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  • Subject: A question about First Strike
Subject: A question about First Strike
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I just finished reading First Strike, and one question lingers. How did the Covenant determine the coordinates of Earth? If I remember right, Cortana discovers they have found Earth, but never says how they did it.

  • 08.12.2004 10:50 AM PDT
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I can't remember, actually. Im gonna' have to read it again, there's plenty i've missed. Im getting the Fall of Reach tommorrow though. :D

Someone must know?

  • 08.12.2004 10:55 AM PDT
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I don't remember the book saying how the covenant discovered 'sol', some theories were that there is an important artifact to the covenant there that was there before the humans were. Another is that they intercepted the AI from some UNSC ship and broke it down. (or someone may have broken the cole protocal).

EDIT: Or maybe the phophet can actually prophesize accurately.

[Edited on 8/12/2004 10:57:38 AM]

  • 08.12.2004 10:55 AM PDT
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[color=lime] I think they found a trace, they've been looking for EVER [/color]

  • 08.12.2004 10:56 AM PDT
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it may well have been 343 GS, i remeber from fall of reach that he connected with one of the UNSC cruisers and got info on all the places it had been, and info on the places it was going

  • 08.12.2004 11:00 AM PDT
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It is hinted in the book that the Covenant learn the coordinates of earth in the same manner in which they found out the coordinates of Reach: research that they did in order to try and find more Forerunner artifacts. In Fall or Reach, Master Chief encounters Hunters that are scanning some rock that has the coordinates of the Halo complex; and the Covenant know exactly where the Forerunner artifact on Reach is; there is most likely a Forerunner artifact on Earth, and the Covenant just didn't know about the fact that Earth is our home planet.

Another possibility is the fact that the Admiral (I can't remember his name) is hiding something; it could be that his "project" inadvertantly led to the Covies finding out where Earth is. But I really think that it is the former, that the Covies were searching for another Forerunner coordinate artifact, and will find another mapstone to the location of another Halo complex.

  • 08.12.2004 11:00 AM PDT
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i think that the conenent were looking for fourrunner atifacts and they there hinted to be one on earth i think that the covenent didnt mean to find our home planet earth they just happen to be at the right place at the right time. not only do they find an artifact they get to destroy all man kind.

  • 08.12.2004 11:05 AM PDT
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This was posted on the Halo Story Page a while back. They interviewed Eric Nylund.

HSP: The markings on the Cote d'Azur artifact lead the Covenant to Reach, yet they led Cortana to Halo 04. Are there multiple coordinates or "messages" within one rock?

EN: YES. It's an interesting little chunk of stone

  • 08.12.2004 11:07 AM PDT
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yea thats what i remember cortana said it was the Cote d'Azur artifact that told the whereabouts of earth.

  • 08.12.2004 11:33 AM PDT
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Wasnt there a covenant probe that attached itself to one of the UNSC ships after a major space battle? I remeber this from The Fall of Reach. The probe recorded where the UNSC ship went when it traveled back to reach, and then sent a message back to the covenant.

  • 08.12.2004 11:42 AM PDT

"Help Help I'm being repressed! Come and see the Violence inherent in the system!"
"Bloody peasant!"
"Oh did you see that? you saw him repress me?"

It wasn't after the fall of Reach, it was before Reach at Sigma Octarnus and that gave them the location of Reach, not Earth.

My bets on the stones coz in FoR it mentions 4 pulse beams <3 b4 tPoA picks up the last 1> and these could eitehr give the locations to the other Halo's or other Fore-runner artifacts!

  • 08.12.2004 11:58 AM PDT
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I understand that the coordinates of Earth were found on the artifact, but how did the Covenant also determine it was the human's home planet?

  • 08.12.2004 12:35 PM PDT
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I believe there is a chapter in FS where some brass are interrogating a Leutenant about how he managed to return to Earth from Reach in such a small amount of time. They discover he disobeyed the Cole Protocol and Slip Spaced directly to Earth, thus leading the Covenant.

  • 08.12.2004 12:47 PM PDT