2004

Inside the Haloverse

 * A temporal rip somehow sends part of The UNSC Apocalypso’s AI, Melissa back to this year. A Covenant AI known as the Seeker comes along for the ride. Melissa was so fragmented and malfunctioning that a built-in program called the System-Peril-Distributed-Reflex was engaged to repair her. The SPDR recognized the Seeker as a harmful foreign application and attempted to kill it. The Seeker knew it could not kill the SPDR itself, so it convinced Melissa that it was an updated version of the SPDR so Melissa would disable "the old version". The Seeker did the SPDR's work in repairing the Melissa and accomplishing various tasks for her, but it also corrupted her goals with its own. Melissa was so fragmented that a buried personality, from the human brain her mind was built from, broke off into another being. This child-like personality called herself the Sleeping Princess and preferred to see things as a fairy tale. The Sleeping Princess, desperate for a friend, befriended the Seeker, whom she named the Pious Flea. The Seeker, who sought the truth, would ask the Princess for information; the Princess taught it human concepts such as fear and humor. In return, the Seeker protected the Princess from Melissa, who wanted to bury her in code. When Melissa managed to imprison the Princess, the Seeker went against its nature and absorbed the Princess without killing her. Instead, it joined the Sleeping Princess' and Melissa's minds together. The resulting being recognized the Seeker as a hostile Covenant AI and attempted to kill the Seeker, but it managed to hide. When the Slipsace rip closed, Melissa was thrown back to her own time. The Seeker, however, was left in the server with the SPDR. This time, the SPDR promptly killed the Seeker.

Real Events

 * November 9: Halo 2 is released in the US and Canada.
 * November 11: Halo 2 is released in Europe.
 * November 16: Half-Life 2 is released in U.S. and on Steam