Someone I follow on Twitter (@MemeCrytpum) pointed out something interesting from the mission details screen from the Infinite demo. It mentions using “the weapon” to hack the console controlling the AA guns. Had no idea what that meant until they suggested it was the data chip we saw in the Discover Hope trailer. So far I agree with this notion, but that made me remember the hidden audio from Cortana found in that trailer.
“This…This is part of me. I don’t know why…I don’t know how…but it is me.”
That’s the audio in question. Some have speculated this means there is a second Cortana, but the impersonal way the chip is called simply a weapon makes me doubt that. I think OG, or at least whatever the thing calling itself Cortana, says this. I will be upfront and admit this is all just speculation and the conclusions are probably flimsy at best.
We DO know Chief and Blue Team are going back to Reach in the upcoming Shadow of Reach novel. Even the Spartan Field Manuel has mentions of teams heading there and poking around the old Mennachite Mountain complex where CASTLE Base was. The current theory is that Blue Team will be going there to reclaim the other brains Halsey cloned from her own brain during Cortana’s creation. Again, folks think this means Halsey or someone will use this to make a second Cortana, but I have an alternative in mind. Given Infinite’s role as a spiritual reboot and Paul Crocker’s comments about not needing to do any homework to get the story, I don’t see them introducing a new AI in the book. Yes, they will reward people who invest in the expanded universe, but if the game is also geared towards fans just coming in then introducing an AI-based on an existing character and having them meet the original might be a tall order. I speculate that the brains will be retrieved, but might be too damaged to create a functional AI.
We should remember the primary reason Cortana was made in the first place was to infiltrate alien systems and she was very good at that. Perhaps Halsey could adapt the programs she implanted in Cortana to infiltrate security into “the weapon” (data chip) to assist Chief. After all, he isn’t like to hack enemy systems on his own. Or perhaps they can make an AI of some kind, but I don’t see the UNSC risking the development of a Smart AI that could potentially turn on them to the Created. For a lack of better words, maybe they create a “Dumb AI” with coding and systems Cortana might find familiar, hence the audio. Therefore he has a very basic AI similar to Cortana, but heavily restricted in what it can do.
What I find maybe more likely is maybe they take Cortana’s suggestion from Halo 4 about fixing her rampancy by replacing damaged parts of her neural net with new additions from Halsey’s mind (or rather in this case the brains). The brains might not be good enough for a whole AI, but maybe there is enough to create something to plug up the gaps in Cortana.
Maybe both routes are undertaken. The chip could then allow Chief to hack systems with whatever thing Halsey cooks up and possibly capture and begin fixing Cortana once she is captured or enters the chip.
But ultimately I don’t know.