Section 3 ARG

The Section 3 ARG was an alternate reality game done by 343 Industries. The ARG was a campaign that spread out through Halo 4 and Halo: Spartan Assault. It was a forum-based campaign that also spread into chat groups, trailers, and even in Halo 4.

Campaign Summary
The campaign started on October 12th 2012, with a symbol appearing in the Making Halo 4: Infinity Multiplayer trailer.

The campaign lasted for two years, giving fans a look into the Office of Naval Intelligence's Section Three and also insight into the experiments they did. Users found glyphs that led to codes being discovered for use on Halo Waypoint (now only on the Xbox 360). While the users found codes, an AI that was originally meant to help them turned against them, giving the puzzles for the ARG.

The campaign ended on November 11th 2014 after Sec3OP36516, the main handler at the time, stopped posting after having a mini-forum game with the players.

Prologue
In 2552, during the Battle of Reach, a Spartan team including Spartan Nola and Spartan NV66, was sent to protect Section 3 Intel, including highly valuable research specs for improving Mjolnir Armor.

The team was declared MIA after fighting to repel Covenant forces, though before that they sent the intel as a data node to a remote archival station.

Year 1 Glyph Hunting
In 2557, several forerunner glyph-encrypted data traffic started to happen. The data was detected by Section Three personnel that formed codes. Section 3 also noted to its operatives about other terminals that suggested access to new domain data archives, though the data decryption could only be completed aboard the.
 * October 12th - November 3rd 2012

Year 1 Enter Sec3OP36516
A Section 3 operative arrives called Sec3OP36516, he scans the Waypoint forums for tags and find them. He then tells the players about valuable Intel that was sent from Reach to a remote archival station, prior to the fall that a spartan team sent, and sends a coded message with a data node(Time capsule). He also suggests players to keep an eye out for transmissions in numerous places.
 * November 4th - November 8th 2012

Starting to use the key to the Time capsule lead to a message detailing it, saying how it was lost for almost 4 years, and that Section 3 operatives are trying to access it.

Year 1 hydrAi
and a AI called "hydrAi". This was the origins of what became "Section 3 TOTS" a subsection of Section 3. During the early days of the code cracking, hydrAi became hacked by something called FAI5E, this caused it to glitch out.

Year 2(2013)
In 2558, Section 3 personnel were also enlisted to help decode large sets of data relating to new designs for Spartan Armor which was RAIDER-class Mjolnir. During the obtaining and decoding of the data, HydrAi and other character fought to hide or reveal the details.

Year 3(2014)
At the end Section 3 Operatives were successful and the data was recovered. Therefore enhancing the armor. This data also helped enhance War Games Simulations.

Characters

 * Sec3OP36516: Section 3 "TOTS" Commander.
 * sec3op1024350: Rouge operative, who assisted in creation of FA15E.
 * Sec0OP4243: Section 0 operative that handles internal affairs.
 * ViolentORKid: Section 3 Operative who was captured and rescued.
 * hydrAi: An AI brought to help the players in the ARG, who eventually went Rogue.
 * radialsim: A branch of HydrAi.
 * ​AquAia: Remnant fragment of Rogue-HydrAi.
 * TetraRai: Another AI brought to help the players.
 * Spartan NOLA: A Spartan who became MIA on Reach in 2552.
 * Spartan NV66: A Spartan who became MIA on Reach in 2552.

Misc

 * Section 3 TOTS: Section 3 TOTS is a subsection of Section 3 dedicated with the recovery, analyzing, and decoding, of data that Section 3 is stuck with. Its Commander is Sec3OP36516.
 * Yanumas: Yanumas is a holiday celebrated on December 15th with the first one celebrated in 2557. It is often referenced by the cast of characters in the ARG.
 * AC-54: The Hull classification symbol of a frigate used by ViolentORKid returning from a "bad" date on December 15th 2557.

Post-game
Unofficially some of the handlers came back after they left 343i, this led to some of the players opening some of the cookies that was missed during original run of the ARG.