Superintendent (Construct)
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| |
| "Superintendent" | |
| Biographical information | |
|---|---|
| Began service |
Before October 2552 |
| Political information and functions | |
| Affiliation | |
| Primary function |
Monitoring of New Mombasa, Urban Infrastructure |
| Notable battles | |
| [Source] | |
- "KEEP IT CLEAN!"
- —The Superintendent's notable saying.
The Superintendent is a 2nd generation "dumb" Artificial Intelligence. An Urban Infrastructure A.I. construct, it is in charge of making sure the infrastructure of the city of New Mombasa runs smoothly.[1] It is also apparently used by the NMPD to observe people and record their conversations through its cameras. The Superintendent's Data Center is located deep below the city, with its main core residing under a shaft connected to ONI Alpha Site on the surface.
A subroutine of the Superintendent exists, called Vergil. It was originally created by Dr. Endesha to look after his daughter, Sadie Endesha.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Just before Earth became under attack by The Covenant, the Superintendent was performing a routine seismic scan when it picked up a seismic anomaly, which would prove to make the Superintendent's data on the anomaly a priority target for Covenant Brute forces and Dare's ODST Squad. When Earth came under attack by the Covenant on October 20, 2552, the Superintendent declared a "Metropolitan Emergency" on the city of New Mombasa. Apparently, there was a data corruption somewhere in the city at some point, as an ONI COMM officer contacted the AI, and asked it to put Kinsler on the line, but it didn't comply. The Superintendent was then asked to upload its logs for the last twenty-four hours, for which the AI only replied with repeating the phrase "KEEP IT CLEAN". The COMM officer then told the AI they'd send a team, and ordered the Superintendent to redirect all comm traffic through him. The Superintendent only replied with its pre-recorded phrases, most likely more concerned with the city than the data corruption.[2]
Some time later, when Prophet of Regret's Assault Carrier initiated Slipspace transition over the city, the resulting shockwave severely damaged it, as well partially disabled the Superintendent.[3] Veronica Dare was dispatched on a secret mission with an ODST team which involved the retrieval of the Superintendent - though her squad was unaware of this objective. After landing in the area, she was separated from the ODST's and holed up in a nearby building where she attempted to find a way of getting the AI to safety.
Later that day, the Superintendent aided both UNSC Marine and NMPD forces remaining in the city in fighting off the recently-arrived Covenant occupation force. In the following night, the construct aided a young Rookie in evading Covenant foot patrols in the rubble of the city by giving him access to a map of the city, as well as activating lights and signs; leading him to safety.[4]
Eventually, the Rookie, along with Captain Dare, managed to reach the AI where they discovered a Covenant Engineer present, which had assimilated the data of the Superintendent and combined it with itself.
[edit] Gameplay
- The Superintendent serves as a guide to the Rookie during the campaign, in a similar manner to the way Cortana guided the Master Chief. However, the Superintendent is rather limited in terms of communication, only able to interact with the Rookie by manipulating municipal electronic signs (for example, lighting up a sign to read 'keep right' to guide the Rookie in that direction) and speaking through a number of pre-recorded phrases. For example, instead of directly asking the squad not to destroy an expensive bridge, he can only use the generic phrase 'respect public property.' The Superintendent may also not be fully operational due to the slipspace rupture, as stated by Buck in the Desperate Measures ViDoc. More likely, it is a result of being a very low-grade "dumb" AI, whose capabilities pale in comparison to their more advanced "smart" counterparts.
- Note that the Superintendent can also help the Rookie find audio files: it raises and lowers traffic blocks, flashes police sirens, rings telephones, manipulates electronic signs, and spits coins out of an ATM.
- The Superintendent also helps the Rookie by granting him access to a map of the city, and highlighting areas of interest, mostly pieces of equipment (beacons) left by his squad mates. When inspected, these "beacons" will trigger flashback missions which reveal what happened to the other squad members, one at a time.
- Perhaps as a result of Kinsler's pursuit of Sadie, the Superintendent is noticeably reluctant to cooperate with local police department personnel, sometimes at the expense of military effectiveness. During the ONI Alpha Site level, an officer tries to get to AI to grant him access so that he can detonate the demolition charges planted by Dutch and Mickey to deny the Covenant easy access to the Alpha Site, only granting Dutch access when he approached the keypad. Another officer, trapped in the tunnels of the Superintendent's data core, was repeatedly denied access until the Rookie approached and was granted access. In the latter case, the Superintendent had a legitimate reason to be suspicious - the officer was checking that Dr Endesha was dead, and attacked the Rookie to prevent any witnesses to Kinslers murder.[4]
- In the "Keep it Clean" teaser, the Superintendent sees the Rookie's drop pod crash land. After the Rookie gets out off his pod, the Superintendent flashes holographic street signs, pointing the Rookie towards safety.
[edit] Trivia
- A superintendent is a person who oversees or directs some work, enterprise, establishment, organization, district, etc.; supervisor, which is similar to the Superintendent's programming. It is also a senior police rank above Chief Inspector in many countries.
- On Bungie Day in 2008, a Gamer Picture of the Superintendent was available for download.
- While the Superintendent is rebooting during the "Keep It Clean" video, the words "Maddie, where are you?" appear for a fraction of a second, although during Sadie's Story it can be seen as "Sadie, where are you?".
- It's possible that the AI of New Mombasa isn't named "The Superintendent," but that Superintendent is in fact it's class. This is most notable in the later audio-logs when Kinsler says to an Officer "It hacked a Superintendent-class AI!" in regards to the Huragok Vergil. This would mean that Vergil is the name of the AI, with a subroutine built-in to help Sadie, and the class of city-management AI would be Superintendent AI's. Civilians may call it the Superintendent for every city that has one.
- The Superintendent has 7 facial expressions. Normal, Angry, Sad, Bored, Confused, Happy, and (not pictured above) OFF mode.
- Players can have a picture of the Superintendent as their character emblem for Firefight.
- The security cameras of the Superintendent are heavily reminiscent of those of HAL 9000, the infamous computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both cameras are vertical rectagular panels with a round “eye” in the lower center, though HAL’s eye is red, while the Superintendent’s is blue.
[edit] Sources
- ↑ Bungie.net Halo 3: ODST Field Guide
- ↑ KEEP IT CLEAN - Bungie Teaser - 9/19/2008
- ↑ Halo 3 ODST ViDoc: Desperate Measures
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Halo 3: ODST
| Characters of Sadie's Story | ||
| Communications Duty Officer | Crone | Dr. Endesha | Jonas | Jim Odingo | Kinsler | Marshall Glick Mike Branley | Sadie Endesha | Stephen | Superintendent | Tom Uberti | Vergil | ||
| Known UNSC AI's | ||
| Araquiel • Beowulf • Cortana • Deep Winter • Doppler • Durga • Déjà • Endless Summer • Eternal Spring • FitzGibbon • Iona • Jerrod • Juliana • Kalmiya • Loki • Lysithea • Mack • Melissa • Pallas Athena • Serina • Sif • Solipsil • Superintendent • Toran • Wellsley | ||
