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Terminal (Halo 3): Difference between revisions

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== The Terminals ==
== The Terminals ==
The Terminals are located on the three levels [[The Ark (Level)|The Ark]], [[The Covenant (Level)|The Covenant]] and [[Halo (Halo 3 Level)|Halo]]. There is also a hidden Terminal on [[Cortana (Level)|Cortana]], but that one does not need to be found in order to get the achievement.
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Revision as of 21:15, December 17, 2011

This article is about the Terminals in Halo 3. For other uses of "Terminal", see Terminal (disambiguation)
The exterior of a Halo 3 terminal.

The Terminals in Halo 3 are Forerunner terminals that provide insight into the history of the Forerunners, primarily the Forerunner-Flood war. The Terminals are a continuation of the Iris alternate reality game used as viral marketing for Halo 3. They clarify a great deal of the Iris story line by naming the authors of different messages and by explaining the circumstances of the original firing of the Halo Array. The Terminals follow the stories of the Librarian and the Didact, Forerunner logs of Flood attacks, and Mendicant Bias's progression into rampancy.

Finding and accessing all seven of the Terminals in Halo 3 will unlock the Marathon Man achievement. The name "Marathon Man" is a reference to Bungie's earlier game, Marathon. This is evident because the achievement has a person's torso with the Marathon symbol as the head.

Overview

The Terminals can be accessed on any difficulty. The player can get the Marathon Man achievement through a combination of different sessions, reading Terminals out of order and on various difficulties. There are no requirements for doing them in one game, nor is the player required to find them to finish their missions— and the player does not need to finish the mission for a Terminal to count toward the achievement.

IMPORTANT: You must access all Terminals as follows:

  • In either Co-Op or single-player.
  • It is necessary to read the text until the green arrow (facing left) turns red. On some Terminals, you may have to wait until the screen flashes red and the screen appears to "scan horizontally". This does not occur for all Terminals. If you have no red arrow (see below) then wait until the red flash / scanning occurs.
    • Look in the bottom left hand corner, there is a green arrow, when it turns red you can exit the Terminal. Note that normally you're able to advance each screen of the display by pressing the green A button. However, in some cases you need to wait. If the arrow is still green then wait until the Terminal proceeds.
  • For some players, you must access the seventh Terminal last in order to unlock the achievement (if you have accessed them all and you still don't have the achievement, try that).
  • If after accessing the Terminals and you don't receive the achievement, try accessing all of the Terminals on the same difficulty level (e.g. Easy, Normal, Heroic, or Legendary).
  • In Co-op, both players must be near a Terminal to access it.

The Terminals

The Terminals are located on the three levels The Ark, The Covenant and Halo. There is also a hidden Terminal on Cortana, but that one does not need to be found in order to get the achievement.

Terminal One
Terminal 1 in Halo 3 campaign level The Ark.
The terminal in a semi-circular room, with corridor in the background.
Walkthrough:

After fighting the Hunters, continue on your way until you enter a building in the cliff wall. You should now be in a corridor with two holographic displays on the right, and two doors on the left. Enter the semi-circular room and you will see the first of the seven Terminals.

(Upon initial access)

Observed extensive ground action on [LP 656-38 e]. 9,045 survivors barricaded within central government building. Structure's defenses inadequate to withstand extended siege by enemy ground forces (≈ 1,572,034,315+). Estimate position overrun in [173 hours].

846 smaller groups in less defensible structures: global distribution corresponding to [probability model zeta]. Estimated local position overrun in [9 hours] (average).

Observed local naval forces engage enemy irregular naval group near [DM -3-1123]. Enemy group consisted of 149 commercial shipping vessels, passenger ferries, and private recreational vessels from neighboring system. Enemy losses were total. No damage was sustained by local naval vessels.

However, it was immediately apparent that enemy group sought only to enter [D<-3-1123 b's] atmosphere and make landfall. In this they were partially successful.

Observed extensive ground action on [DM-3-1123 b]. Enemy forces lacked basic unit cohesion but quickly gained numerical superiority. [32 hours] after enemy landfall 83% of local naval forces advocated total [destruction of the biosphere] following the evacuation of unmolested population centers. Enemy losses were total.

Estimated number of citizens evacuated before commencement of orbital blanket bombardment: 1,318,797 civilian/42,669 military (.0006% of total population).

(No message from Mendicant Bias upon shutdown)

(Upon being rerouted to new destination within Terminal)

// FRAGMENT 1/7 [RECORDED VERBATIM AND INTERPRETED POST-CATACLYSM]

L: Categorization has sped since the improvements were announced, but there are many hurdles. The indexing of sentient species may have irreversible effects on the surviving insentient species. We will have extinction events and irreparable environmental harm on at least 18 worlds. Current projections estimate post-archival cataclysm on as many as 31 worlds. The paucity of sentience has been a blessing in this regard.

D: How formal you are, Librarian. We're receiving shipments of indexed beings more frequently than communications. Don't compound scarcity with brevity.

I know things beyond the [Maginot] line are harried. But I worry about you. I've asked you time and time again. Abandon your cataloging. Come back inside, where my fleets can keep you safe.

Come home.

L: Would that it were my choice. I have committed to this course because it's the right thing to do. We no longer have the manpower or materiel to excise remedial measures at a planetary level. I certainly can't justify using the [transit measure] to save my own skin when there are still so many innocents to protect and index.

D: You know I oppose your mission, but you're exceeding its parameters anyway. You've put yourself in jeopardy. You've done enough.

If you will not come to me, I will find my way to you.

L: We have no time to spare, Didact. Every vessel we can fill, we send to the Ark. I dare not cease the mission. Not now, not until I've done all I can. Each one of these souls is finite and precious.

And I'm close.

Close to saving them all.

//FRAGMENT ENDS

(The following appears only if you access the Terminal on Legendary difficulty)

(Upon being rerouted to new destination within Terminal)

[29,478 hours] have passed since I left the [Maginot] sphere and entered contested space.

The enemy is everywhere.

Despite this the morale of my charges remains high. They wake, clean themselves, fuel their bodies, communicate with one another, eliminate waste, train to destroy the enemy, and return to sleep. The sacrifices they have chosen to make on behalf of their [brethren] fills me with pride.

If only I could save them all - but they know, perhaps even better than I, that that is not possible.

[37 seconds] ago I moved beyond my ability to observe the events taking place on CE-10-2165-d.

The importance of my mission forbade me from rendering any aid, but no less important was the need for me to study the enemy's capabilities in real world situations.

[2 hours] ago 12,423 small recreational vessels appeared inside [CE-10-2165-d's] orbital perimeter. Hidden within that vast swarm were seven massive freight carries. The smaller craft were employed as [ablative armor], allowing the carries to descend through the atmosphere; landing on top of major population centers.

Despite the fact that the naval garrison was aware of the likelihood of just such an attack, their ability to effectively defend against it proved insufficient.

This has always been the enemy's [modus operandi]: [flood] your opponent's ability to process information with so much noise that no meaningful resistance can be put into action.

[3 minutes] ago those same population centers began disappearing under brilliant flashes. This was not an ill conceived, poorly implemented counter attack; it was a deliberate denial of resources - those resources being the remainder of [CE-10-2165-d's] population.

Is this the noble sacrifice my creators spoke of? Where is the nobility in these streets paved with greasy carbon and dun ash? [My mouth is speaking at another's behest] - that is not my voice; that is the other.

Its voice stands out as the single calm note in the panicked cacophony outside the sphere. It alone is not decrying its fate or raging against the [central government].

This anomaly bears closer examination.

Analyses

Translation and naming

It is important to note that phrases such as "Maginot Line", "Eden" and "fairy tale" would not have existed in the Forerunner language. It is known that Forerunner technology (including Terminals) utilizes extremely advanced translation software. This software is capable of incorporating idioms from a reader's own experience,[1] such that a human viewing the Terminals will see human idiomatic expressions and human names (such as "Eden").[1]

Several pieces of text are bracketed and shown in a darker font color; this is likely done to indicate that the phrases in question have no exact equivalent in the reader's language, and that an approximation has been used. Furthermore, some bracketed phrases also contain sub-bracketed question marks (such as the phrase "[travel the path of demons[?]]"), implying that the Terminals' software is unsure of the proper translation for the given dialogue.

Interestingly, the word "Ark" does not appear in brackets, meaning that it is a direct translation, rather than a human idiom.

Reversed messages

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In certain parts, backwards speech can be heard. They can be deciphered if you record the message and play it backwards on a computer.

Common phrases include "Archive Access", "Interruption", "Lineage Confirmed", "Data Corruption" and "Welcome Child". These messages are easily understandable to fans of the fiction. "Welcome Child" meaning welcome, child of my creators, as the Humans are descendants of the Forerunners, "Lineage Confirmed" meaning that the computer, after John-117 touches it, confirms his relation to the Forerunners. Some fans have speculated that this is the voice of 032 Mendicant Bias.

Additional information

For a moment after a page is initially accessed the text is shown in its original state as a 'Forerunner alphabet'. The symbols only stand in for letters, not numbers or punctuation, and share the same colors (ie. gold and orange) as the letters possess when 'translated', and only stand in for the letters in the main sections, not in the text that comes up immediately before you are redirected.

The symbols bear no resemblance to the other, more well known Forerunner symbols and possess no observable meaning, as they replace the English characters at random (this can be seen by flipping quickly between two pages and concentrating on any one particular symbol, observing how the stand-in changes).

Covenant references to Terminals

There are several examples of terms and phrases in the Terminals that may have been later adopted for use by the Covenant.

In Terminal Five, on Heroic, Mendicant Bias tells the Forerunners that "Nature itself cries out for your destruction and I am its willing instrument." This is similar to a phrase that has been used by the Covenant several times: "Your destruction is the will of their gods... and we are their instrument."

More borrowed language can be found in Halo: Combat Evolved's promotional Transmissions. The Covenant Truth and Reconciliation sent the following message to humanity: "When no single human brick lies atop another, then will we be satisfied with your destruction." Mendicant Bias says to the Forerunners, in Terminal Five on Heroic, "I will hammer your cities until no stone lies atop another."

There is also the Didact's line in Terminal Seven: "I will begin our Great Journey without you, carrying this bitter record. Those who came after will know what we bought with this [false transcendence] - what you bought, and the price you paid." This may have been discovered by the Covenant and used as the basis for their concept of "the Great Journey," as Didact was referring to the activation of the Halo Array. Additionally, the phrase "[false transcendence]" may have been mistranslated further as simply "transcendence," leading the Covenant to believe that the Forerunners had literally transcended upon activating the array.

Finally, in the Legendary transcript for Terminal Four, the Gravemind tells Mendicant Bias that "perhaps [the Forerunners] have found [some difficulty] of making that decision for themselves? Perhaps they chose to leave it [to an] impartial outsider; cast you as an arbiter during this time of great need?" This statement may have been retrieved by the Sangheili and may be the origin of the title of Arbiter - an Elite chosen during a time of great need to settle a dispute, though this may have been a simple coincidence.

Trivia

File:Onyxandterminalsymbol.jpg
The symbol in the Terminals and the symbol on the cover of Ghosts of Onyx.
  • On the level The Ark, whenever you go to Terminal Three, you will find 343 Guilty Spark waiting for you in there. If you read the Terminal, it shows that 343 Guilty Spark has just logged in and talked to Mendicant Bias. You can actually hear him converse with the Terminal, if you are fast enough.
  • The orange circular symbol in the Terminals is also seen on the cover of Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.
  • When certain Terminals are redirecting the player after they have logged into one, as the screen turns red on the left side are symbols and the words "I AM MENDICANT BIAS."
  • The "Forerunner Alphabet" characters are the same as those used by the S'Pht in the Terminals of the Marathon series.
  • The events detailed in Halo: Cryptum appear to conflict with the series of events described in the Terminals in Halo 3. Terminals two and three indicate that the Didact had been fighting in the Forerunner-Flood war for some time; however, according to Halo: Cryptum, the Didact had supposedly been in hibernation for over one thousand years (though this is never confirmed), and therefore could not have been involved in the war, which had begun 300 years prior. Also, Terminal three describes the Didact's plans for Mendicant Bias; according to the novel, by the time the Didact was awakened, Mendicant Bias had been sent on his mission 43 years prior, while the Didact was unconscious.

Gallery

  • ArkTerminalOrb-transparent.png

    Detail of the orb of a Halo 3 terminal.

  • Close-up of an Ark Terminal.

    Close-up of an Ark Terminal.

  • Another Terminal on the Ark in Halo 3.

    Another Terminal on the Ark in Halo 3.

Sources

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Halo Encyclopedia, page 165

External links

Template:Forerunner2

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