Wolf-faced planet
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
This planet was an astronomical object located in a star system in the borders of the Milky Way galaxy. Like most other bodies in the system, it was mostly composed of water ice and rock.[1] The planet was just under ten thousand kilometers in diameter,[2] and its surface was mottled red and gray in color.[3] As a distinctive feature, a shape resembling a wolf's head had been carved on the surface of the planet as a result of meteorite impacts over the course of numerous millennia.[4] Due to this pareidolic image, the ancient humans who observed the planet from the surface of Installation 07 frequently referred to it with monikers such as "wolf-moon", "wolf-orb",[5] or the "wolf-faced planet".[6]
History
The planet's system was once part of the prehistoric human empire, and was the location where the remaining human forces retreated after Charum Hakkor had fallen in the human-Forerunner wars. In the face of inevitable defeat, the human fleet razed the system, bombarding its planets to ruin and polluting them for millions of years to come.[7]
During the Forerunner-Flood war, the planet gained newfound significance as the pre-designated target for Halo Installation 07's failsafe orbit. In the event the ring fell under enemy control, it would enter a course which would eventually cause the ring to smash into the face of the planet, a "suicide option" preventing enemy forces from using the weapon against its creators.[8] The rampant AI Mendicant Bias, in charge of most of the ring, was unable to override this measure as most of the installation's automated control systems had been damaged or destroyed; however, biological operators, when connected to the installation's controls through the Cartographer, could still steer the ring.[9]
After the Fate of Maethrillian, the failsafe orbit measure was enacted and Installation 07 jumped into the system, approaching the planet. However, Mendicant Bias managed to enlist the aid of several humans, who, in conjunction with Composer-processed Forerunner Flood victims, successfully moved the ring into a position in which the planet would pass through the Halo. As the ring approached the planet, the IsoDidact and his fleet arrived in the system. After successfully deactivating Mendicant Bias, the Didact assisted one of the humans, Chakas, in managing the ring's passage past the planet. Although the Halo took heavy damage as a result of stresses from the planet's gravitational pull and was forced to shed a large part of its structure, it eventually survived and was transported to the greater Ark.[10]
A hundred thousand years later, in late 2558, the Forerunner ancilla 343 Guilty Spark - who had once been Chakas when he was human - remembered the events surrounding the wolf-faced planet when he returned to Zeta Halo to use its Cartographer to unlock the secrets of the Librarian's coordinate key. The memories were shown to be traumatic for Spark, especially since they surrounded the events that had caused the loss of his human body.[11]
List of appearances
- Halo: Primordium (First appearance)
- Rebirth (Mentioned only)
- Halo: Fractures (Indirect mention)
- Halo: Point of Light (Mentioned only)
Sources
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 273
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 325
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 124
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 294-295
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 250
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 304, 321, 324, 344
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 155-156
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 279, 339
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 320
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 328-346
- ^ Halo: Point of Light, chapter 13
