Sarcophagus
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Sarcophagus | |
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| General overview | |
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Description: |
Dyson shell with a terrestrial surface |
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Location: |
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| Operation overview | |
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Type: |
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Function: |
Preservation of lifeforms from the Halo Array's pulse |
| Structural information | |
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Diameter: |
Approx. 2 AU (300,000,000 km)
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Surface area: |
Approx. 255 quadrillion km2 |
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Mass: |
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ONI Research Facility Trevelyan,[2] (ONIRF Trevelyan), named by its Forerunner creators as Shield World 006[3] or the Sharpened Shield,[4] is a Forerunner shield world formerly located within the artificial planet Onyx in the Zeta Doradus system. At approximately two astronomical units in diameter and weighing approximately 1.37 solar masses,[1] the sphere is the largest known megastructure created by the Forerunners, and possibly the largest artificial structure in the galaxy. It would be appropriated in March 2553 by the United Nations Space Command and renamed in honor of the late Kurt Trevelyan.[2]
Overview
Shield 006 is a Dyson shell, a massive artificial structure encircling a star. According to Dr. Catherine Halsey's calculations, the internal surface area of the sphere is approximately 500 million times the surface area of Earth, or around 255 quadrillion km2. When residing in a slipspace bubble of compressed dimensionality, the shield world's apparent diameter to an outside observer was only about 23 centimeters. Inside the slipspace bubble and in normal space, however, the sphere is approximately twice the size of Earth's orbit.[1] The exterior surface of the sphere is entirely featureless, and has been described as being chocolate-brown in color.[5]
The observed portion of the interior surface of Shield World 006 is rolling hills and verdant forest, with several large cities in between. As the Forerunners never arrived, the shield world is entirely maintained by Huragok and Sentinels, including cylindrical drones tasked with monitoring for signs of Flood infection.[6] The Dyson sphere's default environmental conditions are suitable for Earth-based life, but the climate settings could be adjusted for other species' requirements.[7][4] The sky inside the shield world appears solid blue; the landscape on the other side of the sphere is not visible as a result of the shield world's enormous scale, unlike on smaller shield installations such as Shield 0459. However, the concave curvature of the horizon can be detected with a telescopic sight.[8]
There are two known sections of the shield world. The Citadel is an urban habitat that served as the base camp for Blue Team for the majority of their time in the shield world.[9] Another section, known as the Sarcophagus, is essentially a garage filled with numerous Forerunner transports and vehicles.[10] The Sarcophagus also contained a control room. It was in this section that Lucy-B091 discovered several Huragok maintenance personnel, and successfully communicated with one of them.
While contained in slipspace, access to the shield world could only be obtained through a small portal, which was located inside an antechamber in the core of the artificial planet Onyx. The portal was only active for a limited amount of time after the Halo Array had been put into standby mode.[11][12] Some time after the portal had been deactivated, the Huragok crew transitioned the shield world back into normal space once they had been assured that there were no longer any threats to the shelter.
History
Shield 006 was constructed by the Forerunners during the Forerunner-Flood war as a fallout shelter from the firing of the Halo Array. Several slipspace portals on the interior of the structure were linked to major Forerunner worlds, in order to facilitate their evacuation before the Array fired; one such world was Kelekos.
Near the end of the Battle of Onyx on November 3, 2552, Covenant Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree led his forces in an attempt to access the Sharpened Shield. However, Spartan Kurt-051 detonated a pair of FENRIS nuclear warheads within the core room antechamber after his comrades had passed through the portal, denying the Covenant access.[13] The human survivors, including SPARTAN-II Blue Team, several SPARTAN-IIIs, Dr. Catherine Halsey, and Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, were then seemingly trapped within the shield world. Shortly thereafter, the installation's Sentinels destroyed the artificial surface of Onyx.[14]
When inside the shield world, the human survivors managed to establish contact between the ONI ships outside the sphere, which had already detected the cyclically fluctuating anomaly caused by the slipspace bubble but had no means to access it.[1] In February 2553,[15] the shield world was eventually brought back into normal space by a group of Huragok that the Forerunners had left behind to maintain the structure. There was a considerable difference in the passage of time between the slipspace bubble and real space; while the survivors inside the sphere had only experienced several days, approximately three months had passed on the outside.
Once the Sharpened Shield had been brought back into normal space, the ONI team Kilo-Five entered the sphere. A strip of multi-colored lights activated to guide their dropship to the designated coordinates, where they would land on the surface of the shell. After a momentary blackness and a disorienting sensation for the occupants, they found themselves and their ship inside the Sarcophagus facility's hangar.[5] Halsey and the surviving Spartans were then rescued from the Sharpened Shield, but she was immediately arrested by Captain Serin Osman for "committing acts likely to aid the enemy".
Immediately afterward, ONI established a base of operations near the access portal to the sphere,[2] which was named "Trevelyan" in honor of Kurt-051, whose sacrifice allowed humanity to access it.[15] ONI's research facility was used to gather information on the vast installation, as well as to obtain usable Forerunner technologies. Several days later, the former Shipmaster Jul 'Mdama, detained by Kilo-Five, was placed in captivity on Trevelyan at the behest of Dr. Irena Magnusson in order to use him in ONI's experiments; however, several days later, the Sangheili escaped via a local slipspace portal. The incident resulted in ONI commander-in-chief Margaret Parangosky personally relieving Dr. Magnusson of duty and replacing her with Hugo Barton as the facility's director.[16]
Following the establishment of the research facility, many major discoveries were made within the shield world, particularly in the area of Forerunner records. These included the Bornstellar Relation,[17][18] the remains of a Catalog, designated "Forerunner remains #879", and a Juridical Monitor, with an account of the last days of the Forerunner-Flood war.[19]
Trivia
- "The Sharpened Shield", a name used for the shield world in the Halo Encyclopedia, was originally a fan-made name used on Halopedia. The name had never been used in any official Halo media, though it was seemingly based on the line, "And bless the Reclaimers that may take refuge behind the sharpened edge of the Shield," from Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. For more information, see this discussion. In Halo: The Thursday War, the installation is identified as Shield World 006,[3] which more closely matches the naming scheme established in Halo: The Essential Visual Guide.
- Collectively, the shield world's Forerunner and human designations are a reference to the James Bond film GoldenEye. Alec Trevelyan, the film's antagonist, is a former 00 agent; his code number was 006.
List of appearances
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (First appearance)
- Halo: Glasslands
- Halo: The Thursday War
- Halo 4 (Mentioned only)
- Halo: Silentium (Mentioned only)
Sources
- ^ a b c d e Halo: Glasslands, page 230
- ^ a b c Halo: Glasslands, page 397
- ^ a b Halo: The Thursday War, page 120
- ^ a b Halo Encyclopedia, page 301 (2011 edition)
- ^ a b Halo: Glasslands, page 378-379
- ^ Halo: The Thursday War, page 272
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 271
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 380
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 280
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, page 190
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 311
- ^ Halo: Glasslands, chapter 10
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 372
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 378
- ^ a b Halo: Glasslands, page 372
- ^ Halo: The Thursday War, page 407
- ^ Halo: Silentium, page 12
- ^ Halo: Primordium, page 230
- ^ Halo: Silentium, Prologue
