SUBJECT TITLE:

 

Theory: Delta Halo is a "quick jump" from Earth

 

OBJECTIVE:

 

This theory is to show that Delta Halo is much closer to Earth than Installation 04, and that both Installations are within reasonable travel distance from Earth.

 

REFERENCE CUTSCENES:

 

[Cutscene 06 - Field Expedient]

[Cutscene 14 - Helljumpers]

[Cutscene 27 - Once Again, With Feeling]

[Cutscene 30 - Delusions and Grandeur]

[Cutscene 31 - Finale]

 

>>>>> Download the cutscenes: <<<<<

 

 

 

ANALYZING THE CUTSCENES:

 

[Cutscene 06 - Field Expedient]:

We see Regret’s assault carrier retreating and preparing a slipspace jump. Miranda chases Regret immediately after MC and Sgt. Johnson get onboard In Amber Clad.

 

Tactical Officer: “Ma'am! Slipspace rupture off the target’s bow.  It's going to jump, inside the city!”

 

Navigation Officer: “Ma’am? Without a destination solution…”

Miranda: “We are not losing that ship.”

 

[Cutscene 14 - Helljumpers]:

Regret’s carrier successfully made the jump. However, it also pulled the In Amber Clad and many city structures through slipspace because they were proximately near Regret’s gravity-well jump.

 

            Miranda: “Sorry for the quick jump, Sergeant.  You’re in one piece?”

 

Something one needs to understand is that the In Amber Clad did not have “a destination solution”, meaning they did not know where they were going or how long the journey would take. Because they were pulled through slipspace by Regret’s carrier, and not through their own undertaking, In Amber Clad’s crew was at the mercy of Regret – the termination point and termination time of Regret’s slipspace jump would also be In Amber Clad’s.

           

            (Page 336-338, TFoR)

            Cortana had plenty of time to think on the journey. Most of the crew were frozen in cryo for the

trip.

“Captain Keyes? Wake up, sir,” Cortana said. “We will enter normal space in three hours.”

“All crew accounted for. Spartan 117 is in cryosleep with the Marine and security personnel.

Waking bridge officers and all essential personnel.”

 

(Page 3, TF)

“Damn right. Get down to Cryo Two on the double, Sam. We’ve got an important package to thaw out – and we drop back into real space soon.”

 

Because Miranda did not know how long Regret’s journey would take, she could not put any of the personnel into cryosleep, which is standard for any long-duration journey. Coming out of cryosleep also required a lengthy de-thawing process that they could not afford (it took over 20 minutes to de-thaw MC in The Flood). Everyone had to be ready at a moment’s notice for the sudden drop back to normalspace and inevitable attack by the Covenant - which is why in this cutscene MC and Johnson are waiting inside drop pods, why the officers remain at-the-ready on the bridge, and why Miranda apologizes “for the quick jump”. Everyone was prepared and ready to go, but they were still surprised that the slipspace jump ended so quickly.

 

[Cutscene 27 - Once Again, With Feeling]:

Right before Cortana says her sappy good-bye to MC, you see MC plunge into the very first room of the Forerunner ship. The exterior doors begin to seal shut. Notice the wall patterns on the left side of the screen, and how the background portion of the wall is more set in/offset, compared to the foreground portion.

 

            >>>>> View wall comparison 1 <<<<<

 

MC remains in this area as he makes his last statement, then we see the Forerunner ship leave High Charity and make a slipspace jump.

 

[Cutscene 31 - Finale]:

The Forerunner ship emerges out of slipspace one last time for the epic conclusion on Earth (in Halo 3…). Look at where MC is standing - he has barely arrived at the background wall, holding onto it. Look at the textures of the walls – same patterns again. Finally, notice how this nearest wall is set in from the wall in the background (the previous cutscene’s foreground wall).

 

            >>>>> View wall comparison 2 <<<<<

 

No sooner had MC arrived onboard the Forerunner ship and it jumped for Earth, it just as quickly emerges near Earth, with MC having only taken a few steps forward into the depths of this ship.

 

 

 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

 

            ----- “How can two Halos be near Earth?” -----

 

Let’s take another look at [Cutscene 31 – Finale]:

Look for the portion of the video at 01:18 where GS343 describes the 7 Halos being on standby. Examine the way the 7 Halos are arranged.

 

            >>>>> View GS343’s diagram of Halo alignments <<<<<

 

Yes, ‘ideally’ they would likely be set up in a fashion similar to this (author: PD):

 

            >>>>> View ‘ideal’ Halo distribution and activation radius <<<<<

 

Regardless, GS343’s diagram of the Halos is displayed this way on purpose – it is his representation of how the Halos are set up around the galaxy. There is no other reason to display them the way GS343 did. Notice the lack of consistency in placement throughout the galaxy. Some of these Halos would even seem ‘fairly close’ to each other - observe the bottom two Halos.

 

Here is another piece of evidence that 2 Halos are near Earth, it is taken from the Halo 2 Limited Edition DVD: Bonus Materials section. This was one mural of several that was supposed to briefly describe the history of the Covenant, but did not make the final cut (note that it mysteriously features one Installation outside the borders of the galaxy):

 

            >>>>> View Halo 2 LE DVD tablet 5 mural <<<<<

 

----- “But that doesn’t cover all areas of the galaxy for activation!” -----

 

It still does. Let’s watch [Cutscene 30 – Delusions and Grandeur]:

 

GS343: “… They and all additional sentient life in three radii of the galactic center died, as planned. …”

 

Here is a graphic to visualize what GS343 is saying (author: Ain Soph Aur):

 

            >>>>> View the distance of 3 galactic radii <<<<<

 

So, it would seem from reading GS343’s statement that even though each Halo has an activation radius of only 25,000 Light Years, when all Halos are activated, they are somehow amplified and carry their sentient-killing signal far outside the borders of the Milky Way Galaxy. This scenario could also prevent one malfunctioning Halo (the destruction of Installation 04) from completely undermining the Forerunner’s final act of stopping the Flood by leaving a section of the galaxy un-cleansed. Proper foresight from the Forerunners.

 

----- “Don’t you think the UNSC/ONI/Humans would have discovered Delta Halo earlier if it was that close?” -----

 

Discovery does not mean public knowledge. ONI built a base directly on top of a Forerunner temple in Reach. The Spartans were not declassified until 3 years before the events of Halo 1. UNSC Colonel Ackerson hid his secret weapons program from the spymasters themselves, ONI.

 

ONI has long waged a successful propaganda war, so that even Earthlings do not know something as important as Reach has been completely destroyed, and that the Covenant are practically on Earth’s doorsteps.

 

(Page 98, FS)

            “Keeping Reach’s fate quiet was not the UNSC’s biggest secret, not by a country mile.”

“Virtually no one in the civilian population knew how perilously close they were to losing this war.

ONI Section Two had done a brilliant job of preserving the fiction that Earth forces held their own against the Covenant.”

 

ONI screens and censors every transmission it can get its hands on, as seen in the Conversations From The Universe booklet - Esko Korpijaakko and Casandra’s letters are both reviewed before being approved.

 

Many readers also agree that Installation 04 was previously known to ONI. When Captain Keyes first enters the ‘unknown’ system, the planet and moon already have a name.

 

(Page 12-13, TF)

Location unknown

 “A massive purple gas giant – Threshold – dominated the spectacular view.”

“He hadn’t expected to see the massive object floating in a Lagrange point between Threshold and its moon, Basis”

 

Halo Story Page: Why, if Halo is in uncharted space, are the moon and planet known as Basis and Threshold? Eric Trautmann mentioned that the system had been surveyed, but not charted yet.

Eric Nylund: I’ll throw out a clue here: “uncharted” from who’s perspective? “Surveyed” by whom?

 

Halo Story Page: ONI knows much more than they let on.

Joseph Staten: Without a doubt.

 

Now, if ONI knew of Installation 04, which was a 3 week long journey in slipspace for Humans, how much more likely are they to also know of Delta Halo, which is practically on the doorsteps of Earth and the Sol System?

 

----- “Exactly how fast was the jump?” -----

 

If [Cutscene 27 - Once Again, With Feeling] and [Cutscene 31 - Finale] are great indicators due to MC’s lack of movement and progress in stopping Truth and taken literally, the jump could take mere minutes.

 

To elaborate on the sense of urgency, MC understood that Truth leaving in the Forerunner ship would lead the Covenant armada to Earth for the final battle, since Cortana told him this. It was in his and humanity’s best interests that he already be deep inside the ship and engaging in combat. To further strengthen that what Cortana said was true, and MC having no time to waste, watch [Cutscene 31 - Finale] at 00:46 seconds in. Visible is Delta Halo and High Charity. Not visible any more are signs of explosions that we witnessed in earlier cutscenes – Covenant infighting. I speculate that what remnants of the Brute-faction fleet that may have survived have jumped out to meet Truth above Earth. What remnants of the Elite-faction fleet that may have survived are either still around Delta Halo and High Charity, or chased the Brute-faction through slipspace for the epic final engagement above Earth (in Halo 3…). You may have already noticed in [Cutscene 31 – Finale] at 02:15 that portions of a Covenant fleet have already engaged the UNSC to pave the way for Truth’s arrival.

 

I digressed, but back to the question: Another factor is whether the Forerunner ship had noticeably faster slipspace engines than Covenant ships – and whether Bungie would show this difference in the video games. The other answer is that Covenant slipspace engines are very close on par with what they’ve imitated and reverse-engineered from Forerunner technology. This is possibly the answer when you view [Cutscene 16 – One Way Ticket]. High Charity comes out of slipspace above Delta Halo at the same time as the rest of the fleet. This does assume that High Charity also uses the Forerunner ship to perform slipspace jumps.

 

If High Charity and the Forerunner ship had the same slipspace technology as the rest of the Covenant fleet, then the only logical explanation is that Delta Halo is near Earth. At the same time, Truth and Tartarus left in their own Phantoms for their respective duties. Truth had every reason to believe that Tartarus would activate the Halos. In order for Truth to reach his objective somewhere on Earth, his slipspace jump has to be short enough for him to arrive on Earth before Tartarus activated the Halos and killed everyone, including Truth.

 

Viewing [Cutscene 06 - Field Expedient] and [Cutscene 14 - Helljumpers] tells me that the duration of Regret’s jump, based on Covenant slipspace engines (and not the considerably slower Human technology), could possibly take up to several hours. Even so, the distance is substantially less than Installation 04. Delta Halo is literally a “quick jump” from Earth, however you look at it.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION:

 

- Regret’s slipspace journey onboard Covenant assault carrier from Earth to Delta Halo, maximum possible time taken: several hours

- Truth’s slipspace journey onboard Forerunner ship from Delta Halo to Earth, maximum possible time taken: several minutes

- Average these two time estimates for: a very “quick jump”

 

Delta Halo is much closer to Earth than Installation 04, and is literally a “quick jump” from Earth. It is within the close confines of the Inner Colonies, but outside Sol System. Two installations near Earth - which itself is far from the galactic center, GS343’s diagram of the 7 Halos, and the Halo 2 LE DVD mural show that there is no uniform and ‘ideal’ dispersion of the Halos to cover the expanse of the galaxy.

 

 

 

APPENDIX A - THE CRYSTAL FACTOR:

 

At this point, time-altering theorists, who use the Reach crystal’s magical effects to explain every situation in Halo 2 where there is supposedly a time-gap issue, chime in.

 

----- “Oh! These scenes are time-altering in effect! This is yet another one of those dozens of situations in Halo 2 where the crystal must’ve somehow come into play!”-----

 

The video games do not need time-altering (I lump all time traveling/bending/looping/warping definitions as ‘time-altering’) super magic crystals to explain the portion of the stories they tell. The video games have always been able to stand on their own. Neither does the Delta Halo “quick jump” theory require any mind-boggling, time-altering magic to stand on its own.

 

Shiska: Guess what? Out of the millions that have bought and played the second Halo, only a tiny handful have actually READ these books. As such, it'd be unwise to reference the books directly in the game, as the reference would be obscure and misunderstood by the majority of players.

 

There is ample evidence that less-appealing and/or complicated and messy issues don’t and won’t see daylight in the video games. One of these issues is the corniness (thanks, HBO) of time-altering plot devices. It would be one of the most confusing plot devices to the 95+ percentage of the population that only play the video games; not only that, even novel readers and theorists can’t agree as to what exactly it does, or how to easily explain it to someone else without practically writing a book.

 

Halo Story Page: ‘Time travel’ has been decried by some readers as one of the more hackneyed plot devices in story telling. The events of Sep 7, 2552 at Reach provide ample possibility of that device being employed in Halo 2. What comments do you have in regards to time travel, Halo 2, and storytelling in general? [Or, paraphrased] Time travel is a little corny, don’t you think?

 

Joseph Staten: Absolutely (Mr. Staten then goes on to talk about teleportation being okay, presumably when Gravemind sends MC and the Arbiter on their new missions).

 

You may argue that HBO’s Halo Story Page is strictly referring to one set of time-altering plot devices (‘time travel’), but when you consider the context of the question being asked, Mr. Staten’s understanding of it and the resulting answer, time-altering is just plain and simply corny.

 

 

 

APPENDIX B - ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

 

----- “Why does it matter that Delta Halo is within reasonable travel distance to Earth, similar to Installation 04? -----

 

You realize it matters when you understand the importance of what GS343 reveals about the effective range of the Installations, and just how massive the Milky Way Galaxy is.

 

There were only 7 Installations to cover the entire expanse of the galaxy. Each Installation has a maximum activation radius of only 25,000 Light Years. The Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 Light Years wide, up to 100,000 Light Years deep, and at the very center, up to 30,000 Light Years tall (I said “up to” because scientific figures vary).

 

By observing this diagram, you see that there is very little leeway to put the Halos wherever the Forerunners chose to put them on a whim:

 

>>>>> View ‘ideal’ Halo distribution and activation radius <<<<<

 

That diagram shows how 7 Halos need to be similarly placed in order to completely cover the range of the galaxy. And yet, GS343 reveals to us that the placement of the Halos is NOT uniform! Some Installations would even appear to be above/under the horizontal plane of the galaxy, which is not needed because the galaxy is not that tall. It is the proper horizontal distribution that matters.

 

>>>>> View GS343’s diagram of Halo alignments <<<<<

 

And again, the Halo 2 LE DVD mural also shows us that the Halos are not distributed uniformly. One Installation is even ‘wasted’ covering empty space outside the borders of the galaxy. There seems to be a decently-sized coverage gap for the center of the galaxy:

 

            >>>>> View Halo 2 LE DVD tablet 5 mural (with range estimates) <<<<<

 

The Forerunners happened to place two Halos near Earth - much to humanity’s surprise - despite the fact that Earth itself is far away on an 'edge' of the galaxy within the Orion arm. There is no way given these new revelations that 7 Halos could effectively cover the expanse of the galaxy.

 

Only with GS343's final statement about possible amplification powers (that I mention in the theory above) rescues the fact that Halos can be non-uniform in distribution throughout the galaxy, and still kill all life within the range of three galactic radii.

 

 

 

Last updated: 02/19/2005 02:04 PM