- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Ok I will give Omega big props for a clever theory and doing some homework. But I think the thruster idea falls apart for a number of reasons:
1) Size - It may be huge, but it's a tad small scalewise. Albeit, if the hurrican vortex is an atmospheric opening that would help... but not enough to move the Earth a signifigant distance in any short amount of time, much less outside the galaxy to escape the Halo blast radius. You are comparing the dome on Earth to the (suspected) thrusters on a Halo. While the Halos would need some sort of active thrust to remain stationary at Lagrange Point 1, those may not be them, and the Halos are tiny compared to the Earth. They are smaller than our moon.
2) Number - There is only one of these. That's the only place on Earth the covenant went, so this must be a unique item. One thruster, easpecially located where that is, would not allow any real control over the Earth, it would just send disrupt the planet's orbit.
3) Structure - Say you did have a huge plasma thruster or something with enough force to push the Earth, what would it push against? The Earth is not solid object, it has a molten core. A thrister that powerful would be more likely to cause massive seismic disruptions rather than any useful thrust. Also, you would need some sort of fuel or power source of immense proportions. Anythingt that large or powerful would likely be dangerous to the planet itself.
4) Interrelation - The Earth is only habitable because of its relation to other celestial bodies, namely the sun. Even if the drive was say a slipspace engine to move the Earth lightyears away, that act would render the planet uninhabitable, making the whole effort pointless. You'd be better off just building a large ship.
So there we have it, I think we can pretty much conclude it's not a thruster or drive engine. The fact that the opening object matches the design of the "Earth Ark" drawing in the DVD seems to make it pretty obvious that the dome is at least connected to the Ark. Is it the whole Ark, a door or accessway? Is the ark small or the whole Earth? What exactly does the Ark ACTUALLY DO? Those are the kids of questions we need to ask. There's still so much leeway there that I think Bungie can surprise us all.