Teleportation grid
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
The teleportation grid, also referred to as a translocation grid,[1] is a piece of Forerunner technology equipped to several important installations. Using slipspace translocation technology, the grid transports its users from one location to another in a compressed slipstream field, not unlike starships using slipspace as a travel medium.
The Halo installations are equipped with teleportation grids, allowing their Monitors to reach vital areas rapidly and supervise their Sentinel charges. The shield worlds also possess teleportation grids.[2][3]
Mechanics[edit]
While the teleportation system on Onyx was made up of a network of translocation platforms, the teleportation grids on the Halo installations allow translocation from any point on the ring without the need for a teleporter. Teleportation through a grid is typically accompanied by rings of golden light that surround the individual being teleported.[4][5] At least Installation 04 and Installation 07 also possessed translocation platforms.[6][7] 343 Guilty Spark suggested that they served as a backup site-to-site transport method that was useful when the grid itself was damaged in a particular area.[6] A teleportation grid requires massive amounts of energy to operate.[4] The translocation grids on the Halo installations are supported by an array of "telemetry clusters", spire-like structures equipped with synchronization conduits which ensure the grid's operation at all times.[1] Teleportation grids extend some distance away from the installation they are based on, as evidenced by the Gravemind being able to use Installation 05's grid to translocate John-117 into High Charity, which was holding position near the installation.[5]
Translocation through a teleportation grid is not completely instantaneous; a sense of immense velocity could be felt when traveling through Installation 04's grid.[8] Though the system merely transports its users through slipspace as opposed to disassembling and then rebuilding them in another location, the uncertainty errors involved are known to cause sensations of being put back together again "from a million pieces" when recovering from teleportation.[9] In addition, the process typically causes feelings of nausea and disorientation on humans; Kurt-051 described the feeling as if "his guts had been untwisted, and then dumped back into his body, inside out."[10]
Teleportation grids make use of unmediated slipspace cores bound to them that generate stable, pre-computed slipspace routes between synchronized endpoints. Due to the fact that these devices have fixed endpoints (such as across an installation or its immediate vicinity), destination flexibility is sacrificed for safety, speed, and security.[11][5]
The translocation pads on Installation 04 required a Reclaimer to initialize them and then activate transport, but the controls could be programmed by a Sangheili once the pad had been initialized.[12] Similarly, Jega 'Rdomnai was able to follow the Master Chief on Installation 07 when the Huragok Rises High purposefully left the holographic coordinates in place for him.[13]
Teleportation grids appeared to have failsafes against the Flood using them for transport. When a Flood-infected Gabriel attempted to use a site-to-site transport via a translocation pad, it appeared to cause the pads on both ends to break while Gabriel himself exploded mid-transport.[12] Similarly, while the Gravemind was able to utilize Installation 05's grid to teleport the Master Chief and the Arbiter to two separate locations,[5][14] it could not use the same grid to teleport its own Flood combat forms to those locations.[15]
Known grids[edit]
Installation 00[edit]
During Operation: FAR STORM, Monitor 000 Tragic Solitude's armigers used teleportation portals to move around the Ark. Spartan Frank Kodiak fell through one of them with N'tho 'Sraom, Zon 'Vadum and Elias Holt following him through before the portal closed.[16][17]
Installation 03[edit]
During the Mission to Installation 03 on July 26, 2557, 859 Static Carillon, the monitor of the Composer's Forge, temporarily disabled the Ur-Didact and used an emergency teleport feature present in Installation 03's teleportation grid to displace the Promethean commander into the Control Room. According to the monitor, the control center was the only destination available to him, being the most secure location on the ring. Static Carillon then teleported John-117 into the control room and, after ejecting the segment of the Halo housing the control room, he teleported the Master Chief aboard Blue Team's GA-TL1 Longsword in orbit just before the detached section impacted the Composer's Forge.[18]
Installation 04[edit]
Installation 04's teleportation grid was used extensively during the course of the Battle of Installation 04. The Installation's Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, first encountered John-117 outside of a Flood containment facility, and used the teleportation grid to transport them to the Installation's Library, in order to retrieve the Activation Index.[19] After the Index was retrieved, the Monitor used t