Infinite Succor
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 Infinite Succor in the Soell system on September 20, 2552.
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Infinite Succor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Destroyed during the Battle of Installation 04, September 20, 2552[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Infinite Succor was a Mjern-pattern agricultural support ship of the Covenant, attached to the Fleet of Particular Justice.[1]
Overview
Design details
Infinite Succor was a logistical support ship for the Fleet of Particular Justice. Like the others of the Mjern-pattern, Infinite Succor was fitted with on-board hunting preserves filled with wildlife that could be used by the fleet's Sangheili cohort to hunt for recreational purposes - alongside serving as a source of food.[1]
Crew and complement
The Infinite Succor had no Sangheili in its crew - and thus lacked any kind of EVA suit intended for Sangheili personnel. The ship had a nonstandard security complement, with fewer on-board troops than the usual warriors present on support ships - leading to the installation of a safe room buried deep within the ship in case of hostile boarding. The safe room's location was not known to the crew, and was intended only to keep the ship's Minor Prophet captain - the Minister of Etiology - safe. Lacking any Sangheili crewmembers, the ship's complement comprised of Unggoy and Huragok - with their blood later noted as littering the decks after the Flood outbreak on the ship.[1]
Aside from the standard crew, the hunting preserves aboard the ship held a large number of nonsapient fauna for hunting and food production.[1]
Service history
Battle of Installation 04
- Main article: Skirmish on Infinite Succor
In September 2552, Infinite Succor was a part of the Fleet of Particular Justice when it pursued the Halcyon-class light cruiser, UNSC Pillar of Autumn, away from the Fall of Reach. Arriving at the Autumn's destination before the Autumn could, Infinite Succor was one of the Covenant vessels to discover Installation 04 and took part in the ensuing campaign. Following an outbreak of the Flood parasite on the ringworld's surface on September 20,[7] the Dextro Xur-pattern Spirit dropship Brilliant Gift was able to successfully depart the ring's surface under the control of the Flood. The dropship proceeded to rendezvous with the Fleet of Particular Justice, and made directly for Infinite Succor - crashing into the ship's hangar bay after numerous repeated warnings that the Spirit did not have permission to dock. Almost immediately upon impact, the now-destroyed Spirit began to disembark its payload of Flood attackers, which began to attack the ship's crew and begin the process of infection. One Unggoy crewmember was able to sound the alarm and request aid from the fleet's flagship Seeker of Truth, but was killed before he could finish his request.[1] However, this was enough to sound the ship's boarding alarm, prompting the Minister of Etiology to retreat to the ship's hidden safe room, and for Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee to prepare a strike team to board the ship to investigate.[1][8]
The boarding team tasked with investigating Infinite Succor consisted of a SpecOps detachment led by Commander Rtas 'Vadumee and Sub-commander Bero 'Kusovai, with two lances of Sangheili and Unggoy. Despite their eagerness to deploy directly onto the surface of the Halo itself and even potentially fight against the "Demon" John-117, they were instead tasked with fleet security - with Supreme Commander 'Vadamee worried that the potential loss of Infinite Succor and its logistics infrastucture and supplies could lead to a devastating loss for the Covenant detachment in the Soell system as a whole. At this time, the fleet were unaware of the true nature of the attack, and believed that it may be a human boarding party even potentially led by the "Demon" - due to the limited nature of the distress signal. To aid in their mission, 'Vadumee's team were provided a layout of the ship and command override codes that could control almost all ship systems - with the only override being those of the ship's Minor Prophet - who they were tasked to escort to safety, if he were to be discovered alive.[1]
As the boarding party was prepared, the Flood rapidly began to assimilate the ship's crew and the fauna and flora within the hunting preserves - even assimilating the ship's bridge crew. This process was helped by the lack of a proper internal shipboard security detachment. When 'Vadumee's strike force arrived aboard the Kez'katu-pattern Phantom dropship Glorious Advance, they initially found only the remnant blood from the deceased Unggoy and Huragok crew - with no bodies. The boarding party soon ruled out a potential human attack, noting that even the "barbaric" humans didn't take an interest in the dead like that. As the team reached the hunting preserves on the ship, they were beset upon by infected wildlife and began to take casualties - eventually switching to their energy swords due to their higher effectiveness against Flood forces. Reaching the bridge, they attempted to activate the ship's self-destruct and communications systems to no avail - discovering that they had been locked out of the controls by the Minister of Etiology out of concern that the Flood could use them to let Infinite Succor escape and spread the infection to the rest of the galaxy. The Minor Prophet directed the team to the ship's medical bay, where they could prove that they were not infected and then he could meet with them if so. The team were then attacked by the Flood, who had infected their fallen comrades and began using their knowledge to unlock the ship's doors. In response, Commander 'Vadumee directed his troops to destroy the bridge controls to ensure the Flood could not use them, before proceeding to overload a plasma cannon battery to self-destruct. The explosion killed many of the team's pursuers, at the cost of also disabling the team's radio systems.[1]
Having reached the medical bay and proven their good health, the Minor Prophet directed the team to meet with him, revealing his hidden safe room. Having had access to shipboard security cameras, the Minor Prophet had been able to watch the Flood's evolution since the infection start, and how since infecting strike team personnel they had already begun to use their knowledge to set up patrols and post guards in the engineering bay - where the ship's Borer was located alongside a nascent Proto-Gravemind. Using the strike team's command codes and the knowledge of slipspace navigation from the fallen bridge crew, the Minor Prophet believed that the Flood would be able to override his lockdown in less than an hour - and use the ship to escape the Soell system. As such, the objective was now changed from recovering Infinite Succor to destroying it. Lacking vaccuum suits for Sangheili, venting the ship's atmosphere wasn't an option and the destruction of the bridge controls meant that self-destruct was now disabled. As such, the only remaining option was to try and fly Infinite Succor into the system's star. Accordingly, 'Vadumee split the remaining team into two - one team led by himself tasked with heading to the engineering deck and rigging the borer to fly Infinite Succor into the star Soell, and another led by Bero 'Kusovai tasked with retreating to Glorious Advance to alert the fleet of the threat and direct them to destroy Infinite Succor should 'Vadumee fail. When questioned how he would achieve this and keep the Minister of Etiology alive, 'Vadumee responded by killing the Minor Prophet - rationalising that it would be easy to say that the minister had been killed in the attack.[1]
As 'Vadumee and his team fought into the engineering bay, the team were slowly killed off by Flood forces with only 'Vadumee able to make it to the engineering bay - discovering that the Flood had already infected the Minor Prophet and were now preparing to jump the ship away from Soell. As the commander set the controls to direct Infinite Succor into the sun, he was faced with a now-infected 'Kusovai and proceeded to duel the infected blademaster - able to defeat his former-friend at the cost of two of his own mandibles being cut off. Ultimately, Rtas 'Vadumee was able to reach the Phantom in the hangar (albeit heavily injured) and escape Infinite Succor as the only known survivor of the attack - with the support ship successfully driven into the sun and the infection halted.[1]
Upon returning to Seeker of Truth heavily injured, 'Vadumee was able to confirm to the fleetmaster that the Minister of Etiology was dead and that the Flood had escaped Installation 04. In response, Thel 'Vadamee invoked the alpha priority emergency quarantine response - ordering all ships in the fleet to return biometric scans of their crews and for those who fail to report, or report infections, to be immediately fired upon by the rest of the fleet.[8]
Production notes
- "This is Eddie’s [Smith] interior design with my heap of corpses. This is the Infinite Succor, which was never used. Here, the Gravemind is basically a giant mass grave of putrescent flesh and bodily fluids."
- — Robert McLees, discussing the Infinite Succor's concept.[9]
The Infinite Succor was, at some point, concepted and explored for inclusion in Halo 2. It is unclear to what extent the Infinite Succor was considered for the game, as the only known concept art depicts a Covenant ship interior by Eddie Smith with Flood overlay by Robert McLees. The image (shown below) showcases the "hydroponics ship stables" - similar in concept to the ship later featured in The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor. It is unclear whether this ship was ever seriously considered as an intended level, or whether it was simply an exploration done by the Bungie artists and later reused in the Halo Graphic Novel.[9]
Gallery
Early Halo 2 concept of the Infinite Succor.
List of appearances
- Halo: The Flood
- Adjunct (Mentioned only)
- Halo Graphic Novel
- The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor (First appearance)
Sources
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Halo: Warfleet, page 68-69
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition), page 281
- ^ a b c d e Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 269
- ^ File:HFB-Lotsofships.png
- ^ Halo: Fleet Battles
- ^ Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - That's So Raven (Retrieved on Jun 1, 2020) [archive]
- ^ a b Halo: The Flood - Adjunct: Priority Broadcast Log/Eleventh Cycle, Third Unit
- ^ a b Bungie.net, Feast of Bones (Retrieved on Aug 9, 2014) [archive]
