Editing Cortana (level)

{{Era|RW}}

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<center>''Looking for [[Cortana]], the Human AI?''</center>

|next=''[[Halo (Halo 3 Level)|Halo]]''

|game=''[[Halo 3]]''

|image=[[File:High Charity Infested.jpg|300px]]

|player=[[John-117]]

|date= [[2552#Late November through December|November 17th, 2552 through December 2552]]

|place= [[High Charity]]

|Objective= Save [[Cortana (AI)|Cortana]] and destroy [[High Charity]]

|enemies=*[[Flood]]

**[[Pure Form]]s

**[[Combat Form]]s

**[[Carrier Form]]s

**[[Infection Form]]s

{{Article Quote|Cleanse [[High Charity (Structure)|High Charity]]. Save [[Cortana]].}}

'''Cortana''' is the ninth [[campaign]] mission (eighth playable mission) of ''[[Halo 3]]''. It takes place in the [[Flood]] infested ''[[High Charity]]''. Your mission is to find [[Cortana]] in order to activate [[Installation 04B]].  

Upon completing it on the [[Normal]], [[Heroic]], or [[Legendary]] difficulties, the player will earn the [[The Key (Achievement)|"The Key" achievement]] and 40 [[Gamerpoint]]s. Earning over 15,000 points in the campaign meta-game on this level will give the player the [[Orpheus]] achievement, and 10 Gamerpoints.

==Transcript==

''The [[Master Chief]] flies a [[Banshee]] to [[High Charity (Structure)|High Charity]]. He finds an opening into the hive. (In co-op, [[Thel 'Vadam]] will follow the Chief and land his Banshee next to the [[Spartan]]'s Banshee)''

*'''[[Sergeant Major]] [[Avery Johnson|Johnson]] (COM)''': "Chief, I'll round up our survivors, fall back to the [[UNSC Forward Unto Dawn|Dawn]]."

*'''Johnson (COM)''': "Arbiter will do the same with the [[Elites]]."

''The Chief shakes off some organic material that is stuck to his boot.''

*'''Johnson (COM)''': "Cortana's in there somewhere..."

''The Chief begins searching, further in the hive.''

*'''[[Gravemind]] ([[Gravemind Moment]])''': "Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness; a [[Forerunners|father's]] sins passed to his [[Humans|son]]."

''The Chief drops down a [[Porta]].''

*'''[[Cortana]] ([[Cortana Moment]])''': ''(A strange mix of cries of agony and psychotic laughter)''

*'''Cortana''' ''(coming out of a speaker within a crashed Pelican)'': "I tried to stay hidden, but there was no escape! [[Gravemind|He]] cornered me, wrapped me tight... and brought me close."

*'''Gravemind (Gravemind Moment)''': "Of course, you came for ''[[Cortana|her]]''... We exist together now. Two corpses, in one grave..."

*'''Cortana''': ''(distant)'' "A collection of lies; that's all I am! ''Stolen'' [[Artificial Intelligence|thoughts and memories]]!"

*'''Gravemind (Gravemind Moment)''': "And yet, perhaps a part of her...remains?" ''(maniacal laughter, fades into Cortana's voice)''

''In the large room where the [[Tilt skull]] is located, a [[Terminal]] can be activated, but does not count towards the Marathon Man achievement. If activated, it displays another Cortana Moment.''

*'''Cortana (Terminal)''': "It was the coin's fault! I wanted to make you strong, keep you safe...''(drop in tone)''I'm sorry, I can't..."

''Cortana begins to show signs of Rampancy.''

*'''Cortana''': ''(casually and kindly, as though nothing is wrong)'' "May I speak with you, please?... What's your name? It's very nice to meet you!... You like games? So do I."

''The Chief struggles through into more narrow, Flood-contaminated tunnels.''

*'''Cortana''': ''(upset and frightened)'' "I'm just my [[Catherine Elizabeth Halsey|Mother]]'s shadow... don't look at me, don't listen! I'm not who I used to be..."

''The Chief enters the reactor room, passing by bones and skulls back at the entrance.''

 

*'''Cortana (Cortana Moment)''': ''(panicking, voice slightly distorted)'' "There will be no more sadness, no more anger, no more envy!" (''a reference to the three main stages of [[rampancy]].)''

*'''Cortana (Cortana Moment)''': ''(Speaking in a calm, distorted, monotone voice as though brainwashed. Her image is green.) ''"This is [[UNSC]] AI Serial Number CTN 0452-9. I am a monument to all your sins." ''(a reference to the Chief and Cortana's first meeting with the Gravemind)''

''The Chief rushes to the end of the hallway, to find Cortana lying prone in a Stasis Field in a center podium. The room resembles the Sanctum of the Hierarchs. He beats and bashes the shield until it finally fails.''

*'''Cortana''': ''(weakly)'' "You found me."

''Master Chief leans closer towards the panel Cortana's on. The AI lies pitifully on the podium, pain and shame on her face. The animated code that usually flows across her skin is absent.''

*'''Master Chief''': "You know me. [[High Charity (Level)|When I make a promise...]]"

''She looks up at the Chief. Cortana starts to glow.''

*'''Cortana''': "You... keep it. ''(she raises her head, and sounds amused)'' I ''do'' know how to pick 'em."

*'''Master Chief''': "[[Sierra 117|Lucky me]]. Do you still have it?"

''Cortana slowly gets up.As she does, she begins to glow more brightly, and the lines of code and equations once again begin to fall over her surface. She opens her palm and a hologram of the Index appears above it.''

*'''Cortana''': "The Activation Index from the [[Installation 04|first Halo ring]]. A little souvenir I hung onto...just in case. ''(she looks around)'' Got an escape plan?"

''The Chief gets back up on his feet.''

*'''Master Chief''': "Thought I'd try shooting my way out - mix things up a little."

''The Chief takes Cortana's old [[Data Crystal Chip|data chip]] out of his helmet and holds it in front of her. Cortana touches its core and uploads herself into the chip, and the Chief inserts Cortana back, at long last, into his armor.''

*'''Cortana''': ''(jokingly exasperated)'' "Just [[Halo: Combat Evolved|keep your head down... There's two of us in here now]], remember."

===Nor Hell A Fury...===

 

*'''Cortana''':''(weakly)'' "Chief, get me out of this place. I... I don't want to stay."

''The Chief heads back up the hallway.''

''The Master Chief makes it back into the reactor room.''

*'''Cortana''': ''(weakly)'' "Wait, we need to buy some time. This reactor... start a chain reaction. ''Destroy'' [[High Charity]]."

''The [[Flood]] begin to swarm the reactor room, realizing the Chief's plan. However, he successfully destroys all three reactor pylons.''

*'''Cortana''': "You hurt it, Chief. But not for long. We need to get to Halo - destroy the Flood once and for all."

''When the Chief reaches the halfway point escaping:''

*'''Cortana''': "Analyzing the route ahead... I have it mostly figured out. Just keep moving, I'll update your [[heads-up display|HUD]] as you go."

'''Cortana''': "Corridors ahead have all collapsed. I'll find another way, Chief; be careful."

''The Chief finds his way back when...''

*'''Cortana''': "I've got a friendly contact! But who would be ''crazy'' enough to come in here?"

''Chief and Cortana find The Arbiter battling Flood with a [[M7057 Defoliant Projector|Flamethrower]]. The Chief assists.''

*'''Cortana''': ''(amused)'' "Wait, you two made nice? What else have you been up to while I was gone...?"

''The Master Chief and The Arbiter find a [[D77H-TCI Pelican Dropship|Pelican]], possibly from ''[[UNSC In Amber Clad|In Amber Clad]]'', nearby and board it. The Chief uploads Cortana into the Pelican's holotank and starts up the engines. One of the Gravemind's tentacles advances to the Dropship, but the heat from the thrust forces it to retreat. The Pelican takes off, smoke pouring lightly from the left engine. The tentacle comes back and tries to wrap around the Dropship, but the Chief escapes its grip. The Pelican barely escapes from a massive explosion caused by the reactor going critical as High Charity is finally destroyed, and the Pelican makes its way to the new Halo ring.''

*During the level, you will find dead Elites wearing [[Assault Armor]]. One of them is glitching by doing their death position in mid-air though; it looks like his foot seems to be stuck in Flood biomass. If you stick his body or melee it, the corpse will fall. You can also use a [[Brute Shot]] grenade or other explosive.

===Easter Eggs===

{{Main|Easter Eggs}}

*The [[Halo 3 Skulls#Tilt|Tilt]] Skull can be found on this level.

*After obtaining Cortana, there is a skull on a ledge-like structure (it's purple and is kind of bulbous at the end) overhead after you exit the hallway that leads to Cortana. To get it, you need to get the Deployable Cover, deploy it on the floor directly in front of the edge of the roof, jump on the deployed cover and crouch jump onto the roof. One may also partner jump or grenade jump with a plasma grenade. Once on top of the roof, locate the skull towards the apex of the angled roof and get the skull. Please note that this skull has no affiliation with the "[[Halo 3 Skulls|13 required skulls]]" list and, if carried for the rest of the level, will start Master Chief with a Spartan laser on the next level. This may only work with certain skull combination's and/or other factors in game play.

*The section of the level after saving Cortana is called 'Nor Hell A Fury...', referencing the poem by William Congreve 'The Mourning Bride'. The entire line is 'Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned', possibly referencing Cortana, who, after months of torment, now has the ability to light the newly constructed Halo ring and destroy the Ark, as well as the Flood.

*Thematically, this level also has much in common with the levels [[Keyes (Level)|Keyes]] and [[The Maw (Level)|The Maw]]. It depicts the Chief venturing alone into a vessel to rescue a comrade or friend, from the Flood, most specifically for a data construct in their possession; and detonate the fusion reactor core. In this case the objective is the Index to fire Halo; in Keyes it was [[Captain Keyes|the Captain]]'s neural implants to destroy ''[[The Pillar of Autumn]]''.

*The line "It's the coin's fault," is a reference to a factor that brought [[John-117]] into the Spartan program. He identified the side of a 20th century quarter owned by [[Catherine Elizabeth Halsey|Dr. Halsey]] that was about to the hit the ground before it did in [[Halo: The Fall of Reach|''Halo: The Fall of Reach'']].

*The Gravemind uses a line from ''Halo 2'': "We exist together now. Two corpses in one grave." This line is referring to Cortana, and referred to the Prophet of Mercy in ''Halo 2''. This line was said in the level "[[High Charity (Level)|High Charity]]".

*The line "Just keep your head down... There's two of us in here, remember." is a reverence to the ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' level [[The Pillar of Autumn]]. When your shield would go down, Cortana would say the exact line.

*When you have to destroy the reactors, after collecting [[Cortana]], you can see that there were once four reactors, but due to the actions of the Flood Forms in the reactor room, it was destroyed. You can sometimes see it explode, to the far right, when you enter the reactor room for the first time on your way to retrieving Cortana.

*The [[Mausoleum of the Arbiter]] can be seen in the distance when standing near the crashed Pelican. This and the [[Prophets]]' Inner Sanctum are essentially the only recognizable features of High Charity in ''Halo 2'' that can be seen in ''Halo 3''. One can see in the Bungie feature "Flood Autopsy", that they had originally planned to have the Flood re-animate all Arbiter corpses in the room, creating an Arbiter army for the player to fight.

*The room where [[Cortana (AI)|Cortana]] is located is a remake of the room from the level [[High Charity (Level)|High Charity]] from ''Halo 2''. This room is located before the final gravity lift, where Cortana says, "Apparently these are the Prophet Hierarch's private quarters, their inner sanctum". In the "inner sanctum" there are three doors, two located opposite one another, with a third, opposite a large view screen. In the level High Charity, the Chief enters through the third door, and exits through the door on his right; in the level Cortana from ''Halo 3'', he enters through the door that was locked in ''Halo 2'' (opposite the door that leads to the final gravity lift). The graphic design of the room and the rest of High Charity's interior has been remodeled in ''Halo 3''. It resembles the corridors of the CCS-[[Truth and Reconciliation]] from ''Halo: Combat Evolved''.

*There is an area with a dead ODST (not the crashed Pelican). It is unknown how he made it so far from the Pelican or if he was from the Frigate ''[[UNSC In Amber Clad|In Amber Clad]]'' before the Flood attacked [[High Charity]]. There is also a Flamethrower in this area which hints to a final stand since he's in a pipe area with one opening.

*On single-player campaign at the end of the level, go out to where the Pelican is, and look to your right. You will see the Banshee the Arbiter rode in on. While you can get to it and destroy it, you cannot enter it, and oddly, grenades will not stick to it.

*Much of ''High Charity'' is flooded with water; the reason for this is that it crash-landed in a large body of water near the Ark's Control Citadel. This can be seen by going out to the crashed Pelican and looking towards the Mausoleum and looking downwards.

*This level was originally split into two separate Campaign missions, both considerably shorter than the current level.

*According to a quote made by Bungie developer Jason Keith,<ref>http://www.2old2play.com/Blog/Comments/352/17564</ref><ref>http://blog.ascendantjustice.com/halo-3/hindsight-halo-3/halo/</ref>, it is implied that the Flood Hive of High Charity and the Gravemind were one and the same during ''Halo 3'', thus making this level seem like a boss fight, in a sense.<ref>http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/966/966319p1.html</ref>

*[[Jiralhanae]] skulls can be found among the skeletal remains laying around the level.

*The entire Covenant cityscape once found on the lower levels of High Charity is believed to be completely engulfed in the ocean of unknown fluids seen throughout the level from a distance due to the fact that the cityscape's presence is completely absent.

*The room with the pillars and circular platform outside the window is actually the former High Charity [[Council Chamber]].

*Numerous landmarks seen in High Charity in [[Halo 2]] can be found throughout the level including, the Gravity Lift to the [[Mid Tower]], one of the High Charity corridors, and the [[Council Chamber]].

*This level has been infamous among the community for being overly difficult, repetitive, frustrating, and generally not very fun, along with ''Halo: Combat Evolved'''s [[The Library (Level)|The Library]].<ref>http://www.xbox360forum.com/forum/halo-3/52037-whats-annoying-about-level-cortana.html</ref><ref>http://forum.8bitbrigade.com/showthread.php?t=4009</ref> The entire level is covered with Flood 'sludge', which is thought to be flesh of dead bodies. This means that the layout is sometimes disorienting, when it's not possible to tell directions, or even walls from floors. Enemies easily blend into the scenery, thus making the level very difficult. A few players have commented that the levels layout is simply too confusing for those playing it the first time - this is because of the enormous amount of enemies and maze-like pathways. Some fans have even claimed it is one of the worst Halo single player missions ever made and a few have even labeled it as the 'worst video game level ever designed'.<ref>http://forum.8bitbrigade.com/showthread.php?t=4009</ref> In contrast, other players enjoy the level for its challenge, and many praise Bungie for making this as realistic as possible.

*In the bone scattered cove before entering the reactor chamber, there is a small yellowish puddle of ooze with a striking resemblance to ''Fuligo septica'' also known as, "dog vomit slime mold".

*The doors of High Charity in Halo 3 are different from those in Halo 2.

===Mistakes===

*In the beginning cutscene, [[High Charity]]'s crashed remains can be seen facing upside-down with the "upper bulb" being jammed into the terrains surface and the "stem" being slanted, pointing upward. However, when landmarks such as the [[Sanctum of the Hierarchs]], the chamber is clearly right-side-up. In reality, the level should have played out with High Charity's landmarks being upside-down. This may simply be an aesthetic mistake that was intentionally overlooked for gameplay purposes. Alternately, High Charity's artificial gravity systems may still be operational, at least in the area explored in this mission. The complete absence of the Ark's gravitational field inside High Charity could be attributed to some kind of 'inertial damping' technology designed to protect the occupants of ships from extreme acceleration- such a technology is obviously necessary given the rapid accelerations both covenant and human ships are seen to undergo in the Halo series (For instance, the {{UNSCship|In Amber Clad}}'s acceleration toward [[Regret's Carrier]] at the end of the level ''[[Metropolis (Level)|Metropolis]]'' in ''[[Halo 2]]'').

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