- Traxus 04
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- Honorable Member
I haven't read the books, but I've played the games and read the terminals.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but it sure seemed to me that the twist at the end of Halo: Reach (cause let's face it a twist/revelation was necessary or else Reach would be a complete formality story-wise), and in fact the last piece of the Halo 'puzzle,' was that Cortana is actually a Forerunner AI. Discovered in that underground installation where Noble team found Halsey, and the real key to winning the war.
This would explain two otherwise unsatisfactory elements of the overall Halo storyline: (a) why Pillar of Autumn conveniently winds up at the HaloCE installation after a supposedly 'random' jump through slipspace. and (b) why the Covenant/Flood/MB could be thwarted by a tiny fighting force of Spartans/marines.
Let me explain that second point a bit more, and how it relates to Offensive Bias. Obviously it's a game, so it's not unsurprising when lone heroes triumph against all odds, but in the context of a vast, well thought out storyline/history/mythology, it's a little awkward. There was something that Cortana said, though - she chose John117 as her Spartan because he had 'something the others lacked - luck.' This reminds me of a quote from Offensive Bias during the final naval battle between the Forerunner and Flood - 'I continue to fight just well enough to seem lucky.' In other words, although the OB/Forerunner forces faced overwhelming opposition and seemed to fight miraculously well (deja vu?), what seemed like good luck was actually down to a grander strategy being executed as planned.
What I'm saying is this: Masterchief was able to defeat whole armies not because he's some sort of god/demon, but because Cortana possessed the tactical genius necessary to turn tiny opportunities into fatal weak-spots. Almost as if she was created to be the ultimate military strategist, created by some race of superior intelligence to defeat their deadliest enemies...
ie. she was Offensive Bias, whose fate was never otherwise disclosed, and whose express purpose was to defeat Mendicant Bias and Gravemind in battle, and who was quite literally 'combat evolved.'
Proof? Don't really have any except that it fits nicely, the 'lucky' quotes, and that the name Cortana is derived from the name for a mythical sword (ie. offensive weapon). Oh, and also that she engineers a return to Forerunner space at the end of Halo 3 once the Flood are vanquished, disguising it, of course, as another coincidence rather like the jump that brought us to the first Halo.
As I say I've not read the books, and I don't know how much they're considered 'canon' and how conflicting they are. I remember reading some stuff about how Cortana is a image of Halsey's brain but that always seemed vague, and strange because why wouldn't they just make loads of Cortanas and constantly kick Covenant ass. Sounded like a cover story, setting us up for the big reveal at the end of Reach (the game). Also, maybe other people have already suggested this theory.