What's the difference between stable and unstable plasma, and how do you know that the Covenant's is unstable? When it is formed into a ball to be fired as a torpedo, "unstable" plasma particles must come into contact with other "unstable" plasma particles... how come it doesn't explode inside the ship or just outside of it? And I assume that you think the Empire uses "stable" plasma, so why would stable plasma and unstable plasma explode, if unstable-unstable is supposed to explode? As far as I know, there is no scientific or sci-fi explanation for why charged particles should explode when they come into contact with other charged particles. Unless you have evidence to the contrary, and can explain it, then Covenant plasma would not explode.

Once again, if the slipspace portal is in between the Imperial ship and the Covenant ship, wouldn't it either be disrupted or disappear into slipspace?

The unstability of Covenant plasma has nothing to do with its speed or rate.

O.K. I admit that if a slipspace portal opened between an ISD, the ship would stop a tractor beam.

Even if the Covenant got their grubby hands on some Imperial tech, the Empire would destroy the whole Covenant Empire before they could do anything.

First, slipspace is slow compared to hyperspace. The Covenant would die of old age before they reached the SW galaxy.

It would take 5-6 months for the Empirew to reach the Milky Way.

The Empire wouldn't send out small patrols so the Covenant still wouldn't have anything to study.

Still you go back to the days of Palpatine.

I'm sure the Covenant wouln't be a match for the Empire.

Emperor Roan Fel had no trouble with the Outer Rim (thats were the Imperial Remnant stayed during the New Republic!).

The Covenant don't have the time or resouces to get to the SW galaxy due to the far, far away...., and slipspace couldn't get them there (unlike the 5-6 month trip through hyperspace).

Very true, the Empire would never send a fleet into unknown space without sending hundereds of ships, ISDs, and SSDs.

In Reply to DarkLord's comment #211,

The charged particles have nothing to do with this. It is like comparing a ball of glass to a ball of marble. You don't yet understand the science of Covenant or SW plasma.

And about the slipspace thing, yes, a slipspace portal would stop a tractor beam if the portal was opened between the ISD and the ship.

The days of palpatine would be the best time for this war to take place.

Well, if the Covenant doesn't have the time or resources to get to the Star Wars galaxy then HOW the hell could this whole damn war happen in the first place!?

It's unlikely, but if, by chance, a lone imperial ship was patrolling near the borders of unknown space, it could be captured by a Covenant ship settling in the unknown rim where it could be studied while out of the empires range.

Actually, Roan Fel's era wopuld be best.

It would take 5-6 months for the Empire to reach the Milky Way through hyperspace.

No, lone Imperial Ship would be caught on the borders of unknown space.

Well, then explain it to me. What evidence shows that plasma would explode when it comes into contact with other plasma. If there is any real-life evidence that would be great, but since we're talking about two science fiction Universes, I'll have to settle for any sort of explanation I can get. WHY would plasma explode? What are the properties of plasma that would cause it to explode, fictional or real. It doesn't matter - anything you've got. I'm not sure how even you can understand the science of Covenant plasma. They may explain SW plasma, but I've never seen anything that explains how Covenant plasma works. Just because I haven't seen it does not mean it doesn't exist. But I've had quite a bit of exposure to Halo, as well as real world science (which Halo science seems to be based on). They could have just as easily said that the plasma is manipulated by *insert name of field here* fields, but they didn't, they chose magnetic fields because it works for real world plasma. While I'm not any sort of expert on plasma, I have a basic understanding of the principles involved. So what am I missing then? Enlighten me. Why would plasma explode when it comes into contact with SW plasma, but apparently not when it comes into contact with other Covenant plasma?

Oh, and I only mentioned the charged particle thing because in the real-world as well as most Sci-Fi Universes, it is accepted that plasma is essentially super-heated charged particles.

How could they know about the Covenant in the first place if both of them are so far away! This is my point: The Covenant can't reach the Star Wars galaxy in a short amount of time, neither can the Empire (5-6 months is still pretty long, even for hyperdrive).

Since both armies are tens of billions of light years away and neither of them are willing to send their forces into unknown space, then it would be impossible for them to meet and wage war if neither of them even know they exist!

Do you understand what I'm trying to say!?

Hmmm... he has a point. I think one of the things that we need to do is decide on how the two armies meet. We don't even know how far apart the two races are. If they're clear across the Universe, then what's the chance that they would ever meet by accident? If the Covenant is so inferior to the Empire, why would the Empire even bother? However, I think for this we have to assume that they just DO decide to attack each other no matter the reason. But where does this take place at? The SW galaxy or the Halo galaxy? If it's in the Halo galaxy, then the Covenant might have a chance to use the Halo network. Or, the Empire might discover additional Forerunner artifacts and put the Halo network and/or other technologies to their use. Since we don't know much about the Forerunner, they could be equal to, or even superior to the Empire. Alternatively, if it's in the SW home galaxy, then the Covenant's defeat would likely be even faster due to the immobile planetary defenses that would be present.

5-6 months? At 10 million c they would only cross 0.036% of our Universe, hardly far, far away. Even at 100 million c they would only cross 0.36% of the Universe. Once again, not a large portion of our Universe. Why is it that the Empire has never left their own galaxy? They seem to have had everything quite well in hand. It seems to me that they are incredibly reluctant to risk their ships by traveling on unknown hyperspace 'routes' because of the inherent danger of accidentally traveling through a star or black hole or any of a number of galactic hazards. Those with slipspace drives seem to have no such hesitancies. Perhaps this is because it is much slower, but it could be that they aren't affected by galactic anomalies in the same way. The Forerunner ship is probably much, much faster than even the Covenant ships, and it seemed to have no problems making the jump.

Please read my last post, I would still like to know how the plasma works since my understanding of it is, according to Thrawn, severely limited. If anyone would like to fill me in on how these plasmas would react, and why they would explode, feel free.

8Mjs(SW) vs. 1-2Mjs(Halo)= plasma explosion

You are right,the Empire wouldn't know about the Covenant.

I do understand what you trying to say!

I know he(I think?) has a point.

5-6 months would be the estimate amount of time for the Empire to reach the Milky Way.

The Empire never left their own galaxy due to the fact that they were happy with the millions of worlds they conquered.

The SW galaxy is bigger than the Milky Way. Hyperdrive was made for long distances. Slipspace wasn't. That is why the Empire would have to wait 5-6 months, and the Covenant would wait forever.

I read all your posts. Go research a bit (on Halopedia, Wookieepedia, or even Wikipedia).

Right. A difference in energy doesn't make things explode. If a hot gas touches a cold gas of the same gas, it doesn't explode. Same goes for liquids and solids. Besides, Covenant plasma torpedoes are significantly more powerful than 2 MJ, and even 8 MJ. Pulse lasers are used on frigates which have about 60cm of armor. Destroyers have 2m of armor, and some ships have up to 10m of Titanium A armor. While Titanium A is a fictional armor and likely far more tolerant to heat, I did a quick calculation. A pulse laser melted through 45cm of armor on 2 different sections in about 2 seconds. I assumed that these two sections would have been melted in AT LEAST a 1 meter radius around the point of impact. This argues for at least 3.7 GJ every second of activation. This would go up if the radius of the melted area increased, the area was actually vaporized, or if Titanium A has a higher specific heat capacity and molar heat of fusion and/or molar mass/density than the actual element Titanium, and it most likely does. This power output is for a pulse laser used against frigates. Plasma torpedoes are likely far more powerful. Some sources say that they are high megaton or low gigaton for ship to ship battles, and as much as low teratons for orbital bombardment. If that's true, 100 MT = 4.2x10^17 J or 1.2x10^14 MJ, and 10 GT would be 4.2x10^16 MJ. And even a 1 Teraton plasma torpedo would release 4.2x10^18 MJ.

Since the humans are capable of sending off 5 TT projectiles, it would make sense that Covenant plasma torpedoes would be in a similar range, perhaps 500 GT or so. Even 200-350 GT could still be considered low. 350-500 GT could also be considered to be low, as they are less than half-way through the GT spectrum; but I would probably classify 400-600 as medium.

However, you still haven't explained why it would explode. An energy, or even temperature difference would not cause it to explode. It seems possible that since the Covenant extend their magnetic fields perhaps 75,000km past the front of their torpedo tubes, and the Empire doesn't appear to, the charged particles that form the Empire's turbolaser blasts would come into contact with the Covenant torpedo, enter the magnetic field, and be redirected towards the Empire ship along with the Covenant torpedo.

Yes the SW galaxy is bigger than the Milky Way. The MW is between 80,000 and 100,000 ly across. The SW galaxy is 120,000 ly across. I already knew that, and factored it into my equation. Half a year at 100 million times the speed of light, which happens to be the highest number I've seen on any SW site, would only let them cross 0.36% of the Universe. I think that Far, Far away would be 30x that distance which is 10% of the Universe or 15 years of traveling. But it doesn't really matter. Yes, I know that Covenant and Human Slipspace travel is exceedingly slow compared to Hyperspace. If you re-read that post, I never said that I thought Slipspace was faster. Just that they don't seem to have the same problems with stars and such, although they could have the same problems, it hasn't been shown yet.

Research a bit... I have checked out Halopedia, Wookieepedia and Wikipedia. None of them say anything about plasma exploding. Either explain it to me, or do a little research yourself. Water expands into steam when energy is added. Many gases explode because of chemical reactions. Some plasmas like neon plasma are made from inert gases. Just what chemical reactions are going to occur? Nuclear fusion, at temperatures of 10-100 million degrees Celsius, produces plasma. The plasma near the source of the reaction would be millions of degrees Celsius. These temperatures would heat up nearby atoms in the reactor and cause them to ionize into plasma. So you would have 8000 C plasma and 1 million C plasma interacting with each other for a short period of time. One would have a lot more energy than the other. They would NOT explode. There is nothing in Halo or real-life to suggest that either of their plasmas would explode.

So that leaves SW. I looked up plasma on Wookieepedia, and it doesn't say anything to suggest that it would explode.

You know what, I think we're all taking this WAY too seriously...

If neither side could know ever discover the existence of eachother, than this whole thing is basically impossible to happen and it's kind of pointless to argue about it, as much as I really hate to say.

Why don't we just let the Covenat deal with the UBSC and the Galactic Empire deal with the Rebel Alliance without this whole crossover war thing.....cause I think that's what I'm about to do.

Sorry if I wasn't clear earlier, but when I said 8Mj, I meant it would be 8Mjs of a blaster bolt not from a Turbolaser. Plasma rifle and a E-11 Blaster rifle not ISD vs. CCS. I didn't make myself clear there so sorry about the confusion. You gave me estimated numers for a ship-to-ship battle.

E-11 = 8Mjs

*Sigh*

I knew that you had a point.

Its UNSC, and Roan Fel's Empire would deal with the Sith (not G.A.).