Halo 4 ending and Spartan ops ending

I know I’m a little late to the party about discussing this topic but there are a few questions that I need answering or if people have the same opinion as well.

1: The campaign ending with the Didact and Cortana apparently dieing

Let’s face it. If you have watched the terminals then you know that the Didact didn’t die when he fell into the composer because he was immune to it. During the Forerunner-Flood war he made it to where he was immune to the composer because of his new form. Does anyone have a thought to where he could be now? Also I want to know what is going on with the Cortana scenario. She stated that “most of me is down there” Did she somehow manage to keep herself alive but into a hibernated state because she no longer has the power to function? I honestly think she is alive because of another reason. Didn’t anyone notice that when she was captured by the Librarian that she was 'Filled In" on what is going on to the Master chief and Humanity and never explained what her and the Librarian talked about? It’s just seems fishy to me because lets face it she “apparently died” trying to save the Master chief but survived rampancy and the torture from the Gravemind just to die in this game. So I honestly don’t think she died but is with the Librarian or something. Any thoughts?

  1. Spartan ops

What is your guys opinion on the story and ending of spartan ops? Has anyone found out if there is a possible season 2?

All I now is I hope Cortana is gone for good, this story needs more tragedy and if they find some lame excuse to bring her back I will be extremely disappointed.

Didn’t 343 say something about SpartanOps 2 on how they might carry it on but it’s not likely.

Most people believe it will either be later into the year or maybe part of Halo 5.

As for Cortana… I don’t know.

I hope she has gone to expand on the creativity but at the same time no because she’s been with the chief for years.

> Didn’t 343 say something about SpartanOps 2 on how they might carry it on but it’s not likely.
>
> Most people believe it will either be later into the year or maybe part of Halo 5.
>
> As for Cortana… I don’t know.
>
> I hope she has gone to expand on the creativity but at the same time no because <mark>she’s been with the chief for years.</mark>

Exactly, that dynamic is getting old. A new AI would be cool.

Unfortunately, I feel like 343i is going to play an old “save Cortana” story line like Bungie did Halo 3. You know, where memoires of Cortana flashing saying “Don’t make a girl a promise if you know you can’t keep it” will keep flashing up and you end up finding her all alone and you have to fight your way out.
It would be interesting if they allowed Master Chief to be without her in Halo 5 to build suspense and then go save her in Halo 6, but I’m not sure how the community would like that. Then again, I don’t speak for the community, these are just my opinions.

As for Spartan Ops, no clue. In all honesty, it could go in any direction. Halsey says he wants revenge but she never been so strait forward about her true intentions. This is also a great opportunity for the new Spartan IV’s to mature and start acting the way a Spartan should. (And something needs to be done about Palmer).
I know you play as Fire-team Crimson, but the story seems to follow Majestic, so the gameplay is (once again, only in my opinion) not that crucial to the story. Majestic team was actually starting to work and think like a team towards the end of the season, so they cold have a lot of potential.
Maybe Master Chief will get involved in the story as well. I personally wold like to find out what happened to Buck’s ODST squad for Halo 3: ODST.

In addition, I had some questions of my own:

1.) In the first missions of Spartan Ops season 1, why did everyone act like they had never seen Promethian combatants before?

The storyline is supposed to take place several months after the main Halo 4 campaign ends. By that point, the Infinity with all of its advanced technology should have simulations to practice fighting the Promethians or at least had the time to educate the crew onboard about them.
The first few missions seem like the Infinity is running in with no previous experience with Promethians. It could be argued that Palmer is trying to share some “wisdom” with Crimson when they first see an enemy, but based on her character, I think she was basically saying spray and pray.

2.) Why are there still Covenant around Requiem?

This one i probably my fault for not understanding. I just remember that when the Didact left Requiem to get the Composer, all (or what I thought was all) of the Covenant forces followed him.
I know they would probably want to return, but after the huge battle with the UNSC in Earth’s orbit, I wouldn’t think the Covenant would have enough ships, troops, and resources to go back before the humans. It just seems odd that after a huge defeat like that above Earth, the Covenant would been be able to dig in with such a large military presence before the UNSC could even get one ship out there.

3.) The way Halsey didn’t know that Master Chief was onboard doesn’t fit in.

Halsey is smart, but it’s not impossible to hide things from her. However, Master Chief’s presence tends to fill the air of where ever he is, yet no one seemed to be talking about him.
Master Chief is not one to sit out of a fight, especially when other people’s lives are in danger. And when when he fights, he (even unknowing) makes his presence known. So when the Infinity was boarded, why didn’t Halsey hear or see Chief? She was with Lausky (no, I can’t spell his name), the acting commanding officer of the ship. Master Chief would do all he can to find and protect Lausky, or at least go out of his way to receive direct orders from him either in person or over a communication cannel (which were being jammed so he would have to meet up with him in person). Yet Halsey never saw John or even heard him some form of radio.
In addition, John tends to stay around higher ranking officers just to talk to, so why did Halsey never see or hear that Master Chief was onboard. Are we to assume that John has sat in a room for however many months after the campaign without ever venturing out to have a walk around the ship? How did he not find out Halsey was onboard and try to see her? She is supposed to a very dangerous war criminal, so all units, soldiers, and personell would have been informed of her arrival for safety reasons.
None it seems to fit in with the story, military protocol, or (if you look deeper into the situation) the character of Master Chief.

@Claymore155

Here are some thoughts I have had surrounding Halo 4, in response to your questions, forgive me when I misspell names or forget them entirely:

  1. While Infinity and many crew members, including Palmer and Lasky, had fought the forerunners before in the events of Halo 4, Spartan Ops opens with Majestic team flying into Infinity on board a Pelican. Because of the way the team reacts to the sight of the massive ship, it appears that this is the first time they have seen it. They also discuss what events they were just doing before being assigned to Infinity, none of them making mention of being on Requiem. This leads me to understand that Majestic, and many of the other fire teams and marines, were on other missions or on leave during the events of Halo 4, and are only now seeing Infinity and Requiem for the first time. So while the Spartans may have been informed or trained in forerunner combat, their first actual engagement is noted.

2)The Covenant always outnumber us in every battle. While it is not that satisfying, it is not hard to imagine that even though we destroyed a Fleet in Halo 4 (or drove them off) there were more numbers to rally. That is something that the Halo universe has always been consistent on throughout the games; Covenant can always call for more troops. As for the timing, in the original Spartan Ops discussion between Palmer and Lasky, they mention that they have been waiting for 6 months for training. They did not want to jump the gun, but wanted to return prepared. It is not difficult to imagine that the Covenant regrouped at Requiem immediately after the defeat to pursue the Librarian. They may have been trying to get in and out before we returned in force.

  1. This is a good thought, and I can offer an interesting idea here, but this is just personal speculation. We know that the Master Chief was aboard Infinity at the end of Halo 4, and that he de-armored. But we do not really know if he was still on board during the Spartan Ops events. He may have left at some point after Infinity returned to Earth, but before it went back to Requiem. Halo 5 may take place during the same time as the Spartan Ops; you play as Master Chief on a mission that runs parallel to the story line taking place on board Infinity. You are on a different planet or Halo, and are not involved in the events of Spartan Ops. This would explain why Halsey did not know Jon was aboard, because when she was he had already left. I tend to agree that if he was on the ship somewhere she would find out. So the logical conclusion is that he left soon after he arrived. Who knows where he was during those 6 months? But I agree that him taking the time to just lay low is not very characteristic.

> …As for Spartan Ops, no clue. In all honesty, it could go in any direction. Halsey says she wants revenge but she never been so strait forward about her true intentions. This is also a great opportunity for the new Spartan IV’s to mature and start acting the way a Spartan should. (And something needs to be done about Palmer).
> I know you play as Fire-team Crimson, but the story seems to follow Majestic, so the gameplay is (once again, only in my opinion) not that crucial to the story. Majestic team was actually starting to work and think like a team towards the end of the season, so they cold have a lot of potential.

Agreed that there is SO much potential here with the Spartan Ops story. I hope we don’t have to wait until Halo 5 comes out for it to have more episodes/missions. Unfortunately, I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Each download of SpOps is huge. Some people have complained about that. More episodes would tie up space on people’s memory to the point where they might not even be able to play new episodes/missions due to too much space being taken up.

Agreed, that finally by the end of SpOps Majestic is acting more like a real Spartan squad and yeah, Palmer needs an adjustment, IMO.

> Maybe Master Chief will get involved in the story as well. I personally wold like to find out what happened to Buck’s ODST squad for Halo 3: ODST.

There are plenty of fans, count me in there, that would like to see the ODSTs return, specifically Buck. Especially if he became a Spartan IV.

> 1.) In the first missions of Spartan Ops season 1, why did everyone act like they had never seen Promethian combatants before?
>
> The storyline is supposed to take place several months after the main Halo 4 campaign ends. By that point, the Infinity with all of its advanced technology should have simulations to practice fighting the Promethians or at least had the time to educate the crew onboard about them.
> The first few missions seem like the Infinity is running in with no previous experience with Promethians. It could be argued that Palmer is trying to share some “wisdom” with Crimson when they first see an enemy, but based on her character, I think she was basically saying spray and pray.

Watch the first episode of SpOps again. Majestic and Crimson are NEW to the Infinity. They are brought on board right before Infinity slips to Requiem. Palmer wanted to run them through War Games for 48 hours, but Lasky said no, that the UNSC wanted them ready to go. (Not tired from War Games I’d assume) Essentially Lasky was saying he wanted boots on the ground the moment they exited slipspace at Requiem.

> 2.) Why are there still Covenant around Requiem?
>
> This one i probably my fault for not understanding. I just remember that when the Didact left Requiem to get the Composer, all (or what I thought was all) of the Covenant forces followed him.
> I know they would probably want to return, but after the huge battle with the UNSC in Earth’s orbit, I wouldn’t think the Covenant would have enough ships, troops, and resources to go back before the humans. It just seems odd that after a huge defeat like that above Earth, the Covenant would been be able to dig in with such a large military presence before the UNSC could even get one ship out there.

Fairly simple here. Jul M’dama’s “Storm” faction went back to Requiem to get as many of the Forerunner secrets as possible. Read the Kilo-5 books (Glasslands and The Thursday War) and you’ll gain a new appreciation for Jul’s forces. Those promise to ramp up even more in the third Kilo-5 book that takes place right before the events of Halo 4. Jul has assembled a large force of Covenant, now “Storm.” The UNSC/humanity is still reeling from the decades long war the the Covies, not to mention the destruction of New Phoenix just 6 months prior to going back to Requiem. They can’t devote a huge force to go back to Requiem. Sending the Infinity back is a logical solution, but not until they have the ground personnel they need to take Requiem from the Covies.

Enter the new large faction of Spartans now on the Infinity. Note in Episode 1 of SpOps that Palmer speaks of “old hands.” She’s referring to the smaller contingent of Spartans that were already on Infinity the first time they went to Requiem.

Also, don’t forget that the Infinity was repurposed to be a scientific exploration vessel and not a war machine. It took those 6 months after the Didact’s attack on Earth to formulate a plan for return to Requim. This included adding many more Spartan teams. (Note that Palmer was a Lieutenant during the campaign and was promoted to Commander at the beginning of SPartan Ops. This denotes the much larger presence of Spartan teams for which she is in charge of). Beyond this, the Infinity needed to add more personnel. Military for defense and Scientific for exploring/exploiting the Forerunner tech found on Requiem.

> 3.) The way Halsey didn’t know that Master Chief was onboard doesn’t fit in.
>
> Halsey is smart, but it’s not impossible to hide things from her. However, Master Chief’s presence tends to fill the air of where ever he is, yet no one seemed to be talking about him.
> Master Chief is not one to sit out of a fight, especially when other people’s lives are in danger. And when when he fights, he (even unknowing) makes his presence known. So when the Infinity was boarded, why didn’t Halsey hear or see Chief? She was with Lasky, the acting commanding officer of the ship. Master Chief would do all he can to find and protect Lasky, or at least go out of his way to receive direct orders from him either in person or over a communication cannel (which were being jammed so he would have to meet up with him in person). Yet Halsey never saw John or even heard him some form of radio.

Master Chief is not on board the Infinity at the time of SpOps. So that does explain a lot. As well, Halsey is brought on board Infinity as a prisoner. It’s safe to assume that only essential personnel had contact with her and that they were under strict orders not to talk of Master Chief being on board previously.

As for where Chief is at during the events of SpOps, that may have to wait for Halo 5, if not another novel before then.

-HFFL

I have a feeling Cortana is still alive. Librarian probably did something to her when she snatched the chip away, and only a fragment of her was in the chip or something like that.

Perhaps the Janus key contains Cortana (or her location)? O_O

Now where done with requiem we can finally explore the galaxy a little.
Maybe visiting the Moon or Mars for missions like stopping elite terrorist.
or going to a covenant Home wold.

Everything is possible.

The Spartan Ops ending a bit…meh. I think DecepticonCobra said something about Requiem going boom in big scary sun (Thats not the way he said it… 0_0) and it was never mentioned by 343i that DecepticonCobra came up with it first. :s

> In addition, I had some questions of my own:
>
> 1.) In the first missions of Spartan Ops season 1, why did everyone act like they had never seen Promethian combatants before?
>
> The storyline is supposed to take place several months after the main Halo 4 campaign ends. By that point, the Infinity with all of its advanced technology should have simulations to practice fighting the Promethians or at least had the time to educate the crew onboard about them.
> The first few missions seem like the Infinity is running in with no previous experience with Promethians. It could be argued that Palmer is trying to share some “wisdom” with Crimson when they first see an enemy, but based on her character, I think she was basically saying spray and pray.
>
> 2.) Why are there still Covenant around Requiem?
>
> This one i probably my fault for not understanding. I just remember that when the Didact left Requiem to get the Composer, all (or what I thought was all) of the Covenant forces followed him.
> I know they would probably want to return, but after the huge battle with the UNSC in Earth’s orbit, I wouldn’t think the Covenant would have enough ships, troops, and resources to go back before the humans. It just seems odd that after a huge defeat like that above Earth, the Covenant would been be able to dig in with such a large military presence before the UNSC could even get one ship out there.
>
> 3.) The way Halsey didn’t know that Master Chief was onboard doesn’t fit in.
>
> Halsey is smart, but it’s not impossible to hide things from her. However, Master Chief’s presence tends to fill the air of where ever he is, yet no one seemed to be talking about him.
> Master Chief is not one to sit out of a fight, especially when other people’s lives are in danger. And when when he fights, he (even unknowing) makes his presence known. So when the Infinity was boarded, why didn’t Halsey hear or see Chief? She was with Lausky (no, I can’t spell his name), the acting commanding officer of the ship. Master Chief would do all he can to find and protect Lausky, or at least go out of his way to receive direct orders from him either in person or over a communication cannel (which were being jammed so he would have to meet up with him in person). Yet Halsey never saw John or even heard him some form of radio.
> In addition, John tends to stay around higher ranking officers just to talk to, so why did Halsey never see or hear that Master Chief was onboard. Are we to assume that John has sat in a room for however many months after the campaign without ever venturing out to have a walk around the ship? How did he not find out Halsey was onboard and try to see her? She is supposed to a very dangerous war criminal, so all units, soldiers, and personell would have been informed of her arrival for safety reasons.
> None it seems to fit in with the story, military protocol, or (if you look deeper into the situation) the character of Master Chief.

  1. Gameplay was in it’s early stages (hint: no Campaign devs worked on season 1.0). But concerning the cinematics, they did say you could play Spartan Ops before playing the Campaign.

  2. Apparently, in those 6 months, Jul was able to recruit veterans of the Human-Covenant war. Even if this was before Chief awoke, it means Jul has reestablished link with the known worlds (may have even let slip about ONI being undiplomatic) though it’s more likely he’s just trying to reignite a dead religion for his purposes.

  3. Knowing John, he’s either boarded a Covenant ship or is monitoring something (i.e. a planet) from afar (and I guess he would try to keep his mind off of Requiem since Cortana died on it). Or he’s in a cryotube.

Even thought the Didact might be immune to the composer; Chief put a granade on his head, he fall down that “bridge”, there was a nuke detonating and he might be floating in space. I don’t know about the books and what kind of gadgets the Didact might have to survive all those things, but I hope he is - just like Cortana - gone for good and won’t return for some freaky reason.

“Perhaps” Cortana is brought back by Halsey to get close to Master Chief. Perhaps Halsey is able to contact Chief and tell him “There is a way to get her back…”. But what does she want from him? Revenge, too? Is he some kind of tool to get her revenge on others? I don’t know. I just guess there might be something.

There definitely must be a new AI. Just imagine how “it” will be way different than Cortana and Chief just tries to get along with “it”. And the new AI does everything to fill Cortana’s shoes. However, there is a big character-building oppertunity.

After the events of Halo 4, the Chief is “relaxing” somehow, trying to be “human” (Cortana’s “last words”). Eventually he finds out, he is somehow unable to be human and will allways be a “killer-machine” (Just like in sooo many movies). That’s the reason he’s not on board of the Infinity during the events of Spartan Ops.

What happens next seems quite clear: There is this map with all Foreunners secrets. I guess the plot of Halo 5+6 will focus on how to get both key/map-elements and how Covenant and Humans will have some kind of race to get one special installation - or most of them (Shieldworlds, weapons, ships, wathever).
The “goal” will be the Mantle of Responsibility.

To me the only great Unkown is everything about what happened to the Arbiter, the Covenant etc. during Halo 3 and 4. This story-part is able to give a hole new spin to everything else - especially because there was nothing about it in Halo 4.

Cortana is coming back, whether you like it or not.

> -HFFL

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and answer my lengthy questions. I’ve never been able to read any of the books because there are no book stores near me, but I will be looking for them online soon. I didn’t know about many of the things you picked up on and referenced, so thank you :slight_smile:

I also want to thank Z522 and Sliding Ghost for taking the time to help me. It’s community members like all of you that I most enjoy talking to, so thank you.

I look forward to seeing where all of these intertwining stories and characters take us.

If Cortana’s dead? Good.

Also I do believe the Didact’s dead. If the fall didn’t kill him, the nuke sure as hell did.

@Z522, John is being held by ONI. I do not know where or why exactly. But I have a feeling they would definitely like to know why he didn’t turned to dust when the composer struck the station, and what exactly did the librarian changed on John.

Seeing as an entire city’s population was dusted, and now further evidence that their population was used against them in the events through Spartan Ops, this information would be valuable to them.

> Didn’t 343 say something about SpartanOps 2 on how they might carry it on but it’s not likely.
>
> Most people believe it will either be later into the year or maybe part of Halo 5.
>
> As for Cortana… I don’t know.
>
> I hope she has gone to expand on the creativity but at the same time no because <mark>she’s been with the chief for years.</mark>

Actually a few months because Chief was asleep in those years

> Cortana is coming back, whether you like it or not.

Except the epilogue states she’s dead :confused:

@Claymore.

  1. Cortana’s dead this time though, there is nothing to save.

  2. Buck returning would be great, and I think they’ll need to work Arbiter in as well. But I doubt the Chief will return until Halo 5.

  3. There were no Covenant ships at earth; you don’t see any jump to slip space with the Didact’s vessel. The only Covie forces that went with him were the fleet of Liches and some cruisers. The full extent of M’dama’s fleet is unknown.

  4. Master Chief and Halsey were never on the ship at the same time. Halsey has been imprisoned elsewhere, she only came on board long after the Chief gave his debriefing and left 6 months earlier. She would never have known he was on the Infinity, let alone alive; as Halsey says, Chief WAS on board the ship, not IS.

> If Cortana’s dead? Good.
>
> Also I do believe the Didact’s dead. If the fall didn’t kill him, the nuke sure as hell did.

I’m not sure Nukes can travel through slipspace…