Monitor
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Monitor | |
|---|---|
| |
| Overview | |
|
Role: |
Caretaking, maintenance, security, combat support |
|
Length: |
58 centimetres (22.9 in)[1] |
|
Height: |
51 centimetres (19.9 in)[1] |
|
Armament: |
Pulse weapon; Monitor laser weapon |
|
Armor: |
Extremely strong casing; advanced energy shield capable of repelling all conventional weaponry |
- "Greetings! I am the monitor of Installation 04. I am 343 Guilty Spark."
- — 343 Guilty Spark introducing himself to John-117[2]
A monitor is a general-purpose Sentinel, containing a high-tier artificial intelligence construct, or ancilla.[3]
The Covenant refer to monitors as Oracles; they revere the "Oracles" for their wisdom and believe that they are key to the fulfillment of the Great Journey.[4]
Description[edit]
Appearance[edit]
A monitor's body consists of a roughly spherical shape that is concave on three sides, with an illuminated photoreceptor located on the front of the orb. A monitor's silvery metal covering is reminiscent of other Forerunner constructs, though their spherical shapes stand in contrast to the polygonal, angular shapes commonly seen in other Forerunner creations. Some parts of a monitor are elaborately designed, while other parts are intricately simple.[5] Monitors were generally 58 centimetres (22.9 in) in length and 51 centimetres (19.9 in) in height,[1] however some differed in size; the Warden was smaller than average, for example.[6]
The photoreceptors of a monitor vary in color, including blue,[2][7][8][9] red,[10][11] orange, yellow, white,[12] green,[6][13] and purple.[14][12] However, some, if not all monitors' photoreceptors can change color; for example, the photoreceptors of 343 Guilty Spark, 117649 Despondent Pyre, and 859 Static Carillon were both generally blue, though they turned red when they were in combative states.[15][8][13] 2401 Penitent Tangent's[10] and 686 Ebullient Prism's[11] photoreceptors were perpetually red, despite no evidence of combat-related behavior.[16] The Warden's photoreceptor was dull green.[6]
343 Guilty Spark and 2401 Penitent Tangent both possessed high-pitched, tinny voices. 049 Abject Testament's voice also had a tinny quality, but was notably deeper.[12]
The central core of the monitor is known as the encephalon.[17]
Functions and capabilities[edit]
Should a monitor be damaged, it is capable of self-repair.[18] The most significant command monitors were often backed up in multiple duplicates; should one of them be destroyed, its consciousness would continue to exist in another physical shell.[19] While monitors are authorized to use all recovery measures available to them at the facility they are assigned to, the construction of new or replacement monitors must be approved by fleet command.[20] Monitors are given access to their assigned installation's translocation grid, allowing them to quickly move across the span of the installation. For long-distance travel outside their installations, monitors are equipped with impulse drives.[21][22]
Monitors' software intrusion capabilities are significantly beyond those of the defenses of the modern-day UNSC; even in a barely functioning, all but destroyed state, 343 Guilty Spark bypassed the Office of Naval Intelligence's AI-enhanced computer security aboard UNSC Rubicon with startling ease.[23] The UNSC team interrogating Spark was also completely unable to extract data from the Forerunner AI without his own volition, remarking that merely probing through the firewalls' outer fractals would take "a million years" in addition to their computers' total inability to mimic the monitor's central controller.[24] Over the course of these intrusions, Spark was also able to covertly upload his personality construct array into the ship's computers and take control of the ship; this did not becom