Well, if Isabel doesn’t know about the Created and Cortana’s offer per the trailer where the portal mysteriously shuts down…then how can the character confront that dilemma unless Cortana and the Prometheans show up in Halo Wars 2? 
Yeah I reckon the Dev’s are tip toeing around the fact they’re going to play a major role in the story. I mean why else would Kevin Grace be talking about how the game is part of this shared universe where:
"Cortana is getting up to her shenanigans — galactically-threatening shenanigans — over there,”
"Right now it (the Ark) is… outside of Cortana’s immediate threat range.”
“Actually, Isabel’s relationship position in regards to Cortana’s offer to the other AIs, is a relevant detail for the game. But, again, we’re going to let people experience that when the game out.”
Thoughts?
Well, I doubt the whole game and story is going to be self-contained to the Ark. Whether there are Prometheans or not (I’ll be pleasantly surprised if there aren’t), any contact with people in the galaxy is going to reveal what’s going on with Cortana, and Isabel is going to have to react to the news in some way or another. They’ll probably make contact with the UNSC at some point in Halo Wars 2.
Also,
“We’re putting all of these stories together cooperatively. We’re doing them at the same time [with] the same team. I’m working with the internal, the shooter story team constantly to see what plans they are getting up to. What do they do? Where did they drop us off in [Halo] 5? Where does Halo Wars 2 pick up? What could this mean, events of Halo Wars 2, for games in the future that are coming from 343 in the Halo universe. This is all done very intentionally.”
Haha, where have we been fed this line before? Remember the big chart of how interconnected Halo 5 was going to be to everything else, from the novels to Hunt the Truth? How cooperative all those stories were supposed to be? It’s going to be a long time before I believe words like “done very intentionally” from 343i, I’m afraid.
> 2533274884722193;2:
> Well, I doubt the whole game and story is going to be self-contained to the Ark. Whether there are Prometheans or not (I’ll be pleasantly surprised if there aren’t), any contact with people in the galaxy is going to reveal what’s going on with Cortana, and Isabel is going to have to react to the news in some way or another. They’ll probably make contact with the UNSC at some point in Halo Wars 2.
>
> Also,
> *“We’re putting all of these stories together cooperatively. We’re doing them at the same time [with] the same team. I’m working with the internal, the shooter story team constantly to see what plans they are getting up to. What do they do? Where did they drop us off in [Halo] 5? Where does Halo Wars 2 pick up? What could this mean, events of Halo Wars 2, for games in the future that are coming from 343 in the Halo universe. This is all done very intentionally.”*Haha, where have we been fed this line before? Remember the big chart of how interconnected Halo 5 was going to be to everything else, from the novels to Hunt the Truth? How cooperative all those stories were supposed to be? It’s going to be a long time before I believe words like “done very intentionally” from 343i, I’m afraid.
Its a bit different because none of the themes, tones, conflicts and characterization carried over or was represented in the games. I am guessing HW2 is going to be much more on the nose. ie Shes gonna take the Ark.