- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
If Master Chief's part of the ship was anywhere near the Ark when installation 4.1 was "lit" he would be dead, he had to at least make it into the portal before the ring fired to have any hope of survival.
Also, the Arbiter's half of the ship was the only half that made it out of the portal, the Master Chief's side was presumably still in the portal when it collapsed, which is what I'm basing my theory off of.
Adrenaline 360, the inside of the Dyson's Sphere only exists in slipspace, Dr. Halsey and the remaining spartans are existing in a different dimension, which is one of the reasons why the shield world's inhabitants can't be killed off by the halos. in reality it's most likely only a few meters wide, making it nearly impossible for the Master Chief to "crash land on it". Sort of like Normthecloned said, it's a point in space and time, but only in this case it also exists in the 5th dimension: slipspace, which is semi seperate from our own.
The Ark can't be a shield world, the monitor even says so,
"I had always assumed it was part of a shield installation, but it seems I was mistaken"
-343 Guilty Spark (The Ark)
the reason why it was safe from the rings firing was because it was out of range of the Halo array. The shield world's were more of a test to see if it was possible, and were made closer to the end of the Forerunner-Flood war. That's also why the Ark's core has the shield around it, just incase any flood did make it to the ark, the inhabitants in the center would be safe from contamination.
"The barrier will be difficult to disable... How odd that my Makers would place such a comprehensive defense around a single- Oh my." -343 Guilty Spark (The Ark)
of course these are all theories, there's no definite way to prove anything but hey, at least I back mine up with facts from the halo books and the halo games.
[Edited on 07.17.2008 7:28 AM PDT]