One of the few things about Halo 3: ODST's story that bothered me was the lack of Elites. While I know that in the Halo lore around this time the Elites were being replaced by the Brutes in Halo 2 there was definitely an Elite presence in the occupation of New Mombasa. So, the lack of any Elites was rather puzzling to me.
 
While cruising around the city looking for Engineers to kill for the Naughty Naughty achievement I found something that puts my mind to ease. In a corner of the central part of the map is an walkway under which is a set of Covenant barriers. Within are a large number of dead Elites seemingly dumped there. This is a pretty cool easter egg to throw in there as a nod to the lore. Bravo Bungie.

There's quite a few areas with dead elites littered around, especially in tucked away corners.

This is addressed pretty explicitly in Buck's first mission. In fact, you pass a number of Elite corpses on the way to completing that particular objective.

There are a bunch of dead Elites in Tayari Plaza, the first flashback.
 
It's still a pretty half-assed explanation, but they do at least make a token effort to explain the lack of hostile Elites.

Yeah, I just I could have been the reason they were dead, lol

Huh, I guess I just never really payed attention to any corpses I passed.

" There are a bunch of dead Elites in Tayari Plaza, the first flashback.  It's still a pretty half-assed explanation, but they do at least make a token effort to explain the lack of hostile Elites. "

Yeah, the fact it's so simple shows it's just there to serve as a reminder and that it never gets in the way of the actual ODST's story.

The Elites didn't seem to be struggling with any Brutes in Halo 2's New Mombasa levels though, which took place right before the big subspace rupture. We're supposed to believe that right after the rupture, the Brutes suddenly landed, wiped out all the Elites, and were just patrolling around New Mombasa when Buck got out of his drop pod a few minutes later? 
 
Give me a break, it was a half-assed retcon.

I agree, it was pretty stupid how no Elites were in the game as hostile or allied characters. As I recall back in Halo 2, the elites were kicking the shit out of the brutes, and had the hunters and grunts on their side. Unless the Elites in new Mombasa were all wiped out by the chief and UNSC forces before the brutes arrived, I doubt you'd drop in, and immediately find them all wiped out by brutes. Since there were no brutes in Halo 2's mombasa missions, it's safe to say that those brutes only recently arrived. Also there's no battle rifles anywhere.

" This is addressed pretty explicitly in Buck's first mission. In fact, you pass a number of Elite corpses on the way to completing that particular objective. "

" @Sir_Ragnarok said:

" This is addressed pretty explicitly in Buck's first mission. In fact, you pass a number of Elite corpses on the way to completing that particular objective. "

ITS CLASSIFIED BUCK "

Ok, so I guess they are indicating that the Elites are replaced at this point, which is fucking retarded.  Unless All of what happens in Halo 2 after the slipspace jump (the elites being betrayed) and the arbiter missions too, if that all happens in the 30 minutes after the slipspace jump, then ok.  But it fucking doesnt happen that way.  Seriously, Bungie fucked this story up bad.

It's there story to do with as they please. If they want to retcon some things they're more than allowed to.

Yeh, I found a few dead Elites strewn about different parts of the city.

The Brutes suck i rather have Elites....

How come the hunters were working with brutes in this? I thought the hunters were on the elite side of things