, a bothersome possibility that is both cheating yourself and myself for learning about this predicament, but we'll get to that moment when we come to it… After all, we're stuck together, and I have no want to take over your body… I am quite content with dying peacefully." Light replied. "But since I am here… I will help you as best I can."

He then gave a smile. "Try to avoid self-surgery, I'm not the steadiest of hands for myself… for others, certainly, but never for me, I get squeamish."

"You're a medical doctor?" You asked.

"I have over a hundred PhD's." Light replied. "Though truthfully, I invented half the fields of study, so it shouldn't really count."

You smiled. "Show me."

You wished to learn.

Light smiled. "As you wish."

Reward: Dr. Light is ready to help you.

Every turn, there is a random roll to make a breakthrough in some kind of technological, medical, or random scientific breakthrough… like a better coffee cup.

Memories of a Scientist Unlocked.

-[X]A Puzzling Moment: You entered a contest doing puzzles. Next thing you knew, you were solving a cipher for... a strange man. Rolled:1D100 => 99

The man came forward after the contest was over, and your father was talking to one of the parents.

"Hello, Giancarlo." The man was not like the others you had seen before… he was not a scientist, a teacher, or professor.

His hands felt wet, of blood, the thin scent of iron was evident when you touched it as he shook your hands.

He was no civilian, not with those kinds of hands.

He was not a soldier either… no, he had not the military discipline of an officer or the quiet steps of an enlisted man as he walked, like your father and so many men that you had met with your father, at passing glances.

That meant only one thing.

Naval Intelligence, or as your father called them… Crazy Spooks.

He certainly wasn't an insurrectionist, there was a certain glare of crazy in the man's eyes, that wasn't in the terrorists.

He was also unsettling… he frightened you with his very presence

"Hello." You replied, trying your best not to pay attention to him. He had nothing that interested you, and because you didn't want to show your fear. You looked to your father, but he was being preoccupied by… another Spook.

"What do you want?"

The man nodded. "I just want you to look at this, and tell me what you see."

He then showed you a picture, with many strange symbols on it. Clearly pictograms, but not of human origins…

That caused Light to quietly peek. "My god… Alien pictograms."

You looked at them. "What do you want me to do?" You asked.

"I want you to guess what they mean." The man replied.

That made you raise an eyebrow. "Why take it to a child, instead of an actual scientist?"

The man shook his head. "My… Employer wants to try a different tactic… Perhaps, the mind of a child."

That made you narrow your eyes. "May I have a minute alone?" You asked.

The man nodded. "Of course." He then walked away, to talk to your father.

"Do you recognize any of these Symbols?" You asked Light.

"Yes… Although they may have different meanings due to the wear, they aren't all complete either, age has caused them to be faded and-"

"Reclaimer." You said, almost in a trance, pressing your finger on the center of the picture.

Light was quiet. "Reclaimer? Why Reclaimer?" He then paused. "Are you alright?"

"We are the Reclaimers, the Inheritors of the Forerunners." You whispered, before closing your eyes, the trance broken. "And the Mantle is yours."

Light frowned, before huffing. "Something tells me there is something they aren't telling us. And We'll never know about it if we just tell them."

"Then we should keep it to ourselves." You said quietly.

Light hummed. "Indeed."

The man, the spook walked over. "What do you think?" He asked.

"It just looks like a bunch of pretty pictures." you replied.

The man nodded, taking the picture away. "Thank you for your attempt."

"Your welcome."

Reward: You have one sentence of a very interesting puzzle.
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The Doctor came a few weeks later.

The strange woman came to your school wearing a fake smile and large pink sunhat. She was asking around, talking to some of the children.

And then she came to you. "Hello there." She said with a gentle voice.

"Hello." You said.

Dr. Cathrnie Halsey was someone you kept a very close eye on since she arrived in the city. Her work in AI Theory was impressive enough alone to get your attention, but of course, much of her public records were just that.

What you were allowed to see was very dry.

She was an enigma. A Puzzle you and Light could not crack, no matter how hard you tried to crack it.

Everything besides her accomplishments was buried behind enough Top Secret Clearance that made you think twice about trying to hack against ONI.

But the man behind her, he was… an officer.

A UNSC Naval Officer. Not intelligence, so you felt far safer than that man from ONI. Even with his gun hidden, you knew he would not use it, not here.

You were looking at them, resting under the shade of a tree.

Then, the woman walked over to you, with a smile on her face.

"Hello." She said quietly. In her hand was an old-style Rubix cube… a child's toy from centuries past, still very popular, and something that you learned to do when you were 2. "What are you doing?"

You shrugged. "Sitting, observing, trying to figure out a puzzle? What about you Doctor? What is the reason you are here?"

The woman seemed surprised, very surprised that you figured out she was a doctor. But she just continued to smile at you. "I'm just looking for a school to send my children to." She replied.

She was lying.

Not only did she never look like she had given birth before, something that would have been very obvious to you… Infatuation for the officer behind her notwithstanding.

She was here for a reason… What reason… most likely concerned you.

What do you do:
[]Expose the Lie: "I know you are lying ma'am. Why are you really here?"
[]Ask her a question about herself: "Doctor Halsey, do you think that your work in AI has solved the Rampancy Problem?"
[]The Sentence: "Doctor… Does the word Reclaimer mean anything to you?"
[]Say nothing: She already had what she wanted… observations on you… best not give her anymore.

AN: Enjoy.
 
[X]The Sentence: "Doctor… Does the word Reclaimer mean anything to you?"
 
Doctor Light. Hah. Perhaps its a good thing we focused on AI. The man could make minds well enough, even downgrading rampancy problems to something comparatively trivial, but what he made was effectively human. No less, but also no more. He did not build, say, distributed systems that sieved through a benthic abyss worth of data, which then distilled that into useful models and predictions. He focused on things, material effects and effectors, and not unseen engines of logic.

The crap he could make may as well have been black magic but this, well, we have a calling in a place he does not. The road he has already seen the end of will come to us in time and, while choosing it ourselves would have gotten us there faster, this will give us something far more robust.


I look forward to seeing if the good woman thinks this is a trap when we say that wonderful word. Its what I'd think.
 
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[X]The Sentence: "Doctor… Does the word Reclaimer mean anything to you?"
Lets break canon to start out with heh
I admittedly know NOTHING about this Franchise, but the Reclaimer Thing seems interesting. Anyone here who can explain this to me?
Short version, species called foreunners were forced to wipe out the galaxy of all organic life by a series of superweapons called Halo. They did this to stop an all consuming parasite called Flood.. They chose humanity as their "Reclaimers" of their empires ideal (the mantle) and tech..

Course, humanity wasnt the first to discover foreunner ruins, group of religious aliens called the Covenant mistranslated the "reclaimer" glyph as "reclamation" and think the Foreunners ascended by firing the halos via a "Great Journey". Cue higher ups learning the error of Reclaimer and waging holy war against humanity to keep their positions of power..
 
I admittedly know NOTHING about this Franchise, but the Reclaimer Thing seems interesting. Anyone here who can explain this to me?
OK can't find any thing good so fuck it first thing there was a race called forerunners that had advance has fuck tech they died to kill the flood which at its highest level can warp reality Humanity was also a thing back then we were the only race to mach the forerunners in the very past
 
I admittedly know NOTHING about this Franchise, but the Reclaimer Thing seems interesting. Anyone here who can explain this to me?
Its a term for those who take up a status called the Mantle of Responsibility. Think of it as something akin to the Mandate of Heaven in some eastern cultures, passed down from one species to another species over absurd periods of time. The species currently carrying the Mantle is intended to act as the prime shaper for the universe as a whole, cultivating new species and ways of life and building something sweet and wonderful from it. Humanity (or a hominid predecessor of ours) in theory should have received it but got beaten into non-intelligence by another power.

Forereunners were dicks. The Precursors before them were dicks who made Cthulhu look cuddly. The remnants of both are threats, with the remnants of the Precursors... they may as well be a John Carpenter's Thing that eats you on a conceptual level and makes gods once it gets enough worlds eaten. But, regardless, technically we are carrying the ball here. What the Mantle means to us is something we decide.

The varying interpretation of what the Mantle means spurred religions among a number of younger races (The Covenant being a hegemony of them) and we're likely to get caught up in that. They will likely see us as a living heresy.
Wikis are your friend.

You should use them.
Its good to use wikis, but a wiki trawl takes time. Getting the short version as well is a good thing.
 
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...Okay, that, uh...was a lot to take in.

What I get from this is that this 'Covenant' is led by power-hungry Assholes, the Forerunners committed near Omnicide to stop something called the Flood , which sounds like 'What if The Thing met the Tyranids' (Joy...let's see who can assimilate whom faster...) before entrusting awesome Power and Responsibility to the next Generation, if you will, and Humanity just kinda sorta stumbled into this and now we have to try and figure out what all of this really means to us and the Universe before Forces far more ancient and powerful then us squash us like Bugs.

...Interesting.
 
...Okay, that, uh...was a lot to take in.

What I get from this is that this 'Covenant' is led by power-hungry Assholes, the Forerunners committed near Omnicide to stop something called the Flood , which sounds like 'What if The Thing met the Tyranids' (Joy...let's see who can assimilate whom faster...) before entrusting awesome Power and Responsibility to the next Generation, if you will, and Humanity just kinda sorta stumbled into this and now we have to try and figure out what all of this really means to us and the Universe before Forces far more ancient and powerful then us squash us like Bugs.

...Interesting.
Yeah that about sums it up!:lol:
...At least for the original series.
 
...Okay, that, uh...was a lot to take in.

What I get from this is that this 'Covenant' is led by power-hungry Assholes, the Forerunners committed near Omnicide to stop something called the Flood , which sounds like 'What if The Thing met the Tyranids' (Joy...let's see who can assimilate whom faster...) before entrusting awesome Power and Responsibility to the next Generation, if you will, and Humanity just kinda sorta stumbled into this and now we have to try and figure out what all of this really means to us and the Universe before Forces far more ancient and powerful then us squash us like Bugs.

...Interesting.
The Covenant are a whole mess of different peoples. They have good traits and bad, good people and bad, castes in power and castes that just have to follow because that is all that is left for them. They have their heroes. The same is true for the Forerunners and the Precursors. None could be strictly defined as evil but, also, every single one needed to be punched in the face a few times at a few points in their history.

And, if it looks like the Flood is going to win, we'll commit omnicide as well. It would be a mercy compared to what happens if the Flood takes you. It is better that the universe lie empty until its heat death.

We just need to make sure it never comes to that.
 
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[X]Ask her a question about herself: "Doctor Halsey, do you think that your work in AI has solved the Rampancy Problem?"
 
Don't worry... we'll get to kill them off from the galaxy soon enough.
Which is another way of saying "At least its a target-rich environment!" or "They have us surrounded. We have them exactly where we want them!"

The seeds of the Flood will always be out there, barring a scouring of the galaxy life wouldn't recover from for a billion years. We can deal with them while they are small infestations but the chaos from a protracted war with the Covenant gives a lot of chances for somebody to fuck up enough that we get a Gravemind and those things are smarter than anything. At that point its pure desperation.
 
Which is another way of saying "At least its a target-rich environment!" or "They have us surrounded. We have them exactly where we want them!"

The seeds of the Flood will always be out there, barring a scouring of the galaxy life wouldn't recover from for a billion years. We can deal with them while they are small infestations but the chaos from a protracted war with the Covenant gives a lot of chances for somebody to fuck up enough that we get a Gravemind and those things are smarter than anything. At that point its pure desperation.
Or you know... we can invent a way that kills the flood without needing to glass the galaxy.
 
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