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[CORSAIR_SPARTAN]

"time bomb" speculation (covie artifact)

[Atoner]

I've got no idea who Miranda is, but I think the scene you described was never added to Halo 2. It was a scene that was thought up but didn't make the final cut -- at least, that's what I gathered from the transcript.

I also think that it's probably not a bomb. I'd imagine it would be something much more "inscrutable" than that, to quote Herzog in describing it.

-Atoner-

[sanctusmortis]

I don't think it's a time bomb. It IS, however, a timer. But what is it counting down to?

Well, this being the Forerunners and all, probably until whatever it is they left on Earth activates...

[hurdleguy]

I agree that it's a timer and not a bomb.

I heard someone else say somewhere on these forums that the device is a tracker that the Covenant are using to find Earth.

Oh yeah. Except the countdown to end when the Covenant strike.

[Mr. Munchy]

Well, seeing as how it was "activated", whatever happens should have something directly to do with the device itself. [SPEC] I don't think it wuld be beyond the forerunner to create a device similar to Halo, but on a smaller scale; maybe it will destroy all life in a certain radius with "sufficient mass and cognitive ability".

[AlexofMaceidon]

or maybe its counting down to the covie invasion? Herzog said it would deteriorate within a few weeks, and we know that ILB will run out of spaces for axons in that time, and I assume everyone agrees with me that at the end of this the covies invade (halo 2 is released) so it is probably counting down to that date.

[Blah]

The timer-bomb business is all speculation, although it's more valuable since it came from Rani. It's important to remember that we don't know anything about the artifact's origins (though it was found in Covenant space). The Covenant often mimic Forerunner technology, but their actual link remains a mystery.

Miranda, I believe, was the original name of Cortana.

[Lojack]

I don't think it is a locator beacon, the Covies knew about Earth after Reach, and the MC stalled their first invasion plans. [First Strike]

But it is possible it is a bomb, but not in the normal kaboom sense. From what we have seen, something had to 'teleport' the AI(s) through space and time sans a physical medium. The Apocalypso was found, crew intact, but databanks wiped clean. And at the same time the comm grid on Earth failed. It was almost like an EMP.

If this thing reaches Zero in Chawla base, what would happen? I spec whatever data is in computers in the immediate vicinty would be wiped, and that data and constructs would wind up elsewhere, but where?

[Moonroach]

This is dangerously wild SPEC, but:

The artifact enables time travel, as a lot of people SPECced way back when we first heard about it. Last time it activated, it sent Melissa back in time to 2004. Now it's counting down again, to go off somewhere duirng or near the events of Halo 2.

Because as you may or may not recall, in Halo 1 the Monitor makes some obscure comments about the MC having done this *before*. I SPEC that somebody gets sent back in time. Maybe even meets the Forerunners. But I bet we find out who activated Halo before and why.

It doesn't even have to be MC; we know (in fact, they made a point of telling us) that a number of people escaped Reach. That's where all the rest of the Spartans were. And they all look alike in that armor of theirs, don't they?