Silent Auditorium (location)

The exterior of the Silent Auditorium.

"It's a courtroom. A prison. A place of execution. All these things. Together. Why?"

— The Weapon speaking of the Silent Auditorium's purpose during the Battle for Zeta Halo.^[1]

The Silent Auditorium is a location which Escharum, the Banished, and The Harbinger sought control over, in May, 2560.^[2]

History

"The Ring is already under our control. Soon, the Auditorium as well..."

— Escharum speaking of the Silent Auditorium.^[2]

The central chamber of the Silent Auditorium.

The Silent Auditorium is the facility on Installation 07 in which the Forerunners had enacted judgement upon the Xalanyn. The Xalanyn could not defend themselves and stood silently as the Forerunners imprisoned them. Despondent Pyre was instructed by the Grand Edict to experiment on the Xalanyn to learn the extent of what their kind could endure.^[3]

Thousands of years later, when Cortana took control of Zeta Halo, she took up residence in the Silent Auditorium. On December 12, 2559, the UNSC Infinity arrived at Zeta Halo and deployed The Weapon, a duplicate of Cortana created by Catherine Halsey for the express purpose of neutralizing the original Cortana. The Weapon infiltrated the Ring and trapped Cortana inside the facility. Cortana expected John-117 to arrive to return her to the Infinity for deletion. However, Atriox showed up instead. Having learned of the Silent Auditorium's true purpose, he demanded the Cortana surrender control of the Ring to him. Instead, Cortana sacrificed herself to destroy the Auditorium, severely damaging the Ring in the process.^[1]

Six months later, thanks to the partial repairs made by the Reformation, the Harbinger was able to access the Silent Auditorium and attempted to open a connection between the Auditorium and an unknown location on the Ring by way of a carrier wave. The signal itself was noted as being sentient and was searching the Ring. The Weapon was able to intercept this signal being transmitted from the three statues that decorated the central chamber. However, once the Harbinger accessed the third and final transmitter, the Weapon noted that a presence on the Installation was assisting her as she attempted to intercept the signal.^[1]

Although the Master Chief successfully stopped the Harbinger from using the Auditorium to locate and free the Endless, the Harbinger vowed in her dying breath that the Endless would still return. After the Harbinger's death, the Silent Auditorium quickly began to collapse, but not before a translocation portal opened up, sending the Master Chief three days into the future. Although the central chamber of the Auditorium was destroyed, the external structure remained largely intact.^[1]