Tayari Plaza (level)

Tayari Plaza is a Halo 3: ODST campaign level. It is the first level where you play as Buck.

Summary


Tayari Plaza is chronologically the first flashback mission. Taking place directly after the drop and the EMP wave 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
Black screen, text appears:

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 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.''

Dare: Squad, what's your status? You still with me Buck?

Buck: Yeah, give me a sec.

Dare: 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: 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: 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've been a lot of other saps since then, why pick me for this safari?

Dare: First, you're the best soldier I know, and second, {static} If you don't remember, that night? {static} What you asked me in the morning?

A Phantom flies overhead.

Buck: I remember not getting an answer.

Dare: Say again Buck, you're breaking up.

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

{Gameplay}

Dare: We missed our LZ, this grid is packed with Covenant, be careful.

Buck: I appreciate the concern.

Dare: Can't be much of a rescue if you're dead.

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

Marine: Trooper! Over here! Saw your pod hit, you're one lucky SoB.

Buck: See any more come down?

Marine: Nah, negative! But I didn't see much of anything after that flash. Uh, 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 ahead, 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: What do you mean?

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

Dare: 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: An overcharged Plasma Pistol shot will neutralize their shields, it should also take down a Brute's armor.

Buck: Oh yeah! Where were you a minute ago?

Dare: Still trapped inside my pod.

After opening a door Buck finds a group of Marines around a destroyed Warthog, taking fire from Covenant on higher ground.

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: Buck, location?

Buck: Almost there! What's wrong?

Dare: 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: 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 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 items 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 over.

{Cutscene}

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

Hatch opens, Dare's pod is empty

An Engineer pops out at Buck.

Buck: Aww, 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 and subsequently the screen where the Rookie finds it later. The Superintendent marks the helmet's location.''

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 armor's stomach 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've 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

 * Completing the level on Normal or above unlocks the Tayari Plaza achievement, as well as the Buck character for Firefight mode.
 * After fighting for a while towards the crash site, the player can find multiple groups of dead Elites mixed with a group of dead Brutes. Buck mentions that the Elites appear to be killed by the Brutes and asks if the ONI knows about any internal struggle within the Covenant, to which Dare only responds with it being classified.
 * The beacon object of this level is Dare's broken Recon helmet, jammed on a display screen in a room with a window overlooking Tayari Plaza. When the Huragok holding the helmet explodes, the helmet gets propelled at high speeds to a wall. The Superintendent opens the window shutter for the helmet, making it fly straight into the screen.
 * 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 Prophet of Regret's slipspace jump.
 * Buck describes linking up with the "bee-net". This is likely short for "Battle Net," the information network of UNSC military units. It is also a reference to B.net, the colloquial name for Bungie's website.
 * The dead Brutes and Elites brings up a continuity problem; assuming that the ODST campaign takes place directly after Regret's carrier has slipspaced away, that would mean that the Elites were killed before the Covenant Civil War actually began. One possibility is that in the confusion and lack of leadership after Regret's retreat, the Elites and Brutes simply turned on each other due to their long-held contempt for each other. The Brutes may have also realized that, without a Prophet leader around, they could take the opportunity to slaughter the Sangheili without reprimand, or else the Prophet of Truth gave the order to these Brutes through some secretive means to quickly remove the Elites from power weeks later at High Charity.
 * 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.
 * 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.