Adjutant Reflex

"This entity has been terminated, its matrix commandeered"

- Current Status of AdjutantReflex

AdjutantReflex, colloquially referred to as "AR" by Bungie fans, is a mysterious character who has posted on the Bungie.net and Halo.Bungie.Org forums.

Description
AdjutantReflex was an enigmatic character who created its first forum entitled System Integrity Confirmed with its first post being as so:

"This will be a good place to begin."

- AdjutantReflex

In every post, AdjutantReflex always posts in gold text, a trait indicative of Bungie employees who post in the forum. Its first avatar was a simple projected Halo, similar to the one in Silent Cartographer. However, as time went on, the avatar changes as the entity experiences presence of another character. The current avatar is a Forerunner Symbol with a J located at the lower right.

History
AdjutantReflex has admitted to hacking into the Bungie servers, although it says that it has no hostile intentions. The entity calls itself a facilitator of "Array requirements" which "are in flux". The last "Array event" occurred 871803909 ± 384 hours before its post on 06.11.2007 12:. This places the last array event approximately 99,455 years before the 2007 post, plus or minus 16 days. This timing coincides with the first firing of The seven Halos, in the year 97,448 B.C.E.. This is calculated using the Gregorian calendar: $$\frac{871803909}{24 * 365.2425} - 2007 = 97448$$

On June 12, 2007, AdjutantReflex created another thread on Bungie.net entitled "Archive/Resource Estimate," with its first post stating, "Archives/Resources will be compiled in approximately 38 hours [1:00 AM PST on Thursday, June 14]." Another several posts followed (including several ominous posts such as "Tick tock." and "This time, no one will be ready") but no further substantive information was gleaned.

Sudden appearances of the entity's posts on June 28 and 29 2007 seem to point to the original AdjutantReflex may still being present in some capacity, however.

Forerunner Email


The June 14, 2007 event that AdjutantReflex foreshadowed was a mass emailing of a cryptic poem, sent by XBox Flash. The email contained a link to Halo3.com and the following text:


 * HISTORY CIRCLING
 * BACK UPON US.


 * The gears of the Universe spin further
 * and further apart.
 * Ever greater grows the gulf between souls,
 * And distance gives false hope of safety
 * But for the grim tidings this messenger bears:


 * The enemy is almost upon us 


 * Closing in from all sides,
 * Moving faster than the light
 * it snuffs with its passage,
 * Time echoes with the news of destruction.
 * History winding back upon itself.


 * Waves of an army march this way in unison,
 * Suffering and corruption are its battle cries.
 * For I have known this darkness
 * and felt its embrace once before-
 * Horror best laid to rest


 * Yet a Journey must commence


 * Look for the signs, the keepers of the flame.
 * They will lead you to war, and perhaps, to victory.

Sudden Disappearances
On June 17 2007, AdjutantReflex started a thread in the Bungie.net Halo 3 forum entitled "Stop it." In the thread, it stated that its integrity was being attacked and that it could only maintain it for about 22 hours. It also posted the cryptic message "By the pricking of my thumbs," a quote from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, which precedes the line "Something wicked this way comes" in the play.

The next day, about 22 hours later, AdjutantReflex posted again, stating that it could "not prevail" against the attacks and that an "older life" was here with us that had both higher rank and more strength than AR. AdjutantReflex then stated, "I will seek one of you out and leave my legacy in a small space."

Shortly thereafter, the countdown timer and Transmission Log located at 206.16.223.65 sped up dramatically, though the end date of the countdown was difficult to determine at first as it seemed to change depending on whether the counter had been refreshed or not.

The Death of AdjutantReflex
At about 9:00 AM PDT on June 19, 2007, Bungie.net's member, x Foman123 x, received a distressed private message from AdjutantReflex. The entity claimed that it had already been defeated and that "peril" was near, and asked the user to warn the Community of the threat. Over three increasingly despairing private messages, the entity revealed that a new "machine" that was much more powerful, intelligent, and higher "ranking" would take over.

On its last message, x Foman123 x received a private message from AdjutantReflex stating that the previous entity had been "terminated" and that the account had been hijacked by a newer, malevolent entity. A similar post entitled "Last Word" was publicly created in the Halo 3 forum about a half hour later. The new entity, using the same account as the previous AdjutantReflex but sporting a new cryptic avatar, stated that we should be concerned about its "intent" rather than its "identity," and indicated that it would no longer communicate through Bungie.net. It vaguely referred to something that would take place on June 20, 2007, but refused to elaborate.

As part of his termination of AdjutantReflex, the new entity deleted all Bungie.net threads created by AdjutantReflex except for the very first thread titled "System Integrity Confirmed" and the threads that the new entity created.

AdjutantReflex Returns
On June 28, 2007, AdjutantReflex ended a long week of silence in the forums and lack of activity elsewhere in the puzzle by posting in the Halo 3 forum once again. This time, he (presumably the "New" AdjutantReflex) posted a mysterious poetic paragraph:


 * A pulse.
 * Can you feel it?
 * Beating at the heart of the Universe.
 * Skin too thick to be sure.
 * It's alive though.
 * I'm certain.
 * What do I do with life?

The thread was only open for 3 minutes. Yet, AdjutantReflex did not respond to any of the several posts that were made at that time.

Theories and Speculations
Rumours surround AdjutantReflex's avatar. It seems to be a Forerunner symbol and the satellite image of the Flood Control (Las Vegas), Google Maps); Google Earth shot.

People have wondered if it is a coincidence, Bungie fans don't think so. Speculations about AdjutantReflex’s Flood Containment function and/or Monitor status have been spread amongst the fans.

Adjutant Reflex is theorized by Halo fans to be a Monitor. These theories were based from a video on SERVER #1 where the only coherent image shown appears to be a Monitor, and also due to a comprehensive research gathered, known as Rainbow Theory 4.0. Reflex is almost certainly an inorganic, as it refers to itself as a machine.

There are many arguments in the forums about this and their relationship with the Servers (Episodes of Halo3.com) and Halo 3: The Cradle of Life, and about why Alpha Halo is Installation 04 and Delta is Installation 05 instead being in order, or the relationship between using Greek letters as designations for the Halos (Alpha, Delta...), and Spartans.

Trivia

 * AdjutantReflex is part of Microsoft's viral marketing campaign for Halo 3, called "Iris", which existed for several weeks through Summer 2007.
 * CompoundIntelligence is a another term used by the Terminals for Gravemind. Suggesting a connection/similarity between the two.
 * Despite the fact that AdjutantReflex's avatars are not available on Bungie.net, they are all connected by means that they all contain a singular ring. This is probably a reference to the Halos.
 * AdjutantReflex was taken over by an unknown entity that continued to post a number of times in its place. The new entity is commonly known as NAR (New Adjutant Reflex), and appears to be the entity behind the revelation of the 5 servers. NAR also has appeared with the initials: MB and the number 05032. MB was revealed in Halo 3 to stand for Mendicant Bias.
 * The Forerunner Email also contained a mysterious picture of a "glyph" that appeared to be of Forerunner origin.
 * AdjutantReflex definition sparks several curiosities amongst fans. Below are a few definitions:
 * "Adjutant":
 * A staff officer in the army, air force, or marine corps who assists the commanding officer and is responsible especially for correspondence.
 * One who helps - (Assistant)
 * "Reflex":
 * Reflected heat, light, color, a mirrored image, a copy exact in essential or peculiar features - (Archaic)
 * An automatic and often inborn response to a stimulus that involves a nerve impulse passing inward from a receptor to a nerve centre and thence outward to an effector (as a muscle or gland) without reaching the level of consciousness.
 * A linguistic element (as a word or sound) or system (as writing) that is derived from a prior and especially an older element or system.
 * Strangely, AdjutantReflex is part of a Bungie.net group membership called "The Brute Ghostbusters", which is led by Bungie.net "Top Story" writer, "lukems". Another strange fact it that all of AdjutantReflex's avatars are not available on Bungie.net. At some point after AdjutantReflex was "terminated", the entity's signature changed to; "This entity has been terminated, its matrix comandeered.", which is strangely not in gold text. Also, noticed that Commandeered was misspelled within the signature.

Internal

 * Iris
 * Forerunner Email
 * Halo 3: The Cradle of Life
 * Society of the Ancients
 * Terminals

External

 * A Wikia dedicated to the Iris Campaign
 * CompoundIntelligence The largest group dedicated to discussing the AdjutantReflex incidents
 * Bungiepedia's detailed history of the AdjutantReflex events
 * - A collection of AR's quotes
 * http://206.16.223.63/ (SOTA webpage)
 * http://206.16.223.65/ (countdown webpage - NOW CHANGED. COUNTDOWN WEBPAGE IS GONE.)
 * http://206.16.223.61/E5h2JK/flash/web/index.html - Server 05 (Listed as Server 1 on halo3.com)