CONCEPT for Future Campaign Co-op story experience: UNSC Infinity crashes on Shield World Moon, establishes a Base as players fight for survival on the Forerunner world against a ( previously fought and damaged ) Guardian that has assumed control of the sentinels deep inside the facility:
"After nearly being defeated at the hands of Atriox, The Infinity was able to make an emergency Slipspace Jump to a nearby system before being destroyed. The severely damaged, burning wreck was able to make an emergency crash landing on a nearby system’s moon, which is also a Forerunner shield world, previously known to the UNSC but mostly unexplored due to the presence of Sentinels on the World, and Cortana’s access to the domain which could alert her to possible human presence on the world, however with Cortana recently locked down by the Weapon and having been presumably destroyed at Zeta Halo, the UNSC needed to make a decision to land and take their chances on a forerunner world, rather than face imminent destruction at the hands of the Banished fleet’
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The Infinity, despite being heavily damaged is able to make a mostly controlled landing on the surface of the moon, although devoid of a breathable atmosphere, the world has stable gravity and a traversable surface for troops to deploy defenses and establish a foothold on the surface to defend their flagship. Players work with a new ( New to the player that is ) variety of marines in Fully sealed combat suits and modified vehicles with a closed system atmosphere, suitable for unhabitable worlds and harsh combat scenarios. On this world we get to use a larger variety of UNSC vehicles such as the Grizzly, Mastodon, Gremlin, Cyclops, Vulture and Sparrowhawk.
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The infinity is positioning on the moon as it awaits reinforcements from other capital ships and a Mobile ship repair bay, and over the course of the story, players must race against time to defend the Infinity against Sentinel attacks as they await reinforcements from the UNSC which are weeks away but en route via Slipspace. They were able to establish contact with the monitor of the installation due to assistance from the Monitor of the Genesis installation who acted as an intermediary. The Shield World construct is thankful for the UNSC presence as it is upset that a Guardian damaged in combat by the Infinity had retreated to the shield world, and using Forerunner access codes previously provided by Cortana was able to overtake and control most of the sentinels and many of the Shield Worlds structures and systems, locking out even the Construct by using higher order access codes [ Early in the story, the Monitor of the shield world was able to deploy it’s few remaining forces not under the Guardian control to protect the damaged Infinity from Sentinel attacks. Several Forerunner Point Defense Pillars are Established in a perimeter around the Infinity crash site to protect it against Swarms of Sentinels, albeit to limited effect, requiring UNSC forces to protect these Pylons and work together to defend the Infinity crash zone and bolster its defenses as its remaining repair systems work overtime to bring ship weapons and systems back online as it awaits the more comprehensive UNSC repair facilities and Mobile Dockyards that are en route via Slipspace
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Players use the undamaged portions of the Infinity as a HUB for Co-op Missions for your Multiplayer Spartans, as part of Future Side campaign DLC: This story mode would function as a Co-Op Successor to SPARTAN OPS ( although without the Sarah Palmer Cringe and better gameplay features, NPC dialogue and a more compelling and mysterious story which develops upon previously established story elements to form a satisfying follow-up of events from the end of HALO 5 and other recent story threads )
+++ Added gameplay features, include Barracks similar to those from Starcraft as a further evolution of the FOB concept which includes portable factories, weapons research and upgrades ( more detailed tech trees than infinite, more equipment types, more varied armor upgrades ), and other Base building Elements inspired from Halo Wars.
+++ This Forerunner shield world should be inspired by the one from GHOSTS OF ONYX, and feature an interior world inspired by Onyx and Requiem with Biomes on the inside of the planet that can be explored in expandable missions. Some of these missions and the Layout of the level design would be MORE LINEAR, with some open world sections, drawing inspiration from titles like Metroid Prime and Dark Souls as players explore subterranean chambers to reach the inner world and bring the fight to the Guardian.
+++At some point in the story sequence, players get introduced to Locke, Aribter, Blue team and others as they arrive with USNC reinforcements to repair the Infinity, establish a better foothold on the shield world and run missions against the Guardian and its forces of the created and Redacted character
+++ The story should feature a friendly Monitor construct who assists the UNSC, although has LIMITED control over the world’s systems due to a Guardian having previously assumed control of the majority of the World’s functions, including a large contingent of Sentinels, which have a variety of upgrades due to the immense power of the ( damaged ) but still formidable presence of the Guardian
+++ The story theme would focus on a sort of “Civil war” between the Friendly Construct and UNSC alliance against the Guardian and Sentinel controlled faction. The damaged Guardian has landed in a fortified control center deep inside the world, and is using the sentinels to defend itself now that Cortana is no longer in the picture. Players face a variety of “Created” forces including upgraded sentinels that have upgrades from a Forerunner Unit force that is under the control of the stationary Guardian.
+++ PLOT TWIST: Facing possible defeat at the hands of the UNSC, the Guardian is able to remotely communicate with the surviving composed Didact, offering captured human forces to rebuild his army of Prometheans in exchange for an alliance of mutual protection. Players must contend with rescuing humans captured ( but not yet Composed by the Didact, as the Didact has aquired a secondary composer, and with the assistance of the Guardian and Forerunner Factory facilities, has Rebuilt a less powerful and less efficient version of the composer, which given the much longer time to compose, allows human forces to potentially rescue UNSC forces from it’s grasp.
+++ The Didact’s new composer, is not longer a singular device, but rather multiple, lower strength composers scattered throughout fortified strongholds on the interior of the captured shield world. Missions in this Campaign require you and your team of Spartans to destroy these Composer strongholds which are located in Forerunner Fortress structures on the inside surface of the Shield World in various regions and biomes
+++ The interior of the shield world is like the surface of a planet on the inside of the world, with the surface of the moon giving the appearance of an uninhabited world.
+++ The presence of the Guardian on this shield world is explained in that The UNSC forces were able to Isolate this Guardian and damage it, forcing it to retreat to this shield world for repairs and safety, which is how the UNSC forces knew about the shield world, being reluctant to jump there due to the presence of the Guardian, the UNSC INFINITY decided to take its chances on the Shield world and contend with the heavily damaged Guardian rather than Imminent defeat at the hands of the Banished above ZETA HALO.
+++ The Interior surface of the Shield world would feature various Biomes and as the campaign(s) progress through periodic DLC players gain access to new regions with unique environments such as Tropical Islands, Canyons, Lush Jungle and more. These regions could be BRIDGED by various means such as large subterranean sections that allow players to go from one section to another, or perhaps large water areas that serve to separate biomes that players can reach via Pelican or fast travel ( portals ) that players unlock through the help of the Shield World construct once the recapture regions from the Guardian and Sentinels
+++ Players are able to obtain upgrades for their Armor, Shields, Equipment, vehicles and other Items due to the assistance of the Forerunner construct on the Shield World who has offered to Upgrade UNSC forges to help them take back the Shield World from the Rogue Guardian and the Upgraded Promethean forces. These Upgrades take place via “tech trees” and are a blending of UNSC and Forerunner tech to improve UNSC weaponry to be more suitable against sentinel forces such as an AR variant that uses shield piercing Rail Gun rounds via a portable forerunner power core that provides sufficient ( and lightweight ) power for the weapon’s Railgun magnetics etc etc
[ Tech Trees }: Upgrades to Human equipment include:
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Warthogs modified with forerunner anti-grav tech to float like Ghosts do, able to hover above water, have added mobility and capabilities on both LAND and WATER, like a present day Hovercraft would. This would open up new sandbox combat opportunities over water, and be better suited for the Halo Sandbox than a dedicated watercraft would be since as a hover-capable vehicle it is viable over a large breadth of terrain types. Open Water sections could serve as connecting sections to Islands like those featured in HALO CE in the Silent Cartographer level ( and Halo 4 concept art ) and give players a sense of accomplishment as their work to capture various Island facilities from Sentinel ( and other ) antagonist forces to obtain a better foothold on the Interior of the shield world. ((( These water and island regions would take place as one of several Biomes inside the surface of the shield world )))
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Shielded vehicles giving them added defensive capabilities against Sentinel energy beams
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New GAUSS category of weapons that utilize railgun ammo, including an Anti-vehicle Gauss Burst Weapon, High rate of fire Gauss SMG inspired by the Alien Pulse Rifle, a shoulder mounted Point defense system for Spartans ( equipment ) that can act as a trophy system against projectile or energy weapons
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an AMMO fabrication device that can bore into the surface of Forerunner metal, extract resources and slowly create ammo from the materials obtained, allowing Spartans to Resupply from a large UNSC vehicle like the MAMMOTH or another UNSC vehicle from Halo Wars that can be positioned or added to newly captured areas at various intervals.
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Once capturing a zone from the Sentinels, players can choose ( limited ) locations to deploy a Mobile Barracks closer to the front-line allowing reinforcements from ODSTS, and functioning as a spawn point or fast travel location that is CLOSER to the front lines of battle. Players would periodically have to defend these UNITS during events where Sentinels or Prometheans try to recapture zones from the UNSC / Construct Alliance. This would be an evolution of the FOB system that has the ability for players to use resources to Build a variety of vehicles from Halo Wars and use the larger variety of vehicles in the sandbox to route the power Sentinel forces. NOTE: The sentinels would take on new and interesting forms as the Guardian is well equipped enough to modify their appearance via Forerunner Nano-tech to fulfill a variety of combat roles including the equivalent of a “Huragok” which can repair damaged units on the field to get them back into combat"
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Spartan Players recieve AI assistance from a shard of Mendicant BIAS as the Moon had served as a sort of Holding facility for the fallen construct ( Mendicant was moved from Zeta Halo to the Moon, which was more remote than keeping him on ZETA HALO ) , with the Monitor of the installation allowing Mendicant to assist Human forces due to the harrowing situation to retake the facility. One of the missions involves taking back a massive forerunner facility inside the surface of the Shield World where Mendicant’s shard is stored. The Guardians forces have control of the Forerunner Fortress although not the storage region where mendicant is located as the Evacuated Construct of the facility was able to lock them out of that section. UNSC forces work with the construct to retake this heavily fortified facility, obtain the shard of Mendicant and enlist him to help them defeat the Guardian controlling the Shield World’s systems.
There is much more to this concept involving the details of gameplay, biomes, locations, level design and integration of sentinels and new Prometheans but I’ll save that for later depending on how well this is recieved.
Please let me know if you think this would be a cool way to introduce the survival of the Infinity, a new revised version of Co-op/Spartan Ops type experience, and allow us to have a resolution to the fight against the created ( Guardian ) and as a way to Bring back the DIDACT for a more satisfying conclusion to his character arc.
TOP SECRET:
After obtaining more control over the shield world facility, the UNSC and allied forerunner forces use its systems and resources to create hardened facilities that are a suitable colony for mounting fleet assaults against BANISHED FORCES, and later as a massive defensive world platform to defend against the new threat of the ENDLESS, later on in the saga, tying this story to the story of Masterchief and his experience on ZETA HALO. The events of this co-op experience would take place somewhat parallel to Masterchief’s adventures ( both from the current Infinite campaign and future DLC campaigns and serve as the co-op companion story that features your multiplayer Spartan working with Characters from the story such as Blue Team, Locke and Arbiter who run missions, and help out your spartan team along the way )