Halo Book

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A catalogue record of this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand

A RANDOM HOUSE BOOK

published by

Random House New Zealand

18 Poland Road, Auckland, New Zealand

www.randomhouse.co.nz

First published 2012

Printed in New Zealand

© 2012 Michael Bogalo

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

ISBN 942 0 02910 0 603

This book is copyright. Except for the purposes of fair reviewing no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Illustrations © Michael Bogalo 2012 Inside Cover: Taken from Halo Reach game play © Microsoft and Bungie, the remainder of pictures are sourced from the various Halo games and in game scenes. The historical information has been sourced with the help of Halowaypoint.com with edits from Michael Bogalo.

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ContentsA Brief History Of Halo .................................4The Halo Story Explained The Flood

The Ark And Halo ........................................6 One Hundred Thousand Years Later

The Covenant .............................................8Master Chief

The Last Battle ..........................................10The Future

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A Brief History of HAloThe expansive story of Halo is no tale set in an enchanted land with a castle that needs protecting from a dragon. It is in fact a colossus of a tale spanning the far reaches of the Universe from Earth to places with strange names like Onyx.

Many people know Halo only through the Xbox games, others have expanded their knowledge from reading the books, graphic novels and even the Halo encyclopedia. I have compiled this brief history for anyone who wants to know what’s actually going on, as sometimes even in the games its not always clear!

tHe HAlo story explAinedLong before humanity explored the universe an ancient race called the Forerunners had mastered control of the heavens. Using their technology they decided themselves to protect all life in the galaxy. But when a dark threat emerged from the blackness the Forerunners were caught off guard.

tHe floodA parasitic alien species that generates itself by infecting beings with the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, had already taken over other worlds within the Milky Way galaxy. By the time the forerunners took action it was already too late.

Forerunner installation >

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Halo Ring in space >

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tHe Ark And HAloFearing the galaxy would be lost to the flood the Forerunners developed a plan to stop the them. They called this plan Halo.

Using an installation named the Ark, they constructed seven ring worlds to be spread throughout the galaxy as a defence. The Halo cluster when fired, would destroy all beings in range starving the Flood to death. Then after delaying judgement, the Forerunners fired the rings and apparently vanished from existence. The knowledge surrounding the cluster was lost for a time.

one Hundred tHousAnd yeArs lAterOne hundred thousand years later, humans turned their eyes to the stars. After developing the mechanics of slipspace travel allowing them to migrate to distant worlds, they failed to learn from their own primal nature, they went too far, too quick.

Not long after they built other worlds to inhabit they began war with each other. A powerful supervising body know as the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) attempted to crush the minorities, but there seemed to be nothing that could stop the rising violence.

It was then that an agency know as the Office Of Naval Intelligence (ONI) enabled the SPARTAN II project. This authorised the abduction of children to be engineered into the most advanced super soldiers humanity had ever seen. And for a time this solution worked.

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Covenant Elite >

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tHe CovenAntIn 2525 that all changed. Without warning the outer colony of Harvest was eradicated by an unknown force, a force that later revealed itself as the covenant.

This affiliation of aliens were convinced humanity was a blotch that needed to be wiped from the galaxy. Snuffing out every population they could find, the Covenant were obsessed with total and complete destruction. However despite being outnumbered, the Spartans engaged the aliens in conflict, countering the Covenant’s advancement. Unfortunately each victory proved trivial, since the Covenant commanded space battle without challenge. Still, it wasn’t until they invaded the planet of Reach that the legendary Spartans fell.

MAster CHiefRetreating into slipspace at a random bearing, a UNSC battleship transported with it what was believed to be the last remaining Spartan, the mysterious Master Chief, John 117. As they travelled to a remote region of the galaxy they came face to face with Halo, something of which they had never seen before.

The Covenant thought they had realised Halo’s worth to them, marring the discovery to the UNSC. The Covenant then tried to activate the ring and mistakenly released Flood that had been contained there for one hundred thousand years.

Master Chief was then motivated to find the secrets of the Forerunners extinction and come up with a way to prevent the flood from escaping. With the help of his AI Cortana he destroyed Halo, ending the Floods infestation.

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Covenant Banshee >

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tHe lAst BAttleBlind to the real use of the Halo’s, the Covenant continued their mission and located another ring. They failed to fire it and started a chain of events that released a portal on Earth. This portal lead any who entered to the Forerunners ancient Ark, the last place where the rings could now be fired.

From these events an unlikely alliance was formed between the UNSC and a faction of the Covenant called the Elite’s, assaulting the Ark together. With the last remains of the Covenant attempting to activate the Halo cluster, Master Chief rushed to the exterior of a ring world, igniting its fire and completely destroying the enemy and the Ark in the process.

tHe futureFor the survivors of Earth it has been believed that Master Chief was killed in the process of preventing their extinction. Little do they know Master Chief survived the destruction, putting himself into cryosleep as Cortana activated a distress beacon, as they are now stranded in unknown space hurtling towards a unidentified planet...

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