Didact's Gift

Were you looking for the Spartan Ops chapter? "An alien AI full of human memories."

- Dr. Catherine Halsey, after discovering the artifact's true nature. The "Didact's Gift" is a Forerunner artifact discovered on Requiem. It is a memory storage device known as a Durance, containing the AI matrix or "soul" of a Promethean Knight.

History
At some point in 2558, Jul 'Mdama's Covenant forces acquired the "Gift". During Fireteam Crimson's pursuit of 'Mdama, Commander Sarah Palmer called in an airstrike which forced the Sangheili to drop the device during his escape. Crimson quickly secured the device and brought it to Galileo Base for examination. A joint Covenant-Promethean force attacked the base to retrieve the artifact, though they were repelled by Fireteam Crimson. Fireteam Majestic arrived soon after to secure it. In reality, 'Mdama purposefully dropped the device to be recovered and ordered the attack to help sell its importance to the UNSC.

The Gift was taken aboard the, where it was studied by Dr. Catherine Halsey and the ship's AI, Roland. Upon being tampered with, the outer casing of the device split into multiple levitating fragments, revealing an object within that Dr. Halsey noted was similar to a UNSC AI matrix. Suddenly, the device released an energy burst, and began to display images on the room's monitors; these were then identified as human memories harvested by the Composer during the Didact's attack on New Phoenix, URNA six months prior. One of these images showed another mysterious Forerunner artifact that was currently located in the Infinity's docking bay, indicating that the artifact was present in New Phoenix during the attack. 'Mdama, who had been communicating in secret with Halsey, set it up so that she would receive the Gift as proof of his intentions and before she was caught, Halsey told 'Mdama that it contained exactly what he had promised.

Upon contacting 'Mdama, Halsey cites that only "the Didact's Hand" could've offered her a Promethean soul as the reason she was able to identify him.

List of appearances

 * Halo 4
 * Spartan Ops
 * Halo: Escalation