The Commander

### Depicts

Commander Thel 'Vadamee's attempt to help restore order to Installation 04 via the Silent Cartographer

### Enemies

* Covenant
	+ Brutes
		- Captain
* Flood
	+ Infection Forms
	+ Combat Forms
		- Human Forms
		- Brute Forms
		- Elite Forms
	+ Carrier Forms
		- Unshielded Elite Forms
		- Grunt Forms
		- Jackal Forms
		- ODST Forms
* Forerunner
	+ Sentinel Snipers
	+ Sentinel Enforcers

*"The Commander of the Covenant turns his attention to the Flood as he investigates the Silent Cartographer"*

**The Commander** is the twelfth mission (eleventh in a straight playthrough, if selected) of the Installation 04 Campaign in *Halo SPV3*. It is an original level, made by the modders, that was inspired by a test map created by one of the members of the SPV3 Dev Team to experiment with playable Elites using the *Combat Evolved* game engine.

Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee, along with Spec-Ops Commander Rtas 'Vadumee and Spec-Ops Officer Usze 'Tahamee, travel to the Cartographer island to investigate after contact was lost with a pack of Brutes that was sent there to retake the island. Upon arriving, they realize that the Flood has completely taken over the island, killed and infected all the Marines stationed there and are in control of the Cartographer to learn more about Installation 04 and how to leave the Forerunner ring world. Sentinels and Enforcers also swarm the island.

## Overview & Background

This mission is a spinoff of *Halo SPV3* and reuses the level design from The Silent Cartographer. The events here take place at the same time as The Maw.

In this level and The Commander: Evolved, the player takes control of Thel 'Vadamee, the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice during the Battle of Installation 04, and also the Sangheili who would become The Arbiter in *Halo 2*.

The level was originally cut from the mod until it finally saw a release in the *SPV3.2* update in 2019 along with the missions The Commander: Evolved, None Left Behind and the Lumoria Campaign. The Commander: Evolved is an alternate retelling of the same events shown in this level. In a straight playthrough of the Campaign, the player will have the option to play either this level or its Evolved counterpart, as is the case with the two Silent Cartographer missions.

## Gameplay Information

In this mission, players are in control of Thel 'Vadamee before he becomes The Arbiter. As a result, UNSC weapons are unusable, with the Needle Grenade replacing the Frag Grenade, and the Energy Sword Hilt being permanently equipped.

Two other Elites accompany the player for the majority of the mission: Rtas 'Vadumee, the Spec-Ops Commander from *Halo 2* and *Halo 3*, and Usze 'Tahamee, the player 4 character from *Halo 3*'s co-op Campaign, both of which are Hero Units.

   Covenant enemies are largely absent in this mission, save for two brief encounters with Brutes. Other than these, only the Flood, Sentinels and Sentinel Enforcers are fought as enemies.

The Commander features large Flood biomass barricades that block certain passage ways. One serves as a mission objective, but other than this, they cannot be passed. The barricades only appear in this mission and the Firefight map Engine Room.

## Developer Information

This mission was initially created as a test map for experimenting with playable Elites by one of the CMT modders. Many aspects of that early version transformed into The Commander. Masterz1337 saw it as a opportunity to create playable Elites in a more unique style, as he was never a fan of how they were implemented in the official *Halo* games, simply as an alternate skin for SPARTANs.

At first, The Commander was to be a smaller scale version of its sister level, The Commander: Evolved. However, the SPV3 Dev Team found this approach to be very limiting and the level was boring. So they devised to make it more open ended and discovery based than the evolved version, with the plot taking more of a back seat, and finding clues during the aftermath of a large conflict acting as the main setting. Despite this, mission objectives in both versions are largely the same.

## Trivia

* In this mission, it is explained that only Brutes were sent to the Cartographer island. In The Commander: Evolved, an entire Covenant task force was sent, consisting of Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers and Hunters. The task force was led by the Brute pack, with Chieftain Lapidus in command for both missions.
* Lines of dialogue for Thel 'Vadamee and Rtas 'Vadumee have been taken from other Halo games and even mixed together in certain instances to ensure continuity. Voice actors were used for the renegade Brutes and Usze 'Tahamee, meaning, Usze adds more exposition than Thel or Rtas.
* This is the only level in *SPV3* where datapads must be found and interacted with to proceed with the mission.
* Thel is an honor-bound Sangheili at the time this mission takes place. He, like his fellow Elites, would rather die than use the humans weapons. This is why UNSC weapons can't be used in the level. This sense of honor is lost to him after he becomes the Arbiter in Halo 2.
* The A.I.'s for Rtas 'Vadumee and Usze 'Tahamee are vulnerable to minor glitches including rolling for no reason (even off a cliff), not following the player when they should be and even freezing altogether. None of these bugs are game threatening and even resolve themselves in time, but as such, it is advised not to rely on their support entirely.

## Walkthrough

None Left Behind • **The Commander** • The Commander: Evolved • The Maw