Okay, when the Master Chief is on Ivanoff Station in Gamma Halo’s orbit, he fights two Hunters in a lab.
In that lab, one finds test tubes containing Forerunner objects retrieved from the Halo ring. One is the Activation Index of the Installation. No idea how the scientists retrieved that thing from the Library without a Monitor’s help.
The second one is a very common Forerunner glyph. That one rather looks like some Forerunnerized capture plate. There is certainly more to it.
Anyway, the last thing looks very strange. It is an ocular. It bears a lot of resemblance with the Oculi from Mass Effect 2 and 3.
The catchy thing about it is the eye. Could it be that THIS is actually 03-049 Abject Testament, the monitor of Gamma Halo/Halo Installation 03? I know it does not look like in the terminal video from HALO: Combat Evolved Anniversary. But maybe it upgraded itself. AND 343 Guilty Spark stated in one of the H:CEA terminal videos that he had lost contact with the other installations. Also if that actually is the shut down monitor, it would explain why he didnt make contact with the humans and why it was so easy for them to retrieve the Halo’s Activation Index. The log entry says that its retina might be used for focusing energy. 343 Guilty Spark also focused energy when attacking the Master Chief with his sentinel beam.
But I might be wrong, of course. That ball doesn’t even have the Marathon Symbol on it. Unacceptable!
It’s definitely an interesting theory. I’ll do some digging on it to see if it correlates, but it is possible, based on a lot of evidence that it is possible. Granted, we don’t know about any of the other monitors and what could have happened, especially with the Flood still loose in the galaxy.
I thought it was hinting at some sort of Forerunner vehicle in the next game, like a War Sphinx. Transcript of the audio log:
Scientist: “Specimen 1534. Initial suggest an imaging component, perhaps a piece of some large device or possibly a vehicle of some sort.”
Scientist: “Reticular hazing also implies use as a beam focuser: could have done double-duty as a weapon sight.”
Scientist: “Passing off to SPEC-WAR for further testing.”
That’s utterly possible. I don’t know what to think of that stuff. There are many hints in the game that evoke questions but lack of answers. I only noticed it during my second playthrough now.
Another interesting hint I saw just 15 mins ago was that Cortana informed the Chief about a slipspace event under the Composer in Midnight. The Didact later activates the Composer. And a powerful beam shoots through him. Then, the camera shows an overhead shot of the Composer and pans down, revealing that the beam goes INTO that slipspace event. Later, when the Didact is blasted off by the grenade he still looks over to the Chief upon his fall into the slipspace portal. I think that was a portal that led back to Requiem. That’s why there is the human memories and the artifact (from Spartan Ops) that were both seen on Earth.
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That’s what I was thinking as well. It would also explain his speech in the epilogue. Wonder what the deal with the Prometheans is, though. Does the Didact command them still? Did he give Jul command of them in his absence? Are they just in “guard mode”, but they don’t attack Covies because the Didact previously directed them not to?
In my first walkthrough, I thought it was Master Chief speaking in the epilogue. I guessed he had the Didact geas in him and now he mutates just like Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting mutated. That’s why he seemed to be much taller in the epilogue. And his hands look so much oversized compared to his arms – just like the Didact’s! And his armor was taken off – decommission for his actions? In the Didact’s words “accused of ensuring Forerunner ascendancy”? The Forerunners and Humans were originally meant to be the same species.
After a while of thinking about it, I guessed that it would make more sense if the Didact’s speech in the epilogue was at the end of the Flood-Forerunner-War. He wanted to compose Mankind and use his Promethean army to defeat the Flood. That was a violent act opposing the codex of the Mantle that the Didact once followed. I thought he had to justify his acts in front of the Ecumene Council. And the epilogue speech could have been some sort of flashback.
Now I think that you might be right. Probably, he speaks to the Covenant Remnants to motivate them. Maybe he talks to his Prometheans like he did in the Domain terminal videos (“RISE, MY PROMETHEANS, RISE!”). Another possibility is that he talks to the Forerunners. He told the Chief that the Forerunners had returned. It could be literal.
Concerning the Prometheans, I guess they were created to fight the Flood. That was their only purpose. And the Flood were considered the greatest threat in the galaxy. Now the Didact has returned and retook control of them. Since he thinks that the Humans are the greatest threat in the galaxy, the Prometheans might have been reprogrammed to pursue their original purpose: Defeating the greatest threat to the galaxy = defeating the Humans.
Ironic. Humans created to kill Humans.