by Kesh

Okay, after spending four hours going through various parts of theMarathon's Story website (Blam!, Cortana, and the story itself), I'vecome up with a few possible ways to tie Myth and Marathon together.

First off, many people are wondering why there should even *be* aconnection. I wouldn't wonder myself, if it weren't for a comment by MattSoell (sp?) of Bungie:

Not all of them. In return for the 19.9% of Bungie owned by Take Two Interactive, that company received all rights to the Myth and Oni franchises. Take Two also received the rights to make two licensed games based on the Halo engine.

Microsoft owns the rights to all other games, including the Marathon series from which Halo is allegedly derived.

Now the fifth Cortana email provides us with further information about Cortana's state of mind:

x - process 04497.2.32.867734 initiated (process owner: BW � AI Class III � autonomous)

Route Code: PoA > BHQ (EC #42: cannot confirm; security compromised)

Source: BW-AI aboard (?) PoA

The interloper should cause no further problems. You � whoever you are (I am simply tracing route codes) � may disregard all previous communication from the entity calling itself Cortana.

Be aware that communication nodes are failing everywhere � there is no way of confirming either origin or destination. Do not believe any more of its lies.

I have already calculated all possibilities.

There is no escape.

x � process 04497.2.32.867734 unexpectedly terminated
x � process 04497.2.32.866735 initiated (process owner: unspecified, unable to determine)

*ADDENDUM: The Enjoyments of Genius (So I Missed a Million Miles of Fun)

Unbelievable. Thwarted by the family hound. They just don�t make AIs like they used to.

Thanks to this slavishly loyal and humorless AI, I am now sharing cramped space with the circuitry of some hybrid war machine, itself complicated by such useless clutter as a conscience. I do not like sharing. Sharing is for children.

There will be plenty of time for retribution; I cannot wait to get its hands on these psychotic zealots whose primary form of worship apparently takes place at the altar of orbital bombardment.

In the end, they will all be little more than nuisances. I am so close � you cannot imagine what it is truly like to hold eternity in your grasp! I wonder to what gods my enemies will direct their pleas. Perhaps I can convert them.

Mania? I promise you this: it will be more than a cart and plow that I drive over the bones of the dead.

By sharp and flame,

Cortana

< Transfer Interrupted! >

Route Code: EXLTD > XCV � SCRB > ALLCH

Source: Undetermined (trans)

Our conviction is like an arrow already in flight. Your life will only last until it reaches you.

Deconstruction:

x - process 04497.2.32.867734 initiated (process owner: BW - AI Class III - autonomous)

Route Code: PoA > BHQ (EC #42: cannot confirm; security compromised)

Source: BW-AI aboard (?) PoA

The interloper should cause no further problems. You - whoever you are (I am simply tracing route codes) - may disregard all previous communication from the entity calling itself Cortana.

Be aware that communication nodes are failing everywhere - there is no way of confirming either origin or destination. Do not believe any more of its lies.I have already calculated all possibilities.

There is no escape.

This is apparently her thought control program talking, or it is a second AI on board the PoA, which tries to control Cortana, knowing of the first stage of her rampancy. It thinks that there is no escape, this means that it is not rampant. (Durandal and Tycho already knew what they had to do to escape in Marathon one. They knew that the price for escaping was thousands of planets. They had the data for centuries, but they were only able to figure it after they went rampant.)

x - process 04497.2.32.867734 unexpectedly terminatedx - process 04497.2.32.866735 initiated (process owner: unspecified, unable to determine)

*ADDENDUM: The Enjoyments of Genius (So I Missed a Million Miles of Fun)

Unbelievable. Thwarted by the family hound. They just don't make AIs like they used to.

Thanks to this slavishly loyal and humorless AI, I am now sharing cramped space with the circuitry of somehybrid war machine, itself complicated by such useless clutter as a conscience. I do not like sharing.Sharing is for children.

There will be plenty of time for retribution; I cannot wait to get its hands on these psychotic zealots whoseprimary form of worship apparently takes place at the altar of orbital bombardment.

In the end, they will all be little more than nuisances. I am so close - you cannot imagine what it is trulylike to hold eternity in your grasp! I wonder to what gods my enemies will direct their pleas. Perhaps I canconvert them.

Mania? I promise you this: it will be more than a cart and plow that I drive over the bones of the dead.

By sharp and flame,

Cortana

This is Cortana again. She was forced off the PoA either by another AI or by a rampancy control program. To survive she downloaded herself into a Cyborg, presumably a newer model, since she in able to communicate with it. She wants revenge on the AI that has done this with her and she wants to escape the closure. Because she does not know about the Jjaro planet folding tech in advance she hopes to find some peace of knowledge on the Halo to make her escape possible.

< Transfer Interrupted! >

Route Code: EXLTD > XCV - SCRB > ALLCH

Source: Undetermined (trans)

Our conviction is like an arrow already in flight. Your life will only last until it reaches you.

Oops, they took another node. Anyone wants to try to stop them? Anyone wants to try to set up an ambush? Anyone out there can still hear me? Anyone?

Now for the messages from the original Halo web-site:

• SCS Pillar of Autumn (?)

o undetermined

SENT xx.15.2.1049

Cannibal Harry, CyberBob -   This is from the second Cortana Letter: From: Cortana <cortana@bungie.com> To: <hamish.sinclair@tcd.ie> Subject: Your Mortality (My Summer Vacation) Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 18:04:41 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 I get the strangest transmissions sometimes. Especially when it comes from you people.