WARNING: WALL OF THE TEXT PERSUASION BELOW [u][i][b]MAJOR UPDATE FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF HALO: ANNIVERSARY AND THE TERMINALS WITHIN. SOME POINTS IN HERE ARE DEFINITELY VALID WITH THIS NEW INFORMATION. I WILL UPDATE ACCORDINGLY.[/u][/i][/b] Halo 4, the first game in a new trilogy, the Reclaimer Trilogy, brings us back to the Master Chief, continuing his story as he saves the universe from an "ancient evil" and faces his destiny. In the few short months since its announcement, Halo 4 has given rise to many questions regarding many facets of the Halo universe. When is this game set? What has happened since the end of Halo 3? Who is this "ancient enemy?" Where is Master Chief? Questions, I believe, we already have answers to. Welcome to the Reclamation Theory. [u]TABLE OF CONTENTS[/u] [b]I[/b] The Post-War Era [b]II[/b] The Legendary Planet [b]III[/b] The Ancient Enemy [b]IV[/b] The Conclusion PART I: [b][u]The Post War Era: Were it so Easy[/u][/b] The end of Halo 3 brings about the end the Human-Covenant War, the end of the Covenant itself, and the end of the Flood Threat (for now, but we'll get to that later; see Part II). While it hails the end of many foes and wars, it also marks the beginning of multiple events as well. The Humans, having been united under the will to survive, have begun to rebuild their society in a Post-War world. The Elites have begun to make amends to the Humans for their genocidal campaign. Peace seems to have finally been attained from the violence that marked the galaxy since 2525. But not all is calm on the western front. The known galaxy has been thrust into chaos following the end of the H-C War. Deep in the dark shadows of the galaxy, turmoil may resume. The Office of Naval Intelligence, ONI, is not slowing down their movement among the roots of the UNSC. If anything, they have sped up. In an unstable state, the galaxy is up for grabs. In order to force their way to the top, almost immediately, ONI sends a diplomatic mission to Sangheilios. Their diplomacy, however, is not to the Separatist leader Thel Vadum; commonly know as the Arbiter; but to Avu Med 'Telcam, a fundamentalist among the Elites and a political enemy to the Arbiter, angry at the rebuttal of the idea that forerunners were "gods" after the H-C War ended. 'Telcam wants to cause insurrection amongst the Elites because of this religious zeal; to deny the Arbiter and his followers and claw his way to the top of Sangheili. [[url=http://www.halopedian.com/Avu_Med_%27Telcam]1[/url]] Why would ONI allow this to happen? Some would say that they just want to control the ebb and flow of the Post War Age and that is their primary objective. While this is an overarching objective on ONI, I disagree that it is their primary focus. Then what would it be? What is the answer to this question? They want forerunner tech. And they don't want to share. Inciting the Fundamentalists to rebel would throw an already chaotic Sangheili society into further chaos. A chaos that would occupy the Elites to no end; still at war with the remnants of the Covenant Loyalists in 2559, another conflict would spiral them into a state where nothing could be achieved. Leaving forerunner artifacts all up for Humanity to grab. So simple, yet so diabolical. Reaping the benefits of war with no one to stop them (or so it seems - Part III). This concept will end up being explored in the Post-War novels, but still has resonant connections to Halo 4.[[url=http://www.halopedian.com/Unidentified_Sangheili_Shipmaster_(The_Return)]2[/url]] With the enemy of old out of the way, the UNSC could reign supreme in the area of reclaiming forerunner technologies they discovered during the waning years of the H-C War. Repurposing technology is not a new concept to the UNSC; the Mjolnir Mark V-VI Amor Systems' energy shielding was reverse engineered from jackal shields; Spartan II and III made use of sentinel weaponry with relative ease. Various forerunner technologies could be incorporated into the UNSC navy within a matter of years after discovery and investigation. An element of the UNSC I believe will be central to the Reclaimer Trilogy. PART II: [b][u]The Legendary Planet: Reject My Bias and Make Amends[/b][/u] Now lets return to the Chief. The year is 2553 in the wake of the aftermath of the events at the Ark. The Forward Unto Dawn's aft section floats through unknown space millions upon millions of miles away from any human presence. Aboard it, in cryogenic stasis, lies Master Chief Petty Officer of the UNSC Navy, John 117. Master Chief has finished the fight. Truth, the Covenant, the Flood... it's finished. Cortana submits this sentiment to Chief as he readys for cryo-sleep to which he agrees. His fight is done. His final wish as he begins to become dormant, "Wake me when you need me." He goes into stasis, to the year 2556 and beyond. Which leads to the big question: if his fight is finished, why would he be woken up? After an unknown period of time, the Forward Unto Dawn is seen approaching a [url=http://www.halopedian.com/images/0/08/Legendary_Planet.jpg]planet of unknown origin.[/url] As the Dawn drifts closer, the planet comes into better [url=http://www.halopedian.com/images/1/1d/Planet.jpg]view[/url]: it definitely has had the presence of some space-dwelling power before. How can I infer this? There are forerunner [url=http://www.halopedian.com/images/c/c1/Overlayed.png]glyphs[/url] [url=http://www.halopedian.com/images/0/02/Shieldworldsymbol.jpg]present[/url] [url=http://www.halopedian.com/images/0/05/Marathon_logo.jpg]upon[/url] the [url=http://images.wikia.com/bungie/images/8/8c/Septagon.jpg]planet[/url]. Clearly this planet, at some point, had some significance to the forerunners. But what is it? Why mention glyphs here? Before I answer this question, there's one major facet of Halo-lore that needs to be explored. Shield Worlds. Simply put, "A shield world is a Forerunner installation designed as a military outpost to monitor and counter potential Flood outbreaks, as well as to serve as a shelter from the activation of the Halo Array. Scattered across the Forerunner ecumene, the shield worlds outnumber the Halos by a large margin. The shield worlds were collectively known as 'the Shield', while the Halos were collectively known as 'the Sword'. Over a thousand years prior to the second coming of the Flood, the shield worlds were proposed by the Didact as facilities from which to fight and research the Flood, an alternate solution to Master Builder Faber's plan to construct the Halos. However, the betrayal by the Forerunner Contender-class artificial intelligence 05-032 Mendicant Bias and its defection to the Flood forced the Forerunners to abandon their plans to evacuate into the shield installations, as Mendicant Bias revealed the locations of the shield worlds to the Flood." [[url=http://www.halopedian.com/Shield_World]3[/url]] Two varieties of Shield Worlds are known. There is the Conventional Sphere: a hollow sphere with the shield world located on the inside of the planet's crust similar to the Halo Installations. The second variation is the Micro-Dyson Sphere: a Dyson Sphere located inside of a tiny bubble of compressed slipspace. Now back to the questions: What is it? Why mention glyphs here? Well, if we take a look at this [url=http://www.halopedian.com/images/0/02/Shieldworldsymbol.jpg]glyph[/url], things become clearer. Not too clear? Lets look at [url=http://www.halopedian.com/images/0/02/Onyx_cover.jpg]this[/url] image of the glyph. Still not clicking? Ghosts of Onyx involves the discovery of the second variation of shield worlds deep within the planet Onyx. Now making a little more sense? The glyph is involved with shield worlds. Where am I going with this? Why ask so many questions? [u]Because the presence of this symbol on the Legendary Planet's surface means that the planet is either involved with or is a shield world.[/u] ...And because I like to hear myself speak. PART III: [b][u]The Ancient Enemy: This Is "Reclaimer"[/b][/u] Master Chief is heading to a shield world. Humanity is searching for forerunner artifacts with no regulation. The stage is set. The pieces are coming together. But all this leaves is the conflict. All stories need a good villain. The Covenant Loyalists and Elites are busy with their own problems. So who could it be? This is where things get juicy. Mendicant Bias, a once hostile AI, made his debut in Halo 3. He almost single handedly caused the end of life in the galaxy as we know it. But, 100,000 years later upon the discovery of Harvest and the humans living there, rejects his past ways to "make amends." But how could he do this? He literally did NOTHING to help the Chief in Halo 3. Chief had to deal with the Flood threat by his lonesome with not forerunner AI there to be his training wheels. So what exactly does Mendicant Bias do to help the Chief? [Edited on 11.13.2011 11:24 AM PST]