Changing Tides

Changing Tides is a Halo fiction video part of the ONI Archive video series that goes over the battles of Earth and Installation 05 that John-117 took part in.

Summary

The video takes the form of File:CHELAN_20200420, a file part of Director Schaefer's "content series" in ONI Section 2's public awareness campaign regarding the UNSC's role in colonial security. The series is aimed at educating UEG citizens on the history, evolution, and application of the Spartan Program.

Transcript

Scenes from Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, and Another Day at the Beach play at the start of the short.

• Comms Officer: "When the Master Chief arrived on Halo in September of 2552, he battled unknowable opposition across an unimaginable landscape encountering maladies and mysteries that we're continuing to unravel today. By detonating the Pillar of Autumns own fusion drives, the Master Chief set off a chain reaction that resulted in the rings destruction and knocked the Covenant back on their heels."

• Comms Officer: "Suffering a monumental defeat at one of their most precious religious sites, the zealous alien alliance began to fracture internal strife and conflict. Cracks the UNSC would be eager to exploit in pursuit of humanity's victory and survival. However the path to that victory would begin with the defense of our own home Earth."

• Comms Officer: "As the Covenant arrived at our doorstep, looking to wipe out humanity once and for all, another heroic line in the sand would be drawn. That once more by the legendary efforts of the Master Chief, the UNSC back tooth and nail against the Covenant war machine, staving off the enemies attack to buy precious time to mount a more comprehensive defense of Earth."

• Comms Officer: "Not content with stopping them on their own turf, the Master Chief and the crew of the UNSC frigate In Amber Clad chased the Covenant fleet through slipspace, eager to gain any intel they could gather. What they found was another Halo."

ONI Screen activates, showing the file name "File:CHELAN_20200420, and a wave form of a "Comms Officer". With the words "Transmission suspended" in the center of the screen.

• Comms Officer: "Yes that's what I've been saying this whole..."

• Unintelligible voice: [Unknown]

• Comms Officer: "Is this coming from Schaefer or Sullivan?"

• Unintelligible voice: [Unknown]

• Comms Officer: "That doesn't sound right. Are we even able to leverage any sort of jurisdiction there, because if so that's news to me."

• Unintelligible voice: [Unknown]

• Comms Officer: "I agree, but we've had issues in the past with mixed messaging going unchecked, you know as well as I that the last..."

• Unintelligible voice: [Unknown]

• Comms Officer: "You know I get it. I just think if we keep..."

• Comms Producer Monique Angelo: "We're ready for you in five."

• Comms Officer: "Thank you Monique, look I need to go, session is starting back up, just go ahead and send me what you have. We'll figure it out."

• Unintelligible voice: [Unknown]

ONI Screen deactivates, and the Halo 2 Anniversary logo appears saying "Available now" below it.

Trivia

The filename of "CHELAN 20200420", unlike those for the videos released for the launch Halo: Reach and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary on PC, does not correspond to the release date of Halo 2: Anniversary. The CHELAN part of the name refers to the Chelan app that requests permission when the player logs into Xbox Live through Steam. The number below LINK "20040911" is a reference to the original Halo 2 release date on November 09, 2004.