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. The Brilliant Gift approaches a small group of Covenant ships and the Infinite Succor. Failing to stop the dropship from boarding, it crash landed inside the Infinite Succor's hanger.

Grunts attempts to quell the fires resulting from the crash as strange creatures start to emerge. The hanger is sealed due to fire containment as a Grunt tries to inform the rest of the ship that they've been boarded, but the intruders have human weapons. The Grunts die from gunfire.

Onboard the Covenant Flagship Seeker of Truth of the Fleet of Particular Justice, Commander Rtas 'Vadumee is dueling with Sub-commander Kusovai. Kusovai is defeated and the Commander is called to the bridge and his team is ordered to prepare for boarding action. On the bridge, the commander meets with the Supreme Commander (assumed to be the current Arbiter) where he is informed that the Infinite Succor has been boarded, presumably human forces. The Supreme Commander orders the destruction of the demon as first priority and then the securing of the ship the Infinite Succor and the Legate onboard, secondary. He gives the commander the command codes for the Succor along with the ship's layout. Vadumee joins his team in the hanger and boards the Phantom, Glorious Advance, for the Infinite Succor.

Upon landing, the entire team disembarks, weapons drawn and ready. They find Grunt and Engineer blood everywhere and human foot prints. The slaughter of Engineers leads the team to believe that the humans are not responsible as they are never as barbaric.

The team continues onward, entering a hunting preserve that is usually teaming with animals, but nothing is registering on sensors except for one lifeform. The team prepares to flank the target, realizing it is some sort of parasite. More creatures, smaller ones, start to close in. Vadumee realizes its not a human attack and the team starts to open fire, engaging the hostile creatures.

Fighting the strange parasites that are mutated to unknown degrees, many Grunts fall and so do some Elites as the team makes 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 the bridge to be locked down, warn the fleet, and self-destruct the ship. However, the command codes are overridden by the Legate who to their surprise is still alive.

The Legate informs the commander that the Flood spread quickly and unlocking the command codes would compromise the ship. As the commander argues with the Legate, some members of the team start to tranform into the Flood and begin attacking the others. The commander orders the team to head for the medical bay so they can be scanned for infection. Before they leave, Vadumee orders the Grunts to destroy the bridge to prevent the Flood from gaining control of the ship.

They fight to the medical bay, blowing a plasma battery to block the enemy forces as they have gained the command codes from the infection members of Vadumee's team. They make it to the medical bay and are scanned. The Legate meets with the team who is watching as the Flood take over the ship.

The Legate states that he had the security room installed since the ship lacked any security room. Luckily, the crew is unaware of it which is why the Legate is safe. The Legate tells the Commander that the Flood are mentioned in several relgious texts, but the details are 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 start 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 believes the Flood will use the slipspace drive to escape the system as they have gathered in engineering and have infected a pilot. Using the command codes, they can easily leave the system and spread. The Flood have also been gathering corpses to a central mass which is thought to serve as their leader and organzier.

The Commander believes that the best course of action is to escape the ship and set the ship's course to the sun in the system. However, the Legate believes the ship can be destroyed remotely, putting his life ahead of the Covenant's safety and security. The Commander then beats the Legate for putting his safety ahead of the Covenant and initializes his plan, beleiving that having the Succor destroyed remotely would take too much time which they did not have.

The Commander takes two other Elites to engineering while Kusovai leads the rest of the team, including the legate, to the Phantom. The commander's group battles masses of Flood forces as they move for engineering. One Elite is infected as they engage the mass, but is killed by the commander. Another Elite is injured and infected. The Commander euthanizes him, cutting him down the middle with his energy sword, and continues to engineering.

There, the commander prepares his work. One the view screen, the infected Prophet tells the commander that his team has been infected and joined the Flood. The commander to his suprise finds the infected sub-commander standing in the door way. They duel, Kusovai cutting off part of Vadumee's mandibles. As Kusovai mutates further, the commander launches a lethal blow and then sets a course for the sun. The injured commander, assumed to be the only survivor of the mission, returns to the Phantom and departs the Infinite Succor as it heads 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 this is a strong possibility (playable or otherwise) for Halo 3.

The intricate duels with the energy swords have lead some to speculate that the energy sword 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.

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.

Characters

 * Rtas 'Vadumee (a.k.a Half-Jaw, Spec Ops Commander)
 * Kusovai
 * Minister of Etiology (Prophet)
 * The Flood
 * Grunts
 * Elites

Ships

 * Dropship (Brilliant Gift)
 * Phantoms (Glorious Advance)
 * Infinite Succor