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I was completely aware of the survival mechanisms available to the Halo

Later, much of what happened in the next few hours returned to a jumble of confusion and spectaclebut after tens of thousands of years, long reflection brings it back I have of course defended Halo many times since But you know that

Al these survival y in short supply after the sabotage of so many power stations

Perhaps most impressive was the ability to suspendthe instalation into a great, reflective ring iy cost of such suspension was immense--perhaps more than the wheel could y that would have been absorbed by the Halo would have to be deflected through a fractal-dinatures and even high-energy radiation that could attract the attention of anything hunting us

The wolf-faced orb was already exerting an awful pressure on the wheel’s integrity The wals of the Halo glowed along their outer surfaces as they atteravitational strain

And the pitifuly few re their drive motors in an atte little success The only result had been to slow the Halo slightly, dropping its stelar orbit a few hundred kiloray planet would sweep right through the hoop without touching

But before that was tried, the Halo’s hub and spokes activated

The makeshift control teay as it fel into spokes and the hub, then transferring so the planet’s velocity to ht prevent another colision should the orbits of Halo and planet again intersect

We had no idea how far hub and spokes, al hard light structures, would behave under that sort of pressure--whether they could actualy stretch without breaking or vanishing

Another eventuality Forerunners had never anticipated or tested

And so aited

We did not have to wait long before there were additional co war sphinxes detected ships approaching froreat reen-eyed "master"

canition

But for now, the ships had to be ignored

The wheel’s wals had distributed al they couldNow the foundation plates between the arping and buckling, rising up and separating and in the process tossing loose or spiling great voluray streah earlier in preparation now began their slow shuffle to replace the daed plates--but clearly the repairs could not keep pace with the destruction

The Halo, barely keeping itself together, was squarely faced off against the red and gray planet

The new ships cahts--dozens of the close to the hub and spokes, then spreading along the spokes into a broad fan thatthem down al around the wheel

More concern--but we could do nothing if they were here to destroy us Stil, it soon became obvious that these were not ?

Rescue?

Such ships could quickly insert their drives into the grid and supply power That could save everything!

More exaltation--and then, suddenly, an abyssal plunge into a cold,that reen-eyed master of the wheel did not find this intercession at al helpful We had been found The rogue Halo was rogue no more! The appearance of sothe perverted ancila was trying to accolow of hope flowed from the serpentine Forerunner hooked up beside ency, no ht of the star now cah the fog of icy vapor strea away from our wheel The wal opposite our command center separated and bent outward like a metal strap in the hands of a burly blacksmith

An uneven contest, to say the least The ray and red planet

The planet now pushed up against four of the spokes, and then, as the spokes stretched, it struck the hub itself At this, rippling pulses of blue fire fleard The hub shimented--broke apart They seemed to lay down across the planet’s rocky surface, then abruptly converted into curling, expanding beams of intensely blue and violet radiation

Perhaps now the Halo was exacting soradualy stretching net or snare, no capture of e

The wheel now began to truly coaps ofup between, like pieces of a huge necklace being yanked from al sides

Stil, the ecstasy of my connectedness shielded me froreen-eyeddarker stil

But this darker source of command felt no fear, was beyond fear

I could feel its influence like the chil of a dark, dead star per us-- Forerunner and human alike became frozen in place

And what it now i of al-- Superior, intensely pure curiosity--far colder andI had ever known These entities were expressing an ales of an ongoing experi of soof an ancient plan, long ago frustrated, then abandoned, but now possible once more?

Could Forerunners and hu asunder so many milions of years beforewhen the Prier, wider strategy, a greater plan that would no doubt bring about is

Through the Flood, the Shaping Sickness The greatest chalenge and contest of al

Froed victorious, only to be deci defeat for the Primordial’s plans Al of this had been laid out in detail to the coldly logical mentality that was the Halo’s master

Even enhanced and combined, I--we--could only appreciate a suh curtains at the

copulation of our parents

The Halo was dying, no doubt about it Even as dreadnoughts attached theaps appeared, more sections twisted about and spiled their contents

But a new voice laid itself over us, powerful, resonant, penetrating the Cartographer’s display, the overlay of the machine, even the cold analysis of the Pri conized it! I knew it from that time we had spent on the island within Djamonkin Crater A weary manner of speech once accustoh circumstance withdrawn, set apart, lost

But no e," the voice said, swirling al around us

"Mendicant Bias That is the naave you when last we met