They were, umm, testing it out, you know? How else would they have been able to slap that logo on everything in the UNSC within a month or two of ending an apocalyptic war? Have to keep up appearances after all. I'm imagining a committee finalizing the logo in the Bravo-6 facility while Earth is glassed in Halo 3. While the Master Chief is fighting on the Ark they have a contractor applying the new logo to everything in the ship.

: If Halo 5 turns the art direction and my interest-level around, I'm sure
: stuff like this Strident class will help ease Halo 4 into my personal
: canon as a one-off kind of thing. But right now I have no motivation to
: try to integrate Bungie and 343i's contributions into the same universe. I
: guess that's why I can accept any changes in the Mombasa in ODST so
: easily: because I WANT to. :)

Well put. It's sort of like how I can reconcile Halo: Reach's story with Halo: The Fall of Reach. Mostly because both are awesome in their own way. The motivation has to be there.

I for one really enjoyed Glasslands and Thursday War, so I suppose my incentive to get more involved in the EU fiction is much greater. At the same time, I can see how those two books can be rather off-putting too. I definitely recommend Silentium though, it's not only good Halo fiction but just good fiction, period. You could just pretend the Didact is Harbinger from Mass Effect if that helps. Same voice actor and all.