I really hope we’re going to get a proper explanation on how SoF ends up at the ark.
Now, of course there’s little to go by at the moment, but I’d like to share my opinions, points of views and mind anyway.
First of all, Halo Wars 1 ending.
The SoF is not drifting, they’re just travelling below the speed of light.
Now of course it’s not within the realm of impossibilities that they’re travelling close to the speed of light, but still “slow” regardless considering the vast distances that occupy space. It’d for instance take four years of light speed travel to reach our closest start.
The Legendary ending doesn’t show us anything at all in terms of pictures or video, it’s just Serina waking the captain up stating that something happened so we don’t know where they are at that point.
Escalation then:
This little comic series has a small segment where we see the SoF orbiting a green planet, the ship is evacuated and a single flood spore dance in on the panel.
This happen after Halo 4, more than six months after I dare say?
From there up to the point of Halo Wars 2 then?
From what we know of the story of Halo Wars 2
Link.
Short summary is that Cutter wakes up above the Ark after 28 years in Cryosleep.
Immediatley we’re met with issues.
The legendary ending sets the game up to something, in Escalation we see the flood on the ship, above a green planet. This makes it somewhat clear what happened to the SoF. With HW2 however we learn that the crew has been asleep for 28 years. Either the thing that happened was immediately after Cutters went into Cryosleep, or we’re seeing a massive retcon of both HW1 Leg ending and the Escalation panel.
Another issue is the distance. Our galaxy has a diameter of 100-180 light years, that’s a significant amount. The Ark is said to be 262,144 light years from galactic center.
If we take the largest radius of our galaxy, 90 light years, the Ark is still 172, 144 light years away from the edge of our galaxy.
As everyone should know, a light year is a measure of distance, it’s how far you get by travelling a year in the speed of light. The SoF is not traveling at the speed of light, and even if they were, and the Shield World was located at the very edge of the galaxy as close as possible to the ark, they’re still missing 172 116 years of the travel time to get to the ark.
Here are my issues:
They can’t possibly make it to the ark in 28 years by going below the speed of light, or even at the speed of light.
What happened to the ship in Escalation? Is it a retcon or are we being mislead about the HW2 story at this point?
My concern is that we’re seeing a Halo 5 V2.0 in terms of story marketing…
Now, a thing I noticed in the Beta.
The map’s description reads: “The wrath of an awakened giant scars the land”
Considering Halo Wars 2 takes place after Halo 5, the description could mean a Guardian got up from that location, if that map is on the Ark.
Speculations then:
Serina goes into some sort of hybernation, and once 28 years have passed, a Guardian awakens in their system on a nearby planet which is the event that happens. It’s not hostile towards them as it’s objective is to get to Genesis. Serina wakes up and notice the slip space portal opening. Perhaps without hesitation, she hurls the ship into the portal with the Guardian and they end up on Genesis, only to be sucked into, or forced into, another portal that has been opened by another Guardian, namely one that could come from the Ark. So through some means they end up on the Ark, exiting through the Entry opened by the Ark Guardian.
The Halo 5 announcement trailer is believed to be on the Ark, and that’s a guardian rising from the sands.
Ricochet is a sand map as well.
I think that could be a logical way, somewhat, of how the SoF got to the Ark, and the events of that game happening post-Halo 5.
Still, Cutter wakes up above the Ark? I’d say that the SoF would have been in detection range had it travelled there “conventionally” from Halo 3 and forward.
Then again, info may be withheld for the sake of not spoiling the story.
But my jimmies will be rustled majorly if the SoF just bypassed 170 000 years in 28 years and decided to conveniently land at the Ark.
What’s your take? How do you think they ended up at the Ark?