History Headscratchers / HaloReach

* I can understand the differences in Human tech here, as the focus is now on the Army instead of the Marines, but why does Covenant tech look completely different? And I don't mean "better graphics" different but COMPLETELY FUCKING DIFFERENT. And this is only about a month or so from Halo: CE! You even fight the same fleet! Also, you'd at least expect the classic, bowl-shaped tri-shot shade turrets, sharkhead helmeted elites, and fish-tail grunts, but no. Not to mention, the [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100607085521/halo/images/d/d0/PoA.jpg C.E.]] and [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100916181536/halo/images/6/62/PoA_Reach.jpg Reach]] versions of the Pillar of Autumn are about as similar-looking as the [[StarWars Acclamator and Ventator class]] Star Destroyers.

* Is there anything that says where the came from, who they were, or how Noble Six found himself there? When we last see him, he is manning the anti-orbital cannon at the dockyards, next thing we know he is nowhere near that position, surrounded by the corpses of Spartans.
** In the Fall of Reach novel, the Spartans aboard the Pillar of Autumn were deployed in order to help defeat Reach from the Covenant. The Spartans were divided into two teams for two separate missions: Blue Team (John-117, Linda-058, James-005) were to enact Cole Protocol on a space station in orbit, and Red Team (all of the remaining Spartans) were to defend the generators for the Orbital Defense Platforms and to evacuate civilians. As Red Team deployed, they lost 4 Spartans in re-entry, and then further split into 4 teams in order to fulfill their missions: Team Alpha (Frederic-104, Kelly-087, and Joshua-029) was to destroy an encampment of Covenant, Team Beta (11 Spartans) was to defend Orbital Defense Generator Facility A-331, Team Gamma (Li-008, Anton-044, and Grace-093) was to retrieve Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, and Team Delta (Charlie Company Marines, William-043, Isaac-039, Vinh-030, and three other Spartans) were to secure CASTLE Base. Of the teams, Alpha succeeded, but lost Joshua-029, Gamma secured Whitcomb and eventually got rescued a few weeks later by Master Chief, and Delta met up with the rest of Alpha before encountering Doctor Halsey, who treated their injuries. Beta, however, was subjected to orbital bombardment, as they were being overrun by Covenant forces. It’s entirely possible that “Lone Wolf” takes place at the remains of the Orbital Defense Generator Facility, and that the Spartan corpses are from Beta Team.
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** In the Fall of Reach novel, the SPARTANs aboard the Pillar of Autumn were deployed in order to help defeat Reach from the Covenant. The SPARTANs were divided into two teams for two separate missions: Blue Team (John-117, Linda-058, James-005) were to enact Cole Protocol on a space station in orbit, and Red Team (all of the remaining SPARTANs) were to defend the generators for the Orbital Defense Platforms and to evacuate civilians. As Red Team deployed, they lost 4 SPARTANs in re-entry, and then further split into 4 teams in order to fulfill their missions: Team Alpha (Frederic-104, Kelly-087, and Joshua-029) was to destroy an encampment of Covenant, Team Beta (11 SPARTANs) was to defend Orbital Defense Generator Facility A-331, Team Gamma (Li-008, Anton-044, and Grace-093) was to retrieve Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, and Team Delta (Charlie Company Marines, William-043, Isaac-039, Vinh-030, and three other SPARTANs) were to secure CASTLE Base. Of the teams, Alpha succeeded, but lost Joshua-029, Gamma secured Whitcomb and eventually got rescued a few weeks later by Master Chief, and Delta met up with the rest of Alpha before encountering Doctor Halsey, who treated their injuries. Beta, however, was subjected to orbital bombardment, as they were being overrun by Covenant forces.
It’s entirely possible that “Lone Wolf” takes place at the remains of the Orbital Defense Generator Facility, and that the SPARTAN corpses are from Beta Team.

[[folder: How did the Long Night of Solace even get inside of Reach's atmosphere completely undetected?]]
* Is there some explanation for this? Slipspace travel is even detectable while the target ship is still totaly in transit. Slipspace ruptures of any kind--entry or exit--is blatantly detectable from far away. At the beginning of Halo 2, UNSC probes near Io (a moon in the outer edge of the solar system) detect "slipspace whispers" that would very soon become Regret's fleet. The LNoS is almost ''29 kilometers in length'', and there is no possible way it could have jumped in, deployed the spires, and cloaked, before evading detection. And THAT'S assuming that no one saw a 29 kilometer titan of a ship emerge from slipspace. The Covenant would not be at all capable of a slipspace jump like that anyway--''Cortana'' invents the first jump to or from a planet's atmosphere (or equivalent), using a Covenant flagship and her own custom tweaks (that the Covenant don't do because they lack the means and their religion forbids even trying). The massive ship alone would probably cause a significant enough gravitational disturbance that it would be detected (even if only affecting the waves/oceans/currents). Next, the LNoS would have been quickly shot to pieces by the many Orbital Defense Platforms; in the time it would take for the Solace to charge its plasma torpedoes, it'd already be mincemeat. A ship that size would be impossible to miss if it traveled close to Reach, even in slipspace, let alone exiting from it smack-dab in the middle of the UNSC's most secure planet. Oh, and the slipspace rupture would be ''visible'' from orbit, and the entire orbit is constantly monitored by advanced satellites and AI's, whose resolution is good enough to be able to see details in a specific, tiny sector when asked to view it. Fact is, I just can't find any way for this whole set up to not be one ''giant'' PlotHole.

[[3rd Zealots Escape]]