Slipspace COM launcher

The Slipspace Communications (COM) Launcher is an experimental piece of technology invented by the UNSC and is the only technology that enables faster than light communications except for the Forerunner technology that synchronizes the Halo firing sequence.

A communications probe launched by an underground gauss accelerator and a Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive creates a Slipspace rift in high orbit so that the COM probe goes through Slipspace like a "bullet" on an ultra-precise trajectory. It rips through the laws of known human physics and drops back into normal space at some very distant coordinates. The probe actually navigates through Slipspace and traverses as far and as fast as any UNSC ship.

The technology would revolutionize long-distance communication, far faster than conventional radio communication. If each ship were outfitted with such a device, messages could be delivered without requiring a ship to travel through space to manually give the message, especially when the ship is further delayed by the Cole Protocol.

Unfortunately, the cost to build a Shaw-Fujikawa ultra-precise low-mass launcher is comparable to a fleet of ships, and even a single probe is worth the value of a capital city on an outlying colony. Therefore, there are only three known launchers: one on Earth, one on Reach, and a secret one on Onyx, though the Reach and Onyx launchers were likely destroyed during the Battle of Reach and the Battle of Onyx, respectively, though the one on Onyx was able to send one final message to Earth from the Spartan-III's and Kurt-051.