Halo: Initiation Issue 3

Halo: Initiation #3 is a 2014 comic published by Dark Horse.

Plot
Down on Spartan Deck, Palmer has finished equipping herself with her MJOLNIR armour and orders Thomas to follow her. Jun warns Palmer that Ilsa Zane was one of the original ten SPARTAN-IV candidates that proceeded Palmer's group. They had gone through further augmentations to remove the need for the expensive MJOLNIR armour entirely, but the procedure killed off all but Zane, who became mentally unstable as a result and was transferred to the Office of Naval Intelligence, a traditional transfer for retired SPARTANs. Commander Lasky has a plan to regain control of the ship, but first must access a terminal.

Meanwhile, Zane's team are having problems in the bridge. When Zane had Aine taken offline, she did not follow proper UNSC protocols, resulting in the ship's systems going on lockdown. The team expect to fix it in 30 minutes, though Zane wants it done faster to avoid ruining her scheduled sale of the ship to an Insurrectionist buyer. Inside the ready room, Lieutenant Ryder explains the same situation to Captain Del Rio. Del Rio inputs his override codes to the terminal, the established protocol for regaining control of the ship after a lockdown. It fails to work, and Del Rio concludes that Lasky has not yet input his own codes, both being required. He asks Ryder to try and find Lasky's location.

The Insurrectionist team discover on the security monitors that there are SPARTAN-IVs onboard. Zane announces on the ship's comm that the crew will be killed if they move any closer to the bridge, and begins an emergency decompression of S-Deck to prove her seriousness, blowing several crewmembers out into space. Jun and Lasky are saved by the SPARTANs and provided with emergency oxygen tanks from a locker. The seven reach the terminal, where they find that Del Rio is still alive and has input his half of the override codes. Lasky decides the best action when completing the override is to shut down security systems, though Davis is concerned the Insurrectionists will regain control of the security feed and see them approaching the bridge. Lieutenant Ryder spots Lasky's input and sets up a comm feed so Lasky can talk to Captain Del Rio. Lasky informs the Captain that Palmer and Davis have left the ship. Spotting Lasky using the terminal, Zane sends a team of Insurrectionists to S-Deck to confront the SPARTAN-IVs and capture any surviving bridge crew, who their buyer wants alive.

Palmer and Davis scale the ship in vacuum and slowly approach the bridge. Palmer picks Zane as her target due to her enhancements; Davis is assigned the other four in the bridge team. Breaking through a window, one of the men is blown out before the ship can seal the breach. Zane and Palmer begin punching one another, with Zane able to knock Palmer's helmet off. Zane refuses to kill her on the ground, allowing Palmer to get up and force her head into a wall. With the systems overridden, bridge officers begin running out of the ready room while Zane is distracted. Del Rio reactivates Aine and orders her to re-open the shutter on the bridge, blowing Zane out into space.

The Insurrectionist team on S-Deck find the SPARTANs and begin firing. Holst grabs Lasky to shield him and absorbs the rounds. Jun orders Holst to escort Lasky while he; Scruggs and Thomas take care of the Insurrectionists. Lasky stops to access a terminal, which he uses to drop a shutter separating the SPARTAN team from the Insurrectionists. With that problem out of the way, Jun orders everyone to head to the bridge, where they meet with the bridge crew.

Zane is rescued by an ONI prowler that had been observing her attack the entire time. HIGHCOM launches an inquiry after this event, and expresses their disgust that she was part of an unapproved ONI project. While the success of the SPARTANs has led to the arrest of half a dozen New Colonial Alliance members loyal to Admiral Mattius Drake, their relationship with ONI is judged to be the reason why the Insurrection is continuing to expand. Consequently, they rule that the SPARTAN-IVs and remaining older generations are to be represented by their own branch in the UNSC, "Spartan".

Characters

 * Ilsa Zane
 * Thomas Lasky
 * Sarah Palmer
 * Edward Davis
 * Yeong-Hao Holst
 * Vladimir Scruggs
 * Joel Thomas
 * Jun
 * Andrew Del Rio
 * Ryder
 * Mattius Drake (mentioned-only)