Emergence

Episode 03 is the third of five "episodes" in the Iris campaign (found here). Once the page is loaded, there is a hovering, rotating object, with several Forerunner glyphs inscribed on it. Three of them link to files to download, and one links to a video that can be played. One of the files, Log3_Transcript.txt, contains the transcript of the video:

{//} (HOW MANY BILLIONS WILL DIE BEFORE WE TURN THE TIDE) With every world that perishes, its army grows! {//} (WE’VE TRIED EVERY MEASURE AVAILABLE) {//} (RETREAT, ATTACK, DEFENSE, IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE) How do we fight a limitless thing that wishes only to embrace you? The atrocity we plan, the last resort: I pray that it doesn't come to that. {//} (I PRAY THAT THE CONTENDER SUCCEEDS WHERE OTHERS HAVE FAILED)

Another file, 801snpow.jpg, seems to be a picture of a wall with Forerunner designs on it. The odd thing about this picture is that if you open it in Paint and invert the colors an equation of some sort appears,it reads "Y times C equals the square root M divided by pi times E." In the same mathematical equation "Y" could be read as the Greek letter "Psi", the "C" as a subscript "C" or subscript "0", and the importance of the line above "Y/Psi" is unknown, but could be the "arrow" over "Psi" in the wave function. This equation is present on The Castaway Theory's cover. Another picture, StarImage3.jpg, is a picture of the stars with AdjutantReflex's avatar.

Another "hidden" document, which is called "content_override" reads:

I speak to you of my intent But intentions are eddies and whorls And they change with the course of a stream This stream becomes a river And a cataract of logic and doubt Who has the right to live? The light with the will to create me? Or dark with the will to consume? Sometimes might is right And sometimes the lamb must submit to the lion My convictions are tested My intentions now are fey and strange Should I pursue a pyrrhic choice? And rethink alliances? And choose a new philosophy? Right or might? Truly I do not know But you will, soon enough For this is where the cataract floods And drowns the boon of higher ground

The "CONTENDER" could be a reference to the Contender-class Artificial Intelligence, which was the class of AI Mendicant Bias and Offensive Bias were. Mendicant was built to stop the Flood, and Offensive was made to stop Mendicant after he was manipulated by the Gravemind.