Cortana antagonist plot for Halo 5/6?

[Jesse Rayner]

What if there's a plot for Cortana to come back in Halo 5 or 6 as the antagonist? Here's my line of thought:

 

In Halo 2 at the end of the level High Charity we see Cortana and Chief split up, and towards the end of the game we see Cortana with Gravemind. In the level Floodgate, when Chief recovers the oracle with Cortana's message, it seems as thought there's degradation in her phsyche or personality. This is shown once again in the level Cortana when Chief finds her, and further more when she starts to babble and utter nonsense when they're on their way to the Pelican. If we stick to the story line put place in Halo 4 those are the first moments when we see the very beginnings of her rampancy. As the story progresses in Halo 4 we see her slowly starting to fall apart until finally she completely loses it in Composer. Finally, in the last level, she appears in a physical form, meets with Chief, and leaves.

 

This is my theory: Between the time when Cortana is separated from Chief in Halo 2, spends time with Gravemind, and is recovered in Halo 3 she has, in essence, become institutionalized by Gravemind, resulting in her turning against the human race. She is able to use her knowledge of the human race from the time since she was created up until now to devise a way to get rid of them. This theory can be supported by another instance where Gravemind institutionalized another AI, turning it against it's creators. 05-032 Mendicant Bias was the most advance AI of his time, created by The Forerunners, tasked to defend against the Flood. This AI is brought up in transcripts in the terminals in Halo 3 which tell of this story. This goes back to Cortana. At the end of Halo 4 she defends Chief during his encounter with the Didact, I think she could have done this to help lead Chief into thinking she is still on his side, which also eliminates an opponent of Gravemind's. Now she is also able to gain physical form using Forerunner technology, which is shown when she physically meets with Chief before leaving him. Something else I've though about is what if Cortana's rampancy is showing her true side, showing a much darker side, and the rampancy was actually causing he to lose control over hiding it? This could have also forced her into taking a physical form, eliminate the Didact, and separate herself from Chief.

 

As a player of the games since Halo CE, reader of the books, and an avid follower of the Halo Universe, I have been extremely pleased with how the story of Halo and the universe has formed. IF there was any truth behind this theory I would be extremely mind blown and rather impressed by how Bungie/343i formatted the games to lead up to this. Of course this is all just theory.

[DurandelFTW]

very interesting i like where you're going with this it would definitely make an intriguing story, my only flaw with this is that mendicant bias took (i believe) 42 years (correct me if i'm wrong) but cortana is not of the same power on stuff. but over all very interesting

[Hater]

Very interesting.

[DethNade]

Cortana & the rest of the AI's that they great don't last longer then 5 to 7 years of the AI's brain gets overwhelmed from the data they get so the AI gos crazy and shuts down. I think when she uploaded her self into the forerunners system's at the end by splitting them apart it my save her by taking all the data divided it to the forerunners system's by saving her to not shut down and go crazy or she just use a back up floppy disk when she split her self and it's floating in space to this day. If 343inds takes my idea iam looking for a job, i have great ides for story's, thanks lol

[D-38 Boss]

Eh... It's an interesting plot idea, but i doubt it.

[Caboose The Ace]

maybe but i would be cool if chief gets a new cortna but there is some many cool postibltes to do wth her now i cannot wai 4 halo 5 and arbitbters back yay

[PlexVanguard]

That would destroy every single purpose for cortana. She has always been there to save chief when he needed saving. It's not in her nature to turn her back on chief.

[mattojimmy]

I think there are many possible Antagonists for future games..
 

The Precursors. They were the father race of the forerunners and were defeated by them; they were also known for possibly creating the flood as the flood originated in a Precursor factory (Halo: Cryptum). In the various Halo media it describes some surviving and not a full fate of the Precursors. The Precursors could somehow be at one of the sites given to Dr. Halsey was given by the Librarian (episodes in Spartan Ops) and somehow awoken, given power or take control of the Covenant remnant or something.

 

Mendicant Bias. Mendicant Bias was an AI created by the forerunners to eradicate the flood, but was turned by the gravemind to attack the enemies of the flood. Offensive Bias was created and destroyed Mendicant Bias, or just weakened him. It would make a good storyline if he was somehow brought back the same way the precursors were or some other way, and have a near apocalyptic earth experience like in Halo for with the Didact.

 

Forerunner Prisoner. This one was a random one I came up with as I was brain storming. Somehow the UNSC stumbles upon a planet with a Forerunner facility, but is really a prison and somehow accidentally a notorious evil guy escapes and attempts to activate the halo rings or some ultra-big Forerunner structure like the Ark.

 

Jul Mdama. The leader of the Covenant Remnant, who is ruthless and dedicated covenant beliefs. He could some how find out about some old ancient Covenant legend about some powerful Forerunner, Weapon, or Place in which he battles the UNSC to get there first. He will like try to attempt to become powerful, take over the Covenant/Sanghelli and rule the galaxy.

 

These were just a few ides I though of while I was 'coco' and was brainstorming. I came up with these in like 5 minutes so sorry I could not give a full thought out explanation for each but I think this is good for the discussion.