UNSC apparent superiority over the Covenant.

Games Other Halo
1

Hello,

I’ll like to bring up the feeling of a superior UNSC while I played Spartan Ops. Before I start, I must say I did not have this feeling with the campaign, although I think the campaign had a lot more attention and care than Spartan Ops when develop.

But in any case Spartan Ops its canon and therefor I’ll like to bring up the next discussion:

I’m going to use the UNSC infinity as an example many times, therefor I’ll recommend to read this first:

UNSC Infinity

and

Scale of the UNSC Infinity(comparative picture)

Let’s get started:

On the events of Spartan Ops the UNSC infinity and UNSC forces take over the Covenant on situations where, with the cannon/technology of the past should have not been possible.

Lets number a few of those events:

.The UNSC Infinity destroys a covenant cruiser with one/two rockets while we play a mission on Ragnarok.

.The UNSC infinity arrives to Requiem and engage Covenant forces while launching UNCS frigates winning the battle.

.When the UNSC Infinity is at full power the Covenant refuses to attack it along with its fleet(UNSC fleet)

All of this events where unthinkable or very hard to achieve on the past as the UNSC space technology was way too inferior. Although some of this events could have been achieve on the past by UNSC forces they’ll not have been as easy as they are on this events.

For this events to be possible it means that the UNSC technology have jump forward vastly. As you can see on the specifications on the link I provided above, the UNSC Infinity DOES have shields as well as 4 Mac Cannons(which following the only book I read, The fall of Reach, it should be available to take out more than one Covenant spaceships on its own, and that without assuming the Mac tec has improved) and we must add its massive sizes. The rest of the weaponry looks similar to the ones I read on the “The fall of Reach”.

Can we assume all UNSC ships have shields now? -Yoink- well as all the weaponry(being available to do more, following the book the main problem was to take out Covenant shields as well as missile interception)? In my opinion, some of this is a must. For instance, I don’t know how many UNSC ships where on the initial attack to Requiem by the UNSC, there for this does not prove all UNSC ships having shields. But the Covenant cruiser taken out with one rocket or the UNSC Infinity taking out Covenant cruisers and making them run away all on its own(on the campaign) proves the weaponry must be quite beyond the one we can find on “The fall of Reach”.

However, I haven’t read the rest of the books(feel free to use the technology canon there but keep the spoilers to a minimum please) so my conclusions could be wrong and I could be affected by the fact that I had this constant feeling that the Convent does keep losing on Spartan Ops events.

Therefor I created this post to hear the opinion of the community and of those who have read the newest books.

So:

Have the UNSC technology really evolve to this point?

(Sorry for any grammar mistakes, English is not my mother language).

2

A number of UNSC ships do have shields now, as well as the broadsword fighter. As per Halo: Reach, the UNSC did seem to be experimenting with shield tech for space craft.

The UNSC has had Onyx, a forerunner shield world, now for almost 4 years, in addition with number of Engineers who were more than happy to upgrade our stuff.

Meanwhile the covenant seems to have issues maintaining their ships with their own Engineers seemingly vanished.

3

Well, to put it basically, The UNSC have gained the upper-hand after the events of High Charity and Halo 3.

4

Yet for the lack of technological superiority against the Covenant, I’d argue they have become more crafty. The UNSC seems to brute-force things more than they used to while the Covenant seem able to predict this and exploit that flaw. The invasion of the Infinity is a huge highlight of this.

5

i don’t think the main reason is actually the improvement of the UNSC, which is also a point, but simply that the covenant loyalists are a generally weakened enemy compared to the former covenant…

6

So far, my knowledge of the canon when it comes to post Halo 3 is a tad spotty. But, I doubt seriously every single ship has shielding technology on board. From what I know, they’re still recovering, even more so from the attack the Didact had inflicted on Earth.

I think the Covies have a harder time dealing with someone similar to their own strength since for about the entirety of the Human-Covie War, they were technologically superior in every way and could have easily won that war if they didn’t care about Forerunner technology being damaged on the ground.

I think it is more limited to the Infinity where they tend to run due to lack of combat experience against a similarly skilled opponent. On top of that, they are in a culture shock: Not alot of them are interested in fixing things, so taking damage on a ship is a huge blow compared to back then.

Overall, they are a much weaker force than the Covenant once was. Maybe with the Didact on their side, and possibly Dr. Halsey as well, they might be turning the table around to their favor.

7

The UNSC has gained control over the Shield world Trevelyan along with it’s Huragok population. The technology found on the shield world is invaluable and Forerunner engines have been installed on the Infinity. The Huragoks also improve anything the UNSC has. One of these improvements is the use of transparent metals on a transport.

Also, some terminals inside the Infinity mention a Huragok population inside the ship. These could easily repair or improve parts of the ships, or even upgrade it with new technology at any time.

As for how they take out Covenant ships with missiles, I can only assume some of their cruisers lack shield. Maybe some ships were too damaged and they could not repair their shielding before the Battles of Requiem?

8

> The UNSC has gained control over the Shield world Trevelyan along with it’s Huragok population. The technology found on the shield world is invaluable and Forerunner engines have been installed on the Infinity. The Huragoks also improve anything the UNSC has. One of these improvements is the use of transparent metals on a transport.
>
> <mark>Also, some terminals inside the Infinity mention a Huragok population inside the ship. These could easily repair or improve parts of the ships, or even upgrade it with new technology at any time.</mark>

Didn’t know there were terminals on Infinity. Link or help to locate the terminals?

9

> > The UNSC has gained control over the Shield world Trevelyan along with it’s Huragok population. The technology found on the shield world is invaluable and Forerunner engines have been installed on the Infinity. The Huragoks also improve anything the UNSC has. One of these improvements is the use of transparent metals on a transport.
> >
> > <mark>Also, some terminals inside the Infinity mention a Huragok population inside the ship. These could easily repair or improve parts of the ships, or even upgrade it with new technology at any time.</mark>
>
> Didn’t know there were terminals on Infinity. Link or help to locate the terminals?

Hidden Terminals

10

I wouldn’t say that UNSC ships are superior to any covenant vessel, but the UNSC ground units are much better than those on the covenant side. However the covennant have the advantage of numbers, and stealth.

11

Doesn’t the infinity have forerunner engines?

12

But the UNSC has improved. Infinity is more than a match for a CAS-class assault carrier.

Missiles, not rockets. And nuclear ones are equipped on frigates too.

13

> Doesn’t the infinity have forerunner engines?

Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that big of a difference when everyone else in the UNSC fleet aren’t equipped with one yet.

A big beefy ship doesn’t mean a powerful fleet. It may be enough to help take fights for their favor in the first few rounds, but I think the stuff that happened on Requiem, and possibly sometime between Spartan Ops and Halo 5, will help the Storm Covenant out and even the odds out at least.