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Microsoft released the next live-action-short for their Halo:Reach marketing campaign yesterday. "Deliver Hope" is short but moving clip showing Noble Team doing what they do: getting the job done. There is some speculation as to where this clip falls in the overall story of Noble Team, though. Why doesn't Kat have a prosthetic arm? Is that Thom or the new Noble 6? Jump on the forums here and speculate away!
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-BrownieFive
The HSP is starting to look like a discussion forum ever since I posted that ultra-update a month ago, with various Halo story enthusiasts replying, completing and adding pertinent information to the theories already posted. If we keep this up, it's going to mark a change in the Halo Story Page's functional direction, from a repository of Halo storyline speculation to fan interaction. That would definitely make the HSP more dynamic.
This time, Joe WaferMouse Jones and David Moore make some canonical completions to James Delaney's most recent theory (scroll down to the last submission to view it). It treated the mysterious presence of icy clouds in one of ONI Alpha Base's compartments, which he interpreted as being connected to an anti-Flood defensive mechanism, one he also proposes may have been used by the Forerunners.
Joe WaferMouse Jones (bumpycarrot@gmail.com) writes:
In response to James' most recent take on this, whilst it's definitely plausible, the room he refers to is a set-piece for "Sadie's Story" in ODST, which only unlocks if 29 of the phones have been found. Without wanting to spoil it for anyone who hasn't found all the ringing phones, the ice buildup is related to an argon release from the fire extinguishers, a known event. Argon is often used in data centres at a fire deterrent, to prevent damage to equipment.
The whole level is reminiscent of The Library, though, with the repeating architecture and dark corridors. Or even more so, Sentinel Wall from Halo 2, with the machine-oriented architecture and piston-like data stacks impeding progress.
Well, that makes sense... considering I haven't even bothered to read Sadie's Story except for the first, rough half of it where she almost gets kidnapped by that corrupt cop and SuperIntendent saves her.
Good thing we've got attentive fans.
-UNSC Trooper
James responded to Ross Rankin's recently-posted theory regarding ONI's timely awareness of the existence of the Flood. After playing through Halo 3: ODST, he suggests the parts of ONI Alpha Base covered in icy fog could be the result of a measure employed to counter the Flood, which, in turn, could have possibly been used by the Forerunners as well.
James Delaney (jamesdelaneyie@gmail.com) writes:
I was reading through the last update to the Halo story page, Ross Rankin's theory of ONI knowing about the Flood, and his comments about the building's architecture resembling the containment design of the Forerunners in particular. I just picked up ODST from a friend and played through the campaign a few days ago. On the level Data Hive, just after you take out the Brute Chieftan with the turret, you come across an area covered in ice, with a lot of low lying fog.
Now I know that this could just be the superintendent's cooling system going haywire because at this stage, I'm sure he's not in the best of health and can't control all his systems. But it could also be the same precaution that the Forerunner had against the flood. Using ice and cold weather to slow their advance. With the strong similarities between the forerunner's designs for slowing the flood advanced and the design of the ONI building, it just seemed to me that it was a little too similar to see an icy landscape and have it not relate to the slowing of the flood.
Food for thought anyways,
That means ONI knew about Forerunner defensive tactics, too.
There are absolutely no limits to ONI's omniscience. I bet you could sit down with one of their officers and learn the type of construction tools the Forerunners used to carve the Portal hole in the earth.
-UNSC Trooper
David Moore read one of the recent speculation pieces we've posted a few days ago and submitted a clarifying response to it. Written by Jeffrey Arnold, it dealt with the "mysterious Covenant AI" Cortana encountered on High Charity - according to David, the AI wasn't a Covenant-made at all, but the legendary Forerunner military AI, Mendicant Bias.
David Moore (dhalo117@yahoo.com) writes:
I believe it is safe to postulate that the formidable presence on High Charity is in fact not even a Covenant AI at all.
According to Contact Harvest, an AI, or in Covenant terminology, an Oracle, was found to be on the Prophet's Forerunner Dreadnought. This Oracle, known to us as Mendicant Bias, attempted to lift off from High Charity and locate his creators (the only remnants of which are now Humans). They disconnected him to stop the launch sequence.
Though the following sequence of events may be different in truth, the result is likely the same. Years later, as the Chief is approaching the Dreadnought, Truth has realized that excavation party sent to Earth to find the portal to the Ark was the human homeworld (due to Regrets "severe error"). He figures he doesn't even need to input any sort of coordinates, just reconnect MB and let him pilot the ship to the portal.
Thus the formidable presence. MB was the top class of AI ever created, even by the Forerunners, so he would be quite the match for Cortana. He did NOT want interference as he was readying to leave.
Thus MB makes it to the Ark and speak to the Chief via the terminals.
Also, Legends spoilers: If you noticed at the end of Origins Part 2, the Iris symbol (Also, technically Mendicant Bias' symbol) appears in Cortana's eye. This suggests that MB has hitched a ride with Cortana.
-DHalo
Huh, even a thousand year-old AI can give an almost brand new UNSC AI like Cortana one hell of a headache. No wonder we almost lost the war...
-UNSC Trooper
Submissions revised and posted!
After more than a year-long retirement from updating the HSP, I stuck my arm into my sack of submissions to the very bottom, selected the "go's" from the "no's" and came up with some pretty interesting material for your reading delight. The following are five of the various submissions I've been overlooking for the past year, crammed into one super-update containing varying impressions reflecting the release of Halo 3: ODST and other, older media.
Enjoy!
-UNSC Trooper
Brandon approaches a hot subject with a new idea: how, exactly, would the seven Halos cover the entire Galaxy in order to completely deplete it of living beings?
Brandon Krist (bkrist21@hotmail.com) writes:
I was reading a post by Ryan Hoisington today over his mathematical endeavors into solving the Ring Radius problem, so I decided to also do a little math and research of my own. I found the galaxy (The Milky Way) is aproximatly 100,000 LY by 1,000 LY in size. And along with that the ER (Effective Radius) of one Ring is 25,000 LY in any direction. So we know that at max without the fire zones crossing the rings can be is 50,000 LY not the 43,000 LY that Ape Man mentions at the end of the same post.
I tried to draw some diagrams of the galaxy with the seven rings placed around them evenly and discovered (and also through searching the net) that it is IMPOSSIBLE to make a circle with seven perfectly equal areas.
It is however possible to do it with only SIX rings. But then that poses the question of "Where is the seventh ring?". Its possible that the Forerunners placed it in the galactic core but there is supposedly a black hole there, so maybe they placed it just out of the BH's gravitational pull. that is a plausible thing to do since no matter what the height of the galaxy is going to be covered.
If anyone has anything else to add on to it feel free too.
-UNSC Trooper
Good thing I've been rummaging through my inbox; otherwise I'd have missed this epic feat of fan-speculated material.
Antoni Koziol (kwskategod@yahoo.com) writes:
On the Forerunner-Human interconnection
Hello, I have been reading through the story pages on the website and they're very interesting. Especially the ones regarding the Forerunner. I (MLG Cheehwawa) have something that I think you guys at HBO would find interesting. Maybe even worthy of posting up on the forerunner story page. Here it is --
I keep hearing people say that the Forerunner "de-evolved" into humanity some time around the Halos' initial firing. This is quite impossible. I believe that humans evolved into Forerunner, hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Let's start at the beginning.
200,000 BCE (approx.)
Modern humans evolve in what is now known as Africa. They remain in their cradle for some 100,000 years.
98,995 BCE
The Forerunner encounter the Flood on the outer rim of the Milky Way Galaxy. This sparks a 300 year long Forerunner-Flood war and construction on the Halo array begins.
98,665 BCE (approx..)
The Halos and Ark are completed. Humanity is discovered by the Librarian. The Earth's Ark portal is built by Sentinel-like machines. The Librarian strands herself on Earth so that Didact will end the war. The Halos are activated, wiping out all sentient life in the Galaxy. Humanity returns to Earth through the Ark portal and leaves their cradle, Africa, and sets off to populate the rest of the Earth.
Now do you see why it is impossible for the Forerunner to have evolved into humanity? Humanity was around for 100,000 years before the Forerunner found them. Now where does my crazy theory play into all of this? Start with the Precursors:
From the Halo 3 Bestiarum:
Tier 0: Transsentient
As the [Forerunners] had no examples of civilizations with technological accomplishment greater than themselves - with the exception of the Precursors - this is a theoretical ceiling. They can travel intergalactic and accelerate evolution of intelligent life. These may be creatures of legend.
The Precursors had the ability to advance the evolution of sentient life -- why would Bungie specify this power they had if it wasn't integral to the story in some way? This is the only small passage of the Precursors that we have ever heard, so it surely garners some importance.
The fact that humanity was around for 100,000 years prior to the Forerunner being at their pinnacle of technological evolution proves that humanity did not come from the Forerunner... but could the Forerunner have come from humanity?
It is entirely possible (and plausible) that the Precursors visited Earth some time between 200,000 BCE and 96,000 BCE and took up some early humans to their own worlds, and those humans were exposed to the Precursors' evolutionary acceleration technology, becoming an advanced sub-species of h. sapiens.
What would they look like? Most likely not very different than, us but most certainly different; possibly a set of exterior differences similar to the differences between h. sapiens and h. neanderthalis.
From the 6th Halo 3 Terminal:
L: My work is done. The portal is inactive, and I've begun the burial measures. Soon there'll be nothing but sand and rock and normal ferrite signatures.
You should see the mountain that watches over it. A beautiful thing--a snowcapped sentinel. That's where I will spend what time is left to me.
Did I tell you? I built a garden. The earth is so rich. A seed falls and a tree sprouts or a flower blooms. There's so much...potential. We knew this was a special place because of them, but unless you've been here, you can't know.
It's [Eden].
I have to stop transmitting. The thing is listening. Its [thinking dead] are babbling--laughing through every channel they can find.
Be proud. The Mind claims victory, yet it still doesn't suspect. You've outwitted it, my love. And now you can destroy it.
But you cannot save me.
-- The Librarian
Why did the Librarian deem humanity so special?
The Librarian indexed many species besides humanity; all of the species in the Halo trilogy would logically have been indexed and saved in the Ark by the Forerunners. Elites, Prophets, Brutes, etc. -- why was humanity different?
I believe it's because humanity shared many distinct characteristics with the Forerunner. They looked similar, thought similar, and thus were deemed the Reclaimers. All because of the Precursors.
From the level "Two Betrayals" in Halo:
"We have followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter. You were with me each step of the way, as we managed this crisis."
-- 343 Guilty Spark
343 Guilty Spark is most likely rampant, however, I don't think this means we can write him off fully. If Spark is simply confusing the Master Chief with the last being who activated the ring ca. 100,000 BCE, this would mean the two bear physical resemblance.
I am pretty sure that the last person to activate the rings would have been Didact, the Forerunner general. Didact was the lover of the Librarian, the female Forerunner who found Earth and deemed humanity more special than the other sapient species in the galaxy.
From the 4th Halo 3 Terminal:
I'm trapped. On a beautiful, empty world. Its inhabitants have been safely indexed, every single one of them. They're special--well worth the effort it took to build one final gateway even at this late hour. This may be our last communication. I'm begging you. Fire the Array. Light the weapon, and let it be done.
-- The Librarian
She was speaking to Didact. Can we assume that Didact did what the Librarian had been asking him to do for so long [activate the rings]? She stranded herself on Earth by destroying her own fleet so that Didact would no longer resist firing the rings. If he did activate them, this would mean he did it on Alpha Halo... with the help of Spark. Spark thought that the Chief was Didact.
From the level "Halo" in Halo 3:
(His eye turns Blue) You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring... (Eye turns Red again) ...is mine.
-- 343 Guilty Spark
Many people will write this line off as being figurative, but not I. I believe that what Spark meant was that modern humanity (and thus the Chief) literally is the child of the Forerunner. But a child cannot have one parent, they need two. The Forerunner are the mother, and pre-activation humans ("archaic h. sapiens") are the father.
Earth is Eden.
Early Humans are Adam.
The Forerunner are Eve, taken from the rib of Adam.
Modern humans (Reclaimers) are the offspring of Adam and Eve.
Precursors are God.
[ we could go one step further and say that the Flood are Lilith, but that's another theory all together ]
Being a sub-species of h. sapiens, the Forerunner would possibly be able to mate with humanity while producing a mixed offspring. This could be the possibly spark which ignited humanity's exit from Africa; we had been in Africa from 200,000 BCE until 100,000 BCE... and then we all of the sudden decide to (and are for the first time successful in) expanding outward into the rest of the world.
Coincidence? I think not..
From the 4th Halo 3 Terminal:
What has taken you millennia to achieve I erase in seconds.
Welcome back to the [Stone Age], vermin. Welcome home.
-- Medicant Bias
I think that this quote holds significant importance (especially since Truth loves calling us humans "vermin"). We know that humanity evolved on Earth, so we did not come from outer space. If the Forerunner did indeed come from early humans, they could have been reverted to stone-age technologies by the Halos' activation. They would be stranded wherever they ended up.
From the 8th Cortana letter:
In a relatively brief period of time, the achievements of SolCore had resulted in an economically stable, technologically mature, rapidly expanding empire of eight human worlds. Advancements in technology arrived at a faster pace than the most optimistic scientists could have ever envisioned. Unexpected contact with indigenous human populations on four "lost colony" worlds led to a frenzy of research as archaeologists, theologians, astronomers, and evolutionary biologists competed to offer an explanation for the startling discovery.
There there were "indigenous humans" found on new planets. Science states that humanity could not evolve identically (or even near-identically) in more than one location, so this would imply that the "humans" were here before the UNSC discovered the worlds. I would say the "indigenous humans" are actually the sub species of h. sapiens -- surviving Forerunner (or simply Reclaimers) who exited the Ark after the Halos' activation and were stranded on remote worlds with no more technology than they (we?) had in the Stone age. But the Forerunner went extinct after the Halos fired.... or did they?
From Halo: Contact Harvest:
"The Forerunners," the Minister whispered. "Some were left behind."
-- Prophet of Regret
Having established that humanity evolved 100,000 years before the Forerunner found them (with roots reaching back 2,000,000 years on Earth) its safe to assume that since the Minister recognized humans as "living Gods," and "left-behind Forerunner," then my theory may well be.
Regarding the Prophets
The Prophets: The original Reclaimers? I think that they were.
We know that humans had a special role in the Forerunners' plan -- we are the Reclaimers. We are meant to reclaim the galaxy after we rise up, and live up to the Forerunners' accomplishments. We are the only species with the ability to activate the Halo rings...
But the Halo rings were built before humanity was even found, so wouldn't there have been a different species with a similar entitlement before us?
Why did humans not know anything about the Forerunner until we found the Halos? Surely they would have left us some sort of clues as to our past relations with the super-race known as the Forerunner... or maybe not. Maybe they didn't have the time.
ca. 100,000 BCE the Halo rings were set off. Before that, all species (sentient and sapient) were indexed (sent on a ship) to the Ark by the Forerunner. This would logically include humans, Prophets, Elites, Brutes, etc. otherwise they wouldn't be around during the Halo trilogy.
Humans were one of the last species to be discovered (by the Librarian) and indexed, as proved in Halo 3's Terminals. This would certainly put some strain on what the Forerunner could construct on Earth, right? I mean they barely had time to build and bury "one last portal" (the one in Africa).
This is where the Prophets come in.
Why did the Prophets have the earliest access to Forerunner technology in the Halo series? They found Forerunner relics on their homeworld (before it was destroyed by a supernova) and then they travelled to the Elite homeworld and forged the Covenant after a long, cut-throat war.
I think that the Prophets were the original Reclaimers, but had their title revoked after the humans were found just prior to the Halos;' activation. Why would the Prophets have been replaced? Maybe the Forerunner saw something special in us.
Humans are known as the Reclaimers, but before being able to reclaim, they would need to be taught. Since the Forerunner did not have the time to make teaching installations on Earth, they may have bestowed this right on the already-indexed Prophets.
This is further evidenced by the Prophets' mistranslation of a Forerunner word meaning "Reclaimer" -- however, they read it as "Reclamation." (Halo: Contact Harvest) Is it possible that the "Reclaimer" glyph was originally representant of the Prophet species and not human?
Seeing that the Forerunner indexed all organisms on worlds which they indexed, leaving them temporarily devoid of all life, they must have had some sort of advanced and highly sensitive DNA analyzer to categorize and index each of these alien species.
This technology would most likely be pivotal to the technology which only humans can activate (namely the Halos' control rooms). If the Humans were made Reclaimers, replacing the Prophets, a simple "DNA allowance" would be switched within the technology (however it works) making humans the only ones who could activate the Halos, instead of the Prophets.
[ Sort of like an ex-girlfriend taking away your key to her apartment and giving it to a new guy. ]
Forerunner Crystal, Truth's purpose, Brute overthrow
I have always been critical of bungie keeping Brutes as the main enemy in ODST, and completely disregarding the Elites. It would take days or even weeks time for the Brutes to have arrived, and to push the Elites out of Mombasa. But what if they were not shackled by the limits of time?
0645 hours (approx.), August 30, 2552 -- the Pillar of Autumn leaves Reach for Halo.
0100 hours (approx.), September 19, 2552 - the Pillar of Autumn arrives at Halo.
The time to travel from Reach to Halo was about 20 days.
In Halo: First Strike, we get out first hint at the Brutes replacing the Elites at the Prophets' side, when Tartarus brings Truth three shards of the time-dilating crystal, pieces of a fist-sized crystal housed under Reach which bent the time for the Master Chief (and thus the surrounding region on Halo)...
From Halo: First Strike (pg 339):
"Come closer, Tartarus, and report."
A ripple of shock passed through the Imperial Elite Protectors. They had never seen such a creature allowed so close to the Holy Ones.
"Protectors," the Prophet commanded. "Leave us."
Together the three hundred honor guards straightened, bowed, and filed out of the great chamber. Thy said nothing, but the Prophet saw the confusion on their features. Good -- such igno-rance and puzzlement had its uses.
...making the return trip to the human world last about 20 hours.
1827 hours, September 22, 2552 -- influenced by the crystal, the Ascendant Justice jumps away from Halo and toward Reach.
0520 hours (approx.), September 23, 2552 -- influenced by the crystal, the Ascendant Justice reaches Reach...
This can not be explained away simply because the Covenant were faster than us -- they weren't that much faster. It took a full 2 weeks (October 20 until November 2) to reach Delta Halo from Earth in Halo 2. The crystal altered space-time once. Why couldn't it happen again?
From Halo: First Strike (pg 340):
"It may yet be enough for our purposes... and one more relic from the Great Ones, as precious as they are, will soon make no difference to us." The Prophet tucked the container deep in the folds of his underrobe. "Make sure those pilots who survived are
well rewarded. Then execute them all. Quickly. Quietly."
This was the Prophet of Truth speaking with Tartarus, who had just presented him with the three shards of the time-dilating crystal.
What were the purposes that Truth was speaking about?
I think that the crystal may have been a large part of Truth's plan to replace the Elites with Brutes, especially since a Brute, Tartarus, was the only one allowed so close. The time-dilating effect would allow him to transfer the Brutes to replace the Elites literally everywhere within the Galaxy in a matter of hours to days; he may have employed a shard of the crystal to get his Brutes to Earth at almost the instant that Regret left.
This is the only possibility that I see, as otherwise it would have taken hours to days, maybe even weeks, to replace the Elites on Earth with Brutes, and the flashback missions in ODST would have included Elites rather than Brutes. It surely won't be a major plot-point in the game, but it could very well be Bungie's reasoning behind Truth's acquisition of the shards.
Woah... this thing's deserving of its own article.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Stephen offers an interesting perspective on the Forerunners' final days before firing the Halos and temporarily neutralizing the Flood threat.
Stephen Kelly (gruntythirst11@hotmail.com) writes:
After a little reading of the site, I found posts referring to forerunners and humans as being almost completely separate races. This despite 343 Guilty Spark explicitly saying "You are Forerunner!" So I started to think. (Excuse me if someone has already come up with this.) According to the post by Deadguy71, and his extensive research, Humans were long ago cataloged and seeded on Earth after the original detonation of the Halos. Leftover Forerunner AI's like 343 and Bias refer to Humans as "Reclaimers" rather than Forerunners. What I want to know is, how do we know that Forerunners were themselves a race? 343 Guilty Spark refers to us as Reclaimer, yet says we are Forerunner. Is it possible that the Forerunners, like the Covenant, were an alien collective? Although all the Forerunner tech we come across reacts to our human touch, we don't know that it wouldn't react to certain other alien species touch. Maybe humans were very lately added to the Forerunner collective and assigned to be the Reclaimers, the ones who would retake the galaxy. In the terminals, the Forerunner on Earth talks about how great our several hundred thousand year old ancestors are. Perhaps it was that Forerunner's admiration that gained us a spot in a galactic Forerunner will. "You are the child of my makers, Inheritor of all they left behind." Inheritor implies that all this Forerunner tech never belonged to humanity. It was given to us when the Forerunner died. Also, the "child of my makers" line could fit with Deadguy71's theory of Humans being seeded on Earth. If the Forerunner seeded us on Earth, they could be seen as our parents.
There really isn't anything I could add that hasn't already been milked dry by various Reclaimer-Forerunner theories and discussions, but the concept of the Forerunner Empire being a conglomerate of races is intriguing in itself. Although, being a technologically-genial society, why would they need additional, less advanced races to run their empire? They seem to have done fine on their own...
-UNSC Trooper
Jeffrey emailed a very detailed outline of what he thinks Cortana's captured AI might have been.
Jeffery Arnold (sypheran@hotmail.com) writes:
Just taking it back a little, back in First Strike we find out that the covenant have AIs. When John-117 put Cortana into the Covenant network on High Charity, Cortana mentions an unusually formidable presence, and eventually captures and contains the core coding of a covenant AI for further examination... However, the quick examination Cortana had done at the time had uncovered something that was very interesting, and yet to be answered...
The enemy AI code was so similar to Cortana, that Cortana says that it's as if it were her own code, only copied many times over, each time introducing subtle errors due to the replication process.
I believe it would be safe to assume, the "copied" AI Cortana captured was not the "unusually formidable presence" Cortana mentioned. This is due to the speed and ease Cortana had in capturing and stripping the "copied" AI. I would believe that the "unusually formidable presence" was more likely to be the originating code to the copied AI. Yet who would this originating AI be, that is so similar to Cortana in code?
Also of note in First Strike, the covenant scan the Halo Debris using Human frequencies, even though there was never before a mention of the Covenant doing such a thing in UNSC or ONI files. What would have caused the covenant to start this after the event of Halo: CE? Could it possible be due to the fact that the Covenant get their hands on a Human Smart AI after the events of Halo: CE?
But which AI would they have gotten? We only know of Cortana and Guilty Spark, and I doubt Guilty Sparks core coding looks anything like Cortana... Yet it couldn't have been Cortana, for she was with John the entire time... Except for when she went into the whole of the Halo system... Infiltrating every piece of it's infrastructure, being in all parts of it's network at once, including the parts the Covenant had access too...
What about Kalmiya, Cortana's "Older Sister"? She was apparently destroyed by Dr. Halsey using her fail-safe to terminate her so that the Covenant could not capture her, but what if this is not what truly happened? Kalmiya had known about her fail-safe after witnessing Dr. Halsey using Araquiel's to terminate Araquiel. And had even had the forethought to ask Dr. Halsey if she had one as well... She was a smart AI designed to test programing that eventually became Cortana, being a smart AI and Cortana's "Older Sister", it wouldn't be hard to assume that Kalmiya was already rampant and so stripped herself of her own fail-safe after seeing it used on Araquiel, only giving Dr. Halsey a "good show" when Dr. Halsey thought she had terminated Kalmiya. And thus when the Covenant infiltrated the base, and scoured it's systems, they would have found her. An AI with a rivalry for Cortana (the "better" her), with a core coding that would be almost exact, and the ability to adapt easily as her programing was made to do.
Kalmiya would make for quite an "unusually formidable presence" to Cortana... It would make for quite a good story.
On another note, this goes more with the Marathon connections... Whatever happened to Beowulf? Cortana had essentially done the same to him as she had done to the Covenant AI, right? What if, by the time Marathon takes place Cortana still exists, but is so rampant that she splits her consciousness to better stabilize herself? She would split into three, one part using her own coding (Leela), one part using the covenant AI coding (Tyco), and one using Beowulfs coding (Durandal). From the scene when Beowulf and Cortana exchange words, they seem to have a very similar relationship as Leela and Durandal, and the "Copy" AI would seem to fit the persona of Tyco... And being that Cortana has the ability to replicate herself, this wouldn't seem all that impossible. Halo might not be the predecessor of Marathon, but the predecessor of a re-imagined Marathon... Halo 3 ends with Master Chief and Cortana alone in a ship floating in dead space, with Cortana saying that it could take years for them to find anybody, and later(by possibly a few hundred years), they come to a planet (Tau Ceti anybody). Upon landing Master Chief would be conscripted into being a Security Officer for the ship in orbit, the Marathon, and Cortana (by this time already splitting into the three, not to Master Chiefs knowledge of course), would be moved aboard as it's Navigation, Life Support, and various Operations AI's.
I think the shift from one to the other would be quite easy to make, with slight changes in story from here to there... Being that everything Bungie is currently doing is pre-Halo 3 themed, I would feel that bungie is waiting for the right time to slam a new re-imagined set of Marathon games on us, a time when we're not expecting it (they have to get everything they can out of the halo stories first)... There obviously has to be something with that Halo 3 ending
-UNSC Trooper
Ross poses the possibility of ONI having known about the Flood before even the incursion on Delta Halo, an analysis he's drawn based on ONI Alpha Site's rough geographical location.
Ross Rankin (rossrankin@me.com) writes:
In ODST the ONI building is my main point off attention. Its built like a castle. It has a moat, a high wall and only one way in.
But the wall is on the wrong side of the moat, for me its designed to keep something in rather than out and who needs a moat when your in a world with Pelicans.
Also Dare is nice enough to let us know that the building is directly above the Superintendent with her comment about the Hive. Then directly below the Super is the hole leading to the Forerunner structure. That's already open before the covenant begin to excavate (Can be viewed on the mission Data Hive).
I doubt its coincidence that the ONI building and a high level AI were all built above the hole to the forerunner structure.
One thing that dose puzzle me is the pelican sized hole the Phantoms use to enter the Supers chamber and the forerunner structure below.
There is a constant flow of flaming debris falling from above, that would put the hole directly under the burning ONI building (and would point to good attention to detail by bungie) but when the building was standing no pelican would have been able to access the hole and an elevator would have landed directly onto the Super with no easy way down.
Then we come to the interior of the building, it has no stairs or visible corridors, only three lifts with two lower level landing pads and one on the roof, no windows and the middle is a void for as far down as we can see. What would someone do in a building like that?
There doesn't seem to be much room for floor space. What is the point of the building? In the opening sequence you see the 3D map showing the carrier over the city, the ONI building is quite visible and shows how much real estate the entire area covers, about the same area as the wild life reserve. But in the relatively small building there is not much to it.
It has almost a Forerunner design to it. I once read some theories about the first Halo ring in Halo Combat Evolved, that it was designed to slow the floods spread with high valley's, sheer cliffs and small defendable bottle necked corridors.
The ONI building is not as high as the valley's in the original halo but it would be hard to get out off. From what we see the only way up from the super is elevators, the rest is all sealed off by data stacks and vertical shafts. Even if you get to the ONI building you need to deal with sheer walls and once your on ground level you have a moat and a huge wall to deal with.
I think ONI has had access to the Forerunner structure for sometime, enough time to build the impressive building with possible Flood proof defences? Did they find the flood in the Forerunner structure?
Anyway I think ONI knew it was there and for some time.
Ross
Generally speaking, ONI knows stuff we could only dream of - but hiding the Flood on Earth (and successfully containing it) would significantly bolster its overall image in a positive way despite the back-stabbing policies that have generated the negative light they're viewed in.
-UNSC Trooper
Mombassa Welcomes Careful Drivers
Keep it Clean, folks, from now on the HSP can be considered very spoilery. I hope you're all mining our new source of canon like the Covenant mine for an Ark. And that you're linked into the network like an Engineer! That you're as suspicious as NMPD!
I've been monitoring the forums, guiding you with the eloquence of the Super directing me to the the audiophile achievement for my 360 to crash and . . . I'm breathing, I am a calm blue ocean.
Here's what I've found.
-Jillybean
Black Asgard (darke127@yahoo.com) writes:
While playing the newly released Halo 3: ODST, I paid close attention to the story and design with the scrutiny of a writer. What I believe I've discovered is that ODST pays abundant homage to the first book of the Divine Comedy, Dante Aligeri's 'Inferno'.
Listen:
The Inferno, as I recall it (having read it about 2 years ago after enjoying 'La Vida Nuova'), begins with Dante wandering lost and alone, in a 'dark wood'. It is night when you awaken in New Mombasa. The city towers above you not like a frightening wood.
The first helpful hand you encounter is that of Vergil, who guides you to supposed safety--Vergil, the Superintendent of New Mombasa, who shares the name of the Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid (about the Hero who survived the Trojan massacre (perhaps an allusion to Buck and Reach?)). Vergil guides the Rookie, like Dante, through 9 levels; the 9 circles of Hell.
New Mombasa burns, like the common image of hell. It is dark, dangerous, horrifying. And Vergil guides you gently, offering help with cryptic statements (in game, it is composed of the Bumble-bee-esque conglomeration of audio bytes).
Later, as you encounter the final lost squad mate, you descend to the 9th level of the city substructure where it is frozen; that is to say, not unlike Satan's frosty chamber. For what seems to be little to nor reason (as far as I could tell).
Food for thought. ;)
Black Asgard
The discussion is here - what parallels can you find between warthogs, wolves and lions?
-Jillybean
Are you a good samaritan? Do Engineers run from you, or can you creep a little closer? A little discussion on the forum shows that even the most bloodthirsty ODST can turn Attenborough . . .
xmoosev3 (moose636@hotmail.com) writes:
I remember dead elites on the ground inside the circle. At this time it was only my second encounter with the engineers and I thought they were bad and wasted most of my ammo trying to kill them. It took me awhile to catch on that they weren't attacking me.
Then I realised perhaps they were mourning the elites.
-Jillybean
You should all have noticed them, but Ragashingo was first on the forum to post about the glowing triangular tags that you can see on VISR mode.
Nidonocu has a theory about them:
Nidonocu (nidonocu@gmail.com) writes:
I believe [the triangle tags] are supposed to be markers left by the Engineers as they work in searching the city. There might be some reference to them in one of the Halo books when it mentioned Engineers and their search of another human city for Forerunner artifacts.
However, there are some interesting ones which are explained by the plot of both the main game and the audio logs as time goes on. There are triangular arrows by a large circle in one room, triangles as you say by the dead Elites and triangles featureing the SuperIntendent's emblem.
My guesses: The arrows by the large circle are ships in orbit of either earth or a Halo ring. the triangles by the Elites are some kind of 'Rest in Peace' style momorial by the Engineers to those that are now also fighting the Covenant. The ones featuring the SI are of course, reference to the one free Engineer who is interfacing with the SI and probably relaying some of that information back to his fellow Engineers.
Do Engineers mourn Elites? Can you sell Engineer song like whale song?
All I can say is, I'll be in my bunk. With Romeo. He needs some TLC. Wake me if you need me . . .
-Jillybean
Ron emails us a very simple suggestion as to why the Forerunners decided to examine - and not wipe out - the Flood.
Ron Kobish (musicman012@rocketmail.com) writes:
I Think I know the reason that the forerunners kept the flood for a simple reason.
Not as a cold war weapon or to keep out the poor people in some kind of fortress world.
They could do either easily with their knowledge of engineering, physics, chemistry, etc.
But They kept the flood because it was the one thing they knew nothing about and as a highly advanced race, they could not have that.
The Reason they kept the flood is because of a thirst of knowledge and simple curiosity.
Sounds logical to me.
-UNSC Trooper
Beastarium discussions
StrengthInFaith let us know that he'd just finished reading the Beastarium, and a few things caught his attention. His post sparked a discussion on what "kind" of humans - young, old, soldiers etc. - are deemed "Reclaimers" by Forerunner constructs such as Sentinels and Monitors. A discussion on how the Flood uses telepathy has also kicked off by xMixMasterx.
Check the thread for more developments!
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Halo Wars story problems
Avateur isn't completely satisfied with some story aspects of Halo Wars. Some of the issues he brings up include the public reveal of Onyx in Halo Wars: Genesis, why the Spirit of Fire was able to pursue the Covenant to the Flood-infested planet considering the time it takes for UNSC ships to travel through slipspace, and why the Flood is hadn't developed a pre-Gravemind until the SoF gets there.
A number of users have participated in the discussion, so if you want to see their responses, just watch the forum thread!
-UNSC Trooper
Serina, Cutter, and the Master Chief | Discuss this theory!
Nomis78 comes up with a question on the forum. (This isn't completely Halo Wars related, so Halo canon fundamentalists shouldn't feel too uncomfortable with this theory.)
The little audio snippet of Serina trying to wake Cutter in the game's Legendary credits sparked a new theory. The Spirit of Fire, by the end of Halo Wars, is located well beyond UNSC space, and so is the Forward Unto Dawn by the end of Halo 3. The audio snippet isn't dated, as far as we know, but what if the crew of the Spirit of Fire (after being placed in cryosleep, obviously) found the Forward Unto Dawn (and thus, Master Chief and Cortana) by 2552-2553? It seems very far-fetched, but the possibilities of creating new story arcs based on that hypothesis are pretty thrilling.
If you want to share your thoughts on this theory, click the "Discuss this theory!" button in the news title.
(Oh and by the way, this is the 1117th news post! :P)
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Mgalekgolo (Hunter) separation
Jagstirred (a first-time poster on the forum) suggests the Mgalekgolo might have experienced some conflicts within their own civilization during and after the Covenant Civil War - reason being, after the Covenant cracked up, the Loyalist and Separatist Mgalekgolo, due to their split during the war, might have gone to war against each other.
Speedhuntr, however, points out that the only instance we've seen of Mgalekgolo fighting against the Brute overtaking of the Covenant was depicted on Delta Halo. That means all the other Mgalekgolo forces fell to Truth's military propaganda, and no other Mgalekgolo managed to side with the Elites, rendering the possibility of a Mgalekgolo civil war impossible.
Want to take part in the speculation? Head over to the forum thread!
-UNSC Trooper
Humanity and the Forerunners
Why are they alike? Well, we've received a lot of theories on this subject through the years. Today we've received another one.
Michael Follett (mr_follett41@hotmail.com) writes:
I've got this crazy theory that seems pretty plausible.
The Flood, I believe was created by the Forerunners. For what? Maybe they were having a fight with another species and it was a bio-weapon that got out of hand? Or a disease that mutated? Who knows but alot of it seems to point towards them creating it. Why else would you go through all the trouble to kill off everything bigger than a rabbit in the galaxy (or is it universe? I can't remember which one is bigger or the definition of each one so if I mix them up, please forgive) to starve off a parasite? Guilt? Maybe wanting to fix your mistakes (A universal mistake) and this being the only way?
The Ark protects against the flood. (See Noah and the Flood in the bible) That being said, I think some of the Forerunners did survive and the (Legendary) ending of the half destroyed ship orbiting the planet makes me believe that after they went through to the Ark, they activated Halo. Knowing that nothing above the size of a rabbit (I can't remember where I read this but the flood need organisms of a certain size or they end up killing the host.) existed on this side of the portal they chose to settle that planet (Which probably had a lot of live stock on it that they transported to their new home) while the flood starved to death.
That's what Halo does, It doesn't kill everything alive, just the life forms with enough bio-mass for the flood to survive.
((Can you even fathom the idea of having to start over again with learning how to walk on land in the evolutionary chain? That would set us back millions of years, not 101,000 years which 343 says was around the time of the last firing of the rings. That and the fact that I know I heard somewhere, in game that the rings just kill off everything with enough bio-mass to be food for the flood, leads me to think maybe the extinction of the dinosaurs wasn't a meteor. Factor in that humanity assigned 24 hours to a day. The Forerunners might have made the length of one week into a day. Our rules of times aren't theirs. Food for thought, mainly. Before you go on about how crocs and sharks are older than the Dino's maybe being in sea water somehow....stops the rings from working? Or maybe the Flood didn't take to sharks because they were in the sea? I really don't know how the flood works. That or maybe the rings don't affect things water? Beats me but it's just a theory because from the size of small animals to humanity in 100,000 years is freaking impressive.))
That being said, if the Ark can open portals anywhere in space ((Because how would Installation 04 get back to where it was blown up in Halo:CE in as little as two weeks from the outskirts of the galaxy)) Why would it matter where the door way to the Ark was kept? If they can just open up a portal to anywhere than what would be the significance of earth? I believe that the earth held a special place in the Forerunners mind and that's where they made their last stand. It had the best place for a new species to flourish and they wanted to leave it and fire the rings as fast as they could so that the Flood never made it there.
With that being said, maybe the reason humanity and the Forerunners are so alike is that before they left Earth to activate the Halo's, they left something on the planet, sort of like their genetic blue print knowing that as time went on, evolution would go the way they wanted and a species extremely similar to them would emerge. Humanity is their child. As you and I both know Earth obviously has the ideal settings for humans to evolve and if we are that close to the Forerunners than Earth would be the ideal place to leave your almost genetically identical children. (The last part I don't know about but I do think that the reason humanity exists is because the Forerunners wanted it too. Maybe a 'Clean Slate' idea hoping that we wouldn't make the same mistakes as our parents did.)) The fact that we're so closely related to the Forerunners in size and looks for 343 to mistake the Chief (And that poor lone solider from "The Flood" whom the Chief found in the Library part) as one makes my really believe that somehow humanity and the Forerunners have a real special relationship and are somehow interlocking.
Going back to what I said before about the time frame of evolution happening from small animals to humanity in 100,000 years, well maybe it is possible. Maybe the rings sort of....hyper accelerated evolution after they were fired leaving radiation around the galaxy, in a way of saying "Sorry for wiping out a lot of species" They leave the right conditions on Earth, leave a little genetic code in the gene's of a few animals that when hit with the rings radiation will start up Evolution so that with the code, all the right gene's will fall into all the right places.
Also before you dismiss any idea or say that controlling evolution is impossible, we're talking about a race that created a machine that can CREATE energy, out of nothing, which according to our laws can't be created or destroyed. Also how do 7 rings wipe a galaxy of life over the size of a rabbit and not kill off everything? The science behind that is completely mind boggling.
Just my theories of course. =)
-Mike A.k.A. The Letter Mike
P.S. You'd think with all their technology somebody would of noticed something that big under New Mambosa before the Covie's dug it up.
-UNSC Trooper
Cortana and Leela
Are Cortana and Leela from Marathon clones? Read Death Tap's theory and judge for yourself.
Death Tap (deathtap@gmail.com) writes:
I have noticed something about Cortana and Leela.
1) Both are trying their hardest to 'save' humanity
2) Both are somehow removed from human hands and implemented into Alien technology
3) Both go rampant
In the ending of Halo 2: Durandal, the ending states:
While Tau Ceti was being nuked down to bedrock in 2794, Pfhor scientists disassembled and removed the AI Leela from the Marathon, loading her aboard a vessel bound for the Pfhor homeworld. But the ship fell into the hands of a Nar privateer between jumps at Beta Naxos, and was never seen by the Pfhor again.
Thinking the cargo little more than scrap, the Nar captain sold the Pfhor ship, Leela and all, to a Vylae merchant. The subsequent crash of the Vylae FTL network when Leela was reassembled and reactivated is still legendary in the annals of rampancy, and the Vylae have long since accepted that they will never expunge her from their fifteen-world network.
While we can assume that Cortana and Leela are two seperate AI's, I cannot fail but see many similarities in their decisions. This leads me to believe that perhaps Cortana is a copy or a clone of Leela. I was also under the impression that they are actually the same entity, but I disregarded that after playing Marathon Infinity.
Just a thought.
I'd like to see the two of them sit down at a table and talk for a while. They'd share a lot of common ground.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
More Marathon connections
Alejandro spots some convenient connections between the creatures and constructs in Marathon and Halo.
Alejandro Navarro (alex_ivan95@yahoo.com) writes:
As I was skimming through Wikipedia about Marathon (Just downloaded it), I came across the W'rkncacnter.
A piece of terminal text from M:Durandal said this:"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." Pthia & Yrro; Librarian & Didact. Librarian stayed on Earth, away from the Flood. The Didact lived in the Ark, also away from the Flood (debatable).
"They brought the S'pht, servants who began to shape the deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea, rivers and forests."
The various constructs they made, such as Sentinels & Constructors. Lh'owon could be a Halo, or a terraformed planet, or something else. "They made sisters for Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise." The other Halos and Installations."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." The activation of the Halos.
Remember that the Halos worked by starving The Infection. So, in a way(by killing the sentient Gravemind, or the starvation itself), the Sun(Halos) burned them, but they swam on its surface (The Flood survived the original pulse, but died from Starvation).
Also, it said in Infinity that a W'rkncacnter was imprisoned on the Sun. Like the Flood in Installation 04 (and 05).
The Pfhor used a trih xeem device to send the star into early nova, and the creature was released, to the horror and destruction of the Pfhor.
The Covenant tricked(or simply didn't know about the Flood) the humans into opening the Chamber which contained the Flood, and most of the Covies in Installation 05 perished when the Parasite was released, to their horror.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Darren elaborates on one of our older posts referring to the knowledge Elites (Half-Jaw, specifically) hold about the Gravemind.
Darren Ward (dazward@dazw.co.uk) writes:
In the Halo Graphic Novel story The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor an Elite of Commander rank boards the Infinite Succor as part of a team sent to recapture the ship after a, presumed to be human, force attacks it. The Commander encounters a Prophet (The Minister of Etiology) who has been observing the attackers and informs the Elite Commander it is a Flood infection (the Commander was previously unaware of what his team were being attacked by, even after establishing it wasn't humans) and that they were "building" a "creature" that he believed "serves as their leader and organizer" (a Gravemind). While escaping the ship the Commander is attacked by an infected Elite armed with two Energy Swords, a duel commences and on the right-hand side of panel four on page fifty-three the Commander has half of his jaw cut off by the Flood Elite. The half-jawed Commander leaves the Infinite Succor as a two minutes to slipspace jump warning is sounded in the second last panel and the story ends with the Commander's Phantom leaving the Inifinite Succor which is intact in the background. The Commander had previously explained to the Prophet it would take fifteen minutes to arrange the Covenant fleet to fire on the Infinite Succor, so it's entirely possible the ship escaped. Though the "Last Voyage" element of the title suggests otherwise*. The story takes place while the Chief is on his way to find the missing Captain Keyes and his team of Marines.
So not only have the Covenant enountered Graveminds in the past, but Half-Jaw himself saw one in the earlier stages of construction and barely escaped. I'd imagine someone would have brought this up in the forums nearer the time but I thought I'd make sure.
*You can elaborate on this by saying that once the ship was completely taken under Flood control it ceased to be the Covenant ship Infinite Succor, in which case the title would fit should the ship have escaped.
Darren.
Seems that slipped off our minds. We need some logic from time to time. ;)
-UNSC Trooper
The latest Bungie Weekly Update has revealed new information on the timeline of Halo 2 and Halo 3 in relation to our new favourite ODST - the Rookie. We'll get this on our timeline . . . eventually . . . but until then why don't you mosey on down to the forum where MELEE isn't entirely happy with some explanations.
MELEE writes:
October 20: New Mombasa, Kenya is destroyed by the Slipstream Space Rupture Backlash from the Prophet of Regret's ship.
November 2: The Prophet of Regret's ship and In Amber Clad arrive at Delta Halo. Prophet of Regret liquidated by SPARTAN-117.
Am I alone in thinking these two dates seem a lot further apart than anticipated? I always thought that after the clad followed regret's ship through slipstream that they arrived at Delta halo the same day...the same hour even. Now they do say Nov 2 is the date that they "arrive" at delta halo, which might imply the date they placed their feet on the ring, but again I assumed this was all taking place the same day in a short amount of time.
Correct me if I'm wrong, and I've no doubt you shall, but have we ever seen slip-space travel inside the games. Have we ever walked a ship travelling in slip-space? Perhaps there's something we don't know.
-Jillybean
The Rookie is attracting speculation already, with VidBoi thinking he might get some girly action. The discussion prompted observation of fingers, a little bit of politics and . . . er . . . a little bit of fervent hope.
-Jillybean
Upon the Bungie Weekly Update Son of MacPhisto ponders . . . and FyreWulff answers
writes:
Son of MacPhisto
'There are no Elites to fight in Halo 3: ODST.'
I don't see the words 'or fight with.' Tee hee! :D
FyreWulff:
Hrm. Maybe they could actually write the co op elites (Thor and Uzi) into the story near the end?
Given the new information in the timeline - would this mean that our two Co-Op Elites are betraying the Covenant before the schism?
-Jillybean
On the forums Vincent does some maths
Vincent writes:
Since Bungie were obliging enough to give us some numbers (albeit vague ones), I thought I'd try and work out a rough idea of it's deceleration. Fair warning: several assumptions from this point on.
We are given that the dreadnough takes 9 days (777600 seconds) to get to Earth.
It "arrives in the sol system" - I'll assume for now it starts at the edge of the system, which I'll put at just past the kuiper belt, or about 50AU (50 x 149.60 x 109 metres) away.
It then proceeds to Earth at "near relativistic speeds" - call it .99c (0.99 x 3.00 x 108 metres/second) for now, but could be much lower - I'll assume it starts at that speed and decelerates uniformly the whole distance.
----Warning: maths to follow!----
We can work out acceleration with the formula s=ut+½at², where s=distance, u=initial speed, t=time, and a=acceleration. So:
50 x 149.60 x 10^9 = (0.99 x 3.00 x 108 x 777600) + (0.5a x 777600²)
7480000000000 = 230947200000000 + 302330880000a
-223467200000000 = 302330880000a
a = -739ms-2
----End maths----
What this tells us is that, assuming all assumptions are correct, the dreadnought would have had to decelerate at 739ms-2, or 75 times the force of gravity.
You can of course change this number by changing the speed we assume it to start at, the distance it travels, etc. - this is merely an idea of the kind of numbers we're talking about.
Though I do wonder why Truth took almost twice as long getting to Earth as he did travelling from High Charity...
I am assured that you, loyal reader, will be more content to double check that maths. Perhaps you'll have an answer for Vincent's final question. I, on the other hand, will continue the search of the graveyard that is your speculation.
-Jillybean
Old news but always good news - Stephen Loftus has posted a new article. It's as close to the bible as you're likely to get . . .
-Jillybean
Leviathan and Stephen Loftus were chatting away on the forums and brought up this theory:
writes:
One thing that I always thought was strange was the fact there was a lake there [at the TRAXUS Complex] at all, especially one that would have been large enough and connected enough to give reason for the shipping seaports we played through. I wonder if Bungie's invention of the lake has anything to do with the theories (unless a Bungie artist talked about it, I can't remember) about there being a huge rise in sea level, hence the old, large sea walls in Mombassa... Maybe there was a very dynamic change in the landscape with that sea rise (if there was one) which led to Voi being connected to the sea. - Leviathan
Enough evidence supports things of that nature. The Global Water Campaign info on the "Ghost Town" map, Kilimanjaro meltwater, the severe cut into the Mombasa island to create more docks and piers, the sea walls as you mentioned... - Stephen Loftus
-Jillybean
Sergeant Johnson's Flood immunity
Andrew sent us a bunch of possible reasons why the higher-ups of the UNSC might have revoked Sergeant Johnson's Flood immunity.
Andrew Clapp (aerowolf82@gmail.com) writes:
I was just reading the posts about Sargent Johnson, and the one about Johnson's immunity being revoked intrigued me for a couple of reasons.
Spoilers!!
1. We know from Halo 3 that Johnson dies by the hands of Guilty Spark. Part of the reason for their getting rid of Johnson's immunity to flood could correspond with the flood DNA that was in his body. Without it, he can't regenerate, which enabled him to die.
2. Even if his flood DNA was still active, Guilty Spark's laser is basically a suped up Sentinel laser...which, we have all been told many, many times by guilty spark himself (evil library!) that the weapons are specifically calibrated to target and destroy flood. There goes Johnson's regeneration anyway.
3. There is a glitch where you can keep Johnson alive though the guilty spark encounter in Halo 3. (the cutscene counts him as there even though he's not, then he's still there when you leave). If Johnson is not protected, he can get infected and turn into a combat form (beware if you didn't take away the laser from him!). Here's a youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_tJrelaIE&feature=related. Of course, this doesn't happen in "normal" gameplay.
End Spoilers!!
Anyway, I found these facts interesting, but to build on the first reason of ascendant justice's post...ONI can't replicate Johnson's symptom even if they wanted to, as Master Chief destroyed the only copy of the evidence in First Strike. It was given to him to choose which report to give Command when he got back, and he chose to give them the one without the report on Johnson. And especially now that he's dead...there's no way they could use the information anyway.
Anyway, just some possible reasons why Bungie could have revoked his immunity.
There goes the only human being known to be infected by the Flood and make it through in one piece.
-UNSC Trooper
Legendary Planet - A safehaven for Reclaimers?
Matt sends us a theory regarding the planet seen in the Halo 3 Legendary Ending - Did Mendicant Bias intend to send the Reclaimer to the Halo 3 Legendary planet in an attempt to keep him "safe"?
Matt Allaire (sticks271@gmail.com) writes:
Here's something for the Story page... something that has probably already come up already, but either way...
------
Terminal 7 on Legendary has a bit that reads,
"And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril.
But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions.
But I would have my masters know that I have changed.
And you shall be my example."
I've always thought that the rebuilt Installation 04 would be sent to its destination through the Portal. Once it's done, the Ark would create a portal to the coordinates of whever the installation was supposed to be, and send it through.
Meaning that the portal's destination can be controlled (of course).
So, what if Mendicant's idea of keeping his newly found Reclaimer "safe" was to send him to the world seen in the Legendary ending? Whatever that world is, Mendicant used the last moments of his existence to redirect the Chief and Cortana to the Forerunner world. (Assuming that he was destroyed or damaged in 04's explosion, but he might not have been)
And that world might not be the happiest place ever, as Mendicant admits. Seeing as he knows about it, it's probable that the Gravemind does too.
- mr-goodbytes
Mendicant's one thoughtful bud, it seems ...
-UNSC Trooper
Mendicant Bias and Greek Mythology
Another real-life element that has something to say about the Halo story just made its first appearance in quite some time: Greek Mythology. That's right: Greek. Not Norse. :P
Charlie Fischer (errantventure11@msn.com) writes:
I was reading Cicero's "On Friendship" for my Humanities class when I noticed Cicero reference an individual named Bias. This Bias turned out to be Bias of Priene, a greek philospher known for the justice of his verdicts, and the wisest of the Seven Sages of Greece.
I'll be sending a thorough fleshing out of this connection in the near future, once I have time. Here is a rough portrayal based on my current understandings of the Halo story and who Bias is (complements of Wikipedia...)
Keep in mind Mendicant is derived from the Latin Mendicans, which roughly translated equates to begging. It was generally applied to religious ascetics who survived off of the charity of others, but can also be applied to the act of begging.
Perhaps the reason Mendicant Bias failed his creators was because he was designed to find a peaceful solution to the conflict? Bias of Priene was known for his just verdicts, and perhaps Mendicant was seeking to not only distract the Gravemind, but his method of creating a false sense of security for Gravemind before the counter-attack was through an intention strategy of begging for mercy, negotiating a peaceful resolution, aka surviving off of the charity of Gravemind. The only problem was that the Gravemind's logic pushed Mendicant to make a just decision that was not in favor of his makers.
Enter Offensive Bias. After Mendicant sells his makers short with his verdict that the Forerunner subconsiously want to end their own reign of the galaxy, Offensive Bias is created to come to another just verdict, a sort of appeal to Mendicant's previous decision. Except this Bias is designed with a different goal in mind (victory), and his verdict is different: The Forerunner must atone for their sins, but not be destroyed by them.
I haven't been able to take the time to fully flesh out this possible connection between Halo and greek mythology/philosophy, but figured I would give the story page a heads-up in case you guys had seen this already and knew something of it. I'll e-mail again when I have something concrete to give details on. If you have seen this previously, please let me know!
Charlie Fischer
Mendicant Bias, your legend intrigues us so!
-UNSC Trooper
This discussion on the forum discusses 'canon' and what we can properly, or willingly, include in that definition.
As speculists, the matter of 'canon' crops up often for us. And isn't it heartbreaking when a pet theory gets smashed on the rocks of fact.
Arrr. The canon. She be a harsh mistress.
-Jillybean
Canon, schmanon. This comes from the games, doodz.
The 483 (dmv1822000@yahoo.com) writes:
A line in the cutscene [Floodgate - ed] at the end of the first invasion of the flood on earth suggests that the elites know more about the flood than they let on. Specifically, right after they watch the message Cortana sent, the elite shipmaster, Half Jaw, say to lord Hood,
"You heard your construct, the flood, a Gravemind, is on it's way…"
and then later the arbiter remarks
"…If the construct is correct, then you've already lost."
The way they refer to it as "A" Gravemind, instead of "The" as cortana and the Chief have, seems to say that the elites, or atleast higher ranking Covenant officers have dealt with, or seen materials regarding Graveminds, and have a much deeper understanding of the flood than they have mentioned. This would help us to understand why Half Jaw himself, who is probably in command of the entire covenant portion of their navy, chose to chase the single flood infested ship to earth, and leave the (failed) containment of High Charity to the lower ship masters. Besides the chance to get revenge on "The Bastard Truth!" of course, Knowing earths potential to give the flood sufficient proteins to form another Gravemind.
Following this line of thinking, it's safe to assume that the Covenant (Prophets Hierarchs) knew full well what they were unleashing when they landed on Halo 04. Or, they could have learned when the captured Guilty Spark from the heretic leader from Threshold.
More evidence that the Sangheili rock way more than us? Or just an odd speech pattern?
-Jillybean
Halo 3 Campaign
RyanTheHeretic asks some questions about parts of Halo 3's Campaign, some of which hadn't been discussed before (to the best of my knowledge). His inquiries include the crashing of the Flood-infested ship in Voi, Cortana's data device, and the Elites being aware that a data storage device was placed on that ship.
Ryan's questions are answered here by mendicantbias00, here by Ross Mills, and here by gspawn -- all of the responses provide believable explanations (and sometimes straight-to-the-point one liners) to each query.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Forerunners studying reanimation?
What if the Flood's capability to bring dead organisms back to life determined the Forerunners to replicate or research its reanimation techniques, among other things? Dantrell posted this thought on the forum. It's scary, it's inhuman ... but it could be the truth.
permalink | Rampant Speculation
-UNSC Trooper
Cortana's Rampancy
RyanTheHeretic talks about Cortana's rampancy on our forum. He suggests that Cortana would inarguably go rampant if no one finds her and the Chief in the Forward Unto Dawn's other half. Her lifespan is still debatable considering the activity she's been put through and her feelings. Would her regaining faith in humanity possibly lengthen her lifespan? Yet, is it possible for a UNSC AI to have no real life expectancy? Go read.
-UNSC Trooper
Two people pointed out that a possible flaw in this theory isn't a flaw at all. As DesmondX and Joe Nowakowski say: the Chief wouldn't remember Guilty Spark because he hasn't met him yet, but Spark would certainly remember him!
Sorry for the confusion, folks, but if you're paying real close attention, you'll find the coded messages ;)
Send help. Stop. Wu imprisoned us. Stop. Have had to eat Finn. Stop. Tasted good with chianti. Stop.
-Jillybean
Reclaimers ... of the Galaxy?
Mike emailed us a vicious (and by vicious, I mean REALLY vicious - it takes a lot of space on our page ;]) analysis which could easily be converted to a full-length article about a secondary meaning to "Reclaimer", and some speculation on the seeding of the Galaxy after the Forerunners were forever inscribed in the changing sands of history.
Deadguy71 (deadguy@msn.com) writes:
Ok, so we know now that Forerunners were humans. This was explicitly explained in Halo 3.
Here's the next piece of the puzzle.. Humans are referred to as "Reclaimers" and the Forerunner locator device used by the Covenant in the novel (and Medicant Bias) "Contact: Harvest", also name them to be reclaimers.
Some speculation has been heard in the past to state that "reclaimers" get their name due to their "job" to reclaim the index from the library and use it to fire-up the rings. I think it's time we relooked at that now.
Why weren't humans simply referred to as "Forerunners" by ANYONE? Even "forerunner-descendants", or simply "humans"? Instead, they carry the name "Reclaimer". We know from Contact Harvest, why the Covenant would have avoided calling them forerunners, by why would the Monitors insist upon the name "Reclaimer"? Indeed, it was important to the Covenant's original "oracle" (Medicant Bias) to point out that it needed to assist the "Reclaimers" in finding the Ark. Not a ring, but the Ark.. this is an important distinction I'll mention again later.
Later, all monitors/oracles encountered in the stories/games were in War-mode where the Flood had been released and it was a time of war. The monitors knew that the only way to fight back, was to have a reclaimer use the index (and therefore use the rings). Perhaps this isn't the only purpose of Humans, and therefore it seems silly to name the species "reclaimers" in a time of peace if it only referred to reclaiming the index. Also odd of the (Medicant Bias) oracle to name them Reclaimers without any flood to
worry about, and with a perceptable urgency to get them to the Ark.
The rings had been fired in the past, with the intent of killing all sentient life in our galaxy to halt the flood. This SHOULD (and possibly did) create a time of peace. This time of peace would have been planned for... think of it, an entire galaxy, devoid of sentient life, ready to be claimed or "RECLAIMED" by the forerunners that had escaped to the ark (which
was proven to be located not on Earth, but outside of our galaxy entirely... all Earth had was a slipspace portal generator to allow passage to the Ark).
Here's the problem though. The forerunners didn't return, and I suggest that they didn't intend to return at all. Instead, they left their artifacts and
advanced technology behind for the "Reclaimers" to find while they themselves DID take a great journey to another galaxy (the one containing the Ark) and presumably stayed there.
This explains why the Covenant's AI (Medicant Bias) told the Prophets the story of the Great Journey, that the entire Covenant religeon is based upon.
The forerunners activated the rings as they left the galaxy, and this is the last thing that Medicant Bias would have known about them.
Part of the Forerunner's focus, prior to the flood outbreak in this galaxy, was to catalog and record lifeforms. The terminals even state that during
the last weeks of the conflict with the flood, some of them continued to catalog them and discovered Earth, even stating that they were stopping to "catalog" the humans they found there, despite knowing that the rings were going to be activated soon and there were too far away to flee to the safety of the Ark.
This tells us a few pertinent things:
Earthlings were within the galaxy as the rings fired, the Forerunners at that location died, unable to race back to the ark. The Earth must not have had the portal to the Ark installed at that time, otherwise those forerunners would have easily left that location with plenty of time to spare. The humans alive at that time would have died as well.
Earthlings were, at that point and time, extinct and indeed all humans within the galaxy died.
As I noted, the forerunners had left quite a bit of stuff behind, including an Ark that would rebuild the rings and somehow reposition them in the galaxy if they were ever destroyed (slipspace travel, I assume). Plus after the blast from the rings, sentinels were dispatched to Earth, to create a portal, perhaps in rememberance of the Forerunners that were there at the
location when the rings had been triggered. In the Halo comic's opening pages of the first issue, early humans witnessed the portal to the ark being
created by sentinels.
So here's the really interesting bit. After the universe was scoured clean of sentient life, it began to repopulate itself right?
Earth itself was chosen as a place to position a portal to the ark, in case humans should ever need it again. How was it known that humans would develop here? There's a significant clue right there on the opening page of the Beastarium. From memory, it states that no one is to create the lifeforms from this index without authorization. Species were catalogued and
apparently able to be recreated from their cataloged entries. (otherwise, why warn against doing just that?)
It's possible that the rings themselves, with their utopian landscapes and suchlike, might have even been designed that way in-order to raise the various species and allow them to form communities until they could be
transferred to planets that were deemed appropriate. This would increase their chances of survival, and might even, describe the "Garden of Eden", with a primative's distant memory of being on the Ring, and cared for until they could repopulate the Earth. Perhaps the bible story of Eden was all that was left of the true story of living on the Ring, and lost quite a bit of the specific story in it's retelling. Could sentinel beams be the "flaming swords" that block passage to Eden?
A little blasphemous, and perhaps an accidental comparison that I made, but interesting nonetheless.
The Forerunners knew the humans would be there in the future because they SEEDED them there. Humans were seeded, according to forerunner plan, to reclaim the galaxy that had also been seeded from the indexes carried by the rings (possibly each ring was responsible for reseeding it's own section of
the galaxy, explaining the need for libaries and indexes at each installation).
Humans are Reclaimers, not of the index, but of the galaxy that had been scoured clean for them.
I suppose the intent was to allow humans to develop on Earth without assistance, and then, when they reached a significant tier of industry, and had learned the lessons they needed to learn in terms of morality, they'd be able to travel the galaxy and reclaim the forerunner technology for themselves. All during a time of peace brought on by the lack of Flood.
Perhaps it was the Medicant Bias AI that was supposed to get them to the Ark, to teach the humans what they needed to know about what had transpired so that they could "set-up shop" in their newly cleaned galaxy... giving them full knowledge of forerunner technology and how/when to use it.
That would explain both, why Medicant Bias wanted to get reclaimers to the Ark prior to the floods release from containment, plus it explains how the installation monitors KNEW the humans were reclaimers, rather than
forerunners, but seemed confused that the reclaimers didn't know anything about protocols or even what the Halos were to be used for, how they worked, why they weren't wearing the proper protective gear, etc.
That part of the forerunner's plan failed, because even as Humans discovered the first ring, (with presumably only one previous artifact on Reach) the flood was released from containment. ONI knew a little about the
forerunners, but not to the level they would have, if the Forerunners plans had worked correctly.
Forerunners had left the monitors to continue study of the flood, with the extra precaution of several layers of containment protocols. Perhaps the initial samples were destroyed by the rings firing, and it was reseeded into containment centers like all the other sentient races were. The idea might have been that the monitor's continued study of the flood might have revealed new ways to deal with the flood threat, in case it ever appeared in this galaxy again. Properly informed reclaimers would, in theory, be ready for any such threat, should it appear, rather than be blind-sided by it as the Forerunners had been.
However, this was not the case.
Wow ... just wow. This is what I call an eyebuster! Now, if only I could find my Beastarium and look up all the research that was put into this. ;)
-UNSC Trooper
The Great Journey ... a hoax?
Scarab posted a series of very explicit questions on our forum today. The Great Journey appears to be what the Prophets believed in with (almost) their entire dedication. Or is there more to it? Did they lie about their wish to achieve trans-sentience and become gods like the Forerunners did?
All of these questions and a lot more are asked in the thread, along with a slight inconsistency from Halo: Contact Harvest. If you feel up to it, and you trust your Halo knowledge, head on to the forums and try your luck at answering the questions.
-UNSC Trooper
Infinity and the Master Chief
RM sent us another connection to Marathon, this time involving the workings of Slipspace and the Master Chief's "luck".
RM writes:
I have played all the Halos, read all the books, and played Marathon1-2. My first thought: In the book 'First Strike' I think it was(correct me if I'm wrong), the Master Chief saves his fellow Spartans,and they bring aboard a Forerunner artifact. When they try to enter slip space this 'artifact' screws everything up, putting them into a different dimension. It is unfortunate that I have never played Marathon Infinity, but I do know of the loop effect or whatever.
It is my theory that the 'artifact' found on Reach and the way things go down in Infinity are related. Maybe not directly, but like if the Forerunner had created more objects like the one on Reach, one that could manipulate time itsself.
My second thought: There has always been something in me that places Master Chief's luck into something more than what nature can do, man(Forerunner)-made luck. I'm not talking about just being lucky though, I'm talking about a Red vs Blue Wyoming type luck: if you fail the first time, rewind and tryagain. This could explain Guilty Sparks comments on Master Chief doing things again, at some point he failed, and was thrown back to the beginning. Leading to the Marathon connection: (I wish I played Infinity) It sounds like what happens to you in Infinity to me.
And the connection of Master Chief = Mark IV Cyborg: This one is a stretch, but scientifically is possible (I think). In the Halo 3ending when the ship is going through slip space, the Arbiter's half of the ship makes it to Earth, but at some point the other half (Master Chief's half) was spit out. I'm sorry but I am going to explain slip space for anyone who does not get it.
Slip space is a folding of space between two points making the distance shorter. Mathematically this requires more conventional energy (non-dark matter)than the universe holds.
Back to where we were: By saying the Master Chief's half was 'spit out' is a bit of an understatement. When you're 'spit out' of slip space, you are expelling all of that energy with you, and when you have more energy than the ENTIRE UNIVERSE pushing you, that is enough to put you into another universe, the Marathon Universe maybe? But if your thinking what are the odds he is flung into the perfect place, maybe 0:1, but it isn't possible in this case fore it to be that. The Master Chief, if he misses the mark,simply tries again. Eventually he will succeed, but then what happens when the Master Chief's 'luck device' thinks that everything is done? Infinity.
P.S. I am resending this because I need to add one important thing supporting my argument: When the Pillar of Autumn found installation 004 on a random slip space vector, what are the odds of that. Any programmable location, and they find a Halo. All I'm saying is they probably didn't find it the first time.
Though this theory has been submitted before, I never noticed that it's yet another connection to Marathon. It's not the same universe, but it's similar, and maybe we might see something like Infinity develop in the Haloverse too. That would make the day of every Marathon fan. It'd certainly be interesting, but following Infinity's outline might be a little unoriginal too - that's just me, though.
permalink | Marathon Connections
-UNSC Trooper
Legendary Ending - a result of time travel?
It does sound Star Trek-like, but Neloms came up with an unprecedented, yet believable, theory on our forum.
Neloms suggests that a possible explanation for the appearance of the planet covered in Forerunner symbols in the Halo 3 Legendary Ending might be caused by a temporal rift once the Portal collapsed - sending the Master Chief and Cortana adrift in the past.
This might also explain Guilty Spark's various remarks throughout Halo: Combat Evolved such as; "Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?", and "The last time you asked me ..."
Despite the theory's credibility, there are multiple issues that don't add up, one of them being the Chief apparently not recognizing Guilty Spark even though they might have met in the past.
It's a very exciting take on the Halo 3 Legendary Ending and on future Halo stories, so go read and post your thoughts!
Which makes me wonder what the Forerunners look like ...
-UNSC Trooper
Mendicant Bias and Ephialtes
A fan has emailed us a connection in regards to Mendicant Bias's rampancy, and Ephialte's betraying of the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.
Anonymous (Anonymous) writes:
Haven't you guys noticed that Mendicant Bias's story mis similar to Ephialtes, the traitor of the Battle of Thermopylae?
Just a little tidbit of information I thought I throw there.
It certainly is. Ephialtes informed the Persians of a way to attack the Spartan army's rear, just like Mendicant Bias did when he defected, revealing the Ark's location to the Flood.
Thanks.
-UNSC Trooper
Mack - Endless Summer
James Ficker emailed us some ideas concerning the connection between Mack (the AI controlling agricultural activity on Harvest) and Endless Summer (the successor of Deep Winter in Zone 67 on Onyx).
James Ficker (james_ficker@eku.edu) writes:
I recently lent my girlfriend The Fall of Reach, as she is an avid reader herself and thought she might like a bit of background into my slight Halo obsession (I'm working on making a set of Mark V armor to use for Caboose from Red Vs Blue) and she liked TFoR so much, she asked to read the other books. When she was finished she posed the following question to me, which I had never even thought of:"
"Did you pick up the Mack/Loki connection with the AI Endless Summer from Ghosts of Oynx? Mack's last transmission was the words "Endless Summer"? It seemed to me that Mack was more than a "Smart AI," shown by the fact that it literally took the downfall of a planet to use up this AI, and that he'd been around for more than 7 years, hadn't he? That seems to suggest that his core processing might have been so good that was reused by humans in the future. Since you can't completely delete everything on a computer system, it makes sense that his last thought would be a ghost transmission in his rebooted system that he used to name himself in the future."
I had never considered the fact that humans might reuse their AIs. I know that Smart AIs "die" in the sense that they pretty much think themselves to death. However, the process for creating an AI as described in the books, scanning a recently deceased person's brain, seems very expensive and complicated, especially when coupled with the fact that I'm sure a candidate for scanning must meet a very specific set of criteria to be suitable for base for an AI.
Is it possible that the UNSC recovers some core fragments from the AI and uses it to build a new AI so they don't have to create a new one form the ground up and if so, would there be some fragments, some ghosts left in the programming from the pervious "life?"? We know from Cortana in First Strike that an AI can copy fragments of themselves which retain personality and memories.
The UNSC was the losing side of a war that was pushing them to their limits. I'm sure anyway to cut corners, speed things up and reduce costs would have been used, and it seems to me that Mack was a very robust and resourceful AI, an excellent source for a future AI to be built on.
Well, Contact Harvest states that Mack's figure appears to be an American cowboy, while Endless Summer from Ghosts of Onyx portrays the figure of a Native American. This leads to the Cowboys and Indians fame, and to a strong likelihood that Endless Summer is indeed a follower of Mack's remains.
Though it depends on when Endless Summer was created. At the time when Mack was destroyed, the UNSC was still fairly intact even with the Covenant threat lurking closer to Earth every year, so the military might have still had the necessary resources to create a completely new AI. Despite this, however, the theory still stands. Very nice find.
Thanks, James.
-UNSC Trooper
The Prophets' homeworld
Hnc asked an interesting question on our forum. Why did the Prophets claim that their homeworld was destroyed? Does the divide between the two sides that sparked the Prophet Civil War still exist? Do the Prophets that moved on to create the Covenant have something to hide?
There could be a number of reasons for them to hide this fact, one of them being their position within the Covenant. Contact Harvest, I believe, explains how the homeworld was destroyed by blowing a chunk out of the planet.
Head on to the forum and watch the thread for more information.
-UNSC Trooper
Halo: The Cole Protocol Cover
That's right boys and girls, you read that correctly. The cover for Halo: The Cole Protocol has been posted at Tobias Buckell's blog.
For a quick analysis of the cover. What does it depict? Apparently, there's a red planet in the background, a machinery blazing some kind of scattered light, and a Spartan-II from Gray Team clad in Mark IV MJOLNIR Powered Armor. There's also another human figure walking on what seems to be an asteroid. The cover itself resembles the style of 60-70's science fiction novels, therefore it's safe to say it's original and creepy at the same time. It's all up to speculation right now, so speculate away!
-UNSC Trooper
Number of Spartans in Halo Wars
Avateur stopped by the forum and posted a neat listing of all Spartans in Halo Wars based on our Spartan II Roster. The exact number of Spartans that would make up Spartan Group Omega depends on each team's background, and thus a decisive number hasn't been settled yet. However, the information he provided is pretty solid.
Swing by the forum and check it out.
-UNSC Trooper
Update!
The site's finally been updated with some new content. I've written two new research pages. The first one is the Spartan-III Roster containing information from Ghosts of Onyx. The second one is the ORION Project.
Apart from that, I've also added a new feature to the site. The Quote of the Week is now officially running! Although it wasn't necessary for me to say it, because you can see it in the menu on the right. If you want to know more about this new feature, just click the "What's this?" button.
The Resources page has also been updated with the new content. To top it off, I bet you can see some new cornershots too.
So, enjoy the new stuff. There'll be more coming.
-UNSC Trooper
Halo squad based FPS game?
Rumors have been flying around like crazy these past few days. First, we got Gamespot saying that a reliable source has informed them that a Ghost Recon-style Halo FPS game is in the works.
Then, we've got "Halo Blue" - or Halo "Blue" - in a Walmart Intranet page. With all the speculation that's been going on just a few hours before E3 2008 and the big Bungie announcement, all we can do is wait and see if the rumors are confirmed. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
-UNSC Trooper
MJOLNIR Armor. Possible World War II connection.
I've pondered a lot over whether or not I should post this. I decided that even though the subject has been briefly covered to some extent, this is a new theory to the one of the meanings of the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor.
We know that Bungie is very savvy when it comes to Norse mythology, hence several references like the UNSC Skidbladnir, Valhalla and of course, MJOLNIR. According to the Norse, MJOLNIR was the name of Thor's hammer; a very powerful weapon which when thrown at an opponent came back to the owner (like a Boomerang), and apart from that, was also capable of striking lighting bolts.
This could explain the connection between the Spartan-II's armor and the mythological hammer. The Spartans are weapons themselves, delivering deadly blows to their opponents. But what else is there to say about the MJOLNIR armor, and what other connections might there be between the Spartans and our real world?
A fan emailed us a very interesting theory about a potential connection between the MJOLNIR armor and the real world. The World War II period, to be exact.
Anonymous (Anonymous) writes:
I've been playing Halo since it came out with regular xbox, and shortly there after I found your website. I've read a lot of the posts made by people concerning the Halo story, and in particular the meaning of the MJOLNIR armor.
But I have yet to see the relationship between the MJOLNIR armor and the Nazi propagandist who used the alias Mjölnir. I don't necessarily see a tie between them, but I found it interesting that no one pointed out that Hans Schweitzer in the 1930s made several Nazi propaganda posters and signed the alias Mjölnir on the posters. Here is a link of one such poster (don't worry its not some neo-Nazi website) of an example of Mjölnir's posters, note the upper right hand corner for the signature.
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/garant.jpg
Now, the link that was provided doesn't work. But I've done some research and I've come up with this Wikipedia page and this gallery.
Hans Schweitzer was a German artist known for painting several militaristic propaganda posters for the National Socialist Party. Most importantly, his pen name was "Mjölnir".
This, in my mind, raises a few questions. Just like the Nazis, the UNSC uses massive propaganda and psychological methods to establish its military might. This is where the Spartan-II Program and the MJOLNIR Armor comes in, which in the year 2547 was made public in order to increase humanity's confidence that they were winning the Human-Covenant War. This is extremely similar to World War II, Hans Schweitzer, and the Nazis (which we all know used propaganda to further their way in the war). Moreover, in the 1940's the Nazis were aspiring to be a world-spanning empire, which forms yet another thread to the UNSC, an interstellar empire. The main link here is propaganda, and what the government does in order to protect its credibility and reputation. Extremely believable connection.
This is quite a find. At first glance, it makes you think that the MJOLNIR Armor is based on a fascistic concept, and in my opinion, is as plausible a connection as the Norse hammer myth.
Thanks for the submission.
-UNSC Trooper
