: OK, cutting to the chase, I'm working on these assumptions: A: Covenant
: slipspace engines were generally faster than ours from the git-go, since
: they were reverse-engineering Forerunner technology. In short, they had a
: blueprint for the way forward, even though they didn't completely
: understand it.

: B: Covenant colonization would have been limited by transit time. Since the
: Covenant apparently did not suffer the same communication limitations that
: the UNSC did, communication lag between centers of power like High Charity
: or Sanghelios and their outer colonies would not have been a limiting
: factor on colonization.
: In short, the Covenant would not have the same problems of governance that
: the UNSC did because their communication was faster.

For both points, perhaps for the Prophets, but the Sangheili developed into a tier 3 capable species without using Forerunner technology. I suspect therefore that their early colonization (pre 1000BCE) was probably as slow going as humanity's with all the associated teething issues. Although it would certainly be a non-issue now.

: Imagine the logistical nightmare it must have been to wage war on Humanity.
: How far across was the Covenant's Empire? Two years of travel? More?
: How long would it have taken to travel from their central colonies to the
: front lines? Perhaps staging colonies were set up at their nearest border,
: where conscripts were brought to train and organize before the long
: journey. Something like that could've been interesting to explore in the
: fiction.

: Anyhow, whatever the distance between Earth and Sanghelios is, the UNSC
: Infinity crossed it in less than a week. In a single jump. Thanks to
: "Forerunner Enhancements".
: So, yeah, it's official: The Infinity travels at the speed of plot.

Well, it's often been said that the Covenant Empire extended over much of the Orion Arm, wasn't it? It's about 10'000 light years long. There's this 912 light years per day that I've seen kicking about that people somehow figured out from Blue team's journey from Earth to Onyx. If that's true then the Covenant could have went from the core worlds to Earth in about less than 5 days? It's a bit contrived I will admit, it's based on the record time from Reach to Earth after Reach fell, and the fact that Fred said that it woudl take the fastest Human ships at least 2 weeks to get from Earth to Onyx (And the assumption that Nylund was really paying attention to these details.) Seems more likely that ships have always moved with the speed of plot.

Although Covenant space seems to be a lot smaller than I thought it would have been as well, as of late. The Sangheili seem to regard Humanity's colonisation habits as being particularly notable amongst the other denizens of the galaxy and despise them for it due to its extent, which seems to imply to me that pre- war Humanity and the Sangheili are for some reason almost equivalent in territory. The UNSC should be ants to the Sangheili Empire, and the Sangheili shouldn't take notice of our little ant hole otherwise, should they? Their navy is also seemingly as dilapidated and as small as the UNSC's after Halo 3. Even after the Schism, a navy that has been built up and maintained for over 3000 years should be quite sizeable compared to the UNSC post Halo 3, and still easily capable of dealing with Humanity and the Infinity. I donno, I'm just not getting the impression that Kilo-5 portrays the consequences of the Covenant Empire's size and age as well as it should.

The disappearance of the Engineers is really strange. Maybe it's how they wanted to avoid Humanity becoming a Sangheili client race rather than getting anywhere near their "Reclaimer" destiny. That or it makes the Sangheili easier to mould into antagonists again due to the sheer desperation that it places them in. It seems like it must have a plot related purpose to it due to how erroneous it is.