Editing NMPD HQ

|pagegamelabel=ODST

|concurrent=''[[Mombasa Streets]]''

|player=*[[ODST_(player_character)#Romeo|Romeo]] (player 1)

|date=[[2552#October|October 20, 2552]], 1914 hours {{Ref/Film|[[Halo 3 ODST ViDoc: Desperate Measures]]}}

|place=[[NMPD headquarters]], [[New Mombasa]], [[Earth]]

|objective=Find [[Taylor H. Miles|Dutch]] and [[Michael Crespo|Mickey]]'s [[D77C-NMPD Pelican|Pelican]].

|partime=00:10:00 {{C|''Master Chief Collection''}}

|parscore=40,000 {{C|''Master Chief Collection'' and ''Halo 3: ODST''}}

The [[Firefight (Halo 3: ODST)|Firefight]] map [[Windward]] is based on this level.

Chronologically the fifth flashback level, NMPD HQ begins at 19:14, three hours after the squad's insertion into the city. [[Edward Buck|Buck]] and Romeo have made their way to the top of the [[NMPD headquarters]] building for pickup by an [[New Mombasa Police Department|NMPD]] [[D77C-NMPD Pelican|Pelican]] dropship. With [[Taylor H. Miles|Dutch]] and [[Michael Crespo|Mickey]] already onboard, the Pelican is shot down by [[Type-26 Banshee|Banshees]] and crashes on another landing platform. Buck and Romeo must make their way across the upper floors and rooftops of the city's tower blocks to reach their squadmates at the crash site. Once there, they defend the downed Pelican from oncoming [[Covenant]] [[Ru'swum-pattern Phantom|Phantoms]] and Banshees. Finally, the [[Brute Chieftain]] [[Bracktanus]] drops from the last Phantom and severely wounds Romeo before the rest of [[Alpha-Nine|the squad]] manages to kill him. Lacking air transport, Buck decides to evacuate the squad through subterranean train tunnels leading to the [[Old Mombasa|old city]], and the squad heads for [[Kikowani Station (location)|Kikowani Station]].

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYtHYII0QeA '''{''Cutscene''}''']

''The cutscene begins with a door in the NMPD Headquarters opening. [[Edward Buck|Buck]] immediately takes point while [[Kojo Agu|Romeo]] watches his back.''

*'''[[Gunnery Sergeant]] Edward Buck''': "Clear?"

*'''[[Lance Corporal]] Kojo "Romeo" Agu''': "Yeah."

*'''Buck''': ''(Activates his comm)'' "Hey [[Rookie]]. You out there? Respond. That's an order!"

*'''Romeo''': ''(Following Buck)'' "Give it up, Gunny. Even if he ain't dead he's lost in that soup. Our comms can't cut through that."

*'''Romeo''': "Just sayin', ''(Shrugs)'' I ain't dead."

''[[Michael Crespo|Mickey]]'s and [[Taylor H. Miles|Dutch]]'s [[NMPD]] variant [[D77C-NMPD Pelican|Pelican]] dropship comes in for a landing as Buck flags them down.''

*'''[[Private First Class]] Michael "Mickey" Crespo (COM)''': "Welcome aboard, ladies! First stop: anywhere but here!"

''Just as the Pelican dropship prepares to land, two Banshees come into view and open fire on the Pelican.''

*'''[[Corporal]] Taylor "Dutch" Miles (COM)''': "We're losing her! Watch out!"

''The Pelican spins out of view as Buck and Romeo fire at the attacking Banshee.''

*'''Mickey (COM)''': "Raaaaaaaggh!"

''Buck turns away from Romeo and pulls the charge handle on his assault rifle.''

'''''{Gameplay}'''''

*'''Romeo''': "What about all those [[Covenant]] we side-stepped on the way up?"

 

 

''After a moment of fighting, a [[Ru'swum-pattern Phantom|Phantom]] flies overhead.''

*'''Buck''': "Romeo! Phantom landing on the pad!"

''If the player stalls:''

''The two enter a small lobby area. They approach the next door to reveal more Covenant in the second courtyard.''

 

 

 

 

''Romeo and Buck fight their way into the second courtyard.''

 

''If the player delays with the Jackals:''

*'''Dutch (COM)''': "We're down, Gunny. On a rooftop north-east of your location."

''Inside the next room, there is spare ammo and Med-Packs laying around, as well as several dead NMPD officers and Covenant troops.''

*'''Buck''': "Sniper. Up high. Make your first shot count."

''Romeo takes his first shot.''

''Another Phantom arrives at the far side of the courtyard. ''

''They eliminate all the Covenant troops, and move down to the courtyard.''

*'''Mickey (COM)''': "Gunny, we've moved one of those construction cranes; made a bridge to our location."

''Romeo and Buck fight their way to a landing pad, Mickey and Dutch's Pelican can be seen on the rooftop of a nearby skyscraper. There is a bundle of long girders being held up by a crane that appears to be the only way across.''

''If the player stalls:''

''Romeo progresses over the make-shift bridge, two Banshees fly into view.''

''The Banshees, one-by-one, fly low overhead and shake the bridge. Buck and Romeo get off of the makeshift bridge and rejoin Mickey, Dutch and an NMPD Officer on a rooftop littered with various heavy weapons. They eliminate the Covenant troops around them.''

*'''Dutch''': "Bird's wasted. Lost the [[pilot]] on impact. Rest of us are okay."

''After the enemy infantry is dispatched and a couple more waves of enemy aircraft are fought of:''

''A Phantom drops a squadron of Jump Pack Brutes at the lower level.''

 

 

''The squad takes out some of the Jump Pack Brutes while more Banshees attack.''

''The Jump Pack Brutes are defeated.''

 

 

''A Phantom dropship rapidly approaches.''

''The Phantom dropship swoops down and drops a [[Jiralhanae Chieftain]] wielding a Gravity Hammer.''

''The Chieftain, [[Bracktanus]], kills an NMPD officer with his hammer and Romeo fires at Bracktanus with his Sniper Rifle, collapsing his shield. A shockwave from the hammer sends the sniper back into a barrier and Bracktanus, using the hammer's bladed end, brings it down on Romeo's chest. Romeo's sniper rifle gets caught on the Bracktanus' hammer and it throws it off, sending the mangled weapon to the streets below.''

''Giving out a victorious roar, Bracktanus prepares to finish off Romeo, but Buck jumps on its back and stabs him in the neck with his [[combat knife]]. As Bracktanus chokes and gurgles while stumbling around the landing pad, Mickey tries to get a clean shot on it with his shotgun, but is unable to. Thus, he tackles Bracktanus to the ground and Dutch shoulder-charges it, finishing the Brute.''

''Dutch and Mickey exchange looks and help Buck with the dead Brute. Buck takes his Combat knife out of Bracktanus's neck, shakes some blood off, which hits Dutch, and cleans it off on his arm. Romeo begins to cough and wheeze and Mickey immediately tends to him.''

''Romeo de-polarizes his visor and takes his hand off the wound. On Legendary, a comically large amount of blood sprays out of Romeo's injured chest.''

*'''Romeo''': "Ahh, not good."  

''Fades to black.''

 

|Complete NMPD HQ without firing the Sniper Rifle on Heroic or Legendary.

|[[File:Vandalized.jpg|center|114px]]

|[[File:HTMCC Achievement Vandalized Steam.jpg|center|64px]]

|<center>''[[Halo: The Master Chief Collection]]''</center>

*If the player activates this level's beacon with subtitles on, the flashback conversation between Dutch, Mickey, and the NMPD officer contains a minor typo. When the NMPD officer says "Affirmative," the subtitle identifies him as a Marine.

*Some display screens on this level show a seismic survey of the Great Rift Valley authored by [[Daniel Endesha]], [[Sadie Endesha]]'s father. This is referenced in [[Sadie's Story]], in which her father tells Sadie about an [[Portal at Voi|unusual object]] discovered by [[Vergil]] below the region.

*The [[Weapons card]] and [[New York Times Easter egg|''New York Times'']] [[Easter egg]]s can be found and viewed clearly on this level.

*Romeo may be afraid of heights, an ironic quality for a sniper (particularly one in the ODSTs), as revealed by dialogue between him and Buck when the player are about to cross the construction crane to reach the crash site.

*The crashed Police Pelican contains a ridiculously large amount of ordnance, including turrets and their cases, Spartan Lasers, and even racks of Rocket Launchers with spare ammo. How the NMPD obtained heavy weapons is unknown, although it is possible that the Pelican was carrying munitions meant for UNSC forces elsewhere in the city. Another possible explanation is that due to New Mombasa being incredibly valuable as one of Earth's seven Tether cities, the UNSC provided the NMPD a large amount of weaponry during the Battle for Earth. More pessimistically, the weapons may be an example of extreme [[wikipedia:Militarization of police|police militarization]], or may be a result of Police Commissioner [[Kinsler]]'s rampant corruption. An external non-canon explanation may be that the weapons are simply available for gameplay purposes.

*Occasionally, a Banshee will fly into the crashed Pelican during the last fight and become somewhat lodged there. The player can melee its Brute pilot out, but it still cannot be flown.

*Just before the level ends, Buck will announce the arrival of the final Phantom by yelling "Chieftain!" In the [[Theater]], however, the viewer can use free-roam mode to go near the Phantom for a few seconds. At the right angle, the viewer can see that the inside of the Phantom is actually empty.

*The end cutscene shows Romeo with a Sniper Rifle no matter what weapon the player was using at the level's end.

*During the end cutscene, the NMPD officer killed by the Brute Chieftain's [[Gravity hammer (fiction)|gravity hammer]] has a [[BR55HB battle rifle]], even though the officer holds a Rocket Launcher and nothing else during gameplay, and the Battle Rifle does not otherwise appear in the game.

*This cutscene is the first instance in a ''Halo'' game of a Brute using the blade side of the Gravity Hammer, although the first time this is ever seen occurs in ''[[Halo: Landfall]]''. Similarly, the scene also shows the first usage of a combat knife in a ''Halo'' FPS game.

*When standing before Romeo's broken sniper rifle in ''[[Mombasa Streets]]'', one cannot tell from where it fell. None of the surrounding buildings are as tall as they were in this level, and the construction crane the player uses to reach the Pelican crash site cannot be seen.

*In this level, the player will start with 21 rounds of Sniper Rifle in total (1/20), a reference of 7 (21/3 = 7).

<gallery>

File:H3ODST NMPDHQ Concept 1.jpg|A concept piece of the top levels of the building.

File:H3ODST Romeo Art.jpg|Concept art of Romeo and Buck above the rooftops.

File:H3ODST NMPD HQ Buck and Romeo.jpg|Buck and Romeo on their way to the crashed Pelican.

File:ODST NMPDHQ-Env02.jpg|The Pelican crash-landed on a rooftop under construction.

File:H3ODST NMPD Holdout.jpg|Four members of Alpha-Nine reunited at the crash site.

File:HTMCC-H3ODST Bracktanus&Mickey.jpg|Mickey takes aim at Bracktanus after Buck stabbed the Chieftain's neck.

{{Ref/Sources}}

{{Levels|ODST}}