The “Prepare To Drop” trailer is filled with hidden clues about the upcoming Expansion Pack for Halo 3. We’ve put together an analysis of important frames so you don’t have too.
Right from the start, we see a covenant cruiser flying somewhere in New Mombosa. It’s assumed that this is just moments before Regret makes his jump in New Mombasa in Halo 2. Several seconds later, we see a huge explosion which may be caused by the slipspace rift.
Confirmation that this is in fact New Mombasa, and it has been evacuated.
We see a series of drop pods closing in on New Mombasa, coming in two different directions. The Super Intendent AI targets the ones dropping to the right, and displays a message “AUTH.NEGATIVE”.
In the same few frames as above, the message, ‘ACTIVATING SUBROUTINE “VERGIL”‘ and “WARNING! DATA LEAK ON LEVEL 9!” are displayed. These messages show up several times in short intervals throughout the teaser.
After the huge slipspace rift, everything goes dark, and a sequence of messages display very rapidly on the screen. “Maddie, Where are you?” is one of the messages.
“Danger.Flood Zone” is another one of the messages.
Following these messages, we find a possible release date for Halo: Prepare to Drop. Hidden in some meaningless text is a date that reads 01/06/09.
A lone drop pod emerges at 53 seconds. There is no indication why emphasis has been put on it, but it could perhaps contain our protagonist(s). Could it be the chief? We doubt it since it wouldn’t seem to make sense with the timeline.
Rather, we like to believe that the first series of drop pods were all wiped out by the slipspace rift. In response, a team is deployed, but only one (perhaps the only one that remains?)
This fits in nicely with the recent posts by the Super Super Intendent on Bungie.net:
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “Listen. We have a report of core data corruption.” Corrupted by the blast?
[COMM.DUTY.OFFICER]: “We’re sending a team, alright?” Officer is sending team to the corrupted SI?
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Empty archer pods six through twelve!”…
[SMN.ACTUAL]: “It may have passed us, Lieutenant, but it’s still in range.”…
[EXPLOSION (2.3482s)]
[STATIC (3.8761s)] Pods are deployed — the ship is still in range (on Earth) — then a long explosion and static. Coincidentally, the Explosion and static is nearly precisely the same amount of time the explosion and static for the slipspace rift lasts in the trailer.[SMN.ACTUAL]: “Alright, Captain. You’ve got your squad.” After the explosion, an additional squad is confirmed.
Prepare to Drop seems to be the name of the expansion.
Did we miss anything?
Tags: Halo, halo 3 expansion, new bungie game, prepare to drop, Xbox Live
June 6th, 2010 at 1:53 am
Nightlife in Mombasa is always exciting, and the City offers many dance clubs and casinos that cater to a variety of entertainment tastes.
April 29th, 2010 at 11:15 am
What do you think about Live quitting on halo 2? Bummer eh!
February 4th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
Amazing Post! Finally a blog that isnt just junk.
February 26th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
The most interesting fact that today, i see same article:).
Although I do not remember there may be a link to the source,
but probably not – but your site look solid.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:25 am
I’ve been wanting to play Halo…hopefully I will. This one looks awesome!
October 5th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Trixie’s reference is correct, but also in the Halo stories S1 can refer to Spartan 1s, or the first series of Spartans. Master Chief and the other Spartans he was trained with are considered part of the SII program (Spartan 2s). Does it mean anything? Who knows.
Spooks friend – the Master Chief became the “last” Spartan just before the first Halo, so I doubt they’ll go that far back.
October 5th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Wait, wait, wait… did everyone see the after credits of HALO 3?
If not: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keVRhlWUlMc
So, Master Chief is stuck in space. Then it shows his ship getting closer and closer to a planet, (which many fans think its Onyx from the novel series…)
http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Onyx
Soooo maybe, this teaser trailer is a point of view from a security system on Onyx? Prepare to drop could mean Master Chiefs landing on Onyx…well thats what I thought. :-\