- "KEEP IT CLEAN!"
- — The Superintendent's notable saying.
The Superintendent is a second generation "dumb" Artificial Intelligence. An Urban Infrastructure A.I. construct, it is in charge of making sure the infrastructure of the city of New Mombasa runs smoothly.[1] It is also apparently used by the NMPD to observe people and record their conversations through its cameras. The Superintendent's Data Center is located deep below the city, with its main core residing under a shaft connected to ONI Alpha Site on the surface.
A subroutine of the Superintendent exists, called Vergil. It was originally created by Dr. Endesha to look after his daughter, Sadie Endesha.
Biography
Just before Earth came under attack by the Covenant, the Superintendent was performing a routine seismic scan when it picked up a seismic anomaly, which would prove to make the Superintendent's data on the anomaly a priority target for Covenant Brute forces and Captain Veronica Dare's ODST Squad. During the Covenant invasion on October 20, 2552, the Superintendent declared a "Metropolitan Emergency" on the city of New Mombasa.
Soon after the Covenant invasion, an Engineer made its way into the Superintendent's data center. Driven by its innate fascination with all machines, it started to repair the Superintendent's data core, which had been damaged in the attack. Soon, a report of data corruption was received by a COMM officer aboard the Prowler Template:UNSCship. The officer contacted the AI, asking it to put Kinsler on the line, but it didn't comply. The Superintendent was then asked to upload its logs for the last twenty-four hours, for which the AI only replied with repeating the phrase "KEEP IT CLEAN". The COMM officer then told the AI they'd send a team to retrieve the construct's data, and ordered the Superintendent to redirect all comm traffic through her. The Superintendent only replied with its pre-recorded phrases.[2]
Some time later, when the Prophet of Regret's Assault Carrier initiated a Slipspace transition over the city, the resulting shockwave severely damaged, as well partially disabled the Superintendent.[3] This is when Captain Dare was dispatched on a secret mission with a team of ODSTs, which involved the retrieval of the Superintendent - though her squad was unaware of this objective. With the troopers scattered about the city by the Slipspace shockwave, Dare was separated from the ODSTs and holed up in a nearby building where she attempted to find a way of getting the AI to safety by herself.
Later that day, the Superintendent aided both UNSC Marine and NMPD forces remaining in the city in fighting off the recently-arrived Covenant occupation force. In the following night, the construct aided the ODST known as "the Rookie" in evading Covenant foot patrols in the rubble of the city by giving him access to a map of the city, as well as activating lights and signs; leading him to safety.[4]
Eventually, the Rookie, along with Captain Dare, managed to reach the data core, where they discovered the Engineer, which had transferred the data of the Superintendent's Vergil subroutine to itself. The Engineer, now essentially carrying the memories and personality of Vergil, and in effect the Superintendent itself, then disconnected from the core. With all data transferred out, the Superintendent's computer core immediately shut down.
Gameplay
- The Superintendent serves as a guide to the Rookie during the campaign, in a similar manner to the way Cortana guided the Master Chief. However, the Superintendent is rather limited in terms of communication, only able to interact with the Rookie by manipulating municipal electronic signs (for example, lighting up a sign to read 'keep right' to guide the Rookie in that direction) and speaking through a number of pre-recorded phrases. For example, instead of directly asking the squad not to destroy an expensive bridge, he can only use the generic phrase 'respect public property.' The Superintendent may also not be fully operational due to the slipspace rupture, as stated by Buck in the Desperate Measures ViDoc. More likely, it is a result of being a very low-grade "dumb" AI, whose capabilities pale in comparison to their more advanced "smart" counterparts.
- Note that the Superintendent can also help the Rookie find audio files: it raises and lowers traffic blocks, flashes police sirens, rings telephones, manipulates electronic signs, and spits coins out of an ATM. It also makes your VISR produce 'beep'-like sounds when you are close to an audio log. The closer you get, it beeps faster, longer or more frequent. The Superintendent's help via your VISR is not yet confirmed.
- The Superintendent also helps the Rookie by granting him access to a map of the city, and highlighting areas of interest, mostly pieces of equipment (beacons) left by his squad mates. When inspected, these "beacons" will trigger flashback missions, representing the Rookie watching recorded footage, which reveal what happened to the other squad members, one at a time.
- Perhaps as a result of Kinsler's pursuit of Sadie, the Superintendent is noticeably reluctant to cooperate with local police department personnel, sometimes at the expense of military effectiveness. During the ONI Alpha Site level, an officer tries to get the AI to grant him access so that he can detonate the demolition charges planted by Dutch and Mickey to deny the Covenant easy access to the Alpha Site, only granting Dutch access when he approached the keypad. Another officer, trapped in the tunnels of the Superintendent's data core, was repeatedly denied access until the Rookie approached and was granted access. In the latter case, the Superintendent had a legitimate reason to be suspicious - the officer was checking that Dr Endesha was dead, and attacked the Rookie to prevent any witnesses to Kinsler's murder.[4]
- In the "Keep it Clean" teaser, the Superintendent sees the Rookie's drop pod crash land. After the Rookie gets out off his pod, the Superintendent flashes holographic street signs, pointing the Rookie towards safety.
Trivia
- A superintendent is a person who oversees or directs some work, enterprise, establishment, organization, district, etc.; supervisor, which is similar to the Superintendent's programming. It is also a senior police rank above Chief Inspector in many countries.
- While the Superintendent is rebooting during the "Keep It Clean" video, the words "Maddie, where are you?" appear for a fraction of a second, although during Sadie's Story it can be seen as "Sadie, where are you?". It is believed that "Maddie" is a reference to Medeleine McCann, a little girl who famously vanished without a trace in 2007 while on vacation with her family in Portugal.
- It's possible that the AI of New Mombasa isn't named "The Superintendent," but that Superintendent is in fact its class. This is most notable in the later audio-logs when Kinsler says to an Officer "It hacked a Superintendent-class AI!" in regards to the Huragok Vergil. This would mean that Vergil is the name of the AI, with a subroutine built-in to help Sadie, and the class of city-management AI would be Superintendent AI's. Civilians may call it the Superintendent for every city that has one.
- The Superintendent has 7 facial expressions. Neutral, Angry, Sad, Bored, Confused, Happy, and (not pictured to the right) Off mode.
- Players can have a picture of the Superintendent as their character emblem for Firefight.
- The security cameras of the Superintendent are heavily reminiscent of those of HAL 9000, the infamous computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both cameras are vertical rectangular panels with a round “eye” in the lower center, though HAL’s eye is red, while the Superintendent’s is blue.
- While the Halo franchise is property of Microsoft, the Superintendent icon belongs exclusively to Bungie.[5]
List of appearances
- Halo 3: ODST (First appearance)
Sources