Contact- Halo Short Film (WIP)- WARNING: GRAPHIC

[Xtreme TACTICS 101]

Hey everyone,

I have had a “Top Secret” fan-made short film in the works for a while now, and I thought it is about time I posted something about it.

Over the past few months I have been revising and editing a 60-90 minute film script about two squads of ODST’s on a search and destroy mission. After reviewing possible film costs, and taking the risks of lawsuits, funding and so on into account, I decided it would not be smart to make a full length film. It would be better to take a small fragment from the script, and create a short film about that particular section. I could then come back later if the short film was a success and make the full version of the film with that short film included.

Instead of posting a script (I would prefer not to post one to make sure nobody steals it) I have posted a short story completely based on the script. Just a warning to those of you that plan to read the short story, it is very descriptive and graphic (There is also a small swear word or two, but nothing a 10 year-old can‘t handle). Read at your own risk.

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Contact
Halo Short-Film

Sprinting hard, my throat began to burn. My constant panting for breath with every stride I took was pure agony. I looked ahead towards Welsh as he sprinted in front of me between the confining walls of the trench. I stumbled as I caught up to him, I pushed off his back and regained balance just as a thunderous screech followed by an explosion sounded beside us.

Welsh flew into the trench wall as I was thrown forward by the sheer jolt the artillery shell gave me. My helmet flew off and rolled to a halt a meter from my body. I grunted as I rolled off my side and crawled on my knees to retrieve my helmet. I grabbed it and slipped it on.

I looked toward Welsh who was already on his feet running towards me. I began to stand up as the ringing in my ears began to climax. Welsh reached me, and I heard a faint voice statically buzz through my comm channel. As Welsh grabbed me by the shoulder to keep me moving, his voice finally penetrated the ringing of my ears.

“We need to move now Sergeant!” He screamed as he partly dragged me to my feet. Bewildered by my own movements, I sprinted onward faster then before. My adrenaline pumping, and my heart racing. I looked ahead of us to see Dunham taking cover behind the trench wall, a digital “1BN/4U” marked above his helmet by my HUD. He peeked around the corner with his MA37 shouldered as he took pop shots at the approaching enemy squad. Numerous small explosions of dirt and snow burst from the corner of the trench as Dunham ducked back into cover.

I dove into cover beside him as Welsh closely followed. “Dunham, what’s your situation?” I yelled as I tapped Welsh’s shoulder and signaled for him to keep pressure on the Insurrectionists approaching our position. Welsh shouldered his DMR and popped his head over the top of the trench to suppress the Insurrectionists. Empty shell casings, dirt and snow began to rain down on me.

“We have been met with heavy enemy resistance, more so then Intel had warned us, Sergeant!” Dunham screamed as he held his helmet atop his head attempting to shield himself from flying debris and shell casings. “They have an armored unit and mortar support. I have no contact with Second Squad, or O’ Connell. This is a god damn mess Sergeant!”

“Copy that Private. Where’s Crawford?” I inquired through gritted teeth. I quickly looked at my DMR’s ammo counter. The bright blue holographic panel read zero. I ejected the spent magazine from the rifle and yanked back the charging handle. I looked down at the remaining four matt black magazines in my chest ring of magazine pouches. Quickly, I reached for another magazine from one of the remaining four magazines, and reared up my DMR as I smacked the magazine on my helmet. I slid the magazine home, and with a metallic click, the ammunition coulter reset to read 15. I pushed the charging handle forward and adjusted my kneeling stance.

As I finished shuffling, a black, snow covered figure fell into the trench 5 feet from my position. “Crawford here Sergeant!” A relieved voice buzzed over my comm channel. He pushed himself into cover with his legs between me and Dunham. He quickly crouched down, and readied himself to aid Welsh with his attempt to slow down the pressing enemy squad.

I acknowledged Crawford’s presence and quickly looked over at Welsh. “Welsh, how many Insurrectionists on the other side?” I inquired. Welsh quickly slid back down into cover as he held up five fingers. I nodded and signaled for us to all throw grenades. I reached for one of my frags on my right shoulder strap, and yanked the pin out. I squeezed the primer, and threw the grenade just as the others did.

I heard scrambling and the screaming of grenade on the other side of the trench wall. I looked to my right just as one of our grenades was thrown back into Dunham’s lap. “Grenade!” I howled as I dove for cover. Dunham tossed the grenade around the corner of the trench nearly out of harms way just as it detonated in sequence with the three others. A bunch of screams were heard. I took my hands off my helmet and looked at Dunham. He was hit.

Multiple pools of blood began to form under Dunham as it seeped through his shattered right shin and thigh plates and BDU’s. As he lay on the ground, he pulled off his helmet and threw it to one side of him. He looked down, and astonished to find he was hit, proceeded to feel his peppered right leg as if he was in a nightmare and wanted so badly to wake up. The pain began to set in, and he began to mumble curse words and insults under his breath as he began to cough up blood. He began to shake as he forced himself into cover. He continued to look at his wounds, and whispered “Medic”. He looked towards me and yelped in agony “Medic!”

(Continued on next post…)

 

[Xtreme TACTICS 101]

Continued...

Still stunned by what had just happened, I looked towards Crawford who was utterly shaken by his comrade being chewed up by his own grenade. As he looked up, and rose from his knelt down stance. He shouldered his MA37, and with pure hatred for the enemy unloaded the remaining rounds of his magazine into all but one of the remaining rebels.

Crawford stumbled over my legs, and began to walk quickly around the corner of the trench. I awoke from my stare, shouldered my DMR, and popped my head over the trench wall. I looked at the remains of the enemy squad. A lone rebel was left in a daze by what had just happened. His old, warn out UNSC Army trooper gear was battered by years of use by the UNSC.

The Insurrectionist looks up at Crawford who was quickly heading in his direction. He struggled for his side arm, but Crawford was already on top of him. He kicked the weapon from the Insurrectionists hand, and slammed the butt of his MA37 into his face, knocking his helmet off. He dropped the Assault Rifle beside him, and punched the Insurrectionist in the face. A crack sounded as the Rebel yelped. His nose began to bleed. Blood poured into his mouth and down his face as he helplessly tried to defend himself from the onslaught of the dull, black armour clad ODST. Crawford ripped off his own helmet and began to beat the rebel with it.

I looked down at Dunham quickly. Welsh was checking his pulse as he talked to him to try to keep him from going into shock. I walked around Welsh and Dunham and headed to Crawford. As I dropped my DMR to let its 3-point strap carry the weight, I looked down as I felt something squish under my boot. I saw the blood drenched, peppered corps of the former Insurrectionist. His right arm, ribcage and part of his head was all that was left intact. Parts of his legs and other arm were torn and peppered with shrapnel, scattered around the location of his inhuman remains. I tore my boot from his ribcage, and shut the image out of my mind as I continued to wade through the remains of the rebels.

As I reached Crawford, he was shaking the unconscious body of the rebel screaming for him to wake up. I ripped Crawford off the Insurrectionist and checked his vitals. His pulse was low, but he was alive.

I looked up at Crawford. His face was spattered with the blood of the Rebel. His cheeks were streaked with tears for his comrade in arms. As I stood up, he asked me “Orders Sergeant?” as he looked at the pale, lifeless looking body of the rebel. I stood up and moved toward Crawford.

“Our orders are search and destroy all Insurrectionists in this sector. However, if we feel the Insurrectionist in question holds value to Intelligence, we detain and deliver if possible.” I said. “Its your call”.

Crawford continued looking at the Rebel who was starting to come around. He slipped his helmet over his head, and clicked on the comm channel. “Yes Sergeant” He said emotionlessly as he drew his pistol from its holster and pointed it at the Insurrectionist. The Insurrectionist closed his eyes just as Crawford squeezed the trigger of his pistol three times, placing two rounds into the rebels chest, and one in his head. An explosion of blood spraying from the rebels body, and began to run into the melting, blood stained snow.

Crawford looked up at me, and without a word walked away from the corps of the Insurrectionist. As he walked past me heading to check on Dunham‘s status, I turned to watch as he walked strait through the retched remains of the rebels.

I began to turn on my heals, taking one last look at the rebel Crawford killed. Steam was rising from the blood exiting his body as the rest of the blood began to freeze into a glossy, putrid ice. I walked around the remains of the Insurrectionists as the thin ice beginning to form crunched under my boots, a paste-like pulp of blood, skin, bone and metal fragments began to ooze from the cracks.

As I rounded the corner, I saw Dunham on the ground shaking violently from the cold and pain as Welsh quickly pulled small fragments from the grenade from his flash. Dunham gritted his teeth trying his best not to howl in pain. Crawford knelt down and took Dunham’s hand trying to somewhat comfort him.

As Welsh pulled another bloodstained, jagged shard of metal from Dunham’s leg and dropped it into the snow beside Dunham’s shattered shin and thigh armour, he reached into his medic pouch and pulled a Bio-foam canister out and threw it to me. I caught it, and pulled the locking pin from the canisters nozzle lock. I dropped the pin into the blood stained snow, and adjusted the nozzle. As I knelt down, Crawford shuffled out of the way so I could seal the wound temporarily with the bio foam.

“Crawford, help me hold down Dunham” Welsh said as he grabbed Dunham’s legs and held them down against the snowy trench floor. Dunham began to pant heavily knowing what was coming, reaching his other hand out for Crawford to hang onto. Crawford accepted it, and Dunham squeezed. “Sergeant, insert the nozzle into the largest wound, and squeeze the nozzle until you see the foam surface from the wound.”

I nodded and looked at Dunham’s blood spattered face. “Ready Private”? I asked. Dunham nodded hesitantly. I counted to three out loud. When I said three, I quickly inserted the nozzle into the largest, gaping wound visible. I felt resistance as the nozzle squeezed its way between torn skin and muscle. I squeezed the lever as Dunham screamed. A quiet hissing sound began to get louder as the foam began to become visible in the largest wound and some of the wounds around it. As the cream colored foam tinted with blood began to surface, I stopped squeezing the lever, and quickly tore the nozzle from the now foam filled wound. I tossed the can out of the trench as Dunham gasped for air with a tear streaking down his cheek.

Welsh reached for his medic pouch and grabbed two large white bandages. He handed me one, and lifted Dunham’s leg. I placed the thick part of the bandage on top of the wounded area on his thigh, and wrapped the straps around the rest of his leg. I tied the straps tightly around the wound as Welsh finished tying off the second bandage around his upper shin. Blood began to slowly seep into the bandages staining them red.

I looked over at Welsh as he wiped the blood from his face and grabbed his helmet. He slipped it on, and grabbed his DMR. Crawford stood up and handed Dunham his MA37 and helped him slip on his helmet.

“Crawford, stay with Dunham and call for med-evac. Welsh, lets link up with second squad.” I said, taking one last quick look at Dunham and Crawford before clambering out of the trench into the cover of the hedgerow. Welsh closely followed as we were met with machine gun fire kicking dirt up at out heals, and blowing branches from dormant trees. We disappeared through the thick hedgerow, and began sprinting along the other side of the hedgerow towards second squads drop zone.

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Now, this film will be in pre-production/production for some time still (two years possibly) but shooting will start as soon as I have my costumes, props, and a few other things ready. Once I have the costumes finished, filming will quickly follow (As long as there is snow on the ground). I plan for this short film to take a long time to do. I am a one man team at the moment, so everything (Aside from some other body actors) is up to me to do.

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EXPLAINATION (Q&A)

Q- “Why no covenant?”.

The short film is based in 2551 and on Earth. I also do not want to spend time on Covenant costumes, or have a lot of CG in my film.

Q- “Why do the Insurrectionists have UNSC gear?”

As many of you all know, the Insurrectionists bought UNSC gear and weapons off of the black market. I have chosen to avoid making Covenant weapons by putting the setting on Earth (Smuggling Covenant goods to Earth would be impossible). The Insurrectionists would also have easy access to UNSC gear because of its abundance on Earth.

To be added to as seen fit…

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COSTUMES

As some of you may know, I have a marine (AKA UNSC SOCOM Trooper) in the works at the moment. I do plan to sculpt a set of ODST armour for next years Halloween/the short film.

Progress Thread(s)

UNSC SOCOM Trooper (Marine) WIP:

http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/25492-UNSC-SOCOM-Trooper-WIP

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WEAPONS

I have a DMR In the works at the moment. I will post a WIP when I am further along in the building process.

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Anyway, that’s it for the short films information at this time. Check for regular updates on the UNSC SOCOM Trooper (Marine) armour, and eventually the DMR.

Thanks for reading, and stay frosty,

Jake
Xtreme TACTICS 101

 

[DylanMarx]

Sounds pretty good.

 

[bobbio555]

Definitely looking forward to this. Good luck.

 

[MikyVengeance]

*drools*
this is how halo should be
AWESOME

 

[Xtreme TACTICS 101]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Still looking for input.

 

[Shade88]

Man, sounds like something that was ripped right out of a Halo Novel, that was great.

 

[Dagger06]

My helmet flew off

Something that'll be in Op: Chastity and I feel has long been missing in Halo is an item that's caught on to real life militaries with the introduction of the helmet: helmet chin straps.

I ejected the spent magazine from the rifle and yanked back the charging handle... I pushed the charging handle forward

If a magazine is empty, the charging handle should automatically lock back. The only time you would need to yank the charging handle back yourself should be in the event of a jam, when you are trying to manually extract a round.

Charging handles have powerful springs that keep them pushed forward, so there realistically would be no need to manually shove the charging handle forward. It should fly forward with the push of a button.

I reached for one of my frags on my right shoulder strap, and yanked the pin out.

Halo grenades don't appear to have pins. Not 100% under what mechanism they work though so it could always be subject to artistic interpretation. But it would not be unreasonable for them to be designed in a manner that doesn't require a pin since if the grenade was primed by a squeeze I don't really see how a pin would work.

Also, if the troops portrayed are ODSTs, then they would fall under the Marines and so the MA37s would be referred to as MA5s.

squeezed the trigger of his pistol three times, placing two rounds into the rebels chest, and one in his head.

Damn waste of ammo. A failure drill would be for an actual target...executing someone it'd be better to save ammunition. It's not completely unheard of, but in this context it just seems tossed in there to me.

And something about the first aid procedures just seems off to me. Treating for shock should be secondary to stopping the bleeding...pulling frags out quickly has been a no-no for years due to the potential damage it can cause. That's something that would mostly likely done in a more controlled setting.

And calling for a medevac and leaving a wounded man and a person preoccupied with a wounded man seems very unsound. One should at least wait and provide security for the medevac.

While I do like the fact that you're using the insurrectionists to sidestep the troubles of assembling a covenant force, a lot of it just seems sort of...cliche. You're definitely off to a good start, and I love your props, but I think the script could be tightened up a bit. Also, I look forward to seeing more of the story, as currently the characters are a bit generic.

I hope this doesn't come off as too critical. Again, big fan of your work. I just recall you mentioning you live off criticism, so here's me being frank with my opinion.

Some of my background so hopefully you don't think I'm just talking out of thin air, I'm a Marine in a Force Recon unit with two tours in Iraq and the focus on first aid stems from what I've been taught in "Tactical Combat Casualty Care" as well as civilian first aid/professional rescuer classes.

 

[Xtreme TACTICS 101]

@Trooper0621:

Thank-you so much for taking the time to offer your criticism! I’m extremely thankful that you corrected my faults, and I’ll do my best to fix as many of them as I can. As you pointed out, I did in fact say I live off of criticism, and I thank you for actually constructively criticizing!

Though, I have a few explanations for some of your criticisms that I hope will sum some things up.

Why the helmet flew off of the ODST’s head was because the ODST chose to not buckel/cut out the strap of the helmet. I personally do not like straps on my helmets, so I tend to cut them off. Although they tend to bounce around a little more, and they sometimes fall off, I just don’t like the restrictions of the strap around my chin, and I thought the Sergeant may feel the same.

I admit I mucked up with the writing of the DMR’s reloading. I’ll be sure to correct the story/script so he just hit’s the charging handle down and it springs forward.

The frag grenades will have pins, just because I still do not like the button-like design of the Halo universe frag grenades.

I may also be changing the weapons used. I have a SMG in the works, so I may outfit the ODST’s using the MA37’s (Or MA5’s) with SMG’s.

I’ll be sure to change the three rounds back to one round. I have to agree, three rounds is a waist of ammunition.

As for treatment of shock, in the short film Welsh will be talking to Dunham as he checks over his wounds. I mucked up during the writing of the short story for that part aswell.

I’ll be sure to edit out the removal of the frags. Also, because both Crawford and Dunham are armed and Crawford is still combat ready, I figured that having the Sergeant and Welsh run off to locate second squad would work out fairly well. I’m still editing exactly what should happen because I’m trying to minimize any digital effects needed down to muzzle flashes only. I don’t want to have to make a physical prop/a CG effect of a hornet, pelican, falcon or whatever picking Dunham up.

As for the choice of Insurrectionists over Covenant forces, I agree it may be a little cliche, but its all to minimize digital effects. I’m still working out the kinks of the story, and I assure you that the whole film (If I ever can do it) will explain exactly who the characters are, and what they do far better then this short film. After all, the short film is only based on a very tiny fraction of the whole script.

Again, I REALLY appreciate your input, especially from a Marine in the Force Recon with two tours in Iraq. Hopefully the short film will do some justice showing the Halo universe without Covenant forces involved.

 

[bulldogresler]

oh my god that was great... i love it. I just recently reread all of the halo books i have and i felt like i just read it again. this is incredible

 

[project003]

why not just base the timeline before the human-covenant war?

 

[n1njqch1cken]

why not just base the timeline before the human-covenant war?

why not after? i mean of course they will still be dealing with the rebels once the covenant are gone?

 

[Walter4]

some military personnel dont wear helmets with the straps because of the facts that a man can grab yur helmet and pull back and down to snap your neck vertebra and something to do with gernades but im not to sure on that one but the neck snapping i know for a fact its in my army hand to hand combat training manual.

 

[Walter4]

but that being said... straps would be great cuz they are great to have at times. and btw i luv the story cant wait to see the final product. u might have to shoot the halo movie for the world since no one else is doing it lol.

 

[jake11124]

...pulling frags out quickly has been a no-no for years due to the potential damage it can cause. That's something that would mostly likely done in a more controlled setting.

I think that with the invention of biofoam, it would be possible to have the rules in this case completely rewritten. I think that with biofoam the pros of removing the shrapnel would out weigh the cons. Just adding my two cents.

 

[EmpireSpartan]

hmmm i like. but what u need 2 do is make it a 1st person movie, that woukd be pretty sweet