[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Madness87 Roberto, the Covenant didn't shatter into dozens of fighting forces anymore than humans would have. Sure the Brutes, Elites, Jackals, Grunts may have gone their own way. But each by itself, outnumbered humanity. The Elites had at least 8 billion on their homeworld alone. Their colonies, their factions are all strong. The Covenant would still have the most colonies and planets in the galaxy because unlike humanity, they weren't destroyed. Let's say for argument sake, there are factions like the Storm covenant, and others. The majority of the fleet is loyal to the Arbiter and went home. They would easily have become the power for the Elite. [u]The Elite homeworld has erupted into numerous civil wars, with the Arbiter's allies AWOL. Really the only reason Arby's alive is because the Infinity saved him from a massive siege. For the most part, the Elites are not with the Arbiter, or they're on nobody's side. The books would really help you here.[/url] There has been no single indication at all to your assertion it was Mendicent Bias who sent Chief and Cortana drifting to Requiem. You are plain making things up. All because of a terminal where he said he wanted to atone for his sins and show his former masters he changed, that in turn makes you think that he used slipspace technology to cut half of the Chief's ship and send it drifting to Requiem? What if the cryo-pods failed? And if Cortana was too far gone, would she have been able to wake Chief before it crash landed on requiem? [u]"And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example." This is the exact quote. He wants to use the Chief as proof that he has seen the error of his ways, and to do that, he must send the Chief to the Forerunners as atonement. And yet again, you completely ignore my question: how did the Chief survive the Halo blast if he didn't go through the portal? Don't give me that "they barely did," -blam!-, that isn't an answer. The Rings have a range of 25,000 light years, it is literally impossible for the Chief to have survived; the alternative is the worst example of plot armor in history. He got through the portal, and Bias diverted him to Requiem's system. I mean for -blam!- 's sake, the fact that he did this has been common knowledge for half a decade now, you can't even pretend to deny it now. Factors such as Cortana's rampancy and the FuD's integrity are factors outside of Bias' control, but the systems of the Ark are what projected and controlled the portal's integrity and where it lead. Which is another thing you're wrong about: the Great Portal network was used for the shipping of massive objects across the galaxy, such as the Halo Rings. It is actually how the 7 Rings got to their locations; it is also connected to the Requiem system because Requiem was the center for Promethean leadership.[/u] The slipspace portal doesn't work like that. It's one way only back and forth. That's why the Ark could only be accessed from the portal on Earth or the Arbiter was able to go back. How did he survive the blast? Easy, they barely did. The Forward Unto Dawn was completely smashed up and broken. To think this is what Mendicent Bias wanted is wrong. If he had the ability to manipulate a portal at will, why wouldn't he just send Chief to Requiem? Why make them drift 25,000 light years away from Earth for nearly 4.5 years? You're giving an answer to which there is none. Bungie just wanted to give hope to people that Chief would be found one day. 343 Industries made it so it was only 4.5 years later. [u]He doesn't send Chief to Requiem directly because the portal is connected to the system, not the planet. The planet rotates a star in constant motion, but the position of the Portal doesn't change. Or at least hasn't changed in 100,000 years.[/u] Once again, where did humanity get the ability to just "go" to planets at will? Even with slipspace travel, it would have taken far longer. Remember, we learned in Halo 4, there are no portals that lead to Requiem either because they didn't want Didact coming out. It's all a bit too convenient that the most massive human ship in the galaxy goes to Requiem and finds Chief there no? How is this realistic? Cortana knew the odds of finding them were like a needle in a haystack. [u]I already answered this, Christ. The Infinity is [i]integrated with Forerunner slipspace drives installed by Forerunner Huragok discovered at Onyx and various other locations.[/i] The Forerunners did not have limited slip travel like the humans. Finding Chief at Requiem was inevitable, as Requiem was one of the most important locations in the Forerunner military's atlas so would be on many of the star charts to be found in Forerunner military installations like Installation 03, and Chief was there because MB knew that's where the Didact was (and he was there because the planet was his). It's a simple matter of all signs pointing to Requiem because of the planet's signifigance. With Infinity's mission to be to find and document Forerunner worlds and installations, it was only a matter of time before they arrived at the planet and found him. Cortana's distress beacon only amplified tgose odds.[/u] I'm sorry Roberto, I know I am being difficult and a lot of these questions are unaskable because there is no information. The people who developed most of the story of this game no longer work on it, and the people now in charge are taking it in a new direction. All we know going by the games, Humanity was weakened and on the verge of extinction. They lost their military strength on Reach. The Spartan program was bankrupt from the start which is why they could only get such few children than what Halsey planned. And the money being spent was ridiculous. The armor etc. My point being, that even at the height of humanity's power, they weren't able to do all this, we're supposed to accept that just 4.5 years after Earth fell, after Reach was gone, they are stronger than before? That all of a sudden they have better armor, enough to train and equip hundreds and hundreds of new spartans? That rebuilding Reach took 27 years, but new ships and Spartans are what's important? Even after securing peace? [u]You really don't know anything about the Halo universe beyond the games do you? Halsey's SII program was limited yes, but Ackerson's Spartan III program wasn't. All told, there were a total of more than a thousand spartan III's. Most of them were dead because they were used on suicide missions, but the SIII program showed no signs of slowing down and continued right up to the destruction of its base of operations. The SIII program was rebuilt from its original goals to create an army of spartans at a cheaper price, renamed Spartan IV, and relocated aboard Infinity under new management. The Spartan program never stopped, but the original version, the SII program, did. Thanks Roberto, you are far more knowledgeable than me but I just don't like the direction the story took. I'll leave it here then, and hope Halo 5 has more answers than new questions. Thanks again.[/quote] It isn't a manner of poor direction, you just don't know enough about the universe, and in one case, actually seemed to be ignoring the answers. I thought you were trolling about the Bias thing, it's been common knowledge for so long. Halo is not a story capable of being told through just the games. To get a full appreciation for the story, the books are necesary. You stop thinking of them as extended media, and begin looking at them as sequels and prequels in the same vain as any movie series.