This topic of “where should Halo go next” has been around for a while and after giving it much thought, this is what I thought would be neat to see…
Hunt the Truth Season 3
Hunt the Truth Season 3 would start off with the Created taking control of known space and actually delivering on their promises. Piracy has been subdued, various military conflicts are ended, glassed worlds have begun the terraforming process and colonies are fully stocked with food and other supplies necessary to be prosperous. The galaxy under their care actually starts to feel pretty good, and yet rumors begin to spread. Contact with colonies are lost, cities go dark, travel is restricted and certain regions of space are forbidden from being entered by the Created. People begin to ask questions, but all they get are vague answers and a lot of runaround. Strange disappearances eventually frighten enough people that they stop asking, but there will always be those who won’t stop until they can get to the truth…
Halo: Escalation
The mistakes of the previous Escalation would be forgotten and a new Escalation, which actually connects to Halo 6, would begin. The story would start with the the UNSC Infinity and the SoS Shadow of Intent hiding from the Created. The two would decide on a plan of action, which would involve both ships splitting up and searching different areas of unknown space for allies. The UNSC Infinity would take Fireteam Osiris and search for the lost Insurrectionist colony belonging to Lyrenne Castilla and Admiral Preston Cole. The Shadow of Intent would take Blue Team and seek out the Prophets, which they hope will lead them to a still intact Janjur Qom.
While they search for these clues and seek out their respected targets, they would be pursued by special units formed by the Created. Veteran soldiers belonging to various species would be selected by the Created and equipped with custom Forerunner combat skins, given access to Soldiers and Knights and then given command of Starship’s retrofitted with Forerunner tech. Their purpose would be to hunt down and destroy the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios renegades.
I would love to see Jul 'Mdama return and lead an army for the Created, as I’ve written here, but the person I would like to see return the most is Dasc Gevadim. Dasc and his followers, who survived the Guardian’s rising, would accept Cortana’s offer and lead special unit charged with tracking the Infinity. They would be accompanied by an AI, because they couldn’t be trusted to use this stuff alone, but Gevadim and his people would surprise the AI every time they demonstrate they already know about the Forerunner tech they’ve been given.
As they begin to explore space and search for the Infinity, they would also demonstrate intimate knowledge of the surrounding area. They know which planets have Forerunner tech and which do not, even on those worlds that haven’t been properly scanned and searched by the Created yet. After Jul 'Mdama catches up with the Shadow of Intent and loses her after being out maneuvered, Gevadim will suggest that he pick up the trail and continue the search for Shadow of Intent. At first Cortana would say no, but Gevadim would show them where the Shadow of Intent has been and suggests he knows where they are heading. Cortana would then agree to let them try.
Meanwhile, Fireteam Majestic would take Doctor Halsey and rendezvous with the ONI Prowler Port Stanley. Their mission would be to infiltrate Created space and make their way to the planet Reach. Doctor Halsey believes that her cloned brains could have survived the destruction of Reach because she had them hidden in a mothballed facility that’s located in a region that wasn’t heavily hit by Covenant plasma bombardment. She theorizes that if she can get her hands on one of these brains, she could create a new AI similar to Cortana. After learning from Cortana’s creation and now having access to more advanced technology, her new AI could potentially out-perform and defeat Cortana.
It’s not as easy as it sounds however, since the Created have tight control of the UNSC Inner Colonies and they are actively working in the Epsilon Eridani system. Things are also tense aboard ship as members of Kilo-Five, (mostly Vasily Beloi), still don’t like Halsey. Despite a few intense arguments, Gabriel Thorne will give Halsey his full support and and finally tell Kilo-Five where they can stick their opinions. It would be nice to see Naomi and Halsey have a moment together as well.
I can imagine Naomi having mixed feelings about having Halsey aboard, like she just wants to strangle that woman for what she has done. When she finally meets her in person after all these years however, she doesn’t really know what to think or feel. I would finally put these feelings to rest by having a mother-daughter moment between the two. Halsey would apologize for everything she has done and do the best she can to explain why she did it. I think hearing the words come from Halsey, and not biased people who hate her guts, would make it easier for Naomi to forgive her and realize how important they all were for the survival of the human race, then and now.
The sudden and unexpected return of the Domain would become much more important than even Cortana realizes, when Forerunner constructs around the galaxy begin making contact with it. Enduring Bias will contact the Domain and learn that the Warden Eternal walks again. He will find this news extremely unsettling and while he will keep the reason why to himself, he will make it known that they must seek out the Reclaimers immediately. This will force the Ussans, who chose not to reveal themselves during the civil war, to come out of hiding and begin their own search for the Master Chief.
Eventually the story arc would come to an end when living Forerunner in an unknown location, (most likely Bastion), make contact with the Domain and discover what Enduring Bias has discovered. They then come to the decision that they must end their exile and return to the Galaxy once more. Something is very wrong and if they don’t return immediately, all could be lost…