Empyrean Effect Intro

7/29/2019 Empyrean Effect Intro

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HALO: THE EMPYREAN EFFECT

The following replaces the timeline that was here prior. Thefeedback from this chapter will determine the future of this

fanfic.

PROLOGUE

empyreus Medieval Latin for high heaven (dwelling of God).

---ooo---ooo---

The following records were deciphered and reconstructed fromterminals found on Colony 00001 of the LMC...

Over four billion years ago in what is now known as the Milky Way

Galaxy, there existed a certain sentient species. In only one century,this species had managed to achieve incredible technological progress,make the break from their original homeworld, and even expandthroughout galactic space in every direction at an unprecedented pace.Their installations were built of super-dense metals and extremelybeautiful and tough crystal, of which the composition is not known.

This species would be known only as the Empyreans. Their greatempire, the first of its kind in the Milky Way, would be known as theEmpyrean Dominion.

Among their many innovations was the discovery and manipulation ofSlipspace navigation. Empyrean scientists discovered that, by usingthe right amount of energy concentrated into the right region of spaceat the right moment, one could actually cause a positive feedback loopfrom the intentional quantum vacuum fluctuation created by thisprocess. This positive feedback loop would cause the fluctuation tobecome self-sustaining and thus expand into a macroscopic scale.

As a result, the spacecraft could transcend the dimensions of thephysical universe and access the extra-dimensional hyperspace thatlay beyond. However the spacecraft would still be able to return to the

physical Universe since the distortion in the topography of space-timewould remain, therefore allowing the spacecraft to return to theUniverse by using the same method.

Another important innovation was the creation of AI. Shortly beforeexpanding outward from their homeworld, the Empyreans created thefirst AI program. This act was recognized as one of the greatest in allof Empyrean history, and AIs quickly proved their worth by providing


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invaluable aid to the Empyreans from that moment on.

By the time that the Empyrean Dominion became an intergalacticcivilization, AI technology was so far advanced that semi-sentient AIsquickly became the norm. Full sentience in an AI was banned however,

as it was deemed too dangerous.

---ooo---ooo---

As the Empyrean Dominion spread throughout the Milky Way, itspopulation eventually grew to the extent that expansion to othergalaxies was now a requirement. Approximately 1,700 years since theestablishment of the Dominion, the first colony ships left for the LargeMagellanic Cloud. The 150,000 light-year journey took approximatelyfive hundred years in Slipspace, but the crew of the ship was kept incryogenic suspension for the journey.

With the establishment of the first colony in the LMC, the EmpyreanDominion was now officially an intergalactic power. The LocalSupercluster now lay open for the taking.

Because of the necessity of maintaining easy communication with theLMC colonies, the Empyrean Dominion embarked on a breakthrough inFTL navigation and they subsequently created vastly improvedSlipspace drives capable of covering thousands of light-years in meredays, rather than months.

A thousand years later, the Empyreans had decided that their LMC andSMC colonies weren't enough. They needed to expand further. TheAndromeda galaxy was targeted as the next destination, but it wasalmost fifteen times more distant than their furthest colony. Even withthe Empyreans' mastery over Slipspace, the journey to the Andromedagalaxy would take many years. The gravitational influence of the darkmatter halos surrounding both galaxies dramatically slowed down allSlipspace navigation at the time, so that even if the fastest drives tookonly a year to travel to the LMC and back, the journey to Andromedawould take hundreds of years.

---ooo---ooo---

Sourced from terminal 0-3 on Colony 00001, LMC.Timestamp: 54-2725Nexus Prime, Milky Way Galaxy.

An Empyrean navigation tech dashed up the wide stairs of the Nexus,the great installation that contained all of the Empyrean Dominion


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government.

The Nexus was located on the surface of the paradise world NexusPrime, lush and resplendent by design. Such artificially constructedworlds were somewhat common in the Dominion, but Nexus Prime was

the perfect example of the Empyreans' mastery over astroengineering.

The Nexus itself was a sprawling installation that covered nearly athousand square kilometers, and the tallest tower reached a height ofover ten kilometers. The Empyrean Dominion's leaders resided withinthis tower.

In the technician's hand was a datapad that contained the coordinatesof a region near the Andromeda Galaxy where the dark matter halowas slightly less dense.

He stopped at the security checkpoint and walked into the AssemblyChambers. The two hundred meter tall crystal door silently slid opento admit him into the very room that contained the most powerfulEmpyreans in the great Dominion.

One arose and addressed him, Hail, noble compatriot of theSpatiotemporal Navigation cadre. What news do you have for us?

The technician stoically stated his findings, I have found a paththrough the mire of dark matter that surrounds Andromeda. It is notquite as dense as the rest of the halo; therefore I predict a significantly

reduced duration for a journey that goes along this path.

How is it that dark matter can affect Slipspace navigation?

The technician explained, Dark matter, as you know, does not interactwith other matter by any force except gravitation, at least on amacroscopic scale. The halos that surround these galaxies possessimmense gravitational fields, strong enough that space-time isdistorted within their vicinity. This distortion isn't significant enough tohave any bearing in the physical sense, but in Slipspace... it's a whollydifferent situation.

Please elaborate...

Slipspace lies outside of our universe as an extra-dimensionalhyperspace. However it is not entirely separate and independent fromour universe. It is still affected by every distortion and event thatoccurs. This is why astronomical objects can enter and exit Slipspaceat random.


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Another of the leaders cut in, And this 'path' you've found... The darkmatter is more tenuous there?

The technician consulted his data, Yes, sir. These findings have been

confirmed by years of observation from multiple installations.

Yet another leader boomed, Then we must proceed with all haste.Prepare the colony ships for immediate departure for the AndromedaGalaxy.

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The alternate path through the dark matter halo around Andromedaproved fruitful, as the colony ships arrived almost forty years ahead ofschedule after four centuries in cold intergalactic space. A colony was

established on a tidally-locked Mars-sized planet that orbited a K-typestar. Due to the extreme temperature differences between the nightand day sides, the colony was created on a narrow band of the planetwhere the climate was temperate.

The colony, called the Threshold, soon became the center of Empyreanaffairs in the Andromeda galaxy, even as more and more colonies werefounded. One reason for this colony's ascendancy over the rest wasthat it was in a prime location, which was near the less-dense pocket ofdark matter. This gave it unsurpassed importance even as largercolonies were established in Andromeda.

The largest colony in Andromeda was Ixilon Prime, with a population ofover twenty-five billion colonists spread around two Super-earths inthe Ixilon system. The first census of the Andromeda Galaxypopulation, taken one hundred years after the inauguration of theThreshold colony, showed that more than one quadrillion Empyreansnow called the galaxy home. Much of the population was the productof mass immigration from the older colonies in the vicinity of the MilkyWay, combined with high birthrates.

Due to the fact that Andromeda contained almost twice as many stars

as the Milky Way, the number of worlds that could potentially supportcolonies was vastly higher than that of their home galaxy. Therefore,in less than a millenium after the Threshold colony was founded, theEmpyrean population of Andromeda now surpassed that of the oldercolonies combined.

However the Empyreans would soon find that even the hugeAndromeda Galaxy wouldn't sate their thirst for expansion...


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---ooo---ooo---

After approximately three thousand years of steady colonization, theAndromeda Galaxy had become just another Empyrean system, with

almost every habitable world having at least a token Empyreanpresence on it. Only then did the leadership look outward to othergalaxies beyond. Triangulum became the next target for Empyreanexpansion.

One thing that was obvious to the Empyreans was that, up to thispoint, there had been no sentient alien species that opposed theirrelentless expansion. Many of the colony worlds they discovered hadnative life, but any of the sentient species found were, at best,extremely primitive. That would all change...

The Empyreans closely observed the Triangulum Galaxy for a period offifty years before deciding to send the first colony ships.

After a two hundred year journey through intergalactic space, thecolony ships arrived at Triangulum and the Empyrean colonists found adead planet located in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star at the outerfringe of the galaxy. When the pioneers drew closer however, theyfound signs of a great battle that had taken place on the planet in thepast. It had been devastated by some unknown yet cataclysmic force,and whatever it was, it was artificial. Ruins were also found on thesouthern hemisphere of the planet.

This resounding discovery came as a shock to the Empyrean Dominion,as never before have they found signs of any advanced sentientspecies before. One question now permeated all aspects of thegovernment. Are they still there?

The colony ships commenced with terraforming of the dead world andwithin three years time, the process was complete. The new colonywas designated Colony 03-00001, as a formal name was still beingdebated.

Within twenty years of the founding of the first Triangulum colony, anunknown ship was sighted within the system, and as soon as it wasdiscovered, the ship disappeared. This was glaring evidence that therewas an alien civilization presently in the galaxy.

I want to get something clear. The version of Slipspace in myfic is not entirely the same as what is in the Halo-verse. My

version has the same effects of facilitating efficient FTL travel,


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but the physics have been slightly changed in an effort to obeyseveral well-established physical constants and theoretical

principles such as M-Theory and the Theories of General andSpecial Relativity.

Also the intrinsic nature and properties of dark matter havenot been entirely solved by scientific consensus as of yet.Therefore I am taking creative liberty as to its properties

within this fanfic.

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Empyrean Effect Intro