The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor

The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor is the first story in the Halo Graphic Novel.

Summary
The Master Chief lands in the swamps of the Flood Containment Facility and engages several Covenant troops as the Dropship Brilliant Gift takes off from the surface of Halo (this is obviously the beginning of the level 343 Guilty Spark). The Brilliant Gift approaches a small group of Covenant ships and the Infinite Succor. The crew having failed to stop the dropship from boarding, it crash lands inside the Infinite Succor's hangar.

Grunts attempted to quell the fires resulting from the crash as strange creatures started to emerge. The hangar was sealed for the purpose of fire containment as a Grunt tried to inform the rest of the ship that they had been boarded, and that the intruders used human weapons. The Grunts die from gunfire.

Onboard the Covenant Flagship Seeker of Truth of the Fleet of Particular Justice, Commander Rtas 'Vadumee dueled with Sub-commander Kusovai. Kusovai was defeated and the Commander is called to the bridge and his team is ordered to prepare for boarding action. On the bridge, the Commander met with the Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee where he was informed that the Infinite Succor had been boarded, presumably by human forces. The Supreme Commander ordered the destruction of the Demon as first priority and then the securing of the ship the Infinite Succor and the Legate onboard as secondary goals. He gave the Commander the command codes for the Succor along with the ship's layout. Vadumee joined his team in the hanger and boarded the Phantom, Glorious Advance, for the Infinite Succor.

Upon landing, the entire team disembarked, weapons drawn and ready. They found Grunt and Engineer blood everywhere and human footprints. The slaughter of Engineers led the team to believe that the humans were not responsible as they were never as barbaric.

The team continued onward and entered a hunting preserve that was usually teeming with animals, but nothing was registering on sensors except for one life form. The team prepared to flank the target, realizing it was some sort of parasite. More creatures, smaller ones, start to close in. Vadumee realizes it was not a human attack and the team started to open fire on the hostile creatures.

Fighting the strange parasites, a pair of Grunts were killed. Another Grunt with an armed plasma grenade was shot and dropped the grenade, taking out his partner and an Elite as the team made their way to the bridge. They come under fire as the creatures start to use human weapons. The team makes it to the bridge, not letting up against the enemy forces. When they finally make it to the bridge, the Commander orders that the bridge be locked down, that the fleet be warned, and the ship's self-destruct set. However, the command codes were overridden by the Legate who, to their surprise, was still alive.

The Legate informed the commander that the Flood spread quickly and that unlocking the command codes would compromise the ship. As the commander argued with the Legate, an Elite started to transform into a Flood Combat Form and began attacking the others. The Legate refuses to meet the commander and unlock the command codes until they have been scanned for infection. The commander leads his team towards the medical bay so they can be scanned. Before they leave, Vadumee orders the Grunts to destroy the bridge to prevent the Flood from gaining control of the ship.

They fought their way to the medical bay, detonating a plasma battery to block the enemy forces as they had gained the command codes from the infected members of Vadumee's team. They made it to the medical bay and were scanned. The team met with the Legate who was watching as the Flood took over the ship.

The Legate stated that he had the security room installed since the ship lacked any security room. Luckily, the crew was unaware of it which is why the Legate was safe. The Legate told the Commander that the Flood are mentioned in several religious texts, but the details were unavailable. He says the Flood boarded on a dropship, but were not trapped on the Succor. The Flood can infect any dead or living animal tissue, taking control of the creature. As the Flood started to operate with more patrols and with greater intelligence, they come to realize that the Flood can also retain the knowledge of the host they infect. The Legate believed the Flood would use the slipspace drive to escape the system as they had gathered in engineering and infected a pilot. Using the command codes, they could easily leave the system and spread. The Flood had also been gathering corpses to a central mass which is thought to serve as their leader and organizer.

The Commander believed that the best course of action was to escape the ship and set the ship's course to the sun in the system. However, the Legate believed the ship can be destroyed remotely, putting his life ahead of the Covenant's safety and security. The Commander then picks up the Legate, and slams him down on the floor for putting his safety ahead of the Covenant's and initiated his plan, believing that having the Succor destroyed remotely would take time which they did not have.

The Commander took three other Elites to Engineering while Kusovai led the last four Grunts and two Elites, as well as the Legate, to the Phantom. The Commander's group battled masses of Flood forces as they moved for engineering. Two of the Elites were killed in the battle. The remaining Elite was injured and infected. The Commander euthanized him, cutting him down the middle with his energy swords, and continued to Engineering.

There, the Commander did his work. On the view screen, the Prophet, who had been infected, tells the commander that his team had joined the Flood and that there was no way to stop them. The Commander to his surprise found the infected sub-commander Kusovai standing in the doorway. They dueled, Kusovai cutting off Vadumee's left mandibles. As Kusovai mutated further, the Commander launched a lethal blow and then set a course for the sun. The injured Commander, the only survivor of the mission, returned to the Phantom and departed the Infinite Succor as it headed into the sun.

Equipment Theories
The Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor has fueled rumors concerning equipment in Halo 3. Most notably, the Energy Sword is dual-wielded, something many fans have called for since they first got their hands on the sword in Halo 2. The animation of an Elite killing a Brute in the Et Tu Brute video would seem to confirm that was is a strong possibility (playable or otherwise) for Halo 3. However, once the game was released, it was discovered that there was, in fact, no such feature.

The intricate duels with the Energy Swords have lead some to speculate that they may have a parrying ability in Halo 3. No significant information has been revealed elsewhere to support this, though the ability to parry could account for some of the often questioned advantage to dual wielding energy swords. This rumor, however, is true, and when two sword lunges are performed simultaneously, an energy discharge occurs between the swords, both combatants lose 50% of their maximum shield energy, (although you cannot die from this, only lose shield energy) and the combatants have another chance to lunge. This also happens when one person melee attacks, except the melee attacker recovers faster, and therefore can lunge again before their opponent can.

The use of the Elite Arm Shield in the Infinite Succor is quite unusual, as it is an item that had not been seen since the pre-Halo videos. That it would suddenly surface in the Halo Graphic Novel has been cited as evidence that the Elite Arm Shield may be returning in one form or another. This equipment item does not exist.

Also, if one looks closely at the Grunts and Elites during the Flood battles, you can see that some appear to be carrying MA5B assault rifles. This is odd because the Covenant believe human weapons to be too primitive to be worth using. It could be that since these are Special Operations forces, that they have been trained to use any weapon they could find, unlike the rank and file members of the Covenant. Another possibility is that Grunts do not care what weapon they use. It is also possible due to the Covenant practice of having Grunts study human cultures and languages that they are less resistant to human technology due to their greater understanding of Human society.

In the story, all three types of Grunts are seen. The normal Grunts, the Curl-Back Grunts, and the -unique to this story- Cylindrical Back Grunts. They can be seen in many different scenes putting out a fire, fighting the Flood and accompanying the Elites.

Characters

 * Rtas 'Vadumee
 * Kusovai
 * Minister of Etiology (Prophet)
 * The Flood
 * Eight Grunts
 * Seven Elites
 * John-117
 * Thel 'Vadam

Ships

 * Brilliant Gift - Spirit
 * Glorious Advance - Phantom
 * Infinite Succor - Agricultural Support Ship
 * Seeker of Truth - class unknown possibly Supercruiser or Assault Carrier