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[Legacy]

The feburary thing DOES NOT EXIST. Jesus.

[Twk178]

[drseuss90]

oh man now my head hurts... so if...

1. The flea was the covanant virus
2. The flea infected melissa
3. When melissa came back to durga, the flea told the covanant where the artifact was.

Why did the covanant not expect humans to be on earth since they know that the flea came from a human made AI. Unless they didn't know that it was humans that intercepted transmissions.

[Twk178]

But if the artifact was left for someone to find, who else would it've been left for?

Cortana says that they weren't expecting any humans on Earth. Not just the specific presence of the forces there.

[NSA]

I agree Twk178, it seems like there was a shift in storylines somewhere during the course of the game. And right now its VERY hard to make sense of things.

[drseuss90]

[drseuss90]

I've got it.

[thebruce]

[drseuss90]

I thought I heard it somewhere but didn't look. That's what I get for not looking. Alright, how about this, what if that spike was because the flea was transmitting..... and not because of the artifact itself. My theory would stand up in that case but its a long shot. Or if that emp burst still went out, but the only transmission the Covanant picked up was the transmission from the flea....

[Twk178]

Um...couple of holes, I think. First off, both times the artifact fired, it was more or less in the vicinity of the Earth solar system. Distance probably wouldn't matter. (I know they were in slipspace, but it dumped them out in-system, right?)

Further, they don't attack in small probing waves usually. Each wave would seem to be designed to overwhelm. Successive waves are to finish the job. They weren't expecting MAC guns in the battle for Reach, but dealt with it.
Cortana says that they didn't expect us to be on Earth at all, so it was not an invasion taking place for about 90% of Halo 2.
Further, why would the expect us to be dead, even if they did? If it was due to the Halo system firing, that doesn't make sense because the Covies seem to think it'll produce the Rapture for the willing, not kill with cleansing light.

As for the last idea, how could a simple, elusive viral program create an EMP of that magnitude?
The fact that we can have discussions and like this, I think, speaks to some definite shifting plotlines with Halo 2. We've got a lot of face value "info" that just doesn't line up when you try to put it all together.

[Avery1415]

A couple thoughts:

Are we sure the flea isn't hopelessly (or maybe hopefully) corrupted? By the end of it all I get the impression that Melissa was the seek/reveal one and the flea was the be pals with the princess one.

My take on what happend was that the artifact was activated. The artifact started counting down. The artifact was deactivated. The hypothysis I like best is that the artifact is, literally, a mini-halo. Not big enough to take out the galaxy, but maybe big enough to take out a solar system. Hence the delay - you drop it and get the hell out of dodge before it goes off.

I'm not sure the bee artifact/events had anything to do with the Covies finding Earth. I'm not sure how fast a jump from system to system is in the Halo Universe, but it must be weeks/years long since some of the glassed colonies are awfully close (cosmically speaking). I suspect the covies were already on their way.

[Twk178]

Hm..Avery..I think you've got something. Maybe the PF was designed to see if we knew where other Halos were? Being a simple program, it could've perhaps mistaken this...mini-Halo...thing as what it was seeking, and sought to transmit information back, but was not yet sure how exactly.

But wait...it was still tied to the artifact somehow, wasn't it? If the artifact was Forerunner, this could work...but if it's Covie, we're back to square one.

I do agree that the artifact didn't have anything to do with the Covies finding Earth...but I guess I've made that clear already.

[drseuss90]

The artifact is forerunner because durga says that the halo the master chief found was related to the artifact. I do believe that the artifact was a mini - halo. perhaps it is only used to take out a planet or something. btw, when i made my earlier posts i assumed this. sorry if i didnt make that clear.

there were a couple of places in the fall of reach i do recall when the covenant attacked with smaller than expected forces. im pretty sure i read that in there somewhere...

[Twk178]

Then that would jibe more, I guess, like with Avery's theory.

I wonder if someone's following this thread, or others like it, to try and reconcile all this into something coherent and that could be considered "canon."

Also, I'm still pretty sure they attacked with overwhelming force. To wit: Lord Hood says something along the lines of "The force that attacked Reach was fifty times this size." (15 capital ships, iirc) That, combined with Cortana's statement of astonishment at our presence seem to indicate that this was clearly not an invasion. As does all the "Regret jumped the gun" talk later in the game.

[thebruce]

the only other problem with the artifact not being what attracted the covies, is that ILB strongly alluded to the fact that it was the signal from the artifact that indeed alerted the covies to its presence. I just don't think the covies expected to find it on earth, so no it wasn't an invasion, but a fleet of ships whos purpose was to go get the artifact...

but, I think in this sense, since ILB didn't right now state that the artifact brought the covies to earth, just that it was alluded to by opinions of characters, then it's still possible to 'bend' the story a bit to make it work... I dunno... if it's a plot inconcistency betwene ilb and Halo2, then bending the story around an open end can still work to bring the two together

but I also agree, without more official information, it seems like there are some significant holes in the plot... between all these storylines...