[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Tridyrium [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Ulicies756 Wait so I've been gone from the party for a while; what happened to the Forerunner trilogy, and who is Jul? Time to brush up on my HaloWikia again...[/quote] The Forerunner Saga is still ongoing. The last installment, Silentium, will be released in January due to heavy spoilers to Halo 4 in the book. Jul 'Mdama is a Sangheilli Shipmaster, who becomes the leader of The Storm (Covenant that we fight in Halo 4). [b][spoilers below][/b] The Storm show up at Requiem to revive the Didact from his sleep, and knowing that the Didact "despises" Humans, Jul wishes to enlist the aid of the Didact to wipe out Humanity as vengeance for his wife's untimely death. Here is a prologue terminal from Halo 4 which visually features Jul for the first time: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wlfxpd9uQs]link[/url][/quote] Ah, thanks!

The UNSC doesn't have the resources to decisively win a war with the Elites so soon after the Covenant war's end. Having the Elites fighting themselves buys the UNSC time to rebuild while weakening the Elite's overall strength. That strategy was entailed in Glasslands, and Thursday War is the continuation of that plan.

The Book is pointless. I mean, I enjoy the read, but: Why is ONI trying to cause a Civil War if the Infinity could wipe out the entire Elite race by itself. In-fact, even if they wanted to preserve some Elites, why leave the rebels alive? If they killed The Storm, that's half of the Elite problem gone without the Arbiter saying anything. The biggest plot point, getting the Elites to fight themselves, is pointless. I have not read the ending yet, so I'm hoping this is explained. [Edited on 10.13.2012 9:31 PM PDT]

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Arbiter 739 Halsy is on the infinity? Guess who we will meet in Halo 4, 5, or 6. [/quote] We'll probably meet Halsey in the new trilogy eventually, but by the time Thursday War ends she's no longer on board the Infinity.

Oh god, the canon contradictions! [b]IT HURTS!!!!![/b]

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Ulicies756 Wait so I've been gone from the party for a while; what happened to the Forerunner trilogy, and who is Jul? Time to brush up on my HaloWikia again...[/quote] The Forerunner Saga is still ongoing. The last installment, Silentium, will be released in January due to heavy spoilers to Halo 4 in the book. Jul 'Mdama is a Sangheilli Shipmaster, who becomes the leader of The Storm (Covenant that we fight in Halo 4). [b][spoilers below][/b] The Storm show up at Requiem to revive the Didact from his sleep, and knowing that the Didact "despises" Humans, Jul wishes to enlist the aid of the Didact to wipe out Humanity as vengeance for his wife's untimely death. Here is a prologue terminal from Halo 4 which visually features Jul for the first time: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wlfxpd9uQs]link[/url] [Edited on 10.12.2012 8:32 PM PDT]

Wait so I've been gone from the party for a while; what happened to the Forerunner trilogy, and who is Jul? Time to brush up on my HaloWikia again...

Halsy is on the infinity? Guess who we will meet in Halo 4, 5, or 6.

edit: Nevermind, carry on. [Edited on 10.10.2012 9:01 PM PDT]

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel [b]HINTED:[/b] -Jul and/or Telcam will spearhead the "Storm" faction of the Covenant, who will travel to Requiem to wake the Didact and take revenge upon mankind. -The Didact still has anti-human feelings, which may be fleshed out upon discovery of human advancement. -Parangoski is a miserable -blam!-. Anyone else interested by the developments made in this book? I found it very interesting to see how things are slowly growing closer to Halo 4 era sentiments and technology, as well as the inclusion of several key Halo 4 characters (Lasky and Del Rio, for example.). Thoughts on the book in general? [/quote]-Definitely Jul. -Yep the Didact was pretty pissed off when the Primordial revealed to him that humans were to be tested. The Prophet of Truth was terrified when he found that humans were designated as inheritors. Motive of anger > motive of fear = more tougher enemy Prometheans definitely aren't going to be turning against each other once the Didact shows up with his iron rule. -Yep. Surprised for a moment about her misconceptions about Arbiter then brushes it aside like it was nothing and thinks 'look at him. He's nothing but a two-time loser who thinks he's in control'. But the worst part of all is that Hood is apparently a gifted actor and knows about ONI's involvement to some extent. :o As for thoughts, I thought it was interesting that we finally got to learn about female Sangheili, which aren't that much different from male Sangheili. And I now know why UNSC don't bother with plasma pistols... they're seen as sidearms and the marines sure seem proud of their UNSC guns. I didn't find Kilo Five very interesting (just a bunch of Elite haters or 'I don't care what happens as long as I get my job done or get to kill like a boss') but I like how Phillips has a chance at redemption and somehow reunifying humans and Elites. And of course, Jul. I found him to be the most interesting. We need a little backstory on him though because his hate seems misplaced (excluding what happened to Raia)... seemed more like paranoia. [Edited on 10.10.2012 7:08 PM PDT]

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Xd00999 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel -Parangoski is a miserable -blam!-. [/quote] [i]Really?[/i] Parangoski has been grim and dark for a while now. How is it in the canon department?[/quote]It hit me the hardest when she fired Magnusson. She's particularly miserable and -blam!-y this time around.[/quote]Can you really blame her though? Magnusson really screwed the pooch with Jul.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Alpha_B_A_7 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Cpt Nicholson [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] PISTOLSQUIRREL I probably sound dumb, but is it Regular Didact, or Bornstellar Didact??[/quote]The book doesn't differentiate between the two, but I'd assume the Ur-Didact (original).[/quote] Didn't he get executed by the Master Builder? [/quote] Yes you are right. And that is confusing (For me at least) for it is hinted in Thursday Wat that the Didact will join forces with the Storm (I think this is actually confirmed according to halopedia but...)but in Halo PRimordium that both versions of the Didact started to respect humans and even like them so why this 180 degree turn? Unless in the cutscene after the end of the Halo 4 - Campaign Demo - Mission 3: "Forerunner" were it ends with The Didact's Cryptum the Chief insulted him or Jul was faster and talked to him before the Chief UPDATE : IT seems that some how the UR-Didact has survived http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Halo:_Silentium[/quote] Yeah, it seems Faber pulled the old "Bond villain" routine, and simply left his nemesis to die. When will they learn, unless you kill him yourself, he WILL escape.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Cpt Nicholson [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] PISTOLSQUIRREL I probably sound dumb, but is it Regular Didact, or Bornstellar Didact??[/quote]The book doesn't differentiate between the two, but I'd assume the Ur-Didact (original).[/quote] Didn't he get executed by the Master Builder? [/quote] Yes you are right. And that is confusing (For me at least) for it is hinted in Thursday Wat that the Didact will join forces with the Storm (I think this is actually confirmed according to halopedia but...)but in Halo PRimordium that both versions of the Didact started to respect humans and even like them so why this 180 degree turn? Unless in the cutscene after the end of the Halo 4 - Campaign Demo - Mission 3: "Forerunner" were it ends with The Didact's Cryptum the Chief insulted him or Jul was faster and talked to him before the Chief UPDATE : IT seems that some how the UR-Didact has survived http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Halo:_Silentium [Edited on 10.10.2012 1:09 PM PDT]

A copy is getting shipped to me now. I am excite.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] DecepticonCobra [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] car15 How has Thel 'Vadam's alliance with humanity been affected by the incident with Infinity?[/quote] Intact when the UNSC helps him beat the -blam!- out of 'Telcam's forces, but with ONI's tampering a state called Ontom is destroyed. But ONI makes up a story about a rouge Jackal ship doing it and Arby buys it.[/quote]Ontom was destroyed? I recall that there is an impact crater extending to the shoreline from the MAC blast, but not complete destruction. 'Telcam survived, for one. Am I confusing it with Vadam?[/quote] I don't think Vadam was as bad, Ontom was destroyed if I remember right though.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] DecepticonCobra [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] car15 How has Thel 'Vadam's alliance with humanity been affected by the incident with Infinity?[/quote] Intact when the UNSC helps him beat the -blam!- out of 'Telcam's forces, but with ONI's tampering a state called Ontom is destroyed. But ONI makes up a story about a rouge Jackal ship doing it and Arby buys it.[/quote]Ontom was destroyed? I recall that there is an impact crater extending to the shoreline from the MAC blast, but not complete destruction. 'Telcam survived, for one. Am I confusing it with Vadam?

Long story short: ONI twirls their mustache of villainy, an elites escapes prison, Naomi has Daddy issues, and we see the beginnings of Storm.

I can't help but find all this information to be [i]boring[/i]. *Yawn.

PLOT SUMMARY INCOMING! SPOILERS! THIS ISN'T MINE! The book begins with Margaret trying to figure out what to do and she gets her cookies and coffee. On Sanghelios, the brutes have attacked and the detonation was caused by the Brutes. Phillips survives and the conversation about Jul ends. Avu decides to gather the keeps and attack so they prepare to attack Vadam while staving off the brutes. Phillips get permission to go to the temple. The fragment of BB he had is damaged but he manages to recover part of it. Although it has deleted a lot of dangerous data it might have contained. It took a shrapnel piece that saved his life. So he goes and explores while taking records of the temple. Meanwhile, Margaret goes to the Infinity, Lasky is there and Admiral Hood as well. Osman calls in extraction for the mission on Venezia and they break out to Naomi and Osman about Naomi's father. They keep it together, she keeps it together. They go back to Sangheilios while Margaret tries to get Lord Hood to get permision from the arbiter to extract Phillips. Eventually they get it, Osman gets Naomi, Vaz and Mal on the Tart-Cart with Lian piloting it. They land near the temple and have to do a bit of skirmishing to enter. A mob of angry Sangheili gathers around as they shut the gate down. Meanwhile, on Trevelyan, Magnuson tries to learn as much as she can from Jul and to test out a new crop and food for the Sangheili to starve out on. Eventually he gets permision to walk around freely except in restricted zones but he has to wear a harness which contains explosives like the ones used by the Huragoks of the covenant. If he removes it, it blows up. Prone to drift is tasked to acompany him. Prone reveals some interesting things about Trevelyan and the forerunners as well as the Title-s of certain Forerunners such as Librarian, Logician, Didact, Master Builder, Esthetist. Slowly, Jul tries to learn as much as he can and escape from Trevelyan. The Infinity arrives on Sanghelios and hangs in space for a while. They have new drive upgrades which allow them to precisley state where they will land and when. They also get communications upgrades which allow them to communicate while in slipspace. A number of other upgrades are being worked on by the Huragoks. Evan Phillips stumbles upon the restricted area set up by the Servants of the Abiding Truth and he manages to activate a teleporter which is activated like an Arum. He gets teleported a few kilometers off of Ontom onto a farm. Kilo-Five rescue team searches for him but don't find him. They try to follow his scent [BB using MJOLNIR] but find it cuts off at some point. They find a way out and the Sangheili are coming at them. They begin attacking Kilo-Five. Kilo-Five quikcly gets in the pelican and they fly away. A few hours before, Raia went looking for Jul and then went to the ships in Bekam Keep to intercept Avu. Raia joins Avu so he can search for Jul as they believe the Arbiter's forces took him. So they go assault Vadam. Vadam is under assault but only a few keeps have joined in the fighting, the others wait and see. The Arbiter is loosing. Evan finds himself in a Farm where there are unngoy. The Unggoy help him and bring him to keep so he can contact Avu but not before he notices debree, which kills an unggoy, there are femalese in the building and a Sangheili from another place is using the situation while the adult males are away to claim the farm for his own. Evan manages to call for help and Raia as well as Forze go out to retrieve Phillip. The Infinity and Port Stanely have deployed drones at this point so they have the communications tabbed in. Kilo-Five reroutes to Evan's position. After some fighting, in which Evan likely kills a Sangheili, they retrieve him. But the pelican gets damaged. So they try to repair it and Raia and Forze give them some spare pieces. They go back to the Infinity and Raia and Forze go back to Avu. Tart-Cart doesn't hold up the repairs very well but they contain it and the huragoks on the infinity repair and upgrade Tart-Cart.So then Hood offers the Arbiter help and Andrew Del Rio fires a MAC shot at the Abiding Truth's ship that's presenting imminent danger to the Arbiter. It also attacks more Servant's forces. The Tart-Cart gets repaired and Maggie visits Osman and brings Adj and Leaks Repaired with her to get on the Port Stanley and begin upgrades of Drives and Communications. Tart-Cart has new upgrades and is repaired. They go pick up Avu as they need him and Force him to get on the Tart-Cart. Naomi does it. So then the Tart-Cart goes into space and then THE TART-CART SLIPSPACES TO NEW LLANELLI, YES A PELICAN WITH HER OWN SLIPSPACE DRIVE! So the servant's forces Retreat to New Llanelli. By the way, the fact that there were ODSTs and a Spartan in the temple gave support to Avu from the other keeps. So BB destroys three of the Arbiter's ships to help Avu's forces from escaping by making it seem it was a Kig-Yar's ship who did it. A female shipmaster with stolen UNSC nukes. But one ship goes down, Raia and Forze are killed in the crash. The Arbiter is thankful for the help. The Infinity hangs around. Port Stanley goes to New Llanelli to get Tart-Cart back, Avu gets deposited quikcly before his troops arive. They go to Trevelyan pay Jul a visit, Phillip does. So then Jul has learnt a lot, there are portals on Trevelyan but are malunfcitoning. The Didact is locked on Requiem and hates humans. Evans has a small chat and checks out what they've discovered and how Avu has symbols he put on his belt. Didact, Requiem, Etc. Evans has to return and goes back to Port Stanley. They go to the Infinity and Margaret tells Phillips to see if they can get Halsey to integrate BB's damaged part to his full self. Halsey is in the infinity wearing a pony tail and she often cries herself at night thinking of Miranda. Something like that, BB "stalks" her a bit. Halsey can't help so BB gets on it himself. They try to learn what the information and symbols they gathered from the Sangheili Servant's Temple means. Phillips and BB get on it. Port Stanley recieves a Mantis Mech and either Mal or Vaz steps in it. They prepare to go back to Venezia now that the thursday war is over. But then Jul goes to one of the portal stations where communication with Magnuson is cut off from Jul and Prone. And then he threatens that he'll remove the explosive harness if Prone doesn't take it off and help him with the Portal. So Prone to drift's prmairy purpose is to keep the forerunner place without damage so after trying out a couple of not-working portals, Jul finds a working portal and the Harness is removed. Earlier, when Jul tried to do something with the Portal, Prone to drift THREW JUL A FEW METERS BACKWARDS, yes. So then Jul escapes into the portal. The portals don't work well because they're not maintained well and all so Jul gets lucky. After 14 or 19 hours or so, Doctor Magnusson contacts Maggie. Maggie is mad. Maggie asks Hood if she can drop her off at Trevelyan. Maggie goes to Trevelyan and gets brief up on what has happened and how they could not find him and she was mat that Magnusson took so long to contact her. Magnusson gets arrested and her authority is stripped away. She is, removed from utility. Someone gets promoted. They try to search for Jul. But they got a benefit, they got the infected grains and beats the Sangheili eat. It grows in a bubble that accelerates time so they can grow the crops in days.So then Kilo-Five goes to Trevelyan. Mike Spencer knows what's going on. Mal and Naomi landed in, Tart-Cart has new stealth upgrades. Naomi and Mal's cover is UNSC deserters. They go back to Mike's house, then get updated. Naomi gets to see what her father looks like. Steffan has been out of the planet for a few days. Also worth nothing is that the Pious Inquisitor, the ship that Midship takes place on and was part of the battle of Earth, has been captured by Kig-Yar. So they go sell some UNSC weapons to get some money, all tagged of course, and the Salesman says something about Naomi looking Familiar. Then they stumble upon Steffan and the Skirmisher, Sav Fel who took the Pious Inquisitor, in a truck/van near them. As for Jul, well Jul landed on Kelekos, which is Hesduros, a Sangheili Colony. He got teleported at one of the Holy Gates. A Sangheili young saw him and brought others. They saw the markings on his belt, and hadn't had a lot of ocntact with Sangheilios long enough to not know a lot about the war's end and all very well. They are all attentive and due to what he has done and what he told them and the Didact thing, those Sangheili are positive about Jul. Jul asks to contact his keep and so they allow him to and he finds out Raia and Forze Died. Jul gets some time alone and he's not happy. A sangheili young shows him the second Holy gate, and it has missing symbols, the symbols Jul has on his belt are the missing symbols. Coordinates and other things. So then he tells the young to get the other Sangheili. They talk about the Didact a bit and how the Didact is the holy warrior who will return and save them. They agree Jul to help find the Didact and Requiem as well as avenge the death of Raia. Also, it implies somewhere that the Librarian is on Sanghelios. The end!

Yes, I think it was wise to make advancements towards Halo 4 within the Halo universe, especially because we all saw that the covenant will still be an enemy and we all had many questions that needed to be answered. I'm glad that they are releasing new information on this.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] car15 How has Thel 'Vadam's alliance with humanity been affected by the incident with Infinity?[/quote] Intact when the UNSC helps him beat the -blam!- out of 'Telcam's forces, but with ONI's tampering a state called Ontom is destroyed. But ONI makes up a story about a rouge Jackal ship doing it and Arby buys it.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] PISTOLSQUIRREL I probably sound dumb, but is it Regular Didact, or Bornstellar Didact??[/quote]The book doesn't differentiate between the two, but I'd assume the Ur-Didact (original).[/quote] Didn't he get executed by the Master Builder?

How has Thel 'Vadam's alliance with humanity been affected by the incident with Infinity?

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Xd00999 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel -Parangoski is a miserable -blam!-. [/quote] [i]Really?[/i] Parangoski has been grim and dark for a while now. How is it in the canon department?[/quote]It hit me the hardest when she fired Magnusson. She's particularly miserable and -blam!-y this time around.[/quote]she has been known to make people she dislikes disappear. I'd say Magnusson got out lucky.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Xd00999 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel -Parangoski is a miserable -blam!-. [/quote] [i]Really?[/i] Parangoski has been grim and dark for a while now. How is it in the canon department?[/quote]It hit me the hardest when she fired Magnusson. She's particularly miserable and -blam!-y this time around.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MickelPickel -Parangoski is a miserable -blam!-. [/quote] [i]Really?[/i] Parangoski has been grim and dark for a while now. How is it in the canon department?