[neonasafluni]

So, I am not sure if I am missing something, but for people who have read the books, you may know what I am talking about.

Possible Spoilers I guess for those in the process of reading the books.



Ok, so I am 3/5 the way through Contact Harvest. Basically, to the point where Humans and Covenant make first contact on Harvest. Where they both start out in peace. The Covenant sent to the planet to try to make peace with the Humans are the Brutes! So before the war even starts, Humans meet Brutes, well before you meet a Brute in Halo. Not sure, but they might also get to meet those bug creatures in this book. Who knows though, I haven't got that far through the book yet.

Though if I remember right, in Halo: First Strike, when Master Chief is on a Covenant Ship with Kelly? and maybe a few other Spartan II's to blow the ship up, Master Chief has his first encounter with a Brute. If I remember right, he doesn't know what the creature is at all. Stronger then him, much larger then him, almost kills him and he has no idea what it is.
Is that not correct?


This is where I think that there is just this little glitch in the story. I know a lot of what happens in these books is relatively close to each other. Then entire Covenant-Human War is actually quiet short. Though, if the first Aliens that we have contact with (Other then Johnson's encounter in their "ambush") are Brutes, I would think that the Master Chief would have already known about the Brutes through studying his enemy a long with stories and would not have been surprised to have that first encounter with a Brute that almost killed him with.
The Brute would have already been on file even before the war ever started, so during his training and learning about the Covenant, he should have also learned about the Brute, even if it was just a picture with little known still.

[Yb4bulVR]

I haven't read Harvest but I've read the others and I remember the fight seen between the Brute and the Chief quite well. The Brute was chocking him and the Chief started blacking out and used tactics to throw the Brute off as the Chief knew very well he was smarter and put him in a lock position. One of the Spartans dies in that small battle, gets blown up if I remember correctly.

And yea seems like a small glitch. I can't remember exactly what the Chief said but I believe when he first encountered the Brutes he was surprised by their brute strength as he's only ever heard about them through studies. And if you where a super soldier who could lift up 2 tonnes of weight with ease you'd be surprised too

I REALLY hope they make more Halo books, I'd really like to know how the fight finishes and I'm not gonna play the games as they are somewhat different to the books.

[viagra-kaufen]

(Screw the others, this sort of stuff does belong in Console Gaming! )

Answer in several parts:

1. Bungie's introduction of the Brutes
The Halo storyline was written with the Covenant civil war in mind. The Elites would break from the Covenant during the events of Halo 2. However, Bungie had never really taken into account that they'd need a new enemy for the player to fight in the games: that they'd have to actually find an alternative foe for the Elite. The Brutes were conjured up at a very late time in the franchise's existance, considering how well thought-out a lot of other things had been. Originally Brutes weren't part of the Halo world, they only came after Halo: Combat Evolved and the first book was already released. As a result, Brutes had to be worked into the storyline retroactively. That ties into the second part of my answer:

2. The Brutes in the Halo universe, always lurking in the shadows
For as far as the Covenant are concerned, Brutes do their name justice: they're powerful warriors but are also hard to control. Second, the Elite (or Sangheili) are a very important part of the Covenant - they made the Covenant together with the Prophets. The Elites are a warrior race, so they pretty much demanded their place in the Covenant as its most important warriors. The two facts combined (Sangheili pride and Brutes' brutality) made that the Brutes were rarely used in actual Covenant warfare.
They got crappy ships and crappy missions, as explained in the book you're reading now. The Brutes got some ceremonial tasks as well on High Charity and such, to appease their leaders I imagine, but all in all... They simply weren't meant to be the Covenant army's backbone.

3. Brutes' introduction to the games
The war against the humans is important to the Covenant, but only a small amount of Covenant forces is used in the campaign against the humans. The Elites wage the war, but the Brutes were never used - there was no need for that. Brutes would only be a measure of last resort. Up until the Elites' epic failure at Halo (Halo: Combat Evolved), there was no need for the Brutes. So, humans had never fought the Brutes outside of Contact Harvest.
Once the Covenant civil war began (Halo 2), suddenly the Covenant had to replace their most vital warriors, and the Brutes were only too happy to step in.

4. Humans vs Brutes, intel
Outside of Contact Harvest, no human soldiers fought the Brutes. Their presence at Contact Harvest was unique for the war that had yet to really kick off. Since the Sangheili were obviously the more dangerous foe, the Brutes of Harvest were never given much attention. Afterall, the Brutes at Harvest played a ceremonial role and simply turned out to be fighters as well, and on the battlefield Brutes were never seen.
In Halo: First Strike, Cortana warns the Master Chief that Brutes are present on the Unyielding Hierophant. However, since the Brutes are only known as ceremonial warriors, no-one really thinks much of it. Contrary to what you're saying, the Master Chief knows of their existance. It's true he doesn't know what they look like and apparently the whole of the UNSC forgot that they're actually big lethal beasts, but Cortana does mention them.


The entire retroactive insertion of Brutes in the Halo universe is one of the more obvious 'faults' that slipped in. Bungie's excuse / solution isn't very elegant, but then when making Halo they didn't really expect it to become the Grand Savior of the Xbox, Massive Hero of our Time and Messiac Game of Games either.

[viagra-kaufen]

I haven't read Harvest but I've read the others and I remember the fight seen between the Brute and the Chief quite well. The Brute was chocking him and the Chief started blacking out and used tactics to throw the Brute off as the Chief knew very well he was smarter and put him in a lock position. One of the Spartans dies in that small battle, gets blown up if I remember correctly.

And yea seems like a small glitch. I can't remember exactly what the Chief said but I believe when he first encountered the Brutes he was surprised by their brute strength as he's only ever heard about them through studies. And if you where a super soldier who could lift up 2 tonnes of weight with ease you'd be surprised too

I REALLY hope they make more Halo books, I'd really like to know how the fight finishes and I'm not gonna play the games as they are somewhat different to the books.

You should play the games - the books assume you do, and Halo: Combat Evolved is the only game with a novelized version. The other games won't be novelized like Halo:CE was.

There are discrepancies between the books and the games, but I suppose that's what you get with a franchise that tries to portray such a huge, detailed universe.

[Yb4bulVR]

You have The Fall of Reach, The Flood (essentially the same as the Halo Combat Evolved game) First Strike, Halo 2, Halo 3. You than have Havest which is pretty much should be the very first book as it explains the Halo universe before the events started and where does Ghosts of Onyx fit in? In must go after Halo 3? because it has retired Spartan 2 soldiers in it. So the war still continues after Halo 3?

[viagra-kaufen]

You have The Fall of Reach, The Flood (essentially the same as the Halo Combat Evolved game) First Strike, Halo 2, Halo 3. You than have Havest which is pretty much should be the very first book as it explains the Halo universe before the events started and where does Ghosts of Onyx fit in? In must go after Halo 3? because it has retired Spartan 2 soldiers in it. So the war still continues after Halo 3?

Ghosts of Onyx plays alongside First Strike and Halo 3, if I remember correctly.

[neonasafluni]

_FAKE_ you should really play the games. The only game that I liked of Halo was the first one. I could care less about Halo 2 and Halo 3. The only reason why I played them was for their story line. That is solely it. You should do the same. They do help out with understanding the story better, and there are a lot of things that are linked together from the books.


For all we know, at least some War will still go on.
-Halo 3 ended with a newly discovered Halo Ring
-Ghost of Onyx ended with a group of Spartans in this mysterious black hole thingy on that strange sentinel plant
-Some Insurrectionists planets are still unknown to the Covenant
-Covenant Civil War?
-The other Halos
-Many more



Yeah, only a small part of the Covenant forces were actually against Humans. Though they did decide to amass 500 ships that were going to attack Earth, most of which Master Chief destroyed. A long with the damage that the Spartan III program was able to inflict, it seems like those actions really started putting a toll to Covenant forces.


Maybe a new war will start? Now that the Prophets are dead that basically started this "false" war, and the Covenant are in a Civil War, it will be interesting to see what happens, or if they even continue the series further?



The new book Halo: The Cole of Protocol is basically going to run parallel with other stories and timeline of events that have already taken place. Might answer a few questions, as well as make some more. Halo Wars is basically going to run parallel with what has already happened, and the same with the Comics. Not sure what Halo: Chronicles is going to be about, and if their is a Movie, it might be what took place on Earth as a guess.





I can sort of understand why they brought in the Brutes and those Bugs. Usually these kind of stories are put together as they go. So understandable that in this book they added in the Brutes and those Insects. I just finished this book, and in this book it was extremely interesting to read. How the Huragok could care less about the whole War thing, and how you can already see some of the makings of a Civil War.


But since they add this Civil War, I can the Bugs and Brutes being brought in to basically even the field bringing the Jackels on their side, and then the other three species on the side. Though it is interesting to note, that even though the Civil War within the Covenant started, not everyone has still separated other than the Elites.

[PharmaDrMan]

I could care less about Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Well at least you could care less, it would be a shame if you couldn't.