Halo: Rise of Atriox Issue 3

⇦ Halo: Rise of Atriox Issue 3 ⇨
Publisher:	Dark Horse Comics
Publication date:	October 18, 2017
Writer(s):	John Jackson Miller; ;
Artist(s):	Jonathan Wayshak (artist); ; Jeremy Colwell (colorist); Aleksi Briclot (cover artist);
Number of pages:	32 pages

Halo: Rise of Atriox Issue 3 was released on October 18, 2017 and is the third of five in the Halo: Rise of Atriox series of comics.^[1]

Official summary

“

Atriox looks to Decimus to find others who can help the Banished expand their tech and maintain their fleet as the number of Banished continues to grow. Decimus recalls a Kig-Yar scientist named Sig Raan who resides in a secret Covenant facility on the planet Otraak. Is Sig Raan still loyal to the Covenant or will Decimus be able to convince her to help the Banished?

”

Plot synopsis

Issue 3 opens with Atriox and his lieutenant Decimus having finished looting the site of a Covenant shipwreck. As the ship's crew prepares to depart, an explosion on the bridge occurs. Their ship experiences numerous small hull breaches on multiple decks. As the sudden decompression threatens to rip the Banished crew straight out into space, a quick-witted Atriox grabs a nearby soldier wearing a vacuum suit and hurls him toward the bridge's breach to seal it. The Jiralhanae soldier turns out to be their ship's chief engineer, and Atriox becomes suspicious of the fact that he was the only one in environmental armor when the breaches occurred. Deciding that he is either a traitor who triggered the breaches or an incompetent who allowed them to happen, Atriox kills the Jiralhanae and orders Decimus to find him a new trustworthy chief engineer.

With a small Banished task force, Decimus travels to see a certain Kig-Yar scientist on Otraak, a remote world where the Covenant has established a secret research installation. While facing off against a minimal Covenant defensive resistance, Decimus makes contact with the facility's commander, Sig Raan, the brilliant scientist and T'vaoan skirmisher who had once fought alongside him before Decimus faked his death and deserted the Covenant. Having heard of the Atriox and the Banished, Sig Raan decides to listen to their treasonous invitation and allows Decimus and his troops to enter her base. Once inside, Sig Raan shows Decimus her latest Covenant invention: a device capable of controlling Yanme'e behavior by imitating the signals of their Queens, an object that would be extremely useful to the Banished for bolstering their forces. However, Sig Raan refuses to side with the traitors of the Banished and reveals that she only presented her army of Yanme'e drones to them to test their capabilities in a real fight. After blocking off their communications to their ship, Sig Raan then orders her drone army to attack Decimus and his troops.

As Decimus and his men are overwhelmed by the drones, Atriox then emerges with his Chainbreaker to help fight alongside them, revealing that he suspected the Covenant scientist had a betrayal in store for his task force. The tides then turn when Raan's drone swarm is beaten back by Atriox and his Banished forces, who were reinvigorated by the arrival of their unstoppable leader. While Sig Raan attempts to flee from combat, Decimus shoots down the drone that was carrying her away to safety, causing her to fall to her death below. With the experimental device secured, Decimus considers the future possibilities of using controlled Drones as engineers or obedient soldiers on every one of their ships. However, Atriox refuses to employ the same controlling methods that the Covenant does, insisting on earning the loyalty and respect of all the warriors who will follow him. He takes the box and promptly destroys the device, promising Decimus that their exploits alone will be enough to make the Banished an unstoppable army.