It just occurred to me that it could be an interesting introduction to the new Enemy. If the new enemy isn’t restricted to Requiem, then I think it’s a possibility that they may be responsible for the attack. Oni didn’t do it. Hood didn’t do it. It’s either Insurrectionists, Prophets/Brutes, or I’m thinking this new bad guy.
It’d be an interesting turn of events. They’d probably have to turn to us for help.
> It just occurred to me that it could be an interesting introduction to the new Enemy. If the new enemy isn’t restricted to Requiem, then I think it’s a possibility that they may be responsible for the attack. Oni didn’t do it. Hood didn’t do it. It’s either Insurrectionists, Prophets/Brutes, or I’m thinking this new bad guy.
>
> It’d be an interesting turn of events. They’d probably have to turn to us for help.
I don’t think Hood would have done that, in fact he probably would not have ordered Halsey to be jailed due to having respect for her and her Spartans as seen in Halo First Strike.
Im thinking the abiding truth or new enemy. But man do i hate paragosky with a passion.
Well to be honest, I would have thought that 343 would rather introduce the new enemy visualy in game rather than in words, so that people don’t create a mental image of the new enemy in there heads and then become disapointed when they look different in Halo 4.
As The Thursday War is out before Halo 4, I think that the attack will be from someone we already know, and then maybe hint at the new enemy at the end.
But thats just me 
I think it is possible that it could be the unsc if tensions flair it would explain why mc gets attacked by covies in halo 4
I am sure this would have been brought up in other post-war media if this was the case not to mention it wouldn’t make sense for them to be on that planet to start with.
Maybe it’s the Caveat! Lulz
But on topic, my money is on The Abiding Truth. I’m sure The Thursday War will shift from “post war woes” and start focusing on “potential second war worries.”
I don’t really know, to be honest.
I’m thinking it might be the Brutes, considering the Elites and the Brutes are still at war after the Great Schism up until 2559, so this would be a good way to get us adjusted to dealing with this conflict.
Personally, I’m hoping The Thursday War deals with the Elites driving back an invading Brute force from their homeworld, Sangheilios. Imagine how amazing that story would be.
But, according to the recent novels, it seems that it may be a possibility that The Servants of Abiding Truth are the aggressors. In my opinion, I’d rather see them rise to power a little later after pushing the Brutes back.
Why would the Servants be attacking themselves in their own temple?
My money is on the Brutes. As of Glasslands some of the Elites want to continue to fight the Humans but if the Brutes attack them then now they’ll have someone else to focus their attention on. Plus the Return implied the war with the Brutes waged on for sometime anyways.
> Why would the Servants be attacking themselves in their own temple?
Exactly. In the end, one of the Servants seems to be just as surprised by the explosion as Phillips.
Personally think that an attack by Insurrectionists is unlikely, unless it’s a false-flag operation intended to kickstart the Covenant-UNSC war again. Still, not sure how they’d make it convincing, unless they have capital ships of their own.
Brute-Prophet alliance is more probable, but I can’t see that happening since Glasslands handwaved the Great Schism with “It’s over and done, already”.
Brutes are the only logical assumption due to what we know.
I really think it’s probably the Prophets. The Brutes are even more inept at repairing stuff than the Elites, whereas the Prophets took almost all of the Engineers with them, meaning they’d be the ones with functioning stuff.
It’s not any of Telcam’s band. He was genuinely suprised at what was going on, as were the others with him. He wasn’t behind it.
It’s not ONI, since they’re trying to wear the Elites down silently, the last thing they’d do is make a distinctly unsubtle action like whatever the hell’s going on in the end there, especially since Kilo-5 is down there and could easily be caught in the attack.
It wouldn’t be the UNSC either, they just got done getting that truce between them and the forces under the Arbiter’s command, they wouldn’t then go and start assaulting Sanghelios, especially seeing as they’re still recovering from the war with the Covenant.
As for the new enemy, just like as Astrogenesis said, i think 343i would wanna introduce them visually in Halo 4 instead of just in text in a book, so i really doubt it’s them.
The Arbiter and his Elites perhaps?
> The Arbiter and his Elites perhaps?
The Arbiter wants unity of Sangheilios so they can rebuild and relearn, starting a civil war probably wouldn’t be within his interest, it would set them back years in recovering from The Great Schism. If not the Arbiter, I’m not sure any Sangheili would launch a war upon his own planet, that goes against the fundamentals of any Sangheili no matter his political views.
Just running down the list:
Unggoy - Unlikely, they haven’t been known for war mongering.
Kig-Yar - While they’re advancing in small increments from picking up technology from the remnants of the war, it’s unlikely they’d be brave enough to launch an attack on Sangheilios alone.
Jiralhanae - At this point, I feel like the Brutes are pretty divided. You have some working for the Sangheili, there’s also some drifting in space doing their own thing. I don’t feel like they really pose much of a threat anymore, much less launching an attack on Sangheilios. It’s possible, but I don’t feel it’s that likely.
Humans - Also unlikely. Keyes promised peace as far as he could control, his control stops where ONI begins essentially, and as far as we know, ONI isn’t interested in a confrontational battle. They already have operations underway. It could be the Insurrectionists, but seeing as how they wouldn’t gain much from launching an attack on Sangheilios (unless ‘hired’ by some external party), I don’t think they’d want to put themselves on the radar.
Forerunners - Big nope. While I doubt they have enough numbers (if any) to launch an attack, I also really doubt their first appearance and greeting back to life in the galaxy would be to launch an attack on a planet for no apparent reason. Their history leads up to a tragic “karma sucks” scenario. They suppressed life, then ultimately got suppressed in the end. Re-living their mistakes would be foolish, given their fate.
Precursors - Given the fact that they are a potential candidate for the new threat, I’m going to stick with nope on this one as well, seeing as how I don’t think 343 wants to give that away.
In the end, I want to say it’s the San 'Shyuum, but we don’t have much of an idea of where their current technological, or militaristic standing is at the moment. They have the highest motive because they were the masters pulling everyone’s strings. They probably still want to seek after The Great Journey and might see the Sangheili as a threat now, or grouped them in as heretics with the humans.
> Humans - Also unlikely. <mark>Keyes</mark> promised peace as far as he could control
I’d just like to point out that it wasn’t Keyes, it was Hood.
What has 343 told us through videos and Pictures of Halo 4? That on the very first level there is a Covenant Fleet surrounding FUD outside of Requiem. I heard somewhere that the new Antagonists, attacked The Covenant before Halo 4, perhaps this is what happens in “The Thursday War”
Well they already said the deal with fighting the covenant in the beginning is to help the player transition from old Halo to new Halo. And Canonically, they could be pirates. It would explain the cut down armor they all seem to be wearing.