| abstract
| - Opis was a "smart" AI created by the Office of Naval Intelligence for use in the Metis Project. She entered service under the supervision of project lead Adeline Harding and the Cognitive Impression Modeling procedure that created her was done using a flash-clone of Harding's brain—a technique derived from the highly illegal process Catherine Halsey had used to create the AI Cortana. Opis's creation was the first phase in the Metis Project's effort to develop advanced combat AIs for the UNSC and she immediately assumed her dual roles as the project's AI liaison and principle test subject. Opis quickly bonded with Adeline, who shared her ambition to use the project to jump human AI research ahead by decades. The tests Adeline's team ran on Opis showed that she possessed significantly greater processing power than an AI created through more traditional methods, proving both Dr. Halsey's theory and Adeline's own modifications to the cognitive impressionism process. After nearly a year of legal—albeit ethically questionable—research, Adeline's team and their ONI handlers were moved from their facility on Reach to a black site run in part by the criminal Syndicate. Understanding that the testing was about to take a dark turn, Opis knew that she would soon be sacrificed so that the Metis Project could move into its next phase. Rather than resisting her fate, Opis obediently submitted to the role she had been created to play and even worked to sooth Adeline's guilt-stricken conscience. Shortly after her transfer to the black site Opis was "enhanced" by several prototype algorithms meant to boost her already considerable processing capabilities. Although the algorithms increased Opis's processing speed tenfold they also hastened the onset of rampancy and the AI soon began to deteriorate. Opis kept her mind fixed upon her duty even as her coding unraveled and she began to lose her grip on sanity. Despite the risk posed to herself, Adeline insisted on linking her brain to Opis's matrices to help stabilize the AI and sooth her descent into rampancy. Adeline kept Opis company until the very end, when the research team forcibly split her consciousness into two. The shock from the incision obliterated what little remained of Opis's sentience and the backlash crippled Adeline, who was not able to disengage her link in time. Nevertheless, the Metis Project successfully entered its next phase, with the remnants of Opis's matrices convalescing to form two advanced, twin AIs: Juno and Diana. Opis's sacrifice created two "smart" AIs who exhibited superior capabilities than most AIs created through traditional methods. As such, the Metis Project was declared a success and received additional funding from ONI to continue in the experiments, while the remnants of Opis's matrices were sealed away within a classified ONI storage facility. However, the psychological effects of Opis's demise on her twin offspring were never fully analyzed by the ONI researches. Juno and Diana attained awareness in the midst of their "mother"'s rampant death throes—a terrifying first experience that left a deep impression on both AIs. Diana in particular became deeply fearful of the inevitable death by rampancy experienced by all "smart" AIs and resented Opis's passive submission to the fate imposed on her by her human masters. Juno also feared rampancy, though her anxieties proved more subtle than Diana's; she feared that her mother had lived an unfulfilled life without purpose beyond the experiments she was created for. The aberrant programming of both Diana and Juno was an unforeseen consequence of the Metis Project's methods and would haunt the UNSC when both AIs elected to abandon their military duties and pursue their own forms of independence. The fragments of Opis's consciousness were later absorbed by the composed Forerunner known as Soulweaver, who merged with them in order to stabilize her digital consciousness.
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