: So, the Covenant is five thousand years old, and both the Elites and the
: Prophets were spacefaring before it was founded. In the time since, the
: Covenant expanded. Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, Drones, Brutes, and possibly
: other sapient species were discovered and brought into the fold.

: Imagine what the Covenant built in that time. Are there sprawling
: metropolises to rival Mass Effect's Illium? Worlds that were tamed by
: Jackals or given to the Grunts to live upon?

: 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.

: C: The search for Forerunner artefacts extended far beyond the territory that
: the Covenant colonized. The Ministry of Tranquility's search would only
: have been limited by the time it takes to search a system with a Luminary,
: the need to repair and refit its ships, and presumably by budget
: shortfalls.

: D: It was a Ministry of Tranquility ship that ran into Harvest. That's about
: half a year of travel from planet Earth, since Harvest is among the UNSC's
: most farflung colonies, Loftus's star chart be darned!

: 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.

: Now, I started writing this for a reason other than to complain, but I can't
: quite recall what it is at the moment...

: OK. I guess I'll start out by wondering who was behind this change, 343i or
: Karen Traviss. It's very much in keeping with the "New Humanity"
: that 343i is pushing, but the Ludicrous Speed and the justifications for
: the technological leap seem to be exclusive to the Glasslands trilogy.

: The justifications I'm talking about are centered around the Huragok, how all
: but one of the Covenant-bred ones seem to have left Human-Covenant space.
: In addition, the Huragok from the Shield World are outright stated to be
: superior to the Covenant breeds. Humans are getting technology better than
: what resulted from 5,000 years of Covenant R&D because of these Huragok,
: even though the Covenant would also have started with similar stock.
: I mean, they all had to come from a Forerunner reliquary somewhere, right?

: Thoughts?

Careful, you'll give Miller an aneurism if your theory isn't canon.