The Monument

Spark: "The Monument?"

091 Adjutant Veridity: "The monitor spun in a circle, sending its light reflecting through the black crystals as they passed. "Why, yes! Do you approve? The civil war on this ring left us with an overabundance of essences and imprints." Veridity led them down another path, this one narrower than the wide avenue. "They were everywhere. Submonitors and custodians confined in damaged carapaces, roaming lost through the ring's networks, trapped in ruined power stations and facilities... Composed humans loosed from damaged storage devices, their digital imprints overflowing into support systems, their memories and emotions causing havoc. After the firing of the array, we spent the ensuing centuries gathering them, giving them a new home large enough for all, a safe place to rest. Billions of lives lost over countless millennia are stored here in crystal, taken from data, logs, imprints, fragments, events, research, experiments... all of them collected, catalogued, and archived. As instructed, we have kept watch. Our only deviation in course was to purify the atmosphere and end the shroud of mist over Halo."

Spark: "Why did you do that?"

091 Adjutant Veridity: "To encourage the survival of the tullioc and other species. After careful study, we discovered that in feeding on the crystal, the creatures were absorbing some of the data stored here. There had been too much death, so we do not harm the tullioc, for in them now lies the memories of thousands."

— Adjutant Veridity explains the Monument to Rion and Spark

The Monument was the former core of Mendicant Bias on Installation 07 which was transformed into a home for the essences, imprints and damaged ancillas left over from the civil war on the ring. It was meant to both preserve them and to stand as a monument to the lives lost.

Description

The Monument was a giant structure made out of towers black crystal that acted as a giant memory storage device for the damaged ancillas, imprints and human essences left over from the civil war on Installation 07. The glass rose as tall as skyscrapers, creating alleys and streets, intersections and wide avenues. The Librarian set the parameters after the Forerunners retook Zeta Halo, and it was created and kept watch over by the installation's ancillas at the directive of the Librarian and the IsoDidact. It was also the home of one of Zeta Halo's new Cartographers which was located at the center of the Monument, the original having been destroyed. The Cartographer in the Monument acted as a silent Cartographer while another functional site existed closer to the surface, half a ring away.

After seeing the Monument differently, 343 Guilty Spark recognized that the towers of black glass were alive with memories and essences like ghosts in a fishbowl of black glass. When Rion Forge skimmed her hand over the towers, shadowy images responded - a bizarre mix of dimorphous code and picture, appearing and disappearing with a languid pace. Spark considered it to be surprisingly reverent and considerate and another worthy and sympathetic program emblematic of the Supreme Lifeshaper. In a way, the essences stored in the Monument had reached their own version of the Sangheili Hall of Eternity, their names and history persevered in crystal while Zeta Halo's ancillas safeguarded the site, tended to the memories and paid homage to the dead, acting as a somber shrine below and a true underworld while life flourished on the ring's surface. When Spark touched it and increased the intensity of his hard light, it sent light through the surface, revealing within the Monument floating code arranged in whimsical lines and images, moments in time that appeared and disappeared.

History

After Installation 07 was retaken from Mendicant Bias and the Primordial, the Librarian spent time on the ring, transforming Mendicant Bias' old core into the installation's new silent Cartographer, setting the parameters for the old core to become the Monument, and giving the ancillas new purpose after so much of their original purpose had been lost. Creating and keeping watch over the Monument was a directive from the Librarian and the IsoDidact.

After the Great Purification, Zeta Halo's ancillas spent centuries collecting the damaged ancillas wandering throughout the ring and the composed human personality imprints, loosed from damaged storage devices, their digital imprints overflowing into support systems, their memories and emotions causing havoc and gave them all a new home in the Monument, a safe place to rest. Billions of lives lost over countless millennia were stored in the Monument in crystal, taken from data, logs, imprints, fragments, events, research, experiments, all of them collected, catalogued, and archived. However, it was eventually discovered that the tullioc, in feeding on the crystal, were absorbing some of the data stored in the Monument, leaving the memories of thousands lying within the creatures. In order to encourage the survival of the tullioc and the other creatures living on Zeta Halo, the ancilla purified the atmosphere and ended the shroud of mist over Installation 07.

In August 2558, the crew of the Ace of Spades visited Installation 07 in order to use the Cartographer with the coordinate key that the Librarian had given to 343 Guilty Spark, only to find the original Cartographer destroyed. Encountering the crew, Submonitor 091 Adjutant Veridity agreed to lead Spark and Rion Forge to the new Cartographer in the Monument, explaining to them the history and purpose of the Monument along the way. However, while they were successful in using the Cartographer and getting the second part of the coordinate key, Rion was suddenly pulled through a slipspace portal to Erebus VII.

List of appearances

• Halo: Point of Light (First appearance)