Shield Worlds

Wild, speculative theories born from the communications with AdjutantReflex.

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Scelus
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Shield Worlds

Unread post by Scelus »

I had a question regarding them. Does it at any point state that there were 7 Shield Worlds, or is this rampant speculation? (I haven't read any of the novels except FoR and nothing I have read on the various wiki pages and whatnot states a number.)

Also, at what point did the SHield World on Onyx "open"? Was it when Halo 5 prepped for firing, or when it shut down. If it is the latter, I had a theory that perhaps the Shield Worlds are not to escape the effects of the Halos, but to escape should they -fail-. We know that Dr. Halsey said that it was to escape the Halos' destruction, but it is possible that she mistranslated. (When you are fighting with a sword and shield, the only reason to use the shield when blocking, is if your attack with the sword failed, on you are defending an enemy's attack.)

Just rampant speculation here.
System Failure
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by System Failure »

Scelus you made me notice something.
[spoiler]In GoO Dr Halsey inquires about when the sentinels arrive and start whippin the Spartan's collective asses.
Dr. Halsey's mind raced, connecting the clues: facts from Cortana's log, the stone from Cote d' Azure, the Alien passages and crystal under Reach.
"When precisely, did they appear?" she asked.
" The morning of September 21," Kurt replied.
" That timing coincides with the activation of an alien weapon world- before John thankfully destroyed it. It is no coincidence that the Sentinels appeared then. It must be part of a larger Forerunner plan."
-Ghosts of Onyx ch.20 pg.175

This by it self would show that the ring system planned for people to be in or near the control room of Onyx during the activation of Halo to escape instant death. But after looking at the beginning of the chapter the heading changed my mind.
1125 HOURS,NOVEMBER 3, 2552(The rest of heading is irrelevant as of this post
-Ghosts of Onyx ch.20 pg.170
That puts the time between when the Halo system was to be activated and the time the rift would close at 2 weeks (more sevens). So there are 2 possibilities now.

1) The speed of the Halo blast is Slow enough that the "wave" gave you a chance to run, and therefore if we could find the distance that Onyx is from the nearest Halo, we then could then divide that distance by the number of hours in two weeks (336, only 7 away from 343, which is Sparky's number, dont know what that means) and find the velocity of the blast wave, and see how long it would take to cleanse the galaxy. Or

2) The Sentinels got ready for incoming Forerunners when Installation 04 for was activated, but when it was destroyed, they went it to kind of a stand-by mode, killing any thing that is not Forerunner on the planet after taking appropriate samples. Now after the second cancelation of firing, the System went in to failsafe mode, and set the timer of the core. Therefore, if the flood were preventing firings, then some Forerunner could at least live in the Dyson sphere, or if the Forerunners were fighting amongst each other and the Halos were trying to be used as weapons against each other some could still be safe. This would explain why firing got sent to the Ark after two aborted firings. (A) in the event of civil war the firing control, if used repeatedly, would be sent to a specific area, therefore reducing the amount of places that you need to stop people from triggering Halo from 8 sites (7 Halos and possibly the Ark) to just one. Or (B) if the Flood were screwing with the launch sequence, bye having a command center far from where the battle was raging, is all hope was lost the device could still be trigger with relative safety. (Remember our system is on the fringes of the galaxy).[/spoiler]
Scelus
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by Scelus »

Bump.

Never got my answer and I'm curious.
Admiral Whitcomb
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by Admiral Whitcomb »

looks like the sentinels activated when the first halo was activated. im gonna go skim through my copy of GoO to see if i an get anything on the actual shield world- i'm assuming you're refering to the dyson sphere with in.

*edit* ok, here's what i found- looks like the whole planets activation coincided with the activation of the first halo:
GoO page 311
"The room is normally inaccesible but the arming of the Halo rings triggered something within this planet" ~Doctor Halysey to Kurt
Echelon Three
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by Echelon Three »

The concept of seven Shield Worlds is, as of yet, unfounded. It's not totally out of the scope of the story what with the sevens everywhere--for every sword there is also a shield--but it's not been proven yet.

Also, as others said, when Halo Installation 04 was destroyed is when I believe the defense systems of Onyx were activated, which makes sense--if the attack fails, the only option is to try and salvage what's left with a good defense.
Admiral Whitcomb
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by Admiral Whitcomb »

no, the shield world (the one we know about) activated with the halo's
Pak
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by Pak »

Admiral Whitcomb wrote: GoO page 311
"The room is normally inaccesible but the arming of the Halo rings triggered something within this planet" ~Doctor Halysey to Kurt
This seems conclusive to me.
Admiral Whitcomb
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by Admiral Whitcomb »

there's more, but mostly irrelevant
Yavanna
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by Yavanna »

to my knowledge the Onyx Shield World is the only one ever mentioned.

However to help answer the original question asked by Scelus regarding the existence of 7 Shield Worlds to coincide with the 7 halos...

I do not think the existance of 7 Sheild Worlds is practical based on the dimensions given by Dr Halsey about the Onyx Shield World. If her calculations are correct, the Shield World is Ginormous!

i did some rough calculations that show the inside surface area of the Shield World is over 45,000 times larger than the sun's surface area. And over 500,000,000 times the surface if the earth.

A Halo's surface area is about 0.2% the surface area of earth so it is much more believable that there are 7 Halos. But for there to be 7 Shield Worlds of the size Dr. Halsey describes... That would probably be a feat of achievement even by Forerunner standards!

Perhaps the fact the shield worlds are contained inside a slipspace field has something to do with a difference in what is a practical structure size.

sorry this doesn't answer the question but at least it puts the existence of 7 Shield Worlds into better perspective for speculation.
AI_Construct
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Re: Shield Worlds

Unread post by AI_Construct »

Unfortunately, being out of state limits my ability to answer questions.

But from what I recall, the only shield world mentioned is Onyx. So until something new comes down one of the pipes, we wont know.
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