Journey

Journey is a Forerunner shield world in the Milky Way, containing an archive of the data on Forerunner technology, such as Forerunner shields. Journey was discovered by both the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant in September of 2552 as the human cruiser UNSC Toulouse fled its near destruction at the Fall of Reach, only to be pursued by a group of Covenant warships and chased beneath the surface of the world in the ensuing battle, which saw the Toulouse recover Forerunner shielding technology and escape back to Earth.
== Overview ==
This shield world's main structure consisted of the outer surface, the superstructure and tunnel system inside the crust, and the inner miniature Dyson sphere, along with its own miniaturized artificial sun to provide illumination. A series of latitudinal support ribs encircled the megastructure; these were clearly visible on the inner surface. The outer surface, as well as much of the interior of the world, was largely frozen, covered in ice and snow as well as being home to large mountains. Parts of the superstructure could be seen on the surface, with chasms reaching deep down into the interior.
The interior also featured different types of Forerunner structures, ranging from spires to various walls or embankments and rifts leading into the interior of the structure. Like many other Forerunner installations, Journey possessed a translocation grid in form of a network of teleporters.
=== Access tunnels ===
The surface of Journey had multiple access portals, which could be used to gain access to the interior of the planet. Most of them were exposed; for example, the portal through which the UNSC Toulouse and later its pursuers entered the interior was obvious and exposed. The AI in control of these access portals would activate docking sequence when a ship passed over one, forcibly dragging the vessel inside by way of a series of field-projecting pylons on the outer surface.
The tunnels inside the structure had a cleansing system which prevented any Flood from entering the interior. This quarantine system consisted of several "cleansing rings", which generated energy fields within their diameter, which would destroy any Flood biomass on a passing ship. On the interior, these portals had six interlocks that needed to be opened in order to unlock the access to the tunnel, and like other significant systems on the installation, they could be operated only by a Reclaimer.
== History ==
=== Forerunner-Flood War ===
Journey was constructed during or prior to the Forerunner-Flood War to serve as both a military outpost to combat the Flood, and to preserve the lifeforms within from the Halo Array's pulse. Despite this, it seemed to escape the war unaffected as well as completely abandoned, except for the world's Sentinel guardians.
=== Human-Covenant War ===
On July 25th, 2552, during the late Human-Covenant War, the Covenant began to launch a massive invasion of the human colony world of Reach, and by late August, the battle had seen the loss of over 100 UNSC Navy vessels in orbit. With the situation becoming a living hell for naval forces, the remaining UNSC vessels attempted to flee. Among these vessels was the Halcyon-class light cruiser UNSC Toulouse, which fled the battle and jumped to random coordinates. However, noticing the fleeing ship, four Covenant Ket-patter battlecruisers chased the vessel through slipspace.
==== Battle of Journey ====
Emerging from slipspace near Journey, the Toulouse's crew was afforded a single precious day to recover from the Fall of Reach. However, on September 1st, the Covenant ships caught up to them and attacked, triggering the Battle of Journey.
The Covenant ships quickly crippled the Toulouse's arsenal and damaged its engines, and the cruiser, now caught in Journey's atmosphere, began a violent descent to Journey's surface. With some control over the ship's descent still maintained, the Toulouse maneuvered into a service conduit in the planet's surface, descending to the interior of the shield world, but pursued by the Covenant vessels closely.
Once inside, the Toulouse retreated to a series of floating towers, hoping they would act as cover against their pursuers. The ship soon deployed ground teams to investigate a detected facility among the towers. The teams quickly discovered a data archive of Forerunner technology, along with Forerunner shielding technology. Believing the shield technology would be useful for protecting against the Covenant's advanced weaponry, if it could be equipped on the Toulouse.
Realizing the UNSC forces were attempting to steal the Forerunner shielding technology, the previously neutral Aggressor Sentinels quickly became hostile, swarming over and attacking the ground teams in an attempt to stop the theft. Despite this, the teams still successfully returned to the Toulouse and installation of the shielding quickly began as the Covenant ships closed in on the ship's location. The shielding technology was hastily retrofitted onto the Toulouse, activating just as the Covenant ships closed into firing range of the vessel and barraged it. The attacks were instantly nullified by the shields, preventing the energy blasts from piercing the Toulouse's hull.
Realizing their attacks were ineffective, the Covenant vessels split up, attempting to box in the human ship and once again deployed boarding craft to eliminate the vessel from the inside. Two of the cruisers fired a barrage of plasma torpedoes at the Toulouse, but the attacks were again ineffective. Many torpedoes missed their target and careened into the Forerunner structures dotting the battlefield. Now recognizing the Covenant ships as hostiles, the Aggressor Sentinels became hostile towards them, swarming over their ships in droves.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the Toulouse blew past the Covenant vessels and fled the interior of the shield world through the same service conduit they entered from. After breaking through the planet's atmosphere, it made the jump to slipspace and returned to Earth with the Forerunner shield technology. The battle saw the Forerunner shield technology delivered to Earth, where it would eventually be fitted on the Infinity-class supercarrier UNSC Eternity.
== Gallery ==
File:BattleofJourney.webp|The UNSC Toulouse making its escape from the interior of Journey.
Category:Gamestrider1
Category:Planets
Category:Forerunner