Warning rambling idea by a want to be writer.
Banished heart
This DLC starts with a destress call, origin a larger chunk of the ring south of the main area which some retriever Sentinels have just moved into place. the pilot will inform Chief about it asking him to head back to the main out post for lift off. Once there, you will board the pelican with several UNSC marines and a cutscene will start.
Into the fire
The screen zooms off of chief and past the marines up to the pilot who has a UNSC co-pilot. Echo 216 calls in to the distress signal.
Echo: This is Echo-216 to unknown UNSC personel we got your distress signal and are in route
Unknown: Garbled
Echo: State again
unkown: This is Captan Locke, reverse course it is a trap, fall back.
Echo: Understood, Everyone hold on
Screen goes to a third person of the pelican as a gorespike cannon opens fire clipping the wing and causing the pelican to shutter Echo takes evasive actions and even opens fire with the front chaingun damaging the AA gun before landing just on the edge of a cliff the the camera zooming back into Chief as it lands marines quickly taking position behind cover as banished forces approach.
Echo: We got a large force of banished incoming Chief hold them off while I repair the bird.
A defensive mission starts weapons on the ground and 10 marines to help you. You have to hold out for 5 minutes as stronger and stronger banished forces enter the area. as the forces come it gets harder and harder at the 5 minute mark a scripted event happens.
Suddenly the cliff above and to the left shakes as a banished locust appears but its IFF is friendly the thing fires a beam down hill cutting through the banished forces and killing a hunter pair the vehicle will head down the cliff melting any remaining banished before opening up, Locke getting out and tossing a plasma grenade into the locust causing it to explode once he is done with it.
Locke doesn’t have spartan armor, instead he is in UNSC BDU’s the only sign of his spartan augments being a prostetic left leg and right hand.
Locke: Chief, IT is good to see you are alive. Listen my men where trying to take back this section after the Infinity went down. Until you showed up we wheren’t making any progress. I don’t know what you did but the bulk of the banished forces including the killers left us alone.
Locke then turns towards the path the banished came from.
Locke: we have an FoB set up just bellow, but it isn’t going to do you any good until that Gorespike cannon is down.
(this is all in game)
From here you get a mission to move down a cliff side combat area with a large rushing river weaving through it. The area locke and his men where left on is a huge sprawling swamp with hostile native life which fights both the UNSC and the banished.
Upon reaching the FoB it will be noted to have 2 shade turrets, and a ghost spawn point. as well as ammo boxes for each main ammo type.
Weapons of destruction
Upon activating the FoB a cutscene will play the weapon popping up and Locke not even flinching as he says “I knew you wouldn’t let them delete it. Good thing too we need her.”
The FoB activates and Locke gives the info on the area.
Locke: Ok listen up we managed to set up 5 FoB’s in this area but lost control of them shortly after ringfall when the banished set up those AA guns.
the screen pans to 6 different AA guns on the map
Locke: and these are not the only things keeping us grounded, there is a scarab patrolling these swamps and with out airsupport we don’t have the men or fire power to take it down.
HVT shows up on the map a scarab.
Locke: Chief I know I can’t order you to do anything, you out rank me, but we need these things taken out so I can get the marines together for a push against the banished base in this region. We have a 2 more pelicans and several surviving ODSTS. And we need that base down.
open world section
new features
5 HVTs including the scarab
5 FOBS
3 Banished minor bases. ranging from A banshee repair yard, to an engineering facility.
New enemies
Jack-low
info: an HVT jackal armed with a modified UNSC sniper rifle this rifle is suppressed. to make this jackal even worse they are cloaked.
Banished humans
info: First seen after destroying the closest AA gun, these are human members of the banished. the use UNSC weapons and vehicles. Nothing like being gunned down by enemy hogs and scorpions.
note: the HVT humans are a squad of insurrectionists who joined the banished They have 2 wasps and a freaking sparrow hawk (you can call in the sparrowhawk after destroying all the AA guns.)
Hunter captain
info: comes in two types standard and the HVT Colony’s hand. These captains are hunters with slightly less health but a personal shield and twin fire mode cannon which can fire a beam or a burst of damage.
Brute grenadiers
info: seeing chief just wipe through their forces the brutes have brought out the big guns. These guys are armed with brute shots 4 rounds of death with high impact explosives
HVT: Grimar the demolisher, armed with a brute shot that has an energy bayonet and Human laser sight, this brute shot fires laser guided rounds.
Huragok
info: a neutral creature marines will not open fire on them Huragok will avoid fighting even if the unit they are attached to is killed. This section lacks a free marines objective instead having save engineers objectives where you have to get close enough to disable the bindings keeping them under banished control.
There are 6 Huragok in the area, each one will fly to the nearest FoB once saved. these guys will grant marines shields and chief an over shield if they get close. Marines given shields via these guys will have a weaker version of the players shield.
NEW VEHICLES
Marine vehicles
Once this DLC is installed marines can once again drive vehicles, though they are limited to hogs, wasps, and mongeese outside of specific setpieces. Example the last mission in this has Chief and Locke leading the marines to assault
Locust
info: a halo wars staple and one of the best mech vehicles in halo outside the mantis, the locust is a hostile anti vehicle/structure unit found in this DLC. This is mainly seen guarding major roads acting as an anti vehicle “turret” though they will move a bit. Unlike other vehicles they still have a shield a dome shield protects them and prevents the player from grappling onto them while it is active requiring consentrated fire before they can be boarded and blown up.
Note: a few empty ones are found around the map that the player can pilot.
av-22 sparrow hawk
Info: an anti ground vehicle similar to the wasp in fact it can be seen as the wasps older cousin armed with 4 30mm chainguns and a chin mounted spartan laser this thing is designed for taking out vehicles. Access to this vehicle is gained at FoB’s after taking out a banished pilot who is driving one.
Reaver
info: after Chief took out esherum the banished have called in their AA forces these might not be able to take out a pelican, but they can sure blow a wasp out of the sky. Armed with heavy ground to air guided missiles (can be fired ground to ground like a mortar.) and a skewer cannon these jumping mechs are nothing to laugh at.
note: these are there purely to counter flying around in a wasp and owning everything or avoiding all combat.
WEAPONS
m90 shotgun
info: 8 round internal tube, the range of a bulldog, and the damage of a mangler slower to fire and useless against shields (looses its one tap against brute shields in PvP only has that one tap at point blank.)
M6D
info: lockes main sidearm, 7 rounds of death and a pocket sniper to boot. In PvP is a accuracy focused weapon with a 3 shot kill (more or less a DMR)
Brute shot
info: 4 rounds high explosive impact or timed detonation, swap modes to determine which.
Storm rifle
info: oddly enough found in the hands of both marines and the banished. has a UNSC version that has the swords symbol on it, and a banished version that has spikes. The banished version is found on the map the UNSC at fobs.
STORY BITS
Just a collection of basic story bits for this.
first act: dectivate the AA guns allowing access to the FoBs, then meet up with Locke and his forces at the south of the island where they are making a push for a banished facility known as the nest.
The push starts with 3 scorpions being dropped in Echo 216 dropping in one for chief a hanable scorpion that he was told to pick up. this is a vehicle section you have 2 allied tanks, several allied razorbacks and hogs and a few wasps.
It is a long road push and after you clear it 2 HVTs will appear as you can return to the area. This path has a fight with several wraiths, stolen UNSC tanks, hostile banshees and many a ghost and phantom. The biggest thing is the Reavers and locusts which are huge threats half way through you can even take a locust giving you a huge power boost.
Eventually you make it to the facility Locke is after where he tells chief what is going on. that facility is a prison like the house of reckoning. And in it is several members of Infinities command crew, people they need to orgignize a resistance.
locke saying something like: Chief You can’t do this alone and neither can I, we need some brass. You in.
This bring a prison break mission, where you enter a banished facility and just start breaking out prisoners disabling lock downs and turrets. With each bit of the mission showing more and more marine allies fighting back.
And interesting point happens half way though the mission where you open some cells and are greated by several elites and marines once chief frees the marines the marines head over and free the elites. one of them saying “We are all in this now.” As the elite grabs a UNSC weapon.
By the end of the prison break mission you have BDU marines, elites, a few jackals, and even a few brutes fighting by your side.
Once the prison is delt with chief will have a boss fight with the warden a Grey guard brute armed with a brute shot which fires incendiary ammo (FoB unlocked afterwords)
The final cutscene of the prison has chief in the command center activating a switch which allows the UNSC command staff out of their cells. the screen pulls out to show the prison bellow UNSC personel taking it over and some soldiers rasing a flag.
From this point on this prison is now a UNSC base, two pelicans landing in the court yard.
the next mission has you heading down to that court yard and meeting up with Locke who will thank chief and inform him that they are not done here yet, before he can tell chief the mission an officer comes into view salutes the chief and tells him the mission instead.
Officer: I don’t know what the spook has told you, but we have one last objective on this section. A Banished intelligence facility to the south west of here. thing is it has more AA guns and the only way there is that.
He points to chiefs grapple hook
Officer: I need you to head over to the cave system and breach the banished defenses, once the AA guns are down, we will send the weapon a mark for an FoB head there set it up. then we will make a push on the facility.
Open world section two
AA guns 3
HVTs: zero
Unique encounters: 1 engineer rescue site.
FoB location: 1
Banished bases: Intelegence center(primary objective) Heavy munitions depot (base where they produce ammo for the gorespike cannons)
The final mission in this place will happen after you take out the AA guns, Several wasps will fly in and the pelicans will drop of razorbacks full of marines, an empty one will be near the chief. Marines heavily armed with them.
Unique marine dialog is played during this
Marine1: Damn I hate these BDU
marine2: What miss your ODST armor
marine1: Of course I miss my armor, that visor saved my -Yoink!-.
From here you lead an assault on the intel building this is a rather complex mission as the swampy area around it has a unique hazard… mines.
These needler mines explode sending blamite everywhere only kills if you step directly on it. good thing you are in vehicles.
As the mission goes pelicans will drop off allied troops. this being a mostly outside mission. the mission ends with you taking out another scarab the second one in this section. as Locke Shuts down the facility.
Once it is done the marines in this section join the main force.
rewards in main for the DLC
new FoB weapons and vehicles
ODST FoB spawns
if saved all: Engineer FoB spawns (shields for marines and repair vehicles)
marines seen driving on the main area in patrol
ability to call in a ravager, ghosts, or banshees, at FoBs.