{{
`${userDetail.user.displayName}${userDetail.user.cachedBungieGlobalDisplayNameCode ? `#${standardizeBungieGlobalCode(userDetail.user.cachedBungieGlobalDisplayNameCode)}` : ""}`}}
{{getUserClans()}}
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]
-
Small walkways through the seemingly abandoned artillery unit led Fred and Linda through the charred metal and ground. All motion sensor readings were fuzzy to say the least, mainly due to fires that raged within and around all vehicles. Fred crouched at a corner and sneaked a glance past it, not seeing anything of worry, but feeling the situation wasn’t right, he waved for Linda to move ahead while he covered her. She did so wielding the M6C standard UNSC pistol, and from the way she held it, he knew that every moment holding the almost useless weapon reminded her of earlier days when the Spartans used only weapons specially designed for them. The M6D pistol was a much more powerful weapon, and although the M6C was much better than nothing, it wasn’t nearly high enough for Linda’s standards, let alone any other Spartan’s. But they managed. Now watching their rear, which was perfectly clear although too open for his liking, Fred stopped when Linda held up a fist, then motioned to fingers to her eyes and pointed directly ahead. Fred looked ahead to where she pointed, but couldn’t see what she was looking at. Picking up the assault rifle, he started to look through it, but was stopped by his partner, who covered the lens. She pointed to where her ears were, and Fred understood that the magnification lens makes a sound when changing its intensity, and leveled it. She quietly pulled out her sniper rifle and a small metallic pole from the left leg of her suit from a compartment he’d never seen before. Screwing the metallic piece to the sniper rifle, she aimed and fired it, both shots being almost utterly silent, the pole acting as a perfect silencer. Where she got that and when she changed that piece on her suit, I have to know. Just as the body dropped, he recognized it at a Grunt, the small size yet bulky armor hitting the ground with a thud. Several more gathered around it, as well as Jackals and Drones, who flew on top of a fallen tank, looking down upon the body. Linda let loose another four rounds, dropping the Drones and a Jackal, and then waved Fred in when she pulled out another clip to reload. Rushing in, the Grunts were too surprised to do anything but stay still, making easy targets. Each single shot burst instantly dropped one Grunt after another, until none were left standing. This was too easy. Unless it was a trap… He felt two more sniper rounds fly by his left shoulder all too close, but looking to its target, he found two downed elites, their active camouflage wearing off. Another one came from his right from inside a tank, throwing all its weight on him. It slammed its hand palm-up into his helmet, but the shields kept if from reaching. He quickly maneuvered himself into a strangle hold over the Elite, but it simply dropped and slipped through his grab. Now able to get a better look at it, the gold armored Elite turned towards Linda’s position and leaned back very quickly, another round almost hitting its head. Two more came and connected to its shields, which held, but Fred new it was an opportunity not to be taken lightly. He switched to fully automatic and fired at the Elite, who jumped off the burning artillery truck and landed behind cover. Starting to chase it, a communiqué came through on priority alert. “I’m taking heavy fire back at the Warthog. Don’t know how long I’ll hold them off. There’s too many of them!” Fred took a mad glance at Linda who already started on her way back, leaving Fred to take out his target. But time was against him, as in almost all situations, no matter how hard he tried. Unclipping a grenade from his belt, Fred took out the safety pin and rolled it towards the last known area the Elite was at, and made a dash back to the Warthog and Will. The explosion didn’t let him know whether the target was down, but he was pretty sure that it wouldn’t come back to haunt him. ****** Will crouched on the back of the Warthog, waiting for something to happen. He knew that at the moment, he was unprepared, but confident that whatever might or could come at him he could take out with minimal damage, all of which would be only to his shields. Watching the sky, he pondered on the power and magnitude of the vessels fighting above, how when some exploded they shown brighter than the sun, making another one in its wake, and giving his shadow a larger, stronger twin. He wondered about what the outcome of the battle would be what special preparations were made by the UNSC and any other secretive government organization that may have a finger in it. And more than anything else, he wondered about John and Kelly, his fellow Spartans, not gone, just lost. John was off on another expedition of his, which always seemed to be some vacation when he was gone but more like another war when he returned with stories to tell. The one of Halo was amazing, to say the least. Some of the things he’d heard sounded preposterous, ridiculous, and utterly unsound, even for a Spartan, and yet he believed every word of it.
