Precursors (Necros)

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The Precursors Biological information Homeworld Zeban Physical description Height Average: 8'4" Weight Average: 230 lbs Skin color Golden-brown Military and Political information Affiliation Precursor Sovereign Dominion Notable Individuals Gabriel-Arihpas Lucifel-Nogard
	[Source]

While the Forerunners were one of the most advanced species to swell in the Milky Way galaxy, they were not the most advanced - that title belongs to another, much older race, the Precursors, whose technological feats outstripped even the Forerunners. Like the Forerunners, their disappearance was sudden and mysterious.

[edit] History

[edit] Early History

The ancient South Zeban ruins are all that remains of the ancient races that shared the planet with the aggressive Precursors, their builders long reduced to extinction.

Given the extreme age of the Precursor civilisation when compared with more recent ones, much of their early history and culture is rather ambiguous. Archaeological studies can piece together a few facts, however, from the meagre scraps that remain of their homeworld, Zeban. The original Precursor society dates back at to least 750,000 BC, during the Ionian Stage of the Pleistocene Epoch. Early settlements indicate a feudalistic tribal system, with distinctions between each tribe (apparently dubbed "Dynasties"). By 700,000 BC, signs of some tribes suddenly and dramatically vanish, seemingly as a result of warfare - recovered Precursor texts hint that this was the act of a single warlord, Lepidop^[1], waging war against political dissidents.

Archaeologists also found traces of two other distinct species; the Heralds and the Predecessors^[2], who seem to have been at a level that at least rivaled that of the Precursors, enough for them to withstand aggression, at least until 700,000 BC when the Precursors, having already achieved a spacefaring status, waged a war of annihilation (known as the War of Supremacy) against the other civilizations that shared their planet, rendering them extinct within a few generations. From a species that was so revered by the significantly more peaceful Forerunners, such xenophobic aggression is surprising; some explain this by the seeming records retrieved that indicate civil dissent between the Forerunners at several points in their history as well.

[edit] Golden Age of the Precursors

Beginning roughly 600,000 BC and lasting till roughly 550,000 BC

[edit] Precursor-Elder War

A member of the enigmatic Elder race

The second-most devastating of all the many conflicts the Precursors engaged in, the Precursor-Elder War was waged in 550,000 BC as Elder aggression against Precursor territory sparked a massive and brutal reprisal campaign, threatening to bring an end to the so-called "Golden Age" of the Precursors. The sheer strain of fighting against an enemy that almost rivaled themselves took its toll, and effected the later Precursor-Hydra War, where their weakened state left them vulnerable to obliteration by the Hydra.

What is believed to be a depiction of the Elder Emperor

The Elders - the second (besides the Precursors) of the two theoretical "God Races" that were the first life in the Milky Way Galaxy - had, by 550,000 BC, achieved a level of technological advancement that practically matched that of the Precursors. An uneasy, unofficial peace had been declared between the factions in 525,000 BC after the Elder's had initiated a bloody war against the Precursors; the Precursors, at that time more advanced than the E;der, beat back the alien empire to 2/3 it's former size, and then held their territory. However, after 550,000 BC, an Elder Emperor arose that had absolutely no restraint or wish to understand that

[edit] The Precursor-Hydra War

The most devastating conflict the galaxy ever saw until the Forerunner-Flood War that would follow millenia later, the conflict with the Hydra was the last straw for the Precursor civilization - already weakened by conflict with the Elders, their war with the Hydra was their last stand. Though they managed to survive, their species was rendered functionally extinct - too few remained to recover.

[edit] Nogard

> Data pending

[edit] The Leave Taking

While the Precursors left their fingerprints all across our galaxy, their final fate lies in other galaxies, a destiny we may never find

After the war with the Elders, the Precursors were left even more devastated than they had been, their luck seemingly run out - most of their creations had been destroyed, their fleet was in tatters, their planets had been ravaged, and the majority of the Precursor population were dead, the species rendered functionally extinct. Taking what little they had, they attempted to rebuild their society, trying to return some diversity to their gene pool, and reclaim the galaxy that had once been theirs: they began Mission: RESURRECTION, an attempt to both breed genetically created armies for their protection and to revitalize both the Precursor gene pool itself and the planets they held under their control.

But, RESURRECTION only lasted a short 5,000 years, as upon the Precursor's arrival at one planet they discovered a race that had already reached its' own feudal era, a race that would come to be known as the Forerunners: when the Precursors attempted to take the planet and capture the race for study, the Forerunners retaliated, using biological warfare - poison animal carcasses and large pots filled with acids - to kill thousands of Precursors. Impressed at this new, fledgling race, the Precursors realized their time in the galaxy had at last come to an end, and so they passed the Mantle on to the Forerunners and, leaving scraps of their technology (such as The Matrix), the Precursors left the Milky Way, leaving behind only the Crucibles, the Facility Network, and one member of their race.

However, even though the Precursors left the Milky Way Galaxy, their influence did not end there: for years and years the Forerunners would investigate and learn from the many Precursor Facilities across the galaxy, especially the Catalog, a massive library of Precursor knowledge from which the Forerunners gained their incredible awe of the Precursors. The Seer would live on (due both to the Precursor's extraordinarily long lifespans and advanced cryo-technology), carrying with him the legacy of the Precursors and the duty to forever watch and guard the galaxy; his time would at last come to an end during the Necros War at the hands of the monster he'd inadvertently created from his brother. Lastly, a secret sect within the Covenant known as the Masters of Ascendance gained control of small pieces of enough Precursor technology to be able to create a small, genetically-created army in the Human-Covenant War

[edit] Description

[edit] Anatomy and Physiology

It is often hard not to compare extraterrestrial races to humanity. The convergent evolution of bipedalism in sentient organisms throughout history is certainly astonishing, but in most regards the Precursors break this streak. For one thing, they a thick chitinous exoskeleton and sensory antenae that flow down their backs. They are also extremely thin, to the point of looking skeletal, except at the abdomen which is extremely muscular. Their hands possess three digits and their feet two, with the tips possessing miniscule microscopic sensory/manipulative fillaments, increasing their ability to grip, manipulate objects, and generally improve their too use ability. Their legs are digitigrade, allowing them superior running and jumping ability - while modern digitigrade species have difficulty with ladders and stairs, the Precursors seem to have had no such difficulty, shunning physical elevation in favour of anti-gravity lifts, which they pioneered.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Political System

Precusor Sovereign Dominion Political information Head of State Siegnor (aka Arihpas) Head of Government The Two Lieges Arihpas Arijog Commander-in-chief Arijog De facto leader Arijog Executive branch The Conclave Legislative branch The Synod Judicial branch The Synod Societal information Capital Zeban Official language Precursor language Historical information Date of establishment Roughly 680,000 BC Date of dissolution Unknown

[Source]

The Precursor Sovereign Dominion is the name of the political power that the Precursors made up.

[edit] The Conclave

The Conclave is the executive branch of the Precursor government. Led by the Two Lieges, the Arijog and the Arihpas, it also includes the Five Adjudicators: the First Nroht oversaw all the Dominion's economic and agricultural assets, ensuring that there were no upsets in the money flow and all ran smoothly in the economy as well as ensuring that the Dominion would have enough food for all; the Second Nroht dealt with the overseeing of the Precursor's religious services (much like Humanity's Catholic Pope) and the recording of all Precursor history; the Third Nroht ensured that all were properly educated and that no dissident or rebellious works of writing were released (the exact definitions of "rebellious", et al were left up to the Third Nroht); the Fourth Nroht was something of a grand overseer of science, ensuring that science and technology was always moving forward for the betterment of the Dominion as a whole; the final, Fifth Nroht looked after the Dominion's territory, ensuring that all was properly mapped and the like, as well as make sure that information was always kept on the exact locations of all members of the Dominion.

[edit] The Synod

The Synod is both the legislative and judicial branches of the Sovereign Dominion’s political system, being highly similar to the Sangheili High Council. Each Dynasty forms its’ own group, called a Coterie, which consists of three to five seats depending on the size of the Dynasty, with a total of one hundred and eight seats available in all.

The Synod’s purpose is a two-part job of dealing with civil matters: first, the individual Coterie’s in the Synod conceive and create the laws of the Sovereign Dominion, which they then vote upon and either pass or fail; secondly, they then interpret the law in order to carry out the prosecution of those that break the law. It should be noted that the laws of the Dominion were recorded as being very strict, called totalitarian by many: even “small” deeds such as a small theft or a public outbreak of dissension between two beings could result in prison sentences or, while more radical persons were in power, death even. Oddly enough, matters that happened in private were practically ignored by the Precursor’s government: the exact reasoning behind this ideology is unknown.

Presiding over each Coterie is a Mogul, also referred to as a Guams, who’s vote represents that of the entire Coterie. However, no official delegations or meetings are made to determine what the Coterie’s view on any given subject should be: instead, each individual member must tell the Mogul their personal view on the matter, and in the end he will choose how to vote based on these comments and his personal judgement; it has even been recorded where Mogul’s decided to vote in total disregard of the views of the Coterie’s members. However, nothing restricts how a Mogul may be persuaded, so everything short of threats are used, including bribes; in addition, members of the other Coterie’s are able to “convince” other Mogul’s, though this is much more difficult due to the fierce political/Dynastic rivalries involved. In the end, the votes of the Mogul’s are all turned in the Seignior, who then reports the turn-out.

[edit] The Two Lieges

The Sovereign Dominion is led by the Two Lieges, the Seignior (or Arihpas) and the Overlord (or Arijog). The first of these two, the Seignior, serves as the leader of all civil matters and is officially the leader of the Sovereign Dominion; the second, the Overlord, serves as the supreme leader of all military operations and forces, and because of the many wars of the Precursors and the immense power of the military, the Overlord is the de facto leader.

The Seignior’s main duty is to preside over the Conclave and the Synod and ensure that order is observed and rules are followed. The majority of this duty is focused on overseeing the Synod and ensuring that the persistent argument do not erupt into raucous fighting. In addition, the Seignior acts as the reader of the law, the judge in trials of criminals, the announcer of the outcome of a vote, and in the event of a tie vote, the breaker of such a tie.

The Overlord’s duties are completely over all military operations: however, as there are only a very few restrictions on what the Overlord can do – and these only over the most extreme of situations – and due to the consistency of war in the Precursor’s history, the Overlord effectively became the de facto leader of the Dominion in its’ early years. The Overlord oversees all military missions, operations and battles, he directs the movements of the armies, the allocation of troops, the defensive positions, the lessons taught in the military camps, the development of weapons and other technology, and even the evacuation of entire planets in the case of invasion.

[edit] The Apostles

[edit] Armed Forces

The Precursor military evolved over their civilization's long and glorious lifetime, passing through three stages.

The first stage was the common place stage held by almost all civilizations, and it was the use of their own troops for all of their military operations. Due to the Precursor's high reproduction rate, their population, and consequently their army, was the largest ever seen in the galaxy, and as time moved on the Precursor's creativity and ingenuity allowed them to created more and more complex weaponry, vehicles, and eventually unmanned drones, which in the end led to the second stage of their armed forces.

When at last the Precursors moved to the second stage, they already had half the galaxy under their control, and were at war with another Tier 1 race known as the Elders. It was in this time that the Precursors perfected their drone technology, creating many forms of robots that were on par and above the capabilities of the Forerunner's Sentinels and Monitors. During this timeframe, the Precursors also began to use cyberneticly augmented troops, as well as cyborgs; the latter of these, however, was outlawed after being deemed inhumane, as dead bodies were used to create them, though cybernetic enhancements continued to be used until the Precursor's disappearance.

The final phase of the Precursor military came late in the Precursor-Hydra War: this third form of military was the use of genetic manipulation and cloning to create "grown" armies of beings that would prove useful to them. These first armies were created via the mass cloning of "Sub-Cursors", dumb organics with no free will that only did as they were told. These armies were not used very long, due to many Precursors finding it distasteful to create slave armies for themselves; the process, however, was condoned by the entire leadership of the Dominion, and once the process went through some revision, large world-stations filled with the necessary equipment to create organically grown armies were left behind after the Precursor-Forerunner War, to lay dormant till the Precursors (or any other race) awoke them to create armies from the nearby seeded races that carried the necessary genetic material to create the armies.

[edit] Training

Part of the fierceness of the Stage 1 Precursor Armed Forces – the time when it was still composed fully of all-organic Precursors – was the rigorous training exercises that all the soldiers went through prior to any combat action.

The physical training was excruciating, with the combined use of constant training, a healthy diet and non-addictive/detrimental enhancement drugs making the Precursor’s 300% fitter by the end of the seventeen month training session. After the seventeen months of perfect conditions, the soldiers then underwent an additional seven months of training in the worst conceivable conditions; without any contact with the outside world, highly limited rations (usually forcing fasts on multiple troops in a squad), extreme temperatures and conditions, these months at the end of the training helped to further the soldier’s ability to survive both physically and mentally.

However, despite all this, the true power of the Precursor training regime was the mental training: using long sessions of tactics that were essentially brainwashing, extensive use of logic and complex thinking training – as well as lessons on higher mathematics, medicine, and other such things for specialists – large amounts of drills in the use and resistance of psychological warfare, and lastly a form of soul-searching where one was forced to constantly search inside themself and face their fears so that the soldier, in conquering the fear, would grow stronger. In the end, the Precursor’s had a discipline and faith far beyond even the most extreme Sangheili or Vorenus warriors, while being able to temper it with the ability to think straight and see when a commanding officer’s orders needed to be disregarded.

[edit] Technology

The Zeban Space Elevator Network was created using only the most advanced materials and design techniques known to the Precursors, and was an impressive sight, still standing hundreds of thousands of years after their makers' mass exodus.

The Precursors were, and still are, the most advanced species to have ever existed in this galaxy and likely all others, and their technological achievements matched this fact. Whether it be in the field of starships, weaponry, armor, robotics, genetic manipulation, cloning, artificial intelligence, or any other, their technology far exceeded most of Humanity's wildest imaginations.

[edit] Weapons

The Precursors had managed to master technology that was far beyond any other civilization, and used weapons that varied greatly in their field of origin, from kinetic weapons to energy weapons, bullets to explosives, and everything else imaginable.

One of the Precursor's last inventions, and most inventive, was organic acid generators for their slave armies: placing small, cybernetically-augmented acid glands within the bodies of the slave races, the soldiers were capable of producing acid in large quantities so long as they consumed a small amount of sustenance, and this acid could then be sprayed from ports located at the wrist.

Similarly, the Precursor's managed to produce a laser that operated on a biologically fueled power core that was small enough to be placed inside a body without difficulty. Powered through a combination of using natural acids from the body to cause chemical reactions, as well the motions of both blood and organs to create kinetic energy, the small power core is capable of creating a laser of equal or greater strength than the UNSC's SPARTAN Laser with only a tenth of the cool-down time (the laser itself being fired from a gun grafted onto the soldier's arm).

While the Precursors possessed directed energy weapons in abundance, one of their most devastating weapons were kinetic in nature, similar in concept (if radically different in implementation) to the UNSC MAC - small solid projectiles accelerated to velocities higher than lightspeed, the Precursors made effective use of these Relativistic Kill Vehicles. A single shot was capable of devastating a planet using only a small round. As such, they were extremely rare - the destruction of planets was reserved only for the most entrenched of foes that posed a threat to the Precursors, and using them against anything smaller was deemed a waste. Miniaturised versions were attempted, but were still too wasteful to be used as a mainstream weapon.

Another of the Precursor's most powerful and technical weapons was the Energizer Cannon: firing a beam of pure energy, the blast was sufficient to destabilize the opponent's molecular structure: overcharging the foe's atoms with the energy, the atoms would near instantaneously change from the solid phase of matter to the gas phase. However, while the energy charge was to vaporize infantry and light vehicles or robots, heavier foes were usually protected enough for the Energizer Cannon to have little effect on them.

The most devastating piece of technology in the Precursor's arsenal, however, was the Devastator Cannon, nicknamed the "Starurst" or "Sun Crusher": firing a concentrated energy blast, similar to a large scale Energizer Cannon, the Devastator would manage to destabilize the star or stars of a solar system, causing them to go supernova; even if the wave of fiery destruction that followed did not destroy all the system's inhabitants, the resulting black hole would destroy the remainder soon enough.

[edit] Armor

A Precursor in a suit of Adamantium Armor

Like all their equipment, Precursor armor has evolved through a variety of forms throughout time. The earliest phases were merely hard plastic or metal plates that were capable of stopping or lessening a weapons damage to the wearer, akin to the common grade material used by most AUR races. This was late supplemented by energy shields which became more powerful over time due to the advances in micro-technology allowing for ever more powerful and smaller shield generators.

The ultimate advancement in armor created by the Precursor's was known as Adamantium Armor, developed immediately prior to the end of the Precursor-Hydra War. Using a thin layer of the superdense, artificial metal called Adamantium, the armor was essentially indestructible as almost nothing could pass through the unbelievably dense material; the second component to this Adamantium Armor was a form-fitted suit, which generated an anti-grav field with a two-fold purpose, the first of which being to counter the massive weight problem of the Adamantium while the second purpose was to conform the Adamantium to the body of the wearer, a task reserved for the anti-grav generators due to the difficulty involved in molding Adamantium. Adamantium Armor became the staple of the Precursor armor in the final stages of the Precursor-Hydra War and onwards, and was eventually outfitted to all infantry, vehicles and ships.

[edit] Vehicles

Though rare, given the Precors preference for ground assaults, the Raluces-class dropship allowed orbital insertions for surprise small-scale strikes.

Precursor vehicles were much like Covenant or early Forerunner vehicles, operating on anti-gravity mechanics with energy-based weaponry: however, the Precursor's rarely chose to user their vehicles, and when they did it was predominantly large walker-style vehicles, similar to the Sangheili Scarab or Tarantula. Because of this choice, the few vehicles used by the Precursor's eventually became only large walkers, while smaller vehicle roles were filled first by robotic drones, and later by genetically enlarged and enhanced slave soldiers.

By the time the Precursors had begun use of their bioengineered armies, only two vehicles were found useful for the new army, both of which had also evolved into bioengineered creations: the Revelation Mobile Command Platform and the Genesis Assault Platform. The first, the Revelation, was essentially a massive walking city: a massive, thick-skinned beast with six legs, no tail, and a short, squat head, it was used to command attacks, serve as a rallying point for repairing, rearmament and regrouping, and to also provide devastating support fire. The second vehicle, the Genesis, was a smaller walker-like animal (only twice the size of the USR Death Watch), it had been in Precursor service since the beginning of their use of walker technology and had evolved into a bioengineered creature with troop carrying and swift assault duties.

[edit] Robotics

The Precursors skills with robotics was highly advanced, and combined with dumb AI's they became highly effective in combat, with small ones functioning as infantry while larger ones came to replace typical vehicles for the Precursors.

The Quad Mech was the most basic of all Precursors mechs. It consists of a large head with a single, red optical lens on four legs, each ending in a spike. It was produced en masse to combat foes, beginning with the Precursor Civil War. Its' design was simple and effective enough that it survived with minimal changes down till the fall of the Precursors.

The Smasher has two giant arms ending in two large shock-wave emitting orbs, as well as a large cannon on its' back.

The Heavy Crusher is a giant version of the Quad Mech, created to lay siege to Intga cities, fortresses, and bases.

[edit] Starcraft

The Paradise-class Fighter, in fighter configuration, was a common sight in Precursor fleets.

The Paradise Fighter in its' "Attack" formation, used when bombing enemy ships

By the end of their reign in this galaxy, the Precursor's massive fleet had consolidated its' many different ship classes into merely three different types of ships. Each one was specialized in a different area, but none was left extremely vulnerable to attack: clad in the Precursor's Adamantium Armor, their ships were resistant to large amounts of damage, and on top of this were energy shields two dozen of times stronger than even Forerunner shields; in addition, the ships were armed with all manner of laser weaponry, ranging from the devastating Destiny Super Laser, capable of blasting straight through a Necros or Forerunner warship, to the Fate Rotary Laser, able to fire off 30 blasts from a laser a second.

Aside from their three warships, the only other starcraft used by the Precursors was the Paradise-class Fighter Craft, used by Precursor pilots in dogfights against incoming enemy fighters or in bombing runs on the larger enemy warships. Armed with several Karma Lasers - lasers capable of firing from three muzzles in quick succession to allow for near constant fire or in one concentrate, charged blast - the Paradise Fighters were deadly in a firefight, and in addition they were capable of being changed into a defensive "attack" formation when assaulting powerful enemy ships.

A Nirvana-class Frigate-Destroyer under attack by Hydra-controlled Paradise Fighters

The smallest of the Precursor's ships, the Nirvana-class Frigate-Destroyer, was designed more as an escort guard for the larger ships than anything: quick and decently armed, a common Nirvana tactic was for several dozen to harass an enemy ship with constant hit-and-run attacks while the larger ships closed in to destroy them. Nirvana's were generally considered by many of the Precursors to be out-of-date, but the Precursor's military command considered them to serve their purpose well enough and they were not altered for an unprecedented five hundred years; some Precursor scholars deemed this one of the reasons that the Dominion fared so badly during the Precursor-Elder and Precursor-Hydra Wars.

The main force of the Precursor Navy, the Elysium-class Cruiser-Carrier served as the major form of attack and troop transport for the Precursor's. Armed with a half a dozen Fate Rotary Lasers, the Elysium was very useful in defeating enemy ships through a tactic where several Elysium's would form a semi-circle around a Nirvana-harried ship and destroy it. The Elysium's second purpose, that of transporting troops, could be accomplished simply by entering the system: upon entering the system, the on-ship teleporter could be used to teleport troops and supplies to the wished location, a design feature that would later be used against the Precursors in the Precursor-Hydra War, as Hydra would teleport their Cell forms all across the system before their ships had even gotten into range of the Precursor planets.

The mainstay of the Precursor Navy, the Elysium-class cruiser-carriers were powerful juggernauts, operating in "wolf packs" to surround enemy ships, obliterating even the largest opponents through superior manouevrability and tactics.

The last ship class, the Valhalla-class Command Ship, was an enormous ship – little less than half the size of High Charity – used to command operations and, when needed, serve to single-handedly destroy opposition through the use of the ship's massive armament. The main use of the Valhalla, however, was not in combat: conceived and created specifically for Mission: RESSURECTION, the Valhalla was equipped with terraforming generators, pre-fabricated colonies and the like, as well as the necessary “native civilization” countermeasures, such as the Devastator Cannon (a star destroying weapon) and the Overlord's Wrath (a technique where an artificial gravity well was used to force a planet's moon(s) to crash into it); these were used in the rare case that native sentients were present. In the end though, of the original 50 Valhalla's created, only 5 are recorded as being left in the Milky Way Galaxy, with the others being destroyed, lost, or taken by the Precursor's when they left.

The Valhalla-class command ship, the rarest and largest ship class the Precursors ever built.

The weaponry that was placed on these ships were far less diverse than the weapons used by the members of the Precursor's infantry divisions: though there were half a dozen variations of weaponry for starships, all were laser based. The Karma Laser was armed on the Paradise Fighters, allowing them to effectively assault both enemy fighters and the larger warships with ease; in addition to this, they were armed with large Virtue Anti-Matter Bombs - anti-matter bombs capable of homing on targets and using thrusters to follow the target - to be used against warships, orbital platforms and planetary targets. More powerful lasers were used on the warships, however, such as the Justice War Laser and the Fortune Sustained Laser on the small Nirvana Frigate-Destroyer - the former a regular, semi-automatic laser, the latter a powerful sustained-blast laser that could fire for extended periods in one powerful beam; the Elysium Cruiser-Carrier was armed with numerous of the more powerful Providence Heavy Laser and half a dozen Fate Rotary Lasers, the latter of which being a seven-barreled laser weapon that fired in succession to provide near-constant crossfire; the Valhalla, the most powerful of all Precursor ships ever created, was usually protected by fleets of Nirvanas and Elysiums and simply commanded the other warships, but when it was needed for battle the Valhalla was armed with dozens of Fate Rotary Lasers, Providence Heavy Lasers, and several Destiny Super Lasers, as well as being equipped with a single Judgement Laser that was capable of over-penetrating seven Elysium Cruiser-Carriers.

[edit] Genetics

The Precursor's greatest field of achievements was in the field of genetics: this field was divided into wo sections, cloning and genetic manipulation, each of which was equally used and mastered.

In the field of genetic manipulation,

[edit] AI

Precursor Artificial Intelligence were the most advanced ever known to the universe: it was once remarked by a Precursor that they had "almost created sentient beings". The AI were capable of storing near-infinite amounts of data, and, at the end of the Precursor's time in our galaxy, their lifespans had been expanded to the point of near-immortality: this is evident in the fact that several such AI that had served in the Precursor-Hydra War survived all the way until the Necros War.

Rampancy was a problem that plagued the Precursors for some time, as it does all races with AI, but in the end they managed to solve this problem: precautions were taken at all times to prevent rampancy in the first place, ranging from constantly giving AI's tasks to perform, as well as programming in a wish to create tasks to perform when none immediately present themselves, to allowing the AI to shut down for short stints to allow their "minds" (hard-drives) to stop and in effect move the rampancy process backwards. In the event that an AI did achieve rampancy, however, they would at first be placed into a form of "cyber-prison", and if they could be made to "reform", they would released and kept under constant watch; if they did not reform with a short timeframe, they were shutdown.

[edit] Other Inventions

The Matrix was the Precursor's control unit for their various pieces of wireless communication systems technology and, later, the means by which they would control their organic armies. A partial copy of the Matrix was part of the technological scraps that the Precursors left behind for the Forerunners, and in time it was reverse engineered to be used in their own radio technology: because of this, both the Necros Cyborg control units and the Machina frame CPU's used similar coding. It was because of this fact that, during the Necros War, use of the Matrix sparked the Machina Civil War, as the Matrix had the ability to override all Machina radiowave-commands and unite them with the Necros Armed Forces.

The Lexicons are starmap units that contain massive amounts of charts and maps displaying the locations all Precursor worlds and facilities as well as every other known object in the universe. Hooked up to the massive sensor arrays of both the Crucibles and the Facility Network, it is constantly updated and can effectively monitor every single thing that happens in the universe. In addition to this, the Lexicons use the most powerful communication network in the galaxy, allowing for instant conversation with anyone in the galaxy that is able to pick up an audio-video message signal.

The Cypher is a

[edit] Locations

[edit] Planets and Systems

As the capital of the Precursor empire, Zeban represented the pinnacle of Precursor engineering and architecture.

Being an interstellar empire of significant sophistication, the Precursors once inhabited almost every region of the Milky Way galaxy before their devastating war against the Hydra, and subsequent exodus. As such, the majority of planets are too minor to be worth note - others, such as Zeban and Athna, were extremely important areas.

• Zeban was the Precursor homeworld, and as such the capital of the entire Sovereign Dominion.
• Athna was the Precursor's primary military bastion, and served to direct all military engagements throughout their two interstellar wars.
• Ignito Prime
• Laicifitra^[3] System was a highly unique system, in that it was created artificially by the Precursors.

[edit] The Facility Network

The Facility Network was a large network of space station- to planet-sized Precursor installations with various purposes, ranging from military training to robotics factories to intelligence posts. It was comprised of 14 facilities scattered across the galaxy, and the vast power of each station was not exceeded by anything until the creation of the Crucibles.

Facility-00, or the Conduit,

Facility-03, or the Beacon,

Facility-06, or the Mirror,

Facility-09, or the Catalog,

Facility-11, or the Garden,

Facility-13, or the Factory,

[edit] The Crucibles

Perhaps the only clue to the Crucible's existence, the Mopadan Tablet was painstakenly created using research and some guesswork to find what was once thought to be a map of Halo Installations. Of course, their true nature has proven far more ancient...

While there are few remainders of the era of Precursor dominance, most either being repurposed by later species or lost in stellar collisions, stars, black holes and so on, a small number of facilities and artifacts remain, a legacy to their time as an empire. The Facility Network itself has been the source of enlightenment and confrontation countless times, both for the ancient Forerunners and the fledgling Alliance of United Races, the knowledge and technology held by the Facilities being lusted after by all manner of creatures.

The Crucibles though are enigmatic, even by Precursor standards, and little was known about their design, purpose, location, and so on until the Necros War itself. First mentioned by the Precursor records found within the broken remains of 13198 Ensnared Cadaver, the Forerunner Monitor of the Beacon Facility, where it was only described momentarily in fragmented phrases, destroyed by millenia upon millenia of data corruption. Exactly what the Crucibles were remained unknown, and even the former Precursor Nogard had no knowledge of them, seeking blindly for them shortly before his demise at the Battle of Ignito Prime. It was only after the Necros War had dragged on for some years that the true nature of these stations were discovered....

Giant world-stations, the Crucibles were created as the Precursor-Forerunner War ended: intended to be able to create massive organic armies from the races that the Precursors had seeded on nearby planets, the Crucibles were such enormous and well-equipped world-stations that even the Forerunner's Installation 00 paled in comparison. More information pending....

[edit] Names

Precursor names followed a simple pattern, as all ended in the suffix "el", usually preceded by either a, i, or u. In addition, all names were followed with a prefix that denoted the rank of the individual, most commonly applied to those in the military, but also applied in a few cases to those in politics (i.e. Ekard for bombardier, Nrevyw for CQC specialist, Arihpas for the Siegnor, etc), which was coupled with a number to tell the degree of such a rank. A list of all the suffixes used for Precursor follows:

Government Prefixes

• Arihpas: Siegnior, or complete leader, of the Precursor Sovereign Dominion. Official leader, but this responsibility is usually taken by the Arijog
• Guams: The Moguls, or leaders of the Dynasties within the Precursor Synod, they represent their Dynasty and cast their vote based on their Dynasty's member's decision and their own personal discretion
• Nroht: The Adjudicators

Military Prefixes

• Arijog: Grand Commander of the Armed Forces, effectively de facto leader of the Precursors
• Ihcoro: Commander of either the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines. First is for Army, Second for Navy, Third for Air Force and Fourth for Marines.
• Nogard: Special Rank. Only one member of said rank, a super soldier created to fight the Hydra.
• Gnol : Regular Infantry
• Uyr: Airman
• Harodihg: Marine
• Igoomi: Navy
• Adnam: Sniper
• Nrevyw: Close-Quarters Specialist (Melee, Shotguns, etc)
• Ekard: Heavy Weapons Specialist (Grenades, Rockets, etc)
• Ardyh: Information Warfare
• Mryw: Special Anti-Hydra Soldier
• Ggohdin: Medic
• Gnurualg: Special Forces Trooper
• Nakiurhs:

[edit] Notable Precursors

[edit] References

1. ↑ Lepidop is a part of the scientific order name of Earth moths and butterflies.
2. ↑ "Herald" and "Predecessor" are synonymous with "Precursor" and "Forerunner"
3. ↑ Laicifitra is "artificial" spelled backwards, a play on the artificial nature of the system"