Halo Season 2, Episode 6, “Onyx,” kicks off in space, aboard a UNSC starship. Corporal Perez (Cristina Rodlo) joins her new Spartan-III unit in a daring raid on a Covenant corvette. The unit uses jet packs to space jump onto the corvette’s hull, sustaining heavy losses.
Things don’t pan out much better inside the Covenant craft, with even more of Perez’s comrades taken out in the ensuing firefight. Eventually, only Perez is left, and she almost spikes the corvette’s controls – until she’s blasted in the back.
It’s a fake-out, however, and Perez emerges unscathed from a VR simulation on the planet Onyx, along with the rest of her unit.
Recap
Kai-125 (Kate Kennedy), the teacher for the Spartan-III unit, walks into the room. She chastises them for not fighting as a team as she gives them a rundown of their most recent setback. Kai also describes the operation of the UNSC’s spike technology.
When stabbed into a Covenant spaceship, it releases a virus that causes the entire system to shut down. Kai responds that the mission simulation effectively captures the randomness of combat when Perez critiques it for being unfair and unrealistic. Kai walks away from the Spartans.
But Perez isn’t finished yet. A furious argument ensues as she follows Kai into the corridor. In Halo Season 2, Episode 4, “Reach,” Kai chastises Perez for always making the same mistakes, and Perez claims Kai is angry with her for her involvement in the defense of Reach.
Perez, who is holding a poster of John-117/The Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) over Kai’s shoulder, asserts that she is aware of the responsibilities that come with being a member of the Spartan-III team. However, the corporal disputes Kai’s assertion that this indicates Perez wants to die.
Admiral Margaret Parangosky serves James Ackerson tea somewhere on the base. Parangosky tells the tale of how the tea leaves arrived at his cup on Onyx from a family orchard in Sri Lanka. She goes on to say that none of this is real and that the tea leaves were actually grown on Onyx in a lab.
All of this is a part of Parangosky’s larger message to Ackerson about the persuasiveness of stories, particularly the one the ONI has been spreading about Reach. According to Ackerson, the story is yet complete.
Less convinced, Parangosky tells Ackerson that there’s a chance ONI’s cover story would be jeopardized since the Master Chief and Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey have made it to Onyx after appearing to have survived the Fall of Reach.
In Halo: Season 2, Episode 6, we see the Master Chief using a pair of binoculars to observe the UNSC’s Onyx base. He clenches his teeth, bracing himself for the impending battle. After a brief break for the opening titles, we return to another virtual reality experience.
Kai is honing her craft in a reconstruction of the Fall of Reach this time. Ackerson stops the simulation and chastises Kai for self-punishment for skipping the fight. Kai bemoans the millions of lives lost and demands to know why she wasn’t present.
After dismissing Kai’s pain, Ackerson puts pressure on her to convince the Spartan-III squad that they are on par with her fallen Spartan-II colleagues.
