Halo 3: ODST Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: How is Mombassa still standing?
  • Subject: How is Mombassa still standing?
Subject: How is Mombassa still standing?

When Regret's carrier jumped inside the city in Halo 2 and the beginning of ODST the explosion looked pretty big to me. Especially in halo 2 where it looked as if it covered the entire city. But then in ODST the city looks pretty unscathed to me, with the exception of the space elevator. Are future cities made of some kind of super concrete or is the slip space jump not the equivelant of a nuclear bomb like it seems?

  • 06.05.2009 10:17 PM PDT
  • gamertag:
  • user homepage:
  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

Both. It's not exactly a nuke, but it's pretty powerfull, I.E. all the debris and burning buildings. And the shockwave bounced you away from the blast, so all we've seen so far is those outer areas.

Also, go play one of the levels in Halo 3 where the portal-maker-thing in the ground is, with the storm above it. Look out across there and you can actually see the ruins of New Mombassa.

[Edited on 06.05.2009 10:27 PM PDT]

  • 06.05.2009 10:27 PM PDT

Self-proclaimed genius.
Roam the streets with a sign, "will love for false hope."

We assumed that Mombasa was destroyed but Halo 3 proved this wrong. Along with Tombstone in Halo 2. Mombasa canonically stands. ODST takes place after an EMP from the slipspace hit the city. Not a concussive force capable of leveling it.

  • 06.05.2009 10:33 PM PDT
  • gamertag: [none]
  • user homepage:

I think you're right. It seems to me that the slipspace event wasn't a conventional explosion as you would know it.

Let me clarify. The deadliest part of an explosion is not the fire, but the overpressure of the air and the shrapnel/debris it creates.

The in-atmosphere slipspace rupture seems to have created some overpressure, but not nearly as much as a nuke would. (Even though it still created some radiation and an immense emp burst.) And considering the epicenter was right by the space elevator it would make sense that the thing was obliterated. After all the taller a structure is, the easier it is to topple.

Plus your theory of building with super materials seems to make sense as well.

  • 06.05.2009 10:33 PM PDT