Terminal (Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary)

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"Are you ready, Reclaimer? This is how my story begins."

— 04-343 Guilty Spark

The video game Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary features a Terminal accessible to the player in each level. Unlike the text-based Terminals in Halo 3, the Terminals feature animation, music, sound effects and narration by 343 Guilty Spark. The Terminals will also have connections to the story of Halo 4 and The Forerunner Saga.

The graphics and audio for the Terminals is produced by The Sequence Group. Most of the terminals were written by 343 Industries Managing Editor Kevin Grace.

Transcripts

Terminal 1

{Cutscene}

Zoom into the screen of a UNSC computer system. The screen experiences graphical glitches and displays a map of star systems in the local area of the galaxy. 343 Guilty Spark's voice is heard narrating:

• 343 Guilty Spark: "Warning! By order of Ecumene Council, proximity to Installation 04 is forbidden."

The shapes of seven rings, indicating the Halo Rings, is shown on screen. The fourth ring is highlighted. The ring's location is indicated in a cluster of stars.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "Your continued presence will result in most unpleasant countermeasures. I must insist that you change course and return to a minimum safe distance of one light-year."

Zoom into the highlighted area of space. The Pillar of Autumn is shown to be well inside the 0.5LY radius of the zone around the Installation. The ship is circled by a red line, and a 30 second countdown begins. As 343 Guilty Spark narrates further, he begins scanning the structure of the Pillar of Autumn.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "This has served as your one and final warning. I have activated defensive systems, and you now have thirty seconds to return to the minimum safe distance of-- wait. Curious."

Several scenes are briefly displayed, including a group of prehistoric humans around a fire, a citizen of ancient Greece, the Egyptian pyramids, a shot of an 18th-century city around the time of the Industrial Revolution, a soldier in World War II, an atomic bomb blast, Neil Armstrong standing on the Moon, the International Space Station, humans testing an unknown device (possibly a fusion reactor or Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine), an Orbital Defense Platform, and a Spartan.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "Curious indeed! After all these years."

The countdown to the counter-defense against the Pillar of Autumn is suspended and cancelled. A trajectory for landing on the ring, followed by a readout of the Mark V MJOLNIR armor is displayed.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "Greetings, humans, and welcome to Installation 04. Ignore prior warnings and please continue. I have disabled defensive systems to allow your approach, but you must not exit your ship once you have arrived at the designated landing center. This ring contains significant dangers, and even with your assumed legacy, I must verify the presence and pitch of your geas before allowing full access. We have much to discuss, humans."

343 Guilty Spark himself appears on-screen.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "I have been away far too long. You have been away far too long."

Terminal 2

{Cutscene}

The Ark, intergalactic space. 343 Guilty Spark flies through a large debris field. Several Halos can be seen orbiting The Ark.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "I am experiencing such a mixture of anticipation and dread. All preparations are complete for my installation. In accordance with the final dictum of the Ecumene Council, I have released myself of all remaining connections to my former station."

Guilty Spark is inside a Forerunner structure, gliding down a dimly lit hallway.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "This was not difficult. What was could never be again. We had seen to that quite thoroughly."

Six Monitors of various colors converge on the center of a large round chamber, decorated with a Forerunner glyph on the floor.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "Prior to my final journey through the great portal, a gathering of my fellow Monitors was convened upon the Lifeworkers' crèche to distribute the final Index collection."

Fade to a different scene. Several armored Forerunners stand in various places in the chamber. Guilty Spark enters the room and flies toward the other Monitors.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "It was most unusual to have this vessel of rebirth play host to such an event, even though Lifeworker ships were the only ones still allowed slipspace permissions. Lifeworkers were responsible for getting us to our places on the active facilities of the Array. While all of this was in accordance with the plan, one entirely unsatisfactory breakdown remained. We had no contact with the Domain."

Guilty Spark pauses, and faces a Forerunner. The Forerunner bows his or her head, as if unhappy with what is to come. Guilty Spark moves on and flies into an adjoining chamber, where he meets 049 Abject Testament.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "The history of all Forerunners was now lost to us. We relied upon the permanence of the Domain to preserve our record of the events that led to this point. But without that record, would future civilizations know anything about us? Or only of our weapons?"

As Guilty Spark narrates further, the view shifts through several different scenes, including a Forerunner planet emblazoned with Forerunner symbolism, large towers and structures in an unknown location, a forest with a large structure rising above the treeline, two Forerunners watching a ship outside a large window, an unknown starship, and two Forerunners standing in a city. One is smaller, possibly a Manipular.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "My fellow Monitor, 049 Abject Testament, had only one comment on this before we went our separate ways."

• 049 Abject Testament: "We deserve to be forgotten."

• 343 Guilty Spark: "Perhaps... perhaps."

A massive slipspace portal opens in the space above The Ark, and the other side comes into a view: Installation 04.

• 343 Guilty Spark: "But now, the portal opens, and through it, the familiar shape awaits. Halo. Home."