I'm wondering about two things here:

1) It's location. I know Guilty Spark mentioned Installation 00 being so many lightyears from the galactic center, and I'm thinking my initial hunch as to where the Ark is located was correct about it being above the galactic spiral. This is mostly supported by the fact that on The Ark level, when you look up you can clearly see the galactic spiral which you couldn't see from the rim since the perspective would be far different.

2) The Ark's fate. We know nothing as to what happened to the Ark after the replacement 04 shook it's self to bits. Because the difference between Installations 00 and 04 in terms of sheer size and mass, it's hard believe that that Ark would be oblitered. Damaged yes, even severly so, but not completely destroyed. As for why we didn't see in the aftercredit cutscene, it's just as Cortana said. They'd made it through the portal just as it collapsed.

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Ride the Rocket

1) Earth

2) Destroyed/Damaged

 all answered in the game
 

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its not vengeance... its punishment.

[Image removed, Please limit your signature to one image no larger than 450w x125h pixels. -paragon]

Punisher:

1) Earth

2) Destroyed/Damaged

 all answered in the game
 

1) No, it isn't. Play the game.

2) Try actually thinking about your answer before you type.

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Ride the Rocket

1. This isn't actually answered. As you said, all we get is that its so far out of the galaxy that the Halos wouldn't affect it, if fired. However, if you can see the galactic spiral (I played through at a friends house, so I can't exactly pull out my imaginary Xbox 360 and double check this), then the chances are that wasn't random.

2. Its really hard to see. The fact is, the gas giants around the Halos remained intact even after they fired, so the blast itself doesn't appear to affect things like that. However, Installation 04 II seemed rather unstable when fired. Even so, the Ark was massive compared to the Halo, so I think that, if nothing else, plenty of the Ark itself survived. As for lifeforms such as the Flood that may have been on the Ark, they are likely all dead.

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I like pi.

1. From what I remmber I think the Ark is beyond the edge of our galaxy, as if you look up at the sky, you can see a Galaxy and in one of the cutscenes, I think spark mentions its beyond the galatic rim.
2. The Ark is probably damaged or destroyed, but I'll go for the latter. This is because that ring tore itself apart fireing, and that kinda blast would destroy everything near it, hell the Dawn barely made it out of there.

Also, if the Chief made it through the portal, wouldn't he come out near earth, not somewhere deep in space? I thought it was two way from Earth-Ark.

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Vigil is watching you

Halo: The Unlatched Casket- The horror is released........

What i want to know is what the hell that burning planet thing is in the middle of the ark.

When you are on the FINAL mission in the warthog, look up at the sky, the ark will be there, but there will be a burning planety thing in the middle of the ark, I want to know what the halo that thing is

 OH OH OH

I believe the ark was destroyed by the halo, spark said something about "a premature explosion would destroy the ark!" or something like that.

Anyway, they wanted the ark to be destroyed as the gravemind was on the ark along with loads of flood, so to kill the flood they would have to destroy the ark.

I wonder what cortana's solution is... Because it never is really explained. Did she know that there was a replacement installation 04? Or did she think the ark was a massive flood destroying thing?

The halos have not been destroyed, there must be flood forms still in the milky way. There is still a threat.

Normally a halo would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy, but because this was unstable and unfinished it went "Wobble wobble wobble BANG!"

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Your signature is not acceptable, please change it to something else. -Thunder

Since Cortana had downloaded all of the content from Halo, she probably had time to read it while being held prisoner by Gravemind. Here, she probably read that Installation 04 would rebuild itself at the Ark, and that the Ark was reached through a teleporter via Earth. Her secret was that she still had the index for Installation 04. This made Gravemind pissy.

Also, John didn't make it through the portal. The ship was halfway through when the portal collapsed, cutting the ship in half.

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I like pi.

Rotaretilbo:

Since Cortana had downloaded all of the content from Halo, she probably had time to read it while being held prisoner by Gravemind. Here, she probably read that Installation 04 would rebuild itself at the Ark, and that the Ark was reached through a teleporter via Earth. Her secret was that she still had the index for Installation 04. This made Gravemind pissy.

Also, John didn't make it through the portal. The ship was halfway through when the portal collapsed, cutting the ship in half.

If cortana knew it from the I04 database, then why didnt spark? The Forerunners would not have included information about I00 because of security issues, in case it was captured by the flood. So then, if Cortana knew from the I04 database, then why did spark say "I have limited knowledge of this installation, other than it is the ark."

AdjutantReflex et al is the answer to the mystery. All will be revealed when the time comes.

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Your signature is not acceptable, please change it to something else. -Thunder

She is a intrusion AI, she probably got passed the failsafes and barriers guarding the ark's location and purpose, downloaded it and read it on high charity.

Oh, and thanks Rot, wasn't sure if he got through the portal or not.

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Vigil is watching you

Halo: The Unlatched Casket- The horror is released........

Cortana: "We got through the portal just as it collapsed....Well, some of us got through..."

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Your signature is not acceptable, please change it to something else. -Thunder

Actually if it was collapsing it would be unstable and could bring you anywhere that it chose. Maybe the planet thing is the portal and the Forerunners used it as a teleporter anywhere and one of those places just so happen to be the coruscant-like planet.

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Angatar, Iron-Power

SPARTAN GREY 12:

1. From what I remmber I think the Ark is beyond the edge of our galaxy, as if you look up at the sky, you can see a Galaxy and in one of the cutscenes, I think spark mentions its beyond the galatic rim.
2. The Ark is probably damaged or destroyed, but I'll go for the latter. This is because that ring tore itself apart fireing, and that kinda blast would destroy everything near it, hell the Dawn barely made it out of there.

Also, if the Chief made it through the portal, wouldn't he come out near earth, not somewhere deep in space? I thought it was two way from Earth-Ark.

Then again the Dawn wasn't even a billionth the size of the Ark. Plus being half constructed also meant that 04 would have a great deal less mass than it had originally and that would be the main deciding factor of the damage it could do when it went.

And as Rouge Spartan said the collapsing portal probably dropped them out at some random ( maybe not) so random location.

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Ride the Rocket

i dont remember exactly... but in that last cutscene im pretty sure that you can see the destroyed ark when the MC looks out of his half of the ship...

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I used to have an awesome signature that linked to my comic here...

too bad... goodbye any feeling of personalization on the HWF... 3 years of sig making for this website down the drain

yes i believe u can...i dont really think that they made it..as when they were leaving the arbiter goes to the bridge and the chief stays at the engines...half of the ships makes it through the portal (which is the bridge part with the arbiter...that is why it shows him crash landing on earth)...and then the other half with the MC and Cortana are left behind...and they are stranded there..

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" A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. "
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ok im a geek and this is what i think, i agree with only half the ship made it cause well when you see it crash land there is only half and if the whole thing went threw it wouldnt get ripped in half like that it just dosent make sense, so that kinda begs the question halo must of exploded before it fired cause then chief would be dead, so... most of the flood are dead probably all if the ark went with 04. Installation 00 aka the Ark was probably safe from the other fire radius from the other halos but i figure the forerunners would believe it wouldnt always be safe.... thus meaning (it will really help if you read the books cause this is where i get this and im a nerd) that there was a safe haven, if you remember Guilty Spark mentioning in the end of the level with the cartogropher, i thought it may have been the shield world, now if you read the book Halo: Ghost of Onix you know that the rest of the Spartans are stuck in a micro-dyson sphere which many translations about it have been known as shield world, so that is where they would hide, in a protective world away from the flood and their halo, which must be what the other half of the frigate Dawn is near because it looks like a metal ball world(micro dyson sphere is like and inverted artificial world) which was near the ark so the forrunners could be safe....

 

if youll excuse me im going to get a life lol, any up for another online match??? 

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Alright boys we're going to run up this mountain and pee off the other side laughing!

We work as a team, we fight like warriors, and we will die brothers.