Menachite portal complex: Difference between revisions
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Throughout the length of the corridor, the holography undergoes three transformations to depict different scenes, each sharing the golden glyphs along the walls. After the initial scene, it changes to depict an arid moonscape with deep craters and sterile light. It then transforms into a volcanic world with active streams of lava flowing along the walls. The realism of this scene is enhanced with realistic distortion of the air, which wavers as it would in the presence of extreme heat.<ref>''Halo: First Strike'', page 143: ''The holographic environment cycled to an arid moonscape: deep craters and sterile light; it became a volcanic world with lava flowing alongside them. The air wavered with heat. In each transformation the golden symbols remained on the walls, leading them through the illusions.''</ref> | Throughout the length of the corridor, the holography undergoes three transformations to depict different scenes, each sharing the golden glyphs along the walls. After the initial scene, it changes to depict an arid moonscape with deep craters and sterile light. It then transforms into a volcanic world with active streams of lava flowing along the walls. The realism of this scene is enhanced with realistic distortion of the air, which wavers as it would in the presence of extreme heat.<ref>''Halo: First Strike'', page 143: ''The holographic environment cycled to an arid moonscape: deep craters and sterile light; it became a volcanic world with lava flowing alongside them. The air wavered with heat. In each transformation the golden symbols remained on the walls, leading them through the illusions.''</ref> | ||
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>''Halo: First Strike'', page 144: ''And in the center of the | 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>''Halo: First Strike'', page 144: ''And in the center of the floor was a pedestal flickering with a faint light.''</ref> that holds the Forerunner Crystal. 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>''Halo: First Strike'', page 144: ''The corridor emptied onto a landing that overlooked the largest room Fred had ever seen.''; ''They stood on one of a dozen tiered levels that encircled the room; there was no railing. Fred leaned over the edge. It was at least one hundred meters to the floor below. The room was approximately circular and three kilometers in diameter. The floor was blue and seemed to shift as a billion tiny tiles flexed and rearranged themselves into frustratingly familiar patterns.''</ref> Unlike the floor in the corridor, these tiles form squares, circles, bars, and triangles.<ref>''Halo: First Strike'', pages 144/145: ''The floor of the great room wasn't the same tile as in the corridor above. It was still blue tile, but these were squares and circles and bars and triangles.</ref> The ceiling is a dome with a holographic golden sun, blue sky, and cottony clouds that morph into geometric shapes such as spheres, pyramids, bars, and cubes.<ref>''Halo: First Strike'', page 144: ''The ceiling was a dome with a holographic golden sun, blue sky, and cottony clouds that morphed into spheres, puffy pyramids, bars, and cubes.''</ref> | ||
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>''Halo: First Strike'', page 145: ''The Spartans formed up around the doctor again, but Fred's instincts warned him that this wasn't a good idea. He couldn't get his bearings straight. The room was big, large enough that it felt as if they were outside. It threw him off. He had an odd sense of vertigo, almost as if the floor was tilting and he was now walking on the roof. Dr. Halsey increased her pace, but the distance to the center of the room didn't seem any closer; in fact, they seemed more distant from the center than when they had started out from the edge of the room. Fred turned down the gain on his display until everything was a faint black-and-white blur. He focused on his motion tracker and saw that the Spartans and Dr. Halsey were now separated across two dozen meters.</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>''Halo: First Strike'', page 145: ''She set the bearing on the floor and gave it a gentle push. The bearing rolled, then curved, and spiraled back to a stop.''</ref> [[SPARTAN-087]] was able to intuitively determine the true direction toward the pedestal, ostensibly the opposite direction.<ref>''Halo: First Strike'', page 145: ''The Spartans set their hands on each other's shoulders and marched, not toward the center of the room but to a spot that Kelly had picked, apparently back the way they had come.''</ref> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 20:31, November 29, 2008
Template:Ratings The Menachite Forerunner Complex[1] is an underground facility built into Menachite Mountain by the Forerunners to house the Forerunner Crystal.
Layout
The outside of the complex resembles granite rock, with passages allowing access along the wall. The wall has a long stretch of glyphs trailing along the wall that twist into a spiral mosaic and vanish into ever-smaller curls. The glyphs are part of the wall's material, described as being composed of glittering mica inclusions in the granite matrix. The glyphs themselves are a series of squares, triangles, bars, and dots, and blur out of focus when someone looks at them directly.[2]
When SPARTAN-104's blood touched the wall, a transformation occurred.[3] 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.[4]
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.[5] 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.[6] His radiation counter briefly pulsed, supporting his hesitation.[7]
Further down the corridor, the ceiling stops shining golden light and fades to total black. Pinpoint lights emerge imitating stars, which twinkle realistically.[8] In addition, silver-grey orbs that represent moons pockmarked with craters spin in wide orbits across the ceiling. Along the walls, tall green bamboo-like stalks appear.[9] Dr. Halsey determined that these apparitions were semisolid holograms with no visible emitters.[10]
Throughout the length of the corridor, the holography undergoes three transformations to depict different scenes, each sharing the golden glyphs along the walls. After the initial scene, it changes to depict an arid moonscape with deep craters and sterile light. It then transforms into a volcanic world with active streams of lava flowing along the walls. The realism of this scene is enhanced with realistic distortion of the air, which wavers as it would in the presence of extreme heat.[11]
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[12] that holds the Forerunner Crystal. 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".[13] Unlike the floor in the corridor, these tiles form squares, circles, bars, and triangles.[14] The ceiling is a dome with a holographic golden sun, blue sky, and cottony clouds that morph into geometric shapes such as spheres, pyramids, bars, and cubes.[15]
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.[16] 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.[17] SPARTAN-087 was able to intuitively determine the true direction toward the pedestal, ostensibly the opposite direction.[18]
References
- ^ Conjectural description
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 139: Fred followed the trail of odd symbols along the left-hand stone wall until they twisted into a spiral mosaic and vanished into ever-smaller curls. The symbols were part of the rock, composed of glittering mica inclusions in the granite matrix. There were a series of squares, triangles, bars, and dots, similar to Covenant calligraphy he had seen--but at the same time it was simpler, cleaner, and when Fred focused on them, the characters seemed to blur around the edges and fade from his stare. He blinked, and the symbols were there again.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 141: Fred felt a hot pain in the tip of his finger. He drew his bare hand away and a tiny track of blood smeared the rock.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 141: The symbols in the rock emitted a faint illumination of their own: a soft reddish glow like heated metal. The light intensified and spread across the spiral on the wall, starting from where his blood had fallen; those symbols warmed to a pleasant orange, then yellow-gold. A new symbol in the center of the spiral appeared that hadn't been there just a second ago... or perhaps it had been, but had lain just beneath the surface. It heated and became increasingly visible, a single triangle that glowed white. Fred was inexorably drawn to this central figure. He reached for it; there was no heat. He slowly stretched and and touched the symbol with his exposed fingertip. Warm white light raced along the spiral of symbols, then traced a path down the hallway and into the distance. The entire cavern seemed sudden alive with radiance and shadow. Even with the step-down luminosity filters in his helmet, Fred had to blink and squint. The wall before him rumpled and seams appeared at the central figure, dozens of lines that curved in a radial pattern--and then pulled away to reveal a corridor behind.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 143: The golden light faded from the ceiling
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 142: Fred wanted to stare at the gold symbols and the light that cast, but something warned him that this would be dangerous.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 142: This new corridor was twenty meters high--large enough for a titan to stride down its length. It vanished into the distance, a straight line that gradually sloped deeper into the earth. The floor was paved with asymmetric blue tiles patterned to look like waves lapping upon a shore. Four-meter-tall symbols of gold were centered and inlaid into the mirror-smooth walls. These giant triangles, squares, bars, and circles began to emit the same soft light... and Fred felt his foot shuffle forward. He stopped, shook his head, and looked away. He checked his radiation counter; it pulsed, and then fell back to a normal background count.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 143: The hallway changed as they continued down its length. The golden light faded along the ceiling, and inky black covered its expanse; tiny stars winked on and twinkled.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 143: Moons wheeled overhead; silver-grey orbs, pockmarked with meteorite impacts, spun in wide orbits. Along the walls, tall green bamboo-like grass sprouted and grew up the curved surfaces.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 143: Dr. Halsey brushed her fingertips along the wall, and the grasses wavered at her touch. "Semisolid holography," she said without halting. "No visible emitters.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 143: The holographic environment cycled to an arid moonscape: deep craters and sterile light; it became a volcanic world with lava flowing alongside them. The air wavered with heat. In each transformation the golden symbols remained on the walls, leading them through the illusions.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 144: And in the center of the floor was a pedestal flickering with a faint light.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 144: The corridor emptied onto a landing that overlooked the largest room Fred had ever seen.; They stood on one of a dozen tiered levels that encircled the room; there was no railing. Fred leaned over the edge. It was at least one hundred meters to the floor below. The room was approximately circular and three kilometers in diameter. The floor was blue and seemed to shift as a billion tiny tiles flexed and rearranged themselves into frustratingly familiar patterns.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, pages 144/145: The floor of the great room wasn't the same tile as in the corridor above. It was still blue tile, but these were squares and circles and bars and triangles.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 144: The ceiling was a dome with a holographic golden sun, blue sky, and cottony clouds that morphed into spheres, puffy pyramids, bars, and cubes.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 145: The Spartans formed up around the doctor again, but Fred's instincts warned him that this wasn't a good idea. He couldn't get his bearings straight. The room was big, large enough that it felt as if they were outside. It threw him off. He had an odd sense of vertigo, almost as if the floor was tilting and he was now walking on the roof. Dr. Halsey increased her pace, but the distance to the center of the room didn't seem any closer; in fact, they seemed more distant from the center than when they had started out from the edge of the room. Fred turned down the gain on his display until everything was a faint black-and-white blur. He focused on his motion tracker and saw that the Spartans and Dr. Halsey were now separated across two dozen meters.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 145: She set the bearing on the floor and gave it a gentle push. The bearing rolled, then curved, and spiraled back to a stop.
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 145: The Spartans set their hands on each other's shoulders and marched, not toward the center of the room but to a spot that Kelly had picked, apparently back the way they had come.
