Shield World 0459

Shield World 0459 was a Forerunner shield world located in the Korinth Prior system. A conservation sphere, it was intended to protect sentient lifeforms from the effects of the Halo Array and the Flood. It also served as a military outpost housing the Apex Site, a port for a fleet of Forerunner dreadnoughts.

Despite shield worlds being created as a haven from the Halos and the Flood, the external surface was heavily infested with Flood biomass, with forms of various types freely roaming across the surface. Sentinels were a rarity on the outside, but this changed within the center, where the many Forerunner constructs worked to prevent the Flood from claiming the interior as well.

During the Human-Covenant War, Shield World 0459 was discovered by the Covenant during the Battle of Arcadia. It was subsequently destroyed at the end of a battle in February 2531.

Overview
This shield world's main structure consisted of the outer surface, the superstructure and tunnel system inside the crust, and the inner miniature Dyson sphere, along with its own miniaturized artificial sun to provide illumination. A series of latitudinal support ribs encircled the megastructure; these were clearly visible on the inner surface. The outer surface, as well as parts of the superstructure, were largely infested with Flood forms. Some of the Flood even reached the interior of the world through openings like vents, but because of the larger numbers of Sentinels, never managed to fully infest it.

The ecosystems of the interior and the exterior were radically different, the outer surface being a rocky wasteland with large bodies of water and Flood biomass in some areas. The atmosphere was thick with dust, which may have been a defensive measure to disable starships and prevent them from carrying the Flood off-world. Parts of the superstructure could be seen on the surface, with chasms reaching deep down into the interior.

The inner Dyson shell was completely terraformed and full of plant and animal life, much like the Halo installations or the Ark. It featured different types of Forerunner structures, ranging from spires to various walls or embankments and rifts leading into the interior of the structure. Like many other Forerunner installations, Shield 0459 possessed a translocation grid in form of a network of teleporters.

Access tunnels
The surface of Shield World 0459 had multiple access portals, which could be used to gain access to the interior of the planet. Most of them were likely hidden; for example, the portal through which the entered the interior was covered under a large body of water. The AI in control of these access portals would activate docking sequence when a ship passed over one, forcibly dragging the vessel inside by way of a series of field-projecting pylons on the outer surface.

The tunnels inside the structure had a cleansing system which prevented the Flood from entering the interior. This quarantine system consisted of several "cleansing rings", which generated energy fields within their diameter, which would destroy any Flood biomass on a passing ship. On the interior, these portals had six interlocks that needed to be opened in order to unlock the access to the tunnel, and like other significant systems on the installation, they could be operated only by a Reclaimer.

The Apex
The Apex Site was an installation comprised of a control center on a platform high above the inner surface of Shield World 0459, and numerous docking towers containing a fleet of Forerunner dreadnoughts. The control center was accessible from the ground by a teleporter at the Apex Base Site, which was situated on top of a plateau with a series of ramps leading up to it.

Construction
Shield World 0459 was constructed during or prior to the Forerunner-Flood war to serve as both a military outpost to combat the Flood, and to preserve the lifeforms within from the Halo Array's pulse.

At some point, the installation became heavily overrun by Flood. Exactly how this occurred is unknown; it would seem that they either escaped containment facilities some time after the Halo Array's activation, or managed to survive by seeking shelter in the interior of the shield world and later colonized the outside.

Human-Covenant War
"This world shall be the birthplace for an invasion fleet beyond imagining!"

- Prophet of Regret

Shield 0459 was discovered by the Covenant in 2531 using information from a Forerunner complex on the planet Arcadia. After recovering the information, Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee and the Prophet of Regret traveled to the shield world, where they discovered the Apex Site and the dormant Forerunner fleet. With the Human-Covenant War ongoing, the Covenant hoped to use Shield 0459's stored warships to crush the UNSC quickly, rather than wage the protracted war. However, they soon discovered that while they were able to access the installation, they were unable to reactivate the fleet.

After the Covenant had observed Professor Ellen Anders activating the Forerunner relic on Harvest, the Prophet of Regret ordered the Arbiter to go to Arcadia and capture her, as she seemed to have valuable knowledge about the Forerunners. The Arbiter returned to Arcadia on February 9th, captured Anders and brought her to the shield world. Captain James Cutter, commanding officer of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, to which Anders had been assigned, ordered immediate pursuit out-system.



Spirit of Fire arrived in orbit over the shield world, which appeared to be a normal, albeit desolate planet, on February 23rd. Ground forces were dispatched to the surface, where they discovered the Flood. Many of the reconnaissance teams were infected and it was discovered that Anders' transponder signal was being duplicated by a proto-Gravemind; eventually, the proto-Gravemind was killed in a concerted attack. A few hours later, the Spirit ' s shipboard AI Serina scanned the planet for the professor's signal, which seemed to be originating from an ocean; the ship was suddenly pulled into the shield world's internal docking mechanism. After passing the tunnels inside the installation's superstructure, the Spirit of Fire emerged within the internal Dyson sphere.

Some time later, the Arbiter used Anders, who had been kept prisoner at the Apex Site, to activate the fleet of Forerunner ships. However, as the awestruck Elites watched the fleet's activation, Anders managed to escape via the installation's teleportation grid and regroup with the other humans. She then created a plan to prevent the Covenant from using the Forerunner fleet: on February 25th, Spirit of Fire ' s Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine was sent into the shield world's artificial sun. This created a chain reaction, sending it into a supernova state and destroying the shield world from within. The Spirit of Fire was able to escape the shield world's destruction.

Trivia

 * While in the pre-rendered cinematics the lines on the inner surface of the shield world are latitudinal, they are longitudinal in-game in the level Repairs. The appearance of the surface is also different, which is likely due to the disparity between the in-game graphics engine and the pre-rendered cutscenes.
 * The concept of a hollow planet with a habitable inner surface is similar to that of a Globus Cassus, a conceptual idea for a megastructure in which the Earth is used as building materials to construct an enormous hollow sphere with a partially terrestrial interior surface.

List of appearances

 * Halo Wars