Har Megiddo

During Mendicant’s journey back to the Ark, a great deal happens on the other side of the line. The Forerunners finally come to the conclusion that the Array must be fired and Didact makes the necessary preparations. Their last resort will finally be realized after centuries of avoiding it.

Although eliminating the Flood is the chief priority, they realize that Mendicant must also be stopped. To do this, they build Offensive Bias. Unlike his older brother, his goal is not to negotiate; he is not made to barter for more time or to study an enemy.

He was made to destroy Mendicant Bias.

Under his charge was the remaining Forerunner fleet of just over 11,000 vessels. They would make war on the Maginot’s doorstep, in the upper-atmosphere of an unknown planet.

[12:H 20:M 00:S] I begin this report with no illusions that it will ever be seen by its intended readers. In all likelihood they have already committed [species-wide suicide] with the goal of preserving biological diversity in this galaxy. I must ensure that this information reaches those who must come after. If I fail in this, how can they not regard my creators’ sacrifice as anything but [a crime without measure]?

Contender AI 05-032<//> Mendicant Bias is returning and has the capacity to bring the enemy through the [Maginot] sphere. The crews of my task force are aware of the opposing fleet’s size; all data indicated that they have prepared themselves – but with biologicals anything is possible.

I will make sure that [malfunctioning equipment] does no further damage. Perhaps its current failure will finally allow it to succeed at the task it was originally created for. [T6-04, 05]

Unflinchingly cold and prepared, Offensive Bias levels his eyes at the oncoming storm. The Halo Array is being primed by Didact on the Ark and soon this part of the Maginot Sphere’s intelligent life will be laid to waste by its power. The charges under Offensive have given themselves completely to the cause and know they will die in their efforts to delay Mendicant’s approach.

There were nearly five million Forerunner vessels at the last great battle. Mendicant’s dreadnought was one of only a handful of survivors.

Interestingly, Offensive refers to Mendicant in a derisive fashion as ‘malfunctioning equipment’ and although he is technically inferior to his older brother, the latter’s insanity will bait a trap and help destroy the parasite. The acerbic language serves to show the antagonism which was borne in Offensive from the moment of his creation.

[11:H 15:M 48:S] Mendicant has burrowed through the sphere exactly where I expected – a direct path from initial rampancy to final retribution. Rage has made it predictable. If the fate of the crew of my auxiliary fleet were not already a forgone conclusion I would rate their chance of survival at [1:1,960,000]. Even though 05-032’s declaration of hostilities simplified strategic preparations; I do not expect an easy fight – just one I cannot lose. [T6-06]

The last is an incredibly powerful line.

Where Mendicant showed intellectual pandering, Offensive Bias shows unwavering resolve. They are two very different sides to the same coin, not only in name, but in their purpose as well. It’s a powerful duality, fueled by purpose and intent.

[07:H 36:M 41:S] My auxiliaries are momentarily stunned by Mendicant’s opening move – 1,784,305 leisure craft ranging from [45 ~ 5769 tonnes] advance in hopes of overwhelming my comparatively tiny force. I do not have enough [weapon systems] to target them all. It is a mathematical certainty that some of them will get through and attempt to board. There isn’t a single warship with this first wave.

It seems my opponent’s rage has left no room for respect. [T6-09]

Even though he is irrevocably outnumbered, Offensive’s plan is easily taking shape during the first part of the battle.

Mendicant attempts to flood his front lines with the large volume of commercial crafts, a vessel-type that makes up the majority of the parasite’s fleet. The ships collide in space, some are killed instantly when the hull is breached and others are successfully boarded by the parasite – their ship, having fallen prey to the Flood’s control, was now part of Mendicant’s fleet. At the rear of the battle, however, Offensive has kept a slew of fighters operated by him alone. They remained at bay, watching and waiting as Mendicant’s fleet consumed the comparatively small Forerunner one.

[00:H 00:M 11:S] Despite all its faults, 05-032 has fought remarkably well. My auxiliaries lay in tatters – more that half of them are now part of the enemy fleet. But just as I had predicted, 05-032 concentrated on them like they were the sole key to victory. Its desire to punish our creators blinded it to the true purpose of my [feints]. I have reduced the combat effectiveness of its core fleet to 79.96 percent. Surely now it must realize that something is amiss. [T6-12]

Having laid siege to the Forerunner ships in their barbaric waves, the parasite has torn its own fleet apart. Although they have infected a number of Offensive’s ships, all of those involved in the fracas have been immobilized by their own aggression. With Offensive playing the victim and Mendicant moving in for the kill, the latter doesn’t realize what was about to happen would not only change the course of the war, but would alter the course of history forever.

[00:H 00:M 00:S] The [Halo effect] strikes our combined fleets. All ships piloted by biologicals are now [adrift]. I can trade Mendicant ship for ship now and still prevail. [T6-13]

With Didact firing the Array, all sentient life within range, including this part of the Maginot Sphere, are destroyed. The Forerunners, the Flood – all of them. The only two who remained in a graveyard of Forerunner ships were Mendicant and Offensive.

The so-called inevitable third step in the universe’s evolution had been brought to its knees. What a powerful moment, when Mendicant had been strategically pummeling the Forerunner forces with savage and unrelenting blows. Now all that were under his command have been reduced to carrion; his fleet becomes a cumbersome strategic compromise rather than an advantage. Offensive now begins to use the once-captured ships which have intermingled with Mendicant’s lines – cutting slipspace ruptures and self-detonating them, which essentially creates a veritable death trap for the enemy fleet. The five million strong are now largely a debris field the size of a planet.

Now fearing for its life, Mendicant takes his network of ships and flees.

[00:H 03:M 00:S] Mendicant was able to postpone its inevitable annihilation for [106:S] with its attempt to flee. But the last of its core vessels hangs before me now; crippled and defeated but still sensate. I could spare it; carve out what is left of its [personality construct array] and deliver it to [Installation Zero] for study. I doubt it would have extended the same courtesy to me. [T6-17]

Since Mendicant operated a network of core ships, part of its essence remained somewhat intact in one of the crafts – although, unbeknownst to Offensive, the core vestige of the corrupt AI was able to escape in a single dreadnought. Offensive salvages what he believes is all that is left of his older brother – scrap metal and circuits – and brings it back to the Ark for research.

We have no idea what happened to Offensive after this incident, but we do know that he served his purpose well. Mendicant would not reappear for one hundred millennia.

Making Amends

When the San ‘Shyuum first discovered the Forerunner dreadnought, they hardly touched it for fear it would blaspheme against their gods, the Forerunners. No one knows if Mendicant hid the vessel on their planet or if they discovered it abandoned in space and retrieved it, but somehow the Prophets of the Covenant secured the dreadnought and the AI construct within it.

Some have contested that the dreadnought was an actual Keyship acquired through unknown means in the wake of the Conservation Measure, but it is likely that this vessel was simply one of the original core ships that Mendicant Bias was commissioned with – endowed with all of the security systems as a Keyship. Eventually, this fact played a huge role in unlocking a gateway which led the Covenant, humanity and the Flood back to the Ark.

As primitive as the Reclaimers were, the Forerunners recognized something special about them.

What was left of Mendicant had burrowed into this massive ship and remained there for a hundred millennia. The Covenant referred to him as an Oracle, despite the fact that he was largely mute and inert – showing little to no signs of life. When the Covenant built their city, High Charity, they did so with the Forerunner dreadnought at its center – drawing power from its amazing resources.

Then, one fateful night, two ambitious San ‘Shyuum politicians changed that. They brought an inquiry with the Forerunner symbol they had long since believed stood for ‘reclamation’ – their process of bringing back Forerunner artifacts for the benefit of their religion.

They soon learned that they had been wrong all along:

< FOR EONS I HAVE WATCHED > The Oracle’s deep voice reverberated inside its casing. Its eye-beam flickered with the cadence of its words as it pronounced in the San ‘Shyuum tongue. < LISTENED TO YOU MISINTERPRET > … < THIS IS NOT RECLAMATION > the Oracle boomed. < THIS IS RECLAIMER > … < AND THOSE IT REPRESENTS ARE MY MAKERS > [CH-03]

< I WILL REJECT MY BIAS AND MAKE AMENDS > … < MY MAKERS ARE MY MASTERS > The Oracle’s teardrop casing rattled inside its armature as if it were trying to take flight with its ship. < I WILL BRING THEM SAFELY TO THE ARK > [CH-04]

The politicians had shown the construct data involving the emergence of a new species they had not been familiar with: humanity. Immediately, Mendicant recognizes them as the chosen ones, the heirs to the Forerunner plan as written about by the Librarian.

He knew in that moment what he must do. He had to return to them, bring them to the Ark safely and complete what he was originally commanded to do: destroy the Gravemind.

And around 25 years later he would be afforded that opportunity. When the Master Chief infiltrated High Charity, his AI compatriot Cortana recognized a powerful presence within the Forerunner ship.

“I’ll do what I can to slow the launch sequence. But there’s something inside the ship, a presence that’s fighting back. For a Covenant construct it’s unusually formidable. No time to admire the view; Truth’s Phantom has reached the Forerunner ship.” [H2-01]

For all of those ages, Mendicant had remained silent.

He was likely pondering those 43 years he spent trying to end his makers’ conflict – looking, finding and then suddenly aiding and abetting the Flood. He could have been the solution to the galactic crisis, had he assaulted the Gravemind he might have won and brought reprieve to billions of souls. Instead, he forced the hand of his makers and laid waste to those billions, the guilty and the innocent, every last sentient being within its path.

Buried in his thoughts, running at the lowest possible capacity, he may have hoped that one day he would be gifted with a chance for atonement. When word of the Flood’s resurgence came through High Charity and the Covenant finally unhinged his vessel from their cityship, his hope began to transform into reality.

100,000 years after the Librarian’s death, her final gateway would be used.

Then came the Master Chief, a reclaimer, the sacred race his Forerunner makers held in high regard. Upon returning to the reclaimer’s homeworld, Mendicant used the dreadnought to unlock a gateway portal which had been left by the Librarian during the Conservation Measure.

He knew that if the Flood had infested High Charity it wouldn’t be long before the Gravemind, the creature he once betrayed his makers for, would return to the Ark in an effort to stop the installations from firing. When the Flood escaped from Delta Halo, it had a full record of the events – the Gravemind that Mendicant aided was one-in-the-same with the Gravemind who would now return to the Ark.

This would be the last opportunity Mendicant would have to right his previous wrongs.

And when he arrived at the Ark, the AI construct found the part which Offensive had stolen from him long ago. Returning himself to a full state of activity, he began to pave the way for the trap he would set. Much like his younger brother, an inferior machine who bested him before at the Maginot Line, Mendicant strategically began to piece together a plan which fit snuggly into the dilemma of the destruction of Installation 04. Whether he knew about Alpha Halo’s bitter end at the hands of the Master Chief or whether the Ark was automatically forging a new replacement ring when he arrived, did not matter.

He would lure the Gravemind to the Ark and then sever its head with the Halo Array as Offensive had 100,000 years ago.

The cartographer was perhaps the second-most critical structure on the Ark, the first being the control room citadel.

With the subtle gestures and images Mendicant had acquired from his first encounter with Cortana, he led the Master Chief to this same solution. High Charity had predictably arrived at the Ark’s doorstep, the Gravemind and the Flood with it. So the Reclaimer went there to find Cortana and the retrieve the Index key to Installation 04; firing the recreated ring world was their last option to crush the Gravemind and the Flood parasite. With the highly-unstable ring being fired, the nearby blast would obliterate the Ark, the ring itself and the parasite in one stone’s throw.

When the Master Chief arrived at the replacement Halo installation to bring this solution to its finality, one final terminal imparted him with a blessing:

You don’t know the contortions I had to go through to follow you here, Reclaimer. I know what you’re here for. What position do I take? Will I follow one betrayal with another? You’re going to say I’m making a habit of turning on my masters. But the one that destroyed me long ago, in the upper atmosphere of a world far distant from here, was an implement far cruder than I. My weakness was capacity – unintentional though it was! – to choose the Flood. A mistake my makers would not soon forgive.

But I want something far different from you, Reclaimer.

Atonement.

And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable – keep you safe. I’m not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed.

And you shall be my example. [T7-08, 09]

It is a touching reminder of how sentient Mendicant truly was; the fault of the Forerunners was that he was made to be too much like them. Their greatest creation finally served his true purpose. When the Master Chief and Cortana escaped the devastation caused by the unstable ring prematurely firing, they ended up near another mysterious Forerunner facility.

Their future will no doubt be tied to this new place and the new story that it brings, but one might wonder if the Forerunners ever learned that he had changed, that Mendicant had sought atonement and forsook the Gravemind so that he could right his wrongs.

All Forerunner installations bear this mark, even those we have yet to visit.

In the end, we learn that only after Mendicant Bias accepted the imposition of peace over the course of those hundred millennia did he realize that the Gravemind had been wrong about one very critical thing. If all things succumb to the imposition of peace at one time or another, the Forerunners were not going to pay the price alone.

The Flood must also endure the universal impositions of nature and existence, including the crushing sound of thunder or the gentle cresting of surf.

They found their peace when the Master Chief eviscerated the parasite’s network by firing a final Halo installation. The threat of the Flood had finally been quelled and Mendicant, in his last breath, fulfilled his original mission.

/vociferous

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