- Cmdr DaeFaron
- |
- Fabled Legendary Member
Posted by: jack0fhearts
An in-atmosphere jump seems the most likely option to me. Are we really going to go through the whole ordeal of limiting the games based on what a single line in a book says?
Isn't it possible that the Long Night of Solace is one of the few classes of Covenant ships that they were able to perform in-atmosphere jumps? Then Cortana would have simply figured out how to do the same with other classes of Covenant ships. We've already seen a CCS Battlecruiser and High Charity arrive via an in-atmosphere slip, is it so hard to see the Solace doing the same?
The way I see it, the Solace jumps in-atmosphere, arriving on Reach and any damage done by the slipspace jump is largely ignored in the desert environment. Then, several cloaking devices were deployed and quickly constructed, and the Solace has - as we've seen - plenty of room for the invasion fleet that we encountered in Reach.
I see no reason why this explanation doesn't fit.
My theory is they couldn't normally, however the spires (Which were deployed at range and impacted the planet like a meteor would, then activate teleporters for ground forces...) act as homing beacons, basically allowing them to do a jump into atmosphere (Which we've seen happen in ODST, it doesn't really have an effect, however starting a jump while in atmosphere causes a shockwave.). Of course, the LNOS would be easily detected should it do so. So it deploys it's small group of 2-4 Corvettes which arrive into the sensor blocking zone, and deploy forces.
However, when a spire was destroyed the ship-master of the Long Night of Solace decided it was time to arrive, as they were losing a possible foothold. Also the fact that the UNSC would have advanced and destroyed the other two spires you see in the game, which would prevent such a precise jump behind the defensive line.
[Edited on 05.29.2011 4:40 PM PDT]