Menachite portal complex
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| This article is based on canon information, but the article's title is conjectural and/or uses descriptions as the title, as there is currently no official name for the subject. |
| Menachite portal complex | |
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| General overview | |
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Location: |
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| Operation overview | |
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Type: |
Slipspace portal generator |
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Function: |
Generation of a portal to Installation 00 |
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Status: |
Inactive as of October 12, 2559 |
| Structural information | |
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Diameter: |
Unknown, but very large[1] |
- "We did not discover the full extent of those ruins and likely never will."
- — Dr. Catherine Halsey[2]
The Menachite portal complex is a massive slipspace portal generator built by the Forerunners and formerly located under Menachite Mountain, in the Highland Mountains of Reach. The structure is similar to the Excession located under Africa on Earth, and is capable of generating portals that link Reach to the Ark located outside of the Milky Way. For most of its history the portal remained buried underground, before its discovery by the Office of Naval Intelligence in the 2530s. For the next twenty years it remained classified under Section Three study until it was eventually made the target of a Covenant excavation operation during the Fall of Reach.[3] Although partially uncovered by the Covenant, the true extent and purpose of the structure remained unclear until 2559, when the Banished finished its excavation and activated the portal, linking their galactic forces with Atriox on the Ark.
The Covenant forces at Reach referred the structure as a "temple" during their initial excavation operations and remained seemingly unaware of its true significance. However its true nature was known to the Covenant's leadership, who referred to it as the Portal Under the Mountain. This name was adopted by the Banished.[4] The complex housed a unique slipspace crystal.
Overview[edit]
The Menachite portal was originally constructed by the Forerunners as a subterranean complex underneath Menachite Mountain. As such, it remained hidden for millennia between the end of the Forerunner-Flood war and the settlement of Reach by humanity in the 24th century. When fully exposed, following the glassing of the mountain atop the complex, the facility slightly resembles the Excession on Earth. The structure is circular with a large ornate projector in the centre for projecting the slipspace portal itself. Eleven beacon tower stations on the complex's perimeter, each at the foot of an individual mountain, project beams into the middle to assist in powering the portal via unknown mechanisms.[5]
In ancient times, the Forerunners used the Menachite Forerunner crystal to power it,[6] but the crystal's removal did not prevent the portal's use. However, unlike the portal at Voi, this portal would only remain active for as long as the local charge lasted. Once it dissipated, the portal would close once again.
Facility under CASTLE Base[edit]
The portal facility was made known to the Office of Naval Intelligence around the time of the 2530s. Earlier in Reach's colonisation Menachite was designated as an extinct volcano with numerous lava tubes surrounding it, before eventually becoming the site of one of the world's many Titanium mining operations. The abandoned mineshafts were later used as equipment storage locations before being co-opted by ONI Section Three and designated as top secret, as part of the KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN research project. ONI's CASTLE Base facility was built inside and around Menachite Mountain and its tunnel network, though ONI was apparently never able to gain entry inside. However, they were able to fully map the base itself and the tunnel complexes surrounding it.[7]
In early-mid September of 2552, Doctor Catherine Halsey and several SPARTAN-IIs gained access into the complex, after Halsey had broken into Colonel James Ackerson's files on KING UNDER THE MOUNTAIN. The group descended an elevator shaft in CASTLE Base's Section Sigma and then through an air vent into the old mineshafts underneath the base,[8] where they ultimately spent eight days traversing the tunnels before stumbling upon the Forerunner facility. The granite rock lining the tunnels was covered in Forerunner symbols which guided the group, though little was revealed until Frederic-104 accidentally cut his hand by brushing it over some of the carved symbols. At this point the glyphs began to glow similarly to heated metal, spreading outward and culminating in a single white triangular glyph that, once pressed, caused the wall to fall away and reveal a larger corridor behind it, around 20 metres (66 ft) in height, leading inward at a straight line that gently sloped deeper into the ground. Golden light shined from the ceiling.[9] The floor of the corridor was paved with asymmetric blue tiles patterned in a way comparable to waves lapping on a shore. The smooth walls were inlaid with centered 4 metres (13 ft) tall gold glyphs made of similar shapes of triangles, squares, bars, and circles. When the glyphs began to softly glow, Fred-104 felt himself attracted to them, but resisted his impulse to approach them on an intuition that they were dangerous. His radiation counter briefly pulsed, supporting his hesitation.[9]
Further down the corridor, the ceiling stopped shining golden light and faded to total black. Pinpoint lights emerged imitating stars, which twinkled realistically. In addition, silver-gray orbs that represented moons pockmarked with craters spun in wide orbits across the ceiling. Along the walls, tall green bamboo-like stalks appeared. Doctor Halsey determined that these apparitions were semisolid holograms with no visible emitters;[9] in actuality, hard light decor present in most Forerunner constructs. Throughout the length of the corridor, the holography underwent three transformations to depict different scenes, each sharing the golden glyphs along the walls. After the initial scene, it changed to depict an arid moonscape with deep craters and sterile light. It then transformed into a volcanic world with active streams of lava flowing along the walls. The realism of this scene was enhanced with realistic distortion of the air, which wavered as it would in the presence of extreme heat. This corridor emptied out into the facility's main chamber.[9]
Crystal chamber[edit]
The main chamber accessed by Halsey and the Spartans was a large structure designed to house a Forerunner crystal. The chamber was approximately circular and measured around 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) in diameter, with a blue floor comprised of millions of tiny tiles—different to the ones from the previous corridor—that flexed and rearranged themselves into patterns that felt "frustratingly familiar" to the humans. The tiles were shaped in various geomtric shapes including squares, circles, bars, and triangles. The chamber's ceiling was a dome with a holographic sun, blue sky, and clouds that morphed into spheres, pyramids, bars, and cubes. The only other feature of note was a pedestal in the chamber's centre, which housed the crystal. When Dr. Halsey and her Spartans approached the pedestal, they experienced spatial disorientation in which their path was distorted. Despite their attempts to reach the center as a close group, they found themselves heading off in separate directions. Fred-104 described feeling a se