nail for girls: Theory: Echo 216 is from the Spirit of Fire.

As crazy as it may sound, there are numerous evidence pieces that point toward Echo 216, and her Pilot, being from the Spirit of Fire and not a modern UNSC battle element. Let’s run down what we can glean from Discover Hope, and the other sources we have from the Halo Universe.

For the purposes of the theory and timestamps, I’ll be using This Video, Discover Hope published by GameSpot Trailers. Other such editions of the trailer may not line up perfectly.^\1])

Let’s start with the easy facts to discuss. The equipment that Echo 216 (E216) has onboard is woefully out of date for the expressed timelines. At 5:03 in the trailer, Chief picks up a rifle from his side in the cockpit section before sealing the section to go to battle, leaving E216 Pilot behind. This rifle has an external ammo counter blob, a very pronounced barrel design with the lower grip. This matches one for one, beyond any doubt to the design first seen in Halo: Reach and later in the Halo Wars series.^\2]) This rifle design was the MA37 assault rifle, introduced in 2437. Although it is said that the MA37 existed beyond that time and continued to see use, we never see it in game-play again by up-to-date UNSC forces. Unless the UNSC is so strapped for guns they are equipping their soldiers with relics, this doesn’t make sense for him to be an up-to-date soldier.

Secondly, the next-best indicator is the uniforming of E216’s pilot. Several times throughout the trailer, such as at 4:32, we get a good look at a UNSC patch on the pilot’s left sleeve. This patch is wrong for the time era. At the end of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC picked up a shield instead of a globe as the key design feature on the eagle, and the eagle became more sharp. This patch however does directly match with the War-era design.^\3][4]) Either this dude is criminally negligent on uniforming standards, or the UNSC has a problem with their patches.

Third, once Chief is recovered by the pilot, and powered up, we get a rare good shot of the interior of the dropship. Off to the right hand side, such as at 3:36, a CH252 helmet is seen. This variant matches the Halo: Reach and Halo Wars era designs^\5]), with the helmet lacking a defined frontal plate, and including a dimple in the center mass with what looks like could be a light. This is once again out of date compared to other known designs in the late 2550’s and early 2560’s.

Next let’s move directly on to E216 herself. She is quite obviously a pelican, however the lack of external shots makes it hard to nail down which version. We have to rely on interior shots, and the interior has changed both a lot and not a lot throughout the game series. The cockpit is most definitely a side-by-side design, which is not seen anywhere throughout the Reclaimer saga. It is safe to make the jump in logic that this is not a late-war or post-war model. The interior appears similar to the Halo: Reach to early war D77-TC^\6]) and the rear compartment of this model is shown to have the extended struts around each individual seat above head-height.^\7]) This can be matched generally to 3:41 in the trailer. However, some problems do arise as the rear door, as seen at 5:09 seems to have the central pentagon dimple of the D77H-TCI^\8][9]). This particular model of Pelican was in use from Halo 3 onward, however the configuration was known to be used, especially the dimple-door, during Halo Reach, as seen at 1:54:05 of this Halo: Reach cut-scene video.^\10]) This demonstrates that some of the D77-TCs had dimple-door configs, lending credence to the theory that this is a D77-TC. Another big flaw is the presence of dual pressure doors between the cockpit and main compartment. but this can easily be explained away with a modification done or sub-variant designed for extra-atmos action.

Next let’s talk about the name of the franchise, Halo. In Discover Hope, around 4:51 we see a Halo ring. This ring does not match with any known halo rings built before 2550. This rink, in fact, matches almost perfectly Installation 09, Ander’s Halo built by the Lesser Ark at the end of Halo Wars 2.^\11]) The matching is both for external design and the onboard biomes. No other halo seen in the franchise thus far includes the blue dots speckled around the exterior of the ring, and in such frequency. Additionally, the biomes of mostly water with spotted island designs is not matching to Zeta Halo, which is the prevailing theory thus far. I submit that this destroyed or damaged Halo is in fact not Zeta Halo but Installation 09.

The last major piece of concrete evidence is the Chief’s Boot-up text. At 3:29 in the trailer, Chief’s armor displays the text “Last Modified by C. Halsey, 09.19.2561”. This puts us solidly into the Created conflict and past the known date of deployment of Inst. 09. It is wholly possible that E216’s pilot has been out there for a little under two and a half years on his own, scavving and using the Halo to replenish supplies between attacks from unknown forces.

So let’s move on to the theory, as opposed to facts.

The Spirit of Fire was lost at the start of the Human/Covenant War, and so would have much older technology. However, we know that as of 2559, Halo Wars 2 shows us a new Halo (Installation 09) deployed and intercepted by a Created's Guardian. The end of the known timing puts us 6 months deep in the Created War.^\12]) The data-banks of the Spirit of Fire are out of date, however Isabel could have updated them with what she knows. Her link to Earth and the UNSC was cut, according to Halo Wars 2 cut-scenes, as “Five Months Ago”^\13]). If we suppose that the portal shut down on Zero Day of the Created Conflict, she would know nothing about the Created Conflict. Let us theorize for a moment that rest of the game, and thus the crisis of the Lesser Ark, takes place over the course of a month - this puts us 6 months deep in the Created Conflict.^\14])

The Created Conflict started in October of 2558, plus six months puts us April of 2559. This matches with known information from Halo Wars 2, that the Spirit of Fire was adrift and woken up in 2559. It is easy to assume that this new Halo, which I think matches Installation 09^\16]), was captured and later destroyed by either a Guardian or another force. The problem here is all UNSC elements were evacuated from the Halo in order to stay and fight the banished to prevent them taking over the Lesser Ark. However, it's easy to say he simply didn't get off or defected, and so went along with Anders, and avoided being detected or captured or killed by a Created Guardian. E216's pilot is shown to be a devout family man, and so may have jumped at the chance in his addled state of PTSD and constant stress from fighting to do anything to get home, even though his family and children are likely long dead. Pelican consumables can easily be assumed to last a while in space, especially with only a lone occupant or supplemented with, say, the remnants of a Halo ring. There he drifted until he found a UNSC signal - the Chief. It makes sense that the IFF on his older ship could ID the signal as "Friendly", but not ID the exact source because of the encryption issues from a 28 year old ship, even with Isabel's updates. She herself is at least 5-6 months out of the loop on cryptographic tech.

Now, How does Chief get to E216? Well, I can assume a new Halo ring just popping up out of nowhere would draw a lot of suspicion. I can see either Infinity or just Chief going out to investigate, getting fought, losing, and being set adrift as the Halo was damaged or destroyed. It's possible the Created even killed Dr. Anders, but leaving alive E216's pilot still gives us a link to the Spirit of Fire^\17]) and someone who knows they're alive. This, however, is just my thoughts. There are almost infinite ways that Chief could have ended up in the debris field surrounding the installation, whichever one it is.

Finally, however, there are some problems with this. Out of universe, 343 have stated they want a more classic art design. My theory just gives us a little more sourcing for how such old nostalgia tech can present itself. E216’s pilot refers to John as Chief. This is however easy to explain - he’s been rubbing elbows with Red Team since the Spirit of Fire disappeared. They are also Spartan II’s. It’s also easy that he’d recognize a Spartan, even with updated armor as the base design remained the same. Additionally, Chief’s armor could have rank designation on it, or he could simply recognize ‘117’ as THE Spartan.

The last major issue that I can think of comes from the SPDR and BIOS. The SPDR in Discover Hope lists Halsey messing with it in 2561.^\15]) This is around two years after the battle for the Lesser Ark. However, a lot of the BIOS is fluctuating and appears semi-corrupted. System date and time could be wrong, or E216 has been floating around for 2 years, scavving for supplies and possibly dipping down to the Halo and back every once in a while for food, air, or other such things. It's more likely than him having such out of date tech or being drifting around since the destruction of Inst. 04 in Halo CE.

Refs

[1]https://youtu.be/gXpv5t42kQA

[2]https://www.halopedia.org/MA37_assault_rifle

[3]https://www.halopedia.org/File:Halopedia_Era_UNSC.png

[4]https://www.halopedia.org/United_Nations_Space_Command

[5]https://www.halopedia.org/File:CH252_helmet.jpg

[6]https://www.halopedia.org/D77-TC_Pelican

[7]https://www.halopedia.org/images/a/ab/Troopers\_in\_Pelican.jpg

[8]https://www.halopedia.org/D77H-TCI\_Pelican

[9]https://www.halopedia.org/images/4/40/Pelican\_bay.jpg

[10]https://youtu.be/2mJjGxmaH_o?t=6845

[11]https://www.halopedia.org/images/8/85/HW2-Halo_jump.jpg