I replied to a forumite on Halo Waypoint regarding the ending of Spartan ops season one as well as addressed some of their questions regarding Spartan Ops (SpOps) in general.

Below is Claymore155’s queries and my reply.

Claymore155: …As for Spartan Ops, no clue. In all honesty, it could go in any direction. Halsey says she wants revenge but she never been so strait forward about her true intentions. This is also a great opportunity for the new Spartan IV’s to mature and start acting the way a Spartan should. (And something needs to be done about Palmer).
I know you play as Fire-team Crimson, but the story seems to follow Majestic, so the gameplay is (once again, only in my opinion) not that crucial to the story. Majestic team was actually starting to work and think like a team towards the end of the season, so they cold have a lot of potential.

HFFL: Agreed that there is SO much potential here with the Spartan Ops story. I hope we don’t have to wait until Halo 5 comes out for it to have more episodes/missions. Unfortunately, I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Each download of SpOps is huge. Some people have complained about that. More episodes would tie up space on people’s memory to the point where they might not even be able to play new episodes/missions due to too much space being taken up.

Agreed, that finally by the end of SpOps Majestic is acting more like a real Spartan squad and yeah, Palmer needs an adjustment, IMO.

Claymore155: Maybe Master Chief will get involved in the story as well. I personally wold like to find out what happened to Buck’s ODST squad for Halo 3: ODST.

HFFL: There are plenty of fans, count me in there, that would like to see the ODSTs return, specifically Buck. Especially if he became a Spartan IV.

Claymore155: 1.) In the first missions of Spartan Ops season 1, why did everyone act like they had never seen Promethean combatants before?

The storyline is supposed to take place several months after the main Halo 4 campaign ends. By that point, the Infinity with all of its advanced technology should have simulations to practice fighting the Promethians or at least had the time to educate the crew onboard about them.
The first few missions seem like the Infinity is running in with no previous experience with Promethians. It could be argued that Palmer is trying to share some “wisdom” with Crimson when they first see an enemy, but based on her character, I think she was basically saying spray and pray.

HFFL: Watch the first episode of SpOps again. Majestic and Crimson are NEW to the Infinity. They are brought on board right before Infinity slips to Requiem. Palmer wanted to run them through War Games for 48 hours, but Lasky said no, that the UNSC wanted them ready to go. (Not tired from War Games I’d assume) Essentially Lasky was saying he wanted boots on the ground the moment they exited slipspace at Requiem.

Claymore155: 2.) Why are there still Covenant around Requiem?

This one i probably my fault for not understanding. I just remember that when the Didact left Requiem to get the Composer, all (or what I thought was all) of the Covenant forces followed him.
I know they would probably want to return, but after the huge battle with the UNSC in Earth’s orbit, I wouldn’t think the Covenant would have enough ships, troops, and resources to go back before the humans. It just seems odd that after a huge defeat like that above Earth, the Covenant would been be able to dig in with such a large military presence before the UNSC could even get one ship out there.

HFFL: Fairly simple here. Jul M’dama’s “Storm” faction went back to Requiem to get as many of the Forerunner secrets as possible. Read the Kilo-5 books ([i]Glasslands[/i] and [i]The Thursday War[/i]) and you’ll gain a new appreciation for Jul’s forces. Those promise to ramp up even more in the third Kilo-5 book that takes place right before the events of Halo 4. Jul has assembled a large force of Covenant, now “Storm.” The UNSC/humanity is still reeling from the decades long war the the Covies, not to mention the destruction of New Phoenix just 6 months prior to going back to Requiem. They can’t devote a huge force to go back to Requiem. Sending the Infinity back is a logical solution, but not until they have the ground personnel they need to take Requiem from the Covies.

Enter the new large faction of Spartans now on the Infinity. Note in Episode 1 of SpOps that Palmer speaks of “old hands.” She’s referring to the smaller contingent of Spartans that were already on Infinity the first time they went to Requiem.

Also, don’t forget that the Infinity was repurposed to be a scientific exploration vessel and not a war machine. It took those 6 months after the Didact’s attack on Earth to formulate a plan for return to Requim. This included adding many more Spartan teams. (Note that Palmer was a Lieutenant during the campaign and was promoted to Commander at the beginning of SPartan Ops. This denotes the much larger presence of Spartan teams for which she is in charge of). Beyond this, the Infinity needed to add more personnel. Military for defense and Scientific for exploring/exploiting the Forerunner tech found on Requiem.

Claymore155: 3.) The way Halsey didn’t know that Master Chief was onboard doesn’t fit in.

Halsey is smart, but it’s not impossible to hide things from her. However, Master Chief’s presence tends to fill the air of where ever he is, yet no one seemed to be talking about him.
Master Chief is not one to sit out of a fight, especially when other people’s lives are in danger. And when when he fights, he (even unknowing) makes his presence known. So when the Infinity was boarded, why didn’t Halsey hear or see Chief? She was with Lasky, the acting commanding officer of the ship. Master Chief would do all he can to find and protect Lasky, or at least go out of his way to receive direct orders from him either in person or over a communication cannel (which were being jammed so he would have to meet up with him in person). Yet Halsey never saw John or even heard him some form of radio.

HFFL: Master Chief is not on board the Infinity at the time of SpOps. So that does explain a lot. As well, Halsey is brought on board Infinity as a prisoner. It’s safe to assume that only essential personnel had contact with her and that they were under strict orders not to talk of Master Chief being on board previously.

As for where Chief is at during the events of SpOps, that may have to wait for Halo 5, if not another novel before then.

-Sal