- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Dangeresque,
I've seen some good info come out in the posts that followed yours. Some of it I had even forgotten. And, yes, I would agree (sans snotty attitude) that you would find the trilogy enjoyable. However, since no one post (in my opinion) has completely answered your question; I will give it a stab...
1. I know that the PoA was running away from some covy battle cruisers, but why were they being followed in the first place? What were they fighting over?
The Pillar of Autumn was not being followed, per se.
The PoA was on a secret mission with MC, Cortana, and Keyes. It was an old warship, but large, HIGHLY modified, and with a very large shipload of marines; all to maximize the chances of success of its mission: capture a live Covenant prophet. The PoA was just leaving on that mission when The Covenant convened on their point of departure: the highly fortified military planet and fleet base "Reach."
The Covenant and Human forces were battling over the fate of Reach. The humans were trying to save their space fleet headquarters (and their most heavily fortified planet besides Earth) from being "glassed," like every other human outpost that the Covenant had found. And the Covenant were bent on tdestroying Reach, as one more step in their march towards total annihilation of the Human race.
After some heroic actions (see the book) Keyes decides that the help he can give will not turn the tide of the battle, and that the success of his earlier assigned mission outweighs the benefit of delaying the now obviously inevitable Fall of Reach. So, the PoA does a slip space jump in a random vector away from Earth. Once in slip space the PoA is safe: Not easily trackable; and, therefore, not engageable.
Cortana convinces Keyes to check out the intercepted Covenant coordinates (see previous posts). I am a little fuzzy on their rationale for doing this, in light of the PoA's mission; but that is a small point. What is important is that when they come back into normal space they find a small system that includes Halo, and a small contingent of Covenant battle forces.
Cortana says, in the game, that, "They were waiting for us;" but I think this refers to the fact that the forces that were already near Halo had enough warning of PoA's arrival (slip space probes) that they were able to send out a call, form up, and move to the most advantageous place to fight a delaying action until reinforcements arrived. If Cortana's comment had meant that the Covenant, in general, were waiting, then the 12 capital ships that were "chasing" PoA would have already been there; and the waiting Covenant Force would have been more than a match for PoA, instead of woefully undermatched. The Covenant forces that PoA found already there were supporting the investigation of the newly discovered Halo.
Some might think that the Covenant were hot on the heels of PoA, but Cortana's comment that "they will be all over us in 90 seconds," must be taken in concert with Keyes' rejoinder of "...we'll have to bring the ship back up to full combat alert." The PoA had already had time to fight a battle and stand down from full combat alert by the time the game's opening cutscene begins. Also, Keyes is surprised by the quick arrival of the Covenant reinforcements; because he knows he wasn't "tailed" in slipspace, and it is hard for him to belive the forces could have arrived from Reach so quickly when the trip took days for the PoA. (If I remember correctly, the PoA's trip took on the order of one week, and may have involved an intermediate slipspace jump; which is why MC is in the deep freeze at the start of the game.)
2. Why did the covenant chase the PoA into Halo if they didn't want us to go there?
Keyes' decision to land on the ring (later to be known as Halo) was very fortunate, indeed. The Covenant forces that soon arrived at Halo were enough to vaporize the PoA in very short order; but their religious imperative made military action that might destroy any clues on Halo unthinkable. The Covenent solution was to avoid space battle actions that might inadvertantly scar Halo, and simply storm the ship and overwhelm her crew in hand-to-hand battle. Keyes foiled their plot to preserve Halo from the ravages of battle by landing the PoA on it. Had the Covenant even conceived that he might do this, they WOULD have vaporized the PoA.
The covenant knew that Halo was a massive weapon built by the forerunners, and thus had religious significance to them.
I don't think the books are clear as to whether Halo had religious significance because of its military potential; or if the Covenant had a religious awe of the forerunners because they were the forerunners.
Did the covenant know that Halo was designed to kill covenant (or any other form of food for the flood)?
No. The book and the game are clear: The Covenant (and for a few days, the Humans) believed that Halo was a weapon which they could wield in ways that suited their own will. They were totally unprepared for the revelation that Halo was a quarantined laboratory/prison and that the "weapon" was a non-selective method of ensuring that the Flood remained quarantined.
If so, why did they want to preserve it, or keep it from us? Hey, they wanted us dead anyway, right?
Regardless of what was on Halo, they would not have wanted an enemy race investigating and possibly controlling it, right? And they only began suspecting Halo's true purpose just after Humans arrived on the ring.
And finally, this is probably a stupid question, but not really? How did Sgt. Johnson surivive Halo's destruction to be in Halo 2?
Not a stupid question. And I had forgotten that anyone other than MC and Cortana survived Halo. Yes, I remember, now. There were 3 recorded infection attempts that had non-standard endings: MC was stung, but Cortana used his suit to kill the infection form before he could be totally infected (thats why I have a hard time, in game, letting those guys pop against the suit: just one "pop" was a very painful event that MC did not want to repeat); there is another marine who becomes infected by a weakened/wounded infection form, who doesn't get totally transformed; and then the final marine (Sgt Johnson, I presume) who is totally immune. I still don't remember how Johnson got off Halo, other than referring you to Stickman Army's post.
Let me recommend the trilogy to you. I finished it before ever touching the game: Very enjoyable, true to the game, and very rich in detail and relevant background story.
EDIT: Hmm... It seems that with multiple previews, what you see in the composing mode is sometimes not even close to what shows up in the post.
[Edited on 7/26/2004 3:37:57 PM]