lore-and-universe

[empty bloom]

Which means, retroactively, that ship in the background might be a terraforming vessel.

[terse sage]

It can't be Cortana because she's dead

[empty bloom]

Good question, IIRC that's actually not really either-it's like Chief being 9ft tall for one cutscene.

[terse sage]

Which cutscene?

[empty bloom]

End of Halo 4

[terse sage]

When she towers over Palmer?

[empty bloom]

Where he's towering over Palmer, who's canonically only a few inches shorter, yeah.

[terse sage]

So you think that both of those aren't canon?

If it happened, Halsey would be 97 years old

[empty bloom]

Well, we know the latter isn't. The Halsey voiceover doesn't make a lot of sense in character for her, but I think it could actually make sense from the perspective of Cortana, talking well before her death in an in-memorium at some point, maybe even the second she was made whole again.

(Like, when Six dropped off the tube)

[terse sage]

So she recorded that when she was reunited aboard the Pillar of Autumn?

[empty bloom]

Could be.

It's either that or something that makes 0 sense.

As it's not really in character for Halsey IMO.

[terse sage]

And if she gives the speech on the date given when we see the terraforming, Halsey is 97

But it doesn't make sense for it to be Cortana on the Pillar of Autumn because she mentions Halo

[empty bloom]

Yeah. It's like how we know Atriox wasn't at the assembly regarding the Iso-Didact in Halo Infinite.

Eh, then a bit after, fudge it a little. There was a lot of time for her to reflect.

[terse sage]

Between First Strike and Halo 2?

[empty bloom]

I mean, there is travel time.

And AI think way faster than people do.

They largely process things in a comprehensible way for the human's benefit more than they do because they have to.

Wait... Huh.

... Considering the Created had a mandate for terraforming and fixing worlds, I think it's possible that it can be hijacked for the Created plotline.

As the last line-"We will rebuild"-wouldn't make sense in the war, but after Cortana was resurrected, it was a priority of her platform.

[terse sage]

Perhaps

[empty bloom]

And tie that to the Forerunner object on Halo Infinite's Oasis...

[terse sage]

The terraforming engine?

[empty bloom]

Which is a Terraformer canonically started by a Created.

So... Yeah. I'm actually deadset on theorizing the positioning of the speech, regardless of what the subtitles say, it makes the most sense for a Created Cortana to say it.

[terse sage]

You should post your spartan theory in show and tell

[empty bloom]

I'm gonna pretty it up.

[terse sage]

What is your theory for how the Road team died?

Wraith?

[empty bloom]

Most likely yeah

[terse sage]

So do you think that all of the spartans combined took the Covenant a whole army instead of just Noble 6?

[empty bloom]

Yes.

It'd be more consistent with Spartan abilities as well, frankly.

[empty bloom]

BTW if you replay Reach, do it without any music

At least for cutscenes

The start and end hit different.

[terse sage]

It does hit diffferent

[indigo arch]

Question

If all the spartan candidates survived their training, augmentations, and whatever else, how much did f the current lore would change?

All the spartan 2s I mean

[unique rune]

Probably not much

[plush compass]

I mean double the amount of spartan 2’s would mean a lot more Spartans and more victories and stuff

[unique rune]

Double the amount of S-IIs is still only like 75 S-IIs

[plush compass]

But still a lot of the battles in the war were in space and Spartans couldn’t do too much while essentially a 17th century redcoat battle but with gigantic slugs of metal and plasma flying everywhere

[unique rune]

Their victories were largely on the ground and mostly irrelevant because a Covenant fleet could just burn any of their successes away

[plush compass]

Yeah the Spartans did a lot of their damage when space warfare just wasn’t an option like on the Halos

The covies wouldn’t glass those

[unique rune]

Spartan-II didn’t have enough personnel to make that big a difference in the bigger picture.

Hell, Spartan-III’s main thing was to drag out the war just a little bit longer so someone could figure out something that would work long-term. And buy the UNSC a bit more time is all they really were able to achieve even with full 300/330-man classes.

It’s worth remembering that the only thing that really saved humanity was the Covenant started tearing itself to bits right when it did. Even with that going on, Truth still nearly succeeded.

[terse sage]

What if the original 150 candidates were all conscripted and were successfully augmented?

Still probably wouldn't do much of a difference

[plush compass]

I think the main thing that won humanity in the end was the Cole Protocol and the convenient Great Schism

[terse sage]

Cole Protocol in the end didn't succeed

[plush compass]

Yeah they did eventually find earth and Reach

[terse sage]

It's objective was to keep the Covenant from finding worlds like Earth and Reach

[plush compass]

But only after 3 decades did it fail

[terse sage]

They would have found them regardless

[unique rune]

Well, again, see: Spartan-III. You’d be extending the war by another year or two, at best.

[plush compass]

Yeah but if the Cole Protocol weren’t there the covies might’ve found earth even sooner

So really everything humanity did in the war really was just trying to drag it on

[terse sage]

The UNSC probably never had a real chance without the Great Schism

[unique rune]

Spartans were the UNSC’s best chance at fighting Covenant ground forces on even footing, but it all just comes to the Covenant having technological and numerical superiority.

[terse sage]

The Covenant had seemingly endless amounts of ships, all of which are better than UNSC ones

To the point where losing 500 ships isn't THAT big of a deal

[plush compass]

Yeah the covenant weren’t even waging all out war against humanity

[terse sage]

Meanwhile the UNSC losing 500 ships would be devastating

[plush compass]

They had the banished and other rebels fighting them

And they were more focused on finding forerunner trinkets and killing any humans that came with them

[terse sage]

I think the Covenant were definitely focused on eliminating Humanity

They sorta ignored the Banished, which is why they grew to be so powerful in the post-war era

[plush compass]

I guess so

[terse sage]

The war was very destructive for the Covenant too, but they still absolutely would have won without the Great Schism

Or the Flood

[plush compass]

It just seems weird how there’s like hundreds of ships the covenant has as we see around Delta Halo and High Charity yet they really didn’t send much ships in many battles

[terse sage]

The Covenant fleet on the Ark did seem a bit small

[empty bloom]

Spartan IIs were useful but they weren't war winners by themselves. There's a grand irony to the solution ONI had to the Insurrection regarding the Carver files.

(And before someone says Chief, Armor cannot move without the ships to move it.)

[plush compass]

Like in Sigma Oceanus Iv where they sent only 4 ships initially.

[terse sage]

That's because a lot of them remained behind trying (in vain) to quarantine High Charity

[empty bloom]

High Charity would've been an absolute nightmare.

Brutes and Elites would've coordinated to stop one flood infestation threat only to immediately go back to shooting at eachother.

[plush compass]

Actually Sigma Oceanus isn’t really good because it was just a trick

[empty bloom]

Every weapon station would've been abandoned, stormed, stolen, retaken, and there would never be a guarantee.

[terse sage]

Meanwhile no one can leave due to the quarantine

[indigo arch]

Reason I asked was because I’m trying to make a mostly lore accurate halo universe where all the spartan 2 cadets survived. Except for those already dead in lore

[empty bloom]

You really wouldn't have anything but more Spartan IIs dying.

[plush compass]

Is the quarantine a military quarantine or is there like a system that completely locks High charity down literally?

[empty bloom]

Military Quarantine, considering many civilian ships were successfully getting away.

[plush compass]

Oh

[terse sage]

One time having more Spartan II's would be benefitial is the Fall of Reach

[plush compass]

Because I’m kinda confused on how The Flood didn’t just spread everywhere once it had High Charity

[terse sage]

More II's on the ground gives a slightly higher chance of defending the generators

[plush compass]

Considering the Flood had enough control over it to direct it to the Ark somehow

[empty bloom]

They were going to go down no matter what. The only matter was time.

[terse sage]

They would have slowed it down more

Giving the MACs in orbit the chance to kill more ships

Reach would fall either way, but the Covenant would have higher losses

[empty bloom]

Yes, but I don't think it would've ultimately changed much unless they hit something significant.

You would have lost less overall II experience, though, which would've had some likely benefits to the IV program.

And the biggest benefit actually would not be overall skill-it'd be more teachers to teach more Spartans.

As I imagine that was actually a very large bottleneck; Attrition of skilled field-experienced Spartan personnel.

There's only so many people someone can train at once.

[terse sage]

You gotta feel bad for your average Army Trooper or Marine

[plush compass]

Yeah the ground troops had it really hard

[empty bloom]

I'm mildly comforted that we know in hindsight that plasma isn't quite as lethal as it used to be considered (A troop takes a burst of a pulse carbine to the chest in Rubicon Protocol and strips off his breastplate, so regular armor works well enough).

[terse sage]

Still has to hurt like hell though

[empty bloom]

It's mentioned as such yeah

[plush compass]

Covenant ships were superior in space combat but grunts, jackals, and brutes especially are savages and wouldn’t just kill the human soldiers, they’d rip them to shreds alive and then bite their faces off

[empty bloom]

Or bite their faces off and then eat them alive.

[terse sage]

Brutes like to... play with their food

[wispy schooner]

ok so what's the deal witb cortana and mc

[empty bloom]

They should've written the Halo Cookbook from the Brute perspective and replaced all the meat with pork.

[wispy schooner]

very new to the series and i tried 4 and infinite campaigns first

[terse sage]

"Today we will be cooking the Reach Special"

[wispy schooner]

though i know the major events and characters

[empty bloom]

Do you think 343 could ever swing that? Some nice little reference to long pig in a Banished theme cookbook?

God

I'd love that

We know Jackals also eat a lot of what looks like seafood

[terse sage]

We know what Grunts eat

Specifically what they eat from

[empty bloom]

We also know it has the smell of cheese and the texture of spray can cheese.

[empty bloom]

Where do you want to begin.

[terse sage]

UNSC still eats MREs from what I remember

[plush compass]

They also name their schools after the food

[plush compass]

Naw Chief eats nuts and bolts

[wispy schooner]

i dont know, but from what i can tell cortana is a huge focus in most of the campaigns

[empty bloom]

I just realized that I'm so used to playing Halo Reach on Heroic or higher, that I didn't know the jackal doesn't spawn in the start of nightfall on normal.

[wispy schooner]

mc is like obsessed with her in some way

[terse sage]

Honestly that only becomes a major plot point in 4

[wispy schooner]

yea cuz she's like dying basically

right

[empty bloom]

Master Chief is basically a very lonely and nonsociable soul. Cortana is the 'person' he's had the most connection with in his entire life, so they're very close-her with the original lifespan of a mayfly, and him with the social skills of a stunted grapefruit plant.

[terse sage]

The other spartans?

[wispy schooner]

arent they uh

deceased

lmao

[empty bloom]

Depends on gen. You know the Spartan gens?

[terse sage]

Play halo 5 poixone

[empty bloom]

IIs are nearly all dead, IIIs are also nearly all dead, IVs are the up and comers but also had a lot die recently.

[terse sage]

There are a decent amount of II's still alive

[empty bloom]

I SAID NEARLY

Though I wouldn't consider like... Seven, maybe ten at most, a lot.

[terse sage]

Master Chief, Blue Team, Naomi, Red Team, Omega Team

[wispy schooner]

sorta

[terse sage]

Thats at least 11 and I think I missed a few

[wispy schooner]

i know mc is a spartan ii no?

[empty bloom]

Yes.

[terse sage]

That's 10 other spartans Master Chief is connected with

[plush compass]

Gen 1 is soldiers enhanced with steroids and neural stuff; Gen 2 is the kidnapped children; gen 3 is kidnapped orphans; gen 4 is volunteered veterans and stuff

[empty bloom]

What's funny is

I never got why people hated IVs because of the whole "Volunteered soldier" thing

[plush compass]

By gen I mean not the Mjolnir gen

[terse sage]

I like IV's personally

[plush compass]

The actual spartan Gen.

[empty bloom]

Like, I know they weren't raised from a young age for it, but... They literally follow the original project's goals to the letter.

Augmented consenting adults.

Like, those three words alone make them more palatable.

Other reasons, fine, I get it, subjectivity is crap like that, whatever.

But age?

[plush compass]

So you all remember Halo 4’s prologue right?

[wispy schooner]

arent all the other iis dead tho

[terse sage]

Most of the others are either dead or crippled

[plush compass]

Where Halsey talks about how the ends justified the goals and stuff?

[wispy schooner]

yea

i remember that

[plush compass]

When did she start thinking that?

[dusty ferry]

Probably the second she started working on the project

[plush compass]

Because in the first book about the Spartan program she voices a lot of distaste towards all of it

She tries to delay the augmentations

[terse sage]

She also carries regret over it

[gilded mason]

Blue, Red, Gray, Naomi, and maybe three from Omega are still alive. Along with Maria, Musa, and Osman.

[terse sage]

Oh yeah I knew I forgot some

Gray Team is also active

[plush compass]

But agrees because Deja convinces her that if she doesn’t, someone worse will instead

[terse sage]

Bringing the total up to 14

[dusty ferry]

Of what, 40 or whatever

[terse sage]

But Red Team aren't currently in contact with anyone in the UNSC

Because the Spirit of Fire is stranded on the Ark

Originally 75

[dusty ferry]

how many S-II’s successfully got augmented anyway

[gilded mason]

That's a complicated question

[plush compass]

And Soren is technically not confirmed dead

[terse sage]

33

[gilded mason]

Since some washed but then were able to get re-augmented

[dusty ferry]

So like, 11 out of 33

[terse sage]

Red Team are all washouts who were successfully re-augmented

[dusty ferry]

That’s a 33% survival rate

Honestly, expected a lot worse

[plush compass]

No 33 basically perfectly got out, and the rest of the 75 either died or got crippled like Fahad

Or wait do you mean 11 survived the war

[dusty ferry]

Yeah, I was only counting the successful augmented versus how many are left

[terse sage]

Technically 18 survived the war

[plush compass]

Oh

[terse sage]

4 were killed by the Didact

[plush compass]

Black team

[terse sage]

Yep

[dusty ferry]

Rip black team

You showed up

[terse sage]

So 14 surviving II's, with 11 being in contact with the main UNSC

[plush compass]

I only know that they were killed by the didact and they teamed up with a drone once

[dusty ferry]

That’s probably all the lore on them

[plush compass]

And also the drone had no legs and betrayed them

[terse sage]

We don't know how many Spartan III's are alive do we?

[plush compass]

Well Jun probably is

So at least 1

[dusty ferry]

Isn’t Rosa or whatever also still around. (Cqc helmet person)

So like 2/600ish if we pretend Gamma isn’t real

[terse sage]

Rosenda?

[dusty ferry]

Probably

I forgot her name beyond it starting with an r

[terse sage]

According to Halopedia she survived

[dusty ferry]

I can’t really think of any more, but my S-III lore is rusty

[terse sage]

Ghosts of Onyx is one of the best Halo books imo

[plush compass]

I need to read that one

[dusty ferry]

Like. I’m 70% sure that Gamma had a lot of survivors, but I don’t know

[plush compass]

I’ve only read the Fall of Reach and the Flood but I’ve seen a lot of lore videos and read Halopedia a bit

[dusty ferry]

I only read the first kilo 5 book myself, but I have warfleet and mythos and the new encyclopedia

[plush compass]

Actually I have read Halo Evolutions

Pretty good

And about the Spartans again I noticed something in the Fall of Reach that seems inconsistent

In the Sigma Octanus section Keyes reads a paper by Spartan Fahad about slipspace and it refers to him as Fhajad 034 on the paper

But Samuel was Spartan 34 wasn’t and Fjahad was 84

I guess it’s a typo

[gilded mason]

Most likely

[empty bloom]

Ayo Ostral

[gilded mason]

👋

[empty bloom]

Wanna hear my theory on Halsey's dialogue at the end of Halo Reach

[gilded mason]

Sure

[plush compass]

But clearly they didn’t fix it because my copy of the book is newer and I’ve also seen an ebook that also has the same error

[empty bloom]

Halsey's Dialogue is Created!Cortana's dialogue, because it makes more sense.

Because Created!Cortana's platform is literally "Utopia and terraforming"

[gilded mason]

Huh, interesting. So I guess that speech would have been earlier than 2589, then?

[plush compass]

Yeah the dialogue might take place at a different time than the visuals

Like with the Infinite legendary ending and the Halo 4 ending in general

[dusty ferry]

committed to checking, we have like 9/900ish

[plush compass]

And about the Infinite Legendary ending we better be seeing Offensive Bias in the next game

[empty bloom]

As Honse said, yeah.

[plush compass]

There’s no reason they’d mention that he was deployed a few hundred thousand years ago unless he was still there on zeta halo

[empty bloom]

Part of my theory is that the ship in the background would be post-Created.

As it's, y'know

20 years after the UNSC-in-Exile is a thing.

[gilded mason]

👍

[plush compass]

I like Halo Reach’s campaign a lot

But it kind of creates a few inconsistencies

Off topic though you gotta respect the marines on the mongoose in top of the spear

[empty bloom]

Soldiers.

They're Soldiers.

[fair hazel]

Troopers

[empty bloom]

I hope we get a Halo where UNSCAF shines.

[terse sage]

Are the MAC platforms around Earth the same ones at Reach?

[olive inlet]

Omg

Guys

[empty bloom]

Yes, in a sense.

[terse sage]

Because in that case, why are the ones at Reach so much more effective?

[empty bloom]

The ones over Earth are mostly written from Bungie's perspective, not the lore team of 343/Microsoft.

[terse sage]

Because on Reach, a single MAC platform can take out a Covenant ship in 1 shot

On Earth, a Covenant carrier just shrugs off rounds and keeps going

[empty bloom]

Different authors, my man.

Best I can tell you.

[terse sage]

i know, but from a lore perspective it hurts

[timid oar]

I just take things as a recount of the events rather then trying to fit every piece of canon together

something as simple as Spartans having different colour armour just doesnt make sense to me, but obviously in a video game it looks cool

but like something like the diadact taunting Chief as he gets closer and closer is just so absurd that in my head cannon the diadact just isn't paying attention and chief sneaks up on him

but i find if you take that approach, it doesnt hurt so much

[unique rune]

Different models. Earth’s Moncton-class ODPs are all self-contained units, different from Reach’s Eröd-class with their ground-based generators and higher-powered SMACs.

Officially, the Eröds have only been visually depicted with the fairly nonspecific “MAC Platform” models from Fleet Battles, which were in turn presumably based on the Moncton-class from H2/A, so for now they do look similar.

[orchid kettle]

Its also just because in a book, you can say there's 33 identical Spartans because the narrator will always know if its Fred, Kelly, Linda, or whomever

But in a visual medium like a game, comic, or movie-- you need some sort of obvious visual difference to tell who's who

One of the Reach overhaul mods makes every member of Noble Team olive green like Jun, and it gets really hard to tell which member is which in the heat of combat

[terse sage]

So are the Moncton's less powerful than the Erods?

[unique rune]

More or less

[terse sage]

Interesting

What if Reach had more ODPs? Would that have changed anything?

[unique rune]

Probably not a whole lot

[orchid kettle]

I think if the Covenant really want you dead, there simply aren't enough ODPs in the universe

[unique rune]

They’d be able to hold out a bit longer but the UNSC’s ground forces would’ve been overrun eventually, negating the greater ODP numbers

[terse sage]

If Earth had 300 Erods and not Monctons, what might have made a difference

[scarlet hinge]

probably not

both OWP classes fall to the same fundamental weakness - near-useless effect against massed dropships

[terse sage]

Then position the ships and longswords to intercept the dropships

[scarlet hinge]

all it takes is for landing parties to destroy one generator building or planet a single antimatter charge to create a hole in the grid

[scarlet hinge]

i'm sure it's just as simple as doing that

[terse sage]

I know it's not but it would help

[scarlet hinge]

and that the UNSC are dummies for not just doing it, the silly gooses they are

[orchid kettle]

The Covenant probably then deploy Banshees and Seraphs to intercept the interceptors

and I assume like every other aspect of space battling, the Covenant Seraph has the edge over the Longsword

[terse sage]

The Sabre held it's own against Seraphs on Reach

[scarlet hinge]

the sabre was a cutting-edge piece of hardware that was only available in extremely limited quantities

[orchid kettle]

The Sabre was a super cool prototype thing

[scarlet hinge]

the Y in the YSS-1000 designation it had at the time is an indicator of prototype testing phase

[orchid kettle]

Its like Prototype from Halo Legends

[scarlet hinge]

as of Infinite, that YSS-1000 has been changed to FSS-1000 to reflect that its now in widespread active service

[orchid kettle]

it kicks a lot of "fanny"

but you cant give it to every marine

[terse sage]

If Reach had even a few, could it be possible that Earth had at least a couple?

[scarlet hinge]

nothing outlaws it, but nothing states it

but evidently it wasn't enough to make much of a difference

[orchid kettle]

I keep forgetting we have to type like this server is for pre schoolers

[scarlet hinge]

it's been stated a fair few times that the Covenant's outcome in the battle of Earth had less to do with the tenacity of the defending forces and more just that the Covenant had an extremely limited set of objectives

[terse sage]

Why is that?

[scarlet hinge]

the presence of OWPs was pretty much a non-factor - the Covenant cleared the orbital space around the sites they were focusing their invasion on (east Africa) and then pretty much left the rest of the planet to its own devices

[terse sage]

They landed at other places too i thought

[scarlet hinge]

there were attacks elsewhere (Cuba, Antarctica, URNA, London, etc), but they weren't dedicated invasions

Mombasa/Voi was the primary force concentration

there were plenty of OWPs still active over Earth after a month of fighting, including Cairo and Nassau stations

that's probably not because the Covenant lacked the ability to destroy them, but because they simply had no need to

[terse sage]

So they just ignored the UNSC defenses and bypassed them

[scarlet hinge]

cut enough of a whole in the grid to ensure that nothing can interfere with landing troops in Africa

after that, the grid basically means nothing because they're already inside the walls - so to speak

[terse sage]

Right

Only defense after that is the Fleet and ground forces

[scarlet hinge]

pretty much, yeah

[terse sage]

And the fleet never really had a chance once the Covenant came in numbers

[empty bloom]

Plus they figured out that nifty 'just jump under the thing' trick Cortana accidentally taught them.

[scarlet hinge]

that too^

and the Covenant established air + orbital superiority around the areas they did care about, like east Africa

[empty bloom]

Oh hey Bacon lemme toss something your way about Reach's ending.

[scarlet hinge]

👀

[terse sage]

That theory you made?

[empty bloom]

I think the Halsey memorial at the end makes the most sense as Cortana instead and the ship in the background makes more sense as a Created-derived Terraforming vessel.

[scarlet hinge]

oh yeah i've seen people posit that last bit a few times (more generally though, that it looks Forerunner rather than specifically created)

[empty bloom]

Specifically, the dialogue being Created era Cortana, who was mostly on a platform of terraforming and rebuilding under a utopian flag.

[terse sage]

I liked that Lone Wolf theory

[empty bloom]

There was also the theory about Six fighting alongside all those Spartans, with that location being the last fallback.

And him being merely the last man standing after the second-to-last wave.

[scarlet hinge]

that's cool

i hope we get some kind of confirmation some day that those guys were Echo and Gauntlet

[empty bloom]

There was a lot more to it, but that's the gist of it. I think you can actually see a small bit of a story for how the rest died.

[terse sage]

Based on their placement

[empty bloom]

Like, they're actually set up in a placement that is sensible, by Halo standards. Six likely left the turreted position (With the other Spartan getting airstriked by passing aircraft) and was actually attempting to retreat when he died.

[terse sage]

He tried to withdraw and was intercepted by those Elites

[empty bloom]

^

[scarlet hinge]

one of the low-key things the Encyclopedia gave us last year was an official hard confirmation that USW is Unified Special Warfare Command - something that had been speculated before but never outright confirmed

and the Noble page mentions that USW is a division

based on that, and Holland being a Colonel it seems fairly reasonable to suggest each of the SPECWAR Groups was a brigade-sized entity

so Echo, Gauntlet, and Noble teams each being attached to a UNISPECWARCOM Group gives my brain some dopamine for all slotting together nicely

[orchid kettle]

I will not stand for this Red Team(?) erasure

[scarlet hinge]

red yeah

i tend to assume they'd likely make the Red that Jun was referring to Spartan-II Red

[orchid kettle]

dontcha want to entertain the possibility that there's a third unrelated Spartan Red Team

[scarlet hinge]

i do, but I feel like 343 probably wouldn't for simplicity's sake

they've generally leant a lot harder into the idea of the teams as more cohesive/consistent units for marketing/brand identity stuff - so i imagine they'd be less likely to feature a Red Team that might get confused for the Spirit of Fire guys

iirc i don't think Silent Storm had a Red Team - it had Blue, Gold, and Green

[empty bloom]

I always figured there being an existing Red III Team that died on Reach as being an excellent door for saying Crimson was actually named in honor of that Red III team.

[scarlet hinge]

that'd be neat

[empty bloom]

Instead of an ad-hoc Red Team or one that disappeared super early before the program's existence was declassified.

I mean either way I think it's also a bit of a flaw to assume that there was only Gauntlet, Red III, Noble, and Echo on Reach in terms of IIIs.

[terse sage]

I was confused about the timeline between Reach (game) and the Fall of Reach (book)

[empty bloom]

For all we know, the guys in Mark VII on Earth may've been Echo going from battle to battle, and they were nowhere near Aszod.

[scarlet hinge]

toa has a good video on that

[orchid kettle]

Yeah, when Reach came out, the idea was to more or less supplant the book entirely

[scarlet hinge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8d4z5Zg_Bc

[empty bloom]

I think I kind of prefer Reach.

Like, not entirely

God, not entirely.

But I prefer the idea of Reach being a dragged out month long slog.

[terse sage]

When does Noble Team get Mark 5? They have it well before the Spartan II's get it

[scarlet hinge]

November 2551

they had the /B variants

[terse sage]

I didn't understand what that meant either

[empty bloom]

It's a Beta variant.

They're wearing what's basically a prototype.

Buuut seems to be considered more of a production variant now.

[heady geyser]

Thoughts on today database

[orchid kettle]

I think there's something more... fitting about humanity's greatest fortress world falling in a day

[scarlet hinge]

Mark V [B] was a prototype MJOLNIR version developed by military contractors rather than specifically by Halsey, and was used as a production prototype before regular Mark V was rolled out a year later

[orchid kettle]

But I do like how they find Halo better

[terse sage]

I like how it was a month long

[empty bloom]

A month just makes it more fitting.

[orchid kettle]

Cortana discovering Halo's location at the end of the book always felt like Nylund was just scrambling to cover that plot point

[empty bloom]

Like, really? A day? That's so underwhelming.

[scarlet hinge]

the way I always felt the two should be balanced was that there was fighting in the weeks leading up to the final attack, but you shift the latter half of the in-game campaign (post-Long Night) to be after the climactic space battle

and have the siege of Alexandria take place in September

[terse sage]

Humanity throwing everything they have to defend their fortress, making it last for a month is nice

[orchid kettle]

like, Cortana thinks its weird that Chief, a man who practically lives on ships between battles, has seen a star chart before

and thats what spurs her to investigate and find the Sigma Octanus crystal data

[scarlet hinge]

well there was dialogue back then where she calls Chief a barbarian and stuff too

so for the time (irl) it's a bit more fitting

[empty bloom]

Early Installment Weirdness is so goofy in Halo. Like, other franchises, people realize it happens all the time.

[terse sage]

I think First Strike ties CE and 2 together well

[empty bloom]

But yet Halo fans tend to not know anything about anything that came out after 2010.

[orchid kettle]

Its also kinda weird that she just can quickly hack into some ONI database while the Pillar of Autumn is fleeing

and find that crystal data

[empty bloom]

Like, we're talking basic info gets completely tuned out.

[orchid kettle]

because the Autumn isnt the ship that originally intercepted the data

that was the Iroquois

[empty bloom]

I've answered the same guy's same questions on the same game six times.

[terse sage]

It was the Iroquois

Only similarity the Iroquois has to the Pillar of Autumn is that Keyes was the captain for both

[terse sage]

Who?

[empty bloom]

You wouldn't know them, they're on another server.

[orchid kettle]

If Nylund wanted to make Cortana's discovery of the crystal data more natural, the Pillar of Autumn probably should have been in the story sooner

and have that be the ship that intercepted the data

[scarlet hinge]

i do always find it mildly funny that all of the hero ships in the trilogy don't actually ever do anything

they just show up then die

[terse sage]

I also feel like Keyes should have been a captain sooner

[orchid kettle]

I guess to be fair to the Miranda ships

she's fairly small potatoes in general compared to her father

[terse sage]

In Amber Clad and Forward Unto Dawn did do stuff

[empty bloom]

I feel like it'd be like, say, having a Warhammer 40K fan who legitimately has no clue what a Primaris Space Marine is. Like, at all. In any way, shape or form, but yet they've been playing for all of 8th, 9th, and 10th editions.

[scarlet hinge]

they cut the extended space battle from Halo 2 where In Amber Clad fends off two cruisers over Delta Halo 😦

[empty bloom]

Like, not even the most basic "It's a super space marine".

[orchid kettle]

To be fair-- probably for the best lol

[terse sage]

I know a decent bit about 40k stuff

[orchid kettle]

given how the unsc space ships stack up against Covenant

the In Amber Clad loses to anything larger than a phantom I'd wager

[terse sage]

Keyes beat 2 frigates and a destroyer with only a destroyer

[scarlet hinge]

i'm just in desparate need of more space combat stuff

[terse sage]

Halo wars 3 was concepted to have space combat

But they never made Halo Wars 3 so that doesnt count

[scarlet hinge]

https://www.halopedia.org/Halo_2_storyboards#/media/File:H2_DeltaHalo_V1_Storyboard_Intro_19.jpg

[empty bloom]

Sure is a good thing you got all these Spartans who specialize in piloting spacecraft and could give you a neat window on space warfare OH WAIT THEY ALL KEEP DYING

[scarlet hinge]

😦

[empty bloom]

I wonder what happened to Dalton.

I wonder what happened to a lot of Infinity crew members, though.

Glad Murphy got some talk though. That was at least something.

[terse sage]

We don't even know what happened to Infinity's captain

[empty bloom]

He uh... Got on a Pelican, I guess

[terse sage]

Last we hear of him he was escorted to a lifeboat

By Griffin and his fireteam

[empty bloom]

... Was I pinged?

[terse sage]

I was asking about the Spartan with the Laser

But nvmd

[heady geyser]

Much of Hastati Squad was killed early in the assault, with Lasky, Silva, Orenski, and Michael Sullivan eventually becoming among the only survivors on the entire planet.

[terse sage]

Was a refitted Halcyon cruiser as good if not better than a Marathon class?

[wispy schooner]

alright so im a newer player here trying to understand the story and all that

the reason cortana is important (besides mc's personal attachment to her) is because she has intel on the halo rings?

[fair hazel]

In which game?

[wispy schooner]

just in general

whyd they take her off reach, why's she the the center of a lot of the games?

[fair hazel]

In halo Reach, she had data which would lead to the discovery of the first halo ring. In halo 2, not only did she know about the halos but she could infiltrate covenant and forerunner systems too. In halo 3, she found a way to trap the flood and she had the activation index too.

[unique rune]

"Knowledge. A birthright from an ancient civilization. This AI is its custodian, and she has chosen you as her couriers."
(Reach, The Package)
"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer…which is where you come in, Chief. Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research...Earth."
(CE, The Pillar of Autumn)

Bigger picture including non-game material is that she was never intended to remain on Reach. Cortana was prepared for Operation: RED FLAG for cyber warfare and intrusion during the mission

[fair hazel]

The reach one was a fragment

[wispy schooner]

i see

so yea she was an intel asset

[heady geyser]

Reset of her was on the Pillar of Autumn

[wispy schooner]

and ofc became personally important to mc

one more off topic question, odsts are not spartans right

[heady geyser]

Yes they aren’t Spartans

[wispy schooner]

oka

[heady geyser]

But some odst become part of the Spartan IV program like alpha 9

[wispy schooner]

ic

and team noble, were they spartan is or iis?

[heady geyser]

Spartan III

[wispy schooner]

oh really?

[heady geyser]

Yeah there are four Spartan programs

The only Spartan one was Johnson, chief and the rest of blue team are Spartan II, and noble team is Spartan III except for Jorge because he was a Spartan II

[terse sage]

Why was Jorge with Noble team?

[plush compass]

From halopedia about jorge: Jorge was transferred from the main Spartan-II contingent (under the operational command of Naval Special Weapons) to UNICOM's SPECWAR Group Three at an unknown point during the Human-Covenant War. His reassignment may have been facilitated under the guise of being too heavily wounded to continue active duty.

I guess they never really explained

[terse sage]

I was also wondering about this

[unique rune]

Noble’s composition always bothers me and I wish they’d just gone with a four-person team of S-IIs instead

[empty bloom]

The only *known Spartan I

Well

He's not even the only known one actually

[terse sage]

He's the most well known

[empty bloom]

Forge's dad and Jannissary Jane's dad.

[plush compass]

I kinda like that Jorge is on Noble team but I wish they had more of an explanation

[empty bloom]

There's technically 5 Spartan Programs, and two of the five were considered inadequate for one reason or another.

There's Orions (Spartan Is), Spartan IIs, Spartan IIIs, Spartan IV-Protos, and Spartan IVs.

IV-Protos were strong enough to match Spartans in GEN2 MJOLNIR in a fistfight.

[unique rune]

I mean don’t get me wrong, Jorge is still one of my favorite parts of Reach not that I like much of it, I just think the rest of Noble was put together without much meaningful consideration for how they’d factor into the campaign

[terse sage]

They all died and/or went insane right?

[unique rune]

Like the entire time it just feels like Jorge is the only one bothered that the Covenant found Reach

[empty bloom]

All but one died. The one that didn't snapped.

[empty bloom]

They lack the connection Jorge had to Reach.

To them, it's another world the Covenant will despoil.

[unique rune]

Yeah

[empty bloom]

To Jorge, it's home.

[terse sage]

Jorge had the closest connection to Reach. The others just maintained their professionalism better

[plush compass]

Didn’t the S3’s train on Reach though?

[unique rune]

no

[empty bloom]

No.

[terse sage]

They trained on Onyx

[unique rune]

S-III was trained at Onyx

[plush compass]

Huh

[empty bloom]

Spartan IIIs trained on then-Onyx, which is now Trevelyan.

[terse sage]

Was the refitted Pillar of Autumn as good as a Marathon class cruiser?

[unique rune]

I mean I feel like “professionalism” isn’t really a good excuse for doing a terrible job of making the player care about the setting

[plush compass]

I guess it makes sense since they said in the book that the Reach training facilities only had room for 75 Spartans and the spartan 3’s were supposed to essentially be mass produced assassins

[terse sage]

Emile doesn't really have that professionalism, he just wants to kill Covenant

[plush compass]

Emile has probably seen some very violent things

[empty bloom]

IIIs were mass produced soldiers and warriors, focused and mean.

[terse sage]

There were originally gonna be 150 but shrunk it down to 75 due to budget cuts

[plush compass]

Yeah

[empty bloom]

The ones that got used as 'Assassins' were few and far between.

[plush compass]

I wonder what would’ve happened had the Covenant never attacked

[unique rune]

Ultimately I just think Bungie should’ve cut out Carter and Jun and made all of Noble S-IIs because they were already playing fast and loose with established canon

[plush compass]

Like would the humans have beat the insurrectionists?

Would they still remain hidden ?

[terse sage]

With the II's, yeah the Insurrection was screwed

[unique rune]

And to think at one point they wanted A344 in the game too. What an overly bloated mess the cast would’ve been if they’d kept her

[empty bloom]

Eh.

[terse sage]

I like Carter and Jun

[empty bloom]

I actually think that the IIs were one of the single worst possible 'solutions' that the UNSC could have made.

[gilded mason]

As long as the UEG doesn't change their policies, the insurrection won't really ever die.

[empty bloom]

^

The real solution was to stop being jerks all along.

[gilded mason]

Gasp

[unique rune]

mfw I overreact to bad findings by further funding the military industrial complex

[empty bloom]

Instead they committed a grand sin.

[gilded mason]

whoopsie-doopsie

[empty bloom]

If anything Spartan IIs gave the Innies more ammunition to justify their rage.

"We'll take your children, and turn them against you".

[gilded mason]

No no, the UEG were just being silly little guys.

[unique rune]

IIRC couple sources even straight up say that sensible people thought the Carver findings were complete bunk and yet the UNSC went “uh oh need supersoldiers now”

[terse sage]

Fair

I don't think the insurrection would bring humanity into "another dark age"

[empty bloom]

Eventually the UNSC would've likely capitulated more reasonably.

I assume.

[terse sage]

But everything changed when the Covenant attacked

[empty bloom]

Honestly, the only reason the UEG didn't have people up and down the chain screaming at them, even in that program, was just... Hard to understand writing. The people willing to do something so ghoulish and never have a problem with it a day in their lives are few and far between.

If there's any justice in Halo's universe, the majority met untimely ends for their hand in it.

[terse sage]

Like?

[empty bloom]

... I don't know, just gruesome, untimely ends, it doesn't need to be specific.

[terse sage]

Didn't Ackerson die?

[unique rune]

Yeah

Captured by the Covenant at some point, eventually beheaded by a Brute as the Covenant invaded the Sol system

[empty bloom]

Ackerson died looked upon favorably.

He was made a martyr on Mars.

[versed helm]

anyone wanna play halo 3 or 4 ( PC ) ?

[gaunt oak]

If you're looking for other Spartans to join you in battle, check out our LFGs:

#lfg-competitive – For ranked/competitive matchmaking
#lfg-social – For social/casual matchmaking
#lfg-campaign - For campaign co-op
#lfg-forge - For map/mode building and testing
#lfg-customs - For custom games
#lfg-other – For firefight, spartan ops, etc
#lfg-español – Para jugadores hispanohablantes en cualquier categoría de juego
#lfg-hcs-scrims-or-teams – To help you find a team or secure some scrims

Don't forget to check out #lfg-and-voice-chat to learn about the !lfg bot, how to use it, and how to create your own voice channels.

[lament karma]

Got a question, did any Gamma Company S-IIIs fight on Reach?

And Bizcra I believe you meant Fire Nation 🤓

[abstract wren]

No as they got their deployment after the battle

[obsidian thistle]

^

Beat me to it

[distant socket]

After the covenant war, has the UNSC learnt or made a strategy to combat the flood?

aside from spartan suits that are built specifically against the flood

important roles like marines,crew,pilots and captains could benefit from knowing knowledge about them

For crew and captains, is because of what happened to the In Amber Clad
Marines, is well, because they rlly dont know what they were fighting and are the most sought-after hosts for infection forms

[empty bloom]

Several. Most involve wiping with WMDs if it gets out of hand and then watching the rubble for any sign for months or even years.

[empty bloom]

Skilled technicians, Commanders, Scientists, and the like would be the most sought after victims. Flood need knowledge to excel. Marines and otherwise are just chaff (except those that hit one of the prior criteria).

[terse sage]

Marines are just used for combat forms and biomass, while technicians, commanders, scientists, would probably be turned into a Gravemind

[orchid kettle]

I think that's what the fanbase likes to think the flamethrower Cyclops would be employed for

Not just like, the rebel leader in HW2, but there's also apparently something called a Hazops Cyclops

[lament karma]

Oh, thanks Lematth88

[distant socket]

where does the forerunner dreadnought come from the forerunner portal device at Voi?

was it just standing there and buried the whole time

or did it emerge from the center platform beneath it

[gilded mason]

The dreadnaught arrived from High Charity, my dude.

[distant socket]

i thought that one never made it back to earth

eitherway, atleast i know now its that keyship

[plush compass]

Speaking of Voi though it is weird how an entire gigantic portal was buried under a city and nobody ever in the entire area used a metal detector or a compass or anything

[gilded mason]

It's extremely deep underground.

[unique rune]

Isn’t there stuff that suggests ONI found the site a while before the Human-Covenant War and they covered the whole deal up

[gilded mason]

Maybe?

[plush compass]

Another interesting thing about forerunners and metal is that in Infinite, the Weapon states that the halos are made of Forerunner Alloy, and it is nearly indestructible. Firstly, how does the weapon know what the heck forerunner alloy is, yet at the beginning of the game ask what a banished is, and secondly how did ONI and the other guys figure out what the alloy is if it’s indestructible?

[fluid nexus]

X-ray fluorescence is one potential option

[icy yoke]

The weapon is programmed most if not all Data Cortana knows. Likely Spartan Armor has general sensors for Metallic spectroscopy and analysis of stuff.

[wispy schooner]

its as mc put it

weapon is cortana with mc out of the equation

[icy yoke]

Concept of sensor technology in science fiction is always a questionable mystery

In any sense how they detect things especially small devices in absence of laboratory conditions to find New particles or exotic phenomena

Spartan armor must have a pretty good sensor suite. For Cortana to assess newly discovered materials, phenomenon

Like Forerunner alloys or hard light

[fair hazel]

The Weapon was in forerunner systems for months after all..

[versed helm]

Yeah.

(besides flamethrowers) What's the most effective Human weapon against the Flood? I forget.

I know small arms do basically nothing.

[orchid kettle]

I think the thing is just that you want to tear the combat forms to pieces, rather than simply pierce them

So shotguns and maybe the "shredder" rounds (hollowpoint?) from Fall of Reach would be the way to go

or you know, blowing them up with rockets and grenades

[unique rune]

This is how my laser-guided cheese grater proposal can still win

[versed helm]

Ah, OK.

Thanks, Benson!

[empty bloom]

Most have amazing sensors to the degree of it being outright the best part of the suit.

[gilded aspen]

Your what?!

[plush compass]

His laser guided cheese graters

Shredder rounds

[gilded aspen]

Ahh right I get it now lol

[lament axle]

hello

[rocky vector]

So question, how did 343 guilty spark go from being in one of these ships at the end I believe it's primordium. Then after that you got this humanoid body

Because I just started reading renegades and it's telling basically that he left the ship and now is in a body. So am I missing something?

[orchid kettle]

I think the idea is that he takes over the ship at the end of Primordium, and then ends up crashing it at the start of Renegades

and I guess there just was a Soldier body laying around for him to inhabit, probably in said ship

[last anchor]

The Rubicon took samples from the Ark of various Forerunner tech yes

Including Spark

[vagrant palm]

Does anyone know how the flood escaped installation like was the covenant behind their escape or the UNSC?

[empty bloom]

Which installation? 04 was the Covenant being stupid, 05 they broke through unknown means.

00 they just kinda showed up.

[vagrant palm]

Oh right 04 my bad spelling error

[terse sage]

05 the Monitor neglected containment protocol

04 the Covenant opened their vault thinking it was a weapons cache

[tribal trench]

They weren’t really on the ark beyond High Charity right?

[terse sage]

I think so

[dusk jetty]

Highly unlikely, however after awakening the nightmares events it’s possible

Someone once asked about how much radiation a flood form could endure and I remember our conclusion being a pretty large amount compared to humans

[dense falcon]

There weren't any flood at the Ark until they arrived with High Charity

[dusk jetty]

Oh no I meant after outside of high charity

[dense falcon]

Nope, none

[empty bloom]

Oh, I meant it this way lmao. Sorry, wasn't as clear as I'd hoped.

The flood kinda just showed up... (On High Charity.)

[tribal trench]

gotcha ok

sorry i’m stupid sometimes

[terse sage]

I asked earlier but no one answered

Was the refitted Pillar of Autumn as good as a Marathon cruiser?

[tribal trench]

Hard to say since we don’t really have a sense of how good either are next to each other

[terse sage]

The triple shot MAC is a pretty big advantage

[empty bloom]

It's not a be-all end all and really depends.

[tribal trench]

Captain matters too

The Autumn in particular also was built different from most Halcyons, with its hexagonal compartments and stuff

[empty bloom]

The Halcyon Class in general was designed with a honeycombed superstructure. The entire line is designed like that.

The Autumn's difference was mostly in armament and reinforced components.

Which ultimately didn't do it much good outside of the battle of Reach.

[tribal trench]

werent only 8 out of a hundred designed like that because it ended up being super expensive?

[terse sage]

I also don't understand why the Autumn's reactor detonating was enough to destroy the halo ring built out of Forerunner alloy

[empty bloom]

Yes!

[terse sage]

Which is meant to be nearly indestructible

[empty bloom]

Life, ah, uh... Finds a way.

[tribal trench]

It was a fusion explosion, basically how the sun works but on a much smaller scale

It should have singed the entire ring but it sent out a bunch of kinetic energy instead, I guess?

I guess solar wind does exist but even the sun doesn’t produce that much

[empty bloom]

Early installment weirdness strikes again.

Like a ton of bricks.

If we went by Zeta, the ringbreak Alpha Halo had should've saved it via emergency slipspace repair jump.

[tribal trench]

Did it really have the time to?

[empty bloom]

Did Zeta?

[tribal trench]

Even if it had the best possible propulsion system the forerunners could have put on it, it still would have taken days if not weeks to produce the energy needed to push the ring through a slipspace portal

[empty bloom]

As far as we know, Zeta's jump was effectively instant upon damage that grave.

Hence why Horvath's squad ||is likely dead in deep space right about now.||

[terse sage]

RIP

Never got to settle that bet

[empty bloom]

Honestly, I used to think that the II Pelican disaster was bad.

But the Ringbreak was... Probably worse.

Cortana came very close to handing the Banished the W if Chief wasn't so lucky.

[terse sage]

Well losing 4 spartan II's, critically injuring 6, and damaging basically all of the other II's is still pretty bad

[empty bloom]

Yeah, but IIs ultimately weren't nearly as critical to the war effort as IIIs.

[terse sage]

Chief?

[empty bloom]

I was getting to that. One happened to be the hail mary at the end.

[unique rune]

To be fair 07 was constructed to different specifications from the other 6 current rings, even with its odd repair/refit. It’s possible the neoteric rings don’t have the emergency slipspace jump function.

[empty bloom]

Iffy maybe, but acceptable.

If we took it how it was, you'd think teleporting like that was the norm.

[terse sage]

I don't understand the difference between 07 and the others

[empty bloom]

07 was an original ring. IE the massive, inefficient prototype.

It loss most of its mass after damage and was upgraded to the nuRing model.

[terse sage]

Then why do the Banished want that one specifically?

[unique rune]

I figure they might’ve just dropped the emergency jump function to speed up construction time or… something.

[terse sage]

Because they want to use the ring and live on it, not just reawaken the Endless

[empty bloom]

Presumably, it has a few things that set it apart beyond just 'shoot it at specific planets'.

Which is still a huge deal tbf.

[terse sage]

So we have seen Installations 00, 03, 04, 05, and 07 correct?

Which means there are 3 we haven't seen yet

[unique rune]

(and 08 and 09, though we know the former seems to have built according to more or less the same template as 04)

[terse sage]

But we only see 7 rings light up in the control room on the Ark

Wasn't that meant to symbolize the 7 rings?

-04 because it was destroyed

Nvmd

08 and 09 were the replacements for 04 right?

[unique rune]

correct

[terse sage]

08 was the one in Halo 3, and 09 in Halo Wars 2?

[orchid kettle]

08 was known as 04b for a while, since it was introduced as a "replacement" to the Halo destroyed in CE

and it seemed to be a copy, considering Cortana's Index from CE still worked with it, and how you get to re-assault the control room at the end of Halo 3

but then Halo Wars 2 stated that the Ark always keeps a near-completed ring in its foundry

so who knows if 09 was intended to be 04 The Third or whatever

[unique rune]

yes

[orchid kettle]

That makes me wonder if Infinite being a CE reimagining of sorts would have still been true of Halo 5 2

assuming the ring Cortana has in the legendary ending of 5 was 09

and if 09 is still a copy of 04, we'd be revisiting a lot of familiar locales

[unique rune]

Wait shoot just realized my “yes” was way delayed and intended as a response to what Bizcra said

I will say I always kinda figured that the Ark just built the main structure of the ring first and kept it on standby, then just pulled up plans for whichever got destroyed to finish it off
though that feels like it gets contradicted by 08 not being structurally sound enough to hold up to being fired prematurely

[vagrant palm]

The ark honestly is a backup in case any rings blow up or something

Also it's weird how the replacement in 3 was built so fast

[orchid kettle]

If we assume that it started rebuilding as soon as 04 was destroyed, that gives the Ark a couple months to do its business

which yeah is pretty quick to make a huge ringworld

but forerunners do be wack

[tawny fox]

Speaking of this i remember Cortana says something along the lines of “that should give us time to make it to a lifeboat” like I’m fairly certain that once the bumblebee lifebods entered a planet’s or this case the ring’s atmosphere they were not equipped to leave it again

Like i don’t think you could actually fly them like a regular space craft

Strange writing on bungie’s part looking back on that lol

[orchid kettle]

To be fair, in the context of 2001, it's not unreasonable to think so, given how little we knew about anything

But I think in CE's case, some if not most of the dialogue writing was outsourced to microsoft, which led to this disconnect where the people in charge of what characters were saying didn't really know what the full context of the situation would be

hence stuff like "this cave is not a natural formation"

Though that being said, I do think there's a lot of good or interesting elements in CE that get dismissed as just "early franchise weirdness"

Like, the dialogue ends up implying that Chief and Cortana have known each other for a while

Keyes for some reason leaves Chief in statis for last, and waking him has some special codename like he's a "In case of emergency, break glass" type deal

[terse sage]

Why was Chief in cryo during the Aszod battle? He could have been useful

[orchid kettle]

Chief being spotted in the pod in Reach I think is more so an easter egg

Since he doesn't get in the pod until the Autumn leaves the system

[vagrant palm]

Yeah It was confirmed to be simply an Easter egg

[unique rune]

Yeah, don’t think about it too hard. The pod would also have to be in a vehicle bay for some reason if we were to take the cutscene at face value.

[terse sage]

But was Chief in cryo during that battle?

I know him being in the vehicle bay was an easter egg

But if he wasn't in cryo, why wasn't he fighting?

[empty bloom]

Already thinking about it more than Bungie did.

[wispy schooner]

wait so noble six was a girl?

[dense falcon]

Reach allowed it, but canonically it's male.

In the New Blood book, Jun refers to six as "He was a good man".

[empty bloom]

Six has been confirmed as canonically male a few times at this point actually.

That's one of a handful.

It's generally confirmed he was also a Mark Vb wearer who tried to get a Recon helmet issued, but never actually received it.

[wispy schooner]

ah yea thats confusing

cuz in the firefight voice part of reach customization noble six voice is femenine

but yea in campaign he has male body type

so i was confused

[terse sage]

Where did that come from?

[empty bloom]

Halo Reach preorders.

[terse sage]

Ah, i never got that

[unique rune]

Pretty sure current timeline for the battle of Reach works out with him still being in space on Gamma Station at the time

I would need to recheck that though

[vagrant palm]

He's dead

Unfortunately

Unless he hides in that cave

[empty bloom]

The nonexistent cave nowhere near his spot of death.

Don't troll.

You watch him die on screen and I'll have none of this tomfoolery.

[unique rune]

I love the “could steal an aircraft” bit as if he wouldn’t have immediately gotten shot down by the Covenant

[wispy schooner]

btw so dare and buck were already together when odst happened?

[empty bloom]

Dare and Buck had broken up by the events of Halo 3 ODST. They reconciled after Halo 3 ODST.

[wispy schooner]

oh i see

so they were together and had broken up when 3odts

thats why they seem so personal

[empty bloom]

Not when, but a few months/years before.

[vagrant palm]

I tried to kill buck in reach

[wispy schooner]

yea sry bad wording

[vagrant palm]

I failed

No he went to the cave and called for help

[orchid kettle]

I would have merely disguised myself as a grunt

[vagrant palm]

Yeah the non existing pelican

[empty bloom]

You're right. He died because he got shot, stabbed, brutalized, then burned by orbital fire. Not because he bled out.

[orchid kettle]

they would accept me as one of their own

[empty bloom]

He died around brutalized.

[orchid kettle]

and we would return to the mothership

[empty bloom]

His corpse was turned to ash in broken plating around Step 4.

[terse sage]

His Helmet wasn't destroyed

[unique rune]

Reach fans don’t invalidate Reach’s emotional moments challenge (impossible)

[empty bloom]

Broken plating

[wispy schooner]

bro odst feels like cod zombies or smth

[empty bloom]

Stop coping.

It's sad.

[terse sage]

I believe he's dead but its weird the helmet survived

[empty bloom]

He already died fleeing the field in a rout.

[terse sage]

Trenchbird made a theory about this

[empty bloom]

Well, he's not a real person, so technically he's not dead. He's pixels.

But in-universe he's 100% dead.

Unless you hate Reach that much, which even I don't.

[unique rune]

lol who even needs theories
Bungo devs confirmed the intent was that he died

343’s continued to uphold that

[boreal bane]

Six is dead, let's move on.
This debate gets old before it starts

[orchid kettle]

Not if I use the First Strike crystal to go baaaaaaack in tiiiiiiiiime

[empty bloom]

^

[boreal bane]

[empty bloom]

Doubt he's gonna let it die though.

[orchid kettle]

though Id save the real Noble Six

Thom bby

[empty bloom]

I'm imagining it's going to be a-Y'know, I was expecting more than that.

[boreal bane]

No

Dead

[empty bloom]

he literally got stabbed in the head.

[boreal bane]

Confirmed by both Bungie and 343 in multiple places

[empty bloom]

Or neck/torso.

You see his corpse.

[unique rune]

mfw I don’t understand the implication of the cut to black

[boreal bane]

Doesn't matter that it wasn't in game

Dead

Move on please

[terse sage]

He's dead

[empty bloom]

Dead.

[boreal bane]

Noble, stop typing

[orchid kettle]

Bread.

[boreal bane]

I'm telling you to move on. Please drop it

[empty bloom]

Anyways, here's how Jorge could still be alive.

[unique rune]

do y’all think Elites can eat chocolate

[orchid kettle]

no

[empty bloom]

Theories that have been debunked and are just memes are not allowed.

[orchid kettle]

they'll die like dogs

[empty bloom]

Theories are absolutely allowed.

Six is hard confirmed deader than a doorknob.

There's no theorycrafting your way out of it.

He's just dead.

Nothing more, nothing less.

[terse sage]

Bungie and 343 say in canon specifically that he's dead

[empty bloom]

Lmao

[gaunt oak]

For server moderation concerns, please message @wet locust.

[terse sage]

I do have a theory as to how one spartan may have survived

[boreal bane]

Because this is Discord, not the game

[empty bloom]

See prior modmail message request.

[boreal bane]

So?

[empty bloom]

Which means they make the rules on word usage.

[boreal bane]

^

[empty bloom]

They could tell me I can't use the letter Q.

And I can't use the letter Q.

[terse sage]

I still think that there is a (extremely small) chance that James might have survived

They left that open ended

[empty bloom]

Is that the one that catapulted into space?

[unique rune]

Yeah

[terse sage]

Yep

[empty bloom]

I doubt it tbh.

[unique rune]

Took a needler to his maneuvering pack and went hurtling into space

Chances are he is very dead

[empty bloom]

I also think it's a bit more poignant if he died from it, IMO. It's a very underwhelming way to go.

[terse sage]

I said extremely small chance

[orchid kettle]

It basically just depends on how desperate 343 is for member berries

[terse sage]

It is still open ended technically

It's extremely unlikely that he survived though

[unique rune]

I tend to not consider stuff where the intention is pretty clear that they’re meant to be dead as very open-ended

[orchid kettle]

Its kinda funny though, given how James ended up dying the same way Kurt's death was faked

[terse sage]

Was Kurt's intentional?

[hazy shadow]

Yes, he was basically kidnapped to start the SIII program.

[terse sage]

James might have been found by a fleeing ship and rescued

Again, highly unlikely I know

[orchid kettle]

Its definitely a case of like

if James was an insanely popular character

You bet they would say he was miraculously rescued

But he's not, so I doubt he's up to much these days

[obtuse crow]

He’s probably still floating in space.

xD.

[vagrant palm]

He's just viben

[obsidian thistle]

Fiction rules state. Did we see a body? Or get explicit proof they are dead?

Reminds me that Alpha Halo had one extra survivor that somehow got off that ring separate from the other survivors aha!

https://www.halopedia.org/Thomas_Chang

[terse sage]

He's floating in space humming "ground control to major tom"

[vagrant palm]

Guys we are forgetting the TRUE hero of the battle of mombasa

Sargeant Stacker the absolute goat

[terse sage]

Stacker?

From day at the beach?

[timid skiff]

Nothing brings more nostalgia than the Believe ad campaign.

Those were the days

[vagrant palm]

Remember reach

[open canyon]

hola

[obsidian thistle]

I love revisiting the Diorama and exploring it!

Certainly something that makes me awe every time!

[unique rune]

I wanna stop remembering Reach
can we move on to something new

[spare narwhal]

Hey all, What’s y’all favourite halo book?

Or favourite few?

[terse sage]

Best: Ghosts of Onyx

[vagrant palm]

Halo: the flood

Pretty much CE but a few things changed

[obsidian thistle]

I'm pretty fond of the Halo Wars Prima Guide lol. But Mythos or the 2022 Encyclopedia takes the cake!

[indigo arch]

Contact harvest

[spare narwhal]

I’ve played since h3, completed all of the games quite recently, read the fall of reach which I loved and now I’ve just picked up the flood so excited to get going with that

[vagrant palm]

Tbh it's CE but goes more in-depth

[unique rune]

They removed Chief taking a shower from the reprints which is a crime

[hazy shadow]

So much this lol

[last anchor]

Wait what

[rocky vector]

Glasslands, Cryptum, First Strike/ The Cole Protocol and Last Light

Really the entire Kilo V trilogy is great!

Cryptum and Silentium are great too. Primordium is eh imo

First Strike because you get to see S2s back and working together. Also Fred on Reach is great too and after CE stuff is good too

Cole Protocol is great cause we get to see Keyes be awesome and Grey team is amazing as well!

Last Light is great cause of Fred and Vetas relationship together and how the work together is interesting from a S2 and the S3s we get to learn more about which is cool

Also the One Freedom makes their first appearance

But if I had to pick one it would have to be Glasslands

I've actually been reading them all and it's taken about a year but I'm very close to being done reading them. I'm on Renegades right now

I want to reread Shadow of Reach, then go to point of light, Divine Wind, then finally the Rubicon Protocol

Then I'll be done!

Till of course Halo Outcast and Epitaph comes out

I've read them in order of release unless it's a trilogy like Greg bear trilogy or kilo V trilogy then I'd read them all together

I'm debating if I want to reread it in Chronological order though

[ripe basalt]

Hello! I'm new here in Discord, but i've been a HUGE Halo fan when i was a kid.

[tawny fox]

Yeah the flood is like a summary that fills in the gaps of CE. Some of the parts you’ll read you’ll instantly recognize as places you played through in-game and will visualize the level in your head like some parts in the beginning. It’s a pretty neat experience

[ripe basalt]

yeah. plus, i've read that book as well.

[terse sage]

Ghosts of Onyx will always be king imo

[vagrant palm]

What about first strike I hear that's pretty good.

[tawny fox]

I was playing halo tracks that corresponded with sections I was reading

[plush compass]

It also has parts that are in Fireteam Raven I believe

[vagrant palm]

||RIP raven you will be missed ✊😔||

[terse sage]

It was cool to see the Forge World area

[rocky vector]

Do you mean that The Flood has mentions of Fire team Raven? If so, sadly they don't. But you do I believe get to go to some locations in the Flood I believe. I haven't played Fireteam Raven yet so I can't say for sure. But they sadly aren't in the book though

[plush compass]

I mean the flood doesn’t mention Fireteam raven but it has alpha base and the raids and stuff

I haven’t beaten Fireteam raven though

But there is one part in Fireteam raven where the master chief appears for a bit but that definitely didn’t happen

[rocky vector]

I wish they added Fireteam Raven to Xbox. I've never played nor can I find it anywhere I live

[fluid nexus]

Played part of it at an arcade last month. Cost about $1 per minute, so ran out of money before I finished it

[rocky vector]

$1 a minute? How longs the game then?

[fluid nexus]

I played for an hour or so. Made it less than halfway through

[rocky vector]

Dand jeez

That's going to cost a decent bit then

Well the machine itself is like 17,000 so you'll easily get your money back

[hazy shadow]

Yep! I was lucky enough to be in the VIP lounge at Halofest in Anaheim, they had the machine hooked up without the pay system lol

[rocky vector]

Oh nice!

I'd love to go to Halo Fest same with ComicCon too

[vagrant palm]

Fire team raven has such a good story it gave a lot of reach vibes

[empty bloom]

Rubicon Protocol by a country mile.

[terse sage]

Rubicon is really good

Wish some questions got answered in it, but otherwise really good

[fair hazel]

Silentium and legacy of onyx

[dusk jetty]

I like first strike a lot, but the flood is probably my favorite

Gives more depth to CE

[tawny fox]

I was playing the CE soundtrack while reading it. Like for instance during the section when chief gets out of the cryo bay and makes his way to the bridge I had the track “percussion” playing. It helped with immersion

[unique rune]

I think Ghosts of Onyx is probably still my favorite Halo novel.

Though admittedly it has been a while since I last read, well, any of them.

[terse sage]

Fall of Reach has been slightly diminished due to it's contradictions with Reach to me

[unique rune]

Game Reach is an inferior story to the novel so as far as I’m concerned the contradictions are the game’s fault and not an issue of the book

[terse sage]

I think Reach does it better

(The game)

[empty bloom]

Month long fistfight my beloved

[terse sage]

I don't really want to argue about it

[livid maple]

Is there any canon lore regarding Cortana and her speaking or referring to her time on reach?

[gentle badge]

I think so but it's been a year since I played reach

[vagrant palm]

In the games no however, I'm not sure about the novels.

[steep ether]

the FoR is when she was first mentioned (in rl)

and im not sure if she has been mentioned before that or not

you can read ab her origins here: https://www.halopedia.org/Cortana

[empty bloom]

It's a little amusing that someone bothered to clarify that the Plasma Caster fires 20mm projectiles.

[vagrant palm]

Does anyone know If the flood is still in installation 05?

[carmine sleet]

Given the quarantine efforts and how no permanent bases are set up on 05, it's quite probable. Though it is probable that it getting glassed by SOS forces has wiped out most of the infestation

[plush compass]

When you think about it, the entire halo lore is just child kidnapping and galactic arson

[timid skiff]

do you have a link to the interactive diorama? I would definitely love to re-live that Halo media

[obsidian thistle]

Requires Flash atm. We have attempted some basic stuff to make it accessible but trust me... it may not work on yer device.

https://archives.halopedia.org/halo3/believe/

@timid skiff

A lotta our archives do work a lot better now however! 😄

[timid skiff]

By the rings, thanks so much! @obsidian thistle

It worked. I am ready to dive back into the good ol days of 2007! 😄

[obsidian thistle]

I do love that my efforts to preserve IRIS were mostly successful!

[timid skiff]

https://tenor.com/view/gree-salute-commander-gree-41st-41st-elite-corps-gif-21348201

thanks for your contribution to the Halo fandom!

[obsidian thistle]

Halopedians never rest my friend!

We all do our part!

You do your part also by showing us that the stuff we do isnt useless aha!

[spiral blaze]

Reading Halo: Primordium for the first time and kinda not feeling "it" yet. Hope it gets better.

[scarlet hinge]

this is a very common reaction to that book

it's fairly consistently considered one of the weaker entries in the series

[empty bloom]

No, no more known flood there. There was a solid quarantine effort by the then Ex Covenant Sangheili to char that entire chunk of ring to ash.

[timid skiff]

Cole Protocol, probably

[spiral blaze]

Uh. I'll have to push through then.

A shame, as I decided to focus solely on the Forerunner trilogy first instead of alternating between it and the Kilo-Five trilogy as I tried to do some years ago.

[terse sage]

I hope we get a third installment in Buck's story

[scarlet hinge]

for what it's worth, silentium is usually considered the best of the three

primordium is also usually considered as getting really good towards the end, but the first 3/4 are a slog

[terse sage]

What about Cryptum?

[orchid kettle]

Personally I like Cryptum best

I honestly don't remember being wild about Silentium when I read it back in high school

I just remember it repeating and retconning the Halo 4 terminals

[spiral blaze]

Oh, right, that was published after Halo 4 came out. I had forgotten about that

[rocky vector]

Yeah the only ones we had were Cryptum and Silentium at the time

Of H4s release

[orchid kettle]

Primordium was the middle child of that trilogy tho

[boreal bane]

Cryptum was my favorite.
Primordium took longer to kick in, but I still enjoyed it.
Silentium I still haven't been able to finish, just wasn't a fan of the format

[bronze delta]

I'm not sure what my favorite is. Currently trying to get through Point of Light, but it's honestly a chore

[terse sage]

Thats one of the ones about Guilty Spark right?

[rocky vector]

Yesh

I'm going through Renegades then to Point of light

[terse sage]

How did the Gravemind get on High Charity?

[unique rune]

I think it’s generally assumed that it rebuilt itself onboard High Charity after infecting enough of it.

Don’t think it’s ever really been specified though.

May have also used 05’s translocation system to move its existing body to the city but I think that’s a bit less likely

[terse sage]

So if the first one happened, is there still the infestation on Installation 05?

[unique rune]

Would’ve been some left afterwards but 05 should be Flood outbreak free currently, given the Sangheili went on a cleansing spree on it

[timid skiff]

The Sangheilis glassed the remaining Flood on the Installation

[obsidian thistle]

There is still a presence. But its heavily contained. Hard to say circa 2558-60 however due to the Created.

[vagrant palm]

There could be a possibility that each halo ring has flood spores this is supported when installations 04 and 05 had flood attacks

[plush compass]

Yeah I assumed all the Halos have Flood specimens contained somewhere in the rings

[empty bloom]

That's likely one of the big jobs of FCUs.

Exterminating all the flood contained on the rings.

[plush compass]

Who is the FCU

[empty bloom]

Flood Combat Unit. Dedicated counter-Flood Fireteams of IVs, all volunteer.

They're considered elite among elite and very good at their job.

[plush compass]

Do you think that the Infinity and other ships were sent to the Halos also to exterminate flood

[empty bloom]

Most likely, on retainer or otherwise.

[fair hazel]

I like how the flood cylix is there in infinite

[plush compass]

I bet that somewhere there’s an entire shield world full of Cylixes with Forerunners in them because I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t try to save themselves but at the same time they’re too proud to let themselves be sent back to the Stone Age with the rest of the species of the galaxy

[empty bloom]

There might be some far-flung group with a, ah, stickler mindset.

It'd be interesting to have a group of Forerunner militants still roaming around looking to strangle that lifesaving project in the crib.

[plush compass]

To be honest I hope that the Endless actually go somewhere with the next game/dlc

[fair hazel]

You do know... the forerunners were alive after the activation of the halo array?

[plush compass]

Unlike the Didact who died a comic death and the Created who are kinda just evil robot in the sidelines characters

[empty bloom]

I did mean after the activation.

Kind of a "Don't you survivalist jerks ruin our good death" sort of deal.

[fair hazel]

Cylixes were under the purview of the lifeworkers

[plush compass]

Like the endless better be in some way related to Precursors or something cool like that

[past trail]

i thought those were just under view of monitors/submonitors/sentinels

the more you know

[plush compass]

Because if they’re just a random loreless new species that’d be kinda lame

And Offensive Bias. It’s very obvious how Mendicant’s story mirrors Cortana’s in terms of what they were for, their betrayal, and their sacrifice to save Master Chief, and now the AIs made originally to counter Mendicant/Cortana would be helping him to save the galaxy and stuff

[icy yoke]

More likely they keep genetic samples ir it's genetic base sequence on Record as opposed to specimen for safety sake

[icy yoke]

Proximity diameter of plasma shot exiting the barrel.

[empty bloom]

Obvious yet amusing.

[versed helm]

Who is your favourite spartan?

[tawny sapphire]

Jorge

[vagrant palm]

Carter

[calm dome]

Do we currently know the whereabouts/condition of Dr. Halsey?

[vagrant palm]

No, it's still unconfirmed whether she was on the infinity when the banished attacked.

[calm dome]

Oh thank god

Has anybody Rubicon protocol fully?

There’s a joke I’m like to respond with what it may or may not be spoilers

[rose steeple]

At least one person has (me)

[timid skiff]

the real question is, was it red-red-green or red-green-red?

[terse sage]

I have

[fair hazel]

Linda

[rose steeple]

Me
Uhh
Six

[fair hazel]

I like the best spartan 🙂

[rose steeple]

Ooh

Same

I’m changing my answer

[lament karma]

Either 6 or Jerome, or just the entirety of Gamma

I'm biased though because Ghosts of Onyx is my favorite book

[scarlet quiver]

I think the answers to favorite spartans should be broken down into the generation:
1:
2:
3:
4:

Just to spice it up.

[terse sage]

1: Johnson (obviously)
2: Fred
3: Jun
4: Buck

[orchid kettle]

1. Buck
2. Mickey
3. Romeo
4. Dutch

nothing against Gretchin, we barely know her

[scarlet quiver]

Yeaaa, very similar here.

[orchid kettle]

Is there even another confirmed, named Spartan-I