- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Location and speculation
Earth is the location of the Ark. The Ark will be in the upcoming game Halo 3, and may lead to the end of the Human-Covenant War and the Covenant Civil War, with one of the wars' final battles taking place within this Forerunner facility. The recent Halo 3 announcement trailer shows a Forerunner instalation in the Earths crust opening and firing a blinding beam of light into the sky. It is a logical conclusion that this either is the Ark, or is closely related. Furthermore, the rememnants of the suspension bridge that entered New Mombasa in Halo 2 are visible in the background. An interesting theory is that when Regret's ship did a slipspace jump out of the city, the resultant explosion unveiled this structure which had been previously underneath the city.
Since the Halos can be activated from the Ark, they could conversely be shut down and/or destroyed from the Ark, although this is pure speculation.
It is also believed that the Ark may have sheltered the only surviving Forerunners (possibly appearing as holographic "spirits" in Halo 3) after Halo's first use, who then could have descended to humankind.
Halo: Combat Evolved
In Halo: Combat Evolved, 343 Guilty Spark refers to Master Chief as a Reclaimer, someone who can operate Halo. It seems that only the Forerunners could operate Halo and since Guilty Spark is convinced Chief is a Reclaimer, it opens the possibility that Forerunners were ancient humans. This is proven by the fact that in Halo 2, he did not refer to Brutes, Elites, or any other form of Covenant as such, calling them a "primitive, hegemonizing swarm" instead. Furthermore, near the end of Halo: Combat Evolved while the Master Chief and Cortana are attempting to activate The Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors, 343 Guilty Spark spoke of the Autumn's Human History records in its archives: "You can't imagine how exciting this is, to have a record of our lost time... ‘Human history’, is it? Fascinating..."
This would provide a clear indication that the Humans and Forerunners are closely linked. 343 Guilty Spark also questions the Master Chief with "Why would you hesitate to do something you've already done?," which possibly implies that the Reclaimer who set off Halo before was human-like, close enough that the Monitor mistakes Master Chief for him/her. In the same sequence, 343 Guilty Spark says, "Last time you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it? Having considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed." This perhaps proves that 343 Guilty Spark indentifies the Chief as the one who previously activated the rings, and that the previous activator also had doubts just before activating Halo.
It is possible that if technology could have been advanced to the point of Time travel, then it is conceivable that 343 Guilty Spark does not mistake Master Chief for a forerunner, but recognizes Master Chief having "returned from the past." But that errs towards the extreme end of speculation.
Halo 2
In Halo 2 there are a number of possible hints that the Ark is in the vicinity of Earth, perhaps near New Mombasa (the city in the game's third level that is destroyed due to a slipspace rupture caused by The Prophet of Regret’s ship. This city is apparently a future Mombasa, a city on Kenya's west coast). There is speculation as to why the Prophet of Regret actually attacked Earth. Many fans have assumed that it was a strike on the human homeworld to end mankind's interference with the "Great Journey”. But Cortana reports, while listening to Covenant channels on Delta Halo, that Regret is asking the other Prophets to forgive him for his "premature arrival," arguing that "no human presence was foretold." This possibly shows that the Prophets had been planning to go there for some other reason than an attack on humanity, leading to the possibility that the location of the Ark and Earth's location are one in the same. While on the same section (on Delta Halo), Cortana says that "it's odd a Prophet would have such bad intel about his enemy's homeworld." Another reason that people point out is that Cortana says "it looks like they weren't expecting us":
Cortana: I've been analyzing the Covenant tactical chatter. They're surprised... confused. I don't think they expected us to be here. Not you and me. All of us... humanity... on Earth. Odd, I know, but it does help explain why they came here with such a small fleet.
Another line of speculation draws from the unlockable multiplayer map Foundation, which hints that the role of the Ark is similar to the foundations in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Also noteworthy is that the map is supposed to be set in a Robot Test Facility, once again hinting an Asimov connection. This theory suggests that there should be two separate Arks, one representing Noah's Ark and the other representing the Ark of the Covenant.
A letter in Conversations From The Universe from the special edition of Halo 2 mentions the discovery of a mysterious object on the planet Coral, which might be one of the Arks.
[Edited on 5/10/2006]