A/N

I am writing this because I know that Halo is a game and that there are obviously some acceptable breaks from reality. However, I feel that if people read this that the quality of fiction would be vastly improved. Anywho, enjoy the first chapter of this.

Chapter One: Ground troops and vehicles.

Part one: Concerning the separation of game play and reality.

The first thing that people need to understand before reading this analysis is that Halo is a game. There are several enormous differences between what is possible in a game and in real life. The biggest example is the amount of punishment that unarmored (in comparison to MC) people can take.

For example, a single bullet for any modern firearm can kill just about anyone. So those marines you accidentally shot would not be getting up. If you want to get a realistic idea of how bullets kill, play Counter Strike. On another note, it also gives an accurate depiction of body armor; it lets you live one bullet longer.

Now, flipping vehicles is possible if you're an augmented upper soldier but regular marines couldn't. The warthog would be flipped pretty easily (five marines with a rope could do it without a whole lot of trouble). The tank would take a while to flip because it's a freaking tank. It is possible, but it would require that the chief use the leverage of the tank to flip it. It would be like if you flipped a couch the long way. Possible but hard. Obviously, the elephant is a no sell.

Next is how inaccurate the weapons are. If you're a marine, then the recoil would throw off your aim, but you would still be able to hit a guy across the map a few times if you fired controlled bursts of fire. Even with the SMG. The pistol however, would be the least accurate weapon in the game by simple virtue of being a pistol and not a rifle of some kind.

Shotguns would have much better range. Modern shotguns have a lethal range of over 100 meters. They also only have a spread of about two to four inches at that hundred meters (The spread is variable due to attachments that can be added to the barrel). If you've ever shot at clay pigeons, imagine those little discs are the other guy's skull and that will give you a fairly accurate picture.

The long and short of this is that Grunts, Jackals, and any marines that Chief doesn't like or that run in front of him while he's shooting would be dropping like flies.

Sniper rifles would also be basically one-hit-kills. For perspective, modern sniper rifles can shoot you from over a mile away when you on the other side of a concrete wall. Yeah, basically nothing can stop a sniper round. If you've seen the second Tremors movie, the depiction of what that rifle could do is not exaggerated (It went through a monster, a cinderblock shed, a few barrels of oil and the engine of a truck and kept on going).

As far as plasma weapons go, the game pretty much got them right in the fact that they are less lethal than bullets. It would cause painful third degree burns and most armor would just melt when hit with it. However, it would also cauterize the wounds it makes. Burns, while painful, don't kill particularly quickly. And when the guy with the third degree burns is pissed of at you, hepped up on adrenaline and holding a gun also, it is not going to be fun for you. However, plasma weapons are very good at shield breaking and that is what the Covenant designed them to do.

The needler would be WAY more lethal against unshielded targets. The needled explode when they get inside their target and would cause the target to bleed out very quickly (bullets still kill faster) and if they hit near anything vital, it is basically dead. However, there is no way they could track and the needles would just bounce off of shields with out doing a whole lot of damage.

Both the plasma weapons and the needler as well as the rockets would go much faster than they do in the game. There would be basically no way anyone could dodge them.

As far as vehicles go, all of them would be way faster. A modern tank can go 100 km/h (60 mph) and do a wheelie. The other ground vehicles would scale to that pretty well. The Banshee would be way faster though, like near mach 1 or 2. An air vehicle that can be killed by infantry is pretty useless. It would probably have more powerful weapons on it also.

Part two; Concerning the changes between aesthetics and practicality.

The first thing that needs changed is that warthogs need doors. I don't care how cool it looks with out them, but if there isn't protection on the sides, all an enemy needs to do is aim ahead of it, hold the trigger and go "derp, derp" and the people in the hog are going to get shot. Probably several times. There also needs to be some form of protection around the gunner or you run into the same problem, and it would be better to have some barrier of some kind just to keep him in the vehicle when the driver is acting like it's the demolition derby.

Tanks would also have WAY more protection for the driver. There would at least have to be some sort of canopy over it to protect the people inside. And on that note, only Spartans can drive a tank solo. Why? Cause they're awesome and have better reflexes and more training than basically anyone. And modern tanks need at least three, so two is giving regular soldiers quite a bit of credit. Basically, you couldn't kill the person in the tank with anything short of a sniper rifle, heavy weapon, or a chain-gun filled with armor piercing rounds.

A/N

I hope that was enlightening and enjoyable. Please tell me if I missed anything or if there is something you want addressed. Next chapter will be about space battles that the novels covered.

Spoiler, the recoil of the super macs would push Earth by about a couple cm/s for every few shots. For those who don't know, that's a lot.

Well, later.