Forum:Reach Date Inconsistencies

I'm sure that this topic has been beaten, but I'm just curious about this:


 * In Halo: Reach, we have the dates of the Fall of Reach being July 24th to August 30th, 2552.
 * In Halo: The Fall of Reach (2010), we have the Master Chief testing Mark V armor on August 29, 2552.

So, S-117 was testing armor that, according to Bungie Weekly Update, 1/29/10, was released to the SPARTAN-II commandos and the members of Noble Team on November 24th, 2551. Now, hold on. Let's look at those dates again. John is testing the armor on the day before Reach is a total loss. And he's testing it on Reach. Can anyone explain these inconsistencies?

Thanks,  Lt. Agreon  Talk  10:38, 4 June 2011 (EDT)

There not really inconsistencies the dates for the fall of reach were retconned from being August 30,2552 to July 24, 2552 through August 30th. The reason John was testing his armor on the 29th was for AI compatibility. The armor was not being introduced on that day. John and the other SPARTAN-IIs that were with him were not told of the ongoing Covenant invasion since the 24thof July due the higher priority mission they were on. The Covenant fleet that arrived on August 30th was not the initial invasion fleet but rather they were reinforcements. "A Penny saved is a Penny earned" 11:06, 4 June 2011 (EDT)


 * So they just weren't told about: (July 24th) WINTER CONTINGENCY, the events at Visegrad, (July 26th) the attack on Sword Base, (August 12th) Szurdok Ridge, (14th) the Covenant main fleet arriving, or the destruction of the Supercarrier, (23rd-26th) the glassing of New Alexandria. Seems highly unlikely that you could miss the vast majority of the planet being destroyed over a month's time. [[Image:If they came to hear me beg.png|15px]] Lt. Agreon  Talk  11:18, 4 June 2011 (EDT)


 * I don't agree with the idea that they didn't know until the 30th, though I feel that we should note how localised the conflict was on Reach. The Covenant remained in their encampments around Szurdok ridge until the UNSC counterattack on August 12th. Before that they sent out small parties to search for relics which were defeated by NOBLE team; elsewhere a corvette was destroyed in another attack around Viery. The decloaking of the Long Night of Solace was when the Covenant began moving out, taking the fight into space, albeit only for a while before the supercarrier's destruction. The arrival of the main Covenant naval force again focused primarily in space combat, rather than mass-deployment or glassing. New Alexandria held back Jiralhanae forces for five days from August 18th until three corvettes finally made it through the super-MAC defences and began glassing the city on the 23rd. I think we should also note that the Halo: Reach dates are not the Earth calendar - Reach's day is 27-hours long, leading to Nightfall beginning at 2630. Because of that and its 390 day (local) year we should take note that their calendar is very different from Earth's. For all we know the Reach calendar involved skipping a few days to catch up to Earths, making the battle shorter than it looks.--  Fore  run  ner '' 11:40, 4 June 2011 (EDT)


 * Earth's approx. 24-hour day and 365.25-day year gives us around 8760 hours/year. Reach on the other has a slower day and year - 10530 hours.

Therefore, we can calculate by using the formula below:

nY    nY=number of hours in a (local) year --    24=number of hours in an Earth day 24


 * With this math we can conclude that there are 438.75 earth-days in a Reach year.--  Fore  run  ner '' 12:15, 4 June 2011 (EDT)


 * Impressive math. I'll remember that. Point stands, however. How do you keep Spartan-IIs in the dark for (more than) a month and a few days? Bottom line is, they would have to know about the invasion. It would be pretty hard to miss after the arrival of the massive main fleet. [[Image:If they came to hear me beg.png|15px]] Lt. Agreon  Talk  11:45, 4 June 2011 (EDT)

They weren't kept in the dark. Given what we know, they had been fighting the whole time since they returned from Sigma Octanus IV. As revealed in the level New Alexandria, by August 23rd, Red Team had been deployed to assist in civilian evacuation operations. As revealed in Halsey's journal, in the midst of the invasion, John was called away from combat - he'd been fighting the whole time - to test the potential of the Spartan/AI tag team; this was a last-minute effort to ensure that Operation: RED FLAG would be a success, which, of course, it wasn't. Finally, on August 30th, the events told in The Fall of Reach and First Strike begin.

So, the S-IIs fought the whole time they were on the planet until most of them were killed on August 30th, when the bulk of the invading vessels arrived. Also keep in mind that, in addition to the Fleet of Particular Justice, there were at least two other Covenant fleets at Reach: the Fleet of Righteous Vigilance and the Fleet of Holy Respite. Thus, the advance fleet seen in the first few levels of the game, the one that arrives at the end of Long Night of Solace, and the one that arrives on the 30th might be entirely different elements. --Courage never dies. 11:55, 4 June 2011 (EDT)