[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Deleted [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Benz145 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Trap51b Winter Contingency mean that everyone should prepare to plasma bombardment and/or nuclear bombardment (to kill the invaders on planetside) and the following "nuclear winter". Yes, plasma bombardment causes that too. Read the Contact Harvest. Of course this theory's weak point is that nuclear winter is not immediate... The most simplest explanation is that Winter Contingency is a plan in case the Covenant attacks Reach. (Considering that contingency (one possible meaning) means "a conditional response plan made in preparation for various future circumstances including the unanticipated.") And likely it has no meaning for us, the players in Reach, it's just a "random" piece of radio chatter.[/quote] I wouldn't say that it is random chatter considering that they specifically featured it in not only the teaser trailer, but also in the cinematic.[/quote]It's most likely just adding to the immersion. It's more likely that it is the UNSC's defense plan in case of an attack on Reach by the Covenant. When the attack does occur, they declare the plan in effect, and all UNSC personnel are to follow to plan.[/quote] Yes I get that and I'm saying that the name is implicative of a specific plan and that plan is based on the scorched earth tactic, with the Winter part being a reference to the Russian/Napoleon scenario. Things like 'Cole protocol' aren't random, why would we think that "Winter contingency" is random? They don't usually just pick random words in the Halo universe, they often have meaning. And the fact that they specifically put Winter contingency in both trailers adds more to this idea.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Benz145 I wouldn't say that it is random chatter considering that they specifically featured it in not only the teaser trailer, but also in the cinematic.[/quote] I'd say it's random as far as we're concerned. It's UNSC's plan, but Spartans likely have different orders. Or maybe the thing contains following orders for Spartans: 1. Get new orders, 2. If you can't, kill the bastards. It's there to create atmosphere. I don't think it's really relevant... of course there's no way to know until fall.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Benz145 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Trap51b Winter Contingency mean that everyone should prepare to plasma bombardment and/or nuclear bombardment (to kill the invaders on planetside) and the following "nuclear winter". Yes, plasma bombardment causes that too. Read the Contact Harvest. Of course this theory's weak point is that nuclear winter is not immediate... The most simplest explanation is that Winter Contingency is a plan in case the Covenant attacks Reach. (Considering that contingency (one possible meaning) means "a conditional response plan made in preparation for various future circumstances including the unanticipated.") And likely it has no meaning for us, the players in Reach, it's just a "random" piece of radio chatter.[/quote] I wouldn't say that it is random chatter considering that they specifically featured it in not only the teaser trailer, but also in the cinematic.[/quote]It's most likely just adding to the immersion. It's more likely that it is the UNSC's defense plan in case of an attack on Reach by the Covenant. When the attack does occur, they declare the plan in effect, and all UNSC personnel are to follow to plan.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Trap51b Winter Contingency mean that everyone should prepare to plasma bombardment and/or nuclear bombardment (to kill the invaders on planetside) and the following "nuclear winter". Yes, plasma bombardment causes that too. Read the Contact Harvest. Of course this theory's weak point is that nuclear winter is not immediate... The most simplest explanation is that Winter Contingency is a plan in case the Covenant attacks Reach. (Considering that contingency (one possible meaning) means "a conditional response plan made in preparation for various future circumstances including the unanticipated.") And likely it has no meaning for us, the players in Reach, it's just a "random" piece of radio chatter.[/quote] This makes sense to me.

Hibernate: 1) Of animals to spend the winter in a state like deep sleep. I'd guess something along these lines.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Trap51b Winter Contingency mean that everyone should prepare to plasma bombardment and/or nuclear bombardment (to kill the invaders on planetside) and the following "nuclear winter". Yes, plasma bombardment causes that too. Read the Contact Harvest. Of course this theory's weak point is that nuclear winter is not immediate... The most simplest explanation is that Winter Contingency is a plan in case the Covenant attacks Reach. (Considering that contingency (one possible meaning) means "a conditional response plan made in preparation for various future circumstances including the unanticipated.") And likely it has no meaning for us, the players in Reach, it's just a "random" piece of radio chatter.[/quote] I wouldn't say that it is random chatter considering that they specifically featured it in not only the teaser trailer, but also in the cinematic.

It's probably some sort of cool military lingo. Who cares.

whatever it is, it sounds like an act of desperation.

Winter Contingency mean that everyone should prepare to plasma bombardment and/or nuclear bombardment (to kill the invaders on planetside) and the following "nuclear winter". Yes, plasma bombardment causes that too. Read the Contact Harvest. Of course this theory's weak point is that nuclear winter is not immediate... The most simplest explanation is that Winter Contingency is a plan in case the Covenant attacks Reach. (Considering that contingency (one possible meaning) means "a conditional response plan made in preparation for various future circumstances including the unanticipated.") And likely it has no meaning for us, the players in Reach, it's just a "random" piece of radio chatter.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] taylor865 94 yes my guess is that they eliminated information leading to the location of earth or other valuable technology[/quote]They have more sophisticated ways of enacting the Cole Protocol then nuking said data-centers.

yes my guess is that they eliminated information leading to the location of earth or other valuable technology

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] taylor865 94 a contingency is a fail safe or worst case scenario winter is just the code name[/quote] And don't you think they'd make a name that makes sense? Wouldn't you say that a worst-case scenario fail-safe would be to blow up your own stuff in a last ditch effort to prevent your enemies from getting it?

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Benz145 I have a theory. History buffs, please correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it the Russians that lit fire to their own city as they retreated from Napoleon so that he and his troops wouldn't have any refuge from the harsh Winter? If you watch the teaser trailer, you'll notice that right after the "Winter contingency..." statement is issue, eight large explosions go off on Reach just seconds from one another. Perhaps this is the UNSC purposefully destroying important resources that they don't want the Covenant to access, or maybe facilities which house important intel that they don't want the Covenant to get their hands on? Thoughts? P.S. The Winter contingency speaker sounds suspiciously a lot like captain Keyes, and as Reach is a prequel to Halo: CE, it is possible that Keyes is in town.[/quote]That tactic is called Scorched Earth, and has not only been used by Russians, however they did use it in Napoleon's failed conquest, and Stalin declared a scorched Earth policy in response to Germany's invasion.

a contingency is a fail safe or worst case scenario winter is just the code name

I assumed it was referring to the possibility of a nuclear winter.

Nice theory, man. But I think they were flying in that direction for some other reason, then the explosion happened unexpectedly.