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No it didn't help explain why 20 years later the covenant want to use cloaked ships out of random. why would they even attack at all if they could cloak ships? I would just wait for the main fleet to arrive and attack from all fronts; instead of assaulting a planet with 3 CCS ships and dozens of frigates.
And since i have been gone for months, where the hell were the MACs at?
A) Ok be specific here, are we talking the book or the game for Reach?
But the generic answer is not all ships in the fleet would have cloak, furthermore,not all ships in the fleet have the same roll. If that were the case, then all human ships would be identical.
Consider the differences between the Pillar Of Autumn and the Savannah (seen in game) Hull design etc... Very different.
Take a look at modern warfare (today's combat) ( I don't mean the game)
You have patrol boats, destroyers, cruisers, aircraft carriers etc...
Some ships are designed to destroy the enemy ships, some are designed to provide fighters and support craft. Some serve other rolls.
Never will you have a "one design does everything ship"
Get this idea of "cloaking wins" out of your head. It doesn't. Stealth as always been portrayed in fantasy universes as having drawbacks. Generally, in the form of reduced armor or the fact that you can't "stealth" a large vessel because the power required is exponential. Moreover, the added difficulty of maintaining a perfect cloak.
Finally, the UNSC isn't stupid. They have battled the covenant for (100 years? 200?) They have sensor posts, sensors stations, and sensor probes dispatched on patrol!
Even more to the point we know in other halo games they can detect the slip-space jump prior to the ship exiting, granted its a few seconds before they exit, but that still gives an AI weapons control system plenty of time to adjust and fire.
B) I forget which prophet says it, but at the start of halo 2 when the Arbiter is on trial. He requests to take the entire fleet to kill the humans. he is denied because the hierarchy has a different plan in mind. I also believe they are afraid of the Spartans some how invading High Charity and killing them. (Which MC does get on to HC in Halo 3...)
C) The starting fleet they invaded Reach with (in the game) was sufficient to win in the long term. That's why jorge suicide'd the largest (probably a flagship) ship.
They thought they might turn the tide with that. KEYWORD: MIGHT TURN THE TIDE
Then the rest of the fleet arrived. I bet even the convent long range communication isn't instant, nor their ability to travel between star systems. No doubt they launched in waves on purpose, perhaps the UNSC was attacking else where, they do mention that 66% of the fleet was recalled to Reach from assignments elsewhere.
That help? =\
There are things in the video games that don't make sense on the surface or are not explained.
This doesn't mean there isn't a plausible reason for it.
I highly recommend reviewing the Halo cutscence footage on youtube. Especially the opening of halo 2 which depicts some of hte space battle over earth and later on.
[edited for errors]
[Edited on 12.16.2010 3:02 PM PST]