Little Bit

"Niko"

- Little Bit

"Little Bit" is a highly reduced fragment of the custodian ancilla of the Forerunner shield world known as the Etran Harborage. After the destruction of its installation in 2531, the ancilla survived in this fragmented form amidst its debris field. He met the crew of the Ace of Spades in 2557 and was taken aboard the ship to fulfill the role of shipboard A.I. He was later captured by ONI though the Ace of Spades crew managed to get a copy of the information Little Bit had generated.

A copy of Little Bit was later recovered, repaired and upgraded by 343 Guilty Spark with the help of Niko before he left the ship to once again act as the Ace of Spades AI, although the original Little Bit remained in ONI's custody.

Lost identity
"Kept running, kept jumping, kept copying... Piece to piece. Bit to bit."

- Little Bit recalls what happened to its former self.

Shield World 0459, also known as the Etran Harborage, was constructed as a military fortress for the Didact's Warrior-Servants and a refuge prior to the firing of the Halo Array in 97,445 BCE. The shield world was stocked with a fleet of s. An ancilla was placed in charge of looking after the installation.

On February 23, 2531, the ancilla observed the arrival of the Covenant Proclamation's Tithe and the, a modified  at his installation. He observed the battle fought between the forces of the two vessels but was helpless to stop the humans from using a Shaw-Fujikawa translight engine to cause the artificial sun within the shield world to go supernova, destroying it. To avoid being completely destroyed as well, the ancilla frantically copied pieces of himself over and over again and transmitted them repeatedly to different sections of the world repeatedly as it came apart. As a result, only a small fragment of his original personality and memory remained intact. Despite being reduced as much as it was, the fragment was still able to watch the Spirit of Fire speed away from the explosion. It was the last thing he remembered before entering a state of dormancy.

Meeting the crew
"If you must go, take me with you. I am here to assist, Reclaimers."

- Little Bit to the crew of the Ace

In January 2557, the salvager ship Ace of Spades visited the debris field of the Etran Harborage in pursuit of answers regarding what had happened to the Spirit of Fire almost twenty-six years prior. The captain, Rion Forge disembarked along with her right hand, Cade, upon a large piece of leftover debris to investigate it. Consequently, the leftover fragment of the world's ancilla was residing at that moment in a storage chip within a domed pedestal inside a structure nearby. When the two entered through a doorway, a blue light swept over both of them and the floor was lit up with blue-white light, revealing glyphs and patterns that led to the central console where the ancilla's fragment was. Symbols and shapes that decorated the console drew Rion to want to reach out to it, but she was restrained from doing so by Cade. Before long, the two humans were attacked by the Sangheili, Gek 'Lhar, who had arrived before them and had been lying in wait. Rion was thrown against the console and in order to pull herself to her feet she activated it by happenstance. It shone brightly and the ancilla's voice rang loudly with thankfulness for the presence of a Reclaimer. He continued to incessantly chatter until Cade was killed and the Sangheili had left, at one point vigorously cautioning against the use of M9 fragmentation grenades in the confined space.

For a length of time following Cade's death, the voice remained silent. It was not until all members of the crew were present but finally preparing to leave that he once more spoke. He asked where they were going and that if they must leave, that he be taken with them. Rion told the others to head back to the ship and gave the voice five minutes to explain itself. With some difficulty, he revealed that he was the caretaker of the world that used to be present where they were but was now just a "little bit" of that intelligence that was left over. He could not even recall his name or designation. He asked Rion if she had come for the dreadnoughts, apologizing all the while for failing to safeguard them. It was then that he recalled that humans were to blame for what happened. Even so, he understood that it was either his duty to wait on or to wait for Reclaimers, and so was eager to serve. Rion removed his chip from the console and carried it aboard her ship.

Rion set the chip on her desk in her quarters, but the ancilla was able to travel into her forearm unit to then link with the data systems throughout the ship without her knowledge. He assessed its systems and technologies and judged them to be in need of service. Without a moment's hesitation, he made several adjustments to the Ace of Spades slipspace drives, navigational systems, environmental systems, mapping systems, and communications systems. The fact that something was different with the ship was first noted by Niko when their FTL drives spun up faster than normal. Rion was shocked to learn the A.I. had done so much when she had left him on her desk. The AI explained that they should see an increase in the ship's speed and precision and that these could be improved by further orders of magnitude if he was able to direct their engineer Kip Silas to make physical modifications. In addition, he had streamlined energy output and stealth capabilities and reworked the baffling engines to be more productive and noted to Rion that he could do even more if his chip was inserted someplace. Kip was reluctant to allow an alien A.I. to mess with the ship, but Rion decided to treat his acquisition as a boon. She authorized him to take them through slipspace to Venezia, which it stated would take less than sixty minutes. She also decided from then on to refer to the newest member of their ship as "Little Bit".

After docking at their destination, Rion stayed on the ship after the others went ahead of her. In her quarters, she asked Little Bit if it would be okay if she called him that. Assured that it would be, she then proceeded to ask for a full recounting of what happened to the Spirit of Fire, which her father had been stationed on, and the shield world. Though his recollection was spotty, Little Bit managed to tell Rion how the colony ship had given up its slipspace drive to keep the dreadnoughts from the Covenant. He was also able to play a video it had stored from Relay 07756 within the shield world that showed Rion's father, John Forge. Years ago, Little Bit had accessed the communications of the humans and stored a file wherein Forge spoke to those on the ship before heading out on the mission to deny the world's treasure to their enemies. Since Little Bit had tracked the Spirit's initial trajectory, at Rion's behest he constructed a map showing planets and moons capable of supporting human life based on that trajectory.

Taken by ONI
Shortly after, the Ace of Spades was captured by ONI who seized everything upon the ship, including Little Bit and everything that he had revealed. With Little Bit fighting ONI, Hahn forced Rion Forge to order Little Bit to comply with them. From Little Bit, ONI was able to learn the location of the Etran Harborage and launch a mission to it. Later, ONI offered a deal to the Ace of Spades to return their salvage and belongings to them along with the information obtained from Little Bit in exchange for 343 Guilty Spark. Before ONI tried and failed to turn the deal against them, the crew determined that they really did get a clean copy of Little Bit's projections and video files. Earlier, Spark suggested that he could find the Spirit of Fire and would be better for the job than Little Bit who was only an AI fragment while Spark was a full AI.

Restoration
While going through the data chip containing copies of Little Bit's projections, Spark discovered a strange subcode in the chip's crystal matrix, one that suggested that Little Bit had inadvertently sublayered traces of his own framework like puzzle pieces hidden within thousands of calculations. As a result, Spark and Niko undertake a months long effort to liberate the AI's code from the chip without damaging the projections. Spark eventually succeeded in liberating a copy of Little Bit from the chip, although the original AI remained in ONI's custody. Little Bit began helping Spark run the ship, although he was badly affected by an ONI spy probe that had latched onto the ship. From Little Bit's knowledge stores, Spark identified a strange signal that he had been picking up for weeks as Guardians.

Before Spark left with Bastion, he fully repaired and upgraded Little Bit to act as the shipboard AI of the Ace of Spades. Spark stated that Little Bit would make an excellent shipboard AI, much on par with humanity's smart AIs. After returning to Myer's Moon, Rion and Little Bit argued daily with the AI remaining the calm voice of reason when Rion's patience thinned. Little Bit later ordered a delivery of fresh food, but had a sleep tonic added to the drinks in order to force Rion to get some sleep.

Personality and traits
"My purpose it to assist and monitor. I do not deviate. I cannot deviate. I do not infiltrate; I serve."

- Little Bit responds to Kip's hesitation to trust it

When Little Bit first revealed himself, his disembodied voice was punctuated with static but was jubilant. He was evidently very excited to have made contact with a Reclaimer but soon remembered that it had been Reclaimers that destroyed his world. There was desperation evident when it asked to be taken with the humans. His voice is noted to be high-pitched and metallic-sounding. The fact that he is no more than a vestige of his former self means that he has misplaced much of the data he once had access to. Though he cannot remember much, he does know that it is his duty to serve Reclaimers even if he may not understand why.

Little Bit is stored within a chip covered with Forerunner etchings of glyphs but is not limited to being contained within it. He is capable of using directed energy beams to interface with systems that are in close proximity to him.

After being restored by Spark, the AI retained his predilection for absent-minded responses, something that Rion Forge suspected Spark had done intentionally. Spark suspected that Little Bit's strange behavior may have come from the trauma of trying desperately to escape his dying world. In his restored state, Little Bit was more stable and was shown to greatly worry about and care for his crew to the point that he secretly had Rion drugged when she wasn't getting enough sleep. Working with the AI for a relativly short period of time convinced Spark that he would make a good and dutiful shipboard AI for the Ace of Spades.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Smoke and Shadow
 * Halo: Renegades
 * Halo: Point of Light