- StealthSlasher2
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- Exalted Mythic Member
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Posted by: anton1792
Posted by: StealthSlasher2
It's baffling that the UNSC never bothered to reinforce Reach with space defenses as the war went on against their favor, yet the second it falls they're able to muster up 300 functioning platforms over the course of a mere month.
Do we know exactly how long Earth's defences have been around and how quickly they were established? It was still in the "blueprint" stages when Johnson shipped out to basics, but that sounds like a long time frame in which the defences could have been built, considering Johnson is like 80 or something. These defensive nets could take a while to beef up to Earth standard.
Posted by: StealthSlasher2
Unless of course there were far more strategic resources available at Earth that were left unsaid.
It did have billions of inhabitants, quite possibly the most populous Human world. That means that it is the largest source of the most valuable resource: People. All those people will be supporting the economy, billions of them. It is also a moral thing I guess. If Earth is there, Humanity still has something to look back to. It also had HIGHCOM, and depending on their level of influence (and whether they are still there or not) the AI assembly may also be wishing to keep their asses covered.
Many large industries, like Traxus, are located on Earth as well. There is also the Misrah armouries on Mars as well, which was a major supplier of weaponry to UNSC forces. As well as its own shipyards (The place where the Pillar of Autumn was built; the name eludes me) If you have a powerful stronghold in a system (Like Earth was), it would allow better tabs on things like Mars and its assets.
For the first part I am open to the idea that Earth's orbital defenses were underway prior to Reach's fall as I noted in the second paragraph after the first quoted block, but my main focus is why Reach didn't receive equal treatment over the course of the war and have any MAC stations added on over the years should it be the case for Earth.
As for the second part while Sol did have factories for vehicles, weapons, and ships as well as manpower the issue in that regard I'm trying to bring up is raw resources to produce said vehicles, weapons, and ships for the manpower to man. This late in the history of colonization it's an unknown factor how much resources Earth had to continue a war should it repel any initial assault. We do know at least that Reach is the major supplier of titanium for ships for the UNSC. Surely at some point the UNSC recognized that should it be lost it would severely cripple the UNSC's efforts to produce ships and planetary defenses (the key when considering that the deciding factor in a planetary battle is whoever wins in space) among other assets in the long run. Halsey certainly recognized that if Reach fell the weeks they had left would be reduced to days.
So again it leads up to why Reach wasn't equally reinforced. Now I don't deny that Sol could sustain itself for a while, but without the support of a system that can provide additional vital resources for the war effort it might as well be metaphorically cut off and isolated from the rest of the galaxy. And yes we do know that other colonies have been bypassed when Reach was destroyed, but as far as we were all aware currently we know that Reach is a supplier of titanium and a massive producer of ships, weapons, and other assets outside of Sol and we know that if it ends up destroyed (which it eventually does)the UNSC no longer benefits from those resources.
Now of course there is the possibility that they knew Reach would inevitably fall, and rather than waste too much resources on defending it (no I'm not saying they threw it away to the wolves carelessly), they stockpiled those resources and reinforced Earth as the ultimate last line of defense to buy any time should something come up, and Reach is unable to be protected with the resources allotted to it.