The Package (animated short)

The Package redirects here. For other uses, see The Package (disambiguation).

The Package is one of seven short films from the anime anthology Halo Legends. Unlike the other six episodes of the anthology, which feature traditional, hand-drawn animation, The Package is rendered in CGI. The Package follows John-117 and a squad of Spartans as they execute a top-secret mission to retrieve an highly valuable UNSC asset on a Covenant assault carrier.

Summary
Aboard an ONI prowler, a team of Spartans consisting of John-117, Frederic-104, Kelly-087, Solomon-069 and Arthur-079, are briefed by an intelligence officer. A Covenant fleet is momentarily trapped in the system. One of the ships is carrying an important "package" which the Spartans must retrieve. The prowler de-cloaks and deploys the Spartans in Booster Frames.

The team make their way past an array of plasma weaponry and attach a scanning device to a to search for the "package's" frequency. Solomon detects the package on one of the ships. As soon as he leaves the vessel's hangar, he discovers an antimatter charge, which destroys the ship and kills him. Soon, the Spartans detect the same beacon frequency coming from all the ships around them. This confirms that the Covenant knows what the commandos are after. John deduces that the target is actually in the assault carrier flagship. Arthur is killed while trying to cover Kelly from pursuing Type-31 Seraphs. The remaining Spartans board the Assault Carrier and take cover inside a bubble shield.

After making their way through thick Jiralhanae and Unggoy defenses, the Spartans are ambushed by a team of Sangheili. Fred parries a swipe from an energy sword with his Spartan Laser, and kills his attacker with a combat knife, distracting John's own attacker and holding the Sangheili off long enough for John and Kelly to proceed. The Fleet Master gives the order to detach parts of the hull, hoping to leave the Spartans stranded in space - Kelly manages to propel John back into the ship, but is left in the vacuum. John manages to recover the "package" - revealed to be Doctor Catherine Halsey, founder of the SPARTAN-II program, in cryo-hibernation.

John releases the doctor and tries to effect an escape. However, their path is blocked by the Sangheili Major Thel 'Lodamee, who challenges John to a sword duel, giving the Spartan his other energy sword. The duel is fierce but short, and John is disarmed and defeated. At this moment, by a twist of fate, the Shipmaster decides to detach the entire lower hull section and jump to Slipspace after clearing the magnetic interference, leaving the Spartans and many Covenant survivors stranded. Thel is sealed off from John and Halsey just when he's about to kill them. As he is lifted away from the soon-to-be-scuttled hull, he curses the Shipmaster with the words, "I had him. Commander, you fool! A thousand hells await you!"

Now free of immediate Covenant danger, the two board a Ren shuttle craft and are promptly pursued by Seraph fighters. They are saved by Fred and Kelly, who have captured another Seraph. The survivors are recovered by the prowler, which soon leaves the system. Once they are aboard, John swears that he will never let another comrade die again.

Trivia

 * The Package reveals that some of Cortana's lines from the Halo trilogy were first said by or to Dr. Halsey under different contexts (example:"Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it.").
 * Before John takes out his SMGs, his HUD shows that he has no more assault rifle ammunition. Later, when he meets 'Lodamee again, he tries to kill the Elite with a burst from the assault rifle. It is possible that he had more ammunition and reloaded his weapon while he was offscreen. Additionally, during the scene where Solomon realizes he has stepped into a trap, his HUD shows that he is holding a Spartan Laser as his primary weapon and an SMG as his secondary weapon. However, he is actually holding an assault rifle rather than SMGs.
 * The Kig-Yar seen when the trio make it aboard the flagship wear air tanks on their backs (similar to Unggoy), even though they breathe oxygen. This may be because they were preparing to engage in extravehicular activity outside the ship's atmosphere.
 * When John and Kelly are fighting their way through the corridor, it is shown that all of the Covenant have green blood. Unggoy actually have blue blood, and Jiralhanae and Sangheili have dark red and purple blood, respectively.