unforum

[SuperJerms]

[QUESTION][SPEC] Cole Protocol, the Apocolypso, and You

[sam]

I was playing through the first level of Halo again last night - I normally skip the FMV sequences but I let them play through... the very opening dialogue made me think of pretty much the same question.

I remember somewhere that Cortana maybe had an inkling of where Halo was and wanted to investigate so her 'blind jump' which ended up at Halo wasn't so blind (and again the Covenant got there before the POA). This doesn't contravene CP, but it's certainly a little devious as she explicitly said to Keyes that it was a blind jump (ie: a ship AI that will lie to the captain).

If we (in game) are to play the part as would be expected of puny earthlings in a galactic struggle... surely we shouldn't be helping these entities until their bona fides are proven... atm we have only their words to go on (and atm we're supposing that at least one - PF is covenant).

Now that would mean we couldn't play the game until some sort of external verification was given (by whom and how I have no idea). Given that this is a ARG site, it would be a bit dull.

No answers, only conjecture.

It's all sort of covered
here
(second page of the link)

Sam

EDIT - ginormous URL - SG

[scibtag]

The ship could have begun malfunctioning while in slipspace. Slipspace travel takes a fair amount of time. Melissa had begun feeling odd while doing her monitoring duties, but she wasn't seriously malfunctioning yet. Perhaps they we're heading back to Earth as part of their routine rounds, or maybe to drop the Castaway off, and that's when whatever infected her began doing its damage.

There's also the chance that the accident was caused by the artifact. If the artifact is similar to the Crystal found on Reach in First Strike then it wouldn't have activated until they entered slipspace. They were headed back to Earth and the artifact activated, damaging the computer systems and possibly killing the crew.

I don't think they would have gone back to Earth if they were experiencing serious problems. They would probably just have headed to the nearest UNSC base.

[Mole888]

If any of you have read First Strike, you'll understand that after you use slipspace to leave the Covenant (if the apocalypso was under attack) you are then allow to head to Earth as long as the coast is clear. However, even if it is clear, you gotta to move in a random pattern. That's how the Ascendent-Justice was going to head back to earth except the needed to ditch the covenant cruiser because bringing a Covenant ship to Earth is also against the Cole Protocol.


Another spec could be that if this before the time of Halo the Cole Protocol could possibly not be initiated yet. They still may not have thought it up and therefore when a ship comes to Earth it's a huge ordeal because if it's Covenant they're obviously dookied over big time with flaming bags of poo.

EDIT - language - SG

[SuperJerms]

1) Please refrain from obscene language.

2) Even if they were allowed to return to Earth, we know that the Covenant can track slipstreamed ships and arrive at the destination of said ship...that's how the PoA got attacked in Halo.

3) I thought the Cole Protocol was initiated as soon as humanity realized that the covenant were vastly more powerful than we were. That surely would have occured before the Covies started glassing planets (I was thinking Cole Protocol was after the first major battle between Keyes and Covenant).

[Atrophied]

[skybruin]

More evidence for sam's post.

I believe the covenant had found the coordinates to HALO shortly before the Fall of Reach. In the fall of reach novell, In one of the pre reach sequences with the MC, the convenant went looking for some artifacts on a planet(Sigma Octanus IV) and transmitted the data to their ships from the city cote' d' azur. MC captures of part of the artifact and logs a report. I think this is information Cortana later comes across and files for later investigation. this then ends up being the jump coordinates she uses leaving Reach. that would explain why the covenant were already there on HALO, they had sent an investigation fleet. pg 336 of the Fall of reach novell explains how Cortana made a "blind" jump away from Reach to Halo. pg 208 is the section where MC cptures the stone with the alien writing.

[Antiarc]

I seem to remember something in Fall of Reach about Cortana intentionally steering the ship towards Halo-4.

As for Covenant tracking ships through slipspace, I think it's not so much that they can track them as they just followed their exit vector. Covenant slipstream technology is vastly superior to human technology, and they were interested in Halo-4, as well. The Cole protocol is designed such that no ship has an exit vector pointing to Earth. After the initial jump, a ship can then proceed to jump on a vector to Earth, provided there are no Covenant around to witness the jump.

This did leave me wondering, though. With enough jumps, couldn't the Covenant just cross-reference the vectors that the human ships never took, and determine the general direction of Earth that way?

[chaotic_mind]

[Atrophied]

[chaotic_mind]

It comes from something in the game. It's something 343 Guilty Spark says.

[Atrophied]

[GunsmithCat]

[chaotic_mind]

Halo has a *precise* range, for government work at least

[Scumbag]

Few random things I've read and figured to clarify / correct. Most have been said, but I only noticed this after writing too much of it to simply delete it.

The Covenant slipspace drives and terran ones are essentially the same, they are simply more precise than our own. They use 256 color graphics at 1280x1024, and we use 640x480 Black/Green, to use a computer analogy. They aren't much faster than ours, they use it better.

Cortana's jump to Halo was not a random one, but it wasn't a guess. There were symbols on an artifact the Covenant got that, when translated into jump co-ords, turned out to be Halo.

Slipspace is extremely screwy, especially if there's Forefunner artifacts onboard. If I were to fire a flaregun at a rock in such a slipspace, I'd see the flare spin around like a rabbit in a washing machine, and then smack into the area behind me. If a ship crashed out of Slip and had a Jjaro 'fact on board... oy vey.