Mantle's Approach: Difference between revisions

After his awakening in [[2557|July 2557]], the Didact quickly escaped in his Cryptum and, once the necessary preparations were complete, he recoupled the Cryptum with ''Mantle's Approach'' and took off immediately. He jumped to [[Ivanoff Station]] alongside a [[Jul 'Mdama's Covenant faction|Covenant]] fleet, intent on reclaiming the Composer. The Didact test-fired the Composer on the station, then proceeded to [[Earth]] to settle his personal war with humanity once and for all.<ref>'''Halo 4''', campaign level ''[[Composer (level)|Composer]]</ref>  Although Earth had been warned of the attack, the planet's [[orbital defense platform]]s and the [[Home Fleet]] were unable to stop the colossal Forerunner ship.

Unbeknownst to the Ur-Didact, however, [[SPARTAN-II program|Spartan]] [[John-117]] had survived the Composer's deadly pulse thanks to immunization provided by the Librarian. Pursuing ''Mantle's Approach'' aboard a [[HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon|nuclear-armed]] [[F-41 Broadsword]], the Spartan took out the ship's point defense turrets, allowing the {{UNSCShip|Infinity}} to punch a hole through the ship's hull with her fore weapons. The Master Chief then fought his way through the ship, eventually finding the Didact controlling the Composer under an impenetrable force field. The AI [[Cortana]] overloaded the shields by flooding the ship's mainframe with her rampant duplicates, allowing the Chief to confront the Didact. Although John was no match for the Didact's powerful abilities, Cortana was able to immobilize the Promethean with [[hard light]] shackles, allowing the Chief to plant a [[Z-040 pulse grenade|pulse grenade]] in the Didact's armour. The resulting explosion knocked the Didact off balance and sent him falling into a slipspace portal underneath the Composer.<ref name="midnight">'''Halo 4''', campaign level ''[[Midnight]]</ref>

With the Composer already firing upon [[New Phoenix]], [[Unified Republic of North America|URNA]], the Spartan manually detonated the HAVOK warhead as a desperate last resort. The Composer was destroyed by the HAVOK nuke, along with the majority of the ''Mantle's Approach''. The dying Cortana teleported the Master Chief out of the ship at the very last moment and created a hard light barrier around him, saving John's life. The remains of ''Mantle's Approach'' formed a debris field over Earth.{{Ref/Reuse|midnight}} Pieces of the ship's remains exited over [[Installation 03]] in the [[Khaphrae system]]. Some of the debris entered the atmosphere of the Halo installation—an event observed by SPARTAN-II [[Black Team]].<ref>'''Halo: Escalation''', ''[[Halo: Escalation Issue 9|Issue #9]]''</ref>

File:H4-MantlesApproachShip-Slipspace.jpg|John-117 pursuing the ''Mantle's Approach'' onboard his [[F-41 Broadsword]].

File:H4-Infinity-Mantle.jpg|The UNSC ''Infinity'' facing the ''Mantle's Approach''.

File:H4-Concept-MantlesApproach.jpg|More concept art of the ''Mantle's Approach'' ship with the Didact's Cryptum.