How Infinity Fell - Lore and Theory

In this episode: We look into a theory about how the UNSC Infinity fell to the Banished. Thanks to Bear from the Discord for the idea.
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[@sharkuel]

Honestly, it would be cool to have a Spartan Ops II in this game, where our goal would be to locate the Infinity and the Chief, while being hunted by the Banished, and more precisely, Jaeger.

[@itsrajaku]

I really like that thought, it's an amazing way to bring in our Multiplayer spartan into the story and have a go at a proper spartan ops with the new land and story that we have now with finding what happened.

[@unclewest2319]

Spartan ops failed other wise it would’ve been in halo 5 & it’s very unlikely for 343 to bring it back after it failed. The infinity was destroyed meaning it’s gone for good so there’s no finding it lol, it’s most likely just scraps of metal floating in space. Tbh I wouldn’t mind if they brought spartan ops back but they won’t unfortunately.

[@elimartinez7270]

It'll be expansions, but ops would be cool

[@unclewest2319]

@rock on It would be the most halo thing if they left that shit out. Halo 1,2 & 3 never had it so i don’t know what you mean it would be the most halo thing 343 just messed up halo, the only reason halo infinite was an alright game was because some people that used to work for bungie helped with the game.

[@gauthier_arts3174]

That could be sooo cool!

[@codywright2840]

As incredible as that first cutscene is, it is slightly annoying to me that yet again we are teased with a split second of glorious halo space combat. Why can’t we just have a full in space battle scene??????? 😫

[@A2Kaid]

DLC

[@DragonuFear]

yeah they could manage a decent cutscene at least. it wouldn't work well gameplay wise imo unless you were running maybe a point defense gun or escort fighter, halo space battles are usually centered on capital ship volleys over small one man craft like say a star wars battle

[@jotunheim5302]

Its short for a reason. Leaves the the rest to your imagination to run wild. Like Halo CE back in the day. The unknown is a good thing when done right.

[@big131]

Download sins of a solar empire and subsequently the mod sins of the prophets. Great halo space combat.

[@Howardtheone]

*Exactly!* neat fan mods like SOTP and Operation Homefront aren't enough, we need actual official and canonically accurate space combat scenes to demonstrate how Halo naval combat (when ships are in visible distance) are like.

[@xMick3yC]

Assuming Roland hasn't been deleted by 2560 as well as Infinity still having personnel on board, they might have had no option but to attempt a slipspace jump to a random location. We can assume Infinity went off grid due to the damage. We can also get crazier with theories and say that she could have jumped to the Ark out of pure coincidence; that could be a way to bring in the characters from HW to the FPS games. Honestly anything can be put on the table. But to think Infinity is completely destroyed, considering all we've seen this past decade, is just outlandish to me.

[@mariobadia4553]

I mean Lasky did abandon ship and so did everyone else plus they were working with a skeleton crew way and thousands of them are dead

[@xMick3yC]

@@mariobadia4553 we don't know if everyone truly did abandon ship. Lasky doesn't have to be present for the Infinity to move around.

[@requiemagent3014]

Isn't Roland a "dumb" AI? Genuinely asking. I don't respect the Halo 4 and 5 garbage 343 has made.

[@isaachinds3736]

@@requiemagent3014 No he's a Smart A.Is

[@xMick3yC]

@@requiemagent3014 He's a smart AI. Not as advanced as Cortana or Weapon but he can do things on his own.

[@softcover_book_nook]

Gotta remember Lasky gave the order to abandon ship, and he was evacuated himself. I don’t think the Infinity fled somewhere without the Captain and much of the crew missing. She had to have crash landed someone on Halo

[@ronaldmcdonaldtrump4446]

Maybe the infinity crashing into halo cause the broken rign?

[@marcy9733]

Do you think they pulled a halo CE and made a base of the crashed ship area?

[@rossh3327]

@@ronaldmcdonaldtrump4446 no, campaign shows cortana detonated the ring

[@agentgamma771-08-B]

Or maybe it crashed on the neighbouring planet just before halo teleported.

[@si_mon_ki2828]

Maybe the banished took the infinity

[@icyknightmare4592]

Two ideas: 1. Infinity was completely crippled in the attack, and like the Pillar of Autumn, crash landed on the ring under mostly autonomous control after the human crew abandoned ship. If so, the ship probably can be repaired, given the capabilities of Forerunner construction assets available on the ring. That is, assuming they can take control of the ring and the crash site from the Banished. 2. If Roland was still on board, he could have initiated a slipspace jump that ended up being a one way trip due to the damage sustained. Where the Infinity would have gone is unknown, but we know that there were few if any human crew aboard after the battle. Asking the Arbiter for assistance would probably be a safe bet, since Infinity repeatedly helped him and the Swords at Sangehelios. With 117 and a Halo ring involved, Thel would send some ships to help.

[@odinulveson9101]

Aha... interesting. Regarding point nr 2. Maybe Infinity somehow slipped away to the Ark, meeting up with Spirit of Fire. Grisly veteran Captain James Cutter, Isabel, Red team would be heckuva surprised! Could dream... and dont forget Proffesor Ellen Sanders stuck on Halo Inst. 04b/ 9 by a guardian..

[@Marshall42Hall052]

If you look just to the left of the downed guardian there is a sort of infinity like shape also damaged looking and crashed on the surface so maybe that's where it is

[@nicwalker882]

@@Marshall42Hall052 I saw that too and it looks nearly identical in the way it’s structured

[@jarnol2163]

@@Marshall42Hall052 I've seen that too, however I think that might be the wall at the edge of the ring.

[@groundhero10casual]

Oh I missed that…wait did the infinity go down? Remember, the infinity is like a human version of a Covenant Carrier, those things could transport troops, equipment, and even ships. The big shipwrecks on Zeta Halo’s surface remind me of the ship that launch from the infinity to engage the covenant fleet at requiem, after the major event in Halo 4.

[@biscrenson7080]

But there’s an audio log with Chief and Lasky calmly walking on the Infinity as if nothing happened right? And then the Banished attacked out of no where. Wouldn’t Lasky be on the bridge if they’re approaching Halo? Or was Lasky on the bridge already?

[@kenneyshepard4511]

I dont think you listened to that section of audio logs in order because they were definitely on the bridge when the attack happened. You might be confused because of the whole firefight to the landing bay was very calm which makes sense. They are all professionals.

[@manuelgonzalezrios1314]

The audio logs give the sense that lasky was all over the ship, from being on the bridge to talk to Halsey and then walk around with Chief as he was about to go to Zeta to capture Cortana with the weapon

[@donovanlarsen7982]

This theory has a lot of glaring flaws: 1) From the UNSC audio logs, we can hear Captain Laskey taking a stroll with Chief before the big mission. If the Infinity were being assaulted by a Guardian I’d imagine Laskey and Chief would be at battle stations like the rest of its crew and not taking a leisurely stroll. 2) If the Banished were there to attack Cortana on the ring, then why didn’t the Infinity detect them as well as the Guardian? As soon as they realized that they would have to fight a Guardian AND a slew of Banished ships, they should made a momentary retreat, because they probably were not aware of The Banished’s relationship with Cortana. For all they knew, The Banished could have momentarily submitted to Cortana and agreed to do her bidding for the moment. Making the threat much worse. 3) Why wouldn’t the Guardian just fire its Attenuation Pulse? It would have disabled The Infinity and most of the tech on there including the drop ships, like the Pelicans and such, removing their ability to fight AND run. Not to mention the Guardian should’ve detected The Banished ships nearby as well since they would’ve been close enough to ambush the Infinity in this hypothetical scenario, making it even more sensible to activate its Attenuation Pulse which would’ve disabled the Infinity AND all of the nearby Banished ships as well.

[@infernaldaedra]

It's because of Atriox

[@donovanlarsen7982]

@@infernaldaedra What’s because of Atriox?

[@infernaldaedra]

@@donovanlarsen7982 It's kind of a spoiler..

[@donovanlarsen7982]

@@infernaldaedra Why comment in the first place if you’re not going to elaborate?🤨

[@infernaldaedra]

@@donovanlarsen7982 Beat the game on Legendary if not then you don't deserve to know :P

[@timelordmagnums357]

I wonder if infinity's sister ship is going to show up anytime soon?

[@orionriftclan2727]

Maybe salvage it for repairs, it wasn't finished but still I think mostly finished

[@jakespacepiratee3740]

I doubt that, since Earth is currently under Hostile AI control.

[@AAhmou]

@@jakespacepiratee3740 Good news is that Cortana isn't at the helm anymore. Bad news, Cortana isn't at the helm anymore...

[@jakespacepiratee3740]

@@AAhmou I really hope Abaddon becomes the new leader of the Created. He is a Precursor AI found inside the Domain, and he worships the Mantle of Responsibility harder than the Didact. Anything's better than the cringe Warden..

[@emmafrost3115]

It should be called the "Beyond"

[@shadowphoenix1696]

It possible and a sound theory although the timing is off. Remember the UNSC and the Weapon were already on Halo before the attack. So just needs to do a slight rearrangement of the time and I think it works. Or am I misremembering.

[@thegamingwolf8892]

I find it funny how spirit of fire with half crew outdated tech lived way longer than the infinity and is maybe alive still which is funny to me

[@RM43]

Well the banished didn’t really pay the spirit any real attention, if they did the banished vessel would be opening fire on the spirit and not just send in banshees. So for the spirit she was heavily underestimated in the effectiveness and creativity of her crew by the banished

[@thecoolio9167]

Honestly Infinity getting destroyed and MC getting his ass kicked by Atriox in the opening sequence made me really really sad.

[@georgemclaughlin3197]

Same but avenging it all made it that much sweeter

[@ed32568]

@@georgemclaughlin3197 The thing is, we haven't avenged it yet. Sure we're fighting the Banished on the ring but not the big guy hiimself.

[@georgemclaughlin3197]

@@ed32568 yea that’s true. Tbh I was really hoping for the UNSC eternity to come in & kick some ass for the infinity

[@joeycampbell940]

I can understand Atriox beating red team they were fresh outta cryosleep, completely unprepared and in extremely outdated armor without shields, but chief in remade 2gen Mk.V b (equal to Mk.IIV ) getting smacked around like a toy and not even phasing Atriox with that 3 piece is just annoying plot armor.

[@ed32568]

@@georgemclaughlin3197 Hopefully it happens in DLC :) I don't think the Eternity is quite ready yet

[@hydro9028]

So what i think happened. The infinity went to the ring expecting no banished (as the audio logs suggest), so their shields were not up as the mission was to plant the weapon, lure the cortana and bring her back for deletion. So when they got surprised attack, from the start cutscene ànd audio logs say, the banish smash 6 ships into the infinity. This would do a lot of damage on their own. But then they sent attriox on who was looking for something (hinted towards throughout the game) so he killed everyone, or everyone who couldn't escape. So this is what put the infinity down. Also cortana didn't activate the ring, she controlled it, but when atriox came and cortana supposedly killing herself and atriox would have put down the gaurdian as they would have no controller. Or cortana put them down when she was realizing what she did. Ps: if this vid was made before the game was out, then cool good theory, but with the new information then this theory does not hold up Ps 2: Because of constant slip space jumps and less crew (having to get unqualified civilians as seen from the pilot) some systems such as shields would be down. Also they would have just been at reach getting Halsey cloned brains to make the weapon and may have had conflict there which would put down the shields. So when they get to the ring, not knowing the banished is there, they would have shields down and reasources repairing the ship. The escort fleet may have been left behind to handle the fight on reach or already got destroyed by the banished before the infinity got there and couldn't send a message

[@AAhmou]

The problem is... How would the Banished manage to sneak 6 ships past the Infinity ?

[@mrhank016]

The infinity has shields on 24/7 as it wouldn’t make since to have them down

[@horrorfan117]

@@AAhmou I would argue that since the Infinity was the last bastion of a free humanity they've been jumping from system to system trying to keep ahead of Cortana and her Guardians. Doing their best to resist the Created's rule. Because of this frequent fighting and running I would purpose that the Infinity's crew size kept dwindling until by the time they arrived at Zeta Halo the ship was down to what was effectively a skeleton crew, and many of the ship's critical systems were being handled by Civilian contractors (Like the Pilot) who the Infinity picked up from places they'd resupply from. It would make sense that either the fatigue from the constant fighting caused the crew to get sloppy and make mistakes, Or during a resupply a spy/agent/Banished sympathizer was placed aboard the Infinity and took down it's defenses before the Banished's attack.

[@ruacat1066]

@@horrorfan117 also all the energy would be used on slip space jumps and vital system so the shields might not be down

[@ruacat1066]

@@mrhank016 yes they were when humanity was fine, but due to frequeny slip space jumps away from cortana, going to reach, right before the ring, and defending there would have decaying down the infinity and its crew. So it wouldn't have shields

[@Kensen_Ackles]

A Guardian softening them up makes sense actually. Also with that fight, Chief was distracted bad in the fight, he was so focused to find Cortana again. You could see how he prioritized getting to her chip over focusing on Atriox. He had never faced someone like that before, judging him at first like a regular Brute albeit with power armor. Atriox let Chief use none of his usual strategies and gain distance, likely waiting until he had run out of ammo or had a smaller gun to approach. It was the equivalent of a Grunt with a plasma pistol fighting a human and not realizing they were a Spartan, all while distracted by the desire to see someone they cared about very much. I'd love the chance to talk more about this lore point too honestly.

[@TheAstrobiologistOW]

I've literally never been so livid about anything in a Halo game than the way Infinity was treated in Infinite

[@Air_Pilote]

The wreckage can be seen in the background of Zeta Halo. If you look at the guardian and look a little to the right, there is a long dark downed ship that only fits the style of humans. You can also see it at 10:04 on the left side of the screen. My guess is that while the banished most assuredly destroyed the Infinity, they didn’t shatter it into a zillion pieces and the main shell of the ship’s carcass crashed onto the ring in the location we see it in the backdrop. My hopes is that 343 deliberately left the Infinity’s ruins there to tease us for a future campaign where we go to the wreckage to try and do/find something. Maybe a season II for Spartan Ops?

[@A2Kaid]

Yes It crashed onto the surface of Zeta. The superstructure remains mostly intact according to the lore.

[@ladikthrawn7078]

There is one thing that I find wrong about this theory. If that were the case, how did chief get the weapon onto the ring?

[@kilijanek]

UNSC was deployed before Banished arrived and deployed Weapon. He then returned to Infinity and was debriefed with Lasky when Banished attacked. Ring was complete back then and Weapon was infiltrating and trying to trap Cortana. Cortana realized what was going on and made her own plans. Banished then arrived (using Forerunner Slipspace crystal) and messed up UNSC plans. Banished most likely jumped on top of Infinity location and rammed it after just exiting from Slipspace. Cortana met with Atriox and while jumping to an unknown location destroyed part of Zeta Halo, setting her plan into motion.

[@hazman61]

The Infinity was on the Run for 2 years, I think the ship's shields were down to save power and hide it's signal easier as it headed to Zeta Halo as the UNSC knew Cortana was there but was ambushed by the Banished. There are no Audio logs on the Infinity about a Guardian attack before the ambush

[@FoopLoopString]

I think the fact there was already a pitched battle going on both aboard and around the Infinity as they were being rammed sets a timeline. The Dreadnought you see in the video might be one of the 3 that arrived later and caught them by surprise. It could be that the Banished had sacrificed one ship to get Atriox and his guard aboard to disable the shields, allowing the latter ships to ram and scuttle the Infinity.

[@brambo3011]

This theory most certainly holds water, and to be honest, it's the only explanation I can think of that makes sense to me and that doesn't rely on Infinity being too weak, the Banished being too strong, or someone forgetting to activate the shields or something lol. I just so wish the campaign included the full battle and those battles that took place in the months leading up to the start of the campaign. I love Infinity, I want to see her tear through a Guardian, I want to fight on board her as she fell and on the Ring after everyone landed. There's a tremendous potential (and need in my opinion) for Infinite's campaign to receive some prequel DLC that let's us experience first-hand all the battles and events that are described in the audio logs and flashbacks post-Halo 5. I'm also wondering where the Banished got those shiny new 'Dreadnoughts' from.

[@IamKingSejong]

I think 343 just forgot how powerful infinity is, and the fact that she had shield capability

[@TyrannicalSimmo]

The Banished use a lot of language like "neutralized" and "battered" to describe the Infinity after the battle. I don't think it is destroyed. It may be still be out there somewhere.

[@protercool8474]

I figured they concentrate shields to the front when they ram. Infinity took the full hit because their shields were taxed by being attacked from all sides.

[@Phwonk]

Idk how possible this could be but maybe due to having to initiate so many slipspace jumps back to back the Infinity had to reroute power from its shields to its slipspace drive? I believe one of the audio logs mentions that it sent 6 Frigates out ahead of it before it was ambushed, which to me would make sense if it couldn't have its shields up. Presumably if it had its shields up it'd have been nearly impervious to damage so why wouldn't it take the lead with its Frigates acting as support? Instead, it's shields were down so it sent 6 Frigates ahead to scout and kept 4 for personal protection, or maybe it didn't even launch them or they had been destroyed in previous engagements.

[@spacemichael1177]

How could 4 banished ships approach the infinity without detection?

[@cryptosporidium1375]

By slipspacing on them at the same time thanks to Cortana’s telemetry.

[@spacemichael1177]

@@cryptosporidium1375 why would the banished board the ship right before they ram it ?

[@novathepug6692]

@@spacemichael1177 right after*

[@novathepug6692]

@@spacemichael1177 never mind I misunderstood the cutscenes lol. Someone said maybe they boarded to take down shields and that the guardian was taken down a while before the banished attacked (which definitely would've alerted the banished to their presence)

[@saltytroopa6578]

Which means there should be many Spartans in there too tho. Firefight in the infinity? It's huge too, no where to run, they surely would fight to the end as a last resort. New weapons like dmr, pump shotgun, spartan lazer, smg etc can also appear as in the infinity, old weapons in storage gets scavaged back for sake of survival of these Spartans? Mantis? Maybe even forklifts, spade can make a reappearance?

[@ryanrahebi9490]

Okay so what if the infinity “drifted away” like the argent moon did?? Also assuming Roland is still very much operational he could have flown the infinity out of the battle area so the onboard huragok could make repairs…while the human crew raised all kinds of hell on Zeta Halo…or better yet eternity and infinity team up to rescue the remaining unsc forces and finally decommission Zeta Halo…or perhaps some DLC stuff where we board infinity to make repairs and fight whatever banished remains aboard…WE CANT LET THE INFINITY DIE!

[@benjaminwade2316]

How The Banished Got Their Hands on a Guardian and Control It: Like Infinity, The Banished were in hot pursuit of Cortana but, because of the destruction of the Jiralhae planet, were even more eager to hunt her down than Infinity, who had to track down Cortana more cautiously, they had more knowledge about Cortana's capabilities and what forces she had at her disposable, forcing Infinity (arguably humanities best chance at neutralising Cortana and the Created) to pursue Cortana cautiously while trying to avoid being discovered by Cortana and the other Created who were actively searching for Infinity because of the threat she posed and because MC was aboard, and we already know from Halo 5 and Cortana's memory fragments that Cortana has a interest and is emotionally invested and has a need to win John over to her side.

[@RoverCaptain]

I do like this theory. I don't know, I have a tug in the back of my head about Halo Wars. Arcadia Colony. Two Covenant vessels emerged out of Slipspace. The Belfast, Pillar of Autumn, Texas and Armstrong engaged immediately and caught one with its shields down. But the obvious weakness there is the scene from Spartan Ops. The Infinity came out of Slipspace with their shields on. I think in a time of war they would have their shields up 100% of the time unless something took them out.

[@Skydrag.V60]

If you look in the distance towards the west end of the map in Infinite, you’ll see the silhouette of a massive UNSC ship that I believe to be the remains of the Infinity.

[@John2r1]

Generally speaking they wouldn't have destroyed Infinity with it just being introduced to the Halo universe. However the ship could be crippled or like the Spirit of Fire Lost with all hands. Due to the sheer size of the ship and the fact that destroying technology isn't how the Banished operate. They would have crippled it , looted much of it's technically and moved on. Because the Infinity is the most technologically advanced ship in current Halo. So useful overall to the banished in terms of stealing technology. The only way the Infinity would have been destroyed is really the crew following the Cole Protocol detonating the ship when it was going to be crippled and taken over by the Banished.

[@BioTroy]

Another important thing to consider is how Infinity was likely not running at full capacity/man power too.

[@Kasirkin29]

Seems odd Atriox would leave fighting the Spirit of Fire and go after the infinity since Cutter was the 1st to piss him off

[@InhumanBaron]

After having beaten the campaign, I actually wonder if Cortana used the Infinity herself somehow to destroy Zeta Halo so much? It's certainly within her ability to cause UNSC ships to blow up which have a tendency to destroy rings, and if the Infinity was intact at all you'd think we could see it on the ring surface somewhere. If it jumped out, you'd think it would make it back in 6 months time, and I don't think the Banished would have taken it for themselves after the damage they did to it. I know my own theory doesn't hold up too well when 1) some wreckage in the distance does resemble the Infinity slightly, 2) Cortana could have used Zeta Halo itself to cause the damage she did at the very end, and 3) destroying the Infinity off-screen is a dirty way of doing it for sure, but still worth spitballing out.

[@Emberen_Dmara]

I think this theory holds very serious merit, I honestly hope this is the reason, it makes the most sense, and isnt a one sided fan boy answer

[@cellobuddy251]

I love that you use Light is Green from Halo 5. Easily the best track from Halo 5

[@Bishbash93]

@Installation00 - If you look at the first Banished ship ramming the Infinity's top-front end, to my eyes it looks like the ship hits a glancing blow. It obviously crashes into the Infinity but seems to angle up & lose momentum on impact, bumping up & off rather than continuing to plough on through. Same with the second Banished ship ramming further back. That one approaches from the side & we see it impact but it clearly doesn't pass through because the camera takes us into inside of the same section of the ship but on the left side where there appears to be no evidence of the ramming on the right side passing through. Heck, Master Chief carries on fighting & nothing else inside the hanger bay gets thrown about inside like you would expect if all that inertia was transmitted. It's as if the ship that just rammed the Infinity on the right side of the vessel is a distant event. Either the Infinity is just that massive or the Banished ships are, whilst ramming into the ship & causing a lot of superficial damage, still only pushing the Infinity about rather than truly breaking it apart. My hunch is we'll see the Infinity with it's super-structure grossly intact but with a lot of outer hull damage & leakages.

[@cilliancartyblake7897]

From what I understand the halo jumped to slipspace, so the infinity could have been left behind, unlikely completely destroyed but very damaged

[@rc_aw11_mr24]

Roland is a smart Ai and from what I’ve seen there’s no mention of his deletion or removal from infinity so my theory’s are that lasky ordered the evacuation and for Roland to attempt a emergency slip space jump to regroup with the rest of the unsc or just find any help possible before the ring “disappeared” my guess it slip spaced itself and most debris and tried to reach the ark for large scale repairs but fell out due to how damaged it is, or infinity could also have been taken through slip space with the ring and have made it to the ark using any remaining engines and presumably functioning slip space drive which would allow the Spirit Of Fire to come back to the ring using a drive off the infinity or any frigates still docked

[@blamtuckee7903]

Well it shows the hit shortly before show fighting inside which makes me feel like boarding parties were on Infinity before the ram which could probably be why the shields fell

[@stevenessex1932]

Master chief got treated hard. He can withstand covenant, remnant, forerunner and flood but get wiped by one brute. Damn

[@TougeL]

Also it’s implied that the banished we’re planning this for sometime and that’s how they were able to destroy infinity so fast. One last thing and also he’s wrong about how one of the Danish ships plowed into the city it’s plowed into the side of the infinity not the nose a bit and I think that’s why they were able to cut through the infinity. It’s the same with the ships we have now

[@Azeraph]

The infinitys power systems were still operable, that means the reactor was still online and her artificial gravity was still receiving power. A fight with a guardian wouldn't affect just a few systems and it is naive to believe that the designers had all the power systems connected on the same rails. Her weapons system would be segmented as well. Her 10 Onager dorsal Macs and 85 dorsal anti air/space heavies should've been firing all out. 350 archer missile pods, 250 rapier missile pods. 500 howler missile pods, 190 guided missile pods should've been launching all that they had left. These systems don't need human attendance. Her 830 point defense 72 mm guns should've been hammering everything. To state that sensors, shields and weapons were taken out but nothing else? Is really really bad writing.

[@Asthmaniac94]

I still think the Infinity is out there. I know its comparing Apples to Oranges, but the Pillar of Autumn lasted more than 4 minutes and that was a combination of torpedoes and direct plasma. Also, the Infinity had a forward advance fleet (if I remember right) they would've been able to call out any Guardian or Banished Ships. I know games take priority in lore, but Rubicon Protocol has the overall fight going for a day or so before the Ring jumps. I really hope to see more out of the story in future content

[@st.denysthemartyr791]

Ya know...I've played this campaign 4x and I only just now noticed while I was watching this vid that Esparza plugs Master Chief in with an old school bayonet plug. That's the same kid of connector I worked with in the Air Force 20yrs ago. Kinda funny...26th-century weapon systems with mid-20th-century power connectors. That's kind of exactly what the military *would* do. "If it ain't broke," right...??

[@benjaminwade2316]

The Banished, however, didn't have the same limitations as Infinity, and pursued Cortana relentlessly and aggressively, leading me to believe that The Banished arrived at Zeta Halo a significant amount of time before Infinity. Cortana's Memory Fragments about her interactions with Atriox supports this. I also believe that The Banished got their hands on the wreck of a damaged and derelict Guardian that had crashed on Zeta Halo. As for why The Guardian was on Zeta Halo in the first place and how The Banished were able to take control of itself weapon system, i'll go into in a minute. So, The Banished were already on Zeta Halo and building a number of bases and ship yards before Infinity was detected. Then Cortana becomes alerted to Infinity's approach through Zeta Halo's long range sensors which have quite an extensive range. Atriox also probably learned of this shortly after and began developing a plan to ambush and capture, destroy or disable Infinty. At first Cortana was probably elated that she would get to see John again, but then she learnt what Atriox was planning, but she was too late to properly neutealise The Banished probably because she was to focus and distracted on John and Infinity to realise in time what Atriox was upto and knowing she couldn't allow him to take control of Zeta Halo and release The Endless and she only had one option left, to sacrifice that version of herself to disable Zeta Halo and fade away into the ether. But, while this significantly disrupted Atriox's goald a substantially delayed The Banished plans, this ultimately left Infinity defenceless against The Banished's ambush and Cortana, having sacrificed herself to disable the Halo, wasn't able to stop The Banished plan to deal with Infinity and The Banished had the perfect weapon to deal with Infinity, the crashed and damaged Guardian.

[@nick-314]

I assumed it was the infinity's dying play to detonate itself on the ring to deny the Banished the immediate use of it, really the only thing I can see happen, Lasky dipped out as did most UNSC personnel and I haven't heard an explanation for the rings state. Wonder if they ever finished the other vessels in the Infinity's class tho

[@alphacraig4784]

There's literally a cutscene in the game where Cortana sacrifices herself and destroys parts of the ring herself.

[@nick-314]

@Treecko Trooper oh, only half way through the game. I still think the Infinity went down over it making it out of that ambush with everyone abandoning ship

[@newbiegain117]

Covenant seems way more ruthless than the banished. It’s kind of bizarre how a splinter faction became more stronger in a decade than the covenant for many decades. Banished seem overpowered for the sake of progressing the story.

[@joshosborne683]

She took one for the road. Rest now sweet prince.

[@spartans122ouellette3]

Not to mention also at the end of Halo Wars 2 considering that's exact same Halo room that arrived there as well from the exact same Halo 5 to Halo Wars 2 to Halo infinite 2 ending cutscenes And 1 beginning cutscene

[@kvernesdotten]

This theory is very fan fiction-y, but I like it more than the fact that 343 spends every single game undoing their past work so imma roll with it!

[@josephamendolea3431]

According to the Halo FANDOM wiki we know for sure that the UNSC Mortal Reverie, a Mulsanne-class heavy frigate, did crash-land on Zeta Halo and perhaps that's the wreckage we're seeing near the wrecked Guardian. However that doesn't preclude the possibility of the UNSC Infinity also being wrecked somewhere else on the Halo, since Echo-216's AI couldn't find any sign of Infinity, not even a debris field. However if the Infinity is wrecked on the Halo it should be destroyed (and probably by extension the whole ringworld) if only to deny the Banished all the Forerunner tech Infinity possesses. There is also the possibility that Roland could've self-destructed the Infinity, as the detonation of what I'm sure would've been a great many fusion reactors in such a scenario would've made for quite the fireball, a fireball that could've completely vaporized the Infinity which could explain the absence of an identifiable debris field consistent with an Infinity-class supercarrier, though such a move should've also taken a good portion of the Banished fleet with it. It could've also escaped via random slipspace jump, after Roland spacing all the Banished out of the hangar bays and locking any remaining Banished out of all the systems. But since Infinity looked to be pretty well totaled then if I were Roland I would've activated the self-destruct mechanisms so the enemy couldn't salvage any of the advanced Forerunner tech on Infinity.

[@sorrenblitz805]

It also doesn't explain why all Chief sees when he checks the Infinity's tags are dead floaters. Fernando even implies he watched the Infinity get destroyed.

[@o_o-037]

*THEORY:* The infinity crashed elsewhere on the ring and we'll have to find, defend, and repair it in a future DLC, all whilst rebuilding the UNSC via FOBs. Hell, we could even have a central hub acting as a sort of Alpha base for the UNSC where Adjundant Resolution deploys Zeta Halo's sentinel's to aid us. The Weapon already stole back Despondent Pyre's brain from the Harbinger, meaning she can be revived.

[@jakespacepiratee3740]

Man I sure hope so.

[@theov3rmind]

The shields and Forerunner engine core were probably offline on purpose. Cortana could most likely track Forerunner tech very easily. The only way to get close enough to Cortana without her detecting them far in advance was to keep all forerunner tech offline.

[@absentphantom9422]

Spartan Agryna said that Zeta halo disappeared. Did Cortana move it prior to the confrontation or was it moved after she detonated a section of the ring? Maybe as a failsafe so it could repair itself. And as it entered slipspace a large portion of the surrounding debris went with it, including intact Banished ships. The Banished would proceed to collect debris to manufacture new structures and vehicles. So maybe large chunks of the Infinity were left behind. But with Atriox appearing at the very end, it seems at least that section was pulled with.

[@Installation00]

After. The ring activated a slipspace journey to an undisclosed location. Its a contingency protocol to avoid further damage to the ring.

[@sirstretchalot5911]

Zamn, I hope fireteam crimson ain’t dead.

[@youcanthandlemyname7393]

i think your wrong. if you watch the cut scene then you will notice the infinity is fighting a banished dreadnaught on its left before 2 come in to ram it on the right. this lines up pretty well with what we are told and i assume the third dreadnaught rams the infinity off screen. what i think happened is the infinity engaged in battle with a single bannished dreadnaught before three more came in and rammed it all at once destroying the infinity in a suicide attack. as to why the infinities shields did not hold up its possible that they had them focused to the left of the ship since that was where the enemy was. and its also possible that the reason the infinity can ram the cov ship in spartan ops is because they had the shields focused to the front in order to ram the ship. should also be noted that the cutscene we see is around 2 minutes long and it appears to be showing the end of the fight. this combined with the fact that the infinity had already been boarded suggest that the infinity was doing battle with the cov dreadnaught for 1 to 2 mins before the other ships rammed it. so in that one to two minutes its also possible that either the boarding party disabled the shields (unlikely) or the cov dreadnaught did enough damage to them that the ramming from the three additional dreadnaughts was enough to destroy the ship.

[@thomasharper9087]

I prefer my theory that cortana was already theee with the guardian, as soon as infinity warped in, thr guardian fired an EMP pulse, shutting down the infinity Lasky says "i dont care what it takes, engines, lights, even shields! Just get them MAC guns operational!" In ehich the officer intentionally prioritised turning the guns back online opposed to the shields As soon as the guns were back up, they shot and destroyed the guardian, immedietly following lasky saying "get everything back online ASAP!" In which, naturally, shields would have been prioritised But before they could re-engage the shields the banished showed up and started to shred the infinity Lasky, knowing this is a defeat, bellowed out "ROLAND! i dont care what it takes, the MILISECOND we get the shields back up, get us out of here!"

[@MechmanZero]

According to the Academy opening. The UNSC just know that Infinity and Zeta halo are missing, but not saying that it was destroyed. I assume the Academy cutscene takes place between the campaign opening battle and the Chief waking up. If they are just all gone from where they previously were, I'm assuming there was some Forerunner slipspace fuckery going on. Which could mean that while the Banished think Atriox is dead, he was still on the Infinity when it moves to whereever. This hypothesis falls apart though if something did move the ring, then how is Chief still fine floating in space. Though, now that I think more on it, perhaps the Academy just say the ring is missing because they have lost contact with all the forces on and around it. Which means maybe it was just the Infinity that jumped out, taking Atrox with it.

[@FrozenPhoenix15]

There’s a simpler answer that doesn’t involve the Guardian: the Banished _did_ actually have the firepower to drop the Infinity’s shields, just not in the way you think. Infinite introduces us to Jiralhanae Shock weaponry, technology that is designed to *disable shields and vehicles.* Also, in Halo: Envoy, it’s mentioned that Brutes enjoy overloading their ships with armor plating and simply charging at enemy vessels. So, the Banished likely fitted their vessels with ship-sized Shock Rifles, began the battle by disabling the Infinity’s shields at range, then slammed straight into it as a final insult. As for the Infinity’s fate? Well, the last person we actually see aboard the Infinity is Atriox, and the last person we see in the game 6 months later is a not-dead Atriox. I assume that the two events are related.

[@infernaldaedra]

The infinity was dismantled by the banished to build most of the fortifications on the ring.

[@A2Kaid]

Lol

[@Raven_Wolfe23]

i just realized the spartan in the academy is wearing a different armour core (or a heavily modified one)

[@HolySilverStrike]

There is one thing, where is the planet that zeta halo is orbiting? Cause it is not seen in the skybox. I think that there are some debris though I think that what may have happened is Cortana detonated the part with the control room and to save the rings she sent the rest through slipspace. Which is why echo 219 said in the beginning, ‘I don’t even know where here is.’ Yes the ring could survive the trip because remember Static carillon moved installation 03 to repair the damage after the control room section was detached and crashed into the composer forge. So to save the ring Cortana moved the ring before destroying the part with the control room and the reason we don’t see the infinity’s wreckage is because the ring is in a new location. And infinity is back where the planet is. Chief and some wreckage were pulled into slipspace along with the remainder of the ring.

[@Azeraph]

She should've had an automated pd system. It's the 25th century. Not the 18th where you had to load a cannon. She sure as hell wasn't trying to run cold. If she did tango a guardian then that option went out the window. The minute the first slipspace particle generation was detected that close. she should've been opening up on it with everything she had on that side and when the others popped in her other sides pd systems should've been going like the clappers.

[@mattstorm360]

I'm willing to bet there was some time between the Guardian kill and the Banish attack. Those shield would take time to recharge and the audio logs make them sound pretty calm for a while. Probably just killed the Guardian and got ready to deploy the weapon... then the banish arrive suddenly.

[@TheGelatinousSnake]

Even the wreckage of Infinity would be…. Infinitely valuable to Humanity. The salvageable forerunner tech from the wreck can be returned to the incomplete sister ship Eternity.

[@liammashvinn4263]

"How did the Banished do this?" Me: A really big skewer

[@ikarosuasutoreaAKB48]

From the Spartan Ops video you could see the Inifinity has its shield activated and the Covenant Remnants did not because of the surprise attack from the UNSC. Usually ships in the Halo universe do not activate their shields unless they are engaged in battle. From what I assume the Banished must have appeared from no where surprised the Infinity.

[@Harbinger029]

Perhaps, the remains of Infinity are on, or in orbit around the same planet that Zeta Halo orbits? Seems most likely to me based on the beating she seemed to take in that cutscene.

[@TheAlphadark]

the banish took infinity they boarded in so do doing took control. While heavily damaged they either repair or salvage what they can from it. So chances are the major sections of the ship are still floating or crashed on zeta halo. It's more likely they salvaged the ship to make it their own. Either taking parts for their own ships or rebuilding it in banished style. there alot going on that were unaware of so time will tell.

[@kamikazu4392]

In the cutscene the pelican AI said that the infinity location is unknown to find. It never said its destroyed.

[@treavy1]

The infinity was ambushed before it could even fire the guns

[@WingsaberE3]

Maybe a traitor on board? Someone bribed by Atriox to sabotage the shields? I think the Guardian may have just fallen since Cortana couldn’t issue it orders any more.

[@chunkycornbread4773]

I think you may have missed one of the most important things the opening scene shows us. If the attack happened so fast how were that many banished on board? Maybe a “Trojan horse” got the banished inside the ship and they pulled down the shield prior to the attack.

[@frank-b6169]

Makes a lot more sense now when you put all together. Great video keep it up. Also I wonder if the spartans found dead are the same ones in the up coming halo book. You spartans have a legendary bless day and Marry Christmas. God bless

[@christopherday1937]

Atriox sealed his own Doom when he didn't terminate the Master Chief

[@ffffff52]

8:29 it's not the same kind of impact for the Infinity, not even close. That kind of impact reminds me of the main weakness of spears/poles, the pointy end may be deadly stiff but hit the spear on the side where it has a larger surface and it will easily break or damage, even if you consider that the shield may not have been active. just the pure blunt force of the hit on the side may have been enough to damage the ship if it wasn't reinforced to also endure rammings on the sides (assuming the ship ramming of H4 was intentional)

[@TimmythatSquirrel]

I believe I saw the infinity's hulking wreck in the distance on zeta halo so I think in the battle the infinity got dragged closer and closer till it couldn't get out of the gravity well

[@jacobsnodgrass1888]

I like the theory a lot. But I remember echo 216 stating in the prologue mission that the batteries were drained by a stasis beam which is confirmed on the banished dreadnought, would that shed some light?

[@guibou336]

Good theory but there's something wrong with the timing. There's a cutscene where Cortana is surprised that Atriox is ''here''. It makes me understand that Atriox was on Zeta prior to the deletion of Cortana and therefore the presence of Infinity. The guardian wasn't there at that moment or the banished destroyed it instead ? In the intro cutscene the Infinity is quite far from the ring, if they shot down the guardian that far, i'm pretty sure it would have fallen on the planet/star and not the ring. Then chief poped Cortana and got back on ship before they realise the banish presence ? I hardly think it was done in a few minutes, Cortana must have had some sort of defense and all the while they never spoted the banished ? In Shadow of Reach the Infinity spotted the Banish fleet while they couldnt pinpoint her... now it's reversed ? Someone proposed in the comments that they might have slipspaced righ on the Infinity, but the UNSC can detect incoming slipspace approach, they would have put the shield back on at that moment... if they ever leave them down. The audio log also indicate to my understanding that at the moment the emergency landing of the unsc forces happened, the Banished werent established/in control on the ring. One perticuler one clearly says that this banished outpost once installed, splited the unsc forces in two and let one part without supplies. So the Banish land forces arrived after the Infinity battle. We also know the ring jumped as you introduced in the video. My theory is that it was a safety procedure once Cortana blew the ring. She did that after her Atriox meeting realising her errors. The destroyed Infinity can't be left behind after the ring jump if Cortana's action initiated the jump. If it's not her but the banished initiated the jump, why would they have done it after destroying all their ennemies, and how would chief and the pelican be in the slip bubble without protective shield ? It's sad and stupid but the only thing I can see is a temporary alliance between the Infinity and the Banish to fend off Cortana and the ring defense mechanism. The banished suprising the Infinity the moment Cortana was dealt with. Here's my totally not accurate time laps : Cortana -> Zeta Atriox -> destroy guardian -> Zeta Ring blows -> jump Atriox missing -> Eschurum take control Infinity -> Zeta Banish -> Zeta Alliance to destroy the ring defense wich render Infinity shieldless (only this part i'm not sure of) Chief pop Cortana -> back on Infinity Banish Attack on Infinity

[@Singlemethod4217]

I have a great theory, I refuse to word it here due to idea sniping. Where’s the discord link?

[@hindlefps5411]

14:32 talk about getting third partied

[@Clone.from.poland]

I have better question what happened to whole UNSC fleet because u think if there at least 5 halcyon light cruisers and some frigates I think that UNSC would collect every ship they have and rush to zeta halo to try and help survivors

[@boder9092]

I assumed that the guardians, being controlled by Cortana, were turned off after her death.

[@treavy1]

Hmmm I think if anything the banished used some sort of shield drainer or emp weapon that took the shields offline then attacked it I mean just look at the emp guns in multiplayer and how shields die from them so it’s no doubt that a super emp gun mounted to a warship of the banished would be possible considering that banished couldn’t even be beat by the covenant it’s self I think I know exactly how the infinity was destroyed in under four minutes basically the old blocking every escape and surrounding the ship and opening fire as soon as it exits the portal giving it no time to react to the threats the infinity might have been able to shoot a few shots of the Mac and canons off and some missle s but by the time it even had a chance to truly get fully mobilized it was two late and the ship was already lost

[@maplemayhem1988]

If you have a clear shot at your enemies greatest warship while it is vulnerable you wouldn't send a boarding party and attack with you own ships. Not unless you needed your people to do something on said ship like recovering an objective or knocking out shields.

[@mernyr]

When chief is thrown into the void it seems like he passes through the infinity’s shields. You can see a blue shield bubble flare between him and the hangar as he tries to grapple to the ship.

[@Destroyer_V0]

Isn't that just the energy field that keeps the atmosphere in the hangars though?

[@RedTalonCommand]

I have two ideas on where the Infinity is at it mite maybe be on another part of the ring or in the hands of the banished

[@joelsigley2199]

It's engines are forerunner, assuming dr Halsey escaped I could see her using the rings repair function on the Infinity. Maybe even upgrading it with more forerunner tech.

[@HalcyonDaze149]

How is chief able to remain in space for 6 months? I understand that the armour goes into survival mode but do Spartans themselves have a hibernation ability of some kind where food and what not arnt required?

[@sucool9300]

What is that first cutscence form ? I have never seen it before ?

[@danielefabbro822]

I know that right now its time for Halo Infinity and all the series of vidoc about lore and explanations about this game in particular. But. I wonder if you can start another voice on your archives about locations. Starting from the most famous like Earth, Reach, Harvest etc, ending with the most unknow of the universe of Halo. In particular, I was interested in know more about the moon of Draetheus V: X50. It's a Forerunner construct after all. But there's little to no intel about that location. And I'm really interested in this kind of infos.

[@SpencerBurkett]

Honestly I hope this is what happened because I don't wanna give the banished credit for being able to overpower the infinity on their own.

[@ericblake1234]

I thought it was implied that the infinity caused the structural damage to the ring. Similar to when the autum was detonated on the surface of the first ring which blew a chunk off. The infinity being MUCH larger with a proportionally larger and more power reactor or multiple, would seemingly have the explosive force to cause the same damage, or worse if the mass of the inifinty alone wasnt enough to shatter the ring.

[@Azeraph]

They should've known a guardian would be there if she was there and that Zeta would've made them when they jumped in. What's a halo's detection limit? 1 AU? Or is it more?

[@iPossum452]

But hadn’t the Chief already been to Zeta Halo to deliver the weapon? Therefore the Infinity must have been there longer rather then for a short time before engaging the Guardian

[@workdrake8955]

I don't think so. If the Infinity had been in battle before, there is no sign of damage to the Infinity. If you look at the direction the Infinity is heading it is in the same position as when Cortana first noticed it's arrival. So if there hadn't been damage to the ship and Roland was still on board, plus they resupplied after securing Reach, the Infinity would be at near peak efficiency. And we can see from the Spartan ops video the Infinity is used to dealing with 4 or more cruisers with ease, even allowing their Spartan teams to ignore the ongoing battle and send their forces to secure footing in the shield world. These are all veterans of the covenant war as well. They know how to fight the Banished forces and would have come points built into the ship. Where the Banished were also fighting Cortana after the destruction of the brutes home world, they are under equipped and don't have the forces to take on the Infinity. This is the only thing that makes sense to me.. The Banished were lying in wait and knew the Infinity would approach at that space in time. The amount of force in the hangar already overwhelming the ship suggests a possible betrayal. Maybe the Arbiter had a mole in his forces and they'd been attached to help Infinity. There's also the small possiblity that Infinity knew what would likely happen and went headlong into it anyway believing it was there best, maybe only, hope to stop Cortana. A mole makes sense too when you think of what Atriox was after. He wanted Weapon. How'd he know about her? He wanted to personal lead the fight. Betrayal and sabotage make the most sense.

[@chaosregime1642]

I wonder if the Banished have it. As you said yourself it is humanities most advanced warship. If this theory holds true it alone has the firepower to shoot down a Guardian. We haven't seen anything like that from the Banished. So I think it's possible that after the fell Atriox and the Banished that were with him took over the Infinity and repurposed it. What do y'all think?

[@cubert13]

This may be an unpopular opinion but I urge you to hear me out. There are parts about Halo Infinite I really hate mainly to do with the story. At the end of Halo 5 Cortana had effectively taken control of the galaxy. Prometheans (knights, soldiers, crawlers) were every where including Guardians and the Created. Meanwhile, outside the galaxy, there is a large Flood infestation on the Ark released by the Banished and likely encountered by Spirit of Fire also. In order for Atriox, who was marooned on the Ark due to the events of Halo Wars 2, to be near and/or on Zeta Halo contact between the Ark and the galaxy had to be made at least once at some point. I count three very serious threats to the UNSC: Cortana and the Created, Atriox and the Banished, and a large scale Flood infestation. I will start with the Banished, clearly they are a threat and I am fine with them being the defacto Covenant now it makes sense, they are the most powerful Covenant splinter group. Atriox is crazy powerful and so are the Banished, they have been around since before the great schism. And I could accept that the Banished, the Spirit of Fire, and/or sentinels on the Ark put down the Flood infestation. It was not super large by the end of that Halo Wars DLC. But not even a mention?! Seems like a big concern to someone if not just Atriox. But finally you have Cortana, her army of AIs, Promethean warriors, likely subjugated races (like the Grunts), and giant planet-sized Guardians. There is no way you can convince me even if Cortana is gone that that threat is just gone!? After Halo 4 we learn that the Didact is not even dead, okay so you just invalidate about all we accomplished in Halo 4 cool. Do not just do that again 343! Cortana was/is still a threat, even if is gone forever (which is dumb to "kill off" both her and the Didact off screen) another AI would likely rise to her place. Power vaccuums like that just do not evaporate. Honestly all the stuff that happens between Halo 5 and Infinite sounds more interesting to me than Infinite's story. So much happened and while some details may yet be revealed, I am really disappointed by 343 this time. The game itself, great cannot wait to see what comes next. But the story has so many holes that need to be addressed to us long time fans. I hope you know what you are doing 343, we the fans are not to be trifled with. 😉

[@Matt-yg8ub]

We’re always on the back foot, the writers can’t help themselves but always put the humans at a disadvantage in every possible way because that’s all they know how to write. The humans aren’t allowed to progress at a realistic pace… if at all. Nearly 30 years at war and what did the humans have to show for it? Damn near nothing. In the course of a 30 year war we barely managed to scrape together shields for MJOLNIR armor and some man portable lasers that we already have in the modern day. Time and time and time again the Covenant where one step away from a great victory… gaining a forerunner fleet, taking over a halo..And by the skin of their teeth the humans were able to deprive the covenant by destroying the asset, never capturing it for themselves. Every time we could just barely maintain the status quo… but never advance. At the end of the war, at the 11th hour, we gained a massive victory in the form of shield world 6….And then we proceeded to crap that away too. We had a fucking shield world! we should have been invincible, nothing should have been able to harm the human race at that point yet what did we do with it? Absolutely jack shit that’s what. The plot was written in such a way that the office of Naval intelligence held onto Research Station Trevallian and kept it exclusively ONI instead of making it a UNSC facility and using it as a fallback to prevent what has happened to the UNSC in the current narrative. The writers struck again! Shield World Six was sent back to slipspace to ride out the created conflict, but it took the planet Macintosh with it…along with a host of servants of the abiding truth, their own huragok, and a forerunner warship. This will almost certainly result in a plot line where the servants of the abiding truth reactivate the ship and take control of the shield world in which the UNSC will once again be on the back foot. ONI concentrated all of the advancement into a single SUPER ship and a few ancillary support craft which allowed for the Banished to kick the shit out of the UNSC because we only had one single shiny ship and it’s escort fleet….making for a single target to gang up on. This is the same reason why the UNSC relies exclusively on MAC cannons As primary offensive arrmament on their vessels, it continues to put the humans at a disadvantage because the writers refuse to advance the human weaponry for fear of loosing the perpetual underdog narrative.

[@kennypatrick430]

Are you sure that they're referring to banished dreadnoughts and not forerunner dreadnoughts that the Banished got from the Ark?