Chapter 81

After finishing his visit to the prison, Axel left Reach with the members of Blue Team and headed for Installation Zero Four. Despite it being discovered 2 years ago, he had not been to it yet as he had been busy doing other things. But now he had an important reason to go.

Arriving at the Installation, Axel looked at the massive ring mega structure and couldn't wait until they would be able to build one of their own someday. They couldn't right now because they don't know exactly how the Forerunners basically created an entire world on a ring. It was a mystery to them.

Approaching the ring, Axel had taken a Pelican to the Main research base located near the control room. Once the Pelican landed at one of the designated landing zones he began to walk out of the Pelican.

As he did this a floating object had suddenly appeared in front of him alerting the Blue Team members.

"Welcome Reclaimer, I have been eager to meet with you" Stated Guilty Spark.

Axel put his hand up telling them to stand down as he approached Guilty Spark. "Nice to meet you as well Guilty Spark, I have heard about your cooperation with my researchers, and I must thank you"

"I too have heard about your exploits Reclaimer; they are extraordinary compared to what the rest of your race has achieved. Especially this" Guilty Spark had showed a holographic image of the star lifter.

As far as Axel knew, nobody had showed or talked about the star lifter to Guilty Spark, but also this was a Forerunner AI construct which is much more powerful than your typical AI.

Guilty Spark reading his face had added "Don't worry Reclaimer, I simply wished to know more about you humans, and I happened to stumble upon this creation."

"And what do you think about it?" asked Axel.

"The Forerunners had a similar creation to that which would harness energy from a Star but was not able to create materials from it. This technology is a brilliant creation." Explained Guilty Spark.

"I see, that's good to hear coming from a Forerunner construct," said Axel.

"Indeed, Reclaimer. It appears that your kind may yet exceed our expectations," Guilty Spark offered.

Guided by Guilty Spark, Axel toured the facilities. They passed laboratories interspersed with excavation sites and survey stations. All of them were busy with humans, working away on their respective tasks.

During the tour, Guilty Spark discussed various facets of Forerunner technology, explaining how it might be adapted for human use, or in some cases improved upon. Axel, for his part, listened intently to the AI's insights, this was part of the reason why he'd made this trip to Installation Zero Four.

Finally, they arrived at a massive door, its smooth surface etched with intricate, flowing patterns that pulsed gently with an inner light.

"This is a central power hub Reclaimer. It provided energy for the entire ring and was capable of powering entire fleets of starships." Guilty Spark said.

Axel gazed up at the immense door in amazement, "Incredible." He understood that his civilization still had much to learn about Forerunner technology, but they were already making significant strides towards harnessing even a small fraction of it. The potential for advancement was there, all they had to do was take hold of it.

"Indeed, Reclaimer." The AI paused for a moment before continuing: "You humans have proven resourceful and resilient...traits we Forerunners respected greatly."

Leaving the central power hub, they continued the tour joined by Catherine. The rest of the tour was just as enlightening; they visited relic sites, ancient energy generators (still operational), and databanks filled with unfathomable amounts of Forerunner knowledge. All the while, Guilty Spark provided commentary and answered any questions Axel had.

After several hours of exploration, Axel found himself standing in a room that was very different from the rest, a place that felt sacred and hallowed. Intricate glyphs adorned the walls and ceiling while a large crystal-like object dominated the center. Even Catherine herself hadn't been in this room.

"This is the Cartographer," said Guilty Spark hovering towards it. "It holds a comprehensive map of all known Forerunner installations."

Axel stepped forward; his gaze fixated on the large crystal construct. As he did so, it activated and projected a holographic image of the known universe brimming with pulsating points of light - each representing a different Forerunner installation.

"Remarkable," muttered Axel staring at the number of Forerunner installations across the Universe.

"It is indeed," said Guilty Spark. "And it might just hold the key to your continued survival and prosperity."

The AI hovered in a circular path around the Cartographer. "In the past, we Forerunners utilized the installations to maintain order and control over our vast empire. But we also used them to study and nurture life. Each installation has unique resources and knowledge, all of which could be harnessed for the Reclaimer's benefit."

Axel mind started to race as Guilty Spark continued, "Take this installation for example, it studied the effects of artificial gravity on eco-systems. Humans could use that knowledge to colonize new planets more efficiently."

Axel remembered the star lifter again; it was a stepping-stone, one of many on their path of advancement. The revelations from Guilty Spark weren't just interesting; they were potential game-changers.

"Why didn't you show me this?" Catherine asked Guilty Spark.

"Because when I wanted to first meet with the Reclaimer before I revealed this knowledge to you" stated Guilty Spark.

"And what classifies someone as a Reclaimer?" asked Catherine in response to his answer.

"The term Reclaimer is used to refer to a species or a member of said species chosen to inherit the Mantle after the Forerunners, humans have been chosen," Guilty Spark elaborated. "You have demonstrated a potential we did not see in others."

"I am merely a guide on this journey." Added Guilty Spark.

Catherine nodded satisfied at his answer and she didn't ask any more questions.

"This is great, now we know the locations of all Forerunner installations," said Axel. "We will save this information as I want to personally visit some of the places on this map" The map had vanished in front of Axel as he turned around to leave the room.

"For now, I want to head to your lab, I have some things that I need to do," said Axel. Catherine nodded as they returned to the main research base. Once inside they walked to Catherine's lab as Axel pulled up the computer's interface and started pulling up the ongoing data on the current projects.

"What are you going to do" Asked Catherine as she stood next to him looking at the data as well.

"I found some interesting technology that we could implement and with the information from Guilty Spark I have gained some valuable insight" replied Axel.

Guilty Spark floated between them as they were looking at the data "I will be here to assist in any way possible."

"Thanks" replied Axel as he got to work.

The first thing that he looked at was the Slipspace translocation which would allow them to teleport nearly instantaneously between locations. This is achieved using slipspace as a travel medium, without the use of a conventional slipspace drive.

After that was the Assembler vats which were nanofabrication facilities utilized by the Forerunners to construct all their tools and structures. Instructions and construction templates on how to build various items were fed to assemblers for mass replication in the form of a design seed.

A Design seed is a piece of technology used by the Forerunners to encode data that would be used to quickly assemble a machine at the appropriate time. A design seed contained the schematics for the piece of technology it was designed to craft, as well as the machinery required to convert the construction materials into the object under construction. When required, design seeds could be fed into Assembler vats for mass-replication.

Utilizing the Assembler vats, Smartmatter could also be created. Smartmatter is a type of material often used in Forerunner construction. It is composed of self-assembling nanomachine blocks reinforced by energy bonds. This nature allowed smartmatter to be 'grown' in the Forerunner assembler vats in a manner similar to biological life. Smartmatter what helps Forerunner-built structures last eons with minimal maintenance.

Lastly was Buffer fields being energy fields used to manipulate gravity in a variety of methods such as keeping ships aloft in a planetary atmosphere (for those that don't know what aloft means it is basically keeping ships in the sky within a planet's atmosphere), inertial dampening aboard starships, and the generation of artificial gravity.

All these things are what Axel planned to conduct research on to accelerate the process and bring about new technology to once again revolutionize the current technology that they have.