2401 Penitent Tangent

"Of all the objects our Lords left behind, there are none so worthless as these Oracles! They know nothing of the Great Journey!"

- The Prophet of Regret

"And you know nothing of our containment! You have demonstrated complete disregard for even the most basic protocols!"

- 2401 Penitent Tangent

2401 Penitent Tangent is the Monitor of Installation 05. Although only shown briefly during the encounter with the Flood Gravemind deep in the bowels of Halo, 2401 Penitent Tangent is nearly identical to its brother monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, with the exceptions that its voice is deeper than Guilty Spark's and its light glows red instead of blue. This Monitor was captured by the Gravemind whilst in combat as it is in "defense mode" and glows dimly and its outer casing appears to be damaged.

The only other difference from 343 Guilty Spark apart from his deeper voice and red glow is that the holes on the side of 2401 Penitent Tangent are rectangular instead of round thus possible that Tangent is older. He is not encountered again after the Master Chief sees him beneath the Library of Installation 05, and he isn't seen when Gravemind occupies High Charity. It is unknown where he went after the first encounter.

The 7 Motif
Also of interest is the fact that Penitent Tangent's number (2401) is 7 to the power of 4 whilst Guilty Spark's number (343) is 7 to the power of 3, as the number 7 is used frequently in Bungie games and mythology. Also, 2+4+0+1 = 7. It should be noted that 343 times 2401 equals seven to the seventh power (823,543).

Also, there are seven unique letters in "Penitent Tangent".

In an earlier Bungie series, namely Marathon, names were often found to be sevens. A numerology grid was used as shown:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

a b c d e f g h i j

k l m n o p q r s t

u v w x y z

Penitent Tangent is thus

P e n i t e n t

5+4+3+8+9+4+3+9=45, 4+5=9

T a n g e n t

9+0+3+6+4+3+9=34, 3+4=7

9+7=16, 1+6=7.

Plus, 3x4x3=36, 3+6=9, 2+4+0+1=7, 9+7=16, 1+6=7.

In the Marathon: Durandal port to Xbox Live Arcade, there is an achievement called, "Hats off to 819." The text is thus, "The secret of 2401 lies within." This may reference 2401 Penitent Tangent. 819 divided by 7 is 117. 2401 divided by 7 is 343.

Backwash
Penitent Tangent also appears in the Multiplayer map 'Backwash', where he hovers around in the air, occasionally talking quietly to himself. He serves no strategic or combat value whatsoever and never ceases movement. Initially, Bungie wanted to use 343 Guilty Spark instead on the map, but testers kept thinking he was a plasma grenade being thrown, so he was immediately changed to Tangent. Nevertheless, the voice remains that of Guilty Spark. They either forgot to change his voice or had no time to do so, or wanted to keep it like that.

Name
2401 Penitent Tangent's name is similar to that of his fellow monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, in the way that Penitent and Guilty mean the same thing; to feel remorse for one's misdeeds or sins. Spark and Tangent however, have no similarities, as a spark is an electrical particles, and Tangent means irrelevant.

Appearances

 * Halo 2
 * Gravemind Inside Job Cutscene