What If The Elites Made First Contact?

[Iceman065]

I am sorry to not have posted this in the Halo Universe area of the forums but I do not have access to it. And seeing as I am still a n00b I thought this might be a place to start.

(WARNING!!! If you have NOT read any of the books, things in this topic could be spoilers!!!!)

I have read Contact Harvest, Ghosts of Onyx, and many of the other books. Right now I am making quick work of The Cole Protocol and I had a thought that just made me stop reading and ponder. "How might things have been different if the Elites had made first contact, instead of the Brutes?" This is something that could have made for an entirely different out come. Would there have still be a war? Would the Elites have deemed the humans on Harvest to be without honor and killed them regardless? Would Johnson and the other Marines have lived if they had been fighting the Elites instead of the Brutes?

Lets hear your thoughts!!!!

 

[Radioactiv]

I haven't finished Contact Harvest.
The part where Johnson see the brutes, is it in Contact or the new one?

 

[Iceman065]

Johnson first meets the Brutes in Contact Harvest. That is where you get Johnson's back story from and how he came to fight the Covies.

The new book, The Cole Protocol, takes place about 10 years after Contact Harvest.

 

[L0neWolf]

I would have to say that it wold have to depend on they way the Elites think and React as oppose to the Brutes. Elites are a very Honorable war like species... there probably would have been a better dialogue between the Elites and the Humans, but I still think the war would have went on because The Prophet of Truth still wanted the Humans dead..

That's my 2 cents.

 

[thegeek]

I think either way we were better off with the vulcans.

 

[Ace Sorou]

Trekkies...

I think that the Elites would've tried to induct them into the Covenant, but that would've caused a schism to happen much sooner, because the Prophets deemed Humans to be heretical by their very existence.

 

[Radioactiv]

I thought Johnson and Bryne first saw the Jackals first, those were the first covenant they've seen.

 

[charles]

well your right, but they were fighting no time to talk but the meeting was a formal thing. to bad the brutes were just using it to look for somthing

 

[Liamthedevastator]

Well, consider that the Macabeus was pretty much a zealot of their religion. I'd have to say that it wouldn't have mattered (and possibly would have been worse) if the elites had made first contact. There was a MASSIVE language barrier and the militia men probably would've gotten nervous either way and fired.

I'd say that the elites would probably be more likely to attack sooner because of their honour. The humans 'having' the relics in the first place would have set them off.

But maybe they would look back at their own bloody civilization before it was inducted into the Covenant and feel bad for the humans?

 

[mrdeth0]

The Elites actually question the Prophets decision to eradicate the humans. In Conversations from around the Universe, one of the booklets that came with the special edition of Halo 2, two Elites talk about the fact that the Prophets made no attempt to meld the Humans into the Covenant, or that humans are great strategists, and they have useful technology, etc. If the Elites made contact first, I feel it would have more civil and more widely discussed. I wouldn't doubt that they might even ask the humans to let them see what they are looking for.

 

[Spartan137]

The Elites actually question the Prophets decision to eradicate the humans. In Conversations from around the Universe, one of the booklets that came with the special edition of Halo 2, two Elites talk about the fact that the Prophets made no attempt to meld the Humans into the Covenant, or that humans are great strategists, and they have useful technology, etc. If the Elites made contact first, I feel it would have more civil and more widely discussed. I wouldn't doubt that they might even ask the humans to let them see what they are looking for.

You raise a good point... according to First Strike, I believe, the Covenant posses limited to no AI capabilities what so ever, and the only instance of a Covenant AI ever shown was fragmented beyond use.

AIs alone are, in my opinion, deffinately worth the trouble of integrating a new race.

Then, like those books mentioned, theres the Humans being good strategists. Just look at Captain Keyes.

Brutes aren't exactly the best to send for first encounter missions. Appearently, neither are the Kig' Yar (Jackals)...

 

[mrdeth0]

The Brutes being there is extremely sketchy to me. In First Strike, that is the first time that they ever run into the Brutes. And in Fall of Reach, they say that they have never encountered any Covenant soldiers ever. And I'm sure the survivors of the first world that was wiped out would be questioned whether or not they had seen anything at all.

 

[n00bcrusha]

I think the elites would be split. On one hand, the prophets label humans as "heretics", but on the other, they prove to be extremeley resourceful, strategic, and brave. EXAMPLE TIME!

In halo 3, when the chief or a marine achives some kind of awesome kill: beatdown, headshot, ect. They say: "it surprises me the prophets did not want you in the covenant." or something to that extent.

Besides, humans have guns with CHAINSAWS on the end. Effing CHAINSAWS. Just imagine marcus fenix locked combat with an elite with the lancer vs. an energy sword. It would make your eyes bleed with 1337 glory. Amen.

 

[Spartan137]

Besides, humans have guns with CHAINSAWS on the end. Effing CHAINSAWS. Just imagine marcus fenix locked combat with an elite with the lancer vs. an energy sword. It would make your eyes bleed with 1337 glory. Amen.

You, good sir, have a discontinuity issue!

And the whole Brute thing in Contact Harvest got me too... I couldn't understand why there where Brutes there when the story said First Strike was the first...

AND Brutes are in Halo Wars... the plot thickens... or becomes more convoluted...

 

[ryuske]

[off topic]

I think personally that Bungie needs to hire a person with the sole task of keeping the story congruent, much like the Star Wars universe. Because, as stated before, there are man instances where the story gets mixed up. I haven't started Cole Protocol (in fact this is my first time hearing about it since I'm usually at college with little info as to what's new in the Sci-Fi world) but I imagine that at its conclusion it's going to have just as many plot holes as the other books. I'm not bashing them by any means (actually they're my favorite series to read currently) but if you start the series from start to finish you constantly run into problems, especially between the first three ( fall of reach, the flood, and first strike) and then you get to Ghosts of Onyx which centers on another totally different spartan and bleed through to make the story confusing in the end, to Contact harvest with the Brutes being "first met" even though it says in First Strike that it was the first time MC had encountered the species.

Hearing about all these holes makes me want to go to Bungie and ask them to just make an official time line and see what's really going on in the Halo universe. But I guess this is the part where we have to just take their word that they know what they're doing. :/

[/off topic]

Now Back to the topic at hand, I would vote that the Elites would have made better ambassadors for the covenant just because of their nature. Sure they are a warring race, but at the same time, the see valor and honor in what they do and I'm sure they would see the same thing in the humans. Not to mention that since the humans were currently "holding" several relics that they would probably not perform any harsh actions and start another war for no apparent reason with such a huge find in their midst.

But that's just my opinion. Sorry for the super long post, but that's just what I think.


~phil

 

[Reno]

Well, if you stop and think about it, it's not as disjointed or broken as you're making it out to be.
While in First Strike, they talk about how MC and the spartans had never come across 'Brutes" before, it's probably true. The spartans hadn't run into them before, and the only run-in up untill that point was in Contact. At the point in the timeline Contact happens, Brutes are barely being properly entered into the naval forces of the covenant. Macabeus was the first, and only brute shipmaster at that time, and stayed that way until sometime much later around the time of the schism.
I don't recall anyone in Contact calling the Brutes as such, they were just giant apes, essentially to them, and the only reason MC and the spartans in First Strike knew their name was because Cortana pulled a translation for them.
Between naming conflicts and the fact that interface up untill then was a single, minimal conflict(since it seems that in the Halo Wars game, once the brute ship failed, Elites and other standard forces were sent to Harvest to finish the job) I can see the Brutes being shuffled off as a minor player in the covenant body to ONI.

 

[Spartan RY52]

Well, from what I can gather, it didnt matter who first met us silly humans. As soon as Truth and Regret found out we were the Reclaimers, and not the Reclaimed, we were toast. The idea that we could threaten the Covenant, or more important, the Prophets chance for power, they easily decided to wipe out our race. It possible that the Elites could have been... peaceful... at first. But what would the Elites do when A) we didnt know what the Forunners were or we refused to turn ourselves over? And the Prophets would find our secret in the end... only a matter of time.

Its interesting that they still beleive in the Great Journey, though, even after discovering they are not the Forunners chosen ones...