Slipspace flake

A slipspace flake or slipstream crystal is a central component of a Forerunner slipspace drive. They are quantum-engineered crystalline devices, and were used aboard Forerunner spacecraft to modulate the ship's passage through the higher dimensions, being a major contributor to their markedly stable slipspace transitions due to how they mediate temporal and spatial anomalies inherent to many slipspace interactions. This reduces travel times by orders of magnitude over the crude alternatives used by less advanced species. All slipspace flakes were chipped from a central "core" crystal, the location of which was known only to the Master Builder. The exotic composition and slipspace interactions of the crystal were incomprehensible to even the Forerunners, and never replicated.

The Forerunner capital Maethrillian had an entire hallway located near the Council chamber decorated with millions of spent slipspace flakes, some adorning the walls and others built into rotating sculptures.

In 2557, 343 Guilty Spark took the Ace of Spades to Triniel to retrieve a slipspace flake to help upgrade the ship's slipspace drive as part of the enhancements Spark made to the ship.

Trivia
The crystal found by Dr. Halsey in the ruins beneath CASTLE Base on Reach may have been a slipspace flake, though it possessed time/space-bending properties beyond simply enabling faster slipspace travel. This may be due to its unshielded nature.

List of appearances

 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Cryptum
 * Halo: Silentium
 * Halo: Fractures
 * Promises to Keep
 * Halo: Renegades
 * Halo: Shadows of Reach
 * Sacrifice