Halo Array: Difference between revisions

The '''Halo Array''', individually known as '''Halos''' or '''Halo Rings''',<ref>'''Halo: Combat Evolved''', level ''[[The Truth and Reconciliation]]''</ref> or alternatively known as the '''Sacred Rings'''<ref>'''Halo: The Flood''', page 38</ref><ref name="gravemind">'''Halo 2''', level ''[[Gravemind (level)|Gravemind]]''</ref> by the Covenant, '''Fortress Worlds'''<ref>'''Halo: The Flood''', page 193</ref> by their [[Forerunner]] creators, and '''Installations''' by the [[Monitor]]s that run them, is a system of colossal ring-shaped superweapons.

The Halos were constructed by order of the [[Faber|Master Builder]] circa [[101,000 BCE]] with the intent of being an ultimate weapon, one that would secure the pre-eminence of the Builder rate in Forerunner society.<ref name="c274">'''Halo: Cryptum''', ''page 274''</ref> Eventually, five were destroyed and/or lost while the remaining [[List of "seven" references in Halo|seven]] were used by the Forerunners as a last resort when combating the parasitic [[The Flood|Flood]]. All sentient beings in the galaxy were killed, robbing the Flood of hosts and starving it to death.

In addition to serving as weapons of last resort, Halo installations are also research facilities dedicated to containing and studying many different kinds of life forms. The life forms that were hand-selected by [[the Librarian]] included marine life, fauna, and land vertebrates. With the [[Faber|Master Builder]]'s permission, [[the Librarian]] would research each animal to detect if their bodies reacted to Flood infection. The research on the animals would be more deeply analyzed if they did become infected. The Librarian's studies also helped determine if the rings could be used to repopulate the galaxy.

As it is known in modern times, the Halo Array is a network of seven ring-shaped megastructures created by the Forerunners, designed to exterminate all sentient life within the Milky Way galaxy.<ref name="great journey">'''[[Halo 2]]''', level ''[[The Great Journey]]'', '''343 Guilty Spark:''' ''"After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all additional sentient life in three radii of the galactic center, died, as planned."''</ref> Built following the [[Human-Forerunner war]]s, these ringworlds were used as a last resort against the Flood, a parasitic extra-galactic species that threatened to consume every sentient life-form in the galaxy. By activating the rings, the Forerunners wiped out every sentient being in the galaxy, effectively starving the Flood to virtual extinction, though specimens were kept in a number of Forerunner containment facilities, including the Halo installations themselves.<ref name="library">'''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]''', level ''[[The Library]]''</ref>  

A total of eighteen Halo rings existed during the reign of the Forerunners, split into separate arrays of twelve 30,000km rings and six 10,000km rings. Of these, only seven survived to be included in the final Array. The two most well-known Halo installations, [[Installation 04]] and [[Installation 05]], both orbit gas giants, though it is not known whether this is the case with all Halos. Installation 04 maintained an atmospheric [[Threshold gas mine|mining facility]] in [[Threshold]]'s atmosphere until [[Battle of the Threshold gas mine|it was destroyed]] by the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]].<ref>'''[[Halo 2]]''', level ''[[The Oracle]]''</ref>  

 

The Halo Array in its entirety has been fired only once in known history, approximately 100,000 years ago, by the [[The Didact|Didact]]<ref>'''[[Iris]]''', ''Array Recorder Data''</ref> in order to stop the Flood from overwhelming the galaxy. Despite being the network's builders, the Forerunners were - as far as any can tell - killed in this last suicidal attempt to save the rest of the universe from a worse fate.<ref name="great journey"/> The array has come close to activation three times since; Installation 04 was almost activated by the [[John-117|Master Chief]] before being deactivated by [[Cortana]], while Installation 05 was activated by Commander [[Miranda Keyes]], forced by the [[Chieftain of the Jiralhanae]] [[Tartarus]], and [[Avery Junior Johnson|Sergeant Johnson]] was forced by the [[Prophet of Truth]] to activate Array from the Ark. None of these attempts were successful. A [[Installation 04B|replacement]] Halo for the destroyed Installation 04 was activated outside of the array's range, eliminating the Flood massed at the Ark, but did not activate the rest of the Array, as it was still under construction at the time of its firing.<ref name="halo3halo">'''[[Halo 3]]''', campaign level ''[[Halo (Halo 3 level)|Halo]]''</ref>

The Array's activation caused catastrophic damage to ecosystems across the galaxy, with innumerable species both sentient and non-sentient rendered extinct. This uniform disruption manifested as the [[Ross-Ziegler Blip]], which was dismissed as an anomaly caused by spatial distortion until [[human]]ity discovered the Array in [[2552]]. Several species indexed by the [[Library Project]] did not survive [[reintroduction]] to their homeworlds, and those that did were all reverted to a [[Technological Achievement Tiers#Tier 7: Pre-Industrial|Tier 7]] technological state.