- "Wait a minute... afterlife? Underground cave!? What if this isn't Heaven! What if it's...noh, it couldn't be. Could it?"
- —Sarge
- "Oh, hey Sarge. What're you doin' down here?"
- —Donut
- "It is! Oh, it is."
- —Sarge in Spelunked
The Underground Caves is an area directly under Blood Gulch. The cavern holds a computer that shows everything in the canyon. It acts as V.I.C.'s personal base of operations.
Role in Plot[]
Origins[]
After the Freelancer break-in, The Alpha needed to be moved to a secure location to stop any further attempts to save it. Agent Florida, also known as Butch Flowers, was handpicked by the Counsellor and The Director to protect the Alpha. Flowers created a stalemate condition in the simulation outpost Blood Gulch to ensure the Alpha's anonymity and safety. To assist with this, he installed V.I.C in the underground caves in order to provide himself with assistance whilst also ensuring both teams remain stuck in a stalemate. After installing V.I.C in the caves, Flowers trips over a cable, accidently unplugging it from V.I.C and causing him to malfunction.
Discovered by the Reds and Blues[]
When Donut was crushed by the arriving ship in The Arrival, he was pushed through the ground and landed in the Underground Caves. Sarge was soon buried after his funeral, even though he was still alive, but somehow fell through a hole in his grave and found Donut in these caves. After realizing that Sister was a Blue Team soldier and his own mistake, Simmons, along with Grif, entered the caves to rescue Sarge.
After reuniting the Red Team, Simmons finds Vic Jr. in the caves before the latter escaped, causing Simmons to realize that Vic Jr. has been manipulating both teams. During this time, Doc, Sister, and Junior enter the caves but are captured by Flowers/O'Malley and the Green Alien, who previously interrogated a drugged Grif with Andy. During Omega's final assault, the Red Team and Doc's group left the caves to provide aid in defeating Omega.
Investigating the Reds and Blues[]
Many years after the Reds and Blues had left Blood Gulch, Dylan Andrews and Jax Jonez visited the old bases to uncover the truth behind their alleged attacks against the UNSC. After meeting with Sister at Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha, Andrews was told to speak to V.I.C down in the caves, only to find the AI in a glitchy and broken condition. V.I.C joked for Andrews and Jonez to pull his plug to permanently switch him off due to his charade continuing despite the complete collapse of Project Freelancer. Uneasy with the moral dilemma, Jonez left the Andrews with V.I.C and went back to the Canyon. Andrews secretly removed V.I.C from his computer in order to help track down the Reds and Blues. She left with him, leaving the caves permanently abandoned.
Trivia[]
- Sarge originally thought the caves were Heaven and then Hell due to the fact he thought he died.
- Despite its major role in Season 5, an explanation is never given as to the nature of the caves, or the Blue and Red bases there.
- In Season 14 it is officially confirmed that Agent Flowers was the one who set V.I.C up in the cave system
- In the Halo 2 engine, the Underground Caves are represented by "Waterworks". In the Halo CE engine, a custom modded map was used. In Season 15, "Waterworks" was used again with Halo 5 Characters edited onto the scene.