Posted by: dangerman1337
Posted by: opogjijijp
Once the Covenant reached Earth they only focused on Africa while the other continents were virtually untouched by the Covenant,
Miranda mentions extreme causalities from Orbital bombardment, the encyclopedia supports a world wide invasion where the population was cut in half within hours, and GoO mentions orbital bombardment taking place weeks before the start of Halo 3.
Earth didn't look devasted that much, if so why didn't the coveant just blow up Rat's Nest much earlier and why was their civilian workers right by the portal? She could be BSing as much Hood was about how the land around the portal was glassed.
We saw a pretty tiny portion of the planet, you really can't say that.
And I'm pretty sure rats nest was in such a key location that they kept it hidden and under wraps until they needed it. Once MC and truth came back then time was running out. They had to use their greatest secret (a military base right next to the ark) to open up a hole in their defenses. If they had bothered to assault the ark from there in the weeks before MC returned then it would've been destroyed by then and they'd have nowhere to push from.
Ad for the workers: just a mistake by bungie imo. As we saw in odst the covenant had been digging up the ark for an entire month before truth arrived. The workers would've been evacuated then and there, not a month later.
[Edited on 12.03.2010 6:51 AM PST]