Cortana is something of an enigma, making her first “appearance” during a battle against the “Shrieking Banshees”, when advanced ECM fields flooding communications channels, the neurohelmet she had been stored in, and the introduction of an advanced communications system combined to “awaken” her… She seems only able to “manifest” during heightened levels of stress, and only when the neurohelmet is active.

Star League AI development was never able to defeat the “Jump Barrier”, meaning, AIs are not able to remain coherent following a jump. They go mad and uncontrolled. It is believed that they managed to develop a basic AI through its ASRCS Program, or Aerospace Smart Robotic Control Systems Program, which was applied to its M-Series Drones for automated defense of the Hegemony worlds and select Star League facilities. The leap to a true AI is considerable.

The unit had also acquired Data Core – Decimator 397, a device that several members of the unit held might be a solution to the problem, though it brought its own issues to the table, and this line of study was since abandoned.

In mid-February, 3021, in an attempt to resolve these issues, Pitbull implanted Chip 10987 in her housing, The Fisher King’s Neurohelmet, hoping to stabilize her matrix long enough to set things aright. Actual testing under a “stress” conditions on the battlefield remains needed to see how things develop. It is suspected, at this time, that the ECM field might act as something of a “white noise”, allowing Cortana to focus and interact with her environment. It has further been postulated that she might be able to interact with her environment, if given access to a “…closed access holotable, with sufficient data storage to allow her to expand her consciousness…”. In response, the unit added Chip 10987 to the helmet, but little testing was conducted.

For some years, Pitbull experimented with her, operating under an ECM, but with little change in either her status or abilities. He claimed to have received contact with her at one point or another while wearing the helmet and sleeping, but there was little to this beyond oddly revelatory dreams.

In mid-3031 the helmet, and its tag-along Chip 10987, were turned over to * “The Iron Dingoes Skunkwerks” for laboratory testing. The combined unit was engaged in numerous tests, but the arrival of a copy of the Helm Memory Core in their hands began to change everything.