[REPOST FROM REDDIT]
Even if this doesn’t get much attention, I just wanted to get my idea out somewhere so that at least some could see. This is a rough idea of how I think parts of Halo Infinite’s story should go:
As 343 have stated, the E3 2018 trailer was about hope, and, considering each Halo game tends to follow the theme of it’s game, Infinite will likely be hopeful too. At first, I thought this meant that the commonly held idea that the UNSC Infinity will go down couldn’t happen. However, when looking at it again, I don’t think so. I believe hope can be taken from this situation; the player could get a sense of hope that, even though the UNSC’s flagship and strongest asset is gone and they’ve lost a lot of hope, they can still be saved. I picture the Infinity going down at some point near the beginning of the story - hell, maybe it’s the event which traps the Master Chief on Zeta Halo in the first place.
In terms of factions, I think there will be three main factions; I hope for the UNSC to play a large role, along with Cortana’s Created forces (possibly including a newly-formed second Covenant), and the Flood. I don’t think the Swords of Sanghelios will play a large role in the story. I’m not sure how I’d go about releasing the Flood, but considering the history of Zeta Halo, there are plenty of ways. Maybe Cortana (who, in my and many other people’s minds, is infected with the logic plague) releases them, or maybe they’re released when the massive Infinity crashes onto the surface. Who know, but I believe they’d serve well as a side diversion, maybe to focus the story for a moment on stopping them.
I hope that, to stop them, Chief has to, somehow, kill the rampant fragment of Cortana controlling the Created. Maybe she even finds a moment of sanity and helps Chief again likes old times. It’s also worth mentioning that I believe Chief will have a new model of Cortana as an AI throughout the game and into the next Halo game - this is hinted at in the “Making of…” video for the E3 trailer, in which the serial number seen on Chief’s new AI chip is 0453-0, only one number up from Cortana’s 0452-9, possibly insinuating a new model? With this effort, the Flood on Zeta Halo are stopped and the Created are newly leaderless.
Whilst I believe the Created may fizzle and die rather quickly as a concept (343 don’t seem to focusing too much on the Created, rather on Cortana), my head-cannon for this story continues a little longer. Cortana’s death happens late into the story, perhaps only a mission or two from the end. But I believe a larger force will come to take over the forces Cortana has at her disposal - the Didact.
Whilst he seemingly dies in Halo 4, many know that he survived. Long story short, in one of the Escalation comics, he is found and defeated, causing his form to be digitised by the Composers Abyss. However, as HiddenXperia points out in “What happened to the Didact after Halo 4”, the description of the Didact doll in Halo 5’s forge reads “Not all visitors to the Domain are strangers”, possibly implying that the Didact may have made it to the Domain. As Cortana has meddled it before, this may have caused the Didact to “get loose”, for lack of a better term, and wait for a time to strike. Once the power vaccum becomes apparent, he somehow escapes and captures the Forerunner forces Cortana raised, thus having his old army back at his disposal again (pretty much, anyway). This could cause some interesting tension, as the two have a history as enemies, both in species and in individuality.
However, as Halo games have a special Legendary ending, my thoughts for one go as follows: two unknown lifeforms are discussing wars and responsibility. These creatures, unknowingly to the player, are Precursors, who scurried away from the Forerunner-Precursor war to outside of the Milky Way, where they’ve been waiting for a very, very long time, observing the galaxy and it’s progress. The plan of the Precursors is to return to the Milky Way, and test the species of the galaxy for who truly deserves the Mantle of Responsibility. This, at least in my mind, would created a very interesting conflict, and would work with the original design of Halo’s story - if you wanted something surface level, you had a big soldier killing aliens. Just as with this, you have a big green man shooting machines and aliens. But if you wanted deeper, you had the deeply religious Covenant planning to ascend to godhood by firing the Halo rings, but even this went deeper. And with this story, you have the story of two old, bitter enemies, humanity and the Forerunners, the UNSC/Chief and the Forerunner Warriors/The Didact bidding for control of the galaxy, and their very creators judging their every move. This is my story going into the Halo game after Infinite.
As a side note, in whatever comes after Infinite, I think they should carry the new Cortana with Chief into that game as well. However, near the end of the game, Chief pulls the Cortana out and tells her that she isn’t the Cortana he knew, and he can never have that one back. With this, Chief’s humanity would be explored even further, but seeing how this super soldier can let go of the only thing he has ever truly known beside combat.
There’s my idea! Sorry if I rambled, or if I got certain lore wrong, I just wanted to get this idea out to someone. Can you perhaps give me some comments about my story, the good and the bad, the interesting and the dull? If so, that’d be appreciated!