Keyes (Level)

Looking for the Captain or his daughter?

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

Weapons

 * Pistol
 * Assault Rifle
 * Sniper Rifle
 * Shotgun
 * Frag 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

Part 01: Under New Management
''{Opening cinematic-Camera flies through a canyon filled with pools of reactor coolant, under a Covenant cruiser. 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 kill 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."

(After walking down the hallway several meters)

Captain Keyes (O.S.): "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: "Analysing 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!"

(After holding your ground longer)

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)

(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)

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. Analysing. 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!"

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

Part 02: Upstairs, Downstairs
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.): "Waahhhh... Ahhhh ohhhh gaahhhhh..."

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

{once in the bridge of the cruiser}

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

Cortana: "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... 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: "It's done. I have the code. We should go. We need to get back to the Pillar of Autumn. Lets 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. "

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

Trivia

 * In this level you see for the first time (besides the occasional instances in Truth and Reconciliation and Two Betrayals), Elites use shades. You can see them using these turrets in an area of the canyon, and on the middle platform in the second hangar.
 * In the cut scene, "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.
 * Keyes' skull was reused for the multiplayer gametype "Oddball".
 * At the start of the level, look to your left, where a locked door is, look at the ground. You should see an Assault Rifle standing on the narrow side, up side up. You cannot take rounds from it or pick it up (you will only see it if you've played Two Betrayals before playing this level). Also, if you look to your right, you will see a grating with Infection forms behind it trying to attack you. Go up to the grating and look behind the Infection forms. You should see Captain Keyes as a Brain Form.
 * When you get to Captain Keyes, look a bit to the right off the ramp and you should see one of Captain Keyes' tentacles. Sticking out of the tentacle is Captain Keyes' pipe, which has the Marathon logo on it.
 * If you shoot one of the large Energy Shields, deactivate it and stand over it and wait for it to reactivate, if you stand in the right place one of several things could happen: You could fly through the walls and in-game blocks, getting to the part of the Brain Form and freezing the Combat Forms, or you could jump up into the ceiling, free to explore wherever you want without limitations.
 * When the Spirit dropship arrives and drops off a team of Spec Ops troops, you can jump down onto the dropship.
 * Strangely, the Grunt with the Fuel Rod Gun in the Spirit will always die upon impact with the ground. Even more strangely, the Gun's subsequent explosion does not kill any of the nearby grunts.
 * If you didn't kill all enemies before going to the brain form, you could be killed in the cut scene. The cut scene will continue as if nothing has happened, but the Master Chief won't be seen (except for his dead body when within view). When the cut scene ends, you will remain alive and can continue to play.
 * In the hangar, there are Ghosts and Wraiths, but they are not drivable. They can be destroyed, however.
 * When you reach the gaping hole in the beginning of the level, you can grenade-jump over it. Make sure to land on the small ledge on the right where the crates are. Then you can grab the health pack and explore, however it should be noted that exploring is limited to only the hangar.
 * At the part where you are about to enter the Control Room, you can actually take an alternate path towards it, so as to skip the cut-scene "The Captain".
 * This is the only Flood level in Halo: Combat Evolved that has no Sentinels.
 * You will see a carrier form through a grid near the beginning that is exploding grunts with a fuel rod gun implanted in its "head".
 * Lt. McKay probably caused the big hole in the hull, since they wouldn't want a crashed ship, and in the novel it said it was so big it destroyed the hull. The explosion would have killed all Covenant and Flood in the area, but they are all well alive, besides the Flood.
 * The sentence; "Chief leave me", was added by Marty O'Donnell to offer up an explanation for why you are looking for him there, as revealed on the Halo 3 Legendary disc.
 * This is the first level in the trilogy you face Spec Ops Elites and Grunts.
 * When the escort banshees fly in, you’ll see they haven't got the hatch sealed.
 * This is the one of the first levels in the Halo trilogy where you see elites throwing plasma grenades.
 * Strangely, the escort Banshee with the Nav point is actually an ally on the Motion Tracker.
 * There is also a spinning plasma pistol, but you need to throw a plasma grenade at some Elite Combat Forms wielding plasma weapons at the right time. Then near the corner you will see the plasma pistol, and if you shoot it, it will spin.
 * When you come to the part where you have a sniper rifle next to a Health Pack (where the Elites and Hunters are fighting the Carrier Forms) when you finally get to the Sniper Rifle and you left any Flood still chasing you will disappear on the spot. This includes if any are "guarding" it and you just jump them they'll disappear.
 * The Banshees you use to finish the level with are invincible.