Of Light and Darkness (Destiny fan-fiction prelude to Destiny)

[b]Before the universe as we know it; when planets were just clusters of fire and rock, there were the Ancients. They were able to bend the elements at a molecular level. This ability allowed them to terraform planets to make them habitable for other life. They themselves called no planet home for planets were mere boulders to them. After many millenniums passed, the Ancients decided that the best way to spread life was to create large machines to do the work for them. They poured much of their celestial energy into the machines. These machines of great power were called Teraphim. Each machine had it's own individual intelligence so it could judge what planets to change. They where white and resembled large, elongated pyramids. One of the Teraphim was different than the others. It was round and much larger than the others. The Ancients gave the ability to oversee the other machines by installing a fail-safe inside of the large Teraphim. They were all tasked with the same mission: to establish the universe as a place to sustain perfect life. Among many others, earth was a planet that was forever changed by these machines. After 7 trillion years of work, and with the Teraphim in place, the Ancients went into a deep and long slumber. Billions of years went by and the machines became divided. Some followed the large, round machine known by the Teraphim as the Traveler. He wanted to fulfill their mission in the way the Ancients originally mandated. Others followed another machine. He had determined that the best way to set up the universe for perfect life was to destroy it all and begin anew. This machine became known as the darkness. As the machines of the darkness were perverted in their tast, the glorious light that once shown brightly from each hull began to fade. The Teraphim of darkness went from their once bright white to a dull onyx. A war waged between the machines over the fate of the universe as the Ancients slumbered. In the end the darkness had all but won. In a last ditch effort, the Traveler activated the fail-safe which would destroy all of the machines and join them all to Him. He watched in agony as his brothers were destroyed and the light from each came into him. In the midst of cosmic fire which illuminated the farthest galaxies, the traveler noticed that it wasn't affecting the darkness or his followers. The fail-safe would only work on those with the light...the followers of the darkness had lost their light long ago. It was too late to use the fail-safe. The sacrifice of the traveler's allies seemed in vain. The traveler decided that the universe's best hope was to revisit the systems that they and the ancient beings had already touched to prepare these civilizations for what was to come. His first stop was our system. The traveler began to systematically terraform other planets so that they could sustain life. He also changed us as a people. Made us stronger than the ancients had originally so that we could maybe, just maybe, have a hope for survival....but we misunderstood the Traveler's arrival. We took this as an opportunity to expand our horizons and explore; our answer to the question, “are we alone in the universe?” We ignored the warnings of the traveler and unknowingly waited for our doom. The darkness did not come straight for us, though...it used the ideals of the traveler against it. The darkness began to revisit old systems they had touched as well, except he began to destroy their planets and subdue and brainwash their inhabitants. The plan was to throw all of the different races together in with humanity and let them destroy each other. By the time the darkness arrived it was too late. We were pushed back and wiped near the brink of extinction. Nobody truly died...you see, those who would have lost their life, the darkness overwhelmed them. Instead of using the power of the Ancients to create perfect life, the darkness created these thralls of humans into something else entirely. Wiped of all memory or knowledge of what it was to be human, these monsters were twisted and mutated into a massive force which operated in almost a hive-mindset. We did what we could to push them back to the moon. If left unchecked, they would have quickly swarmed and annihilated us all. In what seemed like the last moment, the Traveler positioned itself over our last city, and with all of the celestial light the Ancients bestowed upon him and his fallen brothers, the traveler created the ghosts to seek out those who could wield the light. With the light remaining, the Traveler then released a massive burst of energy which repelled the darkness and his followers back into the abyss of space...it would buy us time...but the darkness will return. Now it is up to us to not waste the sacrifice of the traveler; to harness the light and fend back the darkness! Long live humanity! Long live the city! Long live the Traveler![/b] So let me know what you guys think! -TJ Densetsu ni naru Become Legend