Editing Installation 08

{{Era|HCW}}

|anchor=

|destroyed=[[2552#December|December 11, 2552]];<ref name="Fortitude">[http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/intel/featured/video/herofortitude/bfe5038b-314a-4f17-a6be-f7613e0e3788 '''Halo Waypoint''', ''Hero-Fortitude'']</ref> destroyed due to premature firing

|diameter={{Convert|10000|km|mi}}<ref name="VIS">'''[[Halo: The Essential Visual Guide]]'''</ref>

{{Quote|A replacement. For the ring you destroyed.|[[Thel 'Vadam]] observing the second Installation 04's construction alongside [[John-117]].<ref name="TC">'''Halo 3''', campaign level ''[[The Covenant (level)|The Covenant]]''</ref>}}

'''Installation 08'''<ref name="grim">[https://www.reddit.com/r/halo/comments/70wbxc/return_to_the_denomination_installation_04_b_c/dn6n4h7/ ''Reddit: Return to the denomination. Installation 04 (B), (C). Canonically. 343 PLS''] "Sorry, 08 and 09 make way more sense :-)

In actuality, they aren't meant to directly replace an individual ring, but to replace the loss in coverage that ring offered the galaxy." -

[[Jeff Easterling]]</ref> was a partially completed [[Halo Array|Halo installation]] which was constructed at the [[Installation 00|Ark]] after the destruction of [[Installation 04]].<ref name="Halo">'''[[Halo 3]]''', campaign level ''[[Halo (Halo 3 level)|Halo]]''</ref> Incomplete to the point where firing would result in its destruction, this replacement was destroyed by [[Spartan-II]] [[Master Chief]] [[John-117]], only for yet [[Installation 09|another replacement]] to be constructed years later.

Installation 08 was designed as a very similar replacement to [[Installation 04]], or Alpha Halo, in order to ensure that the [[Forerunner]]s' Halo network was intact, and therefore able to encompass the entire [[Milky Way]] galaxy.

Following the [[Battle of Installation 04]] and its subsequent destruction, [[Installation 00]] was notified, and an automated function began building a new replacement for the missing installation's position. The main weapon was built first with the surrounding circular metal structure after by using materials that came from the [[strip mining moon]] located at the center of Installation 00.{{Citation needed|reason=Where is the construction process explained?|date=November 2019}}

Before it was released into space, the installation had a number of primary features available even though it was still not complete. These included the environment, atmosphere and main structures, and the main weapon, though the ring structure was not yet stable enough to survive this weapon's discharge. The new installation was also not networked to the other installations, allowing a tactical pulse to be fired without triggering the other six installations. It is never revealed if this is an option available to completed installations as well, although it is likely that the incomplete Installation 08 merely had not been set up with this network yet; a logical precaution considering the effects of a misfire.

At some point prior to the Battle of Installation 00, Cortana became aware of Installation 08's existence. While being held prisoner by the [[Gravemind]] on High Charity, she sent a covert message to John-117 on Earth informing him of a "solution to the Flood" that did not require activating the Halo Array.<ref name="Floodgate">'''[[Halo 3]]''', campaign mission ''[[Floodgate]]''</ref>

John headed to the Flood-controlled [[High Charity]] to retrieve [[Cortana]], as she held the [[Activation Index]] from the first Installation 04. Aided in his escape by Thel, John found a crashed Pelican near the exterior of High Charity and piloted it to the incomplete ring.<ref name="C">'''Halo 3''', campaign level ''[[Cortana (level)|Cortana]]''</ref> The Pelican crashed in a snowy valley near the ring's [[Control Room]], which was situated atop a high tower. As John and Thel made their way towards the tower, [[Flood dispersal pod]]s descended from the sky to prevent them from activating the new Halo. The two, aided by [[Sergeant Major]] [[Avery Johnson]], fended off the Flood and reunited with [[343 Guilty Spark]], who let them into the Control Room.

[[File:HaloLegends-Origins-ArkHalo.png|250px|thumb|right|Installation 08 fires over the Ark, severely damaging it.]]

By March [[2555]], a large chunk of the Halo was impaled on the Ark's central hub, like a dead, arcing tree climbing thousands of kilometers into space. There was also debris from the ring in space, some of it still raining down through the atmosphere and blooming into flame before crashing on the Ark's surface.<ref>'''Halo: Hunters in the Dark''', ''page 141''</ref> By May [[2559]], the Ark had been repaired and completed another [[Installation 09|replacement]].<ref name="HW2">'''[[Halo Wars 2]]''', campaign level ''[[Hold the Line]]''</ref>

The activation and firing of Installation 08 was extremely impractical and prone to many of faults, resulting in a few Flood spores or forms surviving on the Ark as late as [[2559#June|June 2559]],<ref name="HW2 AtK">'''[[Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare]]'''</ref> and even a few [[Kig-Yar]] and [[Jiralhanae]] surviving inside the [[Anodyne Spirit]].{{Ref/Book|Sacrifice}} This may have been due to the unfinished state of the ring, and/or because the ring was fired in the midst of its own destruction.<ref>[https://twitter.com/GrimBrotherOne/status/874380206785445888 '''Twitter - Jeff Easterling:''' ''"Guns that are blowing up while firing might not be quite as effective..."'']</ref> Another possibility may be the variable harmonics of the Halo's pulse.<ref>[https://mobile.twitter.com/GrimBrotherOne/status/766840297498157056 '''Twitter - Jeff Easterling:''' ''"There is quite a bit we still don't know about the rings. Even Spark spoke of how variable the tuning could be."'']</ref> The [[Banished]] were drawn into a fierce conflict against the Flood on the surface of the Ark after they had inadvertently released them from the rubble of High Charity, causing them to spread and multiply. After the Banished killed a [[Proto-Gravemind]] and reactivated the Ark's Sentinel defenses, the Sentinels and the Banished were able to contain the Flood and seal off High Charity once more.{{Ref/Reuse|HW2 AtK}}

During the {{UNSCShip|Spirit of Fire}}'s [[Second Ark Conflict|battle]] with the [[Banished]] at the Ark in [[2559#March|March 2559]], Captain [[James Cutter]], Professor [[Ellen Anders]], and logistics AI [[Isabel]] formed a plan to deploy the second replacement for Alpha Halo, Installation 09, to the Soell system in an attempt to send a [[distress beacon|distress signal]] to [[Human colonies|human space]].{{Ref/Reuse|HW2}} On the way to the original site of Installation 04 however, a Forerunner [[Guardian|Guardian construct]] controlled by Cortana's [[Created]] intercepted the ring.<ref>'''[[Halo Wars 2]]''', campaign level ''[[Last Stand (Halo Wars 2 level)|Last Stand]]''</ref>

File:Int4.jpg|The Forerunner symbol that represents Installation 08.

File:HighCharityView.jpg|The partially constructed Installation 08 visible from the Ark's Citadel.