Tayari Plaza (level)

Tayari Plaza is a Halo 3: ODST campaign level. It is the first level to be played from Buck's point of view, and also the first flashback level in the game.

Summary


Tayari Plaza is chronologically the first flashback mission. Taking place directly after the drop and the aftereffects of the in-atmosphere slipspace rupture passing by, it focuses on Edward Buck, who fights his way to help Dare at her crash site in Tayari Plaza through hordes of Covenant. When he arrives, Dare is nowhere to be found. Instead, he is confronted by a Covenant Engineer holding the charred remains of her helmet. Romeo appears and kills the creature, with the explosion sending the helmet into the screen for the Rookie to find, and the two decide to find their squad and get out of the city.

Transcript
{Cutscene}

BUCK

Tayari Plaza

Immediately after drop

''The sound of the Slipspace rupture opening can be heard. Cutscene begins'':

''View opens on one of the Superintendent's cameras (location labeled as Lumumba) just as the shockwave from the Slipspace rupture passes through the city. The screen adjusts to the brightness, and the air is still full of blue particles from the rupture. From a camera below the Superintendent watches two SOEIVs drop in, one of them bounces off a building, deflects into a second and crashes upside down, the other pod goes straight behind the second building. The Superintendent zooms in on the first pod, its avatar showing a sad face.''


 * Dare (COM): "Squad, what's your status? You still with me, Buck?"


 * Buck: "Yeah, give me a sec."


 * Dare (COM): "I hit pretty hard. My hatch won't open. How about yours?"

Buck's hatch opens and he falls out of his pod.


 * Buck: "Ah! (sarcastically) Works great."


 * Dare (COM): "Right, when you get done fooling around, I could use some help."


 * Buck: "Did I... do something wrong? Because the only thing I regret about you and me? Not knowing you were a spook when we first met. I woulda been a lot less charming."


 * Dare (COM): "That's what I miss most about you Buck, when your mouth was a little faster than your brain. Look, don't start about my job. We both agreed to end it."

Buck tries to take out his Assault Rifle, but it is stuck.


 * Buck: "That was years ago, Veronica, I'm (grunt) a little (grunt) fuzzy (grunt) on the..."

He finally gets his Assault Rifle out.


 * Buck: "...details. Must have met a lot of other saps since then. Why pick me for this safari?"


 * Dare (COM): "First, you're the best soldier I know, and second,... you don't remember, that night? What you asked me in the morning?"

''A Phantom flies overhead. Buck looks up.''


 * Buck: "I remember not getting an answer..."


 * Dare (COM): "Say again Buck? You're breaking up."


 * Buck: "I said stay put! I'm on my way!"

{Gameplay}


 * Dare (COM): "We missed our LZ. This grid is packed with Covenant. Be careful."


 * Buck: "I appreciate the concern."


 * Dare (COM): "Won't be much of a rescue if you're dead."

After fighting through a group of Covenant, Buck comes a cross a Marine behind a destroyed Warthog.


 * Private First Class Chips Dubbo: "Trooper! Over here! Saw your pod hit, you're one lucky S.O.B."


 * Buck: "See any more come down?"


 * Dubbo: "Nah, negative! But I didn't see much of anything after that flash. Uh, but listen! Some of these buildings are open, should be able to get inside, flank the Covenant on the streets."


 * Buck: "Roger that, thanks!"

In the building on the second floor, Buck finds various Elites and Brutes dead.


 * Superintendent: "TOLL ZONE. PLEASE, SLOW DOWN."


 * Buck: "What the hell happened here?"


 * Superintendent: "FINAL NOTICE. BILL PAST DUE."

After battling through more Covenant forces, Buck comes across more Elite and Brute corpses.


 * Buck: "Veronica, what's with all the dead Elites?"


 * Dare (COM): "What do you mean?"


 * Buck: "It's like a family feud, like they were killed by Brutes. Is there something I should know?"


 * Dare (COM): "It's classified."


 * Buck: "Huh, some things never change."

Buck comes across a Deployable Lookout Tower with some various Jackals and Grunts around it.


 * Buck: "Got a little Jackal problem!"


 * Dare (COM): "An overcharged Plasma Pistol shot will neutralize their shields, should also take down a Brute's armor."


 * Buck: "Oh yeah? Where were you a minute ago?"


 * Dare (COM): (irritated) "Still trapped inside my pod."

If you linger around the door without opening it:


 * Buck: "Gotta get through this door. Should be a switch around here somewhere."

After opening the door Buck finds a group of Marines armed with Silenced SMGs around a destroyed Warthog, taking fire from Covenant on higher ground, soon getting killed.

If Buck goes left to the building, he'll find a female Marine taking cover.


 * Marine: "Trooper, we're pinned down! Flank through this building, hit 'em from behind!"


 * Dare (COM): "Buck, location?"


 * Buck: "Almost there! What's wrong?"


 * Dare (COM): "Multiple hostiles closing in on my position. Listen carefully, if I don't make it..."


 * Buck: "Whoa! Hang on, I'll be right there!"


 * Dare (COM): "Too late, they spotted me!"


 * Buck: "Damn it, no! Veronica? Talk to me! Don't move! I'm coming, you hear?"

A pair of Hunters emerges from the set of doors on the other side of the area.


 * Buck: "Hunters? No, I do not have time for this! Turn around you bastard, so I can shoot you in the back."

After clearing the area of Covenant and proceeding through another door, Buck arrives at Dare's location.


 * Superintendent: "ATTENTION TRAVELERS! LOST ITEM CAN BE CLAIMED ON... LOWER LEVELS.""


 * Dare's SOEIV comes into view, under attack by three Grunts. 


 * Buck: "There's your pod, now just need to find a way down."

After dispatching the Grunts he approaches her pod and tries to open the door.

Level ends.

{Cutscene}


 * Buck: "Arrgh! I'm here...I got ya..."

''Buck manages to shove the hatch off the pod, but it is empty. Suddenly, an Engineer pops out at Buck.''


 * Buck: "Aw, nuts."

The Engineer gets closer to Buck, who falls over backwards, and a blue light appears from its helmet.


 * Buck: "Whoa, whoa!"

Buck sees Dare's damaged helmet in one of its tentacles.


 * Buck: "Whoa!"

''A sniper rifle goes off, the Engineer dies, Romeo is revealed to have taken the shot. Romeo waves to Buck, who returns it.''

''Buck gets up, the Engineer starts to shake and starts to give off a high pitched whine, Buck dives for cover and it explodes, propelling Dare's helmet into the air. The Superintendent tracks the helmet.''


 * Superintendent (on-screen): LOST-AND-FOUND ITEM! CALCULATING TRAJECTORY...

The Superintendent finds that the helmet will be launched through a window.


 * Superintendent ''(on-screen): OPENING WINDOW SHUTTER!

The Superintendent's avatar shows a happy face.


 * Buck: "What the heck was that? You ever seen one before?"

''Romeo doesn't respond. Buck takes his helmet off.''


 * Buck: "Hey, Romeo! You got your ears on?"

Romeo shrugs.


 * Buck: "Oh, I get it. Permission to speak, smart ass."


 * Romeo: "No, I don't know what it was, but it was gonna grease your ass good. Just like it did the Captain."


 * Buck: "Yeah, maybe. You hear from Mickey, Dutch?"

Buck investigates a piece of the Huragok's armor, with Dare's stomach armor plate attached to it, stuck in a wall.


 * Romeo: "Negative."


 * Buck: "The Rookie?"

Romeo shakes his head.


 * Buck: "We need to get above this crap, link up with the bee-net, one of our drones must have seen where they hit."


 * Romeo: "So, we're poppin' smoke on the lady's mission? She ever tell you what she wanted?"


 * Buck: "No... never. Doesn't matter. All I care about now is gettin' my men out of this city. Even you."

''Buck puts his helmet back on, and the cutscene ends. Screen fades to black.''

Trivia

 * At the part where the two Hunters appear, you can stay on the ground, fight through the Brutes and Grunts, and go into the building behind them. Turning the the left immediately you will see a set of stairs. Going up these and going to the back of the room will lead you to find a dead Marine holding a Shotgun, making fighting the Hunters a lot easier if you can get behind them.
 * Completing the level on Normal or above unlocks the Tayari Plaza achievement, as well as the Buck character for Firefight mode.
 * The "family feud" between the Brutes and the Elites, and the dead Elites encountered throughout the level are explained by the fact that just after the Prophet of Regret jumped away, reinforcements sent by the Prophet of Truth arrived, and assumed control over the battle. Not only did they overtake the Sangheili previously in command, the Brutes left behind by Regret were also given orders to execute the Sangheili stationed on and above the planet. This was a part of Truth's complex, socio-political scheme for the Covenant which would culminate in the beginning of the Great Schism two weeks later.
 * Amongst the group of dead Brutes and Elites, there is an Elite in an Assault Harness despite it being the Halo 2-era. An explanation for this could be that the Assault Harness was already in use amongst Special Operations Elites strictly for covert missions/operations. Thus, explaining why the Assault Harness was present during the Battle of Mombasa only during the events after the Regret's slipspace jump.
 * Near the second group of dead Elites, two deactivated Energy Swords can be found. These are the only swords in the entire game.
 * In the second group of Elites an Ultra is dead under the overpass. This is one of three Elites holding the rank of Ultra in the whole game, dead or alive.
 * There are 14 dead Elites on this level. 14/2 = 7
 * Buck describes linking up with the "bee-net". This is likely short for "BattleNet," the information network of UNSC military units. It is also a reference to B.net, the colloquial name for Bungie's website.
 * At the area were the Marines are pinned down, if you head left, you can find some papers on the ground with Bungie members on them.
 * Right after the Hunter fight, when you go towards Dare's crash site, walk through the doors backwards, when next part of the level loads you will notice that the doors you just came through, "snap" shut, instead of closing normally.
 * The Marines pinned down at the part before the Hunter fight are the only Marines in the game by default to have Silenced SMGs that weren't given to them.
 * Throughout the entire level, the sky is filled with a large amount of blue fog, residue from the Carrier's in-atmosphere slipspace jump.
 * In the area where Buck mentions the "family feud", the wall to the right of the road says "Believe". This could be a reference to the Halo 3 Believe ad as seen here. It could also be a reference to the number 7 seeing how believe has 7 letters.