Page 21 (1/2)

Coed her to believe she coy and culture Yprin had advanced to Political and Morale Coreed with that advancement, her rise to power I had severe doubts that Erda was our planet of origin Other worlds in other systems seemed more likely I had been to many of them and had viewed their ancient ruins

And I had seen evidence that Forerunners had also visited these worlds, were also interested in huins--not just the Librarian and her Lifeworkers, but the Didact hiainst the Forerunner assaults-- which ca sequence, one after another--for three years

My own ships swept back and forth hundreds of ti back pinpoint orbital incursions before they could establish corridors of least energy dominance

In al such battles, within the vast reaches of a stelar systee; tactics in such close quarters depend on stable positions established near planetary objectives, where triangulations of fire can focus on jams of debris and destruction

Occupation of vast reaches of spaceIt is control of population centers and essential resources that determines victory or defeat

But our ships were depleted month by month, our battle positions worn down year by year, as Forerunner ships ranging in scale from fortress-class behehts opened brief entry points and attacked fro, erratic arcs that res of madmen--briliant madmen

The hand of the Didact hi entries and orbits

Forerunner doy of reconciliation--repairing the causal and chronological paradoxes of faster-than-light travel, so crucial to journeys across interstelar distances--slowed and even blocked our own slipspace channels and interfered with the arrival of reinforce anticipated, even inevitable, was agonizingly slow to arrive The final Forerunner assault was staged froe thewith his finest commanders, ht fro the outer rim to Erde-Tyrene itself

Yprikushma and a special forces teaned to protect the timelock that contained the Pri hureatest Precursor ruin left on Charuether We shared this space a the ancient Precursor structures with the last survivors of the Ad to the hideous noise of Forerunner fleets sweeping over and breaking down our last resistance

Forerunners captured the tiainst her fervent objections--this much I heard I also heard that she had hoped to be captured by the Forerunners themselves, so that she could warn them about a fate you would not wish on your worst enemy

To warn them about what the Primordial had told her

At the last, separated by only a few hundred meters, we tracked the concentrated assault that colapsed our last orbit fields, eliht down the Citadel

The sounds of death and dying,vaporized while I yet lived

Confined Awaiting the inevitable

The inevitable arrived

I died

The Composer and the Lifeworkers did their work

And noas here, in this boy’s body

Am here!

Still here!

AI TRANSLATOR: PRIMARY LANGUAGE STREAM RESUMES: RESPONSE STREAM 14401 [DATE REDACTED] 1701 hours (nonrepeating)

Chapter Twenty-Two

THERE THAT WAS restful, wasn’t it? I do so enjoy being subverted from within If I can carry ed after al Crazy, but not daize if our ancestor, or our predecessor (it is so difficult to detere for any human species), has caused you difficulties For Lord of Ad individuals in their tied to resu out

Riser was a curled-up, matted bal of sweat and stink I was notat so on their sides, Vinnevra curled up within the protective arh

Riser had so his"I don’t like being ridden like a horse, even by a female" He quirked his whole face, an expression that always fascinated me "Makes me smel older than I am" He lifted his arm to sniff his armpit "Pretty damned old And you!" He looked at me and twitched his nose "You’ve looked better"

I was furiously hungry Being ridden by spirits was : it used up al the fuel in my furnace I stumbled across the curved top of thefor a fruit-bearing tree, a beehive we could raid--anything

Riser folowed, rubbing his shoulders "Nothing to eat," he said

I s ha ht find some water down there," he said "But it hasn’t rained for a while--since the spirits rose up and argued"

I squatted on the highest curve of the slope "The apeShe did before"

"She’s out of her country," Riser said with a clack of his teeth

Vinnevra seeht behind us She had moved so quietly she startled even Riser, who jerked around and growled

She curled her lip, and that made him lean his head back and chortle out the oook-phraaa sound that was one kind of cha ood joke, even if the joker didn’t know that what she had done was funny

She sat beside us "I knohere to go," she said, and nodded across the huain," she said "You think al the Forerunners are dead I don’t think they are I thinkWel, I don’t knohat to think, but it’s teling e?" I asked, perhaps too sharply

Vinnevra shook her head and wrung her hands, as if squeezing her fingers dry after a wash "It’s what I’ told" She looked at us without much hope ould listen to her

"I don’t think I want to take any more chances," I said

"I don’t blanore it, too, this ti female who had rescued me from the broken jar and takento do," she said "Mara is wiling to listen to ain too sharply and quickly

Her wince saddened me "True I was about to say, Mara wil listen toto folow both of you Whatever you decide"

This transfor She was quieter, low, as if she had freed herself from some impossible burden

And I was responsible for her Riser looked between us, squinting one eye

Vinnevra turned to him "I listened when your old memories talked Some of what you said I understood Gaht me a feords and ideas You realy do have spirits inside of you"

"So did he," I said