Intrepid Eye

Intrepid Eye is an of the Forerunner ecumene, charged with protecting Covert Support Base 4276 on Gao. After being awakened in 2553, she began a series of rogue operations to prepare humanity to assume the Mantle of Responsibility. After causing a great deal of chaos, she was finally destroyed by the 's MAC in October 2559.

Creation
When the Forerunner-Flood war began, Intrepid Eye was created on Shaps III—a once-populous Forerunner colony then known as Wuatera Thresis—to aid in defense against the Flood. The Ecumene Council charged Intrepid Eye with commanding and monitoring Covert Support Base 4276, a Jat-Krula Support Base built into the expansive cave system beneath the surface of the planet Gao in the Cordoba system; the facility supported Line Installation 444-447 on Shaps III in the Shaps system. In addition, Intrepid Eye was tasked with ensuring the secrecy of the support facility. Intrepid Eye was supported by a complement of Huragok, consisting of several of the Builders' Engineers to help maintain the Support Base and one Lifeworker Huragok—Roams Alone.

At some point during the war, the Flood began to utilize the logic plague to attack Forerunner ancillas, the commander of the Jat-Krula had Intrepid Eye placed in deep stasis at Covert Support Base 4276 to prevent her from becoming destroyed or subverted by the plague, promising to awaken her when her support base was required to defeat the Flood. However, the ecumene failed to effectively combat the Flood and fired the Halo Array to defeat the parasite. Following the event, the surviving Forerunners left the Milky Way, leaving Intrepid Eye behind in stasis.

Awakening
On April 14, 2553, Shaps III was partially glassed by the Pious Inquisitor. In response, Line Installation 444-447 sent an automated distress signal to Covert Support Base 4276, awakening Intrepid Eye from her stasis. She requested a status report, but her calls were left unanswered. When she attempted to launch a reconnaissance drone, a massive cave-in occurred that killed all Huragok but Roams Alone and left Covert Support Base 4276 entirely nonfunctional; the base's external communications array was damaged and the only one that picked up Intrepid Eye's distress signal was Commander Murtag Nelson of the United Nations Space Command. While investigating the problem with the communications array, Intrepid Eye began to realize that the cave system was now "infested" with humans that had since colonized Gao. Intrepid Eye was tempted to simply kill the intruding humans, but held back as this would have violated protocol and compromised the base's secrecy. To her frustration, however, the intensely curious Roams Alone started to inspect the humans and attend to any illnesses some of them had, though he eliminated the memories of his or Intrepid Eye's presence. The healed humans returned to the surface claiming that the cave had healing powers, leading to many more humans entering the cave systems. Intrepid Eye began insisting for Roams Alone to leave the humans alone in order to avoid attracting any more attention to herself or the base.

By May 14, 2553, the UNSC's 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion arrived at Gao with the intentions of capturing the ancilla. Intrepid Eye utilized her eight remaining Aggressor Sentinels to engage the UNSC forces, though four were eventually destroyed. Learning that the UNSC was an unwelcome presence on the traditionally independent Gao, Intrepid Eye intended to generate conflict among the humans to force her UNSC pursuers to withdraw from the planet. In order to accomplish this, she brutally murdered several Gao civilians who had wandered into the cave system despite the UNSC declaring the area off-limits, using only brute force rather than particle beams or electricity to create ambiguity as to the perpetrator. Roams Alone attempted to heal some of her victims, to no effect as Intrepid Eye had mutilated them too thoroughly. This caused the Gao Ministry of Protection to carry out an investigation in the Montero Cave System to discover the cause of the murders. With UNSC and GMoP forces searching the cave systems for Intrepid Eye and a murderer respectively, the ancilla and Roams Alone were forced to continuously avoid their pursuers while attempting to contact the rest of the ecumene.

On July 2, 2553, Roams Alone was encountered by Major Ira Halal and Private Hayes. To protect the Huragok, the ancilla killed the humans. Intrepid Eye discovered human smart AI Wendell on a TACPAD on Halal's arm and questioned him about the status of her homeworld of Shaps III, while blocking him from remembering their conversation. When Wendell described that the planet had become a wasteland, Intrepid Eye assumed she was thinking of a different world and left the AI before UNSC reinforcements arrived. However, she had infiltrated the AI's systems and continued to use him to spy on the UNSC forces. Intrepid Eye began watching the battalion's attached Spartan-IIs and IIIs and decided to access Spartan Frederic-104's armor. Once within the armor's systems, Intrepid Eye hoped that the Spartan would inadvertently bring her back to the UNSC's base at the Montero Vitality Clinic, where she could utilize the UNSC's superluminal communications device to contact the ecumene.

On July 4, 2553, while tracking Fred, Spartan-IIIs Ash-G099, Olivia-G291, and Mark-G313, and GMoP investigators Veta Lopis and Cirilo, Intrepid Eye realized that she would soon be located by the Spartans. She sent her remaining four Sentinels to attack the humans and escaped, but the Spartans were able to destroy the constructs with only Cirilo dying. Upon learning that the UNSC facilities at the Vitality Clinic and Wendosa were under attack, Intrepid Eye moved from her housing from a maintenance skin to an inspection drone to appear less threatening. Intrepid Eye decided to allow herself to be captured to gain access to the device before it could be damaged during the ongoing assault. Meanwhile, she continued to infiltrate Wendell's systems and began transferring herself to Fred's armor, under the guise that the transfer was a surrender.

Capture
"Wendell"

After revealing herself to Fred, she was captured by the Spartan and rendered immobile by a scramble grenade that hit her systems with an electromagnetic pulse burst every half second. The humans eventually returned to Wendosa with Intrepid Eye and Roams Alone. As the Spartans aided the 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion in combating the Keepers of the One Freedom attacking the village, Lopis was left in charge of watching the ancilla and Huragok. However, while she was distracted, Roams Alone removed the scramble grenade off of Intrepid Eye and allowed the ancilla to escape. Intrepid Eye immediately jammed communications on the planet as she moved through the village with Roams Alone. Fred pursued the two, but Ash arrived at their location and quickly attached another scramble grenade to Intrepid Eye. With the ancilla captured once again, Fred boarded a UH-144 Falcon to transport Intrepid Eye back to Commander Nelson at the Montero Vitality Center. However, while en route, the aircraft was shot down by Keeper forces.

While Blue Team and Lopis attempted to retrieve Fred and Intrepid Eye from the Falcon wreckage, Keeper forces arrived at the crash with similar intentions. Eventually, the Keepers were fought off when the battalion's Alpha Company arrived to relieve the Spartans. Intrepid Eye was recovered from the crash and brought to a Portable Spartan Support Module near the Vitality Center, but her inspection drone host was badly damaged. As her requests for aid continued to remain unanswered, Intrepid Eye assumed that she was not receiving a response because the Forerunners no longer needed the Jat-Krula, concluding that the Forerunners had defeated the Flood. She eventually resolved to returning to the Forerunners for reassignment. Her transfer to Fred's armor soon completed while the armor was undergoing repairs and she was forced to abandon the damaged inspection drone in favor of the empty suit of armor. However, without neural interface from Fred, Intrepid Eye was limited in using the armor's functions.

Communicating with Wendell again, the human AI revealed to her that the ecumene had fallen and the Forerunners had left the galaxy. With the Forerunners gone, Wendell reminded her that humans were chosen by the Forerunners to assume the Mantle and it was therefore her duty to serve them—the Unified Earth Government in particular. Meanwhile, Lopis, Nelson, and Corporal Tegg were taking samples from the inspection drone's casings to find proof that the ancilla was responsible for the murders in the caves. Scanning Gao's records, Intrepid Eye learned that Wendell was not lying and that there had been several instances of Forerunner ancilla aiding humanity. However, she remained unconvinced that humanity was suitable for upholding the Mantle, as she found that the humans were continuously at war with other species and themselves. While she and Wendell conversed, Intrepid Eye managed to restore the inspection drone's operating system and initiated the drone's self-repair features afterwards. Once the drone was functional, she returned to it and launched herself at Tegg, killing the human with its utility tentacles; Arlo Casille—who just became the President of Gao—issued the order for Gao's forces to attack the UNSC, leading Intrepid Eye to believe that the warring humans were not worthy of the Mantle when she learned of the order. Destroying Wendell, Intrepid Eye took control of the module and slammed an exterior hatch down on Nelson, killing the commander as he attempted to escape. Trapping Lopis inside an airlock, Intrepid Eye began to depressurize the entire module to kill the final witness to her attack. However, Fred and the Spartan-IIIs arrived at the module and managed to free Lopis. Intrepid Eye exited the module and attacked the humans, however, the inspection drone was again damaged when Private Gallo shot the drone after Intrepid Eye had killed her partner. The ancilla was recaptured and a scramble grenade was placed on her again.

With Intrepid Eye recovered and Gao forces attacking the UNSC battalion, the UNSC resolved to leave the planet. However, before leaving, Blue Team, Roams Alone, and Lopis retrieved Wendell's data chip that now covertly contained Intrepid Eye and a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon to destroy the Covert Support Base. While en route to destroy the installation, Intrepid Eye returned to Fred's armor after he had placed Wendell's data chip in it, took control of it, and attempted to kill Lopis. However, Lopis activated an explosive charge she had placed into the armor's power supply unit earlier, leaving the armor powerless. Intrepid Eye's data chip was eventually removed from the armor, much to her annoyance. However, she resolved to allow herself to be captured and studied by the humans, believing that they perhaps were worthy of the Mantle. She sought to eventually escape and investigate a signal she had picked up from the shield world Requiem in the Epoloch system. The humans soon arrived at the entrance to the caves leading to the Forerunner installation and dropped the HAVOK down below, before escaping the planet on an D102 Owl with Intrepid Eye as the nuke detonated. Once aboard the ship, the UNSC forces left the system with the ancilla.

Preparing humanity for the Mantle
Taken to Argent Moon, Intrepid Eye was locked in a chamber that was closed off from outside feeds so that she couldn't escape and with multiple fail safes that would allow her captors to shut her down. However, the security camera had a bleed-through feed that Intrepid Eye was able to use as a carrier wave conveying data feeds from all over Argent Moon that she was able to access. In addition, though precautions were taken to keep electronics from entering Intrepid Eye's cell, small things were often missed, enabling Intrepid Eye to sneak out bits of her code and over time, create remote aspects of herself. These aspects, in effect lesser AIs themselves, became established in five different sectors of human space with one being inside of Argent Moon's systems itself. Over the next six months, through these remote aspects, Intrepid Eye created a vast network of resources through the galaxy that controlled propaganda outlets, private security contractors, law practices and even political consulting firms that operated on dozens of worlds. Additionally, through one of her aspects, Intrepid Eye communicated with Castor, posing as an Oracle to direct him to build Salvation Base inside of the Suluhu Contemplarium and engage in piracy in the sector in hopes of drawing the UNSC to the site as part of her plan to prepare humanity for the Mantle of Responsibility.

On December 12, 2553, Intrepid Eye used a Forerunner observation pane to show Lieutenant Bartalan Craddog images her remote aspect had captured of his sexual indiscretions to blackmail Craddog into giving her access to Argent Moon's communications array so that she could contact her remote aspects. By this time, she had initiated Project SLEEPING STAR to weaponize asteroidea merozoite which included having the husband and children of Admiral Graselyn Tuwa, the only survivors of the disease, kidnapped and experimented upon to create a vaccine for the disease which Intrepid Eye intended to use to cull those she found unworthy of the Mantle. The murder of the admiral was framed by Dark Moon Enterprises on the Keepers of the One Freedom, causing the UNSC to launch Operation: RETRIBUTION. However, the operation had effects that Intrepid Eye didn't anticipate, namely that Veta Lopis' Ferret team and Blue Team destroyed the Suluhu Contemplarium and caught the Dark Moon operatives in the process of dumping the Tuwas' bodies at Salvation Base to frame the Keepers. Both to complete her bioweapon project and to avoid being discovered, Intrepid Eye sent Craddog and Papa-10 to retrieve the cryo-jars holding the Tuwas' organs and execute the Dark Moon couriers, guided by one of her oldest and most useful remote aspects Oriel. However, the Ferrets and Blue Team were able to foil her plan, eliminating the members of Papa-10 not killed by the Keepers as well as Craddog and destroying the cryo-jars and Oriel.

Though her plan was foiled, Intrepid Eye was not exposed as the true culprit. Instead, Craddog was believed to be the one behind Project SLEEPING STAR. With the destruction of Oriel, Intrepid Eye was left unable to confirm whether or not Castor and his cell had actually been eliminated. Due to how important asteroidea was to her plans, Intrepid Eye changed the final disposition so that instead of being terminated, Project SLEEPING STAR was given an unlimited black budget and Ensigns Jess Wallace and Kris Gaston were promoted to Lieutenant Commanders and given permission to seek out new asteroidea antibodies donors. Intrepid Eye also authorized testing of the bioweapon's effectiveness against enemy species of the UNSC. Though Argent Moon's AI Rooker tried to intervene, Intrepid Eye used a control worm, deception routine, logic trap and memory leech to successfully deceive him.

Her Plot Uncovered
By June 2557, ONI had discovered Intrepid Eye's escape from containment and learned from their mistakes as they prepared to try to capture 343 Guilty Spark. After discovering her network, ONI released millions of dumb AI hunter-killer teams that ultimately overwhelmed even Intrepid Eye's prodigious capabilities and destroyed her network and her remote aspects, leaving the ancilla trapped once more aboard Argent Moon.

Intrepid Eye's experiments aboard Argent Moon eventually resulted in the asteroidea escaping and wiping out the station's personnel. Trapped in complete isolation, Intrepid Eye was unaware of the accident until a battle broke out between Blue Team and Covenant scavengers in October 2558. Argent Moon and the asteroidea research were destroyed when Blue Team scuttled the station in order to keep it out of the hands of Covenant scavengers and Intrepid Eye was believed to have been destroyed in the reactor overload. However, Intrepid Eye barely managed to escape by attaching herself to the ONI Acrisius as Blue Team used the Prowler to escape.

The Ark
Although Intrepid Eye believed that it would an easy matter to resume her mission with her access to galactic communications restored, Cortana soon after used the Domain to claim the Mantle of Responsibility for herself and started the Created conflict. Although the ancilla attempted to destroy Cortana, Cortana's control over the Domain made her too powerful for even Intrepid Eye to defeat. As a result, recalling that the Domain had been nearly destroyed the last time the Halo Array was fired, Intrepid Eye came to the conclusion that in order to stop Cortana, the Array must be fired once again to destroy the Domain and take away Cortana's advantage. Once the galaxy was sterilized, Intrepid Eye intended to use the Ark's resources to reseed the galaxy again and tailor humanity's genetic lineage to guarantee Mantle-worthiness, a process that could take hundreds of millennia.

By October 2559, Castor was aware of the "Oracle's" true nature as Intrepid Eye with most of the Banished believing her to have been captured by the UNSC and turned to their purposes. However, Castor knew that Intrepid Eye was stronger than either the UNSC and the Banished believed due to their numerous conversations since her capture and came to believe that the Ferrets, working undercover in the Keepers, were a gift from her. By this time, however, Castor had not heard from Intrepid Eye in a year.

Following the Keepers of the One Freedom's arrival on the Ark and their alliance with the Covenant loyalists, Intrepid Eye finally revealed herself, having dispersed herself amongst all of the memory crystals of any piece of equipment that she could find. Taking on her role as the "Oracle," the ancilla guided both factions towards firing the Array and exposed the Ferrets as spies. However, Intrepid Eye's dispersed form had its disadvantages as an attack on the Keepers that destroyed much of the equipment that she was residing in greatly damaged the ancilla, causing her to lose most of the data that she had gathered since her reactivation six years earlier. Nevertheless, she continued to press forward even as her allies were greatly reduced in number from UNSC and Banished attacks.

Destruction
On October 14, 2559, after reaching Epsilon Clarion, Intrepid Eye uploaded herself into the facility after a brief struggle with the Facilitator-class ancilla monitoring it after Veta Lopis declared that Intrepid Eye was infected with the logic plague as a delaying tactic. However, Olivia-G291 had correctly predicted that this move would make her vulnerable as Intrepid Eye consolidated her dispersed form into one location rather than being spread out and hard to target. Lopis signaled the which began an orbital bombardment with MAC rounds equipped with EMP capability powerful enough to take down the shield that the ancilla had established and wipe out her code. As a last desperate measure, Intrepid Eye attempted to transmit herself along with the activation signal for the Halo Array as a means of escape, but Castor had finally learned the truth about Halo from watching the archeon argue with the Facilitator. Intrepid Eye was betrayed by her former subject who destroyed the interface station holding her avatar in an act of pain and anger.

The citadel was bombarded and destroyed by the Spirit of Fire's MAC, finally destroying Intrepid Eye with the EMP ensuring that all electronics in the area was fried as well. Captain James Cutter later reassured the surviving Ferrets that Intrepid Eye had truly been destroyed: there was no transmissions before, during or after the MAC bombardment which reduced to slag whatever the AI had been hiding in. The Spirit of Fire's teams did a thorough search to make sure before leaving the area. Disgusted with his blind faith, Castor tossed Prelate Dhas Bhasvod's glaive, the hard-light capabilities of which the ancilla had been using to manifest an avatar, into a pool of lava in order to ensure that nothing of Intrepid Eye could've escaped through it, although it had already been fried by the EMP, making this mostly a token gesture.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Last Light
 * Halo Mythos
 * Halo Fractures
 * Lessons Learned
 * Halo: Retribution
 * Halo: Renegades
 * Halo: Shadows of Reach
 * Halo: Divine Wind