So I was just watching Halo Legends: Origins and a question loomed on me… How much truth is in Cortana’s educated guess of the events, that transpired during the Flood-Forerunner War? I know that 343 Industries stated that the ambiguity in the canon, between her re-telling and the Forerunner Saga, is due to her rampancy… but I don’t fully believe that, at least not entirely.
It is shown that John-117 raids the Ex-Covenant Holy City of High Charity, which has now become a Flood super-Hive and houses a Flood Gravemind… John has returned to this unholy, infected place to find Cortana and rescue her from the clutches of the Flood. Cortana originally stayed behind to ensure the Flood could not escape Installation 05… and if they tried she would blow up the UNSC In Amber Clad’s Engines… a plan, used previously for a similar situation against the Flood… Installation 04A and the UNSC Pillar Of Autumn. Yet they still managed to reach Earth and the Lesser Ark… whether this was by a miscalculation, early rampancy or Cortana being compromised… is unknown.
We do know from Halo 2 Legendary Ending; the small tale, Human Weakness, in Halo Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe… and even Halo 3 level High Charity… that the Flood Gravemind and Cortana conversed for quite a bit, he was probing for clues and dissecting her every word or function… he was really tormenting her. And yet she had also discovered things from the Flood Gravemind… the Lesser Ark and 05-032 Mendicant Bias (her solution)… to which was intriguing…
We know previously that the Flood Gravemind cannot be killed… at least its memories… to which the next incarnation is essentially the previous one… going back to the original Gravemind, the last known Precursor… The Primordial or Timeless One. We know from the Halo 3 Terminals and Forerunner Saga that, the Flood Gravemind had talked with 05-032 Mendicant Bias, a highly advanced Forerunner Contender-class Ancilla, for over 40 years… to which in the end, 05-032 Mendicant Bias had turned against his creators… much like how the Forerunners, rose up in defiance, against the Precursors… such poetic justice. And yet he was about fifty times more advanced then Cortana? And we know that the Primordial also had a hand in the Ur-Didact’s maddening justification, that Humanity need be composed… It seems that, the Primodial and his latter re-incarnations, the Gravemind, project thoughts and convert hosts to their whim… so would it be so far-fetched to believe Cortana was in-fact comprised by the Logic-Virus?
And another additional note… we know that the Flood Gravemind could access the Organon, or Domain, to which he could access the same knowledge the Precursors and Forerunners had. We even know that the Graveminds… telepathic link and psychological mind games, can even make someone perceive illusions, like the Librarian and the dead-Forthencho… who addresses the will of the Flood and torments the Librarian… even in his temporary defeat.
So how much truth is in-fact in the words of the Human Smart-AI, Cortana… and also having been around the Flood longer than any known Human, perhaps even Covenant species… John-117 would have copious amounts of psychological trauma… he has been known to hear the Flood Gravemind’s tormenting voice… and later the Ur-Didact via a ‘GEA’… how much truth relies in his traumatize mind… can he perceive illusions from reality?
So in-fact John-117 could have been manipulated, via Cortana, firstly to attempt to free 05-032 Mendicant Bias… which didn’t work… and then to release the Ur-Didact… thus the Gravemind’s puppets are returning to play. And in-fact John-117 perhaps is perceiving things with a sudden referendum, of the anomaly… and has left the UNSC due to his conclusion that he is dangerous around others… from all his friends dieing around him… and his ill-perceived judgement. He is in-fact on the Lesser Ark following the Ur-Didact maddening path, from his parent race, to release Mendicant Bias… who appeared to be friend, but in-fact the Gravemind would thus reveal his influence over John, making all the miss-conceptions… Cortana’s apparent death… and everything else… known to which would be a final, decimating blow to our stoic hero… which would actually render him catatonic and fearful of what the Flood will do… and what he has done… Thus making it the darkest game ever… and paving the path for Halo 6… and John-117 overcoming his fear… to finally be the hero that Humanity and the Mantle deserves.