2,471
edits
Portal at Voi: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
Ado 'Ulamee (talk | contribs) Tag: Mobile edit |
SpartanLeet (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (6 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown) | |||
| Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
{{Quote|Truth could've landed anywhere, but he committed all his forces here. East Africa. The ruins of New Mombasa. Then, they started digging.|[[Miranda Keyes]] informs [[John-117]] of the Covenant's excavation.}} | {{Quote|Truth could've landed anywhere, but he committed all his forces here. East Africa. The ruins of New Mombasa. Then, they started digging.|[[Miranda Keyes]] informs [[John-117]] of the Covenant's excavation.}} | ||
[[File:The coming Storm.jpg|300px | [[File:The coming Storm.jpg|300px|thumb|The Portal, viewed during the day, prior to its activation.]] | ||
By at least the nineteenth century, the portal was entirely submerged beneath the land occupied by the city of Mombasa and the town of Voi. Additionally, at least a portion of the portal was covered by a man-made lake at some point between the early 21st and mid-26th centuries. At some point after the dawn of the 24th century, the UNSC's [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] discovered a small section of the portal structure located below the metropolis of [[New Mombasa]], and constructed a major facility known as the [[ONI Alpha Site (location)|ONI Alpha Site]] in the city in order to conduct covert research on the artifact.<ref name="vis">'''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]''', ''page 132''</ref> In [[2551]], toward the end of the [[Battle of Meridian]], a luminary was discovered by the Covenant on [[Meridian|the colony]]. This luminary would later be presented to the [[Prophet of Regret]] and reveal to him the location of the portal. In [[2552#October|October of 2552]], a seismic anomaly originating with the portal was discovered in a survey conducted by New Mombasa's urban infrastructure AI, the [[Superintendent]], for [[Daniel Endesha|Dr. Endesha]], revealing the location and full extent of the structure to him.<ref>'''[[Halo 3: ODST]]''', ''[[Sadie's Story]]''</ref> | By at least the nineteenth century, the portal was entirely submerged beneath the land occupied by the city of Mombasa and the town of Voi. Additionally, at least a portion of the portal was covered by a man-made lake at some point between the early 21st and mid-26th centuries. At some point after the dawn of the 24th century, the UNSC's [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] discovered a small section of the portal structure located below the metropolis of [[New Mombasa]], and constructed a major facility known as the [[ONI Alpha Site (location)|ONI Alpha Site]] in the city in order to conduct covert research on the artifact.<ref name="vis">'''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]''', ''page 132''</ref> In [[2551]], toward the end of the [[Battle of Meridian]], a luminary was discovered by the Covenant on [[Meridian|the colony]]. This luminary would later be presented to the [[Prophet of Regret]] and reveal to him the location of the portal. In [[2552#October|October of 2552]], a seismic anomaly originating with the portal was discovered in a survey conducted by New Mombasa's urban infrastructure AI, the [[Superintendent]], for [[Daniel Endesha|Dr. Endesha]], revealing the location and full extent of the structure to him.<ref>'''[[Halo 3: ODST]]''', ''[[Sadie's Story]]''</ref> | ||
| Line 37: | Line 37: | ||
{{Quote|There are more secrets locked under our feet than we dare speculate on.|Doctor [[William Iqbal]] in a letter from the Department of Xenoarchaeological Studies at [[Edinburgh University]] to security-cleared faculty and onsite graduate students.{{Ref/Reuse|evo}}}} | {{Quote|There are more secrets locked under our feet than we dare speculate on.|Doctor [[William Iqbal]] in a letter from the Department of Xenoarchaeological Studies at [[Edinburgh University]] to security-cleared faculty and onsite graduate students.{{Ref/Reuse|evo}}}} | ||
[[File:PortalOrbit.png|thumb|left|250px|The portal as seen from orbit immediately after it collapsed following damage done to the Ark.]] | [[File:PortalOrbit.png|thumb|left|250px|The portal as seen from orbit immediately after it collapsed following damage done to the Ark.]] | ||
When [[Installation 08]] was prematurely fired on December 11, 2552, it tore itself to pieces, doing an enormous amount of damage to the Ark. This sudden destruction caused the portal to collapse while the ''Forward Unto Dawn'' was still traveling through it back to Earth. The ship was torn in to two large pieces at this time and only the fore half made it back to Earth, crashing into the Indian Ocean. The ''Dawn'' did not exit at the point in Earth's atmosphere where it would have had the portal remained wholly intact, but instead emerged from [[slipspace]] in Earth's orbit, just narrowly allowing [[Thel 'Vadam]] a destination to land. From that point onward, the portal remained inert and inaccessible. In March of [[2553]] | When [[Installation 08]] was prematurely fired on December 11, 2552, it tore itself to pieces, doing an enormous amount of damage to the Ark. This sudden destruction caused the portal to collapse while the ''Forward Unto Dawn'' was still traveling through it back to Earth. The ship was torn in to two large pieces at this time and only the fore half made it back to Earth, crashing into the Indian Ocean. The ''Dawn'' did not exit at the point in Earth's atmosphere where it would have had the portal remained wholly intact, but instead emerged from [[slipspace]] in Earth's orbit, just narrowly allowing [[Thel 'Vadam]] a destination to land. From that point onward, the portal remained inert and inaccessible. In March of [[2553]] following a ceremony honoring the fallen of the [[Human-Covenant War]] held near the site, the Excession was isolated from the rest of the [[East African Protectorate]] and heavily guarded. Civilian [[Xenoarchaeology|xenoarchaeologists]] were hired by the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] to study the artifact. While closed, it was still drawing power from an unknown source and the majority of the passageways below it were still unexplored.{{Ref/Reuse|evo}} It was suspected that the portal had additional as-of-yet undiscovered functions besides simply creating a gateway between Earth and the Ark.{{Ref/Reuse|evo}} | ||
In [[2555]], scientists exploring [[Installation 07]] discovered a countdown sequence and it was determined that it was originating from the Ark. It suddenly became of paramount importance that the portal be reactivated. The UNSC reached out to the [[Swords of Sanghelios]] and a Huragok named [[Drifts Randomly]] that had worked onboard the [[Forerunner Dreadnought]] was brought to Earth. After a few days, it was able to open the portal using data from the keyship it had internalized. A joint UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios team was sent through the portal to [[Operation: FAR STORM|prevent]] the activation of the [[Halo Array]]. The countdown was part of a ploy by the Ark's monitor, [[000 Tragic Solitude]], to make the humans on Earth reactivate the portal so that he could send [[Retriever Sentinel]]s to mine the [[Sol system]] for materials to repair damage done to his installation. Tragic Solitude explained to [[Olympia Vale]] that the firing of [[Installation 08]] damaged the portal and severed his ability to control it from the Ark. Though Tragic Solitude repaired the portal on the Ark end, it required activation on the Earth end to return to its previous state.<ref name="HITD266">'''[[Halo: Hunters in the Dark]]''', ''page 266''</ref> He also increased the portal's power and astrogation systems to send and receive objects much faster despite the fact that doing so was an extraordinary exertion of power and information and could well compromise many of his systems.<ref name="HITD305">'''[[Halo: Hunters in the Dark]]''', ''page 305''</ref> As a result travel through the portal was far faster than before.{{Ref/Reuse|HITD}} | In [[2555]], scientists exploring [[Installation 07]] discovered a countdown sequence and it was determined that it was originating from the Ark. It suddenly became of paramount importance that the portal be reactivated. The UNSC reached out to the [[Swords of Sanghelios]] and a Huragok named [[Drifts Randomly]] that had worked onboard the [[Forerunner Dreadnought]] was brought to Earth. After a few days, it was able to open the portal using data from the keyship it had internalized. A joint UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios team was sent through the portal to [[Operation: FAR STORM|prevent]] the activation of the [[Halo Array]]. The countdown was part of a ploy by the Ark's monitor, [[000 Tragic Solitude]], to make the humans on Earth reactivate the portal so that he could send [[Retriever Sentinel]]s to mine the [[Sol system]] for materials to repair damage done to his installation. Tragic Solitude explained to [[Olympia Vale]] that the firing of [[Installation 08]] damaged the portal and severed his ability to control it from the Ark. Though Tragic Solitude repaired the portal on the Ark end, it required activation on the Earth end to return to its previous state.<ref name="HITD266">'''[[Halo: Hunters in the Dark]]''', ''page 266''</ref> He also increased the portal's power and astrogation systems to send and receive objects much faster despite the fact that doing so was an extraordinary exertion of power and information and could well compromise many of his systems.<ref name="HITD305">'''[[Halo: Hunters in the Dark]]''', ''page 305''</ref> As a result travel through the portal was far faster than before.{{Ref/Reuse|HITD}} | ||
| Line 61: | Line 61: | ||
== Trivia == | == Trivia == | ||
*Before ''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]'' established a definitive diameter for the portal, there was some confusion regarding its size. This was due to a conflict between the in-game sizes of the Forerunner Dreadnought in ''Halo 2'' and ''Halo 3'', with the latter depicting the ship as being far smaller than its former incarnation. Based on the map geometry in ''Halo 3'', the Portal could be estimated to be approximately 25 kilometers in diameter.<ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=845588 '''halo.bungie.org''': ''Artifact Sizing *Minor H3 Spoilers*'']</ref> However, this figure is contradicted by the geography of the Portal's surroundings; since the structure stretches from the edge of where the metropolis of [[New Mombasa]] used to be all the way to the edge of what was formerly Voi, a distance of well over 100 kilometers. The canonical size of the portal can be derived by referencing the in-game measurements of the Forerunner Dreadnought as it appears in ''Halo 2''.<ref>'''[[Halo 2]]'''</ref><ref>'''[[Halo 3]]'''</ref><ref>'''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'''</ref> The sizes of the portal and the Dreadnought in ''Halo 3'' were taken as a liberties resulting from | *Before ''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]'' established a definitive diameter for the portal, there was some confusion regarding its size. This was due to a conflict between the in-game sizes of the Forerunner Dreadnought in ''Halo 2'' and ''Halo 3'', with the latter depicting the ship as being far smaller than its former incarnation. Based on the map geometry in ''Halo 3'', the Portal could be estimated to be approximately 25 kilometers in diameter.<ref>[http://carnage.bungie.org/haloforum/halo.forum.pl?read=845588 '''halo.bungie.org''': ''Artifact Sizing *Minor H3 Spoilers*'']</ref> However, this figure is contradicted by the geography of the Portal's surroundings; since the structure stretches from the edge of where the metropolis of [[New Mombasa]] used to be all the way to the edge of what was formerly Voi, a distance of well over 100 kilometers. The canonical size of the portal can be derived by referencing the in-game measurements of the Forerunner Dreadnought as it appears in ''Halo 2''.<ref>'''[[Halo 2]]'''</ref><ref>'''[[Halo 3]]'''</ref><ref>'''[[Halo 3: ODST]]'''</ref> The sizes of the portal and the Dreadnought in ''Halo 3'' were taken as a liberties resulting from game engine limitations; generating map geometry for an area over 117 km across would have been extremely taxing, if not impossible, for the game engine. | ||
*In the "Behind the Scenes" section of the ''Halo 2'' Collectors Edition, there is a sketch of the portal. | *In the "Behind the Scenes" section of the ''Halo 2'' Collectors Edition, there is a sketch of the portal. | ||
*The fourteen pylons of the portal structure may be a reference to the number 7, as 7+7=14. The entire structure also appears to be constructed of seven identical parts, those being seven pairs of pylons. The Portal is also 117 kilometers in diameter, which is a direct reference to [[John-117]]. | *The fourteen pylons of the portal structure may be a reference to the number 7, as 7+7=14. The entire structure also appears to be constructed of seven identical parts, those being seven pairs of pylons. The Portal is also 117 kilometers in diameter, which is a direct reference to [[John-117]]. | ||
| Line 83: | Line 83: | ||
File:Halo 3 - The Artifact.jpg|An overhead view of the portal. | File:Halo 3 - The Artifact.jpg|An overhead view of the portal. | ||
File:H3 VoiPortal details.jpg|A view of the details on the portal. | File:H3 VoiPortal details.jpg|A view of the details on the portal. | ||
File:Ark2.jpg|The portal fires a beam as it activates. | |||
File:H3_VoiPortal_Above.jpg|The portal as viewed from above, while active. | File:H3_VoiPortal_Above.jpg|The portal as viewed from above, while active. | ||
File:Portal.jpg|The portal as it appeared when activated. | File:Portal.jpg|The portal as it appeared when activated. | ||