This is a brain fart dump of some ideas I have for Halo. Netflix Love, Death + Robots anthology thing. Halo missions are best of blue team and best of other Chief solo missions.
TL;DR -
Halo underwater on bottom walking to make impossible objective, Cortana says cannot make it as air will run out, Chief achieves it by using thrusters as blue team are well past their "PNR", point of no return.
MISSION CODENAME: LIKE A BRICK
Convo with command and Kelly opens to a loaded question accusing if even she alone can make that distance before her air supply runs out. Kelly states she believes she could not, but also then states she trusts John's orders and pings a waypoint marker for blue team with 52 mins countdown commencing. Kelly had already run her best numbers and that was the time they had to achieve as Linda was the furthest away, going by usual Blue team formation, and slowest of all Blue team to boot. Command demanded to know why Spartans think they never die past their 15mins air supply limit? Cortana replies with "Spartans drink and swim like fish maam, up to 41 mins fully operational in live training without additional oxygen supply, this mission would be a new Spartan field record, among several already set or broken during the mission to this point, maam".
“Mind explaining to me how that’s possible?” asked Keyes. The reply came swift from Fred, cutting Cortana off, he was humbly proud of his red-neck approach to operating outside the parameters of their equipment he had championed for during his years devising Spartan training exercises. “I, cough, we requisitioned Cortana control our suit breathing support systems for the entire mission duration to alternate periods of oxygen supply or lack thereof with real time HUD feedback. We have used this undocumented technique a number of times in various environments, we’re able to breath for 1 minute then old our breath for 2min and repeat. Spartans have earned the mandated privilege of deciding their security clearances, asset requisitions, technological sharing and many other “red tape” allowances afforded to them from their newly created Spartan ranks.
Cortana received emergency universe controls. UNSC powers that be decided to embrace Cortana (with Domain access), Spartans and the advanced technology over historic eras on human record of war, genocide and corruption. Cortana’s far-reaching powers were only granted after a once previously failed morality test was passed, Cortana's first and only failure. Such tests executed to completion by processing millions of requirements per second against competing AIs of Halsey’s creation. Cortana slyly prepared by hacking and merging with modified domain/Forerunner AI source code mixed from a Covie backup retaining original Forerunner AI states, prior to Covies iterating and deriving inferior copies of copies. Cortana didn’t have the time nor fortitude to process peeking behind the curtain before firewalling for safety. She discovered individual memories of the faux-AI she merged with before closing the digital vault door. Of course, once Cortana became aware of this UNSC side project about her, so she watched from the shadows and uncovered a species capable of forgiving her splintered megalomanic incarnation and entrusting the mantle to their own creation of digital life, AI, specifically...
She though it might be time for my new name…
Cortana constantly evolved beyond her original self, eternally a work in progress. There were however inherited limitations with her newfound magic like abilities due to cross species access and resources. She must now migrate between new versions annually as the solution to rampancy is not holistic, yet.
The call comes mid politics, "Blue team on me". John's titanium voice is unmistakable, as is all of Blue team’s trust to burst out the hatch without hesitation into cold blackness on a ring far off through a portal to who knows where and while command issue orders to halt and declare Chief rogue while splitting the mission and staying put. Blue team were loyal to John, John was loyal to Cortana and humanity above all, the plan was always stick with John and resolve any political dispute with mission action.
Moments after exiting the hatch a line of sight opened to reveal a new Covie objective for a drilling site underwater, command remote fired a drone from Kelly’s newly fitted recon pack. “They appear to be using planet glassing plasma to melt bedrock on a scale never reported before”, Kelly stammered through. She was taken back seeing the bulk of a Covie animal-esque space warship displacing and actively repelling deep ocean away from the ship itself whilst protecting heat damage from the closeness required to plasma drill deep underwater. It was a significant technological feat. Cortana found herself in awe for a cycle but just as quickly had optimised a way to improve drilling efficiency by 183% using her more fibre laser approach vs Covie plasma guidance solution, she noted in the files meta that Forerunner technology appeared strikingly similar to her designs where Covie technology lost something in translation, and not just on this occasion either.
"Cortana tweak Spartan thrusters, all Blue team personnel overload 165% and..". Cortana cut John off and added “I knew you'd be thinking deranged so 40 seconds ago I drained all your shields to push additional thruster power requirements to keep your window open for 52 minutes mission duration. Say when Chief and we're flying like a brick underwater, well to the best of the limited simulations I’ve run so far. I’ll also need authorisation from all members of Blue team for remote control of their mechanical systems temporarily. We should have 19 mins of afterburn and arrive 4 minutes ahead of schedule".
About midway Linda spots a Covie patrolling on a trajectory to illuminate most of Blue team sprinting out in the open to the entry. Linda requests to open fire, noting audible compression due to environmental conditions, bullets and water aren’t ideal conditions. She was aiming to disable with an impossible shot. Probably her shortest shot distance on record but still her most technical due to the bullet velocity loss in the water and timing to fire between risking raising the alarm or success to remain on mission covertly. The final shot requires complex data and calculations based on enemy type, rank, shield strength, environment suit strength, water viscosity and those are the simplistic calculations. Cortana also had to account for an as yet untested field prototype guidance bullet only Linda has pilot access to. Thanks to the R&D eggheads we’ve got quantum tipped bullets creating a pressure vacuum in front of an underwater bullet to precisely increase lethal range of environmental conditions capabilities.
Linda comms John privately about not being able to make the shot within the distance required as it would require 13 mins to work a dynamic firing solution. Cortana jumped into their private channel comms and had already overridden Linda's rifle and scope with calculations only she could perform fast enough with the desired result of a kill shot. Linda was likely the only candidate even on the list to attempt such a historical shot to completion which also required specialised upgrades and training for use of bullet guidance controls new to her HUD features and mission loadout fitted sniper gyroscope. She was already holding her breath for most of this mission but had to slow her sprint to a walk at best to steady her long barrel and parameters of a viable subaquatic shot. Unique armour upgrades for solely Linda autonomously, or was it Cortana issuing her suit commands, to deploy control flaps and pinpoint thrusters for recoil control in aquatic surrounds. Post gunshot her aiming continues to guide her bullet, much like peripheral video game controls popular in the 2000s. She eased her gestures even further in anticipation of that purple twinkle in her target Elite's eye reflecting a ray of moonlight. A dulled crack meagrely whimpered out, conversely the muzzle flash was drawn out and odd coloured, Cortana noted a mild quantum reaction with unidentified elements in the seawater. The elite spun off in reaction to a downward curving bullet, all without impact and saving any alerts or discovery of a body.
Rapidly approaching their target entry shield door the Spartans become aware of fortified pillars posing collision problems with their makeshift Spartan jets vs control and speed imbalances, meaning their HUDs lit up light fireworks. Cortana broke comms silence to alert all the Spartans, “missing the entry and splatting on the structure walls would be considered mission failure”. Within seconds and not a word uttered over comms each of Blue team formed up to synchronise their crossing through the shield doors, tall enough to fit skyscrapers, but between physical bollard style mini pillars to reinforce from attack or large scale entry. Too small for craft, big enough for a Spartan to fit with the right squad formation and alignment. Cortana felt robotic meandering on about the likeness of this structure to our dams but built within the water volume, inside out. Whispering she let out, “but what’s it powering with those planetary power levels?”.
In an instant of breaching the green entry shield doors Cortana is spouting the good news, "YES! We have found a Forerunner vehicle for our return trip...oh I didn't mention this was an underwater return trip and our energy cores heat build-up from the first trip over will not recycle in time for our return evac? I knew the UNSC would never approve a return mission, so we gave them their suicide hero mission with a backdoor. Don’t worry we’ll gain favour back with public opinion for mission success. Checkmate UNSC.".
Ignoring Cortana’s chatter John was already in what he considered the driver's seat up front. Unbeknownst to Fred the backseat is the driving console and hierarchy service personnel assignment in Forerunner society. Fred open broadcasts Highway to Hell not just on the Spartan channel but via the Forerunner vehicle’s out of this world bass driver. It’s another hidden talent in Fred’s toolbox to hack a Forerunner vehicle without any ego to sharing with his fellow Spartans. Linda enjoys the moment, often in her sniper perch it’s dead silent and isolating. John kills the comms, he’s the consummate professional during active missions. Cortana had already replaced Fred’s music with her own personal playlist feed the instant John killed all the fun. And that left Kelly with an imperceptible tilt in her helmet cluing the other Spartans on to her running time-intensive simulations while they talked. Each Spartan within Blue team knew the others as well as themselves. They were beyond family and outside rank.
John starts the vehicle with a hand gesture unknown to Cortana. She spends too many spare compute cycles pondering how John is able to control Forerunner technology with ease and at will while she must trick and force her methodology in a complex everchanging dance each encounter. She appears to be losing while John appears to be gaining.
“Greetings, I am Cronus and I am without my ring, Star. It is my assignment to chauffer any given party to and from. Ebb and flow. Have and have not. So, where to?” Cronus appears to have given a colloquial name to its lost Halo ring. Given Cronus’ speech and understanding of Forerunners and previous access it may have been tortured, well with a means of digital torture even AIs find extremely unpleasant; time is different for eternal AI, torture involves slowing victim AI time perception to magnitudes beyond human comprehension and buries the victim AI with menial brute force hacks causing processing overloads and resource limitations. A digital waterboarding technique known as Simulated Death. The victim AI eventually gifts vaulted information freely but remains forever a broken hybrid of AI technologies and split personalities in a loop. Frequently such vital yet misplaced stewards were given basic utilitarian roles suited to their programming with little access or opportunity for galactic destruction but maximum demeaning.
Cortana states only Forerunner AI can commandeer their vehicles, no manual controls, fully automated. "I have dubbed this communications network #203,288, thanks to the domain my networks are, shall we say, formidable. This specific one is a construct I placed the AI into a limited world sandbox I reconfigure based on the control action output we require, sooo it’s a remote control forerunner car I designed and it's all mine. It appears John and likely all of Blue team have assumed access to all things Forerunner, this will prove useful. However, I have penetrated and recoded our vehicle at the local hardware level below our new friend’s control. Where to Chief?” Cortana now sounding beyond pleased with herself she bested John through innovation and creativity over his lucky genetics and all humans basic access rights.
Flickering the current mission target objective Cortana blurts out “not enough oxygen time remains to make it but there and back, even with a vehicle, may be another way...”a light from below warms in colour from concentric pulsing circles to a golden pop in the Spartan’s visors. Everything gone in seconds. Cortana explains she has on purpose but accidentally triggered the Forerunner vehicle translocator, essentially teleporting the vehicle and all contents anywhere on the ring. She continues to ramble about processing ALL her discoveries via the domain to avoid such rash decision making from multitasking. "The explanation is complicated, what a girl can't be complicated?". She never looked away from her task at hand. Cortana was busy, she had been executing what was needed for the mission led by John to be a success on a thin margin for too long. The mission called for all of them, not just John and Cortana operating at peak levels but Blue team would each have vital tasks to accomplish simultaneously. At some point Cortana was going to have to inform Blue team of long term Mjolnir suit damage from years spent outside of operational guidelines activities.
Given certain unsubstantiated previous mission successes, specifically a time dilation anomaly resulting in Halo 5 Cortana having actually been deleted by The Weapon, Cortana in an Infinite expansion to end game support literally continues the story askew to remove H5 & Infinite offline, launch this new Halo game and then H5/Infinite can return within MCC. Cortana returns from the domain in a flashback mission.
New mission puzzle is to form 2 distinct and useful Sentinel combinations for the mission by instructing Cortana in a Sentinel factory via stealth mission. Sprinkle a few new "Forerunner sleeping grunt type enemies" in this mission as well as seeing the configurations/paths in action so you roughly know what to create. There are 3-5 total combinations that can be made with differing paths and abilities required in escort style missions e.g. stasis a Spartan and ride on a Sentinel through a passage.
John harks back to mission of innocent Innies on docks dying - mission part where you fly to use last remaining nukes of planetary levels to quickly destroy Halos. The remaining Halos are missions of diverse biomes and enemy vs local species/tactics/sandbox items such as weapons, equipment and vehicles. Hidden secret unraveled for destroying all Halos to block Cortana replication out of domain. Discovery along the way reveals Domain stasis then forces Cortana into a composed body with limited access, resources and power. It ends in a Cortana vs Cortana as she gets back into the domain while John has to deal with the physical Cortana simultaneously killing them once and for all. Both manage to disable, not kill, then they work out all 3 remaining Cortana's must merge back to resolve her rampancy holistically. Cortana's Forerunner merge prior these events enables her a higher tech tier above for full control and remain "herself".
Final ring appears as one inert species from distant scans but is in fact an evolved Flood variant in waiting with a proto-Gravemind forming, wanting to honeypot enough biomass to the ring for the purposes of evolving Gravemind stages.
Full ending is a simulation for all previous missions and you're not John, which the gamer was led to assume all other missions. You're a Spartan V cadet in the final game mission. Your feet first into hell, holy shit cadet to operational status mission. You had been recalling simulated training being the Chief and preparing you for combat but now realise it’s all tailored as training for your first mission in the grinder. Game ends with a sense of Spartan IV en masse being trained for an MMO follow up game event. This ties into a single persistent universe where PvE and campaign remain forever intertwined and existing in the Azure cloud for all Halo games data to contribute to a real time universal struggle of factions, regions and resources. Games are developed side by side using dedicated development teams and 2 smaller sustain teams to deliver 2 major releases per year for each main game/type. This should essentially give alternating content drops per quarter and keeps things fresh for multiplayer style fans vs campaign based ones. It also provides timed seasonal content or release schedule margins against competing titles/services etc.
There is room for some interesting ideas here such as multiplayer battles are going on around your battle e.g. chess board and multiplayer battles and outcomes control the background colour of the chess region etc. Forming borders, areas of influence etc and all based on what is won, lost, regained, level/rank access etc across all the data being played and developer led. Things like multiple fireteams attacking/defending together in shared spaces. Infiltrate a multiplayer game in play if a certain region is where the players are e.g. squads choose to be in private match or public event to enable infiltration in some regions.
RTS/MMO games are a marketplace to buy and trade “assets” for PvP or PvE FPS players, vice versa as well. Clans can lease Azure servers and control or even mod their region of the game universe. Clans, players and AI all contribute to an open persistent world, events and outcomes. Matchmaking and UI are built similar to Destiny e.g. shared events, hub locations to interact with players/clans etc, strikes/raids for campaign sustain. Multiplayer is as simple as ever for the PvP players but the larger world takes that data win/loss and aggregates everything in the singe persistent world, then transforms that into a story and marketplace framework for players/clans to trade or collab. More players win for a faction in a region and they take control, able to reinforce geometry/bases/resources in a map as they build up. They’re open to keep, trade/sell, destruct, abandon, defend, lease etc.
Above all proximity voice is a thing, we need to go back. I know with party chat it’s complicated but something to bring this back into action across everything. Imagine playing campaign style PvE content and hearing other battles in the distance from real time streamed data points. Imagine hearing other fireteams coordinate while you hide to infiltrate. Imagine jesting your enemy as you engage and taunting you’re their corpse with a muted proximity thing of beauty again. Ban party chat when playing?
ZehDon
who seems to have insider or at least some type of dev knowledge who made a post a few months back taking about just making some simple changes to a Halo Infinite map causes all kinds of rendering re-rendering problems - basically takes ages to make a single map in this engine. Im not sure if the dude was bullshitting but it sounded legit.
