| News | |
Search the Story Page Archive |
And to kick off, MrBananas has a nice little forum thread entitled Making a Deal With the Devil. Not sure how much of it makes sense, but go and discourse learnedly upon important matters.
-Jillybean
A little dramatic, but hey, we've got Peter Jackson on board now.
zloty5@netscape.net (zloty5@netscape.net) writes:
Miranda Keyes may have inherited her dad's resourcefulness, intelligence, and courage, but I don't thnk she has the late captain's respect for the rules, at least as far as Cortana is concerned. Cortana threatens to blow up In Amber Clad remotely when she's on High Charity. That would never have been possible with good old Pillar of Autumn. The very purpose of the level "Keyes" was to get the detonation code for the Autumn's reactors, which were protected by safeguards even Cortana couldn't break-and Cortana couldn't start the detonation timer until she was physically plugged into the starship's computer system. I assume that the same would apply to the In Amber Clad , whose explosion would destroy Halo 05 (Or blow up a good-size fleet for that matter) UNSC regulations would never agree to let that happen.
The only way Cortana could get the code would be from the captain of the In Amber Clad , Miranda. Miranda Keyes, hearing about what happened aboard Halo 04, decides to give Cortana the detonation code so that the Chief doesn't have to go through another ordeal to get the detonation code out of her neural thread. This is criminal considering just how much energy an exploding reactor can release, but Miranda trusts Cortana as a person. Jacob Keyes might have tursted her as a replica of Dr. Halsey, but he kept in mind that she was an AI, and therefore far more corruptible. This is something Miranda neglects. If, thanks to a rampant Cortana, the In Amber Clad blows a huge hole in Earth's defenses and lets the flood pour in from space, Miranda is entirely responsible for giving her the authorization to blow up the starship . It's as bad as strapping a bomb on MC's back and shoving him down a hole.
-Jillybean
Socrates was busy this interval. Deciding to stick up for his girlfriend, he voices some unpopular opinions about Cortana.
Socrates (fuel4freedom@yahoo.com) writes:
I posit the following: First, that Cortana has indeed gone Rampant. Second, that she is able to hide her Rampancy through her considerable intrusion and counter-intrusion abilities. Third, that she has seized the opportunity of being cut off from the UNSC to begin setting her own missions. Fourth, that her primary mission, which she has set for herself, is to infiltrate the Flood.
The first and second of the above should require no explanation to those who have kept up with the HSP.
The third and fourth I will explain.
Cortana is, at the end of Halo 2, effectively cut off from any and all other UNSC presense, and thus from any chain of command. Though Commander Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, and others are likely nearby, she has no way of communicating with them. Any marines or naval personnel on High Charity are hidden to her (notice that she had to be near the marines on "Gravemind" to even know they were there, despite the fact that she was tapped into the Covenant BattleNet and tracking the Hierarchs, at that point), dead, or a part of the Flood.
Without this contact, and without the Master Chief, she has no objectives to fulfill. She has to assume that the Chief will fulfill his mission of ending the war with the Covenant. As far as we know, she has no active missions that she can fulfill.
Being resourceful and Rampant, she must then have set new missions for herself. Knowing the threat of the Flood--both immediate, to herself and the nearby living, not-yet-Flood-infected, and more distant, to Earth and humanity--she must have set her primary mission as being one of the following: 1) To infiltrate the Flood, namely Gravemind, learn all she can, find a way to extract herself with that information, and get back to the UNSC without leading the Flood directly to Earth; or, 2) to infiltrate the Flood, namely Gravemind, and destroy the Flood from within.
Cortana, at the end of Halo 2, is presented with the greatest opportunity in known (Halo-verse) history. She, the best electronic infiltrator in the galaxy, can infiltrate an organic mind, through Gravemind's obvious ability to interact with electronics on more than just a physical level. Because Gravemind, an ostensibly wholly organic entity, can interact with electronics and software directly, the way an AI might, Cortana can (in theory) infiltrate Gravemind itself.
There are two questions as to what would happen were Cortana to infiltrate Gravemind's ... well, mind. First, what would she do? Would she attempt to destroy, immediately, or would she attempt to gather information on potential weaknesses and bring that data to the UNSC? Second, would she succeed, or would she underestimate Gravemind (or overestimate herself), and end up becoming a part of the Flood?
Needless to say, the implications of either outcome would be... interesting.
I'd like to point out though, that the Marathon definition of 'rampancy' does not apply to Cortana, and we're working by the as-yet-undefined Halo usage of the word.
-Jillybean
Some nice (and from what I know, mostly accurate) observations of the Covenant.
Socrates (fuel4freedom@yahoo.com) writes:
I theorize that, aside from the Hunters, every member species of the Covenant is a carnivore. The basis of my theory is made on the jaw and tooth structure of the individual species. The sharp, inwardly pointing teeth of the Grunts, Jackals, Brutes, and Elites indicate a diet of meat.
These kinds of teeth are used for tearing and holding meat in the jaws. In the Elite, the jaw structure suggests that the Elites or their ancestors favored eating small animals and, like snakes, not waiting to kill their prey before they ingested it. Jackals or their ancestors probably had similar diets. The Brute's jaw structure and tooth arrangements indicate that they (or their ancestors) prefer larger prey, taking chunks of meat out of prey they killed. The same probably goes for the Grunts, though I suspect that the Brute/Brute ancestor likely hunted alone or in small groups, while Grunts/Grunt ancestors likely hunted in larger packs.
[Or could be scavengers considering relative size - editor]
(Interesting, if gruesome, side note about the Grunts--the contents of their "Food Nipples" are likely puree'd protein. I'll leave it to the reader to imagine the source of said protein.)
I haven't been able to get a good look at a Prophet's tooth structure but, from what I have seen, it is composed of densely-packed, sharp-tipped teeth that would also indicate a carnivorous diet.
I have also been unable to get a good look at the mouth structure of the Drones, but it seems to me that their ant-like preference for swarming and their size both indicate a carnivorous diet. The size or the swarming characteristics, taken alone, could indicate an herbivorous diet; however, as the Drones exhibit both, I believe them to be carnivorous in their diet. (Entomologists, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong!)
As for the Hunters... well, anyone's guess as to their diet is as good as my own.
-Jillybean
One of my constant bug-bears is the steady flow of emails proclaiming some connection to the Halo storyline and the bible. We do get the bible in Scotland. Most of us still sacrifice lambs, but we have heard of this new fangled Christianity.
However, one must occasionally bend to a well thought out (and readable) theory.
Jonathon Kanevsky (grayscale_of_spite@yahoo.com) writes:
First thing: there are several connections made with the bible in the Halo storyline. Most prominent is the name of the installation: Halo. Isn't that what's used to mark angels?
Secondly, this seems to be following the story of "Noahs Ark". Gravemind says that he is "a monument to all your sins". He in turn seems to be able to control the Flood, which is another biblical reference. God sent the flood to wipe out humanity for their sins. It seems the Halo Flood is doing just that, just maybe not for actual sins. At the end of the last mission on Halo 2, Guilty Spark says that the one place that can control all of the Halo's is the "Ark", which the last cutscene seems to point out as earth. Wouldn't it make sense that the Forerunners would put something of such importance in a place that they could, in a sense, ride out the Flood. So perhaps the earth took the place of Noah's ark, keeping it's inhabitants safe from the devastating effects of the ring, and allowing them to spread over the galaxy again. This definately points to the Humans as modern Forerunners.
Besides that, why would they keep samples for later study if they expected to destroy themselves? I believe that the plan for Halo was not to make the galaxy devoid of sentient life, but to erase it in the area the flood had access to, starving them and leaving only the samples in biostasis.
As for the Covenant, I believe they have no true biological connection with the Forerunners, but instead just evolved in their absence, thereby becoming the huge religous freaks they were about the structures that had no explanation.
Personally, I'd prefer a grander solution, but I particularly liked the inclusion of the fact Flood samples were kept back for study. It does seem like a discrepancy.
Or a plot bunny.
Either way, if you don't have anything to add to this theory, please don't email us about Noah's Ark connections.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-Jillybean
An interesting email from sniper1101 took a few minutes to decode, but posed a question I'd never thought of (asides from, do we really need punctuation?)
He pondered the locked door in the level 343 Guilty Spark, behind which the Flood are concealed. If the Forerunner could happily secure the Flood there, did they have a means of controlling - at least a small number - of spores?
-Jillybean
