User blog comment:Maslab/On the subject of Noble Six/@comment-121511-20130714171503

Would like to humbly remind everyone that, again, our job is primarily to uphold canon friendliness, and it is made abundantly clear in many aspects that Halo: Reach ends with Noble Six's death. Bungie has confirmed it, and exceptions to rules only serve to undermine our role as upholders of site quality. At present, this quality asssurance is what separates us from other Halo fan fiction sites. That said, in regard to the facts presented solely in the game:

We are aware that, at the moment of his/her apparent death, Noble Six is surrounded by not one, but several high-ranking, physically superior Sangheili warriors.

We are also aware that, at this time, converging on Six's position are dozens, if not hundreds, of Covenant infantry, complete with armour and air support.

By this point in time, we are also made aware that the Covenant Imperial Army has all but occupied the Viery Territory in its entirety, and perhaps by no stretch of imagination every continent on the planet.

It is made abundantly clear that, at this point, Covenant aerial forces have achieved complete air supremacy over the planet.

As well, it is made clear that the Imperial Navy, through the largest fleet it has assembled thus far, has occupied the space around Reach, surrounding it in orbit. To compound the improbability of survival or escape, the Imperial Navy has also begun to slowly glass large stretches of the planet's surface.

Even ignoring the "word of god", we are also expected to uphold article quality through an examination of reason and realism. By the situation we are presented in-game, it is far too unreasonable and unrealistic to assume that Six survived such an encounter, /and/ managed to escape.

Further, we have to keep in mind that Six's death serves literary purpose in the plot of the game. To keep him/her alive defeats the purpose of the sacrifice, and significantly weakens the game from a writer's point of view. Not to mention that Halsey's eulogy, if Six does /not/ die on that spot, makes little sense, and from a literary perspective, is nonsensical to include.