How does Halsey Know? A Question, Maybe Spoilers

I didn’t get much of a response in the Halo 5 forums so hopefully I will ask it here and someone can help me understand a part of Halo 5’s campaign.

In the 2nd or 3rd cut scene (when Halsey is brought back to the Infinity), how is it that she knows it is Cortana that is resurrecting the guardians? How is it that Lasky also seems to know? How is it that anybody in the UNSC knows that Cortana is alive?

I thought the answer would be in the Escalation graphic novels but after reading some other members’ responses to the Escalation series it appears as though the answer is not there.

In the intro cutscene when Halsey says something like, “When they find out what we’ve done, they will try to kill us”, does anyone think that is because she made Cortana with the purpose to activate not just find as much Forerunner tech as possible?

Thanks, Any help would be appreciated.

> 2535406744827519;1:
> I didn’t get much of a response in the Halo 5 forums so hopefully I will ask it here and someone can help me understand a part of Halo 5’s campaign.
>
> In the 2nd or 3rd cut scene (when Halsey is brought back to the Infinity), how is it that she knows it is Cortana that is resurrecting the guardians? How is it that Lasky also seems to know? How is it that anybody in the UNSC knows that Cortana is alive?
>
> I thought the answer would be in the Escalation graphic novels but after reading some other members’ responses to the Escalation series it appears as though the answer is not there.
>
> In the intro cutscene when Halsey says something like, “When they find out what we’ve done, they will try to kill us”, does anyone think that is because she made Cortana with the purpose to activate not just find as much Forerunner tech as possible?
>
> Thanks, Any help would be appreciated.

I don’t think anyone knows the answer to your question.

Also the intro made no sense to me, neither did it make any sense in Halo 4. It’s like the intro dude keeps dropping the ball on making sense.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. This was a big problem for me with the story. I thought maybe it was answered in the EU.

I think the first mission end cutscene might have something.
Halsey says this to Jul.
“This location does not serve my needs. When she makes another transmission I must triangulate–” and then Jul tells that he is tired of this.
So I guess Halsey picked up one of those transmissions?

Halsey told Lasky about it when she made contact with him.

> 2533274964512354;4:
> I think the first mission end cutscene might have something.
> Halsey says this to Jul.
> “This location does not serve my needs. When she makes another transmission I must triangulate–” and then Jul tells that he is tired of this.
> So I guess Halsey picked up one of those transmissions?
>
> Halsey told Lasky about it when she made contact with him.

That’s a good point. Also the Intel elaborates on that point a bit more as well. Still it was poorly explained and definitely not addressed in EU.

Oh - good points. I will have to go back and listen closer to Halsey. I still got the impression that Lasky already knew upon Halsey’s return to the ship. Maybe ONI or the UNSC was following these transmissions already and they had picked up the same transmissions?

> 2535406744827519;6:
> Oh - good points. I will have to go back and listen closer to Halsey. I still got the impression that Lasky already knew upon Halsey’s return to the ship. Maybe ONI or the UNSC was following these transmissions already and they had picked up the same transmissions?

ONI had somewhat of an idea about what was going on as per Hunt the Truth as well. I’m not sure if they realized it was Cortana or not though.

The UNSC definitely knew about the guardians awakening as per Hunt the Truth. But I never got the impression that they (ONI) thought an AI such as Cortana was the cause. I guess I would like to go more behind the scenes at the UNSC and ONI and meet those “eggheads”. They must have some smart people there. It would help explain how the UNSC +/or ONI is keeping up with Halsey. I was under the belief that Halsey is way ahead of them but I’m not so sure anymore. Could be an interesting story? It seems the UNSC, Halsey, and OnI are all racing each other. They each have their own purposes.

Just want to say again that I thought HUNT THE TRUTH was amazing. I really appreciate the work that was done on it. Everyone did a great job there.

it was explained off screen in Halseys debrif on infinity, so it was never explained to the audience.

all 343 had to do is have Halsey say she had a vision or somethin at the end of mission 1 (cut to black). You then play mission 2 in which John now has a vision. This answers the question of how and creates a more compelling question and story aspect of the interaction of Halsey, a person who wishes to have the time to know everything and cortana an entity that has achieved her creators dreams.

long story short, it was never explaind and 343 -Yoinked!- up in terms of execution of narrative.

> 2535406744827519;6:
> Oh - good points. I will have to go back and listen closer to Halsey. I still got the impression that Lasky already knew upon Halsey’s return to the ship. Maybe ONI or the UNSC was following these transmissions already and they had picked up the same transmissions?

She apparently knew three weeks before Fireteam Osiris retrieves her, hence her anger that Osiris took so long… at least that’s what I gather from the cutscene dialogue.

> 2533274830366691;9:
> it was explained off screen in Halseys debrif on infinity, so it was never explained to the audience.

Is there a journal or something where this was stated?

> 2533274888057089;10:
> > 2535406744827519;6:
> > Oh - good points. I will have to go back and listen closer to Halsey. I still got the impression that Lasky already knew upon Halsey’s return to the ship. Maybe ONI or the UNSC was following these transmissions already and they had picked up the same transmissions?
>
>
> She apparently knew three weeks before Fireteam Osiris retrieves her, hence her anger that Osiris took so long… at least that’s what I gather from the cutscene dialogue.

I gathered the same thing. Oh…something is kicking in my brain now…so…she could have told the UNSC that it was Cortana but they took 3 weeks to get her. That is how the UNSC knew. She picked up the signals while with Jul but he couldn’t help her further so she got rid of him and called the UNSC. OK this makes more sense now. Gosh - I wish it was a bit more obvious. I guess I’m getting too old.

Does anyone think Halsey intended for Cortana to activate Forerunner tech?

I brought up the start of her knowing stuff was happening a few days ago.

Hunt the Signal Connections.

Pretty much before Halsey went with Jul. Aka any time before February 2558. She found out Anomalies were happening.

That is 8 months warning for Halsey to start to go deeper into the situation during her journey with Jul. Though one can assume the Janus key and the absolute Record took priority seeing how important that would be if someone got control of that.

8 months is plenty of time for Halsey to get enough data on the mysterious anomalies/signal. Halsey probably even used a similar signal to lead her to Kamchatka.

ONI discovered the anomalies though Halseys archive. And though rumors that we hear in Hunt the Truth Season 1