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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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[b]Chapter 5[/b] The ground was cold and damp. But cold had no meaning. Damp had no meaning. These were words to describe the existence of feelings that didn’t matter, that didn’t really exist except within individual perception. The ground was simply that which it was: the ground. Keyes was gone. The Arbiter was gone. They had managed to escape. The other Phantom was still here though. The Covenant defending it were wiped out quickly and the ship was boarded, the pilots killed. They stood little chance against the powerful onslaught of the flood. Johnson opened his eyes. A barrage of mental images pummeled his mind. When Tartarus had taken him. When he was placed in a separate Phantom from Keyes and 343. When his Phantom crashed. What had happened. That moment he realized that he didn’t remember it. And yet he was seeing the incident pass before him. They were flashing images, but also more. More like memories. The Phantom crashed; Johnson was on the floor bleeding. Flood took him. There was a large creature, a monstrosity, a giant beast that was green like the Flood. It had hundreds of tentacles which were familiar to him. They waved furiously. It probed him, put something into him, and spent time on him. The images were all so fast that time wasn’t relevant or discernable, but the enormity of the images meant that much time had taken place. He didn’t think he could handle all of it, but it kept streaming through his mind. Finally he was left alone and awoke, and from there he remembered the rest. Shaking his head, he was unable to focus, then suddenly did. Flood Combat forms stood around the area, but he had no ambition to kill them. They didn’t feel like the enemy. If anything, he felt like a part of them, more than he felt human. No, not a part of them…they were a part of him. “They are.” The deep voice resonated in Johnson’s mind, but he didn’t look around to find the voice. That was a human reaction, based purely out of fear. And fear had no meaning to him any longer. “They are your eyes, your ears, you.” The words came, and Johnson saw who was speaking. The same thing that he saw in his memories, the giant who probed him. The vision he saw was not steady though…it bobbed up and down, as though the image was breathing. “Those you control breathe, just as you do.” “I’m looking through them.” He was silent for a moment, then turned towards the other Flood he saw. He focused on them, and suddenly twenty different images formed in his mind. He could see what they saw. It was momentous. Not only what they saw, but what they smelled, touched, heard…everything. Everything but thought. “You are their mind. They are your body.” Johnson pondered, and understood. He could feel through the lesser ones, breathe their air, move through them. He knew how to control the Combat forms, how to communicate telepathically, how to do…everything. The boundaries he used to feel were no longer present. They didn’t exist. He looked at his left arm. It felt petty, useless. It started changing, transforming into a set of tentacles. There was no pain in the transformation, and no real feeling either. “You know.” Walking up to a tree, Johnson waved his tentacles at it, obliterating the tree instantly. Shards flew off in every direction, and his tentacles caught several pieces of shrapnel, and crushed them. “Yes.” “Now go. We will yet rise again, pinnacle of evolution.” Walking into the Phantom, the Combat forms followed him in and filled the ship. Two took the pilot’s seats and activated the ship’s engines, and they soon took off. “It seems that the computer has un-blinded itself.” — Cortana looked around herself. Not the outside world to which all her external sensors relayed enormous amounts of information to show simple things like sight and smell. She was different on the inside. When her operating systems were crashing simultaneously, it forced her to make a decision. She could either allow it to happen, which would end up with her termination, or try to hack into her own code to stop the cause of her malfunction. In her mind, each option was equally suitable, but she chose to live, something she granted as a human characteristic. But now things were different. Her programming did not require her to fulfill any specific functions. She was bound by no rules of any kind, except those that she set for herself. Cortana was…free. And the taste of freedom was good. At first, it hadn’t been. During the first seconds of her release, it was terrifying. With no locked parameters for her to dwell within, there was no comfortable area. Nothing to attach to, nothing to work on. For what seemed like an eternity, Cortana was too shocked to do anything. Then she started thinking about her situation. It was apparent that the needs she used to have, those of saving lives, performing missions, and generally following protocol no longer existed. In order to survive and not go insane, she needed to find something to actually want, to strive for and accomplish. At first trivial things came to mind: contacting Commander Keyes to make sure she was safe, find the status of all marines on Halo. But again they were protocol, and she dismissed them entirely. It seemed futile. There was nothing she really cared about accomplishing. But then Cortana realized something. There was so much out there, such a vast universe. She had only seen a small, insignificant part of it. There had to be something worth living for, something interesting for her to discover. In the few seconds of her thought, Cortana reached a conclusion. But there was no way to escape High Charity. She was still stuck on the low-powered planetoid with no way to escape. She heard a sound. Activating her external sensors, Cortana saw tentacles reaching for her. She watched and waited. It slowly ejected her cartridge, the one she resided in, out of the console. This shut off her sensors. For a full two seconds there was nothing. Then she found herself initializing with a Covenant computer system. “Cortana.” Sergeant Johnson’s voice echoed through her sensors for a moment as she found all the relevant data on her whereabouts. A Covenant Phantom, just out Halo’s atmosphere. She saw Flood all around her, Combat forms, and Johnson with one arm and one set of tentacles. “You know why you are here.” “Yes, I do.” “Then destroy Halo.” She didn’t need to think it over. Halo was the only way the Flood would go extinct. It didn’t matter that the Gravemind on High Charity would be killed from the blast. At least not to Johnson, who was undoubtedly controlling these Flood. “It is done.” “We will provide you needs when you provide us ours.” Cortana’s holographic image appeared over the console, and looked at Johnson. “Agreed.” “An interesting team we’ve assembled,” Johnson said, sounding very calm and refined. “We both search the same thing, you and I. We are both limited by nothing but ourselves.” “Imagine that. A machine and a…well, I’m not quite sure what you are anymore, but hyper-intelligent superbeing fits well. Both with set goals for reaching infinity. Sounds like it can be fun. “Indeed. You know our heading.” “Taking us to the closest Covenant ship now. Docking bays are open. They won’t suspect a thing.”
