Zeta Halo Project

This article is about the UEG initiative. For other articles of the same name, see Zeta.

Installation 07 is the last remaining ring of the originally twelve-strong Senescent Array.

"Isolate and contain."

— Henry Lamb reiterates one of the project's goals, specifically with regard to Zeta Halo's activation index.

The Zeta Halo Project was an initiative undertaken by the Unified Earth Government and the Swords of Sanghelios to study, decommission, and occupy Zeta Halo, the fourth Halo ring to be discovered by modern humanity. Overseen by Doctor Bob Casper, it involved both a scientific outpost and a large United Nations Space Command (UNSC) military presence. The project was first launched in early 2555 and operated on the ring for the next three years, before ultimately being destroyed when the ring was taken over by the Created in October 2558.

History

Background and early establishment

An OQ-45 Honeybee drone, used to explore the ring.

Henry Lamb: "Every Halo has a monitor, right? Like 343 Guilty Spark on Alpha Halo, for instance. So why can't we find one here? As much as we've searched this place, we've consistently come up empty. And it hasn't found us, which is even more surprising, given the time we've spent here. It leaves me wondering whether there simply isn't one here, or if it's hiding for some reason."

Luther Mann: "For some reason? I would think the reason would be obvious, at least one of them. Human and Covenant interactions on these installations have not always been the best. If the monitor of this Halo is aware of that, it might be inclined to steer clear of us. I know I would."

— Two researchers speculate regarding the apparent absence of Zeta Halo's monitor.

Zeta Halo's location was first made known to the United Nations Space Command in the early days of 2555 thanks to ongoing research at the shield world of Sarcophagus/Onyx. In late 2553 or early 2554, a series of Forerunner records were uncovered inside the shield world by Doctor Luther Mann (a respected scientist and expert on the Forerunners), who then proceeded to spend the next year labouring over them to uncover their secrets. His work was published in very early 2555, leading to a massive acceleration in his academic career and newfound attention from the UNSC and ONI, who were in the process of finding and deactivating the remaining Halo rings across the galaxy. Doctor Mann presented his work at the UNSC's HQ on Earth, providing a detailed report of the methods he used to locate the ring. ONI launched an initiative to investigate and explore the ring almost immediately, arriving at the installation and landing on it by March 2555. Doctor Mann was one of the personnel selected for the expedition, alongside other notable experts such as Henry Lamb. One of the ships used to transport the research team to the ring was UNSC Völuspá, though it is unclear when exactly this ship arrived.

For the initial deployment to Zeta Halo, no expense was spared: ONI were primarily interested in locating and securing the ring's activation index, library, monitor, and control room, as to prevent the ring's activation. Hundreds of automated drones (presumably OQ-45 Honeybees) were used to scour the surface, though ultimately the ringworld's unique architecture (a facet of its unique history, unbeknownst to the researchers) meant that locating these structures proved difficult. On previous rings, the control room had been the largest structure close to the ring's phase pulse generators and was a useful trove of information about the ring's operation in general. By mid-March 2555, these elements had yet to be discovered, and the ring's monitor 117649 Despondent Pyre remained elusive unlike previously-discovered monitors. Henry Lamb speculated that the monitor may be in hiding, aware of the destruction brought upon Alpha and Delta Halos by the arrival of humanity to them years earlier, though neither he nor Doctor Mann could square this theory with their present (and incomplete) understanding of ancillas. Ultimately, the UNSC personnel on the ring were able to quickly discern that Zeta Halo had a very unique history compared to the other rings, boasting unique physical infrastructure, visual architecture, material composition, and even the machine-language of its computer networks, and theorised that the ring may have been constructed first in the array, or built as a prototype of some sort. It was not until much later that year that a data drop recovered from deep space revealed the real reasons for Installation 07's marked differences.

At around 0900 hours on March 8, 2555, Doctor Mann discovered a countdown sequence in a corridor connected to one of the ring's atmosphere and climate control centers. He immediately reported this find to the project's manager, Bob Casper, who in turn passed the news along to ONI. Casper also contacted his research counterparts on the other Halo rings being monitored and they discovered identical synchronized countdowns on each. Henry Lamb was thereafter able to trace a steady pulse which ran straight to the control room. While this newfound numerical reverse progression finally achieved one of the project's aims, it also spelled doom for the galaxy, as it indicated the entire Halo Array would fire in just a matter of weeks. Lamb informed Casper that there was no way to intercept and shut down the activation circuits which would trigger the firings. Luther tried a number of things, but any attempt to shut down a single pulse caused it to reroute. At the behest of Admiral Serin Osman the Commander-in-Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence (CINCONI), Doctor Casper recalled Mann and Lamb to Earth to assist with the investigation of the then-inert Excession portal in East Africa, as it was determined a team needed to be sent to Installation 00 as soon as possible. Even so, various teams on Zeta Halo remained to work on stopping the countdown. In the end, both men from the project joined a joint team of humans and Sangheili that traveled to the Ark and managed to avert catastrophe. It was on Zeta Halo that individuals in the Milky Way first learned that the countdown had ceased on March 20, which caused out-and-out rejoicing.

ONI's Ilex Facility was created to study findings from the Zeta Halo project.

Further research

A Lifeworker station on Installation 07.

With the Zeta Halo crisis narrowly averted on the Ark, the Zeta Halo Project's research continued and the UNSC presence gradually expanded on the ring, expanding to include both scientific and military elements.