- grey101
- |
- Fabled Mythic Member
- gamertag: [none]
- user homepage:
Deva Path
Posted by: DecepticonCobra
We are all going to get banned aren't we?
Posted by: OrderedComa
Posted by: anton1792
This does not do Reach justice. This is one Covenant starship.
If the entire home defence fleet was savaged by one vessel and there was insufficient nuclear payload to destroy this thing then Reach is not a fortress world. If a sizeable Nuclear payload cannot touch or do damage to this thing in addition to an entire fleet of vessels, then there is no reason why 20 of these things should not faceroll Reach onto oblivion, or even 50. First Strike says that the Covenant possesses hundreds of Supercarriers. In this instance the war would have been over years ago. Surely the Covenant are not stupid enough to overlook such massively powerful assets right under their noses?
This also implies that Reach has no groundside reserves of Nuclear weaponry. Fortress world...
When in First Strike does it say that? I don't remember it ever mentioning Supercarriers at all.
The home fleet at Reach is a hundred ships, give or take, not all of it would be sent at the LNoS at once (because the UNSC would underestimate it) and if the first few waves sent against it get totally devastated then they will begin searching for alternative solutions, such as trying to fire nukes at it, which, going off evidence from Ghosts of Onyx, would get sniped before ever reaching the ship.
And the Long Night of Solace brought several Corvettes with them as well, so it wasn't just the Supercarrier giving the UNSC a headache.
My primary point is that there were no ships there to deal with this threat in the first place. (3 Frigates would hardly pose a threat to a single Assault Carrier) Reach was utterly defenceless to a lone Covenant vessel for days. Fortress world...
Reach never gave any indication that there were no ships to deal with the Supercarrier at all. Nor was Reach completely defenseless, conventional methods (IE standard engagement charging in guns blazing) were not working, they needed to come up with an alternate solution. And I wouldn't take Carter's line about the nukes at total face value, there may have been a shortage from attempting to take the LNoS out and from previous engagements in the Viery territory.
I know that using the SMAC's on dirtside targets would be ridiculous. The presence of the unchallenged Supercarrier and "Covenant controlled Space" over Reach somehow means that they were unavailable for use. That does not mean that they were inoperable, just that they were not there for some reason. I do not know why not, because they obviously have thrusters to counteract the reaction force from firing their guns which allows them to move, and in TFoR they were re-positioned to face the Fleet of Particular Justice.
The fact of these being inconsistencies or not is not really the issue here, at least not for me. Whether or not they fit, they deal a horrible sucker-punch to what Reach was supposed to represent.
I don't think the Supercarrier was anywhere near the SMACs actually, I know I wouldn't take my ship anywhere near the things if the LNoS captain. The SMACs were grouped all in one area above the planet in geosynchronous orbit. And having thrusters to steady themselves after firing or to adjust their angle in position doesn't mean that they are able to be moved to another part of the planet at little notice.
I don't have page numbers in my head but super carriers were involved. A single frigate can beat a corvette, and reach did give the impression that it had no defenses since (frankly) there where none to be seen or heard of.
Carter speaks the truth because the UNSC was running low on nukes at the time.