Now I, (Like any self-respecting nerd) have a copy of Halo Warfleet, and the specs of the Infinity come with it. So I have a pretty good idea of the difficulty to take it down.
First off, Forerunner shielding. They would have needed to disable the powerful Forerunner shielding which NONE of the Banished ships are capable of. The only ship I can think of that would be powerful enough would be the CPV, preferably Sinaris Pattern. However, those are long extinct since the death of the Covenant.
This brings me to my second point; Weaponry. These include 4, Paris Class MAC Canons, and 10 Turret MACS (The ones from Reach.) Along with an assortment of Point-Defense Guns and many, many missiles. So it would take many ships to take it down, even without shielding.
This leads me to my theory; Human Sabotage.
The Banished are known to work with Humans if they choose to join them. My belief is that a squad of Banished Humans snuck onto the ship using a Pelican, once inside they began to plant explosives on key parts of the ship. They blew the explosives, and the Banished raided.
In Escharum’s speech, he touches on how quick it was to take down the Infinity. Four minutes. The Banished ships could not have worn down the shields and beat the Infinity in 4 minutes.
How accurate do you think my theory is? Leave your own in the comments. Thank you.
Nah vastly overestimating the shielding, it’s far easier to get through shields than people think. Tons of Covenant ships had weapons specifically designed to strip shields in one singular hit, and this many years after the civil war in it started it’s no stretch to think those haven’t been refined even more. Plus, the Banished have multiple ships as we can see, they’re by no means gigantic CCS vessels, but more than a few of them would easily be able to strip the Infinity’s shields.
That being said, I feel it was probably more of an ambush by baiting them and swarming with boarding parties that immediately targeted the engines or reactor.
Last time we saw the Infinity compromised, it took a Forerunner artifact screwing around with it engines, and subsequently, all systems on the ship. The time before that, a Forerunner Shield World.
Safe to say I don’t buy the Banished taking it down in 4 minutes. That’s ridiculous. The only way it’d be possible is with the use of a Guardian, but there’s not even a hint of them having one, in the Campaign. We’re talking about a ship that jumped out of slipspace and ploughed straight through a Storm Covenant corvette, and whose main gun punched a sizeable hole in the Didact’s ship. Yet another example of story elements going unexplained in this game.
Numbers shouldnt be a problem for the Infinity. They carry 10 Strident Frigates. Armed with their own weaker shielding. The Infinity also carries 5,400 marines with a redacted number of Spartans, 750 ODST’s and 800 Army troops. Were it a boarding situation the Infinity is sure to win.
In the Campaign it was mentioned that it took 4 Banished dreadnaughts - one to attack and then the other three to bear down on it while it was distracted.
So, some sort of surprise attack. Not sure how they managed that though.
One of the scenes showed a Banished ship had physically rammed into the infinity (the hull was sticking through).
And I guess the UNSC / Infinity were still operating with limited AI. Plus maybe they were weakened somehow confronting Cortana.
Numbers would absolutely be a problem for the Infinity provided the Brutes weren’t piloting or using the weapons systems the way they did in the civil war, they just dumb fired plasma shots in that which shielding is meant to block. Using the pulse attacks absolutely shreds shielding and the more ships you have the easier it is to wreck it, plus the Infinity’s size doesn’t help it in that regard
This is a hard one for me to understand as well. The Infinity was the greatest ship humans have ever built and having Forerunner engines and shields should have ensured its survivability in any situation. Also having 10 smaller ships it can deploy creates an instant battle group. Coupled with Ronin the AI, any threat can be assessed in a nano-second and best course of action taken, so its kinda hard to do a surprise attack on a ship like that (just because the AI can quickly overcome the surprise maneuver). Also, most carrier ships do not travel alone. So I do not see the banished getting the jump on the Infinity in normal situations.
However, there are a lot of unknowns to factor in as well. We do know the Infinity was running from the created when we ended Halo 5. That was years ago and from the looks of things the created wrecked havoc on human settlements and outposts, essentially taking them into the stone age after each attack. Ships and space platforms are now coffins, unless ships like the Infinity can safely jump in after the Guardians depart and offer assistance. Then its still limited as they would have to be willing to jump at a moments notice if a Guardian returns.
After a guardian attack, whole planets and settlements would also go into chaos as technology doesn’t work. Travel is limited to walking, no communications, and loss of infrastructure. So who is in charge, how do you get food, how do you protect yourself and your family from other people that may start raiding for resources?
So it is safe to say the Infinity and mankind has been on the run for a couple of years, trying to help where they can or round up ships that still work to join them. So the ideal situation wouldn’t have been available when meeting the Banished, probably no carrier group (other escort ships), or all 10 internal ships. Some could have been lost in previous conflicts or are helping rescue missions, but currently not with the Infinity. I only counted 4 crashed ones on the ring during campaign mode. So they looked like they were deployed but maybe too late or not effective in the Banished fight?
Also, modern day ships and large equipment need constant upkeep and maintenance. Running a ship as large and complex as the Infinity for extremely long periods of time or even years will start having failures. Things break, and without ship yards to dock at or to undergo repairs or basic maintenance will make the ship less effective. Spare parts could be an issue too, it isn’t like the Infinity was on an assembly line and spare parts are ample. So sourcing spare parts could be hard as it was literally one of a kind.
Again, way too many unknowns or what the current state of the Infinity was in when the Banished ambushed them. We need more backstory to piece it together to properly figure out what happened. I hope we get it at some point in the future.