- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
We also now that the rock is a map to multiple locations from an interview with Eric Nylund. In the interview the following question was asked
The markings on the Cote d'Azur artifact lead the Covenant to Reach, yet they led Cortana to Halo 04. Are there multiple coordinates or "messages" within one rock?
His answer was
YES. It's an interesting little chunk of stone.
If Ackerson found that rock had one map on it, he may have found out that it had more than one. He learned that there was something buried below the base from the Reach coordinates, and I think that he also found the other objects that the rock was a map to.
The Halo rings.
I think that it is very likely that Ackerson and some part of ONI knew about the Halos before the PoA jumped away from Reach and arrived at Alpha Halo.
In the same interview with Eric Nylund that I mentioned above, this question was asked
Why, if Halo is in uncharted space, are the moon and planet known as Basis and Threshold?
His answer was
I'll throw out a clue here: "uncharted" from who's perspective? "Surveyed" by whom?
I believe that is a hint that points toward some Humans(ONI) knowing of Halo before, because it is ONI that charts space. If they knew of Threshold and basis, they probably found Alpha Halo too.
There is even more evidence of ONI knowing about Halo. In the First level of Halo when you are on the bridge of the PoA, you can see that the Halo ring is labled as Halo, even though they don’t know learn of the name until the level Truth and Reconciliation. So why is the object labeled as Halo?
There is an AI on the Pillar of Autumn that is known as BW-AI. It was mentioned in the Cortana letters and a series of ship to ship transmission that were on the original Halo website. I believe that this BW AI is Beowulf, who is an ONI AI. This could explain why the Autumn seems to know about Halo.
Now, I'll tell you exactly what was happening on the Halo rings. First, I believe Ackerson was making clones of the Spartan IIs. My reasoning for saying that is that he seemed most interested in that part of the Spartan program, and that the Description of the Halo multiplayer map Chiron TL34 is
Spartan CLONE Training Complex.
I believe that this map is located on a Halo. We know that all the other Maps are located either on or near a Halo becuase we can see a Halo ring in the sky, can see threshold, or the Bungie.net guide to Mulitplayer Maps says that they are on a Halo. The only map that we can't tell is Chiron. However, if you listen to the sounds in the map you can hear a sound that is in two other Levels. Assualt on the Control room and Two Betrayals, which both take place on the same map. The sound that you hear is the sound of the pulse generators.
There is another Human training facility on Halo 04, and that is the multiplayer map Wizard. We know this because the description of Wizard on This page says
Another human training facility.
And then there is the map Rat Race
The description of Rat Race on the Bungie.net guide to Multiplayer Maps is:
An asymmetrical map which involves some human mining into one of Halo's hallway system
It is also interesting that Ackerson had files that called for procurement of digging equipment…
The Humans from the Pillar of Autumn did not have time to mine into Halo’s hallway systems. They did not have time or a reason to build training centers.
Some other Humans must be behind the mining and the building on training centers. I think that those humans are colonel Ackerson and his men.
I also believe that Colonel Ackerson and his men were on Delta Halo as well. When playing Sacred Icon right after you deactivate the Containment-Shield and cross the big trench on the platform you are immediately attacked by the flood. At first, nothing about this seemed unusual until I noticed that they were all human flood forms. This is strange because the humans that arrived on In Amber Clad couldn’t have been inside the wall for a long amount of time.
Near the end of the level Regret while you are on one of the gondolas, Miranda tells you that she encountered the shield that protects the library and can’t get any closer. She then goes on to say that she will try to find a way around it. The cutscene at the beginning of Sacred Icon takes place soon after regret is killed. You can also see the humans in one part of Sacred Icon, and they are only a few minutes ahead of you. That all leads me to believe that the Humans have only been inside the wall for a short time.
In Sacred Icon, you can hear a marine say “Proceed to the objective, we will hold out as long as we can” If you look out one of the windows, you can see a group of humans. This marine was saying he would stay there while the others went for the index. Then you will see him and the other marines get attacked by Human combat forms. How could there already be human combat forms?
Later on in the Sentinel Wall there are rooms with boxes of human helmets and gas masks. I find this very odd; because I don’t think the team that was trying to remove the index would want to weigh themselves down with boxes of extra helmets. They would wan to stay light and fast, not spend their time carrying around bulky boxes. Also in the level Quarantine Zone there are a lot of large human boxes. It just doesn’t make sense, why would you carry dozens of boxes with you when your mission is to get to the index and get out as fast as possible?
I have gone through Sacred Icon and Quarantine Zone and done a count of a the boxes. I found:
7 boxes of boots
4 boxes of gas masks
4 large boxes of something for warthogs
8 boxes of helmets
6 boxes of body armor
13 large boxes of food prep stations
2 large boxes of generators
about 10 other boxes
I can understand items like body armor and helmets but 11 food prep stations? It doesn't take that long to move through the Quarantine Zone, and they couldn't have needed to stop to eat 3-4 times. Also, why do they need generators? I think that this shows that there was something else going on in the quarantine zone.
Later in the level you hear a voice that says, “Negative ma’am, they are not covenant.” At First I thought that they were saying that whatever was attacking them(The Flood) was not covenant, But know I’m not so sure. Could he mean that the flood forms that are attacking him are not infected covenant, but something else, maybe humans?
In Quarantine Zone when you are on the moving platform you encounter human flood forms when the humans are only a minute a head of you. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it takes more than one minute to turn into a combat form and move to the location of the second platform.
In the helljumpers cutscene that plays before the level Delta Halo, you will see that there are several ODST drop pods on the ground before the MC and the first platoon land on Delta Halo. This shows that ODSTs may have been on the surface of Halo before the master chief and the first platoon land on Halo. If these pods had landed only seconds before the MCs as has been suggested the Grunt and Jackal in the helljumpers cutscene would have been more alert. The grunt would have already been in the turret and there would probably be covenant on the ground near the pod.
Also later on in the mission is what looks like a cave that has been dug out. In it is a dead ODST. To my knowledge, there was no mention of sending ODSTs ahead of the Master Chief. Why was an ODST so far ahead of the other humans?
Now, why would he need to clone Spartans on a Halo? Couldn't he do it a secure facility on a human planet? My answer is that his plan was not just to clone the Spartans, but to experiment on them, and give them traits of the flood, such as regenerative abilities. The Halo rings would be the perfect place to do this because there are probably plenty of flood samples, there are secure areas designed for containment, and that if something goes wrong the survivors can just abandon the rings and leave the humans the are infected stuck on the rings with no way off.
This would explain the large amount of human flood forms on both halo 04 and Halo 05. Ackerson was running his experiments when something went or they just didn't do enough research on the flood and there was a flood outbreak. Maybe it even explains the Juggernaut flood which were left out of the game. They would be Infected Spartan Clones.
So now that we know that Ackerson is making Spartan Clones, we must ask what he plans to do with his private army. Will he give it to the UNSC to defeat the covenant at Earth? Will he use them for his own purposes so he can take over the UNSC?
In the past I have said(but not really believed) that Ackerson would use his clones to help the covenant. I no longer believe that. I do however still think it is possible that he has tried to kill the Master Chief twice. The First time was just after the MC had received his mark V armor. Ackerson tries to kill the MC using a squad of ODSTs, Chain Guns, Anti Tank mines, and orders a Jet to fire a Missile at him. The second time is later in The Fall of Reach.