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Subject: Why is Contact Harvest and the Cole Protocol disliked so much?
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: Xd00999

Posted by: grey101

Posted by: MAC Blast

Posted by: USS Catalyst
I didn't like The Cole Protocol at all. I found it flowed very badly, the characters were completely forgettable and most of what happened in the book made little sense within the halo universe. I mean really, Humans and Kig-Yar living peacefully together on some asteroid space-station thing?

Not that peaceful. It was all a plot by Truth for them to find Earth. As soon as they accomplished that the Kig-Yar would have killed everyone on the Rubble and used the Exodus to launch a surprise attack on Earth.


You clearly skipped the part where it was stated the Kig-Yar Liked the trading gig they had going and didn't want to mess it up.

But it was not like the Kig-Yar were going to spit in the face of the Prophets and refuse to kill the humans. If they did, Truth would have just sent a few ships over, declared them all heretics and killed them.


They probably just would have left, it isn't like they are really in the covenant anyway they are just traders For the most part.

  • 01.19.2012 4:52 AM PDT
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Five exclamations marks are a good signifier of an insane mind. As is trying to hide from Death in an airtight room. Silly wizard.


Posted by: grey101

Posted by: Xd00999

Posted by: grey101

Posted by: MAC Blast

Posted by: USS Catalyst
I didn't like The Cole Protocol at all. I found it flowed very badly, the characters were completely forgettable and most of what happened in the book made little sense within the halo universe. I mean really, Humans and Kig-Yar living peacefully together on some asteroid space-station thing?

Not that peaceful. It was all a plot by Truth for them to find Earth. As soon as they accomplished that the Kig-Yar would have killed everyone on the Rubble and used the Exodus to launch a surprise attack on Earth.


You clearly skipped the part where it was stated the Kig-Yar Liked the trading gig they had going and didn't want to mess it up.

But it was not like the Kig-Yar were going to spit in the face of the Prophets and refuse to kill the humans. If they did, Truth would have just sent a few ships over, declared them all heretics and killed them.


They probably just would have left, it isn't like they are really in the covenant anyway they are just traders For the most part.

They were acting under Truth's orders for the most part. Truth even hinted that he would kill any survivors of the encounter. I'm not sure the Kig-Yar would have just left the Covenant, especially after betraying Trith himself.

  • 01.19.2012 5:15 AM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

Just like he killed the Kig-Yar that didn't "Join" the covenant in the Asteroid belts of their home system right?

  • 01.19.2012 6:15 AM PDT

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I've always been given the impression that the Kig-Yar were reluctant members of the Covenant. It suited their needs at the time, so be it. It's like their position in The Covenant is one of satisfied indifference.

As for the events in The Cole Protocol, I'm pretty sure that Reth was the only Kig-Yar who knew of their true purpose in The Rubble. I mean, it's plausible that some of his closest lackeys knew, but I imagine it was on a need-to-know basis.

I don't remember if it was Truth or Regret that said it, but apparently there were plenty of Kig-Yar in The Rubble that honestly thought they were betraying The Covenant. That being said, the Kig-Yar are very mercantile by nature, so their business with the humans at The Rubble made sense. Both parties didn't exactly belong to one of warring parties, so commerce and trade were possible. You don't have to like your business partner to conduct affairs, right?

Anyway, you can't exactly turn a blind eye and let them back in to The Covenant, so what Truth/Regret said made perfect sense given the context.

  • 01.19.2012 6:37 AM PDT

I have yet to read the Cole Protocol everyone has told me to avoid it, however I did read Contact Harvest and I loved it. It answered a lot of questions I had about the early part of war, why exactly did the covenant want to destroy all humans? Contact Harvest revealed everything and how the three prophets got their positions. I thought it was a great book and for me this was the first time I got to read about the covenant's point of view of the situation.I also loved that the book introduced minor characters that we've seen in the games like Jenkins. We know the name but not a lot about where he came from. I'm baffled that people didn't like this book and I'm not seeing many reasons why.

  • 01.19.2012 8:22 AM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: Ridley_160
I have yet to read the Cole Protocol everyone has told me to avoid it..


Please don't do that crap. Yes, while we all have our views on the book please do not make that the basis for you learning more lore. When you do that you increase the chances of me probably ranting in your thread later down the line, not to mention you miss out on information and maybe even a good book.


I dislike Glasslands yet you will NEVER see me tell somebody not to buy it. The only books you honestly should think about buying are the re-issued books which only add a chapter of new information and other small things. Other than that you should always just buy the books.

  • 01.19.2012 8:30 AM PDT


Posted by: DoctorCoitus

Posted by: OrderedComa

Posted by: DoctorCoitus
I just don't get why the characters in Cole Protocol were mostly hispanic. Delgado, Melko, Maria Vasquez, etc. It was just odd. And the fact that they were abandoned by the UNSC makes them seem racist.

And this is unrelated, but Buckell looks like one of those annoying geeks who thinks he's cool because he wears a trench coat.


Well, I believe they all had Hispanic sounding names because Madrigal (the colony they were all from that the Rubble was founded by the survivors of) were probably all descended, and the colony was probably founded, by people from a Spanish background. It's not really that uncommon for the UNSC colonies to mainly be founded by one type of group or anything, like for instance Reach is mainly Hungarian and/or other Slavic groups.

And as for the survivors of Madrigal being abandoned, how exactly was the UNSC supposed to know they were there? Madrigal was glassed and taken by the Covenant with little or no survivors as far as anyone else knew. And besides, it's not like the Rubble was going to try and contact the UNSC, it was founded mainly be the Insurrectionists you know. And they all wanted to break away from UNSC control.

I meant that they were abandoned according to their (the insurrectionists') point of view.

And how do you know that Reach is mainly Hungarian/Slavic people? I only remember Jorge and that girl from Halo Reach fitting that category.


All the names and such, like Professor Sorvad, the fact that the civvies you meet on the first level are speaking the same language as Jorge, and as I said the various names of moons and locations on Reach. They're all Hungarian/Slavic.

  • 01.19.2012 12:52 PM PDT
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Five exclamations marks are a good signifier of an insane mind. As is trying to hide from Death in an airtight room. Silly wizard.


Posted by: grey101
Just like he killed the Kig-Yar that didn't "Join" the covenant in the Asteroid belts of their home system right?

I don't know about those. The Kig-Yar in the Rubble would be disobeying a direct order from Truth and jeopardizing a mission that could cut the war short massively. It would be reasonable for Truth to order their execution.

  • 01.19.2012 6:27 PM PDT

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  • 01.19.2012 9:43 PM PDT

If you don't got it, you want it. If you got it, you want more of it. Of course if you don't know what it is, it's hard to get any in the first place.

All of the Halo books are flawed, and have aged rather poorly since the inception of the other games. Fall of Reach has its moments such as the training of the Spartans, but was written around the elements of the plot that were established with Halo 1. The tone and aesthetics of the Halo universe have changed significantly since then.

Contact Harvest is probably the least flawed, if only because of how it manages to feel more "relevant" to the universe as a whole, without building on the flawed legacy of books like First Strike and Ghosts of Onyx. It feels like a bit of pulp at times, and has some flaws like the introduction of Jenkins at Harvest (Which doesn't make much sense). Parts of the book involving the AI were rather compelling. I'm not sure how I felt on the Engineer sub-plot.

If the Halo Universe hadn't changed so dramatically since the original game, then Perhaps FoR and First Strike would be more relevant. But as is, Contact Harvest is probably the most flexible, approachable, and digestible Halo book.

  • 01.20.2012 12:47 AM PDT
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Five exclamations marks are a good signifier of an insane mind. As is trying to hide from Death in an airtight room. Silly wizard.


Posted by: MAC Blast

Posted by: grey101
Just like he killed the Kig-Yar that didn't "Join" the covenant in the Asteroid belts of their home system right?

I don't know about those. The Kig-Yar in the Rubble would be disobeying a direct order from Truth and jeopardizing a mission that could cut the war short massively. It would be reasonable for Truth to order their execution.

I would like to add on to this because. Truth orders the people who discovered the Forerunner crystal executed. He is obviously not above killing his followers to preserve his secrets.

  • 01.21.2012 11:25 AM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: MAC Blast

Posted by: MAC Blast

Posted by: grey101
Just like he killed the Kig-Yar that didn't "Join" the covenant in the Asteroid belts of their home system right?

I don't know about those. The Kig-Yar in the Rubble would be disobeying a direct order from Truth and jeopardizing a mission that could cut the war short massively. It would be reasonable for Truth to order their execution.

I would like to add on to this because. Truth orders the people who discovered the Forerunner crystal executed. He is obviously not above killing his followers to preserve his secrets.



You seem not to understand what i was saying.

The Kig-Yar were never fully indoctrinated into the covenant Mythos, hell the only race that really was were the Elites. Which is why I said many of the Kig-Yar were happy with the trading Relations that they had with the humans and didn't want to risk that.

And what i was referring to with the truth comment is that the Covenant weren't able to force them to join due to the Kig-Yar hiding in the asteroid fields of their homesystem. They have a mercantile relationship with the Covenant, hence them siding with the loyalist in the civil war. They had more power and wealth.

  • 01.21.2012 6:25 PM PDT
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Five exclamations marks are a good signifier of an insane mind. As is trying to hide from Death in an airtight room. Silly wizard.


Posted by: grey101

Posted by: MAC Blast

Posted by: MAC Blast

Posted by: grey101
Just like he killed the Kig-Yar that didn't "Join" the covenant in the Asteroid belts of their home system right?

I don't know about those. The Kig-Yar in the Rubble would be disobeying a direct order from Truth and jeopardizing a mission that could cut the war short massively. It would be reasonable for Truth to order their execution.

I would like to add on to this because. Truth orders the people who discovered the Forerunner crystal executed. He is obviously not above killing his followers to preserve his secrets.



You seem not to understand what i was saying.

The Kig-Yar were never fully indoctrinated into the covenant Mythos, hell the only race that really was were the Elites. Which is why I said many of the Kig-Yar were happy with the trading Relations that they had with the humans and didn't want to risk that.

And what i was referring to with the truth comment is that the Covenant weren't able to force them to join due to the Kig-Yar hiding in the asteroid fields of their homesystem. They have a mercantile relationship with the Covenant, hence them siding with the loyalist in the civil war. They had more power and wealth.

To go back to the original point: you say the Kig-Yar won't betray the Rubble because they like the trading gig they had going on, right? But why would the Kig-Yar betray the Covenant to continue trading with the Rubble? The Kig-Yar are in it for wealth and power and the Covenant is wealthier and more powerful than the Rubble by far. Rubble can't hold a candle to the Covenant.

  • 01.21.2012 6:38 PM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

How would they betray the covenant if all they are doing is trading with them? They have far better relations with humans than the do with the covenant since the humans won't try to attack them or control them if they do not trade.

  • 01.21.2012 7:11 PM PDT
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Five exclamations marks are a good signifier of an insane mind. As is trying to hide from Death in an airtight room. Silly wizard.


Posted by: grey101
How would they betray the covenant if all they are doing is trading with them? They have far better relations with humans than the do with the covenant since the humans won't try to attack them or control them if they do not trade.

I'm saying that they would have killed the humans in the end because Truth would have ordered them all killed. They wouldn't disobey Truth's order just to continue trading with the Rubble. The Rubble is nowhere near as wealthy or as powerful as the Covenant and if they didn't kill them Truth would have sent someone else who would destroy the Rubble. The Kig-Yar might survive but they now have an enemy in Truth and the Rubble would have been destroyed taking much of their trading opportunities with it.

  • 01.21.2012 7:27 PM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?

Which is why i kept implying that they probably wouldn't have done it due to them liking how things were. They ultimately wouldn't answer to truth. There is no loyalty to him, you keep bringing up the covenant but the conditions on rubble are better than High Charity.

[Edited on 01.21.2012 7:47 PM PST]

  • 01.21.2012 7:47 PM PDT
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I've read all of the novels and i would put Cole Protocol on the bottom of the list. It bored me for the most part, but i loved Dirt by Tobias Buckell

  • 01.21.2012 7:56 PM PDT

I liked Contact Harvest; still haven't read Cole Protocol.

  • 01.21.2012 9:26 PM PDT
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Contact Harvest was the best Halo book. A story nearly as interesting as the Nylund era books, combined with a quality of writing nearly as good as the Bear novels, made it the only book in the series that is legitimately worth reading.

Cole Protocol had about the same level of writing, but absolutely nothing interesting in it.

[Edited on 01.21.2012 10:33 PM PST]

  • 01.21.2012 10:30 PM PDT

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