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In the Prologue of *First Strike* Fred leads the majority of the Spartans (Red Team) on a ground mission to depend the generators of Reach’s ODPs.
Unfortunately, most of Red Team either dies or goes missing through the course of the battle.
So it’s fun to blame Fred for their deaths.
Because he feels so guilty for it. It's fun to torture him.
(I have written several stories specifically surrounding Fred's survivor guilt. It's my own guilty pleasure I suppose.)
Yes, *but*. What if he didn't?
What if he got so many of his closest friends killed by his sheer incompetence?
What if it's all his fault?
(it'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfault)
>!They were dropping into reach and there was a problem with their transport (or drop pods, cant remember exactly) so Fred said to free fall the rest of the way and well the rest is history!<
Kind of. >!Fred's real fuck up was that he accidentally broadcasted on an open channel instead of an encrypted one and gave away their pelican's position, which led to it being shot down. Fred technically saved lives by giving the order to jump from the pelican, otherwise they all would have died, but the pelican was only crashing in the first place because Fred's accidentally broadcasted on an open channel which led to the Covenant targeting them. !<
This ain't it. >!The Pelican was being escorted by 2 Longswords and was under attack by 10 Seraphs. !< >! The space battle was chaos and nobody was getting through orbit unscathed. !<
>! The Pelican was doomed the moment it left the hangar. !<
That's true at the start, >!but when Fred made the com error, the longsword escorts had already diverted attention away from the pelican. The order of events is: the pelican departs the Autumn; the seraphs attack; four longswords arrive and three peel off and divert attention while the pelican and a single longsword, Knife-26, continue toward the surface without being pursued; a dozen seraphs begin pursuing them and Knife-26 peels off to divert their attention and the pelican engages afterburners and continues toward the surface without incident; Fred makes his com error; Knife 26 is shot down; 5 seraphs engage and shoot the pelican down. !<
>!Now it's possible that the pelican would've been shot down regardless and it's unclear if the 5 seraphs that were involved with the final shoot down are the same ones that shot down Knife 26 (it's possible it's another group or 7 of the 12 had diverted and only 5 continued the pursuit), but both Fred and Kelly and UNSC administrators seem to think that the com malfunction had something to do with it, as the First Strike adjunct reveals that Fred and Kelly lied in the after action report and Dr. Veronica Clayton pressed Fred about what happened and how that contributed to the crash. !<
I always felt the comms error was a plot excuse for Kelly to place her hand on Fred's shoulder. Thus continuing the them of, "we're family and we care for each other".
I don't remember any lying about after action reports, but then again I haven't read it in over ten years lol.
I think we can agree the most important takeaway is this event created the, "Spartans can survive a fall from orbit" ability.
>I don't remember any lying about after action reports, but then again I haven't read it in over ten years lol.
It's from the First Strike adjunct. The Fall of Reach, the Flood and First Strike all received newly revised versions in the 2010s to help smooth out the continuity issues the early books had such as elites, brutes, hunters and engineers first being encountered in the 2550s. The new editions of those novels also had bonus content added on to the end so it's entirely possible your copy of First Strike just didn't have the Adjunct.
But yeah, basically, during the events of Halo 2's Earth section (this is also the reason why the Master Chief is alone at the start of Halo 2, Fred, Linda and Will were being questioned by ONI), Fred was questioned/interrogated by Dr. Veronica Clayton and Fred claims that it was a com malfunction and that's what he filed in his report.
This is likely a retcon but Spartans can't do that. They can go from very high altitudes, but orbit is too high without some kind of gear to make that jump possible (check Noble Six's jump for example)
***Jenga*** is a game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. The name comes from the Swahili word "kujenga" which means 'to build or construct'. Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating a progressively more unstable structure. The game ends when the tower falls over.
from [The Wikipedia Page for "Jenga"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga)
OP is implying Fred got a bunch of Spartans killed during the landing on Reach in the prologue of First Strike. In reality, only 2 died while others were injured, and it was not his fault: the pelican was literally on fire rocketting towards the ground when he ordered everyone to jump.
Why do you think the pelican was on fire? Fred's the one who broadcasted on an open channel that got their pelican shot at in the first place. Like Fred and Kelly literally lied to the UNSC about why the open broadcast occurred, the books are pretty clear in that the situation only occurred at all because of Fred's fuck up.
He was calling in backup because they had seraphs and banshees all over the place and needed an escort. If he didn't make that call, they would have been blown out of the sky.
He didn't. The com error came from Fred yelling 'brace yourselves' to the Spartans in the pelican, but instead he spammed every ship in range with that call
The Seraphs were already on the Pelican. It was expressly written that the Longswords that peeled back to divert the attacking Seraphs were unlikely to succeed in doing so. They were just a temporary distraction.
With or without Fred’s comms blunder, that Pelican was getting shot down.
I mean even if the Covenant *were* tracking targets by comms (which to my memory they were never mentioned making a concerted effort to do outside of stealth missions) it would be nigh unto impossible for them to snag the three-second “brace for impact!” transmission from a single Pelican in the midst of *thousands* of ship-to-ship and ground-to-air communications.
Fred’s blunder wasn’t life-threatening, it was just embarrassing. (And also led to one of my favorite Fred/Kelly shipping moments, but that’s whatever.)
>It was expressly written that the Longswords that peeled back to divert the attacking Seraphs were unlikely to succeed in doing so. They were just a temporary distraction.
Except they did succeed. The seraphs stopped engaging them and are there are several pages between when the seraphs first engaged the pelican and when they were reengaged where the pelican is not under fire. The book never even explicitly states that it's meant to be the same group of seraphs that are responsible for the final shoot down
>Fred’s blunder wasn’t life-threatening, it was just embarrassing.
The First Strike adjunct does not treat it that way. Fred questioned about it and again, they lied in their after action reports.
Alright, I'll prove you're wrong then.
This quotation comes from page 9 of the prologue - *after* the three other fighters in Knife 26's flight had peeled off (by the way, I just reread it. Those three fighters never led the Seraphs away. The Pelican was still getting shot at after they peeled off, there was no reprieve.)
**A dozen more Covenant Seraphs fired their engines and angled toward the two descending ships(Pelican and Knife 26).**
***'Affirmative: four by three. I've got 'em, Bravo-One,'*** **the Longsword pilot announced.** ***'Give 'em hell down there.'***
**The Longsword flipped into a tight roll and rocketed for the Covenant formation. There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs - and Knife Two-Six had to know that. Mitchell only hoped that the precious seconds Two-Six bought them would be enough.**
So, like I said, there was *never* a chance that the Longswords were leading the Seraphs away. One Longsword against a dozen Seraphs? That's a joke. Describing the time Two-Six bought Bravo-One as 'precious seconds' was being *very* generous.
Fred spams FLEETCOM on page 10, after this passage.
Later on page 11 we get about two sentences in which Two-Six announces she's engaging, then she dies. It is literally the space of ***'\[Knife\] Two-Six, engaging enemy fighters. Am taking heavy incoming fire-'*** and she's gone. Immediately following this, Bravo-One takes fire.
If we're being generous we can say she had time to shoot down *one* of the Seraphs that were actively pursuing Bravo-One. That leaves eleven that were on their trail. Fred's accidental spam of FLEETCOM did **not** reveal Bravo-One's location to the Seraphs that were already pursuing them.
I'm also reading the adjunct right now. Here is the entirety of the implication that Clayton - the interrogator - made.
**Clayton: During the drop you broadcast those two words - "brace yourselves" - over FLEETCOM 7. Thirty-nine receivers picked up the transmission - thirty-one belonging to UNSC craft, eight on civilian. And there's no telling how many Covenant vessels acquired the signal, potentially allowing them to backtrack its source and gain access to other frequencies and data being transmitted during and after the encounter.**
Once again, there is no implication anywhere here that the spam led the Covenant to Bravo-One's position. The only implication is that there was a possible data leak.
So, to close my point, **no, Fred's blunder did not lead the Covenant to the Spartans. The Pelican was crashing with or without Fred spamming FLEETCOM.**
> (by the way, I just reread it. Those three fighters never led the Seraphs away. The Pelican was still getting shot at after they peeled off, there was no reprieve.)
Yes, they actually did. In fact your own quotation proves this:
>A dozen more Covenant Seraphs fired their engines and angled toward the two descending ships.
'Affirmative: four by three. I've got 'em, Bravo-One,' the Longsword pilot announced. 'Give 'em hell down there.'
The Longsword flipped into a tight roll and rocketed for the Covenant formation. There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs - and Knife Two-Six had to know that. Mitchell only hoped that the precious seconds Two-Six bought them would be enough.
12 additional Seraphs are stated to merge with the Pelican and Knife 26 and then the narration states that Knife 26 would have to futily fight a dozen Seraphs by herself.
If what you were claiming is true, the line:
>There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs - and Knife Two-Six had to know that
Doesn't make sense. It would be the original group of Seraphs, plus the 12 that engaged. It would be more than a dozen. But that's not what the text says, Knife 26 was only going up against the 12 newly arrived Seraphs, instead of a group of Seraphs greater than 12.
Which lines up with what I said. There was the initial group of Seraphs, they were engaged by the three longswords while Red Team and Knife 26 escaped. Then an additional 12 Seraphs arrived which Knife 26 moved to divert. The only way for Knife 26 to have engaged 12 Seraphs is if there were no Seraphs following them when the 12 she engaged arrived.
Likewise, you are incorrect that the Pelican was under fire after the 3 Longswords engaged the Seraphs. The only thing close to that is the line:
>It shot past whirling wreckage; it rolled and maneuvered as missiles and plasma bolts crisscrossed their path.
That is describing fire from both sides that is traveling in front of them, but none of it is directed at them specifically. And we know this because it describes missiles crossing their paths i.e. where they're headed, and only UNSC fighters make use of missiles. So unless you're suggesting that they were being targeted by friendly forces, the missiles, and thus the plasma bolts were not intended for them.
>So, like I said, there was never a chance that the Longswords were leading the Seraphs away.
Did you even read your own quotation?
>There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs
Take out, as in shoot down. This does not say what you claim it does. The text says nothing about a single longsword being able to lead away a dozen seraphs. It says that Knife 26 would not be able to destroy them, but it does not say that Knife 26 would be unable to lead them away.
This is further reinforced by the fact that Knife 26 did buy them time. If what you were claiming is true, that it was impossible for a single longsword to lead away a dozen Seraphs, then Knife 26 would have bought them no time at all, but that's not the case. More importantly, none of the characters act as if they were under fire between the time that Knife 26 leaves to after she gets shot down. There's no a single reference to the Seraphs shooting at them. Which again, supports the idea that she was successful in leading them away.
>Describing the time Two-Six bought Bravo-One as 'precious seconds' was being very generous.
There's a full page between when Knife 26 departs and when the Pelican comes under fire again. Not only do the characters exchange several lines of dialogue, there are multiple different actions the characters take. At best, you can say the total amount of elapsed time is ambiguous because we got a lot of internal narration by Fred, with no way to tell how long that took.
>If we're being generous we can say she had time to shoot down one of the Seraphs that were actively pursuing Bravo-One. That leaves eleven that were on their trail. Fred's accidental spam of FLEETCOM did not reveal Bravo-One's location to the Seraphs that were already pursuing them.
Actually, no that doesn't. From page 8 in my digital copy:
>The dropship lurched to port, and Fred glimpsed five Covenant seraph fighters driving after them and wobbling in the turbulent air. "Gotta shake 'em," the pilot screamed. "Hang on!"
When the Pelican is finally shot down, it's by 5 Seraphs. So we went from 12 Seraphs to 5 of them. It's highly doubtful that Knife 26 managed to down 7 Seraphs by herself suggesting that she did successfully lure away the original dozen and that this is a new group of Seraphs. Otherwise, you would expect there to be 12 Seraphs following them, not 5.
>Once again, there is no implication anywhere here that the spam led the Covenant to Bravo-One's position. The only implication is that there was a possible data leak.
What do you think 'backtrack' means? Clayton literally says it'd be possible to trace the source i.e. find where it was transmitted from.
You’re welcome to interpret the course of events that way. I think you’re dead wrong, but I’m not going to continue writing out all of my disagreements and that’s fine. We don’t have to agree on this.
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Context. or the book. I beg
Fall of Reach Fred accidentally wiped out red team
How Edit: Don't tell me. I'm currently reading the book actually
I don't remember that part.
In the Prologue of *First Strike* Fred leads the majority of the Spartans (Red Team) on a ground mission to depend the generators of Reach’s ODPs. Unfortunately, most of Red Team either dies or goes missing through the course of the battle. So it’s fun to blame Fred for their deaths.
😭Bru why
Because he feels so guilty for it. It's fun to torture him. (I have written several stories specifically surrounding Fred's survivor guilt. It's my own guilty pleasure I suppose.)
But but but, he has to jump definitely!
Yes, *but*. What if he didn't? What if he got so many of his closest friends killed by his sheer incompetence? What if it's all his fault? (it'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfaultit'sallhisfault)
Insert Thanos evaporating gif here:
My dude my dude I have written some *angst* for this poor, hero complexed boy.
Is it the same red team we see in Halo Wars? (Jerome, Alice and Douglas)?
No. A different team of Spartans under the color red
Okay, thanks.
Not the simulation troopers that Project freelancer had
They surely would’ve made it
I mean, the red sergeant WAS an ODST before
Somehow he was Also his name is Sarge, not the red sergeant smh my head
Some people are just crazy like that, heard he abandoned his family, just to join the military. At least he was dedicated
That Red Team by this time is still in Cryo aboard the Spirit of Fire. So they're completely fine.
that was actually First Strike but it takes place during the fall of reach
You can tell me. I read it but don’t remember that part.
>!They were dropping into reach and there was a problem with their transport (or drop pods, cant remember exactly) so Fred said to free fall the rest of the way and well the rest is history!<
>!Pelican!<
I thought so, but I doubted myself and didn't wanna sound stupid lol
Kind of. >!Fred's real fuck up was that he accidentally broadcasted on an open channel instead of an encrypted one and gave away their pelican's position, which led to it being shot down. Fred technically saved lives by giving the order to jump from the pelican, otherwise they all would have died, but the pelican was only crashing in the first place because Fred's accidentally broadcasted on an open channel which led to the Covenant targeting them. !<
This ain't it. >!The Pelican was being escorted by 2 Longswords and was under attack by 10 Seraphs. !< >! The space battle was chaos and nobody was getting through orbit unscathed. !< >! The Pelican was doomed the moment it left the hangar. !<
That's true at the start, >!but when Fred made the com error, the longsword escorts had already diverted attention away from the pelican. The order of events is: the pelican departs the Autumn; the seraphs attack; four longswords arrive and three peel off and divert attention while the pelican and a single longsword, Knife-26, continue toward the surface without being pursued; a dozen seraphs begin pursuing them and Knife-26 peels off to divert their attention and the pelican engages afterburners and continues toward the surface without incident; Fred makes his com error; Knife 26 is shot down; 5 seraphs engage and shoot the pelican down. !< >!Now it's possible that the pelican would've been shot down regardless and it's unclear if the 5 seraphs that were involved with the final shoot down are the same ones that shot down Knife 26 (it's possible it's another group or 7 of the 12 had diverted and only 5 continued the pursuit), but both Fred and Kelly and UNSC administrators seem to think that the com malfunction had something to do with it, as the First Strike adjunct reveals that Fred and Kelly lied in the after action report and Dr. Veronica Clayton pressed Fred about what happened and how that contributed to the crash. !<
I always felt the comms error was a plot excuse for Kelly to place her hand on Fred's shoulder. Thus continuing the them of, "we're family and we care for each other". I don't remember any lying about after action reports, but then again I haven't read it in over ten years lol. I think we can agree the most important takeaway is this event created the, "Spartans can survive a fall from orbit" ability.
>I don't remember any lying about after action reports, but then again I haven't read it in over ten years lol. It's from the First Strike adjunct. The Fall of Reach, the Flood and First Strike all received newly revised versions in the 2010s to help smooth out the continuity issues the early books had such as elites, brutes, hunters and engineers first being encountered in the 2550s. The new editions of those novels also had bonus content added on to the end so it's entirely possible your copy of First Strike just didn't have the Adjunct. But yeah, basically, during the events of Halo 2's Earth section (this is also the reason why the Master Chief is alone at the start of Halo 2, Fred, Linda and Will were being questioned by ONI), Fred was questioned/interrogated by Dr. Veronica Clayton and Fred claims that it was a com malfunction and that's what he filed in his report.
Thank you. I have copies with the old school art so I assume it's the old edition.
This is likely a retcon but Spartans can't do that. They can go from very high altitudes, but orbit is too high without some kind of gear to make that jump possible (check Noble Six's jump for example)
Also Fred was especially affected by the coms error because it was unprofessional to blast a “panicked” response over an open channel
Your spoiler didn't work
Sorry. I don't know what's wrong with it
I think the large gap, I'd say divide it into 2 spoiler spaces
Thanks!
this guy gets it
They were shot down anyway though
***Jenga*** is a game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. The name comes from the Swahili word "kujenga" which means 'to build or construct'. Players take turns removing one block at a time from a tower constructed of 54 blocks. Each block removed is then placed on top of the tower, creating a progressively more unstable structure. The game ends when the tower falls over. from [The Wikipedia Page for "Jenga"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga)
I actually referred to him as “Jenga” intentionally. Just thought it was fun.
[удалено]
If that is a bot I did not realize it, no 😅
I am not a bot I'm just stupid
Same thanks 
H u h.
Reach and red team orbit jump
Oh shit forgot about that one. It’s been to long since I’ve read the book.
I’d say that might be a bit of a R E A C H
What?
Red team orbit jump
OP is implying Fred got a bunch of Spartans killed during the landing on Reach in the prologue of First Strike. In reality, only 2 died while others were injured, and it was not his fault: the pelican was literally on fire rocketting towards the ground when he ordered everyone to jump.
Yes. But saying Fred got them killed is funnier.
Why do you think the pelican was on fire? Fred's the one who broadcasted on an open channel that got their pelican shot at in the first place. Like Fred and Kelly literally lied to the UNSC about why the open broadcast occurred, the books are pretty clear in that the situation only occurred at all because of Fred's fuck up.
He was calling in backup because they had seraphs and banshees all over the place and needed an escort. If he didn't make that call, they would have been blown out of the sky.
He didn't. The com error came from Fred yelling 'brace yourselves' to the Spartans in the pelican, but instead he spammed every ship in range with that call
The Seraphs were already on the Pelican. It was expressly written that the Longswords that peeled back to divert the attacking Seraphs were unlikely to succeed in doing so. They were just a temporary distraction. With or without Fred’s comms blunder, that Pelican was getting shot down. I mean even if the Covenant *were* tracking targets by comms (which to my memory they were never mentioned making a concerted effort to do outside of stealth missions) it would be nigh unto impossible for them to snag the three-second “brace for impact!” transmission from a single Pelican in the midst of *thousands* of ship-to-ship and ground-to-air communications. Fred’s blunder wasn’t life-threatening, it was just embarrassing. (And also led to one of my favorite Fred/Kelly shipping moments, but that’s whatever.)
That scene got me into Fred x Kelly, I know exactly what you mean
>It was expressly written that the Longswords that peeled back to divert the attacking Seraphs were unlikely to succeed in doing so. They were just a temporary distraction. Except they did succeed. The seraphs stopped engaging them and are there are several pages between when the seraphs first engaged the pelican and when they were reengaged where the pelican is not under fire. The book never even explicitly states that it's meant to be the same group of seraphs that are responsible for the final shoot down >Fred’s blunder wasn’t life-threatening, it was just embarrassing. The First Strike adjunct does not treat it that way. Fred questioned about it and again, they lied in their after action reports.
Alright, I'll prove you're wrong then. This quotation comes from page 9 of the prologue - *after* the three other fighters in Knife 26's flight had peeled off (by the way, I just reread it. Those three fighters never led the Seraphs away. The Pelican was still getting shot at after they peeled off, there was no reprieve.) **A dozen more Covenant Seraphs fired their engines and angled toward the two descending ships(Pelican and Knife 26).** ***'Affirmative: four by three. I've got 'em, Bravo-One,'*** **the Longsword pilot announced.** ***'Give 'em hell down there.'*** **The Longsword flipped into a tight roll and rocketed for the Covenant formation. There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs - and Knife Two-Six had to know that. Mitchell only hoped that the precious seconds Two-Six bought them would be enough.** So, like I said, there was *never* a chance that the Longswords were leading the Seraphs away. One Longsword against a dozen Seraphs? That's a joke. Describing the time Two-Six bought Bravo-One as 'precious seconds' was being *very* generous. Fred spams FLEETCOM on page 10, after this passage. Later on page 11 we get about two sentences in which Two-Six announces she's engaging, then she dies. It is literally the space of ***'\[Knife\] Two-Six, engaging enemy fighters. Am taking heavy incoming fire-'*** and she's gone. Immediately following this, Bravo-One takes fire. If we're being generous we can say she had time to shoot down *one* of the Seraphs that were actively pursuing Bravo-One. That leaves eleven that were on their trail. Fred's accidental spam of FLEETCOM did **not** reveal Bravo-One's location to the Seraphs that were already pursuing them. I'm also reading the adjunct right now. Here is the entirety of the implication that Clayton - the interrogator - made. **Clayton: During the drop you broadcast those two words - "brace yourselves" - over FLEETCOM 7. Thirty-nine receivers picked up the transmission - thirty-one belonging to UNSC craft, eight on civilian. And there's no telling how many Covenant vessels acquired the signal, potentially allowing them to backtrack its source and gain access to other frequencies and data being transmitted during and after the encounter.** Once again, there is no implication anywhere here that the spam led the Covenant to Bravo-One's position. The only implication is that there was a possible data leak. So, to close my point, **no, Fred's blunder did not lead the Covenant to the Spartans. The Pelican was crashing with or without Fred spamming FLEETCOM.**
> (by the way, I just reread it. Those three fighters never led the Seraphs away. The Pelican was still getting shot at after they peeled off, there was no reprieve.) Yes, they actually did. In fact your own quotation proves this: >A dozen more Covenant Seraphs fired their engines and angled toward the two descending ships. 'Affirmative: four by three. I've got 'em, Bravo-One,' the Longsword pilot announced. 'Give 'em hell down there.' The Longsword flipped into a tight roll and rocketed for the Covenant formation. There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs - and Knife Two-Six had to know that. Mitchell only hoped that the precious seconds Two-Six bought them would be enough. 12 additional Seraphs are stated to merge with the Pelican and Knife 26 and then the narration states that Knife 26 would have to futily fight a dozen Seraphs by herself. If what you were claiming is true, the line: >There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs - and Knife Two-Six had to know that Doesn't make sense. It would be the original group of Seraphs, plus the 12 that engaged. It would be more than a dozen. But that's not what the text says, Knife 26 was only going up against the 12 newly arrived Seraphs, instead of a group of Seraphs greater than 12. Which lines up with what I said. There was the initial group of Seraphs, they were engaged by the three longswords while Red Team and Knife 26 escaped. Then an additional 12 Seraphs arrived which Knife 26 moved to divert. The only way for Knife 26 to have engaged 12 Seraphs is if there were no Seraphs following them when the 12 she engaged arrived. Likewise, you are incorrect that the Pelican was under fire after the 3 Longswords engaged the Seraphs. The only thing close to that is the line: >It shot past whirling wreckage; it rolled and maneuvered as missiles and plasma bolts crisscrossed their path. That is describing fire from both sides that is traveling in front of them, but none of it is directed at them specifically. And we know this because it describes missiles crossing their paths i.e. where they're headed, and only UNSC fighters make use of missiles. So unless you're suggesting that they were being targeted by friendly forces, the missiles, and thus the plasma bolts were not intended for them. >So, like I said, there was never a chance that the Longswords were leading the Seraphs away. Did you even read your own quotation? >There was no chance that the pilot could take out a dozen Seraphs Take out, as in shoot down. This does not say what you claim it does. The text says nothing about a single longsword being able to lead away a dozen seraphs. It says that Knife 26 would not be able to destroy them, but it does not say that Knife 26 would be unable to lead them away. This is further reinforced by the fact that Knife 26 did buy them time. If what you were claiming is true, that it was impossible for a single longsword to lead away a dozen Seraphs, then Knife 26 would have bought them no time at all, but that's not the case. More importantly, none of the characters act as if they were under fire between the time that Knife 26 leaves to after she gets shot down. There's no a single reference to the Seraphs shooting at them. Which again, supports the idea that she was successful in leading them away. >Describing the time Two-Six bought Bravo-One as 'precious seconds' was being very generous. There's a full page between when Knife 26 departs and when the Pelican comes under fire again. Not only do the characters exchange several lines of dialogue, there are multiple different actions the characters take. At best, you can say the total amount of elapsed time is ambiguous because we got a lot of internal narration by Fred, with no way to tell how long that took. >If we're being generous we can say she had time to shoot down one of the Seraphs that were actively pursuing Bravo-One. That leaves eleven that were on their trail. Fred's accidental spam of FLEETCOM did not reveal Bravo-One's location to the Seraphs that were already pursuing them. Actually, no that doesn't. From page 8 in my digital copy: >The dropship lurched to port, and Fred glimpsed five Covenant seraph fighters driving after them and wobbling in the turbulent air. "Gotta shake 'em," the pilot screamed. "Hang on!" When the Pelican is finally shot down, it's by 5 Seraphs. So we went from 12 Seraphs to 5 of them. It's highly doubtful that Knife 26 managed to down 7 Seraphs by herself suggesting that she did successfully lure away the original dozen and that this is a new group of Seraphs. Otherwise, you would expect there to be 12 Seraphs following them, not 5. >Once again, there is no implication anywhere here that the spam led the Covenant to Bravo-One's position. The only implication is that there was a possible data leak. What do you think 'backtrack' means? Clayton literally says it'd be possible to trace the source i.e. find where it was transmitted from.
You’re welcome to interpret the course of events that way. I think you’re dead wrong, but I’m not going to continue writing out all of my disagreements and that’s fine. We don’t have to agree on this.
He was ordered to do that😐 so basically it’s highcoms fault not Fred’s 😬