: I'd like a meaty story. The human government is broken, somewhat threatening.
: The Chief was part of a program whose intent was to put down the innies.
: That program was sidelined by the Covenant but has become relevant again.
: So all those postponed tensions could come back into relevance. Where
: would the Chief fit into all that?

Maybe they could do a ME style binary choice. You get tasked to kill innies, you get to fight and kill humans. See how that feels to you.

Then you get the choice to join them or stay loyal to the people who made you. You make two halo verses. Two different worlds depending on the decision you make.

343i should take each option seriously and try to make each the best game that they can make. Have a core engineering team and two story/mission teams. Let their own employees decide which side they are on and let them craft the best version of their story that they can make. It would be an internal competition and both options would get the respect that they deserve.

That division would be reflected in, respectful, disagreements here. HBO would come alive with story discussion, not seen since the h2 days.

And, obviously, you could have two 'saves' to explore your 'Paragon' and 'Renegade' sides. :-)