LEVEL 07: "Oracle"
CHAPTER 01: "Oracle"
CINEMATIC
A door slides open. Two Elites cover the entrance with plasma rifles while Grunts file in. The Elites cautiously advance, followed by the Spec Ops Leader and the Arbiter. Spec Ops pauses and sniffs the air.
ARBITER:
What is it?
SPEC OPS LEADER:
That stench . . . I've smelled it before.
END CINEMATIC
CHAPTER 02: "Juggernaut"
CINEMATIC
The assault team approaches a doorway, and through the transparent floor of the next room, they can see the shadows of heretics and strange creatures battling. The creatures have familiar screams...
ELITE:
By the Rings. What is that?
GRUNT:
(frightened noises)
ELITE (whispering):
Quiet...
ELITE:
It's moved on. Quickly, before it returns, let's find the heretic leader and finish him off.
The team moves into a laboratory, strewn with familiar corpses.
ELITE:
What happened here?
GRUNT 1:
Me have bad feeling about this.
GRUNT 2:
You always have bad feeling! You had bad feeling about this morning's food nipple!
A floating orb enters the room, and the image of the heretic leader appears in the air.
GRUNT 2:
See! Heretic!
The team fires on the image, which quickly becomes apparent as a hologram and nothing more.
SPEC OPS LEADER:
Hold your fire. Hold your fire!
HERETIC LEADER:
I wondered who the Prophets would send to silence me. An Arbiter . . . I'm flattered.
SPEC OPS LEADER:
He's using a holodrone. He must be close. Come out, so we may kill you.
HERETIC LEADER (laughing):
Get in line.
The heretic leader vanishes, and moments later, tiny ball-shaped creatures start to appear. Very familiar ones.
ELITE:
Leader!
SPEC OPS LEADER:
Stand firm. The Flood is upon us.
The team battles the oncoming Flood infection forms.
ELITE:
Heretic fools! What have they done!
The Flood assault subsides, and a doorway opens out of the labs.
SPEC OPS LEADER:
Go, Arbiter. I'll follow when our reinforcements arrive.
The Arbiter and the survivors ride an elevator down to the lower levels of the labs, fighting the Flood and Sentinels. They enter a hallway strewn with corpses.
ELITE:
We should have brought weapons to burn these bodies. Every one is a vessel for the Flood.
The team advances into a lab filled with battling heretics and Flood.
ELITE:
Heretics! On the ledge above!
The Arbiter manages to press outside to the exterior of the station. He sees Flood battling more heretics, and a Phantom swoops in to provide reinforcements and covering fire.
PHANTOM PILOT (radio):
Leader, the storm is about to hit! We cannot maintain our position!
SPEC OPS LEADER (radio):
Bring the Phantoms closer to mine. We're not leaving until the leader of these heretics is dead. Arbiter, the Flood have spread throughout the station! We don't have enough troops to manage such a large infestation. Find the leader of these heretics, kill him now!
The Arbiter and his troops advance into the heart of the installation. They encounter the Heretic Leader fleeing.
GRUNT:
Heretic boss! You see, you see!
The Heretic Leader takes cover behind a shielded door before the Arbiter can catch him.
HERETIC LEADER:
This will save me from the storm, but you will be consumed.
The Arbiter pounds angrily on the portal, but cannot break through as the doors seal. Spec Ops and his troops arrive.
SPEC OPS LEADER:
Arbiter, where is he? Stinking Floodbait boxed himself in tight. We'll never break through this.
The Arbiter notices a hologram of the station, and watches it thoughtfully.
ARBITER:
We shall force him out.
SPEC OPS LEADER:
How?
ARBITER:
The cable. I'm going to cut it. Get everyone back to the ships!
SPEC OPS LEADER:
Warriors, return to the landing zone! The Arbiter is going to continue up through this station, cut the cable, and scare the Heretic from his hole!
ELITE 1:
May our Lords guide you.
ELITE 2:
We shall not forget your sacrifice.
(if you have a sword)
SPEC OPS LEADER:
Keep your blade handy. I doubt the cable can withstand its bite.
(if you do not have a sword)
SPEC OPS LEADER:
Take my blade. I doubt the cable can withstand its bite.
END CINEMATIC
CHAPTER 03: "Hey, Watch This!"
CINEMATIC
The Arbiter rides the elevator to the upper level where the cable is located.
SPEC OPS LEADER (radio):
All my Phantoms are in the air, Arbiter. Go ahead, cut that cable!
(after cutting the first cable)
SPEC OPS LEADER:
That's one! By the Prophets, look at this station list!
(after cutting the second cable)
SPEC OPS LEADER (radio):
One final cable, Arbiter!
The Arbiter cuts the final cable, and the entire station groans with the stress. The top of the station tears away, and it plummets into the atmosphere.
SPEC OPS LEADER:
That did it! The station is in free fall! The Heretic Leader is on the move, do not let him escape! We'll stay with you as long as we can!
The Arbiter drops back down into the station and advances past heretics protecting the Leader's rear.
HERETIC ELITE:
Our lives for the truth, the truth and the Covenant!
The Arbiter enters what looks like the main power generator for the station.
SPEC OPS LEADER (radio):
Are you still alive, Arbiter? We're keeping pace as best we can.
The Heretic Leader escapes via a Banshee and cuts across the station. The Arbiter pursues in one of his own.
SPEC OPS LEADER (radio):
What lunacy! He'll never escape this maelstrom in a Banshee! Wait! The hangar, there was a Seraph fighter inside! Arbiter, you know what to do!
END CINEMATIC
CHAPTER 04: "Dead Or Alive . . . Actually, Just Dead!"
CINEMATIC
The Arbiter fights through the first portion of the station back toward the hangar. There, he confronts the Heretic Leader as he is boarding the Seraph.
ARBITER:
Turn, heretic.
HERETIC LEADER:
Arbiter. I would rather die by your hands than let the Prophets lead me to slaughter.
ARBITER:
Who has taught you these lies?
At this, a familiar blue glowing ball of annoyance descends, humming to itself.
ARBITER:
The Oracle!
343 GUILTY SPARK:
Why hello! I am 343 Guilty Spark, Monitor of Installation 04.
HERETIC LEADER:
Ask the Oracle about Halo. How the Prophets would sacrifice us all for nothing.
343 GUILTY SPARK:
More questions? Splendid! I would be happy to assist you.
Any questions are cut off as the Heretic opens fire on the Arbiter with twin plasma rifles. The Arbiter falls back, taking cover while his shield generator recharges. As he does so, the Heretic Leader floats back toward the Seraph and pulls out two holodrones.
HERETIC LEADER:
The Elites are blind, Arbiter. . . but I . . . will make them see.
The Heretic Leader releases the drones, which become copies of him. The Arbiter battles the Heretic Leader. During the battle, Spark speaks.
343 GUILTY SPARK:
This mining facility predates Installation Alpha by several hundred years. It was retrofitted to research possible offensive and defensive measures against the Flood. Indeed, I designed and oversaw the construction of this facility's various outbreak management systems.
343 GUILTY SPARK:
(There are two other lines if you wait around long enough: something about the cable being the installation's fail-safe and being glad someone had the foresight to cut it, and another about the Flood perishing in the planet's liquid nitrogen core.)
The Arbiter kills the Heretic Leader, and begins to drag his corpse to the hangar door.
343 GUILTY SPARK:
How unfortunate. His edification was most enjoyable.
ARBITER:
I had no choice, Holy Oracle. This heretic imperiled the Great Journey.
343 GUILTY SPARK:
Oracle? Great Journey? Why do you meddlers insist on using such inaccurate verbia-whoooooaaaaa!
Spark is snatched by an unseen force and pulled away. He is dragged through the air, directly to the top of the Fist of Rukt: the gravity hammer of Tartarus. Tartarus, standing beneath a Phantom, pulls Spark off the end of his hammer.
ARBITER:
That is the Oracle!
Tartarus tosses Spark into the gravity lift casually.
TARTARUS:
So it is. Come, we are leaving this system.
END CINEMATIC
