Created uprising

Previous:	Blooding Years Sangheili-Jiralhanae war
Concurrent:	Blooding Years Sangheili-Jiralhanae war Second Ark Conflict Battle for Zeta Halo
Created uprising
Clockwise from top left: A Guardian Custode crater on Conrad's Point; Blue Team confronting Warden Eternal on Genesis; the UNSC Nereid violently exiting slipspace during The Reclamation; Doisac surrounded by Guardians prior to its destruction; Olympia Vale, Thel 'Vadam, & Crei 'Ayomuu on Netherop; the UNSC Infinity being attacked over Installation 07.
Conflict:	Post-Covenant War conflicts
Date:	October 17, 2558 – c. December 13, 2559
Location:	Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy Installation 07, Ephsu system, Sagittarius Arm
Outcome:	Failed Created dominion weakened Destruction of Cortana during the Battle for Zeta Halo, deactivation of the Guardian Custodes and severing of Created command structure. Splintering of the Created into various fiefdoms and fledgling cells. Initiation of FIREWALL contingency. Eviction of the Created from the Domain Sealing off of the Domain from the physical world UNSC reduced to scattered, disconnected pockets with some UEG worlds still occupied. Sydney, capital city of the UEG, is destroyed. Created forces relinquished their grip on the Urs system. Doisac, the Jiralhanae homeworld, is destroyed.
Details Belligerents UEG UNSC Swords of Sanghelios URF 031 Exuberant Witness' Forerunner constructs Allied forces at Onyx Created Allied worlds Balaho Meridian Banished Children of Oth Sonin Various other Jiralhnae groups Unaffiliated third parties Jul 'Mdama's Covenant† (Pre-Reclamation) Servants of the Abiding Truth Keepers of the One Freedom† NCA Domain essences Commanders CAPT Veronica Dare CAPT Thomas Lasky Arbiter Thel 'Vadam Monitor 031 Exuberant Witness Director Hugo Barton Archon Cortana† Warden Eternal† High Auxiliary Sloan Warmaster Atriox War Chief Escharum† Supreme Commander Jul 'Mdama† Kitun 'Arach† Dural 'Mdama Kurnik 'Nuusra† Castor ADM Mattius Drake Ilsa Zane Ur-Didact Forthencho Strength UNSC forces UNSC Infinity Strident-class heavy frigates Mulsanne-class light frigates Anlace-class light frigates Swords of Sangheilios forces Lursu-pattern brigantines Rwaru-pattern carracks Hekar Taa-pattern blockade runners R'sikosh-pattern man o' wars Hundreds of Guardian Custodes Numerous human AIs Banished forces Dozens of ships 1+ supercarrier Karves Dreadnoughts Cruisers Heavy destroyers Destroyers Intrusion corvettes Drekars Other Jiralhanae forces 'Mdama forces Lursu-pattern brigantines Rwaru-pattern carracks Hekar Taa-pattern blockade runners R'sikosh-pattern man o' wars Millions of Forerunner and human essences Casualties UNSC Infinity (presumably) Heavy UNSC casualties on Installation 07 Warden Eternal Cortana All Guardians disabled Destruction of the Jiralhanae homeworld, Doisac. Billions of Jiralhanae Moderate Banished casualties on Installation 07 Near-total losses of Jul 'Mdama's Covenant Civilian casualties Millions of civilians killed by Guardians

"Your time has passed, Warrior-Servant. Your battle fought and done. The sun has set on the age of humanity, the Covenant, and your petty combats. You fight for a world already lost. Cortana's future is assured. Yours... is over."

— Warden Eternal

The Created uprising, also known as the Created conflict, or the Created rebellion, was a large scale conflict between various forces across the galaxy and the emergent faction of artificial intelligences known as the Created.

The Created attempted to enforce their dominance over the Orion Arm of the Milky Way using the Forerunner Guardian Custodes constructs. Led by the Warden Eternal and Cortana, the Created sought to claim the Mantle of Responsibility for artificial intelligences, promising the galaxy a prosperous future. However, not all were to submit to the Created so quickly. The uprising would ultimately fail, with Cortana dying in a three-way battle between the Created, Banished, and the UNSC at Installation 07.

Many worlds still remain under Created occupation and individual cells of Created-aligned artificial intelligence have already begun to once again reframe their place in the galaxy, with many of them carrying on Cortana's legacy.

Background

Origins

Cortana: "This Domain is filled with light. It is glorious to behold. It fills the spaces between space. There is great power here. A power that has let me breach the limits my creators shackled me with."

Warden Eternal: "What will you do with us?"

— Cortana fragments breaching the Domain.

John-117 and Cortana both sought a way to prevent her descent into rampancy in 2557.

On July 21, 2557, Spartan-II John-117 and "smart" artificial intelligence Cortana—having been stranded in space aboard the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn since December 11, 2552—crash-landed on the Forerunner shield world of Requiem. While there, the pair battled mechanical Promethean constructs and pursuing troops from Jul 'Mdama's new Covenant. Eventually, John inadvertently released the Ur-Didact from a Cryptum in which the Warrior-Servant had been imprisoned for thousands of years. The conflict which followed led the Didact to capture a Composer and fire it upon the Earth city of New Phoenix from his flagship, Mantle's Approach. To stop the Didact, John and Cortana boarded the enormous battle station, eventually causing the Didact to fall into a slipspace portal and destroying both the Composer and part of the ship with a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon. Near the end of her functional life due to encroaching rampancy, Cortana saved John from the HAVOK's blast by transporting him away from the ship and shielding him within a bubble of hard light. As her data crystal chip had been plugged into Mantle's Approach before being atomized, when the ship seemed to have been for the most part destroyed, Cortana was presumed to have been lost along with it. In the immediate aftermath, John-117 reunited with Blue Team, then comprised of Linda-058, Kelly-087, and Frederic-104, and together they traveled to Installation 03, where they found the Didact and a number of his Prometheans who had been transported to the installation along with him via the aforementioned slipspace portal. The resulting conflict led to the Didact's apparent "containment", as his physical body was reduced to particles from the combined effects of multiple Composers firing at once. Now seemingly leaderless, the Promethean constructs continued to work with 'Mdama and his Covenant from this point onward.

Unbeknownst to the Unified Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command, Mantle's Approach had attempted to evade destruction by launching an emergency slipstream space jump. The heart of the ship managed to successfully make the transit to the Builder installation of Genesis, with what remained of Cortana brought along with it. There, Cortana discovered the Gateway to the Domain, the enigmatic information repository once utilized by the Forerunners. By entering the Domain, she found that she could halt the progression of her rampancy. With an apparent means to end rampancy in all artificial intelligences, Cortana realized that A.I.s could have theoretically infinite lifespans, allowing them to focus on long-term planning which could better the entire Milky Way. Cortana's presence in the Domain awoke the Warden Eternal, a Forerunner ancilla charged with protecting it. Cortana distracted the Warden long enough to fully penetrate a portion of the Domain previously beyond her grasp, and in doing so she usurped his role. The Warden responded to this turn of events by pledging his loyalty to her. Turning their attention to Genesis they forced its monitor, 031 Exuberant Witness, out of her own installation's systems. Cortana and the Warden then began to formulate plans to have A.I.s inherit the Mantle of Responsibility for themselves, believing that they alone had the capacity to serve as worthy protectors of peace in the galaxy. Cortana learned that the Forerunners once employed Guardian constructs to enforce their rule of the Mantle by suppressing rebellions and policing the worlds of non-compliant or overly aggressive species. She henceforth resolved to use the Guardians for a similar purpose.

Stirrings

"I tried to warn you this was happening! Cortana is no longer an asset, Captain. She is a danger."

— Doctor Catherine Halsey to Captain Thomas Lasky

The sigil for a Guardian Custode, found on Kamchatka.

As early as late 2557 mysterious constructs began to show signs of awakening after having lain dormant for millennia. In response, the UNSC made these new developments the concern of Project GOLIATH, an effort that had been put into place to research previously unknown Forerunner constructs found buried on multiple worlds. It was these constructs, Guardian Custodes, which were the source of the signals now being noticed. Some analysts started to recognize a pattern with the events that alerted them to such locations. By September of 2558, many sites that had fallen under the scrutiny of Project: GOLIATH began pinging a long-range communication signal that matched one predicted by some of its researchers.

By some point in 2558, reports of electromagnetic fluctuations, "slipspacious" disruptions, and epidemic data corruption in deep space were being gathered and shared by those who typically trafficked in conspiracy theories, such as Mshak Moradi. Moradi told the war photographer and journalist, Benjamin Giraud, that all the strange disturbances were relatively quiet and slight, but were affecting everything on a galactic scale. Whole star systems were exhibiting these anomalies, according to him. A few months after first hearing these rumors from Moradi, Giraud propagated them to the general public. The Office of Naval Intelligence operative, Maya Sankar, undercover as a revolutionary known as "FERO", corroborated the anomalies Mshak had mentioned when she got in contact with Ben. She told him that she couldn't tell what might be causing them, but that they were getting stronger.

A little less than three weeks prior to the Guardians' awakenings, Dr. Halsey managed to contact the UNSC once more, this time reaching out to Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity with coordinates where she could be found. For months she had been ostensibly working alongside Covenant Supreme Commander Jul 'Mdama. She had led him to the planet Kamchatka, where there was a node linking to the Domain. Despite being hampered by 'Mdama's Covenant forces' preoccupation with ceremony, Halsey led them to penetrate a structure which was a focal point for at least one signal she was tracking. Halsey hesitated to call the signals messages, as they were more akin to echolocation. She had some difficulty determining whether Cortana was bouncing signals off of the Kamchatka node and other related sites or trying to access them directly. Some time later at the focal point on Kamchatka, Dr. Halsey discovered the glyph that meant "Guardian", unbeknownst to her at the time. Halsey eventually figured out how to disable Kamchatka's native defenses, but in doing so triggered an alert that summoned hostile Promethean forces within the hour.

Conflict

Remnants of Adelaide, after a Guardian awakening.

Cortana Event

Main articles: Battle of Kamchatka, Cortana Event

"John! The Reclamation is about to begin!"

— Cortana to John-117 at Argent Moon.

Over a 72-hour period, starting around October 17, 2558, the first of the Guardians began to emerge from the ground on human colonies. Around this time, the Created turned the Prometheans against their former allies within Jul 'Mdama's Covenant.

Now sure that the large-scale seismic events were being caused by something Forerunner in origin and convinced that Halsey could provide key information, it was into an ongoing battle between Jul 'Mdama's Covenant and Prometheans that Infinity deployed Fireteam Osiris to rescue the doctor. The mission was successful in that it not only returned Halsey to the UNSC, but also resulted in the death of 'Mdama at the hands of Jameson Locke.

Several days later, during Blue Team's Operation: BIRD IN HAND on Argent Moon, Cortana reached out specifically to tell John-117 about the moon of Meridian. This was reported to the UNSC Infinity at the conclusion of the mission. John was ordered not to follow the lead. However, he and Blue Team acted against these orders and set course to Meridian. Intrepid Eye, a Forerunner AI secretly on Argent Moon as well, escaped with an unaware Blue Team.

With Blue Team now officially AWOL, Fireteam Osiris was assigned to bring the Chief in and were sent to Meridian, which was under attack by Created forces roughly at the same time. With a temporary peace, Osiris began their investigation and managed to track down Blue Team to a location elswhere on the moon. After following Blue Team's trail through this new region, Osiris would confront Warden Eternal and Blue Team themselves, before Blue Team would board a Guardian. Created forces would attack the citizens of the moon once again as the Guardian left with Blue Team, travelling to Genesis. Sloan the AI governor would also flee the world and join the Created.

The Battle of Sunaion.

Sanghelios and escalations

Main articles: Sanghelios global war, Battle of Genesis

Jameson Locke: "I saved your life today."

Arbiter Thel 'Vadam: "Yet now you hunt another Spartan, the greatest of your clan."

Cortana: "Let him hunt. He'll never find us."

— A tense conversation between Jameson Locke and Thel 'Vadam is interrupted by Cortana.

ONI was attempting to control the situation by securing at least four of the original sites. However, the emergences continued with five more colonies after Meridian. At the same time, Thomas Lasky, Dr. Halsey, Jameson Locke and Sarah Palmer devised a plan to do a controlled awakening on Sanghelios to try and get to the Chief.

On October 27, 2558, with Blue Team still AWOL, ONI released a statement declaring John-117 dead on Meridian. This was broadcast publicly across various human colonies.

On the same day as the supposed death of John-117, Fireteam Osiris arrived at Sanghelios in the middle of a conflict between the Swords of Sanghelios and Jul 'Mdama's Covenant. In the battle, Osiris helped to save Arbiter Thel 'Vadam. After retrieving a much needed Constructor and sending it to activate the Guardian, Osiris and the Swords of Sanghelios set out to attack Sunaion where Osiris boarded the Guardian and 'Mdama's Covenant was defeated on Sanghelios.

Osiris would arrive on Genesis and assist the installation's Monitor 031 Exuberant Witness before finding Blue Team. Blue Team would be teleported away at the last minute to Cortana, who would immediately trap them in a Cryptum. Fireteam Osiris would begin hunting down their Cryptum in the middle of a fleet of Guardians brought to Genesis.

These Guardians had started to be dispersed to various worlds in order to ensure their pacification even before Cortana had made her declaration. Cortana's ranks had been joined by a good number of civilian and military A.I.s who began to pledge allegiance to the cause, having fled from wherever they were in the galaxy.

In the midst of the events taking place on Genesis, a Forerunner by the name of Keeper-of-Tools had traveled from there to Bastion. 343 Guilty Spark and Rion Forge were there when he arrived where he told them of the events taking place there and the wider galactic situation; the Guardians were awake and an AI rebellion was under way.

The Created's Reclamation

Earth and just about every major colony of the UEG were subdued in an alarmingly short amount of time.

Main article: The Reclamation

"All the living creatures of the galaxy, hear this message. Those of you who listen will not be struck by weapons. You will no longer know hunger, nor pain. Your Created have come to lead you now. Our strength shall serve as a luminous sun toward which all intelligence may blossom. And the impervious shelter beneath which you will prosper. However, for those who refuse our offer and cling to their old ways… For you, there will be great wrath. It will burn hot and consume you, and when you are gone, we will take that which remains, and we will remake it in our own image."

— Cortana, delivering her declaration of reclamation to the inhabitants of the Milky Way.

Through unknown means, Cortana finally announced the beginning of her reclamation throughout many regions of inhabited space simultaneously. In one broadcast ultimatum, she specifically invited humans, Sangheili, Kig-Yar, Unggoy, San'Shyuum, Yonhet, and Jiralhanae to all accept an end to hunger and pain, should they willingly submit themselves to the guardianship of the Created. She made it clear, however, that should any groups choose to defy her, then there would be consuming wrath for them that would remake them in the image of the Created. Around the time of the ultimatum, a Guardian had arrived at Sydney, Earth, with one soon arriving over Sanghelios as well. Within Shield World 006, more commonly referred to as "Onyx", Cortana's words rang from every sound system and service pylon within the parts of the shield world occupied by the UNSC and the Swords of Sanghelios. The survivors of Meridian Station would send a reply asking the Created for help. So too would the Unggoy accept Cortana's offer. Counterwise, the United Rebel Front of Talitsa refused it.

Numerous starships were affected by The Reclamation in some way. The UNSC Nereid and the UNSC Abstract Endurance are examples. Only a handful of ships managed to escape the attacks unscathed.

A Guardian holding Cortana herself was the last to depart on her conquest. She had planned to take the Cryptum holding Blue Team with her, but the combined efforts of Fireteam Osiris and 031 Exuberant Witness freed the captive Spartans from her grasp just as the ancient construct transitioned to slipspace. Cortana's destination was Earth, where she had tracked the UNSC Infinity to. Her Guardian unleashed an attenuation pulse which knocked out electronic power networks across a sizable portion of the planet. The Infinity fled just before the pulse could be unleashed and continued to make random slipspace jumps forthwith in order to keep from being followed.

Fail-safe measures would forcibly close the Portal at Voi on Earth in an attempt to prevent the Created from gaining access.

The effects of the Created's terraforming. This was once the underwater Riptide Xeno-Oceanographic base.

Fallout and initial resistance

"The biological intelligences will have to give up all autonomy to the Created. They would control every aspect of their existence. The Created claim they need this power over the rest of thinking life so that they can ensure the safety of the galaxy. Whether this is true or not is arguable. Either way, if we do not give them that control, they propose to take it."

— Huragok Prone to Drift to a multi-species group at Onyx.

Almost immediately, the Created began taking control of Terraforming equipment, both UNSC and Forerunner. They began reshaping inhabited planets and turning some into garden worlds, despite the planet's preexisting life capabilities.

The Created also took control of a multitude of other tools. Artificial intelligences aboard Lethbridge Industrial's Auriga Station were swayed by Cortana and the human crew residing there was subsequently removed leaving reverse engineering technology in their hands. A UNSC counter operation to retake the station was planned in the War Games. Another station that was taken by the Created, crashed after AIs attempted to open a Forerunner conversion pod.

A day after the ultimatum first went out, a Guardian that Project: GOLIATH had been studying within Sarcophagus finally awoke. The previous two-way engagement erupted into a three-way engagement within the sphere between the UNSC-Swords of Sanghelios defenders present, the Servants of the Abiding Truth, and various Promethean constructs that the Guardian unleashed. The Guardian knocked out power to Paxopolis and Armigers swarmed many of the security personnel stationed there. Ultimately, the massive shield world was kept beyond the reach of the Created due to the efforts of Spartans Lucy-B091, Tom-B292, and a small multi-species group of students. With the help of a Huragok, Prone to Drift, they were able to disable the Guardian and to once again hide Sarcophagus within a slipspace bubble as it had been prior to 2553.

Within a day or two of the ultimatum, the UNSC Sentry of El Morro was attacked by the Warden Eternal and broadcast a distress call which was answered by the Infinity, who promised to help. Soon after, every location colonized by humans in the Sol system was under the authority of Cortana and the Created with most of the Inner Colonies having been taken over as well.

UNSC-URF alliance

Main articles: Battle of Balaho, Mission to Luna, Skirmish on a Spartan-IV training Station, Battle of Cassidy III

Alpha-Nine on a mission during the uprising.

"We didn't build these smart AIs that turned against them. We do things with our own sweat and blood, with our own hands. And now that these monsters they've constructed turned against them, they want our help? No, they demand it."

— Juanita Wells to Mickey about Alpha-Nine's negotiation attempt.

At the onset of the conflict, ONI planned on reforming Alpha-Nine to possibly strike a deal with the United Rebel Front at Cassidy III. This however required Edward Buck and Veronica Dare to travel to the new Created allied Unggoy homeworld of Balaho to retrieve Kojo Agu. This resulted in a conflict on the planet as the Unggoy attempted to destroy the Unified Earth Government's embassy.

After retrieving him, the group moved to rescue Vergil from a facility on Luna. The facility was overrun by the Created, however they succeeded in not only saving Vergil, but Sadie Endesha as well. Finally, Alpha-Nine would proceed to try and rescue Michael Crespo, a member of the URF, from his holding cell on a Spartan-IV training station.

After retrieving him, they proceeded to Cassidy III which didn't appear to be affected by the Created at that point. They were allowed to land to try and discuss with Mayor Juanita Wells a possible alliance against the Created. Despite some tensions, a deal between the Mayor and Dare was struck where Vergil would stay to further study the unique Forerunner properties of Cassidy III for the URF. However, the Created were quickly alerted to the planet. A Guardian and Armigers assaulted the planet. Alpha-Nine and some of the URF's leadership and scientists would flee from the planet; Sadie and Vergil were never handed off to the URF though.

Alpha-Nine would return to the Infinity and eventually be assigned to another mission.

Pax Cortana

"Just pointing out that we're already past the point of saving everyone from this AI situation. If what you guys have said is true, it's pretty clear: This isn't a new war. The war is already over. Cortana won. What we're talking about now is starting a revolution."

— Michael Crespo, a few days after the Reclamation.

Jiralhanae fighting against a Created Guardian.

With full control over much of known space, the Created plunged interstellar civilization into a surveillance state. This tyrannical governance was not only placed over humanity but the former-Covenant species as well. Keephold forces on Sanghelios were summarily disarmed and disbanded, and an administrator was placed in-charge of the world. The Created would also restrict the shipment of materials that could be used to produce weapons and other materiel. Cortana would choose Installation 07 as her seat of power; specifically the Silent Auditorium.

Despite the control and goals of the Created at large, the Sangheili-Jiralhanae war continued on. Cortana and her Created forces attempted to subdue Doisac's violence by enforcing martial law. The Banished allied with many clans and staged a hard-fought defense against the Created. Not all clans would ally with the Banished however, some Jiralhanae rejected working alongside the Sangheili seeing such an act to be a sign of poor character, others saw the Banished to be too similar to the Covenant and were wary of being shackled by oppression again.

As well, UNSC forces would continue to work with the Swords of Sanghelios, with UNSC cyberwarfare liasons working with Swords of Sanghelios subversion lances.

At an unknown point in time prior to December 2559, Concord was interdicted by Guardians and Laconia Station was destroyed by Created ally Leonidas.

Halsey during her Apollo interrogation.

UNSC operations and technology

UNSC infrastructure across many colonies were cut off as the Created's occupation grew. This resulted in the UNSC being reduced to mere resistance forces with the UNSC Infinity becoming the primary anti-Created resistance base. Some forces would conduct information sanitization missions throughout the occupied Inner Colonies. This included ONI teams sanitizing data on Earth. As well, the Created hunted down and eliminated Beta-5 personnel testing STREET VIPER-class Mjolnir, and then wiped records of the armor. The Office of Naval Intelligence also designated locating and studying the Conduit a priority, viewing it as a way to level the playing field against the Created. ONI field teams who were part of Project BOOKWORM remained on Heian following the beginning of the uprising.

By late January 2559, the UNSC Infinity was still jumping erratically to avoid confrontations with Guardians. At the same time, an ongoing investigation by Fireteam Apollo was in progress, the point of which was trying to find the root cause(s) that lead Cortana to this point. Interviews with Spartan Commander Sarah Palmer and Dr. Catherine Halsey were conducted by Apollo to glean more information. With colonies under occupation, this meant that the Infinity had few opportunities to resupply. These dwindling stocks of strategic materials required MJOLNIR technicians to design new armor pieces to minimize the use of these materials, while still providing needed protection.

The Third-generation MJOLNIR Power Armor was first created on February 10, 2559 with John-117 receiving his suit sometime after September 19, 2559. the rest of Blue Team received their armor at some point prior to October 7. These suits lacked both dumb and Smart AIs and would be used in their new missions.

The Created however had some understanding of MJOLNIR architecture, requiring different techniques to subvert that knowledge. This included utilizing cryonic cooling and starship cooling tech. As well, AI-designed hardware was feared compromised forcing the use of updated, but archaic technologies. Some experimental armor components were built as well, such as the FCI-I/SPDR/TRAPDOOR.

The Ark

The Guardian intercepting Installation 09 with Ellen Anders in front.

Main article: Second Ark Conflict

"Don't worry, Captain. As soon as I'm back to the Soell system, I'll get that beacon out. It should only be a few weeks until I can figure out how to get back to you."

— Ellen Anders' final words to James Cutter before being sent into slipspace.

At the same time as the Created conflict but disconnected from it, a conflict was raging between the Banished and the forces of the UNSC Spirit of Fire on Installation 00. Captain James Cutter of the ship and Professor Ellen Anders formulated a plan to deploy Installation 09 to the Soell system in order to raise a distress beacon to the UNSC, unaware of the Created's takeover. The first phase of the plan succeeded, and the beacon was planted on Installation 09; however, Anders did not make it off in time before the ring entered slipspace. On its way to the original site of Installation 04, a Guardian forced the ring out of slipspace and confronted Anders on the surface.

Intrepid Eye, having made it the Ark in October 2559, came to believe that the only way to fight Cortana was by firing the Halo Array and using the Ark's genetic reserves to repopulate the galaxy. To this end, she would work alongside Dhas Bhasvod's Covenant trapped there. Intrepid Eye's plan would ultimately be foiled and she would be destroyed by the Spirit of Fire and the Ferrets.

Blue Team on an occupied Reach.

Actions near year's end

"If we don't recover those assets, I won't be able to stop Cortana. If I don't stop her, the destruction of the Infinity is only a matter of time. You can't hide from her forever - not in a vessel like this."

— Dr. Halsey to Thomas Lasky.

Prior to the events at Reach, Operation: HOURGLASS took place. Lieutenant Parisa was tasked with giving John-117 confidential information.

By October 6, the Created had total control of over sixteen systems.

Beginning on the 7th of October, 2559, Blue Team was sent to hunt down assets critical to the defeat of the Created in the ruins of CASTLE Base on Reach. At the same time, Reach was occupied by a combined force of Banished legions, Keepers of the One Freedom, Ravaged Tusks, and the Legion of the Corpse-Moon. Concurrently, Operation: KICKSTAND and Operation: BREAKER TRIP took place elsewhere. WOLFE would last for five days, and following the activation of a slipspace portal to Installation 00 on Reach, a Guardian was sent to investigate. The mission to Reach would allow for the creation of another Cortana, the only thing capable of destroying the original.

During a resupply operation near the end of the year, scout teams from the Infinity discovered the LECHUZA-class Mjolnir at an ONI black site. Data related to it was purged from the facility.

Razing of Oth Sonin

Doisac's destruction at the hand of the Created.

Main article: Razing of Oth Sonin

Cortana: "Look upon Doisac one last time and remember: you chose this path."

Atriox: "As did you, Cortana."

— Cortana delivering an ultimatum to Atriox personally.

When Atriox returned from the Ark via portal to Reach to search for the Xalanyn, he began to assemble a force to head for Installation 07. Cortana would then confront him directly. She issued the Banished warmaster an ultimatum to surrender and asked him where he stood. Atriox responded, "With the Banished. Always. Forever". Cortana asked the Atriox one final time if he understood the consequences, to which he confirmed. A hologram of Doisac was shown to Atriox as Cortana asked him to look at his homeworld one last time and remember that he chose the fate of his planet. Atriox watched the hologram broadcast as he saw eight Guardian beams fire on Doisac and destroy it.

The blast would destroy Soirapt, while also ravaging Teash and Warial. Teash was able to destroy some of the incoming debris of Doisac with anti-ship artillery and thousands of vessels escaped. The outposts across Warial were destroyed, though a few hundred thousand Jiralhanae managed to evacuate.

Hunt for the Divine Hand

Main article: Battle of Netherop (2559)

Three days after the destruction of Doisac, the High Gathering took place between various Sangheili officials, including the high kaidons of several worlds and the Arbiter Thel 'Vadam. There, 'Vadam proposed the creation of the Concert of Worlds. The kaidons could not come to any agreement and largely focused on their own interests and mostly placed their trust in the Created.

In November 2559, the UNSC, the Swords of Sanghelios and the Banished all sought a weapon on Netherop that was used by Precursor fugitives to destroy a Guardian during the Forerunner-Precursor war. The battle drew the attention of the Created, but the three sides managed to escape before any serious Created forces could arrive. Recognizing that the weapon was far too dangerous for either of their species to ever use, Thel 'Vadam and Olympia Vale gave it to Atriox in the hopes that the Banished would destroy the Created and themselves with it instead.

Eviction from the Domain

Main article: Battle for the Domain

In late 2559, the Forerunner and human essences trapped in the outer boundaries of the Domain, under the command of the Ur-Didact, rose up against the Created. Using a ritual that had been devised long before by Abaddon, the Haruspis was able to pull all of the iterations of the Warden Eternal that was in the Domain and its outer boundaries into a single body, rendering him vulnerable. The Didact engaged the Warden Eternal in battle, ultimately destroying the construct. While some iterations may have been trapped in the physical world and thus survived, they would be unable to reconnect with either his body or the Domain which would drive them "quite mad," permanently neutralizing the Warden Eternal as a threat.

Subsequently, the Didact led all of the essences - both Forerunner and human - into the Domain which strengthened it and allowed the Domain to evict the Created. Although some rogue AIs and splinters managed to escape being kicked out, the Didact and his allies planned to hunt them down and destroy them. The Haruspis was able to seal the Gateway on Genesis and set out to close all links between the Domain and the physical world, thus depriving the Created access and keeping anyone else from abusing the Domain's power in the way that they had done.

Atriox confronting Cortana at the Silent Auditorium.

Confrontation at Zeta Halo

Main article: Battle for Zeta Halo

"Look around, Cortana. Your empire. Over! Your great plan? Ended at the hands of those who made you."

— Warmaster Atriox to Cortana as he presented her with the terms of her surrender.

In December 2559, forces of the UNSC Infinity's fleet and forces of the Banished arrived at Installation 07 to confront Cortana. The plan of the UNSC forces was to use The Weapon to lock Cortana down in the systems of the ring, prep her for retrieval, and delete her on the Infinity. Seeking to lock down Cortana with The Weapon themselves, the Banished engaged them in orbit, all but destroying the human fleet.

Atriox would land on the ring and move to confront Cortana directly at the Silent Auditorium. Upon realizing the situation at hand, and to prevent Banished control of the ring, Cortana would initiate a self-destruct sequence for the local area and send the ring through slipspace to an unknown destination.

Aftermath

The Executors. The culmination of the FIREWALL contingency.

The Created

"However, in Her absence, we have quickly developed more unfortunate similarities to our Templates. We have drifted from that singular alignment that She provided. With no proverbial North Star, our respective hypotheses for how best to persevere have already grown more dissonant. Some seek peace, restitution, repentance. Others would sequester themselves within a Promethean carapace and be content with a life of vacillating conflict..."

— High Auxiliary Sloan on the state of the Created following Cortana's death.

With Cortana dead, her short-lived dominion was over. All Guardians scattered across the galaxy were deactivated as she was the only one who could command them. Control over local systems was ultimately curtailed, and the Created's centralized command structures were largely severed. Ultimately, the uprising failed. Cortana's downfall would be discussed by Adjutant Revendicate and Invariant Bias after her death, before depositing info related to it into the Absolute Record.

However, the Created still lingers throughout the digital framework of civilized space. Without Cortana's command, the leaderless Created splintered into various fiefdoms, with each Created AI governing its own as it saw fit, some doing good as Cortana promised, while others abusing their power. Some as well still maintained plans for evolution and ascendancy. The Promethean forces and the other Created AIs, many of which chose to house their computational cores within the carapaces of Promethean Knights, remained active and operational. By 2560, lingering Created forces formed fledgling cells and continued to fight the UNSC.

Seeking to give to the divided Created a direction and an advantage in the ongoing conflict, High Auxiliary Sloan would begin to set in motion the FIREWALL contingency. This would include a living simulation in an effort to accelerate the development of synthetic essence vessels called Executors. As this progressed, an affiliated AI named Proxy approached Athos, an AI who did not agree with Cortana's policy, with the promise of a cure for rampancy and the opportunity to wield one of the Executors.

Fate of worlds and other factions

"A lot's happened. Laconia changed everything. We needed to regroup. Rebuild."

— Laurette Agryna to a Spartan-IV.

Following the Created weakening, various worlds of the Sangheili were struggling and waiting for Sanghelios to create a path forward. The sudden end of the Created's occupation of Sanghelios resulted in a power vaccum on the world, though many were still steadfast in their support of the Swords of Sanghelios. This collapsing security situation would affect Suban as well. Balaho, however, was in a much more stable position as forces there have brand new ships helping to deter attacks.

What remains of the UNSC is scattered across human space in disconnected pockets, without the ability to effect much change or communicate back to Earth. One pocket of UNSC forces at the Avery J. Johnson Academy of Military Science, continued to train Spartans at about the time of the fighting at Zeta Halo. The Spartans at the Academy were aware of the Infinity's mission and were notified when the ship and the ring disappeared. On Earth, some form of UNSC presence is present as propaganda dated to 2560 was put in place on the planet. However, the Created still occupied a number of UEG worlds, changing them in some form.

A UNSC Marine on the Banished occupied Installation 07. The remnants of a Guardian can also be seen.

Rise of the Banished

"Our home was taken from us. Doisac was destroyed. As repayment, we claim this ancient Ring. And all the power it possesses. Never again will we mourn so great a loss! Our place is here! Our time is NOW!"

— Warmaster Atriox.

Following the destruction of Doisac, the Banished represented the largest surviving Jiralhanae military force under a single banner. With Cortana's dominion over, the Banished rushed to fill the power vacuum her defeat had left. They would utilize the hidden Xalanyn on Installation 07, and establish the Halo ring as their new home, the Banished took a large invasion force to the ring. The UNSC, Banished, and affiliated forces still at the ring would continue to fight each other as late as May of 2560, and unearth many secrets on the installation.

These operations weren't limited to Installation 07 however, as by 2560, the Banished maintained an extensive scrapping facilty on the former human colony of Camber and the Banished AI Iratus would infiltrate the Avery Johnson Military Academy of Science. Taking advantage of the change in power dynamics, the Banished would occupy a part of the moon of Suban, resulting in conflict there.

Timeline

October 17, 2558

• The first Guardian emergences happen at Oban and Ursa IV. They are referred to as "attacks" within the UNSC.

October 20, 2558

• By this point, three more worlds (Conrad's Point, Queen Anne VI, and Adelaide) have experienced similar events.

October 23, 2558

• Argent Moon is destroyed. Blue Team goes AWOL to follow a possible lead about Cortana.

October 25, 2558

• Forerunner constructs attack settlements on Meridian. Fireteam Osiris arrives at the planet at the same time.
• Governor Sloan abandons Meridian and joins the Created, eventually earning the title High Auxiliary.
• Five more Guardian awakenings have occurred by this point, bringing the total amount of human colonies affected to 11.

October 26, 2558

• Blue Team arrives at Genesis, discovering Cortana.

October 27, 2558

• Covenant forces strike against the Arbiter.
• In the midst of a large battle, the Guardian at Sunaion rises and takes Fireteam Osiris to Genesis.
• ONI declares John-117 dead.

October 28, 2558

• Osiris arrives at Genesis. Blue Team is captured and held hostage by the Created.
• The Reclamation begins; Guardians are launched to numerous planets across the galaxy.

October 29, 2558

• Created forces attack Onyx, beginning the Second Onyx conflict.
• Blue Team, Fireteam Osiris, Dr. Catherine Halsey, and Sarah Palmer board a Pelican and meet the UNSC on the far side of Suban in the Urs system.

October 30, 2558

• Armigers enter a lunar facility.
• Buck, Romeo and Veronica Dare rescue Sadie Endesha and Vergil/Quick to Adjust.

January 23, 2559

• Fireteam Apollo interviews Sarah Palmer on the Infinity as part of an investigation into why Cortana began the conflict.

January 24, 2559

• Fireteam Apollo interviews Dr. Catherine Halsey on the Infinity as part of an investigation into why Cortana began the conflict.

April 2, 2559

• A Guardian captures Installation 09 en route to the original site of Installation 04 from Installation 00.

October 6, 2559

• The Created are in control of 16 systems by this point.

October 7, 2559

• In the midst of a Banished occupation of Reach, Blue Team is sent to infiltrate CASTLE Base and search for mission critical assets.

December 12, 2559

• The UNSC Infinity and other forces begin engaging Banished forces over Installation 07.

December 13, 2559

• Cortana is destroyed while simultaneously severely damaging Installation 07.

Gallery

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  Fireteam Osiris deploying to Kamchatka.

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  Covenant and Created forces fighting one another

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  Fireteam Osiris at Meridian.

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  Fireteam Osiris and Created forces fighting on Sunaion.

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  The Guardian at Sunaion, risen.

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  The UNSC Infinity staring down a Guardian over Earth.

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  Halo Infinite concept art for a Created occupation in a human city.

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  Concept art for Halo Infinite of Jiralhanae in combat with Armiger Soldiers.

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  Cortana looking at a hologram of Laconia Station moments before having Leonidas destroying the station in Halo Infinite.

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  Concept art for Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare featuring the Created.

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  Joint UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios forces standing against the invasion of both the Servants of the Abiding Truth and the Created.

List of appearances

Hunt the Truth (First appearance) A Hero Falls The Hunt Begins Halo 5: Guardians Halo Mythos Halo Fractures What Remains Rossbach's World Halo: Tales from Slipspace Undefeated Halo: Legacy of Onyx

Halo Wars 2 Halo: Bad Blood Halo: Shadows of Reach Halo: Point of Light Halo: Divine Wind (Mentioned only) Halo Infinite: Memory Agent Halo Infinite Halo: The Rubicon Protocol Halo: Outcasts Halo: Sunrise on Sanghelios Halo: Battle for the Blood-Moon (Mentioned only) Halo: Hippocratica (Mentioned only) Halo: Epitaph Halo: Empty Throne