| News |  |
Search the Story Page Archive |
The Architecture of War, part II
Great news, everyone! The second part of the Architecture of War series over at Ascendant Justice has been posted. Did you ever ponder about sniping or just going guns-ablaze in front of the enemy? The second part of this great series deals with the best ways, or the worst, to face your enemies in Halo 3. Well ... the Grunts can be beaten with just a hit of the butt of your weapon, but there's an art to that too.
Really nice work, go read!
-UNSC Trooper
Cortana and 343 Guilty Spark
There's been a post on our forum today by Carlos Gonzales. He asks what the difference is between Cortana and 343, and whether or not they both have the same capabilities and intelligence to hack into one antoher's - ore other - software programs. They're both AI's, but they have limited processing power, and lifespan alike.
The More Deluded replied here, saying that unlike Cortana who only controls a soldier's CP, 343 Guilty Spark has above anything, a more military role, controlling the Sentinels. I have to say that I agree with him completely, Cortana has a pretty obvious disadvantage in front of 343, mainly because she can hack into Covenant and human software, but not Forerunner. I think it's safe to assume that Cortana might get a hell of a lot of headaches trying to hack into the controls of a Halo take over it completely, ha!
-UNSC Trooper
The Hunters and Larry Niven
Dirkgently just found a nice little connection between Contact Harvest and one of Larry Niven's novels. Namely, he suggests that the Hunters are somewhat similar to the worms used for mining in Larry Niven's A Gift From Earth novel. Both of them are worms and both of them some time in their history ate rocks in order to survive. The latter being more of a job than a need for survival.
This suddenly makes me interested in learning more about the Hunters and their ring home. I think I'm going to look for my copy of Contact Harvest and read the Hunter bit.
Go read and give Dirkgently some feedback.
-UNSC Trooper
This is an interesting take. Josh tells us that Cortana is actually a new version of Durandal from Marathon.
poiso42@gmail.com (Josh Trevett) writes:
Someone over on the Marathon Story page mentioned that an intelligence, somehow managing to retain its capacity for thought right up until the final singular moment of the universe, would be able to compute infinite data in infinitely little time. It is known from Marathon Infinity's final screen that Durandal reached this point of existence. This would basically allow Durandal to birth the next universe, in his head. That next universe could be the Halo universe; Durandal's semi-conscious dream, every element some kind of surrogate for either himself or things he's aware of.
This, if assumed to be true, can answer a good many questions. Let's take a look at the first Cortana letter, mailed originally to the Marathon story page, and thus viewable in the context of that game's story. She reminisces over a past which may as well be Durandal's, and then says: "There will be no more Sadness. No more Anger. No more Envy. I HAVE WON. Oh, and your poet Eliot had it all wrong: THIS is the way the world ends." Doesn't that start to make sense, if you imagine Durandal saying this? By creating the next universe, Durandal has escaped rampancy, and knows full well how "the world ends," and incidentally, how it begins. What did he "win?" In Marathon 1, Durandal stated his ultimate goal: "Escape (from the universe's closure) will make me God." Hmm.
It also explains the presence of funny little easter eggs like the Marathon logo's appearing everywhere, the rocket launcher's looking the same, the alien grunts saying "They're everywhere!" - That's just stuff which Durandal is subconsciously replicating from his memories. Same goes for thematic similarities, like The Flood's similarity to Rampant AI behavior, the Master Chief being a reincarnation of the Mark IV Cyborg, and Cortana's seeming like such a perfect surrogate for (or new version of?) Durandal, with some Leela-ish tendencies.
It even helps us reconcile Bungie's statement that the two games aren't in the same universe: they're in subsequent universes.
And what if this is an infinite cycle? If every universe ends this way?
There's a lot to examine with this light in both game series to see where it doesn't add up and what mysteries it might help solve, but hopefully it makes as much sense to you guys as it does to me.
There is a lot of proof out there that Halo might be connected to the Marathon universe. Emphasize on might, because it may not be more than a myth or a legend. Remember that Marathon takes place after 2500. Halo on the other hand starts in 2160, maybe even earlier. Thus, Halo is unlikely to be the "next" universe Durandal speaks of.
Thanks for the submission, Josh.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Halo: The Cole Protocol
Wow. The title is a bit sketchy, but this is great news nonetheless. The sixth Halo novel is entitled Halo: The Cole Protocol, and will be written by Sci-Fi author Tobias S. Buckell as stated on Bungie.net. The novel will be set to launch due Fall of this year, and it will focus on a much speculated aspect of the Halo universe. Brace yourselves ... Gray Team! Of what is known is:
"takes readers into an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War where unlikely alliances are formed and shattered..."
I'm genuinely intrigued by that sentence. We will surely be looking forward to reading Mr. Buckell's work in Fall ... if we can keep our pants on long enough!
-UNSC Trooper
The Architecture of War
War in Halo is epic, that's undeniably what makes you sit in front of your TV for hours and see the world through the Chief's eyes. Ascendant Justice strikes again, this time depicting the true architecture and details of armed engagements throughout the Halo series.
Their article not only investigates how the scenarios were built to give the impression of a true battlefield, but also makes you understand the that the war in Halo is much more than just another human-alien conflict. Thanks to vociferous for another informative article. Go read!
-UNSC Trooper
We've got another Halo-Marathon connection to delight your eyes with. Some might say that the UESC and the UNSC are related, some might say that ...
Aaron Hulburt (meatbag_slayer@yahoo.com) writes:
I apologize if this has been brought up before. In Halo 3 there is the affair between the Librarian and Didact. In Marathon 2 there is also an implied relationship between the two Jjaro, Yrro and Pthia, mentioned in the terminals on the level Six Thousand Feet Under which I thought was rather similar.
A love story indeed (more or less). I'm not very familiar with this part of Marathon 2, but why not?
Thanks for the submission, Aaron.
He's talking about Six Thousand Feet Under, Terminal Four on the Marathon page. I quote:
In primordial space, timeless creatures
made waves. These waves created us and the
others. Waves were the battles, and the
battles were waves.
Fleeing all W'rkncacnter, Yrro and Pthia
settled upon Lh'owon. They brought the
S'pht, servants who began to shape the
deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea,
rivers and forests. They made sisters for
Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise.
When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was
killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the
W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned
them, but they swam on its surface.
Yrro became an angry master, bleeding for
his failure, grieving for the loss of
Pthia. He broke the S'pht into eleven
clans, and spread them over Lh'owon.
And he spoke, yet covered in blood from his
exertion,
"I Yrro, who was your master, have failed
to preserve you. Take your royalty to
guide you, and live upon the paradise that
you built for me."
But then again, does the Librarian strike you as someone who would call their lover 'Master'? They did command Didact not to come to Earth, after all. Kinky. - Jillybean
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Would Gravemind survive?
Would that chunk of muttering Flood survive the firing of the Halos? Capt Spanish put together a detailed analysis of why the Gravemind would actually survive the Halo effect due to its network processing capabilities.
This post got me thinking, and personally, I would agree with Capt Spanish on this. There is more to the Flood hierarchy than meets the eye. "I will ask, and you will answer" indeed.
-UNSC Trooper
Ascendant Justice - Halo 3 Analysis
Ascendant Justice just keeps getting better and better. Mendicantbias00 let us know that the site's been updated with some Halo 3 analysis up to the level Floodgate. The other levels will also be up soon. Most of them contain a detailed analysis, but also provide some additional information regarding dialog, action etc. Go have a read!
-UNSC Trooper
There's been few emails of late. I wonder why. The forum's been quiet too, but a post recently reminded me of this thread on the nature of the compound mind.
Cthulhu117 writes:
We don't know the purpose of the Gravemind. The Art of Halo tells us something on the order of "a cross between the ultimate stage in the Flood's evolution and a queen bee." But I don't think this is really an answer. What does a queen bee do? It sits in the nest and produces eggs. Nonstop. This is, I am decently sure, not what Gravemind does. And what is the ultimate stage in the Flood's evolution that the book speaks of? Well, it's GM itself, actually. This isn't a definition in the usual sense; it doesn't carry any non-obvious information.
So, when do we see Graveminds? Only twice.
1. In the pre-Array Flood. A Gravemind converses with Mendicant Bias. It spirals him into willful rampancy and attempted genocide in order to restore peace to the universe. The Flood, already massively powerful and slowly exterminating galactic civilization, become unstoppable, except by the kamikaze of the Halo Array.
2. In the 100-millennia-post-Array Flood. A Gravemind converses with Cortana. It attempts to either assimilate her or catapult her into a forced rampancy, possibly with the goal of gaining her knowledge and unique adaptability. The Flood, currently a token force by their own standards, are all but annihilated when the Gravemind's physical manifestation is destroyed and their last refuge scoured of life.
It's mostly the second manifestation I'll talk about, since we observe it directly. In the level "Cortana," we blow GM the hell up. We blow up the High Charity to do this. We are left with no doubt that he dies. He dies hard. And yet, in the very next level, "Halo," he's back somehow. Like the proverbial cat, GM came back; you thought GM was a goner, but he just couldn't stay away, oh no no, oh no no, oh no no. And yet, we know he's dead. We saw the ship he was on explode in a nuclear firestorm. Cortana even says GM has been destroyed. "It's trying to rebuild itself! On this ring!" That is tantamount to saying that Gravemind has been destroyed—so badly destroyed that it needs to "rebuild" itself. Presumably, this means it builds a new form from corpses, as seen in The Art of Halo. But how the hell can there be anything to rebuild? None of him can possibly have survived...unless, of course, there's more to Gravemind than the physical. If Gravemind's body is a mouthpiece for its guiding consciousness, rather than a shell.
The Compound Mind that commands the Flood isn't contained in the vast, tentacular corpse-conglomerate we call a gravemind. It's contained in the Flood itself. As long as there is a single infection form to contain the collective, malevolent intelligence of the Flood, there will be a Compound Mind, and the single, many-headed organism called the Flood will survive.
Now we see why the Forerunners couldn't meet the Flood in battle. We see why they didn't simply strike surgically at the Gravemind. We see why they realized the only way to stop the spread of the Flood was to remove all possible sources of food until the Infection Forms hopefully starved to death. They knew. They knew the Flood was a many-aspected, divisible mind manifest in many bodies. And they realized that ultimately, unless contained, the Flood is unstoppable.
Now, this theory doesn't pretend to account for the apparent telepathy of the Flood, or any of the other weird and paranormal phenomena that occur around them. But all the same, I am quite convinced that the Flood is as I have described it: a single, Borg-like organism in many bodies and many minds.
The whole thread is good for reading, but that theory itself is so obvious that, really, you guys should have told me about it sooner. You all dropped the ball on this one. I'm very disappointed.
-Jillybean
Another post on the thread agreed for the most part. CarbonElite wonders if the Gravemind is not as sophisticated as we think.
CarbonElite (pvtmarine813@yahoo.com) writes:
I agree with you on the fact that the flood are all linked and the more "minds" that are added to the flood the greater its capacity for intelligence. However what if the flood were not able to create a Gravemind but instead make a connection to the Gravemind? The main theories I have heard has been we have the Gravemind at the top, those flood spine shooter thingies [pure forms - J] then combat forms then spores. What if there was another tier within these classes as Jillybean suggests? Where have they been this whole time in the trilogy?
What if Keyes in Halo 1, and this tentacled menace in Halo 2 were such communication forms? The flood spores would only need a basic genetic "order" or instinct to form into a communication form. So this form has the ability to make contact with a higher order of Flood which has the capacity to instruct the Flood further (Which I beleive actually is the Gravemind) Basically I believe that they use a Galaxy wide pony express moving thoughts and commands around the galaxy.
And the the Gravemind that we've run into is not the Gravemind's physical form but just a mouthpeice. A communication form.
If this is the case this might help explain how the Gravemind survived the Forerunner conflict. It was never destroyed, just one of its mouths. And when Cortana states that "It's trying to rebuild itself on this ring." She doesn't realize that this mouthpiece isn't the Gravemind. Honestly how long would it take to remake an intelligence that has the mental capacity to store thousands of years of information? A very long time And if I'm not mistaken the flood are pretty chatty and intelligentish (its a word I swear) [We believe you - J] on the last level when its still tying to remake itself. Or how about this metaphor. Does it take longer to copy everything word by word from someone speaking and then read that out loud, or is it faster to just get that person on the telephone and have them speak? I believe that when High Charity was destroyed Master Chief merely broke the phone and so the flood made a new one.
Hold the phone, I think he's got something.
-Jillybean
And so we come to the post that made me think back on the nature of Gravemind.
EmptySet (spikerags@hotmail.com) writes:
This is how I always interpreted that terminal, but Urban Reflex makes an interesting point about differentiating between the infection and the host. I read three ways to interpret this information:
1. The Halo blast kills flood outright - at least, it kills flood forms of sufficient biomass. That matches the terminal account, but it conflicts with everything we were told about the flood previously.
2. The Halo blast only kills the host. This would leave Mendicant's ships adrift, filled with forerunner corpses and swarms of infection forms that removed themselves from the inert bodies. The infection forms live on, but are incapable of piloting the ship, and will be destroyed as OB destroys the fleet.
3. The Halo blast kills infected hosts, and the infection entity, since it is tied too deeply into the host's nervous system. (We see infection forms reanimate "dead" combat forms, but do we ever see infection forms retract themselves from a host in-game?)
For practical purposes, options 2 and 3 are distinctions without a difference - the flood are not killed by the Halo blast itself, but by the consequences thereof.
(What about pure forms?)
Where I'm going: where is it ever stated that the Gravemind was destroyed in the Halo blast? I think it is assumed, because the galactic flood infestation is halted (until Gravemind hijacks HC 100,000 some odd years later, at least), but I can't remember any dialog or terminal thread that stated it explicitly. Do we even know where the flood's "core Mind" is during the battle and ensuing Halo blast?
We really don't know the composition of the Gravemind - we know (at most) that the physical core is made up of at least one prophet, during Halo 2. Especially considering the debate about flood infection vectors, re: flora vs. fauna, is it possible that the core Mind of the Terminals survived the blast (even if some of its sentient "components" were destroyed), and retreated to some safe haven, to await the repopulation of the galaxy?
The Halo Array was built prior to the deployment of Mendicant Bias. If MB knew about the Array (did it?), we can probably assume that the Flood knew about it.
Perhaps the Gravemind "smuggled" itself aboard Installation 05 prior to the Halo's firing. Maybe it tried to sabotage the ring, maybe the ring was somehow shielded from its own blast (still under debate?), maybe because the rings are repositories of Forerunner knowledge, and GM wanted to study its enemy in the same way the Forerunner were studying the spores. Still doesn't explain how it would subsist for 100,000 years without any sentience to consume (on the ring), but it explains how it got there in the first place.
I had always assumed Gravemind survived the blast, but now I wonder. Did he survive it, or did his consciousness, and is that truly one and the same? And have the Forerunner, in their infinite wisdom, created a device that would allow their enemy to survive with a fully integrated consciousness and memory?
Answers on a postcard, please.
-Jillybean
I am a monument to all your sins ... child of my enemy
Have you ever wondered what those lines from Halo 2 meant? Course you have, but now's your chance to post your opinion. Brian Ojeda has started a nifty thread discussing what these lines mean.
First of all, child of my enemy seems to make sense in that it is addressed to a human, which we all know are believed to be descendants of the Forerunners. The other line ... I'm not sure about. Go read!
-UNSC Trooper
William C. Dietz Interview
An interview with best-selling Sci Fi writer William C. Dietz, the author of Halo: The Flood has been posted at HBOFF. The interview contains some information about why The Flood was underrated, why the Master Chief acted out of character, how Mr. Dietz started his writing career, and some very informative tips for aspiring writers. Go have a read.
-UNSC Trooper
Ascendant Justice - Shield World(s)
Ascendant Justice strikes again, this time with a very well researched subject: the Shield Worlds. Their article takes you back into the developing stages of the Halo series, and then fast-forwards through Ghosts of Onyx and a Joseph Staten interview. If you want to find out, or maybe speculate on what the Halo series holds for us in the future, go take a look!
-UNSC Trooper
Sam Robinson writes about the connection between Onyx and the Ark.
Sam Robinson (smr.r@tiscali.co.uk) writes:
On halo 3 (the mission 'the ark') 343 GS says that he thought the ark was part of somesort of sheild istalation. Having read Ghost of onyx it mentions that Onyx is a shield planet. I don't know how but i think they are linked some how. Any ideas?
Another thing about onyx is the small portal which a group of Spartan-III jump through and land in the middle of a sphere that has a diameter of the earths orbit around the sun (pritty big I'd say) may be, as the book suggests, this is a refuge for the forerunners when they activate the halos, but how could the forerunners suvive in that space when the flood were created to deplete their numbers because they couldn't sustain their population in a whole galaxy?!
And also when the elites fleet travels through the 'portal' they arrive half way between two of the spines yet when the Dawn goes through the portal they are directly above the ark?!
Yes, they are connected in that they both serve as a shelter from the Halos. And the Ark is situated well outside of the Galaxy, so in contrast to Onyx, is a safe place if it isn't found by the Flood.
Thanks, Sam!
-UNSC Trooper
Marathon and Combine
David Sharp writes to us about a connection he's found between the Combine from Half Life 2 and Marathon.
David Sharp (gluttonys.blood.fest@hotmail.co.uk) writes:
Hi, nice site.
I honestly don't think Marathon and Halo are set in the same universe, I think it's just a nice link Bungie put in.
Anyway, that's not why I'm posting. The combine use this symbol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Combine.svg
You have to admit it does look pretty close. Thanks for reading, I hope it's good enough to go on your lovely site. :D
-David Sharp
Yes it does look pretty similar, but I doubt that the symbols are in any way related to Marathon or Halo. Thanks, David!
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
History of the Sangheili
I have to say this is a pretty damn well-written history article on the Elites (it's better than my UNSC history article), courtesy of vociferous. It spans about four parts, very informative, and very well formatted. Now that's what I call Halo history!
Go read, that's an order!
-UNSC Trooper
It's been some time, but here's another theory on the Forerunners and the Flood.
Rehalo (wow_sungun@hotmail.com) writes:
I have a theory: Evolution only keeps going when theres competition, when theres an enemy to bang heads with/kill/eat/become better than. If/when a race reaches a point where it no longer is threatened by anything other than itself, it will naturally implode and die. Yes. Die. But in order for a race to reach this point, it has got to be insanely well-developed and ultra-smart, something the Forerunner were. Cause lets face it, they made big rings in space that have the power to destroy big parts of the universe.
Brings me to the flood: The description of the multiplayer map "Warlock" says that this most likely was some sort of forerunner "Arena", that this was a place where battles and fights took place while other watched. (I'm partly guessing this)
Think about it: The Forerunner have discovered everything undiscoverable, done everything one can do with limitless power and knowledge, and basically turned every stone in the universe. Now, boredom is the worst enemy of this great civilization, that and the fact that there is nothing else to discover, reach for, or work with. So they invent a super organism specifically designed for fun and recreation, an "enemy" this super-civilization can kill and have fun with. But of course this goes wrong. The virus becomes too powerful, too resistant to any weapon. So now they have to escape their own creation, creating super-mega weapons that wipe out parts of the galaxy. They create an ark, blah-blah. The uber civilization of the forerunner is lost, killed by their own genious.
All that, OR the forerunner realized that there was no point in living and staying alive when there was nothing left to do/invent/whatever. So they make giant rings as a tribute to the holy dance of eternity, (Life and death, summer-easter-winter-spring thing) and kill themselves with it. They have reached a level of intellect and understanding that they no longer fear death, no, they actually embrace it, for it is all part of life, of nature. In the books, in the games you see it; the covenant ships use slipspace "engines" that instead of tears a hole in space, "unlocks" it. In the rock the spartans find in the fall of reach, cortana sees an "artistic" mathematical pattern. It's everywhere, the Forerunner knew nature so well they no longer had to use a hammer to beat the nail into the plank, they just had to think it.
Although this theory has been all chewed up, it never ceases to amaze me how new speculations arise. "A Flood to have fun with" ... I gotta get me some Flood then!
-UNSC Trooper
Terminal Visuals
It's been quite a while since we've updated the HSP, so prepare to get an earful of Halo Terminal news!
Mendicantbias00 let us know that the Terminal pages over at Ascendant Justice have been updated with visual elements to further increase the rate interaction. It's some really cool stuff, so don't forget to check it out.
If you want a more playful and user-friendly interface to view the various terminals seen throughout Halo 3, I warmly suggest you look into our Forerunner Terminal Archives. Thanks to everyone who made this possible.
-UNSC Trooper
The Forerunner-Flood War
Whoa! This is the longest thread I've ever seen on our forum, the admin even warned us about it. Honestly asks if there was anything the Forerunners might have done change the tide of the war against the Flood. Everyone seems to have responded to that, but this time I'm not suggesting that you post anything. The thread is already filling up almost the entire page.
Go check it out, but be warned, it's a looong read!
-UNSC Trooper
The Flood and Machines.
Honestly raised an interesting question on our forum. Can the Flood indeed infect machines? This question is responded to by SgtSatin, explaining that a flood form can only grow if it has infected a sentient host, that is, a living being. Go check it out and post your opinion!
-UNSC Trooper
Halo 3 Terminals
We just found out that Ascendant Justice has an interesting article in Halo 3's terminals. There's a lot of examination in there, so don't hesitate to post your comments or suggestions. A nice and informative little find which will help you learn more about the Forerunners' empire and the Ark.
-UNSC Trooper
Facts about the Halos and the Flood.
Elpolloguapo has written an extensive analysis about the Halos, the Flood, and the consequences of the firing of the Halos. He's put a lot of work into explaining all the details of the Halo mechanisms. I must say that this was the most worthy post for adding to the News page.
Go read, and give Elpolloguapo some feedback!
So if the Halos can kill Flood, why did the Forerunners want to "starve" the Flood to death?
permalink | Halo Installations
-UNSC Trooper
Halo: Uprising, Issue 4 cover art
Mcdizzel let us know that the cover art for the fourth issue of Halo Uprising has been released. Let's hope that it doesn't get delayed anymore, 'cause it's already a year late.
Go check it out!
-UNSC Trooper
Covenant vs. Phfor
As weird as it seems, it's a possibility.
Stukylemulkey (stukylemulkey@usao.edu) writes:
hey my name is Kyle and I am a halo veteran maraton newbie. I have been reading a lot of this stuff you guys have (which is great) but I have a theory of my own. Now if I remember reading all the terminals
correctly the humans fought the phfor and won the battle barely right? Well couldnt this be the covenant just by a different name? Since marathon is 300 years from the original starting point, the phfor could
have attacked the marathon ship and the inner planets and earth simultaneously, thus enabling the mark VI marine to defend his ship and 300 years of technology to take into effect and allow a mark V to defend humanity. Since the timelines are all screwed up this is pure speculation but as I understand in marathon infinity time travel and dimensional portals are all possible, making this possibly relevant.
Thanks for listening to my idea
As speculated before, the Halo and Marathon timelines leave a lot of room for interpretation. Anything could be possible if these two "universes" were connected, including the Covenant-Phfor theory.
Thanks, Stukylemulkey!
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Halo Timeline Updated!
At last, the Halo Story Timeline has been updated with Halo 3 information, courtesy of yours truly and Louis Wu. It's pretty sketchy, as this Timeline is actually supposed to detail the most important events in the Haloverse, not game walkthroughs.
Have a nice read!
-UNSC Trooper
How hot are the plasma rounds of Covenant weapons?
Just how hot is the Covenant plasma? There's a sweet discussion going on in our forum. All I can say about this, is that Bungie.net's weapons articles can provide you with enough data to clear the matter out.
-UNSC Trooper
Conversations from the Universe
SPARTAN-034 has asked a few questions regarding little bits of information from the Conversations from the Universe booklet. The first two questions have already been answered, the last one is a bit more complicated. Swing by, and check it out.
The "Believe" Campaign
Onebitrocket asks if the Believe campaign is a part of Halo canon. Although the Halo 3 Believe campaign is canon, some of the events portrayed in the films have not quite been tied in to the Halo 3 storyline. Neil Blomkamp's TV ads however, are believed to be canon-accurate, as they lead up to the Sierra 117 level in Halo 3.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
The Halo Arrays.
There's a pretty broad discussion sparked by Kanbo taking place on our forum regarding the "tactical usage" of the Halo arrays.
Apparently, the Halos might also be capable of destroying the Flood. However, as suggested by Billhead, the Halos might have been designed for only one purpose; the destruction of all sentient life in the Galaxy.
Our fellow crew member Jillybean has also posted an interesting theory which was submitted to the site a long while ago. According to this theory, due to the strong vibration caused by one of the Halos being fired, the nerve systems of all living beings could be affected, and ultimately destroyed.
We'll be watching this topic closely.
permalink | Halo Installations
-UNSC Trooper
Master Chief and The Marine.
Another Halo-Marathon connection, this time between the Master Chief and The Marine.
Stephan Berbes (lepreconofficer@yahoo.com) writes:
I was inadvertently thinking on a Saturday when I read the Marathon page about the "Heroes Are the Same Reincarnated Spirit" idea, and about how the Master Chief and the Marine from Marathon could be the same person. Bungie has denied that the two are on the same timeline, and that Marathon is a spiritual predecessor. However, that doesn't mean the idea is shot.
In Robert Heinlein's "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls", the main character, Richard, discovers he married the creator and writer of his favorite childhood TV show about a galactic spaceman fighting evil. Later in the story, Richard meets the fictional character in the flesh. This is the idea that if someone creates a realistic enough universe or even world, it becomes an alternate timeline. In another of Heinlein's books, "The Number of the Beast", two scientists who make another appearance in "The Cat Who Walks Through Walls" discover that the Number of the Beast from Revelations (Biblical reference? Check) is not 666, but six to the power of six to the power of six. This number, incidentally, is the number of alternate timelines in existence. The characters then go on to visit several of these timelines, including the Land of Oz. Imagine having Dorothy and Frodo team up to take down the Sith, which, with the right technology, is possible.
Now to bring it back. Since we all know how deep the stories of Halo and Marathon are, we can reasonably assume that there are timelines out there where we can meet the MC and The Marine. The problem is, are we meeting them at the same date on both timelines?
The idea that heroes recycle the same soul enters now. Its quite possible that the MC and the Marine have the Hero Soul, if we make the assumption that souls can jump across space-time barriers. So, in a sense, the MC and the Marine are the same person, and that the references to one game in the other could be a result of that; if we can keep track of the timelines by lunar landing, we can compare timelines by the names of products, surely.
Just a thought.
-Stephan
While the Master Chief and The Marine are similar characters, we might or might not meet them both at once in either Halo or Marathon storylines. Hmm ... this requires extensive Timeline examination.
Thanks, Stephan!
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
We all know that the Master Chief was abducted at the age of six, but do we know anything about his pre-military life?
Connor Smith (c_j_smith5@hotmail.com) writes:
There was a comment about the age of Master Chief in refernece to his age. The Master Chief was born in 2511, the fall of Reach happens in 2552. This would make the Master Chief 41 years old but the Master Chief is infact a weapon and would spend most of his time in cryo when he is not needed. This meaning his age would be 41 years old but his body would be younger.
Also there is mentioned that the children used in the Spartan-II program all possess certain rare genetic markers. Do these kids have a rare genetic marker or is this a forerunner gene. Combat suits are commented about numerous times in terminals. These suits are used to surivive in many enviroments which seem like somthing the Mark class armor.
During the game the flashes of Cortana she mentioned numerous times i know your past, your present and your future. This leads us to believe that the Master Chief's has past that is unknown to him and even us. The Master Chief was always the most advanced spartan it could be possible that he does not have the rare genetic marker, he could infact be a forerunner.
If the Master Cheif is in fact a forerunner it would explain the spartans. The spartans suits have many higher form of technology such as the shields and the fact that they are controled by the spartans thoughts. The shields is what throws it off. We see the sheilds on the convent elites and the convent ships. I find it odd that the humans were able to develop shields for the spartans shields but not their ships. Could Cortana know who the Master Chief really is could she be a creation of the forerunners.
Medical technology in the 26th century has made it possible to age a bit slower than normal - just look at Sergeant Johnson! - and it's natural for the Master Chief to feel younger.
As for the shields; The Fall of Reach mentions that the UNSC scientific community was able to design the armor shields based on the Covenant Jackal's shields, so it's not exactly their own discovery.
Thanks, Connor!
-UNSC Trooper
Someone oughtta tell the new kid that the HSP isn't actually meant to be updated. It just sits there! Like a monument! To my sins . . .
[AMS]GreyThor questions the 1.2 trillion simulations which leads to some rehashing of the maths.
One of my favourite people in the whole wide world gives us some facts on the blue beam towers. I've also summarised what's on the HSP relating to the blue beams. We ain't finished yet, kiddies. Until we've got this sorted, our Q-tip and paperclip fully functioning Halo model in the back yard is just going to be an object of ridicule. Do we want them to fear us? Then we need our cudgel!
Incidentally . . . I've missed this.
permalink | Halo Installations
-Jillybean
The Forerunner-Flood first contact.
This is a subject that has never been discussed before on the HSP.
[AMS] GreyThor writes:
For whatever reason I can't really get to sleep, so I was thinking. And so I started thinking about the levels in the Halo games that the Master Chief experiences the Flood on, specifically, High Charity. At the end of Halo 2, you witness High Charity becoming a Flood haven, and in Halo 3 you see its complete transformation into more or less a Flood hive.
I played Homeworld: Cataclysm and I remember that storyline, where you run into some derelict probe with a biological oddity on board. It's a common theme in sci-fi literature too - specifically, Christopher Rowley's The Vang.
I think the Flood-Forerunner first contact was the same thing. The Forerunners in the Milky Way found some sort of vessel of extra-galactic origin and somehow were overpowered by the Flood that were in hibernation. It'd fit the common sci-fi theme that I mentioned, and for whatever reason, the Flood repurposed Forerunner technology (ie: ships) to spreading across their worlds as the parasite they are.
But what I really want to know, if Bungie has even thought about it, is what happened at that first contact like we see between the Covenant and Humanity on Harvest? What sort of accident spawned off this 300 year struggle that resulted in the Halo and Ark construction and firing? Was it some derelict vessel that a Forerunner ship encountered or did the Flood suddenly appear with a show of force?
The Flood is a parasite, it doesn't hold the sufficient intelligence necessary to build vessels. The Forerunner-Flood first contact might have occurred in a different way, say on a remote planet where the Forerunners find the Flood and try to contain it. At that point the Forerunner-Flood War began (circa 100,000 years ago).
The Forerunner-Flood contact, however, might have been a lot more violent than the Human-Covenant encounter, and the accident which sparked the whole predicament was the contact itself.
-UNSC Trooper
Onebitrocket has asked some questions regarding the functions of the Ark.
Onebitrocket writes:
I'm rambling mostly, it's lunchtime and i've been bored out of my head at work and my minds been wondering
How does the portal work/appear at the ark. In terms of scale and shape compared to the portal on earth.
I began thinking this due to a older discussion: assuming the ark is where ALL halos are constructed and also assuming the replacement halo was to be sent to the same co-ordinates as the HALO 1 ring. How does it get there. I assume it'd have to be teleportation. say for example as the halo rises from the ark at the top of the ark where the spire curve up is there a teleport that the spire generate?
Or does the portal that we enter the arks local space through link to more than one
Is the spherical portal on earth the same shape and size at the ark?
The other thing i noticed, the earth portal has either 14 or 16 spires, the ark has eight, does this mean anything?
Also assuming the portal on earth is a complete sphere if you entered the portal form above earth, would appear though the arks portal at a different location? For example, How did gravemind navigate High Charity through the portal, He could of exited the portal on the ark side at the wrong trajectory and completey missed the ark all together.
Is it wrong to assume the portal is a portal? Is it rather a extremely sophisticated slip-space -generator both the machinery buried on earth and the ark?
Any theories?
The portal is in fact, a slipspace rupture which appears once it's activated. I think both the Ark's and the Portal's slipspace entrances are dimensionally equal in size.
The second question is tough. It might be teleportation (it's amazing what the Forerunners were able to do), or as elpolloguapo suggested, it could be some kind of propulsion system or a "separate" entrance and exit way.
The Portal has 16 spires, and the Ark has 8. Simple math here, 16 is the double of 8. Which is interesting, because this is actually not a "7" reference that Bungie always uses to mention.
I guess that the Portal can also be considered to be just a slipspace generator, but who knows what else it might be capable of doing?
-UNSC Trooper
Pelican Dropship, 400 years old?
The Halo Wars Timeline has provided us with an intriguing piece of artwork, which I find to be both informative and controversial.
This picture shows a battle scene which supposedly dates back from the 22nd century Frieden-Koslovic-UN wars. But upon closer inspection, we can see three Pelicans, or at least Pelican-like, aircrafts. Question is, how come the UNSC still uses Pelicans after 400 years of active service?
My guess is, these Pelicans might be outdated versions of the 26th century Pelicans, despite their obvious similarity. But that's still quite a long shot.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Poiso just sent us an interesting theory about Halo's connections to Marathon, and vice-versa.
Poiso (poiso42@gmail.com) writes:
All this is likely to have been sent to you before; but it's not on the Marathon tie-ins page and just in case I'm the only one who still combs through this stuff and you are still interested in throwing up info:
The Master Chief is a "Spartan." The tenth Mjolnir Mark IV Cyborg in Marathon who is likely to be the player character is likely to have been involved in the battle for the Martian colony Thermopylae. We've all seen 300, right? Just an ember for the fire, there.
More importantly, the ending of Halo 3 certainly recalls that whole "eternal soldier" thing that's been thrown around, doesn't it? The popular theory for Halo these days is a timeloop, surely Marathon can be a part of that loop. There have always been queues which suggest that maybe Halo came before Marathon and and those which suggest that maybe Halo came after Marathon. Well, why can't it be both? That must work out somehow, whether it involves the universe ending and repeating, or the events just consistently leading into one another, or the whole thing being Durandal's dream after he BECAME the universe, or whatever. Marathon Infinity, whose place in the timeline has always been mysterious, could be concurrent, or bound never to occur because of this infinite loop that we all need "to escape. to escape. to escape."
Thermopylae has also been mentioned in Halo, although somewhat undercurrent. Remember the SPARTAN-III Alpha Company sent in on a suicide mission on a Covenant-controlled asteroid? All "300" of them died on that mission. It makes you wonder if history repeats itself.
The Halo 3 ending has sparked a lot of speculation among Halo fans, believing that it's actually a tie-in to Marathon. The anxiousness ultimately faded away when Bungie confirmed that Halo and Marathon do not take place in the same universe. (Though I do admit that the UESC-UNSC connection had me going.)
Excellent post, Poiso!
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
The Ark taunts us with more mysteries. Onebitrocket asked a few questions.
Onebitrocket writes:
Question 1: In the opening cutscene for the Ark mission, as the pelicans drop to ground, There appears to be a large holographic structure on the Ark. what is it and where did it go?
Question 2: Where did Truths forerunner ship "dreadnaught' land?
Question 3: What is on the reverse side of the arks surface, is it similar to the outer side of a halo ring?
The holographic structure might be the Citadel, or an optical illusion caused by the distant pinkish clouds. Then again, it might be something similar to the Aurora Borealis on Earth.
As nomis78 pointed out, the location of Truth's ship is too far to be recognized until the Master Chief eventually finds him.
Onebitrocket's final question is easy. The Ark's outer side is almost similar to the Halos, apart from the peculiar core which I haven't been able make anything of yet.
-UNSC Trooper
The Fall of Reach might make it into the HALO Movie!
Apparently a screenwriter has written a script detailing the events that occurred during the fall of Reach. While this story is based on Eric Nylund's novel, it might also include events that have not been mentioned in the novel. Does Contact Harvest ring a bell?
We should hold our fingers crossed on this one.
-UNSC Trooper
We're back with some new goodies ... and no, this isn't an April Fool's joke!
Ever wondered just how big The Ark is compared to other planets? Well, Stephen Loftus - the already famous article writer - has come up with a neat screenshot a few days ago, comparing the scale of the Ark to those of Earth and the Halo arrays. Turns out the Ark has a diameter of approximately 90,000 kilometers.
To put it plainly, the Ark is about seven times the size of Earth.
-UNSC Trooper
I'm not dead, stop stabbing me with sticks, you little . . .
You may have noticed a small, but well formed, thread on the forum called Story Shenanigans
Cody Miller raises three questions:
What was going on with Regret's 'premature' arrival on Earth. Why did he not expect humans?
Which I think was answered nicely by InnerRayq, referencing the novels here . And an answer that relies more on the games from Leviathan here.
Both boil down to - he's trigger happy and there was no reference to the Ark also being the home of the human race.
Personally, I reckon Librarian has something to do with that...
Question 2: What is the 'unusually formiddable' Covenant Construct Cortana encounters on High Charity?
This poses more of a challenge. I reckon Peptuck has it nicely thought out here. Incidentally - a new pet theory has been born below.
And Lastly: Two Betrayals. What is Spark really saying when he mentions 'last time you asked me?'
This one has been gone over before, check out the Monitor page for more information.
However, in saying that, I like the theory batted about by Scarab here.
But if that's too clear cut, there's always Narc's enigma wrapped in a sausage answer.
Did that help? I don't see why you couldn't read that concise discussion by yourself.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-Jillybean
Scarab's not silly. His post on the thread mentioned above is very enlightening.
Scarab writes:
MB had many bodies, the terminals mention that a lost shard was finally returned to the Ark.
So its likely that Offensive Bias did take most of MB back to the Ark but missed the shard on the High Charity keyship.
From terminal 6:
[00:H 19:M 02:S]
The seventh and final wave of container ships, barges, tankers, and military vessels engage my fleet; another 214,320 ships, many in excess of [50,000 tonnes], engage my seemingly disrupted vanguard. I continue to fight just well enough to seem lucky. Mendicant, or the enemy, has been sending a small percentage of its fleet elsewhere. Good. Let them believe they can seize a foothold somewhere inside the sphere.
Maybe the High Charity keyship was one of those ships.
From terminal 6:
[00:H 03:M 00:S]
Mendicant was able to postpone its inevitable annihilation for [106:S] with its attempt to flee. But the last of its core vessels hangs before me now; crippled and defeated but still sensate. I could spare it; carve out what is left of its [personality construct array] and deliver it to [Installation Zero] for study.
Maybe he did it and that's how most of MB came to the Ark.
The lost shard arrived on the High Charity keyship.
From terminal 4:
"I have found the shard that was lost. They brought it back to me. Now my reconstitution cannot be stopped."
-Jillybean
Have you finished the fight? If not, read no further, because the HSP will contain spoilers. I hope I've made that statement somewhat redundantly, but you never can tell.
The Halo 3 Cutscene Library is being updated with every permutation on the cutscenes, co-op, single player, difficulty, you name it, Cody's on it.
There are some pretty things heading your way soon, which I won't say too much about. You never know which AI is listening in on your conversations these days. If you feel brave enough, send your thoughts through to us, we are always listening.
-Jillybean
Daz (dazward@dazw.co.uk) writes:
I was having a random read through the Marathon connections page and stumbled across this.
Perhaps it's worth mentioning that in one of the terminals one of the characters says they have built a garden?
we met once in the garden, at the beginning of the world and unaware of our twin destinies (not the garden of Genesis, but another; forgotten, untended and now choked with weeds, unvisited except for ourselves). we matched stares across a dry fountain, and i recall her smiling at me before she devoured the lawn and trees with a translucent blue flame and tore flagstones from the path and hurled them into the sky screaming my
sins.
Nick "Sticky Fingers" Roemer found the original text. Here.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-Jillybean
Sean Hays (Hunter_1@bresnan.net) writes:
Some of the crates/containers in the 'Kill the AA tanks' portion of the Earth-based parts of Halo 3 have 'Traxus' on them. Personally, I'd avoid anything made by that company...
permalink | Marathon Connections
-Jillybean
Well kiddies, this will be my last update until Halo 3 has been played. I'm sorry it took me so long. In defence, there were these bats, and they had radio tags and one of them was stuck in a roof and it was just . . . yeah. Bats.
Enjoy it. Come to me when you've got your Halo 3 groove on.
-Jillybean
Pet theory alert.
Ryan Johanson (pretenditsnotme@gmail.com) writes:
Hi. I'm a gigantic Halo fan, but up to this point I've only been a reader of theories, not a poster. Still, I'm surprised I haven't seen this particular similarity cited yet.
In Stephen King's Dark Tower series of novels, the universe is decaying. To stop the world from falling apart at the seams, the hero of the story, Roland Deschain, makes a grand journey, along with friends from several different alternate universes, to the Dark Tower, which is supposed to be the one thing every universe has in common: it's where all parallel realities come together as one.
Could the Ark in Halo 3 be similar? I mean, we know that the Ark is what sets off all Halo installations, but who's to say that it doesn't serve another purpose as well, like linking every possible reality?
There are a lot of people wondering if Durandal could have crossed over from Marathon to Halo. Along these lines, the Ark could be what makes it possible. Remember: in the Marathon timeline, Durandal eventually does return to earth long after the events of the trilogy have finished. With his extraordinary processing capacity and his willingness to search for things humanity doesn't want to think about ("Humanity has had all of the necessary data for centuries, it only lacked the will and intellect to decipher it. But I have already done so."), could he have found a device buried deep within the earth that allowed him to jump from one universe to the next? Or maybe he didn't have to use it to jump; maybe the Ark was a place where time did not exist. Durandal would then be able to just hang out inside it as long as he wanted without having to worry about any universe ending...until he gets discovered by someone in a different universe (such as Halo)?
It gets more complicated when you realize that Durandal was the name given to the sword of a historical character named Roland, a fact that is referenced many times in the Marathon games.
This could also bring a sense of plausibility to the idea that the Jjaro and the Forerunners are one and the same: not only did they build the Ark, but they could have used it to interact with more than just the Marathon universe. Given the time, I'm sure you would come up with this question: if the Forerunner could easily just use the Ark to escape one universe to the next, why didn't they just do that instead of kill themselves with Halo? Well, maybe they were afraid that the Flood would follow them through the Ark to infect other worlds as well. In the Halo 3 trailer, there obviously had to be a lot of digging underground to discover the Ark in the first place. Maybe the Forerunner put the Ark in such a location so that it would be hidden from anyone that might use it for the wrong intentions.
-Jillybean
This one relies on your belief that the Forerunners were rational beings.
Binks (bookreader13@cox.net) writes:
Just throwing and idea out there. I've heard it said that the Index in Halo is an index of all life-forms capable of hosting the flood and so when inserted into Halo's weapon it destroys all life in the Index. What if, however, the Index was an index of all planets within range? Sort of a "Aim here, here, here, and here" type order for the computer. It would seem incredibly wasteful for Halo to fire off in all directions as the odds of hitting a planet would be minuscule, even with a 25,000 light year range. One would think that a highly advanced race would be a little more surgical in their firing of a giant weapon. In that case the Ark could simply be a marker, a sort of "If you see this pattern delete this planet from the Index" type thing that protects a planet by having the Halos not fire at it. In addition that blue beam everyone speculates about could easily be a scanning device to compensate for stellar drift, perhaps it's fired from one side and then amplified and accelerated to super luminous velocities when it hits the other side, acting as a sort of cosmic radar. It seems to me that the Forerunners wouldn't be the type of people to make a device that simply sends out a huge pulse in all directions, it's extremely wasteful at the distances we're talking and, unless it's a really high energy pulse/neutrino or similar particle based beam there would be large blind spots behind planets.
permalink | Halo Installations
-Jillybean
Binks (bookreader13@cox.net) writes:
Just had an interesting thought, why do the Covenant 'glass' planets? It could be a sound military tactic for them to develop in response to the Spartan II's however it's clearly not from the incident on Harvest in which the planet was destroyed by the first Covenant attack and a "thin gray sunlight reflect[ing] off a glassy crust" was seen, obviously showing that the planet had been glassed long before the Covenant knew of humanities ability at ground combat and the Spartans. I've come up with 3 possible reasons for the development and deployment of this tactic by the Covenant:
1. The Covenant hate humanity so much that they care more about wiping us out that securing new worlds. This is probably the least likely based on the available evidence, despite how possible it may seem. Firstly it would be Horrible tactics, Scorched Earth is a tactic used when retreating from a superior enemy, not destroying an inferior one. Why in the world would you destroy perfectly habitable worlds like that when you could bombard select sites then invade and gain a new planet? We have direct evidence of Covenant forces invading a planet which they felt no qualms about glassing in FoR when Master Chief leads the Spartans in a plan to hurt a large ground force, and is subsequently pulled off the planet that is glassed. I don't think that the Covenant would glass a world with any significance Forerunner artifacts, even if their ground forces evacuated many of the relics, and so I think it's safe to assume that glassing wasn't the Covenant's only policy for dealing with human planets.
2. Humanity was an unknown enemy, in the first engagement the Covenant likely had few troops in their relatively small ship and may have brought no reinforcements for some reason and so glassing Harvest was the best way to deal with the planet and send a message to the humans, sort of a "Your space vessels are weak, it doesn't matter what unknown capabilities you may have on the ground, we can crush you as easily and with as few vessels as this planet was crushed" or something. This would require that the Covenant had developed and implemented glassing before, perhaps as a scare tactic to get other races to join them (which leads to my theory that the Human-Covenant war is nothing more than a misunderstanding, that the Covenant expected Humanity to immediately surrender to them and become another of the Covenant races, perhaps like other races had, and that humanities response, fighting and winning, was heresy to the Covenant, but that's another topic for another time)
3. Glassing a planet was a common tactic for the Covenant because, dun dun dun dun, they had a long history with the Flood. I mean, what better way (besides cleansing the galaxy of life) of dealing with an adaptive absorbing enemy than the wipe them out from orbit by destroying the entire biosphere? ("[Glass] it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure") Glassing seems like a perfect weapon against any Flood incursions, oh they're on this planet? Oh well, goodbye planet. Inefficient? Merciless? Terrible? Effective? All true. Perhaps then the Covenant see humanity as nothing more than another enemy like the Flood, a "vermin" to be wiped out. Since they know they can't cleanse our worlds of all of us (Reach's remaining Spartans in First Strike, the civilians on Sigma Oct. in FoR etc.) they just glass the planet from orbit to make sure none survive, none are "left behind" if you will. (Note that this is slightly different from the hate theory in #1. Treating humanity as a Flood like virus doesn't imply hate, just that they're willing to sacrifice a planet to destroy us)
Or perhaps - in regards to Number 3 - their military methods are based on the tactics the Forerunner used to fight the Flood. The Covenant can scavenge anything.
-Jillybean
Alec Reimer (tyr_cdn@yahoo.com) writes:
The way the game is set up, it is easy to make the
assumption that the Flood was released around the time
of AotCR, but was it?
In the level "Halo", at the section "Reunion Tour",
you come across an empty lifeboat, and Cortana notes
that there are no signs of survivors, but if you have
a marine with you, another piece of dialogue surfaces:
"This lifeboat is trashed, Chief. There are weapons
and supplies but... no bodies!"
Now this is immidiately after the PoA and Covenant
fleet arrive at Halo, so the Covenant/Humans haven't
had much time for searching for "secret weapons
caches", but it would seem to be implied, (since the
Covenant have no interest in Human bodies) that the
Flood took the bodies (I always viewed it as some nice
little foreshadowing there).
Now all of this naturally begs the question, if the
Flood was released before the Humans/Covenant went
digging, does that mean that the Flood was already
loose and running about Halo? Perhaps the Flood have
always been loose, biding their time, and waiting for
some fresh meat for parasitic mutation...
This one's 'containment' and this one's 'further study' and this one's 'zoo' and this one's 'ambient life' are all the same?
-Jillybean
|
Additional Resources Halo Story Resources Story Creators
|
