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Subject: Shield World(Secrets Revealed)

Alex

It seems like there are at least a few more fights to be finished. Halo 3 does not appear to be the end of road for the series. By now, you may have heard the rumors which suggest that the next Halo game may attempt to integrate the fiction from both trilogies into an interesting reinvention. Some fans have even speculated on a separate story detailing the Elites return to Sanghelios.

But, nevertheless, most die hard followers of the Halo story see only one official first party hint about what the next true Halo game will be.

Beyond the credits and the ending which shows the Master Chief and Cortana alive and well we follow the severed hull of Forward Unto Dawn as it floats aimlessly in space. Cortana has activated a beacon for the UNSC to track, but it may be years before anyone even gets word that Spartan 117 is still alive.

As it moves slowly across the vacuum of darkness, the Dawn begins to approach what at first appears to be a planet. As the ship advances, however, the surface reveals a myriad of glowing shapes and geometric patterns when a star's bloom crests over its curved horizon line.

At this point, we only know this structure to be a planetoid . According to Joseph Staten.

GameTap
: Is the Legendary ending of Halo 3 a nod to Marathon, or is it a reference to Ghosts of Onyx?

Joseph Staten
: It's more or less a nod to the beginning of Halo 1. Putting the chief back in his hushed casket, and shutting him down. Oh, wait, you mean the legendary ending of Halo 3 with the crazy planetoid thing? I do not know! There is a crazy planetoid floating out there. Who knows? If you look really, really carefully at the lights on the planet, though, there is something to be seen in those lights.

While there may well be other significant symbols found on the surface of this planetoid structure (including one which resembles the Marathon symbol), the only one which is concretely obvious is found near the northern part of the planetoid.

If you don't recognize it, you may have been living underneath a stone. The symbol has appeared in all three Halo games and in a slew of supplemental content as well:

What does it mean?

No one outside of Bungie really knows. It has been located on each Halo installation we have visited, the Ark, The Terminals and a variety of other places, so one might believe that it may not only deal with the Forerunners themselves, but specifically with the Halo Array.

One thoughtful observer has even suggested that it seems to depict a Halo ringworld and the Index, the key which can activate the Array from the installations control room. This idea was preceded with the notion that it might also be the sword and shield spoken of by Cortana in the Halo 3 Announcement Trailer and subsequently elaborated on in Eric Nylunds Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.

Although both of these ideas sound plausible, one thing is absolutely certain: this place was built by the Forerunners and it was somehow connected to the rings.

When we consider the Halo Arrays corporeal embodiment, we think of the seven ringworlds and the cradle world which are linked together to form a weapon that holds both the destruction and the salvation for all intelligent life in the galaxy. Those who closely followed the story of Halo 3, or have been reading some of the fiction found just outside of the games, know that there is more to the Array than just those eight facilities.


We originally discovered the term shield world in the aforementioned novel, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. During the development of Halo 3, Nylund worked closely with Bungie to build a supplemental story in the wake of Halo 2 and prefacing Halo 3. This story involved a structure called Onyx. Originally thought to be a planet, the players involved in the story of Ghosts quickly learn that Onyx was much more than a planet, it was a Forerunner installation.

There's so much here, Dr. Halsey whispered. Ive confirmed this world is part of the Forerunners plan together with the Halo rings - their sword and shield . Other parts still elude me.


During the events of Halo 2, Commander Miranda Keyes retrieved the Index just before Installation 05 was fired. This action halted the launching of the Halo Array, but it, in turn, generated a failsafe protocol. The Array was armed but could only be fired from the Ark.

According to Ghosts, this chain-reaction of events opened a rift which had since been dormant at the core of Onyx. It was later revealed that this mysterious planet was, in actuality, a shield world - a facility created by the Forerunners to protect against the phase pulse bombardment of the Array. When the failsafe protocol was enacted with the removal of the Index, a controlled slipspace rupture opened in Onyx's core room, but only for a very limited period of time.


Looking at the shield world from a broad perspective, one might ask what it meant to the Forerunners who built them. With the Conservation Measure in effect and room beyond the range of the Halo Array for other installations, why would a shield world need to be created in the first place?

According to the Terminals, the reason was time - or rather, a lack thereof.



During their darkest hour, Mendicant suggested destroying nearby stars - the solar center of strategically located systems - essentially creating a premature collapse of the celestial body and, in turn, the immolation of the entire system. This would form a firebreak and hedge the parasite in, buying the Forerunners more time. Before this could be done, however, he recommended that the populations of these systems be moved to specific facilities for their own safety - ones which could effectively shield these beings from the Halo effect.

Whether this was fully or partially achieved - or perhaps not even attempted at all - we do not know. We do know that when the protagonists of Ghosts accessed Onyx's slipspace rupture through the core room, they were carried to something completely unique and different. Something no one had expected

The slipspace rift had been stable when they had first passed through, dropping them three meters onto a grassy hill.

They could only watch as it compressed back to a single wavering dot and vanished.

Most of them had thought the slipspace passage would move them to an interior room within the artificial construct known as Onyx.

No one had been prepared for this.


Although technically remaining at the exact center of Onyx, the characters of the novel's story were transported to a structure referred to as a Micro Dyson sphere - an artificial world not too unlike the Halo installations or the Ark. This particular megastructure, however, did not exist in real space and time like the other Forerunner constructs, but within the safety of a controlled rift in slipspace - and, without need for elaboration, its shape was also considerably different.

A very real man by the name of Freeman Dyson envisioned this hypothetical, sphere-like megastructure which could potentially be the residence of advanced extra-terrestrials who abandoned their original habitat. The term Micro Dyson sphere and its concept originates solely from him.

We are inside a Micro Dyson sphere.

The Forerunners grasp of slipspace technology was far more advanced than ours or the Covenant. I believe this sphere resides in the center of the planet, encapsulated and protected by a slipspace bubble of compressed dimensionality.


Although the structure itself had all of the external planetary trappings one might expect of a vast jungle world, the first indication of something peculiar was the ancient Forerunner city uncovered just below the surface. When the protagonists discovered this city, it was abandoned; by the end of the novel, they had not located any surviving Forerunners or other species even within the protection of the sphere itself.

The city had been buried under Onyx stone during the 100,000 years of dormancy after the Forerunners fired the Array, only to begin to be excavated by human (and eventually Forerunner) machines just prior to the weapon network's rearmament on Delta Halo. Interestingly noted, when Onyx's surface began to come under attack, it started to splinter apart revealing that it was composed almost entirely of Forerunner AI constructs known as Sentinels. And much like the Halo installations, the key holders for the shield worlds would have to be the Forerunner's surrogate heirs: the Reclaimers.
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[Edited on 07.16.2009 2:18 PM PDT]

  • 07.16.2009 12:03 PM PDT
Subject: Shield World

There will be a sequel to halo3, but not anytime soon. Probably 2-3 yrs after reach

  • 07.16.2009 12:08 PM PDT

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What if something interrupts the Shield World in slipspace which causes it to drop into "real-space" before Halo 3's Legendary ending occured?

  • 07.16.2009 12:24 PM PDT

Alex

The Covenant could use the Shield World against the humains, and they could win the war.

  • 07.16.2009 12:38 PM PDT

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Posted by: Alexmarin99
The Covenant could use the Shield World against the humains, and they could win the war.
Shields are defensive, the Sword (Halos) could have been used against humanity, however.

[Edited on 07.16.2009 12:40 PM PDT]

  • 07.16.2009 12:39 PM PDT
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Live and Learn!

I'm still curious as to where the Dr. brought Kelly. Was that explained in Ghosts of Onyx? I never read that book...

  • 07.16.2009 12:42 PM PDT
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Posted by: Alexmarin99
The Covenant could use the Shield World against the humains, and they could win the war.
shield world??

  • 07.16.2009 12:44 PM PDT

Alex

It could have been used to destroy the whole univers. But not the Shields.

  • 07.16.2009 12:44 PM PDT

Alex

The Covenant attacked immediately and Dr. Halsey was forced to activate Operation: WHITE GLOVE. In addition, she gave the Spartans new MJOLNIR parts which were being field-tested, but had not yet been certified. Kelly received an improvement to her neural induction circuits, giving her twitch response time a speed boost. The Spartans were then trapped beneath the base for several days until Fred found some Forerunner caves. The five Spartans and Dr. Halsey then discovered the Forerunner Crystal artifact. It sent a spike of radiation that allowed the Covenant to triangulate on the Spartans position and a gravity lift immediately appeared. The group was forced to retreat, but Vinh and Isaac disappeared after their Satchel Charges exploded. Kelly, Fred, Will and Dr. Halsey were then trapped in a cavern for several days until they were rescued by John-117, Anton-044, and Admiral Whitcomb. During the operation though, Kelly was hit by the Fuel Rod Gun of two Hunters as she tried to protect Dr. Halsey. Once again, she was critically wounded. With burns on seventy two percent of her body, she required Dermacortic Steroids to recover.

Kelly was whisked aboard a Spirit and taken to the captured Ascendant Justice/Gettysburg. It took some time for her to heal and while she was sedated, Dr. Halsey brought her aboard the private vessel of the Rebel Governor Jacob Jiles, the Beatrice (a retired stealth ship, without anyone's knowledge or permission), which entered Slipspace heading for Onyx.

Halsey and Kelly eventually make it to Onyx (crashing the Beatrice that they had commandeered to get there),while reuniting with some of the remaining SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III soldiers. Kelly, as the fastest Spartan, was bait for the Onyx Sentinels. After the arrival of Linda-058, Will-043 and Frederic-104, the Spartans went on the offensive and destroyed a Sentinel Factory. They then teleported to the Core Room. At this point, a Covenant Army arrived. The Spartans held off the army, but when Kelly killed a group of Elites in close quarters in an attempt to buy them more time, a Hunter pair took her by surprise, and Holly-G003 and Will-043 were killed to save her. Kelly then retreats through a Slipspace portal alongside Dr Halsey, Fred, Linda, and the rest of the surviving SPARTAN-IIIs. Kurt stayed behind and detonates two nuclear warheads to stop the massive Covenant Army. Kelly is then trapped with her fellow Spartans in a Micro Dyson Sphere. She and the others are currently trying to revive Team Katana and trying to find a way out of the mini world inside Onyx.


  • 07.16.2009 1:00 PM PDT

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Posted by: Alexmarin99
It could have been used to destroy the whole univers. But not the Shields.
What? I was asking how the Shields could be used against humanity if they are purely defensive installations...

  • 07.16.2009 1:01 PM PDT
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Live and Learn!

Thanks Alex.

  • 07.16.2009 1:04 PM PDT

Alex

With Pleasure

  • 07.16.2009 1:09 PM PDT
Subject: Shield World(Secrets Revealed)

Alex

Onyx is a Shield World and Reach is not.

[Edited on 07.16.2009 2:18 PM PDT]

  • 07.16.2009 1:13 PM PDT
Subject: Shield World

What am I supposed to be looking for on the north part of the "planetoid"?

  • 07.16.2009 1:44 PM PDT

Alex

There is a symbol that is the same as the Terminals in Halo 3. It means that it is a Forerunner "planet". We have seen the same "planet" in the Halo 3 Legendary ending and in the Halo Reach trailer.

  • 07.16.2009 2:11 PM PDT

Alex

When the protagonists of Ghosts entered the blue-white bloom of light at the center of the antechamber, the core room, they were whisked away to the surface of the Micro Dyson sphere.

Overheard blazed a golden sun. The sky, if it could be called that, was robin's-egg blue at the horizon but it quickly deepened to indigo and black the higher one looked, and then warmed again as it neared the sun. There were no stars.

The surface stretched out in all directions, meadows, rivers, lakes, forests, winding paths all perfectly flat. All flat, that is, until they discovered that every horizon sloped upward until these curving surfaces vanished in the extreme distance.


Although referred to as a Micro Dyson sphere, the shape followed more closely to that of a Dyson shell, one of a variety of types seemingly envisioned by Freeman Dyson.

It was a hollow spherical structure twice the size of the distance between the Earth and our sun, 150 million kilometers in diameter from end to end. Much like the concave shape of a typical Halo installation's surface (but to a considerably greater degree), the facility depicted in Ghosts rose upward on all sides, creating a bowl-like environment, which, because of its size, was almost unperceivable. If one were to imagine it, they would see the interlining of the shell as being the surface of a planet, as opposed to the outer lining or crust which is where one would generally imagine the surface to be. The topology and geography was no different than one would find on a healthy world or any other Forerunner installation we've visited. The so-called "sun" was "consistent with a G2 type dwarf," essentially at a slightly lower scale than Earth's sun in Sol. It was an artificial star, acting like the sun, at the very center of the installation and approximately the same distance of the Earth to its own solar system\'s center.

Although clearly residing outside of space and time, the structure could only be accessed within the portal at the center of Onyx. With the slipspace rift closed, however, there was no known way to gain access to normal space and time.

By now some may be asking how this loose supplemental canon is related to the Halo trilogy and the continuing of the Halo franchise. Why would Bungie place the player, the Master Chief even, in one of these shield worlds?

The only real evidence we have at our disposal is the Legendary Ending which clearly and distinctively shows the rear-section of Forward unto Dawn floating helplessly toward the Forerunner megastructure and the Halo Reach Trailer. Given our lack of any supporting evidence to the contrary, however, all signs currently point to the notion that during the final events of Halo 3, the Master Chief and Cortana did not fully make it through the portal that led from the Ark to Voi. Instead, their part of the Dawn was sent near a Forerunner structure, perhaps yet another failsafe measure which we've already become accustomed to within Forerunner protocol.


Earlier in Halo 3, 343 Guilty Spark even admits that he originally thought the Ark was a shield world, being that they provided similar purposes: safe havens from the Array. He was proven wrong in the cartographer as both he and the Master Chief discovered that the Ark simply exists outside the galaxy's boundaries - not outside time and space like the core room of Onyx. Even the Halo 3 Bestiarum provides an interesting assessment, indicating that the "Shields" are active, functioning properly and operational.


If you take a look at the cover of Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, you will also see something interesting there. Even before this symbol became a point of interest within Halo 3's documentation, it was plastered on the cover of Nylund's book - a book focusing entirely on a shield world.


So what does all of this mean?

Could the next Halo game take place on a shield world? Will it involve the Master Chief and Cortana? Was the Legendary ending simply a lead-in to another character's story or will the Master Chief, the Reclaimer, once again be sent to a Forerunner construct, this time to free its captives from a new menace rather than to destroy a galaxy-consuming parasite?

The idea sounds nostalgically satisfying, particularly the notion that the player would once again be returning to unknown territory, a new place to explore, to unlock secrets and to unveil ancient mysteries.

Even if this brief and fanciful estimation is far off the mark, we await with bated breath at whatever may come. Only Bungie knows the answer to these questions.

  • 07.16.2009 3:34 PM PDT

Sieg Zeon

Posted by: MLG Cheehwawa
Posted by: Alexmarin99
The Covenant could use the Shield World against the humains, and they could win the war.
Shields are defensive, the Sword (Halos) could have been used against humanity, however.


well if u remeber the shield world in Halo Wars, there was a fleet waiting o be activated, now if all of the shield worlds are similiar in design and purpose, the shield world onyx would probably also have a fleet for when the inhabitants of the world were ready to leave, they would have a way. so yes the covenant could use the shield world to help win the war by using the forrerunner fleets

  • 07.16.2009 5:05 PM PDT
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if that was true who would you fight?

  • 07.16.2009 5:19 PM PDT

Alex

Yes, they can use it against us by capturing it and using the fleets like you said.

  • 07.16.2009 5:26 PM PDT

Alex

I will fight the covenant. But I want the Elites by my side.

  • 07.16.2009 5:29 PM PDT

If you're passionate about the thing you're talking about, I'll always lend an ear.

Posted by: MichaelYEAHH
There will be a sequel to halo3, but not anytime soon. Probably 2-3 yrs after reach


Pulled that one outta your arse didn't ya. Nothing has been confirmed about a Halo 3 sequel.

  • 07.16.2009 5:44 PM PDT

If you're passionate about the thing you're talking about, I'll always lend an ear.

Posted by: MLG Cheehwawa
Posted by: Alexmarin99
It could have been used to destroy the whole univers. But not the Shields.
What? I was asking how the Shields could be used against humanity if they are purely defensive installations...


Lol they could activate Halo and hide in the shield world. After that all their enemies along with any sentient lifeform would be dead which = Winning the war!

  • 07.16.2009 5:47 PM PDT

Alex

The Shields could have forerunner fleets that they could use. And their technology too.

  • 07.16.2009 5:55 PM PDT
Subject: Shield World(Secrets Revealed)

Boba772

Here is what I think: another profit. A kid. I knew all about the forrunner stuff. Cheif has to kill the last profit. The profit is about 13.Cheif fights with his armour off. Its quite easy to figure out with the clues, mostly those hidden ones.

  • 07.16.2009 6:15 PM PDT

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