[quote]Who was the ONI ship able to travel to the ark if the portal was destroyed?[/quote] The portal closed, it wasn't destroyed. Back in 2009, 343 released Halo: Evolutions - a collection of short stories set during various points in the Halo universe. One of these stories was set in 2553 following the end of the Human-Covenant war, and in this story it's established that the portal is closed but is still mysteriously drawing power from an unknown source and ONI are sending teams down into it to investigate. Even so, they didn't actually need the portal to get to the Ark - they know where it is now, using conventional slipspace travel just means that it's going to take longer to get there and since Primordium's modern day parts are set in 2557 there's a 4 year difference between this and the Evolutions story. [quote]Plus if the ark was destroyed by the halo ring then who could they have landed on the ark on the first place?[/quote] The Ark wasn't destroyed, just critically damaged. In 2012, 343 released the Eleventh Hour reports - a series of ONI communiques regarding the state of various parts of the Halo universe in the lead-up to Halo 4's release. One of these reports covers the Rubicon's examination of the Ark's remains before it disappeared. [quote]We dispatched an isolation contact group [L3-08] to the site. Upon entering the debris field, the group was immediately pinged by a non-standard, heterogenic signal emanating from the structure’s surface – or, at least, what remained of it after the event. Following protocol, the contact group released probes [839] into the debris field. Once it was deemed secure by composite scans conducted over the course of 3.7 days, UNSC RUBICON was deployed from Luna. Aboard were a number of high-risk, remote contact teams [RCT] outfitted for deployment to the construct’s surface. Without the installation’s artificial sun operating at full capacity, navigating the debris field for insertion was difficult – navigating the installation’s surface itself was even more difficult. The damage was... traumatic. Habitability sustainment systems were still active in some locations, but were operating intermittently and in a state of disrepair – a factor that generated extremely volatile weather conditions. Some indigenous [if it can be called that] fauna may have survived the event, but RCTs were strictly advised to avoid all potentially hostile life forms. After 8.4 days, all contact with RCTs was severed. Only one [RCT-06] returned, suffering extensive casualties. They brought back a severely damaged armature, which appeared to be the original source of the signal. Initially, there was a strong suspicion of this armature’s origin, but local science teams undertook an aggressive node cultivation process to withdraw data from the device and determine, with veracity, its actual origin. All communications with the UNSC RUBICON halted within 48 hours of their last notice. Search and rescue teams have been deployed to the site, but have reported no findings yet.[/quote] [quote]Lastly, how were they able to find a fragment of Guilty Spark when he was destroyed on the halo ring by Master Chief?[/quote] It's stated that Spark's carapace was [i]severely[/i] damaged, but not wholly destroyed.