Halo: Escalation Issue 22

Halo: Escalation Issue 22 was released on September 23, 2015 and was the twenty-second comic in the Halo: Escalation series.

Plot summary
On September 18, 2558 at 0032 MST, the Song of Retribution is held by a energy shield and the Absolute Record's Contender-class AI tells Jul 'Mdama that his forces were disposed and "confined" because their presence was an unwelcome distraction. Jul, who has climbed to the platform, tells the AI that he brought his forces to merely honor their gods, not fight them, and it was the Contender who provoked them to attack the Sentinels. In response, the Contender AI says its suspicious about the Sangheili's disruptive tendencies were confirmed by their reaction. Jul angrily asks how were they to supposed to react. Meanwhile, Palmer, Tanaka and Glassman ask themselves if the Contender is their ally or just merely hates the Covenant. The ancilla says its only intention is to maintain the integrity of the Absolute Record and choose its proper custodian. Although Doctor Catherine Halsey claims she must be the custodian of the Absolute Record the ancilla is speaking of, because her possession of the Janus Key and being chosen by the Librarian, the Contender AI says her possession of the Janus Key proves nothing, because the Key could have been obtain by any variety of ways, even brute force. When Dr. Halsey tries to tell the ancilla her reasons, the AI says it had enough and translocates them.

Onboard the Breath of Annihilation at 0058 MST, a mutiny has been carried out by those who believe that the Didact's Hand lied to them about the presence of Spartans aboard the ship. A Zealot brutally beats a Sangheili Storm, demanding the answer of why their Supreme Commander lied to them, but the Sangheili Storm claims 'Mdama knew nothing about the attack and he gains nothing from the deception. The Storm then says the traitors are the only ones who would be benefit about the truth of those rumors.