Despite the grim and darker theme, the story still has its moments of humor
- There is something about a young Ruby wishing that she could meet aliens one day and befriend them then that gets immediately followed by a Gilligan Cut showing the Master Chief and other UNSC forces engaging the Covenant in complete warfare that is utterly hilarious in a Black Comedy sort of way.
- In chapter 4, there are several examples of this as the SPARTANs and ODSTs go on their scouting mission when they first discover Remnant;
- The various Sci-Fi references the ODSTs make while speculating on Remnant's inhabitants, such as Star Trek, followed by Chief spouting off [[Technobabble a mini-lecture on the scientific possibilities of extraterrestrial life]] before realizing he's lost his audience and sheepishly making a Star Wars reference to lighten the mood.
- In Fred's team:
- There's something oddly funny about how only one ODST on the squad is from the Sol System and thus no one else has any idea what a Horned Toad is.
ODST: I swear, that lizard looks just like a horned toad.
Fred: I'll have to take your word for it. Never seen a horned toad before.
ODST: Well, they look just like that. [Beat] Oh, come on. Don't tell me y'all never heard of horned toads before?
Sgt. Gonzalez: You're the only one of us who grew up on Earth, Ramirez, or the Sol system for that matter.- And the reaction of the team when they see a giant desert turtle come out and swiftly glide across the sand. Even Fred is nonplussed.
- An ODST named Ramirez talks about [[Franchise/Dune giant worms]], and in the very next chapter, guess what they are running from.
Sgt. Gonzalez: Ramirez! If we make it through this, I'm going to kick your ass for jinxing us!Pvt. Ramirez: Why is this my fault?!Sgt. Gonzalez: You talked about giant worms! Well, we got a giant freaking worm on our asses!
- In Chapter 28, we get 2 noteworthy examples:
- When going after the Cartographer data block, Captain Price gives Clover an Octanitrocubane charge (Octa for short), and when the latter asks how powerful is the yield Price answers that it's 100-kilotons to his surprise.
- During the Peponi evacuations when the Happy Huntresses come across a tankless tank crew and ask them how can they help and this exchange results in a Retroactive Wish occurring:
Joanna: What happened?
Army Sgt.: What do ‘ya think happened? Damn Covenant attacked us. Everything was going fine until a pair of Hunters showed up and destroyed our tank. We were able to put ‘em down, but without that tank we’re screwed. If they push us again….
Fiona: Is there anything we can do to help?
Army Sgt.: Unless you can pull a new tank out of your ass, no, don’t worry about us. Just get these people—
Fiona: (Summons stored scavenged Scorpion tank from pocket dimension) We came across it during the evac, and didn’t want to just leave it there. It’s damaged, but still in decent shape, does this work?
Army Sgt.: Yes, tank goddess.
