The Guardians

The Guardians is the official term for the group formed by the remaining Forerunner AIs: secretly major players within the Alliance of United Races, they work in the background to ensure the well-being and survival of the Human race. Though not officially a government power, they still maintain a sizable military power due to the Sentinels, all centered around the world of Necropolis, their capital of sorts.
==History==
===Ancient History===
When the Forerunners vanished, they left behind two things that would come to be seen as both gifts and curses: one was their many installations, while the other was their AIs. Self-appointed guardians of the sentient races, the last of the Forerunner AIs - commanded by the Archon-class AI, 03 Ancient Watcher - watched over all their installations for thousands upon thousands of years, ensuring that all ran at maximum efficiency and continued to be able to serve whatever purpose they were originally tasked with. Many of these installations would, over time, come under attack from either the Flood that had been housed within them for study purposes, or fending of the invasions of "The Meddlers" - a coalition of races officially known as the Covenant - as they attempted to take the technology of the Forerunners for their own advancement.
===Recent History===
In more recent history, the Guardians have played roles of both friend and foe for the AUR species: the Covenant, of course, has always had ill relations due to their religious zeal fighting against the reality of the Forerunner technology's purposes, which caused the Guardians' forces to fight against the Covenant; the UNSC forces', on the other hand, were many times recognized as the successors to the Mantle, and were therefore aided. However, there were times when, for one reason or another - usually due to the AI either being rampant or offline - Guardians forces would fight against the Humans: the most notable was during the Battle of Installation 04 and Installation 04B, when the rampant AI 343 Guilty Spark took the necessary destruction of the installations as threats and went rampant due to it; other lesser known cases are the Battle of the Apex Installation and the Battle of Onyx where similar things occurred.
However, after the Battle of the Necropolis and the ending of the Second Battle of Earth by 03 Ancient Watcher and his forces, the surviving AI banded together to form a fragile and commanding presence within the founding nations of the AUR. Although they rarely interfered or influenced the races - some theorize this is due to a so-termed "Prime Directive" formed by the Forerunners that outlawed such actions - when they did they almost always intervened on the behalf of the Humans. This causes many bad relations with the other races: the Plainsfierians nor the Vorenus trust the Guardians, while the Machina admire them and the former Covenant races remain a mixed state of distrust and awe. However, though at times their motives seem unsure and somewhat insidious - as do some of their A.I. members - their ultimate goal is the preservation of all the AUR races.
==Members==
*03 Ancient Watcher - Leader of the Guardians
*01 Pure Flame
*445 Dark Protector
*117649 Annihilative Repentance - Former Monitor of Installation 07
*060 Juxtaposed Fate - Former caretaker of Satellite 05
*132 Artful Dodger - Former caretaker of Satellite 11
*10267 Defensive Predilection - Caretaker of the Zeta Shield World
==Systems==
*Necropolis
*Installation 00
::Situated outside the Milky Way Galaxy, Installation 00, or "The Ark", was meant to remotely activate the Halo Array and provide a safe haven for the Forerunners and species that they had saved when the Array was activated. 
*Installation 01
::Formerly a system held by the Guardians, contact was lost with Installation 01 approximately 12,369 BC in Human time due to unknown causes: no further contact was ever made, and attempts to relocate the far-flung installation proved futile.
*Helium System
:*Installation 02
::(destroyed)
*Installation 03
::Formerly a system held by the Guardians, contact was lost with Installation 03 approximately 12,369 BC in Human time due to unknown causes: no further contact was ever made, and attempts to relocate the far-flung installation proved futile.
*Threshold
:*Installation 04
::(destroyed)
:*Basis
*Substance
:*Installation 05
*Installation 06
::disarmed
*Installation 07
::(destroyed)
*Apex Installation
::(destroyed)
*Zeta Doradus System
:*Onyx
::*Shield World-01
*?? System
:*Unknown Moon
::*The Line
*Iris Nebula
Category:Forerunner