Mendicant Bias

Mendicant Bias, or 05-032 as it is referred to by Offensive Bias, is a Contender-class Forerunner AI, the most advanced AI at the time, created to study and exploit the weaknesses of the first Gravemind, or Compound Mind. At some point he was contacted by the Gravemind with a message of peace, charging the Forerunners with being so gluttonous and prideful as to deny the next step of evolution: the Flood. Convinced of these charges, Mendicant Bias abandoned his original purpose and became rampant, developing a hatred for his makers.

Siding with the Flood, he led a massive assault of infected forces on The Ark to halt the Array sequence but was outsmarted and defeated by Offensive Bias, the AI created to counter him after his betrayal. Medicant Bias stowed away on the Forerunner Dreadnought. In Halo: Contact Harvest it is revealed that Medicant Bias was the sophisticated A.I. that Cortana fought to delay the launching sequence in Halo 2. At the time of the Harvest massacre, the Prophet of Mercy awakens the "Oracle", and shows him the glyphs that were mistaken as "Reclamation." Mendicant informs them that the glyphs were misinterpreted and actually meant "Reclaimers," meaning the Humans on Harvest. He seems to have realized that what he did to the Forerunners was wrong when he states "I will reject my bias and make amends." He also states that the Reclaimers are his makers, making them Forerunner and saying, "My makers are my masters...I will bring them safely to the Ark" He then begins to dislodge the Dreadnought from High Charity, in an effort to take off, which would have destroyed High Charity, but he gets disconnected from its systems, due to a fluke involving the many Lekgolo worms wriggling in the ship. In Halo 3, the Prophet of Truth took the ship to The Ark, finally releasing the AI onto the Ark, allowing him to send the player messages in each Terminal, eventually telling the player: "I'll tell you who I am. I am Mendicant Bias, and this is what I have done."

Incomplete and disrupted detailing Mendicant's eventual defection are on Terminals 1-4 and can only be seen while playing the Legendary difficulty of the game. Terminal 5 shows several hostile messages sent from Mendicant Bias to his makers, confirming his rampancy. Terminal 6 shows a chronological recording of the battle between Mendicant Bias's forces against Offensive Bias, as perceived by Offensive himself, detailing Mendicant's eventual fall. This message may only be seen while playing Legendary difficulty, otherwise Mendicant will tell you you aren't worthy yet. The final message hidden in Terminal 7 is an apology made by Mendicant directly to the player for his betrayal, atoning by saying he will help the Reclaimer leave the Ark safely. What Mendicant specifically does to help is not specified.