4) Leaving Cortana – Halo 2
“Don’t make a girl a promise if you know you can’t keep it.”
So says Cortana as Chief bids goodbye to his AI companion and promises he’ll be back, before the player heads for earth on Truth’s Dreadnought, leaving their omnipresent sidekick behind on High Charity. The relationship between Chief and Cortana is one of the most compelling subplots in the entire Halo canon, and this goodbye during the penultimate leg of the journey is a particularly affecting one.
As Chief heads into the atmosphere, blasting off for earth, player wonders whether Cortana will be seen again. Few goodbyes are as painful…
3) Cortana’s Death – Halo 4
…But perhaps this goodbye is the worst of all. Halo 4 reaches a climactic head with the”death” of beloved Cortana, who sacrifices herself to save Chief by uploading her final unstable personality into the system and shielding Chief from the Composer, lethal Forerunner technology that will eviscerate her longtime protector. Finally, she summons the strength to appear as a hologram and now, in semi-human form, reaches out to touch Chief.
“I’ve waited so long to do that,” she says, drawing her hand down his cold metallic shell.
“Where next?” Chief asks.
“This time, I’m not coming with you,” Cortana reveals, having lost the strength to continue.
This touching ending neatly rounds off a story arc that begins during the opening hours of Halo 4, where it’s revealed Cortana has outlived her seven-year lifespan and is proceeding to self-destruct.
In Halo 5 we learn that Cortana didn’t really die, but turned to Forerunner technology to keep her alive; technology that has turned her against Chief in the process. Cortana’s death in Halo 4 is not really a death at all then, but certainly the end of a chapter that began right back during Combat Evolved. A memorable piece of storytelling indeed.