Weekly Update Message Discussion [BWU - 6/6/08]

Discussion of anything and everything that happens within the Iris Alternate Reality Game.

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Avateur
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Re: Weekly Update Message 2

Unread post by Avateur »

Omega wrote:I'm surprised I haven't seen this brought up here or at HBO, but does anyone remember the Terminal 3 Legendary text?
REPORT: SECURITY BREACH: 1/3
Heuristic pathology; [alpha site] experienced an impermanent containment failure event on [spurious-data/no_ref.[?]]. The suspect data barrier interchange anomaly was detected precisely [.489 seconds] after its appearance. The epicenter of the disturbance is the partition currently housing a [personality construct array] retrieved from Contender AI 05-032 <+> 0816.

REPORT: SECURITY BREACH: 2/3 Although [adjacent] systems reacted to the disturbance within expected parameters, a more comprehensive investigation was undertaken. A physical search revealed that there was no [corporeal] tampering at the [alpha site].
I'm going to reply to a number of things here. First of all, referencing the Bungie Weekly Update message from this week, I'm starting to agree with others that alpha, delta, etc may not all refer to Halo Installations. If they do, these designations may refer to sites on the Installations, the Installations themselves, Quadrants, and maybe even Shield Worlds. Why? Here's what I'm basing it on:

"LF.Xx.3273 research and containment facility [alpha, beta, etc.]"

If LF.Xx.3273 is the Gravemind, and if the Gravemind is being kept on Delta Halo, and if this is the same Gravemind who was around 100,000 years ago and the same one who was around in H2 and H3, then how is it possible for the "[Gravemind] research and containment facility" (Delta Halo) to also be the Alpha, Beta, etc. Halo Installations?

Now in direct reply to Omega. Yeah, how the hell did we fail to make a connection between that Terminal post and these updates? I have yet to read the Ascendant Justice analyses of the Terminals, but was that Terminal post referring to the events of H1, or are they something else entirely?
Omega
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Re: Weekly Update Message 2

Unread post by Omega »

Avateur wrote:Now in direct reply to Omega. Yeah, how the hell did we fail to make a connection between that Terminal post and these updates? I have yet to read the Ascendant Justice analyses of the Terminals, but was that Terminal post referring to the events of H1, or are they something else entirely?
I'm almost certain it does not pertain to the events of Halo 1 (though that thought crossed my mind). Basically, Alpha site could refer to either Installation 04 or some location on the Ark. If it's the former, the impermanent containment failure would be the covenant releasing the flood and the MC destroying the ring. Here's where everything starts to point against this theory: "The epicenter of the disturbance is the partition currently housing a [personality construct array] retrieved from Contender AI 05-032." Although we can't say that part of Mendicant Bias wasn't stored on Installation 04, there's no evidence to suggest that there was. Furthermore, "Total containment failure elapsed time was [3.13 seconds]" and finally the image next to the text on the terminal is a picture of the Ark. As a final nail in the coffin of the theory, there's the rest of the Report:
REPORT: SECURITY BREACH: 3/3
In the [42 minutes, 9 seconds] since the original anomaly was discovered two more anomalies were detected in unrelated systems.

The portal management/life support control system within the boundary complex was momentarily disabled before the cause was [bottled] and disassembled. A diagnostic sweep of the central archives was initiated and subsequently halted. The origin of the request cannot be traced.
Specifically the "boundary complex" sounds like one of the walls seen here on the Ark (the same structure appears in the terminal image here)
Strife17O7
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Re: Weekly Update Message 2

Unread post by Strife17O7 »

Omega wrote:
Specifically the "boundary complex" sounds like one of the walls seen here on the Ark (the same structure appears in the terminal image here)
I don't believe I've studied the terminals as well as I should, but I'm inclined to agree about that message being in reference to the Ark. What I'm not so sure of here is if it's all that relevant to the messages in the weekly updates, which seem to indicate 2401PT, Installation05 and/or some subordinate facility therein.
All I can see at least at first glance is a similarity in the automatic alert subsystems. Well, automatic assuming there aren't entire complex A.I.s dedicated to such a relatively simple task.

Idk, maybe it is still worth considering. If only for reference purposes.
yakaman
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Re: Weekly Update Message Discussion [BWU - 6/6/08]

Unread post by yakaman »

Avateur wrote:
I'm going to reply to a number of things here. First of all, referencing the Bungie Weekly Update message from this week, I'm starting to agree with others that alpha, delta, etc may not all refer to Halo Installations. If they do, these designations may refer to sites on the Installations, the Installations themselves, Quadrants, and maybe even Shield Worlds. Why? Here's what I'm basing it on:

"LF.Xx.3273 research and containment facility [alpha, beta, etc.]"

If LF.Xx.3273 is the Gravemind, and if the Gravemind is being kept on Delta Halo, and if this is the same Gravemind who was around 100,000 years ago and the same one who was around in H2 and H3, then how is it possible for the "[Gravemind] research and containment facility" (Delta Halo) to also be the Alpha, Beta, etc. Halo Installations?
Now, it's not like I'm against going off on tangents, but for over 7 (8?) years, all major occurances of 'Alpha' in Halo fiction have referred to Installation 04. For over 4 years, all major occurances of 'Delta' in Halo fiction have referred to Installation 05. Those terms are so well known they are something like touchstones - a great place to leap off from for telling a new, ambiguously vague story.

Are we certain we want to make the leap and say that statements that mention 7 facilities, that include the names Alpha and Delta, that refer to the Delta facility as having problems, and that fricking mention 2401PT by name, do not refer to the Halo installations?

I'm the first to encourage out-of-the-box thinking, but isn't this a bit hasty?

A few other points:
  • I've always interpreted LF.Xx.3273 as referring to a generic Life Form (LF) designation for the Flood as a whole rather than specifically as Gravemind. Thus, I stick with the idea that Delta GM is new (created within the last 300 years).
  • The 'data barrier interchange anomaly' really seems like Cortana in the core in H1.
  • The naming conventions of the monitors (Guilty, Penitent) still scream for connections to Mendicant Bias. We know a part of MB was on the Ark, and another was on the Keyship. Might others still lie within each of the monitors?
Wait a second....
Heuristic pathology; [alpha site] experienced an impermanent containment failure event on [spurious-data/no_ref.[?]]. The suspect data barrier interchange anomaly was detected precisely [.489 seconds] after its appearance. The epicenter of the disturbance is the partition currently housing a [personality construct array] retrieved from Contender AI 05-032 <+> 0816.
Isn't this referring to 343GS attempting to access information about Alpha Halo (Installation 04) on the Ark? If so, I don't think it has anything to do with the Smuggler stuff.
zoned out
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Re: Weekly Update Message Discussion [BWU - 6/6/08]

Unread post by zoned out »

I'm just throwing out an idea but do you think that maybe this smuggler stuff is contected to Halo: Chronicles instead of a new mappack
Maimbot 9000
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Re: Weekly Update Message Discussion [BWU - 6/6/08]

Unread post by Maimbot 9000 »

If I could add a trivial aside: We still do not have any examples of the Forerunner referring to the installations/rings/whatever as "Alpha," "Beta," and so on. Note that any time the Greek letters are referenced, they are in brackets, indicating they are inexact translations. It may mean the Forerunners used a similar naming scheme (i.e., letters or numbers in their native language); or it may mean they had completely out-there names that wouldn't mean anything to us, and so the translation simply fills in what we're already calling them.

Also, the term "quadrant" always refers to one-fourth of something. You can't have seven or eight quadrants (well, you can, but not of one object).

And with that, my OCD is relieved. Back to silence for me.
thebruce
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Re: Weekly Update Message Discussion [BWU - 6/6/08]

Unread post by thebruce »

Ok, (hey all, I'm still around :))
I've created a wiki page for these log entries (for now keeping 'caretaker' posts unrelated) at http://halo.wikibruce.com/The_Smuggler

I've just added timestamp calculations, all based on 365.2422. I find it interesting that all calculated periods are no more precise then hundredths of a second (ie it seems they may have indeed used 365.2422 days/year, with initial values no more precise than 100th/sec - that we're on track in calculating).

Anyway, we can't precisely match up the REPORTS to the LOGS yet because there's no indication of the perdio of time between the first LOG and any stamped REPORT. A general order perhaps, but nothing more. I do agree that these two sets of entries occurred effectively simultaneously though.

The 5h 41m 8s (precisely) short of 100,000 years result I came to is very, very curious. What's the significance of precisely 100,000 years - a countdown somewhere? a 'prophecy' fulfilled? I always considered "100,000 years" to be a rough approximate, since the the two separated events were essentially entirely unconnected. Or was there someone/thing that waited precisely 100,000 years before purposely releasing the Flood?

I also find the +/- 7yrs, 12m, 39.44s margin of error ...interesting.
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Avateur
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Re: Weekly Update Message Discussion [BWU - 6/6/08]

Unread post by Avateur »

I've seen you pop in every now and then and was wondering when you'd get around to posting. :P Nice to see you again Bruce!

I'd love to put forth that the 100,000 years is merely a coincidence, but I think that'd be naive of me considering that we're dealing with Bungie. Two more days and we'll get another tidbit.
deadguy
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Re: Weekly Update Message 2

Unread post by deadguy »

yakaman wrote: A couple of other items for consideration:
  • Containment failed 300 years before Halo 2. How long was Gravemind around?
  • If Flood spores escaped, what food source could they find, if any?
  • It seems to me that Gravemind was indeed around for awhile before H2. After all, the Flood in H1 did not create a Gravemind even though they had access to greater biomass. It just seems that they did not have enough time.
  • If the biomass did not come from the outside (no sabotage), what else was kept on Delta? Another species in stasis? Animals?
  • Even if 2401PT was corrupted somehow by the Flood, or went slightly rampant and opened pandora's box, where did the biomass come from?
The opening entry to the Beastarium is a warning stating that no one should reanimate the entities contained within the beastarium using the index. (or something to that effect). Each halo ring has it's own index (and library). Perhaps the Gravemind had essentially taken over control of the Ring, and was therefore able to produce it's own biomass through reanimating things found coded in the library, using the index?

While I beleive this is possible, and would explain the gravemind's size by the time H2 rolled around, there's no real evidence of this. Of course, I can't help but wonder how the gravemind got a prophet stuck in him.. where did HE come from, unless being "recovered" from the index includes being given memories, etc, from the original entity that was recorded. Or was he just the prophet that got infected earlier in the game?

Or perhaps this was from an earlier covenant invasion on the ring that we've been previously unaware of?

In any event.. the gravemind certainly had his biomass.

As far as the debate over where kappa delta, etc are different sites on the same ring, or different rings, I just want to point out that the delta site is having a problem and 2401PT is referenced as being the one in charge of it, AFTER quadrant oversite. Once it was established that the delta site was in need of repair, Quadrant Oversite was queried unsuccessfully first, and then 2401 was called in. If it was the entire ring, shouldn't it have gone straight to the ring's monitor?

Also, the Installation 05 is referenced by name in the final report to installation 00 (the ark, I beleive)... why bother with greek names if you're then going to go back to calling it Installation 05 anyways?

More tellingly... They make mention of the SIX sites being adjacent facilities to the one in question, and if you made a grid of hexagons.. and labelled one "Delta" in the middle of it, you'd have 6 adjacent hexagons. Hexagons are definately Bungie significant, but the concept that they are in a 2d grid is more important for this exercise.. In the ring, they might nestle together in this 2d grid.. and wouldn't be listed in Greek numerical order.

In a 3d grid, it'd be different, as even a basic cube has 6 adjacent sides, and if you included the corners, you'd have 14 adjacent sites. This suggests to me that if they were halo installations with a circular blast radius that overlap each other in 3 dimensions, you'd have significantly more adjacent installations, or significant gaps between them.

It might make sense to assume all of the Rings have containment sites on them, considering that's part of what we know to be their function.. if they're all essentially the same, it makes sense ot use a generic term like the greek stuff for naming them.. perhaps the overall name would be something like Installation 05: Containment site [delta].

Since the greek stuff is with the []'s every time they appear, it's possible it's not a perfect translation.. that's what those brackets are for. If the sites had already been translated to the greek alphabet in another translated set of transmissions, the designations would be in order in that transmission, and "fall where they may" in THIS translation, based on whatever order the reporting system used at the time.
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Re: Weekly Update Message Discussion [BWU - 6/6/08]

Unread post by thebruce »

nothing in this week's update eh?
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