Elevator

An elevator, or a lift, is a method of vertical transportation, common among all factions in the Halo universe.

Forerunner
Throughout various Forerunner installations, there are elevators that the Forerunners added to allow a quick ascent or descent over a large vertical span. These elevators and their control panels have a tendency to be geometric like most things of Forerunner design. Forerunner lifts have several different methods of propulsion. How exactly they work is not always clear. Most lifts move without apparent propulsion systems at all, some have beams of energy supporting them, such as the lifts on the Ark.

Installation 04
All Forerunner elevators that appear in Halo: Combat Evolved have no visible mechanical mechanism to move them (with the exception of the elevator in The Library). Forerunner elevators are first observed near Installation 04's Control Room. There are a few identical elevators, all of which are octagonal. The panel to control it has three components. Its left and right sides are irregular hexagons, and are also mirror images of each other. The center piece is a rectangle, and has a curving line down the middle.

In a Flood containment facility, octagonal elevators appear again. But unlike the elevators seen in Assault on the Control Room level, the side lengths and angles are not all the same. The panel to control it is identical to that of the one in near the control room. In the level, the player can actually see one elevator crashing to the ground, disintegrating in mid air when the control panel is activated.

In the installation's Library, it appears that the same elevator is used multiple times. Unlike the other elevators seen so far, it is a circle. It does not have a control panel, as it is not controlled by the player.

Forerunner Gas Mine
In Halo 2, Forerunner elevators appear in the levels The Arbiter and The Oracle throughout the Gas Mine. There is one elevator that takes the player from an upper level down to a hangar. It has an octagonal shape, with two symmetrical control panels. One is placed on the right side of the entrance, the other on the front and center wall. An identical elevator is observed shortly after Thel 'Vadamee cuts the station's cables.

A second, unique elevator appears almost immediately after the beginning of the level The Oracle. It drops down through a Flood Research Facility. It takes in large canisters, then stores them in breakable fixtures on the surface. It is symmetrical and completely geometric. It is not controlled by the player. This is the only observed rotating elevator, it is also the only elevator that starts and stops between its destinations.

An elevator atop a spiraling walkway goes to an open area where three cables are that support the entire station. It is, like most Forerunner elevators, octagonal in shape; all the sides and angles are contiguous. Its control panel is identical to that of the ones first seen in The Arbiter.

Delta Halo
On Installation 05, a variety of elevators can be seen. The main elevators encountered are a previously unseen type of underwater elevators. They are capsules that are ejected downwards into the water, and then move along to their next destination.

Installation 00
In Halo 3, no Forerunner elevators are seen until the level The Covenant, and this is also the only level where Forerunner elevators appear in Halo 3. Two identical irregular hexagonal elevators go up and down from the base of the Barrier Towers to a switch room where the towers can be deactivated. Their control panels are circular with geometric details inside the circle. In the control panel, the Marathon symbol can be seen.

At the end of the level The Covenant, Master Chief and The Arbiter take an identical, yet larger elevator up to the Citadel's next level.

Human


Humans use lifts in all sorts of structures, including starships and space stations. Human lifts are mostly traditional and practical in design. They are usually powered by conventional methods, such as cables or tracks. Additionally, humans use space elevators, massive structures stretching from a planet's surface to geosynchronous orbit, to ferry cargo into space. Constructed of carbon nanofiber, these elevators are powered by strands of superconducting material, similar to MagLev Trains.

Human-made lifts can be seen throughout the Halo games in various levels. In Halo: Combat Evolved, John-117 rides a large cargo lift from the engineering of the Pillar of Autumn to the ship's dorsal service corridor. In Halo 2, a large elevator with two decks is used on the level Cairo Station. Human elevators are encountered in Halo 3 in the levels Crow's Nest and The Storm, and are seen throughout different facilities in New Mombasa in Halo 3: ODST. They also appear in Halo: Reach, in the levels ONI: Sword Base, New Alexandria and The Package.

Covenant


Lifts used by the Covenant differ from their human-made counterparts. Instead of using traditional conventional methods, they utilize a more advanced technology, called gravity lifts. These devices create anti-gravity fields, which can be used to safely move objects vertically without any kind of moving platform.

Gravity lifts are mostly used in Covenant cities and structures, such as High Charity. They are also used in Covenant starships to transport and deploy troops and objects to a surface safely. Additionally, anti-gravity technology is also used in smaller pieces of equipment, such as Portable Gravity Lifts or deployable lookout towers.

Usable Covenant gravity lifts appear throughout the games, mostly in form of smaller applications such as lookout towers. Ship-borne gravity lifts are used in the Halo: Combat Evolved levels The Truth and Reconciliation and Keyes. Different gravity lift variants such as long conduits that run inside the towers of High Charity are encountered in the Halo 2 levels Gravemind and High Charity. In Halo: Reach, Spire One in Tip of the Spear possesses two gravity lifts that can be used to reach the top.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol

Related articles

 * Space elevator
 * Gravity lift
 * Door