H4:Midnight

This article is about the Halo 4 level. For the Halo 4 achievement, see Midnight (achievement).

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Next:	Halo 4 credits (Halo 4) Epilogue (MCC)
Midnight
Game:	Halo 4
File name (?):	m90_sacrifice
Player:	Master Chief
Date:	July 25, 2557
Location:	Onboard Mantle's Approach, over Earth
Objective(s):	Stop the Didact by destroying the Composer.
Par Time:	00:25:00 (Master Chief Collection-only)
Par Score:	25,000 (Master Chief Collection-only)
	Halopedia has a walkthrough guide for this level; see H4:Midnight/Walkthrough.

“

With the Composer in the Didact's possession, Chief and Cortana must destroy the device before he turns it on his next target.

”

Midnight is the ninth campaign level of Halo 4, and the eighth and last one to feature actual gameplay.

Completing the level on any difficulty awards the player the "Midnight" achievement, worth 10 Gamerscore. Killing three Promethean Crawlers with the gravity hammer in one hit in the level unlocks "Chief, Smash!", worth 20 Gamerscore.

In Halo: The Master Chief Collection, "Midnight" can be unlocked with the same criteria and awards the same amount of Gamerscore. "Chief, Smash!" can still be unlocked by killing three Crawlers in one hit with the gravity hammer, but the achievement is now worth only 10 Gamerscore points. Beating the level's 25 minute par time and the 25,000 point par score awards "Countdown" and "Witching Hour", respectively, each worth 10 Gamerscore points. Activating the seventh and final Halo 4 Terminal, which is found in this level, unlocks "Cryptum", worth 5 Gamerscore points.

Summary

With the Didact leaving Ivanoff Station, the Master Chief and Cortana chase after him in an F-41 Broadsword fighter armed with a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon. However, as they approach his ship, the Mantle's Approach, the Didact prepares to jump into slipspace again. Quickly flying the Broadsword under the Didact's shields, the Master Chief is able to piggyback Mantle's Approach into slipspace. Cortana determines that the Didact is at the Composer and the Master Chief embarks on a dangerous flight through a trench on Mantle's Approach to reach the Composer and deliver the nuke. Mantle's Approach soon arrives at Earth where the orbital defenses are unable to penetrate the ship's shields. Discovering the UNSC Infinity acting as the flagship of Battle Group Dakota, the Master Chief makes contact, discovering now-Captain Thomas Lasky in charge following FLEETCOM relieving Captain Andrew Del Rio of command over his abandoning the Master Chief on Requiem. With the Didact sealing off the entrance to the Composer, the Master Chief disables the particle cannons around the Forerunner weapon, allowing Infinity to blast a hole into the side of the ship for the Master Chief. The hole quickly closes and the Broadsword crashes, forcing the Master Chief to continue on foot with the HAVOK.

With Cortana's rampancy worsening, the two struggle to use the ship's portal system to reach the Composer before the Didact can use it against the Earth. As the Master Chief finally nears the Composer, the Didact surrounds himself with an energy shield and prepares to fire it on Earth. Cortana has the Master Chief insert her into the system at three separate locations so that she can eject her rampant personality spikes into the system, successfully taking down the shield. However, the Didact destroys the terminal containing Cortana's data crystal chip before the Master Chief can retrieve her and fires the Composer upon New Phoenix, digitizing millions of people.

Making his way onto a hard light bridge, the Master Chief faces off against the Didact who easily disarms him and begins telekinetically choking the Master Chief. Seven Cortana's rise from the hard light bridge and turn into hard light shackles, freeing the Master Chief who plants a pulse grenade in the Didact's armor, sending him falling into a slipspace portal below the Composer. With the Composer firing on New Phoenix and no time to escape, the Master Chief detonates the HAVOK, destroying Mantle's Approach and the Composer. The Master Chief finds himself in a hard light bubble where Cortana has shielded him from the nuclear blast. A life-sized hard light hologram of Cortana joins the Master Chief and to his grief reveals that she can't leave with him, most of Cortana having been on the destroyed ship and having only held enough of herself back to save the Master Chief. After a final emotional goodbye in which Cortana touches the Master Chief for the first time, she disappears, seemingly for good, leaving the Master Chief floating in the debris field.

Transcript

{Cutscene}

Fade in to Ivanoff Station's hangar, where an F-41 Broadsword is being moved by an overhead conveyor belt, stopping once it reaches the open doorway. A floor panel opens up underneath, revealing a gravity lift that floats a missile carrying a HAVOK nuke up to the fighter. Once it reaches its underside, the fighter's clamps lock around it. The conveyor belt releases the Broadsword, letting it float on its own. The fighter slowly turns, activates its thrusters, and blasts forward into space. Fade to black.

Fade in on the Mantle's Approach. A few moments after it passes the camera, the Master Chief's Broadsword speeds by in pursuit. Cut to inside the Broadsword's cockpit.

• Cortana: "Approaching the Didact's ship in two hundred kilometers! Once we get onboard, we'll find the bridge."

A slipspace portal opens in front of the Mantle's Approach.

• John-117: "He's on the move again."

John-117 pursues the Didact's ship through slipspace aboard a Broadsword fighter.

• Cortana: "The fighter's shields aren't rated for slipspace!"

• John-117: "No. But the Didact's are."

John pushes the throttle. The fighter boosts forward and approaches the Didact's ship. As it nestles on the top, the shields of the Mantle's Approach activate, and the enormous ship and Broadsword pass into slipspace together.

ONE LAST SHOT

{Gameplay}

The Broadsword flies forward through an enormous chasm in the Forerunner ship. Streaks of stars can be seen in the sky from their slipspace travel.

• Cortana: (mildly crackling from rampancy) "Broadsword's hull integrity is stable. We'll be safe as long as we stay below the Didact's shields."

• John-117: "Where's the Composer?"

• Cortana: "Close. I should be able to guide us to it."

• Didact (COM): "You have not been Composed. Such inoculation should not have been possible."

• Cortana: "Locking onto his transmission... he's at the Composer. We can take them both out at once."

The Broadsword encounters its first obstacles: large moving walls, and Forerunner anti-air turrets. The Broadsword fires at them and at an orange beacon to unlock a gate.

There is a loud crackle and the streaked sky above returns to normal. Earth can be seen overhead.

• Cortana: "Cherenkov radiation fluctuating! We're coming out of slipspace!"

• Fleetcom Watch (COM): "At current velocity, hostile will achieve Earth orbit in approximately 4 minutes."

• Infinity Comm (COM): "Roger. Battle Group Dakota, close on the Forerunner vessel."

• Cortana: "Infinity must have warned them!"

• John-117: "Sierra 117 to UNSC Infinity. Captain Del Rio, do you read?"

• Thomas Lasky (COM): "Chief, it-it's Lasky. Is that you?"

• John-117: "Affirmative, Sir. Where's the Captain?"

• Lasky (COM): "FleetCom didn't take too kindly to his abandoning you on Requiem. I'm afraid I'll have to do."

• John-117: "The Didact's got the Composer. We're in a Broadsword carrying a HAVOK-grade payload, on approach to deliver it."

• Lasky (COM): "Let's see if we can grease the wheels for you. All ships! Prepare to engage!"

The Broadsword maneuvers through a tight tunnel filled with spires. Walls inside shift to block its path. Outside, the Broadsword must unlock further gates and clear anti-a