This. The story they wrote became so ridiculous and outlandish that I've lost interest in it. Meanwhile, they had TONS of cool stories and subject matter to explore within the established lore.
Bungie one thing definitely did right was background and environment storytelling Like Halo 2 when you play as Arbiter in Sacred Icon And you at the infested lower parts of the honeycomb And you pick up an Open Comms channel where the marines are pushing thru the area and getting swarmed by the Flood. This was during the part where flood mainly consist of Elite Flood and Carrier form, and occasional human flood And ltr on during the level. There were far more human Flood And even during that distress dialogue, you can see on the opposite side, that the marines are running away and shooting back at the Flood chasing them. It was an "unnecessary yet necessary" part of the map design, ppl may or may not notice it. Despite design should generally always have the player consistently experience the same things, it was a cool detail to have
@@Vonmoonlight I genuinely feel nostalgic about that aspect of the mission, and that specific part of that mission. Every time I encounter that moment in the level, I would imagine the fight the marines were going through, as they pushed towards the icon. I imagined it a desperate struggle, with marine determined to reach their objective. The imagining went well, with the swarms of flood that ambushes the player at that given point of the mission; it really coincides with the desperation that he marine might have been feeling at the given time, as they too pushed onward in their mission to the sacred icon.
As someone else mentioned the Mac gun being unable to penetrate the covenant ship seems very strange. I read the fall of reach and the Mac guns in the battle seemed to be the only thing that could turn the tide. It is however possible they were talking about a larger covenant ship as in the book they mentioned a massive ‘leader’ like ship which was on the outskirts of the battle.
Yeah I was discussing this some years ago with some ppl that brought this scene up. It couldn't have been an orbital MAC because we saw one of those obliterate a Corvette in one shot earlier in the game. We settled on the idea that they had to be using a ground-based MAC platform similar to the one you use at the end of the game.
@@shiningamaterasu2579 Given George in Tip of the spear is surprised at the authorisation of MAC rounds in atmosphere and there are surface-based MACs in game, the cannons mounted on UNSC ships must be more powerful. Even those MAC rounds can have trouble punching through the shields of larger covenant ships unless multiple rounds are fired in quick succession or in a salvo.
Actually those 2 MAC shots are what saved them later on. In the book Fall of Reach we get an estimate that is take as about 3 MAC rounds to destroy a Covenant ship, 2 to strip the shield and 1 to fold the ship like a ball of paper. Stacker calling in those 2 MAC shots managed to disable the Shields of the Corvette which allowed us to hit it with missiles at the end of the mission saving the Evacuation party and allowing the city to hold under UNSC control for a few more hours
No dice. The shields regenerate. It needs to be 2-3 shots in succession. The UNSC could win space battles that way, but only specifically when they shot 2-3 times quickly. Edit: Okay so since people want to not read, Halo Reach breaks Halo lore. Covenant corvettes don't even have shields. So when you guys say things like "But what about the time to regenerate, what about the time!" Like dude, Halo Reach is the worst point of Halo lore reference. Bungie essentially soft rebooted the lore with Reach and they were probably hoping 343i was going to continue with it. So to recap, yes it takes 2-3 shots. No macs didn't do anything because we don't know if 343i was following any other of the Halo lore rules since corvettes don't have shields and get destroyed from single Mac hits. The only thing we know for sure is that the macs didn't hurt the corvette and we don't even know if it's the same corvette at the end since there were tons of them on Reach.
@@lastsong7159 Do they regenerate that fast? It's gigantic. Noble 6 reaches the missile controls 15-30 minutes later which might be long enough, or they might only be partially recharged. Either way, it certainly helped, as that's also energy that can't be directed to weapons (which is why the Covenant ship in the final mission becomes vulnerable to just a single round of ground-based light MAC fire, as the ship has to disable its shield to use the glassing beam). If missiles could take down a Corvette easy peasy even with its shields up, you'd think that they could just pack more and bigger ones onto everything. It's way cheaper and less tech-intensive that MAC rounds for sure, not to mention the differential in energy requirements.
@@lastsong7159If the shields regenerated, then the missiles you launch wouldn't have destroyed the Corvette. Unless you believe MAC rounds are weaker than missiles, which the story and gameplay both contradict.
@@jamesashcroft8170"Final protective fire, abbreviated as FPF, and also known as danger close, refers to a tactical plan for a military unit, typically infantry, to protect itself in defense against attack. The plan generally includes machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire prearranged to impede enemy movement across defensive lines or areas.".
@@aaallljjjjimportant note that generally danger close refers to a strike of some kind that is within 500 meters of Allied forces. Basically, you're really changing hitting your own guys to save their skin.
When I was playing that part of the level my first time through I was too busy with enemy banshees to see that happen, I only heard something and by the time I had a moment to look, I’m pretty sure we had already flown past the ship as it crashed into the sea
FPF = final protective fires. The cannoneer calls out "shot" to let them know the round has been fired. "FPF 2" is thier 2md attempt to save the ground forces. Basically FPF is when the enemy force os extremely overwhelm9ng amd you need to form a blockade of fire that would be certain death to pass through. Amd then it is more heart wrenching when you realize those rounds did nothing.
If memory serves, in modern US Army doctrine (and probably Marine equivalent as well), when FPF is called out, the artillery fire *all of their ammunition* or until the FPF order is rescinded. It is no joke.
@@TheMaleRei yes you are correct. But you can have preset targets usually named priority target red. So in my opinion as an actual artillery man i would say that fpf 1 is them simply calling the shots. So in modern artillery we only call "shot" for the first and last round. But in theory you can call it for everytime you shoot. So perhaps you simply stopped hearing the rest pf the fire mission.
@AJadedLizard He is one off those few marines in the series to fight with chief more than one time. Homie is a damn veteran with balls bigger than jupiter
@@bluephoenix7565 Was he a Marine? I looked up before I made my other comment you replied to because I remembered him saying stuff about it in outtakes, but couldn't find it anywhere.
I'm in Field Artillery now so hearing terms like "Final Protective Fire" and "shot" just adds to the cool factor in ways that teenager me never fully grasped when playing this game.
Stacker the actor was one of Bungie's technical advisors for the original trilogy, and based on some of his outtakes from the first game, I'm pretty sure was a vet himself. it's quite likely the whole sequence was his idea.
Halo reach is by far my favorite halo game it showed the power of the covenant well also showing we were not prepared but still had a chance. Beacause people are morons i will make it clear I DONT MEAN FOR REACH MORONS
They stood no chance wtf you talking about. The few victories the humans had, was due to the Spartans and even they had extremely high casualties. Reach was lost the moment they arrived.
@@louditalian1962and on ground battles the Unsc did stand a chance it was mostly space they were screwed idk Spartans did help obviously there but SOME TIMES odst’s, army men, marines and Air Force were doing good but these again weren’t huge scale like space battles
Humanity could prove a worthy foe on the ground as covenant tactics were often rudimentary and often involved simply trying to overwhelm the UNSC with sheer numbers. Once the Covenant finished searching for forerunner relics on the surface however, they would simply jump back into orbit and glass the planet with little opposition.
I think my favorite detail about the MAC gun is that they don't even wait for a response or an order to fire the 3rd shot. They fire it immediately after the second shot fails, showing just how desperate they were
@@thomasjones3206 I was referring to the CSO by slipspace drive I mean do what George did in halo reach use it to teleport have the ship destroying it EDIT: I tried to spell his name with a J but iPhone doesn’t like it so fuck it … it’s gonna stay with a “G”
That same ship was later destroyed and killed all of their crew. Reach really showed long time Halo players how bleak were the chances of winning without heros like Master Chief, Jerome and other Spartans that would single handly change the tide of war IF they were present.
The details in the call for fire between the 2 RTOs is actually really good for a video game. Halo went above and beyond for this and I appreciate it greatly.
I still am surprised by how many people don't put together that Stacker wasn't calling in final protective fire from a ship (cause they were all already dealing with other tasks). It was him calling in for an Onager (what Emile and Six use at the end of the game) to take the shot. They are nowhere near as powerful as even a frigate's MAC, but it was all they had available for tasking.
One detail that I see a lot of people miss that is one of my favorite moments was in long night of solace, where you and Jorge witness the covenant glassing sword Base. That is the exact turning point of the story for me, as you turn realize that nothing you've done up until that point mattered It's a great setup towards the ending of that level, where your entire mission is negated, and you realize the rest of the game is hopeless.
Stacker is probably my favorite character in Halo; I love his jovial nature without being as tryhard as Johnson became by Halo 3, and because he's usually so willing to crack jokes, the few times he's serious (his "Cook the bastard" line in Another Day at the Beach, for instance) really stand out. The way you hear him *genuinely* start to lose it as everything he can do to protect his Marines and the civilians in their care ends up coming to nothing is hard to listen to. This is a man who stared down the Flood *three times,* fought on both Halos and the Ark *and* Requiem, and the *only* time we hear him come close to losing it is on Reach. The de-emphasis on Marines and ODSTs in the later 343 games is a shame, because it means we don't get Stacker or Dubbo anymore, and they were easily the best part of the original trilogy.
Tbf that was an orbital round clearly, probably from a more powerful platform. With some amount of guided aim thanks to the long swords. New Alexandria gotta have those dollar store MACs if they can't bring down a Corvette though. The final mission hits an unshielded Cruiser with a single well placed round to bring it down, and I can't assume city defense as something less or equally powerful as a garbage hucker.
There are multiple different types of Mac guns/cannons the one used in the sword tower mission is directly attached to a frigate and is used in space combat not planet based combat that's why Jorge said "Mac rounds in the atmosphere?!" The Mac cannon in New Alexandria is a surface to air based one which is designed to shoot down planetside aircraft not literal spaceships
Hearing “damn how do you stop that thing” just unlocked a core memory from repeatedly reloading that checkpoint on legendary after getting my ass beat😂
The way they say "final protective fire" is extremely close to theblegit way FiSTers would say that...i was super impressed with that detail whej i got out of the army and played that mission again
Also making the Mac cannon designation “final protective fire” alludes to those mac cannons are the final effective option against the covenant ships meaning the last line of defense had failed
I still remember hearing all this the first time playing and i loved it when i got older and more into the lore i loved even more, small details like this go along way to make the world feel alive
Should also be noted that Sargeant stacker survives Rachel makes it onto the pillar of Autumn and ends up leading the last group of UNSC Marines You see in the campaign. The only other group of marine still alive on the halo ring or under sergeant Johnson's command and you as the player Joe encounter them after 343 guilty spark.
Stacker doesn’t actually appear in person in Reach, aside from his icon in the Armoury Store. His Firefight voicelines will very rarely be used by UNSC Troopers in either the Long Night of Solace or New Alexandria levels. In the former the Stacker “clones” can spawn in the Pelican reinforcements, and in the latter one will spawn in the second Falcon (the special one with grenade launchers that’s exclusive to the co-op version of the level). Sorry for the info dump but Stacker is a favourite of mine so I kinda know too much about him lol
My boy stacker survives, gets on the autumn, finds his way off Alpha Halo, and then makes his way back to Earth, sees the end of the war, gets on the infinity, and is now MIA.😢
This isnt that weird. In The Pillar of Autumn, Keyes mentions that the MAC round wouldn't pierce the shield of the covenant ship. The only way of harming it was the glassing area of the ship, which would have weaker to no shields
I was scrolling through to see if somebody mentioned this. This, and that the ground based MAC cannons aren't anywhere near as strong as the ones on frigates & the POA
MAC rounds will go through shields. It’s likely a mass driver cannon which is different. If it is then it would be less powerful but still capable as seen in Harvest when Loki destroys a Covenant ship with one by using two rounds in quick succession
so we know for a fact that there are differing classifications of MAC class weapons, from the bow mounted cannons on medium and up ships to the hull crackers on earths core defense gird... we can presume that the mac being fired on the heavy corvette is probably one of the lower cal 'guns' in addition to the fact that at this point IDing covenant ships was still not something that ONI had fully declassified enough for the main UNSC to actually have access to layouts... the human covenant war was a blitzkrieg and a half...
Theyre using mass driver thats on the ground. Not a MAC. Mass drivers arnt even weapons. Theyre used to fire cargo and supplies into orbit for ships to pick up. But ofc this can be used as a makeshift weapon easily. But they arnt anywhere near as powerful as a MAC.
Even as a kid hearing this even tho I didn't fully comprehend what was going on I knew it was hopeless. And playing it again as an adult this mission is by far the saddest and most desperate mission in the entire series.
I remember in The Fall Of Reach…when that naval repair space station did a ‘GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT’ for a fleet of UNSC ships as the Covenant fleet opened fire. Then. As if a 21 gun Salute. The UNSC fleet opened fire and obliterated the Covenant Fleet. Nearly cried reading it the first time. Nearly cried retelling it. Amazing how POWERFUL writing can be.
Everyone forgets the UNSC had different types of mac cannons. Super mac orbital defences, ship based mac cannons, artillery mac cannons, and surface mac cannons. The last wasn't intended for anything larger then frigates. So honestly if you're going to be hitting a corvette you better keep firing until it blows up or you do. Most ground based mac cannons where operated in groups when firing on ships. At this stage most are destroyed already
I didn't know what final protective fires were when reach came out. Years later(and 5 years as a Marine Corps infantryman) i realized alot of little details like this, and man did it make the game feel that much more desperate.
Lore-wise, the usual UNSC tactic involved nuclear EMP which knocked the energy shields out, followed by MAC rounds to punch through Covenant ships. 1-2 punch combo. Sadly, they ran out of nukes during Reach.
Thats just wrong. Nukkes fired against covenant ships with their shields up are always shown to do fuck all. They use the mac to take the shields down then launch a nuke at the ship. And even then the damage it dealt isnt even close to if a MAC hits the unshielded ship.
Ive called a few FPFs during a work up for a deployment. Its a sight to behold, seeing all 155 and mortars making a wall of fires. Its supposed to be a last line of defense.
That doesn't make sense, wasn't the MAC gun the only thing that could sheer through covie ships? Isn't that what happened with that ship Chief saw around the time of Harvest? I must've forgot something
I mention that the use of a MAC is questionable at the end of the short as I can't find anywhere if it is an actual MAC cannon, though it makes the same sound effect in game as the MAC rounds. I'm sure the corvette took some damage, but either due to chance or the shots missed critical infrastructure, the Corvette continued to fight unaffected. MAC cannons. Additionally from what I understood a lot more firepower was needed to destroy Covenant ships due to their shielding technology, unless that was from an early stage in the conflict. Regardless, I love this radio conversation. Perhaps you have more you can offer to this situation.
@@Nikos. I wonder if it was the difference between ship-borne MACs and more MiniMACs found on the ground. The weapon aboard a Stalwart-class vessel is much bigger than the one we use to destroy the CCS at the end of Pillar of Autumn in Halo: Reach
@@Nikos.Just like in The Pillar of Autumn. Keyes mentions that the shields would stop any mac round. The only way to stop it was to hit the glassing beam area
Now that I’ve joined the army as an actual forward observer, it’s really cool to hear someone call for fire support in a game. As a kid it went over my head but now, it’s super cool.
What’s a not so depressing detail is that Pete stacker survived to the end of the human covenant war, he’s even in halo 4, man lived through some of the most significant battles of the human covenant war and even survived the flood, he’s a badass.
Halo reach is my absolute favorite halo, ever. It's my favorite campaign too. Sadly every time I play it the campaign seems shorter and shorter, I yearn for it to be longer but this is what we have. I still get those deep nostalgic and heartfelt emotions playing the key moments.
Artillery Officer here, when you fire Final Protective Fires (FPF) you are creating a wall of explosions between friendly forces and the enemy that is threatening to overrun them. There is only 1 FPF planned during any phase of the operation, so "firing FPF-2" wouldn't be a thing. They'd just keep shooting. There are 3 reasons that an FPF stops: 1, the maneuver commander calls it off; 2, the firing unit has to move to survive; 3, the firing unit runs out of ammo.
Considering the covenants strategy when fighting on the ground was literaly to just zerg rush the enemy having a 2nd FPF plan set up honestly makes sense. Perhaps as a pre planned location after the marines retreat to a preplanned location during the first FPF.
This was a ground based Mass Driver, same as the ending mission, probably an Onager. Strong enough to take an unshielded corvette down, however with those shields definitely not. Key points to remember in the lore, Covenant shields are powerful, they do need to open up to fire their plasma weapons. When fully activated then a Mass Driver most likely won’t pen the vessel, even the SDV Heavy corvettes we see in this battle. However a good placed shot will do damage like the one 6 did at the end or how that one Marine did during Harvest in on of the books. Second, one of the Corvettes took damage from the missile barrage at the end of this same mission, its good implication that the Mass Driver did take down its shields.
Having been in the army as an artillery observer the gavity of the situation hit me harder than before. A FPF, or Final Protective Fires, is a pre designated linerar grid within 600-750 meters from your position. Its a "No shit, were being over run and need artillery to suppress the enemy so we can either cut tail and withdraw or do enough damage that we can retain our positions"
DANGER CLOSE! oh man...😅 😟 that level was so cool! I wish there were more like it. Being a spartan in a alien invaded city with civilians around was so cool! It really showed the might of the covenant and overall really showed and highlighted what you're fighting for while protecting those regular everyday people. Kinda like Mombasa in halo 2 or in odst. I miss the marines, man. Stuff like 343 guilty spark, the storm, crows nest, and other stuff where you help marines was always so cool and gave halo that military identity. Good stuff, man! 🥲👍🏻
I think it is either small MAC round (carried by HRV or mobile MAC turret platform) or a MAC round from nearby orbital frigate. Because a MAC round from capital ship or ODP would cause a massive crater and capable to leveling the City. Also, these powerful MACs require a higher level of authorization before it used. Just like we saw on the Firsr Battle of Swordbase where a single powerful MAC round punch through the corvette like cake.
The country accented “Damn how do you stop that thing!?” Is a great line. It shows that stacker is obviously worried and the situation is extremely hopeless but he’s still holding onto his country spirit. He’s not acting hopeless, perfectly captures the attitude of a marine from the country side!
Personally I thought it was a nearby Mass Driver on the outskirts of the city firing at the Corvette and since we know Mass Drivers don’t do a lot of damage, it would make more sense
In mission 2 we needed an ODP to rain hell on a Corvette and crippled it in one shot, but here I’m guessing with the invasion force the UNSC had to use significantly weaker MACs or we got lucky in Sword base
Even more saddening. a FPF (Final-Protective-Fires) is the last possible fire mission you can call as close to your own position as possible without being on your position. Used when you are about to be overrun.
I always thought he was saying "damn! How do you stuff that thing?!" And thought that the Mac round had worked and he was saying that because the explosion was BIG.
There is just something about this level, coming in out of nowhere and helping people escape the oncoming threat of invasion is so bad ass and awesome it makes you feel like a modern samurai protecting random passerby’s as you continue onto your objective
That is such a cinematic thing done by the game, you are in a dark place with no light source but your night vision as you run through with no civilian inside and you happen to listen to a radio of the men firing the big gun while the ground shake
The book Halo: Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund was such a good read, I dont like much of anything 343 has done to the games now, and view Erics book as how Halo should or could have gone down after Reach. And its sad to know it will never get better at this point
I wish 343 kept the trend that odst and reach started of telling more grounded stories of the human covenant war instead of moving past it.
This. The story they wrote became so ridiculous and outlandish that I've lost interest in it. Meanwhile, they had TONS of cool stories and subject matter to explore within the established lore.
Don’t we all 😢
Just remember, Forerunners were supposed to be human until one guy changed it, and brought his change to life in Halo 4
Bungie one thing definitely did right was background and environment storytelling
Like Halo 2 when you play as Arbiter in Sacred Icon
And you at the infested lower parts of the honeycomb
And you pick up an Open Comms channel where the marines are pushing thru the area and getting swarmed by the Flood. This was during the part where flood mainly consist of Elite Flood and Carrier form, and occasional human flood
And ltr on during the level. There were far more human Flood
And even during that distress dialogue, you can see on the opposite side, that the marines are running away and shooting back at the Flood chasing them.
It was an "unnecessary yet necessary" part of the map design, ppl may or may not notice it. Despite design should generally always have the player consistently experience the same things, it was a cool detail to have
@@Vonmoonlight I genuinely feel nostalgic about that aspect of the mission, and that specific part of that mission.
Every time I encounter that moment in the level, I would imagine the fight the marines were going through, as they pushed towards the icon. I imagined it a desperate struggle, with marine determined to reach their objective.
The imagining went well, with the swarms of flood that ambushes the player at that given point of the mission; it really coincides with the desperation that he marine might have been feeling at the given time, as they too pushed onward in their mission to the sacred icon.
As someone else mentioned the Mac gun being unable to penetrate the covenant ship seems very strange. I read the fall of reach and the Mac guns in the battle seemed to be the only thing that could turn the tide. It is however possible they were talking about a larger covenant ship as in the book they mentioned a massive ‘leader’ like ship which was on the outskirts of the battle.
Their firing on a SDV-class heavy corvette. It could very well be that ground based starport defense can't pen its shields.
Guess not all mac’s are made the same, it’s not like we haven’t seen them tear right through corvettes anyways
Yeah I was discussing this some years ago with some ppl that brought this scene up. It couldn't have been an orbital MAC because we saw one of those obliterate a Corvette in one shot earlier in the game. We settled on the idea that they had to be using a ground-based MAC platform similar to the one you use at the end of the game.
@@slvrcobra1337 it could also not even be a normal MAC cannon, could also be a form of weaker and fundamentally different MAC artillery
@@shiningamaterasu2579 Given George in Tip of the spear is surprised at the authorisation of MAC rounds in atmosphere and there are surface-based MACs in game, the cannons mounted on UNSC ships must be more powerful.
Even those MAC rounds can have trouble punching through the shields of larger covenant ships unless multiple rounds are fired in quick succession or in a salvo.
Actually those 2 MAC shots are what saved them later on. In the book Fall of Reach we get an estimate that is take as about 3 MAC rounds to destroy a Covenant ship, 2 to strip the shield and 1 to fold the ship like a ball of paper. Stacker calling in those 2 MAC shots managed to disable the Shields of the Corvette which allowed us to hit it with missiles at the end of the mission saving the Evacuation party and allowing the city to hold under UNSC control for a few more hours
No dice. The shields regenerate. It needs to be 2-3 shots in succession. The UNSC could win space battles that way, but only specifically when they shot 2-3 times quickly.
Edit:
Okay so since people want to not read, Halo Reach breaks Halo lore. Covenant corvettes don't even have shields. So when you guys say things like "But what about the time to regenerate, what about the time!" Like dude, Halo Reach is the worst point of Halo lore reference. Bungie essentially soft rebooted the lore with Reach and they were probably hoping 343i was going to continue with it. So to recap, yes it takes 2-3 shots. No macs didn't do anything because we don't know if 343i was following any other of the Halo lore rules since corvettes don't have shields and get destroyed from single Mac hits. The only thing we know for sure is that the macs didn't hurt the corvette and we don't even know if it's the same corvette at the end since there were tons of them on Reach.
@@lastsong7159 Do they regenerate that fast? It's gigantic. Noble 6 reaches the missile controls 15-30 minutes later which might be long enough, or they might only be partially recharged. Either way, it certainly helped, as that's also energy that can't be directed to weapons (which is why the Covenant ship in the final mission becomes vulnerable to just a single round of ground-based light MAC fire, as the ship has to disable its shield to use the glassing beam).
If missiles could take down a Corvette easy peasy even with its shields up, you'd think that they could just pack more and bigger ones onto everything. It's way cheaper and less tech-intensive that MAC rounds for sure, not to mention the differential in energy requirements.
@@lastsong7159If the shields regenerated, then the missiles you launch wouldn't have destroyed the Corvette. Unless you believe MAC rounds are weaker than missiles, which the story and gameplay both contradict.
@@EldishRinger WHY were missile's doing less dmg than MAC, oh that's right SHEILDS, if the Covenant didn't have them UNSC would use missile's.
Actually, making a more advanced higher yeild missile is much mor difficult than shooting a feromagnetic slug at higher velocities.
IRL if you hear a request for “FPF” and “Danger Close” over the radio someone is have a pants shitting bad day.
😅😅😮 I’m surprised they even requested it.
That and "immediate surpression".
What does FPF stand for again?
@@jamesashcroft8170"Final protective fire, abbreviated as FPF, and also known as danger close, refers to a tactical plan for a military unit, typically infantry, to protect itself in defense against attack. The plan generally includes machine gun, mortar, and artillery fire prearranged to impede enemy movement across defensive lines or areas.".
@@aaallljjjjimportant note that generally danger close refers to a strike of some kind that is within 500 meters of Allied forces. Basically, you're really changing hitting your own guys to save their skin.
U later see the corvette destroy a unsc ship with civilians in it, such a strong moment to really highlight the point of this mission
Not a frigate, but I agree with the point you are trying to make.
When I was playing that part of the level my first time through I was too busy with enemy banshees to see that happen, I only heard something and by the time I had a moment to look, I’m pretty sure we had already flown past the ship as it crashed into the sea
“Request permission to engage search and rescue”
“Negative…no point.”
@@OJ9992Worse. They never asked for permission. They asked if they should. Not a single person had any hope for survivors.
@@FlowerMareEnjoyer yeah I couldn’t remember the exact quote
As an army officer who’s been trained at the Field Artillery School in ft sill. I was always stunned how accurate they got a call for fire mission.
Ewww, Sill. 🤢
IIRC they brought in one or multiple advisors with military experience to help give the game an authentic feel
@@HadesCowboythey also did that for the Star Wars game republic commando. They used real special forces guys
@@SuperSix4I believe that. Republic commando was so good. Still don't know why we haven't gotten another game or a remaster
FYI, the book was written by an actual Marine.
FPF = final protective fires. The cannoneer calls out "shot" to let them know the round has been fired. "FPF 2" is thier 2md attempt to save the ground forces. Basically FPF is when the enemy force os extremely overwhelm9ng amd you need to form a blockade of fire that would be certain death to pass through. Amd then it is more heart wrenching when you realize those rounds did nothing.
The writers clearly knew their stuff, the realistic military sci-fi side of halo is my favourite part
If memory serves, in modern US Army doctrine (and probably Marine equivalent as well), when FPF is called out, the artillery fire *all of their ammunition* or until the FPF order is rescinded.
It is no joke.
@@TheMaleRei yes you are correct. But you can have preset targets usually named priority target red. So in my opinion as an actual artillery man i would say that fpf 1 is them simply calling the shots. So in modern artillery we only call "shot" for the first and last round. But in theory you can call it for everytime you shoot. So perhaps you simply stopped hearing the rest pf the fire mission.
How bout you learn to fucking spell.
Bro really gave a hip-pocket arty class just the way you explained it I just knew you were or are still in artillery. I learned something new.
Ok but the balls of titanium on Stacker to call mac rounds over his position lol.
Stacker just has those. He's probably my single favorite Marine, and I always loved that Bungie was willing to throw him some bones every so often.
@AJadedLizard He is one off those few marines in the series to fight with chief more than one time. Homie is a damn veteran with balls bigger than jupiter
His voice actor is an actual ex marine that they hired for military consulting, and also decided "hey wanna be in the game?" So cool.
@@bluephoenix7565 Was he a Marine? I looked up before I made my other comment you replied to because I remembered him saying stuff about it in outtakes, but couldn't find it anywhere.
@@AJadedLizard pretty sure not 100 but definitely ex military
I'm in Field Artillery now so hearing terms like "Final Protective Fire" and "shot" just adds to the cool factor in ways that teenager me never fully grasped when playing this game.
Stacker the actor was one of Bungie's technical advisors for the original trilogy, and based on some of his outtakes from the first game, I'm pretty sure was a vet himself. it's quite likely the whole sequence was his idea.
@@AJadedLizardyep, definitely a vet.
Sounds like Nathan Fillion
Never forget, Jared C. Monti's example.
“Damn how do ya stop that thing!”
You can hear the hopelessness in his voice as it breaks as well.
Halo reach is by far my favorite halo game it showed the power of the covenant well also showing we were not prepared but still had a chance. Beacause people are morons i will make it clear I DONT MEAN FOR REACH MORONS
They stood no chance wtf you talking about. The few victories the humans had, was due to the Spartans and even they had extremely high casualties. Reach was lost the moment they arrived.
@@louditalian1962not entirely true captain keys has had VERY FEW victories against the covenant in space he didn’t need Spartans
@@louditalian1962and on ground battles the Unsc did stand a chance it was mostly space they were screwed idk Spartans did help obviously there but SOME TIMES odst’s, army men, marines and Air Force were doing good but these again weren’t huge scale like space battles
@@AssapimasterShinikoza don't forget about the sea navy
Humanity could prove a worthy foe on the ground as covenant tactics were often rudimentary and often involved simply trying to overwhelm the UNSC with sheer numbers. Once the Covenant finished searching for forerunner relics on the surface however, they would simply jump back into orbit and glass the planet with little opposition.
I've never noticed that, mainly cause I was too focused on the multiple squads of "free hugs" grunts.
My all time favorite Halo mission
interesting choice for a favorite mission
@@Nikos. I know, I’m sorry Nikos
@@DeadnotAlive its a goated mission
It's my favorite Reach mission for sure!
Im literally playing it rn lol
"I just stepped in gum,got to find some peanut butter" -Caboose.
“Then how come I lost all my fingers?”
“What?”
“Just kidding”
“Fucking loser”
Literally was going through my Brian too 😂
That wasn’t Noble 6 sneaking around, that’s Caboose
Just trying to find some peanut butter
Bullshit it jamal again
I think my favorite detail about the MAC gun is that they don't even wait for a response or an order to fire the 3rd shot. They fire it immediately after the second shot fails, showing just how desperate they were
And the fact that it was only a Corvette... Now imagine if it was a CSO Super carrier.
GET A NOVA BOMB or slipspace drive
@@AssapimasterShinikozaFor a Corvette no, and on the capital of the planet. Also I don't know the effects of a slip space on a planet's surface
@@thomasjones3206 I was referring to the CSO by slipspace drive I mean do what George did in halo reach use it to teleport have the ship destroying it
EDIT: I tried to spell his name with a J but iPhone doesn’t like it so fuck it … it’s gonna stay with a “G”
@AssapimasterShinikoza you got ur Nova, now get me a bomb
@thomasjones3206 halo 2 shows what happens when you slip space over a city
Fun fact: this is a reference to the first encounter with the scarab in Halo 2. Same voice actor, similar lines.
That same ship was later destroyed and killed all of their crew.
Reach really showed long time Halo players how bleak were the chances of winning without heros like Master Chief, Jerome and other Spartans that would single handly change the tide of war IF they were present.
They were. The entirety of blue team was forming defenses at Reach, actually... It wasn't enough.
It’s called Reach City. Acktshually.
Right my apologies
@@Nikos.😂
@@Nikos. it is so inaccurate that chief doesn't come in there and fuck the aliens
On Halo Planet
Bro, that’s where John Halo comes from! I heard he was raised by his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru there.
The details in the call for fire between the 2 RTOs is actually really good for a video game. Halo went above and beyond for this and I appreciate it greatly.
I still am surprised by how many people don't put together that Stacker wasn't calling in final protective fire from a ship (cause they were all already dealing with other tasks). It was him calling in for an Onager (what Emile and Six use at the end of the game) to take the shot. They are nowhere near as powerful as even a frigate's MAC, but it was all they had available for tasking.
I miss Bungie. The campaign felt like a actual war with Humanity's back against the wall. 343 made Halo's story as convoluted as Assassin's creed.
“There’s a depressing detail at the start of the exodus mission of halo reach” yea it’s called the start of the mission exodus
The entire second half of the game.
One detail that I see a lot of people miss that is one of my favorite moments was in long night of solace, where you and Jorge witness the covenant glassing sword Base.
That is the exact turning point of the story for me, as you turn realize that nothing you've done up until that point mattered
It's a great setup towards the ending of that level, where your entire mission is negated, and you realize the rest of the game is hopeless.
Damn and they called for Danger Close, as in "literally fire on my position". A suicide order that didn't even take down the corvette
Well not exactly "on my position". Danger close is, as the name implies, fire support close enough to endanger the fire mission requester themselves.
Stacker is probably my favorite character in Halo; I love his jovial nature without being as tryhard as Johnson became by Halo 3, and because he's usually so willing to crack jokes, the few times he's serious (his "Cook the bastard" line in Another Day at the Beach, for instance) really stand out. The way you hear him *genuinely* start to lose it as everything he can do to protect his Marines and the civilians in their care ends up coming to nothing is hard to listen to. This is a man who stared down the Flood *three times,* fought on both Halos and the Ark *and* Requiem, and the *only* time we hear him come close to losing it is on Reach.
The de-emphasis on Marines and ODSTs in the later 343 games is a shame, because it means we don't get Stacker or Dubbo anymore, and they were easily the best part of the original trilogy.
Remember being a kid not understanding what halo was but the mood it put you in was way depressing than anything my kid mind could understand
I had to listen to this line like 30 times because I was stuck at a checkpoint getting bombed by a grunt suicide squad 💀
Bro remember in the Sword Tower mission in the beginning when one of those corvettes were just annihilated by a Mac round 😂
Yeah when you drive off the covenant from sword base they send a round clean through a corvette must just be a small oversight 😂
Tbf that was an orbital round clearly, probably from a more powerful platform. With some amount of guided aim thanks to the long swords.
New Alexandria gotta have those dollar store MACs if they can't bring down a Corvette though. The final mission hits an unshielded Cruiser with a single well placed round to bring it down, and I can't assume city defense as something less or equally powerful as a garbage hucker.
From an orbital MAC round you tool.
There are multiple different types of Mac guns/cannons the one used in the sword tower mission is directly attached to a frigate and is used in space combat not planet based combat that's why Jorge said "Mac rounds in the atmosphere?!" The Mac cannon in New Alexandria is a surface to air based one which is designed to shoot down planetside aircraft not literal spaceships
@@Warriorcat_RUclipsI don't think you actually take down the cruiser, just do enough damage to give the Autumn a window to escape
I just played this mission today while replaying the whole campaign lol
Hearing “damn how do you stop that thing” just unlocked a core memory from repeatedly reloading that checkpoint on legendary after getting my ass beat😂
The way they say "final protective fire" is extremely close to theblegit way FiSTers would say that...i was super impressed with that detail whej i got out of the army and played that mission again
These details are in every game, it’s part of what makes the series great.
Halo reach armor will never not be hard asf
Hearing Firing FPF 2 shot.
Gave me unwanted chills
Also making the Mac cannon designation “final protective fire” alludes to those mac cannons are the final effective option against the covenant ships meaning the last line of defense had failed
That call for fire was pretty spot on
I still remember hearing all this the first time playing and i loved it when i got older and more into the lore i loved even more, small details like this go along way to make the world feel alive
I just love watching Halo: Reach content.
Seeing other people's Noble 6 Armour is awesome.
Id like to highlight that, as a Forward Observer (artillery targeting), the chatter back and forth is surprisingly accurate for a video game.
Should also be noted that Sargeant stacker survives Rachel makes it onto the pillar of Autumn and ends up leading the last group of UNSC Marines You see in the campaign. The only other group of marine still alive on the halo ring or under sergeant Johnson's command and you as the player Joe encounter them after 343 guilty spark.
Damn...Rachel must a monstrous woman.
Stacker doesn’t actually appear in person in Reach, aside from his icon in the Armoury Store.
His Firefight voicelines will very rarely be used by UNSC Troopers in either the Long Night of Solace or New Alexandria levels. In the former the Stacker “clones” can spawn in the Pelican reinforcements, and in the latter one will spawn in the second Falcon (the special one with grenade launchers that’s exclusive to the co-op version of the level).
Sorry for the info dump but Stacker is a favourite of mine so I kinda know too much about him lol
@AzelfandQuilava I thought Stacker is there when you get dropped off on the beach with the missile battery at the end of the Exodus level?
@@hammer1349 that's Duval.
My boy stacker survives, gets on the autumn, finds his way off Alpha Halo, and then makes his way back to Earth, sees the end of the war, gets on the infinity, and is now MIA.😢
This isnt that weird. In The Pillar of Autumn, Keyes mentions that the MAC round wouldn't pierce the shield of the covenant ship. The only way of harming it was the glassing area of the ship, which would have weaker to no shields
I was scrolling through to see if somebody mentioned this. This, and that the ground based MAC cannons aren't anywhere near as strong as the ones on frigates & the POA
MAC rounds will go through shields. It’s likely a mass driver cannon which is different. If it is then it would be less powerful but still capable as seen in Harvest when Loki destroys a Covenant ship with one by using two rounds in quick succession
@@SuperTheast That was in space and also had a larger MAC cannon.
@@superk9letsplays419 that was literally a planetside driver that was fired every year as a celebration. Yes it was bigger but not that much bigger
@@SuperTheast it is faster in space
Ohh, i remember this line very well. Legendary on this mission was HELL
so we know for a fact that there are differing classifications of MAC class weapons, from the bow mounted cannons on medium and up ships to the hull crackers on earths core defense gird... we can presume that the mac being fired on the heavy corvette is probably one of the lower cal 'guns' in addition to the fact that at this point IDing covenant ships was still not something that ONI had fully declassified enough for the main UNSC to actually have access to layouts... the human covenant war was a blitzkrieg and a half...
Theyre using mass driver thats on the ground. Not a MAC. Mass drivers arnt even weapons. Theyre used to fire cargo and supplies into orbit for ships to pick up. But ofc this can be used as a makeshift weapon easily. But they arnt anywhere near as powerful as a MAC.
What Halo Reach did well is the pure UNSC military vibe. The comms here is a brilliant example, you feel immersed in the UNSC military.
Even as a kid hearing this even tho I didn't fully comprehend what was going on I knew it was hopeless. And playing it again as an adult this mission is by far the saddest and most desperate mission in the entire series.
I remember in The Fall Of Reach…when that naval repair space station did a ‘GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT’ for a fleet of UNSC ships as the Covenant fleet opened fire.
Then. As if a 21 gun Salute. The UNSC fleet opened fire and obliterated the Covenant Fleet.
Nearly cried reading it the first time. Nearly cried retelling it. Amazing how POWERFUL writing can be.
I love that Halo had a large variety of voices. This guy was one of my favorites in reach 😁
Pete Stacker is a treasure (he also voiced Keyes) and it's a shame we've not seen him since Halo 4.
Everyone forgets the UNSC had different types of mac cannons. Super mac orbital defences, ship based mac cannons, artillery mac cannons, and surface mac cannons. The last wasn't intended for anything larger then frigates. So honestly if you're going to be hitting a corvette you better keep firing until it blows up or you do. Most ground based mac cannons where operated in groups when firing on ships. At this stage most are destroyed already
best campaign of all time
I wish the reach campaign was longer than 9 missions, spacing out the deaths of main characters some more and showing more of the fall of reach
Bro just described the mission
I didn't know what final protective fires were when reach came out. Years later(and 5 years as a Marine Corps infantryman) i realized alot of little details like this, and man did it make the game feel that much more desperate.
Lore-wise, the usual UNSC tactic involved nuclear EMP which knocked the energy shields out, followed by MAC rounds to punch through Covenant ships. 1-2 punch combo. Sadly, they ran out of nukes during Reach.
The noob combo is a thing so embedded in the DNA of halo it even works in its space battles
Thats just wrong. Nukkes fired against covenant ships with their shields up are always shown to do fuck all. They use the mac to take the shields down then launch a nuke at the ship. And even then the damage it dealt isnt even close to if a MAC hits the unshielded ship.
Ive called a few FPFs during a work up for a deployment. Its a sight to behold, seeing all 155 and mortars making a wall of fires. Its supposed to be a last line of defense.
That doesn't make sense, wasn't the MAC gun the only thing that could sheer through covie ships? Isn't that what happened with that ship Chief saw around the time of Harvest? I must've forgot something
I mention that the use of a MAC is questionable at the end of the short as I can't find anywhere if it is an actual MAC cannon, though it makes the same sound effect in game as the MAC rounds. I'm sure the corvette took some damage, but either due to chance or the shots missed critical infrastructure, the Corvette continued to fight unaffected. MAC cannons. Additionally from what I understood a lot more firepower was needed to destroy Covenant ships due to their shielding technology, unless that was from an early stage in the conflict. Regardless, I love this radio conversation. Perhaps you have more you can offer to this situation.
@@Nikos. I wonder if it was the difference between ship-borne MACs and more MiniMACs found on the ground. The weapon aboard a Stalwart-class vessel is much bigger than the one we use to destroy the CCS at the end of Pillar of Autumn in Halo: Reach
@@grandadmiralsuntzu5066there’s also the orbital Mac cannon stations that were nicknamed the ‘super macs’ I believe.
@@RapidActionAnimations TRUE
@@Nikos.Just like in The Pillar of Autumn. Keyes mentions that the shields would stop any mac round. The only way to stop it was to hit the glassing beam area
Reach and ODST were two of my favorite games.
What's the song at the beginning of the video? It sounds really good and I would like to know! Thanks!
Halo Reach "The Pillar of Autumn"
@@Nikos.Thanks, I comepletely forgot it was on this missions
@@Nikos. I almost said it was Overture, the first track. Very similar tbh
When i first heard those comms, I was like "yo dude, we are fucked"
Now that I’ve joined the army as an actual forward observer, it’s really cool to hear someone call for fire support in a game. As a kid it went over my head but now, it’s super cool.
Reach was the only Halo game where i truly felt victory was impossible, i miss that feeling
What’s a not so depressing detail is that Pete stacker survived to the end of the human covenant war, he’s even in halo 4, man lived through some of the most significant battles of the human covenant war and even survived the flood, he’s a badass.
*his name is Marcus stacker, apologies for the error
Halo reach is my absolute favorite halo, ever. It's my favorite campaign too. Sadly every time I play it the campaign seems shorter and shorter, I yearn for it to be longer but this is what we have. I still get those deep nostalgic and heartfelt emotions playing the key moments.
Go legendary with all skulls on, it'll last forever. 😀
at one point, we hear "longswords unavailable at this time". we all know that longswords play a big part in taking down large ships.
I've always liked how at the end you just keep fighting until you die. The hopelessness that brings in as you try to survive can really be felt.
I wish I could play this game for the first time again
Artillery Officer here, when you fire Final Protective Fires (FPF) you are creating a wall of explosions between friendly forces and the enemy that is threatening to overrun them. There is only 1 FPF planned during any phase of the operation, so "firing FPF-2" wouldn't be a thing. They'd just keep shooting. There are 3 reasons that an FPF stops: 1, the maneuver commander calls it off; 2, the firing unit has to move to survive; 3, the firing unit runs out of ammo.
Considering the covenants strategy when fighting on the ground was literaly to just zerg rush the enemy having a 2nd FPF plan set up honestly makes sense. Perhaps as a pre planned location after the marines retreat to a preplanned location during the first FPF.
This was a ground based Mass Driver, same as the ending mission, probably an Onager. Strong enough to take an unshielded corvette down, however with those shields definitely not.
Key points to remember in the lore, Covenant shields are powerful, they do need to open up to fire their plasma weapons. When fully activated then a Mass Driver most likely won’t pen the vessel, even the SDV Heavy corvettes we see in this battle. However a good placed shot will do damage like the one 6 did at the end or how that one Marine did during Harvest in on of the books.
Second, one of the Corvettes took damage from the missile barrage at the end of this same mission, its good implication that the Mass Driver did take down its shields.
Awesome analysis, this is some really good information for how these ships work, as well as what ground forces would need to dent them
"Damn !! How do you stop that thing???" sounds so bewildered
Having been in the army as an artillery observer the gavity of the situation hit me harder than before. A FPF, or Final Protective Fires, is a pre designated linerar grid within 600-750 meters from your position. Its a "No shit, were being over run and need artillery to suppress the enemy so we can either cut tail and withdraw or do enough damage that we can retain our positions"
The classic "We're so screwed, fuck it up before they fuck us up" call for fire. Something that makes you shit bricks.
Exodus will always be one of my favourite missions in any series.
My favorite stacker line:
Danger Close, mah command, over!
Man, reach and older halo lore just made me bawl constantly lmao
Elementary, middle, highshool and young adulthood - That shit still makes me cry
DANGER CLOSE! oh man...😅 😟 that level was so cool! I wish there were more like it. Being a spartan in a alien invaded city with civilians around was so cool! It really showed the might of the covenant and overall really showed and highlighted what you're fighting for while protecting those regular everyday people.
Kinda like Mombasa in halo 2 or in odst. I miss the marines, man. Stuff like 343 guilty spark, the storm, crows nest, and other stuff where you help marines was always so cool and gave halo that military identity. Good stuff, man! 🥲👍🏻
Man now that I’m older I wanna go back and replay the games just to really appreciate all the small details like these
One of the best missions. It really felt like you were helping people in a desperate situation
I think it is either small MAC round (carried by HRV or mobile MAC turret platform) or a MAC round from nearby orbital frigate. Because a MAC round from capital ship or ODP would cause a massive crater and capable to leveling the City. Also, these powerful MACs require a higher level of authorization before it used. Just like we saw on the Firsr Battle of Swordbase where a single powerful MAC round punch through the corvette like cake.
The country accented “Damn how do you stop that thing!?” Is a great line. It shows that stacker is obviously worried and the situation is extremely hopeless but he’s still holding onto his country spirit. He’s not acting hopeless, perfectly captures the attitude of a marine from the country side!
“Damn how do you stop that thing” is engrained in my head lol. Stacker is one of my favourite halo characters of the entire series.
Personally I thought it was a nearby Mass Driver on the outskirts of the city firing at the Corvette and since we know Mass Drivers don’t do a lot of damage, it would make more sense
In mission 2 we needed an ODP to rain hell on a Corvette and crippled it in one shot, but here I’m guessing with the invasion force the UNSC had to use significantly weaker MACs or we got lucky in Sword base
It’s also worth mentioning that the situation was bad enough that they fired danger close on evacuating civilians. That’s pretty fucking bad
This whole time I thought “Damn. How do you stop that thing?” Was in reference to a brute juggernaut that you run across not long afterwards.
Reminds me of ' Mac rounds? In atompsphy?! ' from earlier I'm the game
I’ve played this campaign way too many times. I knew every line from this dialogue exchange😭
This the fist game I ever played, and it’s nostalgic to hear these word because oddly enough I remember them word for word
I always quote that from time to time. The drawl is real fun to do
Even more saddening. a FPF (Final-Protective-Fires) is the last possible fire mission you can call as close to your own position as possible without being on your position. Used when you are about to be overrun.
I always thought he was saying "damn! How do you stuff that thing?!" And thought that the Mac round had worked and he was saying that because the explosion was BIG.
There is just something about this level, coming in out of nowhere and helping people escape the oncoming threat of invasion is so bad ass and awesome it makes you feel like a modern samurai protecting random passerby’s as you continue onto your objective
It has to be one of the most soul crushing moments to learn that the most powerful weapon in your entire military's arsenal is worthless
What really sets the scene for this too is you just jorge who was probably your most trusted companion out of the entire Noble team
I always thought that what they had fired was a nuclear missile, but only now do I realize that they were mac rounds
The sound of the MAC guns in reach will always be one of my favorite sci-fi weapon sounds.
That is such a cinematic thing done by the game, you are in a dark place with no light source but your night vision as you run through with no civilian inside and you happen to listen to a radio of the men firing the big gun while the ground shake
Ngl the MAC cannon sounds might be my favorite sounds in any game. God those are satisfying
The fact that is sgt stacker makes the scene so better
The book Halo: Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund was such a good read, I dont like much of anything 343 has done to the games now, and view Erics book as how Halo should or could have gone down after Reach. And its sad to know it will never get better at this point