Halo 3 Message Board  

...which could explain the "unfinished" series of events at the end of Halo 3.

We've all seen the legendary ending, either on YouTube or after we beat the game on Legendary (if you haven't, go watch it now). We see the half of the Dawn, which carries Cortana and Chief, floating to an unknown world, with Forerunner symbols on it and some sort of shield. Halopedia calls it: "Shield World".

Many people have jumped to conclusions and have stated that this ending is in fact the start of "Marathon", another Bungie project that was released over 10 years ago. Bungie have dismissed this rumour, saying that Marathon take place in an alternate universe to Halo.

Going back to the "Shield World" reference, I read Halo: Ghosts of Onyx again and found my answer within this extract:

"One more thing," Dr. Halsey said. "Here are my personal conclusions linking the collected Forerunner data. You deserve to know everything."
She dropped her notes into his FTP directory - along with a captured worm in the footer of the data. It would copy and transmit every file Endless Summer accessed with her notes open.
Multiple files immediately began to flash-transfer to her laptop.
"Thank you," he said and his eyebrows quirked up. "Your logic is impeccable."
"Allow me a moment to draft the note," she said.
"I shall prepare the COM probe," said Endless Summer. His hologram faded.
Dr. Halsey decrypted the stolen files, and alien hieroglyphs streamed on-screen.
"What are those?" Mendez whispered, leaning closer.
"Forerunner language sample from these ruins, I surmise," she said. "Along with theoretical translation variants.
She searched for pattern matches in Cortana's log, and then cross-referenced the stellar co-ordinates embedded in the Cote d'Azure rock. There was a match: the symbol for the Halo construct.
She double checked the stone and found co-ordinates for Onyx and a matching symbol in Endless Summer's database.
"What does that mean?" Mendez asked, pointing to a double-lobed icon.
"This," she whispered, "roughly translated, it means 'shield world'."

My theory (now more than certain thanks to the above, IMO), is that the Shield World is Onyx, and that Cortana and Chief finally find the SPARTAN-IIIs and the other SPARTAN-IIs, along with Dr. Halsey. What happens next is anyone's guess.

that sounds nice and confusing..

but mostly nice..

i hope your right..

but is their enimies to shoot on that planet?

What happens next is......Halo 4!

No.

Onyx is Shield World, yes which was another theory...that the planet they were approaching was shield world. Either that or a forerunner home world or the third theory...the beginning of Marathon.

Darkish, read.

Well it's still a theory...:\

well its a theory that can i and i think will come true, bungie is not going to get rid of the most sold series of games, they are going to keep making them, but like people have said, i do beleive that new characters will be brought in and maybe not about master cheif