The Universe is truly a massive place; ever expanding, ever surprising, and ever bountiful with new species appearing every day. When one looks at one's own life and then sees the sheer scope of all the life beyond the stars, then one truly comes to appreciate the time they have to live as they are so tiny and insignificant in the grand scheme of the Universe that one could live as a saint for a million years and the Universe will not even stop to give notice.
Coming to this revelation brought us enlightenment. We are a race who feeds on memories, growing stronger and wiser the more we feed as well as choosing to adapt a physical trait from the victim to our bodies. This has also increased our life spans. Our world was very harsh, and it made our bodies extremely powerful but our minds not much so until I discovered our salvation. What was once a woman who would have lived for a few decades at the most and suffered from a steady and assured memory loss disease, I became a beacon of hope for my people when I discovered 'Neblading'. It reversed our memory loss and slowed our aging. I am a prime example of this as I have consumed tens of billions of lives throughout my life, much more than any other of my people, and it has halted my age in my prime and given me the wisdom of entire galaxies worth of civilizations.
In the beginning my people flocked to me, some offering their own bodies for me to Neblade to save their memories in fear that they themselves would soon disappear. Others went so far as to worship me. I stopped this and taught them Neblading as well. While reluctant at first, they soon began practicing it as their memories slowly became fragmented and dissolved. The results were immediate as they could actually greet their friends and children and parents by name without pondering over it for days.
For millennia we practiced this cannibalistic art on other species to the point that most were on the brink of extinction. Seeing this problem, our brightest minds began studying cloning. After numerous years, we were successful and so began the 'Arc Initiative.' We began cloning and repopulating all of the endangered species, but why stop there? We began genetically modifying their genomes since if we were just going to Neblade them, we might as well make them as healthy and nutritious as possible.
For more millennia, we continued to Neblade and grow stronger and smarter. My people now could live for hundreds of years instead of the measly thirty to forty years. Having such a large new lease on life, their views of Neblading changed, just as mine did. They began seeing Neblading as a form of salvation for memories and it ache many hearts thinking of all the possible life out in the universe that didn't have this form of preservation.
It soon became a goal of ours to reach those unfortunate people. I encouraged scholastic excellence and martial prowess. I knew from experience watching my people Neblade the less powerful species that having wisdom and knowledge is great but is meaningless if you cannot protect it. Our military strength boomed because of this and its ranks sweltered with one-track minded people who were both powerful, disciplined, brilliant, and determined.
Within a mere decade, we succeeded in escaping our planet's atmosphere. Despite the obvious dangers, I chose to be the one to test it. To have the whole universe before my eyes for the first time, my vision free from the sulfuric clouds of our planet, I realized that I made the right choice. With an innumerable amount of stars before me, just how many of those had orbiting planets filled with life… filled with memories being lost to time.
When I returned to the surface, I explained what I saw and we sought to create a vast space program to journey the stars with a new sense of determination. Our people became smarter and those who would involve themselves with the undeniable acts of future war trained themselves and were equipped with the greatest armors and weapons. However, our numbers were still small.
Only around ten million, our species was 99.993% female, with only thirty-five males and breeding cycles every 100 years, we would have to wait millennia more for our chance to journey the galaxy. Then our minds somehow came up with the idea to create mechanical workers who predetermined orders. This course of action led to the development of tens of millions of virtual intelligence platforms.
It wasn't 'til we noticed a lack of expected efficiency that I had an idea. What if we were able to give the V.I.s memories? Would making them feel more like us give them feelings? Could those feelings be used to encourage success? The results were staggering. The machines could actually think for themselves once they digested the implanted memories. I'm not quite sure how it worked either but they soon began to develop desires for more memories after I told them they can simply be made. I had no idea this would lead to them becoming an artificial intelligence.
Once sentience was achieved, their liaison confronted me about their future. We talked and I told them of my visions in space and my goals. It agreed completely, even swearing allegiance to me, and thus our partnership was sealed in stone. Together, our progression in all fields of science, engineering, scholastics, and war increased a hundredfold. It was only centuries when a massive fleet manned by both us and A.I.s escaped our atmosphere and sailed course for the nearby planets in our systems.
What we find excites us greatly. The three nearby worlds were as diverse as colors. One, filled with forests, lakes, floating rocks covered in forests, underground network of caverns, and prairies-all of it filled with thousands of different forms of life. While none were as intelligent as us, there were two species that were. Both were reptilian with great wings and bodies covered in carapaces harder than our ship's toughest metals, one lived near magma caverns and the other in ancient catacombs of rocks by the oceans. Amazingly, these species were so old they could understand comprehensive gestures when we initiated contact despite not being humanoid. They were tens of thousands of years old each, apex creatures on the world, yet their numbers could be counted on two hands (we used the five finger count system). With their knowledge of the planet and wildlife and flora, we brokered a great friendship with the 'Wyrms.'
On the second planet, it was a rock covered in snow and ice yet held massive deposits of thermal energy hundreds of yards beneath the snow and rocks. It was here we discovered a new species we came to call 'Akrid.' They lived in hives, each having a diverse amount of different species but all answered to the same queen. Contact was less than pleasant as they saw our thermal signatures as food sources. We quickly put that thought to rest. However, Neblading the Akrid gave us insight into their structures and our species adopted their Hive system. I became the Queen or Hive Mind was unanimous. With their structure at our use, we were able to make contact with their leaderships and while negotiations took years for them to comprehend our words and meanings, it left us both better and stronger. We built them fortified hives from metals not available to them and they helped dig large areas for us to use as geo-fronts for future colonies.
The third world was filled with simple minded life, yet its true treasure was filled with bountiful plants and fertile soil where we learned to eat vegetables for the first time. It took us decades to understand how the plants grew and died with the changing of the seasons but in the end, we established ourselves as an agricultural master.
These are just three of the numerous planets within our system and we lived in peace and prosperity for millennia. Over the years, our species began diverging into three separate groups. I was one of thirteen of my particular group, with white skin and hair, magenta eyes, and beauty that was recognized even by non-Spectra species, such as the Wyrms, Akrid, and animals. My strength and longevity were unmatched, as was my intelligence and drive, though the other twelve shared similar traits but not to my degree. We became known as the Spectra Royalty.
The second group was more numerous, about four million or so. They developed bronze skin, orange eyes, white hair, and impressive intelligence and strength. Their life spans were nowhere near infinite like mine, but they could live for about three thousand years, give or take a few millennia. They were called Spectra-Majors.
The last group was the most numerous, around twelve million or so. They were also the most diverse, being mostly attuned to a single aspect of life, each aspect was represented by a phenotype of a specific hair color with matching eyes. These areas of living ranged from architecture, musical and literary arts, child rearing, agriculture, and two military types: agility and power. This group was called Spectra-Minors and could live around 1000 years.
As the old died, they offered their bodies to any children they birthed, forever becoming a part of the future generations and bestowing all of their knowledge and experience to their descendants. It was a beautiful gesture of self-sacrifice, one I exonerated and praised as the ultimate form of love.
Unfortunately for many children, this happened all too often when we met our first sentient alien species. They were an arrogant species and sought to bring us under their influence like they had a dozen other species. These 'Protheans' were very advanced and more numerous than us, yet our ships were made with stronger metals. We had no concept of range weapons so our ships were made for ramming enemies, asteroids, and taking a ton of punishment. They may have had kinetic shields and weaponry, but when a ship is built to spear through a hundred mile wide asteroid then there's not much MAC guns and missiles can do to our armor.
This however did open up hundreds of new ideas to peruse as I personally Nebladed thousands from the end of my spear. Guns, Faster-Than-Light travel, weaponized energy, Eezo and Mass Effect fields. While we had no desire or need for Eezo on our ships since it would limit their size drastically, the knowledge of it only made us that much more wise and powerful. Dozens of years later, we finally won the war after signing an armistice with the Prothean Empire. While they started out with the advantages, our mastery of quickly creating ships and crewing them with A.I. combat platforms won the match of attrition, and that's not even including the quick advancements in our technology and tactics from every Prothean warrior, scientist, and civilian we Nebladed.
Upon this treaty, we required no form of payment, merely to be left alone and travel through their systems if need be. We would require nothing from them anymore nor have any desire to conquer their worlds or client races. While that is what I said, I had not given up on my promise but this promise had to be modified by a stunning event.
Remember when I talk about that mother's love being powerful?
Well, an even more powerful form of love happened one time. A child by our standards, only ten years old, was fatally injured in a Prothean attack on one of our colony ships. This was made even more unacceptable since the child happened to be a male.
Medical treatment wouldn't have arrived in time and the child offered his body for his mother to Neblade. As he tearfully told her not to cry since he would be with mommy forever, she reluctantly Nebladed him and thus received all of his knowledge but most importantly, his memories of how much he loved her. This incident brought even me to tears as I heard it. It caused me to review my original plan to Neblade all species to preserve their memories.
That male child died so young that there were thousands of years of memories he never got to make with his family and children. if I Nebladed every species to document and save their memories, then what of the memories would I be damning from ever existing in the future? It was like a slap to the face. I brought this before the people and they agreed so I revised our vision. While Neblading would be a main part of it, the value of a child's life takes precedence over everything. Children are our future and so the Present will do everything to protect them, no matter the boundaries we cross. We gave our species a name finally.
A powerful name that would be rumored of across the galaxy.
We would be called the 'Spectra.'
We kept this ideology for the next couple hundred millennia. I never aged and never mated to have a child of my own since I considered all of my species as my child. However, sometimes a Spectra would offer their body for me to Neblade and I would graciously take it. I never grew presumptuous or arrogant in my position as I Nebladed daily and as such, the thousands of years of memories would always remind me that I am still like my people and am humbled by their faith and love in me.
Following the naming of our species, we spent four thousand years building a ship that would move across the universe itself. Using knowledge we acquired from both friends and foes: San'Shyuum, 'The People (Prehistoric Humanity), the Forerunners, the Precursors, the Sangheili, the Chozo, the Luminoth, the Na'vì before they reverted back to hunter-gatherer tribes, the Xel'naga, the Republic of Humanity, and the Mandalorians.
For four thousand years, our dream was built piece by piece until it was completed. At over 4,600 miles long, it was truly the largest, most powerful, and most beautiful ship ever created in our universe. We used it in the beginning to defend our sovereignty against those that would want to oppress our people out of greed, jealousy, or fear.
We pushed back and even put divine fear into the Flood. We all but annihilated the Reapers leaving just enough to let them continue their existence since like us and the Flood; they are merely using their own form of Neblading to protect all sentient life. Even the Reapers's creators, the Leviathans, dared not to challenge our right to live with freedom.
For millennia after the birth of the 'Outer Heaven', we sailed the cosmos, traveling from galaxy to galaxy documenting species and Neblading those who either test our patience, request to be Nebladed (not the whole species, obviously), or those who earn my wrath. Though powerful and numerous we may be, we do try to avoid influencing the evolutionary course of planet-bound species we find. If we were to influence them, then while we could Neblade them for their memories, their knowledge wouldn't be anything new and thus our growth would stagnate.
After many years, I order the ship to stop in orbit of a garden world recently discovered yet unexplored. To our surprise, it's inhabited by humans yet there are no signs of any space age technology. Instead, while there is a limited form of technology, it seems the whole world is in some sort of era of large villages that work to survive and compete with each other. This world, especially a continent the inhabitants refer to as 'The Elemental Nations', is locked in strife of constant wars and subterfuge. Amazingly, these people can utilize an internal source of energy called chakra to perform super-human and supernatural feats if what our reconnaissance agents reported is correct.
While curiosity is what originally convinced me to go to the surface myself and see what is different about these meta-humans, I sometimes wonder if there was such a thing as Fate that it was playing me like a puppet.
Before leaving my ship, the recon brought to me a knocked out man who they said they stole from a prison. Seeing that he most likely wouldn't be missed, I Nebladed him and drew from him memories of his life and his knowledge on current world affairs and any known languages. To my surprise, it appeared that his memories were tampered with perhaps some method more powerful than simple hypnosis so he would not leak secrets important to the village he was in.
For a Spectra, something like erasing memories was a horrible thought. No matter good or bad, memories serve as a constant reminder to draw experience and wisdom from. However, there was enough for me to confirm the reports of these meta-humans's chakra abilities, as well as some general history on the country and language, as well as why he was jailed. Did I mention that this world was strife with wars and subterfuge?
Upon my entry towards one of the villages, the proposed 'strongest' village that our intel picked up, I see something both fascinating and awe inspiring. A massive mammalian creature with orange fur standing at nearly two-hundred yards tall with nine wildly thrashing tails that appeared out of a woman's belly of all places.
Upon descending towards the woman with my 'White Wings' on my back, I see another human, likely male standing over a beautiful crimson-haired woman who was in obvious pain and if my eyes aren't deceiving me, it looked to be that she gave birth not even an hour ago. Who was this man to put a newly made mother through so much agony?! If so, where was the baby?!
I would not stand for this crime against our beliefs, so with righteous wrath, I made my appearance and intentions known before he could do any more harm.
Never could I have foreseen the future that waited upon my actions that night.
—Excerpts from Naruko, Queen of the Spectras.