The Maw

[Begin first cutscene]

[The camera is looking down, soaring low over a golden sea. It rotates upward and the Pillar of Autumn crash site comes into view. The sky is overcast, there's nothing but desert as far as the eye can see ahead of the PoA. In the aft direction, there's a massive canal where the PoA touched down. It looks like it slid for a long distance before finally coming to a stop a few hundred meters inland. We begin to circle the Poa; Where once it's gigantic twin-engines glowed a brilliant blue, nothing remains but the dead, fire-charred carcass of a ship. The two cannons on the nose of the ship are twisted in random directions by the impact. The Banshee that the Master Chief is piloting flies into the scene towards the PoA. We switch to a view inside the PoA, looking out of a circular hole where a lifpod once launched.]

Cortana: "This thing is falling apart!"

[The Banshee flies into view, heading for the lifepod exit]

MC: "It'll hold."

Cortana: "We're not gonna to make it!"

MC: "We'll make it."

Cortana: "Pull up! Pull up!!"

[The Banshee tilts downward and crashes into the side of the PoA, just below the lifepod exit, sending flaming debris flying into the air]

Cortana: "You did that on purpose, didn't you..."

[The Chief grabs the edge of the lifepod exit with one hand and pulls himself into the ship]

[End first cutscene]
------

[Begin second cutscene]

[We're on the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn again. The main view-screen has a crack running down the center, and everything in the room has been charred by fire during the crash. The Master Chief removes the chip containing Cortana from his helmet and inserts her into a slot below a holographic projector in front of the view-screen. Her holographic image fades into existence]

Cortana: "I leave home for a few days and look what happens...This won't take long."

[Cortana puts her hand to her forehead and closes her eyes while she thinks]

Cortana: "There, that should give us enough time to make it to a lifeboat and put some distance between ourselves and Halo before the detonation.

[Cortana points to the view-screen]

View-screen reads (The time is counting down):

SELF-DESTRUCT
S E Q U E N C E      I N I T I A T E D
TIME TO MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE:
                                                          06:32

343 Guilty Spark: "I'm afraid that's out of the question really."

Cortana: "Oh hell..."

[The Master Chief looks around the room with his Assault Rifle, but 343 Guilty Spark is nowhere to be seen]

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 tab."

[We're now in the Engine room, 343 Guilty Spark is floating around operating control-panels with his energy-bolt. A few Sentinels are following him]

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...Oh how I will enjoy every moment of it's categorization! To think that you would destroy this instillation, as well as this record, I am shocked...Almost too shocked for words."

[Back to Cortana and the Chief]

Cortana: "He stopped the self-destruct sequence..."

[The countdown timer on the view-screen becomes stable at 05:34]

343 Guilty Spark: "Why do you continue to fight us, Reclaimer? You cannot win. Give us the construct, and I will endeavor to make your death relatively painless and-"

[We hear a high-pitched beep]

Cortana: "At least I still have control over the comm-channels."

MC: "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 offline. Even if I could get the countdown restarted, I don't know what to do..."

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

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

[The Chief knowingly bounces a grenade up and down in his palm]

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

[The Master Chief reaches down to retrieve Cortana's storage chip]

Cortana: "Chief, Sentinels!"

[The Chief inserts Cortana into his helmet as a group of Sentinels appear outside the Bridge. They open fire with their energy-beams and break the view-screen. The Chief's shields flare for a moment, he takes cover behind the base of the view-screen and readies his Assault Rifle]

[End second cutscene]
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[Begin third and final cutscene]

[The Chief dashes for the Longsword, numerous Flood are right behind him. He bounds up the boarding ramp below the nose of the Bomber, the ramp hisses shut behind him. He rushes to the second-floor of the ship and heads for the cockpit]

Cortana: "Cutting it close..."

[An explosion rocks the Longsword and the Chief braces himself against a wall. He arrives at the cockpit and punches a few switches, the drone of the engines can be heard powering up]

MC: "Here we go."

[As the Flood spread out over the platform the Longsword hovers and rotates 180-degrees, then surges forward and accelerates out of the docking bay, roaring past the camera]

[Begin Legendary specific scene]

[Sergeant Johnson and and a Covenant Elite in light-blue battle-armor struggle back and forth for an Assault Rifle in the middle of a sandy desert. Multiple Flood lay dead on the ground scattered around them]

Johnson: "C'mere you mother-...I'M A...RRRGHHHH...URRGH...."

[When the ground begins to shake, Johnson stops struggling as his attention is drawn to something off camera. The Covenant Elite stops and looks toward the direction as well]

Johnson: "Ohhh Shit......."

[The camera gives a wide perspective of Johnson, the Elite, and the portside of the Pillar of Autumn silhouetted by the sky a few hundred meters in the distance. The rumbling grows louder and a massive ball of fire erupts from the top of the PoA. Johnson and the Elite (who have now given up trying to struggle for the Assault Rifle) stare in awe]

Johnson: "This is it baby..."

[The Elite looks at Johnson as he extends his arms]

Johnson: "Hold me..."

[Johnson and the Elite embrace as the fireball being produced by the PoA continues to grow, throwing massive hunks of debris tumbling into the air. The sun and Threshold loom in the background behind the cloud-filled sky. The Elite's right-hand just noticeably reaches down and touches Johnson's buttocks]

[End Legendary specific scene]

[The Longsword continues to accelerate away from the Pillar of Autumn, the camera blurs as it breaks through the atmosphere. The Longsword surges past the camera as a gigantic ball of flame erupts silently (no sound in space, remember?) from a section of the Halo, creating an amazingly beautiful lens-flare. A devastating shockwave expands from the explosion, as hunks of debris are tossed into zero-g the ring begins to break apart. We cut to the inside of the Longsword, an alarm is beeping frantically]

View-screen reads:

[The Chief hits some buttons on a overhead panel. Clouds of glowing particles produced by the explosion accelerate past the Longsword]

Cortana: "Fancy a look?"

[The Chief gets out of his seat and goes to the window. The ring is breaking apart everywhere now. Huge sections of it are floating freely, smashing into eachother in a deadly game of momentum. One massive curve of the ring tumbles away from the initial blast and accelerates into another section, ripping it apart with a gigantic explosion, sending pieces of it spinning away into space]

MC: "...Did anyone else make it?"

Cortana: "Scanning........."

[The Chief lowers his head]

Cortana: "Just dust and echoes......We're all that's left. We, did what we had to do! For Earth...An entire Covenant armada obliterated!! And the Flood...We had no choice..."

[The Chief walks away from the window and sits in the pilot-seat]

Cortana: "Halo...it's finished..."

MC: "No, I think we're just getting started."

[The Chief removes his helmet and sets it on his leg as the camera backs out and away from the Longsword...It then rotates up towards a large cluster of stars, and fades to black...After the credits role by, a short video plays which shows 343 Guilty Spark still operational flying around in space]

[End final cutscene (Or is it just the beginning? ^_^)]