- "Sneaky little bastard."
- — Cortana, upon encountering the AI shard aboard Ascendant Justice.[2]
This unidentified artificial intelligence construct was created by the Covenant, a result of their experimentation on a captured human AI. During the Human-Covenant War, the loosening strictures on the use of AI within the Covenant allowed one group of researchers to capture and experiment with converting a human AI to their cause; the resulting mind was hostile and enslaved, but was able to escape - replicating itself into innumerable trace patterns across the Covenant network.[3] A number of Covenant AI have been encountered during naval boarding actions of Covenant ships by the United Nations Space Command matching this description, catalogued on this page.
Known Covenant AIsEdit
Ascendant Justice's AIEdit
The ur-example of the Covenant's AI copying program was encountered by Cortana aboard Ascendant Justice, a Ruma-pattern light carrier serving in the Fleet of Particular Justice during the Battle of Installation 04 in September 2552. The ship was initially used as the headquarters for the Minor Prophet of Stewardship, though disputes between the Minor Prophet and fleetmaster Thel 'Vadamee resulted in 'Vadamee boarding the carrier, and the prophet's relocation to Truth and Reconciliation on Installation 04's surface. When the ship was later boarded by a small strike force led by John-117 and Cortana, they found the ship with a skeleton crew, an unusually large number of Huragok and a hitherto-unencountered Covenant AI.[4]
As the human force secured their control over the ship, the Covenant AI tried to stop Cortana's access to the systems, but it was mostly unsuccessful and was eventually caught and decompiled by Cortana. The Covenant AI hated that Cortana was able to improve upon Covenant technology, believing it to be heresy,[2] and managed to send a message over the battlenet before it was caught, both warning of the capture of the ship and sending the necessary calculations for a sub-atmospheric Slipspace jump. This likely allowed the Prophet of Regret's assault carrier to perform such a jump during the Battle of Mombasa.[5]
The AI demonstrated "fractured" thinking, as though it were suffering from the errors of being copied extensively. While large amounts of its code were unknown to Cortana and presumably of Covenant or Forerunner origin, its core algorithms bore a striking resemblance to her own, leading Cortana to speculate that a human-made United Nations Space Command AI had been captured and copied.[6][7][8] When the AI faced its death from Cortana, it screamed a fractured statement: "Do what you will-will-will-will. I go to finally to my heaven reward paradise final-final-final-infinity-infinity-infini-AT NONCOPYSTATE."[5]
A post-mortem analysis of this AI revealed an AI duplicator program, which Cortana speculated had likely resulted in its distorted thinking processes.[6] She used this program twice, to replicate her translation software to increase its effectiveness and to create a stripped-down infiltration-only copy of herself to travel with Blue Team.[9] They effectively used this copy of Cortana to break into and eventually destroy the Covenant command platform Unyielding Hierophant and its resident fleet.
Truth and Reconciliation's AIEdit
- "Sadness, pain, disrepair, Oracle... I am unworthy. I was not made."
- — Truth and Reconciliation's AI fragment.[1]
This AI was present aboard Truth and Reconciliation, a Ket-pattern battlecruiser serving in the Fleet of Particular Justice during the Battle of Installation 04. While grounded on Installation 04, the ship's network was interrogated by the Halo's monitor 343 Guilty Spark, finding an artificial intelligence present. The AI was seemingly unable to comprehend the monitor's warnings of Flood quarantine, the true purpose of the Halo Array, and his commands to cease aggression toward the Reclaimers on the installation, due to it being programmed to understand the Forerunners only in the Covenant's traditional, religious manner. In fact, it hoped that the Covenant would be wiped out by the Flood, and saw this result as leading to its own "freedom". This frustrated the monitor, who proceeded to leave, stating he would later return and have the Covenant construct decommissioned.[1]
The AI was certainly terminated on September 22, when the Truth and Reconciliation was destroyed by First Lieutenant Melissa McKay. Guilty Spark later remarked about its less-than-forthcoming nature during his conversation with Sesa 'Refumee aboard the Threshold gas mine.[10]
List of appearancesEdit
- Halo: First Strike (First appearance)
- Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
- Halo 2: Anniversary
SourcesEdit
- ^ a b c d Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Terminal 3
- ^ a b Halo: First Strike, chapter 9
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 217
- ^ Halo: First Strike, chapter 8
- ^ a b Halo: First Strike, chapter 18
- ^ a b Halo: First Strike, chapter 21
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2009 edition), page 225
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition), page 235
- ^ Halo: First Strike, chapter 31
- ^ Halo 2: Anniversary, Terminal 5