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[DM]

[SPEC|15/10 Spoilers] What is Oni Up To?

[thebruce]

who wants to bet the artifact countdown ends november 9th? hehe

[DeceptaconS]

[Buzzkill247]

[Tarrsk]

Some wild SPEC, here...

In First Strike (if I'm remembering correctly- I don't have my copy with me at the moment), one of the major plot points circles around the fact that Cortana finds a massive coordinated countdown on Covenant networks, leading to the invasion of Earth. Is it possible that this device is one of many being used by the Covenant as a "timer"?

If this SPEC is correct, this would indicate that:

(a) The Covenant already know the location of Earth. I'm pretty sure (but can't verify, since the HBO story timeline seems to be down... grr!) that the battle at the Unyielding Heirophant occurs very close, chronologically, to the destruction of Halo itself. This would indicate that the Covenant have known Earth's location for some time, possibly since the glassing of Reach, and have spent the intervening marshalling their forces for the attack.

(b) The device is the only way for the UNSC to get advance warning of the timing of the attack.

If ONI Section 3 is unaware of this, they're jeopardizing all of Earth's population by their secrecy. Judging from the bureaucratic bumbling we've seen in the past, I wouldn't put this past them.

If, however, they do know about this... well, hmm. The reasons DM gave for hiding it from the general public are sound, but like him, I'm confused as to why they'd hide it from other military higher-ups.

Thoughts?

[Nova]

Well... we don't yet know if the artifact is counting down to November 9th when the Covenant invade, or if it's counting down to some point in time beyond that, and the Covenant are trying to get it before it does.

[Incitatus]

Is it still at all possible that this device is a covy trojan horse?

A device used to seek out the location of earth?

[DM]

[fugitivesoldier]

I'd like to speculate and all, but i'm too afraid i'll catch the ONI Flu...

[Vilnius]

If this thing is counting down to a big BOOM, then what's to stop Section 3 from just giving it to the Covenant? Either the thing blows up and annihilates the Covenant fleet, or the Covenant take it back to their homeworld, and then kaboom.

This is, of course, assuming the the Covenant are ignorant of what the artifact can do, and they just want it because it's Forerunner, and therefore holy to them.

Or, and here's a completely WILD SPEC, what if it's counting down to the return of the Forerunner? I've got nothing to back this up, but it's a possibility.

[SpghEddy]

I think I've solved the mystery of the decaying signal:

[Oecumenix]

Of course, this SPEC assumes that Section 5 realises the artifact is emitting a decay timer..

/No further SPEC, just an observation

[Platonix]

Re: [SPEC|15/10 Spoilers] What is Oni Up To?

[DM]

Re: [SPEC|15/10 Spoilers] What is Oni Up To?

[Prokaryotic-Cell]