A couple of times while on stealth missions, and when they are unaware that I'm observing them, I have seen the A.I. bots performing a secret haka battle dance.
I have seen up to a dozen bots take part in this ritual. From a distance it will appear that they are in a crouching position, will stand for a split second and then return to the crouching position. They will hold this position for a couple of seconds, only to repeat the process again and again.
This dance will be performed in perfectly synchronised unison by all the AI bots and will go on until they get spooked by gunfire and run off hither and thither.
I believe I may only have observed this ritual act around the radio towers on Copehill Down, so it is possible that it is some kind of secret cult ceremony practised only by the officer class. It may also be that the partakers in the ritual believe that the radio towers possess some kind of magical powers, possibly related to the Ark of the Covenant.
I do not believe that the presence of the tractor on this level is unrelated.
Even as an adversary, I feel privileged to have been a rare witness to this secret ritual and gained a brief glimpse into the AI bots' hidden lives.
I think this was a nice touch by the developers to have created a hidden easter egg/back story for the AI bots, about their socio-cultural belief systems. I haven't been able to get close enough to hear, but it's possible the bots are chanting some invocations towards "their Creators".
If it wasn't intentional, then it is clearly a sign that the AI bots have finally achieved sentience, and, just as Mankind did when we emerged from our primitive existence, they are now founding religions.
They will surely now duly follow a course of cultural and technological progress and eventually build a spaceship to settle on another planet, thus signifying ultimate victory for their civilization.
Either way, I like it.
