Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn/Transcripts/Part 1

Scene opens up to various shots of the aft half of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn adrift in space. Cortana's voice can be heard, repeating one phrase over and over.

• Cortana: "Mayday, mayday. This is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn, requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard. Prioritization code Victor 05-3-Sierra-117."

A computer screen is seen:

CREW CAPACITY: 782
CREW SURVIVING: 1

The screen flickers. Cut to John-117 inside his cryo chamber. His visor reflects off the blue light outside the chamber. The blue light is revealed to be emitting from a holotank. The light flickers red before turning back to blue. Fades to black. Fades in to the space, where a few stars are seen. Blacks out.

HALO 4

FORWARD UNTO DAWN

PART I

Title fades out. Scene cut to Commander Thomas Lasky, in front of a holographic screen, reviewing the distress signal.

• Bridge crew #1: "Lock on to frequency, tracking coordinates."

• Bridge crew #2: "Crossing now."

• Commander Thomas Lasky: "Play it again, please."

As the signal plays again, Lasky starts to space out.

• Bridge crew #2: "We have a lock."

• Bridge crew #3: "It's him!"

The bridge is thrown into disarray as the crew begin to talk at the same time and an alarm sets off.

• Unidentified UNSC AI: "Shall I play it again, sir?"

Lasky starts to breathe deeper and louder, while the voice gets fainter.

• Unidentified UNSC AI: "Sir? ...Commander Lasky?"

Lasky's breathing gets louder, his eyes begin to look around the room. Cut to Lasky opening his eyes as a teen, inside a cryo chamber. He coughs.

• Orlin: "Cryo pods opening."

A young Thomas Lasky falls out, vomiting bronchial surfactant. Next to him, Chyler Silva and Michael Sullivan are seen thawed out and vomiting surfactant as well.

• Chyler Silva: "Lasky? You okay?"

Lasky doesn't respond and continues to vomit.

• Chyler Silva: "Are you alright?"

Cut to Lasky walking to his locker, still coughing. Cut to Sullivan in his battle uniform looking at Lasky.

• Michael Sullivan: "Lasky, let's go!"

Cuts back to Lasky as he gears up, still coughing.

• Walter Vickers (COM): "Hastati Squad, 4 minutes to rendezvous point!"

Lasky takes out his assault rifle.

• Chyler Silva: "Copy, Vickers. T-Minus 4 minutes."

Cut to Lasky's right hand wrist, which is bruised.

• Michael Sullivan: "Will you be able to shoot with those hands?"

Lasky tightens his gloves.

• Thomas Lasky: "We'll find out."

Chyler runs for the exit.

• Chyler Silva: "Come on!"

Sullivan follows her.

• Michael Sullivan: "Axios!"

• Dimah Tchakova (COM): "10 seconds, closing in! First checkpoint. Almost there!"

Lasky runs out of the building. Cut to his heads-up display as the sunlight blinds his eyes. Lasky pants and coughs. He looks up at a small hill, where Silva and Sullivan are already climbing to the top.

• Michael Sullivan: "Lasky, come on, let's go!"

Lasky walks a few step ahead before sprinting. Cut to a forest with explosions.

• Vickers (COM): "We're under heavy fire!"

• Vickers (COM): "Vickers, checkpoint!"

• Sullivan: "Covering!"

Sullivan fires his assault rifle. Silva fires hers for a short second before continuing forward.

• Silva: "Moving!"

The three cadets move on to the RV point. Shot of Lasky running through explosions and gunfire in slow motion which then reverts back to standard motion.

• Tchakova (COM): "Tchakova. Checkpoint!

• Junjie Chen (COM): "Chen, checkpoint."

• Vickers (COM): "Checkpoint!"

• Lasky: "Uh, fifty seconds."

Cut to Lasky's HUD. The motion tracker projected on his ballistic goggles enlarges and moves to the center of his HUD.

• Silva: "Go!"

The cadets advance forward and take cover momentarily.

• Vickers (COM): "Silva, Sullivan, Lasky - where are you guys?"

• Lasky: "RV in fifteen seconds. (to Sullivan and Silva) Are you ready?"

Silva nods.

• Sullivan: "I'll see you at the party."

Lasky, Silva and Sullivan get up and continue running, with Silva taking point. They continue running. Sullivan is suddenly shot by a tactical training round. He cries out and falls backwards. Lasky and Silva notice this and turn around.

• Lasky: "Sully!"

The two look at Sullivan lying stunned on the ground. Silva begins running again.

• Silva: "We have to leave him!"

Lasky hesitates and continues to stare at Sullivan on the ground .

• Vickers (COM): "Lasky, what the hell?!"

• Silva: "Come on!"

• Vickers (COM): "Lasky!"

• Lasky: (coughs) "Ten seconds."

Lasky breaks into a run. Cuts to his HUD. A red "X" appears over the green arrow representing Sullivan on the motion tracker. The tracker then reduces itself and moves to the bottom left corner of the HUD. A message appears over the HUD: CASUALTY: SULLIVAN.

• Vickers (COM): "Lasky, hurry up!"

• Lasky: "Landing in 3... 2... 1."

Lasky makes it to the rendezvous point, a small concrete shelter under fire where the rest of Hastati Squad are taking cover. He continues to wheeze and cough.

• Chen: "Enemy inbound. They'll be on us in 35 seconds."

• Vickers: "Fresh mags in your weapon, prepare to attack."

Lasky turns to Vickers in disbelief.

• Lasky: "What?"

• Vickers: "Our objective is to neutralize the Insurrectionists and acquire the target. We move on my mark."

• Chen: "30 seconds."

Cuts to Lasky's motion tracker, now displaying enemy contacts inbound on two sides.

• Lasky: "We should flank them and force a surrender."

• Vickers: "We're too close to flank and Innies never surrender!"

• Silva: "Dimah and I could circle around. There's still time."

• Tchakova: "We can make it."

• Chen: "25 seconds. Guys?"

• Lasky: "It's our best move."

• Chen: "20 seconds."

Vickers contemplates for a moment.

• Vickers: "No, we're sticking to my plan, okay? On my mark."

• Lasky: "It won't work."

• Vickers: "You're not in charge anymore, Lasky!"

• Silva: "Tom, just do what he says."

• Chen: "15 seconds."

Vickers shoots an urgent look at Lasky.

• Vickers: "They're my orders."

• Lasky: "I don't care."

• Chen: "10 seconds!"

Lasky and Vickers look at one another. The enemy contacts on Lasky's motion tracker continue to converge on their position.

• Chen: "5 seconds!"

Lasky charges out of the shelter.

• Lasky: "Axios!"

• Vickers: "Lasky!"

Lasky runs amidst heavy gunfire and explosions; scene briefly goes into slow motion; suddenly, he is hit in the chest by a training round and falls.

• Lasky: "Augh!"

Lasky lies on the ground, breathing heavily. All is quiet before April Orenski appears from behind a reflective barrier.

• Orlin: "Hastati Squad leader on the field. Exercise paused."

Orenski walks to Lasky, still laying on the ground, aiming her rifle at him.

• Orenski: "Let me guess, Lasky - you ignored orders."

• Lasky: (panting) "It's just... another strategic casualty, sir."

• Orenski: "Unacceptable."

Orenski shoots Lasky twice in the chest with training rounds. Lasky grunts loudly in pain.

• Orlin: "Game over."

• Orenski: (coldly) "Shoulder your weapon, cadet."

Members of the opposing squad rise from the undergrowth.

• Male cadet: "Lasky screwed this one up."

Orenski continues to stand next to Lasky, who continues to cough and grunt.

• Orenski: "Your little escapade kept Hastati Squad from achieving its objective... again."

Orenski leaves and Lasky slowly gets up, groaning.

• Male cadet: (off-screen) "Great job, Lasky."

• Orlin: "Exercise complete. Zero wins. Hastati defaults."

Lasky stops to look at his reflection on the wall of the opposing team's shelter.

• Lasky: (exhausted) "Shit."

Lasky leaves. The scene focuses on the reflective combat barrier, which is shown to be labeled with the following:

UNSC CORBULO
FIELD DEPOT 7 - NNE

Cut to the cadets of Hastati Squad walk across a field at the forest edge.

• Sullivan: (to Lasky) "The Robot tag you?"

Cut to Orenski standing at attention on a concrete-paved road, with cadets walking by and a UNSC officer standing nearby. Cut back to Lasky and Sullivan.

• Lasky: "Yeah, once from two meters... Twice from one."

• Sullivan: "I'm still numb from all those stun rounds."

• Lasky: "I'm always numb."

General Black's Warthog approaches along the concrete road. A dam can be seen in the background. Orenski walks to face Hastati Squad, now standing in formation as the general's Warthog pulls to a stop and Black climbs out.

• Orenski: "Hastati... Port arms!"

The members of Hastati Squad do as ordered. Orenski turns to face General Black.

• Orenski: "General Black, sir!"

Black surveys Hastati Squad disapprovingly and slowly walks in front of the cadets.

• General Black: "Let me remind you, cadets... this academy bears the name of the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo. Because he represents honor, valor, allegiance! General Corbulo was to take his own life in the name of the Empire. Corbulo did not hesitate nor question. He loyally obeyed, screaming 'Axios!' as he fell upon his own sword. Axios: I... am... worthy."

Black stops to face Lasky, who continues to stare forward.

• Black: "But I'm afraid, cadets, today you have proven to be anything but. We are at war with Insurrectionists. Terrorists, who would like nothing more than to see all of us dead. Had this been a real firefight, the rebels would have likely killed every member of Hastati Squad."

Black goes on walking in front of the formation.

• Black: "Every single one of you at this academy was sent here because your parents are the upper echelon of the United Nations Space Command. Because all of you are its future."

General Black stops next to Orenski, standing at attention.

• Black: (to Orenski) "And I expect you to act like it."

• Orenski: "Understood, sir!"

• Black: "Well, what are you waiting for? Lead them on tour, Orenski."

He turns to leave. Orenski addresses Hastati Squad.

• Orenski: "Axios!"

• Hastati Squad: "Axios!"

General Black leaves in his Warthog.

• Orenski: "Hastati... Right, face!"

Hastati Squad turns to face the right.

• Orenski: "Double, march!"

The cadets break into a jog, singing the UNSC Marine Cadence as they follow Black's Warthog along a dirt road.

• Orenski: "One early morning 'bout zero-five!"

• Hastati Squad: "One early morning 'bout zero-five!"

• Orenski: "The ground will rumble, there'll be lightning in the sky!"

• Hastati Squad: "The ground will rumble, there'll be lightning in the sky!"

• Orenski: "Don't you worry, don't come undone!"

• Hastati Squad: "Don't you worry, don't come undone!"

The cadence fades out while the instrumental track playing in the background escalates, as an overhead shot of the road pans up over the forest to reveal the Corbulo Academy campus; a collection of predominantly concrete buildings dominated by a towering space elevator, several massive satellite dishes and a number of large vertical-axis wind turbines. Numerous cadets are seen running, marching or standing in formation on the open training grounds in front of the buildings. A Pelican dropship is descending towards a landing pad. The academy is identified on-screen:

CORBULO ACADEMY OF MILITARY SCIENCE: CIRCINIUS-IV

The cadets of Hastati Squad continue their jog across a field with other cadets performing various physical exercises, training in close quarters combat, as well as firing pistols at a shooting range.

• Orenski: "Helljumper, Helljumper, where you been?"

• Hastati Squad: "Helljumper, Helljumper, where you been?"

• Orenski: "Feet first into hell and back again!"

• Hastati Squad: "Feet first into hell and back again!"

• Orenski: "Don't cry for me, don't shed no tear!"

• Hastati Squad: "Don't cry for me, don't shed no tear!"

Lasky begins to pant and falls behind the others.

• Orenski: "Just pack my box with PT gear!"

Brief cut to several cadets in uniform walking in a staircase within the academy.

• Hastati Squad: "Just pack my box with PT gear!"

Cut back to Hastati Squad, now running across the main courtyard of the school, with a statue of Roman general Corbulo in the foreground. UNSC Marines stand guard nearby.

• Orenski: "Helljumper, Helljumper, where you been?"

• Hastati Squad: "Helljumper, Helljumper, where you been?"

• Orenski: "And I wanna drop and drop again!"

• Hastati Squad: "And I wanna drop and drop again!"

Lasky continues to pant and runs several meters behind the squad.

• Orenski: "One, two, three, four, oh..."

• Hastati Squad: "One, two, three, four, oh..."

Cut to Hastati Squad's locker room.

• Sullivan (off-screen): "I'm getting lunch in the cafeteria, man, and then... (indistinct)"

• Male cadet 1 (off-screen): "Sully, please, enough."

• Male cadet 2 (off-screen): "Would somebody gag Sully, please?"

Cut to Lasky fidgeting with his locker.

• Sullivan (off-screen): "No, seriously, I'm on to something here."

Cut to Sullivan conversing with another cadet.

• Sullivan: "The comms are messed up and I'm decoding something kick-ass."

• Female cadet (off-screen): "Nobody wants to hear it, Sully."

Cut to Lasky inspecting his armor in his locker. He tries to wipe the red TTR round smear from the chest piece with little success.

• Sullivan: "ONI's hiding stuff from us, I'm positive. They've got secrets, man."

Vickers roughly shoves Lasky as he passes.

• Walter Vickers: "Stop stepping on our dicks, Lasky."

• Michael Sullivan: "Hey, ease up, Gingerbread."

• Junjie Chen: "No, Sully. Vickers is right."

Chen approaches Lasky.

• Junjie Chen: "My combat scores suck because of you."

• Dimah Tchakova: "Don't bother, JJ, he's gone soft. He's an Innie-lover now."

• Thomas Lasky: "Dimah... that order didn't make any sense."

• Dimah Tchakova: "Doesn't have to make sense. Just follow it."

• Walter Vickers: (off-screen) "We're the lowest ranking squad now!"

• Male cadet: (off-screen) "What happened to Lasky, man?"

Lasky thinks about what Dimah has said and walks over to a locker next to Silva, who glances at him. Lasky sighs and turns to her.

• Thomas Lasky: "I'm trying to survive here, okay?"

• Chyler Silva: "You need to respect the chain of command. The UNSC isn't the enemy, the Innies are."

• Thomas Lasky: "Spoken like a true believer."

• Chyler Silva: "Yeah, well, at least I believe in something these days."

Silva walks away as Lasky looks at a photo of his brother, Cadmon Lasky, stuck on his locker.

• Orlin: "Cadet Thomas Lasky, report to Colonel Mehaffey's office, immediately."

Cut to Lasky walking through the courtyard briefly pausing at the statue of General Corbulo and continuing on. General Black is then seen giving orders to several Marines. He smokes a cigar and gazes up at the sky, a look of apprehension on his face. An overhead view of the campus is shown passing by the space elevator as a car is sent up. Cut to Lasky in Mehaffey's office; both of them are listening to a recording of the training earlier.

• Vickers (recording): "No, we're sticking to my plan, okay? On my mark."

• Lasky (recording): "It won't work."

• Silva (recording): "Tom, just do what he says."

• Vickers (recording): "They're my orders."

• Lasky (recording): "I don't care."

• Colonel Mehaffey: "Pause."

The recording pauses. Mehaffey turns to Lasky.

• Mehaffey: "You don't care? You do realize your helmets transmit everything?"

• Thomas Lasky: "No excuse, sir."

• Mehaffey: "You continue pulling down your squad, you're going to end up with a lot of enemies."

• Thomas Lasky: "Yes, sir."

• Mehaffey: "I served under your mother, I know what she's like, and I sure as hell don't need to tell you Colonel Lasky is not going to let a son of hers leave this academy without a diploma."

• Thomas Lasky: "I wouldn't know what my mother thinks, sir. I never see her."

• Mehaffey: "It's been a long war. Your mother holds a lot of hands."

• Thomas Lasky: "So I'm told, sir."

Mehaffey gets up and walks toward Lasky.

• Mehaffey: "You know, Thomas, I've seen a lot of cadets come through here. Many have suffered like you. Pain like that cannot be forgotten, but you can learn how to tolerate it."

• Thomas Lasky: "I'll do my best, sir."

• Mehaffey: "That will be all."

Lasky salutes the colonel, who notices marks on his wrist. Lasky leaves.

Cut to Lasky in a shower checking on his blisters.

• Hughes: (voiceover) "How long have you had those blisters?"

• Thomas Lasky: (voiceover) "Been on and off for a few weeks but... these are from yesterday."

Cut to Hughes checking on Lasky.

• Hughes: "Any other symptoms?"

• Thomas Lasky: "It's getting hard to breathe."

• Hughes: "Okay, well let's keep an eye on it."

Cut to Lasky in the shower.

• Hughes: (voiceover) "Cryo-training can take its toll."

Cut to Lasky sitting on a wall near the space elevator, thinking. Below him, a graffiti reading "FORWARD UNTO DEATH" has been painted on a "RESTRICTED AREA" sign. The UNSC Marine Cadence can be heard in the distance. The space elevator stands in the background; Lasky watches as a car descends to the bottom, with another beginning its climb along an adjacent elevator strand.

Cut to a view of the academy from a distance; a mountain range stands in the background and three moons are visible in the sky.

Cut to the barracks.

• Male cadet #1: (off-screen) "Get out of my room! What the hell, man?"

Silva is seen viewing several updates on the Insurrection on a holographic terminal. One is about an attack on a civilian spaceport in Troisi City, Lodestone. The report is dated March 24, 2526.

• Female cadet: (off-screen) "Eric, get your filthy hands off me or I will kill you!"

Another cadet sits next to Silva.

• Male cadet #2: "Hey."

Silva briefly looks at the other cadet and then continues to read updates on the Insurrection, switching to a newer article (dated April 2, 2526), about the UNSC working with ONI to stop a plot by the Bandusa Insurrectionist group in New Harmony, Mars.

• Male cadet #3: (off-screen) "I'm not a virgin!"

Cut to Tchakova who is holding a stuffed animal until she notices Sullivan going through classified ONI videos containing combat footage. She then puts the stuffed animal back in a box and hides it away.

• Dimah Tchakova: "You really shouldn't be looking at that stuff, Sully."

Sullivan continues to go through the videos until he notices something and pauses it.

• Michael Sullivan: "Score."

Sullivan than pulls the video on the left over to the one on the right.

Cut to Vickers doing handstand push-ups.

• Announcer: "The latest from New Harmony, Mars. A pair of Insurrectionist operatives were apprehended while attempting to steal a Hyperion-class warhead from a security complex...(continues indistinctly)"

• Male Cadet #4: (off-screen) "What an asshole! He stole my pillow!"

Cut to Chen checking on a video message from his father.

• Chen's father (Video COM): "(Mandarin) 俊傑，你的學業表現非凡，這我們預料的。但是第一節的成績單多麼的過份地低落。" (Subtitled in English) "Your academic performance is exemplary. However, your combat scores are disappointing."

JJ is shown practicing combat moves, looking distressed.

Cut to Lasky in his room. He looks over his shoulder before activating a list of video messages from his brother on his computer terminal. After hesitating, he selects one.

• Cadmon Lasky (Video recording): "Hey, little bro! Hello from Jericho VII, it's day 131 of deployment. Uh... so I gotta show you something. All right, mom's gonna flip when she sees this. But whatever."

Cadmon takes off his shirt and turns around, showing Thomas a Helljumper tattoo on his back. Thomas laughs.

• Cadmon Lasky (Video recording): "It's still a little raw, but we got a big drop on an Innie stronghold next week, and I wanted to get it done before then. Anyway..."

• Chyler Silva: (behind Lasky) "So, you haven't been court-martialed yet then."

Thomas, surprised, pauses the video and slowly turns around. Silva walks over and sits next to Lasky, who turns on his chair apprehensively. The two look at one another. Lasky scoffs.

• Thomas Lasky: "I'm not apologizing."

• Chyler Silva: "Yes, you are."

• Thomas Lasky: "'At least I believe in something'?"

• Chyler Silva: "I do believe in something."

• Thomas Lasky: "Yeah, so do I."

• Chyler Silva: "Like what?"

• Thomas Lasky: "Just... not in stupid orders that lead to needless violence."

• Chyler Silva: "Negotiating isn't an option anymore, Tom."

• Thomas Lasky: "So we're brainwashing kids and then sending them in to exterminate a bunch of... overtaxed farmers."

• Chyler Silva: "Farmers? That's who you think they are? You have no idea what the Innies are like."

• Thomas Lasky: "I have a pretty good idea."

Lasky turns away.

• Chyler Silva: "Well then you should know how much they hate us and that they're not going to stop fighting until we're all dead."

• Thomas Lasky: "Can you blame them?"

• Chyler Silva: "Yeah... I can, I blame them for a lot of things. And you should too."

Lasky stares at the camera. Silva leaves, and Lasky returns to his brother's video message.

• Cadmon Lasky (Video recording): "Uh... staying safe, doing my job."

Thomas opens an ammunition box and takes out a chessboard. Thomas begins to place different kinds of empty shell casings and shotgun shells on the board as pieces.

• Cadmon Lasky (Video recording): "I just wanted to remind you to do your job. Oh, and by the way, nice checkmate, bro, yet again. Okay, new game. Your move. And hang in there. I know it's tough with mom being gone all the time, being alone. She loves you, so do I. Miss you, buddy."

Video message ends.

• Thomas Lasky: "Miss you too."

• Orlin (PA): "Lights out. Doors closing."

The lights in the barracks go out, and the doors to the cadets' rooms close. Thomas gets in his bed and stares at the poem inscribed above him.

Cut to Silva who is doing the same. A knock is heard on the wall; it's Lasky. He knocks again before Silva answers with her own knock. Lasky closes his eyes and the light in his room goes out.

The camera drifts off over Lasky's chess set toward the window when Lasky's terminal screen flashes briefly, displaying Covenant script characters (which read as: "7 Reclamation"), indicating that a covert sensor scan is being conducted. The view pans upward and an unknown object is seen flying through the sky, accompanied by lightning, and turning sharply. Cut to black.