Halo: Nightfall marks the appearance of a familiar face, Jameson Locke, an elite ONI agent tasked to investigate and eliminate possible threats to the human colonies. He is then sent, along with his team, to the remote colony world of Sedra, where a struggle between man and the alien Covenant forces has raised the tension high. Things start to take a very serious turn in their mission when a terrorist attack is staged on the crowded marketplace on Sedra. Locke and his team respond to it really fast in order to find out that it is a Covenant remnant group behind the attack. They discover that the terrorists have used a bioweapon-a kind of deadly substance that is a fragment of a Halo ring which reacts only with human DNA, causing horrible mutations and death. It is an attack that is supposed to destabilize Sedra, thereby weakening defenses among the humans.
Locke and the team will have to get into action immediately in a case where that is abetted by the Sedran military. The war-hardened Sedran commander Aiken is out for a grudge against the Covenant when he joins in Locke's investigation. The tension between them escalates because the mission objectives differ for each: where Aiken seeks revenge, Locke stays duty-bound to UNSC. Both teams embark on a dangerous quest to find the source of the bioweapon, which eventually leads them to a shard of a Halo ring that is perilously close to Sedra. The fragment of the ring is highly unstable, degrading over time, but the source of the bioweapon is thought to be hidden deep in its bowels. Time is of the essence because not only does the Covenant need to be stopped from unleashing further attacks, but they must also prevent the unstable ring fragment from destroying everything.
Locke and Aiken lead their teams in a planetfall onto the fragment-an eerie, hostile, alien environment with an alien landscape and toxic atmosphere. Tensions flare between Locke's ONI team and Aiken's Sedran soldiers as deeper within the interior of the Halo ring, trust is as rare as the unforgiving landscape. It won't take long, however, before the teams realize that they are not in solitude. A deadly Covenant species-a so-called "Leklolo"-surfaces and becomes yet another threat to their survival. These eel-like creatures are fast and nearly invisible, striking from the back. This fragment of Halo is collapsing, and they are running against time to achieve their goals. The fast action sequences that follow Locke's team fighting against the Lekgolo, along with the now increasingly treacherous terrain, make a deadly combination. But internal conflicts will begin to threaten the unity of their mission. Aiken's desire for vengeance drives him into near-suicidal risks, which result in an enormous loss within his own squad.
The climax is topped when Locke and Aiken find the core of the bioweapon production-an ancient, decaying Covenant facility buried deep within the Halo fragment. The place contains the deadly element which the Covenant terrorists had used in engineering their attack. They must first get through all that before destroying it, but the instability accelerates with increased velocity and thus makes their surroundings crumble down. Now they have to fight their way out before the whole fragment disintegrates. A thrilling escape sequence ensues where, for once, Locke and Aiken put aside their differences and work together. This leads to the placement of charges that would destroy the facility of the Covenant and neutralize the threat of a bioweapon. Feeling his guilt from past failures and afraid of failure, Aiken sacrifices his life in order for the team to survive. Locke barely manages to escape with the remaining members of his team as the Halo fragment collapses entirely, taking Aiken and the last remnants of the Covenant forces with it.
The film ends with Locke reporting to ONI in a very contemplative mood over the high cost of their mission. The bioweapon threat is stopped, but now Locke is left considering what kind of war they have embarked on and where duty meets morality.
Halo: Nightfall 2014 Trailer
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