Plot speculation: Cortana, AI's, and AI "Weapon"

Games Halo Infinite
1

Curious to know what direction everyone thinks the plot will go with Cortana. Although it seems like the game will focus heavily on the Banished, there are a few other factors that point to some sort of conclusion or continuation of Cortana’s story. I’m trying to connect these things and figure out how they will come together in Infinite:

1: Halsey’s equipment: (Shadows of Reach Spoilers) It seems like the ending of Shadows of Reach points to Halsey trying to create either A: Some sort of device to stop Cortana, or B: Some sort of AI to challenge Cortana. I think that the idea that she will somehow “recompile” Cortana and fix her is somewhat unlikely, just a hunch. Does this relate to the “Weapon containment device” seen in the 2019 trailer? I’m curious if the mission description from the map interface in the gameplay demo relates to this: “This AA cannon is controlled by a command console inside a control room underneath the cannon. Use the weapon to hack into the console and destroy them.”

2: Atriox: (More Shadows of Reach Spoilers:) It seems to me like at the end of the book, Atriox is heading to Zeta Halo with Escharum, to accomplish some greater task. I’m curious if this relates to “The Harbinger.”

3: “The Harbinger” Is this some inconsequential sub boss? Or is this term referring to Cortana? Are the Banished now aligned with the Created?

4: The Auditorium: I’m curious if this is a reference to previously known architecture on Zeta Halo, I.e. the Palace of Pain or Mendicant Bias’s core?

I wouldn’t be surprised if you have some sort of anti-AI electronic “weapon” but I would be surprised if the ending was as simple as master chief using the weapon to de-comission Cortana. Personally I’m very interested in the “Cortana is being controlled by Mendicant Bias or Gravemind” ideas that have been floated on the forums before. Would love to hear what you all think!

2

nice to see someone else whos read the books.
anyway, 1 i think halsey box as we know in the books contained biomass, which is probably some kinda part of halsey herself. We know that cortana was made from a mix of forerunner and halsey brain , hence why they both sound the same ext, cortana visual is just a young halsey right. So im guessing her plan is to create a new cortana that thinks just the same, as the only way to beat the current most clever a.i in the universe is to match it with someone who can predict cortana’s next move.
We also see in an old trailer for infinite where chief puts an A.I chip into the back of his head, its possible it could be a new version of cortana. Ofc if there is anew version of cortana she will not be the same and wont have any memories at all with chief.
At the end of Shadows halsey says to chief " john this is going to be hard for you" and im guessing its going to be hard for him because hes going to have to use this new cortana who doesn’t even know chief , thats gotta be hard. its like seeing someone you know who died and has no idea who you are right.

2-3. atriox i think isn’t going to be the main big bad, maybe for the majority of the game but towards the end the true big boss will come along. Harbinger ofc is an unknown but i feel it could be related to a gravemind or a currupt a.i. like cortana… And in a way the banished may be working for her without even realizing.

yes palace of pain i thin ur right there. If you have read "renegades and point of light. “spoilers ahead” that in those books when they go to Zeta halo a sub moniter says that mendicant bias , or part of his was destroyed on zeta halo. we also know part of mendicant bias was destroyed during halo 2-3. That doesn’t mean however hes dead becuse in the book “renegades” little bit is a forerunner A.I that kept spliting itself to survive destruction over and over again, and so its possible mendicant bias, a part of him is still out there. Just like part of cortana survived we see in halo 5.

My theory is that mendicant bias is still alive and its the corrupt version with the logic plague who worked with the primordial / gravemind , and in between halo 4-5 found a part of cortana that was saved in the domain and used that as a framework to hide himself and pretend he was cortana. That way he could manipulate chief to raise the Guardians and take control of the mantal. And later on we will find out that mendicant bias and the harbinger are one and the same, and banished are being used all along, and the real threat is mendicant bias, and cortana did really die in halo 4. And chief will try and stop the rouge a.i with a remade fresh cortana that we get hints off in shadows of reach.

The only other thing i can think of is, cortana in h5 is a shard of herself that has the logic plague from going part 7 years and getting effected by the domain, which we know she was in, as she speaks about it in halo 5. And maybe instead whats inside the box is a shard of mendicant bias, which john will use to fight cortana, and mendicant bias was known to be the smartest a.i to ever be created by the forerunners. And thats why halsey said chief wont like whats coming next. Maybe the twist all along is that cortana is part mendicant bias, part halsey. i.e part forerunner part human. ties it all together. hell what do i know. lol

3

> 2555390681439134;2:
> nice to see someone else whos read the books.
> anyway, 1 i think halsey box as we know in the books contained biomass, which is probably some kinda part of halsey herself. We know that cortana was made from a mix of forerunner and halsey brain , hence why they both sound the same ext, cortana visual is just a young halsey right. So im guessing her plan is to create a new cortana that thinks just the same, as the only way to beat the current most clever a.i in the universe is to match it with someone who can predict cortana’s next move.
> We also see in an old trailer for infinite where chief puts an A.I chip into the back of his head, its possible it could be a new version of cortana. Ofc if there is anew version of cortana she will not be the same and wont have any memories at all with chief.
> At the end of Shadows halsey says to chief " john this is going to be hard for you" and im guessing its going to be hard for him because hes going to have to use this new cortana who doesn’t even know chief , thats gotta be hard. its like seeing someone you know who died and has no idea who you are right.
>
> 2-3. atriox i think isn’t going to be the main big bad, maybe for the majority of the game but towards the end the true big boss will come along. Harbinger ofc is an unknown but i feel it could be related to a gravemind or a currupt a.i. like cortana… And in a way the banished may be working for her without even realizing.
>
> yes palace of pain i thin ur right there. If you have read "renegades and point of light. “spoilers ahead” that in those books when they go to Zeta halo a sub moniter says that mendicant bias , or part of his was destroyed on zeta halo. we also know part of mendicant bias was destroyed during halo 2-3. That doesn’t mean however hes dead becuse in the book “renegades” little bit is a forerunner A.I that kept spliting itself to survive destruction over and over again, and so its possible mendicant bias, a part of him is still out there. Just like part of cortana survived we see in halo 5.
>
> My theory is that mendicant bias is still alive and its the corrupt version with the logic plague who worked with the primordial / gravemind , and in between halo 4-5 found a part of cortana that was saved in the domain and used that as a framework to hide himself and pretend he was cortana. That way he could manipulate chief to raise the Guardians and take control of the mantal. And later on we will find out that mendicant bias and the harbinger are one and the same, and banished are being used all along, and the real threat is mendicant bias, and cortana did really die in halo 4. And chief will try and stop the rouge a.i with a remade fresh cortana that we get hints off in shadows of reach.
>
> The only other thing i can think of is, cortana in h5 is a shard of herself that has the logic plague from going part 7 years and getting effected by the domain, which we know she was in, as she speaks about it in halo 5. And maybe instead whats inside the box is a shard of mendicant bias, which john will use to fight cortana, and mendicant bias was known to be the smartest a.i to ever be created by the forerunners. And thats why halsey said chief wont like whats coming next. Maybe the twist all along is that cortana is part mendicant bias, part halsey. i.e part forerunner part human. ties it all together. hell what do i know. lol

The whole logic plague thing coudl be pretty interested. I really would love to see it go in that direction. I’m not necessarily so sure that the game will involve a replacement of cortana. I suppose when I look at it from a marketing perspective, I think they are unlikely to either A: Kill Cortana again after doing it in Halo 4, B: attempt to replace Cortana with a new AI that chief is expected to bond with, or C: include mendicant bias in the storyline in any significant way.

I think they’ve shot themselves in the foot a bit with the bad writing over the past decade. They established a lot of new ideas in the lore, and did a lot of things they can’t take back. People obviously didn’t like Cortana dying in 4 so they brought her back in 5… now her dying again would seem like a cheap plot device to reuse. They also seem to have butchered whatever direction they were going in with the librarian and didact in Halo 4, since those weren’t received well, and I think that a lot of Guardians and the Created story were also not received well and are being relegated to the background. Honestly the only good way I could see out of it would be the gravemind logic plague thing, or something related to mendicant bias, but because they want to sell as many copies of the game as possible, I imagine they won’t use much from the past games or extended universe because they want it to be “approachable.” This to me seems like a particularly bad plan, as it just further alienates the long standing fan base that they have already slowly been losing over time through poor narrative and artistic decisions.

4

At this point it is really impossible to say what will happen with Cortana in Halo Infinite, I however don’t believe Cortana is going to be completely killed off as a character. Either she will be replaced by a new version of herself or somehow be contained/repaired. The human made smart AI’s we have seen in Halo are made by digitally uploading a human brain into a computer system, usual this is done with a dead brain from someone who died but their brain tissue was still viable for this purpose. Cortana was not made this way, Halsey made clones of her brain (many of which did not survive) and Cortana was made from a live clone of Halesy’s brain and there were a few other identical clones that survived but were not used. Forerunner’s were also able to do this and is demonstrated with Gulity Spark and the Librarian’s AI (the actual Librarian character died when the Halo’s were fired) however, the Forerunner’s AI also doesn’t have the issue of a short lifespan of 7 years like the human AI technology does.

5

I hope that the Cortana arc [if it’s even included] is completed early in the Campaign - like in the first mission🤞🏻

Cortana being a villain just doesn’t work. It’s silly and a nonsensical plot element to have to wade through while trying to enjoy a HALO game.

If HALO INFINITE is truly a reboot; maybe 343I should just forget about her “Rampancy” and have her back with Master Chief - doing their thing.

6

> 2533274795727848;5:
> I hope that the Cortana arc [if it’s even included] is completed early in the Campaign - like in the first mission🤞🏻
>
> Cortana being a villain just doesn’t work. It’s silly and a nonsensical plot element to have to wade through while trying to enjoy a HALO game.
>
> If HALO INFINITE is truly a reboot; maybe 343I should just forget about her “Rampancy” and have her back with Master Chief - doing their thing.

Unfortunately I think this is unlikely, since the Pilot seems to be a replacement for the “helper” role filled by Cortana in Halo 1/2, and Miranda Keyes through most of Halo 3. Wouldn’t mind going back to Chief and Cortana working together, but the only way I could see for them to get there would be if the Cortana we’ve been seeing turns out not to actually be her. The only plausible explanations for that are too lore centric for me to think they’ll use them in Infinite (sadly.)

Thanks for the response, I’m right there with you with not wanting Cortana as the antagonist.

7

> 2535405142932928;4:
> At this point it is really impossible to say what will happen with Cortana in Halo Infinite, I however don’t believe Cortana is going to be completely killed off as a character. Either she will be replaced by a new version of herself or somehow be contained/repaired. The human made smart AI’s we have seen in Halo are made by digitally uploading a human brain into a computer system, usual this is done with a dead brain from someone who died but their brain tissue was still viable for this purpose. Cortana was not made this way, Halsey made clones of her brain (many of which did not survive) and Cortana was made from a live clone of Halesy’s brain and there were a few other identical clones that survived but were not used. Forerunner’s were also able to do this and is demonstrated with Gulity Spark and the Librarian’s AI (the actual Librarian character died when the Halo’s were fired) however, the Forerunner’s AI also doesn’t have the issue of a short lifespan of 7 years like the human AI technology does.

The only thing that makes me think that a complete Cortana replacement is unlikely is the part in Halo 4 where she specifically tells Chief that it wouldn’t be “her.”

Although, they certainly could go that direction then in the next game use Chief’s grief about using this new Cortana as a plot device.

8

For the boxes from Shadows of Reach I think they’ll be used to create a “dumb cortana” that, when connected to cortana, would cause a factory reset. Allowing the UNSC to take control of Cortana and effectively Behead the created in one blow.

The harbinger I think is a contender class AI on Zeta Halo. Specifically 117649 Despondant Pyre. In Halo Canon’s Synopsis of Point of Light (haven’t read the book yet), he mention that Pyre’s task could be different from the usual monitor of a Halo. I think he’s hiding something, tasked to guard something so dangerous he would be willing to destroy the Reclaimers and side with the Banished to do so. This could be what ‘The Auditorium’ is, though I doubt that. (it could also be the remains of the Primordial, who knows what a Precursor is capable of even after their so called death).

If Atriox is in the game it should be the Legendary cutscene. I’d rather not have the same old, “oh you need to read a book to know where this is from” that was rampant in 5.

9

> 2533274892878579;8:
> For the boxes from Shadows of Reach I think they’ll be used to create a “dumb cortana” that, when connected to cortana, would cause a factory reset. Allowing the UNSC to take control of Cortana and effectively Behead the created in one blow.
>
> The harbinger I think is a contender class AI on Zeta Halo. Specifically 117649 Despondant Pyre. In Halo Canon’s Synopsis of Point of Light (haven’t read the book yet), he mention that Pyre’s task could be different from the usual monitor of a Halo. I think he’s hiding something, tasked to guard something so dangerous he would be willing to destroy the Reclaimers and side with the Banished to do so. This could be what ‘The Auditorium’ is, though I doubt that. (it could also be the remains of the Primordial, who knows what a Precursor is capable of even after their so called death).
>
> If Atriox is in the game it should be the Legendary cutscene. I’d rather not have the same old, “oh you need to read a book to know where this is from” that was rampant in 5.

I mean, Atriox was introduced in a game not a book. I understand why including a lot of lore might be confusing for new players, but I also don’t want to see all of the characters and plot lines from previous games and books ruled out simply because new players don’t know the lore. Would like to see a story that is interesting on its own but inspires people to delve deeper into the lore.

10

> 2533274812002202;7:
> > 2535405142932928;4:
> > At this point it is really impossible to say what will happen with Cortana in Halo Infinite, I however don’t believe Cortana is going to be completely killed off as a character. Either she will be replaced by a new version of herself or somehow be contained/repaired. The human made smart AI’s we have seen in Halo are made by digitally uploading a human brain into a computer system, usual this is done with a dead brain from someone who died but their brain tissue was still viable for this purpose. Cortana was not made this way, Halsey made clones of her brain (many of which did not survive) and Cortana was made from a live clone of Halesy’s brain and there were a few other identical clones that survived but were not used. Forerunner’s were also able to do this and is demonstrated with Gulity Spark and the Librarian’s AI (the actual Librarian character died when the Halo’s were fired) however, the Forerunner’s AI also doesn’t have the issue of a short lifespan of 7 years like the human AI technology does.
>
> The only thing that makes me think that a complete Cortana replacement is unlikely is the part in Halo 4 where she specifically tells Chief that it wouldn’t be “her.”
>
> Although, they certainly could go that direction then in the next game use Chief’s grief about using this new Cortana as a plot device.

halo 4 is where cortana as we knew died for sure. they will probably remake cortana with one of her bio brain samples that was saved in shadows of reach. use that to create a new cortana that will never be the same. and it might only last very short amount of time as it may be damaged already, seeing it was left under sword base for years.

11

> 2533274795727848;5:
> I hope that the Cortana arc [if it’s even included] is completed early in the Campaign - like in the first mission🤞🏻
>
> Cortana being a villain just doesn’t work. It’s silly and a nonsensical plot element to have to wade through while trying to enjoy a HALO game.
>
> If HALO INFINITE is truly a reboot; maybe 343I should just forget about her “Rampancy” and have her back with Master Chief - doing their thing.

Unfortunately I don’t think we are going to see the Cortana story resolved early in the campaign. From what I have seen I believe we are going to be progressing towards confronting/killing Esharum and then a 3rd party enters the conflict either the flood or Cortana/created. Beyond that the plot is pretty open.

12

> 2533274812002202;3:
> > 2555390681439134;2:
> > nice to see someone else whos read the books.
> > anyway, 1 i think halsey box as we know in the books contained biomass, which is probably some kinda part of halsey herself. We know that cortana was made from a mix of forerunner and halsey brain , hence why they both sound the same ext, cortana visual is just a young halsey right. So im guessing her plan is to create a new cortana that thinks just the same, as the only way to beat the current most clever a.i in the universe is to match it with someone who can predict cortana’s next move.
> > We also see in an old trailer for infinite where chief puts an A.I chip into the back of his head, its possible it could be a new version of cortana. Ofc if there is anew version of cortana she will not be the same and wont have any memories at all with chief.
> > At the end of Shadows halsey says to chief " john this is going to be hard for you" and im guessing its going to be hard for him because hes going to have to use this new cortana who doesn’t even know chief , thats gotta be hard. its like seeing someone you know who died and has no idea who you are right.
> >
> > 2-3. atriox i think isn’t going to be the main big bad, maybe for the majority of the game but towards the end the true big boss will come along. Harbinger ofc is an unknown but i feel it could be related to a gravemind or a currupt a.i. like cortana… And in a way the banished may be working for her without even realizing.
> >
> > yes palace of pain i thin ur right there. If you have read "renegades and point of light. “spoilers ahead” that in those books when they go to Zeta halo a sub moniter says that mendicant bias , or part of his was destroyed on zeta halo. we also know part of mendicant bias was destroyed during halo 2-3. That doesn’t mean however hes dead becuse in the book “renegades” little bit is a forerunner A.I that kept spliting itself to survive destruction over and over again, and so its possible mendicant bias, a part of him is still out there. Just like part of cortana survived we see in halo 5.
> >
> > My theory is that mendicant bias is still alive and its the corrupt version with the logic plague who worked with the primordial / gravemind , and in between halo 4-5 found a part of cortana that was saved in the domain and used that as a framework to hide himself and pretend he was cortana. That way he could manipulate chief to raise the Guardians and take control of the mantal. And later on we will find out that mendicant bias and the harbinger are one and the same, and banished are being used all along, and the real threat is mendicant bias, and cortana did really die in halo 4. And chief will try and stop the rouge a.i with a remade fresh cortana that we get hints off in shadows of reach.
> >
> > The only other thing i can think of is, cortana in h5 is a shard of herself that has the logic plague from going part 7 years and getting effected by the domain, which we know she was in, as she speaks about it in halo 5. And maybe instead whats inside the box is a shard of mendicant bias, which john will use to fight cortana, and mendicant bias was known to be the smartest a.i to ever be created by the forerunners. And thats why halsey said chief wont like whats coming next. Maybe the twist all along is that cortana is part mendicant bias, part halsey. i.e part forerunner part human. ties it all together. hell what do i know. lol
>
> The whole logic plague thing coudl be pretty interested. I really would love to see it go in that direction. I’m not necessarily so sure that the game will involve a replacement of cortana. I suppose when I look at it from a marketing perspective, I think they are unlikely to either A: Kill Cortana again after doing it in Halo 4, B: attempt to replace Cortana with a new AI that chief is expected to bond with, or C: include mendicant bias in the storyline in any significant way.
>
> I think they’ve shot themselves in the foot a bit with the bad writing over the past decade. They established a lot of new ideas in the lore, and did a lot of things they can’t take back. People obviously didn’t like Cortana dying in 4 so they brought her back in 5… now her dying again would seem like a cheap plot device to reuse. They also seem to have butchered whatever direction they were going in with the librarian and didact in Halo 4, since those weren’t received well, and I think that a lot of Guardians and the Created story were also not received well and are being relegated to the background. Honestly the only good way I could see out of it would be the gravemind logic plague thing, or something related to mendicant bias, but because they want to sell as many copies of the game as possible, I imagine they won’t use much from the past games or extended universe because they want it to be “approachable.” This to me seems like a particularly bad plan, as it just further alienates the long standing fan base that they have already slowly been losing over time through poor narrative and artistic decisions.

I have to agree with you with how they wrote them selves into a corner because of bad writing. but i think more than bad writing its the issue they have had with the books and the games and linking them together well. they have tried, i give them that but its still a hard task to do. I feel the Didact story as some one who read all the books going into halo 4 was amazing. And the Liberian part again was great. But for those who never read all the books, and lets face it , there are a lot of books. Those parts in the game really just seem thrown together and confusing. Didact in the books is a great character but in h4 hes just some bad guy with no background to him at all and i can totally understand how people who just play the games dont care for him and his story, which is a real shame. That the real big issue with halo story tbh, the disconnect with the games and books.
The logic plague, the Mendicant bias, primoridiam and the flood are all fantastic parts of the story, and most of it is told outside of the books. My theory is coming from what would work in a perfect world maybe if the two mediums were connected together properly. Sadly as you said , there not and it causes these issues.
I think they could fix a lot of this if they add in more movies hidden in data cores ext found around Zeta halo, giving back story to important characters. Its just one idea, but yeh its hard.

They will probably just go with the fractured cortana being a logic plague broken mess, and use a short lasting cortana to fight it with chief, and he will have to kill the last parts of cortana while watching the new cortana die after completing its mission. It works in the perspective of games and books, its just not the best way to do it, if you know all the stuff outside of the games.

13

I mean at the very beginning of Halo 5 they did show Halsey with a new Cortana or something that she puts in some kind of containment tube. Either that’s a completely new Cortana that Halsey had just created or she managed to find some sort of fragment of Cortana while messing around in the Promethean network. Maybe 343 will just completely abandon whatever that was for the sake of not complicating things further, but it was a strange scene to include that didn’t seem to go anywhere in Halo 5.

14

> 2533274866022405;13:
> I mean at the very beginning of Halo 5 they did show Halsey with a new Cortana or something that she puts in some kind of containment tube. Either that’s a completely new Cortana that Halsey had just created or she managed to find some sort of fragment of Cortana while messing around in the Promethean network. Maybe 343 will just completely abandon whatever that was for the sake of not complicating things further, but it was a strange scene to include that didn’t seem to go anywhere in Halo 5.

This made me curious so I did some digging, and that scene at the beginning of Halo 5 seems to be a flashback to the events of Halo: Reach. Halsey loses her arm inbetween Halo 4 and 5, so it must have been before that. Judging by the look of the containment tube (the exact same as in Halo: Reach,) I think this is a flashback to when she created Cortana.

15

> 2533274812002202;1:
> 3: “The Harbinger” Is this some inconsequential sub boss? Or is this term referring to Cortana? **Are the Banished now aligned with the Created?**Personally I’m very interested in the “Cortana is being controlled by Mendicant Bias or Gravemind” ideas that have been floated on the forums before. Would love to hear what you all think!

I hope she isn’t it be contrived for both her and the Banished to work together. Especially with how hated she is within one of the factions of the Banished. Cortana is referred to as the apparition by them, Why would Mendicant control her? His whole MO after the war is to help humanity to atone for his sins.

> 2535405142932928;4:
> At this point it is really impossible to say what will happen with Cortana in Halo Infinite, I however don’t believe Cortana is going to be completely killed off as a character. Either she will be replaced by a new version of herself or somehow be contained/repaired.

Let the latter option not be the case.

> 2533274795727848;5:
> I hope that the Cortana arc [if it’s even included] is completed early in the Campaign - like in the first mission🤞🏻
>
> Cortana being a villain just doesn’t work. It’s silly and a nonsensical plot element to have to wade through while trying to enjoy a HALO game.
>
> If HALO INFINITE is truly a reboot; maybe 343I should just forget about her “Rampancy” and have her back with Master Chief - doing their thing.

It spiritual, like God of war 2018, dismissing previous entries is how we got 5s story. No more of that, thank you and not returning to the status quo should be engrained in 343i mind. I actually want to take Halo’s story seriously this time.

> 2533274866022405;13:
> I mean at the very beginning of Halo 5 they did show Halsey with a new Cortana or something that she puts in some kind of containment tube. Either that’s a completely new Cortana that Halsey had just created or she managed to find some sort of fragment of Cortana while messing around in the Promethean network. Maybe 343 will just completely abandon whatever that was for the sake of not complicating things further, but it was a strange scene to include that didn’t seem to go anywhere in Halo 5.

Its just a flashback at Reach, and yeah that scene went nowhere.

16

> 2533274795727848;5:
> I hope that the Cortana arc [if it’s even included] is completed early in the Campaign - like in the first mission🤞🏻
>
> Cortana being a villain just doesn’t work. It’s silly and a nonsensical plot element to have to wade through while trying to enjoy a HALO game.
>
> If HALO INFINITE is truly a reboot; maybe 343I should just forget about her “Rampancy” and have her back with Master Chief - doing their thing.

What’s happened with Cortana has been a bummer. Her dying in Halo 4 was tough but it could have been okay. But then it’s like “Guess what? I’m not dead and I’m ‘antagonist Cortana’ now.” So what’s next? Is she gonna die for real this time? That sounds like a bad idea - she just came back. Lol

> 2533274812002202;1:
> 1: Halsey’s equipment: (Shadows of Reach Spoilers) It seems like the ending of Shadows of Reach points to Halsey trying to create either A: Some sort of device to stop Cortana, or B: Some sort of AI to challenge Cortana.

That would fit the “Durandal theory” where Roland combines with another AI to stop Cortana and allows Chief to finish her off. The whole thing seems really concrete but I’m not big on Chief killing her. There’s a lot of possibilities but it’s gotta be good.

17

> 2533274892878579;8:
> For the boxes from Shadows of Reach I think they’ll be used to create a “dumb cortana” that, when connected to cortana, would cause a factory reset. Allowing the UNSC to take control of Cortana and effectively Behead the created in one blow.
>
> The harbinger I think is a contender class AI on Zeta Halo. Specifically 117649 Despondant Pyre. In Halo Canon’s Synopsis of Point of Light (haven’t read the book yet), he mention that Pyre’s task could be different from the usual monitor of a Halo. I think he’s hiding something, tasked to guard something so dangerous he would be willing to destroy the Reclaimers and side with the Banished to do so. This could be what ‘The Auditorium’ is, though I doubt that. (it could also be the remains of the Primordial, who knows what a Precursor is capable of even after their so called death).
>
> If Atriox is in the game it should be the Legendary cutscene. I’d rather not have the same old, “oh you need to read a book to know where this is from” that was rampant in 5.

Despondant pyre is missing not even sub monitors know where he is. Zeta halo is huge so could be anywhere. he could have a part to play, would be interesting. there are also flood on zeta halo but they are contained very deep in the bowls of the ring.
<p></p>

18

The Gravemind comes back and takes over Cortana. Cortana through the process becomes no longer corrupt with a fusion with Chiefs new AI. The Gravemind is finally defeated only for a far superior enemy appears. Roll credits.

19

I haven’t read Shodows yet (still waiting for it in the post), but I’m familiar with Halsey having some kind of plan.
I think it would be an interesting parallel with the Forerunners if Halsey uses a new Cortana against the original, like Offensive and Mendicant. Though if they end up pairing her with Chief to recreate ‘the good old days’, it may come off as cheap and forced. And while I would be opposed to exploring a dynamic where Chief gets a clean slate Cortana, I don’t think they should do it strait away.

20

> 2533274810945725;19:
> I haven’t read Shodows yet (still waiting for it in the post), but I’m familiar with Halsey having some kind of plan.
> I think it would be an interesting parallel with the Forerunners if Halsey uses a new Cortana against the original, like Offensive and Mendicant. Though if they end up pairing her with Chief to recreate ‘the good old days’, it may come off as cheap and forced. And while I would be opposed to exploring a dynamic where Chief gets a clean slate Cortana, I don’t think they should do it strait away.

I think the Mendicant/Offensive idea is pretty interesting, considering one of the main themes of Halo is “coming full-circle”. If you compare many of the events that have happened in the games to what happened during the Forerunner-Flood War, there’s a lot of similarities, from discovering the Flood in deep space to an AI holding the galaxy at gunpoint.

If things continue like they have been, we could possibly see the Flood resurface, either overthrowing or somehow tampering with Cortana and using her “peacekeeping” Guardians to keep the other species down, allowing the Flood to easily consume them, like what Mendicant Bias did when it took control of the Halo array.