How does Halo work?

Wild, speculative theories born from the communications with AdjutantReflex.

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System Failure
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by System Failure »

The radius is that of the whole array. Each installation has a radius of 50,000 light years.
Anywho when the ring is deactivated you see a pulse from the control room hit a growing mass of energy in the middle. I agree with the fact that halo could be a massive superconducting magnet. On the collapse of Installation 04 making it look weak. The heat in the blast was like Cortana said over 1.00 x 10^9 degrees, or about a billion degrees. This would vaporize much of what was in the
blast radius, and assuming the inside of Halo is as filled with tunnels as it look, the resulting cloud of superheated gas could spread throughout the Halo ring compromising its stability. Also keep in mind Halo has an oxygen rich atmosphere meaning that there has to be oxygen reserves some where on the rings. So the way the ring was destroyed in Halo seemed wrong to me, as it would make more sense for the blast to force the ring apart, and the elasticity of the metal would bring the ends together creating a much more dramatic ending.
Now back on topic, the ring cloud be a massive electromagnet powered from fusion the Fusion H3 atoms found in the gas planets that the Halo rings seem to require. because of the left hand rule magnetic forces would be centered dead in the middle of the ring.In the middle could be of this field could be ionized radium gas (plasma), which is controllable by magnetism. Then the plasma could be accumulated in the center (sent up by towers similar to what we saw on 04), and uberly compressed. Once the mass needed to reach its desired ranged it needed, the plasma could release the radiation in a single blast.
I mentioned this at an earlier post. It fits well with your nuke and fallout idea. I say plasma because a high amount of heat and pressure is needed to initiate a fusion reaction. However the Forerunners likely know E=MC^2, and probably have a way to turn a higher percentage of mass into energy (if you took all the mass in your body and converted it to pure energy, bye bye Earth).
smallfry
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by smallfry »

Am I wrong in remembering it being stated in Halo: CE that the mechanism was a strong telepathic command "DIE!"? I don't think the mechanism was primarily physical--how would radiation discriminate based on biomass, for example?
c2h6o
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by c2h6o »

smallfry wrote:Am I wrong in remembering it being stated in Halo: CE that the mechanism was a strong telepathic command "DIE!"? I don't think the mechanism was primarily physical--how would radiation discriminate based on biomass, for example?
I don't know, I need to play it again...
ii otnemem ii
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by ii otnemem ii »

...or just go read the transcripts HERE.
smallfry
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by smallfry »

Hmm, it's one of those things I felt sure I remembered, but it's not in the transcripts--memory's funny sometimes. When I get a chance I'll skim the novel "The Flood" (shudder) and see if it's in there. If it's not, I apologize. Nevermind!

That said, my question stands, how would radiation discriminate based on biomass of sentience?
Air Sparrow Hawk
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by Air Sparrow Hawk »

There is one other idea I have. Could it be possible that the effect caused by the Halos is a giant vacuum? It'd make sense if you think about it. If the Halos forced all of the air out into space then nothing could survive.

Any contributions/criticism would be nice.
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Frogwart
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by Frogwart »

By forcing the air out of a particular section of space (which is already a vacuum, so I'm guessing you actually mean the worlds in the affected space), that would likely kill the Flood, yes, but by suffocation.

Since it's clarly stated the Halos kill the Flood's food, causing the Flood to starve, I'm thinking the vacuum idea is a no go.

Interestingly, though, there are Dyson vacuums... :D
Rainstorm1031
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Re: How does Halo work?

Unread post by Rainstorm1031 »

Frogwart wrote:
Interestingly, though, there are Dyson vacuums... :D

Hah hah. Nice...
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