And The Horse You Rode In On...


You take the Banshee into one of the life pod slips. Cortana:We need to get to the bridge. From there, we can use the Captain's neural implants to initiate an overload of the ship's fusion engines. The explosion should damage enough systems below it to destroy the ring. After battling Covenant and Flood that were on the Autumn, you make it to the bridge.
CORTANA:The bridge. We made it. Let's get to work.I need you to upload me into the control systems. The terminal is located next to the main viewscreen.
(You take Cortana's chip from your helmet and insert it into the cylindrical terminal near the front of the bridge. Cortana appears above it.)
CORTANA: I leave home for a few days, and look what happens. This won't take long. (She concentrates for a moment, and the main screen flickers to life. "Self Destruct Sequence Initiated" is displayed across the top, and numbers begin counting down from 12 minutes.) There. That should give us enough time to make it to a lifeboat and put some distance between ourselves and Halo before the detonation.

(You move to unplug Cortana from the terminal, but stop abruptly with an all-too-familiar voice)
343 GUILTY SPARK: "I'm afraid that's out of the question, really."

CORTANA: "Oh, hell."

343 GUILTY SPARK: "Ridiculous! That you would imbue a warship's AI with such a wealth of knowledge! Weren't you worried it might be captured? Or destroyed?"

CORTANA: "He's in my data arrays, a local tap!"

343 GUILTY SPARK: "You can't imagine how exciting this is! To have a record of all of our lost time! Human history, is it? Fascinating."

343 GUILTY SPARK: "Oh how I will enjoy every moment of its categorization! And to think that you would destroy this installation. As well as this record. I am shocked. Almost too shocked for words."

(A tone sounds over the ship's speakers)

CORTANA (with a note of awe in her voice): "He stopped the self-destruct sequence. . . ."

343 GUILTY SPARK: "Why do you continue to fight us, Reclaimer? You cannot win! Give us the construct, and I will endeavour to make your death relatively painless and -"

(Another tone sounds) CORTANA: "At least I still have control over the comm channels."

MASTER CHIEF: "Where is he?"

CORTANA: "I'm detecting taps throughout the ship, Sentinels most likely. As for the Monitor . . . he's in Engineering. He must be trying to take the core off line! Even if I could get the countdown restarted . . . I don't know what to do." (She shrugs her arms in desperation)

MASTER CHIEF: "How much firepower would you need to crack one of the engine's shields?"

CORTANA: "Not much. A well-placed grenade perhaps, but why-"

(She turns to you, who are calmly tossing a frag grenade up and down)

CORTANA: "Okay, I'm coming with you."

(A squad of Sentinels descend from above and take position along the shattered windows of the bridge)

CORTANA: "Chief! Sentinels!"

After you finish the Sentinals, you head to the engineering bay. When you enter the engineering Cortana walks you through the procedure of disabiling the engine's core.Alert! The Monitor has disabled all command access. We can't restart the countdown. The only remaining option is to detonate the ship's fusion reactors. That should do enough damage to destroy Halo. Don't worry, I have access to all of the reactor schematics and procedures. I'll walk you through it. First, we need to pull back the exhaust couplings. That will expose a shaft that leads to the primary fusion drive core.After you open the exhaust couplings;Cortana:Good! Step one complete! We have a straight shot into the fusion reactor! We need a catalyst explosion to destabilize the magnetic containment field surrounding the fusion cells. Use an explosive. I recommend a grenade or rocket.After you damage all the engine cores; Cortana:That did it! The engine's gone critical! Based on the current rate of decay, we should have fifteen minutes to get off the ship; we don't have much time! We should move outside and signal for evac. Accessing schematics . . . there's a service lift at the top of the engine room! It leads to a class 7 service corridor that runs along the ship's dorsal structure. Hurry!While your heading up the elvator

Transmission between Cortana and Foe Hammer:
"Cortana to Echo 419, come in Echo 419!"

FOE HAMMER: "Roger, Cortana. I read you, 5 by 5."

CORTANA: The Pillar of Autumn's engines are going critical, Foe Hammer! Request immediate extraction! Approach the crash site and be ready "to pick us up at external access junction 4C as soon as you get my signal!"

FOE HAMMER: "Affirmative. Echo 419 going on station."

(A few moments later, still on the elevator)

FOE HAMMER: "Echo 419 to Cortana. Things are gettin' noisy down there. Everything okay?"

CORTANA: "Negative, negative! We have a wildcat destabilization of the ship's fusion core. The engines must have sustained more damage than we thought!"
Cortana tells you:
" We have six minutes before the fusion drives detonate. We need to evac NOW!Activating final countdown timer. When it reachers zero, the engines will detonate. The explosion will generate a temperature of almost 100,000,000 degrees. Don't be here when it blows."

You reach the Wardhog bay and hop into a Wardhog. You drive to the bridge where Foe Hammer is going to pick you up.

CORTANA: "Cortana to Echo 419! Request extraction now, on the double!"

FOE HAMMER: "Affirmative, Cortana. Foe Hammer inbound."

(Foe Hammer appears around the hull of the Pillar of Autumn, listing badly, on fire, and trailed by a pair of Banshees)


CORTANA: "Cortana to Echo 419! Two Covenant Banshees are approaching on your six! Evade, say again, evade!"

FOE HAMMER: "I'm hit! Mayday! Mayday! Airfoil structures have been shot to hell! I can't hold her! I can't hold her!"

CORTANA: "Echo 419! (Pause) She's gone. Calculating alternate escape route. The ship's inventory shows one Longsword fighter still docked in Launch Bay 7. If we move NOW, we can make it!"

You rush to Launch Bay 7 and find the last Longsword fighter. You hop out your Wardhog and run to the ship, with flood trailing behind you.
CORTANA: "We're cutting it close!"

(You're jarred by an explosion and brace yourself against a wall, shaking your head. Your reach the cockpit, jump into the seat, quickly punch a series of buttons, and take the controls into your hands)

MASTER CHIEF: "Here we go."

(The Longsword rises above the platform slowly, turning to face the open end of the bay, and lights its engines, rocketing away from the exploding ship. The Longsword clears the atmosphere, rising away from Halo. Your stare straight ahead, piloting the fighter as quickly as you can. The distant side of Halo is drowned out in a huge light, which grows and grows, and then a massive shock front sweeps through the ring, shattering it into sections. In the cockpit, a screen beeps and displays: "Engine Temp Critical")

CORTANA: "Shut them down, we'll need them later."

(You flip a few switches and the Longsword's engines die, leaving it drifting. Debris from the blast hurtles past it, still hot and glowing)

CORTANA: "Wanna take a look?"

(You rise from your chair and move to one of the Longsword's windows. Halo has broken into a few dozen large fragments, all of which are slowly spinning away from each other. As the you watch, one massive fragment comes swiftly from the far side of the ring and collides with another, closer one, and the two go spinning off in a giant gout of fire and debris)

MASTER CHIEF: "Did anyone else make it?"

CORTANA: "Scanning. (Pause) Just . . . dust and echoes. We are all that's left. We did what we had to do . . . for Earth. An entire Covenant armada obliterated, and the Flood . . . Halo. It's finished."

MASTER CHIEF: "No..." (The Longsword is alone in space)

"...I think we're just getting started."

After the credits role, the camera goes back to space, and you see 343 Guilty Spark fly by....He survived!

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