AMEN: Every day birthed anew.
Born a promise.
A million possibilities taking shape
under each new day's sun.
But what it the next time that sun rose,
there were no possibilities at ail?
Only death.
Yours, and of everything you've ever known.
How would you act
in that darkness beforehand?
How would you go out?
We are simple things, soldiers.
We are taught honor.
Honor means sacrifice.
Sacrifice means death.
Either our own, or our enemy's.
In some ways, beneath it ail,
that's all a soldiers really trained for.
To undo all of God's work.
To take life where only God can give it.
Were it that we were not soldiers
but gods.
HORRIGAN: I tell you, Locke...
Worst thing about peace with the Covenant,
we're reduced to this. Trailing small fish.
[SPEAKING ALIEN LANGUAGE]
Never know.
Chatter we've been getting off this guy
is he's up to something.
Something that would not bode well
for the UNSC.
Any bets on what he's carrying?
dr*gs.
Exotic fauna?
HORRIGAN ON EARPIECE: You actually just
said that, didn't you?
Got to say something to
keep it interesting.
[SPEAKING ALIEN LANGUAGE]
That interesting enough for you'?
Vector in.
What's a Covenant dropship doing here?
Backwater like Sedra?
HORRIGAN: What the hell?
An Elite Zealot?
Been years since I've seen a roach.
[BEEPS]
ESTRIN: [WHISPERING] Whatever he's got,
that stuffs black-hole cold.
- [BEEPS]
- Stasis refrigerant?
That's only used for one thing.
A b*mb.
Not good. We're moving, people. Split up.
Ramos, the little one.
COPY-
[GRUNTING]
I got him!
Gaines, it's Locke.
Target just handed off to a Zealot.
An Elite?
We think it's a b*mb.
Where's he? Where'd he go?
He's headed for the city.
Vectoring to you now.
[WATER RUNNING]
He's broken into a city access tunnel.
Might lose comm inside.
HORRIGAN: Roger that.
Horrigan, mark my last.
[FOOTSTEPS FADING]
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
He ran from the fight.
His target must be the city.
GAINES: We got the east side, Locke.
LOCKE: What's there? Talk to me.
Main market.
Maybe 500 Sedrans.
Damn it! We got to take him out.
HORRIGAN ON EARPIECE:
We got to zero on him.
He's been seen entering the mall.
[GRUNTING]
[sum f*ring]
[PANTING]
It's over.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Give it to me.
[SPEAKING ALIEN LANGUAGE]
[ALL SCREAMING]
[WHIRRING]
[POWERING UP]
[GRUNTS]
[ALL SCREAMING]
That can't have been it.
What kind of device was that? No damage?
It could've been a dud.
An Elite Zealot wouldn't come all this way
to make a mistake like that.
Why did they come
all the way out here at all?
We got to download Goodwin.
He's at the UN meeting.
I wouldn't rattle any cages
till we know what we're dealing with.
[GASPING]
HORRIGAN: What's going on with her'?
I don't know.
She's been infected by something...
[GAINES GASPING]
[GAINES GROANING]
LOCKE: Gaines.
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
[ALARM BLARING]
MAN: Hold it.
- Secure the entrances.
- Yes, sir, Colonel Aiken.
- Keep breathing.
- You're gonna be all right, you hear me?
SOLDIER: Hold it.
ONI, we're clear.
Only Sedran passports get entrance.
I've got wounded, Colonel.
We can talk politics later.
Go ahead.
Get him to Deacon Unit
with the rest of his team.
I don't want him spreading this thing
if it's contagious.
SOLDIER: Yes, sir, Colonel.
AIKEN: Like that,
someone can play God to you.
Someone you don'! know.
Invisible, like a malevolent forte
beyond the firmament.
Taking from you our only birthright...
Life.
[BEEPS]
ESTRIN: So what do we do?
We just wait?
Find out if it gets us?
Medical says
they've never seen anything like it.
But if we're not showing symptoms
at this point, we might be in the clear.
What the hell did they do to us?
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Ramos.
Talk to me, medic.
What do you got?
They're coming in from further
and further from the blast site.
People eight, 10 kilometers away
are being affected.
Population of this ward
is 100% human.
It's not affecting other species.
You're saying
they got their hands on a compound
that selectively kills humans
and nothing else?
RAMOS: It's not a compound.
An element.
Closest they can pin it is the 120 family.
But with a transmutation of some sort
that makes it something no one's ever seen.
This thing randomly compromises
human DNA, but not others.
Covenant's found their holy grail, then,
haven't they?
Way of wiping us out without f*ring a sh*t.
When we're supposedly not even at w*r.
Question is, why Sedra?
Why use this on an outer colony?
Why not hit population centers
like Gannick 22?
LOCKE: Test run, probably.
Porous borders. Mixed population.
This one works, they go for the big fish.
ESTRIN: Sedrans think
this is the mining tug
that was used to smuggle in the element.
The pilots can't be found.
LOCKE: Check it out, Estrin.
ESTRIN: Yes, sir.
HORRIGAN: Hey, Locke...
Here comes our Sedran colonel.
What do you got?
Let you know when the time's right.
I suggest we work together on this.
We both want the same thing.
ONI doesn't work alongside anyone.
It's just you and everyone else way below.
LOCKE: So, you know, I don't write policy.
My two soldiers are up in ICU
because of that blast.
Soldiers I'm responsible for.
I'm asking you as a fellow officer.
Show them back to the base, Macer.
Sir.
AIKEN: You're gonna tell me...
- [THUDS]
- [BREATHING HEAVILY]
who flew that tug.
[GRUNTING]
You keep playing stupid,
you'll be dead inside an hour.
Colonel Aiken.
Mind if we step in, take a sh*t?
All I mind is you shutting up
and knowing your place.
[GRUNTS]
This is on you. You know that, don't you?
They weren't after us,
they were after you. UNSC.
'Cause you were operating
here, on our tun'.
You take the good with the bad, and
the UNSC have done a lot of good for you.
You're here to expand UNSC's power,
nothing else,
without a clue
about the cultures you assimilate.
[SNARLING]
[SPEAKING ALIEN LANGUAGE]
LOCKE: He says he's only a middleman.
Told to carry some things to a landing site
and not to ask any questions.
But he did anyhow.
He couldn't find out what he was carrying,
but found out where it came from.
He says ifs sourced from a place
no one will go.
He says it's sourced from hell.
A place so doomed
even the Elite Zealots won't go there.
So they buy from someone who will.
If we work backward
through the tugs positioning,
you're never gonna believe
where we end up.
Intense red giant.
Half a dozen charred planets around it,
but that's not the interesting part.
Piece of the Halo Ring.
RAMOS: That's Alpha Halo.
ESTRIN: Exactly.
The w*apon Master Chief destroyed.
LOCKE: And now it's
come back to haunt us.
ESTRIN: The expl*si*n
and the triggered slipspace
scatters the Ring debris across the galaxy.
This one apparently ends up
in our red giant's orbit.
Be a major peace violation
if anyone went there.
Treaty says no one goes back to the Ring.
Not UNSC, not Covenant.
You think this is where
they're sourcing the element?
Problem is' there's no record
of an element like that on the Halo Ring.
MACER: Before the expl*si*n.
After, it could be a different story.
You got a point, private, get to it.
Macer. Private first class, sir.
And the point's easy.
For all we know, what blew up
the Halo Ring was a supernova-level event.
Right push and pull of fission and fusion
and new elements are formed.
Like our mystery element.
Let me guess, you majored in Physics?
Regional Nav.
Physics I just leafed through
when I was bored.
Display object's composition.
- Element range 120 to 130.
- [BEEPING]
Cross-reference other planets,
celestial bodies with this element.
Expand search.
Galaxies, known universe.
Looks like we got a one-off.
An element fatal to humans.
Native to this little piece of Halo Ring
and nowhere else.
Ninety-six square kilometers.
We could nuke it.
Launch it from a destroyer.
Hold up on that.
What do you got, Estrin?
Another inbound.
Tug. Just like this one.
Looks like someone's going back
to no man's land.
LOCKE: We don't have a
lot of time, Admiral.
GOODWIN: Be a bold move, Locke.
Send a team in, destroy the deposits,
nab whoever it is that's mining the stuff
And find out who they're selling it to.
We know who they are selling it m.
Just need proof Hard proof the
Covenant's broken the treaty.
Then give me the okay.
We're the only ones in the region
who can do anything about it.
Sir, if I may.
Well, ifs just,
I think there's more you should know.
Because of its orbit,
this piece of the Ring
has got rotation just
like any other planet.
But the spin's fast.
Full day-night cycle's only 16 hours.
And?
Well, because of proximity to that star,
daytime temperatures reach 900 degrees.
HORRIGAN: They're working the night shift.
Harvesting the element, and
they're long gone before the sun comes up.
Cools to about 130 degrees or so
at night because of the mass.
Got to hand it to them-They do have balls.
We still have enough time to get there
before they're done.
We destroy the deposits with the Havok,
grab our smugglers,
be off-planet within hours.
Havok's a big ask.
These are big circumstances, sir.
Look, you wanna do this tonight,
your only option is the Sedrans.
Where's Aiken?
Well, he's not to be accessed, sir.
He's not to be accessed, sir.
[FLAT LINING]
I hear you need a ship.
[MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY
OVER PA]
All these years, heard
about the Halo Ring.
Never thought we'd
actually step foot on it.
Won't be the Halo Ring of yore,
that's for sure.
They're hooking us up with a Condor.
LOCKE: Good enough.
ESTRIN: Looks like
there are strings attached.
MACER: Sir'?
- Oxygen packs.
- Yes, sir.
We weren't planning on
co-opting this thing.
You underestimate Sedrans, Commander.
We get punched in the mouth, we don't
just outsource our fight to other people.
We work better alone.
You're lucky ONI
is even coming in an advisory capacity.
We're the ones gonna be doing
all the heavy lifting.
We'll see about that.
Lift-off's in 10.
We can't do this.
These people are two centuries behind us.
They still believe in Valhalla.
LOCKE: I don't think
we have a choice, Horrigan.
[POWERING UP]
Ready to go to hell, Colonel?
- Daddy?
- I heard you're gonna come home.
I made a picture of us at the beach.
BOY: Bye, Daddy.
GIRL: I miss you!
Ever seen a Havok nuke before?
Only virtually.
How 'bout battle? Seen that?
Thing you don't understand about Sedrans.
We've lived in a state of perpetual w*r,
surrounded by enemies.
We were born fighting.
That may be.
But make a mistake with that,
you won't even have time
to know you made a mistake.
No one in 100 kilometers will.
Which is why only we touch it.
This is our mission.
I don't wanna hear that again, Lieutenant.
This is a Sedran operation...
Well, we'll be the ones setting the nuke.
And probably nabbing the smugglers,
as advisers.
You want to put a muzzle
on your subordinate, Commander Locke?
He's officially muzzled.
He said what he had to say.
Well, once we're boots down, we'll have
roughly eight hours before sunup.
Anybody who's on the surface at that point
is dead.
Atmosphere's still breathable,
but at only 20% oxygen
of what the Ring used to have.
This is gonna slow us down.
Which means oxygen systems
and scrubbers for everyone.
And lastly, I don't wanna hear
any more proper nouns until we exfil.
No more Sedrans, no ONI.
Just a team of soldiers.
And as commanding officer of this mission,
that team goes through me, clear?
Clear from this end.
We come up against it, so you know,
only guy I listen to is you.
Your friend's wrong about us. We can fight.
Not tonight you won't.
Colonel's right about you,
if you don't mind me saying.
ONI.
Think you're better than everyone else.
I mean, not that you're not, it's just...
Well, the only difference
between you and any of us is the training.
So you think if you went through
ONI training, you'd be just as good?
Maybe even better.
That your aspiration? To be ONI?
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS]
Perhaps you'd rather be a Spartan.
She should be neither.
You know, he used 10 be a Spartan.
A decade ago maybe.
Named Randall-037.
One day, he up and walks away.
And no one walks away
from the Spartan program.
It's not supposed to be possible.
They have too much invested in you.
Fast forward 10 years
and suddenly I'm looking at your colonel.
Scars like they took a bunch of titanium
out of his body.
Except his name is not Randall, it's Aiken.
How's that come to pass?
You're ONI. You tell me.
Come on, Macer.
I know better than to trust you.
We wouldn't be doing our job
if people trusted us.
AIKEN: Commander.
MACER: Colonel, we've located the
position of the mining tug.
AIKEN: Condor will drop us
two clicks short of the target,
and we'll proceed on foot.
Make sure we preserve surprise.
As for the Havok,
unless you disagree, Commander,
I suggest it stays here
till we have our quarry.
We can light it up at that point,
make sure we're well out to space
by the time it detonates.
But not so far that we can't see it.
Something awful mesmerizing about
seeing a Havok go up in real time.
A fireworks show like none other.
Amen to that.
On our signal, come to us.
[ALARM BEEPING]
HORRIGAN: Last chance, Colonel.
We can do this on our own.
AIKEN: We do this as a team.
Have it your way. Try to keep up.
Now drop the lines!
BEST: Ropes away. Drop in five.
RAMOS: Something about this place
freaks me out.
Whole thing's fried.
Used to be rivers, forests.
Everything living in those forests.
LOCKE: If it was living, it's dead now.
RAMOS:
The Forerunners built it 100,000 years ago,
and we still don't totally understand it.
Even busted up like it is.
[ELECTRONIC BEEPING]
LOCKE: Not getting any movement.
Best, Wisner, stay 360 on this.
I don't want anybody flanking us.
WISNER AND BEST: Yes, sir.
Got any thoughts on this one, Colonel?
Almost say they ditched,
but engine's still warm.
ESTRIN: Still functional.
I wonder why they deployed the chute.
RAMOS: It's pretty cramped
for a two-seater.
LOCKE: Question is where our two are.
HORRIGAN: Got something, Locke.
AIKEN: Cargo unit.
Looks like it got pretty
busted up on entry.
HORRIGAN: Jettisoned before landing.
LOCKE: Guess they weren't planning
on bringing it back.
HORRIGAN: Horse tracks.
RAMOS: Who the hell brings horses?
LOCKE:
Couldn't land the tug near the deposits.
Might've been the fastest way out.
ESTRIN: Fastest way 1,000 years ago.
AIKEN: Got a cave, Macer.
Can you image through this soil?
No, sir. Too thick.
Roger that. Stay high and wide of us.
I don't want your engine noise,
but I want your eyes.
CONDOR PILOT: Roger that, sir.
Get ready.
[CREATURES SCREECHING]
ESTRIN: Humidity level is rising.
[WATER PATTERING]
LOCKE: Got 'em. Twelve o'clock.
M-53 non-lethal rounds.
I want them incapacitated, not dead.
[DEVICE WHIRRING]
[HORSE SNORTING]
[NEIGHING]
We've got your ship. There's no way out.
Stand up!
HAISAL: Put down your weapons!
These guys are something else.
Put down your weapons, I'm telling you!
[WHINNYING]
[EXHALES]
What's wrong with those horses?
They can smell something.
LOCKE: They're moving.
Son of a bitch.
LOCKE: Horrigan. Estrin.
MACER: Colonel, I've got 'em.
Running east of you.
- [DEVICE BUZZES]
- [GRUNTS]
[BOTH GRUNTING]
Let's make this easy, huh?
You have no idea what you're doing!
HORRIGAN:
Shut up and save the bull for the ride out.
[MUFFLED SCREAMS]
HORRIGAN:
Not bad for advisers, huh, Colonel?
[CHUCKLES]
ESTRIN: Nice.
- Bring it, Macer, we have our quarry.
- MACER: Roger that.
Privates, get the containers.
YES, sir!
[ALARM SOUNDING]
[WHINNYING]
Whoa there, boy. Whoa!
[CREATURES SCREECHING]
Pull up, sir! Pull up!
Hell is going on, Macer?
MACER: I don't know. But pull up!
AIKEN: Talk to me, Condor.
What the hell is going on?
[MACER SCREAMS]
CONDOR PILOT: Somethings on me, sir.
I'm losing control of her.
The propulsion's gone...
Blown up the engines.
[GRUNTING]
[SCREAMING]
Macer.
[GROANS]
Get down!
RAMOS: It's gonna hit us!
[ALL SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[CREATURES SCREECHING]
[HORSES NEIGHING]
AIKEN: Fall back! Take cover!
[BEST SCREAMING]
LOCKE: Stand down! Hold your fire!
We're cloaking!
[CREATURES SCREECHING]
What the hell are they?
RAMOS: The only thing
that matters right now
is we're cloaked, and
they can't see us.
I'm not so sure about that.
AIKEN: Fall back!
Fall back! Fall back!
We were cloaked. How did they know?
[GRUNTS]
It's your technology!
It's like a magnet to them.
They sense it!
Once they on you,
they can even sense your movements.
Power down.
HORRIGAN: What?
AIKEN; Do it.
[SCREECHING]
ESTRIN: Can someone tell me
what those things are?
MACER: I don't know, but that's
swarm intelligence they're displaying.
Form assumption...
They're Hunter Worms.
Something like them anyhow.
How they can sense where we are, though,
that's not usually in their repertoire
Their organs,
they can detect the very
changes in the air.
Magnetic disturbances, radio waves, EMPs.
Everything that you carry.
You call them Hunter Worms,
we call them Lekgolo.
We've learned not to bring technology
to this place.
They don't respond 10 it well.
These people don't know
how to react, brother.
So reliant on their technology,
they wouldn't even know
what to do without it, would they?
Maybe that'll be the thing that kills you.
My ankle is broken.
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
We got a problem.
None of these units
have an ex-orbital comm.
And with that Condor
down at the bottom of the canyon,
we've got no way
of calling for an extraction.
As of this moment,
none of us are getting off this stone.
And in five hours and change,
that sun is coming up,
we're all gonna be dust.
That's not true.
There's still the tug.
It's a two-seater.
And there are nine of us.
You're sure there's no way to get comm out?
Only ex-orbital would be on that Condor.
And even if we were able
to get a signal out,
three hours would be nowhere near enough
to get a rescue ship here.
This is it then.
This rock. Us.
And what we can do about it.
Some of us aren't going
to survive the night.
That's a given.
Doesn't mean we can't get the mission done
beforehand, though.
That Havok survived the fall.
They're built to withstand far worse.
We got them.
Now we go down to the Condor,
get that nuke and we destroy the deposits.
Make sure what happened
back there on Sedra never happens again.
Two hours down, two hours to the tug.
And when we get to the tug?
How do we decide who takes it?
Lifeboat rules.
I remember my childhood
on the north coast of England.
People used to tell stories
of the Royal Navy.
Second millennium. Shipwrecked sailors,
stuck out in sea in lifeboats.
The rule was, you stick together.
No fighting over food, water.
It was only at the end,
when there's no other choice,
they had to make the hard decisions
of who'd live and who'd die.
Doing so beforehand
would undermine the very collaboration
that was required to keep them alive long
enough to be rescued in the first place.
How'd they make the hard decisions?
They drew straws.
I hope to hell
it didn't fall the whole way down.
LOCKE: Only one way to find out.
Suggest your men dump the armor.
Without the hydraulics of the air-con,
it's just dead weight.
Slow you down. Cook you in the process.
LOCKE: Agreed, we'll just keep the oxygen.
We can go without it for a while,
but we'll deficit pretty quickly
in this atmosphere.
Sooner or later all of us are gonna have to
power up the last three air units.
[AIR UNITS POWERING UP]
As of this moment, we're 100% analog.
Show our friend here there's more
to a soldier than just his armor.
RAMOS: Are we really doing this'?
Going down when our only way out is up?
If anyone can pull a rabbit out of his hat,
it's Locke.
HORRIGAN: Guy's out of his mind.
We're not drawing straws.
LOCKE: You got a better way?
We should probably
put the screws on these guys.
Get the intel we need, then dump 'em.
Because we're going nowhere with that one.
We cut 'em loose, they know this land.
They'll be to the tug before we know it.
Then maybe
that only leaves putting 'em down.
I'll remind you, Lieutenant, I'm the one
making the decisions around here.
We're not making any decisions like that.
Well, I got news for you.
All due respect to Wisner
and the glorified bus driver there,
but your team is dead and you got no ship.
You're just one of the rest of us now.
Horrigan.
YES, sir.
Spoke out of turn.
No, Lieutenant.
Seems to me like you've still got
something to say. Say it. Enlighten us.
You said it before.
We're all just a bunch of soldiers.
And as soldiers,
we realize that soldiering ain't pretty.
Now, if it's really all about the mission
like you say it is,
then we need to think about the mission.
And we can't get it done
lugging them around.
You could put us both down.
But I'm curious to see
who you think will fly the ship.
Nobody's putting anybody down.
We don't panic like that.
It's not an option.
AIKEN: Silence.
They say it's a soldiers greatest aw.
Grants him the element of surprise.
Lays bare all of his enemy's movement.
But I learned long ago that was a lie.
Because silence allows a soldier to think.
Gives him time to be scared.
And a scared soldier starts making choices.
Choices to make the fear go away.
Choices that ruin everything.
How much deeper?
Why should I help you?
Because we're the ones with the g*ns.
[SCOFFS]
You've never heard of my planet, have you?
Nana.
A 100-year drought
has k*lled half the population.
Made us desperate for food.
So desperate they'd send their sons
and fathers to a hell-world like this
to make money.
You destroy those deposits,
you destroy one of the only sources
of income my people have.
You got no problem trafficking
in the blood of others, I take it.
Funny coming from ONI.
I'll tell you what.
No politics. Not tonight.
Just a bunch of people
with a common goal of surviving.
We are gonna find that craft.
We are gonna detonate that nuke,
if it's still viable,
and we are gonna destroy those deposits.
You are powerless to stop that.
But you can facilitate
getting it done faster,
giving at least some of us a chance
of getting out of here alive.
Maybe even you.
I'll not make it out of here tonight.
Your friend here will see to that.
I give you my word.
You help us find that craft,
you'll get a fair draw at those straws.
Don't act like you're not a gambler.
The fact that you come to this place,
under these circumstances,
tells me you're exactly that.
There are the switchbacks.
Down there to the left.
That's a dangerous game you're playing.
Impossible.
MACER: Plants, water.
What the hell is this?
Must not be carbon-based life.
RAMOS: Could be a million things.
Halo Ring? I don't put anything past it.
We're losing momentum.
We need to oxygenate,
or people start dropping.
We don't need your air.
We wouldn't come to a place whose
very atmosphere tells us we're unwelcome...
ARRIS: Haisal, enough.
All right, gonna fire up
all three air systems simultaneously.
Everyone saturates, we shut 'em down
as quickly as possible.
You're telling the world where you are.
Thirty seconds.
We move as soon as we're done.
[DEVICES BEEP]
[AIR RUSHING]
[BREATHING DEEPLY]
[PULSATING]
[HUNTER WORMS SNARLING]
Power down.
Let's go.
Let's move.
[HUNTER WORMS SNARLING]
[HAISAL GRUNTS]
- [GRUNTS]
- [DEVICE BEEPS]
sh*t! The oxygen pack...
[AIR HISSING]
Got it?
I got it.
LOCKE: We're down two.
Wisner?
[SCREAMING]
- [STRAINING]
- [CONTINUES SCREAMING]
[SCREAMING LOUDER]
Ramos! Ramos. Go. Go!
[SNARLING]
Find cover!
[GRUNTS]
Someone's got 10 help him!
Stay on mission, Macer.
[HUNTER WORMS HISSING]
AIKEN: Maser!
[HUNTER WORMS SNARLING]
[WHISPERING] Go! Go!
[BEEPS]
[HUNTER WORMS SCREECHING]
[BOTH STRAINING]
LOCKE: Go, go, go.
[MUTTERING] Oh, my God.
I'm gonna k*ll them.
I'm gonna k*ll them with the Halo Ring.
RAMOS: Just don't let go.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[HUNTER WORMS SNARLING]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[GROANING]
RAMOS: Thank you.
Thank you, by the way.
Turns out the glorified bus driver
can do something after all.
HORRIGAN: Yeah, and if you could
turn back the clock,
she'd be the whole package.
I'm guessing two hours 40 till sunup.
We gotta move.
I'm thinking maybe we're clear.
Clear as we're gonna be.
[HUNTER WORMS SNARLING]
What the hell?
Oh, my God.
It's Wisner.
It's not her.
No.
- They can mimic the shape.
- RAMOS: No.
LOCKE: But they can't make
the muscle movement.
They're baiting us.
We gotta get out of this hole.
We don't have time.
Yeah, they're too close,
and we're going nowhere with him.
HAISAL: Then why don't you leave me here?
I'm tired of listening to you.
Besides, you run for it, they'll hear.
And maybe I can watch them tear you apart.
No way we'll make it.
We're not fast enough.
HORRIGAN: Ramos is right.
We're not fast enough.
[GRUNTING]
[YELLING] Haisal!
[SCREECHING]
[SCREAMING]
God damn it, go! Go!
Dog! g*dd*mn dog!
[GRUNTS]
You don't choose! You don't do that!
You don't play God! That's not your right!
Look around. You see God anywhere?
Tonight, we are God.
AIKEN: He was right,
though we didn't know it.
In that moment, on that rock,
with the Devil on our heels,
we were gods.
Gods of the damned.
I'm gonna keep him in line.
I promise you that.
Well, I'm sure that's your plan.
Not sure it's possible
now the center's falling apart.
We work together, it won't.
ONI looks out for ONI.
You know it and I know it.
I thought you said no proper nouns tonight.
People get scared, they get tribal.
Trust their own before the other.
We're the other tonight.
Don't pretend we're not.
Sounds like a man drawing lines.
Justifying a reason to turn on us.
Shouldn't fear me.
I'm just one man,
with a glorified bus driver as backup.
One man that was a Spartan.
You're playing scared, Commander.
See, I already d*ed.
That's the difference between you and me.
Gave my life away
when I was signed up to be a soldier.
It's a matter
of what we give it away for now.
The noble soldier. I forgot.
We die here, we go lo Valhalla, right?
They don't allow ONI into Valhalla.
I'll tell you what.
You got a death wish
with what happened to you, that's fine.
But I still got some fight.
Not going gently into this night, not yet.
Not to the Hunter Worms,
not to you, not to the sun.
But you'd have it that
they'd go first then?
No, never. That's my team.
I love them.
'Cause that's what it's gonna take for you
to survive, you know that, don't you?
It's you or them.
You love them, you love them at all,
it's not even a choice.
AIKEN: We got pan of it.
We're close.
Let's spread out. Try to find a way down.
I hate that had to happen to him.
Got us out here though.
Gave us a chance to live. You and me.
You do know, they've been looking around
this whole time.
Choosing.
We all have.
Choosing what?
The other one that will live.
Besides themselves.
'Cause you know
that even/ones got themselves penciled in
for one of those seats.
I looked around and I chose you.
- Don't do this.
- We don't have time.
It's time to choose.
Part of soldiering, part of being ONI
is living to fight another day.
We don't make a dent in the Covenant
if we're dead.
And them?
We've lost soldiers before.
But we didn't abandon them.
Just tell me when we draw those straws
you'll have my back.
That you'll get me off this rock.
Straws'll decide.
For everyone.
Even me.
That's not good enough.
I need to know where you stand.
I save you, I k*ll them.
That's not a choice I wanna make.
[SCOFFS]
Then people are gonna start
to make choices.
You realize that, don't you?
Come on, man, help me out here.
When are you gonna come back, Daddy?
I heard you're gonna come home.
I made a picture...
ESTRIN: The hell you doing? Turn that off.
You touch 'em and I will k*ll you.
Turn it off.
Ramos, I'm gonna tell you this once.
Your kids are beautiful,
but tonight, they're gonna get us k*lled.
[CLATTERS]
Now let's find us a way down.
[EXHALING]
Thought we were already
in the ninth circle of hell,
but looks like there's a bonus level.
[HUNTER WORMS SNARLING]
[GROANS]
RAMOS: Not one of 'em's got kids.
They die out here, it's just them dying.
Me, I go,
kids'll have nothing. No one there...
ESTRIN: Shut up. Stay on mission.
It's always the mission' isn't it?
Draw straws like a good soldier.
You can bet straws
isn't gonna decide anything.
A g*n will.
If you and I decide it'll be about g*ns,
it'll be about g*ns.
Me and you?
Which one of us is gonna fly the tug?
You need a pilot in one of those seats.
The girl maybe.
The heat kills her, the smuggler.
That only leaves one other seat.
We take out the rest,
and you and I, we draw straws.
Makes it a 50-50 chance
instead of one in seven.
No, you are out of your mind.
RAMOS: I'm the only one
seeing things straight.
You're wrong.
Shut up! Don't go talking to them.
I told you things. I trusted you.
- [GRUNTING]
- [SNARLING CONTINUES]
Help me. Ramos, help me up.
Come on, man, let me up.
Come on, man, let me up!
[SCREAMING]
- [HUNTER WORMS SCREECHING]
- [SCREAMING]
It's those kids. You understand, right?
[SOFTLY] What's going on?
Talk to me!
He fell.
He, uh...
He fell.
It's over. Forget it.
Important thing is you still have that g*n.
We're close.
It bottoms out not so far from here.
We better top up up here.
We do it down there, they end up coming,
we're trapped.
Same thing last time.
Saturate as quickly as possible.
Not gonna happen, friend.
We don't have time for this.
We don't got enough to share anymore.
If we're gonna get back to that tug,
we need air. All of it.
That's not for you to decide.
I told you
choices were gonna start being made.
No straws.
This mission is over.
We are now going back to the tug.
You wanna k*ll me, go ahead.
But she gets oxygen.
HORRIGAN: Don't move!
Stop this, God damn it!
I will power up and g*n you down,
I swear to God!
Put it down.
We will not do this!
We will not go out like this!
You draw on me?
I chose you.
I chose you.
Drop it.
Swear to God, drop it. Or I'll...
Or you'll what?
[INHALES DEEPLY]
We can power up if you want
and sh**t it out.
But you'll lose.
Power up, and you k*ll all of us.
Including yourselves.
You never know.
I could power up,
put a couple rounds in you,
power down.
Maybe the Hunters are none the wiser.
You'd take that chance?
Everything's chances now.
You got one more second, Locke.
RAMOS: Come on, man.
Doesn't have to be like this.
As we planned.
[GRUNTING]
I tried to save you.
I'm not the one who needs saving.
Said the dead man.
Anyone who wants to go after them,
they can.
You know where I stand.
Wouldn't make it 200 yards.
Might be all you have to make, Macer.
[ALL PANTING]
[PANTING]
Hurry up!
[ARRIS GRUNTING]
He'll turn on you, huh?
RAMOS: Shut up.
The least essential one always dies.
Me, he needs to fly the ship.
You, what's he need'?
You're telling me this why?
Because I trust you more than him.
Havoks are supposed to be bulletproof.
Let's see if that was just advertising.
[PANTING]
MACER: Sir, looks like some of the
propulsion might still be functional.
Condor won't get us off the Ring,
but if we could disengage it,
get the thrusters working,
we could still make the tug.
[GRUNTING]
[RAMOS GRUNTS]
[HORRIGAN GRUNTING]
HORRIGAN: [PANTING] What?
He's right.
You don't need me.
He's got a point.
He has no point.
Tug like that has an autopilot.
Then why are we keeping him around?
'Cause it also has a biometric ignition.
That's the card he's been playing
the whole time.
We need his fingerprint to start the thing.
But that's all we need.
His fingerprint.
Come on.
[GRUNTS]
We got about a half hour left.
So all we gotta do is set this thing,
get away clear,
let it detonate while the tug is in orbit.
MACER: We have problems.
I spoke too soon.
Propulsion's still functional,
but the fuel cells are shattered.
Not getting anywhere without fuel.
Might still be away.
This thing
has a standard backup power cell.
We use this for the ship instead,
it might be just enough to get us
out of this canyon and to that tug.
Get this cell into the system.
- Test it, make sure it's still working.
- Yes, Sir.
We can't leave the deposits intact.
We came all this way.
And at least one of us
isn't getting off this rock anyhow.
I think the only thing we can do is get
two of us up and out towards that tug,
whilst the other remains behind.
Detonates the Havok by hand.
[ARRIS PANTING]
[RAMOS WHEEZING]
I got to top UP-
We don't have time for this!
HORRIGAN: Saturate, quick.
- [PANTING]
- [BEEPS]
[INHALING]
I'm getting nothing.
[GRUNTING]
[GRUNTING]
[MACHINE WHIRRING]
It's a go.
But I suggest we get going ASAP.
Not sure how long it's gonna hold.
- AIKEN: Save it till we're ready.
- [POWERING DOWN]
Go with her.
You don't have much time.
Like hell you get to make that decision.
Three of us aren't making it out of here.
We already know that.
Let's make the choice now.
Walk, God damn it!
I called this mission. It's on me.
Never did draw on those straws, did we?
[BEAD CLATTERS]
[BEADS CLATTERING]
I'll choose two.
One red, one white.
Three.
You're too young.
Soldier's a soldier.
Three.
Just so you know, Private, no do-overs.
You wanna be a soldier, and you pick red,
I will walk on you.
Let the beads decide.
[BEADS CLATTER]
Red one stays behind.
[EXHALES]
As it should be.
Go.
I could draw on you, if you want.
Get her going, Macer.
See you in Valhalla.
They don't let ONI into Valhalla.
You, they might.
[POWERING UP]
There they are!
[SCREECHING]
[DEVICE BEEPING]
What the hell?
[YELLS]
[HUNTER WORMS CHIRPING]
[ENGINE STALLING]
We got problems.
LOCKE: Steady, Macer.
[HUNTER WORMS CHITTERING]
[SCREAMING]
[GRUNTS] Came on!
You'll never catch 'em
if you're dragging me.
[PANTING]
[BOTH PANTING]
Don't do it!
[ENGINES WHIRRING]
[SCREECHING]
Don't do it!
Don't do it!
- [g*n sh*ts]
- [GRUNTS]
[PANTING]
[GRUNTS]
No! No! No!
[SCREAMING]
No.
[SCREAMING]
[GRUNTING]
[YELLING]
[SCREECHING]
[RUMBLING]
[ELECTRONIC BEEPING]
[TIMER BEEPING]
[WORMS SCREECHING]
- [MACER WHIMPERS]
- [BOTH GRUNTING]
Now! Come on!
LOCKE: I need your help here, bus driver.
Auto-pilot hardware's same as most.
- [POWERING UP]
- We're going. We're going!
[BEEPING]
AIKEN: Death will come to all of us.
Especially soldiers.
It will come, inevitable as the sun.
It is only to be feared
if you fear what's on the other side of it.
If you see darkness in your sou!
Rather than light.
In a way,
I suppose soldiers are gods.
You give your life away
so others will live in peace.
Even if it's only fleeting.
The ones that live
carry part of you with them.
Your deeds become seeds for theirs.
The sacrifice carries forward.
And in their final moments as a soldier,
you know they will have 10 answer
the same question you did in yours.
With your life would you only create death,
or with your death would you create life?
That is my question to you,
Commander Locke.
How will you die?
And for what?
Halo: Nightfall (2014)
Moderator: Maskath3