Canon Fodder- Week 3: Another Day @ the Beach

Community Halo Universe
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The Halo Universe has an absolutely dizzying array of story threads that weave their way in and out of a variety of different mediums to tell the larger tale of the fiction. One of my favorite feelings is that moment of realization when you recognize that something you’ve just read or saw connects back and resonates with something you might have seen weeks, months, or even years before. Your Halo Universe Forum Monitors adore the fiction just like you, and absolutely love the life you all give to it with the discussions you create and become involved with.

With this in mind, we created a weekly series of exploring a hidden corner of the fiction. Basically a conversation-starter that will take a look at some of the scattered stories around the Halo Universe. It could be from a short film, a short story, a motion comic, or even an art book entry, but it will all be to discuss how it ties back the the greater tale being told. And hey, even fiction veterans might find something they missed, or perhaps just haven’t revisited in a while, and it will be a great time to get reacquainted with whatever details we present! Also, in case these little discussion events make you curious about where you can find even more avenues to learn more about the Halo story, you can check out this post here for one easy place to see all the spots you can look in.

If you’d like to join in any of our past conversations, please do!

Week 1: Petra
Week 2: The Reach Data Pads

For Week 3, we’ll take a look at an oft-forgotten piece of the Halo fiction, the cutscene short Another Day at the Beach.

If you’ve never seen it, it’s a fun (and short) watch; you can check it out here on YouTube if you like. Another Day at the Beach is the account of what happened to the crew of the second UNSC Pelican, which was shot down by the Covenant Scarab during the opening cinematic of the level “Outskirts” in the Halo 2 campaign. While its canonical significance can certainly be debated, it’s a very cool glimpse into an interesting side story that takes place right alongside the more major events of the fiction.

Since this is potentially a much shorter discussion than normal given the nature of the material, feel free to also discuss and include your thoughts of what other “side stories” similar to this one you might like to see referenced or fleshed out. Any side-skirmishes or situations you wouldn’t mind seeing given the same treatment?

Always love all the thoughts everyone brings to the table; keep up the great work!

Much love,
Grim

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So, I love the ODSTs. A lot.

I remember grabbing that multiplayer disc to watch this short scene, and it was sooo worth it.

Seeing ODSTs in action in a cutscene for the first time was so awesome, and still is.

I also love the little noob combo they pull off.

Other things I’d like to see, though? I wouldn’t mind a scene of Palmer and the Spartan-IVs touching down on Requiem for the first time during the Campaign events of Halo 4.

Back to the ODSTs, a scene of the Bullfrogs from Reach would be cool.

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Buttkiss. 'Nough said.

Clearly, the ODST’s weren’t playing on Legendary…

Why does the Elite look like a Minor when he’s clearly a Spec Ops? Minor’s aren’t allowed to hold Energy Swords, and their armor doesn’t have Active Camo.

Is this where they got the idea of players being able to survive the Energy Sword hit in Reach?

Why did the Elite hold one of the ODST’s hostage so he could survive? An “honorable” Elite would’ve tried to slice as many as he could, not cower behind a “disease”.

Now, every time I meet those ODST’s, even though I see them in Marine armor, I imagine them in ODST armor. And when I see the crashed Pelican, I know what happened to the ODST’s and remember the scene and being happy about how cool it was when I first saw it (and then the second, third, fourth, etc… time, lol).

I definitely love that cutscene, and watching ODST’s do work is always cool. But, like you said, OP, there is definitely debatable canon things in it. But I think Bungie just decided to make an awesome little cutscene explaining a little side story with what little time they had, so I ignore the canon issues.

As for other side stories, how about “Hunger” from the side stories in the “The Flood” 2010 issue? Every time I read that, I get goosebumps. But it’s also interesting to see how a simple minded Infection Form becomes more smarter, thus allowing the readers a deeper understanding of the first stages of the Flood’s thoughts, and how it keeps getting smarter and smarter. I just love that side story.

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Apparently, Sgt. Stacker is such a badass that he chooses who he fights with, and nobody bats an eyelid.

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Wow I had never seen that before, very cool!

An interesting side story I’d like would be some things Lasky did in between FUD and Halo 4. I’d love to see how his character dealt with rising up in the ranks since he was so against War until Chief. I know the ending to FUD changed him, but the bumps along the road to Infinity would be a cool thing for his character.

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I wonder if the O’Brien who died in the Pelican crash was the same ODST from a certain Halo Legends episode. This O’Brien to job your memories.

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I think my favorite part of the cinematic is the dialogue at the end that directly ties this cutscene into the campaign’s gameplay making a definitive time stamp of when this occurs.

At the end of this cutscene, you hear the radio static voice of Cortana:

“Second squad, this is Cortana. What’s your status? Over.”

To which we hear Sgt. Stacker reply:

“We’re operational Ma’am, barely. Our pilots didn’t make it.”

Cortana, over the radio again says:

“Find a hole; stay put. We’ll come to you.”

And that ends the “Another Day at the Beach” cutscene.

Now, if you play Halo 2 campaign, you can tell when this cutscene started, with the Scarab’s attack on the Pelicans, but it ends just after the Chief dispatches the 2 Hunters in the courtyard that burst through the door.

Play that portion again and once the second Hunter falls, listen carefully. You’ll hear the exact dialogue between Cortana and Stacker again (same recording actually), but this time Cortana’s voice is clear and Stacker’s voice is the one heard over the radio. Pretty cool!

Also, no new geometry was made for “Another Day at the Beach” so you can find all of the scene’s locations in the normal campaign map behind the Hotel Zanzibar.

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> I wonder if the O’Brien who died in the Pelican crash was the same ODST from a certain Halo Legends episode. This O’Brien to job your memories.

It’s very possible. The Dutch in Halo Legends is the same Dutch we know and love.

Same with that Corporal Palmer. I don’t even know if that’s the same Sarah Palmer as the Spartan-IV Commander.

Speaking of, though. That short story in Evolutions (Palace Hotel) would make a good little cutscene type thing. It would also be a nice tie-in with Halo 4, considering some of the themes in it.

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> Why does the Elite look like a Minor when he’s clearly a Spec Ops? Minor’s aren’t allowed to hold Energy Swords, and their armor doesn’t have Active Camo.
>
> Is this where they got the idea of players being able to survive the Energy Sword hit in Reach?
>
> Why did the Elite hold one of the ODST’s hostage so he could survive? An “honorable” Elite would’ve tried to slice as many as he could, not cower behind a “disease”.

I believe if we had to place him fictionally, he would actually be a Stealth Elite, not a SpecOps. In Halo 2, he would have had a small amount of shielding, and been wearing Gray armour. It may take a little while to explain.

In Halo CE and 2, Special Ops are never seen fighting alongside the standard Covenant military. However Stealth Elites which worked as a division of Fleet Security, would. In Halo CE, SpecOps Covenant didn’t show up until the mission Keyes, right near the end of the game. Fictionally it is explained that the Covenant force you were fighting at the beginning of the game ordered a general retreat when the Flood attacked, and a ship carrying Special Ops forces arrived at Halo and started trying to secure the situation. In Halo 2, we again see this “superior forces” mentality in the SpecOps. You never see SpecOps Elites during any of Master Chief’s missions. However in the missions Arbiter/Oracle, and Sacred Icon/Quarantine Zone, every single Elite ally in the mission is SpecOps.

In the Halo 2 missions Uprising and Great Journey, as well as Halo 3, we see SpecOps and Infantry fighting side by side for the first time. This is likely due to the chaos created by the Great Schism. Elites of all kinds were on High Charity. And so the organization that separated the lines between these divisions was blurred.

Halo Reach was the first game to radically change SpecOps Elites. In Halo Reach, SpecOps Elites were given very weak shielding, and used Active Camouflage at all times. This is completely different behaviour than the SpecOps Elites in halo CE, 2, and 3. In Halo CE and 3, SpecOps Elites actually never use active camouflage, and have above-average shielding on par with a Major Elites. In Halo 2, Elites still have Major level shields, but they are capable of using Active Camouflage during stealth missions. They only ever used this camouflage in the Arbiter and Sacred Icon, though. And they always disengaged camouflage when they engaged the enemy. As well Reach was the first Halo game without a very clear reason for them to be there. It almost seems like in Halo Reach, Bungie just decided to change SpecOps Elites into Stealth Elites. And then went on to replace SpecOps Elites with Zealots, and replace Elite Zealots with Generals. A really strange move considering they never fully developed the orignal ranking structure to begin with. All it really is now is confusing.

Anyway, covering the Elite’s behaviour, the Plasma Grenade most likely weakened his shield. And the Elites believe that to bleed, or to let your enemy injure you, is to lose honour. As such the Elite was most likely attempting to use the human long enough for his shield to regenerate, and then he would quickly slay the entire human squad. But the ODSTs were lucky enough to find a Plasma Pistol and use it to take down the Elite too quickly.