If the player waits through the closing credits, a scene reveals that Master Chief and Cortana have in fact survived, after being separated from the Arbiter as a section of The Dawn tore off during the slipspace jump. Drifting helplessly through space, Cortana enables a distress beacon while Master Chief climbs into a cryo chamber to await a rescue which Cortana warns may take 'years.' If the game is completed on the highest difficulty level (Legendary), the hulk of The Dawn is seen after an unknown period of time drifting towards a planet.