Arrrrggghhh...Senanthes wrote:Um... Just to clarify... For all those 'UNSC will kick their ass' ideas... The UNSC got obliterated in nearly every single space battle they fought against the Covenant. And even in the ones they won, they lost STAGGERING amounts of ships doing it. This includes the fleet of the legendary Preston Cole... Who often lost three quarters of his ships per engagement. In all reality, they are no more advanced than the Terrans in Outsider... In many ways, less so.
And I suppose the fact that the Covenant having greater numbers, energy weaponry, energy shields, advanced metalurgy, better FTL, and better reactors had absolutely nothing to do with how badly the UNSC fared... </sarcasm> Seriously, once the Marines and ODSTs learned their tactics, it never was a question about who would win the ground battles. It is stated, in cannon, that the war was pretty much decided in space, and pretty much all because the the staggering technological superiority the Covenant had over the UNSC. And don't get me started on the NUMBERS. Their supercarriers (which they have a hell ofa lot more than 'just a couple') are so freakishly huge that they shade entire mountains when they deign to enter atmosphere.
So, did the UNSC get pwned like a bunch pathetic noobs? Yeah, and it happened for a really good reason. They were simply overwhelmed and there wasn't a damned thing they could have done about it. (That includes surrendering because the Prophet of Truth knew that Humans were slated to be the successors to the Forerunners, which meant that Humans would soon be taking the Heirarch's place in the Covenant - even the Brutes would have bowed.)
Okay, so Loroi and Umiak both have energy weapons... But I feel that they don't hold a candle to the sheer nastiness that is Covenant ship-scale plasma weaponry. UNSC ships had titanium-alloy armor that measured in the tens-of-meters and they still got cut open like catfish at a cajun fryup. And that's to say nothing about the Covenant's nastier super-weapons, such as their particle beam cannons that may very well be planet-crackers (used to punch completely through a ship - usually aimed right at the reactor so the results were... messy).
I don't think armor of the Loroi or Umiak comes even close.
Now, I'm not saying that the UNSC would be all that more advanced that Outsider-Humans... just that they'd be closer to the Umiak and Loroi... close enough that when the Umiak attack their ships, they'd be like, "AH-hah-hah! Those lights tickle! Come a little bit closer, I wanna show you something cool."