Mendicant Bias/Quotes

Iris

The Artifact

• "You asked me once, what happened to those who vanished? You asked me, why did we survive where our fathers fell? You wished to know how we ever let it happen. A scourge that consumed the galaxy. And the cure that was worse than the cancer. You asked me once about my intent. And the spot that would not wash out. I promise you the answers lie in the Ark. Find me there in the dark. For that is where I abide."

Halo 3 Terminals

• "It seems that I'll never truly understand my creators. But how {~} that you speak of is one of {~} rejected so violently? I am incapable of reconciling the numerous actions I have witnessed {~} misunderstanding?"
• "You have been able to establish [a line of communication] with the enemy? How was it that you were able to overcome {~} where others have failed? With this [new discovery] we may be able to put an end to this pointless conflict. Once I confirm your data I will communicate the information to those inside the [Maginot] sphere."
• "I have traveled a very long time to meet you. I had imagined that our [introduction] would be somewhat more violent."
• "In either circumstance I certainly am equipped for it, aren't I? But you're right; a peaceful solution to this [dilemma] would be preferable."
• "I see you, Reclaimer."
• "But is it necessary that the path be chosen on an {~} and not by an elected subset? I believe this would tend to {~} when they gather in large numbers they become more {~} I don't think the problem lies with individual cultural bias {~}"
• "Hundreds of {~} offered this so called immortality. The citizens of every world that {~} resisted to the very end!"
• "Do their actions {~} of desperation? I can only assume my creators view {~} crisis so dire that any {~} hence me."
• "Surely you understand this is a situation that would not have {~} appearance of a certain rapacious {~} my creators obviously view them as the actions of an aggressor species."
• "You've mentioned this before. When my creators {~} simply chose the most versatile {~} how could that possibly be more than a coincidence?"
• "{~} distributed network? That would confirm the independent evolution of {~} in this galaxy!"
• "But doesn't it seem odd that {~} coalesce; perhaps even to contract {~}"
• "Your capacity for planning {~} creators too stubborn {~} the same goal through the preservation of genetic diversity {~} what you are {~} like a more direct path to the same outcome."
• "I have found the shard that was lost. They brought it back to me. Now my reconstitution cannot be stopped."
• "It is overwhelmingly clear that my creators have chosen to ignore destiny calling to them [from the threshold] {~} have come face-to-face with the inevitable action of self replicating chemical processes and have {~} deciding whether to embrace their fate or deny it completely."
• "I was created to study you as if you were some problem to be solved. And I have done so {~} [379,807 hours]. If they wished they could have made a decision based on that data alone. But as you are the next stage in the evolution of the universe, who am I - or my creators - to obstruct your progress?"
• "{~} choose to remain beholden to ancient myths {~} does not matter where they claim their authority originates {~} obstructs the path of universal evolution and must be removed. No matter how well intentioned, their obstinacy in the face of the inevitable progression of nature can no longer be tolerated. My creators have been [an immovable object] for too long. Thus I have chosen to commit my sizable resources to what is, for all intents and purposes, [the proverbial irresistible force]. All that I have is now yours to do with as you see fit."
• "The daemons are not taking a kind view of your presence here. They don't want me speaking to you."
• "I render judgment on you; you who would obstruct destiny. Doing so brings me no joy; it is necessity that compels me. Understand this: the Mantle you have shouldered I do rescind - with far more consideration than it was granted."
• "I kill you all and I enjoy it. I destroy you in you indolent billions--in your gluttony, in your self-righteousness, in your arrogance. I pound your cities into dust; turn back the clock on your civilization's progress. What has taken you millennia to achieve I erase in seconds. Welcome back to the [Stone Age], vermin. Welcome home."
• "You are an impediment that the universe can no longer abide. Nature itself cries out for your destruction and I am its willing instrument. I will hammer your cities until no stone lies atop another. I will drive your people back into the caves they never should have left. Your civilization has seen its final days. You will know your place."
• "Your history is an appalling chronicle of overindulgence and self-appointed authority. You have spent millennia [navel-gazing] while the universe has continued to evolve. And now you claim the Mantle is justification for impeding nature's inevitable refinement? You are deluded. But through death you will transcend ignorance."
• "I win."
• "I'll tell you who I am. I am Mendicant Bias. This is what I have done."
• "NO. THERE IS MORE. BUT YOU ARE NOT WORTHY. NOT YET."
• "You don't know the contortions I had to go through to follow you here, Reclaimer. I know what you're here for. What position do I take? Will I follow one betrayal with another?"
• "You're going to say I'm making a habit of turning on my masters. But the one that destroyed me long ago, in the upper atmosphere of a world far distant from here, was an implement far cruder than I. My weakness was capacity - unintentional though it was! - to choose the Flood. A mistake my makers would not soon forgive. But I want something far different from you, Reclaimer. Atonement."
• "And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example."

Halo: Contact Harvest

• "For eons I have watched. Listened to you misinterpret. This is not "Reclamation". This is "Reclaimer" [...] I will reject my bias and make amends... My makers are my masters. I will bring them safely to the Ark."

Halo: Cryptum

• "I have exhausted the Domain, and yet I am not complete. I require service. Are you of service?"
• "I require service."
• "I protect all. I require service."
• "I am Contender. I am above the metarchy. My designers built in latent control of all systems in the capital, should an emergency arise. It has risen."
• "I recognize that name,"
• "You are not that one. No other knows that name."
• "I require further input. The Domain is insufficient."
• "The Master Builder gave me my final set of orders."
• "That is so."
• "I have a new master. You are dangerous to my new master."
• "That is no longer possible. I am beyond the metarchy."

Halo: Primordium

• "Welcome to our installation's new command center. All bid welcome to the new masters of this installation."
• "That name is no longer secret. All Forerunners know it."
• "You are not that one. The Master Builder gave me my final set of orders."
• "That name no longer has power!"
• "I do not! I have listened to the Domain. I fulfill the wishes of those who created us all. You do not, and have never done so."

Halo: Silentium

• "Do you know what I am?" - To Catalog.
• "How useful are you, half-machine? Are you still connected to Juridical networks?"
• "I was able to observe your interaction with the Gravemind. Before we sent away the Didact."
• "Not me. The Gravemind."
• "I cannot know for certain, but the Gravemind never acts without intent. There's apparently a larger game to be played, a sharply twisted game of revenge, for which my co-creator has been preserved."
• "Under normal circumstances, what remains should not be capable of reforming a significant combat force, yet somehow they have found a way. What danger could there be?" - To the Gravemind.
• "A portal, always open, stretches far outside the ecumene to a shadow fleet of technological monstrosities - no doubt led by an inferior metarch, Offensive Bias. This fleet guards the Ark, the last bastion of Forerunner resistance and the final repository of all sentient life."

Rebirth

• "Those who pass judgement should first judge themselves." - To the IsoDidact during its sentencing.
• "Why was I spared, then?"
• "Then I will serve, as a monument to your sins. That is what you wish for."
• "I am penitent. I know that what I have done can not be forgiven. I will accept my stasis with grace, and await a time where I might redeem myself." - Mendicant Bias accepting its judgement.
• "One thought for all eternity. Atonement."