- OrderedComa
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra
Posted by: OrderedComa
Posted by: DecepticonCobra
Posted by: Gamma 46
Posted by: Cmdr DaeFaron
Hm, I'd say until we know what Six's past deployments are like, we can't say Chief has more Covenant engagements.
Six, at the very least, knows how strong Zealot shields were prior to the WC encounter.
I agree there are too many unknowns, but of what portrayal we've gotten about him- perhaps as much as we'll ever get as they don't want to ruin his character being 'you'- he was largely involved in anti-Terror ops, perhaps being thrown into more Covenant-related Ops as the Inner-Colonies faced annihilation.
While he does know Zealot shield strength, it doesn't necesarrily mean he's fought one. I agree it's HIGHLY probable, but it is by no means guaranteed. I'm sure the UNSC has let the Spartans research/document shield strengths of various Covenant classes encountered. We may not have had the best info, but it's entirely possible that we had recorded some information about shield strength and how much it takes to down one.
Either way, I still believe Chief by far had much more Covenant contact compared to Six, and thus, had an ever so slight advantage in that regard.
Even with Chief having more Covenant contact, it doesn't show. Elites are constantly outclassing Chief when he decides to pick a fight with them. There are about four instances of an Elite giving Chief trouble, one at Gamma Station, one on the Ascendant Justice, one on the wreckage of the Pillar of Autumn and one on a Covenant ship as he was rescuing Dr. Halsey.
I'm sure Six has had trouble, but he took down quite a few Elites before succumbing to death. I doubt Chief would've lasted as long in a similar position.
I've said it before, I guess I'll just say it again :P
I personally wouldn't use the Gamma Station encounter as evidence, nor be inclined to hold it in much regard, as when it was written that was supposed to be the first time that Elites were encountered in the war and there was no intel on them, it only makes sense that Chief would have a serious struggle with his first Elite. Your first encounter with something will usually be your hardest. Now, as to why I wouldn't use this as evidence or hold it as very credible evidence is the fact that Elites being encountered for the first time at Reach has since been retconned and Elites were fought all throughout the war. So Chief would have fought them before that point and the struggle of it being his first Elite shouldn't be there anymore, so imo some of the validity of this point has been removed.
On to the second event :P Chief had been fighting almost non-stop for a good 3+ days at least (IIRC), been wounded a whole lot in that space of time, and was suffering a major lack of sleep. So his combat prowess was not at optimal levels, and the Elite he fought was one of the best of the best as far as Elites go as it was a Shipmaster or some other high ranking Elite (please correct me if I'm wrong). In addition to Chief's condition, the Elite is wielding a sword in a very tight space (if memory serves me well). Any Spartan would be struggling with that under the exact same circumstances, even Fred who's the CQB specialist.
I don't remember him having trouble on the Pillar of Autumn, do you mean with Zamamee? Even if it wasn't him specifically, the Spec Ops Elites are nothing to sneeze at, they're some of the top fighters the Elites have. And pretty much everyone agrees that any Spartan will have more difficulty with any of the Elites above Major. And with the fight with Lodamee in the package, of course the Elite beat him in a duel, he would have beaten Fred in an energy sword duel too. And Chief's fought Elites with energy swords while his own weapon was either useless or he was weaponless, it was not certain that Lodamee would win the whole fight and kill Chief. I think any other Spartan would be in the same position simply for the fact that the energy sword is an Elite weapon and any Elite using it will know more about how to use it properly and more skillfully than a Spartan or anyone else who has just acquired one.
All fair evaluations.
That said, I would still say Noble Six outperformed Chief in the end. Yes, she died, but Six managed to kill numerous high-ranking Elites while getting shot at and bleeding out, probably suffering from a lack of sleep and rest too.
I get Chief did a lot of cool things, but if he didn't get Cortana, I doubt he would've lived to do so.
Meh, I personally think Six and Chief are equal in skills and would have done just as well as each other placed in the same circumstances with only very subtle differences. And if their places were exchanged, Chief may have survived Reach due to his whole luck factor.
I don't really think Cortana has much to do with it either. The only real time she did anything in regards to helping Chief was kill the Infection Form that got through his defenses. I'm not minimalizing Cortana's significance, but she really didn't do much, it was all Chief's skills that got them through everything, and Chief performed equally well without her as he did with Cortana as we saw in Halo 3.