Monitor
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The Monitors are highly advanced Artificial Intelligence constructs created by the Forerunners 100,000 years ago to service and maintain the Halo installations, and to make sure that The Flood stayed imprisoned.
Background
The body of a Monitor consists of a roughly spherical shape with an illuminated photo receptor/eye located upon the front end of the orb. In case of a catastrophic outbreak, the Monitor would seek out a "Reclaimer" to activate the installations and stop the spread of the Flood by eliminating all sentient life in the galaxy. They are extremely intelligent yet completely devoted to their original purpose. The Covenant refer to the Monitors as Oracles. It should also be noted that the Monitors are A.I., and that the Covenant refer to all A.I. as Oracles.
It seems that there is exactly one monitor per Halo Installation, making seven total. There is also a monitor located inside the Forerunner Dreadnaught ship. It may be possible that there may be a monitor/A.I in The Ark as well. Each monitor commands the sentinels, sentinel majors, and enforcers of the Installation they are based on. The latter two are only activated if a catastrophic outbreak occurs, to hold back the Flood while the monitor finds a Reclaimer. Monitors appear to exist only for the sole purpose of serving a Reclaimer.
Appearance
The Monitors encountered throughout the Halo franchise so-far appear to be roughly spherical in appearance of overall shape. Their physical avatar consists of a silvery yet metallic structure of metal similar to the characteristics of certain forerunner structures throughout the Halo installations and possibly certain locations of planets that the Forerunner had once inhabited. The monitors that have been encountered so far throughout the franchise all have an illuminated photo receptor/eye along with a quirky yet cheerful tone similar to that of a business tone. The Monitors are also self-repairing.[1]
Halo's Monitors seem to have a defensive resistance to small arms fire, though they will eventually succumb after taking extensive damage. In the novel, Halo: The Flood, John-117 fired half a magazine from an MA5B Assault Rifle at 343 Guilty Spark with no apparent effect. In Halo 3, Master Chief destroys 343 Guilty Spark using a Spartan Laser, demonstrating that monitors can sustain damage from high power weaponry. Although the Sentinel and Enforcer constructs are programmed to assist the Monitors in high-risk tasks, the Monitors themselves are capable of producing a powerful beam from their "eye" that is powerful enough to stun or mortally injure a human.
They have the ability to teleport themselves and others around the Halo that have been designated to. It is unclear how this grid works, but it seems that a Monitor on an Installation other than its own has no access to its transportation grid.
In the book, Ghosts of Onyx, the Spartans use the planet's teleportation matrix to jump between/around the planets surface. Also, Dr. Halsey makes note that the teleportation matrix is powered by a Slipspace generator of some variation. We can therefore speculate the Monitors have a similar device for transportation.
Monitors also have cognitive capability, and can at least speak English. They keep daily logs of all things that occur on their Installation. As with UNSC AI's, the Monitors have been speculated to be in stages of Rampancy due to their isolation for literally hundreds of thousands of years.
Known Monitors
- Mendicant Bias (Forerunner Dreadnought, then Installation 00)
- Offensive Bias
- 343 Guilty Spark (Installation 04)
- 2401 Penitent Tangent (Installation 05)
- Adjutant Reflex?
There appears to be little differentiation between monitors in the way of programming, but they do have slight differences. Each monitor appears to glow a different color; 343 Guilty Spark is blue, and 2401 Penitent Tangent is red. At the end of Halo 3, 343 Guilty Spark goes Rampant and changes color from his regular blue to a bright orange color.
Trivia
| Installation | Monitor | Name |
|---|---|---|
| 00 (Ark) | 0 | Mendicant Bias |
| 01 | 1 | Unknown |
| 02 | 7 | Unknown |
| 03 | 49 | Unknown |
| 04 | 343 | Guilty Spark |
| 05 | 2401 | Penitent Tangent |
| 06 | 16807 | Unknown
|
| 07 | 117649 | Unknown |
- The number 343 is seven to the third power, seven being a number seen frequently in Bungie games and mythology. The number "2401" is seven to the fourth power.
- When the numbers of each Monitor are examined, a pattern emerges: each seems to be seven raised to the power of the installation number minus one; therefore this grid can be established.
- Note that the first three digits of the monitor of Installation 07 are 117, Master Chief's service number.
- The 'eye' of the monitor is actually the Marathon symbol - only one of many references to this series that appear in the Halo series. The Marathon symbol was prominent in the Halo: Combat Evolved model as well as in the Halo 3 monitors, however it is absent of the Halo 2 incarnations.
- It is revealed in Halo 3 that the Monitors, or at least 343 Guilty Spark, have offensive capabilities very similar to that of a sentinel's which can stun, or kill an opponent. Guilty Spark primarily uses this ability three times in the third installment of the series. Once to destroy a Flood Combat Form that was about to attack Master Chief, once to prevent a marine from attempting to open a door on the Ark, and later against the Chief, Sergeant Johnson, and the Arbiter. Also, on the level The Covenant, when you join the Arbiter after defeating the two Scarabs, Spark may use the beam on an enemy that gets too close to you and the bridge.
Sources
- ^ Halo: The Flood page 238
