Talk:Glassing

"Unidentified Brute"
Is it just me, or does it sound more like a Prophet speaking? 65.96.101.124 16:57, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree, it sounds more like a prophet than a brute. Perhaps it is Truth speaking but there is no way to tell, definetly more likely to be a prophet though. It has been changed accordingly. --142.217.125.64 23:42, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

It sounds more like an Elite. Prophets' voices are more refined, more calm; Brutes voices are more rugged, more rough. Elites, on the other hand, have the same British accent that Prophets have, but when they get pissed they sound like the voice in the trailer. -- GPT ( talk )(eating) 23:46, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

When the -blam- did Elites pick up British accents? Last time I checked, the Prophets didn't have a British accent either. Maybe slight accenting in some parts of speech, but not a full British accent. In the trailer, the voice that says that Earth will burn, that is Truth's voice. He said it in a cutscene in Crow's Nest I think. ElectricSquid 16:15, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

No,
No, Its an angry prophet's voice, i dont know witch one's voice but its a confirmed prophets'. 100% Positive. --þ†öWè®¥ 22:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Banshees glassing? LOL
Banshees cannot really glass stuff... USE COMMON SENSE. Banshees plasma bolts melt sand glass yes but in large scale that is simply impossible...


 * Put an emphasis on the term "Large Scale". Banshee's don't operate in two's or three's, except in the game. In the novels, you can have hundreds flying at you. Imagine the destruction their weapons could wreak on a ground target. --  Councillor  Specops306  -  Kora   'Morhek  22:30, 3 October 2008 (UTC)

Halo wars
So there is a superattack for the Covenant in Halowars.That means that the humans have supersttacks,too.And no banshees cannot glass.


 * You're stupid, Banshees can glass. Why don't you pick up a book and read, and maybe you'll find that spaces go after periods. And maybe you'll even learn how to spell! Kouger masters  15:56, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Well, it a LOT easier to glass a planet with a warship, not a banshee. Even a thousand banshees could be destroyed with almost no effort by heavy weaponry.Ketsumaye 02:55, December 3, 2009 (UTC)

Sources much?
Does anyone think how great Halopedia would be if our other pages had this many sources? Kouger masters 15:56, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Glassing or Razing
I am a student of geology. I have seen videos of the saga of HALO, and it was "glassed" is a bit outdated for the game. In my view it is better "razed" that "glassed" because it speaks of a war. Well, that's all. User:H A L O Legend

Aye, but think of what happens when superheated plasma is dropped in amounts that could turn London into a crater in minutes... Everything melts, and when it cools, it will be hard rock, and lots of glass... hence the phrase. ~Enlightment~ 22:54, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

Glassing in "Gears of War II"
I played "Gears of War II" and noticed something very peculiar. The Hammer of Dawn is very similar to glassing the saga of HALO, as they have the same power of destruction. Even the trailers of the game for the first part is that the Hammer of Dawn if it looks like the glassing. --H A L O Legend 20:29, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

its GLASSED not RAZED
legend, who cares about your view? glassed is the term. STOP REPLACING GLASSED WITH RAZED. SPARTANF-259 03:34, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

Legend, the reason the term "glassing" is used is because the surface of the land is literally turned to glass. And it is not outdated. You say you have seen videos, have you ever played the games?

Glassed is the offical term in the Halo Universe, Bungie uses it the novels use it, it is the accepted canonical term. Just because you feel that it is outdated does not give you the right to change canon, what you are putting up there is fanon, that is not allowed on Halopedia. So stop replacing "glassed" with "razed". Your activity can and will be reported. Honor Guard Spartansniper 4 50''' 16:17, Nov 20, 2008 (UTC)


 * ... I hate reports... K A C -[[Image:Knatbus.jpg|24px]] 16:34, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

To HALO Legend, the official term given by Bungie is Glassed. Also, please note that this is a game, thus there are several contradicting facts and reality. Although I agree that Razed would suit with this article, note that the header itself is titled "Glassing". So, we would have to use Glassed for consistency. K A C - 16:42, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Aftermath?
When the Covenant glass a planet do you think they restore it (terraform) with some indigenous life from prior to the bombardment, or do they simply destroy it's unique ecosystem without a second thought? If Habitable worlds are as rare as implied in Contact Harvest, any intelligent race should covet them (I would).

All they do is kill everything and everyone and move on. Durandal-217 02:22, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The covenant expect to be turned into gods.... (It hought hte egytians had a lot of gods! lol) so why keep such... earthly possessions.. (hehe) ~Enlightment~ 22:56, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

Glassing isn't just done by plasma!
Plasma isn't the only thing that can glass a planet people! Something that cause extreme amounts of heat, like a nuclear warhead, can do it. This term is used in other science fiction (and possibly in the real world, but I'm not sure), and usually just describes any large scale orbital bombardment. Carbine 01:31, 28 April 2009 (UTC)


 * Ever heard the term, "turning something into a glass parking lot"? That's a real world reference. Smoke  01:35, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

And I'm not trying to anger any other players by saying this, I'm just trying to state a scientific fact, so please do not blow up at me like poor legend up there. Carbine 01:31, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually, the UNSC attacked a Covenant planet with a giant warhead, but it didn't glassed it, it blew up a quarter of the planet thing. Ketsumaye 02:58, December 3, 2009 (UTC)

Is glassing achieved via "plasma raindrops" or "beam strikes"?
The article says that the main form of glassing is:

"The first and the most common method used is when a ship or ships build up plasma along their lateral lines and discharge lances of plasma from orbit, which are guided until they impact the surface. This is repeated until every square centimeter of the planet is destroyed; in most cases it only takes the Covenant twelve hours to glass a planet."

Is there any evidence for this being used as the main form of glassing? In both Halo 2 and Halo 3 we see Covenant capital ships use underside energy projectors/laser beams to destroy something; in Halo 2 such a "solid" beam is used to destroy Regret's temple, and in Halo 3 Africa is glassed via similar "solid" beams.

Furthermore, in the Halo: Reach artwork it is possible to see, if you look closely, a couple of CCS-class ships firing similar solid beams; it being the case that "before the beginning, we know the end", it's probably safe to assume that artwork is meant to represent glassing.

Last, but not least, Halo Wars itself depicts a glassing attack; the "cleansing beam", which is a solid "laser-like" particle beam.

Yet the article also says that

"The second method is used when a ship must effectively destroy a ground target from low range. This method involves building up plasma from the underside of the ship and then discharging it in a laser beam form; this method of low-range glassing has only been witnessed a few times"

A few times? It's the only form of glassing we've EVER seen. Is there any evidence for this being lesser-used?

I've always imagined glassing to look like thousands and thousands of plasma bolts, like the ones emitted from Phantoms, streaking down from orbit, like millions of purpley-red raindrops, creating miniature splashes on the planet surface, much like the first description given in the article. And indeed, that's how I WANT to imagine glassing to look; I think it's a fantastic, grim, horrifying scene to imagine. Cruisers gliding over a planet firing particle beams, ala the second version, just doesn't have the same chilling effect on me.

So while I might be questioning the evidence for "the most common method", I'm eager to be proven wrong, if only so that I can preserve my own mental image of glassing, in line with the first description, and not the in-game depictions so far. :)

82.5.228.183 22:17, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

What you said you've always imagined glassing to look like is how they glass a planet. And that's why it is the most common method because its always been described like that every time they've glassed a planet. Halo: The Fall of Reach Prologue Page 8 "Three dozen Covenant ships—big ones, destroyers and cruisers—winked into view in the system. They were sleek, looking more like sharks than starcraft. Their lateral lines brightened with plasma—then discharged and rained fire down upon Jericho VII. The Chief watched for an hour and didn’t move a muscle. The planet’s lakes, rivers, and oceans vaporized. By tomorrow, the the atmosphere would boil away, too. Fields and forests were glassy smooth and glowing red-hot in patches."

Halo First Strike Page 31-32 ''"Three Covenant cruisers broke through the clouds and drifted toward the generator complex. Their plasma artillery flickered and glowed with energy. Fred snapped open his COM channel and boosted the signal strength to its maximum. "Delta Team: Fall back. Fall back now!" Static hissed over the channel, and several voices overlapped. He heard one of his Spartans—he couldn't tell who—break through the static." "More voices crowded the channel, and Fred thought he heard Admiral Whitcomb's voice, but whatever orders he issued were incomprehensible. Then there was only static, and then the COM went dead. The cruisers fired salvos of plasma that burned the sky. Distant explosions thumped, and Fred strained to see if there was any return fire—any sign that his Spartans were fighting or retreating. Their only hope was movement; the enemy firepower would shred a fixed position. "Fall back," he hissed. "Now, damn it." Kelly tapped him on the shoulder and pointed up. The clouds parted like a curtain drawn as a fireball a hundred meters across roared over their position. He saw the faint outlines of dozens of Covenant battleships in low orbit. "Plasma bombardment," Fred whispered. He'd seen this before. They all had. When the Covenant conquered a human world they fired their main plasma batteries at the planet—fired until its oceans boiled and nothing was left but a globe of broken glass. "That's it," Kelly murmured. "We've lost. Reach is going to fall."''

Halo: The Cole Protocol Chapter 19 Page 148 "On the screen, plasma roiled and grew on the sides of the Covenant cruisers as the ships prepared to rain fire fire down upon the world the humans called Charybdis IX"

Page 150 "Far below, the sleek, sharklike shape of a Covenant cruiser passed over the patches of land, and as it did so, everything underneath it glowed. The Screen flickered off, jumping to a new scene: a shot from the top of a skyscraper in downtown Scyllion. What looked like shimmering rain fell from the sky, but whatever it touched the city exploded into actinic flame. Buildings melted, slumping over and then bubbling down into a lavalike mix of asphalt and concrete and shattered glass. The camera wavered as blue haze began to build up near it, and then it melted and static filled the screen. Another live feed, from far outside the city, showed the blue waterfalls of plasma strike the river, sending up a giant cloud of steam as it was vaporized."

It also very important to remember that the Covenant utilize multiple methods of glassing, each Covenant ship is armed with over a dozen or more weapons. The beam strike is used when a Covenant ship is too close to the surface of a planet to release a bolt, the ship would be affected by the resulting blast.

Every time the Covenant have used the beam it has always come from underneath the ship, not from the side, and it has always been used when a Covenant ship is close to the surface of a planet, in the Battle of Pegasi Delta the cruiser, hovering not far above the ground fires the beam to kill the SPARTAN-IIIs fighting below, in Halo 2 the carrier fires at the temple, because they are close to the ground, in Halo 3 the ships firing their beams to glass Voi because they are too close, and in the background of the Halo: Reach image you can see mountains in the background meaning they are too close to the surface.

As for Halo Wars, I don't count that, it is impossible to effectively glass a planet using a beam of plasma from orbit, it doesn't work that way. Durandal-217 23:18, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

- Excellent, thanks for your input; much appreciated! 82.5.228.183 22:51, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

I thought that the Covenant only used the plasma bolts (rain drop), as seen in Halo CE end cutscene of the first leval, untill the laser beam of plasma was invented by the humans who had boarded the Covenant ship in First Strike, which was adopted by the Covenant later. I have a faint memory of Cortana realizing that it was possible to fire the cannon with out first charging it (The Covenant aren't very original). I know it shows the laser beam being used in Halo Wars but I personally only consider that to be half canon. --Hsad 02:00, November 11, 2009 (UTC)

The Covenant have always used laser beams, their ships are equipped with more than 12 energy weapons depending on the class. They use the bolts when they just want to glass a planet from orbit, but if for some reason something is of interest to them and they need to just clear an area they use the excavation beam. If they were to fire the bolts too close to the surface the impact would affect the ship. As for the improved Covenant weaponry Cortana used on the Ascendant Justice that never fell into Covenant hands it was only her improved navigation through slipspace that they captured and than used. Durandal-217 02:25, November 11, 2009 (UTC)

Halo 3: ODST
In ODST the Covenant vessels are said to be 'charging their excavational beams' before they perform the low level glassing as seen in Halo 3. Molotovsniper 21:38, September 25, 2009 (UTC)

Restoration?
Is there any known way to restore a glassed planet? Tell me if there's any canonical way mentioned but I have one theoretical way.

Since the planet is now mostly composed of a glass-like material, eventual erosion, or simply convental bombing with solid projectiles, will break it all up into sand. After that, one needs to plant a lot of desert-hardy plants, like cactuses, so that the area starts to retain water better. Since condesation cycle has been heavily disrupted, the planet is still going to undergo nuclear winters, but eventual holding of water by plants and the sand being able to trap in heat better is going to cause it to melt and instead, the planet will simply undergo massive planetary floods.

As for the return of soil, that is a lot harder, as you simply can't really change sand but decomposition of dead animals and plants may eventually start forming peat, a sub-ancestor of soil.

Eventually, you going to result in a planet with a largely monolithic biosphere, with a lot of sand and sand plants, maybe even sand trees!, if genetics can create those in the 26th. The planet is going to flood a lot, though the ratio of it may start lessening each decade with the returning atmosphere. You don't really get the same planet as before, but it's a start. It'll just take a REALLY long time, though. Does this theory sound resonable?Tuckerscreator 19:14, October 17, 2009 (UTC)


 * There is no way to restore a planet to its previous state once its been glassed. Period. Durandal-217 22:49, October 17, 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe by terraforming the planet which would take more than a few decades to complete?-  5 əb'7 aŋk (7alk ) 22:51, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

That's exactly what I suggested. Did you read my theory, Durandal?Tuckerscreator 22:52, October 17, 2009 (UTC)


 * Thing is, the animals aren't there to decompose, they were turned to ashes. Of course, there is another way, remove said glass, and started breaking the rocks under neath...

But then you gotta remember, the atmosphere is burnt out by the flames. ~Enlightment~ 23:00, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

You just import the animals. First bring herbivores to regulate the plants, then carnivores to regulate those, etc. As for the atmosphere, that also has to be imported in the sense, while the plants and animals take care of the greenhouse gases, you'll probably need shipments others like hydrogen regurlarly until they been being recycled by the plants there. Might take a good century to fix.Tuckerscreator 23:07, October 17, 2009 (UTC)


 * Soil problem solved! Since the ashy soot left from the initial burning is comparable to volcanic soil, which is among the richest of all soils... well, it's pretty self explanatory, so the cooling of the atmosphere will allow us to harvest it!Tuckerscreator 23:11, October 17, 2009 (UTC)

Colony reclamation would be an attractive prospect for the UNSC, but I don't see how it could happen in the immediate future, for a number of reasons;


 * 1.) The glassed crust would need to be completely removed, exposing bare bedrock, and a layer of soil added in its stead. I don't see any feasible way of generating enough soil to cover an entire planet.
 * 2.) The climate cycle has been completely annihilated, and if there is any atmosphere left it is going to be likewise shot to hell, with a hell of a lot of carbon. Atmosphere reclamation may be possible in the future, but there's little humanity can do to affect the weather.

Reclamation may not be an option, but that doesn't exclude the colonisation of previously unprofitable planets that were overlooked by the UNSC in favour of the better-suited colonies like Harvest, already perfectly inhabitable. However, there are still huge problems that need to be surmounted;


 * 3.) With the human race reduced to a couple of hundred million, there simply aren't enough colonists to make colonisation a worthwhile enterprise. Neither would the UNSC want to spread its few remaining citizens across a small empire, still vulnerable.
 * 4.) Even if all of that could be overcome technologically, in terms of resources and manpower there are simply more important things to focus on first, such as the restoration of the military to a state where it is able to protect human interests, the reconstruction of civilian infrastructure, and the changeover from a military junta to a democratic government. Throwing money and manpower at a lost cause has never been popular.

And, for the record, by "sand plants" I'm assuming you mean plants that can survive in an arid, sandy environment - they have existed for millions of years, and are already being used in reclamation projects, though decidedly local in nature. Beaches exist only because of sand dunes, which in turn rely on various species of grass for coherence. Beachgoers trample those plants, destroying the dunes, and ruin the beach - the reintroduction of those plants restores the dunes.--  Administrator  Specops306  -   Qur'a 'Morhek   09:36, November 24, 2009 (UTC)


 * It is true that adding soil would be an extremely difficult thing to do, and I don’t think that’s practical to do so. But that’s not what my theory was saying, rather it was suggesting that one could bombard the planet with MACs so that the glass gets crushed into sand, then planting plants that are suited for arid environments. The “nuclear snow” could provide water, and the plants themselves could be kept in a greenhouse while the gases they create are regularly released into the air, to recreate the atmosphere. You’ll end up essentially with a sand planet with lots of plants, but it’s a temporary solution until when more animals can be introduced, allowing their dead bodies and the igneous ash to be used as soil. It will still take a VERY long time, and some problems will still come up though, like creation of an ozone layer, and other matters but it’s a start. Sorry if it sounds like I’m re-stating the hole thing but I think I need to make it a bit clearer about how exactly it would go. Anything else I’ve missed?Tuckerscreator 22:16, December 6, 2009 (UTC)

Human power
It is incredible what the human race can do in times of crisis. XXVI century is a fact that we are beyond what we believe. One thing is to reconstruct the worlds destroyed by the Human-Covenant War. Many think it is hard but in my opinion is a big challenge to be overcome. The union is strength.--H A L O Legend 20:43, October 19, 2009 (UTC)

In the trailer of the game of Halo: Reach observes that the Covenant I attack the planet but, according to my observation determine that glassed part of the surface, and not the whole planet like was thinking, but if he was one of the mas affected during the war. My conclusion is that the irresolute planets were not so affected, like that the human population did the possible thing to survive. You prop according to the history, the UNSC I leave the planet after recovering it but a faction Covenant still has to protecting it. If there were glassed the whole planet, the serious atmosphere difficult to tolerate for the life. But as all they know " what does not kill you, it does you mas strongly "--H A L O Legend 23:12, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

??? Could you clean this up please? Because I'm having a bit of a hard time understanding some of it. Anyways:

1. You determined from a trailer about a minute and a half long that the Covenant didn't glass the whole planet how?

2. You concluded from one low end glassing (there is a Forerunner relic on Reach)that Humans who the Covenant are wiping from the face of the galaxy survived on worlds hit with enough firepower to boil the oceans and atmosphere away and reach to an unknown depth of the crust?

ProphetofMercy 10:18, December 5, 2009 (UTC)

Habitable
Is a glassed planet habitable? I thought it drained the atmosphere into space, but in Halo Wars, there are still people on Harvest. Teh lolz! Bionicle+Lotr 02:13, October 22, 2009 (UTC)


 * In most cases no, they are not. Once a planet is glassed completely the atmosphere begins to slowly boil away, after a day its gone and you are left with in a sense a skeleton of a once lush and beautiful world. However the Covenant in some exceptions will take out key strategic locations of a planet to gain access to an area or object of interest - Reach is a fine example of this. However from the moment the Covenant begin destroying key elements that make a planet habitable it is slowly dieing. Halo Wars didn't get that right at all. Durandal-217 02:41, October 22, 2009 (UTC)


 * Neither did Contant Harvest, it seems. Unless of course, Halo Wars did get it right.--  Fore  run  ner  22:27, December 6, 2009 (UTC)

Atmosphere boiling away? lol!
I read this article earlier and I felt the need to offer a tidbit of info; Glassed planets WOULD NOT lose their atmosphere, even a little! This statement is getting more and more annoying as time goes by, for one reason, Earth has had worse than glassing happen to it's surface over it's 4.6 billion year history. several times.

Most will not know what I am referring to (no offence guys!), but the story goes like this:

100 million years after Earth had cooled and condensed in it's current orbit, it was being pummeled by asteroids, comets and planetesmials during the "Early Heavy bombardment". During this time, Earth had a nearly 50 bar (50 atmospheres) atmosphere of hydrogen, helium, neon, methane, Carbon Dioxide, and many other pollutants. This atmosphere was heated to well over 5000 degrees Celsius by the constant bombardment by these asteroids for millions of years. The culmination of this peroid ended with a smashing of the Mars-sized protoplanet Theia into Earth, Sending super heated material out into space to form rings, and later, the moon.This massive impact devastated the Earth, sending it's atmosphere into orbit, vapourizing it's oceans and killing it's microbes in a single day, much like glassing in Halo.The temprature of Earth rose to Twenty Thousnad Degrees and still, the atmosphere was forced away by the impact, not the heat of the impact.

But the atmosphere returned, the oceans refilled their basins, and microbes, somehow, survived the global catastrophe. Read this and tell me that the air of a planet would boil away after a buch of squids in hollowed-out peices of metal send arcs of plasma to the surface, try it, I dare you.

Sorry for the rant, but it was neccesary to dispel of the "Bad Science" in this fact. Have a good night guys, and I'll see you on halo :)
 * Note that the above is still a theory/hypothesis and should not be taken as fact.-  <font color="#FF4F00">5 əb<font color="#FF4F00">'7 aŋk (<font color="#FF4F00">7alk ) 01:06, November 11, 2009 (UTC)

1. It is a canon fact that the Covenant are able to remove the atmosphere of planets and the power to do so is well within in their reach.

2. Proof that oceans had formed by that time and life existed. As I recall Earth had yet to cool down enough for oceans to exist and life had yet to form. A Mars size planet would have easily wiped out all life on a planet. And once again it is canon in the Haloverse and Covenant have more than enough firepower.

To farther prove my point, here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/History_of_the_Earth

And anyways off the top of my head you only need about 3.3 x 10^26 J to accelerate the mass of the atmosphere to escape velocity. Which happens to be an order of magnitude short of the 3.5e27 J required to boil the oceans away. Only problem is the atmosphere would not be gone until the next day in the TFoR quote, but can be reconcile it with the fact that a new atmosphere composed of vapourised crust and ocean would replace the first.

The only one here with "bad Science" is you. And even if you were right than it would be you vs Halo canon.

ProphetofMercy 08:58, November 22, 2009 (UTC)

What gives Mercy? I don't recall kicking your dog or punching your wife (or husband), i appreciate the response, but hold it on the emotive response. If I am wrong, I am wrong, as long as you can prove it (which you very satisfactorily attempted to do!), but I don't use this site to be insulted, nor did I use this site to insult canon/Bungie or you. And to respond to your vigorous rebuking of my theory (scientific theory)

1. You are correct in this regard, the Covenant are capable of removing the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet, but not via normal glassing. It would be necessary to heat the air to millions (literally dozens/hundreds of millions) of degrees centigrade in order to sufficiently excite the atmospheric molecules enough to reach escape velocity (10.735 km/s relative to Earth's rotation). This would require far more power than simply Burning the planet with cooler plasma, but would achieve the same effect, rendering the planet uninhabitable, rendering it worthless to the UNSC but allowing much easier reclamation should the covenant decide to utilize the planet for whatever reason in the future (supply depot/dump?)

2. Using the wikipedia article you provided I read a helpful observation, and I quote: "As the planet cooled, clouds formed. Rain gave rise to the oceans. Recent evidence suggests the oceans may have begun forming by 4.2 Ga.[22] At the start of the Archaean eon, the Earth was already covered with oceans." look at the "Origin of the oceans and atmosphere" section in your provided article. Also, the Mars-sized planetoid Theia hit Earth a mere 70-100 million years after the formation of the solar system, before the Earth cooled and had oceans, and before life. Life was found (in the form of microfossils) to have lived, at a reasonably advanced level, 3.6 billion years ago. This necessitates that life have arisen Earlier, and according to some ideas,, possibly even before 4 billion years, while the water was contaminated and hot. Even if Theia were to have impacted Earth, life would have survived, if not on Earth but above it. Life forms have been found by miners in South Africa more than a kilometer underground, these would survive practically any impact. Even if the crust were to be blown into space, at least some bacteria would survive inside jettisoned rocks in space, as several species can withstand hundreds of G's of acceleration (with a high fatality rate). These rocks would rain on Earth and reseed it with life, even if it were reduced to a single microbe in population, it would give rise to the whole diversity of life yesterday (metaphorically), today and tomorrow.

Your "off the top of your head" rates are close to correct, but you are mistaken for what the aftermath would be. If Earth's atmosphere were to be boiled away today, 99% of life on the planet would die, aside from extremophile bacteria underground, but the air would return. If the air were blown off, the rarefied molecules of gas would trail in Earth orbit for several years, at a slightly lower speed than Earth orbits. The gas would "fall" into the planets gravity well and be reincorporated into the atmosphere as it cooled off. The air would return, the water would come next (as it was present in the gas trail as it evaporated), and maybe, just maybe, life would one day return to the surface to begin anew. Planets have a certain love for their atmosphere, which will part them only if blown away by the solar wind, which has insufficient strength to blown all the air away at Earth's orbital distance.( this presumes the planet orbits a yellow star, which ours does)

One more thing, the Covenant does indeed have the capability to completely devastate a planet, stripping it's atmosphere away, but then again, so does the UNSC, The Flood, Even we primitive beings could do it at sufficiently high levels of effort.(via directed asteroids/mass drivers). Ironically, the UNSC's Magnetic Accelerator Cannons would make better bombardment weapons than the Covenant plasma lances and pulses, as the massive kinetic impact would devastate hundreds of kilometers and blast away the atmosphere, while the plasma would simply raze.

So before you say I have bad science, read up on it and do some homework, cause' Bungie and company/writers/developers/artists have this wrong. The covie's may actually purposefully drain the atmosphere to render it even more worthless, but this wouldn’t be done with plasma, but probably an unseen-unmentioned weapon/tool that certain Covenant bring in after the battle. so.....yeah :).--UAFS 01:58, December 21, 2009 (UTC)UAFS

Evolutions
From what I read in Halo: Evolutions, it looks like complete glassing is only reserved for special occasions, due to the tremendous effort required. This seems to reconcile the fact that the UNSC originally had 800 colonies, but only 76 were glassed. All the others were only partially bombarded to take out population and military centers. It seems like this would make the UNSC's post-war reclamation efforts vastly easier as well. As for the misconception that every conquered planet was glassed, it is easy to see why the humans would think that, due to the limited contact they had with their planets after they fell to the covenant.
 * That is what I have thought all along, but now we finally have evidence. Thank you. --Fluffball Gato 05:32, December 2, 2009 (UTC)
 * It's really more of a retcon, Nylund made it very clear in Fall of Reach and First Strike that the Covenant were always very thorough and didn't leave a single square centimeter un-glassed.--Jugus 06:09, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

Could you post the section on glassing from it that talks about this please? Also the UNSC only had 17-21 major population centers; the rest were just about anything like asteroids etc.etc. from the Halo Enc. (have to double check later though)... know off to email Bungie to try and get glassing retcon back to TFoR and FS type. On second thought though it could just be that planets like Reach were closer to normal glassing since we know the Covenant have Plasma torps with a yield of 1 Teraton of TNT for standard yield (based off fact that ship MAC is 1.17 TT of TNT) so the glassing that put it at 77 TT per torp (assuming 1 minute recharge rate for pg. 8 of TFoR off of just the oceans being vapped) can just be the Covenant showing off for any UNSC forces still around.

207.200.116.133 08:29, December 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * In the story The Return, it says that the prohpets had the shipmaster glass the Covenant symbol of faith into the world, then have them glass remaining armies and population centers, which is said to a common act.--Sgt.T.N.Biscuits 17:51, December 8, 2009 (UTC)

2 questions
A few questions about glassing, I hope you don’t mind 1. Does lechatelierite have any known use or function or is it just refuse? And how is it different compared to actual glass? 2. Do the Covenant have any mentioned way of restoring a glassed area? Seems like that would be useful events like the Grunt rebellion.(I have a theory about glassing restoration above. Check it out if you haven’t read it.)Tuckerscreator 22:24, December 6, 2009 (UTC)

Well the Balaho was never glassed, the Covenant don't seem to care about restoring worlds tainted by heresy, so it is doubtful they have a way to reverse the destruction of a planet's surface. Also the Prophets seem content to exploit the universe as long as they make a gain. So again doubtful. And if you wanna know more about lechatelierite go on wikipedia, it is glass, the "actual glass" you may be referring to is probably the purified version we use. And on that note, the Covenant don't use the glass for anything, they take a piece and install in in a macabre chandelier in High Charity and leave the world behind. ProphetofTruth 18:50, December 8, 2009 (UTC)