When I learned that humans had found Installation 03 and the monitor of that installation was introduced in the Halo: CEA terminals, I assumed that meant he would play a role in future media. However, the UNSC has been crawling around that installation for at least five years and there is no indication that they have made contact with 049 Abject Testament whatsoever. Halo Escalation would later confirm that he has disappeared because messages sent to Abject Testament from 859 Static Carillon, the monitor of the Composer’s Forge, would go unanswered. This prompted Static Carillon to travel to Installation 03 to personally seek out Abject Testament, but he never would find the monitor.
The loss of one of seven monitors normally wouldn’t be a cause for alarm, however many will learn next week that 049 Abject Testament is not the only monitor missing from his Halo Installation. The first chapter of Halo: Hunters in the Dark by author Peter David has been posted on the publisher’s website. To prevent spoilers I will place the next piece in spoiler tags, so this is your warning: Click at your own risk.
In the first chapter of Halo: Hunters in the Dark, we learn that the UNSC has had research facilities on Installation 07 since at least 2555. While exploring the surface in search of the Installation’s Control Room, it’s noted that the station’s monitor also appears missing.
Halo: Hunters in the Dark
Chapter 1
“I think it’s insanely frustrating that it’s taking us this long,” said Henry. “With the previous installations, the control room has always been in pretty much the same place. It’s the largest uniform structure near the ring’s phase pulse generators.”
“Absolutely true,” said Luther. “But it’s not just our inability to find it that’s puzzling me.”
“It’s the lack of a monitor,” said Henry, referring to the artificial intelligence often attached to a Forerunner installation as a caretaker, ensuring the facility was being efficiently maintained through long epochs of time.
“Correct.”
Henry nodded. “Every Halo has had a monitor, right? Like 343 Guilty Spark on Alpha Halo, for instance. So why can’t we find one here? As much as we’ve searched this place, we’ve consistently come up empty. And it hasn’t found us, which is even more surprising, given the time we’ve spent here. It leaves me wondering whether there simply isn’t one here, or if it’s hiding for some reason.”
Where is the monitor of Installation 07? This is made even more perplexing because it was said in Halo: Primordium that multiple monitors were charged with overseeing the facility because it houses a large number of Graveminds.
Halo Primordium
Chapter 42, Page 373 - 374
“At the command of the Didact, who rarely commanded his wife about anything, those processed by the Composer, those who remained on the fog-infested wheel, along with the remains of all the other Flood victims and the deactivated Graveminds - of which ten had already formed - and the last of the functioning monitors keeping perpetual watch - all on the wheel and the wheel itself were sent through a portal for one last time, never to be used in that same way again.
It was known as Installation 07.
It has become a sacred tomb for millions, though some may still live.
I do not know.”
An unknown number of “the last functioning monitors” were ordered to watch over this facility. However it would appear that not a single one of these monitors has made itself known to any of the 300+ UNSC and ONI researchers who are exploring the Ring’s surface. This is quite the mystery.
Is it a coincidence that two very important Installations would lose all their monitors? I personally think that it’s not a coincidence and that something much more sinister could be happening here. In the Halo: CEA terminals, we learned that 343 Guilty Spark was in regular contact with the other Halo Monitors and they would have regularly scheduled meetings via superluminal communications.
Eventually these meetings would stop and Guilty Spark would lose all communications with the rest of the Installations. Despite several theories as to what could be causing this communications blackout, Guilty Spark never would discover the cause. The last monitor he would have contact with is 2401 Penitent Tangent, the Monitor of Installation 05. He too would disappear for sometime, however it would be discovered that he was captured by a Gravemind and held behind a quarantine zone built around his installation’s library. Is it possible that, like 2401 Penitent Tangent, the monitors of these other installations disappeared because of an outside threat? I personally believe so. Of course you could ask the question of why wasn’t 343 Guilty Spark missing from his installation or why didn’t he come into contact with an outside threat? The answer to that could be in the Halo: CEA terminals.
In the same terminal where Guilty Spark describes the loss of communications with other installations, Spark would explain how incredibly bored he was on the Ring and would eventually jettison large chunks of continents from his Ring. During this procedure he would discover an unidentified alien craft entering his Ring’s atmosphere and then crash on the surface. After scanning the vessel and studying the communication it broadcast into space, he would be unable to identify the craft, nor determine where it came from. No contact would be made with the pilots of the craft and he would ultimately construct a sarcophagus around the dead vessel.
What I find interesting about this encounter isn’t just the fact that Guilty Spark couldn’t identify the vessel, but that he didn’t even see the ship until it was already entering his Ring’s atmosphere. Compare that to the Pillar of Autumn which Guilty Spark would see, scan and identify long before the vessel got anywhere near the Ring. Why did he not see this mystery ship approaching his Ring?
I suspect the vessel may have employed stealth technology and was making its way to the Ring, but the crew didn’t expect entire continents to suddenly be ejected into space. This could have caused them to take evasive action and end up dying when they ended up crashing into the surface. But what would this ship have been doing, stealthily moving towards the Halo Rings? I personally have no idea and there could be any number of reasons for doing this. Perhaps they were simply curious at finding an alien construct, or perhaps they knew what they were looking for?
I’d like to think it’s possible that these aliens may have not only been looking for the Rings, but also responsible for the communication’s black out. If a ship were to approach and land on a Ring, they would block communications so that the monitors would be unable to warn the other installations. They could even turn out to be responsible for the monitor’s disappearance and maybe even the Flood outbreak on Installation 05.
This really is just speculation on my part, but there does appear to be a larger mystery here and I believe that it’s going to eventually get solved in a future Halo game. This mystery continues to grow as 343i releases more content and it must be leading us somewhere.
