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Can I just say that whilst everyone hates cliffhangers, it has got a lot of people wondering about what's going to happen in 6. This is different to 4 which (at the time) seemed like a very open and shut game. So I think that was their intent, like it or not and this is what makes speculation great.

So, Halo 5 ends with Cortana pretty much going full Reaper mode and starting a galactic wide assault on every species in the galaxy. This is obviously going to be the main plot point and of course in the legendary ending we see that she has access to the Halo rings. So the next game is very much going to be Master Chief having to fight his longtime friend and ally. Overall I think if you look closely at a few scenes from Halo 4 it gives a very good indication about where the story is going and you should really view 5 and 6 as a continuation of a single story centred on Chief and Cortana.

Firstly. I do not think that Chief is going to kill Cortana. She may start trying to kill him, but it just won't happen. The simple reason is that in Halo 4, when the Librarian talks about her plan for humanity assuming the Mantle (basically they take control of all Forerunner technology and assume their legacy) centered around John as the Reclaimer and that "even your Ancilla Cortana" were all part of the plan. So, Cortana can't die, because, how else could Chief and Cortana assume the Mantle if Cortana dies? You should pretty much take the Librarians speech as a kind of prophecy. Video games like Halo tend to not do red herrings and usually any information spoken is carefully picked to inform the player.

Secondly, we need to talk about whats actually going on with Cortana. I ve heard a few very neat and interesting theories about why she is acting the way she is; essentially a megalomaniacal overlord. But, I think these are both too convoluted and just don't make much sense.

One of them is that Cortana is in some way being controlled by, or has merged with the Didact. The problems with this theory is that the Didact was a rational being whose hatred was limited to humanity. Why would he maintain a façade of Cortana wanting a machine uprising and why would he allow Cortana to keep John, his enemy, alive? He also would not have attacked the Storm Covenant as they were his servants. Finally, activating a Halo array goes against what the Didact wanted for the galaxy.He does not want to be a lord of ashes. I think Cortana quoting the Didact is purely to represent that she is the villain and has become twisted into what she fought against; but in a purely metaphorical sense.

The other big theory is that Cortana is infected with the logic plague. Without going too far into the lore this basically means that she is the pawn of the Gravemind and serving the goals of the flood. Whilst it does explain her irrational and destructive behavior it is ultimately shot down by the fact that Cortana wants to use the Halo arrays to either kill everyone and start anew or turn everyone into Promethians. Neither is in the floods interest and the logic plague is not a subtle thing but results in literal and willing obedience to the Flood. So, if Cortana was releasing the flood then fine, but things like building her own empire and keeping Chief alive don't fit that.

So, the simplest answer is probably the correct one, which is that Cortana is still suffering from rampancy. I mean we spent all of Halo 4 establishing that Cortana was going crazy and she says some pretty messed up things as the game goes on. That seems an awful lot like set up to me and we know that 343 planned this out as a trilogy so presumably we can look back at Halo 4 and see how things were set up. Indeed, if, as I suspect, the end goal of Halo 6 is that Chief is able to cure Cortana of rampancy before she destroys the galaxy then this scene takes on a lot more relevance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbqsaGzpr7w

Now, theres a few points against Cortana still being rampant. Firstly, she doesn't have all the features of rampancy she had in Halo 4. She doesn't flash red, she can function and she doesn't seem to be dying anymore. Cortana's explanation and an explanation from a piece of intel suggests that the Domain cured her. However, I think the point is that Cortana is delusional and mistaken about this. To understand we need to look at what a Halo AI is an how they're made. Cortana is what is called a smart AI. Most AI are just pieces of technology with coding and all the technological stuff you might expect. But a smart AI is unique in that they are scanned from a human brain which makes them so human like and sentient. The brain is destroyed in this process so recently dead humans are always used for this. So an AI like Roland on the Infinity would have been created in this manner. Cortana is unique in that she was created from living human tissue, a clone of Halseys brain. So smart AI in the Halo verse basically have two components: one part human based on this scanning process and the other very much technological. Both of these elements start to shut down and fail when an AI goes rampant. What I think is going on, is that the Domain not only cured Cortana but made those technological processes exponentially more powerful so that she could control a galactic invasion and all the technology of the Forerunners. This explains why she is not showing physical signs of rampancy and is able to function. However, I don't think the human element could be fixed, because its something specific to Doctor Halsey. In Halo 4 Cortana tells Chief that she could be cured of rampancy if Halsey can repeat the scanning process and stabilise her mind. Again, I admit, this could be a red herring, but I very much doubt that they would introduce Halsey and make such a point of this in Halo 4 if it wasn't relevant. I mean, Chief does finally get to Halsey at the end of Guardians.

Go to 30 seconds in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO8LpSRknNI

So, what I think will happen in Halo 6 is that the game will centre around Chief having to fulfil the promise he made to Cortana in Halo 4 and cure Cortana of rampancy. All the while Cortana is preparing the Halo arrays and her armies are laying waste to anything in their way. Hes going to do this by finding some way of isolating Cortana and getting Halsey to do her thing. Now. this is where I think Halsey will sacrifice herself. A cloned brain would suffice. But, either due to time, or that cloned brain being destroyed I suspect that she will have to scan her own brain and die in the process. In Halo 5 the character seemed to be deeply regretful about her decisions in creating Cortana and Chief; feeling a great weight of responsibility. This to me screams that she will find redemption by dying to save the galaxy. Oh, its totally going to happen just as Cortana is about to fire the Halo Array. Halsey dies in Chiefs arms as Cortana is finally cured of rampancy and stops the ring firing.

Beyond that I can only speculate. I think Cortana, when she realises the scale and enormity of what shes done and almost did; would at first be crushed by that realization if not openly suicidal. She'd have been responsible for killing billions, if not more people and bringing untold ruin to the galaxy. This would be very interesting to see and I suspect will be its own redemption arc since, as I mentioned above, Cortana is part of the Librarians plan for humans to assume the mantle. So its possible that another threat emerges and a sane Cortana has to use the Guardians and Promethians to fight back.

Chief will take Cortana back. Hes not going to kill her as mentioned above. The UNSC though... This is a tough one. 343 took a lot of flak for their whole making the Chief out to be a traitor and then seeming to bottle it. So I hesitate to make this prediction. They could very well just want the goodie goodie UNSC to be all forgiveness and smiles over Cortana going full on reaper on the galaxy. Realistically though, they should want her destroyed. Even the remotest chance of her trying what she did again, just simply out of revenge for all the lives she has taken and ruined. To them, she is the monster who tried to destroy them. I mean some of what Locke says in Halo 5 very much points to him seeing this as very clear cut and he seems to think that Chief will do whats right and kill her. If Chief tries to simply keep Cortana, much less try to put her back in the Domain (which is going to have to happen for humans to assume the Mantle and all Forerunner tech) then the UNSC really should want his blood. No questions, that would be an open act of treason and for a lot of humans be enough to condemn him. So, maybe, maybe not. It would be interesting to see Chief choose his (now cured) friend over the UNSC who want to murder her. I mean they already showed in Halo 4 and Halo 5 that he does not take kindly to people threatening Cortana.

Go to 1:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwlA6gxGRHE

Go to 1:35 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx2JmJ0Ew1M

Hell, he didn't even need to fight Locke there.

May wanna change the title to spoilers!?

Dunno why i really care though, haven't played H5 at all. Got to mission 9 and started painting and playing MCC again instead

Waiting till 343i sort the game out- if that ever comes.

Think i'll be a gaming PC owner by the time 6 drops though. Modded content seems better than what most developers are putting out atm.

I'll bold the spoilers part

As I noted in the other Halo thread, there's also a meta item to consider. Cortana is the name of Microsoft's answer to Siri, and I don't think Microsoft would like their digital assistant to essentially be the new Skynet.