- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Who is JD? Is he a Spartan?
I don't think so, seeing as how if all this happens before or during the fall of Reach, all Spartans would be accounted for on Reach for use by the UNSC.
I do, however, think that JD is someone very similar to MC in one way - he has exceptional training, experience, leadership abilities, and most of all, a good streak of luck. He is probably average in many abilities, much like MC was compared to fellow spartans (Kelly was a faster runner, Linda was a better shot), but on the Halo story page, it mentions how Cortana chose MC for their infiltration mission before Reach fell because of his overall well-roundedness, and because he had a streak of luck that the others didn't (which Dr. Halsey notes as well).
Also, keeping with the whole Gilgamesh theme, Enkidu and Gilgamesh fight the evil beastie, but in the end Gilgamesh is the one that kills it. It would be the same here - Enkidu will help, much like Cortana helped MC, but in the end, JD is going to be the one to "pull the trigger". Also, if Enkidu chose JD to be his Gilgamesh, then JD must have some strong leadership abilities, as Gilgamesh himself was the king of his people. So, in many ways, this whole pairing is like Cortana and MC were in the first game, how they depended on each other - but this time, the AI is a few bits shy of a byte.
What is causing the tremors on Frigid? If it's some new beast, have the Covenant encountered it?
It has to be something unpleasant. And let's not automatically assume that it's just ONE thing - Halo had the Sentinels, so why shouldn't this installation (if it is one) have something similar? If it was just one thing, I think the Covenant would have annihilated it by now with just sheer numbers and firepower.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Why does Enkidu want to keep JD from the rest of the humans?
For this one, we'll just have to wait and see.
As for what is Enkidu's plan, well, we're gonna have to sit that one out as well, until we get more info.
Now, on the subject of AIs,
As to human AI being superior, I would say over Covenant AIs, of course. But can you honestly tell me that beings who have created weaponry capable of annihilating all life in the universe, able to create handheld laser weaponry (the Sentries in Halo), create inferior AIs to a race who isn't even as technologically advanced as the Covenant?
My answer: yes. The one thing that humans had going for them was that their AIs were different, and that Cortana was perhaps the pinnacle of their AI development. An excerpt:
Cortana is one of thousands of AIs which populate the computer networks of the Human worlds. She is, however, somewhat unique; she is a direct copy of a human being, Dr. Halsey, and lacks behavioral inhibitors of any kind. She is free to do as she pleases, unlike most other military AIs, such as the ONI AI Beowulf, which is strict, sullen, and by-the-book. Cortana, on the other hand, is strong-headed, noisy, and somewhat off-the-wall.
The main difference between Cortana and 343 GS is that 343 GS was made for one thing - to monitor and contain the Flood on installation 04. In that respect, he could be wily and unpredictable, if need be, but he was very much by the book. He could improvise, but only when forced to. Cortana, however, could and did dance rings around 343 GS.
I think 343 Guilty Spark was much, much more powerful than we think he is. Remember, he got into the database of the Pillar of Autumn like it was nothing, and the PoA had all the anti-spy tech ONI could put on it.
I don't think so. First off, 343 GS was made for one purpose, while Cortana was not (this is arguable, but 343 GS was made to contain the flood only. He doesn't appear until they have broken their cages, so to say). Also, while it's true that he got into the database on the PoA, it was a "local tap", as Cortana points out in the game. Also, while the PoA might have had top of the line ONI spook-tech on it, that was to prevent people from the outside (i.e. Covenant ships) from breaking in and causing havoc. If the person "breaking in" is already on the inside, well, it's that much easier. Also, if the Covenant were to be able to access the database from inside the PoA, as when they had secured the crash site, the humans would have purged the database as per Cole Protocol.
My theory? 343 let Cortana into the Forerunner network. Maybe he had knowledge of what was transpiring on Frigid and figred she'd go crazy when exposed to that much data or he'sso arrogant he underestimated Cortana's ability to foil his plan.
I suggest a third idea - that 343 didn't do crap because Cortana in the core wasn't something he'd know about (his classification level, as he says so often, is not high enough to do things like reunite the Index with the Core, so it's obvious that he has limitations on him), and even if he did know about it (which he didn't, because when he sees her in the Core for the first time, he's a bit agitated about it), it wouldn't have "woken him up" because it was not a trigger for him, while the Flood infection was. 343 GS, to me, is much like an AI like Beowulf, done to achieve a specific goal, much like Deja was for teaching the Spartans during training.
Either way, I think that if 343 Guilty Spark knew what Cortana was doing he would have stopped her easily.
He couldn't. Cortana herself pointed this out when she said, "You can just float and sputter!" to 343 GS in the control room.
I think that on the Pillar of Autumn 343 Guilty Spark got his revenge on Cortana, maybe affecting her code in some way that the Chief notices in First Strike.
No, I didn't think he could affect her code at all. More interesting bits from the Halo story page:
However, since her time in Halo 04's Control Center, Cortana has found herself laden with vast amounts of hastily compressed data, the contents of which would surely initiate consequences beyond anyone's wildest expectations. There simply has not been a chance or location to unload and analyze it, something that has frustrated her to no end. The additional burden of carrying this inaccessible information has considerably dampened her prowess and as well, as her abilities of concentration and multitasking, as she noticed on several occasions in contact with the Covenant AI aboard the Ascendant Justice....
As her temper shortens, and her absent-mindedness increases under the load of the Forerunner data, the urgency to find a place to dump and resort her cargo has been coupled with the strain. Let us hope that her former primary objectives of protecting Humanity cannot be willfully circumvented with the ease that she manipulates her own ethics protocols...
And therein lies the rub. We know that Cortana is under a lot of strain, and that in First Strike, MC notices her as being more "twitchy" after she acquired the index.
What does this all mean for Enkidu? First off - was he an AI like Cortana, with no behavioral inhibitors, or was he made for a specific purpose? Whereas Cortana is changing under the stress of all her additional information, Enkidu is perhaps changing/ed under the strain of being released onto a network vastly superior to anything he's ever known, and having patched himself with bits of code from that network, well, that's the unknown factor.
As for the identity of JD, I don't think he is a Spartan, because if he was, then why didn't they load him up into the Spartan's processor matrix slot that each suit of Mjolnir armor comes with? To use and/or access him, terminals are needed, and we see that when the humans reach Frigid, they need to plug Enkidu into their terminals in order to open the doors, whereas Cortana, using the MC's suit, was able to do that while mobile.
Also, another though just occured to me - is it possible that perhaps Enkidu is teleporting JD around, having him pop in and out of engagements with the enemy? We know that Cortana could do this with MC, after she'd spent time in the Core on Halo. What's to say that this place on Frigid doesn't have the same capabilities for teleportation that Halo did? And if Enkidu has found them, what's to say that he hasn't used them to his own benefit yet?
Waiting for the next terminal...