Talk:The Mona Lisa

Threshold isn't blue, that's basis....Threshold's moon.

ONI Knew?

I've come to the conclusion that ONI would have had to have known about the Flood before they were discovered on Alpha Halo.

It took 19 days in slipspace to get from Reach to Alpha Halo, and Reach is near Earth. We don't know the slipspace time between Earth and Reach, but I'm going to assume it's a similar time from Earth to Alpha Halo. Because of the timetravel thingy John would've arrived back at Earth sometime around October 2nd, and this takes place in October, certainly before Halo 2, which was the 20th. If it was 19 days to Earth as well, then the Flood would have become known when John got back around the 2nd, and that's exactly 19 days until the 20th, which is when Earth gets attacked and this had to have happened before that. ONI would have had to found out about the Flood, understood all the data on them, gotten the idea to use prisoners for testing, found a suitable ship, and sent it to Alpha Halo all in ONE DAY. Even if they left from a different planet, it doesn't really matter, there's no believable way that this could fit in this timeline.

That and the ONI spook knew way too much, as does the AI, who seems to know all about the Flood, she's an aging, over six year old AI, who isn't liked, and replaced the ship's likeable, three year old AI just before the mission. ONI knows way too much, way to fast, they HAD to have been doing this pre-Halo 1 timeframe. If they're doing this off info from 117 and Cortana then they wouldn't be messing around doing all these expirements, well, maybe, it's ONI, but I still doubt it.

So... where DID they get the Flood? Two options: Off Alpha Halo, which also ruins the timeframe because they would have had to go to a part of the Halo debris, and somehow locate Flood still in containment and not destroyed, and get them onto the ship, and start testing people. (Oh, and to what point or purpose were they testing people if they had all the info from Cortana). AND all the people on the ship were already dead by the time the Red Horse got there, which would've had to have left at the SAME TIME as the ship they were looking for by the way, AND there was already a proto-gravemind, which needs a lot of biomass moved to one spot. AND they had Sangheili prisoners, which they NEVER take, seemingly just to test the Flood, and I'd guess it'd take quite a while to get that many Sangheili prisoners, cause they are not the type to get captured. And THAT would mean they would have to have been planning it for quite a while.

Oh, and on a possibly related note, in the "Hero: Sacrifice" video on Waypoint (released just about the same time as episode 7), which is writen from and in-universe perspective (they assume John is dead), they go into detail about Forge's sacrifice (without mentioning the Flood), who no one not on the Spirit Of Fire should know about.

My guess: Spirit Of Fire DID come back pre-2552, but at least the Flood was kept secret by ONI. Alex T Snow 07:04, 17 July 2011 (EDT)

Ah, but you are forgetting something. John and the other Spartans didn't leave from Installation 04, they left from the Tau Ceti System, which is only 11.9 light years from Earth. The Battle of the Unyielding Hierophant took place on September 13, and they left immediately afterward. This means that travelling at approx 2 ly/day they would be back in just 6 days, September 19. Your timeline is off. In addition they returned to Earth aboard the UNSC Gettysburg, however it was equipped with the slipspace drive from the Ascendant Justice. Covenant slipspace drives are significantly faster than human drives, so they could have returned to Earth even sooner. Even if you assume they didn't return to earth until say the 23rd, after the events took place on Alpha Halo, this still gives nearly a month for ONI to organize the project, get to Alpha Halo, and lose control of the Mona Lisa.-- Rusty - 112 13:06, 17 July 2011 (EDT)

Okay, fair enough, I didn't know the details, but I still find it somewhat had to believe. Alex T Snow 15:53, 17 July 2011 (EDT)

I was involved in a discussion about this on the IRC channel not too long ago. I'd like to take note before I begin that the first chapter of Contact Harvest shows that Slipspace drives are not directly related to velocity - when in slipspace, you must still rely on the power of your fusion-powered engines like in normal space. We only know of one ship that travelled at such a velocity between Reach and Earth, and we don't even know what kind of ship it was - it may have been one of the slowest vessels.

Moving on, I'll attempt to illustrate an approximate time-range based on current information. In Halo: First Strike, the task force that arrives in the Soell system, led by the Ascendant Justice (I don't give a shit about 343i's errors, Cortana outright confirmed it!), investigates the system to assess the danger to High Charity, which is on it way. We can assume that it arrives by the 23rd. The trial of Thel ends in his branding of 'the mark' at what is shown to be October 20th. After Regret found Installation 05 he left Earth, arriving at the coordinates on November 2nd with High Charity. We can assume from this that High Charity, after learning of Regret's discovery, set a course out of the system. While the Forerunner ship powering the city is fast, it is not instantaneous - Regret took 13 days to get to 05; Truth took 14 on the return, with stops along the way. Therefore we can only confirm that it departed between the 13-day gap from Oct. 20 to Nov. 2. As there is no major Covenant presence in the star system upon the Red Horse's arrival, it must have arrived between the two dates.

The Mona Lisa was on an ONI mission to capture prisoners and investigate the flood - remember that John's report after FIRST STRIKE included information regarding the parasite.

Let's assume that FIRST STRIKE was on Sept. 13 (the Reach bit was a few days weeks after the 30 and there was a time-gap on their later journeys) and construct a time-line.

• Aug 30 - The Pillar of Autumn leaves for Installation 04.
• Sept 13 - FIRST STRIKE underway.
• Soon afterwards - Survivors return to Earth.
• Sep 19 - The Autumn arrives at 04.
• Sep 22 - Elements of High Charity's defence fleet arrive, followed later by High Charity.
• Oct 20 - Regret sets course for Installation 05 and informs Truth.
• Bet. Oct. 20 - Nov. 2 - High Charity receives the message and departs.
• Afterwards - Red Horse arrives.

Now, for the Mona Lisa to get to 04 and be overdue long enough for help to be sent (that's one trip for the ML; its intended trip of the same time-length; a short wait and the Red Horse's trip) BEFORE Earth is attacked, I'll approximate a maximum of a 7 day trip, giving time for John's return and the wait before calling for help.

Let's shorten all that, now: ONI learned about the Flood from John and sent the Mona Lisa to capture Covenant survivors and the parasite and experiment on the Flood's usage as a bio-weapon. The Mona Lisa arrived WHILE High Charity was in-system, not long after the ring's destruction. However, the debris field allowed it to hide - the Pelican and Longsword in FIRST STRIKE attempted the same thing in that field and were able to stay hidden, while the Dusk did a similar stunt near Tribute. After it failed to return to UEG space the Red Horse was sent to investigate, arriving after the Covenant invasion of Earth and discovery of Installation 05.

I hope this unnecessarily-detailed reply answers all of your questions, good day.-- Forerunner 16:47, 17 July 2011 (EDT)