Why does Cortana want a Halo Ring?
We know that a Halo’s pulse does damage to the Domain, so why would Cortana want something that would damage the very thing that is “the water of life for A.I’s”?
We know Installation 09 is fresh off the Ark. We also know that, thanks to Anders, the Firing mechanism is disabled. Of course this is something Cortana could fix.
My theory as to why Cortana wants this ring is not new. I believe she wants to hook up a composer to the ring so that it fires a composing pulse instead of a killing pulse.
Why do I think this?
-Composer energy (as far as we know) does not harm the Domain. So Cortana could use it without damaging the Domain.
-Cortana’s speech to the galaxy in Halo 5 seems to imply the use of the composer on anyone who clings to the old ways and refuses her rule.
> “for those who refuse our offer and cling to the old ways, for you there will be great wrath. It will burn hot and consume you, and when you are gone, we will take that which remains and we will remake it in our own image.”
So, how does Cortana get her hands on a Composer? The only one left in existence as far as we know is on Gamma Halo, which Static Carillon took to parts unknown for repairs. She could seek him out and take it. Then why not just use Gamma Halo?
I believe that when Cortana goes to Gamma Halo, Static Carillon will do everything in his power to prevent her from retrieving the Composer. He will attempt to destroy the composer by destroying Gamma Halo. (Maybe he’ll throw the ring into a star or something) but Cortana will swoop in with a Guardian and grab the Composer before it is destroyed.
Now without a Halo to use in conjunction with the Composer, Cortana will seek another one out. And it just so happens Installation 09 is entering the galaxy.
Alternatively 343 could just make up another way to get a composer if they want to avoid using the expanded universe.
Either way, we know John is the only person immune to the Composer’s effects, so Cortana could use it without hurting him, it also makes John the only one who can stop her.
So what do you think? Is Cortana with a Composing Halo too much like the Didact in Halo 4? Or do you think this a possibility?
This is one of the bigger mysteries to be answered in Halo 6. We simply do not have enough info to infer how the Halos fit into her plans. We don’t even know if the Composer and Halo effects can be combined; Didact never explicitly said that was his plan in Escalation, it’s just a popular theory.
I can tell you what she’s probably not using the ring(s) for:
- activating the array on a galactic scale to cleanse organic life from the cosmos - releasing the Flood
It’s forerunner tech and we still don’t know that much about forerunners. But, even if it was something as simple as just a giant space nuke, there is something to be said about being the only one with a nuke if you’re going to force everyone else to bow down to you.
But hopefully it has to do with forerunner tech. It’s much more interesting from a lore and story standpoint.
A gun pointed at the head of the universe. Just in case Humanity and the Sangheili figure out how to destroy the guardians.
Worth noting: “only Composer left in existence” is a strong claim, and relatively meaningless. Clinquant hosts a facility known as the Composer Forge (or it is the Composer Forge? I’m unclear on that), and if Cortana found that she could make as many Composers as she likes.
There’s a certain classic Halo boomsday weaponness to your theory that rings truthy. But working with just the info we have, my guess is that she wants the rings the same way the UNSC wants them – under control, kept from use. The ring at the end of Halo 5, though, she might be using as a mobile command-and-control center. If it’s the one from Halo Wars 2 (which is either 04c or 09, depending on who you talk to), it would be perfect for that, since it can’t be used as a bomb. If it’s not, though, I’d guess she’d pick Zeta Halo (07), since that one was modified to become a bomb and she could maybe rejigger it back to being a cone-fire weapon that has no association with the Array (which makes it safer, if not perfectly safe).
But none of our theories accounts for that Cortana could have any number of pieces of information that we don’t about what is possible with Halo rings, and what she wants with a Halo ring could be anything.
I kind of see it as a bargaining chip of sort,maybe something to use to get master chief in her possession or for the infinity’'s location
She could use it to threat everyone,forcing them to act in the way she wants.
I thought it was because she intends to combine the Halo Effect with the Composer Effect in order to use the Composer on a large scale composition in case entire planets got out of hand.
I mean, was this not the Didact’s intentions back in Escalation? To Compose all of humanity quickly and efficiently with a Halo? Which is why he was convinced to use the the Halos in first place, when before he was so adamant against using a Halo at all?
Thats how I interpreted it all anyway.
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> I thought it was because she intends to combine the Halo Effect with the Composer Effect in order to use the Composer on a large scale composition in case entire planets got out of hand.
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> I mean, was this not the Didact’s intentions back in Escalation? To Compose all of humanity quickly and efficiently with a Halo? Which is why he was convinced to use the the Halos in first place, when before he was so adamant against using a Halo at all?
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> Thats how I interpreted it all anyway.
The Didact’s intention was to gain more Composers to compose people. Not use a Halo to compose people because Halos would kill things outright.
If anything, having a functioning Halo in Cortana’s case is a far greater deterrent than the Guardians themselves. There are only so many of them at her disposal and each can only really watch over a system. It’s why the Infinity is still able to persist and conduct hit and run attacks along with rescue operations post Halo 5. A Halo would cover a far far greater swath of territory and the mere threat of activating one to quell any large scale rebellion would decrease the likelihood of such a large scale insurrection if for whatever reason Cortana and the Created get pushed back into such a wall.
There are other applications as well that will probably be explored in subsequent Halo games, but with the information we currently have on the current state of affairs this is most likely what it’ll be used for until some other revelation comes to light.
she could use it as a threat. the unsc doesn’t know the domain takes damage. that or she doesn’t know or has an idea that could prevent damage from the domain and plans on resetting the galaxy and the primitives will worship her like a god.