I Need a Weapon

In Halo Infinite’s story mode, the player follows Master Chief and his new AI ally, the Weapon, on a journey across Zeta Halo in search for answers. 

Halo is a franchise renowned for its storytelling. The original trilogy’s narrative had fans on the edge of their seats, waiting breathlessly for years between games. Nowadays, the story has taken somewhat of a backseat to the more popular multiplayer mode, but that didn’t stop 343 Industries from putting a substantial amount of time and effort into Halo Infinite’s story.

Setting the Stage

The Infinity is rammed by a Banished warship.

When the game begins, Master Chief finds himself in the middle of an ambush. The UNSC ship that he’s in, the Infinity, has suddenly come under attack after arriving in orbit over Halo Installation 07. The humans realize that they are being attacked by the Banished, an alien alliance. 

While defending Infinity’s hangar bay from Banished boarding parties, Chief finds himself in a duel with Atriox, the leader of the Banished alliance. Atriox defeats Chief and throws him out of the hangar bay into open space.

A New Beginning

The Chief converses with the Pilot, as they consider their next move.

After six months of floating aimlessly in space, supported only by his suit’s emergency life-support systems, Chief is found by a UNSC pilot who is in control of a Pelican dropship. The Pilot, as the game calls him, has also been drifting in space following the Infinity’s defeat, and is desperate to escape and return home. However, Chief is determined to finish the fight against the Banished.

After convincing the Pilot, the two descend to Zeta Halo’s surface and learn that the ring planet has been the victim of some sort of disaster. Then, they find the Weapon, a human-made AI that was designed to imitate Cortana and capture her so that she can be deleted. For those that don’t know or might have forgotten, Cortana went rogue in Halo 5 and attempted to overtake Humanity in an effort to force peace across the galaxy.

The Weapon informs Chief that she was successful in her mission, inferring that Cortana was eliminated. However, the Weapon also states that she has denied her programming, which is supposed to make her self-delete following the completion of her mission. Following this, Chief begins to see visions of Cortana and her early memories. The Weapon informs him that this is residual data leftover from her encounter with Cortana.

A Familiar Tale

Despondent Pyre tries to warn Master Chief.

Chief learns that Zeta Halo is ruled by the Banished, who defeated the UNSC forces on the ring’s surface following the space battle overhead. Atriox, rumored to be dead, passed leadership of the Banished to his right-hand man, Escharum. 

Chief and his newfound allies explore the surface of Zeta Halo, rallying the remnants of defeated UNSC forces. After entering an ancient Forerunner installation called the Conservatory, Chief meets Despondent Pyre, the Forerunner AI who oversees the maintenance of Zeta Halo. After Despondent Pyre begins to warn Chief about a brewing threat on the ring planet, the AI is killed by the Harbinger, an ancient alien that was stirred to life by the Banished.

The Harbinger explains that her people were imprisoned on Zeta Halo by the Forerunners. In efforts to free the rest of her species she has joined forces with the Banished, who have agreed to help her rebuild the Silent Auditorium, a facility that can bring her people back to life. The Banished then plan to use the repaired Halo ring to destroy the human species.

More determined than ever to stop the Banished, Chief and the Weapon destroy a group of spires that are crucial to the ring’s repair process. However, they fail to stop the Silent Auditorium from being partially rebuilt. The Weapon pieces things together and realizes that she’s simply a copy of Cortana. Knowing that Cortana ultimately turned evil and attempted to murder millions of innocents, the Weapon becomes terrified of her true nature and asks Chief to delete her. But Chief declines to do so and maintains his trust in his new AI friend.

After the Pilot is captured by the Banished, Chief infiltrates the Banished headquarters where he defeats Escharum and his elite bodyguards.

The Final Duel

The Harbinger is ready for the fight to end all fights.

Chief urgently heads toward the Silent Auditorium to stop the Harbinger. There, he learns that Cortana was captured by Atriox after the Weapon trapped her. But after Cortana realized what the Banished intended to do, she destroyed herself to prevent their plans from taking shape. Chief is shown a message recorded by Cortana while she was still alive, telling Chief goodbye and that he should trust the Weapon. Then, in a final boss fight, the Chief defeats the Harbinger.The Chief, the Weapon, and the Pilot all survive to live another day. However, in a post-credits scene, it’s revealed that Atriox is still alive and has gained access to the Harbinger’s people, who are still in hibernation underneath the surface of Zeta Halo.

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