Hey, I was thinking about Halo 5's plot yesterday and decided to write up a brief treatment of something that I'd like to see. Any inaccuracies within the plot concerning canon material are likely due to my ignorance of all the material of the Halo universe. It's a bit long but I plead with you guys to read it and tell me what you think. You can read it in segments if you wish. Also, you can make posts of your own idealized plots of either Halo 5 or any other game you wish. Thank you for reading. Sorry for lack of pictures.
In 2557, John 117 returns to Earth and is placed on administrative leave while an investigation is conducted into the events surrounding his 4 year absence from humanity, his breach of Captain Del Rio’s command upon rediscovery, the significance of the Didact and the Promethean threat, and the destruction of the Ivanoff Research Station. By this time, the Chief’s status as a legendary hero has been solidified among most of the UNSC, but here and there are detractors such as Captian Del Rio, who wish to place blame on the Master Chief for his swashbuckling, reckless behavior. These critics argue that John 117’s time away from humanity and his increasingly abnormal attachment to the rampant AI Cortana has rendered him incapable of performing his duties. His refusal to obey orders has been cited as evidence of this claim. With nearly all of his past associates dead (including Admiral Hood), John 117 is publicly hailed as a hero but is privately discharged (honorably) and encouraged to retreat from military affairs.
Meanwhile, Dr. Catherine Halsey is working hard on new data uncovered by the Ivanoff Research Station team. Their last transmission before being “composed” by the Didact was an encrypted data set detailing holy artifacts most likely located on High Charity, the moving capital of the now fragmented Covenant civilization. Following the events of Halo 3, High Charity was transported away from the Sol System and designated a quarantine zone due to ongoing Flood Infestation (from the events of Halo 2). The holy artifacts are believed by the researchers to be markers/keys that will help unlock certain barred areas of Installation 03, including the Library. The UNSC hopes to learn more information about the Didact and the Prometheans from data stored on the Halo.
A team of twelve Spartan IVs is deployed to High Charity to locate the artifacts and retrieve them. Despite Dr. Halsey’s repeated requests, John 117 is not involved in the program, not even in an advisory capacity. The Spartan IVs are under the command of Captain Del Rio of the Infinity. During the course of the journey into the dark, infested corners of the abandoned city, the Spartan IVs lose contact with the ship and are slowly separated from one another by pockets of infestation. One Spartan manages to make it into the Throne Room, where the Prophets resided during council. In the darkness, he finds an indented palm print in the wall, indicating that some kind of compartment can be activated and opened by a Prophet’s hand. Suddenly, from the dark corner of the room, a voice breaks the silence of space. Moving into the light, the figure reveals itself to be… the Prophet of Mercy (who supposedly died at the end of the Halo 2). But he’s not intact. The Prophet’s corpse has been infected by a Flood spore. He has become conduit of the Gravemind. The scene ends, with the player assuming that the final Spartan (the playable character) will be killed.
Captain Del Rio and the Infinity fail to reestablish contact with the Spartans on High Charity, and it is assumed that they are MIA. The mission is disavowed from the records and Captian Del Rio is demoted. Meanwhile, Dr. Halsey pleads with the UNSC to allow her an audience with John 117. She is desperate to know the details of Cortana’s rampancy. She also believes that John 117 is the key to finding the artifact. The UNSC finally bends to her will, afraid that further inaction on their part could result in a Promethean invasion.
Meanwhile, John 117 lives a life of seclusion on the outskirts of Germany (or some place, it doesn’t really matter). His war scars have left him virtually handicapped. Without his MJOLNIR armor, he is decrepit. But his bodily damage is nothing compared to his mental state. He had been connected to Cortana so long that his brain is suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms: migraines, auditory and visual hallucinations, delirious thoughts, etc. John is not in any capacity to reenter service. Dr. Halsey arrives to coax him into helping the UNSC with a vital mission to retrieve the artifacts from High Charity. She was under orders not to divulge any details regarding the previous failed mission. But she tells John anyway. John begins to recite Gravemind’s poetic statements. Halsey’s similarity to Cortana triggers an episode. He descends into a conversation he had with Cortana many years before, while they traversed the narrow halls of High Charity. Halsey notices this, and fears for John’s sanity, but she doesn’t say anything because she knows that John’s involvement in the mission is an imperative.
There is only one other person alive whose involvement in the Covenant Wars can help the UNSC complete their mission: the Arbiter. After the Covenant War ended, the Elites returned to their home world. Diplomatic affairs with the Elites remained a shaky proposition, and the apparent loss of the Chief dissolved any possibility of a longstanding friendship between the humans and the Elites. The Elites who participated in the war against the Brutes and the Flood considered John 117 to be the most formidable warrior of the human race, and the only one worthy of their respect. When the Arbiter returned to his home world, he was appointed their first leader in a long time (since the Prophets had reigned for many centuries up until that point).
The Chief is tasked with recruiting the Arbiter and returning to High Charity to retrieve the artifacts believed to be hidden there. Dr. Halsey has also asked John to look into the disappearance of the twelve Spartan IVs who went missing. She surreptitiously injects John with neuroleptics to keep him stable for as long as possible. He is refitted with his old MJOLNIR armor with some new additions to his arsenal. At this time, Dr. Halsey has decided not to pair him with a new AI for fear of the side effects. When the Master Chief arrives at the Sangheili home world, known as Sangheilios, his presence is met with aggression and confusion, but when the Elite leader (the Arbiter) is informed of his presence, the warriors stand down. During this portion of the game, the Chief and by extension the player, is exposed to the Elite culture. The Arbiter tells the Chief that his coming was somewhat well-timed. A few months ago, ancient Forerunner shrines built on Sangheilios began to quake, and the animal life of the planet began to behave erratically. Massive disturbances caused cave openings to break open near the shrines. The Chief and the Arbiter and a squadron of Sangheili warriors head out to the caves to discern the nature of the disturbance.
Within the caves, the group encounters violent creatures somewhat similar to the monsters from the film “Pitch Black.” The creatures have signs of Flood infection; however, there are no spore forms. Within the depths of the caverns, they discover a lake of liquid methane, and in the center of the lake, a small Forerunner structure. Disturbing the lake awakens more creatures, this time amphibious flood forms that rise out of the methane. The Forerunner structure contains an ancient logic puzzle meant to test the one who activates it. A series of questions are asked and the user must answer correctly to unlock a code. Incorrect answers are met with more waves of creatures and earthquakes that threaten to collapse the cave ceiling. The compartment contains an ancient artifact (which will later be used to open up new areas of installation 3. At this time, the Chief is unaware of the artifact’s purpose. His only goal is to appease the Arbiter so that they can go to High Charity and investigate the disappearance of the other Spartans, as well as find whatever the researchers are looking for.
Upon returning from the cave with the newly found artifact, the Master Chief and the Arbiter discover that their planet has been invaded. A battalion of Jiralhanae ships dot the sky and millions of Brutes rain down on smaller cruisers toward the surface. Shocked by what he is seeing, the Arbiter goes berserk and tears forward with his warrior guard. At this point the player plays as the Arbiter. The Chief plays an assistive role. The player must navigate his way toward his palace at the top of an ancient tree (think Kashyyyk architecture). The Arbiter wishes to save his family from the Brutes. Most importantly, his son, the heir, must survive. But when he gets to the palace, what does he see? Tartarus. Tartarus is alive, though somewhat changed. He appears to be infected by the Flood but his personality is more or less sound. The Arbiter’s wife and daughters lay dead on the floor of the throne room. His son is on his knees. Tartarus, the Arbiter, and John exchange a few words. Then Tartarus personally decapitates the Arbiter’s son.
The Arbiter roars with rage and grief. He lunges forward to avenge his family but is beaten down by half a dozen Brutes. The Master Chief is also incapacitated. When they come to, the Arbiter and the Chief are on a ship heading toward some unknown location. They are in chains (or future equivalent). All hope seems lost when Dr. Halsey establishes communication with the Chief and informs him that the UNSC Infinity has been overrun. The Chief tells her that he is imprisoned. It is at this moment that Halsey decides she must do something drastic. What the player didn’t know was that Halsey had implanted a newly created AI into the Master Chief’s cortical input. She had decided not to activate the AI unless the situation absolutely demanded it. She does so now. AI Apollo (working name) introduces himself to the Chief and completely revamps his HUD system.
Apollo is a highly experimental AI in that it can rework the Chief’s operational memory to give him reflexes and skills he’s never honed before. There are limits to this that I haven’t thought of yet. Needless to say, Apollo helps the Chief hack and disengage the locks. John frees the Arbiter and they dispatch of the ship’s crew. However, by the time they make it to the cockpit of the ship, a familiar voice echoes throughout the ship and sends it careening into space. It is Gravemind. He is alive and growing in power. The game takes on a darker tone at this point. Gravemind has resurrected old foes to haunt the Chief and Arbiter. He sends the ship toward Installation 03 and breaks it up in atmosphere. Mimicking the end of Halo 3, the Arbiter and the John are separated by two halves. Installation 03 has properties similar to the planet Venus, so it is not filled with lush green wildlife as many other halos were. Instead, there are dust storms and tall mountains that stretch their shadows across the desolate orange/red landscape. When the Chief comes to, he sees Cortana standing before him, not in her usual transparent blue hue, but as a real, solid woman. He has a lengthy conversation with her about the weather and then about people and their treachery and insignificance. Cortana begins to shimmer and walks away beneath a dune. Apollo jolts the Chief back into coherence and attempts to establish a communication channel with Halsey. It is unable to do so. Halsey is holed up in an air vent somewhere on the Infinity. Brutes are scouring the ship in search of humans. Back in the desert, Apollo predicts that an oncoming sandstorm will tear everything on the surface apart and that the Chief must find shelter somewhere underground. The local animal life consists of giant carnivorous scarab beetles. Apollo detects a highly concentrated heat signature from off in the distance, and the Chief heads off in hopes of finding a place of hide. When he gets, there, he sees that the heat signature is coming from a very deep pit (think the pit in 300). With the razor sharp storm howling at their backs, the Chief takes a leap of faith into the darkness.
The game shifts to the Arbiter. Although he is on the same Installation as the Chief, the scenery around him is much different. He has crash-landed in a valley deep within the tallest mountain on this Halo. The peaks surrounding him are capped with snow and vines trail from tall trees all around. The sky above is blocked out in places by canopies of leaves. Strange wildlife inhabits the area, including mosquitoes the size of birds and large elephant-like creatures with many mouths. The Arbiter can hear Gravemind’s disembodied voice reciting iambic poems of events that are eons past. He vocally vows to destroy Gravemind and a rasp of laughter booms through the air in response. Without any AI to accompany him, the Arbiter is alone to travel around the area in search of some way out; he has the artifact from his home planet with him. He finds moss-covered structures that may be Forerunner structures, but are very different than what we’ve seen in previous Halos. After killing some of the aggressive wildlife, the Arbiter follows a river, expecting to find an opening, but instead, the river has led him to the face of a mountain, and it disappears within a closed-off opening. A terminal near the bank of the river interests him. He inserts the artifact into a slot, and the terminal begins to speak aloud to him, but it is in a language he cannot understand. He curses out loud and the terminal registers his language and begins to ask him logic questions. Upon answering these questions correctly, the face of the mountain will slide open, revealing a dark cave. The Arbiter enters.
The game shifts back to the Chief. He has landed many hundreds of feet below the surface of the planet, and is met with the sight of an interconnected series of passageways that are lit by Forerunner tech. The walls contain many pictures that tell the story of the universe and the Forerunner civilization. The Chief encounters what appear to be living quarters, left perfectly preserved for who knows how many eons. He goes on further and begins experiencing more hallucinations. Apollo’s voice distorts and sounds like Cortana’s. Nonexistent enemies run toward the Chief, prompting him to fire bullets and waste ammo. Apollo tries to stabilize the Chief by administering logic questions. At this point, the player can activate little minigames that can help aid the Chief in regaining sanity. This helps to make the game less tedious. With the Chief’s ammo wasted, he is forced to mentally train in martial arts combat using Apollo’s applications. Although John is well-versed in martial arts, his age and body deterioration have forced Apollo t make adjustments so he can conserve energy. This, too, can give players something to do beyond the typical shooter fare.
At some point in his exploration of the tunnels, the Chief comes across royal tombs of the early Forerunner kings. Glyphic stories on the walls depict the kings as gods, but above them is a depiction very similar to that of Gravemind. A shriek sounds off from somewhere deep within the caves. Large, slithering black creatures (think Aliens from Aliens) mount the walls and claw their way toward Chief. He must use hand to hand combat to kill them. When he gets to a closed-off door, the Chief is met with more logic puzzles and a hand scanner for unlocking a large door. He doubles back to the tombs and breaks off the hand of a mummified ruler. He solves the puzzle and activates the hand scanner. The door opens. Behind that door, the Chief cannot see through the impenetrable green fog that clouds the world beyond. A single Flood spore skitters toward his foot and he crushes it with his boot. An inhuman growl echoes from beyond and both the Chief and Apollo realize that they’ve made a big mistake in unsealing the door. Gravemind’s disembodied laugh rings through the tunnel.
The game shifts back to the Arbiter. The Arbiter has entered the cave opening and sees that he has found the antechamber to the Library. The interior of the mountain opens up around him to become a vast, expansive cavern (think Mines of Moria). A long narrow walkway made of stone rather than light (as in previous Halos) suggests that these structures are far older than those of the other installations. Tall statues redolent of Egyptian art stand in rows on either side of the walkway. Their arms hold up the cavern ceilings and their legs descend down into darkness. Gravemind begins to speak again, in iambic verse, telling a story of how things began and his position within the universe. The Arbiter argues with him but finds himself unsure of what to believe. Gravemind claims that he is the father of all things, including the Forerunners.
