The Babysitter

The Babysitter is one of the seven short films comprising the anime adaptation of the Halo universe, Halo Legends. Babysitter focuses on the rivalry between the SPARTAN-II Commandos and the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.

The first preview of Legends and Babysitter was revealed on September 17th, 2009 during Spike TV's GTTV Presents "Halo 3: ODST" Countdown to Launch. The Babysitter was released on November 7th, 2009 for a limited time on Halo Waypoint.

Summary
The Babysitter is focused around an ODST squad aboard Destroyer DD-993, who are sent on a mission to investigate alien ruins and assassinate a Covenant Prophet on Heian, a world in Covenant-controlled space.

The story opens with ODSTs O'Brien, Dutch, and Checkman discussing their upcoming mission (with a Marine named Berger trying to eavesdrop on them); O'Brien, the squad's sniper, is upset that he's being replaced as the marksman on this mission. When Cortez, the squad's sergeant, sits down to join them, he brings news to the table that upsets the squad, especially O'Brien: the sniper replacing him is a SPARTAN-II, and he's the backup.

Shortly after, the squad meets SPARTAN Cal-141, and Cortez briefs them on the mission: they are to drop into this planet under the cover of a meteor shower and eliminate a Prophet to gain a tactical advantage in this sector; the Prophet's death will break up the supply chain to other planets. In addition, alien ruins were found on this planet that predate both Human and Covenant architecture; they need to take photographs of the ruins.

The squad enters the asteroid ring surrounding the planet in their drop pods, losing Checkman in the process; his pod bumps into an asteroid which knocks him off course, sending him plummeting into the planet the wrong way. The other four pods land on the planet in close proximity to each other; Cal, Dutch, and Cortez land in a forest, and O'Brien lands in a swamp, after hitting a cliff and breaking his oxygen tank in the process. Dutch and Cortez go to get gear to retrieve O'Brien, but stop when Cal simply walks into the swamp, unfazed by the thick mud, and lifts the drop pod out of the mud, throwing it to the side. Dutch tells O'Brien that Cal singlehandedly saved him from certain death, and his contempt for the SPARTAN grows.

The squad plots out the mission from there; the Prophet will be landing at a logistics site north of their landing zone, and they need to get there before it does to set up for the shot, but before they can do that, they need to photograph the ruins on the way.

When they arrive at the ruins site, Cal halts them, noticing a patrol of Unggoy and a Brute Chieftain. The SPARTAN orders them to take out the patrol covertly; Cal kills a grunt with a knife, Dutch knocks another one out, and Cortez breaks one's neck. As O'Brien prepares to sneak up on one, he alerts it to his position by stepping on a twig, and the nearby Chieftain also notices. The Chieftain moves to pulverize O'Brien with his gravity hammer as he takes out the Grunt with his SMG, only to be stopped by Cal, who grabs the hammer before impact. The Chieftain swings his hammer, knocking O'Brien and Cal back. O'Brien dangles from a cliff, and then a waterfall, losing his sniper rifle, and watches Cal fight the Chieftain in hand-to-hand combat. The Chieftain is ultimately thrown off of the waterfall, after being blinded in one eye by an elbow to the face. Cal picks up O'Brien as he loses his grip and carries him back to the squad. His contempt for Cal grows yet further, having been saved twice and humiliated in front of his squadmates.

Finally, the squad reaches their destination two minutes before the Prophet lands. Cal sets up for the shot, and the Chieftain, who followed them from the ruins, ambushes the squad, attacking O'Brian first. Cal jumps in front of him, taking the hammer blow to the head and shoulder. Dutch, Cortez, and O'Brien collectively tackle the Chieftain, and Dutch unloads his SMG into the Chieftain's face, killing it. Cortez removes Cal's helmet to assess the injuries, and to the squad's shock, they find that Cal is a woman. Cal urges O'Brien to take the shot, claiming he's the only one that can do it. He hesitates, then picks up the rifle and takes the shot, killing the Prophet, and causing a major uproar among the Honor Guard at the landing site.

Cal then hands the data chip containing the photos of the ruins to Cortez, asking him to get them to Dr. Halsey. Cortez tells Cal that she should be the one to do it, but she tells him that they both know that can't happen, and she dies of her wounds shortly after.

Back on the Destroyer, the squad is sitting at their table. Berger joins them and attempts to make small talk about their last mission, making the mistake of mocking Cal's combat skill by saying that SPARTANs just can't keep up with Helljumpers. The squad throws apples at him for making such a comment, and when he asks what he said wrong, O'Brien reflects silently on how Cal saved his life multiple times, and her death.

Trivia

 * Cal's sniper rifle's scope indicates that the weapon holds seven rounds.
 * The ruins are neither of modern human nor Covenant origin, which would imply that they are Forerunner. However, the structures exhibit very little Forerunner design aesthetic - in fact, they have distinct Indian, Japanese, and Greco-Roman aesthetic elements, among others. In the DVD commentary, Frank O'Connor revealed that this mystery is an important plot point that will be explored in future Halo media. The ruins are mentioned once again in From the Office of Dr. William Arthur Iqbal, in which Dr. Iqbal speculates that the builders of the ruins may have borrowed from human architecture, or vice-versa. The release of Halo: Cryptum hints that Heian was once a Prehistoric human civilization colony, either destroyed by the Human-Forerunner wars or abandoned during one of humanity's technological dark ages.
 * Before the Prophet lands, Elite and Brute Honor Guards are walking alongside each other. It is also interesting to note that the Elites are wearing green colored armor, regular helmets, and not the typical Honor Guard helmet. The shoulder plates also resemble the Hayabusa shoulders.
 * When the HEVs are heading towards the planet there are five regular pods and one larger pod. The larger of the pods is the ODSTs' equipment pod.