TSIA, what do you think happened to Switchback? Were they killed or captured?
Considering Jul is apparently trying to start up a human collection, it’s likely they were captured.
I say simply disintegrated. The area was crawling with Prometheans.
But its possible they were added to Jul’s human collection too. But then the mystery becomes more of a mystery as to how they were taken away so fast. A Phantom would’ve been hit by the Broadswords nearby. The Harvester was shut down… unless there is a secret room or area in it that we completely missed where they’re being kept.
Turned into Promethean Knights? Nah the Composer’s gone.
Probably completely disintegrated.
I’m gonna guess disintegration. Considering their IFF tags were just lying there and as palmer said. “Where are the bodies?” I doubt prometheans would wander the area and just capture humans. shrugs Guess we shall see.
If it was disintegration, then why did it destroy everything BUT the IFF tags(other than magical plot convenience)?
It was in the script. nods
I’m leaning towards them being captured.
If you noticed going through the area with the tags, there are semi-large discs that a just barely visible through the layer of dust. It wouldnt be to difficult to think that those could be linked to Requiem’s teleportation grid.
Though its probably like what some have said, tons of Prometheans crawling around the area, no trace of Switchback, probably disintigrated.
> I’m leaning towards them being captured.
>
> If you noticed going through the area with the tags, there are semi-large discs that a just barely visible through the layer of dust. It wouldnt be to difficult to think that those could be linked to Requiem’s teleportation grid.
>
> Though its probably like what some have said, tons of Prometheans crawling around the area, no trace of Switchback, probably disintigrated.
Thats actually an interesting thing to note, something that alot of people have said was creepy that there were no corpses. Well, the prometheans are designed to fight the flood, odds are they disintegrate any bodies to avoid possible flood infection.
I’m concerned with the lack of evidence; no shell casings, no bullet holes, plasma burns or the like, no scorch marks from explosives, and no blood. No evidence that they were even wounded while they fought.
It was as if they were there one second and simply gone the next.
I’m also concerned as to why the Infinity does not use greater force against the enemy. Jul’s fanatics already eliminated one Spartan fireteam (Castle) now another has gone missing and they’ve even stolen UNSC nuclear warheads. A clear and present danger has presented itself and I believe it would be time to bring in the orbital MAC strikes whenever the hingeheads pop up again. The enemy’s ability to make war must be obliterated completely and utterly.
I believe they were disintegrated.
If they were simply disintegrated, the plot of that chapter wouldn’t have revolved so much about finding them. Something else happened to them.
Maybe something similar to those scientists in the 5th chapter of episode 2. They disappeared without a trace.
> Maybe something similar to those scientists in the 5th chapter of episode 2. They disappeared without a trace.
Good memory there, I’d forgotten about them myself since just about everytime I played that level I didn’t hear screams of scientists, I instead heard about giant seamless monoliths with one holographic button and how one particular Spartan managed to set himself on fire. 
I think something more sinister happened to them, it would not make sense for the chapter to revolve around Switchback and what had happened to them if they were simply killed. Palmer’s line about we are missing something, likely means just that, and that it isnt as simple as they were just disintegrated.
I would say it has something to do with the Artifact the Covenant have been searching so hard for, we know the Harvester has a reason for being there, its not just a set piece, so I would say it has to do with that.
My guess is that the I.F.F tag is the Indicator of friend or foe, and that IFF tag is used to put units on motion tracker, Either friend or foe. I think that Switchback removed their IFF tags and hid to remain of motion tracker or something along those lines. I’m no halo expert and I only read the flood book so if I’m wrong, tell me.
yeah, what up with those IFF tags. These people loose them all the time.
> yeah, what up with those IFF tags. These people loose them all the time.
I don’t even know why military personal have a IFF unit thing when they’ve got a Neural Implant that alreadys indicates friend or foe.
For some reason, I do feel that something ‘new’ has happened to Switchback … and it is something sinister.
Firstly, the Harvester seemed to have very little Covie forces left by the time Crimson arrived. I do not know much about the Harvester’s operating crew however it should still have a large escort of Covie to protect it from attacks. Assuming that they weren’t killed through fire support from Infinity or replaced by Prometheans, there is quite a lack of significant covie presence on Episode 5 for the amount of Covenant equipment laying around.
Secondly Jul appears to be collecting humans. Now this maybe for simple interrogation for intel about the UNSC such as Glassman’s case (even though he was intended to die after, but kept alive due to his knowledge of forerunner tech), it seems a little odd that a spartan would also be kept alive considering their combat proficiency if they escaped such as when Thorne and Crimson escaped their relative prisons.
The lack of evidence at the scene was also very very poor. For a spartan team, you would expect them to have done some heavy damage leaving covenant bodies behind. Now assuming they did manage to disable the Harvester, perhaps they were also taken captive. However as I stated earlier, the covenant presence seemed a little lacking for one of Jul’s artifact hunts and we have already scene how much effort they will go to get them, such as the Promethean AI core.
I believe that either Switchback were never actually at the Harvester and the situation was used as a ruse to kill Spartan teams/UNSC marine forces, or they were taken by force and for some reason their takers made sure to leave little to nothing behind. However a feeling in my gut says that is has something to do with the Promethean AI core. It is a radical idea but if Jul had managed to find an artifact similar to the composer that allowed the creation of Promethean knights by using composed humans/forerunners, what if he managed to reduce the degradation of the composed being’s memories to the point that information was more easily extracted and shared with other Prometheans, such as when Halsey accidentally caused the memories of a human from New Phoenix to be displayed on the various monitors.
I highly doubt this is the case, however it is true or on similar lines… it would be quite worrying what Jul and the Prometheans could accomplish with not just one but a full team of trained Spartan-IVs memories (perhaps even enough to attack the Infinity under a guise)
Probably captured and stripped of their tags to hide the tracks.