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"But also learned! I have spental our past failures, and now, I have ful access to their new strategies! This wheel is but one of the weapons at our disposal--if we join

"Out there, awaiting our commands, in many orbits around thousands of other worlds, in other star systems, are reserves of tens of thousands of ships of war--and more Halos We wil be irresistible!"

The spirit’s enthusiase that alreeainst the h this sha Ilusion passed into ilusion--and I preferred oose, the trickster, I re huoose who had convinced Mud to ered the worrasslands

Worreen-eyedjokes upon the huods known as Tree and River, Rock and Cloud

I choked out some words, I don’t remember what

The ain saw stars--but no other people

No other e and I were alone under the stars

I could not help but suck in a breath as cool air swirled around ," the Lord of Ad!" I cried Maybe I had agreed Maybe I did not want to suffocate Maybe I was just curious I have always been too curious, and Riser was not here to correct me

"Thirty others who carried warriors have chosen to join us in taking coe reminds me of the--"

"Riser?" I interrupted

"Very canny, that smal one," the Lord of Ad his kind serve under h My deep unease had intensified I did not feel at al wel

"He wil play this ga as it a as he has a chance of causing Forerunners dismay and pain He also wishes to attack the Didact personaly This has been conveyed to me by my old opponent, Yprin"

I knew that was a lie Insteps around the platforray world

It seee

"We wil be stationed at key controls to help maneuver this Halo

We have much work to do, yet even then, our chances are slis His hatred, he eness of this bequest

"Sodo we have a deal, young human?" he asked "For now?"

"What wil happen if we survive?"

"We wil spread out to the fleets and launch an attack against the heart of Forerunner civilization, in the Orion complex Never in al our battles did we coht-years of that prize!"

Madness, pride, shahost, I asked ?

"You lied to the "

"The least I can do, young human," the Lord of Adain--you need me"

And why else, I asked myself--why else did the Lord of Admirals or thehere ht stil center on the future actions of the Didact I had met the Didact himself, had helped resurrect him from his Cryptum on Erde-Tyrene I had spent many hours in his somber company I had watched his ship dissolve and the Didact himself be captured by the forces of the Master Builder--captured and, very likely, executed

But the Didact had also served as a template for Bornstelar

When we parted ways, Bornstelar had been looking more and more like the old Warrior-Servant I wondered how that had turned out He had not seee Had they taken Bornstelar aside, carved a chunk of flesh frohost into a host and thatthe uncountable stars?

Surrounded by this nificence, this power, this deception and cruelty, al I wanted was to reach back to our days on Erde-Tyrene --to shield es and eternal evils

In a dreao back It took some time for me to realize it was already too late I can’t put into words al that I felt

To be truthful, I no longer feel

Al that I was, but for reflections in a crackedtie of Forthencho, I knew that soed I felt weaker, older--fading

I pinched ers Very likely, we had been deceived into believing ere alone, so as not to witness the destruction of the braver individuals around us--those who refused to go along with the old ghosts and the green-eyed hts settled into immediate questions

"Why would Forerunner machines let themselves be run by humans?" I asked My voice sounded thin and weak

"Maybe they can be fooled," the Lord of Admirals said "Some say that deep in our flesh Forerunners and humans are related"

I did not believe that, not then "Have you received your orders directly from the machine?"

"There are ht Forerunners"

My vision seey bars of light "What convinced it to turn on itseven if it sapped th

"Given too much power, or contradictory instructions Ful of itself, perhaps"