"A top class AI costs what, the price of a destroyer? What if that mind— your mind [Melissa] - could have made a difference at Coral?"

Seems like an interesting alternate-universe type fan-fic subject. What might have happened if the Apocalypso hadn't crashed out of slipspace with the artifact? What if Melissa had remained and, presuming this character's comment's context, played a role in the events of Coral's attack? Could the planet have been saved? Or would Melissa just have been another one of the Smart AIs in UNSC and ONI ranks that wouldn't have had much more of an influence on events? Was Coral's loss inevitable?

Actually, it goes without saying I'm still greatly curious about the state of Melissa during/after Halo 2 (c'mon 343!).

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That said, I'd also love some official clarification as to what exactly the artifact was on board the Apocalypso. Consensus is that it was Forerunner in nature. It was activated onboard the Apocalypso while in slipspace (triangles->lines->dots), which started the events of ILB. Then it was counting down - but to what? Because reversing it (dots->lines->triangles) caused the EM/slipspace/real space signal spike while seeming to turn it off, or stop the countdown to whatever was going to happen.

Was it a bomb? Was it a beacon? What was its intended function, exactly?
The halo wiki's explanations are all really based on theories surrounding what was revealed in the plot, mainly because nothing further in depth has been shared about the ILB plot and characters - save for a couple of indirect references in official material.
It's really more like the plot of ILB is "canon", and somewhat connected in neat/convenient ways, without really having any significant connection or effect on other major plot points in the EU...

...and yet the content of the ILB story is actually pretty significant.

Anyway, this is me, once again wishing that 343 would revisit the 2004/2552 Apocalypso events in much greater detail!
*grrr*