Editing Menachite portal complex

{{Status|Canon}}

{{disambig header|the Forerunner complex|other articles of the same name|Menachite}}

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The '''Menachite portal complex''',<ref>Conjectural description</ref> referred to as a "temple" by the [[Covenant]],<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 194''</ref> and the '''Portal under the Mountain''' by the Covenant and [[Banished]], is an underground [[slipspace portal]] facility built into [[Menachite Mountain]] on [[Reach]] by the [[Forerunners]]{{Ref/Novel|Id=SoR21|HSoR|Chapter=21}} The complex housed a [[Menachite Forerunner crystal|unique slipspace crystal]].

==Design==

 

 

====Entrance====

When [[Frederic-104]]'s [[blood]] touched the wall, a transformation occurred.<ref name="blood">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 141''</ref> The glyphs began to emit a soft red glow comparable to heated metal. The glow spread outward from point at which his blood touched the wall, and the colors in the center began warming to orange and then to yellow-gold. A single white glyph, a triangle, became visible in the center of the spiral. Despite the emission of light, the glyphs did not radiate heat. When SPARTAN-104 touched this glyph with his bare fingertip, all the glyphs along the entire wall glowed white with brilliant illumination. After a moment, the wall itself rumpled and transformed into a corridor leading into the complex.{{Ref/Reuse|blood}}

The corridor was twenty meters in height, leading inward at a straight line that gently sloped deeper into the ground. Golden light shined from the ceiling.<ref name="ceiling">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 143''</ref> The floor was paved with asymmetric blue tiles patterned in a way comparable to waves lapping on a shore. The utterly smooth walls were inlaid with centered four-meter tall gold glyphs made of similar shapes of triangles, squares, bars, and circles. When the glyphs began to softly glow, SPARTAN-104 felt himself attracted to them, but resisted his impulse to approach them on an intuitive suspicion that they were dangerous.<ref name="gold">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 142''</ref> His radiation counter briefly pulsed, supporting his hesitation.{{Ref/Reuse|gold}}

Further down the corridor, the ceiling stopped shining golden light and faded to total black. Pinpoint lights emerged imitating stars, which twinkled realistically.{{Ref/Reuse|ceiling}} In addition, silver-gray orbs that represented moons pockmarked with craters spun in wide orbits across the ceiling. Along the walls, tall green bamboo-like stalks appeared.{{Ref/Reuse|ceiling}} [[Catherine Halsey|Dr. Halsey]] determined that these apparitions were semisolid holograms with no visible emitters;{{Ref/Reuse|ceiling}} in actuality, [[hard light]] decor present in most Forerunner constructs.<ref>'''Halo: Cryptum'''</ref>

Throughout the length of the corridor, the holography underwent three transformations to depict different scenes, each sharing the golden glyphs along the walls. After the initial scene, it changed to depict an arid moonscape with deep craters and sterile light. It then transformed into a volcanic world with active streams of lava flowing along the walls. The realism of this scene was enhanced with realistic distortion of the air, which wavered as it would in the presence of extreme heat.{{Ref/Reuse|ceiling}}

====Main chamber====

The corridor empties onto a landing overlooking an approximately circular room with a diameter of three kilometers, the center of which contains a flickering pedestal<ref name="room">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 144''</ref> that holds the Forerunner crystal.<ref name="crystal">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 145-146''</ref> The landing is on one of twelve tiered levels that have no railings and encircle the room. The floor, approximately one hundred meters beneath the landing, is made of innumerable blue tiles that appear to shift around into patterns SPARTAN-104 describes as "frustratingly familiar".{{Ref/Reuse|room}} Unlike the floor in the corridor, these tiles form squares, circles, bars, and triangles.<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''pages 144-145''</ref> The ceiling is a dome with a holographic golden sun, a dozen moons,<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 185''</ref> blue sky, and cottony clouds that morph into geometric shapes such as spheres, pyramids, bars, and cubes.{{Ref/Reuse|room}}

When Dr. Halsey and her Spartans approached the pedestal, they experienced spatial disorientation in which their path was distorted. Despite their attempts to reach the center as a close group, they found themselves heading off in separate directions. SPARTAN-104 described feeling a sense of vertigo as if he was walking on the ceiling instead of the floor.<ref name="vertigo">'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 145''</ref> A test of rolling a ball bearing on the ground showed the floor initially sloped toward the center, but shifted around as the ball bearing rolled until it came to a total stop.{{Ref/Reuse|vertigo}} [[Kelly-087]] was able to intuitively determine the true direction toward the pedestal, ostensibly the opposite direction.{{Ref/Reuse|vertigo}} The pedestal in the center is made of the same gold material as the symbols in the corridor. Above it floated a [[Forerunner crystal]], which spun and pulsed a bright glow of sapphire-blue light.{{Ref/Reuse|crystal}}

The Menachite portal complex was created in prehistory by the Forerunners to allow for transportation to the extragalactic [[Installation 00]]. After humans colonized Reach, they tunneled into the mountain for purposes of mining its rich [[titanium]] content. The [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] took over the mountain after the mine was built and installed [[CASTLE Base]] into the tunnels originally created for the mine. Colonel [[James Ackerson]] of ONI knew of the existence of the Menachite Forerunner Complex, and made uncovering its secrets a secret project. He was, however, unable to learn of its entrance. The entrance was later discovered by [[Frederic-104]] by accident and his group gained entry into the complex.

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