So we know after the war ONI set out to look for the remaining Halo rings and have set up research stations at Installations 03 and 05. Remember the 7 installations had to be set out evenly across the galaxy and Human space at its largest expansion prior to the Human-Covenant War only covered about 50 light years across at most. AND that Installation 04 was the closest ring.
So if it took the Pillar of Autumn almost a month to get to Installation 04 from Reach, which was the closet Halo ring. So just how long would it take to get to 03 or 05? It would take months and months to get there and then again to get back. The only reason the UNSC In Amber Clad got to 05 so quickly(3 weeks) was because it followed Regret’s carrier in its slipspace wake and the UNSC had to use Covenant Separatist ships to get back to Earth.
So how is ONI making research stations orbiting Halo rings scattered tens of thousands light years apart with humanity’s relatively primitive slipspace drives in such a short amount of time? All of human space is but a pixel compared to the tv screen sized gaps of space between the rings.
This looks like another oversight on K. Traviss’ part. But presumably they have a number of ships with advanced engine systems enhanced by Forerunner tech. If Infinity is advanced as it’s made out to be then the same principals could be applied to other ships. They have Huragok now so it shouldn’t be too difficult to improve their drives.
> This looks like another oversight on K. Traviss’ part. But presumably they have a number of ships with advanced engine systems enhanced by Forerunner tech. If Infinity is advanced as it’s made out to be then the same principals could be applied to other ships. They have Huragok now so it shouldn’t be too difficult to improve their drives.
I would assume that someone at 343 Industries would make the call to give ONI the remaining Halo rings. It’s probably one of the things on their “must include” list that Traviss has to write in. I just highly doubt that she would suggest giving ONI the rest of the rings and 343 Industries would just go with it. It is probably part of a bigger plan…
> > This looks like another oversight on K. Traviss’ part. But presumably they have a number of ships with advanced engine systems enhanced by Forerunner tech. If Infinity is advanced as it’s made out to be then the same principals could be applied to other ships. They have Huragok now so it shouldn’t be too difficult to improve their drives.
>
> I would assume that someone at 343 Industries would make the call to give ONI the remaining Halo rings. It’s probably one of the things on their “must include” list that Traviss has to write in. I just highly doubt that she would suggest giving ONI the rest of the rings and 343 Industries would just go with it. It is probably part of a bigger plan…
It’s not the inclusion of the Halos that is the problem, it’s the transport issue. She doesn’t know anything about the Halo Universe so she wouldn’t think to question distances and travel times.
The location and distances of the Halo Rings are unknown so we can’t say whether or not the UNSC is capable of reaching them or not. Some might want to chalk it up to more Traviss bashing but the Halo Encyclopedia said that the UNSC had spent years taking what little advantage they could by reverse engineering Forerunner tech but the advancements weren’t widespread because of the War. Obviously a branch like ONI would be one of the groups to benefit from these advancements and their Prowlers, like the Port Stanley, received Forerunner upgrades. This is mentioned in the book.
It would appear the Halo Rings are closer to UNSC Space than we think as well. The Covenant existed for some 3000 years before ever finding a Halo Ring yet two are found in one year after getting closer and closer to Earth which would seem to imply the Rings are in relative close proximity to Earth but just out of our reach that they had not been discovered yet. Let’s break it down from the facts we do know, (in order of discovery).
Installation 04: 21 Days away from Reach for the UNSC, based on Pillar of Autumn and 1 Day away from Reach for Covenant, based on Ascendent Justice.
Installation 05: Unknown Days away from Earth for UNSC. It took the Solemn Penance about 13 days to reach Installation 05 and about 14 days for UNSC ships following in her wake. How long it would take the UNSC to arrive without the speed boost of a Covenant ship is unknown., (I’m too lazy at this exact moment to do the math).
Installation 03: Unknown Days away from Earth for UNSC. It’s of note however that Parangosky was on Earth for the Voi Memorial on March 3rd, 2553 and it was still March when she appeared on Ivanoff Station in orbit of Installation 03. It would appear to take less than a month to reach it from Earth using whatever ship she had available. Ghosts of Onyx said she used the UNSC Point of No Return as her base of operations so we can probably believe this was the ship she used to get there, although this is unconfirmed.
> > > This looks like another oversight on K. Traviss’ part. But presumably they have a number of ships with advanced engine systems enhanced by Forerunner tech. If Infinity is advanced as it’s made out to be then the same principals could be applied to other ships. They have Huragok now so it shouldn’t be too difficult to improve their drives.
> >
> > I would assume that someone at 343 Industries would make the call to give ONI the remaining Halo rings. It’s probably one of the things on their “must include” list that Traviss has to write in. I just highly doubt that she would suggest giving ONI the rest of the rings and 343 Industries would just go with it. It is probably part of a bigger plan…
>
> It’s not the inclusion of the Halos that is the problem, it’s the transport issue. She doesn’t know anything about the Halo Universe so she wouldn’t think to question distances and travel times.
Doesn’t know anything about it??? She’s bloody well helping craft a huge chunk of it - a bridge from the old era to the new! Of course she knows plenty about it…
You also seem to forget her content is reviewed and reviewed and reviewed again by quite a few people at 343 Industries. Both in-progress and completed, Traviss’ work is given feedback. The franchise planners create a groundwork for the story. Basically, the point I’m trying to make is that Karen’s novels passed through a lot of hands to reach yours, and if Karen made these oversights, a few people at our beloved developer did too.
So I wouldn’t say it’s fair to say she knows nothing of the universe. If she didn’t, she would never have been trusted to bridge the fictional gap between the Covenant War and the new era. Additionally, as much as people would like to deny it, Glasslands shows the Karen does know quite a bit about Halo. It’s just her spin on it that was received negatively.
> It would appear the Halo Rings are closer to UNSC Space than we think as well. The Covenant existed for some 3000 years before ever finding a Halo Ring yet two are found in one year after getting closer and closer to Earth which would seem to imply the Rings are in relative close proximity to Earth but just out of our reach that they had not been discovered yet.
You’re forgetting that the only way the UNSC and Covenant found Installation 04 was because of the Forerunner crystal from Sigma Octanus IV combined with the information from the Forerunner structure under ONI Sword Base on Reach.
And the only reason the UNSC got to Installation 05 was because they followed Regret there, however is it known how the Covenant found it?
Its has been assumed that the rings are distributed equidistant around the galactic plane, given a traditional interpretation of a “25,000 light year” spherical radius and the inverse-square law for a point radiation source.
But that means 05 should have been hundreds maybe thousands of years travel away from 04, and it clearly wasnt. Then we have dialogue in Origins saying the rings were “scattered throughout the galaxy” yet a CEA terminal claims the pulses can significantly overlap and lead to some sort of range/power boosting when in fact in an equidistant model, wavefronts approaching each other at the edge of their ranges would tend to cancel each other out if anything.
I think its never been properly established where the rings are, and its an issue which has been neglected over the years to the point they may have painted themselves into a corner on the issue canon wise.
> > It would appear the Halo Rings are closer to UNSC Space than we think as well. The Covenant existed for some 3000 years before ever finding a Halo Ring yet two are found in one year after getting closer and closer to Earth which would seem to imply the Rings are in relative close proximity to Earth but just out of our reach that they had not been discovered yet.
>
> You’re forgetting that the only way the UNSC and Covenant found Installation 04 was because of the Forerunner crystal from Sigma Octanus IV combined with the information from the Forerunner structure under ONI Sword Base on Reach.
>
> And the only reason the UNSC got to Installation 05 was because they followed Regret there, however is it known how the Covenant found it?
That’s about how they found them, not how the reached them. Installation 04 is pretty close to UNSC space when you consider that Harvest is two months away from Reach yet the Pillar of Autumn reached Installation 04 in 21 days. It would appear that the Halo Rings are simply stealthy enough to have been hidden from our detection and was probably placed in a Star System which had no planets worth colonizing and therefor didn’t get our attention.
After the discovery of Alpha Halo and then Delta Halo it’s probable that the UNSC simply learned how to find them and started doing so afterwards. We know they discovered Installation 03 from Glasslands and one of the armor descriptions in Halo 4 says it was used by forces exploring Gamma Halo, which according to files in Halo 3 would be Installation 06. So that’s two more found.
Halo Rings can be moved. If they were spread out for activation purposes they could have been moved afterwards so they are closer together and easier to find. Obviously they don’t want someone else to find them which is why the Covenant didn’t find one until they got closer to our Planet.
I’d imagine that in the time it took for the Dawn to be sent through the portal, Lord Hood probably stationed some ONI operatives on it as well. Assuming they collected data then made it back with the Shadow of Intent, the UNSC could potentially have a treasure trove of incredibly valuable data from the Ark installation. This of course is just speculation, but I don’t think out of the realm of possibility.
> Doesn’t know anything about it??? She’s bloody well helping craft a huge chunk of it - a bridge from the old era to the new! Of course she knows plenty about it…
She said herself that she intentionally didn’t read the existing material because she didn’t want to have a warped interpretation or some BS to that effect.
> You also seem to forget her content is reviewed and reviewed and reviewed again by quite a few people at 343 Industries. Both in-progress and completed, Traviss’ work is given feedback. The franchise planners create a groundwork for the story. Basically, the point I’m trying to make is that Karen’s novels passed through a lot of hands to reach yours, and if Karen made these oversights, a few people at our beloved developer did too.
I’m aware of this, which makes it worse. You think someone along the way would have caught some of the issues.
> So I wouldn’t say it’s fair to say she knows nothing of the universe. If she didn’t, she would never have been trusted to bridge the fictional gap between the Covenant War and the new era. Additionally, as much as people would like to deny it, Glasslands shows the Karen does know quite a bit about Halo. It’s just her spin on it that was received negatively.
She was given an overview of the events 343i want to happen, the details are left to her. And that’s where the problems have arisen.
We don’t know where the Halo’s are in relation to any human planet except for Alpha Halo…and even then we only know how long it take to get there from Reach, not where in the Milky Way it is >_> Same thing with Delta Halo, we don’t know where it is…or any of the other Halos so we have no idea at all how long it could take to get to them. As for how everyone is hopping around so quickly in Glasslands, they’ve just started applying Slipspace drives utilizing Forerunner technology to all the ships, ONI’s being some of the first ones to be receiving these.
And considering that the Forerunners were pretty much only in the Orion Arm and Orion Complex of the galaxy, I doubt the Halos would be spread too much further than that. That’s where the Flood attacked them and where the whole Flood-Forerunner war was concentrated, in the Forerunner Empire and along with the fringes of it, and that’s where all of the Halo’s are, scattered across the space the Forerunners controlled, or on the outer fringes of it. Compared to the whole of the galaxy, the Orion Arm of it is not too big for Humanity to really be traversing in shortish amounts of time.
> We don’t know where the Halo’s are in relation to any human planet except for Alpha Halo…and even then we only know how long it take to get there from Reach, not where in the Milky Way it is >_> Same thing with Delta Halo, we don’t know where it is…or any of the other Halos so we have no idea at all how long it could take to get to them. As for how everyone is hopping around so quickly in Glasslands, they’ve just started applying Slipspace drives utilizing Forerunner technology to all the ships, ONI’s being some of the first ones to be receiving these.
>
> And considering that the Forerunners were pretty much only in the Orion Arm and Orion Complex of the galaxy, I doubt the Halos would be spread too much further than that. That’s where the Flood attacked them and where the whole Flood-Forerunner war was concentrated, in the Forerunner Empire and along with the fringes of it, and that’s where all of the Halo’s are, scattered across the space the Forerunners controlled, or on the outer fringes of it. Compared to the whole of the galaxy, the Orion Arm of it is not too big for Humanity to really be traversing in shortish amounts of time.
Except the Halo rings would have to be evenly distributed around the galaxy to work as they are intended to. And the Forerunners were mostly concentrated in the Orion Arm but were spread through the majority of the galaxy. Like how in real life on Earth we have concentrated cites but also open rural areas.
> > We don’t know where the Halo’s are in relation to any human planet except for Alpha Halo…and even then we only know how long it take to get there from Reach, not where in the Milky Way it is >_> Same thing with Delta Halo, we don’t know where it is…or any of the other Halos so we have no idea at all how long it could take to get to them. As for how everyone is hopping around so quickly in Glasslands, they’ve just started applying Slipspace drives utilizing Forerunner technology to all the ships, ONI’s being some of the first ones to be receiving these.
> >
> > And considering that the Forerunners were pretty much only in the Orion Arm and Orion Complex of the galaxy, I doubt the Halos would be spread too much further than that. That’s where the Flood attacked them and where the whole Flood-Forerunner war was concentrated, in the Forerunner Empire and along with the fringes of it, and that’s where all of the Halo’s are, scattered across the space the Forerunners controlled, or on the outer fringes of it. Compared to the whole of the galaxy, the Orion Arm of it is not too big for Humanity to really be traversing in shortish amounts of time.
>
> Except the Halo rings would have to be evenly distributed around the galaxy to work as they are intended to. And the Forerunners were mostly concentrated in the Orion Arm but were spread through the majority of the galaxy. Like how in real life on Earth we have concentrated cites but also open rural areas.
I’ve never seen anything at all saying that the Forerunners were anywhere but the Orion Arm or the fringes of it…the Ark was the furthest out that they went, and that was only one place. The Flood were only concentrating on the Forerunners at that time, when going about conquering and so on, you focus first and foremost on who or what can resist you and then worry about the rest. The Forerunners were the only significant threat the Flood so they hadn’t spread anywhere else but the Orion Arm of the galaxy and Forerunner space. The Forerunners did not span the whole galaxy, I don’t think that’s ever been said by either 343i or Bungie >_>
> > > We don’t know where the Halo’s are in relation to any human planet except for Alpha Halo…and even then we only know how long it take to get there from Reach, not where in the Milky Way it is >> Same thing with Delta Halo, we don’t know where it is…or any of the other Halos so we have no idea at all how long it could take to get to them. As for how everyone is hopping around so quickly in Glasslands, they’ve just started applying Slipspace drives utilizing Forerunner technology to all the ships, ONI’s being some of the first ones to be receiving these.
> > >
> > > And considering that the Forerunners were pretty much only in the Orion Arm and Orion Complex of the galaxy, I doubt the Halos would be spread too much further than that. That’s where the Flood attacked them and where the whole Flood-Forerunner war was concentrated, in the Forerunner Empire and along with the fringes of it, and that’s where all of the Halo’s are, scattered across the space the Forerunners controlled, or on the outer fringes of it. Compared to the whole of the galaxy, the Orion Arm of it is not too big for Humanity to really be traversing in shortish amounts of time.
> >
> > Except the Halo rings would have to be evenly distributed around the galaxy to work as they are intended to. And the Forerunners were mostly concentrated in the Orion Arm but were spread through the majority of the galaxy. Like how in real life on Earth we have concentrated cites but also open rural areas.
>
> I’ve never seen anything at all saying that the Forerunners were anywhere but the Orion Arm or the fringes of it…the Ark was the furthest out that they went, and that was only one place. The Flood were only concentrating on the Forerunners at that time, when going about conquering and so on, you focus first and foremost on who or what can resist you and then worry about the rest. The Forerunners were the only significant threat the Flood so they hadn’t spread anywhere else but the Orion Arm of the galaxy and Forerunner space. The Forerunners did not span the whole galaxy, I don’t think that’s ever been said by either 343i or Bungie >>
Indeed Guilty Spark says that the harmonics of the overlapping waves would magnify that effect exponentially, cascading to cover every known star system. So they do not have to be evenly spaced because the waves will intersect with each other and then boost the effect. The Rings have to be a lot closer than people think. They have to be at least a months journey from the heart of UNSC Space for the current level of technology the UNSC possesses pre-Forerunner enhancements.
> > > We don’t know where the Halo’s are in relation to any human planet except for Alpha Halo…and even then we only know how long it take to get there from Reach, not where in the Milky Way it is >> Same thing with Delta Halo, we don’t know where it is…or any of the other Halos so we have no idea at all how long it could take to get to them. As for how everyone is hopping around so quickly in Glasslands, they’ve just started applying Slipspace drives utilizing Forerunner technology to all the ships, ONI’s being some of the first ones to be receiving these.
> > >
> > > And considering that the Forerunners were pretty much only in the Orion Arm and Orion Complex of the galaxy, I doubt the Halos would be spread too much further than that. That’s where the Flood attacked them and where the whole Flood-Forerunner war was concentrated, in the Forerunner Empire and along with the fringes of it, and that’s where all of the Halo’s are, scattered across the space the Forerunners controlled, or on the outer fringes of it. Compared to the whole of the galaxy, the Orion Arm of it is not too big for Humanity to really be traversing in shortish amounts of time.
> >
> > Except the Halo rings would have to be evenly distributed around the galaxy to work as they are intended to. And the Forerunners were mostly concentrated in the Orion Arm but were spread through the majority of the galaxy. Like how in real life on Earth we have concentrated cites but also open rural areas.
>
> I’ve never seen anything at all saying that the Forerunners were anywhere but the Orion Arm or the fringes of it…the Ark was the furthest out that they went, and that was only one place. The Flood were only concentrating on the Forerunners at that time, when going about conquering and so on, you focus first and foremost on who or what can resist you and then worry about the rest. The Forerunners were the only significant threat the Flood so they hadn’t spread anywhere else but the Orion Arm of the galaxy and Forerunner space. The Forerunners did not span the whole galaxy, I don’t think that’s ever been said by either 343i or Bungie >>
Are you forgetting that the Flood also waged a war with Humanity? And several other species. The Flood did not solely focus on the Forerunners as the Forerunners were forced to evacuate planets of other species as well.
> Though separated by thousands of light-years, the installations are networked together and capable of remote activation at the Ark, an extragalatic fallback point. Each Halo installation has a maximum effective range of 25,000 light-years in every direction.