unforum

[krystyn]

Wait, I had thought that the Sleeping Princess was speaking in chunks of phrases we sent to her in order to avoid detection?

What changed that? Why is she able to speak openly now? Has she figured out a way to avoid the Queen's interference? Did the Flea change this?

[Dorkmaster]

It's gotta be either:

(1) that we were wrong, and it just hadn't figured out english well enough at that point, or...

(2) that SPDR was the monitoring system, and without SPDR, the Queen is pretty unobservant (single-minded on getting Dana)

[chaotic_mind]

[GunsmithCat]

In this thread we started bringing up the idea that maybe Princess is a less functional version of Melissa.

This is based on some of the new text seeming to have Melissa attribute the talk with Castaway to herself, and then later to someone else - a young stage of bee. So perhaps they are the same person, just drastically different.

My spec was that functionality = age to an AI. Princess doesn't necessarily think of herself as young because she's newer than Melissa, but because much of her "creativity" had been pruned.

It's also interesting that in her latest email, Princess admits to hiding from the Queen - and yet she doesn't do so in nearly the same way as Flea, who writes in white on white to remain hidden, the Queen seems somewhat oblivious to, etc. Princess does, however, have a tendency to embed into images - maybe a place where Queen isn't looking. Same with the ladybee777 account.

So I'm thinking based on the new info, that right now I'm swinging with -

# - Melissa is created/trained. (Military conversations about games)
# - Troy is glassed
# - Melissa's ship's interaction with the Troy glassing gets some attention from other ONI sections, they send a spy aboard (Castaway).
# - Covenant send forerunner artifact to be found by Melissa.
# - Covenant AI is brought along with artifact, infects Melissa.
# - Artifact is locked away, but the Castaway is notified about it.
# - Covenant AI starts to rewrite small portions of Melissa's logic. Nothing huge, but even these small things slowly begin to cause major change.
# - Realizing this, Melissa strips out large portions of her own learning and stores this smaller, less functional version of herself away. Since AIs need a physical frame, this could be limited to a lifepod or cryopod.
# - Something catastrophic happens. Either the ship is attacked, or Melissa turns on her own crew. At this time Flea has reversed Melissa's Cole Protocol. Instead of jumping away from Earth, she jumps directly to it.
# - Now stranded on Earth in the past, and stuck on ILB, she is trying to recover herself (also the reverse of the CP). Flea is trying to get her back to a point where it can report it's findings about Earth to the Covenant.
# - According to Halo 2 trailers, he does

[/url]

[subatomicsatan]

this may be reading too much into it, but with the PF writing white on white in order to stay hidden--who is the PF flea trying to stay hidden from? it's messages are plain as day in the HTML source, so writing white on white really only fools the casual website viewer...or only something that interprets HTML and does not read the source.

perhaps lowering the threshold of suspension of disbelief is in order...i do think it a very poetic way of illustrating a secretive nature.

i have also been wondering whether the personalities we have come into contact with (or a subset thereof) are really separate entities or, perhaps, are different aspects of a single entity trying to pick up the pieces after a traumatic event....kinda like when a computer reboots after a crash--there are disk repair functions that come into play, there are saved preferences (memories) of what was happening at the moment of the crash that are retrieved...network services to be re-established, etc.

though, that interpretation somewhat diminishes the unfolding story in my mind. ah, well.

this post brought to you by the immediate need for sleep and the letter zzzzzzzzzzz...

--
james

[UndaCova]

[Dorkmaster]

UndaCova, you are busted! There's no need to post this twice... Especially between updates, people will read all the new posts, and you can be assured that you don't need to force feed them your opinions, especially spec. Don't worry, you will be accredited with the appropriate "hat tips" when you are proven right, if that happens.

(and just so you know that I'm not flaming you, just admonishing you:) I had done this in the past, and been criticized myself. So take it as a lesson... it's no good. If you really feel like your post was appropriate in two separate threads, then please post a link to the thread where you last discussed it, not the entire argument...

And I know this is prolly the first one (since I'm too lazy to go back and compare times,) but you know what I mean! Thanks for playing, and I really do like the spec, though... (whether I agree with it all or not)

Edit - No problem, Unda... just wanted to let you know (1) we are reading, and (2) how things go... in the future, try the search function.

[UndaCova]

Sorry :-(

[princeofthesword]

LONG, but it's got questions, always fun!

[jellyfish_green]

Troy before Reach: sounds good to me. Nice post, prince.

Forerunner Artifact: The Cov have always fought their way to get to Forerunner artifacts or take them from us; it makes sense that retrieving a possible artifact with a single ONI stealth ship before the Cov learned of it would be a worthwhile mission. (GC, the Cov leaving a *genuine* artifact as bait for us would be unlikely. A fake, maybe.)

Mission Priorities: The stealth ship did, after all, forward their intel on Troy back to HQ (most likely Reach) for a decision. "Even Admirals have to earn their stripes."

So maybe: The retrieval mission went off successfully, upon return Reach was under attack, they had to leave again with only minor repairs ("licking like tongues"), and using what little they knew, use the artifact(?) to time-travel(?)

Time-Travel: It makes mildly more sense to my mind that you could send an entire AI as Slipspace communication packets, and somehow have those travel through time (hope the ISP's don't charge by the minute) than have an entire ship time-travel and then conveniently leave only the AI visible. Still lots to resolve, though, such as what exactly was connected to Dana's computer during the download.

What to do: In the "Dana's Blog" thread I've put up my first thoughts on what Dana might type if she were seated at a console with a command line capable of accepting SPDR commands. Review and elaboration welcomed - but I really should send her a convincing argument before Tuesday.

[GunsmithCat]

A good long post prince.

[princeofthesword]

Good questions GC, I'll keep 'em burning on the grill. Here's a HUGE one for you.

Why are the Covenant trying to kill US in the first place, and could that have something to do with the "Truth?" I'll fill you in, since I think you said you've not played the game or read the books or what not. The Covies are, well, a Covenant of alien races, led basically by the Prophets it seems. There are Elites, Brutes, Hunters, Jackals, and little Grunts. The books hint that a lot of those worlds were sort of assimilated into the Covenant, one of those "Join us or die" things and aren't too fond of being there. I seem to recall something at Bungie's official website saying that the Prophets and Elites had actually been at war during one point, or were at some tenuous truce now or whatnot. Might be wrong though, so just let that float.

But anyway, we just got the "DIE!" part of the Covenant message, basically. "Your destruction is the will of the gods" or something of that nature. Why, though? What'd we do? This is a huge Halo question, not directly related to this ARG, but it might have something to do with the "Truth." Since you're relatively new to the Halo stuff GC, (forgive me if I'm wrong, but I would almost swear you said you never played or read the novels or nothing. Sure read up on everything though) I'm just wanting to see if your perspective on this might shed more light. Different angles are useful, as I'm oft ingrained into the Halo mold when I migrate out into even other sci-fi. So chew on that a while and I look forward to your thoughts.

Though yeah, lol we're all just getting impatient for an update! Gotta be something for us to do though. I STILL can't get over that feeling. I mean, bear with me a moment (you all do a lot, heh), but using your imagination, assume this Wasn't an ARG for a second. How would you feel about all this? I'm not saying we're getting out of the ARG format and not having fun anymore (nor am I saying I think it's real ), but we're supposed to be suspending reality a bit and, well, freaking out and searching for clues. I don't like the "when's the next update?" stuff, but that seems like what we're stuck with. Yet I refuse! We shall stand united and persevere! Let's think ourselves to an seven year early grave. I mean, keep working on it. Farewell.

[chaotic_mind]

I'd like to include the fact that we don't really know humanity's first contact with the Covenant. It is, if not definite, a fairly good bet that the annihiliation of Harvest WAS NOT the first contact the Covenant had with humanity. They knew our language, for one.

I would postulate that the Covenant may've come across some isolated Human colony ship, that had cut itself off from Earth authority. These humans would've had to have done something pretty horrible in the Covenant's eyes, to make them want to annihilate the human race. Perhaps the humans destroyed or desecrate a Forerunner artifact, or killed a Prophet.

Meanwhile, I don't think the Covenant is such a unified force of destruction that everyone presents. Prophets have been assasinated, and I don't think the Covenant are above more mundane under-the-table politics. Perhaps the Covenant is like other Empires, they just stretched themselves too far, too fast. Though blantant insurrection is years away, the Prophets may still detect a whiff of rebellion from the Elites or "lower" races. I could see the Covenant fracturing into several small Covenants, each claimed by some Elite general, or Prophet. Thus the Prophets may be trying to manipulate the war for political advantage. "Look at these barbarous heathens! Look how they ignore the Forerunner gifts! They may be primative, but how long before they are on your doorstep. Cousin Yayap wants you for the Covenant Armada!"

Personally,I think it'll be interesting to see how the post-war Covenant evolves, assuming that Halo 2 doesn't end with their utter destruction.

Luke P.

[princeofthesword]

Great point, Harvest is just our first known encounter, and I think it's Halsey or Keyes who spec about how they must've been watching us for a while to learn our language at the least. Good scenario CM, I like it.

And you skillfully pointed out what I was tiredly trying to, that the Covies are more of a "Holy Roman Empire" rather than the Roman Empire. As well as the possibility that they might be manipulating the war religiously (especially in the Elites case). In fact, heh there's so much Charlemagne in Bungie mythos it's funny. Durandal, Cortana, both swords handed out by Charlemagne, Durandana to Roland, Cortana to some prince of the Danes I think. Don't quote me on that last part.

But yes, with all the political, religious, and military intrigue going on, there's alot that could happen in Halo 2, not to mention this ARG. How I'd love it if the Elites joined forces with Humanity! Or even better, the Grunts. I love those little guys, and their game ai is even better than our poor Marines. Geez, time to go to sleep. Goodnight all.

[Lutzie]