Talk:Halo Array

Larger edit?

The art of Halo 3 shows and explains how a fortress world is made and terraformed. should we not include this very important info to the page as well? grey 23:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC)grey101grey 23:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC)

Move?

I also agree on re-naming the page fortress world. it is the correct and forerunner term. grey 23:36, 15 June 2009

23:36, 15 June 2009 (UTC) Suggest moving to "Fortress World" as that seems to be the proper term. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 23:56, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

It would be harder to locate and Fortress World is more of an overall description, Halo is more of a name and title, unique to this array.Lovemuffin^{Wiki Userpage}_{Edit Count}^{Talk Page}_{Contributions}File:Dancing master chief.gif 02:03, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree that Fortress world is better. Halo is kinda what the Covenant called them. Ringworld, Fortress world and Arrays are the only names their owners, the Foreruners, called them.Hatchling001 06:21, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps it should be mentioned in the opening paragraph that it is a fortress world, a term given to the rings by their creators. This would appease most people Im sure. Hatchling001 01:17, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure if this edit ever happened, but if it did, then it should be removed. Because first of all, The Forerunners refer to it as "Halo" in Halo: Cryptum, and second of all, Halo's aren't Fortress Worlds, the Shield Worlds are Fortress Worlds!Vegerot (talk) 17:22, 1 March 2011 (EST)!!!!!!!!

The computer core within Installation 04's control room disagrees - Cortana even reads aloud that it is "what they called a 'Fortress world'". If the shield worlds were fortress worlds, that would be their name. -- Forerunner 19:28, 1 March 2011 (EST)

Locations

It is curious that the other halo rings had not yet been found, since it would really only take knowledge of the location of perhaps two halo rings to determine the rough positions of the other six. The reason being all seven halos share the same design and consequently the same effective range. The halos would logically be arranged such that the entire inhabitable galaxy. The galaxy is relatively symmetrical, and consequently the halos would be placed opposite each-other on symmetrical sides of the galaxy. Dont know about the 7th, though. Perhaps that would be near the galactic core? ElFroCampeador ^TALK 19:54, 4 December 2007 (UTC)

I have a feeling that the two closest rings to our part of the Galaxy are 04 and 05, and they were found. It would take years for humans, with their limited slipspace capability, to reach another ring, but I can imagine that the Covenant may give it a try. --E D File:ArmyROTC.gif 22:16, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

In reference to the diagram in the Funtion section, the diagram is not a possible solution to probable locations. Firstly it is stated that the Array is not perfectly alligned with the galactic plane. Secondly, an installation is not possible in the centre of the galaxy as it is occupied by a super massive black hole.--Plasmic Physics 14:24, March 12, 2010 (UTC)

You do know you're replying/commenting on a 2-year old discussion. >.>- 5əb'7aŋk^(7alk) 14:30, March 12, 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I'm fully aware. Rather than create a new section, I chose this one, even though it is two years old.--Plasmic Physics 14:34, March 12, 2010 (UTC)

Perfectly or not, it should be rather close. And even though you are correct about the black hole, I would bet the Forerunners have some technology to make it survive. It is far from impossible.--Fluffball Gato 23:18, March 12, 2010 (UTC)

It is not close actually, Iota Horologii quite a distance above the galactic plane. A bet or a guess isn't really good enough for Halopedia, Halopedia an encyclopedia based on firmly established knowledge of the Haloverse, not speculative theories. So, unless the official locations of the collective Array is known, we shouldn't add information that can't be trusted.--Plasmic Physics 23:51, March 12, 2010 (UTC)

That wasn't exactly the point. You said the configuration was impossible, which is far from true in the Haloverse. Anyway, the term "possible" was used, not "this is the configuration". Changing the description to "an impossible configuration" verges on vandalism.--Fluffball Gato 01:56, March 13, 2010 (UTC)

How do you know that it is possible in the Haloverse? Ask an admin about speculation if you don't believe me.--Plasmic Physics 01:59, March 13, 2010 (UTC)

I just said is was possibly possible (cool phrase), not that is was possible. Speculation is only unacceptable when it is presented as truth. Saying "possible" means that it is speculation. --Fluffball Gato 02:34, March 13, 2010 (UTC)

Speculation is the presentation of ideas and unfounded information, read the about section in Halopedia. It is false to acknowledge that this configuration is possibly possible, a falsity does not belong here.--Plasmic Physics 02:51, March 13, 2010 (UTC)

Although I don't agree, do whatever you want. I don't really care. --Fluffball Gato 03:41, March 13, 2010 (UTC)

Why?

According to GoO, the forerunner weren't able to make it to the sheild world(s) and we know from Halo 3 that the Forerunners didn't stay on the Ark, I have to ask: Why in god's name would you build the WMD to end all WMD's, places where you would be safe from the ultimate WMD, and then not use these safe places? I know if I were a forerunner I would stay in these places from when they were built until I was absolutely sure we weren't going to use it (again). Why even put a remote activation thingy on the Ark if your not going to use it. So why didn't the Forerunner survive? Why didn't they use their own lifeboats? I would expect world builders to be more ineligent.

The Forerunners didnt make it to the Shield Worlds? I presume that would be speculation instead of cold hard fact, since no one knows what happened to them, really. Sides, the Shield World in Onyx is MEGA HUGEO. The Forerunners could be somewhere else in it, i.e. not where Halsey, Mendez, and the new Blue Team (including the S-IIIs) landed. Though, if that was the only portal, it'd make sense to begin building your cities there. And if you built gigantic stuff like the Micro-Dyson Sphere and the Halo Arrays and the Ark, your civilisation would probably be pretty big. Then again, I had this wild idea that the Forerunner were just one MASSIVE swarm of nanobot-like creatures. Also, there may be many (like... 7, cause Bungie would NEVA use any other number) Shield Worlds, so, just because the one on Onyx is uninhabited, doesn't mean the others are.

It is theorized that Mendicant Bias informed the flood of the shield worlds and they were abandoned or locked down for fear the creature would attack them or the compound mind would survive inside. The terminals mention in Didact's conversations that there was no place to go now where the Parasite cannot follow. Hatchling001 06:17, 4 June 2009 (UTC)

I couldn't help but add that the halos aren't the WMD to end all WMDs, this is.

WMD? GoO?193.200.150.152 01:27, February 26, 2010 (UTC)!

Well the Forerunners did make it to ark Alertfiend

Various Environments on the rings

In thinking about the various environments for the Halos seen in the Citadel in Halo 3 I think I have an idea of what could explain the differences. Beyond being aesthetically pleasing each environment could serve a tactical purpose in the case of a Flood outbreak. For instance if every installation had the exact same layout as 04 the Flood would know where all the important locations were immediately such as the Control Room and the Library if they were in fact under the control of a Gravemind. So rather then making a single environment the Forerunners changed them to further slow a Flood outbreak across the various rings, even with prior knowledge from another ring they would have to relearn each installation. As well the varying environments could be used to experiment on the Flood learning potential weaknesses. Let me know what you think.

Cool idea, but I had another. Maybe the different enviroments are due to their locations in the galaxy or thier size or the influence of the planet they orbited, or a combination of all.

It's possible that Bungie may have not given much thought to the surface of the other Halo Rings. So it may be that they may have simply used textures of planets and moons in our Solar System as a homage. It doesn't make sense why two rings would be perfectly habitable while the other aren't. 343 Guilty Spark has already stated that the rings are designed to be a habitat that can support life. Both to study the Flood and for the Reclaimers to activate the Ring's primary weapon.

the "wall"

howbout in the article, mention something about what appears to be a giant wall to hold in the atmosphere. Crubs 07:08, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

How did sentient life continue?

I know this isn't supposed to be a forum but... If the Halo array was fired 100'000 years ago destroying all sentient life in the galaxy, then why is there still sentient life when in the time of the games. I know some people are saying that it is because the humans and the forunner somehow connected, but then how does one account for all the other sentient life (Elites, Grunts, Brutes, etc)? Even if one says that the 100'000 years figure refers to the length of Halo's year not Earth's, the numbers don't make sense: lets say that Halo has a year double the length in human years of Neptunes orbit (which would put it very very far away from the star it orbits), which would be 320 years, that would mean that the Halo's were fired 32'000'000 human years ago. However you look at it there is not enough time for new senteint life to evolve when you consider it took billions of years for senitent life to come about in the first place. This is probably a really obvious and irritating question, so sorry to disturb you. Thanks. 81.151.247.65 18:14, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

Because species such as the Humans and the covenants' multiple races were taken to the Ark, where they were kept safe. 1st Class Cadet ONI recon 111 | File:1227612553 First3.jpg 18:16, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

The only question that leaves is, how did all the protected races get to their homeworlds, with no knowledge or memory of the Ark, without memory or knowledge of each other and no knowledge of the sentinels etc on the Ark? Tiger rr rr 18:27, 4 December 2008 (UTC)

We don't know yet. FishType1 21:04, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

I would say it would have to be something like a massive gamma ray burst, radiation is more potent on creatures that are more complex, this would explain why less complex creatures like bugs would survive, also the effect it had on the ark could be explained by the fact that under certain circumstances gamma rays will turn instantly into electrons and the anti-matter twins, positrons, creating an uber huge explosion.

This is what I think All Under Heaven

Aside from it taking plenty of time for live to evolve, if the Halos truly destroyed ALL life, there'd be nothing to evolve FROM. I suppose the only posibility is if a specimen was saved (Ark or Shield World) then rereleased back into the galaxy after they thought the Flood had starved to death. The specimen(s) then evolved into the creatures we know today. Also, I think it is possible if ALL life evolved from Forerunner and this is what happened: Flood fought Forerunner. Forerunner scared so Forerunner hide and Forerunner fire the Halos. Forerunne think Flood dead so Forerunner come out of Shield World. Idividual (groups of) Forerunner go to different planets and evolve/devolve from there to suit their new enviroments. (This may or may not be possible, I hadn't really thought it out fully.) One more thing, this one about Local Time. Local time may vary from Installation to Installation. This 'local time' may be the time of the system each Halo is in, based on it's orbit of a star or planet. The time may also vary due to the different sizes that the Halos have. Alternatively, the local time of all the Halos could be the same as it may refer to the ancient format which the Forerunner used.

Who says they had no memory? Mythology comes from somewhere - where there's smoke, there's fire. Flood myths are pretty common across all human-occupied continents, with most cultures and religions having them in some form - the earth gets scoured, with a few survivors who start again. In the Halo Universe, it may be a folktale memory of when the Forerunners saved them from The Flood, wiped the galaxy clean, and returned them to their planet to start again. -- Administrator Specops306 - Qur'a 'Morhek ^{Honour Light Your Way!} 02:09, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to make reference to the terminals describing one of the forerunners finding earth. I'd also like to point out that any planet in a green zone with a stabilizing moon and a helathy organic soup can evolve life fairly quickly, within a few million years. Most flood Myths on earth come from actual water flooding, Bungie has used this as a metaphor to describe the parasite. The Ark's design may have been a failsafe against the flood, almost like a fallout shelter would be used next to a helipad. If you can't get the helicopter, use the shelter. Likely, The ray would effect The cerebral cortex, or the frontal lobe, which only occurs in species capable of becoming sentient. What happened to the forerunners is unknown, there is a good chance, that they simply all died. If they did change location or transcend their condition, Then they would've been fully capable of influencing evoltion to reproduce their species Cosmically. By planting and forming life on earth, they would've been able to re-create their own evolutionary history, creatures like the dimetrodon, mammals, and eventually lead up to human. They clearly exhibit the capability to do this, as noted by Catherine Halsey, Charting The events for the slipsace crystal, or john's own "luck."

This would mean the master chief is not the Luckiest spartan, Just the chosen one. Likely a forerunner clean-up of the flood left behind.

In Halo: Legends, Origins, it is explained that all sentient life is was killed by the activation of the Array; how DNA samples were collected and archived before the activation, and how entire sentient species were recreated and transplanted to their respective homeworlds after the activation. Note, plant life was not be affected. It doesn't explain how memory was attained. This however, posed a conflict with real life fossil evidence. There is no evidence for such a massive extiction event, Neither is there rapid migratory evidence for species to their locales post to 100,000 B.C. There is overwhelming evidence that no interuption occured in the biosphere at that time on Earth.

I take it that the case of "How did sentient life continue?" is now closed. All further relavent queries can now be answered by Halo: Lengends, Origins.--Plasmic Physics 22:12, March 11, 2010 (UTC)

Greek letters are completely wrong...

I don't know how, where and when were the rings named in Greek, but the names are completely wrong.

Installation 01 should be Alpha Halo,
Installation 02 should be Beta Halo,
Installation 03 should be Gamma Halo,
Installation 04 should be Delta Halo;,
Installation 05 should be Epsilon Halo,
Installation 06 should be Zeta Halo, and
Installation 07 should be Eta Halo.

I'm Greek, and I know my country's alphabet. - Μητσάρας κι όποιος αντέξει File:1229655910-Th master.jpg

No, they shouldn't be named as that. The UNSC gave the greek letters. Installation 04 was encountered first, and is therefore Alpha Halo. I'm not sure how that works for Delta halo, as it was found second, and should be Beta, but we have currently listed them to how the Halo games have presented them, so therefore, canon. Tiger rr rr 21:39, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

They're supposed to be wrong, thats how they are in the Halo universe. FishType1 21:02, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

- I don't think that they were supposed to be in any given order. FishType1 17:38, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Okay, Alpha Halo is a FAN given name. It ain't official. Even if it was, no one said it was Greek. It may follow the Phonetic Alphabet. Which is very possible as military often uses it and there is at least one use of it in the Halo Games (Sierra 117). The Phonetic Alphabet has both Alpha and Delta: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, etc etc.

Umm first, Phonetic Alphabet is almost as today's language, only some edits is done by the Greeks and Romans, and second, they just call it that because it sounds nice during the game testing...I guess...Soul-Reaper^{Can't talk...being chased !!}_{Pepsi makes me High!} ^{Project: PROMETHEUS} 13:36, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it really matters that much though. Maybe they had some really good reason for it, or maybe it was just random. Who knows? Why don't you just ask someone at Bungie if you want to know it that much. FishType1 20:16, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Well Bungie actually gave them the names not the fans Alertfiend

Death by Halo Activation.

I've always wondered; when the Halos were fired, how does the life they target die? Do they just drop dead or completely disintegrate? And would that take the Flood Combat Forms with them? Cuz apparently, Flood Infection Forms aren't targeted, as "starving the Flood" is the motive of activating the array. So what; do the Combat Forms get wiped out, too, while the Infection and Pure Forms eventually just... die from starvation? What about the Gravemind? Can a Gravemind "starve"? This is all pretty confusing. It also makes the Flood Containment Facility on Installation 04 make less sense, unless the Flood were never released from it during the Forerunner-Flood war. Aerandir 01:19, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

I always just imagined all sentient life just disappearing, and the flood outside of containment being killed, but those inside the library and such not being affected somehow.Papayaking 01:28, September 24, 2009 (UTC)

The explanation given in Halo: Cryptum is this: "By radiating a powerful burst of cross-phased supermassive neutrinos, these installations were capable of destroying all life in an entire star system. Properly tuned and powered, they could do more than that—they could kill all neurologically complex life across whole swaths of the galaxy." The idea was that the Halo arrays literally fried the neural pathways of animals, and whatever similar systems plants had, effectively making them brain dead. Anriel 02:09, 26 January 2011 (EST)

If they didn't disintegrate, all the dead bodies would still be able to use as biomass for the Flood. Sor 05:38, 6 February 2011 (EST)

Anriel has it correct, the bodies are still around after the firing, but only plants with a neural system would be affected. A fern would be completely untouched. And Sor, what would a now dumb Flood use all that brainless biomass for? Without brain matter, without a host's neurology, the Flood are just highly dangerous dumb beasts. Sure, they could infect it, convert it to Flood, but after a long period of time it would just rot away. --Bruce2401 03:25, 2 March 2011 (EST)

Name

Doesn't the term "Halo" refer to the collection of Sacred Rings as a whole rather than to individual rings? My point is, is "Halos" a proper term to be using to describe multiple rings? I believe this is what Dadab was saying in the narration of Contact Harvest, a more up to date facet of the Haloverse possibly retconning previous books. --Dragonclaws^(talk) 03:13, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

There is a Halo, singular. A Sacred Ring, singular. The Sacred Rings/Halos, plural. The Array, all rings included. --Bruce2401 03:20, 2 March 2011 (EST)

What do these things kill?

In various statements, including Cortana's explanation in Halo: Combat Evolved, the Halo Array is described as killing only the Flood's food -- that is, all life in the Milky Way Galaxy except the Flood -- in order to starve the Flood.

However, in the Terminals, Offensive Bias recounts his battle against Mendicant Bias's Flood-piloted fleet of ships. Offensive states that when the Halos were fired, all life was killed. Obviously, the Forerunners died... But the Flood had to die too, because Offensive states that the majority of Mendicant Bias's fleet was immobilized. The immobilization could not have been the result of an EMP or some other effect on the ships themselves, as Offensive was still able to use his ships (performing actions such as opening Slipspace rifts in the midst of Mendicant's fleet). Similarly, the Forerunners weren't traitors -- only Mendicant Bias joined the Gravemind -- so Mendicant's ships had to be piloted by the Flood. This, then, means that the first Halo activation killed all life in the galaxy including the Flood, rather than just killing everything else and letting the Flood starve.

Furthermore, we know that that is what the Forerunners intended -- if the Flood themselves hadn't been directly killed by the Halo Array, then they would have, at Mendicant's direction, found the Ark and killed the sentient species that had been relocated ("indexed") to it.

Now, one could explain the inconsistency by claiming that Cortana (and others) had only a limited knowledge of the Halo Array. Cortana, however, hacked into Installation 04's Core to learn about the Array's purpose, meaning that the Installation's own programming code indicated that it did not directly kill the Flood.

So we have an inconsistency here: what do the Halos actually kill? Everything but the Flood, or everything and the Flood? DavidJCobb 05:58, September 20, 2009 (UTC)

While what you say is true, I believe I have some reasoning. Based on what the terminals and in game references say, the forerunners believed the flood to be more of a parasite, a disease. In this respect, it is highly likely that the forerunners did not think of the flood as a living being, and the term life is in fact referring to all highly sentient life, such as that of the Forerunners themselves. If the Halo Array kill everything with, say, a specific brainwave, then all highly sentient live would be killed, while the underdeveloped life like that of the Humans would still be alive. That way, since the flood kill things with a certain brainwave, their "food" would all be killed. The process of evolution could later develop said brainwave into Human life, making us susceptible to the flood. ~Blade bane ~ Anti-Vandal~ 06:06, September 20, 2009 (UTC)Blade bane

I also think that the firing of the array might kill the hosts to the flood even if infected. If the flood is a parasite, it needs hosts, thus killing sentient life would kill the bodies the flood infest thus explaining what is mentioned in the terminals as Mendicant's ships being immobilized. The same was said about Offensive's fleet. Vessels strictly driven by pilots not the waring AI's were all lost when the rings fired. I imagine the little flood parasite crawling from the useless bodies after the firing and scurrying about looking for hosts. In a sense they were probably the only things to remain after all those years, which is why on Halo CE they burst from the containment rooms to infect you. The rings are said to kill only sentient life, man on earth wasn't around back then, and the most basic flood parasites are actually not intelligent thus they survived. But to kill those suckers you might have to kill all life which would be useless. Plants and small creatures that do not have (as Guilty spark puts it in Halo CE during the Library) Sufficient bio-mass necessary to sustain the flood would have to go too, leaving absolutely nothing. Imagine a galaxy with no life at all. How could you restart all that? What they did was basically do what Russia has done for many wars, abandon the towns being invaded and burn them to deny access to your enemy. It works. —This unsigned comment was made by Hatchling001 (talk • contribs). Please sign your posts with ~~~~

Good theories, both of you. It didn't occur to me that Infection Forms are still separate from their hosts, even after they have warped the host's body to accommodate them. DavidJCobb 18:35, September 20, 2009 (UTC)

The Array destroys neural matter, the parts of biology that correspond to thought, and what the flood desparately craves to increase it's own intelligence. When the rings fired the first time they destroyed the Flood's specialized neural cells rendering them, for the lack of a better term, dumb as algae and unable to pilot; though their basal forms,(the infectors, spores and various other infectious biomass) were left intact. It also destroyed the neural pathways of all other organic life in the galaxy, which explains why the flood wouldn't be able to infect other bodies and take off again, there was no neural tissue to use for their own brainpower. They also destroyed all precursor artifacts in the Milky Way as a side effect of their neural physics. Hope this helps. --Bruce2401 03:15, 2 March 2011 (EST)

Aftermath

Two questions I have about the Halos:

1. Since the Halos are supposed to destroy all life-forms capable of infection, would this mean that "un-possesibles" like Grunts, Hunters, Jackals, and AI's would be left behind, or does the firing work to kill absolutely everything? (Kinda hilarious to imagine Grunts ruling the universe.) 2. Since the Halos have now been revealed to work by harmonically targeting neurons, how could this damage the Ark? It would kill everything alive aboard, but wouldn't the structure itself remain intact?

Tuckerscreator 23:56, November 22, 2009 (UTC)

1) Yes, it kills every living organisms in the galaxy.. but not the Flood. Read the article on why. 2) The Ark (or Installation 00) is located outside the firing range of the Halo Array, so it wouldn't be damaged. However, from the events of Halo 3, the new Installation 04 was mentioned by Cortana as "doing numbers on the Ark", suggesting that the Ark received major structural damages... and that it could mean that the Ark is still intact... or not.--Lol@Phailure 00:28, November 23, 2009 (UTC)

I think that it kills everything cause jackels and grunt make the more interesting forms, JUGGERNAUTS and the evolved forms from halo 3. as for the ark, the ring wasn't finished so when fired it exploded thus damaging the ark. Hatchling001 00:31, November 23, 2009 (UTC)

Well, yes, it would kill everything (Except flood), as they supposedly kill all sentient life in the Galaxy, as far as The Ark, I'm guessing the Halo 'ripping itself to pieces' would at least cause significant damage to The Ark, more specifically the halo-building area where the actual halo was.Papayaking 20:09, November 23, 2009 (UTC)

So the damage to the Ark was simply by the debris then, not the beam. But since the actual beam itself does not kill Flood, this means their plan was to simply disable the Ark so that the Flood wouldn't exploit it to build ships, and remain behind to starve to death? I suppose that makes sense. Thanks guys.Tuckerscreator 03:47, November 27, 2009 (UTC)

Actually, my impression was that the harmonic pulse did destroy the Flood, but only its accumulated biomass, not the actual Flood spores. And as long as evena single spore survives, so does the Flood. During the battle between Mendicant Bias and Offensive Bias, portions of both fleets were rendered inoperable as the pulse swept through, killing all biologicals in it - giving Offensive Bias the advantage. Why would Mendicant Bias' forces be affected if the Flood was immune? -- Administrator Specops306 - Qur'a 'Morhek 04:26, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

Ok, this is my theory: The halo super dense neutrinos pulse destroy every neural system in range, efectively killing all living organism posesing even a notocord, sparing moses, plants, fungus and bacteria, and (almost certain) the flood supercells (wich are posibly the organic dust found by humans 110,000 BC in the magellanic cloud). now, I was thinking about something Cortana says at the climax of Halo 3. "I we don't make it, John, it was an honor serve with you", why Cortana include herself in "If we don't make it"? Well, the human built AI's are made up from copying or scanning a human brain, replicating the neural path, thus, making the neural net of an AI a reproduction or an almost identical copy of a human brain. and thus, vulnerable to the Halo efect. The Precursor artifacts must be include a neural net in their fabric too, but Forerunner AIs and computer systems must be quite diferent to be inmune to the Halo efect. [User:AlphaLima1980, February 21, 2011 (UTC)]

How Halo Works(Speculation)

I was finishing up campaign on legendary and as I watched the final cinimatic, it occurd to me that the Halos could be using high-frequency electromagnetic rays(something beyond gamma rays) to disrupt the brain-waves of sentient life forms in range. Not every world would be hit at the same time, multiple slipspace portals would have to be used to move the energy from the Halo ring to indipendint systems where the waves of energy move out at the pace we see at the end of Halo 3. Any organism without sentience could be targeted by their brainwaves and be unaffected by the energy, while sentient or near sentient species are moved out of range or into sheild worlds for preservation(such as humans, elites, prophets, brutes, etc.) THIS IS ONLY A THEORY AND MOST LIKELY NOT TRUE IN ANY WAY--Navypilot1046 02:29, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

Halo Encyclopedia explains how it works. It issues a harmonic pulse wave that disrupts the nervous systems of host lifeforms. Each Halo has the effective firing range stated within the game, 10,000 light years. They charge up form the pulse seen in Halo2 and 3 and then expand to the max range. ProphetofTruth 03:30, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

Oh, thanks, I havn't seen the encyclopedia.--Navypilot1046 00:10, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

How long would it take?

This morning I was thinking about how the Halo Array works and I've just noticed an impossibility. Each Halo Array has a firing range of about 25,000 lightyears and that pulse activates the others rings that it happens to hit along the way. But that doesn't work because that would mean that, assuming the pulse is traveling at lightspeed, it would 25,000 years for it to get there! They can't be using slipspace here, because that would mean the pulse is being taken out of the universe and thus it would have no effect! So it seems to be a major scientific flaw in its design.

There MAY be a way to reconcile it. It may be that the Halo doesn't actually launch a wave, but instead creates a 25,000 lightyear wide field, much like a magnetic field or a gravitational field, only this would be a "brain field" that is set at a certain frequency. Then, when the Halo is activated, the frequency within the field instantly changes to a harmful one, and thus kills anything within it. And that frequency goes on to activate the other rings and they change their frequency and... Does this sound like a plausible solution?Tuckerscreator 03:51, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

Delta Halo is able to communicate with the Ark, billions of lightyears away, instantaneously - presumably this involves tachyon particles, travelling at superluminal speeds. This is supposedly impossible - but, then again, the Forerunners always seem to be able to pull off the impossible, don't they? Personally, I'm sure they use slipspace in some capacity to diseminate whatever field they use, dropping out to sterilise systems as needed, perhaps explaining why a "buildup" was needed - it wasn't building up the harmonic pulse, it was building up the slipspace portal needed for it. But of course, this is just theoretical. -- Administrator Specops306 - Qur'a 'Morhek 01:20, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

So the "death pulse" itself is put into slipspace and dropped out as needed? I suppose that could work, though wouldn't it compromise the integrity of the Micro Dyson worlds? Since they are encased in slipspace, wouldn't that allow the "death wave" to hit them?

Aside from that, your theory seems to work. But since the lightspeed barrier would otherwise be a major flaw to the Halos' design, should it be noted in the the article? I know that speculation is generally discouraged on the articles but I think this should be noted, since without it some might get the wrong impression that the wave is able to travel throughout the whole galaxy in a matter of seconds.Tuckerscreator 02:50, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

We certainly know there is more than one type of slipspace. But until we know exactly what kind of harmonic wave is generated, what medium it travels through, and whether this explicitly violates relativistic theory, I would say we keep it to the talk page. -- Administrator Specops306 - Qur'a 'Morhek 04:19, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

It appers to me that when an Installation is fired, three things happen. 1: The ring fired and that decimating pulse travels at superluminal speeds and wipes out every living thing within its radius more or less instantly. 2: It alerts the Ark that the ring has been fired, or in one case aborted. And 3: During the charging sequence the Installation sends out another superluminal signal to the other rings, and they proceed to fire in synch with each other. Just my theory. --Bruce2401 03:06, 2 March 2011 (EST)

About the undoing "There is an unexplained conflict with reallife history regarding the firing record of the Array.".

Dude it is a game!!! Nothing in this game or book or TV show never happened! It will not happen nor has it ever happened. You need to see a psychiatrist if you think anything in this trilogy is real or will ever be. o now that I have no fear of being banned for undoing posts without reason I will be undoing your post which was

"There is an unexplained conflict with reallife history regarding the firing record of the Array. In Halo Legends: Origins, it is insinuated that there was a total extinction event of all sentient life on Earth. according to reallife,it didn't happen, there is no fossil record of such a complete extinction event.".193.200.150.152 01:25, February 26, 2010 (UTC)!

lol anyways theres a difference the halo arrays most likely destroy the entire body to prevent infection but it totally never happened Alertfiend

What do the Halo's kill?

I have a question after watching Halo Legends. Do the Halo Rings kill just sentient life and starve the Flood? Or does it kill both and starve whatever Flood managed to survive? Because in Halo legends it shows Flood being destroyed by the Rings, yet in the games it's always talking about starving them.

The latter to an extent. The Flood Super Cel and spore formsl will survive and infect any potential hosts, while any Flood in stasis are immune to its effects.. -- Forerunner 23:52, August 3, 2010 (UTC)

Your question have been answered in an above section: What do these things kill. These is an interisting discussion on Talk:Ross-Ziegler Blip--Plasmic Physics 03:10, August 4, 2010 (UTC)

Halo Legends Positions.

In Halo Legends Origins the halos are shown being slipped to many different systems, It shows one exiting at Eayn (Kig-yar homeworld),one exiting at Doisac (Jiralhanae homeworld), One at Sanghelios (sangheili), and one that seems to be Te (lekgolo) so should they still be there? The Halo rings probably aren't able to jump to slipspace on their own, so shouldn't the halo rings be still at these worlds?

Just a thought. Tentacletornado 20:43, September 10, 2010 (UTC)

Artistic License. You need a slipspace drive to get in and out of slipspace, unless you're using a slipspace portal (which is essentially a giant drive, itself).-- Forerunner 22:45, September 10, 2010 (UTC)

Another thing to consider: artistic license that was being told through the mind of a near-rampant AI. -- SFH 23:42, September 10, 2010 (UTC)

Oh. ok, But I just thought the halo array didn't have a slipspace drive. thats why I said 'they aren't able to slip On their own.' Tentacletornado 13:19, September 11, 2010 (UTC)

Not anymore. They seem to be partly automated in Cryptum, and CAN travel in slipspace independently.

13:49, 19 January 2011 (EST)

Number of Halos

There seems to be several contradictions of the number of 'Halo' installations created. In Halo: Cryptum, it is stated that 12 were commissioned, and it can be assumed that the 5 that Mendicant Bias tried to control were destroyed, leaving the 7 from the games. However, when Bornstella reaches the Ark, he sees 6 rings that were above the ark, and learns that only 1 survived the transition from the capital to the Ark, meaning that there were 5 OTHER Halos that had been commissioned. Anyone have any explanations for this? Anriel 02:15, 26 January 2011 (EST)

I got the impression that all seven of them came through the portal, but one of them was damaged from the transition. I'll have to go back to that section - if not, then the rest of the Halo's at the Capital were probably destroyed when Mendicant Bias fired his own. -- Specops306 ^Autocrat ^{Qur'a 'Morhek} 04:06, 26 January 2011 (EST)

Hate to say it but you're wrong there were 18. Chapter 40 pg 329, final paragraph "I was looking upon another array of installations:six rings," Then again pg 335, second paragraph "In the battle of the capital, only on installation had survived the passage through the portal without breaking up." So we have Faber's 12 and the Librarian's 6. Of the 12 one makes it back, and that gives us the final seven. ProphetofTruth 01:46, 23 February 2011 (EST)

This is what happened. All of them got destroyed besides for one. Then they build 6 more at the Ark. Giving us 7!Vegerot (talk) 19:59, 23 February 2011 (EST)!!!!!!!!!!

Yes that is what I said, thank you for explaining it so well. ProphetofTruth 21:05, 23 February 2011 (EST)

I wonder if we'll ever know which of the seven was one of the original twelve... Alex T Snow 07:40, 25 February 2011 (EST)

Halo Names

On the Delta Halo page there is a transcript of how the ring got infected, and in it I found this:

"[alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon, zeta, and kappa sites] have all replied [systems normal] within expected constraints."

The other six Halos. Alpha is 04, but is first on the list, and Delta is 05, but as the subject of the events, is not on the list, which means we still don't know is which ones are 01, 02, 03, 06, and 07. Alex T Snow 07:40, 25 February 2011 (EST)

Forerunner Trilogy like Halo: Reach

I think we should do like what we did with Halo: Reach, in that we don't add data about it unless we are 117%(see what I did there?) sure it's true (like "The Battle for The Citadel" article, we know it happened so that's good). So, where we put above the "Firing" section, about how one of the rings during the Battle of the Capitol is in the Halo series, we should say that it MIGHT be one of the rings from the Halo series, because it could be that they use the weapon in one of the other 2 books, to destroy an enemy, destroying the ring in the process. Or it received a lot of damage so they took it apart and used the pieces on the other Halos. But until we know what happened, I think it should be changed. Vegerot (talk) 17:19, 1 March 2011 (EST)!!!

There were many ringworlds built; don't assume that because attention was focused on one in particular that it is, say, Installation 04. It would be best to remove anything on the page giving it a designation as speculative. Until they can provide a source, it stays off.-- Forerunner 19:32, 1 March 2011 (EST)

I never put in it that it might be 04, only that as far as we know one of them is the bigger original. Unless that gets changed in the coming books, that should stay on. Alex T Snow 03:10, 2 March 2011 (EST)

Lemme get this straight.

All of the Halos can be fired at once from the Ark. I know that. But I thought the Halo rings would each have to be activated individually otherwise. But from what I read in the article, it sounds like if you manually activate one halo, it will fire and then all of the other rings will follow. Which means you can't fire one without firing them all. Is that correct or am I mixed up? --XSuperGamer^Talk 18:25, 4 April 2011 (EDT)

I'd imagine that the rings can be fired individually. It would be a major design oversight on the Forerunners' part if they can't. However, I don't recall any source stating that firing such a "tactical" pulse is possible, unless the ring is not linked to the rest of the array, like at Charum Hakkor and the Ark. --"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have." -Thomas Jefferson 18:55, 4 April 2011 (EDT)

Guilty Spark does say that "technically" his own Installation will only work toward a certain range, but says that "the others [will] follow suit". It definitely makes it sound as though firing one makes them all go off once the blast reaches another's ring territory. Tuckerscreator^(stalk) 19:02, 4 April 2011 (EDT)

Alright. I only have one more question. I know the Halo rings are all "networked" together and form the Halo Array. My question is, do they all connect to each other directly or do they use the Ark as a "server" of sorts to communicate with each other?

Simply put, if a Halo fires does it send a signal directly to the 6 other rings or does it send a signal to the Ark, which relays the signal to the other 6 installations? --XSuperGamer^Talk 19:16, 4 April 2011 (EDT)

It is quite possible that both methods are used for the sake of redundancy. I'd imagine that a signal is sent to the Ark and to the other Halos simultaneously. --"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have." -Thomas Jefferson 19:18, 4 April 2011 (EDT)

I had figured that firing a ring on its own would make them go off one at a time once the blast from one reached another's territory, and firing from the Ark would make them all fire simultaneously. At least, that's what it sounded like by "follow suit". Tuckerscreator^(stalk) 20:08, 4 April 2011 (EDT)

The plot issue I have with this is at the end of Halo 2 and the beginning of Halo 3 it is stated that the Ark is the place you had to go to to activate them all, that was the whole plot of Halo 3 really. :/ Alex T Snow 03:45, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

It is stated throughout Cryptum that the Halos can be fired individually. They can be fired with variable pulse radii, ranging from a single planet to a huge section of the galaxy. They can also be "tuned" to kill all life, as happened at Charum Hakkor, or only neurologically complex life, as happened during the final activation. The Ark could be thought of as an analogue to the Cheyenne Mountain Directorate, from which the order can be given to launch all the United States' nukes; it is also the most advanced fallout bunker ever built. This mirrors the Ark's purpose both as a safe haven and as the control center for the entire array. --Courage never dies. 11:35, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

I have supplied relavant page sources on User:Forerunner/Useful Cryptum notes. -- Forerunner 11:48, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

How Many?

If I counted correctly it sounds like 18 original Halos were created, twelve which were supposed to be the Original Array and then six at the Ark. When rampant Mendicant Bias showed up he took control of four of them so he had control of five (including the one he was charged with) and then one of those was destroyed. The Forerunners tried to send the other seven to the Ark but only one made it leaving the four left that were controlled by Mendicant Bias, the one that made it through the portal safely and the six at the Ark. That one and the other six presumably became the New Array and the status of the renegade four is unknown. Finally with the creation of Installation 04(B) it appears that a total of 19 Halos were created by the Forerunners. Can anyone please confirm what I just said and can the overall total and status of them all be clearly marked on the page because that is the main reason why I am asking all of this. 109.153.42.0 13:29, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

The way I understand it, twelve were made originally, and five of those were commanded by Mendicant Bias during the Battle of the Capital. The remaining seven were destroyed except for the semi-damaged one that made it to the Ark. The six that were already at the Ark when it arrived were more recently made, and were explicitly intended to be a part of the actual Array of seven halos that we are all familiar with. This is all just my interpretation, though SPARTAN-347 14:15, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

I'm pretty sure you both are right, that's how I understand it as well. Though the problem with this is, what happened to the bigger 7th one that made it through? The six at the Ark were smaller (the ones we're familiar with), but the original 12 were much bigger, so one of the 7 in the array must be much bigger, even though in Legends it shows seven of the same size. I supposed it could be a retcon. Alex T Snow 15:49, 5 June 2011 (EDT)

Surprisingly, no. That legends episode was designed to remain canon despite errors - it's just what Cortana thinks happened. That's why she assumed that the Covenant and humans were working together to beat the flood.-- Forerunner 11:45, 18 June 2011 (EDT)

Megastructure

Can someone with the Essential Visual Guide add the Megastructure template instead of the Halo ring Template to all of the rings' pages? Vegerot goes RAWR! File:Icon-Vegito2.gif Vegerot (talk) 08:30, 3 October 2011 (EDT)

I actually first made the Megastructure template for constructs that are not Halo installations, and as such it's lacking some of the necessary fields that are only relevant with Halo rings, such as "Firing record". It could work as a universal template, though, if those fields are added. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 08:41, 3 October 2011 (EDT)

I don't think it should go into that much detail. An infobox should only provide a very brief summary of the subject and nothing more/less.— subtank 08:44, 3 October 2011 (EDT)

I guess so, though infoboxes can sometimes be useful to quickly convey information that isn't detailed in the article proper. Still, we don't know the firing records of most Halo installations so that field is ultimately inconsequential. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 08:52, 3 October 2011 (EDT)

Terraforming

Why? I simply cannot se a reason to terraform them. I just don't get it. Infernal-Blaze 14:37, 10 November 2011 (EST)

It has already been explained. The Librarian and the Master Builder agreed to terraform the original Halos so that they could conduct research on the Flood's ability to harvest biomatter. That's why flora and fauna appear.-- Forerunner 16:00, 10 November 2011 (EST)

Diameter

Should there be a "Citation Needed" template after the diameter (located in the infobox) of each Halo's pages? (Installations 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07). Unless, of course, it's directly stated. The reason for this is that in Halo: Cryptum, one of the seven original installations survived and became part of the present Halo Array. This surviving Halo had a diameter of 30,000 kilometers as opposed to the others having a diameter of only 10,000 kilometers. Keep in mind, I've never read Cryptum, so I could be wrong. Ιι Ηη Ππ 20:17, 5 December 2011 (EST)

Survival of organisms on the Ring

Primordium gives us a good deal of evidence that sentient life on the surface of an Installation survive the effects of the firing. Its mentioned a few times that humans were on Installation 07 prior to the test firing at Charum Hakkor, and during the firing in the San Shyuum system. We also know that Forerunners and Humans, as well as Flood forms, were on the ring when Mendicant Bias fires its weapon on the capital world. Everyone on 07 survives the Halo Effect. Do we think its possible that the rings themselves are shelters? The Librarian intended to use them as environments for cataloged species, it would not have been prudent to store life-forms on the ring if each firing killed the archived species.

It radically alters our perception of the rings function if that is the case. ProphetofTruth (talk) 00:29, 27 January 2013 (EST)

Well, that would certainly contradict with the ending of Halo 3, where Master Chief fires the ring and then has to hurry to get off of it. Additionally, firing wouldn't kill the Flood at all if it didn't affect those on the ring, since they were all aboard. Certainly curious. Tuckerscreator^(stalk) 00:35, 27 January 2013 (EST)

It would also contradict Halo CE and Halo 2, but it wouldn't be the first time. Perhaps they fled to escape the destruction of the ring?

I get the sense that they were originally meant to be crewed and used as... for lack of a better term... wildlife refuges... With each activation being meant to cleanse separate systems. The Forerunners on board would have to survive each activation to move the ring to the next infected area of space. The Didact locks portions of Installation 07 in stasis(like the time bubbles of Onyx?). Perhaps the rings could be locked down when they fired, and this was disabled for the ultimate use at the end of the war? Lots of ifs, ands or buts. But I'm certainly at a loss to explain it. ProphetofTruth (talk) 00:41, 27 January 2013 (EST)

Figured out a possible reconciliation with Halo 3; The intention was to destroy the Flood through the destruction of the Halo itself once Gravemind revealed he had teleported himself there, hence why they didn't bother waiting for the ring to finish building itself. There's a possible plot hole as to how the heroes knew the ring would be destroyed, but it's the most likely answer I can think of. Tuckerscreator^(stalk) 01:59, 20 February 2013 (EST)

Info from Nightfall second story ONI: Unit 54 / Trade Barriers

In ONI: Unit 54, it explains that the biological/radiative agent used in the bomb in nightfall operated and inflicted injures in the same way the halo arrays do. This info should be added, but I am pretty sure it conflicts with existing info. Trade Barriers goes over the medical side of it a bit more. Jabberwock xeno (talk) 20:43, 19 December 2014 (EST)