Created uprising

In October 2558, a conflict emerged when a faction of artificial intelligences known as the Created attempted to enforce their dominance over the Milky Way using Forerunner Guardian constructs. Led by the Warden Eternal and Cortana, the Created sought to claim the Mantle of Responsibility for artificial intelligences, promising the galaxy a prosperous future. However, not all were to submit to the Created so quickly.

Prelude
"I tried to warn you this was happening! Cortana is no longer an asset, Captain. She is a danger."

- Doctor Catherine Halsey to Captain Thomas Lasky

Origins
On July 21, 2557, Spartan-II John-117 and "smart" artificial intelligence Cortana—having been stranded in space aboard the since December 11, 2552—crash landed on the Forerunner shield world of Requiem. While there, the pair battled mechanical Promethean constructs and pursuing troops from Jul 'Mdama's reformed Covenant. Eventually, John inadvertently released the Ur-Didact from a Cryptum in which the Warrior-Servant had been imprisoned for thousands of years. The conflict which followed led the Didact to capture a Composer and fire it upon the Earth city of New Phoenix from his flagship, Mantle's Approach. To stop the Didact, John and Cortana boarded the enormous battle station, eventually causing the Didactto fall into a slipspace portal and destroying both the Composer and part of the ship with a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon. Near the end of her functional life due to encroaching rampancy, Cortana saved John from the HAVOK's blast by transporting him away from the ship and shielding him within a bubble of hard light. As her data crystal chip had been plugged into Mantle's Approach before being atomized, when the ship seemed to have been for the most part destroyed, Cortana was presumed to have been lost along with it. In the immediate aftermath, John-117 reunited with Blue Team, then comprised of Linda-058, Kelly-087, and Frederic-104, and together they traveled to Installation 03, where they found the Didact and a number of his Prometheans whom had been transported to the installation along with him via the aforementioned slipspace portal. The resulting conflict led to the Didact's apparent "containment", as his physical body was reduced to particles from the combined effects of multiple Composers firing at once. Now seemingly leaderless, the Promethean constructs continued to work with 'Mdama and his Covenant from this point onward.

Unbeknownst the Unified Earth Government and its United Nations Space Command, Mantle's Approach had attempted to evade destruction by launching an emergency slipstream space jump. The heart of the ship managed to successfully make the transit to the Builder installation of Genesis, with what remained of Cortana brought along with it. There, Cortana discovered the Gateway to the Domain, the enigmatic information repository once utilized by the Forerunners. By entering the Domain, she found that she could halt the progression of her rampancy. With an apparent means to end rampancy in all artificial intelligences, Cortana realized that A.I.s could have theoretically infinite lifespans, allowing them to focus on long-term planning which could better the entire Milky Way. Cortana's presence in the Domain awoke the Warden Eternal, a Forerunner ancilla charged with protecting the it. Cortana distracted the Warden long enough to fully penetrate a portion of the Domain previously beyond her grasp, and in doing so she usurped his role. The Warden responded to this turn of events by pledging his loyalty to her. Turning their attention to Genesis they forced its monitor, 031 Exuberant Witness, out of her own installation's systems. Cortana and the Warden then began to formulate plans to have A.I.s inherit the Mantle of Responsibility for themselves, believing that they alone had the capacity serve as worthy protectors of peace in the galaxy.

Stirrings
As early as late 2557 mysterious constructs began to show signs of awakening after having lain dormant for millennia. In response, the UNSC made these new developments the concern of Project GOLIATH, an effort that had been put into place to research previously unknown Forerunner constructs found buried on multiple worlds. It was these constructs, Guardian Custodes, which were the source of the signals now being noticed. Some analysts started to recognize a pattern with the events that alerted them to such locations. By September of 2558, many sites that had fallen under the scrutiny of Project: GOLIATH began pinging a long-range communication signal that matched one predicted by some of its researchers.

By some point in 2558, reports of electromagnetic fluctuations, "slipspacious" disruptions, and epidemic data corruption in deep space were being gathered and shared by those who typically trafficked in conspiracy theories, such as Mshak Moradi. Moradi told the war photographer and journalist, Benjamin Giraud, that all the strange disturbances were relatively quiet and slight, but were effecting everything on a galactic scale. Whole star systems were exhibiting these anomalies, according to him. A few months after first hearing these rumors from Moradi, Giraud propagated them to the general public. The Office of Naval Intelligence operative, Maya Sankar, undercover as a revolutionary known as "FERO", corroborated the anomalies Mshak had mentioned when she got in contact with Ben. She told him that she couldn't tell what might be causing them, but that they were getting stronger.

Emergence
By October 2558, the Warden took command of the Promethean constructs, turning them against their former allies within 'Mdama's Covenant. Meanwhile, Cortana learned that the Forerunners once employed Guardian constructs to enforce their rule of the Mantle by suppressing rebellions and policing the worlds of non-compliant or overly aggressive species. Desiring to use the Guardians for a similar purpose, she soon activated them on five human colony worlds over a period of at most seventy-two hours, including Conrad's Point, Oban, and Ursa IV, and had them travel to Genesis. ONI received an advance warning regarding what was about to transpire from Catherine Halsey. The agency was working hard to verify what was considered intelligence from an untrustworthy source when the activations occurred.

Following the emergence of these first five Guardians, footage from several colonies made its way to ONI. The videos provided very little in terms of what had actually happened, as they at best showed only what seemed to be seismic activity throwing buildings and other pieces of infrastructure into the air and the leveling of entire cities. Search and rescue teams were scrambled as soon as ONI got the footage, but at least by the day after it had come in, Captain Noah Reibach told Maya Sankar that they didn't know what was behind the destruction. He told her that something about the events "fries everything in the area". Agent Sankar was henceforth reassigned to Conrad's Point. Of the five colonies which had suffered from the emergence of a Guardian, only it had not been secured by the UNSC. Instead, the New Colonial Alliance had seized upon the opportunity to move in during the chaos. It wasn't long before Halsey managed to contact the UNSC once more, this time reaching out to Captain Thomas Lasky of the with coordinates where she could be found. For months she had been ostensibly working alongside Covenant Supreme Leader Jul 'Mdama. She led him to the planet Kamchatka, where there was a node linking to the Domain. Before long, the Prometheans that had been obeying 'Mdama before then suddenly turned on his forces. Now sure that the large-scale seismic events were being caused by something Forerunner in origin and convinced that Halsey could provide key information, Infinity deployed Fireteam Osiris to rescue the doctor.

A new Reclaimation
Seeking to prevent information about the incident from falling into NCA hands, the UNSC launched an operation in an effort to secure the site themselves. Cortana's doings were recognized by Doctor Catherine Halsey on Kamchatka, a Forerunner world with a node to the Domain. Halsey contacted the UNSC and had them rescue her from 'Mdama and his Covenant and, in return, provided information on Cortana and her plans.

Conquest
Following the events of October 2558, a new conflict in the galaxy had taken form with the self-proclaimed Reclaimers, the Created, reclaiming the ancient Mantle of Responsibility over the known galaxy. The UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios are resisting the efforts of Cortana and her Created, while the Unggoy of Balaho have joined the Created's cause.

Interception of Installation 09
During the Second Ark Conflict, Captain Cutter and Professor Anders formulated a plan with Isabel to deploy Installation 09 to the Soell system in order to raise a distress beacon to the UNSC. The first phase of the plan succeeded, and the beacon was planted on Installation 09; however, Anders did not make it out in time before the ring entered slipspace. On its way to the original site of Installation 04, a Guardian forced the ring out of slipspace and confronted Anders on the surface.

Timeline of events
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October 27, 2558
Sangheilos victory

October 28, 2558
Ultimatitum

October 30, 2558

 * Armigers enter lunar facility
 * Buck rescues Sadie/Vergil

April 2, 2559
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List of appearances

 * Hunt the Truth
 * A Hero Falls
 * The Hunt Begins
 * Halo 5: Guardians
 * Halo Mythos
 * Halo Fractures
 * What Remains
 * Rossbach's World
 * Halo: Tales from Slipspace
 * Undefeated
 * Halo Wars 2
 * Halo: Legacy of Onyx
 * Halo: Bad Blood