Echo 216

"This is UNSC Pelican Echo 216. Can you hear me?"

- Echo 216's pilot tries to hail a friendly signal.

Echo 216 is a Pelican dropship of the United Nations Space Command Armed Forces. At some point following the advent of late 2560 it and its pilot, after having been stranded around the remains of a shattered Halo installation for some time, had a chance encounter with John-117 and brought the Spartan-II aboard. Echo 216 was hit with some kind of electronic attack soon thereafter, which led its pilot to evacuate the rear bay so the Master Chief could go on the offensive.

Operational history
"Warning. Warning. Warning. Pressure building in lines four, seventeen, and thirty-three."

- An automated alert greets Fernando Esparza as soon as he is jolted awake.

During the Battle for Installation 07, Echo-216 was assigned to the UNSC Infinity as part of the supercarrier's compliment of Pelican dropships. When the Infinity was attacked by Banished forces and compromised, 216 was in the hangar, ready for launch. When contracted civilian maintenance technician Fernando Esparza learned that the Jiralhanae Atriox had defeated and seemingly killed the Spartan John-117, the technician panicked and stole 216 to escape the besieged ship. However, without a Slipspace drive, the vessel was only capable of limited sublight travel; with the Infinity no longer spaceworthy and Installation 07 occupied by Banished forces, Echo-216 and its sole occupant were stranded in space. When Installation 07 was seriously damaged by a mysterious explosion, Echo-216 was among those dragged with the massive structure as it jumped to an unknown location, along with a majority of UNSC and Banished forces on and around the ring.

At some point around May 2560, Echo 216 was still present near Installation 07, where it had been adrift in a large debris field for the past six months. Eventually, the ship drifted into a collision with John-117, and the pilot was able to use the ship's internal power source to bring the SPARTAN's MJOLNIR (GEN3) armor system online. The armor's fusion reactor in turn almost instantly recharged the Pelican's depleted batteries, restoring functioning to Echo 216's internal lights and systems. Following this event, an attack generated electrical discharges throughout the Pelican, and enveloped it in a bright light. The pilot sealed himself in the Pelican's cockpit while John-117 opened the troop bay's external door so that he could go on the offensive. John-117, discovering the attack to come from the Banished dreadnought Ghost of Gbraakon attempting to capture Echo-216 for salvage, boarded the vessel and sabotaged its engines, freeing 216 and causing the dreadnought to plummet to the ring's surface. John-117 then had Fernando take Echo-216 to a sublevel of the damaged Installation, where Fernando momentarily lost contact with the SPARTAN-II. When John-117's signal was re-acquired near the wreckage of the UNSC Mortal Reverie, Echo-216 flew in to extract him, Fernando in the process learning that John-117 had recovered The Weapon to continue the mission to locate Cortana and link up with the scattered UNSC personnel on the ring.

After capturing several forward operating bases on the ring's surface, Fernando utilizes Echo-216 to deliver vehicles and supplies at John-117's request and assist with UNSC logistics, and to transport John-117 himself between objectives. On May 28, after extracting John from a deactivating Forerunner Spire, John and Fernando come under fire from Banished anti-aircraft cannons, damaging Echo-216 and causing the Pelican to crash land in the middle of a debris field from the Battle of Installation 07. As the Pelican's systems reset from the shock of the crash, Fernando and John split up, with Fernando attempting to salvage a working slipspace core from a trio of wrecked D81-LRT Condor dropships in the debris field, and John proceeding to assault the AA guns so that they may safely take off. However, after John destroys the guns, he discovers Echo-216's location has been compromised by the arrivals of Hyperius and Tovarus, twin members of the infamous Hand of Atriox "Spartan Killers", and rushes back to the crash site to intercept them before they discover Fernando. John defeats the Spartan Killers, but is informed by a distraught Fernando that none of the Condors had intact slipspace drives to salvage, leaving Echo-216 hopelessly stranded on the ring; he also laments having stolen 216 to escape the Infinity, claiming that it could have been used to save other UNSC personnel rather than just himself. After calming Fernando down and assuring him, John has the pilot take them to the next location, another Spire on the ring's surface which can access the ring's repair network.

Fernando continues to utilize Echo-216 to support John as he attempts to access the second spire, eventually taking it to pick John up after he finishes his task in the structure. However, just as he arrives to extract the SPARTAN, a cloaked Jega 'Rdomnai enters the cockpit and hijacks the Pelican, steering 216 away from John-117 and towards Escharum's headquarters, the House of Reckoning, where Fernando is captured and interred as bait to lure John-117 into a final battle with Escharum, and 216 is impounded to be dealt with later. John-117 and the Weapon besiege the House of Reckoning, doing battle with and defeating both Jega and Escharum and rescuing Fernando, who recovers 216 and uses it to carry the three away from the House of Reckoning and to the Silent Auditorium, where The Harbinger intends to use the partially-completed structure to search for something on the ring.

Fernando deploys John-117 at the Auditorium, but, due to the heavy defenses set up by the Banished at the site, John orders Fernando to pull back and wait for his word for extract. Three days later, after locating John's signal again, Fernando tracks down the SPARTAN-II and picks him up in Echo-216, preparing to assist John-117 in further operations against the Banished on Zeta Halo.

Specifications
Echo-216 appears to be an older model D77-TC Pelican, as opposed to the more modern D79-TC Pelicans which had previously been assigned to the UNSC Infinity, as noted by its more traditionally shaped cockpit with walk-through access from the troop bay in contrast to the rounded twin-cockpit design with limited troop bay access found on the D79. It is armed with a single 40mm chain gun on a chin-mounted pintle, though the weapon is never seen to be fired by its pilot. It also has an onboard AI, which monitors the vessel's condition and alerts the pilot to system abnormalities and damage. In a critical incident, the AI can also perform a system reset in response to large shocks or impacts in order to reactivate the vessel after crash-landing.

Like many Pelican dropships, Echo-216 is very robust, surviving months on end in the vacuum of space with heavily depleted batteries and moderate combat against Banished forces, at one point even taking multiple hits from Banished anti-aircraft artillery and crash-landing in the middle of a debris field, and at another point having its flight controls stabbed by an Elite's plasma sword during a hijacking. Despite both of these incidents, the ship remained fully operational and flightworthy after only relatively minor repairs.

Production notes
"Our real, concrete, goal was to speak to the theme of rebirth. The pilot resuscitates Chief. Chief brings life and courage to the pilot. The Pelican is brought back to life by Chief. It speaks to the potential of the world we're creating."

- Dan Chosich

Trivia

 * Echo 216 has the same terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) sounds as Boeing aircraft.

Gallery
 File:HI_DH_Echo216_EmergencyLighting_Concept.jpg|Concept art of the troop bay under emergency lighting. File:HI_DH_FirstPerson.png|The interior troop bay as seen through John-117's HUD. File:Halo Infinite E319 A Ring Vista.jpg|John-117 peering out the Pelican's cockpit. File:Halo Infinite E319 A Brand New Fight.jpg|The troop bay door opening for John-117. File:HI Screenshot PreRelease-JohnAndPilot.jpg|The pilot of Echo 216 and John-117 inside the troop bay. File:HINF ChiefDemo.png|John-117 in the troop bay after the Pelican crash lands on Installation 07. 

List of appearances

 * Halo: Infinite
 * Discover Hope