- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
For information on rampancy, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampancy
I don't believe Cortana is exactly rampant, I believe she is under the influence/control of Gravemind, and that is about that. Given how Gravemind displayed a degree of knowledge and intellect greater than what was expected from the Flood, and it seems he is quite the ancient entity, Gravemind may posses the knowledge and means to hack into any sort of complex system/technology (software and hardware) as he seemingly has complete control over the teleport system within Installation 05 and perhaps outside the ring (High Charity). As seen at the end of Halo 2, Cortana was left behind at High Charity, and was to detonate the In Amber Clad to destroy both Installation 05 (Delta Halo) and High Charity itself. However, she seems to have delayed her actions in wait for Miranda Keyes and Sergeant Johnson along with the Arbiter to retrieve the Index, thus preventing Installation 05 from being activated. I think she never expected Gravemind himself to come forth and take over High Charity as he did by playing the Arbiter, the Chief and Cortana as she, herself points out. In the end, I think the fact that she accepts to answer Gravemind’s questions willingly hint that Gravemind may have a degree of control over her, otherwise she would not accept so willingly unless Cortana is in fact attempting to play cooperative in order to gather information of the Flood from Gravemind itself, thus gaining the intelligence required to destroy the Flood once and for all.
Her words in the teaser trailer also sounded an awful lot like something Gravemind would say. Note Cortana has a poetic tune when she speaks, and that is somewhat how Gravemind himself talks, (for information on Gravemind’s form of speech, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravemind#Gravemind_.28Flood.29) thus that may be a obscure hint at what may be the truth, Cortana simply is under the control of Gravemind, or is playing Gravemind by acting as though she were under his control. Cortana playing Gravemind is a possibility due to Cortana’s own extreme degree of knowledge. After being within Installation 04’s main system, and a Forerunner ship’s main computer, her data banks may now contain a greater degree of data that could allow how to bypass her own systems in order to appear as though Gravemind may have been successful in hacking, thus taking control of Cortana, while she really is merely acting out of her own will in order to gather data on the Flood, which is still a very obscure life form. In the end, however, all we can do is wait for Halo 3 to confirm our theories.