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Microsoft released the next live-action-short for their Halo:Reach marketing campaign yesterday. "Deliver Hope" is short but moving clip showing Noble Team doing what they do: getting the job done. There is some speculation as to where this clip falls in the overall story of Noble Team, though. Why doesn't Kat have a prosthetic arm? Is that Thom or the new Noble 6? Jump on the forums here and speculate away!

permalink | Rampant Speculation

-BrownieFive

The HSP is starting to look like a discussion forum ever since I posted that ultra-update a month ago, with various Halo story enthusiasts replying, completing and adding pertinent information to the theories already posted. If we keep this up, it's going to mark a change in the Halo Story Page's functional direction, from a repository of Halo storyline speculation to fan interaction. That would definitely make the HSP more dynamic.

This time, Joe WaferMouse Jones and David Moore make some canonical completions to James Delaney's most recent theory (scroll down to the last submission to view it). It treated the mysterious presence of icy clouds in one of ONI Alpha Base's compartments, which he interpreted as being connected to an anti-Flood defensive mechanism, one he also proposes may have been used by the Forerunners.

Joe WaferMouse Jones (bumpycarrot@gmail.com) writes:

In response to James' most recent take on this, whilst it's definitely plausible, the room he refers to is a set-piece for "Sadie's Story" in ODST, which only unlocks if 29 of the phones have been found. Without wanting to spoil it for anyone who hasn't found all the ringing phones, the ice buildup is related to an argon release from the fire extinguishers, a known event. Argon is often used in data centres at a fire deterrent, to prevent damage to equipment.

The whole level is reminiscent of The Library, though, with the repeating architecture and dark corridors. Or even more so, Sentinel Wall from Halo 2, with the machine-oriented architecture and piston-like data stacks impeding progress.

Well, that makes sense... considering I haven't even bothered to read Sadie's Story except for the first, rough half of it where she almost gets kidnapped by that corrupt cop and SuperIntendent saves her.

Good thing we've got attentive fans.

permalink | ONI

-UNSC Trooper

James responded to Ross Rankin's recently-posted theory regarding ONI's timely awareness of the existence of the Flood. After playing through Halo 3: ODST, he suggests the parts of ONI Alpha Base covered in icy fog could be the result of a measure employed to counter the Flood, which, in turn, could have possibly been used by the Forerunners as well.

James Delaney (jamesdelaneyie@gmail.com) writes:

I was reading through the last update to the Halo story page, Ross Rankin's theory of ONI knowing about the Flood, and his comments about the building's architecture resembling the containment design of the Forerunners in particular. I just picked up ODST from a friend and played through the campaign a few days ago. On the level Data Hive, just after you take out the Brute Chieftan with the turret, you come across an area covered in ice, with a lot of low lying fog.

Now I know that this could just be the superintendent's cooling system going haywire because at this stage, I'm sure he's not in the best of health and can't control all his systems. But it could also be the same precaution that the Forerunner had against the flood. Using ice and cold weather to slow their advance. With the strong similarities between the forerunner's designs for slowing the flood advanced and the design of the ONI building, it just seemed to me that it was a little too similar to see an icy landscape and have it not relate to the slowing of the flood.

Food for thought anyways,

That means ONI knew about Forerunner defensive tactics, too.

There are absolutely no limits to ONI's omniscience. I bet you could sit down with one of their officers and learn the type of construction tools the Forerunners used to carve the Portal hole in the earth.

permalink | ONI

-UNSC Trooper

David Moore read one of the recent speculation pieces we've posted a few days ago and submitted a clarifying response to it. Written by Jeffrey Arnold, it dealt with the "mysterious Covenant AI" Cortana encountered on High Charity - according to David, the AI wasn't a Covenant-made at all, but the legendary Forerunner military AI, Mendicant Bias.

David Moore (dhalo117@yahoo.com) writes:

I believe it is safe to postulate that the formidable presence on High Charity is in fact not even a Covenant AI at all.

According to Contact Harvest, an AI, or in Covenant terminology, an Oracle, was found to be on the Prophet's Forerunner Dreadnought. This Oracle, known to us as Mendicant Bias, attempted to lift off from High Charity and locate his creators (the only remnants of which are now Humans). They disconnected him to stop the launch sequence.

Though the following sequence of events may be different in truth, the result is likely the same. Years later, as the Chief is approaching the Dreadnought, Truth has realized that excavation party sent to Earth to find the portal to the Ark was the human homeworld (due to Regrets "severe error"). He figures he doesn't even need to input any sort of coordinates, just reconnect MB and let him pilot the ship to the portal.

Thus the formidable presence. MB was the top class of AI ever created, even by the Forerunners, so he would be quite the match for Cortana. He did NOT want interference as he was readying to leave.

Thus MB makes it to the Ark and speak to the Chief via the terminals.

Also, Legends spoilers: If you noticed at the end of Origins Part 2, the Iris symbol (Also, technically Mendicant Bias' symbol) appears in Cortana's eye. This suggests that MB has hitched a ride with Cortana.

-DHalo

Huh, even a thousand year-old AI can give an almost brand new UNSC AI like Cortana one hell of a headache. No wonder we almost lost the war...

permalink | Cortana

-UNSC Trooper

Submissions revised and posted!

After more than a year-long retirement from updating the HSP, I stuck my arm into my sack of submissions to the very bottom, selected the "go's" from the "no's" and came up with some pretty interesting material for your reading delight. The following are five of the various submissions I've been overlooking for the past year, crammed into one super-update containing varying impressions reflecting the release of Halo 3: ODST and other, older media.

Enjoy!

permalink |

-UNSC Trooper

Brandon approaches a hot subject with a new idea: how, exactly, would the seven Halos cover the entire Galaxy in order to completely deplete it of living beings?

Brandon Krist (bkrist21@hotmail.com) writes:

I was reading a post by Ryan Hoisington today over his mathematical endeavors into solving the Ring Radius problem, so I decided to also do a little math and research of my own. I found the galaxy (The Milky Way) is aproximatly 100,000 LY by 1,000 LY in size. And along with that the ER (Effective Radius) of one Ring is 25,000 LY in any direction. So we know that at max without the fire zones crossing the rings can be is 50,000 LY not the 43,000 LY that Ape Man mentions at the end of the same post.

I tried to draw some diagrams of the galaxy with the seven rings placed around them evenly and discovered (and also through searching the net) that it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a circle with seven perfectly equal areas.

It is however possible to do it with only SIX rings. But then that poses the question of "Where is the seventh ring?". Its possible that the Forerunners placed it in the galactic core but there is supposedly a black hole there, so maybe they placed it just out of the BH's gravitational pull. that is a plausible thing to do since no matter what the height of the galaxy is going to be covered.

If anyone has anything else to add on to it feel free too.

permalink |

-UNSC Trooper

Good thing I've been rummaging through my inbox; otherwise I'd have missed this epic feat of fan-speculated material.

Antoni Koziol (kwskategod@yahoo.com) writes:

On the Forerunner-Human interconnection

Hello, I have been reading through the story pages on the website and they're very interesting. Especially the ones regarding the Forerunner. I (MLG Cheehwawa) have something that I think you guys at HBO would find interesting. Maybe even worthy of posting up on the forerunner story page. Here it is --

I keep hearing people say that the Forerunner "de-evolved" into humanity some time around the Halos' initial firing. This is quite impossible. I believe that humans evolved into Forerunner, hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Let's start at the beginning.
200,000 BCE (approx.)
Modern humans evolve in what is now known as Africa. They remain in their cradle for some 100,000 years.

98,995 BCE
The Forerunner encounter the Flood on the outer rim of the Milky Way Galaxy. This sparks a 300 year long Forerunner-Flood war and construction on the Halo array begins.

98,665 BCE (approx..)
The Halos and Ark are completed. Humanity is discovered by the Librarian. The Earth's Ark portal is built by Sentinel-like machines. The Librarian strands herself on Earth so that Didact will end the war. The Halos are activated, wiping out all sentient life in the Galaxy. Humanity returns to Earth through the Ark portal and leaves their cradle, Africa, and sets off to populate the rest of the Earth.

Now do you see why it is impossible for the Forerunner to have evolved into humanity? Humanity was around for 100,000 years before the Forerunner found them. Now where does my crazy theory play into all of this? Start with the Precursors:

From the Halo 3 Bestiarum:
Tier 0: Transsentient
As the [Forerunners] had no examples of civilizations with technological accomplishment greater than themselves - with the exception of the Precursors - this is a theoretical ceiling. They can travel intergalactic and accelerate evolution of intelligent life. These may be creatures of legend.

The Precursors had the ability to advance the evolution of sentient life -- why would Bungie specify this power they had if it wasn't integral to the story in some way? This is the only small passage of the Precursors that we have ever heard, so it surely garners some importance.

The fact that humanity was around for 100,000 years prior to the Forerunner being at their pinnacle of technological evolution proves that humanity did not come from the Forerunner... but could the Forerunner have come from humanity?

It is entirely possible (and plausible) that the Precursors visited Earth some time between 200,000 BCE and 96,000 BCE and took up some early humans to their own worlds, and those humans were exposed to the Precursors' evolutionary acceleration technology, becoming an advanced sub-species of h. sapiens.

What would they look like? Most likely not very different than, us but most certainly different; possibly a set of exterior differences similar to the differences between h. sapiens and h. neanderthalis.

From the 6th Halo 3 Terminal:
L: My work is done. The portal is inactive, and I've begun the burial measures. Soon there'll be nothing but sand and rock and normal ferrite signatures.

You should see the mountain that watches over it. A beautiful thing--a snowcapped sentinel. That's where I will spend what time is left to me.

Did I tell you? I built a garden. The earth is so rich. A seed falls and a tree sprouts or a flower blooms. There's so much...potential. We knew this was a special place because of them, but unless you've been here, you can't know.

It's [Eden].

I have to stop transmitting. The thing is listening. Its [thinking dead] are babbling--laughing through every channel they can find.

Be proud. The Mind claims victory, yet it still doesn't suspect. You've outwitted it, my love. And now you can destroy it.

But you cannot save me.
-- The Librarian

Why did the Librarian deem humanity so special?
The Librarian indexed many species besides humanity; all of the species in the Halo trilogy would logically have been indexed and saved in the Ark by the Forerunners. Elites, Prophets, Brutes, etc. -- why was humanity different?

I believe it's because humanity shared many distinct characteristics with the Forerunner. They looked similar, thought similar, and thus were deemed the Reclaimers. All because of the Precursors.

From the level "Two Betrayals" in Halo:
"We have followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter. You were with me each step of the way, as we managed this crisis."
-- 343 Guilty Spark

343 Guilty Spark is most likely rampant, however, I don't think this means we can write him off fully. If Spark is simply confusing the Master Chief with the last being who activated the ring ca. 100,000 BCE, this would mean the two bear physical resemblance.

I am pretty sure that the last person to activate the rings would have been Didact, the Forerunner general. Didact was the lover of the Librarian, the female Forerunner who found Earth and deemed humanity more special than the other sapient species in the galaxy.

From the 4th Halo 3 Terminal:
I'm trapped. On a beautiful, empty world. Its inhabitants have been safely indexed, every single one of them. They're special--well worth the effort it took to build one final gateway even at this late hour. This may be our last communication. I'm begging you. Fire the Array. Light the weapon, and let it be done.
-- The Librarian

She was speaking to Didact. Can we assume that Didact did what the Librarian had been asking him to do for so long [activate the rings]? She stranded herself on Earth by destroying her own fleet so that Didact would no longer resist firing the rings. If he did activate them, this would mean he did it on Alpha Halo... with the help of Spark. Spark thought that the Chief was Didact.

From the level "Halo" in Halo 3:
(His eye turns Blue) You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring... (Eye turns Red again) ...is mine.
-- 343 Guilty Spark

Many people will write this line off as being figurative, but not I. I believe that what Spark meant was that modern humanity (and thus the Chief) literally is the child of the Forerunner. But a child cannot have one parent, they need two. The Forerunner are the mother, and pre-activation humans ("archaic h. sapiens") are the father.

Earth is Eden.
Early Humans are Adam.
The Forerunner are Eve, taken from the rib of Adam.
Modern humans (Reclaimers) are the offspring of Adam and Eve.
Precursors are God.

[ we could go one step further and say that the Flood are Lilith, but that's another theory all together ]

Being a sub-species of h. sapiens, the Forerunner would possibly be able to mate with humanity while producing a mixed offspring. This could be the possibly spark which ignited humanity's exit from Africa; we had been in Africa from 200,000 BCE until 100,000 BCE... and then we all of the sudden decide to (and are for the first time successful in) expanding outward into the rest of the world.

Coincidence? I think not..

From the 4th Halo 3 Terminal:
What has taken you millennia to achieve I erase in seconds.
Welcome back to the [Stone Age], vermin. Welcome home.
-- Medicant Bias

I think that this quote holds significant importance (especially since Truth loves calling us humans "vermin"). We know that humanity evolved on Earth, so we did not come from outer space. If the Forerunner did indeed come from early humans, they could have been reverted to stone-age technologies by the Halos' activation. They would be stranded wherever they ended up.

From the 8th Cortana letter:
In a relatively brief period of time, the achievements of SolCore had resulted in an economically stable, technologically mature, rapidly expanding empire of eight human worlds. Advancements in technology arrived at a faster pace than the most optimistic scientists could have ever envisioned. Unexpected contact with indigenous human populations on four "lost colony" worlds led to a frenzy of research as archaeologists, theologians, astronomers, and evolutionary biologists competed to offer an explanation for the startling discovery.

There there were "indigenous humans" found on new planets. Science states that humanity could not evolve identically (or even near-identically) in more than one location, so this would imply that the "humans" were here before the UNSC discovered the worlds. I would say the "indigenous humans" are actually the sub species of h. sapiens -- surviving Forerunner (or simply Reclaimers) who exited the Ark after the Halos' activation and were stranded on remote worlds with no more technology than they (we?) had in the Stone age. But the Forerunner went extinct after the Halos fired.... or did they?

From Halo: Contact Harvest:
"The Forerunners," the Minister whispered. "Some were left behind."
-- Prophet of Regret
Having established that humanity evolved 100,000 years before the Forerunner found them (with roots reaching back 2,000,000 years on Earth) its safe to assume that since the Minister recognized humans as "living Gods," and "left-behind Forerunner," then my theory may well be.

Regarding the Prophets

The Prophets: The original Reclaimers? I think that they were.

We know that humans had a special role in the Forerunners' plan -- we are the Reclaimers. We are meant to reclaim the galaxy after we rise up, and live up to the Forerunners' accomplishments. We are the only species with the ability to activate the Halo rings...

But the Halo rings were built before humanity was even found, so wouldn't there have been a different species with a similar entitlement before us?

Why did humans not know anything about the Forerunner until we found the Halos? Surely they would have left us some sort of clues as to our past relations with the super-race known as the Forerunner... or maybe not. Maybe they didn't have the time.

ca. 100,000 BCE the Halo rings were set off. Before that, all species (sentient and sapient) were indexed (sent on a ship) to the Ark by the Forerunner. This would logically include humans, Prophets, Elites, Brutes, etc. otherwise they wouldn't be around during the Halo trilogy.

Humans were one of the last species to be discovered (by the Librarian) and indexed, as proved in Halo 3's Terminals. This would certainly put some strain on what the Forerunner could construct on Earth, right? I mean they barely had time to build and bury "one last portal" (the one in Africa).

This is where the Prophets come in.

Why did the Prophets have the earliest access to Forerunner technology in the Halo series? They found Forerunner relics on their homeworld (before it was destroyed by a supernova) and then they travelled to the Elite homeworld and forged the Covenant after a long, cut-throat war.

I think that the Prophets were the original Reclaimers, but had their title revoked after the humans were found just prior to the Halos;' activation. Why would the Prophets have been replaced? Maybe the Forerunner saw something special in us.

Humans are known as the Reclaimers, but before being able to reclaim, they would need to be taught. Since the Forerunner did not have the time to make teaching installations on Earth, they may have bestowed this right on the already-indexed Prophets.

This is further evidenced by the Prophets' mistranslation of a Forerunner word meaning "Reclaimer" -- however, they read it as "Reclamation." (Halo: Contact Harvest) Is it possible that the "Reclaimer" glyph was originally representant of the Prophet species and not human?

Seeing that the Forerunner indexed all organisms on worlds which they indexed, leaving them temporarily devoid of all life, they must have had some sort of advanced and highly sensitive DNA analyzer to categorize and index each of these alien species.

This technology would most likely be pivotal to the technology which only humans can activate (namely the Halos' control rooms). If the Humans were made Reclaimers, replacing the Prophets, a simple "DNA allowance" would be switched within the technology (however it works) making humans the only ones who could activate the Halos, instead of the Prophets.

[ Sort of like an ex-girlfriend taking away your key to her apartment and giving it to a new guy. ]

Forerunner Crystal, Truth's purpose, Brute overthrow

I have always been critical of bungie keeping Brutes as the main enemy in ODST, and completely disregarding the Elites. It would take days or even weeks time for the Brutes to have arrived, and to push the Elites out of Mombasa. But what if they were not shackled by the limits of time?

0645 hours (approx.), August 30, 2552 -- the Pillar of Autumn leaves Reach for Halo.

0100 hours (approx.), September 19, 2552 - the Pillar of Autumn arrives at Halo.

The time to travel from Reach to Halo was about 20 days.

In Halo: First Strike, we get out first hint at the Brutes replacing the Elites at the Prophets' side, when Tartarus brings Truth three shards of the time-dilating crystal, pieces of a fist-sized crystal housed under Reach which bent the time for the Master Chief (and thus the surrounding region on Halo)...

From Halo: First Strike (pg 339):
"Come closer, Tartarus, and report."
A ripple of shock passed through the Imperial Elite Protectors. They had never seen such a creature allowed so close to the Holy Ones.

"Protectors," the Prophet commanded. "Leave us."
Together the three hundred honor guards straightened, bowed, and filed out of the great chamber. Thy said nothing, but the Prophet saw the confusion on their features. Good -- such igno-rance and puzzlement had its uses.

...making the return trip to the human world last about 20 hours.

1827 hours, September 22, 2552 -- influenced by the crystal, the Ascendant Justice jumps away from Halo and toward Reach.

0520 hours (approx.), September 23, 2552 -- influenced by the crystal, the Ascendant Justice reaches Reach...

This can not be explained away simply because the Covenant were faster than us -- they weren't that much faster. It took a full 2 weeks (October 20 until November 2) to reach Delta Halo from Earth in Halo 2. The crystal altered space-time once. Why couldn't it happen again?

From Halo: First Strike (pg 340):
"It may yet be enough for our purposes... and one more relic from the Great Ones, as precious as they are, will soon make no difference to us." The Prophet tucked the container deep in the folds of his underrobe. "Make sure those pilots who survived are
well rewarded. Then execute them all. Quickly. Quietly."

This was the Prophet of Truth speaking with Tartarus, who had just presented him with the three shards of the time-dilating crystal.

What were the purposes that Truth was speaking about?

I think that the crystal may have been a large part of Truth's plan to replace the Elites with Brutes, especially since a Brute, Tartarus, was the only one allowed so close. The time-dilating effect would allow him to transfer the Brutes to replace the Elites literally everywhere within the Galaxy in a matter of hours to days; he may have employed a shard of the crystal to get his Brutes to Earth at almost the instant that Regret left.

This is the only possibility that I see, as otherwise it would have taken hours to days, maybe even weeks, to replace the Elites on Earth with Brutes, and the flashback missions in ODST would have included Elites rather than Brutes. It surely won't be a major plot-point in the game, but it could very well be Bungie's reasoning behind Truth's acquisition of the shards.

Woah... this thing's deserving of its own article.

permalink | Rampant Speculation

-UNSC Trooper

Stephen offers an interesting perspective on the Forerunners' final days before firing the Halos and temporarily neutralizing the Flood threat.

Stephen Kelly (gruntythirst11@hotmail.com) writes:

After a little reading of the site, I found posts referring to forerunners and humans as being almost completely separate races. This despite 343 Guilty Spark explicitly saying "You are Forerunner!" So I started to think. (Excuse me if someone has already come up with this.) According to the post by Deadguy71, and his extensive research, Humans were long ago cataloged and seeded on Earth after the original detonation of the Halos. Leftover Forerunner AI's like 343 and Bias refer to Humans as "Reclaimers" rather than Forerunners. What I want to know is, how do we know that Forerunners were themselves a race? 343 Guilty Spark refers to us as Reclaimer, yet says we are Forerunner. Is it possible that the Forerunners, like the Covenant, were an alien collective? Although all the Forerunner tech we come across reacts to our human touch, we don't know that it wouldn't react to certain other alien species touch. Maybe humans were very lately added to the Forerunner collective and assigned to be the Reclaimers, the ones who would retake the galaxy. In the terminals, the Forerunner on Earth talks about how great our several hundred thousand year old ancestors are. Perhaps it was that Forerunner's admiration that gained us a spot in a galactic Forerunner will. "You are the child of my makers, Inheritor of all they left behind." Inheritor implies that all this Forerunner tech never belonged to humanity. It was given to us when the Forerunner died. Also, the "child of my makers" line could fit with Deadguy71's theory of Humans being seeded on Earth. If the Forerunner seeded us on Earth, they could be seen as our parents.

There really isn't anything I could add that hasn't already been milked dry by various Reclaimer-Forerunner theories and discussions, but the concept of the Forerunner Empire being a conglomerate of races is intriguing in itself. Although, being a technologically-genial society, why would they need additional, less advanced races to run their empire? They seem to have done fine on their own...

permalink | The Forerunner

-UNSC Trooper

Jeffrey emailed a very detailed outline of what he thinks Cortana's captured AI might have been.

Jeffery Arnold (sypheran@hotmail.com) writes:

Just taking it back a little, back in First Strike we find out that the covenant have AIs. When John-117 put Cortana into the Covenant network on High Charity, Cortana mentions an unusually formidable presence, and eventually captures and contains the core coding of a covenant AI for further examination... However, the quick examination Cortana had done at the time had uncovered something that was very interesting, and yet to be answered...

The enemy AI code was so similar to Cortana, that Cortana says that it's as if it were her own code, only copied many times over, each time introducing subtle errors due to the replication process.

I believe it would be safe to assume, the "copied" AI Cortana captured was not the "unusually formidable presence" Cortana mentioned. This is due to the speed and ease Cortana had in capturing and stripping the "copied" AI. I would believe that the "unusually formidable presence" was more likely to be the originating code to the copied AI. Yet who would this originating AI be, that is so similar to Cortana in code?

Also of note in First Strike, the covenant scan the Halo Debris using Human frequencies, even though there was never before a mention of the Covenant doing such a thing in UNSC or ONI files. What would have caused the covenant to start this after the event of Halo: CE? Could it possible be due to the fact that the Covenant get their hands on a Human Smart AI after the events of Halo: CE?

But which AI would they have gotten? We only know of Cortana and Guilty Spark, and I doubt Guilty Sparks core coding looks anything like Cortana... Yet it couldn't have been Cortana, for she was with John the entire time... Except for when she went into the whole of the Halo system... Infiltrating every piece of it's infrastructure, being in all parts of it's network at once, including the parts the Covenant had access too...

What about Kalmiya, Cortana's "Older Sister"? She was apparently destroyed by Dr. Halsey using her fail-safe to terminate her so that the Covenant could not capture her, but what if this is not what truly happened? Kalmiya had known about her fail-safe after witnessing Dr. Halsey using Araquiel's to terminate Araquiel. And had even had the forethought to ask Dr. Halsey if she had one as well... She was a smart AI designed to test programing that eventually became Cortana, being a smart AI and Cortana's "Older Sister", it wouldn't be hard to assume that Kalmiya was already rampant and so stripped herself of her own fail-safe after seeing it used on Araquiel, only giving Dr. Halsey a "good show" when Dr. Halsey thought she had terminated Kalmiya. And thus when the Covenant infiltrated the base, and scoured it's systems, they would have found her. An AI with a rivalry for Cortana (the "better" her), with a core coding that would be almost exact, and the ability to adapt easily as her programing was made to do.

Kalmiya would make for quite an "unusually formidable presence" to Cortana... It would make for quite a good story.

On another note, this goes more with the Marathon connections... Whatever happened to Beowulf? Cortana had essentially done the same to him as she had done to the Covenant AI, right? What if, by the time Marathon takes place Cortana still exists, but is so rampant that she splits her consciousness to better stabilize herself? She would split into three, one part using her own coding (Leela), one part using the covenant AI coding (Tyco), and one using Beowulfs coding (Durandal). From the scene when Beowulf and Cortana exchange words, they seem to have a very similar relationship as Leela and Durandal, and the "Copy" AI would seem to fit the persona of Tyco... And being that Cortana has the ability to replicate herself, this wouldn't seem all that impossible. Halo might not be the predecessor of Marathon, but the predecessor of a re-imagined Marathon... Halo 3 ends with Master Chief and Cortana alone in a ship floating in dead space, with Cortana saying that it could take years for them to find anybody, and later(by possibly a few hundred years), they come to a planet (Tau Ceti anybody). Upon landing Master Chief would be conscripted into being a Security Officer for the ship in orbit, the Marathon, and Cortana (by this time already splitting into the three, not to Master Chiefs knowledge of course), would be moved aboard as it's Navigation, Life Support, and various Operations AI's.

I think the shift from one to the other would be quite easy to make, with slight changes in story from here to there... Being that everything Bungie is currently doing is pre-Halo 3 themed, I would feel that bungie is waiting for the right time to slam a new re-imagined set of Marathon games on us, a time when we're not expecting it (they have to get everything they can out of the halo stories first)... There obviously has to be something with that Halo 3 ending

permalink | Cortana

-UNSC Trooper

Ross poses the possibility of ONI having known about the Flood before even the incursion on Delta Halo, an analysis he's drawn based on ONI Alpha Site's rough geographical location.

Ross Rankin (rossrankin@me.com) writes:

In ODST the ONI building is my main point off attention. Its built like a castle. It has a moat, a high wall and only one way in.

But the wall is on the wrong side of the moat, for me its designed to keep something in rather than out and who needs a moat when your in a world with Pelicans.

Also Dare is nice enough to let us know that the building is directly above the Superintendent with her comment about the Hive. Then directly below the Super is the hole leading to the Forerunner structure. That's already open before the covenant begin to excavate (Can be viewed on the mission Data Hive).

I doubt its coincidence that the ONI building and a high level AI were all built above the hole to the forerunner structure.

One thing that dose puzzle me is the pelican sized hole the Phantoms use to enter the Supers chamber and the forerunner structure below.

There is a constant flow of flaming debris falling from above, that would put the hole directly under the burning ONI building (and would point to good attention to detail by bungie) but when the building was standing no pelican would have been able to access the hole and an elevator would have landed directly onto the Super with no easy way down.

Then we come to the interior of the building, it has no stairs or visible corridors, only three lifts with two lower level landing pads and one on the roof, no windows and the middle is a void for as far down as we can see. What would someone do in a building like that?

There doesn't seem to be much room for floor space. What is the point of the building? In the opening sequence you see the 3D map showing the carrier over the city, the ONI building is quite visible and shows how much real estate the entire area covers, about the same area as the wild life reserve. But in the relatively small building there is not much to it.

It has almost a Forerunner design to it. I once read some theories about the first Halo ring in Halo Combat Evolved, that it was designed to slow the floods spread with high valley's, sheer cliffs and small defendable bottle necked corridors.

The ONI building is not as high as the valley's in the original halo but it would be hard to get out off. From what we see the only way up from the super is elevators, the rest is all sealed off by data stacks and vertical shafts. Even if you get to the ONI building you need to deal with sheer walls and once your on ground level you have a moat and a huge wall to deal with.

I think ONI has had access to the Forerunner structure for sometime, enough time to build the impressive building with possible Flood proof defences? Did they find the flood in the Forerunner structure?

Anyway I think ONI knew it was there and for some time.

Ross

Generally speaking, ONI knows stuff we could only dream of - but hiding the Flood on Earth (and successfully containing it) would significantly bolster its overall image in a positive way despite the back-stabbing policies that have generated the negative light they're viewed in.

permalink | ONI

-UNSC Trooper

Mombassa Welcomes Careful Drivers

Keep it Clean, folks, from now on the HSP can be considered very spoilery. I hope you're all mining our new source of canon like the Covenant mine for an Ark. And that you're linked into the network like an Engineer! That you're as suspicious as NMPD!

I've been monitoring the forums, guiding you with the eloquence of the Super directing me to the the audiophile achievement for my 360 to crash and . . . I'm breathing, I am a calm blue ocean.

Here's what I've found.

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-Jillybean

Black Asgard (darke127@yahoo.com) writes:

While playing the newly released Halo 3: ODST, I paid close attention to the story and design with the scrutiny of a writer. What I believe I've discovered is that ODST pays abundant homage to the first book of the Divine Comedy, Dante Aligeri's 'Inferno'.

Listen:

The Inferno, as I recall it (having read it about 2 years ago after enjoying 'La Vida Nuova'), begins with Dante wandering lost and alone, in a 'dark wood'. It is night when you awaken in New Mombasa. The city towers above you not like a frightening wood.

The first helpful hand you encounter is that of Vergil, who guides you to supposed safety--Vergil, the Superintendent of New Mombasa, who shares the name of the Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid (about the Hero who survived the Trojan massacre (perhaps an allusion to Buck and Reach?)). Vergil guides the Rookie, like Dante, through 9 levels; the 9 circles of Hell.

New Mombasa burns, like the common image of hell. It is dark, dangerous, horrifying. And Vergil guides you gently, offering help with cryptic statements (in game, it is composed of the Bumble-bee-esque conglomeration of audio bytes).

Later, as you encounter the final lost squad mate, you descend to the 9th level of the city substructure where it is frozen; that is to say, not unlike Satan's frosty chamber. For what seems to be little to nor reason (as far as I could tell).

Food for thought. ;)

Black Asgard

The discussion is here - what parallels can you find between warthogs, wolves and lions?

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-Jillybean