So along with the wonderful community of Waypoint.org, I am a member of the Spacebattles forum as well, and I should say those guys are funny as hell when it comes to forming reviews about something…so here is full detailed review of all the Three issues of Halo Escalations
Enjoy people!
Halo: Escalation, a very opinionated review by Starbug,SpaceBattles.org
Issue #1 of 5
The issue starts with Commander Palmer advising Fireteam Jackknife, lead by a man named Vladimir Scruggs, that a group of Covenant remnant troops are heading their way across a snow-covered wilderness. Palmer is surprisingly competent, setting up for an ambush and actually wearing her helmet. Scruggs asks what part of the ambush she’ll be playing, and she informs him that she squired a energy sword from the “last Elite I bagged”, and that she’s “kind of itching to use it.”, all this despite being in an elevated, covered position with excellent field of fire and ranged weaponry. Forget everything I said about her being anything even approaching competent. Instead of keeping the range open and using cover, Face-Palmer™ elects to go hand-to-hand with a larger, stronger and probably a lot more experienced Elite just so she can try out her new toy. It’s obviously snowing because it’s Christmas morning, and Santa has been duped into thinking she was a good little SPARTAN this year. She manages to take down the first Elite with ease, but Lasky radios her just as she’s about to be tackled to the ground by a second. She loses her grip on her Precious!!!, and is slammed head-first into a cliff-face for good measure.
Too good for her, I say!
She managed to draw her combat knife and stab the Elite in what I think is supposed to be his lower leg, it’s a little hard to tell, then somehow flips round behind him and gets him in a chin-lock, before jumping off the ledge they’re standing on to snap his neck. She then, in the face of all logic, lands back on the same ledge, next to the dead Elite, and wants to know what’s gotten Lasky so hot under the collar that he’s interrupted her. Lasky responds that he’s walking up to the Combat Deck, and tells her to meet him outside.
We now discover that everything so far has been part of a war-games exercise that Palmer has been putting Jackknife through. She removes her helmet, commenting “God, I hate that thing”, indicating that, while she has learnt at least something from her time on Requiem, she’s still the same old Palmer we all know and loathe. She orders the AI running the war-games system (distinctly not Roland) to reset and put Jackknife through a Capture The Flag scenario. Lasky is waiting outside, and questions her over her actions as he thought she was taking some R&R, to which Palmer responds that gutting Elites is her idea of rest and relaxation. She counters by commenting that she though he was supposed to be heading plant-side for a debriefing, which Lasky confirms, and informs her that the security council has “requested the honour of your presence”. A line that should ideally be followed by “dead or alive”, but we live in an imperfect universe. Lasky insists that it’s just a formality, but Palmer is less than convinced, proving that she’s got at least some survival instincts.
They arrive at Bravo-6, a high security UNSC facility in Sydney, Australia, and are called before the five officers who run the UNSE, and by extension, all Earth-controlled space. We have three Generals that we’ve never seen before, representing the UNSC Army, Marines and Air Force, along with Admirals Hood (Fleet) and Osman (ONI). Hood cuts right to the point, and informs Lasky and Palmer that they’ve been called in to answer a few questions that some members of the council have over the Requiem mission. Lasky gets defensive, turning to look at Palmer (who seems be ether constipated or suffering a stroke, I can’t tell), but Hood reassures him that “nobody’s pointing fingers.”
Osman then starts pointing fingers, making special note of his request to have Catherine Halsey transferred to the Infinity, calling her “one of the most dangerous assets we have in custody”. Lasky counters by pointing out that the Infinity had been ensnared by a Forerunner artefact, and that as their top expert on Forerunner tech, he needed Halsey to try and get it lose. Osman then goes on to talk about Halsey’s illicit communication with Jul 'Mdama, painting the picture that this was the scientists plan all along, and that she was actively collaborating with him the entire time she was on the Infinity, further blaming her for the destruction of Requiem. Lasky counter-attacks by pointing out that, while Requiem was lost to them, it was also lost to 'Mdama and his followers. And given their primary mission was to stop another attack like New Phoenix, he considers it a success, on the whole. With Lasky showing that he actually has a spine, Osman turns her attention on Palmer, bring up the botched attempt to assassinate Halsey. She states that the order went through Lasky, and that he then sent Fireteam Majestic to stop her. Lasky looks like someone who’s just seen their career go down in flames before their very eyes, but Palmer denies it, much to Osman’s visible surprise. Palmer defends Lasky, stating that, in her mind, Majestic had been sent in as a contingency plan, in case she failed in her mission, which she freely admits she did.
We cut back to the Infinity, where Lasky and Palmer are discussing the debriefing while jogging in a large, park like area with a transparent roof. Lasky asks why Palmer lied to protect him, and she responds by pointing out that it was obvious that Osman was setting him up to be the fall-guy for everything that went wrong on Requiem. She points out that they -Yoink–canned Del Rio, who had decades of experience over Lasky, and that it wasn’t a situation he could get out of by playing it by the book. Roland interrupts them to report that a shuttle with a diplomatic transponder is approaching, requesting permission to dock. Lasky changes into uniform and heads down to the docking bay to greet Admiral Hood, who informs him that they Infinity is to depart immediately on a top-priority mission. Lasky is dismayed to hear that they won’t be leading the hunt for 'Mdama, but Hood insists that it has nothing to do with Requiem and Osman being mad at him.
It transpires that the Brutes are sitting on a number of resource rich worlds in an area of space under the joint control of the UNSC and forces loyal to the Arbiter. They’re unhappy that they’re not doing as well as others, post-war, but no one has the force available to confront them. Instead they plan to support a Chieftain, Lydus, who’s the closets thing the Brutes have to reasonable, in the hopes that he’ll be grateful enough for their support in his rise to power that he doesn’t just turn on them at the first opportunity. Its a very tense mission, that requires meeting at a former Covenant facility on a barley hospitable planet. The basic idea is to get Lydus and the Arbiter into a room together so they can hash out a deal with the UNSC provides security and moderation.
Fireteams Jackknife and Bailey escort Hood, Lasky and Palmer down, along with the Arbiter and his -Yoink!-. Bailey are left to guard the shuttle, while Jackknife provide security inside the base.
Contd in next para…
