The Pelican is a vehicle that first arrives in Blood Gulch by way of a hard landing - directly on top of Donut. Due to its ability to fly at high speeds and carrying capacity, characters have used Pelicans several times to travel great distances in little time.
Role in Plot[]
Project Freelancer[]
Pelicans are used numerous times during Seasons 9 and 10, most of which are piloted by Four Seven Niner. Four Seven Niner uses the Pelican to take the Freelancers to a certain destination or to rescue them from dangerous situations. In Evacuation Plan, Four Seven Niner out maneuvers two Longsword Interceptors in a Pelican, while carrying Freelancers Carolina, North, and South Dakota. The Pelican is used again during a mission in The Sarcophagus, to take the Freelancers to a 110-story building, as well as rescue the Sarcophagus when the building collapses. The Pelican has been shown to fly in space and was able to escape a nuclear blast.
Blood Gulch Chronicles[]
The Pelican, in its first full shot.
After the ship lands on Donut, the Reds begin hearing a tapping sound coming from inside the ship, believing it's Morse code coming from Donut. Church, backed up by Sheila, arrives, and calls "dibs" on the ship, starting an argument between Church and the Reds. Sarge returns from the base and berates Grif and Simmons for allowing a Blue to claim the ship, citing the "International Dibs Protocol" and the "No Take-Backs Accord".
However, Sheila suddenly departs, leaving Church outnumbered and out-gunned. Church retreats, leaving the ship back in the hands of the Reds. Sarge attempts to anger Donut by telling him things he would get upset at, like fashion, beauty care, and celebrity break-ups, so as to give him enough adrenaline to lift the ship off himself.
Sheila being transferred into the ship.
Grif gets progressively more annoyed with the tapping, and Sarge admits the failure of his plan. As Sarge is talking, the ship door opening is heard off-screen revealing Sister, Grif's sibling. Sister tells them she joined the war because she was bored without her brother. As the Reds realize that the tapping came from Sister, they wonder where Donut went. It is then revealed that Donut fell underground, into the Caves. The ship remains idle for some time in the canyon until the Blues realize that Sheila's tank is damaged, and Tex states that Sheila can be transferred to the ship. The Blues then set up a hardlink line between the ship and the tank while Caboose is inside making sure the transfer completes properly.
Caboose inside the ship.
When the transfer completes, and Sheila runs a diagnostic. Caboose and Sheila then chat about her new surroundings. Later on, Sheila traps Gary behind a firewall inside the ship. Tex steals Tucker's sword and ushers Junior and the Green Alien inside the ship. Then, O'Malley jumps inside Tex, who then picks up one of the Wyoming helmets and runs inside the ship. As the ship lifts off, Sarge tells Andy, who was already placed on board the ship as a contingency plan, to detonate since O'Malley was on board. Andy counts down from 10, then detonates before a large exploison occurs several seconds later, which Grif missed.
Recollections[]
The fate of the ship, and all on board, was left unexplained until Reconstruction, when the ship crashes in Valhalla. The crash led to mysterious events, like the Blue Team killing each other and, soon after, an "infection" that makes most of the Red Team go insane. Washington, Church, and Caboose access ship's computer to discover that Sheila is still active, despite the ship's systems being badly damaged. Washington and Caboose manage to activate the log of the previous flight, and observe Tex's struggle to land the ship before it crashed. In the sponsor cut, Andy talks in the background of the flight recording. It is suggested by Caboose that the ship took a year to crash because Wyoming's helmet which held his Time distortion enhancement was on the ship, implying Gamma tried to use Wyoming's enhancement to save itself.
In Relocated, Grif finds that pieces of the ship are blocking the communication spire. In Recreation, Caboose reveals that he is taking parts from the crashed ship for his "project". In Rally Cap, Simmons led the group to a hangar where a Pelican was found, and they flew this ship to Sidewinder to go help Tex and Church. They crash the ship into Sidewinder, as Grif doesn't know how to land it, saying "that just means 'stop flying', right?" As they crash, they skid across the landscape before stopping infront of Doc and a cliffside. Sarge then (offhandedly) kicks the ship off the cliff and it drops into the water.
The UNSC Police expresses grumpiness at this after they arrive, as "The budget only allows for one crashed Pelican per mission." However, the first Pelican crashed before Reconstruction, which took place roughly 3 months prior to Revelation. Since these two events aren't the same mission, it's unclear how the UNSC soldier's concerns are relevant.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Pelican's designation is Victor 398.
- The Pelican that appears in Season 4 and Season 5 was either a 3D model made by Paul Marino pasted on the Coagulation map, or a crashed ship that is found in the map Relic.
- In Season 9 the Pelican "Four Seven Niner" used to extract Freelancers Carolina, North Dakota and South Dakota was equipped with a flare/chaff despenser. This is possibly a Freelancer add-on as the Pelicans in the Halo universe never seem to use flares.
- The interior of the Pelican that appeared in the Blood Gulch Chronicles seemed to be much bigger on the inside than on the outside, similar to the TARDIS from Doctor Who. The interior is also different looking during Seasons 9 and 10. This size difference has not been shown in any other Pelican since then.
- Grif crashing the Pelican at Sidewinder is parallel to his own sister crashing the first Pelican at Blood Gulch.