unforum

[mrzarquon]

In regards to cortana and the unencrypted channels: this is not her first time experiencing the covenant in combat, so if they had not been using encryption she would not have mentioned it. But now she is able to listen in on their conversations (for the first time?) and that is what startles her.

One could assume that the ship eavesdropping on the covenant never made it back to HQ to report its findings.

Is anyone else considering that this ship may have ended up back in time? It would explain its surprise at such a primitive house for Dana, and our network. So maybe in an attempt to do two things at once (decrypting covenant transmissions and save the people of troy) it somehow slingshot itself further back and crash landed here on earth. Bungie has used the "ship trapped for millennia" before, in Pathways into Darkness.

Also, for those who wish to know, Jason Jones, the head of development at Bungie, has been reading about World War 2 strategies and Patton in particular. One of the biggest strains during WW2 after breaking the encryption of the Japanese (and eventually the Germans) for the Allies was not letting on to the idea that they had broken the encryption (so the encryption wouldn't change again).[/i]

[Swing3r]

This is OT but if you are interested in a good read mrzarquon you should check out Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Its a fictional account having alot to do with encryption and how what you are talking about was dealt with -and alot of other crazy Stephenson ideas tossed in as well!

S

[cheesemage]

SPEC
I think it's pretty simple.
First of all, the ship is crashed/gone.
In the ship's computer was one AI, the Operator.
The Operator is either being repaired by the Spider program thus being "The Queen", or the spider is an external entity trying to recreate another AI using the Operator's data.
So during this process the operator is piecing together her conciousness, and seeing memories. No Cortana, or any such, that seems to be irrelevant.

The only reason I believe that there could be a third "Queen" entity, is the malicousness pointed towards Dana's site, and also the spider program towards the operator. The nature of the Queen could be a covenant AI, using the spider program to be repaired in this ship's database. Also since the crew was apparently on a important secret mission, there could have been a failure to execute the cole protocol (the removal of the ship's AI to protect the location of Earth) thus the reason for the invasion of the data.

Or not...

[ste]

I think Troy got glassed.

I think Troy got glassed because it's a good emotional wrench - this is a war so brutal you can stand by and watch a million people die? - but also because of the line in Melissa's emotional flashback, "A sailor with Odysseus".

In Greek legend, Odysseus was the key element in the sacking of Troy; he came up with the whole wooden horse shebang. If the admirals made the decision to let the enemy glass the planet Troy, seeing a greater prize at stake, then The Operator / Melissa (and her crew) would be essentially complicit in that destruction. While they didn't act to destroy, their inaction was deadly, and their guilt would be enormous. An off-hand remark comparing their role to an aggressor like Odysseus would be textual self-harm, totally natural in the circumstances.

So it's on the way home from bearing silent witness to a massacre that they pick up The Castaway.

[rowan]

Yeah, I know I'm coming into the party really late, but still, I think I have something to contribute.

As far as I can tell, this exact snippet hasn't been posted anywhere, maybe because it is quite similar to at least one other snippet. For those wanting to look/find for it themselves, it was found in a honey.html file.

[skia]

Alright, how's this:

The Circumference was at Reach. Reach got invaded. The Spartans were sent in to purge Circumference's AI. Then Reach got glassed. I don't think there's any record of the Circumference getting home, at any rate.

Why were the Spartans sent to purge Circumference's AI and why was Cortana sent with the MC when the Autumn was attacked?

Because the AI knew the location of earth.

And where are the Covenant at the beginning of Halo2?

Earth.

They had to find it's location somehow. I humbly submit that what we are seeing unfold on ILB is the Covenant RECONSTRUCTING the AI of the captured Circumference. SPDR is digging back in the AI's memory banks looking for the location of Earth. The Covenant now have their own AI, and we're seeing it's rebirth/reconstruction/whatever.

It sounds like trout even as I preview it, but I haven't seen it in the threads yet. What do you all think? Does it have legs? It does nothing to explain why we're seeing this on our network, but it does provide a nice framework for both the mayday messages and the military conversations.

[voipme]

Mmm...possibly. But wouldn't it seem more possible that the SPDR is merely a subroutine (or separate program) that only has one function: rebuilding the AI construct. That would be extremely interesting if we were to witness the AI being rebuilt by the Covenant, but I don't think this is that. Might not even be Halo 2 related at all. After all, the Cortana letters weren't directly related to Myth.

[mrzarquon]

I believe you mean the cortana letters were not directly related to Halo, instead of Myth.

I find it hard to think of the covenant developing AI, because of their attitudes towards technology with consciousness (supposedly blasphemous in their religion). Of course, the covenant leaders could not actually believe that, or see it as a rule that could be bent. Therefore creating an AI (or courting the AI of a captured ship) in an attempt to defeat the heretics.

For a story, thats an amazing plot device of the one taking on the others abilities to defeat them. Also it makes sense that if the Humans can use alien technologies, the covenant can do the same to the humans.

[optikal]

The theory holds, except when you factor in that the Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, downloaded the Pillar of Autumn's entire database and lived through the destruction of the Halo. God only knows who's side that little runt is on, and he definitely knows Earth's location.