Well we’re all left to speculate since the delay broke all of our hearts. Thankfully we were blessed with Shadows Of Reach to help us see where the Universe is heading. We won’t dive too deep into Shadows of Reach for the sake of spoilers but I will say I feel like after reading all the books I’m starting to put 2 and 2 together.
My theory; Since a certain Brute Antagonist has returned from the Ark and plans to travel to Zeta Halo of all places, there is a possibility that pops into my head… This Brute has found one half Mendicant Bias and plans to reunite its other half on Zeta Halo where it is kept according to lore from the books. Mendicant would be a rival to Cortana and possibly help shift the tides in the current state of the Galaxy.
Would love to hear opinions.
You could be right, I always liked the idea that Cortana does indeed have logic plague and the reason for wanting to trap Blue Team in the cryptum during Halo 5 wasn’t because she cared for the chief but because The Gravemind knew that Blue Team (The Chief more specifically) would be able to stop him. So with Blue Team out of the way and Cortana crippling the UNSC’s forces The Gravemind could once again unleash the flood. Then this is where I think Mendicant Bias basically being the Offensive Bias to Cortana would come into play.
Mendicant Bias’s core is on Zeta Halo but he hasn’t been there since abandoning Zeta Halo during the Forerunner-Flood War. Remember that he was defeated, partitioned, and transported to the Ark by Offensive Bias. Offensive Bias was built specifically to defeat Mendicant Bias; he would not have been so careless as to leave a piece of Mendicant Bias out there.