User:Saberstorm/The Elders

Known Information
Little is known about the extragalactic race that call themselves the Elders. It is known that they are older than the Forerunners (and possibly the Percusors), that their Empire stretches across at least 10 galaxies, and that they have been at war with the Flood for eons. At one time, they believed that the Milky Way had been lost to the Flood and set up a Quarantine Blockade one galactic radii beyond the Rim (well beyond the distance between the Rim and the Ark). Because of the distance between the Blockade and the galaxy, they didn't detect the activation of the Halo Array, and it wasn't until the end of the year 2552 that they became aware that the galaxy had yet to fall entirely to the Flood. Barely able to pick up the Slipspace radiation from the activation of Installation 04-b, they dispatched a Probe to investigate. Contact with the Probe was made in 2580 when it entered the Sol System, and it remained for a week observing before sending a small data package to all nearby AI's before departing. No further contact has occurred since that time.

In the data package, the Probe's AI noted that the Elders had been in contact with both the Percusors and the Forerunners at one time. Contact with the Forerunners was lost shortly before the Forerunner-Flood war, which is why the Elder's believed the Milky Way as lost to the Flood. The Elders rank 0.5 on the Forerunner Technological Tier scale, having the ability to reach Tier 0, but refusing to do so.

The Probe
The Probe itself is shaped like a six-pointed 3D star (a hexpyramid) and measures about 10 km from point to point. Scans of the Probe continue to baffle scientists as the structure appears to be made out of solid light. Due to the lack of contact with further Elder spacecraft, there is little scientist can do to discover the truth about Elder technology, biology, and culture.