- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
"Puzzling. You brought such ineffective weapons to combat the Flood, despite the containment protocols."
A lot of people were confused when 343 Guilty Spark said this. If the shotgun is so much better than the Sentinel Beam, then how can it be ineffective? That doesn't make sense... does it? Let's anylize.
Look at the name of the machines. Sentinels. What does that mean? The dictionary says:
**Sentinel: n : a person employed to watch for something to happen [syn: lookout, lookout man, sentry, watch, spotter, scout, picket]**
So that means that Sentinels are supposed to watch for things. They're armed, but it's mostly a defensive weapon, because their intended function is reconnaissance and repair. Often times they can be seen using a tiny bluish laser when they aren't in combat. It's a sort of welding tool. It's the same thing that the miniature plasma-pistol-sized robots use at the beginning of "Sacred Icon". The sentinels are used on Halo as the main weapon against Flood because they're all that's available.
Here's what Guilty Spark was talking about: He expected an actual person to have better flood-killing weapons in his arsenal. Remember the line "But, I suggest you upgrade to at least a Class Twelve combat skin. Your current model only scans as a Class Two, which is ill suited for this kind of work."? He assumes that an average "forerunner" would have better armor.
If you drove your armored Humvee towards a line of enemy tanks, someone might suggest upgrading to an M1 Abrams, regardless of the footsoldiers around you for support armed with M-4's. Your mounted .50 caliber machine gun is still more powerful than thier weapons, but one would think that's not quite enough to destroy the enemy tanks.