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Subject: Data Drop 5

Link; haven't read it yet, wanted to post first

Very long one, don't stop after the first letter. ONI was apparently keeping the Covenant scouting party at visegrad and the Long Night of Solace a complete secret, as was theorized by some people here. The Long Night was originally intended to be used as the captured Covie Ship the Chief and co. would use to kidnap a Prophet, but the military got trigger happy.

[Edited on 10.14.2011 4:40 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 4:32 AM PDT
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Do not waste your tears, I was not born to watch the world grow dim. Life is not measured in years, but by the deeds of men.

Posted by: goldhawk
We should know better, because we are better.

Once more the holes in Reach are explained. Judging by the wording on the last page, it seems that ONI is getting very desperate with RED FLAG. I still find it a bit hard that ONI can keep the fact that half the planet is being invaded secret from the other half. Perhaps they allowed Visegrad to be attacked so that communication would be more difficult?

  • 10.14.2011 4:53 AM PDT

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Posted by: Xd00999
Once more the holes in Reach are explained. Judging by the wording on the last page, it seems that ONI is getting very desperate with RED FLAG. I still find it a bit hard that ONI can keep the fact that half the planet is being invaded secret from the other half. Perhaps they allowed Visegrad to be attacked so that communication would be more difficult?
ONI is very good at doing what they do, under their own proverbial covers. Look at the other big Ops they've pulled with no one knowing, but I agree if they're that desperate the are bound to be mistakes and holes.

  • 10.14.2011 4:59 AM PDT

See, I'm really liking what 343i is doing! Even though its still a fact Reach (the game) is a reconstruction, they (343i) manage to plug holes that couldn't be explained by the reconstruction concept before.
And the way they do it is very well.

And ONI sure as hell can keep a secret. The only gripe with this plan was the Covenant also needed to be kept away from the unsuspecting side of the planet. And its a miracle they pulled that off as long as they did.

  • 10.14.2011 5:57 AM PDT
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I do not appreciate B.Net Group solicitation. If you ignore this and send me an invitation anyway, I will block communications with you.

Cortana three years-old in 2552. Everyone, for some stupid reason, was under the impression that she was already past the seven-year lifespan of smart AI, perhaps to explain her rampant characteristics instead of actually picking up The Flood and paying attention in First Strike and Halo 3...

But yeah, she's not seven, she was three. Come 2553... four.

  • 10.14.2011 6:49 AM PDT

Posted by:ScubaToaster
Posted by: HipiO7
This man, this man right here put it so eloquently that I actually cancelled my own 2000+ word long post.
/slow clap for respect


:)
The person who said participating is important, not winning, obviously never won anything.

Nice read.

Nice to see how 343 is working to fill in the unexplained gaps in Reach. It seems there was much more thought into it than we realized at first.

His service record reads like a career composite of three full Tier-1/L5 ODST squads

Full Tier 1/L5 ODST squads? So this would tell that there are special units within the already elite ODST battalions. But what does L5 mean?

  • 10.14.2011 7:04 AM PDT

There are 3 still outstanding plotholes they've got to fix.

1) ODPs and 150 ships of Homefleet that was there in the original book. Where the hell did they go/
2) NUKES. NUKES. NUKES. NUKES. It makes absolutely no sense at all for Noble team to not have nukes when the UNSC clearly has them for Red Flag.
3) Pillar of Autumn fought in the epic battle with Lord Hood, whose presence is severely lacking so far. He's the guy who controls everything, even ONI.

If they can fix those 3 up, Halo is in good condition albeit some inconsistencies here and there.

[Edited on 10.14.2011 7:35 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 7:32 AM PDT

Reach for Halo!


Posted by: A Puzzled Mind
There are 3 still outstanding plotholes they've got to fix.

1) ODPs and 150 ships of Homefleet that was there in the original book. Where the hell did they go/
2) NUKES. NUKES. NUKES. NUKES. It makes absolutely no sense at all for Noble team to not have nukes when the UNSC clearly has them for Red Flag.


I am just theorizing so spare me if I am completely wrong

1)Some where in Data 5 there was something about being on the other side of REACH. Maybe thats where the ships are and ONI are keeping all unessential personel and ships away from the Covenant in order not to spook them, and thus making RED FLAG fail. The second paragraph on the first page, which for some reason b.net wont let me quote, clearly proves my above statement.


2) DATA DROPS have not said that RED FLAG consisted of Spartan IIIs. 5 said that they have 25+Plus chief Spartans IIs being recalled from all over. Maybe Noble wasnt part of RED FLAG.
The last page, third paragraph, first line, kinda shows that they only have S-IIs on the op


[Edited on 10.14.2011 7:50 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 7:38 AM PDT

Joshua Piper

I agree. I am to be honest shocked at ONI did, they basically handed the most important planet in the UNSC after Earth itself on a silver platter to the Covenant, in the vain hope that by capturing a high profile ship they could kidnap an important Prophet and sue for peace.

Honestly, if ONI already knew about High Charity and the High Prophets then surely they would have realised that Truth would never have agreed to sign a peace treaty, especially if it meant saving the life of either Regret or Mercy.
The guy was an utter bastard, he would just have used it (RED FLAG) as an excuse to continue the war. The guy was obsessed with keeping Humanity's real identity as a secret, why the hell would he or the others accept peace???

Idiots in my opinion, better to just have trapped a Nova bomb or two on to a ship and sent into the middle High Charity. 5 secs later 27 year+ war over, done and dusted. With the Nova they could have dominated the Covies, the same way the US did with Japan by having the Atom. Hit them at home and hit them hard, thats what they should have done.

In my opinion.

[Edited on 10.14.2011 7:47 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 7:44 AM PDT

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[Edited on 10.14.2011 7:46 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 7:46 AM PDT

It refuses to load for me right now... but I always figured UNSC/ONI was hiding the extent of the battle at the start from the public :/.

  • 10.14.2011 9:29 AM PDT

So they really want us to belive that keyes, halsey, and the rest of the S-IIs were COMPLETELY unaware that the "other side" of reach was being burnt to the damned ground?

Completely stupid way to justify it.

What about Jun saying "Gauntlet red and echo teams". Bungie wouldn't have Jun say red team unless he meant the spartan-II red team. They know it would just annoy and confuse the fans to mean otherwise. That happens on august 24 (I think).

What about auntie dot saying "60% of the UNSC fleet is en route to reach" on August 14th? 60 percent of the ENTIRE FLEET. And 343 wants us to believe that halsey and keyes and the spartans were completely unaware of what was happening?

Here's an idea, retcon the date the invasion happened in TFOR. Change it to the 14th. Make it so red flag was ABOUT to go forth on the 14th, when the full covenant fleet showed up, and it was abandoned on that same day to defend Reach, just like in the book, but a different day.

Then extend (fill in, etc) the events in TFOR to happen over the two week period that H:R has, ENDING on the 30th. That version kicks the hell out of the bullcrap they just told us.



Make it so red flag was being prepared soon after the covenant showed up on Reach (late july). The admiralty realizes that the covenant have found Reach. Even though it's a small force, sooner or later a fleet will come to destroy it (they believe that pulling back reaches major defenses will also delay the onset of a REAL fleet since the covenant see it as no real threat), the situation is extremely desperate; there's little choice but to go through with RED FLAG. On Aug 14th, the spartan-IIs were gathered aboard the POA, preparing to go on the op, when the ENTIRE fleet of particular justice shows up.



Their justification for pulling their forces back still works. The mac cannons, the fleet, etc was pulled back to try and lull the covenant in. But what we did not anticipate was their entire fleet showing up so soon; as we didn't know what the covenant were TRULY after (there's a REASON sword base was one of the first places they scouted). The covenant knew as soon as they discovered sword base that Reach was their biggest target to date, not because of the human presence, but because of the forerunner artifact, which led to their ultimate goal, a sacred ring, hence its importance and hence their reasoning for sending such a massive fleet. Then halsey makes the connection: if a fleet of that magnitude showed up on the 14th, they had to start preparing weeks ago, but what could they have possibly known about reach weeks ago that caused them to prepare the biggest fleet the UNSC had ever seen? The artifact under sword base - one of the first places they scouted in the game. Halsey, realizing what the covenant are truly after, begins to try to figure out why about the artifact is so important to them. The next two weeks she researches it and discovers it's a map to another location. She starts poking through oni's files detailing with covenant digging and so on. The earliest file she finds is the last log from the ship spirit of fire, 19 years ago. It details how they were chasing the covenant after they discovered a map of some sort on one of Harvests poles. It was the last report before the ship went MIA. In a great revelation Halsey begins to understand the covenants real purpose for the last 27 years, something the UNSC never fulled realized, is NOT solely the destruction of humanity: they've been searching for alien artifacts. It just so happens that they are all on human worlds, something that piques her interest. It is through that that she quantifies that the artifact that it leads to is "humanities last hope, in light of reaches fall", even though she doesn't know EXACTLY what the coordinates lead to. Given that all these artifacts in the files (including the red crystal from cote d'azur) were on human worlds, she makes the connection they were there for a reason, and that they are "A birthright from an ancient civilization."

Was it that hard? Really?

How friggin stupid do they take us for?

I swear I could make a better story than them.

For example:


Aug 14th-Not hours after LNOS is destroyed, the fleet of particular justice shows up in full force. The spartans aboard the POA are split into two groups. Blue team conducts a space operation to destroy a nav core (James dies, lindas "death" is retconned to happen later, but in a similar manner...keep reading). Red team heads to the surface to defend the planet. Retcon so instead of having as many spartan-IIs be initially killed and injured during the "ride" to the planets surface, more survive the fall and are instead hurt and killed during the 2 weeks of fighting.

Aug 14-29 - Blue team completes their mission and heads down to reaches surface to defend the planet. Spartan-II deployments, consisting of Red teams Alpha through Gamma and Blue team work on various operations across the planets surface over the time period, evacuating civilians, defending orbital generators, etc.

August 29 - All spartan-II deployments are ordered to fall back to the pillar of autumn, which is now docked at aszod shipbreaking yards. Having abandoned red flag, Keyes, following up on a lead given to him by his wife, has a new mission for the spartans to embark on.

August 30, later that day - Blue team is the first squad to make it to the POA, followed by noble team with Halseys package. John, Linda and what is left of noble team attempt to defend the platform, awaiting red teams arrival. As communications have been cut, their status is unknown. Covenant ships bearing bearing down on the POAs position mean they have to leave, whether red team is there or not. In the ensuing battle, Linda is "killed", followed by Emile. With covenant ships bearing down on the Autumn and only 2 spartans left, one of them makes the selfless decision to stay behind so the autumn can escape, and the other spartan can live to fight another day.

[Edited on 10.14.2011 11:02 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 9:43 AM PDT

Read it now... If they wanted to capture long night of solace...

Why the hell didn't they poke Holland and tell him? Then the op could go from "Destroy" to "Board and hold" for Noble Team.

  • 10.14.2011 10:15 AM PDT


Posted by: Cmdr DaeFaron
Read it now... If they wanted to capture long night of solace...

Why the hell didn't they poke Holland and tell him? Then the op could go from "Destroy" to "Board and hold" for Noble Team.


Because 343 did not for a moment ever stop to think if their canon fix actually made a lick of sense.

It "works", sure, but in the stupidest and most senseless way possible.

[Edited on 10.14.2011 10:20 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 10:19 AM PDT


Posted by: Dream053
Cortana three years-old in 2552. Everyone, for some stupid reason, was under the impression that she was already past the seven-year lifespan of smart AI, perhaps to explain her rampant characteristics instead of actually picking up The Flood and paying attention in First Strike and Halo 3...

But yeah, she's not seven, she was three. Come 2553... four.


I think the reason she's going rampant despite her age was explained because she picked up and had to process a bajillion tons of information on the halo ring, and it essentially aged her considerably.

  • 10.14.2011 10:24 AM PDT


Posted by: fxnavarro

Also good to note is that this confirmed by Aug 27, half of Reach was unaware to the Covenant's presence.


Yet somehow, 60% of the ENTIRE UNSC FLEET was aware of it? August 14th, the cutscene before LNOS(where kat is going over their plan), auntie dot says exactly that. And that is just the percentage of the fleet that could actually make it to reach. Given that they can't abandon ALL their defenses to one planet, then much more than 60% of the UNSC were likely aware of what was going on.

I can see not telling civilians perhaps, but people like Keyes and Halsey, who are constantly in contact with other UNSC personnel, would surely know.



[Edited on 10.14.2011 10:37 AM PDT]

  • 10.14.2011 10:28 AM PDT

No, ExcessiveFaun6 is not my real gamertag.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cortana: The message just repeats. "Regret, Regret, Regret."
Miranda: Any idea what it means?
Sgt. Johnson: Dear Humanity... we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!
Marines: Hoo-rah!

I have to say, I'm very impressed with these Data Drops as a way for 343 to patch holes in the canon and plot. At least shows we've got a dev that is going to do its best to take care of Bungie's brainchild.

  • 10.14.2011 11:45 AM PDT


Posted by: fxnavarro

Posted by: Dream053
Cortana three years-old in 2552. Everyone, for some stupid reason, was under the impression that she was already past the seven-year lifespan of smart AI, perhaps to explain her rampant characteristics instead of actually picking up The Flood and paying attention in First Strike and Halo 3...

But yeah, she's not seven, she was three. Come 2553... four.


You are correct, many people think by age she is past her seven years. But she has began rampancy partly due to the level of intel absorbed from Halo and also from what the Gravemind was doing to her in High Charity. The Halo Evolutions story Human Weakness goes into exactly what was happening while Chief left. The Gravemind was able to go through all her systems (due to the Forerunner tech he had absorbed) and from the looks of it he permanently damaged her.


I think the misconception comes from the first theories, or rather stating some facts, that Cortana's lifespan was descreasing because she processed HUGE amounts of data on and about Halo, splitting herself into a lot of copies on the Silent Hyrophant, and being held hostage by the Gravemind who really messed her up.
And at some point that theory about her being at the brink of ramancy because of the points I mention above, turned into her being at the brink of rampancy because of her real age.

I don't know why, but I do know that latter theory is incorrect and this proves it. The former theory: well, lots of confirmations by herself or hints to it in the books, Legends and the games.

  • 10.14.2011 12:09 PM PDT

Signatures are for squares.

Another great datadrop. Once again I'm pleased 343 is finally cleaning up Bungie's mess.

However, I've still got a few complaints.

>Half the planet was unaware the other half was being invaded.

Does planet Reach not have internet or news? There's no way ONI could keep EVERYONE quiet as long as the 27th!

Hell, I MIGHT be able to understand them keeping Reach quiet until August 14th(Wasn't that Tip of the Spear's date?) But there's no way they kept quiet until the 27th.

Like stated eariler, 60% of the UNSC fleet was recalled, yet the spartans, Keyes, and Halsey didn't know about it? That's just as far fetched as the rest of Reach's abysmal story.

However, wasn't August 27th the day New Alexandria was invaded? If so, then I guess the "Reach was dark about the Covenant's presence" thing works out. Oh wait, no it doesn't because the UNSC are still entirely surprised when the Covenant shows up on the 30th.

  • 10.14.2011 12:09 PM PDT

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