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Subject: Installation's defensive systems...

"I have activated defensive systems...And you now have 30 seconds to return to the minimum safe distance of...(One lightyear)."

This statement by 343 Guilty spark is followed by a list of 8 different weapon systems that all have the status "Locked" meaning that they most likely have a lock on the Pillar of Autumn's position and ready to fire.

What could they be? Why were they not used against the Covenant fleet? So many questions left unanswered, add to the fact that they have a range of over ONE LIGHTYEAR, that's immense! Any ideas?

  • 09.29.2011 9:37 PM PDT

Didn't Guilty Spark say somewhere that they were just meddlers? They would come, stay for a bit, take notes, ect and then leave. He must of had info on what they did on other Forerunner installations so he likely wasn't worried. What they did didn't pose a threat to the ring. Humanity on the other hand he didn't have any info on them. Didn't know what their ships looked like or what they would do on Installation 04. They were unknown to him. Because of this he decided to be cautions and scan the PoA and send it a message saying GTFO. That's just what I think.

  • 09.29.2011 9:59 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Mythic Member

I am...whimsical today.

It's possible that the Covenant, having utilised and appropriated many items of Forerunner technology, were somehow broadcasting some form of IFF tag, or disarming code.
The weakness with this idea is perhaps that 343GS has full authority over Installation 04, and would easily be able to verify such a transmission by just looking. For whatever reason, he allowed the Covenant to land.
Or perhaps the defense system is an 'all or nothing' affair. If it had been turned on to disable the Covenant fleet, the PoA would also have been targeted.
It would seem silly to have such an unwieldy system though.

As for the safe distance of 1LY, I just assumed that this was an arbitrary perimeter, not the actual range of the stations's defenses.
That said, with the technological grip the Forerunner had over Slipslace, perhaps weapons whose range can be measured in lightyears isn't such a leap. We know they can communicate at 'superluminal speeds', and we assume the Halo array main weapon travels faster than light, so +c defenses seem reasonable.

Sorry, it's not called 'U-Space' in this universe.
Too much Ian Cormac ;)


[Edited on 09.29.2011 10:52 PM PDT]

  • 09.29.2011 10:51 PM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!


Posted by: Sniffy66
Didn't Guilty Spark say somewhere that they were just meddlers? They would come, stay for a bit, take notes, ect and then leave. He must of had info on what they did on other Forerunner installations so he likely wasn't worried. What they did didn't pose a threat to the ring. Humanity on the other hand he didn't have any info on them. Didn't know what their ships looked like or what they would do on Installation 04. They were unknown to him. Because of this he decided to be cautions and scan the PoA and send it a message saying GTFO. That's just what I think.
That was from the Conversations from the Universe, I think. That does raise a good point.

  • 09.29.2011 11:29 PM PDT


Posted by: Sniffy66
Didn't Guilty Spark say somewhere that they were just meddlers? They would come, stay for a bit, take notes, ect and then leave. He must of had info on what they did on other Forerunner installations so he likely wasn't worried. What they did didn't pose a threat to the ring. Humanity on the other hand he didn't have any info on them. Didn't know what their ships looked like or what they would do on Installation 04. They were unknown to him. Because of this he decided to be cautions and scan the PoA and send it a message saying GTFO. That's just what I think.


Good idea, I hadn't thought abbout that.

Anyway, these defenses are likely anywhere from close proximity defensive sentinels to large Light cannons that can evidently stretch to at least a light year.

  • 09.30.2011 4:11 AM PDT

I think light year would just refer to "Please stay this far away."

I mean... a simple defense gun on a halo ring firing a light year? That's a stretch for me... even with forerunners.

  • 09.30.2011 5:23 AM PDT
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Posted by: Cmdr DaeFaron


I mean... a simple defense gun on a halo ring firing a light year? That's a stretch for me... even with forerunners.


Just the thought of wiping out all life in the Milky Way is a stretch for me, so this wasn't as much of a shocker in all honesty.

  • 09.30.2011 5:39 AM PDT


Posted by: Guscon
It's possible that the Covenant, having utilised and appropriated many items of Forerunner technology, were somehow broadcasting some form of IFF tag, or disarming code.
The weakness with this idea is perhaps that 343GS has full authority over Installation 04, and would easily be able to verify such a transmission by just looking. For whatever reason, he allowed the Covenant to land.
Or perhaps the defense system is an 'all or nothing' affair. If it had been turned on to disable the Covenant fleet, the PoA would also have been targeted.
It would seem silly to have such an unwieldy system though.

As for the safe distance of 1LY, I just assumed that this was an arbitrary perimeter, not the actual range of the stations's defenses.
That said, with the technological grip the Forerunner had over Slipslace, perhaps weapons whose range can be measured in lightyears isn't such a leap. We know they can communicate at 'superluminal speeds', and we assume the Halo array main weapon travels faster than light, so +c defenses seem reasonable.

Sorry, it's not called 'U-Space' in this universe.
Too much Ian Cormac ;)


This^... I don't think you could get a better explanation. Although perhaps after Spark saw the humans were not a threat he disarmed the weapons and they had a long re-arming cycle so he couldn't get them online again in time to use them against the Covenant.

  • 09.30.2011 10:18 AM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.

Guilty Spark did not activate the Installation's defenses when the Covenant arrived simply because he believed them to not be a threat. As he said in 'Conversations from the Universe', the Covenant were meddlers who simply came, observed, recorded and then left. The humans however, they were once an enemy of the Forerunner Empire. Only once the Reclaimer(s) aboard were discovered did Spark disable the ring's defense systems.

  • 09.30.2011 10:50 AM PDT

Am I supposed to write something funny here?


Posted by: matman25402
Guilty Spark did not activate the Installation's defenses when the Covenant arrived simply because he believed them to not be a threat. As he said in 'Conversations from the Universe', the Covenant were meddlers who simply came, observed, recorded and then left. The humans however, they were once an enemy of the Forerunner Empire. Only once the Reclaimer(s) aboard were discovered did Spark disable the ring's defense systems.

Every human is a reclaimer.

  • 09.30.2011 11:20 AM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: Cmdr DaeFaron
I think light year would just refer to "Please stay this far away."

I mean... a simple defense gun on a halo ring firing a light year? That's a stretch for me... even with forerunners.

It might be a slipspace based weapon. The Bloodline comic is based around such a weapon, called Line Installation 1-4. It pulls ships out of slipspace and makes them crash on the planet.

  • 09.30.2011 11:37 AM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.


Posted by: Gamer Whale

Posted by: matman25402
Guilty Spark did not activate the Installation's defenses when the Covenant arrived simply because he believed them to not be a threat. As he said in 'Conversations from the Universe', the Covenant were meddlers who simply came, observed, recorded and then left. The humans however, they were once an enemy of the Forerunner Empire. Only once the Reclaimer(s) aboard were discovered did Spark disable the ring's defense systems.

Every human is a reclaimer.
Not true. Humanity was broken down into several sub-species when the race was devolved by the Forerunners. The Florians, the Neanderthals etc.

The two surviving sub species that made it to present day Halo are the [Homo]-Sapiens and the Relclaimers. Relcaimers are what makes only certain humans special enough to activate Forerunner artifacts ex: Professor Anders, Miranda Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, Master Chief etc. Their DNA coding is almost identical to that of a Forerunner.

  • 09.30.2011 11:52 AM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: matman25402
Posted by: Gamer Whale
Posted by: matman25402
Guilty Spark did not activate the Installation's defenses when the Covenant arrived simply because he believed them to not be a threat. As he said in 'Conversations from the Universe', the Covenant were meddlers who simply came, observed, recorded and then left. The humans however, they were once an enemy of the Forerunner Empire. Only once the Reclaimer(s) aboard were discovered did Spark disable the ring's defense systems.

Every human is a reclaimer.
Not true. Humanity was broken down into several sub-species when the race was devolved by the Forerunners. The Florians, the Neanderthals etc.

The two surviving sub species that made it to present day Halo are the [Homo]-Sapiens and the Relclaimers. Relcaimers are what makes only certain humans special enough to activate Forerunner artifacts ex: Professor Anders, Miranda Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, Master Chief etc. Their DNA coding is almost identical to that of a Forerunner.

Do you mind explaining Mendicant Bias' interpretation of the Harvest population, some three hundred thousands Reclaimers, which was all of the Humans present on that planet?

343 Guilty Spark also welcomes to Installation 04 not "Reclaimers" but "Humans", and says that they have much to catch up on.

I doubt 343i would disrespect Bungie that much by changing the core value of Halo: That all of Humanity inherited something and not just some elite few. That would quite a travesty.

[Edited on 09.30.2011 12:04 PM PDT]

  • 09.30.2011 12:03 PM PDT

Am I supposed to write something funny here?


Posted by: matman25402

Posted by: Gamer Whale

Posted by: matman25402
Guilty Spark did not activate the Installation's defenses when the Covenant arrived simply because he believed them to not be a threat. As he said in 'Conversations from the Universe', the Covenant were meddlers who simply came, observed, recorded and then left. The humans however, they were once an enemy of the Forerunner Empire. Only once the Reclaimer(s) aboard were discovered did Spark disable the ring's defense systems.

Every human is a reclaimer.
Not true. Humanity was broken down into several sub-species when the race was devolved by the Forerunners. The Florians, the Neanderthals etc.

The two surviving sub species that made it to present day Halo are the [Homo]-Sapiens and the Relclaimers. Relcaimers are what makes only certain humans special enough to activate Forerunner artifacts ex: Professor Anders, Miranda Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, Master Chief etc. Their DNA coding is almost identical to that of a Forerunner.
So everyone on Harvest was special? Did you even read the Reclaimer article you linked? It states pretty clearly that every human is a reclaimer. (read also the note on the bottom)

EDIT: Damn, got beaten to it...

[Edited on 09.30.2011 12:18 PM PDT]

  • 09.30.2011 12:06 PM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.

In addition, non-Reclaimers are unable to access or fully utilize Forerunner weapon systems on the Halo rings, the Ark, and Shield Worlds (as well as, most likely, other Forerunner constructs that have not yet been discovered). Because of this, the Prophet of Truth had to force Sergeant Johnson to activate the rings in Halo 3.

"Reclaimer" (Latin: -blam!- sapiens augeous)[2][note 1] is a Forerunner term used to refer to a human individual. More precisely, it refers to a species (or member of said species) chosen to be the inheritor of Forerunner civilization.



And in response to harvest, if the original settlers of harvest were all reclaimers, eventually the majority of the population would be reclaimers.

  • 09.30.2011 12:32 PM PDT

Am I supposed to write something funny here?


Posted by: matman25402
In addition, non-Reclaimers are unable to access or fully utilize Forerunner weapon systems on the Halo rings, the Ark, and Shield Worlds (as well as, most likely, other Forerunner constructs that have not yet been discovered). Because of this, the Prophet of Truth had to force Sergeant Johnson to activate the rings in Halo 3.
Non-Reclaimers here refers to covies.

"Reclaimer" (Latin: -blam!- sapiens augeous)[2][note 1] is a Forerunner term used to refer to a human individual. More precisely, it refers to a species (or member of said species) chosen to be the inheritor of Forerunner civilization.

This defines the term "reclaimer". And read the note part on the bottom, it's about those latin words.

And in response to harvest, if the original settlers of harvest were all reclaimers, eventually the majority of the population would be reclaimers.
So every original settler is a reclaimer, and because of this eventually majority of people on Harvest are reclaimers?! Where the minority comes from? =P But seriously, I'm pretty sure that every human on Harvest showed up as a reclaimer, and also every human so far has been identified as a reclaimer, even that random sergeant in the Flood.

  • 09.30.2011 1:01 PM PDT


Posted by: matman25402
In addition, non-Reclaimers are unable to access or fully utilize Forerunner weapon systems on the Halo rings, the Ark, and Shield Worlds (as well as, most likely, other Forerunner constructs that have not yet been discovered). Because of this, the Prophet of Truth had to force Sergeant Johnson to activate the rings in Halo 3.

"Reclaimer" (Latin: -blam!- sapiens augeous)[2][note 1] is a Forerunner term used to refer to a human individual. More precisely, it refers to a species (or member of said species) chosen to be the inheritor of Forerunner civilization.



And in response to harvest, if the original settlers of harvest were all reclaimers, eventually the majority of the population would be reclaimers.


Um, you know that simple means Prophets, Elites, Brutes, couldn't fully access it.

It's NEVER been stated that a human was not a reclaimer.

  • 09.30.2011 1:23 PM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: matman25402
In addition, non-Reclaimers are unable to access or fully utilize Forerunner weapon systems on the Halo rings, the Ark, and Shield Worlds (as well as, most likely, other Forerunner constructs that have not yet been discovered). Because of this, the Prophet of Truth had to force Sergeant Johnson to activate the rings in Halo 3.

"Reclaimer" (Latin: -blam!- sapiens augeous)[2][note 1] is a Forerunner term used to refer to a human individual. More precisely, it refers to a species (or member of said species) chosen to be the inheritor of Forerunner civilization.


And in response to harvest, if the original settlers of harvest were all reclaimers, eventually the majority of the population would be reclaimers.

Though Truth did rely on the abilities of the Luminary to detect Reclaimers to track down Human worlds.

Lets weigh this up. Who is referred to as a Reclaimer:

~Sergeant Johnson
~Miranda Keyes
~John-117
~Marvin Mobuto
~Prof. Anders
~Ash (Was originally reffered to as a Reclaimer before being reclassified after failing to give the proper counter-response...)
~Dutch
~Romeo
(Helljumper's The Knowing mentions how Humans had primacy, could reclaim the facility and could be like the Forerunners whilst the Covenant merely desire to be, as a point of reference to why that is meaningful.)
~300'000 Humans of Harvest

This is who is referred to as only a non-Reclaimer or are indicated to have no innate control over Forerunner technology: (Other than Covies)

...

Add some if you can. I can't actually think of any tbh. Maybe Ash after failing to give the right code? Ignoring that he was reclassified only after failing to give the right code, there are other factors like their Brain alterations that could have interfered here.

Given that we have so few (Possibly no one) in the second category compared to the first one, the idea that only a few Humans are Reclaimers and that everyone we have seen so far around Forerunner AI/technology are a part of that small Reclaimer minority seems a bit contrived.

  • 09.30.2011 1:28 PM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.


Posted by: anton1792
This is who is referred to as only a non-Reclaimer or are indicated to have no innate control over Forerunner technology: (Other than Covies)

Every other human in the game

  • 09.30.2011 2:16 PM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: matman25402
Posted by: anton1792
This is who is referred to as only a non-Reclaimer or are indicated to have no innate control over Forerunner technology: (Other than Covies)

Every other human in the game

I said referred to as non-reclaimers. Every other Human in the game is not referred to at all. Just because something is undefined does not mean that it is automatically not true. It is simply undefined. I said Humans who were explicitly referred to as non-reclaimers, or those who had difficulty in using Forerunner constructs, of which there exist none.

[Edited on 09.30.2011 2:29 PM PDT]

  • 09.30.2011 2:25 PM PDT

I am Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, Servant of the Abiding Truth, and I have many brothers.

A god who creates tools is still a god. It is not for us to impose qualifications upon the divine or presume to guess its intentions.

They aren't important because they are not reclaimers. Why do you think truth specifically took Miranda and Johnson? Because they were reclaimers. In cryptum it also says that Reclaimer is a subspecies of humanity.

  • 09.30.2011 2:29 PM PDT

yas334229812

Every human is a reclaimer look at it this way there was a human before chief who went with guilty spark to activate the halo array but died before that happened. The reason Guilty spark choose these individual was because they were better than others. Chief had the armour and the equipment necessary to get the job done. He had proved that many times along the way.

  • 09.30.2011 2:36 PM PDT


Posted by: matman25402
They aren't important because they are not reclaimers. Why do you think truth specifically took Miranda and Johnson? Because they were reclaimers. In cryptum it also says that Reclaimer is a subspecies of humanity.


I've not read cryptum, but your reasoning doesn't make sense at all.

They were taken because they had recovered the index.

  • 09.30.2011 2:36 PM PDT
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Do not waste your tears, I was not born to watch the world grow dim. Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.

Posted by: goldhawk
We should know better, because we are better.

If reclaimer is a hereditary trait like Bear seems to suggest then there would be millions of potential reclaimers. My theory is that reclaimers are descendants of Chakas. 100 000 years of breeding will produce a long bloodline. Assuming that Reclaimer status is hereditary and the Chakas is the original reclaimer and that each generation is 30 years and produces 2 kids we are looking at potentially over 2^3000 descendants.
(I am aware that there was probably a mistake in my math, I just wanted to get a ball-park figure)

  • 09.30.2011 2:43 PM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

Posted by: matman25402
They aren't important because they are not reclaimers.

So your evidence to say that Humans are not necessarily all Reclaimers is because some Humans were simply not referred to as such in the extremely small number of times where Humans and monitors/Forerunner controls are present together?

Seems like an ad hoc hypothesis to me. Every Human that is referred to as a Reclaimer is removed from Humanity at large in order to maintain the idea that Humanity at large are non-reclaimers.

Posted by: matman25402
Why do you think truth specifically took Miranda and Johnson? Because they were reclaimers.

Along with all those other Marines that you release on High Charity? I guess they are all Reclaimers too? Then there were the ones just before the Scarab that Johnson took at the end of Halo 2. I hope you realize that your argument could be extended to any poor sod in the wrong place at the wrong time and says nothing special about those two, given that other prisoners were taken.

Posted by: matman25402
In cryptum it also says that Reclaimer is a subspecies of humanity.

Page number?

[Edited on 09.30.2011 3:20 PM PDT]

  • 09.30.2011 3:15 PM PDT

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