The Archive

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The Archive
File:HW2-The Archive.png
Game:	Halo Wars 2
Player:	Voridus
Date:	June, 2559
Location:	Forerunner archive, Installation 00
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The Archive is the eighteenth campaign level in Halo Wars 2, and the fourth of the Awakening the Nightmare expansion.

Transcript

FORERUNNER ARCHIVE

THE ARCHIVE

Mission Briefing

• Voridus: "Pavium, how far down is this facility? The lift still hasn't reached the bottom, it is endless!"
• Pavium: "If you had followed the orders, you wouldn't have to be down there, and i wouldn't have to be up here watching more of our troops fall to the infection."
• Voridus: "I told you i will fix this, Pavium. The means of reactivate the Sentinel Flood defenses should lie below."
• Pavium: "As does the Flood. Tread carefully. This area will be rotten with Flood forms. Be sure to make use of your incendiary gels, the enclosed spaces will work to your advantage."
• Voridus: "The lift slows, it seems i have arrived. Hold the line up there, i'll be back soon."

MISSION SUMMARY

Find and reactivate the Sentinel Defenses.

SCOUTING REPORT

Jump Pack Brutes are vital to navigating the Archive.

Cutscene

The lift that carries Voridus, Sangheili Rangers and Jump Pack Brutes arrived at the destination.

• Voridus: "I have arrived, Pavium. It stinks of death down here. The enemy is everywhere."
• Pavium: "We will stop the Flood together, Voridus. My troops and I will guard the entrance up here, but you must reactivate those defenses quickly."

Gameplay

Voridus and his pack quickly make their way out to the defense network but their movements are halted by Forerunner defense beams.

• Voridus: "Forerunner beams ahead. It seems some defenses remain active."

Voridus deactivate the control panel and advance as the defense beams shut down.

• Voridus: "This facility is pitted with many chasms. Jump Brutes, be ready."

New HUD shows remaining Jump Pack Brutes units are alive.

Ahead of them, Flood Spawner are guarded by hordes of Pod Infector.

• Voridus: "The Flood has already started to choke this place. Watch your step."

Voridus and his packs defeats the Flood Spawner guarding the downed lightbridge.

• Voridus: "Come, let us move fast before the Flood completely engulfs this place!"

The console lies on the other sides of the pillar and Voridus stops the advance.

• Voridus: "Jump Brutes, investigate the console on that pillar. We need to find a way forward."

Jump Pack use their jetpacks to the pillar and activated the lightbridge.

• Brute: "Lightbridge activated, Voridus!"

Once activated, Voridus led the Sangheilis to advance but hordes of Pod Infector and Combat Forms are coming from the other side of the bridge.

• Voridus: "Here they come now, wipe them out before they reach us!"

Sangheili takes distances while Voridus smash nearby Flood forms, clearing them out.

Jump Brutes advances to the other chasm but they are immediately engaging the Flood that was awaiting their arrival and defense beams prevents their advance.

Discovering this, Voridus reports to Pavium and deactivate the defense beams while Sangheili Rangers sniping Flood Spawner from other chasm.

• Voridus: "Pavium, they way forward is not clear. We have many Forerunner beam defenses and retracted lightbridges."
• Pavium: "A good sign. It means the facility is still partly functional. We may still be able to restore the defenses."

Once the Jump Pack Brutes area is clear, the Brutes activating the lightbridge and Voridus pushes forward. Before rendezvousing at the other side of lightbridge however, a Flood Spawner is waiting for their arrival.

• Voridus: "Listen! I hear the foul sound of Flood up ahead!"

Defeating the Flood Spawner, Jump Brutes rendezvoused with Voridus and continue advancing.

The hordes of Flood Forms are launching an assault on Voridus' pack but Sentinel's defense beams annihilates them before they can reach Voridus and his pack.

• Voridus: "Impressive! Pavium, the Forerunner beams make swift work of the Flood here!"
• Pavium: "As they will you, Voridus. Can you get past them?"
• Voridus: "We are more agile than those shuffling monstrosities. I'll send one of my squad through to deactivate them from the other side!"
• Pavium: "You surprise me, Voridus. I thought you would want to test your mighty reflexes against the beams."

Voridus send one of his squad to pass through the beam defenses.

If Voridus went by himself.

• Voridus: "Ha, challenge accepted, brother!"

Voridus shut down the defense beam and the team continue to advance.

• Voridus: "The path is clear, continue on."

Continuing ahead, they open one of crate supplies while hearing Pod Infectors around them.

• Voridus: "Steel yourselves! Infection forms! I'll cut them off before they overrun us. I'll start my incendiary gel to head them off. Stand back!"

His pack stand back to provide covering fire while Voridus goes ahead to engage them.

• Voridus: "Come and burn, filth! A special mix of my own, just for you!"

Voridus start spreading his incendiary gel while engaging the Pod infectors but he is surrounded from all sides.

• Voridus: "Pavium, my modified incendiary gel works wonders against the Flood!"
• Pavium: "At least there's finally a use for it. Colony was not pleased to learn you had been tinkering with his weapons."
• Voridus: "And where would we be without it now? You must learn to break a few rules, brother!"

If a Jump Pack Brutes health is less than 25%.

• Voridus: "Defend yourselves, Jump Brutes! I still have need of you!"

Clearing the Pod Infectors out, Voridus advances and found the teleporter.

• Voridus: "Pavium, we've found a teleporter down here. It appears to be connected to the one near you. I need reinforcements."
• Pavium: "Scout ahead while I get it working."

Further ahead, there is a Forerunner terminal but hordes of Flood Combat Forms and Blisters are guarding it.

• Voridus: "There's a Forerunner terminal ahead in a large chamber, but it's surrounded by blisters. We should investigate it"
• Pavium: "Then i suggest using an Honor Guard. Their cloaking abilities will enable them to reach the terminal undetected."
• Voridus: "You have reinforcements ready for me then?"

The teleporters soon becomes online.

• Pavium: "Yes, the teleporter's working, but i can't spare many fighters. If the Flood return here. I will need every one to hold them back."

Voridus calls in Honor Guard while replenish some of Jump Brutes and Sangheili Rangers. A Huragok arrives to heal the wounded.

• Voridus: "An Honor Guard's cloaking ability could prove useful to us. Get ready to earn your keep, mercenary!"

Approaching the site, Voridus orders Honor Guard to activate his cloak.

• Voridus: "Honor Guard, now it's the time to use your cloak!"

Honor Guard activate his cloak while passing through the Flood undetected.

• Voridus: "Tread carefully, if we disturb the sacs, they may release the Flood. Although it is tempting to burn them all now..."

The Honor Guard reach the destination and activate the Ark Defenses, the local defenses becomes online as Aggressor Sentinels are start annihilating the Flood surrounding it.

• Voridus: "Pavium, we've activated a minor defense system. It seems to be a localized patrol, we need to activate the global system."
• Pavium: "Keep searching, Voridus. We've just lost contact with another base, you must act quickly."

A Flood Infestor appears ahead but quickly retreats while Voridus and his pack is on the way to rendezvous point.

• Voridus: "Something's not right here. Tread carefully."

Rendezvousing, Voridus discover another path and takes a detour.

Taking detour while avoiding Flood blisters, they encounter two Flood Spawner and an explosive core.

• Voridus: "I could smell the trap... The Flood were waiting to ambush us!"

Rangers quickly detonates the core to destroy the Flood Spawner.

If the Jump Brute Pack is killed.

• Voridus: "Die on your own time, Jump Brutes! We need you now!"

Reaching the next teleporter, Voridus replenish more troops while another chasm that has terminals lies ahead.

• Voridus: "Another chasm! Jump Brutes, get across and activate the lightbridge!"

Jump Brutes reaches on the other chasm and activating the terminals but the lightbridge is not working.

• Brute: "Voridus, the lightbridge controls aren't working!"
• Voridus: "The Flood corrupts everything! We must move fast before the whole facility is a lost cause!"

The Flood start coming to their location.

• Brute: "Voridus! They come!"
• Voridus: "Then destroy them! I will not fall to these abberations!"

Pod Infector is just keep coming from south while Jump Brutes returns to Voridus except one unit to aid on defenses.

• Brute: "They are endless!"
• Voridus: "Keep fighting until the lightbridge starts working! The Flood infection must have compromise the facilites systems!"

Some supplies are added to aid Voridus in defenses.

After defend the position for some time, the lightbridge is activated while the Flood has just keep coming in addition of tentacles are coming out from the ground.

• Voridus: "The lightbridge is working again!"

Voridus quickly order his men to cross the lightbridge.

• Voridus: "Cross quickly, the systems are unstable and i do not relish a plurge into the depths below!"

If stalled for a bit

• Voridus: "Hurry! That lightbridge will not remain on forever!"

Managed to cross, the lightbridge shutted down.

• Voridus: "It's shut down behind us. It should buy us some time. That looked like the last chasm. Jump Brutes. You will have your worth measured in kills now!"

The Jump Pack Brutes HUD disappears.

When about to advance, they encounter a defense beam.

• Voridus: "Hold, I smell burning. There are Forerunner beams up ahead. Honor guard, you're fast on your feet. Prove your usefullness!"

The Honor Guard swiftly slip past through the beams and deactivate the beam once reach the other side.

Continue advancing, they met another Forerunner beams that blocked their advance.

• Voridus: "We're blocked by Forerunner beams! Turn them off! We have to get inside!"

Turning it off, the alarm triggers and the Quarantine countdown starts from 2 minutes. Voridus and his men are trapped inside the quarantine area

• Voridus: "What now? We've triggered a quarantine! We must clear the area of Flood or the automatic defenses will attack us as well!"

Hordes of Flood Forms start coming toward Voridus and his pack, forcing them to defend themselves.

Defeating the Flood under 2 minutes, the quarantine is lifted but before leaving the Jump Brutes are taking the Phoenix Log on the center.

• Voridus: "The quarantine has been lifted and the field is down, let's move!"

They continue to advance but suddenly stopped.

• Voridus: "Wait!"

Flood abominations can be seen far ahead and destroying the blisters to release Pod Infectors.

• Voridus: "There's another of those abominations. Be careful, those things seems to make any nearby Flood forms more aggressive!"

Voridus and his pack advance carefully.

• Voridus: "Be sure not to break any blisters or the abomination will have more Flood to rally against us!"

Advancing, they encounter another Forerunner terminals.

• Voridus: "Another of those Forerunner terminals."

Voridus lure the abominations to their positions and once in position, the Jump Brute activate Ark Defenses to activate local defenses, eliminating the Abominations.

Once defeating the abominations, they continue to advance carefully to not awake any blisters.

Almost reaching destination, Voridus reports to Pavium.

• Voridus: "Pavium, the Forerunner defenses are stronger here. We must be getting close to the core."
• Pavium: "Make haste, Voridus. We're falling back to the entrance for a final defensive position."

More defense beam ahead and this time it goes erratic, making it hard to read.

After passing through it, Voridus deactivate the defenses and his pack rendezvous with him.

Voridus and his pack finally reach the Sentinel Defense Network.

• Voridus: "Pavium, I think we've found it. It resembles the system i shut down before."

The locks however are infested with Flood biomass.

• Voridus: "Strange, it's almost as if the Flood understands its importance. The locks are blocked with their filth."
• Pavium: "There is cunning in their chaos, Voridus. The Flood seems to be growing in intelligence, you must clean those locks and reactivate the defenses, now!"

Pavium approach the teleporter and calling some Brute Grenadiers to bolster their firepower.

• Pavium: "I'm sending my finest warriors for you, Voridus. I have also outfitted some Brutes with new equipments inspired by your 'experiments'. Fight well."
• Voridus: "And you, brother. I will see this done."

Once all the locks has been cleared out of Flood Biomass and Flood forms, the facility start working again.

• Voridus: "It's working, Pavium. The power is increasing. Once this device is at full power i should be able to reenable the defenses."

The Facility current power are shown on the HUD and health bar on three locks are shown on the HUD as well.

Voridus and his pack set up defensive position to defend the locks from the Flood.

• Pavium: "Voridus, i'm sending you all my reserves. Make good use of them."
• Voridus: "All of them? But what of you?"
• Pavium: "If you fail, we will quickly fall next. You must be our shield now."

Resources start to flow to Voridus continuously while the Banished continue to hold the line.

The Flood start sending Combat Forms once power reaches 20%.

• Voridus: "Watch out, infected forms!"

The Combat Forms start launching the assault along with Pod Infectors.

• Voridus: "Infectors! Wipe them out before they reach us!"

The Banished continue to hold the line.

• Voridus: "Stay vigilant, my gel awaits victims to burn."

Reaching 30%, Flood Spawner arrives on the scene and some are trying to attack the lock.

• Voridus: "Keep them away from the locks!"
• Voridus: "Put their wrethces out of their misery!"

Reaching 50%, more flood forms are coming.

• Voridus: "More of their twisted forms!"

Have not enough of the Flood Spawner assault, more forms are dispatched to infect infantries include Abominations.

• Voridus: "They're sending more infected forms now! My incendiary gel will make work of these monstrosities."

Reaching 62%, the Flood dispatch another wave of attack.

• Voridus: "Here they come, raze them!"

Reaching 75%, Voridus and his pack continue to hold the line.

• Pavium: "Hurry, Voridus. The Flood is amassing here."
• Voridus: "Hold fast, brother. Just a little longer."

Once the power reaches 100%, the system are activated and awaits to be aligned.

• Voridus: "Pavium! The system is at full power. I'm reactivating it now!"
• Pavium: "Then reactivate the defenses! The Flood is almost here!"
• Voridus: "Yes, this is familiar. Time to fight, Sentinels."

Voridus start to align the ring formations while the Flood comes in huge waves to stop them.

• Voridus: "It seems the Flood are aware of the threat, they rush to stop us!"

Voridus finally manage to align all rings.

• Voridus: "It is done, the system is working again.!"

Cutscene

The Floods continues to comes in hordes towards them to defeat Voridus' pack and the sentinels start arriving to assist them.

• Voridus: "Pavium, the defense system is back on! The Sentinel cleansing operation should commence soon."
• Pavium: "Sentinels are appearing up here as well, brother! We must help them battle Flood and push them back... *static*"

Pavium's chatter goes static and a brute make a contact as the ground shakes violently.

• Voridus: "What was that?"
• Brute: "Voridus, Pavium! We are being overrun, some kind of giant Flood forms has appeared and..."
• Pavium: "That was from one of our bases. It seems our work is not yet finished."
• Voridus: "We must act fast!"
• Pavium: "Atriox is sending support as we speak. We are going to need all the help we can get."

Mission complete.

Level ends.

Leader Power

• Atriox's Bulwark I, II and III
• Rain of Fire I, II and III
• Orbital Designator I and II
• Ultra Mines I, and II
• Stasis I and II
• Infusion Wake I, II and III
• Catacalysm I

Unit Deployment

• Voridus
• 3 Sangheili Rangers
• 3 Jump Pack Brutes
• 800 Supply
• 800 Power

Units can be purchased

(All of them can be purchased for 100 supplies)

• First Teleporter
  • Sangheili Honor Guard
  • Sangheili Rangers
  • Brute Jump Pack

• Second and Third Teleporter
  • Sangheili Rangers
  • Brute Jump Pack

• Fourth to Sixth Teleporter
  • Sangheili Rangers
  • Brute Jump Pack
  • Brute Grenadiers

Trivia

Miscellaneous

• You can purchase a Hero Unit on this level, notably only Sangheili Honor Guard with a resource of 100 supplies.
  • That includes all units from teleporters where they can be also purchased with 100 supplies.
• Par time of this level is 30 minutes.

Strategy

• Make sure not to let any of your units hitted by beam defenses. The defenses itself deals considerate damage.
• Collect all the scattered supplies and powers and open every possible crates. You got very limited resources on this level.
  • Remember to conserve your resources.
• You can leave the defense beam alone if you know the pattern of defense beams or you can shut it down but you need to get pass through it one squad at a time to prevent losses.
• You can only replenish squads on teleporter but remember to use the resources wisely.
  • You can also recover your wounded units as one Huragok will be stationed at teleporter but it will only appear if you purchase one of the unit.
• Use wisely to cloak when using Honor Guard, stealth plays a critical part of this level.
• Lure the abominations to local sentinel defenses once activating the defense terminal, that should help you minimize the casualties.

Sources

Preceded by Light the Fuse

Halo Wars 2 campaign levels The Archive

Succeeded by Manifestation