- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Tartarus, I think there is some miscommunication. I didn't mean to imply that JD was a mechanic or medic or other standard personnel, but that he was stationed as standard personnel as his cover. I believe fully that JD is a Spartan, sent by ONI, as an undercover agent for some purpose we don't fully understand yet. The only theory I could come up with would be stealthly insertion into a Covenant ship to gain force deployment and mission intelligence, which would be best carried out by a single agent (less noticeable) that could handle himself well without support if things went bad (More proof for Spartan).
Achilles, my knowledge of physics is lackluster at best, so what could conceivably be used to hold a spaceship to a planet's surface (and not just orbit) but not affect the people on or below the planet's surface is beyond my knowledge. If it were magnetic in nature, it would either not allow take off or trap the ship in orbit as it tried to escape. The same if it were gravitational. In either case, JD and Mathers should notice the effects (walking is difficult under more intense gravities and ballistic style weapons would be messed up by both magnetic fields and gravitational fields, etc.) Physical ties are completely out of the question as the Covenant could simple break it, theoretically. Perhaps, the Forerunner anti-aircraft system contains localized, targeted electro-magnetic pulses that stall the engines of the ships causing them to crash back down, and of course the system would be automated, designed only to attack aircraft at a certain altitude. This, however, should not cause anything like auroras.
Edit: GhostOfSorrow, since no one else is replying to your first question that I saw, I'll do it. The 'decoder ring' is a reference to old time 'spy' stuff where a ring is used to contain information used to break encrypted messages. So, that Enkidu is saying that our hero John Doe would have a decoder ring, metaphorically, is indicative of John Doe being a spy, secret agent, whatever you want to call him.
[Edited on 5/11/2004 9:58:26 PM]