Versus Match Hell's Halo (Doom vs Halo)

[JasonSanjo]

Time for another scenario! This time, it's Halo and Doom (2016).

Background
The forces of Hell have been made aware of the Halo Array in the Halo universe and they are intrigued. So much so that, when the Pillar of Autumn makes a blind jump to Installation 04 and is followed by a fleet of Covenant ships, the interested demonic parties kinda/sorta panic and decide to launch an impromptu invasion to try to take over the installation before either of the local factions can do so. Surprisingly, however, something inside Installation 04 is emitting signals that interfere with their portals and prevent them from getting a lock inside the interior, forcing the demons to open portals only on the surface. This, however, is merely a minor setback. It's time to conquer!

Note: The scenario begins on "Day 1", September 19th, 2552, local time (The canon Battle for Installation 04 took place September 19-22).

The Players

The Forces of Hell/Demons
Background: Not wanting to let the newly-arrived Covenant or UNSC take over Installation 04, Hell has launched an impromptu invasion by opening portals all over the surface of Installation 04 to try and conquer and hold it against all comers. Because the invasion was launched with little preparation, however, Hell's forces are initially scattered and in disarray...
Leaders/Key Personnel: Initially a single Baron of Hell, with a number of subcommanders in the form of Hell Knights and Summoners. As the invasion goes on additional field commanders will be sent through as necessary.
Numbers: Practically innumerable... eventually. The initial invasion force, however, consists of around a thousand demons, chiefly Possessed, Imps, Pinkies, Revenants, Mancubi and Hell Razers, with Gore Nests springing up in areas surrounding Hell portals. As the invasion progresses, additional Hell portals will open and more demon types will be added to the roster, including the likes of Spectres, Lost Souls, Cacodemons, Cyber-Mancubi, and more. Hundreds upon hundreds more demons will pour onto Installation 04 with every passing day unless the portals are closed or taken by opposition forces.
Armaments: Standard for the various demonic troops.
Knowledge: Hell's commanders are aware of the approximate numbers but not composition of the UNSC and Covenant forces, and are also aware of the Forerunner Constructs' existence but do not know much about either their numbers or composition nor their true purpose on Installation 04. They do not initially know of the Flood's existence at all.
Mission: Conquer Installation 04, vanquish or force the retreat of all opposition, and then study and learn the secrets of the Halo Array.
Activation/Arrival: Day 1, though they have been surreptitiously scouting around the surface for weeks beforehand.

The Covenant
Background: Having pursued the Pillar of Autumn to a previously unexplored system, the Covenant commanders are surprised to discover the massive Forerunner ring structure floating in space. Now they have a new mission: explore the structure and learn all they can whilst eradicating the heretic humans defiling the sacred installation with their presence. But what's this? Some sort of demonic, alien creatures inside this holy place?! Blasphemy! They must all perish in the name of the Covenant! Wait, they can portal straight onto our ships and fortified positions?!
Leaders/Key Personnel: Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadam, Prophet of Stewardship, Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadum, et al.
Numbers: Fleet of Particular Justice (Approximately 15 ships, thousands of ground troops, including Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Brutes, etc)
Armaments: Standard Covenant weapons and equipment.
Knowledge: The Covenant are initially aware of the approximate numbers and composition of the UNSC forces, but will quickly learn of the presence of the very much hostile forces of Hell and their apparent ability to portal in from some unknown location. The presence of the Forunner Constructs/Sentinels and the Flood are initially unknown.
Mission: Purge the Heretic! Kill the Xenos! Burn the Unclea- Oh, wait, wrong franchise. The point stands, however: Only the Covenant may possess this sacred place! All others must perish!
Activation/Arrival: Day 1.

The UNSC
Background: The UNSC Pillar of Autumn made a blind jump and, by chance, ended up on the doorstep of Installation 04. Pursued by a fleet of Covenant ships and under heavy bombardment, the ship is forced to make a controlled crashlanding on the ring world, with most of its personnel scattered across its surface after escaping in life pods. Now they must deal with not only the Covenant, but also several previously unknown alien factions in the form of the forces of Hell, the Forerunner Constructs/Sentinels, and the Flood. "'Join the Navy', they said! 'See the galaxy', they said!"
Leaders/Key Personnel: Captain Jacob Keyes, Major Antonio Silva, Master Chief John-117, Cortana, et al.
Numbers: 200 Naval personnel, 400 Marines, 530 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, Fireteam Raven
Armaments: Standard UNSC weapons and equipment.
Knowledge: The UNSC forces are initially aware of the approximate numbers and to an extent the composition of the Covenant forces. The other factions, however, are initially completely unknown, though they will run into the forces of Hell pretty much from the moment they touch down on Installation 04.
Mission: Survive, prevent the Covenant from learning the location of Earth, escape Installation 04.
Activation/Arrival: Day 1.

The Flood
Background: Imprisoned in Installation 04 for the purpose of study - which in hindsight was really fucking stupid of the Forerunners, but hey - the Flood wishes nothing more than to escape containment and spread across the galaxy once more. And with all the chaos going on up on the surface, it's only a matter of time until they get their chance...
Leaders/Key Personnel: Proto-Gravemind (feral stage)
Numbers: Thousands of Flood forms, chiefly infection forms, combat forms, and carrier forms.
Armaments: Whatever they can get their various limbs on.
Knowledge: Initially only aware of the presence of the Forerunner Constructs/Sentinels, but neither their numbers nor composition.
Mission: Escape containment and spread across the galaxy, infecting all biological life in the process. And, hey, those glowing portals look kind of intriguing...
Activation/Arrival: Technically shortly after Installation 04's initial construction and use, almost 100,000 years ago. For scenario purposes, day 1.

Forerunner Constructs/Sentinels
Background: Constructed for the purpose of tending to and guarding Installation 04 with the ultimate goal of keeping the Flood contained, the Sentinels have been doing their job for almost 100,000 years without fail. Of course, that was all before the Covenant, the UNSC and the forces of Hell all decided to have a throwdown in the Sentinels' proverbial front yard...
Leaders/Key Personnel: 343 Guilty Spark.
Numbers: Numerous Aggressor Sentinels.
Armaments: Standard for Aggressor Sentinels.
Knowledge: The Sentinels are aware of the forces of Hell, the Covenant, the UNSC and of course the Flood, however their information on the numbers and composition of all but the Flood is very limited. The forces of Hell, in particular, represent an out of context problem.
Mission: Prevent the Flood from breaking containment using any means necessary. Oh, and prevent anyone from taking over Installation 04. This is Forerunner property, no solicitors or squatters allowed!
Activation/Arrival: Technically around Installation 04's initial construction almost 100,000 years ago. For scenario purposes, day 1.

Scenarios (AKA: What the Hell's the Doom Slayer doing during all this?)

Note: In all scenarios, the Doom Slayer will initially focus on fighting demons to the exclusion of all else, however if attacked by Covenant or other factions he will defend himself. Furthermore, if he sees humans under attack by anyone, be they demons or Covenant or anyone else, he will intervene to save human lives.

Scenario A: The Doom Slayer is otherwise occupied and will not intervene in Hell's invasion of Installation 04.

Scenario B: The Doom Slayer, upon exiting the UAC facility in the prologue section of Doom (2016), will be tossed through a portal onto Installation 04 on day 1 of the invasion, right around the time the UNSC and Covenant forces first touch down. He is equipped with his Praetor Suit and armed with his Pistol and Combat Shotgun, but will quickly arm himself with whatever else he can get his hands on.

Scenario C: The Doom Slayer has his full armaments and upgrades from the end of Doom (2016), and will appear on day 2 of the invasion, during the Battle of the Silent Cartographer, which will now also feature a force of demons trying to enter and corrupt the Cartographer facility.

Scenario D: The Doom Slayer has his full armaments and upgrades from the end of Doom Eternal (including the Crucible) and will appear on day 3 of the invasion, during the Battle of Alpha Base, which this time around will be a three-way battle between the UNSC, Covenant and the forces of Hell.

And this is where you enter the fray, readers. What happens in scenarios A through D?

 

[Him]

Nightowl nigga, go to sleep!

 

[JasonSanjo]

Nightowl nigga, go to sleep!

"Oh, there once was a time zone named GMT+1..."

Sing it with me!

"That held in its sway old Scandinaviaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!"

 

[Him]

"Oh, there once was a time zone named GMT+1..."

Sing it with me!

"That held in its sway old Scandinaviaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~!"

For me to believe this baseless claim I'm gonna require evidence of your Scandinavian residency.

Then, You're gonna have to identify for me that there are no external VPN software's on the system you utilize to access this website.

We know you won't provide such citations because forum posters consist largely of habitual liars.

"JasonSanjo". The flamboyant ninja~

 

[Him]

That's what I thought Paul.

 

[Husky_Khan]

I love the OP but is there any way to curb the Hell Portals on the surface, specifically by the UNSC, Covenant or Sentinels?

 

[JasonSanjo]

I love the OP but is there any way to curb the Hell Portals on the surface, specifically by the UNSC, Covenant or Sentinels?

For smaller portals, at least, the answer lies in destroying the associated Gore Nests. Of course every time a Gore Nest gets destroyed it summons a group of demons from Hell, so it's not exactly safe nor necessarily easy, but it is doable. To compensate for aerial bombardments, though, the demons are likely to eventually establish Gore Nests in close proximity to one another so that if anyone decides to just take them out en-mass they will forcibly summon a small army of demons in the process.

 

[Scooby Doo]

How many portals are initially opened?
How many portals will continue to open or is there a cap and no new portals will be made?
How many demons come out per portal per minute/hour?

 

[Husky_Khan]

Honestly, in just a brief thought, I think that unless the Covenant and UNSC work together, the Hellspawn would overrun Halo I feel. For the entire first day the two sides, who had finite resources, were busy fighting each other in basic ignorance of the Library and everything within the Halo Installation. The Demons are more omnicidal but just because they'll attack both sides doesn't mean that the UNSC and Covenant will consider them a serious enough threat to stop fighting each other.

The Covenant might be able to stop the Hellspawn themselves but I don't think they're going to react quick enough due to all of the distractions that the Installation and UNSC are providing. Plus they're being commanded by a minor Prophet as opposed to Thel'Vadam who might actually have a brain and realize the scale of the potential threat. Those gore nests can go crazy if left unattended. There was that super gore nest in Central Europe that resisted a yuge military response beyond the scale (numbers wise, obviously no starships) then the UNSC/Covenant have on Halo.

And while zombies and the like are pretty weak I think your average Imp is the equal to a UNSC Marine or Kig'yar/Jackals and creatures like Barons of Hell and their Cousins are probably on the level of Spartans or upper level Elites.

The Covenant can use their starships to destroy the Gore Nests, but the Prophet wouldn't want the Halo Installation harmed. The Covenant and the UNSC (because John-117 is an amazing super character) could maybe coordinate as well which would be a big chance, but the Prophet wouldn't allow that. The Prophet has to go... maybe the Prophet will become the first Hell Priest of this galaxy.

The Sentinels are almost a non-factor I feel. They're busy with Flood containment. One benefit might be that the presence of the Hellspawn might prevent Keyes and the Covenant forces from trying to access Halo's Flood Containment Areas and making things even more chaotic. But if the Hellspawn are preventing the UNSC/Covenant from accessing the Flood Containment Areas, that means the Hellspawn are there and I don't think Aggressor Sentinels will be very effective in stopping Hellspawn with their little laser beams.

Which means the Flood will likely break containment... BUT... I don't think the Flood will do very well. Your average Hellspawn demons internal body heat is INFERNALLY hot. Even an Imps. The Flood spores... might get boiled trying to infect a Hellspawn. Maybe they could do it to Imps or bony Revenants, but I honestly think Flood spores and infectors would get shredded in combat with Hellspawn and have a very, very difficult time trying to infect them, much less combat them without heavy weapons. Hellspawn demons will tear apart unarmed Flood forms, and armed Flood farms are kinda worse at shooting them USNC/Covenant troops for the most part, so actually I think the Flood would get wrecked.

Which means the Hellspawn is the greatest threat here!

That's all I got for now ramble wise. I didn't look anything up.

 

[JasonSanjo]

How many portals are initially opened?
How many portals will continue to open or is there a cap and no new portals will be made?
How many demons come out per portal per minute/hour?

Initially, maybe two to three dozen portals in semi-strategic locations (and a good number of random ones) across the surface of Installation 04. For the first hour, you can probably count on something like 20-40 demons coming through each portal, after which the flow will slow to a trickle of maybe 1-2 demons per portal per hour for the rest of day 1. Technically there is no hard cap on the number of portals, but there is a soft cap as it depends on what kind of forces can be marshalled over time from Hell. This isn't a formal, full-scale invasion, after all, but rather something impromptu orchestrated by a particular group of higher-ups in the demonic hierarchy.

Come day 2 Hell will have started marshalling their forces a bit better and the commanders will have a better grasp of the situation, and portals that are then viewed as strategically important will once more start seeing 20-40 demons per hour going through, whereas portals seen as less important will probably continue let through 1-2 demons per hour. As well, the demon commanders will start directing new portals be opened in strategically important areas or in preparation for major attacks (such as against a fortified Covenant position or to take a particular facility). Exactly how many new portals are opened is difficult to say, as it will be determined by a combination of what the commanders consider important objectives and what resources have been marshalled at that point in time. If a major assault is called for, they might open a half dozen or so portals in a relatively small area and have 40-60 or even more demons pour through each in the span of an hour - however, this would then reduce the flow of demons through other portals for a while after.

Come day 3 - assuming no one has gone out of their way to fight back against the demonic forces and closed down portals or otherwise forced them on the defensive- additional portals will be opened in random locations to let in trickles of 1-2 demons per hour to help saturate the countryside and harass enemy forces. As well, it is likely the commanders will begin mounting raids on Covenant ships straying too close to the surface (e.g. The Truth and Reconciliation), using a combination of flying demons and opening up portals inside the ships themselves. And, of course, the Forerunner facilities will now become the primary targets for the demonic forces unless the Covenant or the UNSC has managed to slow them down or annoy them sufficiently to warrant a different response.

Come day 4... Well, that depends a lot on what happens the previous days, really, so it's hard to say.

Honestly, in just a brief thought, I think that unless the Covenant and UNSC work together, the Hellspawn would overrun Halo I feel. For the entire first day the two sides, who had finite resources, were busy fighting each other in basic ignorance of the Library and everything within the Halo Installation. The Demons are more omnicidal but just because they'll attack both sides doesn't mean that the UNSC and Covenant will consider them a serious enough threat to stop fighting each other.

The Covenant might be able to stop the Hellspawn themselves but I don't think they're going to react quick enough due to all of the distractions that the Installation and UNSC are providing. Plus they're being commanded by a minor Prophet as opposed to Thel'Vadam who might actually have a brain and realize the scale of the potential threat. Those gore nests can go crazy if left unattended. There was that super gore nest in Central Europe that resisted a yuge military response beyond the scale (numbers wise, obviously no starships) then the UNSC/Covenant have on Halo.

And while zombies and the like are pretty weak I think your average Imp is the equal to a UNSC Marine or Kig'yar/Jackals and creatures like Barons of Hell and their Cousins are probably on the level of Spartans or upper level Elites.

The Covenant can use their starships to destroy the Gore Nests, but the Prophet wouldn't want the Halo Installation harmed. The Covenant and the UNSC (because John-117 is an amazing super character) could maybe coordinate as well which would be a big chance, but the Prophet wouldn't allow that. The Prophet has to go... maybe the Prophet will become the first Hell Priest of this galaxy.

The Sentinels are almost a non-factor I feel. They're busy with Flood containment. One benefit might be that the presence of the Hellspawn might prevent Keyes and the Covenant forces from trying to access Halo's Flood Containment Areas and making things even more chaotic. But if the Hellspawn are preventing the UNSC/Covenant from accessing the Flood Containment Areas, that means the Hellspawn are there and I don't think Aggressor Sentinels will be very effective in stopping Hellspawn with their little laser beams.

Which means the Flood will likely break containment... BUT... I don't think the Flood will do very well. Your average Hellspawn demons internal body heat is INFERNALLY hot. Even an Imps. The Flood spores... might get boiled trying to infect a Hellspawn. Maybe they could do it to Imps or bony Revenants, but I honestly think Flood spores and infectors would get shredded in combat with Hellspawn and have a very, very difficult time trying to infect them, much less combat them without heavy weapons. Hellspawn demons will tear apart unarmed Flood forms, and armed Flood farms are kinda worse at shooting them USNC/Covenant troops for the most part, so actually I think the Flood would get wrecked.

Which means the Hellspawn is the greatest threat here!

That's all I got for now ramble wise. I didn't look anything up.

Given enough time without being beaten back (whether by organized resistance or the Doom Slayer kicking their asses), the demons will indeed grow more powerful with every passing day, to the point where they will likely overrun everyone else. The question is if they can get to that point or not.

I think one major issue for the likes of the Covenant is that the demons are, on average, more physically durable than the Covenant troops. Sure, there's the shielded Elites and the Brutes, but everyone else is considerably less durable than even an average demon. The difference isn't so large that the Covenant can't overwhelm the demons with superior numbers and/or heavy ordnance, but in many smaller engagements those won't be available. The Covenant could probably win major field engagements provided they are being led by someone reasonably competent, but will likely suffer greatly in smaller skirmishes, or so I feel. Covering fire by Covenant dropships might help a bit, though, at least until day 2 when flying demons start showing up in larger numbers.

The Prophet turning over a new leaf as a Hell Priest would be hilarious and probably hasten the Covenant Civil War. I approve!

The Sentinels... I think Guilty Spark would probably try to manipulate John-117 into destroying Gore Nests if he felt the demons were becoming too much of a problem. Of course his first priority is containing the Flood, so things might end up hectic for John-117 if Guilty Spark starts teleporting him all over the place to accomplish both. That's if the demons haven't already managed to start invading/corrupting the Library by that point...

Huh, I hadn't actually considered the body heat being an issue with the lesser demons, but you might be right about that. If the Flood can only infect the likes of the Possessed and maybe a few others they will have a very difficult time against Hell unless they can build up enough numbers to overwhelm them physically.

 

[Scooby Doo]

I think this comes down to the Covenant and Sentinels. The UNSC are a non factor and too small but the Covenant should number in the tens of thousands and the Sentinels in the millions to hundreds of thousands.

A couple hundred Demons a day isn't too unmanageable but it can quickly overrun the Covenant if they don't keep a handle on it, the Sentinels can definitely stunt the growth of the Demons since they'd be pretty much defending any critical spots and 343 Sparks in the expanded media apparently actually had defended active and didn't use them against the Covenant because he wanted the UNSC to land on Halo.


There's at least 68,000 Covenant infantry based on the known/named ships at the location which should be enough to halt a Day 1 & Day 2 Demon Invasion. Day 3 is where it gets dicey because the Flood outbreak was full scale on the ring by Day 3.


Overall I say UNSC still wins they're the smallest faction so they'll attract the least attention and will be more mobile, Chief will also still be able to blow Halo up since it's a tactical victory for them. Without Chief tho the UNSC would 100% lose as he was the only UNSC asset left by the POA outside of Echo 419.

 

[JasonSanjo]

I think this comes down to the Covenant and Sentinels. The UNSC are a non factor and too small but the Covenant should number in the tens of thousands and the Sentinels in the millions to hundreds of thousands.

A couple hundred Demons a day isn't too unmanageable but it can quickly overrun the Covenant if they don't keep a handle on it, the Sentinels can definitely stunt the growth of the Demons since they'd be pretty much defending any critical spots and 343 Sparks in the expanded media apparently actually had defended active and didn't use them against the Covenant because he wanted the UNSC to land on Halo.


There's at least 68,000 Covenant infantry based on the known/named ships at the location which should be enough to halt a Day 1 & Day 2 Demon Invasion. Day 3 is where it gets dicey because the Flood outbreak was full scale on the ring by Day 3.


Overall I say UNSC still wins they're the smallest faction so they'll attract the least attention and will be more mobile, Chief will also still be able to blow Halo up since it's a tactical victory for them. Without Chief tho the UNSC would 100% lose as he was the only UNSC asset left by the POA outside of Echo 419.

Yeah, in an open, organized conflict the Covenant forces present could definitely put a stop to the demon incursion if they get to it early enough. Thing is, though, between chasing down the UNSC and trying to explore the Forerunner facilities they likely wouldn't realize it until it's too late, not to mention the Flood could easily break containment like it did in canon and further muck things up for them.

If Guilty Spark realizes the Flood can't actually infect most of the demons he might try to herd the two against each other once the Flood outbreak becomes too much for the Sentinels to handle on their own, which could potentially earn both the Covenant and UNSC forces a much needed break to regroup and perhaps even work together if saner (non-Prophet) heads can prevail. At the same time it would give Guilty Spark a good opportunity to pick up John-117 and have him do his dirty work like in canon.

If the UNSC can keep themselves mobile and avoid the biggest force projections of the Covenant and the forces of Hell they have a pretty decent chance of coming out on top with at the very least a Pyrrhic victory like in canon. Larger, static bases like Alpha Base will almost certainly get overrun by either the Covenant or the demons or both, however.



But so far we've pretty much just covered Scenario A. What do you guys think about scenarios B through D? What would change and how?

 

[Husky_Khan]

There's at least 68,000 Covenant infantry based on the known/named ships at the location which should be enough to halt a Day 1 & Day 2 Demon Invasion. Day 3 is where it gets dicey because the Flood outbreak was full scale on the ring by Day 3.

Unless their arrival was extremely staggered through the three days, the idea that 68,000 Covenant Infantry couldn't tackle 1500 or so UNSC forces seems pretty exceptional, combined with the fact that the UNSC was staging counterattacks and search missions pretty aggressively as well. I was under the impression it was probably more like 15,000 or 16,000 troops. Not sure where I got the number from but even if it came out of my ass (I don't think it did but I'm a Husky so its probable) that still means they outnumber the UNSC ten to one.

Plus a full complement might not be assumed simply due to the fact that this occurred after the Battle of the Reach. Contingents might've been shifted to other vessels or units along with the obvious chance of casualties being incurred.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Unless their arrival was extremely staggered through the three days, the idea that 68,000 Covenant Infantry couldn't tackle 1500 or so UNSC forces seems pretty exceptional, combined with the fact that the UNSC was staging counterattacks and search missions pretty aggressively as well. I was under the impression it was probably more like 15,000 or 16,000 troops. Not sure where I got the number from but even if it came out of my ass (I don't think it did but I'm a Husky so its probable) that still means they outnumber the UNSC ten to one.

Plus a full complement might not be assumed simply due to the fact that this occurred after the Battle of the Reach. Contingents might've been shifted to other vessels or units along with the obvious chance of casualties being incurred.

Believe it or not but the numbers were that high for the Covenant, the UNSC were just not the main focus of the Covenant who devoted most of their resources to exploring the ring.

After the Pillar of Autumn crashed the UNSC had to pretty much abandon it and conduct a Guerilla warfare campaign and they canonically do get mostly wiped out over the course of three days. The total UNSC forces the survived the fighting was a handful, most died when Alpha Base got attacked and it only took the Covenant like three days which isn't bad honestly to wipe out a thousand or so guerilla's.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Well if it truly is that high a number, then I don't think the Hellspawn will be too much of an impairment to be honest... THUS adding the Doom Slayer to the mix would mostly be a factor working against the Hellspawn who are already at a disadvantage wouldn't really add much to the discussion in scenarios B through D.

I mean sure, you could have the Doom Slayer smashing his way through the other (non-UNSC) factions if the Hell portals are closed but the Slayer seems like he'd be preoccupied with ripping and tearing more Demons back in Hell then going on adventures in the Halo setting.

EDIT:

Unless the Prophet of Stewardship does become a Hell Priest. Then Doomguy might stick around.

 

[JasonSanjo]

With the initially available forces and then reinforcements the demons probably won't become a real threat to the Covenant force as a whole until... day 4 or so? So yeah, if John-117 manages to go through with all the stuff he did in canon then it won't end up mattering too much. The real question is how much the canon events are butterflied (butterflown?) away by the demons popping in. If the Flood takes longer to breach containment, for instance, John-117 might not get to blowing up the place until several days later, which could make all the difference in the world as far a larger conflict between the demons and Covenant is concerned and could even end with the ring not getting blown up at all.

 

[Husky_Khan]

So the Halo Ring was "destroyed" but there were still large intact segments of the Installation that remained. Glancing at the Halopedia some Flood forms survived but I'm guessing that due to the complete lack of atmosphere and everything being wrecked and no way of propagating they weren't much of a threat of expanding.

But the Hellspawn can operate and survive on the surface of Mars for example and have been seen in the vacuum of space doing things as well so if large segments of the Installation remain intact, it could prove to still be a threat even after successfully "destroying" the Halo Installation.

Conversely though, the Covenant forces did move into the area after the Halo's destruction with a significantly larger fleet so unless the Hellspawn really metasize in that period of time (plus recovering from the destruction of the Halo ring) the Covenant fleet could likely destroy the Hellspawn before the situation threatens to go critical all over again.

Plus we have no real idea on how potent Hell Space based forces are. There are lore bits (which I'd have to look up) which talk about how Hell takes over worlds and dimensions but it seems pretty long term and fairly wonky.

 

[JasonSanjo]

So the Halo Ring was "destroyed" but there were still large intact segments of the Installation that remained. Glancing at the Halopedia some Flood forms survived but I'm guessing that due to the complete lack of atmosphere and everything being wrecked and no way of propagating they weren't much of a threat of expanding.

But the Hellspawn can operate and survive on the surface of Mars for example and have been seen in the vacuum of space doing things as well so if large segments of the Installation remain intact, it could prove to still be a threat even after successfully "destroying" the Halo Installation.

Conversely though, the Covenant forces did move into the area after the Halo's destruction with a significantly larger fleet so unless the Hellspawn really metasize in that period of time (plus recovering from the destruction of the Halo ring) the Covenant fleet could likely destroy the Hellspawn before the situation threatens to go critical all over again.

Plus we have no real idea on how potent Hell Space based forces are. There are lore bits (which I'd have to look up) which talk about how Hell takes over worlds and dimensions but it seems pretty long term and fairly wonky.

True, a lot of demons could probably survive the ring exploding, but unless it happens WAY later than in canon I don't think there'd be enough of them to pose a real threat to incoming Covenant forces. And with the ring destroyed the higher-ups might just decide to Hell with it and close all active portals and abandon any surviving demons to their fate.

And I honestly have no idea about Hell's space forces, either. I mean some of the flying demons can definitely operate in space, but as far as I'm aware that would be at non-FTL speeds so it's not like they could fly on over to the next system in a hurry.

Though with all that said, the idea of a demon-infested piece of Halo ring crashing onto an inhabited planet a few decades after the fact is kind of chaotically hilarious.