History NightmareFuel / Halo

** Not only that, but in the game, [[spoiler:at the start of that particular level, you start RIGHT OUTSIDE the room he's in, but of course you need to do the rest of the level first.]] Just take a peek through those grates to the right...

** The Grunts. Yes, you heard right. They look really vicious without their mask, and we've all had at least one time where a Grunt saw us without knowing it and shrieked, causing us to jump. Fiends.

* The entire purpose of the Halo array and the way it's slowly unveiled to you. At first, Halo is just presented as a mysterious megastructure. There's hints that it was built by the Forerunners, but its true purpose is unknown. Then you encounter [[spoiler: the Flood.]] Along comes [[spoiler: 343 Guilty Spark, who explains that Halo is a weapon designed to destroy The Flood.]] All well and good, right? Then, just as you're about to activate Halo, Cortana explains its '''true''' function: [[spoiler:Halo doesn't kill The Flood, ''it kills anything The Flood can infect.'' Each of the 7 Halo rings can emit a destructive pulse that wipes out just about all sentient life within a 25,000 light year radius. Because the Forerunners figured that the only way to stop The Flood was to starve them to death, and the only way to do that is to ''kill an entire Galaxy.'' And as Halo 2 points out, the entire Covenant religion is based upon ''deliberately activating the rings.'']]

* The concluding scene after taking down the large Covenant AA gun literally encompasses a dread-inducing feeling as any [[GenreSavvy dedicated Halo fan]] immediately could tell what's happening in the following scene. After [[spoiler:the Portal activates]], a lone Covenant CCS-Class Battlecruiser is shown appearing from slipspace, strangely letting off a suspicious brown-colored smoke from its midsection. The Arbiter thinks it's merely more regular Covenant troops to deal with, [[spoiler: boy is he ever wrong...]]

-->'''Master Chief:''' '''[[spoiler: [[FromBadToWorse Worse...]]]]'''

** "I SEE YOU RECLAIMER." Even more creepier than you realize that the one who sent those words was [[spoiler:Mendicant Bias, the Forerunner A.I. who betrayed his masters for the Flood, which caused the first activation of the Halos]]. [[spoiler:The final (Legendary) Terminal is almost [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]], though.]]

* [[spoiler:343 Guilty Spark]] having a complete mental breakdown in the last level and going through a rampancy. It's very scary to see such an affable, if slightly annoying, character completely turning 180 and becoming an extremely dangerous foe who has lost his mind. Before it, you don't expect him to be a harmful threat, but then he proves you wrong ''big time'' by [[spoiler:killing Johnson]] and burning the Master Chief. When you fight him, nothing works. Grenades, pistol, machineguns, sniper rifles, plasma guns, anti-tank weapons - none of them work. The only thing you can do is make him snap even further, and pretty soon you start feeling your heart pumping from desperation alone. [[RedEyesTakeWarning The red eye works, too, for the fear factor]].

* Some of Cortana's [[spoiler:rampant screaming]]. For instance, this line scares people:

** One of Cortana's lines in the level "Composer": [[spoiler:Why should we save them?]] It's like something out of Dead Space.

* Promethean Knights. Their helmets opens up to a glowing skull, which screams at you. [[spoiler:Worse, they are made of the victims of the Composer. [[FridgeHorror Definitely makes that skull more terrifying in hindsight...]]]]
* The Composer must be powered by NightmareFuel because it is positively ''oozing'' horror:
** [[spoiler:Chief and Cortana are too late to stop the Didact from taking it, unable to keep him from firing it, and then get the horrifying image of the people around them on Ivanoff Station disintegrating in ashes. And not instantaneously. '''''we see the skin peel off their bones'''''. You're even "treated" to a close look at its effects on Doctor Sandra Tillson.]]
** [[spoiler:Worse, they weren't killed by the process at all, [[AndIMustScream which means they had felt the tremendous pain as their skin was being peeled apart from their flesh and their bodies]] ''[[AndIMustScream disintegrating]]'' [[AndIMustScream and still presumably felt the pain as they were cataloged by the Composer to later be turned into Promethean Knights and the sort by Didact to replace their dwindling ranks as Chief tore through their numbers]].]]
** Even worse, [[spoiler:essentially, the Composer fatally digitizes people. Cortana is a digital lifeform. She's in shock afterward because she could hear the digitally fragmented minds/souls of the people, screaming in pain and terror. No wonder she was [[HeroicBSOD blue-screening]] when the Chief came to.]]
---> '''Cortana''': "I was monitoring the data feeds. [[spoiler:I could ''hear'' them...what was ''left'' of them...]]"
** [[spoiler:The Chief and Cortana are unable to prevent the Didact from firing it twice. The second time, it's on Earth, and the affected area in New Phoenix is still quarantined six months later.]]
** [[spoiler:The people of New Phoenix were commonly believed to have received a MercyKill when Chief destroyed the Composer, but Episode 5 of Spartan Ops reveals that their memories were somehow transported to Requiem and transformed into Promethans...Spartan Thorn could be fighting his friends and family out there.]]
** A throwaway line in ''Literature/HaloSilentium'' will leave you with [[FridgeHorror endless horror once you realize the implications.]] [[spoiler:When taking the personalities of humans defeated at Charum Hakkor, the Ecumene Council gave the Warrior-Servants and Lifeworkers "Composers"...as in ''plural''. That's right, folks. The Forerunners built ''more than one Composer!'' Every horrific thing you just read about the Composer? ''It could all happen again''...]]
*** Confirmed to be true in ''ComicBook/HaloEscalation'' Issue 9: [[spoiler:The Didact is alive and operating from the Composer's Forge, where the Composers were built. He has ''six'' fully operational Composers. Fortunately, he seems to no longer want to Compose humanity. Unfortunately, he has since decided ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness he would rather use a Halo on Earth]]'']].
** [[spoiler:The Ur-Didact's fate in ''ComicBook/HaloEscalation'' issue 10.]] Part of Installation 03 along with [[spoiler:the Ur-Didact]] is dropped onto the Composer's Forge, causing all five Composers at nearby to detonate with [[spoiler:the Ur-Didact seemingly disintegrating and ending up composed.]] However, WordOfGod has stated that [[spoiler:he]] has not been completely composed in the way that is usually known due to the destruction of the Composers and [[spoiler:the Ur-Didact's]] resistance to the Composer mentioned in the terminals in ''VideoGame/Halo4''. What exactly happened to [[spoiler:him]] [[NothingIsScarier has not yet been revealed]] and [[spoiler:the last shot of him was his glowing remains]]. All that is known is that [[spoiler:he]] is still alive and will likely return to the narrative at some point.

** Episode 3 [[spoiler:reveals Glassman's fate. On the plus side, he hasn't been composed. On the minus side, he's been captured by the Covenant, and apparently is offering to trade information for his life; with Jul 'Mdama suggesting he'll end up RewardedAsATraitorDeserves after helping them. Also, the Artifact is apparently accessing systems aboard the Infinity, gathering information and transmitting it to Requiem.]]

* Episode 6, Chapter 5 has Crimson sent in after [[spoiler:another Spartan team, Switchback, needed help taking down a Harvester guarded by Covenant and Prometheans. When Crimson arrives, all that is found are Switchback's removed IFF tags, nothing else. No clues are given to what exactly happened to them. The fact that the IFF tags were removed seem to indicate that they were captured. For what purpose? Likely nothing good.]]
** [[spoiler:Becomes NightmareRetardant when it's shown that they were just captured, and only the leader was killed.]]

*** Specifically, [[spoiler:you're looking at the first-ever ''Spartan'' Combat-Forms.]] Thank god they're just based on speculation as far as canon is concerned.

* [[spoiler:Halsey's severed arm in the Spartan Ops epilogue.]]

* The ''entire'' Covenant attack on Corbulo Academy. Even for hardened fans of the series who have gotten used to the Covenant presence in the franchise will probably be utterly terrified of them here, since A) the attack is at night B) it's completely a surprise and they kill [[spoiler:everyone at the Academy besides Lasky, Orenski, and Sully]], C) it's at the very start of the war, so nobody knows ''what in the hell'' they're being attacked by, and D) the entire attack is seen through the eyes of undertrained teenage cadets.
* The screams of people [[spoiler:falling from a destroyed Space Elevator]]. There's some very appropriately squishy sound effects to go along with the impact. [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou To think the ones killed by plasma fire were the]] ''[[NotTheFallThatKillsYou lucky ones]]''.
** [[spoiler:Dimah was last seen on the Space Elevator. One of the falling bodies is wearing an all-white uniform.]]

** In that same note, Cortana's [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]] -esque "arguments" with her [[spoiler:rampant mind]] in the episode's teaser:

* [[spoiler:Unlike in the games, where Elite's cloaking has a semi-visible distortion effect a la the Predator, in FUD, it's completely invisible. J.J.'s death is a illustrates how terrifying this is, as he literally walks into an Elite without seeing it.]]
* In Episode 4, [[spoiler:the cadets ask why the Chief came to save them; he responds that they were the last people still alive. The cadets are surprised that they're the sole survivors of the Academy, but Chief corrects them; they're the last surviving people ''on the planet''.]]
* John-117, the Master Chief, a seven-foot tall cyborg and a striding force of death and destruction is only [[spoiler:fifteen years old in 2526. Meaning he's barely old enough to have a driver's license. Meaning he's even ''younger'' than the frightened cadets he's saving from certain death at the hands of monstrous, alien zealots.]] The fact he does this all with an almost robotic calm makes the human cost of the Spartan-II project seem that much more horrible.
** Reinforced in the end of episode 5. [[spoiler:The surviving cadets are aboard a Pelican with John-117, Fred-104, and Kelly-087. Kelly and Fred take off their helmets (They look at the Chief, who keeps his on and looks away), leaving the cadet surprised at how young they look, leading to this exchange:]]
-->'''Sully''': [[spoiler:How old are all of you?]]
-->'''Kelly''': [[spoiler:That's classified.]]
* Episode 4 shows just how messy a supercombine can be. [[spoiler:Colonel Mehaffy was damn near liquified.]]
* [[spoiler:Silva's death is more of a fridge horror but her death is prolonged not only for the sake of drama, but because the needle shot shattered inside her just below her lung. She died choking.]]

* The Legendary ending. [[spoiler:Rogue!Cortana has ''a [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Halo]]''.]]
* It's hard to say which is worse: [[spoiler:Cortana is still rampant, or she's ''not'' rampant and just [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity mad with power]]. Either way, when she shows her true nature to Fireteam Osiris, her ranting and sneering is just ''chilling''. Even worse is that she's utterly convinced she's in the right, that the Spartan-IV's and their kind deserve to ''die'' and that Chief will agree with her when she wakes him from stasis in 10,000 years.]]
** [[spoiler:An [[WildMassGuessing alternative theory]] posits that not only may she be rampant, but that she is also infected with the logic plague or the AI equivalent of a flood infection from her time with the Gravemind in Halo 2 and 3.]]

* There's an EasterEgg on the multiplayer map "Rig". While the trigger for it is simple [[labelnote:*]] After GroundPound-ing a platform in the BottomlessPit in the middle of the map, you shoot two cores coming out of their silos, on the edge of the map.[[/labelnote]], the result isn't. [[spoiler:You hear [[HellIsThatNoise a piercing screech]] as a rig on the horizon is suddenly lifted from below by '''''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever a titanic]] [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] SandWorm that makes Literature/{{Dune}}'s sandworms look like maggots.]]''''' One can only hope that no one was on that rig.[[labelnote:Then again...]] This is just a simulation. Someone in charge of the simulation’s programming was probably messing around. Therefore, it isn’t likely that the sandworm even exists outside of the War Games simulation. [[/labelnote]]

* The recent E3 trailer for ''Halo Wars 2'' revealed a terrifying new secret for the game and the series in general. [[spoiler:The Flood are back.]]
** The excellently rendered, [[SarcasmMode beautiful]] [[spoiler:Brute Combat Form seen when the Flood return for the first time]].
** The utterly gigantic [[spoiler:Proto-Gravemind tentacles]].

* The Precursors. Once driven by an obsession to create life, [[spoiler:they were nearly wiped out by one of their creations, the Forerunners. They are '''''not''''' happy about it and deliver a terrifying message to the Forerunners:]]
-->'''[[spoiler:Gravemind/Precursor]]''': Our urge to create is immutable; we ''must'' create. But the beings we create shall never again reach out in strength against us. All that is created will ''suffer''. All will be born in suffering, endless grayness shall be their lot. All creation will tailor to failure and pain, that ''never again'' shall the offspring of the eternal Fount rise up against their creators. Listen to the silence. Ten million years of deep silence. And now, whimpers and cries; not of birth. That is what we bring: a great crushing weight to press down youth and hope. No more ''will''. No more freedom. Nothing new but agonizing death and never good shall come of it. ''[[MeaningfulEcho We are the last of those who gave you breath and form, millions of years ago. We are the last of those your kind defied and ruthlessly destroyed. We are the last Precursors.]]'' ''[[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence And now we are]] '' '''[[IAmLegion Legion.]]'''
* [[spoiler:The Librarian, leading an expedition to a nearby galaxy, finds a primitive society of Forerunners seeded on a planet millions of years ago. A recognizable Forerunner race inhabits the planet, but at close examination, it turns out that ''everything'' on the planet was once Forerunner. Every animal and plant. The team observes a herd of cattle with many recognizable Forerunner features. Imagine living on a planet where everything, from the grass you stand on to the animals you eat, is descended from people no different from you.]]

* [[spoiler:The Ur-Didact's fate. He was trapped in that Cryptum of his for 100,000 years, and because the Domain was destroyed (something which ruined the Librarian's plan when she put him in stasis), [[GoMadFromTheIsolation he was left all alone, with only his madness for company]]. No wonder he's ruthless and genocidal by the time John frees him.]]
* [[spoiler:The true relationship between the the Forerunner, Humans, and Precursors. They did indeed reject Forerunners for the Mantle and intended for humans to hold it. The Forerunners did not accept this and drove the Precursors from the galaxy and beyond. Some Precursors survived by going dormant, others became powder that could regenerate their old selves in time, but time rendered it defective and it only created sickness and disease. The Precursors vowed that none of their creations would rise against them again and that all life would suffer and be in perpetual agony, through their new form as the Flood.]]

** Another scary one is "Ancient Machine", a [[Series/TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]-like melody with organic Flood noises and vocals similar to the aforementioned "Infected".

--->'''Ritas'Vadum:''' One single Flood spore can destroy a species. Were it not for the Arbiter's counsel, I would have glassed your entire ''planet!''

-->'''Arbiter''': I will have my revenge. On a ''Prophet''! ''Not a plague''!

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zcO28JbHxI intro]] alone DEFINITELY qualifies, as it shows oh-so vividly just how utterly heartless the [[AliensAreBastards Covenant]] were during the hellish Human-Covenant war when slaughtering innocent civilians, '''especially''' when it shows an Elite skewering one said civilian from behind the chest with its dreaded [[LaserBlade Energy Sword]].

** The very circumstances of the mission and its aftermath are horrifying. The quarantine space-blockade around High Charity mentioned in the folder above? [[EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce A single infested ship]] managed to slip through it and reach Earth. The town of Voi is overrun in minutes, the glut of bodies from the just-concluded battle of "The Storm" being reanimated left and right. In the end, while the arrival of the Fleet of Retribution helps stem the tide, the only way to prevent a full on ZombieApocalypse is to [[TheOnlyWayToBeSure completely obliterate Voi and its surroundings]]; Miranda suggests overloading the infested spaceship's reactor core, while the Elites opt for OrbitalBombardment.

-->'''Master Chief:''' '''[[FromBadToWorse Worse...]]'''

* The concluding scene after taking down the large Covenant AA gun literally encompasses a dread-inducing feeling as any [[GenreSavvy dedicated Halo fan]] immediately could tell what's happening in the following scene. After [[spoiler:the Portal activates]], a lone Covenant CCS-Class Battlecruiser is shown appearing from slipspace, strangely letting off a suspicious brown-colored smoke from its midsection. The Arbiter think it's merely more regular Covenant troops to deal with, [[spoiler: boy is he ever wrong...]]

* The concluding scene after taking down the large Covenant AA gun literally encompasses a dread-inducing feeling as any [[GenreSavvy dedicated Halo fan]] immediately can tell what it happening in the following scene. After [[spoiler:the Portal activates]], a lone Covenant CCS-Class Battlecruiser is shown appearing from slipspace, strangely letting off a suspicious brown-colored smoke from its midsection. The Arbiter think it's merely more regular Covenant troops to deal with, [[spoiler: boy is he ever wrong...]]

-->'''Master Chief:''' '''[[FromBadToWorse Worse...]]

* There's an EasterEgg on the multiplayer map "Rig". While the trigger for it is simple [[labelnote:*]] After GroundPound-ing a platform in the BottomlessPit in the middle of the map, you shoot two cores coming out of their silos, on the edge of the map.[[/labelnote]], the result isn't. [[spoiler:You hear [[HellIsThatNoise a piercing screech]] as a rig on the horizon is suddenly lifted from below by '''''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever a titanic]] [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] SandWorm that makes Literature/{{Dune}}'s sandworms look like maggots.]]''''' One can only hope that no one was on that rig.

* Related to one of the spoilered cases above, being killed in the other games wasn't that much of an issue, as the only thing shown is the character flying and\or collapsing, with not much resulting blood. The incinerating powers of the Forerunner weapons instead add the unnerving sight of Master Chief disintegrating as he burns to scattering ash.

* Want to see some small examples of how the [[AliensAreBastards Covenant]] conduct their infamous [[SaltTheEarth "glassing"]] business? Look no further than the "New Alexandria" level where you both experience it both audibly '''and''' visually in the far distance, still in the city limits.

--> '''Gravemind''': Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside...corpses shift and offer room...''a fate you must abide!''

** The very circumstances of the mission and its aftermath are horrifying. The quarantine space-blockade around High Charity mentioned in the folder above? [[EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce A single infested ship]] managed to slip through it and reach Earth. The town of Voi is overrun in minutes, the glut of bodies from the just-concluded battle of "The Storm" being reanimated left and right. In the end, while the arrival of the Fleet of Retribution helps stem the tide, the only way to prevent a full on ZombieApocalypse is to [[TheOnlyWayToBeSure completely obliterate Voi and its surroundings]]; Keyes suggests overloading the infested spaceship's reactor core, while the Elites opt for OrbitalBombardment.

* Contrasting the previous games, now the Marines (as well as Elites and Brutes) can be [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong "Floodiefied"]] in realtime. Yes, they transform into Combat Forms before ''your very eyes''', crying out in horror as the parasite tunnels into their chest cavity and takes control. Not to mention that if you manage to shoot an infected soldier in a way that doesn't make it explode and walk up to its body, you can see one clinging to the spine...

* Contrasting the previous games, now the Marines (as well as Elites and Brutes) can be [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong "Floodiefied"]] in realtime. Yes, they transform into Combat Forms before your very eyes, crying out in horror as the parasite tunnels into their chest cavity and takes control. Not to mention that if you manage to shoot an infected soldier in a way that doesn't make it explode and walk up to its body, you can see one clinging to the spine...

** The music playing during the level "The Oracle" that has distorted reversed voices (during the battle between the Heretics and the Flood in the lab).

** Parts of the "High Charity" level are a BlackoutBasement. That's because the [[{{Precursors}} Forerunner]] dreadnought in the middle of the city was the main source of power for the city, and since Truth is preparing it for launch, it's disconnecting from the power grid. Imagine being a Covenant civilian, knowing that the Flood are spreading, desperately trying to escape, [[FromBadToWorse and then]] the lights [[OhCrap go out]].

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