Taking Red vs. Blue seriously

[Battlehymn Republic]

I've always been intrigued by the notion of a minor human civil war occurring between Halo and Halo 2 for no reason (which is sorta-kinda the premise of Red vs. Blue). I even had an idea to do a fanfiction series based on it, sort of like how nBSG was the gritty reinterpretation of the classic BSG. So you'd get some vague versions of the characters with the same names, some plot elements such as the mercenaries named after American states, and so on and so forth.

However, fluff and lore wise, just how tenable is the idea that there was a civil war within the UNSC at some point between Halo and Halo 2?

[DPDarkPrimus]

The SPARTAN programs were started before contact with the Covenant was ever made, for use against separatist forces who wanted their colonies to be independence from UNSC control.

So it doesn't even have to be between the games.

[Battlehymn Republic]

I always thought of writing that the RvB guys were fighting with inferior knock-offs of Spartan tech. Their armor could be called "Hammerhead" instead of Mjolnir. And their soldier class could be called "Trojan." And the innuendo abounds.

[Peptuck]

Oh, there's plenty of room for rebels and revolutions in the UNSC. The seperatists and rebels in the UNSC aren't your petty militias, either. These guys are very well-armed and equipped -including battle fleets and self-sufficient colonies - and are pretty damn smart too; they were able to take down a strike team of Spartans in Ghosts of Onyx with some good old fashioned prep time.

[avatarxprime]

I did some checking around and you have between 2525 and 2531 for this little thing to go (SPARTANs are operating and the civil war is brewing) with mentions of insurrections in some of the colonies up to 2357. One incident in 2531 is mentioned in Ghosts of Onyx where they show that the Separatists had a fairly high ranking General working for them who knew of the SPARTANs and how to deal with them, the incident mentioned by Peptuck. This also means that you are limited to the lower level MOJLNIR armors, which would be easier to rip-off anyway.

[Peptuck]

You could also deal with the possibility of the civil war taking place after Halo 3's ending. Since most of the human worlds are destroyed, the UNSC fleet is in shambles, and as far as they're aware, all the Spartans are dead and the Covenant are sent packing, it would be the perfect time for someone wanting to break away to do so.

[JointStrikeFighter]

There is a line in one of the 1st RvB episodes along the lines of "why aren't we out kicking ass like the Master Chief; He's off fighting the Covenant on Halo while we're stuck in this box canyon"

[SAMAS]

I don't think it's an actual civil war, but rather that Red Command/Blue Command guy making them fight for his own sick amusement.

[NetKnight]

There is a line in one of the 1st RvB episodes along the lines of "why aren't we out kicking ass like the Master Chief; He's off fighting the Covenant on Halo while we're stuck in this box canyon"

I think it's "I joined the army to fight aliens. Then Master Chief goes and blows them up, and I get stuck here fighting the Blues".

[Master_Baerne]

There is a line in one of the 1st RvB episodes along the lines of "why aren't we out kicking ass like the Master Chief; He's off fighting the Covenant on Halo while we're stuck in this box canyon"

I think it's "I joined the army to fight aliens. Then Master Chief goes and blows them up, and I get stuck here fighting the Blues".

"I joined the army to fight aliens. Next thing you know, Master Chief blows up the whole Covenant Armada, and we're stuck in this stupid canyon.

[Vendetta]

Contact Harvest apparently deals with a civil war immediately before the arrival of the Covenant.

Once the Covenant showed up, everyone was otherwise engaged.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Contact Harvest apparently deals with a civil war immediately before the arrival of the Covenant.

Once the Covenant showed up, everyone was otherwise engaged.

Not exactly correct.

Spoilers for Contact Harvest:

Because Harvest was an important world but on the fringe, Johnson was training a local militia so that they could fight any potential insurgency that might show up there. Then the Covenant happens to come along and they have to fight them instead.

The prologue to Contact Harvest has Johnson actually participating in one of the anti-insurgency campaigns, as part of Operation TREBUCHET.

[Lord Relvenous]

[quote="Battlehymn Republic] just how tenable is the idea that there was a civil war within the UNSC at some point between Halo and Halo 2?[/quote]

The time span between Halo and Halo 2 was a little less than 2 weeks IIRC. That really isn't enough time for anything to happen.

[DPDarkPrimus]

[

A few days short of a month, actually.

[Lord Relvenous]

DPDarkPrimus
Thanks, i was too lazy to go look at the times in the books. Point is still valid though. A month filled with fighting the Covenant for survival is hardly enough time for a civil war.

[Chris OFarrell]

You could easily write about civil war fighting anytime in the earlier parts of the Covenant War, the civil war very much continued as the Covenant attacked.

Of course as most of these rebellions were in the outer colonies and the outer colonies were rapidly glassed by the Covenant...well...

But its absurdly unlikly they would have ANYTHING like MJOLNIR type armor. The UNSC spent absurd amounts of money developing the Mark IV, which was the first really viable, self contained power armor and even then it was only compatible with Spartan II's. The rebels never had anything like it.

You could give them something like SPI armor -minus the stealth technology- if you want to develop it early on somehow, which is better then an ODST bodysuit, but nothing as good as MJOLNIR technology...but its far far cheaper.