Keyes (Level)

Looking for Captain Keyes or his daughter Miranda?

Keyes is the ninth campaign level in Halo: Combat Evolved. Once more, the objective is to rescue Captain Jacob Keyes from inside an unnamed Covenant cruiser. This time, however, the ship is under attack from the Flood as well. You will have no allies on this level.

Enemies

 * Covenant
 * Grunts
 * Minor
 * Spec Ops
 * Elites
 * Minor
 * Spec Ops
 * Hunters
 * Flood
 * Combat Forms
 * Carrier Forms
 * Infection Forms
 * Brain Form (Proto-Gravemind)

Weapons

 * Pistol
 * Assault Rifle
 * Sniper Rifle
 * Shotgun
 * Fragmentation Grenade
 * Plasma Pistol
 * Plasma Rifle
 * Needler
 * Plasma Grenade
 * Shade
 * Fuel Rod Gun (non-usable)

Vehicles Encountered

 * Spirit (Non-drivable)
 * Ghost (Non-drivable)
 * Wraith (Non-drivable)
 * Banshee (Only drivable at the end of the level)

Equipment

 * Active Camouflage
 * Health Pack
 * Overshield

Part 01: Under New Management


{Cutscene}

''{Opening cinematic-Camera flies through a canyon filled with pools of reactor coolant, under the Covenant ship. The cruiser is resting on the top of the canyon, apparently heavily damaged. Flood and Covenant forces are fighting all throughout the region.}''

Cortana: "The Covenant network is in absolute chaos! From what I've been able to piece together, their leadership ordered all ships to abandon Halo when they encountered the Flood, but they were too late. The Flood overwhelmed this cruiser and disabled it. The Covenant are terrified the Flood will repair the ship and use it to escape from Halo. They've sent in a strike team to neutralize the Flood and repair the ship for immediate departure. I've got a good lock on Captain Keyes' CNI transponder signal! He's alive! And the implants are intact! There's some interference from the cruiser's damaged reactor. I'll bring us in as close as I can."

''{Master Chief teleports into the end of a corridor in the cruiser. The camera view flips over, upside down, and Master Chief falls on his head; he was teleported in upside down.} ''

Cortana: "Ohh... I see! Coordinate data needs to be— "

({Master Chief bangs the side of his head with his fist as he stands up.)

Cortana: "Right. Sorry."

{Gameplay}

(After walking down the hallway several meters)

Captain Keyes (O.S.): (weakly) "Chief... Don't be a fool...Leave me..."

Cortana: "Captain? Captain?! I've lost him..."

(After getting to a hangar, with a large hole in the floor just past the door, blocking your progress)

Cortana: "Analyzing damage...This hole was caused by some kind of explosive. Very powerful if it tore through a ship's hull. All I detect down there are pools of coolant. We should continue our search somewhere else."

(After the staying in that corridor for a few moments, Flood begin dropping out of a hole in the ceiling behind you, cutting you off)

Cortana: "Warning! Threat level increasing!"

(After fighting off the increasing horde of Flood for a few more moments)

Cortana: "That jump into the coolant is looking better all the time, Chief!"

(More Flood arrive)

Cortana: "Trust me! It's deep enough to cushion our fall!"

(After continuing to hold your ground)

Cortana: "Chief, we need to jump now!"

(Flood continue to pour out the hole, and from down the hallway, never ending, forcing you into the hole)

[Master Chief]] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOwmguAA2ZI

(After falling into the hole)

(Master Chief falls into a large pool of coolant, which breaks his fall. Camera view begins under-coolant. Covenant and Flood are heavily engaged around the pool)

{Gameplay}

Cortana: "Let's get out of here, and find another way back aboard the ship."

(While walking down a narrow canyon)

Cortana: "We should head this way, towards the ship's gravity lift."

(Continuing farther down the canyons)

Cortana: "The crash did more damage than I suspected. Analyzing. Coolant leakage rate is significant. The ship's reactor should already have gone critical."

(Farther along in the canyons)

Cortana: "Power source detected. There's the gravity lift. It's still operational! That's our way back in!"

{Cutscene}

(Once you take the gravity lift back inside the ship)

Part 02: Upstairs, Downstairs
{Gameplay}

Cortana: "We should be able to get into the ship's control room from here."

{upon finding an unlocked door}

Cortana: "The Covenant Battlenet is a mess. I can't access the ship's schematics. My records indicate that a shuttle bay should be... here."

{Cortana marks the spot with a nav point}

{Upon reaching the nav point, it turns out to be a cargo bay}

Cortana: "Look, in the corners. The Flood are gathering bodies here."

{Continuing on, entering a shuttle bay}

Cortana: "Looks like another shuttle bay. We should be able to reach the control room from the 3rd level."

Captain Keyes (O.S.): "I... gave you an order, soldier! Now pull out!"

Cortana: "He's delirious! In pain! We have to find him!"

{reaching the door on the 3rd level}

Cortana: "The control room should be... This way."

{She assigns another nav point}

{nearing the control room}

Part 03: The Captain
Captain Keyes (O.S.): "(screams of agony) Waahhhh... Ahhhh ohhhh gaahhhhh..."

Cortana: "The Captain! His vitals are fading! Please, Chief, hurry!"

{once in the bridge of the cruiser}

{Cutscene}

''{A brain form sits on the command center in the bridge. The Captain's face sticks out of it, with his body dangling below, deformed.}''

Cortana: (horrified) "No human life-signs detected. The Captain! He's one of... them. We can't let the Flood get off this ring! You know what he'd expect... (quietly) What he'd want us to do."

''{Master Chief punches into Keyes' skull, sticking his hand inside. He pulls out the neural implants, shakes the Flood biomass off of them, and inserts them into his helmet.}''

Cortana: (quietly) "It's done. I have the code. We should go.

{Gameplay}

Cortana:We need to get back to the Pillar of Autumn. Let's go back to the shuttle bay and find a ride."

{Once you reach the shuttle bay, a Covenant dropship enters the hangar, dropping off more troops, escorted by two Banshees}

Cortana: "Perfect. Grab one of the escort Banshees, and use it to return to the Pillar of Autumn."

{Cutscene}

{Once you get in one of the escort Banshees, Master Chief flies out of the hangar, being fired on by the Covenant.}

Heroic Walkthrough
You'll start off with an Assault Rifle and a plasma pistol. Move down the hall to where you'll hear Captain Keyes saying, "Chief, don't be a fool. Leave me!" Go through the door and you'll see a Grunt being chased by a unarmed Elite combat form. Kill them both with your assault rifle. Go to the dead end. If you are feeling sneaky, look to your left, where the Grunt and the combat form chasing him came from - there is an Active Camouflage there. Go right then at the opening left. You should see 4 grunts. Throw a Fragmentation Grenade. Then go to where they were and go left. There will be 2 combat forms. Swap your plasma pistol for the shotgun and go straight to the dead end then right. Take out the Carrier form and its infection forms. Go through the door and jump through the gap.

When you jump, there will be large fight between Covenant forces and Flood. Throw 1 grenade at the Elites and pull out your shotgun if you have not already. When flood comes out of the goo, use your shotgun to take them out. Go where the Elites came from (turn on your light too, it's dark out here) and go right and continue going to straight into the next area.

Now, when you find the path, go through it and you'll find another group of Covies and Flood battling it out. If I were you, I'll watch the fight. It is possible to run straight across without being noticed, however; if you are feeling daring, go for it. Do not stay to fight it out. There's too many enemies here that can kill you quickly. Once it's over QUICKLY go straight to the other side. There's another path you need to go.

Enter the path and take out your shotgun. There will be lots of combat forms here, so be prepared. Take them out carefully with your shotgun. Also watch out for the falling Carriers. Don't worry if there is lots of Flood behind you, unless you're playing on Legendary, in which case you will need to take them out as quickly as possible.

Now once you got to the other side, there is a health pack and a Sniper Rifle. Swap your Primary weapon, NOT THE SHOTGUN for it. Then, stay where you are. There are Hunters fighting Carrier forms in the next area. It's simple, you need to aim at the orange part at the back. When you finally get a hold of it, simply snipe it.

Once the hunters are defeated, move down to the area where they are. If they happened to survive the Flood onslaught, there will be Elites and a couple of Grunts here. Use your Sniper Rifle to take down the Elites. Once it is clear, move to where they were, go to your right, and follow the path.

On the other side, there is an Elite on a Shade and a couple of Grunts. You can do one of two things here: 1. You can take them out with your Sniper Rifle, if you have any rounds left, or 2. Let the Flood take them out.

Once the area is clear, go left and right again. There will be several Flood forms here. End their miserable existence with a blast of 8-gauge quad-ought buckshot (in other words, use the shotgun). If you haven't already, I suggest you swap your Sniper Rifle for a Pistol, and continue on going straight. Drop down the cliff edge.

Upon going straight, you'll encounter Grunts fighting. Throw a grenade and stick 1 of the Combat forms. By this time, your shotgun, if you haven't been scouting the area for ammunition, is either low on ammunition or completely out. Snipe the enemies on the higher level with your pistol and go straight to where the combat forms came from and head left. Follow the path and you'll notice Elites fighting Combat forms on the higher ledge. Look! There's an overshield. Grab it and kill the Combat forms with your pistol. One of them should have a shotgun so grab it. Keep your pistol though.

Also, kill the Carriers and head up to the higher ledge, kill the Elites and a cutscene will happen in 5-10 seconds.

After the cutscene, you're inside the ship. No Covenant here this time. Seriously. Turn around and head toward the open door. Follow the path and kill the carrier form with your shotgun. Now if you still have your pistol, move down the path and you'll be in a large room patrolled by Flood carriers. If you go down your current level, there's 2 Combat forms with pistol AND shotgun ammo. Kill them both with your weapon. Then grab some ammo and go down the lower pit.

If you have good skill, you should be able to kill the carrier forms, ignore the flood reinforcements and enter the door opened from the RIGHT side. Pull out your shotgun and kill the enemies, and collect any ammunition they have. Find the hole and enter it. There should be a carrier form, but don't worry it will probably miss.

Then follow the path and kill the two Carrier forms and its surroundings. Then continue to go straight then left and you'll have 2 Elites and a couple of grunts. Stick the Elites before they kill you. and then go right and left again and kill grunts, Elites and flood and quickly go right and left then right again and you'll be in the shuttle bay.

Now if you need health there is a health pack next to the door you came through. There are also Elites on the other side; if I were you, I'd ignore them.

Now go straight on your current level and turn right (don't enter the door) then continue moving to the END of the level (IGNORE THE ELITES) and there is a door open to your left. Enter it. (Also, if there are Elites chasing you, stick them)

Now follow the path and you'll find several grunts fleeing, Kill them and the Flood chasing them. Follow the remaining path, killing every enemy you encounter with your weapons until you head towards the third level. Continue getting ammo also.

Once headed into the third level, (select the health pack if needed) then enter the door and go right, there is a couple of Flood forms, throw a grenade or 2. Enter the door they came out of (ignore the Elites and the dropship) and also throw another grenade. Then go straight to the dead end and left, go through the door and right.

Go straight and you will see Elites fighting. STICK ONE OF THEM BEFORE THEY SEE YOU. Then go left throw a grenade and clear the area filled with Flood. Push toward the command center; the Flood will keep coming out until you enter.

Once you are in the command center of the ship, head for the Brain form. A cutscene will activate.

Once the cutscene is over, get off the platform and wait a few seconds. Flood forms will come in through the doors. Head for the door that you came through and get close enough to open it; but do NOT go through. It will open, revealing a large group of Special Operations Covenant. Watch the huge battle erupt between the Covenant and the Flood; if you have any grenades, throw one in every once in a while to even out the fight. Once it's over and the area is secure, go through the door the SpecOps enemies came in, and go right.

Go back to the shuttle bay. There, you will face several more Special Operations Covenant enemies. Stick the Elites before they kill you. Then go back down to where the Elites were (the entrance to where you came in to the third level) and go down and left. There are Elites and a grunt. One grenade will do.

Now go to the path they came in and also, there are three SpecOps grunts that is blocking your entrance. KILL THEM (also you might want to stay away from the Fuel Rod Guns until they explode; they will set off any nearby grenades). Then move on to the next area.

Now kill the Minor grunt you see there. Then go to the other side of the shuttle bay and drop from the bottom, you should only lose half shields so don't worry. Now QUICKLY enter one of the escort Banshees AND YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE LEVEL.

Trivia

 * On HaloMaptools, it somehow appears in the Bipd tags that Jackals appeared in this level.
 * Strangely, the Grunt with the Fuel Rod Gun in the Spirit will always die upon impact with the ground. Even more strangely, the Fuel Rod Gun's subsequent explosion does not kill any of the nearby Grunts.
 * Strangely, the escort Banshee with the Nav point is actually an ally on the Motion Tracker. This probably is due to Cortana wanting you to use an “ally’s” vehicle. For example, if you board a vehicle, drive fast, and bail out with it still moving, it will indicate a large yellow dot on your motion tracker even if there is no one inside.
 * When you get to Captain Keyes, look a bit to the right off the ramp and you should see a tentacle with Captain Keyes' pipe, which has the Marathon logo on it.
 * The sentence "Chief…leave me", was added by Marty O'Donnell to offer up an explanation for why you are looking for Captain Keyes there, as revealed on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition bonus disc.
 * In the cutscene, "The Captain", where the Master Chief retrieves Captain Keyes' neural implants, the Master Chief was meant to burn Keyes' skull out of the Brain Form with the Flamethrower and retrieve the implants. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the Flamethrower was removed from the final game. Bungie had Robt McLees do research on what burned skulls looked like. When he had finished, he said "he'd done his work too well" as the burned skull was too gruesome.
 * When the escort Banshees fly in, you’ll see they haven't got the hatch sealed. In addition, the Banshees at the end of the level are indestructible, since they don't have the health bar usually seen in Covenant vehicles. This is probably a precaution, because a destructible Banshee wouldn't have survived the onslaught of fire from the Covenant troops.
 * You can get to the other side of the gap on the first part of the level by grenade jumping
 * The Banshee that you commandeer at the end of the level for some reason makes the same flying sounds a pelican does, and flies just as fast. Also, it can fly through walls, and if you're quick enough you could even FLY the Banshee, take a ride of the ship or explore the areas through walls
 * If a vacation is used to get passed most of the level, you can see the Banshees in the hangar being landed by scripted Special Operation Elites.
 * The grav lift is moved to a different place probably because Staten is Stupid