|Top 5 Most Heroic Sacrifices|

The death of a video game character can never be easy for the gamer, but when it comes down to Halo, that’s a whole new level. Today we’ll be going over the Top 5 Heroic Sacrifices in the Halo universe. The people on this list put their life on the line for the sake of humanity, and because of them, gave humanity hope. While the individuals on this list aren’t limited to the games, there are still spoilers ahead, so read at your own will.

5. Kurt Ambrose

To kick things off, we’ve got Kurt Ambrose, the Spartan-II Super-soldier and protagonist from the novel Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. If you’ve already read the History of Kurt Ambrose Article, you’ll know what you’re in for…

In the final period of the Human-Covenant war, the UEG colony of Onyx (a Forerunner construct built to guard the entrance to a shield world), was under attack by trillions of sentinels after the destruction of Delta Halo by the Chief, and to make matters worse, a Covenant fleet had just arrived. After re-uniting with Dr. Halsey and fellow Spartan-II Kelly-087, Kurt led the group in to the newly discovered Forerunner city to find the technology Dr. Halsey was looking for. Once they arrived at Onyx’s core room antechamber, and with enough Covenant inbound to overrun them all, it became clear that a hero was needed. So Kurt ordered the Spartans and the Doctor to enter the slipspace rift before it closed. Eventually, two Spartan-IIIs remained and refused to leave Kurt behind, and with Kurt knowing they wouldn’t be convinced to go, Kurt knocked Spartan Tom out and hauled his body in to the portal.

Now that Kurt was alone, and a massive amount of enemies inbound, he continued to fight with every last breath, ensuring the Covenant didn’t get access to the portal to follow his comrades. The Sangheili fleet master approached the mortally wounded Kurt, and uttered that once the ‘demon’ was dead, they would re-open the portal. In his death throes, Kurt then replied “Die? Didn’t you know? Spartans never die”, and continued to detonate two warheads, completely obliterating the Covenant surrounding him.

If not for Kurt’s actions, the covenant would have gained access to the shield world, and most likely follow his allies.

4. John Forge

At number 4 we’ve got Sergeant John Forge, the trigger happy, shotgun-wielding menace with a bad reputation. If you’ve played Halo Wars, then you will more then likely remember this hot-head, not just for his witty remarks and awesome super-unit, but for his actions in theHalo Wars Campaign. After arriving at the flood infested Forerunner shield world, and with some amazing luck, managed to save Professor Anders after finding her on the shield worlds interior. Forge was then put in charge of a strike team, consisting of Spartan-II Super Soldiers Jerome-092, Alice-130 and Douglas-042, and tasked with bringing the slip space drive from the Spirit of Fire to an installation called Apex Site, which contained a fleet of Forerunner dreadnoughts (not to be confused with Keyship).

Once Forge and the Spartans arrived at Apex Site, they started to set up the FTL Drive. While words can’t describe how awesome the cutscene was for this particular moment, here’s the rundown. Once the FTL Drive was ready to go, the Arbiter Ripa ‘Moramee suddenly appeared, along with over a dozen elites, charging towards the Spartans from Red Team. Whilst an epic hand to hand battle ensues, and the Arbiter clearly winning, he makes the bad choice of looking Forge in the eyes. As the Arbiter is about to finish him with his energy sword, Forge stabs him with ‘Lucy’, his prized combat knife. Now tasked with completing the mission, Jerome-092 examines the engine and states it had been damaged in the fight, and must be detonated manually. With Jerome volunteering to do it himself, Forge denies, and says that “we’ll need every last Spartan in the fight”. Forge gave the Spirit of Fire enough time to escape before he detonated the slip space drive into the shield worlds sun, causing a supernova.

John Forge was a great loss to the UNSC but ultimately saved everyone aboard the Spirit of Fire thanks to his sacrifice, although without the slip space drive, they were lost roaming through space(*Cough* Hood *Cough*). And undoubtedly, if the Covenant got their hands on the Dreadnoughts, humanity wouldn’t stand a chance.

3. Preston J. Cole

At number 3 we’ve got Vice Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole. Known by many as a military genius, Cole defeated the Covenant in every one of his major battles. He was also the creator of the Cole Protocol, which saved the location of Earth, and many other human populated colonies from being discovered by the Covenant for decades, and still does. Although Cole was a great UNSC Navy officer, every man has his end.

Cole’s last stand took place during the battle of Psi Serpentis, when Cole lead a Covenant fleet of over 100 ships to a gas giant. After tricking the fleet to split up, Cole’s fleet quickly regrouped and attacked one half of the enemy fleet. With 1/3 of the Covenant’s fleet remaining, an Insurrectionist fleet, exited slip space and annihilated the remaining ships. Cole’s fleet then withdrew from the battle, only to witness over 200 Covenant battleships exit slipspace to reinforce the original Covenant fleet. He ordered his remaining ships to fall back, leaving only his command ship, the UNSC Everest to take on the huge Covenant armada. The Everest sped towards the gas giant, powering down all unneeded systems, whilst opening all the missile silos. Cole then opened a transmission to the enemy fleet, saying the following:

“Listen to me, Covenant. I am Vice Admiral Preston J. Cole commanding the human flagship, Everest. You claim to be the holy and glorious inheritors of the universe? I spit on your so-called holiness. You dare judge us unfit? After I have personally sent more than three hundred of your vainglorious ships to hell? After kicking your collective butts off Harvest-not once-but twice? From where I sit, we are the worthy inheritors. You think otherwise, you can come and try to prove me wrong.”

The Covenant ignored what Cole had to say, instead firing at him, failing to do so. Cole once again taunted the enemy ships by saying: “Is that the best you can do? Watch what one unworthy human can do!” He then ordered the Everest to fire all it’s got into the gas giant. The one hundred nuclear warheads fired at it caused a ginormous explosion, destroying all 200+ Covenant ships and presumably the Everest.

Preston Cole was looked up as one of Humanities greatest heroes, and a day of mourning was proclaimed on July 28, 2543. There is also speculation as to the current status of him, as footage from the Battle of Psi Serpentis was analyzed by AI and there was a 89.7% that Cole survived and escaped in an emergency slipspace jump, but it’s all open to speculation and hopefully time will tell.

2. Noble Six (Spartan-B

At number 2 we’ve got the Spartan himself, well, one of them at least. Like most of the other candidates, B312‘s parents were killed by the Covenant and was recruited in to the Spartan-III program with the promise of revenge, and revenge he got. The live action trailer for Halo: Reach entitled ‘Deliver Hope’ pretty much tells the story of the original Noble Six, Thom-A293, who B312 replaced after he died.

Once the new Noble Six arrived on Reach, he joined the team just in time to investigate a communications blackout, which led to the first confrontations with the Covenant on Reach. A while later, NOBLE Team were ordered to destroy sword base. Once they entered the facility, they encountered Dr. Halsey again, and Six was urged by her to deliver the AI Cortana to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn safely. After successfully making it to the drydock, Six delivered the ‘Package’ to Captain Jacob Keyes, commanding officer of the Pillar of Autumn. When Emile was ambushed by Elites, and ultimately killed, it became clear that Six was to stay behind and man the mass driver, put there to prevent Covenant forces from attacking the vessel. After clearing dozens of air units, Six proceeded in destroying an approaching CCS-class Covenant battle cruiser, allowing the Autumn to escape. After escaping the drydocks, he found himself surrounded by enemies. It was here where Noble Six made his last stand on Reach, killing large forces of Sangheili and Unggoy, before eventually becoming overwhelmed by Elites and Stabbed by the Sangheili Warriors.

It is widely known, that without Noble Six’s sacrifice, Cortana would never of made it to the Autumn, and the Autumn would have never made it to Installation 04. B312, along with the other Spartans in NOBLE Team were without a doubt, a huge loss for humanity.

1. Cortana

At number 1, we’ve got the Chiefs girl, Cortana. After being left adrift in space for 4 years, you’d think something good would come out of it, and while Cortana had her moments, it was devastating to see her go, at least we know she did it for the greater good.

The final confrontation between Chief and Cortana was very memorable, as well as emotional. In her final moments, Cortana pinned down the Didact for enough time that Chief could stick a pulse grenade in his chest, effectively disabling him. With the Didact gone, Chief crawled towards the Warhead, and detonated it, destroying the composer and saving countless amounts of people on Earth. But just before the explosion could kill John, Cortana transported him off of the ship and protected him with a bubble of hardlight. Cortana’s last moments spent with John were very emotional and made Cortana out to be more human than some people. John explained he could save her but too much of her data had been left in theDidact’s ship, which was falling apart from the explosion. Cortana started walking backwards, smiling, and said “Welcome home, John.”

Without Cortana doing what she did, the Chief would most likely be dead and the warhead wouldn’t of been detonated. Not to mention all the lives that were saved from becoming composed by the Didact.

And that was the Top 5 Most Heroic Sacrifices, what are your thoughts on this?