Reactor (Halo Wars level)

Reactor is the fourteenth campaign level of the real-time strategy game, Halo Wars.

After rescuing Anders, the crew of the Spirit of Fire lay out a plan to destroy the Shield World and the Forerunner ships contained within it to prevent the Covenant from using them. They load the Spirit's FTL drive to two Pelicans, intending to use them to ferry the drive to the installation's star for detonation. After Victor 397 and another Pelican carrying the FTL drive core are shot down by Banshees, Captain Cutter changes the task to a ground operation and UNSC ground forces are tasked with getting the core to the top of the Apex base site where it can be teleported to the Apex site. After an Elephant is attached to the core, Sergeant John Forge and other UNSC forces including the Spartans from Red Team escort them from Covenant and Flood forces to top of the long slopes leading to the Apex teleporter pad with success.

By occupying one base site to the end of the level, the player will be given the achievement "Didn't Get To Second Base", worth 5 Gamerpoints.

Transcript
{I Doomed Humanity}



Two Pelicans are shown lowering the Spirit of Fire's slipspace drive, while Marines are on the ground, ready to receive it.


 * Captain James Gregory Cutter: "Is this really going to work, Professor?"

Cuts to Anders' lab on the UNSC Spirit of Fire, where Cutter and Anders are overseeing the operation.


 * Professor Ellen Anders: "I believe this is our best hope. The overloaded FTL reactor will cause a chain reaction in the sun."

They move to one of the monitors, which is analyzing the Forerunner star ships, the slipspace drive, and the Shield World.


 * Cutter: "Enough to destroy all the ships here before the Covenant can get a chance to make anything of them."


 * Anders: "Well, put simply, Captain, our reactor will cause the sun to go supernova, leaving nothing here but dust."

The Shield World window enlarges, and the artificial sun, represented by a white dot in a middle of a sphere, releases a few shockwaves, and the sphere disappears.


 * Serina: "That's the weak part of this plan, if you ask me. We've no way home without that reactor."


 * Cutter: "One problem at a time, Serina. If the Covenant get their hands on these ships it will mean the end of the war. We'll take our chances here, to give humanity some hope."


 * Anders: "I know it's been a tough call, Captain, but it's the right one."

Forge appears on the monitor, in front of the slipspace drive.


 * Sergeant John Forge (Video COM): "Spirit of Fire, this is Forge. She's buttoned up and ready to go!"

''Cuts to the ground, where Forge is. Marines are getting ready.''


 * Cutter (COM): "Deliver that package safely, Sergeant."

Forge points at the camera and shoulders his shotgun.


 * Forge: "Keep the coffee hot. I'll be back before you know it."

Cuts back to lab.


 * Anders: "I'll be monitoring you from here, Sergeant."

Captain Cutter leaves the lab.


 * Serina: "Well, it'll be pretty obvious if he succeeds."

Anders looks down at the floor and shakes her head, with a worried and sad look on her face.

{In-game Cutscene}

Two Pelicans, carrying the FTL drive, are being pursued by Banshees


 * Victor-397 Pilot (COM): "This is Victor-397. Stabilizers out, we can't carry her! Going down!"

A Banshee scores a fatal hit on one of the Pelicans.


 * Victor-397 Pilot (COM): "Clear the area, we're dropping cargo!"

''The Pelicans drop the slipspace drive at the last second, both crashing soon after. The slipspace drive slides down a hill. Cuts to black.''

{Gameplay}

Forge, Red Team, and two Wolverines regroup at the slipspace drive, which is in front of a newly established UNSC station.


 * Cutter: "I don't want to take anymore chances flying that core in, we're changing this to a ground operation."


 * Forge (COM): "The core is a heavy son of a bitch, use Elephants to drag it up those ramps. They're the only vehicle with enough torque to pull that damn thing."

After the Elephant is deployed from the base:


 * Forge (COM): "Alright, let's hitch the Elephant up to the FTL core and go from there."


 * Serina: "If that Elephant gets destroyed on the ramp, the core will roll all the way back down. It's not going to be pretty."


 * Serina: "Once the core reaches a flat area, it will no longer be in danger of rolling back down the hill. Get the core to level ground, and do try to avoid any unnecessary jostling."

After fighting up several ramps, against the Flood, Sentinels, and three Covenant bases, the core finally reaches the top.


 * Forge (COM): "Spirit, we've reached the target site. Orders?"

{In-game Cutscene}

The Elephant backs the slipspace drive onto a teleporter.


 * Cutter: "Sergeant, engineers are on their way to rig the core. We're nearly there."

The slipspace drive teleports away.

Level ends.

Easter Eggs

 * The Bountiful Harvest skull can be found northeast of the second Covenant base, and is only accessible after destroying 20 Vampires.
 * The Black Box in this level is hidden southwest of the first Covenant base, behind a wall, so it can only be collected by an air unit.

Miscellaneous

 * In the beginning in-game cutscene, after the Pelicans crash and explode, part of the bottom area of the reactor merges to the ground.
 * The teleporter site resembles the shape of a Marathon symbol.
 * An Elephant cannot be healed by the "Heal and Repair" ability once it is attached to the Shaw-Fujikawa drive; the regeneration power has no effect.
 * Strangely, when the Reactor is standing on a Base Building Pad without an Elephant attached, and the player builds a building there, the Reactor will move out of the way itself. This is technically impossible, but is included for gameplay reasons.