lore-and-universe

[dusk jetty]

This Horse is so dead I don’t understand why beating it matters so much

[wicked wasp]

because everything in halo (for the humans at least) is pretty practical designs and arent too crazy and futuristic

[orchid kettle]

its really just a question of like-- how much attention has to be paid to the inner workings of the military for something to transform from an action/adventure tale set in space to military scifi

how many saluted officers and recon bravos do you need

[dusk jetty]

It’s like clone wars fans fans insisting that it is actually super deep

Yeah it’s a good show but the themes don’t go that deep

[wicked wasp]

@orchid kettle I would be willing to come to a compromise

I think the books would be more military type

and the games more scifi

[dusk jetty]

Alluding to something mature isn’t the same as being it upfront

[wicked wasp]

but in general

if you combine all of the stories into one, you would get military scifi

[orchid kettle]

We have a pretty good number of books though that don't even really feature the human military

[dusk jetty]

Honestly this horse is so dead and I’ve said my peace on it so many times that I’ve just become tired of it.

[crimson oxide]

I think when we start going into the terrorty of AI, space ships, FTL travel, and galactic super weapons your pretty much in science fiction,

[wicked wasp]

those are usually the ones that dont involve humans at all tho

[orchid kettle]

Three books about high school kids, a trilogy on salvagers, broken circle was entirely aliens

the forerunner trilogy

[dusk jetty]

Halo wars

[hot zodiac]

I think defining "military" is unlike defining "sci-fi". You have dudes in green, boom, military. Sci-fi has more rules.

[wicked wasp]

I mean the books like, The Flood, Contact Harvest, Fall of Reach, Bad Blood, (the sequel to bad blood I forget the name)

[dusk jetty]

The RTS game of the series has a significant portion dedicated to an extinct mysterious aliens

[wicked wasp]

the good ones i mean

[dusk jetty]

That’s all we need to know about what sort of category halo is in

[hot zodiac]

You can absolutely have these things in non-fantasy sci-fi.

[wicked wasp]

that is absolutely incorrect

am i able to post images in this channel or will i get muted

[hot zodiac]

Do the characters say "Yes sir!"? Then I'd say you're there.

[wicked wasp]

respectfully btw

[wicked wasp]

im agreeing with you that halo is a military shooter im just saying thats not the reason

[orchid kettle]

Yeah, like I said, it's about the set dressing, mainly. But like, the games aren't really commentating on what the life of a soldier is like.

[wicked wasp]

@orchid kettle can i post images in here or will i get muted for 24 hours

[orchid kettle]

Chief isn't just a spec ops commando-- he's an action movie hero.

[wicked wasp]

he can be both

Maverick is an action movie hero in top gun

hes in the military tho too

[orchid kettle]

I think the difference is just: Chief being in the military is the context for why a green man in special armor is shooting aliens.

But the games aren't really saying anything more about the military.

[wicked wasp]

guys if all of a sudden i dont talk just know its cuz i tried to show yall a picture

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1174159968233082962/1174504623525085264/107410_screenshots_20231115190446_1.jpg?ex=6567d5ab&is=655560ab&hm=565ea49006e9938d494da55a5c7a07aaab873e1d1594ff6d22298c867af1f293&

alright

@orchid kettle is that image trash or nah

UNSC Marine Autorifleman giving suppressing fire with his belt-fed machine gun during a raid on a Covenant position during the events on Installation 04.

[unique rune]

Outcasts released... three months ago, I wanna say?

Might've been four months actually

[crimson oxide]

Has there been any halo media that takes place post infinite?

Aside from the Multiplayer story that is

[radiant basin]

Have you played spartan assault

That might

[wicked wasp]

Corporal Ashton Baker, second in command of his squad assumed command of the squad mid firefight after the former squad leader was obliterated by a plasma grenade thrown by an elite. Fortunately for the rest of the squad, only two additional members were killed in action after Baker assumed command. The squad successfully neutralized two Covenant fireteams and captured a forerunner structure. Helmet camera footage shows the moment Baker took command of his squad during the firefight.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1174159968233082962/1174511785932488704/107410_screenshots_20231115193722_1.jpg?ex=6567dc57&is=65556757&hm=8d252e6ddca6d0808d45b53c5524f560971079d46b7ddba945c60c9ae35de34d&

I should honestly be a storyteller

[empty bloom]

I will hit it in the skull with a cinderblock

[unique rune]

Spartan Assault is definitely not after Infinite

The simulated events of that game are like, before Halo 4 even.

[frozen field]

yea

[stoic hamlet]

The new short story seems like it might.

Or at least in the 6 month timespan John spent napping.

[wicked wasp]

Why does everyone hate the book The Flood

[orchid kettle]

It's a lot of recounting video game levels

and honestly I've never been that impressed with the prose itself

[empty bloom]

The best part about it is the Alpha Base half of the book, despite the actual capabilities involved being kind of mid.

[radiant basin]

Okay, I wasn't sure

[fair hazel]

I liked seeing alpha base in fireteam raven

[last anchor]

It was handed to an entirely different author for some reason, one who wasn't Nylund and who Im not sure actually talked to Nylund at all before writing.
There's a lot of oddities and bits of just "hey, I was in the military, this is what it was like for me!".
Like the UNSC using the USMC's rallying cry despite the US not existing as an individual nation anymore.

The weirdness (and honestly pointlessness) of Marvin Mobouto.

Also, Pelicans require aviation fuel. Despite early commentary on them being that they were fusion driven like basically every other UNSC vessel.

I think they fixed that later but just...its a weird book.

Oh and the bit where Chief gets ganked on the head with a wrench.

[orchid kettle]

Inconsistencies aside, I just felt like it was pretty boring

In a way I never thought any other classic halo book was.

[stoic hamlet]

Apparently Dietz did talk with Nylund/Bungie/Microsoft about the book. There’s an interesting interview he did…two years ago I think where he goes over the process of writing the book.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2DsxC94Pstw&pp=ygUdSGFsbyB5aGUgZmxvb2QgYm9vayBpbnRlcnZpZXc%3D

Apparently most of the non-chief stuff he had to ask to add in. He was basically just told to recap the game.

[last anchor]

Huh

[empty bloom]

Marvin Mobuto could've walked through 90% of the Library and died to the first flood fight, but everyone seemingly insists on him fighting through ceaseless waves of flood like Chief did, lmao

There's not even any real evidence of him fighting the whole way lmao

[fair hazel]

What i've been saying basically

[empty bloom]

Like, didn't someone make like a 12-20 minute video about how awesome Mobuto is?

[hot zodiac]

Within the novel, Spark says he brought Marvin to the same place Chief had started, and Chief "marveled at the fact that anyone could make it that far".

[empty bloom]

But there's no signs of fighting extensively pointed out before then, and it doesn't imply the fighting was anywhere near as rough as half of what Chief had been dealing with so far.

That was on the... Third floor, IIRC?

Hell, given the distance, it'd make sense that Mobuto didn't even have half as many foes to kill-the infection would've had to have literally just started when he got there.

That says more about the lethality of the flood against a human who might as well be completely undressed than it does about Mobuto's prowess as a combatant.

Like, I'm sure he managed to kill something, but Chief's still way better equipped, and it wouldn't make much sense for Mobuto to deal with so much flood that an honest to God Spartan got exhausted.

[hot zodiac]

Ultimately, you can conclude whatever you want, but I don't know what more you could want.

To make this conclusion you'd be ignoring what the book is telling you lol

[empty bloom]

The book doesn't really give any evidence to either conclusion, but one's a lot easier to believe.

And it isn't the one where the guy managed to solo push through hundreds of flood like Chief did til bad luck in a swarm did him in.

So what more do I want? I want someone to actually give me a convincing reason to believe Mobuto actually fought the same odds, in the slightest, instead of the far more likely option of smaller numbers, considering the state Mobuto's found in or not.

Like, Spark thought Chief was underarmored for the situation. A Marine, ODST or no? Might as well be in their birthday suit.

[orchid kettle]

I mean, it could be a lil of column A and columb B

Mobuto still fought Flood, just perhaps not as much as Chief

as surely the infection only grows more and more threatening overtime

[empty bloom]

That's kinda the thing, I'm not denying that he fought the flood at all-I'm just saying he maybe fought one 'pod' per level until the swarm arrived, which was likely around the time Chief got to the initial facility Keyes got infected in.

(Pod in the XCOM Squad sense)

It's enough to be a believable engagement for an ODST, at any rate. But we don't know if Mobuto was an ODST or not.

[orchid kettle]

he got good rng and he had the extended mag upgrade on his shotgun

[empty bloom]

Got that extended mag and hair trigger

[orchid kettle]

let him take out a ton of Lost in a single turn

[empty bloom]

Blademaster moment

[orchid kettle]

I remember Bacon was talking about how he didn't think Dietz understood that there was a difference between marines and odsts

I dunno how true that is, havent read the book since high school

[empty bloom]

Eh

The book kinda does delineate, but the ODSTs are not meaningfully equipped differently.

It kinda portrays the ODSTs more as an offshoot of Marines than they usually get portrayed.

[stoic hamlet]

Part of that is because that’s how they were treated in Fall of Reach.

The Flood does more to make them unique than FoR did.

But it’s not until H2 gave them the unique armour that they really started to become their own. (Though The Flood did have them wear all black/charcoal armour, just not full covering)

[empty bloom]

I have been pung

[hot zodiac]

The small Mobuto sequence is Chief stopping to commend this other "Reclaimer" for making it as far as he did. Chief famously says “I didn’t know you, Sarge, but I sure as hell wish I had. You must have been one hard-core son of a [CENSORED].” You don't want to believe it, fine lol. But the book is presenting this narrative.

[empty bloom]

Presenting the narrative that... The guy got far, without stating anything specific about the amount he actually fought through?

Wait, what?

Modmail's not actually indicating what that got deleted for. Hmn.

Didn't even get a warning.

Either way, you aren't doing a great job of convincing me that the narrative actually presents a proper argument.

[carmine sleet]

The truly ironic thing would be if he didn't even die from the Flood and instead died tripping over a brick

[empty bloom]

Fell on the brick and every single bone in his body, even the ear bones, experienced a compound fracture

[hot zodiac]

For anyone curious, this is the meat of the exchange, happens after having dredged through parts of the library.

“Ah,” 343 Guilty Spark said, peering down over the Spartan’s shoulder.
“The other Reclaimer. His combat skin proved even less suitable than
yours.”

The soldier looked up over his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Is this a test, Reclaimer?” the Monitor seemed genuinely puzzled. “I found
him wandering through a structure on the other side of the ring, and brought
him to the same point where you started.”

The Chief looked down at the body and marveled at the fact that anyone
could make it that far. Even with his physical augmentation, and the
advantages of his armor, the Spartan was reaching the end of his endurance.

It's really funny that the book kinda stops in its tracks for this and people just dismiss it lol

[orchid kettle]

Yeah, it seems pretty clear that the intent was that this boi was some cool guy who fought as hard as he did

Because yeah, otherwise the sequence doesn't make sense.

[empty bloom]

Intent Schmintent, reality's cooler.

[orchid kettle]

You could argue that Chief doesn't have all the information-- but Dietz does. Nobody told him to put a guy there and dedicate a page or two to him.

[empty bloom]

Excising that wouldn't even really have hurt that section's readability, tbh, its entire existence is mostly just to find a break in the constant killing.

[empty bloom]

That said-Dietz does, but whatever that information may have been was ultimately irrelevant.

[orchid kettle]

Not really. It seems like most fans got what he was going for.

[empty bloom]

🤷‍♂️

I get the passage intent, I just don't see where the actual evidence behind the assumed level of conflict is.

[orchid kettle]

I mean, and we probably will never have that evidence without seeing the events directly.

[empty bloom]

Yep!

[orchid kettle]

Guess we'll just have to trust the word of the man who pressed the funny keys on his keyboard and wrote the book.

[empty bloom]

I trust that Mobuto did a thing.

[wicked wasp]

Day 3 of reminding people that halo is a military sci-fi game

[boreal bane]

@wicked wasp please don't do this every day

There is absolutely no need

[surreal glen]

It's a first person shooter and that's it

[wicked wasp]

why

im not spamming tho

im just making sure everybody knows you feel me

[empty bloom]

It's very well established that doing that is spamming lmao

[boreal bane]

This counts as it. I'm asking you to stop, please do so

[surreal glen]

Everybody knows and already knew much before you came here to say it

[wicked wasp]

why does it bother people that i do that

[empty bloom]

Because it's dumb.

[surreal glen]

Same reason it bothers me that games tell me to press X to reload

It's dumb and I know it already

[wicked wasp]

that still do it tho

[wicked wasp]

im sure a lot of other things are dumb

they arent against the rules tho

[empty bloom]

Your posting of the same thing every day is.

[carmine sleet]

There's so many more interesting things to talk about too

[empty bloom]

You were warned about it, so that's the end of it.

[wicked wasp]

every day i change the number 🧌

[carmine sleet]

Like Unggoy Farmer

[boreal bane]

If you want to discuss it further, please DM modmail . Time to move on

[wicked wasp]

oh like the 1st cavalry division of the UNSC army

which includes multiple mechanized infantry brigades and air cavalry units

and the 7th shock troops battalion on the UNSC Marines

[empty bloom]

I wonder what that weird grunt ration was that smelled like cheese in Halo The Flood.

Every day I beg for a Covenant version of the Halo cookbook.

[carmine sleet]

One day

[wicked wasp]

thats why they call it cutting the cheese

[carmine sleet]

I wanna know more Covenant foods and see how they could work with human ingredients

[empty bloom]

I mean, cannibals already practice Brute dishes, right?

[surreal glen]

Both Brutes and Drones eat humans

[wicked wasp]

guys are we allowed to talk about things that happened in halo lore but are sensitive topics that may break the rules and guidelines

i love being ignored in this channel

[boreal bane]

You could wait more than 30 seconds before claiming you're being ignored

If the topic you want to discuss is against the rules, I feel it's quite obvious that it wouldn't be allowed

[wicked wasp]

no i get that

but

when people die themselves in the game is that forbidden

to talk about

[wicked wasp]

or in the books

guys what do yall think of the UNSC air force

[unique rune]

they sure exist and do planes good

[empty bloom]

They sponsored a significant portion of the fledgeling Spartan IV program, which is part of the reason I like them.

[carmine sleet]

Those dishes are best off never being tried by humans

[wicked wasp]

i feel like people think the only special operations in the unsc is odst and spartans

[empty bloom]

Just replace the meat with pork, it's fiiiiiine.

[boreal bane]

Nothing wrong with discussing this.
Only times it may be problematic is if it's in newly released media that's less than 1 month old. In those cases, we usually have a spoiler thread open

[carmine sleet]

I'm vegetarian

[empty bloom]

Faux pork

I mean, hell, I'm like three inches from being a pescatarian when it comes to my diet, so.

[wicked wasp]

but people forget there is air force special warfare, TACPs, JTACs, naval special warfare, and Force Reconnaissance in the marines.

[empty bloom]

Spartan Eklund was an Army Ranger before she was a Spartan.

[boreal bane]

Fork

[wicked wasp]

thats really cool actually

im glad they added rangers to the lore

[empty bloom]

Her post-Spartandom job is mostly the same as her Army one, from what can be told, just with more Spartan-standard 'snap elite wrists like paper' shenanigans.

[wicked wasp]

johnson was force reconnaissance before going to the orion project i think

force reconnaissance is basically the marines' rangers

[carmine sleet]

I love that she's also a confirmed member of Fireteam Crimson. Makes me wonder if she was on the team when they were on Requiem

[empty bloom]

We already know she got transferred somewhere between 2554 and 2559 after Operations Bellingham and Late Taxi.

[carmine sleet]

I see

[empty bloom]

So assuming a normal IV pipeline, she likely got augged in the first or second IV class circa 2553, transferred to Crimson, then transferred out of Crimson in Dec 2554 or early 2555 after Jun's recommendation.

[stoic hamlet]

They saw the Navy and Army had the other two on lock so jumped at the first opportunity to get in on some Spartan action.

[empty bloom]

Well, that, and it's not without historical precedent, especially not anymore.

The American USAF, which Halo's is roughly based on in terms of structure, is usually extremely forward-thinking as a branch, so them promoting a new Spartan program would be a given.

[surreal glen]

What happened to Haverson after the events of First Strike?

[stoic hamlet]

I mean…. Do they? Unless you’re a super causal, I feel like most people in the lore community are aware of the AAG, Delta-6, Rangers, Force Recon, etc.

[empty bloom]

TBF

Most Halo fans are super casual.

[stoic hamlet]

He was KIA. Died with Whitcomb.

[surreal glen]

RIP

[empty bloom]

Ah, so his carbonized remains are in a pile next to Noble Six in the cave.

[stoic hamlet]

Bigger question is what happened to Harland. I kinda hope he became a IV. Would be cool to see him interact with John.

[empty bloom]

If he got debriefed at Reach, I have the feeling he died.

Or worse, slapped onto the Autumn.

[stoic hamlet]

That’s true of a lot of air forces, really. And navies, occasionally.

First it was Artillery regiments, then navies of the world, now it’s air forces.

Kinda neat, to see that progression.

[empty bloom]

I actually find it a little funny that the fanbase has such opposition to the Spartan program being the way it is now. It's very...

I have many ways to say how I view it, most of them too colorful to say here.

But Branches wanting their own versions of the Spartan program would make some sense in universe even if it never happened.

[stoic hamlet]

The Branch now is basically like… like a contracting business, sort of. (There’s an actusl military analogy, I know, I’m just too tired to think of it).

They’re “independent” but assigned to whatever branch needs them at the time as a special force. They move between UNISPECWARCOM and NAVSPECWARCOM but in combat are assigned to those commands.

[empty bloom]

Spartan Foreign Legion

[stoic hamlet]

Ehhhh, more like a special task group, I think.

To use another sci-fi example, they work like Tempestus Scions now, from 40K.

Nominally independent but assigned to other units to augment their capabilities.

[versed helm]

Should make a movie on the Elites & their home planet

[pallid knoll]

they should

maybe it could be set before the covenant

[versed helm]

Before or after base on their civil war

[lone plover]

hmmmm what if instead of the flood ..it hell from ultrakill

would it be worse

like imagine an entire "dimensions" that is in and of it self a mega living organism

[empty bloom]

That really doesn't sound too different from the flood, tbh.

[lone plover]

except it doesnt have physical body

i was thinking this kinda sounds like what exactly the flood would do ( after all the primordial corrupt and turn mendicant bias against the forerrunner...similar to how hell turn machines against man kind)

[crimson oxide]

Is it ever explained how George a spartan II became part of a team of Spartan III?

[empty bloom]

The flood doesn't technically have a physical body either.

[lone plover]

neurophysic stuff?

[empty bloom]

JORGE likely joined after he took injuries that left him at least temporary unfit for standard service, or was reassigned with that as a cover.

[lone plover]

like how the grave mind able to know the event of flood runner war

[empty bloom]

Yep, and how it used Faber's family to torture him through the Forerunner internet despite them 100% being squishy biomass monstrosities at that point.

The flood don't necessarily inhabit their own dimension by my understanding, but a concept very similar.

[crimson oxide]

@empty bloom so the answer is most likely what the answer is for most things that don’t add up in the UNSC……ONI shenanigans

[lone plover]

can flood teleport it own troop too?

like how levels spawning enemy when you enters

[empty bloom]

Basically.

[empty bloom]

IIRC, by the end of the FFW, the Flood was outright making biomass out of neural physics shenanigans.

So... Kinda.

[lone plover]

LOL

so ...just dont care about normal law of physics and just ...heres is bunch of biomass out of nothingness of space

[empty bloom]

Late stage flood infections are kind of OP, yeah.

[tranquil valve]

Can’t late stage flood infections result in a whole planet turning into a biomass or something (think brother moons from dead space)

[thorny osprey]

Yall

Wth

It says halo 3 has happened in 2552

And halo wars 2 in 2559

Wasnt the ark destroyed in halo 3?

[timber maple]

It wasn't destroyed

Believe the half made new ring was destroyed. If I recall correctly

Or I maybe wrong....could have sworn there was ark and scientists on it in one of the books...

[thorny osprey]

F im missing so much for not reading them

[thorny osprey]

Which book?

[timber maple]

Thats the thing, dont remember. I have a ton of them on audible now.

[thorny osprey]

So u saying they only destroyed the ring on the ark

Not the whole ark

[timber maple]

Well I thought that was the case

[thorny osprey]

Thats actually make sense

[timber maple]

I googled it and it says it did....but im doing that I just noticed a flaw in the whole fire ring to destory flood thing...

[thorny osprey]

Yeah but there still flood on the ark itself

[timber maple]

In 1 it said it starves the flood....so they'd remain? Maybe not just retcons

[thorny osprey]

So it really making sense

[timber maple]

Yeah means they weren't destroyed...

[thorny osprey]

Yep

Only on the ring itself

[timber maple]

Yeah cause Ive always been a bit confused how the giant ark was in the earth and how onxy pocket is...it gets confusing...

Think we just use a portal.

[thorny osprey]

Ive heard a theory about that

Like 2 mins ago

I dont remember where tho💀

[timber maple]

Lol

I watch tons of lore videos so Im sure there's most likely simple answer.

[thorny osprey]

Isnt it getting confusing?

They r all js theories (from what ive known) and some people will give u another theories than others

[timber maple]

Yeah but Im also kinda dropped after 4 so I need to catch up with 4 and 5 and finish infinite

But the books I think mostly are pretty good even standalone wise.

[thorny osprey]

I js ordered one

[timber maple]

Which one you order?

[thorny osprey]

New blood

[timber maple]

Hmmm good one think thats about...buck?

[thorny osprey]

The rookie mainly i assume

[timber maple]

Ah yeah I would have gone with the first og trilogy but ah well, most the books are in sets of live 3s and stuff

[thorny osprey]

I bought it bc ik he died there

Idk why and how but thats the reason i bought it

[timber maple]

I wont say anything to keep from spoiling it

[thorny osprey]

Thx

[timber maple]

Its good though

After that though you'll wanna follow up with bad blood. Think in thay set its just those two

[thorny osprey]

I will

Should i buy it now?

[timber maple]

Hm. Well if your getting physical. If not it can wait.

[unique rune]

Short answer is no, the Ark was not destroyed. Though at the time I'm sure the intention was for it to have been destroyed.

The first book to go back to the Ark was Hunters in the Dark, which was a whole thing about the Monitor of the Ark sending Retriever Sentinels to fix the damage it incurred during Halo 3 with resources taken from Earth. And the Halo Array has gone on standby for some reason.
So the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios send a team to go shut that down.

[timber maple]

Ah ty!

[thorny osprey]

Bought

[timber maple]

Nice!

I still got 2 audible credits. My goal is at some point own all kf the halo books through it lol.

[thorny osprey]

Thx G💯

[thorny osprey]

Anyone knows what monitor is responsible on installation 00?

If it even got one

[unique rune]

You would be looking for:
https://www.halopedia.org/000_Tragic_Solitude

[wicked wasp]

no

@thorny osprey its about buck

[thorny osprey]

I only care for the rookie

Literally me💯

[carmine sleet]

https://tenor.com/view/matrix-the-agents-know-dont-gif-18536773

[empty bloom]

I mean, it's about Rookie in a sense. He actually has more of an impact on the plot than he did in ODST, in fact.

Though, all the effort he goes through in that book gives him a killer headache.

[unique rune]

Just get him some ibuprofen

[timber maple]

Lol

Its the closest thingbhe has ti a book about the rookie

[orchid kettle]

still hold that rookie's death isn't a very good catalyst for Mickey doing what he did

[timber maple]

I would have suggested the first trilogy my self by ah well, dont think blue team matters in it.

SHHHHH

h3 doesn't know yet

[orchid kettle]

||Mickey should have killed a person and felt guilty about it||

[timber maple]

Dont remember much of it but yeah, agree.

[orchid kettle]

||He should have also been wronged by Buck in some way to explain the drastic heel turn he undergoes||

||Since even in Bad Blood, when asked why he did what he did, Mickey just doesn't have an answer. Which to me reads like Forbeck, the writer, didn't have an answer.||

||Because you just don't pass up on a character pouring their heart out in a big emotional monologue. That's the sort of scene any character-focused writer dreams of.||

||Also because Buck needs a better reason to later eschew leadership and join a brand new team. And actively being a factor in Mickey's heel turn rather than kicking himself for not seeing it coming would be a lot more impactful and give their later reconciliation more balance.||

[empty bloom]

It isn't what I would call Forbeck's best work if I'm being honest.

[orchid kettle]

||Since as is, everybody tells Buck that he just has to forgive Mickey for doing something unforgivable. When he's done nothing wrong and is 100% the victim here.||

[empty bloom]

It has a lot of little snarls like that and the god-forsaken 'Spartans are titans, gods and demigods' schtick.

And a few big snarls too.

[wicked wasp]

Guys what unit is sgtmaj Johnson in during the og halo games

Is he still force recon

Or was he just assigned to a normal marine unit

[timber maple]

Leading the normal marines in 2.

[orchid kettle]

Back in CE and Fall of Reach, Johnson was more or less just a background character

just a marine assigned to red flag like the rest

But then he got really popular within Bungie, and he became a lot more important with a far more complicated past than I think they originally intended

and now I guess Johnson's thing is that he just floats around helping NAVSPECWAR in whatever their latest fancy is

be it SILENT STORM or RED FLAG

the real question is why he's on Miranda's ship in Halo 2, but I guess it was the only way off Cairo Station so he could help out on Earth

[stoic hamlet]

In Fall of Reach he was just a random marine on Gamma station. He wasn’t even officially assigned to the Autumn.

[orchid kettle]

I'm sure if it was written today, they'd change that considering how he's apparently the coolest operator man ever

and no longer Some Guy

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah. I mean, even now you could change it to say he was there as part of the Circumference crew, which was an ONI prowler.

[past violet]

Talking to friends about Halo lore nerd stuff, and the topic of how much personnel and what have you were on ships.

I want to think the Orion-class would have a few thousand, but my friend said it'd have much more. Does anyone know? Halopedia doesn't say.

[last anchor]

UNSC ships tend to be fairly moderate on crew compliment. Much of their systems are automated.
A few thousand doesnt sound too improbable, though slew a bit towards it being heavier on ground compliment for Marines.

A good point of reference would be the Spirit of Fire since a Pheonix Class is basically just a less designed Orion

Same basic principle and combat intent more or less

[past violet]

Thanks!

[versed helm]

how dangerous would chief be if he was infected by the flood?

[valid sand]

I would say less dangerous honestly.

[empty bloom]

About the same as normal, maybe a bit more dangerous by virtue of infecting other people.

Considering Chief's superpower is apparently amazing luck, Chief as an infected Spartan just really wouldn't be that different from any other random Spartan.

Not like he has Cortana bull to save him from a nuke this time, lmao.

[crimson oxide]

Frankly the idea of the insurrection still being a thing by the late 2550s is kind of absurd, they were situated in outer colonies…..which basically ment the majority of inne planets have been glassed, second by I would say 3-4 years into the war (considering people didn’t even know the war was going on 1 year into it) the innes would begin to realize “hey they don’t have a beef with just the UNSC they are waging a war of extermination on the entirety of humanity” this would cause many innes (like the one dlc commander in halo wars 2) to side with the UNSC on pure self preservation. And lastly if there was an innie colony that managed to remain undetected in the outer colonies through the entire war, and just went comms dark they would functionally have their independence in a post covenant war galaxy seeing how the UNSC wouldn’t have the resources to reclaim their outer colonies before the created and banished conflicts

Honestly the insurrection feels more contrived to exist for the sake of human vs human drama

Hell actually it would have been interesting if we got a human faction made up of outer colony surviving planets who the last thing they heard was the covenant had found earth. And genuinely believed that Earth, UEG, and the UNSC was destroyed, and had silently created their own interplanetary government fully believing they were alone.

[wicked wasp]

guys what halo book should i get next i already read new blood, bad blood, contact harvest, and the flood. im mainly looking at stories about the unsc and im not real interested in forerunners and the covenant and all that

[empty bloom]

Rubicon Protocol

[wicked wasp]

isnt it cole protocol or something

or is that a different book

[empty bloom]

Rubicon Protocol is not Cole Protocol.

[wicked wasp]

what is it about

[empty bloom]

Spartan IVs on Zeta Halo.

[wicked wasp]

dont spoil just give a basic plot

eh

[empty bloom]

While Chief was unconscious.

[wicked wasp]

spartan ivs are kinda lame imo

i prefer odsts or marines

[empty bloom]

It will likely change your mind on them.

[ruby canopy]

Cole protocol is good

Fall of reach too

[wicked wasp]

i already know how its gonna be

[empty bloom]

No, you don't.

[wicked wasp]

they dash through dozens of enemies destroying everything in their path or something like that

[empty bloom]

Yep, I was right, you don't.

[wicked wasp]

alright be honest

they have got to have done that at least once in the book

[empty bloom]

Do you like it when IIs or IIIs do that?

[wicked wasp]

doesnt matter who tbh

i'll still take your word for it

i might read it

[empty bloom]

Not really. They have some nice martial displays, but the Spartan POV is also kind of the B plot of the book. The meat's about how the IVs operate on a mental level, and the A plot of a Marine Squad trying to survive.

[wicked wasp]

yessss

so its about marines for the most part

[stoic hamlet]

It’s about the survivors of Infinity.

[wicked wasp]

ok

[crimson oxide]

@wicked wasp sadly there are not as many stories that focus on ODST or marines, New blood and bad blood while still spartan IV stories is a continuation of the odst squad from halo 3 odst
Cole protocol, contact harvest are the primary non-spartan books, if you pick up Evolution or Fractures books they are a collection of short stories and have some shorter 30-40page stories that aren’t spartan oriented

There are the kilo-5 books, they are ONI black ops team during the years that master chief was in cryo there is A spartan 2 (and a spartan 2 washout) but is less focused on the Spartans as other books

But I highly recommend Cole protocol. While there are Spartans in it, it is mostly a story to make Captain Keys look like an absolute badass then focus on grey team (a spartan team introduced in this book whose story is continued in Halo Envoy

[exotic pulsar]

Yeah, and Grey Team is supposed to be like, Spec Ops Spartans which is kind of a oxymoron.

Spartans should already be considered an Spec Ops unit, how can you make a Spec Ops of Spec Ops?

Anyways, Grey Team has done some crazy crap as I believe they are under ONI's direct control if I recall. So they have done operations not just to mess with the covenant but I also believe they did stuff post war as well.

[tardy shale]

The entire lore of halo is green boy kills alien boy simple as that

[fossil eagle]

Does that still apply for stories like Broken Circle?

[drowsy mesa]

They were in cryo-sleep from January 2553 until September 2558

[exotic pulsar]

Yeah, and they had no idea the war was over by then and still did stuff to wreck elites.

[ruby canopy]

The interesting part about gray team is that they have a lot of freedom in the field

They pretty much make up their own missions and complete them as they see fit

[orchid kettle]

Gray Team hangs out behind enemy lines for potentially years at a time

while the rest of the IIs usually operate as one big squad that Chief commands and splits as he sees fit

Black Team is kinda the real redundant one here, since it doesn't seem like the missions they undertake are all that different than what any Spartan would do

if anything they're more defined by their super special prototype armor that is essentially just Mark VI before Mark VI was a thing

[exotic pulsar]

Then Black Team got killed by the Didact, because they are not Blue Team.

[tropic forge]

To be honest I wish we got some expansion on the idea that Black Team was secret even from the other Spartans. The story of who had enough power to pluck them out like that and why is potentially a lot more interesting than the team itself.

[exotic pulsar]

@ruby canopy I mean yeah, but at least now they got a clear cut idea what exactly the enemy lines are now in modern times. I see they are now working alongside the Swords of Sanghelios as a inter species strike team. Wonder what kind of shenanigans they are going to get involved in?

[versed helm]

what was the blue team doing before halo 5 anyways?

and while we are at it, what is johnson doing after halo 3?

[exotic pulsar]

Being dead.

[versed helm]

that's what i thought, but why?

[exotic pulsar]

Well because 343 Guilty Spark shot him in the back and UNSC Standard Marine Armor is pretty lackluster at stopping direct energy weapons.

[versed helm]

ah forgot about that...

[versed helm]

who's now commanding the marines instead of him?

[exotic pulsar]

Especially if said direct energy weapon was a laser.

He was only a Sergeant Major he wasn't the top ranking CO.

[versed helm]

who is?

[exotic pulsar]

The top top CO of all of the UNSC is Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood.

[unique rune]

They were busy being stuck inside Onyx

[exotic pulsar]

He is the CiC, or Commander in Chief.

[versed helm]

the old guy that apparently made a speech in halo 3?

[exotic pulsar]

Yes, him.

[versed helm]

i doubt that by onyx you mean onyx onyx, so what's onyx?

[exotic pulsar]

Onyx is a name of a Shield World.

[unique rune]

Forerunner shield world/ONI research facility with like a billion names
https://www.halopedia.org/Onyx
https://www.halopedia.org/Sarcophagus

This place gives me a headache sometimes honestly

[exotic pulsar]

A Shield World is just basically a forerunner installation that is used to save existing life from The Flood but also the tactical pulse from the Halo Array that wipes out all sentient life in the galaxy.

[wicked wasp]

Guys was Halsey Miranda Keyes’ mother?

[exotic pulsar]

Well clearly, where do you think all that SASS came from?

Certainly wasn't from Keyes.

[wicked wasp]

💀💀💀

[exotic pulsar]

Miranda inherited his courage, and Halsy's overall dry wit and sass.

[versed helm]

yes

[tardy shale]

Does the halo story canonically end on July 7th 2589 or at the end of halo reach the date it had shown because reach was being repopulated then

[tropic forge]

I'm pretty sure 2610 is currently the furthest ahead we've seen, stemming from some of the material from the Reach legendary edition.

[dusty ferry]

And some of the halo 3 ads

[empty bloom]

Amusingly, that whole fiasco shows why that sort of freedom can be bad.

[wicked aurora]

Hi firend what everyone up to

[thorny osprey]

Anyone knows what happened with arby?

[unique rune]

He has the meats

[dusk jetty]

Everyone always talks about reach but nobody talks about glyke

Remember glyke

[empty bloom]

Arbiter's holdings on Sanghelios and Suban are threatened by Banished excursions and interests, in spite of the only Sangheili force capable of fighting him on even footing getting a Locke-Guardian-Arbiter wombo combo slammed through it. Created support, unfortunately, does not extend as thoroughly as Pax Cortana liked, so it seems the defense of these holdings is as illegal as the taking despite the Created forces being unable to contain the Banished.

Arbiter's last known status was alongside Spartan Vale after finding a remote artifact, and he is likely still very busy with Sanghelios.

[river ridge]

because glyke was deserved trust

and it actually kinda was in reference to what grey team thought happened

[dusk jetty]

Honestly pretty small price for the sangheilli to pay after what they did to humanity

[river ridge]

real

[drowsy mesa]

But they did it after humanity allied themselves with the Sangheili at the end of the war... UPPS :v

[empty bloom]

It's kind of a complicated situation given the UNSC's status. If Arbiter had demanded Grey Team executed for the transgression, for example, the UNSC really wouldn't have much of an ability to say no.

[river ridge]

grey team didnt know that

they thought earth was glassed or something if i remember right

[empty bloom]

They're lucky the Arbiter is reasonable.

[river ridge]

they kinda would have the ability

[dusk jetty]

They’d risk making arby mad

So, yeah they could, but also a pretty bad idea

[empty bloom]

To unify a threat that would unite the warring Sangheili factions and have their only solid ex-Covenant ally turn on them?

That's a really stupid ability.

[river ridge]

true

[empty bloom]

Hell, Arbiter's soft treatment of Gray Team assuredly did not do him any favors in court.

[drowsy mesa]

and that makes it even sadder for both parts

[stoic hamlet]

Considering the state of human super liminal communications at the end of the war (basically nonexistent) it’s a surprise more situations like that weren’t common.

Though I guess any ships preforming actions like that could have hit anything. Covevent loyalist, Sangheili separatist, some random pocket empire, the banished, etc.

[normal narwhal]

question what’s the deal with combined arms

is it supposed to be a response to the flood

[rough schooner]

Ay, Who Do You Prefer, Chief or Cortana?

[bleak mist]

The chief!!!

[bleak mist]

What do you mean?

[normal narwhal]

Combined arms event halo infinite where the covenant and unsc come together

idk anything about lore and I thought the covenant wants humanity to die

[bleak mist]

Ah okay. I don't know anything about halo infinite.

There is the covenant civil war in Halo 3

When you said "combined arms" I thought of like the military practice of having like, the air force and the army work closely together.

[normal narwhal]

oh ok

there was just a big thing about the flood and im pretty sure that’s halo 3 as well

[wicked wasp]

guys how do UNSC frigates not fall out of the sky when in-atmosphere

cuz they dont have any engines pushing down

[stoic hamlet]

It’s a focus on a joint operations unit of the UNSC and the Swords of Sangheilios, protecting the moon of Suban from the Banished.

The Flood story introduced in October is over, this is a new thing.

[normal narwhal]

oh

[stoic hamlet]

Think of the flood stuff as one event.

This is another.

[normal narwhal]

I thought it was all connected like any given games story

[stoic hamlet]

They seem to be going with the idea of disconnected “snap shots” of the universe.

Which IMO is a much better way to do things.

For example, the Flood storyline happened in 2556, the new short story, releasing on the 27th, I believe, is set in 2560.

[normal narwhal]

the Christmas one?

[stoic hamlet]

No, the one about Combined Arms.

We’re getting a short story about that.

And then one about the House of Reckoning, likely in January.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/583284342894231590/1173778559265931274/IMG_5830.png?ex=65653178&is=6552bc78&hm=02544358c14d47c33a5476a7f83abb263c357e0fb2f8a5086a0bffb70a05b13d&

[normal narwhal]

oh I don’t really keep up with the lore stuff I was just asking since it was confusing

[safe mauve]

Why didnt humanity loot covenant technology for use in their military or even civilian life

[empty bloom]

They did. Most Covenant tech doesn't really work well with UNSC combat doctrine.

[safe mauve]

Wdym

[empty bloom]

The way the UNSC fights is not compatible with the kind of fighting the Covenant do.

The applications of Covenant equipment do not reconcile well due to this, though the UNSC's been trialing with Covenant equipment pretty much since day 1 of the Human Covenant War.

The Mulsanne Class Frigate you see in Halo Infinite actually mounts a primary weapon derived from Covenant tech however (a pulse laser that replaces the typical MAC).

And the UNSC does produce some MJOLNIR via the same method that the Elites use to make their armors.

[safe mauve]

Bro imagine having the slipspace drives the covenant have on unsc ships

[empty bloom]

It's not like they haven't tried. The pipeline from research to production can take decades and it took allying with the Arbiter to actually break into that particular black box.

[unique rune]

Yeah, the general issue is that it’s alien technology and you can’t just bolt it to a Warthog and expect it to work

Even if someone took a crate of Plasma Rifles it’s not like they’d be understand how they work, how to fix one, or how to even just recharge them

[tranquil valve]

Where did Palmer and Lasky go after Infinity fell? I know Lasky escaped on a lifeboat

[tropic forge]

They have anti-gravity systems. There was a canon kerfuffle over the UNSC Toulouse on the Warfleet cover over it.

[wicked wasp]

how do the anti-gravity systems work

[tropic forge]

If I could tell you that, I'd expect I'd be considerably wealthier than I am.

...but here's what they said:

We’ve also seen some discussion amongst the detail-discerning members of our incredible community regarding the... performance viability of this particular scene. From a technical perspective, most UNSC vessels have gravity control systems which facilitate operations in and near gravity wells, though maneuvering options are often extremely limited in such situations. The systems employed during the Covenant War were crude and power hungry, and did not typically scale well to the needs of larger ships.

[orchid kettle]

you power them up

and Newton has been thoroughly flipped off

[wicked wasp]

So we need to go back on time

And kill newton

I see

[orchid kettle]

Ah, but in Shadow of Intent, it's mentioned that the In Amber Clad exhibited great agility before the Flood rammed it into a building

and high charity has gravity

Honestly, given how Nylund described ships below a certain size lacking the means of generating gravity internally

it seems like the original idea was that spaceships just didn't work in-atmosphere, and that's why you had space elevators ships could dock with

but of course that immediately gets undermined in Halo 2 when the In Amber Clad is zipping around above New Mombasa

[lone plover]

what the wattage of spartan laser?

i wounder how it compare to small laser

[wicked wasp]

guys my flip flop is the prophet of truth

[thorny osprey]

Whattttt

Show me

[wicked wasp]

i cant its illegaL

[thorny osprey]

Ew😔

[stoic hamlet]

Sadly, a lot of early halo was much more interesting as a universe than later Halo.

I still miss “space walk”, spinning to generate gravity, and all that that entails.

[last anchor]

Early 2000s sci fi at its finest.

[orchid kettle]

I'm a big fan of a Halo with a retro scifi aesthetic, and one where the advanced technology you'd expect in any scifi setting still has a ton of limitations and kinks

The ideal combo of smaller ships lacking artificial gravity as see nin TFoR, and the lack of FTL comms leading to a rise of physical ship couriers (aka, the 26th Century Pony Express) in Contact Harvest

unfortunately, Fall of Reach has Keyes talking with a guy over skype across star systems in real time

and Contact Harvest shows us that human ships just have a generic "artificial gravity generator"

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah, it’s really odd. Because it’s like they want both, but can’t do both.

[orchid kettle]

I like to think though that the Pony Express has had a resurgence in the era of the Created

because you probably can't trust conventional interplanetary communication methods

Gotta send a flesh and blood man, smuggle him past Created security, and deliver the message in person

[stoic hamlet]

The Encyclopedia does still more that ship couriers are the fastest way to get information from system to system.

And that intra-system travel is measured in weeks.

Both of which I love.

[stoic hamlet]

Peak UNSC, and no one can change my mind on that.

It’s just so much…cooler.

[orchid kettle]

The thing about introducing limits in your setting is that sometimes you as a writer don't want to deal with said limitations

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah, it’s something you need to plan around.

But IMO that’s what makes a good setting.

[orchid kettle]

yeah

it may be more convenient that everybody has FTL instant communication and nobody has to worry about losing bone density after years of living in space

but its not as interesting

[stoic hamlet]

And even then, technically the “space walk” thing didn’t affect anyone, really.

But it was a great bit of world building.

[orchid kettle]

just think of all the zero-g fights we've been cheated out of because somebody wanted to treat the encounter like any other fight

and not one that took place on a space ship

[stoic hamlet]

Yup.

And it’s a great point of contrast between human and covenant ships, as well.

Or it would have been…

[orchid kettle]

The contrast between humans and aliens is honestly a big reason why I dislike how common holograms have become in the UNSC

Like yeah, Cortana always had a lil avatar on what seems like its own dedicated lil podium

but when characters are having star wars style hologram phone calls

the same as the Covenant or Banished do

I can't help but wonder if we've gone a bit too far

let del rio be a silly lil bobbing head on a CRT display

like Hood in Halo 2

[surreal glen]

The Bungie era of Halo decided to go for a retrofuturistic style you see in movies like Alien
Set in the future but with grounded technology

More lo-fi rather than sci-fi

[orchid kettle]

Right, its in the future, but it's not trying to be an actual projection of what we'll be like in the 26th century

[surreal glen]

It's a work of fiction more than a prediction of how they think the future will be like

[orchid kettle]

and thus, human soldiers ride around in Humvees and their assault rifles fire a round that exists today

[stoic hamlet]

I remember seeing the opening cutscene of HW2, with Anders manipulating the hologram and just being so confused, lol.

[dusty ferry]

i personally like the change tbh. Having human tech be so spastic in its development seems to me like a far more interesting way to look at stuff. Having those holograms be alongside still using windmills and regular cars

[surreal glen]

One of the most unresalistic aspects about Halo to me is that Earth is still suitable for humans 500 years in the future

[dusty ferry]

it feels more alive and lived in

[orchid kettle]

i miss the original xbox era of animation where a character's lobster claw hands just moved up and down on a static keyboard texture

[surreal glen]

Then again, regarding how we imagine the future...

[orchid kettle]

To me, it's just a matter of contrast between humans and aliens.

Humans use bullets, vehicles with wheels or treads, and chunky CRT displays

Covenant use plasma, hovercraft, and holograms

[stoic hamlet]

But yeah, I don’t mind the YNSC being more advanced, but it’s the way it’s done. It doesn’t feel consistent, in aesthetics, direction, etc.

Like, a good example is Cyberpunk, I can have an assault rifle that looks super old and retrofuuristic, with a literal holographic optic, and drive a car that looks like a cross between a 1990’s Cadillac but with no window’s because it’s got “future cameras” and it all feels consistent. None of it feels out of place or odd.

[surreal glen]

Back in 2010 I was convinced consoles as we know them wouldn't be like this anymore by the time 2020 came in
I thought we would all be playing in VR with simplistic motion tracking controllers and maybe not even needing a console
I was mostly wrong

[orchid kettle]

Like, I feel like the intention behind the UNSC is that they're supposed to feel familiar

And what you're supposed to be in awe of is not their technology

but the Covenant and Forerunner

[tropic forge]

The frigates are still probably okay, for context the Toulouse is a light cruiser.

The interesting thing about artificial gravity is that it actually predates the rotating sections on ships. Notably primitive, and replaced by those carousels. That's kind of a fun detail, opting for the lower tech solution but also feels a little like them trying to have their cake and eat it as well.

I do agree about the holograms though.

[orchid kettle]

You obviously can't escape them having spaceships if they're an interstellar empire

But I dunno, personally that's as far as I want the tech to go

[tropic forge]

It just feels much less interesting than the more traditional displays.

[surreal glen]

I think Forerunner technology serves as a good contrast, we have the futuristic yet familiar human technology, and the advanced technology of an alien species that we would never understand if it was 1% less intuitive

[orchid kettle]

You could argue as well that holograms are like, the biggest thing that links the Covenant to the Forerunners

as they use reverse engineered Forerunner technology

the aliens may be purple, rounded, and organic while the Forerunners are cold, angular and sterile

but the shared use of holograms and seemingly plasma in the case of the sentinels

draws a link between them

but, now holograms are way more prevalent in the UNSC, and Forerunner weapons use "hardlight" mainly

[surreal glen]

The Sangheili and Prophets (screw calling them by their weird name) are closer to us in terms of intelligence than we think

[wicked wasp]

Guys my dog is sergeant major Avery Johnson

[last anchor]

They specifically mention that after the Third World War and Second American Civil War humanity settled down and united to reach for the stars and helped rebuild earth. That same tech lead to terraforming advancements the UNSC still uses to this day.

[thorny osprey]

They gonna ban u cuz u said cyberpunk

(Kidding dont ban me):

[last anchor]

Reference to other series isnt banned last I checked, especially not in lore reference.

If that was the case the amount of times Battletech has been mentioned here would have caused issues

[empty bloom]

Fun fact, Battletech actually has this as a sticking point.

There's a character in one of the novels who got metal reinforcements grafted to his skeleton due to spending the majority of his life aboard dropships, which don't have artificial gravity-relying instead on magboots.

IIRC it's implied that this is actually a common practice for jumpship and dropship crews.

[empty bloom]

Bamtletemk.

[empty bloom]

... Annnnd I just realized that this would make an amazing inspiration for Spartan bone augmentations in a crossover.

[dense falcon]

Since Spartans, Captains and other officers have neural interfaces lodged in their skull and brain tissue, an MRI would certainly kill them, wouldn't it?

[last anchor]

The UNSC has moved past modern MRIs so I don't think that's an issue

[empty bloom]

Is it metal?

[last anchor]

Also the materials in the implant may not be ferromagnetic

[empty bloom]

^ More what I meant.

[dense falcon]

Is the future method canon? Does it have a name?

[last anchor]

Whatever they used on Baird in Midnight on heart of midlothian

[empty bloom]

Probably not, but then we also don't know if the UNSC uses MRI machines.

It's kind of crazy how much you can lean on 'UNSC computer and imaging tech is absurdly good' just from the whole 'real time censorship' and 'cancer is just a meh Saturday' thing.

[dusk jetty]

On cancer, Johnson apparently went through chemotherapy for his syndrome, canceled it early, and is still in fighting shape much later, so obviously either chemo has improved or there’s other treatments as well

[terse lava]

Yeah I figure most of the sicknessess we fight with today are for the most part a distant memory for the UEG

I mean heck, they have a device that can sterialize the surrounding air for combat surgrey if I recall correctly

The idea of makking any location a optimal operation room i'd say is pretty impressive

[last anchor]

And the work on Baird was done entirely by the ships autosurgeon, directed by itst AI.

The UNSC Hopeful was noted as "literally bringing the dead back to life", more or less.

[versed helm]

why don't humans steal Covenant's weapons and shield generators?

[last anchor]

They did.

Several times

Where do you think the shielding on modern UNSC ships and MJLONIR itself came from?

Spartans alone recovered hundreds of pieces of Covenant tech over the course of the war

[versed helm]

i dunno, casual research fcility on some planet

[last anchor]

Yes, because the UNSC's research was stuck in one single research facility.

Instead of across all of human space.

[versed helm]

that's not what i meant

[last anchor]

Actually come to think of it "steal anything not nailed down" is one of the mission objectives for the opening of Silent Storm.

The main issue wasnt that they couldnt get the gear, it was that reverse engineering it was incredibly difficult.

[versed helm]

but why don't humans use the plasma repeater or plasma pistols ever

and stick to the basic machine guns and magnums

[last anchor]

Because they cant recharge them in the field.

[versed helm]

and even BRs are rare

[last anchor]

No.
No they arent.

You do not understand the production capabilities of Misrah Armories.

[versed helm]

i dunno what armories you talking about, but i don't remember a soldier using them expect in halo 4 with the mamooth mission

[last anchor]

Gameplay does not equal canon

If you dont know who Misrah Armories is, your going to have a very VERY bad time figuring out the rest of the games material.

[versed helm]

if something is so much better then i expect humans also use it in games atleast sometimes cuz that's like the more important missions

[last anchor]

Its not better.

Just another kind of weapon. Plasma weaponry has weaknesses the same as any lethal equipment.

[versed helm]

such as? charging?

[last anchor]

Plasma bolts are slower than ballistic fire.
Plasma weapons overheat under sustained operation
Most Covenant weaponry are designed for non-human hands, meaning that aiming them, let alone firing them, is a massive pain in most circumstances (the same goes in reverse, Sangheili have a HARD time operating most human weapons due to how their hands are structures, as has been noted several times).
Reloading them is impossible without the proper equipment (and for years the UNSC couldnt figure out what that equipment WAS).

Also the weapons are impossible to maintaine due to being basically a single piece of material nano-wrapped around an unstable plasma core. If you damage one, it has a tendency to break or explode.

Relatedly, the venting that you see in game is an annoyance for a Spartan, in MJLONIR, or a Sangheili, in their combat harness.
A normal human is likely to suffer second or third degree burns to exposed skin and crisp BDU gloves or plate.

You cant mount optics on most Covenant weaponry (and its basically useless to do so due to the slowness of the bolts speed)

Impossible to make stealthy in any way shape or form

The list goes on

Oh, and also the size. The Plasma Pistol is canonically the size of a dinner plate.
A Plasma Rifle's over a foot and a half long and balanced VERY weirdly.

The Needler is incredibly heavy.

Etc.

[stoic hamlet]

Also radiation.

They give off radiation when they fire, meaning you’re positioning yourself whenever you use them without a sealed suit.

[last anchor]

I think thats just fuel rod guns isnt it?

Though supposedly the green gas coming out of the Carbine when you reload it can give you borens syndrome or something.

Covenant (and Banished weapons for that matter) dont have many safety interlocks.

Hell, Banished firearms dont tend to have safeties

The only thing that keeps a Spiker from going off if theres a magazine in the well is the huge trigger pull

[unique rune]

I'm pretty sure all of the Covenant's DEWs give off some radiation. IIRC there's something that mentions that most Covenant client species have developed an innate resistance to everything they put out as a result

[last anchor]

Plasma is ionized gas so its going to be at least mildly radiative or radioactive

Your literally firing a tiny sun at someone

Makes sense

[empty bloom]

That's just a rumor because boren's syndrome isn't a real disease in universe allegedly, but I can't imagine it's good for you.

[last anchor]

I think its real, the Innies on Victoria asked for help with treating it in return for some nukes.
My guess is that it was used as a convinent cover for the Orion survivors weridness.

[exotic pulsar]

Boron's Syndrome is a fake illness though to cover up the symptoms for the Orion Soldiers.

Since the best documented incidence of Boren's Syndrome is the cover story, it is unclear whether the condition is actually genuine, with the ORION augmentations only causing similar symptoms, or if it was entirely fabricated as part of the cover-up. Personally, I believe it's just a ONI cover up as ONI is very shady like that.

[last anchor]

So why did the Innies on victoria want treatment for it?

[drowsy mesa]

Probably it was a trap, because what they really wanted was to capture Blue Team

[exotic pulsar]

Like I said it's a supposedly real condition that causes cancer and migranes to those that are either exposed to the gases released when a Vostu-pattern carbine magazine is ejected and being exposed to radiation from plasma grenades.

It was a trap.

They wanted treatment and were willing to trade for some FENRIS nuclear warheads they had in stock. Though it was a trap made to try and capture Blue Team.

To the public they believe it's a real disease, but it's just a cover up for the symptoms of the Orion Project.

[stoic hamlet]

But they did actually have the nukes.

Why set a trap with what the other party was actually wanting?

[dusty ferry]

because you in theory should be able to scan for nukes

so lying by saying you have WMDs when that could probably be fact checked is a bad idea

[empty bloom]

I'm not sure the UNSC, and by extension the UEG and the rest of humanity, would reasonably have the capability to detect nukes versus the same level of fissile material.

They'd be able to gauge that they have something very similar to nukes in the area, but wouldn't be able to actually confirm it.

[dusty ferry]

fair i guess, but that still would make the nuke threat only viable if they had nuclear weapons or something that could be turned into nukes

[empty bloom]

I don't think the URF or most rebel groups actually have the capability to produce nuclear weaponry.

[dusty ferry]

which would have probably made any attempt to check if the fissile material was there more credible

[ruby canopy]

I would disagree that they wouldn’t have that capability

They seem to have their hands on pretty impressive tech. Such as powerful drugs to give them a fighting chance against Spartans

[empty bloom]

Rumbledrugs are 'fighting chance' in the same way that cocaine makes you more likely to win a bar fight against Andre the Giant in his prime.

Which is to say, he's still going to dumpster you so brutally that it won't be funny.

Spartans of any category are so much above what the average human form is capable of (Stupid comic scenes aside), just drugging yourself isn't enough. It's a shout in a hurricane by comparison.

[unique rune]

Rumbledrugs don't even enhance strength, they just make you unhinged

[ruby canopy]

Baird from midnight in the heart of midlothian was able to put an elite down with one hit. And probably could have won that fight if his goal wasn’t to die

And elites aren’t necessarily Spartans but they aren’t far off. As Jai’s strength was matched by an elite in the book cole protocol

[ruby canopy]

And rumble drugs do enhance strength among other things

[unique rune]

I mean they really don't
They pretty much just make you uninhibited and remove anything in your head that would stop you from hurting yourself in the process

[ruby canopy]

The AI told Baird that they enhance strength

[unique rune]

They "enhance" strength by blocking your instincts that tell you "hey maybe don't cause permanent and debilitating muscle damage"

[ruby canopy]

‘Subjects could be capable of feats of enormous strength’

[unique rune]

...By chemically causing you to effectively ignore the wellbeing of yourself and others.

[empty bloom]

So? Good for Baird, good for the Elite.

[ruby canopy]

Regardless of how it works, it does enhance strength

[empty bloom]

Also, Baird is explicitly a monster of a man. He's huge.

[silent tiger]

what even happened to the other human forces on Zeta Halo? There were science teams before Infinite according to the Spartan Field Manual

[empty bloom]

Dead or in hiding.

[unique rune]

Taking rumbledrugs is like driving drunk and then claiming it makes your car go faster

[silent tiger]

how😭 Humanity had a standing there, I can understand if the Infinity was alone in the sky but it had an escort AND a preexisting presence. Are we certain there’s nobody else on other parts of the ring or have we just not gotten any lore explicitly stating it?

[silent tiger]

ah hiding makes more sense

[stoic hamlet]

The short story also states those who used rumbledrugs often killed themselves before they ever saw a Spartan:

Rumbledrugs had become notorious in the sporadic colonial insurrections. Notably on Hellas and Fumirole. On both worlds, they’d been used by rebels in a vainglorious attempt to fight Spartan-IIs. The drugs were certainly fearsome. The effect on human physiology was impressive in the short term. Unencumbered by the body’s normal safety limits, subjects were capable of feats of enormous strength, but the subsequent lack of control and mental instability together with the immediate physiological damage meant that users often died long before they ever laid hands on an actual Spartan. But not before doing tremendous damage to themselves and anything that got in their way.

• Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian

[silent tiger]

ah forgot about those

[empty bloom]

Actually, it is very thoroughly established that the area Chief's on is effectively an isolated island.

And the rest of the Rubicon Spartans, by extension.

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah most of the UNSC landed “up spin”.

[silent tiger]

so when people say “the UNSC’s alone on the ring” they’re only talking about where the Reverie is right? As in they had 0 communication with other parts of the ring when they were attacked? I didn’t read The Rubicon Protocol

[stoic hamlet]

From what Horvath implied the Banished don’t control all that much either, and Escharum can’t be taken at his word. We know he lies.

[stoic hamlet]

Correct.

[empty bloom]

We also know that Banished comms were effectively hit with a brick right before Chief popped back up.

Actually, Infinite's funny in that there's a lot explaining why Chief finds the campaign relatively 'easy'.

At least compared to the Rubicon Spartans.

[stoic hamlet]

UNSC Communication between ring fragments isn’t possible.

Technically even short range comms like we see in game shouldn’t be possible either, but gameplay…

[silent tiger]

ah alright, makes way more sense that ALL the Unsc forces weren’t beat. That means at the very least the UNSC’s science teams are keeping the Banished at bay or hiding and that some spartans/ODST squads landed elsewhere

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah the vast majority landed in a different area.

[empty bloom]

Well, ODST squads also landed on the island.

[silent tiger]

okay that clears up a lot of questions

[stoic hamlet]

And members of the original 2555 science teams are still active, as well.

[empty bloom]

I wonder if the unidentified scientist was one.

[silent tiger]

hooray. Still don’t know what the post-game scene with Atriox was about

[stoic hamlet]

The traitor? Possibly.

[silent tiger]

or where the Scientist from Halo Wars 2 is and what happened to her after the Guardian

[empty bloom]

Basically, he survived, and Atriox released the Endless.

[empty bloom]

Her, we don't know.

[silent tiger]

or Omega Team for that matter

[empty bloom]

Also unknown.

There's a LOT of unknowns.

[silent tiger]

they’re alive and probably with the main UNSC from what I’ve gathered, just haven’t been mentioned in a bit

unless I’m missing something

also miss reading about Gamma Company

[empty bloom]

I miss Osiris.

[stoic hamlet]

Omega are likely still in the Orion arm, with the rest of the UNSC, yeah

[empty bloom]

I really hope Tanaka's basically the reason the Spartan IVs on the rest of Zeta Halo are still functioning, tbh.

[stoic hamlet]

We haven’t ever read about Gamma Company, technically. Only Saber and G059.

[silent tiger]

true. Never got a concrete answer about what happened to Locke or the rest of the team. Is Buck back with Alpha-Nine now or is he still with Osiris?

[stoic hamlet]

Buck’s with Alpha-9.

[empty bloom]

The only known Spartan ever to have an actual certification to maintain and modify MJOLNIR, Tanaka's awesome for that.

[stoic hamlet]

Locke is somewhere, possibly involved in the upcoming Empty Throne.

[empty bloom]

I still assume Tanaka might be tied to that.

I'm hoping for literally anything involving her.

So.

[ruby canopy]

Yes, but the debate is whether or not those drugs could give someone a fighting chance if they were to encounter a spartan under the effects of them. Unfortunately we can’t confirm it one way or another, because it hasn’t happened

[stoic hamlet]

I’d say no, lol.

[empty bloom]

I don't think it'd be anywhere even remotely approaching possible.

[stoic hamlet]

Like, not at all.

[empty bloom]

It's like squaring up to Omni-Man and just eating a fist through the spine, the long way around.

[silent tiger]

yea that also reminds me, are Halo 4’s Specialization descriptions canon? Bc Rogue’s mentions long-term operations with 0 contact with the UNSC but Spartan IV’s require periodic maintenance to Augmentations to survive

[stoic hamlet]

Maybe, (hard, hard) maybe they’d (the Innie) be as strong… but in all other respects they’re still superior, for one they can think tactically, the Innie cannot.

[silent tiger]

wondering how long “long-term” is or how often the maintenance is

[empty bloom]

So-here's the thing. IVs get a complete organ swap. They are carved up like a Christmas turkey.

[silent tiger]

yea ik

[empty bloom]

Even Chief is overdue for getting Aug maintenance.

Because that's a thing for IIs.

It's mentioned in MCC's menus.

[silent tiger]

IIs get maintenance too? Didn’t know that one

[empty bloom]

So, aug maintenance is mostly just making sure the augs aren't rejecting.

Otherwise, it's not critical to continued function.

[stoic hamlet]

^^^

[ruby canopy]

Which is fair. I’m not too sure if they could. But I feel I provided the best evidence for it to be considered possible

[empty bloom]

It's actually the entire purpose of GEN2 Recruit armor.

[silent tiger]

the more you know I guess. Thought it was just a thing for IVs kinda like Gamma and their drugs

[empty bloom]

GEN2 Recruit Armor is basically built around acclimating the Spartan IV in question to battlefield stressors in terms of physicality.

Once they acclimate, they swap to role based armors.

[silent tiger]

also I want that to be an armor core/set again, looked good in Halo 4

[unique rune]

I mean it's essentially just pushing the user to the upper limits of normal, unaugmented human strength

Which isn't gonna be anywhere near that of a fully armored Spartan

[silent tiger]

good to know

[stoic hamlet]

Gamma’s drugs are just getting an injection, or if they have longer lasting implants those need surgery to replace, but “topping them up” is likely quick.

[silent tiger]

wait I thought it has happened at least once

[empty bloom]

A lot of people do, but it's not really true, or specifically a problem to just IVs anyways.

The UNSC invests a lot in a Spartan; A huge amount of cost, financial and time. You want to ensure your investment doesn't start to break down.

[ruby canopy]

I’m not sure. It was stated in the short story that users died before encountering a spartan

[silent tiger]

also one more question since I haven’t read SoR, ||Atriox got to the Ark through a Portal on Reach? Wonder if the UNSC is planning to either take the portal or jump there to help the Spirit of Fire finish cleanup on his forces||

[stoic hamlet]

No, he got there conventionally. He came back that way.

[silent tiger]

ah, thanks

[stoic hamlet]

They also don’t know the Spirit is there, and the portal was only big enough for a Dropship to go through. A lich, specifically.

[empty bloom]

I love Liches, they are so cute

[stoic hamlet]

Just the most precious things~

[silent tiger]

Either way I’m sure the UNSC’s gonna investigate seeing as they’ve lost contact with their teams there and a warlord came from it

[empty bloom]

Ah, yes, the famous investigative techniques of the UNSC-in-Exile

[stoic hamlet]

They can’t access it, at least not at the moment. Even if they could, they can’t activate it.

[silent tiger]

no I mean by a slipspace jump, not the portal

[stoic hamlet]

Ah. Yeah, but it’ll take them years.

[silent tiger]

true

[stoic hamlet]

Decades, even.

[silent tiger]

decades? How far out of the Milky Way is the Ark?

thought it’d be a sub-decade trip there. If not they could always send a slipspace probe instead of whole ships. Would take less time

[stoic hamlet]

It would take longer, actually.

You travel through Slipspace based off the speed of your ship’s own engines.

[silent tiger]

thought the whole point of the probes was they’re small so they can be launched REALLY fast and they have a Shaw drive attached so they can travel through slipspace

wouldn’t put it past the SoF to be able to build something to launch one seeing as they have access to relatively modern UNSC gear and were able to repair and refit old Mk IV Mjolnir

[stoic hamlet]

They’re fast, but still slow.

Remember the pod sent in GoO only arrived at Earth in the short of time because they “bounced” the message off of the Forerunner communications array Cortana was using at Delta Halo.

[silent tiger]

dang

[empty bloom]

I'll be honest, even I didn't remember that.

[stoic hamlet]

🙂

[fair hazel]

? the slipspace engine matters too

[empty bloom]

But then, Forerunner shenanigans slip past me all the time.

[silent tiger]

Cutter’s fr gonna die of old age before they get to go home

[empty bloom]

There's a book about them now btw

[stoic hamlet]

It makes the point of exit more precise, and somewhat affects the transit but not the actual speed of transit.

Unlike the rocket engines of humanity’s first space vehicles, Shaw-Fujikawa drives didn’t generate thrust. Instead, the devices created temporary rifts in the fabric of space-time—opened passages in and out of a multidimensional domain known as Slipstream Space, or Slipspace for short.

• Contact Harvest, chapter 1

Anyways, I need to get to bed, nice chatting everyone~

[fair hazel]

Yeah but the type of slipspace drive does affect things...

[meager pier]

I wonder if they're gonna eventually have Cutter and co make their way to Zeta Halo as well
I'm thinking probably, as they seem to have no plans to make HW3 (at least anytime soon)

[fair hazel]

a covenant slipspace drive is faster than a human great war one and a forerunner is orders of magnitude faster

it's not just engine thrust..

[empty bloom]

I hope not.

I want more Halo spinoffs, tbf

I'd love a Battlefleet Gothic spinoff

[unique rune]

I wish Starfighter was real

[meager pier]

I'd love to see more spin-offs, however, I'm unsure if we'll get another RTS, as reportedly HW2 didn't sell very well

[dusty ferry]

I’m hoping we see more people with those certifications given that some hazmat stuff implies heavily that a spartan corps of engineers is in heavy use right now

But they would have to keep Tanaka as the first to get that cert obviously

Or the best at it

[empty bloom]

NGL that's kinda why I think Tanaka has been critically underutilized as a character

[tribal trench]

How did the covenant get set up on Delta Halo so fast? Did the In Amber Clad not move through slipspace at the same speed as the Solemn Penance, since it flew through the SP’s slipspace stream?

[dusty ferry]

I mean that’s half of Osiris tbh. Locke had the misfortune of appearing in nightfall and a divisive game, and Tanka showed up in like 1 comic and a divisive game

[empty bloom]

Basically, yep.

[tribal trench]

what caused the IAC to move so slow?

[dusty ferry]

Yeah, real space velocity matters as far as I understand it

[empty bloom]

^

[dusty ferry]

And human ships aren’t as fast as covenant ones

[tribal trench]

ooh, i see

the way it’s presented in the game, it seems like the covenant is already there

not that they just had a few extra hours to get set up

[empty bloom]

IIRC it was actually a matter of days even for the IAC.

[tribal trench]

that makes sense

[empty bloom]

Not to mention the whole task force behind the IAC.

[tribal trench]

even if it’s not well presented I’m glad that bungie took that into account

[empty bloom]

Well, the tiny, soon-to-be-dead task force

Wait

No I'm wrong

I'm thinking of the UNSC Dusk, which basically went to I05, saw the crap shoot, dipped back to Earth, then got reassigned and sent over to Onyx.

[dusty ferry]

Seriously, that’s so sad. Locke could have been cool if they’d done something with his ONI past that wasn’t locked to 4 player co-op if it even existed

[empty bloom]

🤷‍♂️

I feel like every individual member of Osiris has a more interesting amount of story potential than a tired rehashing of Alpha Halo, but this time with X nebulous threat and more Chiefy emotions.

As time goes on, the more annoyed I am with Infinite's story, tbh.

[dusty ferry]

And Tanaka could have been a perfect person to like do something involving either the swords tech considering how much gen 2 stuff is reverse engineered covenant stuff, or anything on meridian which didn’t require 4 players

Seriously, why did they decide hiding dialogue behind 4 players was a good idea?

[empty bloom]

Tanaka's supposedly second only to like, Halsey when it comes to practical understanding of tech, regardless of origin.

Criminally. Underutilized.

[abstract wren]

IA doesn't speak in H5 ?

[dusty ferry]

It’s such a shame Tanaka is the forgettable member of Osiris. You had Vale who normally carried a non human weapon, a recognizable older character, and the guy you were forced to play as

[empty bloom]

A lot of important character-related dialogue is conveyed in co-op only.

[empty bloom]

It really doesn't help that they kinda just don't have her actually do anything.

[abstract wren]

Very strange choice indeed. Maybe some technical problem ? Or to "force" to play in coop ?

[dusty ferry]

You never really get the character stuff in single player as you can’t really move off Locke and that selection screen has the basic character breakdowns too, so you wouldn’t even know who she is

So your stuck with looking at how the ai play, and that makes Vale way more prominent as she has that plasma pistol

[empty bloom]

You have this supposed tech-wizard of a character who is considered by many to be the best combat engineer and technician, and you waste her character on... Just being a background character.

Even having her be the brainchild and designer behind the restraint system would've been something.

[abstract wren]

Its hard to develop 4 characters at once. And clearly H5 lacks time to tell due to Blue Team being there

[empty bloom]

Honestly, I think 5's story suffers more from having Blue Team and Chief in it than it suffers from Locke being a relative unknown.

[versed helm]

personally after seeing stuff yalls do here and the halopedia i think I'll just keep to shooting aliens up and not thinking that much about it

[empty bloom]

It wastes so much time and potential on what's ultimately a roundabout way of having Chief and co hang out, discuss things that are references to things they did and have some tongue-in-cheek fun, and then kind of just get defeated.

[dusty ferry]

That’s honestly fair. Chief sections feel like they should have been a separate game.

[empty bloom]

It's like they only included the Chief section because they figured people would complain if they didn't.

[dusty ferry]

Like have guardians be the ODST version of 5 with separate characters

[empty bloom]

Maybe a bit longer than ODST, lmao.

What's funny is, I think an open world concept like they explored would've worked quite well, because you'd actually have the damn time to explore the subject.

The problem is that an open world big character Halo is kind of unfeasible if the characters aren't stapled to your brain.

[dusty ferry]

It’d have to be starfield scale to work without that, and starfield didn’t exactly perform well on most things

[empty bloom]

It's really frustrating to know there was this massive team behind the scenes with hundreds of ideas and circumstances just kinda went such so that they got shafted into releasing a product that the advertisers thought was something else entirely.

And all these ideas kept getting shuffled around and kicked in the knees by the dev process.

It's like, I gotta say, I want whatever the hell Halo 5 and Infinite's "Snyder Cuts" were, to use an unpopular turn of phrase.

Everything I've seen from concept art books to whispers of things on the side paints this huge, awesome picture, that we didn't see because people got screwed over.

[dusty ferry]

I still don’t get why people were so surprised Cortana went evil

She’s based on Halsey, and if you read Fall of reach for like 8-9 chapters you could totally see how an AI based on her would do what she did

[empty bloom]

I don't know, man, I just live here and bother to pay attention.

[dusty ferry]

Like it confused me when I hadn’t read the books, but I like just started reading them like 5 days ago and it fit so easily

[empty bloom]

I wasn't even an avid Halo book reader, at least not regarding Cortana, until after I played 5.

[unique rune]

tbf I feel like most people aren’t really aware of all that

and to them Cortana is just the little blue lady in their head that tells them which button to push

[empty bloom]

Honestly, it was mostly all of Cortana's rants and rambles about Halsey in 4 that convinced me. That and 5 really slathered the butter on Halsey being the reason Cortana's the way she is.

[dusty ferry]

Like seriously, Cortana both had significant emotional investment in a Spartan II and access to the ultimate forerunner policing equipment. Given how easily Halsey did the Spartan II stuff, you could translate that to activating the guardians

And remember, the IIs were for fighting an insurrection to keep “peace”

It’s literally the easiest arc ever

[dusty ferry]

Actually, that was the dumbest reason for super soldiers tbh. Like Carver had to be one of the biggest idiots ever to somehow think that this conflict would ever reach extinction tier

[empty bloom]

Carver was an idiot and ONI needed an excuse.

[abstract wren]

They didn't played Halo 4 then

[empty bloom]

I'm convinced that they just kinda were told to go back to catering to the LCD.

"Eh, these people liked 3's story, they'll love anything"

[unique rune]

Probably some combination of not paying attention and “this isn’t my Halo”

[abstract wren]

mostly yes...

[empty bloom]

It's kind of appalling how many people I've met who skip all cutscenes to get 'back to the action' and then complain the story doesn't make sense

But then, critical thinking and such is hard

[dusty ferry]

The “this isn’t my halo” people are the most annoying

[empty bloom]

IDK, those weird cringe guys who hate Halo fans are pretty bad.

Oh, wait, that's me :>

[dusty ferry]

seriously, that one video that gets super annoyed about the forerunners having been humans in the minds of the devs at one point is so annoying

[stoic hamlet]

…eeeeeeehhhhhhhhh.

He went right from 0 to 1000, but I’m not sure he was an idiot, if we look at the situation at the time.

[empty bloom]

Hyperbole on my part.

[dusty ferry]

Not just because of the video itself, but because people won’t stop being annoying about it

Seriously, I have a friend in a different server who will always make digs about it whenever halo comes up

[stoic hamlet]

In fact, I go into this in a post released just today! :D

https://old.reddit.com/r/HaloStory/comments/17zolay/how_humanity_fights_their_wars_the_colonial/

[empty bloom]

https://tenor.com/view/fight-marriage-funny-that-70s-gif-25176207

[unique rune]

I think a lot of the “issue” is kinda that a lot of these elements have been part of Halo since the beginning, but were never actually really incorporated into the games

Because if you look at like the original trilogy, it essentially always presents the idea that the UNSC and humanity are big squeaky clean heroes who could commit no sins!
But in other media they’re hella shady, but most people have never even read those things except for HiddenXperia rambling about the Logic Plague

So when 343 tries to introduce those ideas into the games it tends to be either met with resistance or just filtered out entirely

[empty bloom]

This is why I will die on the hill that it is an utterly ridiculous notion to think Halo doesn't need a codex system.

It's not much but it's something, dammit.

[dusty ferry]

Honestly, we’d like need a mass effect style game or a 4x halo for that to make sense

Or another infinite type game, but way less empty

[empty bloom]

Not really. Shallower games have had richer lore exposition databases.

[unique rune]

Hell, Halo’s basically already had it with both Wars games

[empty bloom]

Freaking Space Hulk had a database.

[unique rune]

Just bring that system over

[dusty ferry]

The dumbest part about that is he tried showing me a follow up video which literally went “they changed their mind during halo 3” and it blue screened him

[empty bloom]

Hell, actually

Even better

Serious Sam has a codex

With lore

Explaining what enemies are what and why and what they do

Or where you are and what you're doing

And that's a game where your character wears a t-shirt and jeans to save the world

[dusty ferry]

Yeah, but to get most of the UNSC being bad stuff, you’d either have to fight humans or interact with grey team or ONI for longer than 8 minutes

[empty bloom]

To actually see it applied, sure.

[dusty ferry]

I mean, you could also have another Locke game where you unlock audio logs about his time in ONI

Or Dare

Or some new ONI agent

Or someone who served during the big parts of the insurrection for the more direct UNSC stuff

[empty bloom]

I like how people think Emile just telling a civvie to get on their knees is somehow like, "OMG such a brutal action that displays how the UNSC is a frontier bad guy"...

When it's the well-populated and funded fortress world of Reach and telling civilians to get on their knees if they're acting sus in a place where known sus activity is occuring is actually pretty normal for security actions.

[unique rune]

https://www.halopedia.org/Halo_Wars_Timeline_Events
https://www.halopedia.org/Phoenix_Logs

[dusty ferry]

Phoinex logs were mostly about the vehicles I think. Though yeah, Black Boxes or something would be an awesome collectible in a new halo

[unique rune]

Phoenix Logs covered events, locations, commanders, units, etc.

[dusty ferry]

Huh, I guess I just forgot there was more than just the unit ones then

[unique rune]

Pretty much anything you’d interact with by playing the game has an entry

[dusty ferry]

Should probably get around to actually finishing the game

[abstract wren]

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/canon-fodder-fly-me-to-the-blood-moon

[orchid kettle]

I am people

[dusty ferry]

The only thing I thought about was how the brutes don’t fully or at a basic level understand the electro laser stuff

Unless that “strange, little understood technology” is supposed to be subanese crystal

But the big banished thing later is the capital scale voltpiercer

So I assume it’s supposed to be about that, and not needlers

It also implies the purging shock rifle was made first

Given Vulcus theorizes the five burst weapon, and I’m pretty sure that’s the normal shock rifle

[tribal trench]

Was Tartarus speaking English in the control room to Miranda? Did she understand him? Did she have a translator?

[dusty ferry]

It could be either tbh. Brutes are the most likely to learn how to speak human languages given they both appear to be primates or an equivalent to them, and Miranda probably had a command type neural interface which theoretically could include a general translator

[stoic hamlet]

Three burst is normal, five is special.

[dusty ferry]

wait are we saying burst as in how much ammo is used per shot, or how many shots per reload?

i thought it was about the number of bursts it fires before reload

though i guess the, "how much power they offer" line could be about the strength of each burst

[stoic hamlet]

I’m pretty sure it’s bursts as in rounds per trigger pull.

I’m guessing it doesn’t have a fire selector, like UNSC firearms.

[dusty ferry]

the thing is the intel says "fires three bursts" I thought that would mean it fires three bursts, not bursts of three

[unique rune]

If that was the case then it would’ve been four burst to indicate the standard model, since it only has 12 “charges”

[dusty ferry]

wait, i thought it shot like five times? Was that a nerf thing, or am i just crazy

hold on, the wiki says it's a five burst in campaign for the normal shock rifle, but three burst in multiplayer

which is it lore wise?

I mean, i guess either way it that would probably mean that line refers to either the original shock rifle or a earlier model never seen in the games

and occams razor suggests that would be the one in game

[empty bloom]

My theory? Dial-a-yield.

[dusty ferry]

yeah, but what would the theorized five burst be in that context? something without dial a yield so it can deliver more power?

[empty bloom]

In that context, I don't know about what that brute's talking about. But I think canonically it's either a user or subvariant designation.

[dusty ferry]

or war games balancing

remember, that exists for some reason

[empty bloom]

That actually makes a ton of sense if you consider that War Games is not 1:1 game-to-canon.

So one big thing the US Military does in its training exercises is that it stacks odds very against itself. "You can only engage within visual range, you cannot dump your extra fuel stowage in order to maneuver as normal, you cannot exceed this flight ceiling, this entire section of your unit has been killed by an errant barrage".

Having War Games 'balancing' to change the function of a system would be a foundational part of War Games-one of the greatest teachers in that sort of environment is to have limitations you need to find ways around.

[dusty ferry]

makes sense, making the enemy stuff OP all the time would probably make better combatants

[empty bloom]

It also teaches lateral thinking, which is extremely important.

[empty bloom]

(This is also why it's very funny to me that anyone cares about the US frequently losing against allies in war games, because we basically treat every exercise like Halo 2 SLASO while suffering from a puncturing gut wound)

[weary stump]

you ever wonder if there was a point in the elites' timeline where they wore something like horse shoes, and they thought it was so slay?

I mean, arby would where some dripped out horse shoes, that dude is like the single most camp elite

[fair hazel]

Canon fodder!

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/canon-fodder-fly-me-to-the-blood-moon

[plucky glade]

Who do you guys reckon is the best member of Blue team (other than Chief lol)

[empty bloom]

Linda. In the missions Chief's undertook over the games, she'd actually probs be better, by his own admission.

[plucky glade]

Gotta love Linda. Hope we get to see more of blue team in-game in the future

[stoic hamlet]

Definitely Linda, yeah. I’d argue she’s the best Spartan II, overall, for 90% of what they were originally intended to do.

[crimson oxide]

I love how the entirety of Halo Oblivion can be summed up by saying “master chief had no clue what the covenant was doing in this battle”

[weary stump]

to be fair, the covenant don't seem to know what they're doing in any battle. For an old as balls empire, they give "it's my first day" energy

[orchid kettle]

That's kinda how Shadows of Reach and Silent Storm go

I mean, in Silent Storm, Chief just guesses the entire plot because they ran into some Innies

but it's honestly a lil silly how well he's able to do so, and how little it ultimately plays into everything

[empty bloom]

The Covenant's battle logic is riddled with warrior '''logic''' and cowing tactics that don't work against actually well-disciplined and defensive troops that have no option of surrender.

Their leadership and abilities are hard carried by both the forces they operate with being physically superior to their human competition and numerically superior, with a doctrine that happens to be built entirely around exploiting the relative weakness of humans.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help the UNSC whatsoever when your forces are getting too swamped with opfor actions to operate.

[weary stump]

Yeah, it's like they're just coasting off the success of having 8 foot tall gymnasts in bulletproof croptops, and their pet laser crabs. Then the moment that wears off, it's like "oh wait half these dudes can't read the back of my Mo'Os box"

Honestly, the hunters seem like they're the only people in the covenant who bothered to read up on how to do a war

[light orbit]

If you put Chief, Gerome, Forge and Six in a cage, who's coming out victorious?

[dense falcon]

https://youtu.be/L4_zFYnnn2Y

[unique rune]

1337 smashes in through the ceiling with a folding chair and bodies all four of them

[dusty ferry]

Honestly, if 1337 showed up as part of like a fracture adjacent event, I’d honestly love it

[dense falcon]

Maybe it could become an emblem

[empty bloom]

There should obviously be a cool Trenchbird event

[balmy mantle]

Anyone got any recommendations for Halo books? I've finished the Kilo Trilogy, the Shadows of Reach trilogy and all of the old books like Fall of Reach trilogy and Cole Protocol etc

I saw there was one book series with a girl and a promethean (?) on the cover, is that one good? And I saw another one with Vale I think

[dense falcon]

I saw there was one book series with a girl and a promethean (?) on the cover, is that one good?
Very, the Rion Forge series is about Captain Rion Forge, daughter of Sgt. John Forge from the Spirit of Fire, going around in space running a salvage business to both make money and find clues about the Spirit of Fire's location.

Smoke and Shadow, Renegades, and Point of Light.

[balmy mantle]

Wait, yo??

Okay that's the next one then

That's sick, Forge was awesome (the guy from Halo Wars i believe)

[dense falcon]

Hunters in the Dark is also a good standalone book, it's about an emergency expedition to the Ark after it is activated.

[balmy mantle]

ooou

[dense falcon]

Have you read Ghosts of Onyx?

[balmy mantle]

Oh absolutely, one of the best Halo books made imo

[dense falcon]

Bad Blood?

[balmy mantle]

I still have my old hard copy of Ghosts from when I was younger lol

[balmy mantle]

if this is the ODST one I got spoiled on a pretty big thing about it ||(related to the Rookie)|| and got turned off from it

[dense falcon]

That is indeed a big thing, however, it is not the focal point of it.

[balmy mantle]

ive heard it was just a throway line but it still irked me lol

ill get around to it i guess

[dense falcon]

There's a book called Legacy of Onyx, it's a "This is Onyx now" kind of book that follows up on a girl moving into it, in a new program where humans and Covenant species try to coexist.

I'm saying all of these books out of order so I suggest you read them by release order tbh

[balmy mantle]

I read Thursday War which I believe deals with Onyx as well

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09V1N7T9C?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_sirpi

Is this a good place to start?

[dense falcon]

Yeah, Rion Forge's novel is kinda independent from the rest of the books

Though there is one part that'll be a lot easier to understand if you read Hunters in the Dark first.

[balmy mantle]

Would you say Hunters is stand alone?

[dense falcon]

It is

[balmy mantle]

Actualy ig is there a good place to see release order

[dense falcon]

It's not in order, but there's publication years. You can open the books released per each year and make your list by publication month. (That's what I did)

https://www.halopedia.org/Halo_novels

[balmy mantle]

I'm happy that Kelly Gay did another series, her work in the Kilo trilogy was amazing. I love her style of writing

Ooh okay, thanks

[dense falcon]

I think the same about Kelly Gay!

I've seen shade thrown to her books for some reason but I'll never forget when I finished Glasslands. I got up, drove to the nearest 7-Eleven as fast as I could, and bought a Play Store card to buy the next book.

Nobody will take that hype away

Wait