Lone Wolf

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Lone Wolf is the eleventh and final campaign level of Halo: Reach. The level takes place after the credits and is accessible after finishing the entire campaign.

The level begins at 20:00 hours of August 30, 2552, near the ship-breaking yards at Asźod. SPARTAN-B312, left at the ship-breaking yards after the UNSC Pillar of Autumn’s escape, is left to fend off the remaining Covenant forces alone, attempting to stay alive as long as possible. After fighting off waves of Covenant, Noble Six eventually succumbs and is killed by a swarm of Sangheili warriors.

Transcript

{Cutscene}

Six, alone, stands on a raised platform.

Planet Reach

August 30, 2552 20:00 Hours

As two Banshees fly past, the camera pans down to Noble Six, standing alone on a raised platform. The sky is choked with smoke and ash from the ongoing glassing. With no means of escape, Noble Six is stranded on Reach as it burns. The Spartan watches as Banshees dominate the sky and Phantoms approach his/her position.

{Gameplay}

There'll be Another Time...

Waves of Covenant troops, including Sangheili, Unggoy, and eventually Wraiths attack the lone Noble Six. Covenant aircraft from above, while initially ignoring the Spartan, also begin to fire on his/her position.

Noble Six holds out for as long as possible. As more damage is taken, cracks begin to appear in the Spartan's visor. Eventually, Six takes enough damage and the screen turns to black.

{Cutscene}

Sangheili warriors attacking Six as seen through the Spartan's helmet.

Fade in on Noble Six's point of view: SPARTAN-B312 is under heavy fire and hurt, with two cracks on Six's visor. A single assault rifle is lying on the ground. The Spartan pulls off the damaged helmet, tosses it aside, and picks up the weapon.

Scene switches to the discarded helmet's point of view, which sees Noble Six making a final stand against the Covenant. A Sangheili Ultra charges at the Spartan, firing a plasma rifle, but Six calmly steps forward and guns it down with the assault rifle. A Sangheili General approaches from behind with an energy sword. Before it can strike, Six turns around and rams his/her elbow into the General's face, disabling its shields and knocking it to the ground. Six draws a pistol and kills the fallen General. Six holsters the pistol and resumes firing the assault rifle. Plasma repeater fire from another Elite off-screen hits Six across the stomach. With his/her shields already down, the Spartan is severely wounded. Six reels from the attack, but stays standing.

Holding the assault rifle at the hip in the right hand and the pistol in the left, SPARTAN-B312 continues firing, killing two more Sangheili before another Ultra shoves Six to the ground and pounces on him/her with an energy dagger. The Spartan kicks the Ultra backwards, causing it to stumble into the helmet. At the same time, a sword-wielding Sangheili Zealot appears and tries to kill the downed Spartan, but Six knocks the sword out of its hand. The Zealot staggers backwards, its shields recharging. The Ultra again tries to stab Noble Six with its energy dagger, but Six rolls away from the stab and elbows the Ultra in the jaw. The Zealot ignites its own energy dagger and stabs downward towards the fallen Noble Six. The foot of a Field Marshal steps into the frame as the Sangheili ignites its energy sword, blocking the view.

Cut to Noble Six's shattered helmet, lying on the ground in the dust - as seen at the beginning of the game.

Fade to black.

Fade in to the same location. The ground is now a grassy plain and the skies are blue. The only signs that a battle was fought here are debris from a destroyed frigate in the background and Noble Six's helmet, still lying where it fell.

File:ReachEpilogue.jpg

Six's sacrifice is remembered.‎

Planet Reach

July 7, 2589

Catherine Halsey: (voiceover) "It didn't take long for Reach to fall. Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren't nearly fast enough."

The camera begins slowly pulling back.

Halsey: (voiceover) "For you had already passed the torch. And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secrets, shattered our enemy's resolve. Our victory - your victory - was so close... I wish you could have lived to see it."

The camera pulls back, revealing a UNSC colony ship landing in the background.

Halsey: (voiceover) "But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything...except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild."

Fade to white.

Game ends.

Trivia

Glitches

An untextured Spartan model can be found in this level using theater mode.
Using the glitch that takes the player out of the map, the player can also come back to where he/she starts off the level, and a trooper will still be alive.

References

This level has a single rally point, Rally Point Omega. In Greek, Omega (Ω - the last letter of the alphabet) means "last" or "the end." This could also be a reference to the fact that Reach is the last Halo game to be made by Bungie, or because it is "the end" of Noble Six, or simply that it is the last rally point.
"There'll Be Another Time" may be a reference to a line spoken by Han Solo as he is about to be frozen in carbonite in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
The last enemies the player fights in Reach's Campaign are Elites, just like the first enemy the player ever encounters in the series is an Elite in the opening sequence of The Pillar of Autumn
Seven Sangheili warriors attack SPARTAN-B312 in the ending cutscene.
After the level's end, Noble Six becomes the fourteenth dead Spartan in the area, a reference to Bungie's favorite number (7x2=14).
The date of the cutscene following the level is July 7, 2589. This is a reference to Bungie Day. This is also another seven reference as the year is made up of 25, 2+5=7, and 89, 8+9=17.

Miscellaneous

Halo: Reach's campaign begins with SPARTAN-B312 putting on his helmet and ends with him taking it off.
The final fate of Noble Six echoes the first campaign level of Reach, instead of being saved by Carter-A259 from being killed in the hands of a Sangheili Zealot's Energy dagger, Six meets his demise as another Sangheili Zealot ignites its Energy dagger and stabs towards him in the final cinematic.
Earlier in the development of Halo: Reach, the game was going to end in a cutscene directly after the UNSC Pillar of Autumn took off, with the camera resolving down onto Noble Six as they inserted their last magazine into their weapon and walked off into the oncoming Covenant threat that still exists on the planet. The idea of a gameplay sequence in the end came fairly late in the game's development.^[1]
Lone Wolf marks the only time a post-credits sequence has been playable in a Halo game.
Thirteen dead Spartans can be found in this level. Two are inside the structure, while the rest are scattered throughout the area. Their armor permutations and color are randomly generated; their helmets have no attachments, their combat knives are missing, and some have non-accessible or glitched chest pieces, e.g: Assault/Sapper chest, but with only one grenade belt, or any chest with unknown attachments on the waist.
This is the only playable level in Halo: Reach that contains just one data pad, which is found when playing on the Legendary difficulty. All other playable levels have two data pads, one on Legendary, and another while playing any other difficulty.
The name of the level is ironic, especially since Carter told Noble Six to get rid of his "lone wolf" behavior upon joining Noble Team. However, at this point, Noble Six is truly alone.
According to the developer commentary, the Legendary ending on this level was supposed to depict an eagle landing on Noble Six's helmet, but this was cut out of the final game.^[2]
In the cutscene where Noble Six dies and the camera is pointing to his helmet, the helmet doesn't show any sign of the two cracks on the visor that Six receives before he takes off their helmet. Instead, it is replaced with a big hole in the middle of the visor. However, the only two exceptions are the ODST, which if one looks closely, one can see two holes, and GUNGNIR, which uses a camera instead of a visor respectively, and shows a small hole in the helmet itself.
Noble Six seems to shoot their assault rifle for longer than the normal 32 round magazine would allow without reloading.
If the player survives long enough, an endless army of Elite Generals will come, armed only with Concussion Rifles and Energy Swords.
During co-op, the SPARTAN-B312 depicted in the cutscene depends on which player survives the longest. Since enemies will continue spawning, players who died won't be able to respawn, and the last player who dies will appear in the cutscene.
Sounds of Covenant ships glassing the nearby area can be heard in the background.
It is impossible to beat this level, no matter how skilled the player is. Attempts to escape will result in death, as the map has boundaries just like any other. One cannot simply flee from enemies. It is also impossible to hijack the Wraith.
A slight mistake occurs involving Noble Six's helmet in the final cutscene. In both the first and last times it's seen, the helmet is tilted to the right, but when the battle is shown from its point-of-view during the final cutscene, the helmet is tilted off to the left. It may have been kicked to a different area since there are no dead bodies or buildings around.
If the Haunted Helmet is worn during the final cutscene, it will swap models with random helmets while it lays on the ground.^[3]
If the player dies outside the boundaries of the level due to the out-of-bounds countdown, the final cutscene will start to play with the player having all-white armor, but will then reset the player to the beginning of the level.
It is possible to hide for several minutes without any enemies firing at Six if the player goes to the cluster of barrels to the left (from the beginning spawn of the level) of the main structure. It is possible for the player to survive even longer if he hides between the crates in the garage building.
If the player survives long enough, a BOB with an energy sword will appear and fight the player with Elite Generals. This BOB is significantly more aggressive than the other Elites, and will mostly ignore cover in favor of charging at the player.
Some helmets' visors are completely blackened during the final cutscene instead of the usual visor color, most notably Hazop, Mark V, Security, and Military Police helmets. Others are slightly shaded while some are bright.
Unlike other Halo: Reach campaign levels, the soundtrack used for this level is not named after the level's name. Another track entitled Lone Wolf is instead part of the soundtrack for Winter Contingency.
Using the glitch that takes a player outside the map in theatre, the player can view the mountain seen frequently throughout the campaign, the skybox begins to disappear after certain distances and is replaced with a blue box. 2-dimensional Covenant ships can be seen outside the level.
The mountain seen in the background of the final scene is believed by some fans to be Menachite Mountain, home of ONI's CASTLE Base. The irregular shape of its tip has been theorized to be the result of the Covenant blasting through the mountain to get to the Forerunner structure under it.
The partially destroyed house in the center of the level is reused from the level The Pillar of Autumn, from the Wraith encounter after the Mongoose jump.

Gallery

Map of the campaign level.
SPARTAN-B312's final stand.
The hidden Master Chief statue.
Some of the troopers who are found dead later on in the level.
UNSC troopers both alive and dead in the level.
Zeke-garcia-hawk.jpg

Image of the Hawk that was meant to appear in the Legendary Ending.