Loot Crate/Transcriptions/Quarantine Zone

Apollo,

You know the drill. We needed to validate encryption on all your access points, before we open the terminal. Now that you have access, let's get this over with asap.

I'm not sure how the hell you got clearance for this data, but things must be pretty jacked up outside if they're letting some year-one, S-IV detective trawl Midnight's archive for an interrogation conducted five years ago. Not sure what you think you found, but it better be good.

Some context is needed for this file. DENVER was acquired in a cluster of debris on an irregular orbit pattern around Coelest IV, roughly 21,494 klicks away from INSTALLATION 05. He was picked up by the corvette CORAL SEA, while on patrol before Lisbon came online.

When they found him, his vitals were rock bottom, close to flatlining. He'd been rationing nutrients and fluid supplies for weeks in a damaged skiff, which was functioning with minimal temperature control, and only what he could carry with him during his escape from High Charity.

The subject narrowly survived. Coral brought him back to the Midnight facility and he's been here ever since. I can count the number of living agents who know about him on one hand. Well, I could, before you requested access to Cluster 82-B6.

DENVER is real, Spartan, but I'm a little lost on the value of the specific excerpt requested. It was really a side comment and had little intel value to the interrogators at the time.

What was the nature of your case again, Apollo?

JANUARY 15, 2553 1222:45:02 // MIDNIGHT FACILITY

[OBERON 5] "…mentioned an interaction you had before you reached the harbor. What was the nature of that interaction?"

[DENVER] "I told this to the other–"

[OBERON 5] "Yes, I know. I wasn't here for previous interview. Could you tell me?"

[PAUSE]

[DENVER] "Before I passed beyond the last checkpoint, a terminal activated. I approached it and heard a voice."

[OBERON 5] "Do you recall the time?"

[DENVER] "No. As I said before, I cannot remember. I was running. We all were running."

[OBERON 5] "From the Flood?"

[EXTENDED PAUSE]

[OBERON 5] "Can you tell me the nature of the voice?"

[DENVER] "It was a human. A female. I believe one of your artificial intelligences."

[OBERON 5] "A human AI?"

[DENVER] "Yes."

[OBERON 5] "Are you certain?"

[DENVER] "I am."

[OBERON 5] "How could there have been a human AI on High Charity?"

[DENVER] "I do not know. Do you?"

[OBERON 5] "Did she give her name?"

[DENVER] "No."

[OBERON 5] "Did you see her?"

[DENVER] "No I only head her voice. And only for a moment."

[OBERON 5] "What did she say?"

[PAUSE]

[DENVER] "She was in pain, there were no words."

[OBERON 5] "What was wrong with her?"

[DENVER] "I do not know. Perhaps, she had encountered the Flood."

[OBERON 5] "But if she's an AI, what could the Flood do to her?"

[DENVER] "Has your kind never heard of the logic plague?"

[OBERON 5] "What did you say?"

[DENVER] "Even in victory, your species remains blind to the great realities of the universe. The logic plague was an instrument of the Flood during their war with the Forerunners. It corrupted intelligences."

[OBERON 5] "As in deactivated them?"

[DENVER] "No. They were sabotaged, or…"

[OBERON 5] "Or what?"

[DENVER] "Or worse. Completely undone and brought to madness. Made into a greater monster than even the Flood itself."

[OBERON 5] "I find that pretty difficult to believe."

[DENVER] "Certainly. It is your specie's greatest weakness. It was for this reason that artificial minds were verboten in the Covenant, lest our own creations turn against us at our most critical hour. A lesson your kind will undoubtedly learn at great cost."