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This topic has moved here: Subject: How does Halo "fire," exactly? Deep, DEEP -blam!- here, p...
  • Subject: How does Halo "fire," exactly? Deep, DEEP -blam!- here, p...
Subject: How does Halo "fire," exactly? Deep, DEEP -blam!- here, p...
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This question was thought up a while ago, as i was reading up on the specifics of the Halo construct at HBO. I was digging up the calculations on the overlapping fields of the ring's pulse - how the circles would have to overlap to cover every square inch of the galaxy.

Then i thought, "Hey, how exactly DOES the ring "fire," anyways? I mean, the galaxy isn't 2-D, it can't just fire laterally and be done with! It has to do one of these things:

create a "tube" (bear with me on these, guys) with the ring as it's midpoint (think of Darth Maul's lightsaber, how it projected opposite ways) and then fired OUTWARDS (think if his blades increased in circumference to scale to 25,000 light years). But that wouldn't hit all INSIDE the "tube."

Or, if it fired from the outer-side of the ring, it gradually arced in a side-ways "V." But that wouldn't hit all - hard to explain, just think about it, it makes sense.

Maybe it would pulse one "wave" of it's "fire,", then spin slightly (say that the ring spins around the Y axis - Y being it's centepoint. If the ring spun on it's X axis, and sent a pulse out at timed intervals, you'd cover everything in a SPHERE, but i'm not to fluent in spherical geometry, so...yah. BUT, it'd miss everything INSIDE the ring.

Also, we know that the ring has been SPECULATED to have fired before, and we know that whatever the ring "fires" obviously can distinguish between Life and the inanimate, so it wouldn't destry ITSELF in the process of firing....and, we know that the Flood still survive today (2552), so even I doubt the possibility of a previous firing...but in either sense, what of INSIDE the ring, the inner-side that we rampage across in the game? Would Halo ALSO destroy what's inside? or would they be safe from it's destruction? If it had fired before, and the Flood still are alive then this brings me to TWO conclusions:

One, that things ON or INSIDE the ringworld live through; and

Two, that if the ring fired to RID the Galaxy of the Flood, WHY KEEP IT ALIVE ON HALO?

Well, maybe it'd rid the rest of the Galaxy, but keep some under control for study? but if the Flodd are about the galaxy, that MUST mean they're not contained on Halo, so they still pose a threat, so it makes no sense that the ring has fired before.

"Last time you asked me, 'If it were my choice, would I do it?' Having considerable time to ponder your query, my answer is unchanged. We must activate the ring."

Plus, Halo ITSELF doesn't make much sense - the Flood are harmful to our existence, so to rid them, to keep US safe, we must...kill ourselves?

EDIT: I also would like to point out how old 343 GS is (100,000 some-odd "cycles" or whatever, meaning years), and how he might not grasp (and his CREATORS might not) the frailty and length of life itself - how firing to rid the Galaxy of all life with enough biomass to sustain the Flood would still leave room for EVOLUTION, and thus, Life once more.

What does everyone think of this crap?

[Edited on 6/7/2004 6:55:49 AM]

  • 06.07.2004 5:53 AM PDT
Subject: How does Halo "fire," exactly?
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Considering your post, I will give my thoughts. Just remember that what I have to say is a matter of a thought out opinion, not a fact. Remember that Halo was abandoned. It is possible that if Halo was activated before that would mean that the flood had infested the galaxy at one point. The forerunners would have used Halo as a means of stopping the infestation and contain it within the ring worlds. Then the forerunners must have found that the flood are extremely dangerous to any one with sufficient biomass to sustain it, so they left Halo in the care of something that would not be affected by the flood. So they probably left Halo and seeded Earth to live on.

Edit: So there are several of these Halo worlds in the galaxy. The ring already spins in a rotation that creates gravity. In order to fire in a sphere it would have to also spin side over side at the same time. My speculation is that the circled on the outer edge of the ring, the ones you see on the start menu, are responsible for the pulses that are sent to each planet.

[Edited on 6/7/2004 6:35:45 AM]

  • 06.07.2004 6:31 AM PDT
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I don't think the Forerunner would have discovered the full capabilities of the Flood (i.e. raping you of your very mind and soul) AFTER building the Halo construct. They built Halo 04 to STUDY and contain the Flood, as well as provide a means of eradication and containment should they become unleashed.

The Flood are extremely adaptive and powerful, and the Forerunner must have known this to have built such a MASSIVE "device" with such a SERIOUS purpose. If they built the ring-world to study it, i don't think they would have abandoned it PURPOSEFULLY.

Halo is the greatest artifact we've seen thus far bult by the forerunner. They must have, as a race of intelligent, sentient beings, simply reached the peak of their evolution (whatever that might imply) or eradicated themselves through their curiosity of the universe.

We humans, as a race of similar beings in this universe, are capable of so much - we have the potential for self-preservation, as well as self-destruction.

No fate but what we make for ourselves, right?

I believe the Forerunner simply died out, as a species, or moved on to better places in the Universe. Should that involve nonexistence is left up to the reader. IN dying, they involuntarily "abandoned" Halo in search of something greater.

Maybe the Flood are simply a side-project, one of many things discovered by the Forerunner, with the results being the fullest extent of their efforts on one such discovery.

If we Forum-goers simply look to the possibilities with what's been given us, and not the potential for things to COME, we limit ourselves. We must remember, their is little we know for certain about the Forerunner, and certainly don't know much about them than what we've found through Covenant technology, the Halo construct, and the artifacts found in Cote d' Azur and under Menachite Mtn.

The Forerunner may very well might have seeded Earth, but not with their own DNA, but that of single-celled organisms, sitting back and watching where Evolution takes us. I believe the Forerunner aren't HUMAN, but WE are indeed Forerunner in the sense that we started from the same roots. Evolution, to me, is never a certain thing. So many factors can change and warp the path, so no two races or species are ever the same.

This ties in with my OWN opinion of modern alien life: The universe is far too large to simply house US; if we're all there is, it seems like a DAMN awful waste of space. Now, given that WE, as well as OTHER races, on OTHER planets, in OTHER systems, in OTHER galaxies, have a set path of evolution, alien life may have exceeded us in the time given, and may be farther advanced in technology and such found in our physical world; maybe there is life elsewhere that is behind our own ancestry, and WE are the superior beings.

Nobody knows. I certainly don't. I just LIVE here.

[Edited on 6/7/2004 6:53:56 AM]

  • 06.07.2004 6:44 AM PDT
Subject: How does Halo "fire," exactly? Deep, DEEP -blam!- here, p...
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An other thing that would be nice to know is WHAT Halo fires. Cortana and Guilty Spark both says it's a pulse, so it probably is. I think that Halo fires in a sphear, thus saving the inside, were it is quite possible that the Forerrunenrs hid when Halo was fired before, on this Halo or another.
The pulse is supposedly able to distinguish between sentient and non-sentient life and target big organisms. But does the target need to be both sentient and big? and how setnient and how big must something be? Like hunters. They are big and dumb. In the game, it doesn't seem like hunters can be infected with flood. Does this mean that hunters are too stupid to be infected, thus being to stupid to die from halos pulse? It may of cousre be something completely else.
And how is it that only sentient beings are affected? One of many possibilitis is that Halo's pulse makes intelligent tragets think of something that eventually drive them mad so they die, of course then Halo needs to fire for a period of time.
If this with over active thinking is right, then think of what could happen to not so intelligent species. They would also begin to over-use their brains, but not enough to drive them mad.
Then what if this enhightened brainactivity reamained, after the Halos stopped firing, then they would evolve faster and races that already is pretty advanced, like hunters, would become smarter and quickly mastering all the covenants technology.

This way Halo would serve two puropses: wipe the galaxy from any flood food, and ensuring a quick return of sentient beings.

I hope what I just wrote is readable, because I really suck at english

  • 06.07.2004 7:56 AM PDT
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it fires like this.... PTCHOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo.....

  • 06.07.2004 8:50 AM PDT
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These are cool ideas that are well thought out, so I think I'll
add my two cents.
I'm more interested in why the ring allows for evolution to
continue. This was touched on in earlier posts, and it got
me thinking, why not kill everything and starve the Flood to
death? One possible answer to this is the Forerunner
seeding the earth theory. Maybe the Forerunner watched
evolution progress on our planet, and saw the violent, evil
creatures we were. Face it people, humans love to fight.
Anyway, they see how mean we are, and build the Halos
as balancing measure while creating the Covenant to spark
a conflict that will inevitably realase the flood and end in
the restart of evolution. The whole idea behind this is that
the Forerunner don't desire to kill like humans and covies,
but they do use nature against itself to balance out the
universe. Think of the universe as a giant but fragile eco-
system that they protect.

P.S. to add a Marathon connection, there was an A.I.
named Thoth that was totally obsessed with balance,
and themes in Halo and Marathon are very similar, so
maybe this adds some credit to this crackpot idea.

  • 06.07.2004 9:20 AM PDT
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The Halo's don't kill EVERYTHING that is alive, only things with sufficient biomass, but I wonder how much is enough? Like a squirell for instance, is that big enough to be eaten by the flood? As 343 GS says "After the rings are set off, the universe will be quite devoid of life, at least the things of sufficient body mass to sustin the flood." So I wonder if small animals and stuff would still live, maybe the forunners had babies or something, that were too small to be eaten by the flood, and sent them to earth or another planet with a few monitors and sentinals to protect them, and teach them how to do stuff, and thats how humans came to be, seeing as Guilty spark is about 100,000 years old, maybe he was sent to help evolve the forunners children. It's unlikey, but there maybe some merit buried in there somewhere.

  • 06.07.2004 11:23 AM PDT
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Write a book.

  • 06.07.2004 12:09 PM PDT