Conflict Evolved

Conflict Evolved is a Halo fiction video part of the ONI Archive video series that goes over the Battle of Installation 04 that John-117 took part in.

Summary

The video takes the form of File:CHELAN_20200303, 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. Aimed at educating UEG citizens on the history, evolution, and application of the Spartan Program.

Transcript

Scenes from Halo: Reach, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series, and Scanned play at the start of the short.

• Comms Officer: "The fall of Reach at the hands of the Covenant could have easily signaled the end of the human race. But there are those for whom terms like "darkest hour" and "unbeatable odds" aren't proclamations of certain doom, but rather opportunities to prove that nothing is impossible. Heroes like the Spartans of the UNSC represent the best humanity has to offer. And heroes like the Master Chief have distinguished themselves as the greatest even of these. Armed with cybernetic augmentations and Mjolnir power armor, the Master Chief's physical prowess was later amplified with advanced tactical and strategic abilities when he was partnered with an experimental artificial intelligence known as Cortana. Each was designed to complement the other's strengths and capabilities, matching lethal combat proficiency with unrivalled real-time battlefield intelligence to create the ultimate weapon against our enemies."

• Comms Officer: "In 2552, the Master Chief and Cortana were aboard the UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn as it narrowly escaped the tragic destruction of the planet Reach. Eventually, the Autumn arrived at Halo, an enigmatic artificial ring world. Built by a long-vanished alien culture known simply as the Forerunners, Halo was the centerpiece of the Covenant's zealous theology, and its fate would likely decide the outcome of the entire Human-Covenant war."

ONI Screen activates, showing the file name "File:CHELAN_20200303", and a wave form of a "Comms Officer". With the words "Transmission suspended" in the center of the screen.

• Comms Officer: "Look, I remember when we initially proposed the first official public enlightenment programs as a way to improve things like constituent morale, trust, etcetera. And-oh how did we say it- "foster a more unified sense of pride and progress amongst our scattered colonies. [chuckle] You gotta love it. And to be fair, the brass was skeptical at first-and I don't blame them, really. Hard not to be after decades of conflict and strife-whether the issues were with aliens or ourselves. That being said, you better believe my colleagues and I sat back with more than a few satisfied smiles as citizens poured into the first program sites and came face to face with heroes they'd only heard of. Hell, it hit me a bit more than I even expected. Spartans were suddenly something more than just chatternet superheroes. They were honest-to-God living legends that has survived unknowable horrors to save us all. Being on the inside doesn't make that reality any less appreciated."

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

Trivia

The filename is a reference to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary's launch on the PC and Steam version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection with the number "20200303" referring to the game's launch date of March 3, 2020. 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 "20011511" is a reference to the original Halo: Combat Evolved release date on November 15, 2001.