- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Well first of all with the Covenant attacking the ground with troops. There were many occasions in which the Covenant landed ground forces. Generally it is whenever their ships are about to blow(and they still want human blood), when they want something of the Forerunner, or if they are going for their over inflated sense of honor. Then there is the case in which they are still fighting in space, but want to double the pleasure in killing us by sending down their ground troops.
As for how they found us....I think we did it. Not in 2552, not in 2525 when we first met them, but thirty years ago from our time. That's right, our time. Ever heard of Voyager 1 and 2 or the Mariner 10 satellites? Well on those craft are these golden plates. On them show humans and guess what, the coordinates to Earth in relation to several pulsars. Now I understand that by time the Covenant would actually find them that we would kinda screwed anyways....because in 2552 they will still be pretty close.
But remember those asteroids that would go into slipspace without reason and come out again? Yeah. My theory is one of those satellites went into slispace by accident, travelled many light years, and ended up near some Covenant ship that took it in and they found out where we originated from. Giving them reason to come to Earth, without following us, and attacking the Sol system with ships and ground troops.