343 Guilty Spark

343 Guilty Spark (alternatively known to the UNSC as the Monitor; and to the Covenant as the Oracle) is a fictional character featured in the video games Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2.

Contents

1 Background 2 Role 2.1 Halo: Combat Evolved 2.2 Halo 2 3 Trivia

Background

343 Guilty Spark is an artificial intelligence tasked with overseeing Installation 04, which the Covenant and the UNSC know as "Halo". Unlike other artificial intelligence characters in the Halo universe, 343 Guilty Spark has a physical avatar, which he is invariably tied to. Constructed in the Forerunner Monitor style, the avatar has many abilities, including the ability to interface with computer systems when in close proximity, flight, and indestructibilty. It can also access Installation 04's teleportation grid. However, it lacks offensive capabilities, and it can be immobilized by strong magnetism, such as that present in Tartarus's hammer.

343 Guilty Spark also controls the Sentinels of Halo. He can manipulate them just as he can manipulate his own personal avatar. However, this only extends to the Sentinels of Installation 04. He has absolutely no control of other Sentinels, such as those of 2401 Penitent Tangent on Installation 05. It can be assumed that he requires his avatar to be within a certain proximity of the Sentinels in order to manipulate them, or, alternatively, for some sort of relay network to transmit his signal over a larger area. (While on Halo, 343 Guilty Spark could command his Sentinels from tremendous distances, but once Halo was destroyed and he left it, he displayed control only over those Sentinels near to him).

343 Guilty Spark is not fully integrated with the systems of Halo; in fact, Halo seems to be composed of various completely separate systems, so as to prevent the entire ring's takeover at once. Instead, 343 Guilty Spark must use his avatar to interact with Halo physically, usually by using his interface ability within very close proximity of certain interactive terminals.

343 Guilty Spark's interface ability appears to be quite advanced. Not only can he access Forerunner computers, but he can also enter alien systems, like those on the human Pillar of Autumn. His hacking ability is phenomenal; even on a human computer that he'd no previous interaction with, he could institute overrides that Halo, a UNSC artificial intellience, could not contend with.

The personality of 343 Guilty Spark is somewhat egotistical and eccentric; he often audibly reminds himself, through his avatar, that he "is a genius", and he is prone to cheerful humming for no apparent reason. It is possible that 343 Guilty Spark is in a state of Rampancy; although he is still accepting of his role as Monitor, his pursuit of alien knowledge does seem to go beyond his purpose. He seems to prefer that his living companions remain alive, but he shows little sorrow when they die. He has a special relationship with humans, which he refers to as Reclaimers, although the true meaning of his thoughts are still unknown.

343 Guilty Spark was on Halo for a total of 101,217 years, local time; this time had been spent maintaining the structure. He has a vast wealth of knowledge on the Flood, the Forerunners, and Halo's overall purpose. Prior to this, he was tasked with the study and containment of the Flood.

There have been many elaborate speculations and analyses made regarding the origin of 343 Guilty Spark's name, history, and motives. The most notable question: what exactly is he "guilty" of? The most obvious answer is that he instigated the galactic genocide that killed all sentient life when the Forerunner installations were activated.

In the original Halo, neither the Covenant nor the Flood have any major characters, so by default 343 Guilty Spark serves as that game's main antagonist (although, by that definition, Cortana would serve as a more appropriate protagonist to him than would the Master Chief).

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Role

Halo: Combat Evolved

The Master Chief first comes into contact with 343 Guilty Spark in a swamp area on Halo. The Flood had infested the area, and the Master Chief (with several other UNSC soldiers) were running towards a tower structure; Foe Hammer was ready to evacuate them. However, when several Sentinels are found at the tower, they engage the Flood as well. The Master Chief and the Sentinels fend off several waves of the Flood, but then the Master Chief is teleported to the top of the tower, where he interacts with 343 Guilty Spark. 343 Guilty Spark calls John-117 a Reclaimer.

343 Guilty Spark then teleports himself and the Master Chief to the Library, a vast complex infested by the Flood. 343 Guilty Spark informs the Master Chief that the Reclaimer must reclaim the Index, the key to activating Halo's defenses and destroying the Flood. Sentinels aid the Master Chief throughout the Library, and 343 Guilty Spark floats above the action, occasionally floating through tunnels to access computers and open otherwise impassable doors; this allows the Reclaimer to move on.

Once the Index has been reclaimed, the Master Chief and Guilty Spark are returned to Halo's control room. The Master Chief and Cortana had been there previously; they had been making an effort to reach it before the Covenant, and the result was Cortana's insertion into the mainframe. 343 Guilty Spark claims that Master Chief must reunite the Index with the Core, as he himself cannot perform a task of such importance. However, once inserted, Cortana takes the Index, and reveals that when Halo's defenses are activated, it will not kill the Flood: it will instead kill their food, starving them to death. 343 Guilty Spark confirms that activation will cause the eradication of all sentient life within 25,000 light years. When the Reclaimer refuses to fulfill his task, 343 Guilty Spark orders the Sentinels to dissect the Master Chief, then teleports away to seek an alternative method to activate Halo.

The Master Chief and Cortana temporarily disable the pulse generators powering Halo's weapon, meaning that 343 Guilty Spark will have to wait at least a little while for repairs to take place. Guilty Spark is later discovered on the Pillar of Autumn, accessing information on humanity, which he says is very interesting. He has taken control of the ship, and refuses to allow the self-destruction of its engines. However, in a final showdown, the Master Chief and Cortana do battle with 343 Guilty Spark and his Sentinels in the ship's engine room, and succeed in manually initiating a wildcat destabilization of the ship's fusion engines. Though Halo is destroyed, apparently killing every living thing on it, 343 Guilty Spark and several Sentinels escape destruction by heading into space.

Halo 2

Later, 343 Guilty Spark is rescued from the ruins of Halo by a Covenant Elite, whom he gives knowledge about Halo's true nature. This knowledge causes the Elite to become a Heretic and rebel against the Prophets. The Heretic Leader leads a large group of like-minded Elites and Grunts to one of the Forerunner facilities that predates the Halo Installations in Threshold's atmosphere. When the Arbiter is sent to kill the Heretic, he is engaged by the Sentinels, and he also encounters 343 Guilty Spark (whom he refers to as the Oracle). Once the Heretic is dead, Tartarus arrives, and he captures the Oracle with his gravity hammer.

343 Guilty Spark is held in captivity for some time; Sentinels do not come to its aid, either due to radio signals interfering in the communication to them, too great a distance between High Charity (where he is taken) and the Sentinels back on Halo, or both. The Covenant Hierarchs interrogate 343 Guilty Spark, gaining as much information as they can about Halo and the recently-uncovered Delta Halo. Once Miranda Keyes, another Reclaimer, is captured—along with Delta Halo's Index—both she and the Oracle are taken by Tartarus to Delta Halo's Control Room. Guilty Spark, still intent upon activating the installations, warns Tartarus not to damage Keyes as she is "delicate", but Tartarus ignores him. The Arbiter, Sergeant Johnson, and several Elites arrive as Tartarus is activating Delta Halo. The Arbiter asks 343 Guilty Spark what the purpose of Delta Halo is; once again Guilty Spark reveals that, as with the original Halo, it will destroy all life within 25,000 light-years.

Blinded by his purpose and his commitment to the Great Journey, Tartarus throws the Oracle at Sergeant Johnson and activates the ring anyway. As Guilty Spark begins to countdown the ring's firing sequence, a battle ensues between the Elites and the Brutes, culminating in Tartarus' defeat at the hands of the Arbiter. Meanwhile, Miranda Keyes attempts to interrogate 343 Guilty Spark about how to stop Halo from firing. He tries to stall, but eventually answers Keyes' question by telling her to remove the Index from the core. Keyes takes back the Index, and the process is stopped. However, the ring sends a remote beacon to all other installations, preparing them to fire simultaneously upon receiving a confirmation signal from "the Ark", a fact which 343 Guilty Spark explains (and was aware of when he told Keyes to remove the Index). The location of the Ark is not revealed, although the game's ending suggests it may be on Earth.

The story ends here, though it is likely to be continued.

Trivia

• 343 is equal to <math>7^3<math>, with 7 being a number seen frequently in Bungie games and mythology.

• The "eye" of 343 Guilty Spark bears the Marathon logo.

• In Halo 2, the '2401' from 2401 Penitent Tangent is equal to <math>7^4<math>.

• The number seven could also relate to the English alphabet: G is the seventh letter counted from the beginning of the alphabet and so is T if counted from the end, ‘G’ and ‘T’ being the initials for ‘Guilty’ in Guilty Spark and ‘Tangent’ in Penitent Tangent respectively.

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