Keyes

Looking for Captain Jacob Keyes, or his daughter, Miranda Keyes?

Keyes is the ninth campaign level in Halo: Combat Evolved. In this level, the Master Chief returns to the Covenant Battlecruiser to rescue Captain Jacob Keyes. The Master Chief fights his way through the ship and on the ground while trying to survive the bloody engagement between the Flood and surviving Covenant forces. At the end of the level, the Master Chief discovers a horrifying truth: Captain Keyes has been completely taken over by the Flood. With no other choice, the Chief physically removes the Captain's implants which contain the access codes to the. He then hijacks a Banshee and escapes.

Under New Management
{Cutscene}

Camera flies through a canyon filled with pools of reactor coolant, under the Truth and Reconciliation.'' The CCS-class Battlecruiser is resting on the top of the canyon, heavily damaged. Flood and Covenant forces are fighting all throughout the region.''


 * Cortana: "The Covenant network is in absolute chaos! From what I've been able to piece together, their leadership ordered all ships to abandon Halo when they found the Flood, but they were too late. The Flood overwhelmed this cruiser and disabled it. The Covenant are terrified the Flood will repair the ship and use it to escape from Halo. They've sent in a strike team to neutralize the Flood and repair the ship for immediate departure. I've got a good lock on Captain Keyes' CNI transponder signal! He's alive! And the implants are intact! There's some interference from the cruiser's damaged reactor. I'll bring us in as close as I can."

''Master Chief teleports into the end of a corridor in the cruiser. The camera view flips over, upside down, and the Master Chief falls on his head; he was teleported upside down.''


 * Cortana: "Ohh... I see, the coordinate data needs to be— "

The Master Chief whacks the side of his head with his fist as he stands up.


 * Cortana: "Right. Sorry."

{Gameplay}

After walking down the hallway several meters


 * Captain Jacob Keyes (COM): (weakly) "Chief... Don't be a fool...Leave me..."


 * Cortana: "Captain? Captain?! I've lost him..."

After walking around a bit, trying to find a way into the bridge:


 * Cortana: "The damage caused by the crash and the Flood have sealed-off all nearby access ways to the control room. We should find another way in."

After getting to a hangar, with a large hole in the floor just past the door, blocking the Chief's progress:


 * Cortana: "Analyzing damage... This hole was caused by some kind of explosive. Very powerful if it tore through a ship's hull. All I detect down there are pools of coolant. We should continue our search somewhere else."

After the staying in that corridor for a few moments, Flood begin dropping out of a hole in the ceiling behind the Chief, cutting him off.


 * Cortana: "Warning! Threat level increasing!"

After fighting off the increasing horde of Flood for a few more moments:


 * Cortana: "That jump into the coolant is looking better all the time, Chief!"

If the player lingers for a longer time, fighting the Flood to return to the previous area:


 * Cortana: "Trust me! It's deep enough to cushion our fall!"

If the player stills continue to hold the ground:


 * Cortana: "Chief, we need to jump now!"

Flood continue to pour out the hole, and from down the hallway, never ending, forcing the Chief into the hole.

{Cutscene}

''Master Chief falls into a large pool of coolant, which breaks his fall. Camera view begins under-coolant. Covenant and Flood are heavily engaged around the pool.''

{Gameplay}


 * Cortana: "Let's get out of here, and find another way back aboard the ship."

The Chief navigates the area, interrupting fights between Covenant troops and Flood forms.


 * Cortana: "We should head this way, towards the ship's gravity lift."

He continues to head toward the gravity lift.


 * Cortana: "The crash did more damage than I suspected. Analyzing. Coolant leakage rate is significant. The ship's reactor should already have gone critical."

The Chief finally reaches the gravity lift, which is lightly guarded by Covenant troops, who are fighting off the advancing Flood forms.


 * Cortana: "Power source detected. There's the gravity lift. It's still operational! That's our way back in!"

Once the area is cleared, the Chief takes the gravity lift back inside the ship:

{Cutscene}

The Chief, standing in the gravity lift, looks up and flies up into the Truth and Reconciliation.

Upstairs, Downstairs
{Gameplay}


 * Cortana: "We should be able to get into the ship's control room from here."

Upon finding an unlocked door:


 * Cortana: "The Covenant Battlenet is a mess. I can't access the ship's schematics. My records indicate that a shuttle bay should be... here."

Cortana marks the spot with a nav point.

''Upon reaching the nav point, it turns out to be a cargo bay. Flood forms walk around the area, guarding the corpses of dead Covenant troops in the corners.''


 * Cortana: "Look, in the corners. The Flood are gathering bodies here."

''After fighting through hordes of Flood, the Chief returns to a Covenant troops-occupied area in the ship. He continues on, reaching the shuttle bay.''


 * Cortana: "Looks like another shuttle bay. We should be able to reach the control room from the 3rd level."


 * Captain Keyes (COM): "I... gave you an order, soldier! Now pull out!"


 * Cortana: "He's delirious! In pain! We have to find him!"

The Chief ascends through the corridors and reaches the third floor.


 * Cortana: "The control room should be... this way."

She assigns another nav point.

Nearing the Control Room:

The Captain

 * Captain Keyes (COM): (screams of agony) "Waahhhh... Ahhhh... Ohhhh gaahhhhh..."


 * Cortana: "The Captain! His vitals are fading! Please, Chief, hurry!"

The Chief interferes a battle between Covenant troops and Flood forms outside the Control Room and enters the bridge.

{Cutscene}

''A Proto-Gravemind sits on the command center in the bridge. The Captain's face sticks out of it, with his body dangling below, deformed.''


 * Cortana: (horrified) "No human life-signs detected. The Captain! He's one of... them! We can't let the Flood get off this ring! You know what he'd expect... (quietly) What he'd want us to do."

''Master Chief punches into Keyes' skull, sticking his hand inside. He pulls out the neural implants, shakes the Flood biomass off of them, and inserts them into his helmet.''


 * Cortana: (quietly) "It's done, I have the code. We should go."

{Gameplay}


 * Cortana: "We need to get back to the Pillar of Autumn. Let's go back to the shuttle bay and find a ride."

''Side doors open and a horde of Flood charge into the bridge. At the same time, the doors the Chief entered through open up to reveal a Covenant Spec Ops team. A huge fight ensues.''

Once the Chief returns to the shuttle bay, a Covenant dropship enters the hangar, dropping off more troops, escorted by two Banshees.


 * Cortana: "Perfect. Grab one of the escort Banshees, and we'll use it to return to the Pillar of Autumn."

''The Chief, after fighting through Covenant troops and Flood forms, eventually reaches the lowest level of the shuttle bay and enters a Banshee.

{Cutscene}

''The Chief, onboard the Banshee, flies out of the hangar, under fire from multiple Covenant SpecOp soldiers. His Banshee quickly flies out of range. ''

Fades to black.

Level ends.

Trivia

 * The hanger bay at the beginning of the level is identical to the one in the level Truth and Reconciliation except that all the doors on the ground floor are locked.
 * The player can see the Brain Form inside the bridge if he/she looks through the grille in the beginning of the level.
 * It is more than likely that the Covenant managed to repair the controls for the Truth and Reconciliation after they were disabled by Cortana due to the fact that the ship is in a completely different location. In addition, the ship could have been moved to an area near a Flood containment facility. Thus, explaining how the ship became once again stationary under extensive damage.
 * The sentence "Chief...leave me", was added by Marty O'Donnell, to offer up an explanation for why the player is looking for Captain Keyes there, as revealed on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition bonus disc.
 * The crashed Banshee next to the gravity lift is the only Banshee wreckage to appear in the entire Halo trilogy until Halo 3: ODST. In addition, the crashed Banshee has its own model in the games files, which was made specifically for the level.
 * If Flood Infection Forms get to the player in the Gravity Lift cutscene, the Chief's blood will spray and the forms will still float in the place.
 * The Wraith and Ghosts aboard the Truth and Reconciliation can not be driven, however they can be destroyed with grenades or gunfire. This differs from the drivable Ghosts in the game, which cannot be destroyed or even damaged unless they are being driven. In addition the Ghosts aboard the ship remain completely stationary regardless of any explosions nearby; drivable Ghosts will be flung by nearby detonations.
 * Strangely, the Grunt with the Fuel Rod Gun in the Spirit dropship will always die upon impact with the ground. Even more strangely, the Fuel Rod Gun's subsequent explosion does not kill any of the nearby Grunts. On rare occasions, the fuel rod gun-wielding Grunt will survive the explosion and will be left with no weapon. He will act as if he is holding a weapon and if the player gets close he will scream out that he throws grenades, although he does not actually throw them.
 * If the player manages to skip all the battles with the Flood and the Covenant after he/she get in the Cargo Bay, he/she will get to the Proto-Gravemind before the chapter "The Captain" can be triggered. The chapter title and the dialogue between Cortana and Keyes will be triggered after the player gets back to the Cargo Bay.
 * It's possible to trigger the cutscene on the bridge without first defeating all the Flood. If this happens, then all surviving Flood will transfer over to the cutscene and will continue to attack and eventually "kill" the Master Chief. The scene continues to play as scripted with Cortana speaking and the Captain's face exploding. When gameplay resumes, the player will still be alive as though nothing happened.
 * In the cutscene "The Captain" in addition to the Chief pulling out Keyes' neural implants there is a "second" Chief biped under the platform. This is only viewable through flycam. The reason for this may be an easy way for the playable character to be hidden for the cutscene.
 * In the cutscene, "The Captain", where the Master Chief retrieves Captain Keyes' neural implants, the Master Chief was meant to burn Keyes' skull out of the Proto-Gravemind with the Flamethrower and retrieve the implants. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the Flamethrower was removed from the final game. Bungie had Robt McLees do research on what burned skulls looked like. When he had finished, he said "he'd done his work too well", as the burned skull was too gruesome.
 * Strangely, the escort Banshee with the Nav point is actually an ally on the Motion Sensor. This probably is due to Cortana wanting the player to use an “ally’s” vehicle. For example, if players board a vehicle, drive fast, and bail out with it still moving, it will indicate a large yellow dot on their motion tracker, even if there is no one inside. However, when an enemy is in a vehicle, they are shown as big red blips.
 * When the escort Banshees enter the Truth and Reconciliation their canopies are in the open position, despite being airborne and piloted by Elites.
 * The Banshee that the Master Chief commandeers at the end of the level, for some reason, makes the same flying sounds a Pelican does, and flies just as fast.
 * This is the last level player will encounter standard Covenant troops.

Mistakes

 * If analyzed, the route the Chief took in the beginning of the level is wrong. Since players can see the bridge through the grille in the beginning of the level, it indicates that the player is on the third floor. However, once the player reaches the hole created by coolant, he/she is located on first floor of the shuttle bay. The corridors that leads the player from the beginning of the level to the hole are obviously too short to travel such a high and long distance. This is obviously an oversight by Bungie's mission designer.