Zeta Halo project: Difference between revisions

===Project===

{{Quote|no=two|q1=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.|Henry Lamb|q2=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.|Luther Mann|Two researchers speculate regarding the apparent absence of Zeta Halo's monitor.}}<ref name="HHITD1"/>

ONI set about conducting research on the vast interior world that composed the inner workings of Zeta Halo shortly after its location was revealed.<ref name="HHITD1"/> No expense was spared for the project, as there was lots of territory to cover and the risk of something being overlooked was great. In addition to the researchers delivered to the ring, hundreds of automated probes began to be used to scan every canyon, riverbed, and facility. As had been the protocol for other Halo installations, a primary goal of the project was the isolation and containment of the [[activation index]].<ref name="HHITD1"/> As such, finding the [[library]] was of great importance. Ideally, all important facilities would be quickly located and secured. Ultimately the Halo's [[control room]] could provide all the necessary information and some of the critical functions the humans sought. Despite much searching, the ring's library, [[control room]] and [[monitor]] were still yet to be located by early March. On [[Installation 04|Alpha]], [[Installation 05|Delta]], and [[Installation 03|Gamma Halo]]s the control room had been the largest uniform structure near the [[phase pulse generator]]s, but these also remained undiscovered. As for the lack of a monitor, [[Henry Lamb]] wondered if perhaps there simply may not be one or if [[117649|it]] might be hiding for some reason. [[Luther Mann]] figured that if it were hiding, one obvious reason for it to do so would be [[Battle of Installation 04|the]] [[Battle of Installation 05|recent]] [[Raid on Installation 08|history]] humanity and the [[Covenant]] shared with the Halo rings. A monitor remaining hidden didn't sound consistent with the historic understanding they had of the [[ancilla]]s, but both men had to admit consistency was by no means mandatory and that it was possible this ring had been made differently for reasons they didn't understand. This early into the ring's exploration it was already apparent that clear and subtle differences distinguished it from the others in the [[Halo Array|array]], after all. Some clear differences on a meta level dealt with the physical infrastructure and material composition of the ring itself, but other far subtler ones involved things like the architectural aesthetics of various building structures and machinery or even the machine language of its distributed systems. Zeta Halo, as a whole, was unlike any other such installation anyone was familiar with. Mann and Lamb theorized that it may have been constructed before all the others, incorporating lessons learned from previous Halo architecture, or that it could have come first and served as a sort of prototype.<ref name="HHITD1"/> It was not until much later that year that a [[Halo: Primordium|data drop]] recovered from deep space revealed the [[Installation 07#Background|real reasons]] for Installation 07's marked differences.<ref name="HR13">''[[Halo: Renegades]]'', ''Chapter 13''</ref>