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 his 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.

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

- Little Bit recalls what happened to his former self.

Shield World 0459, also known as the Etran Harborage, was constructed as a military fortress for the Didact's Warrior-Servants 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 two 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 itself 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 its 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.

Meeting the crew
In January 2557, the salvager ship Ace of Spades visited the debris field of Shield World 0459 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.

The nickname "Little Bit" was given to the construct by salvager captain Rion Forge after she retrieved it from the remains of the installation in 2557, as the fragment had forgotten its original name and repeatedly maintained it was only a "little bit" of its former self. Acknowledging the humans as Reclaimers, Little Bit was eager to assist Forge and her crew. While the AI's splintering caused it to lose the majority of its previous memories and capabilities, it remained able to make several improvements to the systems of Forge's ship, Ace of Spades.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Smoke and Shadow