In old Greek Mythology, Erebus was the name given to the realm that was the entrance to the underworld. When a person died, it was believe they went there to be judged and thrown into the underworld. In a way, it was kind of like the underworld's gateway. A fitting title for this map if you're into analogy's. Back in the days of Sandbox on Halo 3, I had made a total of six Erebus maps. The theme has been maintained since the first map. Based off of House maps, the Erebus series pitted a certain amount of players to survive as long as they can inside of a house as waves of zombies tried to infiltrate and kill them. This map plays the basic infection gametype, but it you have a version of the infection used in matchmaking, that would work much better.

Of the six Erebus maps of Halo 3, Erebus III was always my personal favorite. It was like one of those times when you doodled a picture out of boredom and everything seemed to work magically and that doodle turned out to be amazing and you struggle to repeat it. Because of this, Erebus III was the obvious choice for a remake. In the house there are basically no bad camping spots for the humans. Since it’s a house map, it’s obviously about standing your ground, but what I love about this map is that no human can survive alone, they have to work together if they want to make it through the round. Ok, up next is a story written for the map, you can skip it if you want.

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Gunnery Sergeant Peter Furler woke up the same way he did every morning. Rising from the bed, he quickly woke the other troops in the barracks and headed out for the bathroom, as some of the other troops ate breakfast or just struggled to get out of their beds. These were the men that Peter Furler worked alongside of every day for the last six months. He was their commanding officer, and these last six months have been some of the most boring days he’s ever experience since first joining the marines when they didn’t even think about the covenant, and rebels were the main focus.

He and his men were stationed on UNSC OUTPOST-BETA, one of the few bases circling on the outskirts of a huge mining facility where there lies a giant deposit of iron ore. With Reach now glassed the UNSC has put a major effort to protect their resources, as with every planet they lose, so too they lose the planet’s recourses. The covenant’s invasion of Earth is imminent and Peter Furler knew all too well. When the covenant invades, the giant iron deposit will certainly be a major goal for them to obtain. But for the last six months waiting for them to arrive, the covenant was no where.

The plan for the day was routine for Thursdays; Peter Furler planned to go on a scouting mission with three of his men around the hills bordering the canyon in which the outpost sat. As he and his men geared up and headed out to the vehicle depot, one of the corporals came out and told Peter Furler that he needed to head up to the communication room because a Lt. Colonel needed to speak with him. Peter Furler did just that, and he went up to the communication room to hear what the Lt. Colonel needed to tell him. Apparently, a nuclear reactor in the nearest town, Oakland city, roughly thirteen miles away had a bit of a meltdown, but the Lt. Colonel advised Peter that there was nothing to worry about.

Gunnery Sergeant Peter Furler took the Lt. Colonel’s word for it, and he left the base with three other troopers to scout the canyon and the nearby island they called “paradiso” for the day. As usual, it was a slow day, as there was nothing different out in the canyon and paradiso. It was starting to get dark and cloudy now, so Peter Furler and his men decided to head back to the base and call it a day. As they were heading back around a beach line, one of the men who stayed back at the base radioed in to Peter Furler and told them that they had lost power at the base. Knowing that the power grid was located on paradiso, the island they had just left, Peter Furler sent on of his men to go back and check it.

Being that today they had seen nothing that was a threat…even wild animals…Peter Furler and his other two men didn’t wait up for the third. They knew this place like the back of their hands and knew they all knew how to get back to base. While the third man was checking the power grid on paradiso, the others returned to base.

Twenty minutes have past since Peter Furler and his two men returned to the base, and yet the third man has not made it back. Peter didn’t really think much of it, but after two and a half hours, Peter started to worry about what might have happened to his third trooper who went back to check the power grid. Suddenly, a frantic screaming emitted out of Peter’s radio as the third man, full of panic, was yelling for help. Peter tried calming him to find out what was wrong, but to no avail. The marine was just screaming and yelling for help, and what bothered Peter the most was that he could hear the marine just unloading his gun on something. Before Peter knew it, he heard the marine scream in pain, fire a few last bullets, and then the radio fell silent before Peter’s ear.

Very tense and uneasy, Peter gathered all his men together in the communication room and told them the entire situation to the best of his ability. He told them to stay on watch and keep a lookout because the covenant may have landed on Earth unsuspected. For that marine though, Peter Furler was unsure if he was dead or injured, but he couldn’t leave a man behind so he organized a rescue team of five and sent them out to paradiso to recover the marine. As the strike force left, the Lt. Colonel’s voice emitted from Peter’s radio.

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you, Peter,” The Lt. Colonel said. “Everywhere around Oakland, buildings have lost power.” Peter Furler acknowledged. “We’ve also gotten report from the other bases nearby your location that they have spotted mutated civilians approaching their bases and we have actually lost contact with one of our bases entirely. We believe this is a result of the nuclear meltdown in Oakland City. If this is the case, you’re gonna have to deal with the entire population of Oakland city as violent, mutated zombies. Keep watch, I trust you know what to do,” The Lt. Colonel finished by saying. Peter set his radio down on a table, astonished. They were being attacked by the living dead.

His first thought was to evacuate the base completely, but then he remembered the strike force he sent out and the third marine who may still be alive. He couldn’t just leave them behind to die. He gathered his men together and filled them in on the situation. Peter radioed in to the leader of the strike force to see how they were doing. He told Peter that they are at the power grid on paradiso, and that the third marine attacked them, mutated into a zombie so they had to put him down. Peter told the team to return at once, the leader responded by saying that they could probably get back in four minutes.

The stage was set, if the strike force did not return in four minutes, Peter and his troops back at OUTPOST-BETA would leave without them. Until that time though, Peter and his men would have to fight for their lives against waves of zombies. Peter Furler set his men is strategical entrance points of the military base in groups of two. After that was done, he went back and forth through all the rooms checking up on his men and how they were doing, and just as he set the timer on his watch for four minutes, he heard the first shot ring out from the house…

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Ok, here are the pictures:

Overview of the base from the front

Overview of the base from the back

View of the upstairs hallway

Another view of the upstairs hallway

View of downstairs hallway

How zombies get in, and how humans keep them out

The Communication room

Where our marines sleep for the night

A blueprint of the inside of the map
Ok, hope you like what you saw here, and give this map a chance. Although it’s big on the outside, because it’s a remake, it’s actually a little more on the small side indoors.