The year is 2552. Planet Earth still exists, but overpopulation has forced many of her former residents to colonize other worlds. Faster-than-light travel is now a reality, and Earth's unified government, through the United Nations Space Command, as put its full weight behind the colonization effort; millions of humans now live on habitable planets in other solar systems. A keystone of humanity's colonization efforts is the planet Reach, an interstellar naval yard that builds colony ships for civilians and warships for the UNSC's armed forces. Conveniently close to Earth, Reach is also a hub of scientific and military activity.
Thirty-two years ago, contact with the outer colony Harvest was lost. A battlegroup sent to investigate was almost completely destroyed: only one badly damaged ship returned to Reach. Its crew told of a seemingly unstoppable alien warship that had effortlessly annihilated their forces.
This was humankind's first encounter with a group of aliens they eventually came to know as the Covenant, a collective of alien races united in their fanatical religious devotion. Covenant religious elders declared humanity an affront to the gods, and the Covenant warrior caste waged a holy war upon humanity with gruesome diligence.
After a series of crushing defeats and obliterated colonies, UNSC Admiral Preston Cole established the Cole Protocol: no vessel may inadvertently lead the Covenant to Earth. When forced to withdraw, ships must avoid Earth-bound vectors--even if that means jumping without proper navigational calculations. Vessels in danger of capture must self-destruct.
On Reach, a secret military project to create cyborg super-soldiers takes on newfound importance. The soldiers of the SPARTAN-II project rack up an impressive record against the Covenant in test deployments, but there are too few of them to turn the tide of the war.Existing SPARTAN-II soldiers are recalled to Reach for further augmentation. The plan: board a Covenant vessel with the improved SPARTAN-IIs and learn the location of the Covenant home world. Two days before the mission begins, Covenant forces strike Reach and annihilate the colony. The Covenant are now on Earth's doorstep. One ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the last SPARTAN-II and makes a blind jump into deep space, hoping to lead the Covenant away from Earth.
The Covenant worship the Forerunners. We have gone on Forerunner planets, and (I think), studied some of their technology. The Covenant doesn't like that. By the way, you'll have a lot of questions, and not all of them will be answered unless you go read lore on the internet.
Yup, I'm gonna do it. It's time. I'm gonna play this game through for the first time ever. Oh boy.As most of you (should) know, I... don't like Halo. I think it's one of (if not the) most overrated game series of all time, and I've been very vocal about my feelings towards the franchise--and other franchises like it--in my six-year excursion of being a part of this beauteous community.
Wait. Why do we still care about Earth? Like, I get it--colonies are being "obliterated", but why are we taking measures to protect Earth specifically? Who gives a shit at that point? Apparently, there's something of precious value on Earth that must be protected, but it never goes into what that is. Civilization? Yeah, but so do the other colonies at this point. Higher-developed civilization? That seems improbable. It's been centuries--we have the planet Reach that is specifically designated to build warships. I would think, then, that the civilizations on the other planets are pretty well-developed. It's not like building warships is a huge priority if all humanity is united under the same cause, right?And the order to self-destruct upon being "in danger" of capture seems kinda silly too, but whatever. I'm not a military strategist, but personally, I'd only cut the cord when capture is inevitable. I just don't see the necessity to give Earth, the planet we left for greener pastures, any special protection. Anything of major importance should... probably not be there in the first place, and it doesn't seem likely to me that we'd fuck up like that. Admiral Preston Cole seems like a dumbass. All right. I still have no idea why we still give a fuck about Earth--maybe it's the last shred of human civilization left at this point, but that's never specified in this text--but this is where things finally start getting real.
Okay, here's a very brief run down of modern-26th centry lore. It has been mentioned, like, twice, so don't think much of it.Basically, expansion continues a would be expected. We begin colonising other planets in our solar system, so far so good. Anyway, eventually, pure ideological differences between groups called Koslovics and Friedans emerge as both terror organisations begin their own war. Basically space nazis and space communists. This culminates in the UN organising into the UNSC, and setting up the UNSC Marine Corps. Their first deployment is on Mars, which sets the stage for things to come.After the UNSC's total victory, things progress relatively quietly. In the 2300's, FTL (Wormhole) travel is discovered and within the next two hundred years, we colonise over 800 star systems. In te late 2490's, the outer colonies, often used by the inner colonies as a cheap source of materials and food, begin to rebel at this unfair treatment. This rebellion is the insurrection, and soon threatens to spread through the empire right to earth- which is why the Spartans were created. In 2525, the planet Harvest makes first contact with aliens, things go sour and a three-decade long war ensues.And absolutely none of this is brought up in the games. Furthermore, the only time any of the expanded universe has been introduced to the games has been since 343 took over with Halo 4. Bungie basically didn't care, so you'll never find any of the really interesting stuff mentioned in their games.
IMO I would realistically expect the aliens to be chosen by the forerunners, and humanity would have been attacking them because muh butthurt
You'll like the gameplay of CE hopefully
Quote from: Jocephalopod on August 19, 2015, 07:43:36 PMYou'll like the gameplay of CE hopefullyI fucking hated it... Halo 2 really tightened it for me.
Quote from: on August 19, 2015, 07:30:25 PMQuote from: ねこ on August 19, 2015, 07:19:30 PMIMO I would realistically expect the aliens to be chosen by the forerunners, and humanity would have been attacking them because muh butthurtActually, that would have been an original idea. I notice a trend in sci-fi these days. Humanity always seems to land as "muh chosen ones" in some form or another. Portrayed as inherently "good" or "okay," or, "worthy."Mass Effect was another series guilty of falling into that gay ass cliche of a trap as well.I was actually thinking this it's always the good ole' humanity that saves the day with kindness and honesty, tbh i would see humanity as the greedy powerful types
Quote from: ねこ on August 19, 2015, 07:19:30 PMIMO I would realistically expect the aliens to be chosen by the forerunners, and humanity would have been attacking them because muh butthurtActually, that would have been an original idea. I notice a trend in sci-fi these days. Humanity always seems to land as "muh chosen ones" in some form or another. Portrayed as inherently "good" or "okay," or, "worthy."Mass Effect was another series guilty of falling into that gay ass cliche of a trap as well.
What's your favorite Halo: CE map? (Progress: COMPLETE)
