New Mombasa Data Center
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
The Data Center was an immense underground facility under the city of New Mombasa, Kenya, Earth.[1]
Background
The data center consisted of ten sublevels, with the most crucial facilities on the lowest level. The facility had a fire containment system, that if activated, would flood any section in the data center with freezing argon gas. Sublevels seven, eight and nine mainly housed maintenance tunnels and rooms, retractable data stacks and other similar facilities. Dr. Endesha's office was located on Sublevel 9.[1]
The city's Urban Infrastructure AI's, the Superintendent's main data core was located in the lowest level, Sublevel 10, inside a massive cavern and suspended over an underground lake. The data core was directly below the ONI Alpha Site's main building, with a deep shaft connecting them. Sublevel 10 also housed massive power junctures.[1]
A small section of the vast Forerunner Ark Portal structure was also located below this facility.[1][2]
History
The Data Center's construction was overseen by Dr. Endesha, the scientist responsible for managing the Superintendent.[3]
Just before Covenant invasion on Earth, an unusual object, later revealed to be the Portal, was detected by a seismic survey performed by the Superintendent. When the Battle of Mombasa begun, Dr. Endesha was inside the Data Center, observing Huragok who freed one of their own, which eventually made its way into the Superintendent's core and started to repair it, eventually fusing its Vergil subroutine with itself. Dr. Endesha was killed when Commissioner Kinsler activated the facility's fire containment system by the flamethrower found in the sublevel, flooding the facility's Sublevel 9 with Argon.[3] During the battle, Yanme'e built hives into the Data Center's Sublevel 10.[1]
Kinsler sent a team of NMPD officers to make sure the Doctor was dead, and then retrieve the Superintendent's data. Eventually, only one officer survived. He was later met by an ODST, the Rookie, who had arrived in the Data Center to find Captain Dare, who was holding in Sublevel 9. The cop was later killed, but the Rookie made his way to Dare's position, and they retrieved the Huragok who had fused its data with the Superintendent. After this, the facility fell under Covenant control.[1][2]
When the Prophet of Truth arrived at Earth on November, 2552, he traveled to the Data Center's lowest level, where the Covenant forces had excavated a tunnel into the interior of the Portal structure. At this point, the structures inside the facility were still mostly undamaged. Large numbers of Huragok were present, and they had painted their enigmatic symbols - most of them depicting the Superintendent's avatar - all over the Superintendent's core and the surrounding structures.[2]
Trivia
A partially excavated Forerunner artifact below the main chamber of the facility is featured in the epilogue cutscene of Halo 3: ODST, where the Prophet of Truth observes multiple Huragok working on the excavation. During the level Data Hive in the game, while the player can't see it clearly due to the Superintendent's main core in the way, the structure can be seen in the background. As the artifact's existence was unknown to the humans at the time, only revealed in a seismic survey made by the Superintendent just before the Covenant invasion, it could not have been visible before the Covenant arrived. It is unknown if the Covenant actually excavated the artifact during the few hours between their invasion and the Rookie's arrival to the Data Center, or if its presence in the in-game level is simply an oversight on the developers' part.[1]
Gallery
An open data stack.
The Huragok, Vergil, inside the Superintendent's core.
Dr. Endesha's office in the facility.
The Yanme'e hive above Sublevel 10's Power Juncture.
- Portal access.jpg
Part of the Forerunner Portal structure, seen in the main cavern.
- Sublevel development compilation.png
A compilation of images showing the creation process of a room in the data center, from early concepts to the final game.
- Tunnel concept.png
Concept art of the tunnels.
- Datacenter concept.jpg
Concept art of the Superintendent's main core.
- ODST underground hub.jpg
Concept art of a data stack hub.
List of appearances
- Halo 3: ODST (First appearance)
Sources
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