Halo series Archives

With the release of Halo 3's ONI Archive(and the release of HaloFollower's video literally hours after said release..), there's bound to be some new folks who'd like to get involved in this developing behind-the-scenes look at the changing universe. That said, I've prepared what I can and what some of us have concluded since the release of Halo 2's ONI Archive, a brief summary on all ONI Archives(as of Halo 3's), and my personal thoughts on the new Archive, along with some loose things found here n' there. This is by no means a comprehensive, objective look at all of the Archives. Just what I think and gathered along with others below.

Trivia

• The "CHELAN" mentioned in the ONI Archive interface is probably a reference to the CHELAN program used for MCC for Xbox Live accounts to sign into Steam.
• There doesn't seem to be messages entangled with the audio in Halo 2's ONI Archive, but that said I've never looked into it myself. ronnie42 has said he's seen hidden letters here or there, but nothing substantial or coherent. stckrboy's also taken a look at a spectrogram with what was suspected to be morse code at 2:13, but little came out of that.
• LINKs(the number underneath the fluctuating bar) are frozen for Halo CE/2/3, yet are erratic for Reach. Reach's LINK repeats.
• The dates of ONI Archive files correspond to their release dates, except for Halo 2's.

Noble Endavors - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoN2mhQTdZs
First of its kind and the introduction to the main character of the series: Comms Officer [REDACTED]. He's the speaker throughout the entire thing(so far), so get used to the voice. He's also an important character to the bits that aren't talking about plot points of previous Halo titles; he's relevant to the plot that's currently evolving with each entry into the series.

The first one opens up with an explanation to why ONI Archive exists in the first place: to improve UEG(and moreso ONI) relations with their citizens by educating them on the history, evolution, and application of the Spartan Program, ordered by Schaefer(a high ranking member of ONI Section Two). Except for the bits they don't neeed to know. Other than that, the Officer speaks on Noble Team's efforts to fight against the Covenant before the introduction of Noble Six, including mentioning Spartan Thom: The Noble Six before Noble Six, and his sacrifice. Not a lot of hidden plot to this one, and serves its purpose as the intro for what to expect. For the most part..

Conflict Evolved - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0R2xW9s5zE
The second, and more substantial, introduces the legend himself: Master Chief. Comms Officer briefly touches on what makes Chief so strong(his augmentations, his armor, Cortana), then moves on to the Pillar of Autumn's discovery of Installation 04, the beginning of CE.

On to the juicier details.

Our Comms Officer talks, either to himself or to someone else, about the initial efforts of ONI to try and restore trust and "foster a more unified sense of pride and progress" between the UEG/ONI and the population. He mentions "the brass"(prolly UNSC?) being skeptical about the plan, but would quickly lose that skepticism once their first public enlightenment program was green-lighted and citizens poured into Outpost Discovery. In universe, Outpost Discovery was their way to properly introduce the citizens to Spartans and the history of the Human-Covenant War. It's success made a couple of ONI's faces light up.

Changing Tides - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF8g-xnJkVY
The third begins with Chief nuking Installation 04, starting up the events after CE. The Covenant, while in the middle of a civil conflict, faced humanity at Earth, only to have some demon give the them back their bomb. Comms Officer finishes the archive introducing Chief and the UNSC In Amber Clad to Installation 05.

This time, we meet the Comms Officer midway in conversation with..someone. Their voice is intelligible and there's no explanation to who it is, but some details come out of the talk:

• Comms Officer asks whether or not the info/orders he's recieving is coming from Schaefer(high-ranker in Section Two responsible for ONI Archive) or Sullivan(most probably Michael Sullivan, Senior Communications Director at ONI)
• Whatever info/order he's receiving sounds out of place for ONI. He notes that he doesn't even know if ONI has enough reach to do/know about such things.
• Comms Officer notes having problems with "mixed messaging" in the past. I see it as a reference to Hunt The Truth and Halo 5's marketing campaign, but take it as you will.

After that, Comms Officer is interrupted by Comms Producer Monique Angelo, and cuts the conversation, asking the voice on the other end to send what he has. What exactly this is all about? Maybe something to do with the Banished. But that's just a blind shot in the dark right now. Whatever it is, it sounds like a growing problem for ONI that they've just noticed.

Allied Forces - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlj6ZclMa4s
Newest of the bunch. the Comms Officer explains the events of Halo 2: The effects of the Great Schism on the Covenant, preventing the firing of Delta Halo, subtly mentioning the Flood, and Chief's plan to finish the fight(which he didn't..). The Covenant made their way to the plains of Africa for the ancient portal at Voi. He concludes with a talk about the importance of unity, whether it be different races or different species.

Now we're really preparing to kick off.
Our Comms Officer is joined by Comms Specialist P. Andres for a talk on what I'd assume to be the same problem developing in Changing Tides:

• Andres didn't know who to go to, and luckily enough decided our Comms Officer would be a worthy pick.
• He shows CO some data he found during his last "public sentiment scrub on the underground Waypoint channels.", thinking they weren't meant to be found but whoever posted them didn't care if they were.
• Whatever was found didn't have any sort of encryption whatsoever. Probably why he thinks the leaker(?) didn't care whether or not the data was found.
• Comms Officer acknowledges that whatever he just found could potentially be a problem. A big one at that.

Close.

What this all means still isn't too clear. Right now the clearest thing we know is that there's a problem developing for ONI and possibly Humanity, and ONI is beginning to get on its case. It leaves a lot to the imagination, but frankly I'm inclined to think this has something to do with the Banished and their activity within the galaxy. The Banished are known to have some influence within human criminal enterprise and have interest in recruiting anyone willing to join, potentially leaving room for human Insurrectionists to work alongside the Banished. I doubt we'd be fighting Insurrectionists anytime soon, but Banished in UEG-colonized planets or systems wouldn't be a stretch for ONI to find.

Prolly more of a stretch: In Halo 3's Archive, Andres notes he found the data shown to CO within underground Waypoint channels with little to no encryption. If there wasn't some sort of hint that meant to provide toward something else being here, I find the use of Waypoint to be very poor. They even acknowledged that the encryption behind this would be little to none, meaning if you could just look in the right places, the average Joe could stumble on this data. Maybe. Just..maybe, there's something more we can find on this site. We know stuff like this has happened before. It could very well happen again.

Microsoft unveils Halo: Spartan Assault

After a long absence, Halo is making a return to the PC.  Sort of.  Microsoft has pulled back the curtain on a brand new Halo game, made exclusively for Windows 8 devices, and it looks pretty darned cool.  So read on for all the details.

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343 Industries Launches the Halo 4 Castle Map Pack

The DLC just keeps coming.  Seems like it was only yesterday that Halo 4’s last map pack made its debut on Xbox Marketplace.  Now, a brand new set of play spaces is ready to go.  Read on for the details, and to see them for yourself.

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Halo 4 panel from PAX East now online

The worst part about not being able to attend a big convention, aside from hearing about all the great times your friends had, is missing the panels.  Luckily, it’s becoming common for these panels to show up online, and the Halo 4 PAX East panel is no exception.  Read on to check it out.

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Halo 4: Spartan Ops Returns Next Week

Halo 4’s groundbreaking serialized co-operative multiplayer experience known as Spartan Ops took an extended break over the holidays, but it’s about to make a big comeback.  Read on for the details.

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Save Game’s GOTY picks for 2012

Here we are. Almost to the end of another year and it’s that time where we reflect on the year that was and decide which games were the standout in 2012. Our staff and contributors have chosen the game that they believe was the best game they played during 2012. ‘Best’ is perhaps an understatement here – these games are those which offered the most intriguing, most involving, most affective experience – the games which became more than simply ‘games’. The games listed below are a diverse bunch, and there may be some surprises amongst those picked. But there’s one […]

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Halo 4: A Beginning and an End

(WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD) Halo and I go back a long way.  There isn’t a franchise I’ve spent more time over the last decade playing, discussing, or thinking about.  It is, maybe more than any other title, how I identify myself as a gamer.  So when Halo’s creator, Bungie, decided to relinquish control of the franchise to 343 Industries, I was worried.  Actually, mortified might be a better word.  What would happen to Master Chief and Cortana?  How would the game play change?  What would be added?  What would be taken away?  How could a brand new studio, unknown and untested, […]

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New Halo 4 Maps Already on the Way

Well, that was quick.  Three weeks after the launch of Halo 4, 343 Industries is already showing off their first batch of downloadable content.  That’s right, more maps are on the way.  And they’ll be here pretty darned quickly.  Read on for all the details and a nifty little trailer.

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Bungie Watch! End of an Era Edition

A few months ago, we reported that Bungie Studios, the developer behind the Halo series, would be making a major change to their online community in the near future.  As part of a larger shift away from Halo, and towards their next big thing, Bungie would be ending data collection for all of their Halo games.  Sadly, that change took effect yesterday.  Read on for the details, and some staggering final statistics from nearly a decade of Halo data collection.

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Halo fans contribute to Living Monument of Master Chief

To celebrate the release of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and the tenth anniversary of the Halo series, Microsoft and 343 Industries have invited fans of the franchise to build a living momument, based on their screenshotted fondest memories of the games, which will be incorporated into a 3D rendering of the hero of the series, Master Chief.

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