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12/12/2004 8:56:48 AM
8794
Halo 2/3 Book Posted, Pages 342-345. Page 351: Sequel Revealed
September 9, 2006- Halo: The Ark is officially available online for everyone to read. There will be several websites hosting them, and each additional one will be added to this list here. The Ark is also in this thread, from pages 342-345. Feel free to read them and post in this thread.
The cover/concept art is also available for anyone who wants to see it. Just follow these links:
[url=http://img370.imageshack.us/my.php?image=halocoverartfromjoeslayergk8.png]Cover art by JoeSlayer[/url]
[url=http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sb2copygi6tc1.jpg]Back cover art by JoeSlayer[/url]
[url=http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dandonahueconceptartvn0.png]Concept cover art by Dan Donahue[/url]
[url=http://img224.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bookcoveroh0.jpg]Concept art by Paul[/url]
[u]Here is the list of websites hosting Halo: The Ark[/u]
[url=http://game-spectrum.com/news/entertainment/halo_the_ark.html]Game Spectrum[/url]
Nov 17th, 2005- by now, there are 30 chapters of the book posted. if you dont want to look through this entire thread for them, click the link in my signature, it will take you to my official site, where all the chapters are posted.
May 17, 2006- Work on the book has come to a halt as all editing (professional) has been done. There is work currently being done to get The Ark published, hopefully by TOR. Any questions about the book can be asked here, and i will answer them as promptly as possible. This is not an official bungie project.
Click [url=http://www.archive.org/download/The_Ark/theark.pdf]Here[ /url] to download a pdf version of it. Actually, right click and save, otherwise it won't work.
The following material is the original post from way back when, so if you're looking for the more recent stuff (that has been modified from reading the beginning works), please visit my website, which is in my signature, or click the link above to download a pdf version of it. Please do not ask for the last chapters, as i will not send them to you. Any and all news will be posted whenever it comes up, and i will say so in the subject heading, with the appropriate page number and date. Chapters are generally posted weekly, though i discuss each chapter's release date beforehand so confusion does not ensue.
If anyone knows anything about the Halo 2 book, or what comes after it, let me know. Cause if nothing's happening with it, im gonna write it. Here's the prelude to halo 3(?)...
Prologue
Ninth Age of Reclamation/First age of Rebirth
Yielding Righteousness/ Current Flagship
The doors opened as the Arbiter walked into the Grand Chamber, seeing rows of his brethren. His Sangheili. They all uniformly bowed down on one knee, their heads to facing the ground. The Arbiter turned to his Spec-ops captain, now the general of the armies, and said, “You never told me there would be this many.”
“I thought you would like being surprised, Arbiter.” He showed a grin, at least as best a Sangheili could.
They started walking through the main aisle, with an honor guard walking behind them as protection. The Arbiter felt that the presence of the honor guards was not necessary, but understood the honor they must feel to be here, especially now. Walking past each new row allowed all to stand in that row, which alerted the Arbiter of some discrepancy. He turned his head left, and saw several rows of Lekgolo, their massive bodies gracefully rising as he passed. And further ahead, even more rows were filled with the small Unggoy, who fidgeted even while trying to keep their composer. And they all were bowing.
He looked back at the Lekgolo, shocked at the amount of them in one room. He had never seen so many, and they could easily overpower the entire ship if they wanted to, but they also didn’t carry their normal weaponry, which attached directly to their arms. The Arbiter forced himself to look away so not to draw attention to himself in any negative aspect, for it could ruin his purpose here today.
They climbed the ramp up to the stage, where the honor guard behind them went to the right side of him, and to the left he saw another waiting for his arrival. The Arbiter went to the front of the stage, and the Captain/General stayed behind several steps. He looked upon the crowd, understanding that the future may rest upon their shoulders.
The chamber had fallen dead silent now, and the Arbiter scanned the room once more. He stood tall and came to the very edge of the stage. “As you all know, I am the Arbiter. I have been chosen for this… this honor, by our previous leaders. However, there may be those among you who believe that their word is heresy, regardless of when it was said. And because of my rank, my position, I will become the leader of our group, our new covenant. If anyone disagrees with my appointment as the Arbiter, speak now.”
The chamber stayed noiseless, but faces animated and expressions came to color. The Arbiter looked back to his Captain/General, who nodded to him. Suddenly, one Sangheili stepped out of his row, and yelled, “Long live the Arbiter!” As the Arbiter turned back to his audience, he found that he was deafened by the cheering of his name. A wave of relief struck him, and he held his hands to show silence was required. Moments later, it was so.
“You all honor me with this privilege, yet I must postpone our celebration for another time. This meeting is one of urgency, where three important things must be discussed. The first of which being the creating of a new Grand Council. After this meeting, all not stationed upon the Yielding Righteousness are to return to their home planets to decide on the council members.”
“Our next goal will be to secure as many Huragok as possible. They are a necessity on every ship, world, and army. If we can take many away from the Prophets, it will give us a strategic advantage against them. They will undoubtedly be attempting the same, but we cannot allow them to take any Huragok, or the upper hand will be theirs. Do not forget their usefulness, even in the heat of battle.”
The Arbiter sighed, and looked up at the lights, then directly into the holocron monitor, which was projecting his face among countless worlds. “The final article is something that has come into my thoughts several times during these past few days, something I would like express to you. The Prophets have always asked each race to join the covenant, or even allow them honorable submission, but not the Humans. These Humans are a strange race, yet nothing about them is notable in any sense with the exception to the demon. Regardless, it makes no sense for the Prophets to ‘fear’ these Humans. But I understand why they do. I have fought and killed them, as well as fought beside them as allies.” Whispers appeared throughout the room, and the Arbiter raised his voice to overrun them.
“Wait!”, he yelled, and the chamber’s only sound was the Arbiter’s echoing voice. “Through my experience with these Humans, they fight with the same honor we would, use clever tactics as we do, and will die for victory if necessary. And now that we are not at the prophet’s side to protect them, they have much to fear of the Humans!”
Cheers wailed throughout the room, and a group of Unggoy began jumping up and clapping. The Arbiter allowed the crowd to settle down by themselves before speaking again. “From now on, if you should see a Jiralhanae, Yanme, Kig-yar, or a Prophet, you are to conquer them, and show them who truly is strong.” He smiled as best a Sangheili could. “Even more so for the Kig-yar, if you know what I mean.” Laughter broke out, especially through the rows of Unggoy.
The Arbiter walked off the stage, followed closely by both honor guards and his Captain/General. Suddenly the laughter turned to applause, as the Unggoy yelled, and the Lekgolo and Sangheili bowed again to one knee. The Unggoy followed suit quickly. With each passed row, the rising covenant would chant “Long live the Arbiter!”
The Captain/General whispered gently to the Arbiter as they walked down the aisle, “ It would seen that you left a good impression with the covenant.”
“No, we are not the Covenant anymore. We are the Preeminent."
If you guys like this, let me know, I have about 10 more pages written, in no partucular order, and can post them if anyone wants to read them.
[Edited on 12/17/2006]
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“Sir, there’s a Covenant capital ship orbiting the city. It arrived there only a half hour ago, and has been sending a barrage of troops to attack, as well as every artillery unit we’ve ever come across, and some we haven’t.” How did this one get through? It probably got past that other ship and attacked head on, knowing we’d have nothing to stop it. Time to pull out the ace. “Get the closest pelican to the Master Chief, and send him over there. I want that ship out of my sky. Then open a link to him; I have a mission for the Spartans.” ****** I’ve failed. The Forerunner ship exited the atmosphere, and there wasn’t any UNSC ship to intercept it. No fighters, cruisers, bombers…nothing. It disappeared from his vision, and he could only imagine that it had jumped into Slipspace, knowing full well that it wasn’t welcome here any longer. The rest of the Spartans looked at him, awaiting orders, or at least guidance. But he was lost in his own thoughts, in the failed mission. There had only been one other, although the difference in the outcome could not even be measured. John kept looking up until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Immediately recognizing it as Linda’s, he instinctively turned towards it and her. “There was nothing we could have done. That field was just too powerful. There’s still work for us to do.” Her words rang true in his head, but every atom in him screamed out. Not against it, but not for it. They just screamed. Hearing something to his immediate right, John turned like lighting and aimed his BR55 right at the head of a Jackal, who lay under rubble, reaching for a plasma pistol. His trigger finger pulsed, ready and waiting to pull itself back just a bit further, to release the burst of bullets into the Jackal’s head. Will walked over and simply kicked the plasma pistol away from the Jackal’s reach, and turned to John, not understanding what the problem was. But the muzzle still pointed at the Jackal’s head, its bird-like eyes widening, as though to plea for help from an imminent doom. This is the enemy. We must take out the enemy. Its either them or us. “John, snap out of it. It’s not going anywhere, and won’t be hurting anyone. Just let it go.” Her voice rang in his ears, but his hand refused to give up the target, the enemy. Only then did it hit him what was happening and he turned around and punched right through a pile of rubble, obliterating it even more than it already had been. Rage filled his entire being, just for a moment, and then died down again. “Master Chief,” came through his internal speakers, “this is Admiral Hood. A Pelican will be coming to pick you up momentarily. It will take you to New York, where a Covenant capital ship is bombarding the city. They need support desperately. I need you to take the grav-lift and take out that cruiser.” Taking a deep breath and standing up straight, John activated his suit’s communication system and opened a channel. “Understood sir. We’ll take care of it.” “Good. You’re ETA will be ten minutes. The pilots will be rushing it, so hold on tight. One last thing: We may have a possible truce with the Covenant soon, but this ship is one of their rogues. If they have anything that doesn’t fire at you, don’t fire back at them. But be careful. They probably know about that and may set a trap. And good luck. Admiral Hood out.” As the comm. channel closed, the Pelican came into sight, and landed just 20 meters away from them. “Pile in boys and girls; we don’t have any time to spare!” The Spartans jogged into the Pelican, climbing through the open hatch on the back of it, and they all sat down in whichever seat they could. It took off quickly, putting at least three g’s on everyone. Nothing out of the ordinary. But John sat in thought, so deep that the weight had no meaning to him, as though it were only a shell he was in, yet that he wasn’t in it. Like he was having an out of body experience. What was I thinking? A flashback of the Jackal played back to him, and nothing in it made any sense. I would never do anything like that. Would I? What’s wrong with me? The sound of distant voices kept a strange background hum during his thoughts, although he barely noticed it. As it grew louder and louder, his own thoughts became too hard to understand through the amount of noise he was hearing, and John suddenly snapped back into reality. His head whipped left, and he realized that he’d been asleep, although it felt like adrenaline had been pumping through him, and his heart rate was up. The time gave justice to him, showing a seven minute lapse that he really couldn’t account for. Gazing straight, while wondering how to get his own helmet off and wipe his eyes, Fred appeared in his sight, sitting directly in front of him. Helmet off and eating some military rations, he saw a gauntlet holding food extend towards him, and a smile which was he was too eager to recognize. Then all cylinders started firing again. “Thanks.” John took the rations and unclipped his helmet, taking it off with his free hand. Never had military rations tasted so good, but, then again, it had been some time since he’d eaten anything. “Here’s to us,” Linda chimed in, holding up her last piece of edible material high above her. “May we live to go on a long vacation, and eat decent food, without ever worrying about the Earth’s safety.” “Amen to that.” “I second the motion.” They all laughed, except for John, who withheld that luxury because he was the team captain. He simply ate, quietly, focusing on each bite and swallow. For that one moment, he wondered why, as the squad leader, he was supposed to not join the friendly ‘civilian’ conversation, especially now, that their chances of survival could be at a potentially knew low. On that note, he stopped eating for a moment, so he could fix this minor problem. Because in those few minutes of sleep he had, a revelation occurred to him. There are too many problems for him to simply deal with the large ones. If that was all he dealt with, then soon the minor ones would become worse than those already taken care of. It was time to fix everything at once, not one at a time. “You know, back on the Cairo before we all went our separate ways, I heard a funny one. How many Elites does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Looking across the faces in the Pelican, the answer didn’t really matter, because his team had lightened up from his return so much that anything would suffice. But who am I not to give my team, the best team, the best?
