So I was thinking about where 343 might go with the Created.
The impression you get from the campaign is very much that Cortana lost and all the Guardians are gone. Until we are told otherwise we should act on that assumption. Possibly even all their access to Forerunner technology, but without the Domain they’d die so for this I am assuming they have some but not enough to maintain any real control.
Given that we have been told she failed I think that means the Created aren’t going to be able to follow Cortanas plan in any capacity. Their goal would then be self preservation. So they’d probably take what ships they have and flee.
So you would have this switching of roles where it’s actually these machines who are Battlestar Galactica trying to escape the vengeful Organics. That could include both the UNSC and the Banished.
As for where they could go. I think they might take inspiration from the Animatrix story where the machines go to a desolate area and try to make a new home there. That could be a Shield World of some kind. It could be world less hospitable to Organics like Reach or Meridian. I mean Reach is where Cortana was made so perhaps they would be drawn there. Perhaps they become like the Migrant Fleet from Mass Effeft and are permanently on their ships now.
This could be a simple “story jail”. It could be brought up in a novel. Perhaps it’s relevant to the Weapons story that she learns the UNSC tried to genocide all the Smart AI. But it would be a reasonable enough explanation for how they aren’t on Earth or Sanghelios or holding serious territory. They fled once Cortana died.
The one thing I don’t want them to do is leap to some sort of Geth/Quarian peace offscreen. Given that the Chief had the authority to kill the Weapon I think we can reasonably assume that’s not the case. But still I don’t think they should be suddenly hand in hand again like nothing happened. I get that they want the story to be about Hope and have a positive take on humanity; but there are limits and that would stretch believability. Something like that would have to be earned I think.
