User:Darth tom/Rifters

The Rifters were a large group of exiled Forerunners from before the Human Covenant War.

Original Schism
As the might of the Forerunner crumbled under the relentless assault from the Flood, the great power of the Forerunner had no real chance of ever returning to its former might. Was this a good thing? For the galaxy, no. Should the Flood be successful, the galaxy would be in dire need of rescue, by the machines and contraptions left behind by the Forerunners. During the height of the war, as the Forerunners were forced ever closer to firing the Halo Rings, a heavily religious caste of the Forerunners broke away and formed a group inside of the Forerunners, haranguing the leaders of the Forerunners for not dealing with the Flood originally, and being forced ever closer to detonating the Halo Rings and wiping all sentient life from the galaxy, threatening the Forerunner existence, and the existence of this caste. The Forerunner leaders, unable to attack this caste because of more and more sympathy flocking to them, as they claimed that, should they be heads of the Forerunner Empire the Flood would have been dealt with before hand, were at a loss as to what should be done. The idea of this caste had been revived from an ancient Forerunner caste, and soon the caste of that time began preaching heathen rituals and terrible practises, heresy to the Forerunner religion of that time, and something that the caste did in secret, almost as a separate body of the Forerunners inside the main Forerunner structure. Should the Forerunners have known of this heresy at an earlier time, they would have been sure to have exiled the caste there and then, but it was done in secret, whilst the caste secretly began stockpiling blueprints to Forerunner designs and vehicles, and taking Forerunner technology itself, from under the very noses of the Forerunners. The caste gathered more and more members about them as he war became increasingly worse for the Forerunners, and the Forerunner leaders became increasingly frustrated, being pushed further and further towards detonating the Halo Rings. Eventually, it became apparent that the Forerunners wouldn't be able to succeed in the war.

Instead of lending assistance to the Forerunners in their struggle against the Flood, the caste proclaimed that they were splitting from the Forerunners with immediate effect, and they revealed the rituals they had been performing, and the weapons they had been stockpiling from before the Flood had begun to succeed to the degree they were doing at that time. Although the caste was now a separate entity from the Forerunners, the Forerunner leaders took Junto Kao, the ressurector of the caste, and tried him for heresy, treason and stealing of Forerunner weapons. When he was found guilty and executed, the Forerunners believed this would stop the caste there and then, but it just further incited them, and led to Kao being declared a martyr, and the caste fleeing from the Forerunners in large numbers. The Forerunners were powerless to pursue, as they needed to have all the men they could spare combating the Flood, and attacking the caste now would just bring more sympathy to them, and so merely declared them Exiles.

Life in the Rift
The Rifters crowded into many large frigates to flee the Forerunners, and were set adrift in the furthest reaches of uncharted space, traversing the areas between them with no real aim, purpose or assistance, wandering the stars with the technology they had stolen crowded into frigates, not assisted nor pursued by anyone. Eventually, the caste discovered a Rift at the furthest reaches of space, where space and time were merged, and the caste made their way through into this Rift, calling themselves the Rifters, due to their new home.

Triva
The original name for the Rifters was conceived by ONI recon 111, for Halo: The Lost Chronicles, the Role Play site, although nothing more than the name was created. When Darth tom, the author, joined the site under the name of 'coconut', he was made faction leader of the Rifters, and created a history and story line for them, and the Rifters are currently being Role Played on Halo: The Lost Chronicles at this moment in time.