Artifact

Prev:	Departure
Concurrent:	Clean Up For Science Hacksaw Pelican Down Gagarin
Next:	Catherine
Artifact
Game:	Halo 4 Spartan Ops
Date:	2558
Location:	Requiem
Objective(s):	The crew of the UNSC Infinity must deal with the effects of an artifact retrieved from the surface of Requiem.
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Artifact is the second episode of Spartan Ops, it was released on November 12, 2012. In the episode, the artifact recovered by Fireteam Crimson from the previous episode is brought aboard the UNSC Infinity for safe-keeping.

Chapters

#	Name	Location	Description
1	Clean Up	The Gate	"Marine forces have failed to neutralize a Covenant stronghold and are requesting Spartan assistance."
2	For Science	The Cauldron	"An Infinity Science team issued a distress call, then went silent. There has been no contact since."
3	Hacksaw	Fortress	"Marine squad Hacksaw is pinned down and requests Spartan assistance."
4	Pelican Down	Sniper Alley	"Fireteam Crimson has been shot down."
5	Gagarin	The Refuge	"Science Team Gagarin, last seen researching location codenamed Refuge, is MIA. No distress call."

Opening cinematic

An Alpha Crawler walks on top of a rock and roars. After this, it travels, down, joined by more Promethean Crawlers as it does so. On the other side of the canyon, Fireteam Majestic is seen fighting the Crawlers. While trading fire, DeMarco gets up and fires his battle rifle. He barely misses one Crawler before a second shot gets it. As the firefight continues, the camera pans toward Madsen and Grant, with Madsen sniping.

• Madsen: "Wasn't this planet supposed to have been cleared already?"

Another Crawler is taken out. Grant crouches behind cover and reloads her DMR.

• Grant: "That was the idea. Yeah."

Camera cuts back to Madsen, who snipes another Crawler. After doing so, he stands up.

• Madsen: "Things just pop up wherever they want to, don't they?"

Cuts to a view of Madsen's left, where Grant, Thorne and Hoya are seen behind rocks, using them as cover.

• Madsen: "I mean, how is that even fair, huh?"

A Promethean Knight suddenly translocates near the squad.

• Thorne: "Madsen, look out!"

The Knight fires its scattershot, hitting Madsen in the left of his chest. As Madsen collapses while clutching his chest, the rest of Majestic fires upon the Knight, which has been joined by four more. Hoya then suddenly yells out and dashes out.

• Hoya: "Yeah! Come here!"

Hoya fires his Shotgun, taking out one Knight seemingly unaware of DeMarco calling him.

• DeMarco: "Hoya, get back to cover!"

As Hoya fires again, another Knight pounces on him.

• DeMarco: "Hoya!"

Cuts briefly to Hoya's HUD, where the Knight opens its helmet and screams at the SPARTAN. Cuts briefly to black before showing a Pelican flying out of Requiem and into a hangar bay of the UNSC Infinity. A Charon-class light frigate is seen nearby.

HALO: INFINITY

As the Pelican lands, Commander Sarah Palmer approaches the dropship. The hangar door opens and Majestic comes out in order of Madsen, Grant, Hoya, Thorne and DeMarco. As Hoya comes out lying on a medic bed, Palmer walks up to him.

• Palmer: "Hoya."

Hoya opens his eyes and looks up at her.

• Hoya: "Gonna take a lot more than this to kill me, Commander."

As Thorne and DeMarco walk out, Palmer approaches DeMarco, who is clearly upset.

• Palmer: "Hey, what happened to Hoya?"

Cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of DeMarco to Palmer.

• DeMarco: "Hoya happened to Hoya. If he'd followed orders, he'd be fine."

• Palmer: "Armor bay's waiting, team leader."

As DeMarco walks away, Palmer puts her hands on her hips as Thorne is seen observing something.

• Thorne: "Commander Palmer?"

Noticing him, Palmer approaches him.

• Thorne: "What's that?"

Cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of both Palmer and Thorne.

• Palmer: "Crimson Team scored the first grab."

Cuts to a close-up of Thorne and Palmer.

• Palmer: "Whatever it is, it's got the eggheads all tingly."

Scientists are moving a levitating Forerunner device. Suddenly, it falls to the ground and sends a pulse through the ship.

• Palmer: "The hell?"

Cut to the Bridge where Lasky notices the pulse. Systems start deactivating.

• Lasky: "Roland!"

• Roland: "Multiple decks reporting loss of... power, sir."

Roland's avatar is distorting.

• Roland: "Trying to source it now."

• Lasky: "Get the engine room on the line."

• Roland: "Aye aye, sir."

The Infinity's engines deactivate. The ship starts falling towards Requiem.

• Lasky: "Doctor Glassman, Infinity's losing power."

• Glassman: "So I've noticed, Captain. Woah!"

Glassman starts floating.

• Glassman: "Artificial gravity is offline as well, sir."

• Lasky: "We're being pulled towards the planet, I need answers!"

• Glassman: "If you take engines, built by aliens a hundred thousand years ago, and hire a war criminal to bolt them onto the ship, you can't expect predictable behavior!"

Cut to the hangar, where Palmer walks towards the device.

• Palmer: "Roland, what is this damned thing?"

• Roland: "Unknown, Spartan."

Palmer runs towards the device and kicks it. Immediately, all systems on Infinity reactivate.

Cut to Lasky and Glassman walking towards Palmer and the device.

• Lasky: "Status update, Sarah."

• Palmer: "Further attempts at... physical persuasion haven't had much effect. Damn thing's stuck fast."

Palmer turns to Glassman.

• Palmer: "She's all yours, doc."

Glassman walks towards the device. After scrutinizing it, he touches it. A pulse moves through the device.

• Glassman: "Hey, look at this."

Glassman touches it again, sending another pulse through the device. Suddenly, it activates again. Glassman's hand starts glowing.

• Glassman: "This is amazing. I've never seen anything like this."

• Lasky: "Doctor Glassman!"

Glassman's entire body starts glowing, as he is pulled towards a portal which appeared on the device.

• Glassman: "Woah, woah, Captain!"

Lasky grabs Glassman, but is pulled with him.

• Palmer: "Tom!"

Palmer tackles Lasky. Glassman starts screaming as his body is digitized and pulled into the device. Palmer and Lasky stare in horror. Cut to black.

Trivia

When Spartan Ops episodes were to be stylized motion comics, this episode was to include an scene of a Sangheili Storm being questioned by the UNSC. This scene did not appear in the final version, although the idea it was later used for a transmission in Episode 8 Chapter 3 of Spartan Ops.

Gallery

• 

  Paul DeMarco engaging Prometheans.

• 

  Hoya with Thorne before the latter breaks cover.

• 

  Hoya openly confronts the Prometheans.

• 

  Dr. Glassman examines the artifact.

• 

  Dr. Glassman is pulled through the Forerunner artifact.