Halo 3: ODST - The Elite
It was supposed to be just another one of our play-throughs.
My friend and I, as we have done on many weekends, were going to play-through the entire campaign of one of our favourite games, Halo 3: ODST, over Xbox Live. Due to the games atmospheric accomplishments during certain mission, e.g. Mombasa Streets, we thought it would be a good idea to test any glitches we had heard of in the hope of finding some 'easter eggs.' The game went on as it normally would; the Prepare to Drop opening cutscene, dropping into Mombasa Streets etc. We went through Tayari Plaza as Buck, Uplift Reverse as Dutch and Kizingo Boulev'ard as Mickey.
Once we were back in Mombasa Streets and about to set off in search for the clue that would initiate the next mission, I saw what looked like a figure in the background. This figure didn't look like that of a Brute or Grunt. It couldn't have been my friend as he was busy looking for audio logs as he was yet to get the 'Audiophile' achievement. I walked up to his position in the game and told him I had seen something. However, we he went to have a look, the figure no longer appeared to be there. He shrugged it off with the comment "It was probably just a Jackal sniper."
We continued playing as we were before; looking for glitches and 'easter eggs.' We didn't gave a second thought as to the alleged figure I saw earlier.
After finishing ONI Alpha Site and, once again, returning to Mombasa Streets to look for the few remaining clues, I saw the figure once again. Without looking away for fear of losing it, I told my friend to walk over to my position and get a look at it.
"Have you noticed that our visor-mode isn't picking up it's outline?" My friend said.
"Maybe it's too far away. Let's get closer." I replied.
We started walking towards the figure. As we did, it started to move away. This was a visible shock to us. We had not expected it to move. This was odd as if it were an enemy, it would have been outlined in red and most certainly would not have run away from us. However, we were quite determined to find out what this thing was and continued to chase it.
It seemed to move ever so slightly faster than we were; just slow enough for it to still be within range of our vision, but just fast enough to keep out of our grasp. Shooting it seemed to have no effect, not that we didn't try though. We hit it with everything we had in hopes of slowing it down: every bit of ammo in our silenced SMG, silenced pistol and all the FRAG grenades we had. All to no avail.
After a good hour of chasing the figure, we were starting to think that it was impossible to catch and that Bungie has put this in as a joke. Just as we started to slow down, I noticed that we were next to one of the many caches hidden throughout Mombasa Streets. I walked up, and to my delight, the cache opened to reveal two Mongooses. Instead of using both, my friend drove one while I held on to the back of it and opened the map screen. I noticed an icon I associated with the superintendent of New Mombasa - the green, circular face. At first I mistook it to be another cache we had unlocked as they're marked by that symbol. I quickly noticed, however, that the face was moving, and at quite a good speed. I quickly told my friend what direction to head in.
How I wish we had just left it alone.
After a short time of chasing we had caught up to the icon on the map screen and, as we both expected, it was the figure we had seen before. It had ran all the way North of the map and was residing in the mission area for Kikowani Station. It was standing near the object that would have taken us into the next mission. We had no intention of doing another mission by this time. We slowly approached, acting as though we might scare it off if we went too fast.
Once we were approximately a five second walk away from it did we see something that made us stop and observe. It was an Elite. It appeared to be the model of a Halo 3 Elite, with it's hunched back and oddly humorous stance. It had default combat armour that was completely black. We could help but laugh in amusement and awe. Being quite knowledgeable about the Halo universe, I knew that no Elites (Alive ones anyway) appeared in Halo 3: ODST and the black armour didn't exist at all. Just as I was about to say this, the superintendent noise sounded as it sometimes does when it wants to give you information. Confused by the sound playing suddenly, we went to turn around and look around the area for whatever it wanted us to look at, but we couldn't move.
We moved the joysticks of the controllers around in circles and commenced button mashing, but the noise appeared to have completely immobilised our characters. We were stuck looking at the Elite, which resumed moving. It walked right out of our screens back in the direction we had originally came through. A few seconds after it had left our vision, the superintendent noise sounded again, only this time it sounded as though it was played backwards. We simply looked over this as it was minor compared to everything else that was happening. Quickly going back into pursuit of the Elite on foot (our Mongoose had vanished), it lead us to one of the large shield generators throughout the city, put there for the purpose of blocking parts of the map that they want to be inaccessible to the players. The Elite had paused in front of the shield and just looked right in our direction. It was as though it was waiting for us, as though it wanted us to follow. It turned around and walk straight through the shield.
Why? Why did we have to follow?
Having experiences with glitches, my friend and I managed to get over the map with the use of some med-kits and some plasma batteries. The inaccessible parts of the city, as the name suggests, were not meant for the player and, therefore, had little lighting. Even with the use of our visors night vision, sight was very limited. From what I could tell, the inaccessible part of the map was identical to the inside, but lacked scenery such as cars and barricades. It was also full of unrendered textures and walls that simply appeared black. The superintendent noise was playing every fifteen to twenty seconds with no hindrance on us. The Elite didn't appear to be anywhere within eye-shot. After about an hour of searching for the Elite, we were once again losing hope that we would find it again and that Bungie merely did this to taunt whoever spent the time to pursue the Elite. Just as we were going about to call it a night, I spotted an audio log in a video phone attached to a wall. I was confused as to why they would put an audio log on the outside of a map and eagerly approached it in the hope that I had finally found an easter egg.
I held RB and collected the audio log. It immediately started playing: it was the superintendent noise once again, but it sounded distorted, as though it had been possessed. It continued to repeat for about thirty seconds. My friend asked what it had played. I told him what I had heard
"That's creepy." He said while laughing.
I didn't pay enough attention at the time, but now that I think back on it, the green, circular face on the video phones screen had turned red and it's eyes were in the shape of right angle triangles. A small amount of text could been seen below it: "Turn back!"
If only we had.
As we continued our search for the Elite, I became more and more on-edge. It felt as though something was watching me. When I said this to my friend, he merely accused me of "being a pussy" and continued on. The further we walked, the more frequent and aggressive the superintendent noise seem to become. It started to give me a headache. After another hour of walking, I checked the map, we were well and truly out of it by this time. Looking for our icons was useless, I could only assume that we were somewhere in the North-west part. Billboards started to appear above us, each of which had the message "Turn back!" with the face on the left-hand side of the text. As the billboards became more frequent, they started to display different messages:
"Leave now!" - "You'll regret this!" - "I'd turn back if I were you."
"Man, this is getting ridiculous. Let's just leave already." I said.
"Isn't it obvious that Bungie is just trying to get a scare out of us? If we keep going I'm sure we'll find something interesting. Who knows, we might even become internet-famous if we do." He said, though it was obvious he didn't have confidence in what he was saying.
The superintendent noise was playing at a near-constant frequency and was more aggressive than ever. The billboards were now, not only on above us, but on the side of the walls too. Each one flicking through different warnings and threats, each one as intimidating as the next. If the flicking of the billboards was not disorienting enough, the textures started to blur in and out of focus, while single clusters of pixels would change colour back and forth.
I thought my Xbox was going to break. Suddenly, just as quickly as it had started, everything stopped. The street we were walking down was quiet and dark. Not a sound could be heard, it was as though someone had muted the TV. Then we saw it; one billboard loomed above us. It was not aggressive, but appeared to be happy with an exuberant green colour. It merely said "It's too late to turn back now."
Why didn't we listen earlier?
The both of us stood there. We weren't sure what we should do next, as though something would happen to us if we moved. My friend, trying to be the brave one, looked down and straight ahead. I hesitantly did the same thing. A shiver ran down my spine with what I saw next; it was the Elite. It didn't do anything, just stood there, but after what I had just saw, it could not have appeared more threatening.
"Man, we did it." My friend said in a shaky voice.
"I'm not so sure." I replied with an even shakier one.
"Stop being a chicken. We made it through all of that, now all we'll have to do is approach the Elite and we'll be the first to have completely discovered an easter egg this amazing."
"Something tells me Bungie didn't put this in the game."
But he was certain. "Fine then. I'll walk up to the Elite and receive the credit for finding it, you can just watch as I become famous." He started to walk towards the Elite.
Something went down my spine and I shouted, "STOP! DON'T DO IT!"
"Man, you're such a-"
The superintendent noise started again, faster and more aggressive than I thought possible. My screen started going blurry and the circular face started flashing on my screen in what appeared to be intervals of neutral green, then aggressive red. Then my Xbox started steaming and my TV switched off. I quickly yelled into the microphone in panic
"Man, are you there? Are you alright? This better not be a joke, it isn't funny!"
No reply. I realised my Xbox had red-ringed. This wasn't the time to worry about that. I picked up my phone and dialed my friends number; no answer. I tried again and again with no luck. Only one thing could be done, I had to run to his house. I ran as fast as I could; faster than I thought was possible. I reached his house in record-time. His door was unlocked so I could go straight in. As soon as I stepped in the house I could tell something wasn't right. There was a silence in the house that I hadn't experienced before. It was quieter than quiet.
Then I heard a noise that I fear to this very day: the superintendent. It was coming from my friends living room. I slowly opening the door, dreading what I might find inside. My friend was nowhere to be seen. His chair has been upturned, the drink he had was spilled and something I wish I had never seen was on his TV: a circular, green face with text below it saying "I told you to turn back."
Credited to PrivateAttky
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