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> > > > > So as we know when John returned to Earth on the Forerunner Keyship it took the long route through the Solar System from Io station all the way until it arrived at Earth. This allowed Johnson, Stacker, Miranda Keyes and The Vadumee to make it back to Earth before John since they probably just jumped straight to Earth or at least around the moon in a ship from the Sangheili fleet of Retribution.
> > > > >
> > > > > My question is how do you guys think Johnson, Keyes, Thel and whoever else was able to convince Lord Hood to not blow the Sangheili vessel out of the sky and on top of that, how do you think they were able to get Keyes to trust the Arbiter landing and even going to hidden UNSC strongholds such as the Crow’s Nest in Africa?
> > > > >
> > > > > Also, where was this Sangheili ship during the beginning of Halo 3? Did it join the UNSC fleet and get destroyed? What do you guys think?
> > > >
> > > > I suspect ONI relayed and convinced Hood to stand down and allow it, though it’s not like the UNSC had much of their fleet left to stop the Sangheili doing as they pleased. Remember in Halo 3: ODST Dare implies that they were very much aware of the Brutes becoming far more actively antagonistic to the Elites by the time Earth was invaded after Buck inquired about the courtyard massacre.
> > >
> > > I guess this is possible though I personally don’t consider the ODST campaign to be canon. Far too many problems with how many contradictions ODST creates against previous games and books. That and the fact that Bungie themselves admitted that ODST was more or less slapped together because of their obligation to Microsoft to make two more Halo games in an extremely short time frame.
> >
> > Which contradictions?
>
> A minor one is certain Marines being both supposedly still in the city after the slipspace rupture and on In Amber Clad simultaneously.
>
> The biggest most immediate contradiction is the fact that while playing through Halo 2, Regrets excavation team was composed entirely of nothing but Elites, Buggers, Jackals, Grunts and Hunters. Regret didn’t much care for Brutes and the fact of the matter is Truth was unaware of Regret jumping to Earth as he was at the time dealing with the destruction of his original invasion fleet as well as dealing with Thel Vadumee at High Charity. Plus it would have taken days if not weeks to send a force of Brutes to Earth to wipe out Regret’s Elites and yet ODST makes it seem like Brutes are on the ground and wiped out all Elites at the time of the slipspace rupture which as you see in Halo 2 is simply not true especially if Truth was unaware of Regret jumping to Earth which is established when Cortana intercepts messages between Regret and High Charity. In addition at the time of Chief destroying the excavation Scarab at the end of the third mission in Halo 2 the only remaining Covenant ship in the area is Regret’s CAS Assault Carrier. This again means no extra ship carrying brute forces was on Earth at the time ODST takes place and yet you have tons of Brute forces around the Landing pad that Regret’s carrier left behind as we see in ODST. That doesn’t make any sense.
>
> Furthermore ODST both the main campaign and the little audio story make it seem like this is the very first time humanity has encountered Engineers which again is not true. Engineer’s were encountered and documented on Sigma Octanus IV by the Spartans. They were also encountered again during the events of First Strike. During neither of these events did the Engineers possess or utilize a shield emitting ability.
>
> I’ll post more contradictions as I think of more.
From the get go, ODST is canon.
Even back during Bungie’s reign. A lot of what you mentioned is rather puzzling as there weren’t a number of contradictions in canon at the time of release as there were acknowledged retcons and plot holes. The canon community as a whole didn’t find major issue with the game other than the issue of timing between the end of ODST and the beginning of Halo 3 being unaccounted for awhile. And ODSTs minor issues ultimately pale in comparison to the actual contradictions and outright differences without acknowledged retcons that Reach brought on. In any case to break down the issues you’ve brought up…
in Amber Clad’s contingent of Marines were not the sole force deployed in New Mombasa. Nor was the entirety of deployed troops ever confirmed to be recovered considering how quickly the In Amber Clad had to chase after Regret. Though by that very token it’s rather obvious that because Regret bugged out as quickly as he did, there was no way in hell he’d be recovering the entirety of his forces he mass deployed in and around the city which are the forces encountered by ODST’s duration.
First and foremost, there’s nothing before and after the release of ODST that ever locked Regret’s force composition to only the species encountered in Halo 2. Keep in mind that the Chief, of which was our only point of view in the battle only had an extremely brief and limited encounter on the ground that did not include the area of operation ODST’s plot took place in. In the lead up to and in the aftermath of ODST’s release there had been plenty of information laid down describing how Truth had already planned for the eventual replacement of the Elites. It was all a simple manner of timing. First Strike made it abundantly clear that Truth knew where Earth was and its significance going so far as to prepare a proper invasion fleet.
Subsequent canon content would go on to elaborate on the recton to Truth’s initial plans with him already sending an advance force of Brute ships in the wake of losing his main fleet. These ships would be the ones that would reinforce the remains of Regret’s forces later that day.
Regarding Truth being unaware of Regret’s actions it was clear enough at the time of Halo 2’s release that transmission that Cortana listened in on was suspicious and likened to propaganda and formality to hide that Truth really wanted to eventually have Regret die as was evidenced in him pulling Vadum’s Elites and the rest of the forces that were on the verge of swarming the Chief and rescuing Regret. First Strike was also out by then and fans already knew that what Truth said didn’t match up with his intentions in the book, thus adding to the notion the transmission was a bogus sentiment on Truth’s part. Of course, one could argue from a meta perspective this was the result of severe disconnect between Bungie and Microsoft when it came to the novels and games, but it’s what canon fans had to run with.
Going to your point about number of Brute forces present, you need to keep in mind that those carriers have tens of thousands of troops on hand. The perspective we have in any given Halo game has us encountering only hundreds of troops in the course of a campaign and again what also should be accounted for is the limited area a given character operates in.
Lastly your point regarding engineers is also odd. If you’re solely going by Fall of Reach, then there really is no conflict regarding ODSTs encountering Engineers before as Sigma Octanus only happened a two months prior of which only the Spartans bore witness to them. By the time of ODST’s release it had long since been recton through Contact Harvest, Halo Wars, etc. that Engineers were encountered. But it’s still not necessarily widely known to most UNSC grunts. As for ability, it’s summed up with the words “gameplay mechanics.”
While you may not consider it, the fact is that it’s still canon.