Halo: Escalation Issue 18

Halo: Escalation Issue 18 will be released on May 27, 2015 and is to be the eighteenth comic in the Halo: Escalation series. It is the end of the two-part story arc called "The Glass Horizon".

Plot synopsis
The issue opens in 2556, with the deploying a D79-TC Pelican to the planet Cleyell, rumored to have a strong presence of Kig-Yar scavengers, with an ODST team led by Holly Tanaka. One of the ODSTs complains that a civilian rescue mission is not the life for an ODST, but one of his colleagues tells him that such missions usually end in a firefight. The ODST then sarcastically asks Tanaka if she knows how to handle a rifle, presuming her to be lacking in combat experience because of her role as an Army engineer. The narrative jumps back to 2551, three days after the Kig-Yar's attack to the compound. Tanaka mourns her father's demise and blames the other two survivors for releasing the prisoner who led the Kig-Yar to the compound. One of the survivors reveals that the one who released the prisoner was Tanaka's father; he decided to release him because if he had decided to kill him, it would have demoralized the other survivors. After the discussion, the survivors decide to recover an emergency cache near the cave, but the compound's doorstep is surrounded by Kig-Yar forces. When Tanaka asks how they'll get through the Kig-Yar, the other two survivors reveal they are actually insurgents, and then they proceed to train her in guerrilla tactics.

Back in 2556, the ODST team lands on Cleyell's surface and find a transmitter wedged down in a crack. When one of the ODSTs asks why someone would stash a transmitter there, another ODST finds a dead civilian with plasma burns in his body. Again in 2551, Tanaka and the survivors attract the Kig-Yar into a trap, hoping that the Kig-Yar make the mistake of overplaying their advantages.