Halo 3 is a 2007 sequel to 2004's Halo 2, for the Xbox 360.

Prophet of Truth

• How could I have known the Parasite would follow?! Undoubtedly this is the Heretics' doing. A final, bitter curse. Clear evidence of treachery long hidden. So far are we along the path, that I must strain to hear the clumsy patter of their feet. Know this my brothers: They may foul the way with their charred and broken bones, but they will not stop the Journey.

Gravemind

• Do not be afraid. I am peace; I am salvation.
• Time has taught me patience! But basking in new freedom, I will know all that I possess!
• Of course, you came for her... We exist together now. Two corpses in one grave.
• Do not shoot, but listen! Let me lead you safely to our foe. Only you can halt what he has set in motion.
• Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness: a father's sins pass to his son.
• Do I take life or give it? Who is victim, and who is foe?
• You will show me what she hides, or I shall feast upon your bones!
• Resignation is my virtue. Like water, I ebb and flow. Defeat is but the addition of time to a sentence I never deserved... but you imposed.
• [From the Announcement Trailer at E3 2006] I have defied Gods and Demons. I am your shield; I am your sword. I know you: your past, your future. This is the way the world ends.

Dialogue

[Opening scene of the game]

Cortana: [voice-over against a night sky] They let me pick. Did I ever tell you that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted. [a yellow comet appears in the sky and slowly streaks across the screen] You know me. I did my research. Watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave. A natural leader. But you had something they didn't. [a smaller comet breaks off from the main one] Something else no one saw but me. Can you guess? Luck. [the smaller comet suddenly plummets down to the earth and crashes off-screen. The scene fades to black] ...Was I wrong?

[Fades in to Sergeant Johnson and several Marines at the area where the object, the Master Chief, hit the ground.]:

Marine 1: This ain't good…

Marine 2: Damn. How far did he fall?

Marine 3: Two kilometers, easy.

Sergeant Johnson: Stay sharp! Corpsman?

Corpsman: His armor's locked up. Gel layer could have taken most of the impact…I don't know, Sergeant Major…

Sergeant Johnson: [sighs, then pulls out an empty data chip from Master Chief's helmet] Radio for VTOL. Heavy lift gear. We're not leaving him here.

Master Chief: [grabs Johnson's shoulder and pulls himself to his feet] Yeah, you're not.

Sergeant Johnson: Crazy fool. Why do you always jump?! One of these days, you're gonna land on something as stubborn as you are! And I don't do bits and pieces. [The Master Chief stares at the data chip] Where is she, Chief? Where is Cortana?

[The Chief remembers Cortana's last words from Halo 2: "Don't make a girl a promise…if you know you can't keep it."]

Master Chief: [putting the data chip back in his helmet] She stayed behind.

Sergeant Johnson: Corporal? Make it quick.

Corpsman: Sorry, sir. [to Master Chief] Your armor's still in partial lockdown…

[There is a brief shimmer in the air before the Arbiter decloaks. Master Chief grabs a pistol and shoves it between the Arbiter's lower mandibles]

Sergeant Johnson: Chief, wait! The Arbiter's with us! Come on, now. We've got enough to worry about without you two trying to kill each other.

Arbiter: [snaps threateningly at Master Chief] Were it so easy.[The Master Chief reluctantly lowers the pistol]

Brute: [interrogating Reynolds] Tell me its location!

Gunnery Sergeant Reynolds: [chuckles] Kiss…my…ass.

Prophet of Truth: You are, all of you, vermin. Cowering in the dirt, thinking…what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No. Your world will burn until its surface is but glass, and not even your Demon will live to creep, blackened from its hole, to mar the reflection of our passage. The culmination of our Journey, for your destruction is the will of the gods! And I? I am their instrument!

Sergeant Johnson: Cocky bastard…just loves to run his mouth.

Master Chief: Does he usually mention me?

Keyes: Give the order! We're closing shop!

343 Guilty Spark: [grabbing a small computer that is thought to be Cortana] I must act quickly before your construct suffers any further trauma!

Master Chief: [grabbing the computer back] Wait. Leave her alone.

343 Guilty Spark: If we do not take this to a safe location, somewhere I can make repairs--

Master Chief: On Halo, you tried to kill Cortana. You tried to kill me.

343 Guilty Spark: Protocol dictated my response! She had the Activation Index. And you were going to destroy my Installation. You did destroy my Installation. Now I have only one function: to help you, Reclaimer, as I always should have done.

Rtas 'Vadum: Did you not hear? Your world is doomed. A Flood army, a Gravemind, has you in its sights. You barely survived a small contamination.

Lord Hood: And you, Ship Master, just glassed half a continent! Maybe the Flood isn't all I should be worried about.

Rtas 'Vadum: One single Flood spore can destroy a species. Were it not for the Arbiter's counsel, I would have glassed your entire planet!

Miranda: Sir, with respect, Cortana has a solution--

Lord Hood: Cortana? Did you see her condition? How damaged she is? She could be corrupted, for all we know. Her solution could be a Flood trap.

Lord Hood: Earth... is all we have left. You trust Cortana that much?

Master Chief: Sir. Yes, sir.

Lord Hood: This is either the best decision you've ever made, or the worst. Hell if it is, Chief... I doubt I'll live long enough to find out which.

Gunnery Sergeant Stacker: All armor, form up on the lower doorway! Chief, head upstairs! Have your robot pick that lock!

343 Guilty Spark: I beg your pardon?! I am 343 Guilty Spark, monitor of Installation 04!

Stacker: Yeah, well, you're also our ticket through this wall. So if you don't mind?

343 Guilty Spark: I will gladly aid the Reclaimer's progress.

UNSC Pilot: Hey, what gives?

343 Guilty Spark: It seems I've crossed a circuit.

UNSC Pilot: Well let me have a look- [Guilty Spark uses a weaker version his sentinel beam on the pilot] Aah!

Arbiter: Oracle!

UNSC Pilot: Little bastard stung me!

343 Guilty Spark: I did not want you to come to any harm.

UNSC Pilot: You've got a funny way of showin' it.

[The shield surrounding the Citadel falls. All characters watch as the Shadow of Intent approaches the Ark's Cidatel.]

Rtas 'Vadum: Now, Prophet... your end has come.

[Miranda Keyes is attempting to rescue Johnson and stop the activation of Halo. She is now surrounded by Brutes.]

Prophet of Truth: You cannot hope to kill them all.

Miranda Keyes: You're right.

[She looks at Johnson and slowly aims her gun at him.]

Johnson: Do it. Me, then you. [Miranda hesitates] Now! [Suddenly, Miranda is hit from behind by Spiker rounds and falls to the ground, dead.] NO!! [Tries to run towards her, but is restrained by a Brute]

Prophet of Truth: [Drops a Spiker] Your forefathers wisely set aside their compassion, steeled themselves for what needed to be done. I see now why they left you behind. You were weak. And gods must be strong. [Pushes Johnson's hand against the Control panel, activating the firing sequence of the Halo Array.]

Prophet of Truth: Can you see, Arbiter? The moment of salvation is at hand.

Arbiter: [grabbing Truth by the throat] It will not last.

Prophet of Truth: Your kind…never believed in the promise of the sacred rings.

Gravemind: [speaking through Truth] Lies for the weak. Beacons for the deluded.

Arbiter: I will have my revenge on a Prophet—not a plague.

Prophet of Truth: My feet tread the path. I shall become a god!

Gravemind: You will be food, nothing more.

[The Master Chief walks over to the console and presses a button, stopping the firing sequence.]

Prophet of Truth: No!! I...am...Truth! The voice of the Covenant!

Arbiter: And so, you must be silenced.

[The Arbiter impales the Prophet of Truth, who screams before he dies. The Arbiter then roars in triumph. Suddenly the room shakes and the Gravemind's tentacles appear]

Gravemind: [mocking laughter] Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside, corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide!

Arbiter: We trade one villain for another.

Cortana: You found me. But so much of me is wrong, out of place, you might be too late.

Master Chief: You know me. When I make a promise…

Cortana: [notices the Chief] You...keep it. I do know how to pick 'em.

Master Chief: Lucky me. Do you still have it?

Cortana: The Activation Index from the first Halo ring. A little souvenir I held onto, just in case. Got an escape plan?

Master Chief: Thought I'd try shooting my way out. Mix things up a little. [He removes Cortana from the pillar and slides the disk back into his helmet.]

Cortana: Just keep your head down. There's two of us in here now, remember? [Reference to Halo: Combat Evolved, when the Chief's shields go out after first getting Cortana]

05 032 Mendicant Bias: [speaking to the Chief through the last terminal] You don't know the contortions I had to go through to follow you here, Reclaimer. I know what you're here for. What position do I take? Will I follow one betrayal with another? You're going to say I'm making a habit of turning on my masters. But the one that destroyed me long ago, in the upper atmosphere of a world far distant from here, was an implement far cruder than I. My weakness was capacity - unintentional though it was! - to choose the Flood. A mistake my makers would not soon forgive. But I want something far different from you, Reclaimer. Atonement. And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example.

Cortana: [Hearing Guilty Spark] Was that the monitor? You didn't tell me he was here. [pause] Well, we are finally doing what he wanted.

343 Guilty Spark: [In a state of hysterics after learning that the Master Chief plans to fire his Halo ring prematurely] Unacceptable! Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable! Protocol dictates action! I see now that helping you was wrong! You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You are Forerunner! But this ring...is mine.

Sergeant Johnson: [mortally wounded after Guilty Spark shoots him] Don't - don't let her go. Don't...ever let her go. Send me out... with a bang. [dies]

Grunt: [Addressing the Master Chief in IWHBYD easter-egg] Hey, Demon! The Jerk-Store called, and they're all out of you! Poor you; stolen at the age of six and conscripted into the military. Boo-hoo! [looking scared] Okay look, if you let me live, I got the fist of Rukt! [startled yelp] I'll be on the bottom! I'll polish your boots, I'll polish your helmet! [delirous giggle] It's the gas! When I'm on the gas I don't know what I'm doing half the time.

Cortana: If we don't make it...

Master Chief: We'll make it.

Cortana: It's been an honor serving with you, John.

Lord Hood: I remember how this war started. What your kind did to mine. I can't forgive you…but you have my thanks. For standing with him to the end. [shakes the Arbiter's hand] Hard to believe [Master Chief]'s dead.

Arbiter: [glances skyward] Were it so easy. [reference to his first line in Halo 3, as detailed above]

Rtas 'Vadum: Things look different now, without the Prophets' lies clouding my vision. I would like to see our own world, to know that it is safe.

Arbiter: Fear not, for we have made it so.

Rtas 'Vadum: By your word, Arbiter.

Arbiter: Take us home.

Cortana: I'll drop a beacon, but it'll be a while before anyone finds us. Years even. [The Master Chief climbs into a cryogenic freezing tube] I'll miss you.

Master Chief: [as the cryo tube closes] Wake me, when you need me.

Cortana: But you did it. Truth and the Covenant, the Flood... It's finished.

Master Chief: It's finished. (referencing the final lines of Halo: Combat Evolved where Cortana said it was finished and the Chief disagreed)

External links