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| Re: Prepare for Cortana spec - *spoilers* | |
| Posted By: Haesslich <haesslich@hotmail.com> | Date: 10/26/03 9:34 p.m. |
In Response To: Re: Prepare for Cortana spec - *spoilers* (Jillybean) : I've said it before and I'll say it again - she's the copy of Halsey's brain
Actually, Halsey asked herself if all the risks and everything else done to the children were worth it. Deja was the one who mentioned, on page 58, that the 'drastic military action' the Navy brass would want involved a large number of civillian casualties - at least thousands dead, maybe millions if nukes and the like were employed. We do know that nuclear weapons were standard-issue aboard UNS warships, at least by the time the Covenant war started. It might well take nuclear capability to stop some of the rebellions from erupting into large-scale warfare, which has erupted at various points during human history in the Halo universe. Look at the timeline, and for references in the FoR novel which state that humanity's fought with itself 'ever since it escaped Earth's gravity well'. From what we've seen, it appears that the general sentimentality that Western nations have regarding human life has been... attenuated... in the centuries that lead up to the events of Halo. Enough so that a few Marines killed during training didn't bother the Navy brass any, and these people may represent the general attitude of the overcrowded Inner Worlds. You'll notice that in the more crowded nations on Earth, human life means relatively little; India, China, and Japan are examples of the attitudes spawned from overcrowding. And from the Timeline's references, overcrowding was the main reason that the Colonization effort took off, and would be behind Doctor Halsey's comment about how the people of Eridanus IV 'didn't know how good they've got it. Rural lifestyle. No pollution. No crowding. Climate-controlled weather.' (p. 22) : It says in FoR that the rebels were getting totally out of hand at one point,
See above comment. Human life is relatively cheap in this era, at least from what little we've seen in the military perspective. They've become their own society, at least to judge by then-Lieutenant Keyes' reaction to Doctor Halsey and civilians. : I recognise that Cortana is not a mass-murderer but I do think there is
: Also - did Cortana not transfer a general to his certain death on the front
Considering that he'd done his best to kill HER and Master Chief - whose life she's rather protective of, thanks in part due to Doctor Halsey's basic matrix and memories, plus her own sense of self-preservation and general 'like' for someone who is basically attractive, mentally - I'd suspect that this does imply that, at least in the Halo universe, life has become rather cheap. To you, it's barbaric - to someone from say, rural China or in modern-day India, it's a little more understandable. : The fact that Cortana was capable of revenge at all is very scary. She's alive, she's unbound by any behaviorial-control circuitry that we know of. She's sentient, and sapient; those two factors alone suggest that, considering her derivation from a human neural matrix, that she's as capable of revenge as anyone else out there. Doctor Halsey certainly was, at least in the bureaucratic sense; her staying in her lair, buried deep in Reach suggests it (p. 230). Why should Cortana be any different? : One more thought - Cortana decides that nothing is going to happen to John at
She might lie to him, if she felt it prudent to get him going to Earth despite any survivors from the Truth and Reconcilliation. The problem with the Flood on it was another issue - how are they supposed to tell with the Longsword's probably-limited sensor suite which lifeboats would be filled with uninfected humans and are clean, and which were contaminated by Flood or under Flood control? Short answer - they can't. However, they both have important data about the Covenant, and she was determined to save John and - because of his loyalty to the idea of the human race - the species that he was serving as well. I doubt there are many survivors from the Truth and Reconcilliation, if any; it's more likely that any of the Marines who were on the Pillar of Autumn that made it had been stuck on the surface and out of contact with the rest of the Marines under Major Silva.
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