By all means prove me wrong.The UNSC lost all of 80 planets in the war. Thats aproximately 1/10th their total controled space. After the battle of REACH the Home Fleet was their largest stationary fleet of ships. The rest of their military force is spread out amongest the other 720 or so colonies. They still have billions upon billions of resources, manpower and vast amounts of industrial power to draw upon.
Where does it say they lost only 80 planets? They lost the good majority of their Outer Colonies (which were the main suppliers of raw resources for the Inner Colonies), and they lost a good chunk of their Inner Colonies too. Reach, Earth's mightiest military stronghold, was obliderated. A good chunk of the UNSC Navy was obliderated in the battle over Reach. If there were any Outer Colonies left, their populations would probably be too insignificant to be of noteworthy use. Earth was the last true stronghold of humanity.
The UNSC was far from defeated. It appeared that way because of the drama around Earth. Other than that the UNSC wouldnt have fallen in that century. It took the Covenant almost 30 years to take out 10th of the UNSC. At that rate they wouldnt have finished for another 270 years. That is if they survived the UNSC and its technological gains.
Again, from 2525-2553, the majority of the Outer Colonies were glassed, whom were the main points of resources for the Inner Colonies and Earth. A lot of Inner Colonies were destroyed. Hell, it even says in the books that by 2552, the UNSC only had a few dozen strongholds left. Add to the fact that Reach fell, and nearly 152 UNSC ships were destroyed...that doesn't leave you with much, does it?
The UNSC was close to defeat. After 32 years of constant warfare, they were depleted. If it wasn't for the Master Chief and the Elites, I doubt Earth would have survived.
A single Spartan was in a spesific place at a certain time. Thats all there was too it. He was a resource that was used. If he wasnt there they still would have gotten the same result, all be it by different means.
No, they wouldn't have. As I said above, the UNSC was running out of resources. Fast. The fact that the Covenant were able to occupy Earth and get away with it for that long proves that. The Master Chief was a resource, yes. But he was an invaluable resource.
Yes the MC is an exceptional soldier however Pvt. Jenkins is no less of an exceptional soldier. He survived almost 30 years of hard fighting against the Covenant. Same goes for the rest of the militia that made it off Harvest.
Yes, because Jenkins really has the ability to constantly wear half a ton of armor and win more medals than an entire ODST battallion, right? And, uh, last I checked, Jenkins was a slobbering Flood form, and the Master Chief kinda lived.
One world doesnt make a galactic empire. One battle does not make a war.
In Halo's case, this is not true. If Earth fell, could you imagine the chaos that would have followed? The UEG was pretty centralized: if Earth fell, there would be mass hysteria, panic. Even if the UEG (what was left of it) did manage to restore order, do you really think humanity's going to just live with the fact that their cradle world was just destroyed in the short term?
Where is this debate? I made one reply to you. Just one. Then you throw this at me. Apparently you should re-evaluate your own posts and attitude as you seem to be being hypocritical at the moment.
The debate is right over the horizon.
I know very well how close the UNSC was to loosing a symbol. They would have recovered. Their command structure was intact, so was their political structure. Loosing Earth would have been a blow yes but so was loosing Jericho VII. Its not the end of humanity as they knew it.
If their political structure was intact, why was their government described as an "emergency military"? Losing Earth meant losing their last stronghold, their last planet with any meaningful population.
The UNSC had a plan of action to stop Truth at the Second Battle for Earth and nearly got away with it. The Covenants fleet was wide open to their assault and they couldnt do a bloody thing about it. It only failed because they didnt prioritize their attacks properly, though that is due to lack of information more than anything. They thought that Truth was going to set off the rings right then and there, so they shot the Keyship (with no effect). Had they known it was just a portal they could have destroyed the Covenant fleet then and there.
Lord Hood only had a handful of ships, he said so himself. Do you really think they'd be able to take on Truth's fleet without the help of the Elites? The Second Battle of Earth lasted for quite some time, a few weeks I believe, if not more. That would put a serious drain on the Navy, hence Hood saying he only had a handful of ships.
And as more reinforcements came in they would have even been able to mount an assault of their own on the Ark. Truth would have had to wait for that as he needed a reclaimer to activate the system. Thus they had all the time they could ever need.
What reinforcements? As I constantly stated, they had virtrually no resources left. They wouldn't have had all the time they need. What about Flood-infected High Charity making its way to Earth? Why couldn't Truth just kidnap a single human and take them to the Ark? No, the UNSC was very short on time.
So once again the UNSC wasnt going to collapse. It was close to loosing a planet, thats about it.
Yeah, but that planet was their last major stronghold, and it was their cradle world.
And also realize, like I said above, the Covenant wouldn't be the only thread the remnants of the UNSCDF would face. The Flood was making its way to Earth via High Charity. If it wasn't for the joint UNSC-Elite assault on the Ark (which basically diverted the Gravemind to the Ark instead), Earth would have been a Flood hive.