Halo 4 Forerunner Sequences

Revision as of 22:58, 7 November 2012

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Forerunner Sequences

Based on the Forerunner character set used on Halo Waypoint, characters have been discovered embedded in various media releases, as well as in-game content.

• Current sequences (by dot count), connected where possible:

  1) T-5-C-E-6-K-V-3-R-8

  2) V-C, Q

  4) Q, F-2-P-G

  02) 6-2-1, W, 8

Sequence 1

Oct 14 Vidoc, Making Halo 4: Infinity Multiplayer - C

• Youtube

Oct 16 Newsletter - 3

• Email, web version

Oct 17 Bulletin - K

• Bulletin

Oct 18 Facebook Image - 8

• image

Oct 22 Newsletter - 5

• Newsletter - Evil Awakens
• Instructions:
  1. Save the JPG linked by the icon in the footer.
  2. Extract all binary data between "SEC3OP36516" text markers and save as a WAV file.
  3. Load the WAV in a program that display spectrograms (eg Sonic Visualiser), the result is the image below:

Oct 29 Trailer - 6

• Spartan Ops Trailer 1

  p1) At the end of the trailer is a single frame with the ONI symbol, and when viewed and enhanced contains a faint outline of a puzzle piece.

  p2) Near the end of the trailer at the title sequence, there's a quiet audio squeal^[1]. This is another spectrogram, which when analyzed produces the following symbol, combined below with the puzzle frame:

Nov 2 Bulletin - V

• (continuing from above) The "oni.gly" reference becomes another URL:

  http://download.halowaypoint.com/content/waypoint/assets/images/mc3-mc4-mc5-mc4-mc6-mc5-mc4-mc3/oni.gly

• When viewed with a hex editor, the file appears to be a WAV formatted file. Interleaved with the WAV data, however, are null (00) value bytes. Removing the WAV syntax segments and these null bytes produces a hidden GIF file, which contains the glyph for "V":

? - T

? - E

? - R

Sequence 2

Nov 2 Bulletin - C

• (continuing from above) Secondly, there is an image linked in the source call "empty.png". Open the file and adjust the brightness to reveal the text:

  ..\images\mc?-???-???-???-???-???-???-???\classified.mp4

• Additionally, the above web page source includes a very large collection of comments, implying it should be ignored. But in the center of this suspicious pattern is a base-64 string:

  TVRoZAAAAAYAAAABA8BNVHJrAAAAbQD/IAEAAP8DFS8vQ0xBU1NJRklFRC8vRT1tYzMvLwDAWwCQNECWQIA0AACQNkCHQIA2AACQN0CHQIA3AACQNkCHQIA2AACQOUCHQIA5A
  ACQN0CHQIA3AACQNkCWQIA2AACQNECeAIA0AAD/LwA=

• Converted to a binary string, the base-64 becomes a MIDI file, playing the classic Halo monk theme. Embedded inside the binary, however, is the phrase:

  //CLASSIFIED//E=mc3//

• Following the note progression in the tune, applied to the mc??? path, a new URL and MP4 file is discovered:

  http://download.halowaypoint.com/content/waypoint/assets/images/mc3-mc4-mc5-mc4-mc6-mc5-mc4-mc3/classified.mp4

• Extracting the audio stream and performing another spectrogram produces two images, one of which is a Forerunner glyph:

• Additionally, one frame in the classified.mp4 includes additional information:

Spartan Ops - Q

• The glyph for "Q" can be found in the Spartan Ops level The Challenge.

? - V

Sequence 4

Oct 25 Bulletin - P

• Bulletin
• Instructions:
  1. View the page source to locate a link to a hidden BMP file
  2. Save the BMP but with a PNG extension (it's a PNG file)
  3. Split the image into its RGB planes
  4. Extract the greyscale 0-255 pixel values for each pixel and save as raw files. There are many ways this can be done. The resulting binary files are additional PNG images, as below
• One exception: The blue plane PNG has extra text content embedded in its binary (making it an invalid PNG as is). With the data extracted, boost the brightness to see the hidden symbol. Extracted from the file is the following text:

/START FILE//CLASSIFIED//RAIDER/EARLY REPORTS FROM IMBRIUM MACHINE COMPLEX FACILITY ARE POSITIVE - TESTING IS STILL UNDERWAY BUT SO FAR THE TEST SUBJECTS EXHIBIT THE DESIRED EFFECTS FROM THE UPDATED FERAL DESIGN./END FILE/

Red	Green	Blue (corrected)

• Red plane text:

/START FILE/
/DATA DECRYPTION INTEL//GLYPHS

INTELLIGENCE OPERATIVES BE ADVISED: SECTION 3 HAS REPORTED A RECENT INCREASE IN GLYPH-ENCRYPTED DATA TRAFFIC.

GLYPHS CAN BE COMBINED TO FORM CODES, WHICH CAN BE USED TO UNLOCK CLASSIFIED DATA, VIA AUTHORIZED WAYPOINT TERMINALS.

CODES ARE TIED TO SPECIFIC PREREQUISITES WHICH MUST BE MET BY THE OPERATIVE PRIOR TO UNLOCKING THE DATA. PREREQUISITES APPEAR TO BE ASSOCIATED TO THE COMPLETION OF SPECIFIC UNSC MISSION OBJECTIVES. MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED IN THIS AREA.

SEQUENCING OF THE GLYPHS INTO CODES IS NOW DETERMINED BY INTERLOCKED CONTAINERS (IT WAS PREVIOUSLY DETERMINED VIA GLYPH SEMANTICS, FOR THE ALPHA HALO ARCHIVE CODES).

/END FILE/

October 29 Tweet - 2

• Tweet:

I stood still, perched high above and looked backwards. I was caught between a hard place and a rock. http://tinyurl.com/8q5ftk6

• The tweet links to an MP4 file. The file contains meta data that reads:

  Movie Name: RECOVERED FRAGMENT

  Album: CLASSIFIED

  Recorded date: 2557

  Comment: /START FILE//CLASSIFIED//ONI HAS RECEIVED-REDACTED-/END FILE/

• Solution^[2]:
  1. The tweet hints at between "hard place" and "rock". This says two things: Look for the HARD PLACE and ROCK plain text markers in the MP4, and then reverse the data found between
  2. The resulting binary file in another PNG image
  3. The PNG is encoded with an alpha channel, and the lower 269 scanlines contain an additional stream of bytes.
  4. Extract the data, making sure your method begins at the last pixel, traveling left and up, then re-save the data (344320 bytes) as an MP4 file.
• Inside this file is more meta data that reads:

  Movie Name: RECOVERED FRAGMENT

  Album: REQUIEM ARCHIVE I

  Recorded date: 2557

  Comment: /START FILE//CLASSIFIED//ONI HAS RECEIVED UNCONFIRMED REPORTS FROM FIELD OPERATIVES, REGARDING PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN EMBLEM PATTERNS WHICH MAY BE APPLIED TO SPARTAN-IV ARMOR. THE EXACT MECHANISM IS UNCLEAR, HOWEVER IT MAY BE RELATED TO THE...

• One frame of this file contains the next glyph:

Nov 2 Bulletin - Q

• Bulletin

  Location the "Section 3" portion of the bulletin. At the end of the second CLASSIFIED line, there is a clickable link in the dot.

Last night I dreamt about physics, waldo and ancient melodies.

/START FILE/
//CLASSIFIED/
//ATTENTION ALL OPERATIVES: HIGH PRIORITY INTEL RECEIVED, REVIEW IS MANDATORY/
//CLASSIFIED/ .

/END FILE/

• The link forwards to this page with the text:

/START FILE/
//CLASSIFIED/
//ALERT: RETURN FROM BASE-LXIV IMMEDIATELY!/
//
//
//ADDITIONAL DATA RECOVERED:

/END FILE/

• Inspect the image closely. Locate the pieces of the puzzle scattered around the scene. Together:

  

? - F

? - G

Sequence 02

Halo 4 Terminal - 6 2 1 W 8

• At the end of the last terminal, "Cryptum", five new symbols are shown:

Pieced together

• See top'

References

1. ↑ Thanks to Seraph XXVII at HBO)
2. ↑ Thanks to Beorn and General Vagueness at HBO