Correct me if I'm wrong but the timeline of Halo 3 and the cutscene at the end of the credits in ODST don't match up. The end of ODST is when Master Chief returns to earth, then Halo 3 takes place in three days (approximately), but the cutscene at the end of Halo 3 ODST says one month after drop when Johnson is walking with DARE. If that is correct then Johnson would of been dead for almost a month, if he really did die on the Ark. So my question is did Bungie just mess up here or is Johnson still alive? As we all know you can not kill Johnson in the actual game and if he falls off the edge he comes back.
First, during Halo 3 ODST, one day took place and slipspace travel takes a couple of months for humans and a couple of weeks for the covenant which means the Master Chief didn't arrive at the end of Halo 3 ODST. Now they started uncovering the Ark at the end of Halo 3 ODST, when Truth gets there it is done. So lets say it took a couple of days. Meanwhile, Master Chief on the In Amber Clad piggy backed onto a slipspace jump with the Regret's carrier and so slipspace travel would take at least 2-3 weeks, maybe more because we don't where the second Halo is. The Events of Halo 2 take place yada yady. Now Master Chief gets to ride back to Earth on the Forerunner Dreadnought. Covenant ship technology was modeled after it so let's say it'll also take about 2-3 weeks too. That leaves plenty of time for the engineer to light up Johnson's cigar before the events of Halo 3.
Johnson went with the Chief to Delta Halo, meaning he wouldn't be there for the engineer to light his cigar.
But is the whole interrogation/cigar scene really canon? I thought it was just for laughs and another dose of Johnson badassery.
No he was there... Lets put it this way, ODST ends... Covenant are digging.. Truth turns up 2 weeks later... Covenant uncover the portal... Chief returns in approx a week or two.. Does his thing.. Fights for a few days.. Johnson has a cigar... Boards his ship... Goes to the ark with chief... They all live happily ever after...
my brain hurts now!!!! it was my understanding that while the books use weeks of travel for long-distance slipspace, the games just used an instant transport sort of thing. because the events of Halo 2 and 3 just seem a bit too rushed to all be occurring over months due to travel. I can see Halo 2 taking maybe a few weeks at most (with the reprieve from when the Arbiter becomes the Arbiter and when the attack on New Mombasa starts) I guess I never really thought about it. as a gamer, I just kinda went along and figured it was all happening at the same time or something.
Johnson and the Chief seperate at the end of Halo 2. Chief with Truth, Johnson with the Arbiter. Johnson and the Arbiter greet the Chief so there still is a time frame for the engineer and Johnson to talk. This would of course mean that the ship the Arbiter and Johnson took are quicker then the Forerunner Dreadnought or that Truth had to do something. I never read Halo: Uprising, the bridge between Halo 2 and 3 so I wouldn't know.
Actually, yeah i forgot about the bit that chief is on a seperate ship to johnson... But if you guys really need to know about the time it takes to travel.. if you have halo wars.. read the timeline.. It distinctively says that when the spirit of fire follows regrets ship when the (then) arbiter capture Anders, the SOF takes 2 months to arrive at its destination and serina (the onboard AI) sends emails to all the crews spouses for valentines day.
Covi capital ships are faster, the dreadnought wasn't meant to fly, remember when the oracle aboard it tried to turn it on and rip high charity apart. Its super old so i would assume it would take longer for it to reach earth than a new capital ship would. Yeah the game being a fast paced action packed fps makes it seem like instantaneous because lets face it if you had to play missions aboard the ship doing nothing everyone would hate it. But the books and other short series etc tell how long it actually took for you to get from oh earth to Delta halo and Reach to Alpha halo and vice verse.