The Ark

"Every vessel we can fill, we send to the Ark. I dare not cease the mission. Not now, not until I've done all I can. Each one of these souls is finite and precious."

The empire of the Forerunner was indeed vast. Beneath the surfaces of countless worlds their artifacts and installations lie buried, for the most part untouched by the passage of time. Stones and relics found at each location contained coordinates leading to even others. Many of the Human worlds were accidentally located by the Covenant this way: Reach and Earth, being the most recent examples. They were also used to find Halo 04, and from some relic on Earth (though he apparently had not discovered the "main facility" yet) Regret located Halo 05. The Halos, the seven rings, left in their perpetual orbits after activation and the subsequent destruction of their creators, are nothing short of astounding. But as revealed by 343 Guilty Spark, there remains yet another piece of their puzzle.

The Ark is the center of the Forerunners' network of Halo structures, which can activate and control every installation within its range. It can be accessed through the Portal on Earth. Tagged as "Installation 00", due to its extra-galactic location, it serves as a secure spot to avoid the effect of one of the Halos being fired. Moreover, its complex engineering allows it to build replacement Halos in case one is destroyed or heavily damaged - as seen in the Halo 3 level, "The Ark".

In ancient times - during the period when the Forerunners still roamed the galaxy expanding their empire - the Ark was placed under the control of a Forerunner "Didact" controlling its mechanisms. Running out of plans of how to defeat the Flood for good, the Forerunners devised a backup plan which involved the construction of so-called "Shield Worlds", such as the planet Onyx and the Ark itself.

Facing betrayal from one of their own AI's, the Forerunners still managed to keep the Ark's location secret from the Flood and save some species from annihilation. Once the firing of the Halos had passed, the surviving species re-inhabited the Galaxy.

(For a look at the Portal, view the Halo 3 trailer, downloadable here.)

Does the location of the Ark have anything to do with the Prophets' mad zeal to annihilate Mankind? What does it mean that Humanity occupies the world of the Ark, and possibly the last haven of the Forerunner in this galaxy? Is this yet another clue as to why 343 seems content to call every Human a "Reclaimer", yet not a Forerunner? Stay tuned...

Flood/Halo Theories.

The Ark Theory

This theory assumes that the Forerunners are our ancient, technologically advanced, human ancestors. Like our legends of Atlantis, or maybe they existed before earth living on many different planets INCLUDING earth.

Human civilization has waxed and waned many times on earth. Why not in the galaxy.

it seems logical that humans (Forerunners) ages ago encountered the Flood, and created the Halo in a last ditch effort to save themselves...and succeded, and only a pocket of humans were spared, on earth...the others constructed the Halo sacrificing themselves to stop the Flood. Making the Halo a kind of reverse "Ark"!

Instead of building an Ark to hold the humans/animals...they built an Ark (Halo) to hold the Flood...Ironic (in a Bungie kind of way).

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The "Ark Theory" makes a triumphant debut here at the Halo Story Page. But I'm sure this won't be the last time we hear about arks. Nor has it been the first...
It seems oddly familiar..."as if from an old dream...." But I digress.

-Ape Man

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Thomas Dow, Jr. (briareos@q3arena.com) writes:

I did a little more research on the Ark of the Covenant, and found a nice and fairly extensive history at The Learning Channel/Discovery.com:

http://tlc.discovery.com/tlcpages/ark/ark.html

I found this part particularly interesting, as it again seems to go along with the story of Halo:

''The Bible mentions the Ark for the last time in Jeremiah 3:16, when it is noted that "when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The Ark of the covenant of the Lord neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more."''

[http://tlc.discovery.com/tlcpages/ark/sacred3.html]

This goes along with "The Ark Theory", in that if the Forerunner really were humans, they could have forgotten all about the Halo(s) as they expanded into the Galaxy.

That darned Ark of the Covenant returns like that insistent beeping of low shields on Legendary.

-Ape Man

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Religious imagery in a new light -

Ross Sager (cominatchyez@yahoo.com) writes:

Re: The Ark
It should be pretty obvious that this is a
Biblical connection to anyone who has read the story
of Noah and his Ark. God warned Noah that he was going
to flood the Earth, and that Noah should build an ark
to escape with his family and the animal pairs, to
repopulate the Earth once the flood had receded.

Putting this in Halo terms:
-The Forerunner first encountered the Flood many years
ago. We do not know the location of this encounter,
but let us assume that somehow, the Flood got onto the
Forerunner home planet.
-The Forerunner, unprepared for the invasion, fought
hard to regain the control of their planet, but
realized it was a losing battle, and so built a ship
called The Ark to escape the Flood with as many
survivors as possible.
-After searching the galaxy for a suitable new
homeworld, they found Earth, and landed The Ark on the
planet to start anew.
-When they had enough resources built up, the
Forerunner decided that they wanted to find a way to
eliminate the Flood forever, for the good of the
galaxy AND to take back their beloved homeworld.
-They built the Halos, captured some Flood specimens,
and set about studying them to try to find a way to
kill ONLY Flood creatures, without harming other forms
of life. Until they found a way to do this, however,
the Forerunner decided that it would be best to
install the Halos' weapon system to kill ALL
(sentient?) life in the galaxy in case the Flood
escaped.
-The failsafe for the system, in case one of the rings
was stopped from firing, would be the remote activator
that they placed on The Ark, now located on Earth, the
Forerunner's new homeworld.
-In the final chapter of Forerunner history, the Flood
somehow escaped, the Halos fired, and all (sentient?)
life in the galaxy, including the Forerunner
themselves, was destroyed. The Halos and The Ark
remained, and now the Covenant has unearthed something
the Forerunner left behind that has led them to the
Earth, and to The Ark, to use the remote activation
system for the Halos.

Presuming, of course, that the Ark is on Earth ;)

-Jillybean

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The buzz on the Ark, so to speak.

Mr Munchy (scottassen@hotmail.com) writes:

The premise of [I Love Bees] was that there was a device, found in deep space that, once activated, counted down to something (presumably something bad). That device was brought to earth, and, alas, activated. When that happened it sent a massive signal through slip and normal space, almost definitely alerting the Covenant to the position of it.

The Covenant came -- for the device, almost certainly, because they didn't bring even close to the military force they would need to conquer earth. In fact, they were surprised we were in the vicinity of the device at all.

Now, as for the bad thing that happens when the countdown on the activated device ends, it's probably the firing of the Halos. What does that sound like to you? The description offered by Guilty Spark of the Ark.

-Jillybean

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Finally - an Earth/Ark theory with some sustenance...

J.D. writes:

What if humans are to the Ark like the Sentinels are to the Halos? The Sentinels defend the Halo installations from the Flood and whatnot. The reason that they are machines is so that the Flood cannot infect them. Well, to guard the Ark, maybe the Forerunners wanted something a little more 'organic'. Since humans were somehow the 'chosen' race, they put the Ark on our planet, and we've been unknowingly protecting it throughout history. Let's just say the Forerunners stuck us here to guard it in case some whacko wanted to waltz right in and activate the Halos.

So, the Forerunners built the Halos to study the Flood and eliminate the Flood threat if they leave the rings. They also built a safe-haven on Earth (protected by humans) to protect them from that blast. Then why are they mysteriously gone? Maybe the Flood was released by an overzealous individual (343 Guilty Spark?) and things got bad, fast. They had no time to evacuate and decided to activate the Halos, leaving the Ark and humans on Earth unaffected and isolated.

To each their higher purpose.

-Jillybean

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Could there be more than one ancient race?

hisco scopea (hiscoscopea@hotmail.com) writes:

It has been assumed that the same species that built Halo also made the facilities on Reach, but I believe this is incorrect for a number of reasons:

First, on Halo we never saw tunnels with dirt floors AND geometric patterns the way the tunnels beneath Castle mountain are described. Nor did we see any doors activated by blood that seemed to open out of nowhere. Also, and probably the most distinct difference, is that Dr. Halsey mentions (p. 143) that the gigantic room where they found the crystal had no visible holographic emmitters. Now, we know from the levels where we activate maps and security systems in Halo that there ARE visible holographic emmitters. The environments and technology of the forerunner and whoever made the tunnels are quite a bit different.

I think the battle fought "900 000 years ago" could possibly have been fought between whoever made the Reach stuff and whoever made Halo.

Keen. Even if there are not two distinct races, the facilities on Halo and Reach certainly exhibit two very different... styles. Halo has its grand, sweeping valleys while the Reach caves have more of that "fleeing the homeland" motif, as though it literally was the way the Forerunner attempted to go "underground" to escape the Flood (another Ark of sorts). The holographic room certainly seems like a comfort added for those long, solitary years buried beneath a planet's surface. Hmmm.

-Finn

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It's official! The/a Ark is/was on Earth!

Ye old Whiteboard sketches of things that never were:

Images of the Ark on Earth (and "Dervish" references) from G4's Bungie Icons show.

-Finn

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Speaking of Arthur C. Clarke... Are there Forerunner Installations on Jupiter?

Kristof K. (kkonkel@umd.umich.edu) writes:

In the opening scenes of Cairo Station, Cortana is conversing with Lord Hood and mentions unidentified signals near Io that need to be probed further, and this occurs immediately before the Covenant fleet arrives in system. Later, at the the end of Outskirts in the tunnel, Cortana reveals that the Covenant are surprised humanity is on Earth, which explains the small size of their fleet. My first speculative leap is that the strange signals near Io, Jupiter's moon, were a smaller advance group of Covenant forces.

It is my understanding of the Prophets in general, and Regret by relation, that they use Forerunner artifacts with spatial coordinates to find other Forerunner artifacts and facilities. If they sent a small, explatory fleet to our home star system with such an obvious interest in Jupiter, it stands to reason that there is some sort of Forerunner facility or artifact on Jupiter or one of its moons.

Jupiter is a gas giant. We have encountered, through the eyes of the Arbiter, an ancient Forerunner facility in the atmosphere of another gas giant (Threshold). It stands to reason that if the Forerunner had established a facility anywhere near Jupiter, it is probably very similar to the one the Arbiter travels to.

In the fight against the Heretic Leader in the hanger on the aforementioned Forerunner facility, 343 Guilty Spark is floating about. Hiding for a moment to avoid certain death, I noticed that 343 actually says things in this part of the game and I recall him saying something along the lines of, "This facility was built to study the military capabilities necessary to eliminate the Flood." Since it's already been posited that the Jupiter facility is similar to the Heretic controlled facility, it follows that the Jupiter facility also contains Flood and Forerunner military technology.

Thanks again for the story page and have a great day.

You too. If Halo 04 was any indication, the Forerunner weren't shy about building new installations in the same system as their older ones. If the Ark is on/around Earth who knows what old wrecks they've left strewn throughout the rest of SOL. Darn litterers...

-Finn

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We're all gonna turn into woollen puppets.

stewart701 (stewart701@earthlink.net) writes:

Picture this: This "Ark" is not a space ship. It is not safehold. It is a computer. Similar to the teleportation grid on Halo, a matrix of processing nodes scattered across the surface of Earth. This computer, this superprocessor would work much like Deep Thought (The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy). It would work over millions of years to analyze the Flood and (hopefully) find a way to destroy them.

Meanwhile, the Forerunner put themselves in some kind of stasis, to be awakened by... What? Humanity, perhaps? Their horribly misguided children? No, I think that that was the purpose of The Covenant. To oversee this Ark. And perhaps, perhaps that is the reason why they hate us. Perhaps Humanity is not the child of the Forerunner, but of the Flood. That may explain some of the swarm-like quality of the Humans. That is why we infest the Earth. We know that if it fullfills its purpose, we will be destroyed.

Well, there's a particularly morbid thought to ponder. Humanity is Flood-spawn.

Looking around the HSP crew, that theory actually makes a kinda sense.

-Jillybean

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Yay! A postable Ark theory!

SubQuantum (subquantum@adelphia.net) writes:

I'd like to offer a new (if not unthought-of) theory about the Ark. Most of the thoughts on this page try to explain why the Ark is on Earth. I disagree. I believe that the Ark is a large structure that is buried on the planet Coral (or possibly the planet Coral itself - you can never tell with these Forerunner) and that it possibly contains vast volumes of life. I have a lot of evidence to promote this theory. Let's start by looking at the Conversations From The Universe booklet that was bundled with the Halo 2 Special Edition game disk.

There is a letter in it - a conversation from an archaeologist on Coral to (presumably) his wife.

"The object on Coral was discovered during routine quarrying. Explosives revealed the top of the object, blasting out a depth of around 30 meters. Surrounding rock and dirt were evaporated- but this object wasn't even scorched [. . .]We know that the eighty or so meters we've uncovered so far are likely the tip of the iceberg. There seems to be a complex of galleries and vaults beneath, but so far, its secrets remain sealed like a tomb."

This sounds a lot like an "Ark" in the biblical sense (yes, I'm bringing that up again) in that there are several rooms. Perhaps the Forerunner couldn't find it in their heart to totally eradicate all sentient life in the galaxy, so they put seeds of it here in this indestructible vault? The idea is not so far-fetched. Let us detour for a moment to the Library and it's infamous Index. Why, oh why, would they give them these names? The Library seems to be more of a security center holding this key to the "Gun pointed at the head of the universe." If you were going to build a massive weapon to which you could add limitless complexity, and you wanted it to be selective in what it destroyed (sentient life), how would you do it? Personally, I would catalog every life form that I wanted to destroy, and then store them far, far away from the computer that would read them, just as one wouldn't store rifles and ammo in the same cabinet. This is what I believe the Index and Library represent - The Index is a data storage device (evidenced by Cortana's ability to "have" it - she's a computer - she couldn't simply "take" the Index unless it was what was ON the index that mattered) and therefore the Library is a storage bin for all the genetic data relevant to the species Halo is meant to destroy. To fire Halo, the Control Room computer must first be given an index of life forms to eradicate, and then look up the patterns for those life forms in a Library.

How does this relate to the Ark? The Ark is a fall back point - a disembodied Library that instead of having an Index at it's core, has the controls to shutdown the Halo network (or disable it?) and potentially release it's inhabitants from whatever kind of stasis they are in. Alas, we still have not answered how Humans and Covenant became. We know that the Forerunners expected Humans, and that Truth knows something about us that we Humans do not. Note that 343GS calls the Covenant "The Meddlers" in Halo 2, and "The other species" in Halo 1 - clearly they are not connected with the Forerunner in any childlike way.

My only guesses past this are that Humans were potentially released from the Ark after Halo fired to 'reclaim' the role of the Forerunners - and then something happened and we were stranded on Earth (unless this was the intent) and the Covenant evolved separately. The Hierarchs and the Elites evolved on the same planet, and that is where the Covenant religion began. My theory on why Truth (who knows the truth, of course) heads to Earth? We can't take Mercy's statement with any credit - he was brainwashed by the Covenant as well (which is why Truth "kills" him through inaction, and why we constantly hear him mocking Mercy's wisdom and experience in his public speeches (though Mercy would never know)). I bet that Truth thinks that Earth and Humanity know where the Ark is - and he wants to get there to survive Halo. If you knew what was coming, wouldn't you want to survive it, along with your small group of extremely devout followers, to emerge in a totally uninhabited universe, free to rule as you please? As a god?

See - theory + logical thought process = posting!

-Jillybean

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Influences from Asimov's Foundation Series?

UrsusActos (zloty5@netscape.net ) writes:

So far, the great ark has been the subject of much debate. Is it that structure that human archaeologists excavated on planet Corral, as mentioned in Conversations with the Universe? Or is it on earth, as bungie's earth-ark concept art for its preliminary idea of Halo 2 implies?

There's that unlockable multiplayer level on Halo 2 that can be unlocked after playing on Heroic, and it's name is Foundation. In the great Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of sci-fi novels, a scientist named Hari Seldon tries to save the Galactic Empire by setting up two sanctuaries or foundations at opposite ends of the galaxy. Likewise, there might be two arks-one on earth for us humans and one for the covenant on corral. And like the enigmatic Second Foundation, the existence of one of the arks might even be unknown, to such an extent that it would be thought that only one Ark/Foundation existed.

This is just my idea on how to explain the ark's location, assuming that the earth-ark concept hasn't been deleted. (Finn: Sure hasn't!: 1 and a 2 and a...)

P.S. How many arks are there in the bible-Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant, right?

Well I'd go see it

-Jillybean

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The Ark on Earth: Voi, Africa?

ZeeWulf (cmdrwedge@yahoo.com) writes:

I do believe we know the location [of the Ark] now, thanks to the Halo2 Soundtrack Volume 2 playlist.

The Epilogue (Credits) track's second movement is titled "Road to Voi". Voi is a small trade town a short hop from Mombasa. I believe its quite safe to say near there is the location of the Ark.

Interesting. Though other considerations might lead us to place the Ark at the site of the late New Mombasa, this is a keen observation. I wonder how it will come into play.

Speaking of the Master Chief and the Ark, I've always wondered where this screenshot of the Chief and Jackals was from. I mean, when (in the Halo 2 we know) was the MC ever in an area this clean? Considering the "cut" levels and where the story is headed, I guess now we know. ;)

-Finn

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Beg, Burrow, or Steal.

Ocean_fx (kobayashimaru_@hotmail.com) has the notion that the hole in the sky (seen in the Halo 3 trailer) is the result of a Covenant excavation beam (as in First Strike), explaining the exposed Ark.

A keen notion, though it does fly in the face of utility. As UrsusArctos says, notice the small size of the Covenant ships compared to the Ark, and therefore how tiny their excavation beams would be; it would take them a month o' Sundays to uncover that thing (and nobody busts out their excavation beam if it's going to get called tiny).

More importantly, Regret already produced one gigantic explosion in his Slipspace wake, decimating a rather large city in the process; this is undoubtedly an intentional plot point. In the trailer we see wreckage on the horizon which, it is not a stretch to assume, is the remains of the "space elevator" once anchored in New Mombasa. It also adds a touch of irony to Regret's arrival on Earth, considering just how close he was.

The H2 manual mentions that the usual Covenant tactics of bombardment against the Earth cannot be used (due to the nature of what they are looking for), yet Regret (in apparent ignorance) has no qualms about slipping away from low-orbit, all but annihilating the African city. What he wants is not there, or he simply does not know what he is looking for.

Perhaps Truth's comments about Regret endangering the Great Journey refer to concerns that he damaged the Ark with his departure. Or perhaps Truth is merely exaggerating his crimes in order to condemn Regret more completely (he does, after all, have it out for his Prophet compatriots). By setting up the Council to watch the beginning of the Great Journey at Delta Halo, while he slips away to Earth (as the sole remaining Covenant leader) reeks of conspiracy...

-Finn

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Frankie also mentions in the Halo 3 Faq that "Halo fans may recognize something about [the Ark's] design".

Hmmm... Scarab? Dock for the Forerunner ship? What else?

-Finn

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Dock and Cover, Dock and Cover...

Grantix wonders, given the structure's shape and the hole in the clouds in the Halo 3 trailer, if the Forerunner ship that Truth is on (as though I could be talking of that other Forerunner ship :P ) is meant to dock with the Ark.

A neat idea. After all, that ship can apparently generate a lot of power and is teh massive.

-Finn

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Looks like a scarab. Sounds like a Scarab. What does the Ark have to do with a Scarab? Edwards wonders the same thing.

-Finn

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Never liked Noah anyway.

thom haley (spudmurfy@gmail.com) writes:

I've been speculating over the previous posts made on the location of the Ark and, having brewed over everyone's theories, I feel the most likely explanation is that the ark is located on earth under Old Mombasa as Africa has been known as "The cradle of civilisation".

My meaning is that if the Ark is some kind of stasis device or sanctuary from the Halos then that title would make sense in that it is where civilisation emerged following the first use of the Halos by the Forerunners.

I've been exploring this "cradle" idea too and one meaning of the word (other than a figurative place of origin where something flourishes) is "A framework a ship rests in for repairs". The theory surrounding shots from the Halo 3 trailer of the Ark having a dock for the ship truth takes to earth at Halo 2's close would match this description well.

One other thing that seems strange to me is the fact that the Ark of the Covenant in the bible was renowned for it's mysterious powers against Israel's enemies, from Samuel chapters 5 & 6 (Samuel having been 117's best friend?) yet everyone seems to have put the ark down as a "Noah's ark" against the Flood.

Deepening my research into the Ark of the Covenant I found that it could only be accessed one day of the year (the day of atonement) by the high priest (a heirarch) who would make an offering of goat's blood (mysterious blood doors as beneath reach). It is also said that God's righteous anger dwelt within the ark "in unapproachable light" (the light seen in the halo 3 trailer) it was said too that the high priest must shield his eyes because "none shall see me and live".

All this says to me that rather than some wonderful safe haven, the Ark is in fact "The Ark of the Covenant" to strike down the enemies of their covenant through the remote detonation system. This also would explain why Truth has the ship that is the "key" to the Ark's "lock", he's the only one who can gain access to the Ark and it's power.

-Jillybean

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The Covenant chatter's coming in hot at the moment. Most of it is repetitive, Chief, and that relic is being ripped apart by their Prophets. Thought you might find this interesting . . .

Knight Premier (Knight_Premier@hotmail.com) writes:

We've seen the relic [The so called 'Ark', for those like me who got confused] somewhere before, thats certain. We saw it in the original Halo art! In fact, the original cover art for Halo. The relic, is sketched top-down in the backround of this original Halo logo, the other rings around the sketch are the Halo's. The Halo Logo

You can find a BIG image of the 'relic' here at the Bungie Screenshots

-Jillybean

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This theory references Ghosts of Onyx

Rockus Merticus (muzgashthemean@hotmail.com) writes:

I checked some screenshots including the ones on the bungie website just to make sure, but the structure or relic - (In the Halo 3 teaser trailer, Jillybean) reminds me alot of the final events in "GoO". When the company is in the center of Onyx, there was a hill in the center of a huge room. The hill was made of rings that rose from the floor. Topping the hill were thirteen angled structures that they used for cover along with the slipspace rift.

Now, in "GoO" as the hill lowered to the floor, the structures also angled lower untill finally they were flush with the ground. The structure, 'Relic', on earth has thirteen angled structures that seem to do the same in the opposite direction. Also, the blue Haze in the middle appears to be a similar slipspace tear to the one in the middle of Onyx.

Now the Theory: If there is more than one structure like the one on Onyx, could there be more than just one entrance/exit to the shield world where blue team, Haley, and CPO Mendez are? The world itself is gargantuan in size so isn't it possible for there so be some trace, say remains, of the forerunners? Finally, along with everything mentioned here, the description of the shield world that is given to us tells us that it is there to protect the reclaimers from the Flood. Protection from the Flood sounds alot like what an Ark is supposed to do. There could be structures in the shield world that could be capable of much more than what we have seen on Onyx and Halo combined.

-Jillybean

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joequincy (joequincy@gmail.com) writes:

Going back to Ryan Hoisington... the HALO installations must all have an effective spherical radius. This means that in order to wipe out all life in the Galaxy, there must be a specific pattern of overlapping "spheres of effect". Now, if the Forerunners were to calculate in a small area (read: Earth's location in the Galaxy) and shift the "spheres of effect" so that they did not touch that area... it would become a safe haven for any and all life that could exist naturally on that planet. This may even explain the humans' apparent pre-destination to the role of "Reclaimer". The Forerunners made it so, as they knew humans would be their successors.

Which then begs the question - if this is how the Ark works, what did the Forerunner think would happen if the Flood got in? That the humans would be able to fight it? The Flood is unstoppable, unsatiable and considering the lengths the Forerunner went to to destroy them, I think we can count this theory out. Anyone want to contest?

-Jillybean

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Pet theory alert.

Ryan Johanson (pretenditsnotme@gmail.com) writes:

Hi. I'm a gigantic Halo fan, but up to this point I've only been a reader of theories, not a poster. Still, I'm surprised I haven't seen this particular similarity cited yet.

In Stephen King's Dark Tower series of novels, the universe is decaying. To stop the world from falling apart at the seams, the hero of the story, Roland Deschain, makes a grand journey, along with friends from several different alternate universes, to the Dark Tower, which is supposed to be the one thing every universe has in common: it's where all parallel realities come together as one.

Could the Ark in Halo 3 be similar? I mean, we know that the Ark is what sets off all Halo installations, but who's to say that it doesn't serve another purpose as well, like linking every possible reality?

There are a lot of people wondering if Durandal could have crossed over from Marathon to Halo. Along these lines, the Ark could be what makes it possible. Remember: in the Marathon timeline, Durandal eventually does return to earth long after the events of the trilogy have finished. With his extraordinary processing capacity and his willingness to search for things humanity doesn't want to think about ("Humanity has had all of the necessary data for centuries, it only lacked the will and intellect to decipher it. But I have already done so."), could he have found a device buried deep within the earth that allowed him to jump from one universe to the next? Or maybe he didn't have to use it to jump; maybe the Ark was a place where time did not exist. Durandal would then be able to just hang out inside it as long as he wanted without having to worry about any universe ending...until he gets discovered by someone in a different universe (such as Halo)?

It gets more complicated when you realize that Durandal was the name given to the sword of a historical character named Roland, a fact that is referenced many times in the Marathon games.

This could also bring a sense of plausibility to the idea that the Jjaro and the Forerunners are one and the same: not only did they build the Ark, but they could have used it to interact with more than just the Marathon universe. Given the time, I'm sure you would come up with this question: if the Forerunner could easily just use the Ark to escape one universe to the next, why didn't they just do that instead of kill themselves with Halo? Well, maybe they were afraid that the Flood would follow them through the Ark to infect other worlds as well. In the Halo 3 trailer, there obviously had to be a lot of digging underground to discover the Ark in the first place. Maybe the Forerunner put the Ark in such a location so that it would be hidden from anyone that might use it for the wrong intentions.

-Jillybean

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writes:

-UNSC Trooper

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Onebitrocket writes:

Question 1: In the opening cutscene for the Ark mission, as the pelicans drop to ground, There appears to be a large holographic structure on the Ark. what is it and where did it go?

Question 2: Where did Truths forerunner ship "dreadnaught' land?

Question 3: What is on the reverse side of the arks surface, is it similar to the outer side of a halo ring?

-UNSC Trooper

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The portal is in fact, a slipspace rupture which appears once it's activated. I think both the Ark's and the Portal's slipspace entrances are dimensionally equal in size.

The second question is tough. It might be teleportation (it's amazing what the Forerunners were able to do), or as elpolloguapo suggested, it could be some kind of propulsion system or a "separate" entrance and exit way.

The Portal has 16 spires, and the Ark has eight. Simple math here, 16 is the double of 8. Which is interesting, because this is actually not a "7" reference that Bungie always uses to mention.

I guess that the Portal can also be considered to be just a slipspace generator, but who knows what else it might be capable of doing?

Onebitrocket writes:

I'm rambling mostly, it's lunchtime and i've been bored out of my head at work and my minds been wondering

How does the portal work/appear at the ark. In terms of scale and shape compared to the portal on earth.

I began thinking this due to a older discussion: assuming the ark is where ALL halos are constructed and also assuming the replacement halo was to be sent to the same co-ordinates as the HALO 1 ring. How does it get there. I assume it'd have to be teleportation. say for example as the halo rises from the ark at the top of the ark where the spire curve up is there a teleport that the spire generate?

Or does the portal that we enter the arks local space through link to more than one

Is the spherical portal on earth the same shape and size at the ark?

The other thing i noticed, the earth portal has either 14 or 16 spires, the ark has eight, does this mean anything?

Also assuming the portal on earth is a complete sphere if you entered the portal form above earth, would appear though the arks portal at a different location? For example, How did gravemind navigate High Charity through the portal, He could of exited the portal on the ark side at the wrong trajectory and completey missed the ark all together.

Is it wrong to assume the portal is a portal? Is it rather a extremely sophisticated slip-space -generator both the machinery buried on earth and the ark?

Any theories?

-UNSC Trooper

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Sam Robinson writes about the connection between Onyx and the Ark.

Sam Robinson (smr.r@tiscali.co.uk) writes:

On halo 3 (the mission 'the ark') 343 GS says that he thought the ark was part of somesort of sheild istalation. Having read Ghost of onyx it mentions that Onyx is a shield planet. I don't know how but i think they are linked some how. Any ideas?
Another thing about onyx is the small portal which a group of Spartan-III jump through and land in the middle of a sphere that has a diameter of the earths orbit around the sun (pritty big I'd say) may be, as the book suggests, this is a refuge for the forerunners when they activate the halos, but how could the forerunners suvive in that space when the flood were created to deplete their numbers because they couldn't sustain their population in a whole galaxy?!
And also when the elites fleet travels through the 'portal' they arrive half way between two of the spines yet when the Dawn goes through the portal they are directly above the ark?!

-UNSC Trooper

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