Next Novel plot idea - Set during Halo 5

Community Halo Universe
1

Halo 5 left quite a bit of story to be explained. Not in terms of a cliff hanger ending or characters yet to be expanded on like the Warden, but in terms of how the characters came to be in the situations they were in at the beginning of the game and what they were up to during the game.
I personally would like to see a novel focusing on some of these aspects. The main characters I think the book should follow would be Halsey, Lasky, The Arbiter and Fireteam Majestic. I have outlined a few plot ideas for what each of their viewpoints could show us.

Halsey’s Plot
We would catch up with her while she is still with Jul 'Mdama. The story would show how she came to know about the guardians, her contacting Infinity and her rescue by Osiris on Kamchatka. We would later get to see her on Infinity, explore the tensions between her, Palmer and Lasky surrounding her actions of the last couple of years, and their working together for the greater good. We would then get to see her on Sanghelios interacting with the likes of the Arbiter, followed by her and Palmer’s exploits over Sunaion. We would then see their crash landing and efforts to return to the Sangheili camp and finally ending with her reunion with Chief, maybe even to extend past the end of the game to show their interactions.

Lasky’s Plot
Again, the book would start with Lasky prior to the events of Halo 5. We would get to see him and Infinity dealing with the colony crisis with the launching Guardians, receiving the message from Haley, and the discussions with Osman over their course of action. We would also see him briefing Blue Team for their mission to Argent Moon, and the ramifications of them going AWOL. We would then get to see the other side of the coin with Halsey’s return to Infinity and the possible struggles of keeping everyone in check. Later he would contact the Sangheili and send Osiris to help the Arbiter. Following this, Lasky would then get a new mission for Majestic (more on that below), but then Infinity is not seen again until the final scene of the game, opening up the possibilities of expanding what Lasky was up to between Maridian and Earth. Perhaps he was called back to Earth by Osman for protection, or other official secret business? His plot would end with the arrival of the guardian and his emergency jump to slipspace.

The Arbiter’s Plot
This one is more for the fans. We would pick up with the Thel on Sanghelios trying to unite the Sangheili, an extension to where we last saw him in Glasslands. A new leader of the Covenant would rise up in the wake of Jul 'Mdama and would become the Arbiter’s adversary. His story would lead to him becoming under attack at the Elder chamber where Osiris find him. Perhaps he was there for negotiations that went sour, a betrayal in the ranks maybe? We would then get to see his interactions with Palmer and the UNSC at the camp, leading to his attack on Sunaion. Once Osiris is safely on the Guardian, we could then see him hunting down the new leader of the Covenant and putting an end to them once and for all. Perhaps he leads the search party to find Paler and Halsey and help them back to the camp.

Fireteam Majestic’s Plot
Unlike the others who have some of their plot seen in the game, Majestics Plot would be completely brand new and offer readers and fan a story that they know nothing about. We could pick up with them on a covert mission to a colony world that is under siege by Castor and his contingent of Brute forces. In the end, Castor would escape, allowing him to become more expanded as a villain for future games and media. I could also be an opportunity to kill one of them off as Majestic has 5 members while every other team only has 4. Not a massive fan of Madsen, so he would be my choice.
Anyway, after the mission, they would return to Infinity around the time of the Maridian incident. We could briefly see them interacting on Infinity and in the war games, before Lasky gives them a new mission. Following the deployment of Osiris to Sanghelios, Roland detects another Guardian event happening and suggests sending Majestic, in case Osiris fail. They leave on a frigate deployed from Infinity and head to the world containing the guardian. After a brief groundside campaign facing off against Promethean forces, the Guardian launches and prepares to leave. Majestic evac back to the frigate, and not wanting to let it get away, they fly strait towards it as it opens the slipspace portal, following it through, In Amber Clad style.
Upon emerging at Genesis during the final mission of the campaign, they quickly evade the huge collection of Guardians. However, the Guardians soon depart and they start receiving hails from Blue Team and Osiris. Once they pick up the two teams, Chief is told by Locke that Halsey is on Sanghelios, and unable to contact Infinity, decide that returning to Sanghelios is the best course of action. Upon arrival, Locke and Chief take a Pelican to the surface, where a Halsey chapter would pick up and explore the reunion between Chief and Halsey.

That’s about it. Obviously this could end up being quite a lengthy book, so maybe they could release it in two volumes?
Let me know what you think.

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Great ideas.
Where the hell do you get all does ideas?
The part with the death of one majestic member is something I dont like because even I dont like them either they deserve to live only to die later a silly death like this ah red sangheili with great backstory who dies in the first cutscene ah what was it name again?
But the plot sounds good and do you know which author should it write?
And if this book ever came out I will buy it and send it to you that you can give me an autogramm.
Good ideas like that should be realsised.

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I don;t know. I think a book detailing the new working relationship between Halsey, Palmer and Lasky would be interesting, but I’d rather have a book focusing on the aftermath of the rebellion; perhaps chronicling the struggles of the Humans and Covenant races under occupation. It would also be cool to have a story told from the perspectives of the AIs, to give us insight to their motives, because while most might have joined Cortana, others (like Roland) chose to remain loyal to Humanity, and I’m curious about why.
A story featuring the Arbiter would be absolutely cool, but again, I think it should be set in the aftermath of Halo 5, and it should be about the Chief, Locke and the Arbiter working together. Expanding on the relationship between Chief and Arbiter, as well as a possible rivalry between Locke and Chief (as teased in the trailers), would be nice.
As for Fireteam Majestic, I’ve never really liked them, so I’d hope that they would never appear in a book. Ever.
But you’ve got cool ideas.

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> 2535408730995228;2:
> Great ideas.
> Where the hell do you get all does ideas?
> The part with the death of one majestic member is something I dont like because even I dont like them either they deserve to live only to die later a silly death like this ah red sangheili with great backstory who dies in the first cutscene ah what was it name again?
> But the plot sounds good and do you know which author should it write?
> And if this book ever came out I will buy it and send it to you that you can give me an autogramm.
> Good ideas like that should be realsised.

I guess the ideas are just born out of what I felt the game was missing, such as how Halsey returned to Infinity without so much as a sturn talking to. I mean we saw Palmer grab her arm and take her away, but next time we see her, she just wandering about as if she’s getting paid to be there.
Personally, I’d like Nylund to do it, concidering he created Halsey, but they could get anyone as long as they stayed true to the characters.

> 2533274967414694;3:
> I don;t know. I think a book detailing the new working relationship between Halsey, Palmer and Lasky would be interesting, but I’d rather have a book focusing on the aftermath of the rebellion; perhaps chronicling the struggles of the Humans and Covenant races under occupation. It would also be cool to have a story told from the perspectives of the AIs, to give us insight to their motives, because while most might have joined Cortana, others (like Roland) chose to remain loyal to Humanity, and I’m curious about why.
> A story featuring the Arbiter would be absolutely cool, but again, I think it should be set in the aftermath of Halo 5, and it should be about the Chief, Locke and the Arbiter working together. Expanding on the relationship between Chief and Arbiter, as well as a possible rivalry between Locke and Chief (as teased in the trailers), would be nice.
> As for Fireteam Majestic, I’ve never really liked them, so I’d hope that they would never appear in a book. Ever.
> But you’ve got cool ideas.

I like your idea of a story from an AI’s perspective, we don’t really see much like that other than Cortana’s chapters in the verrious books.
The reason I decided to include Majestic was because 343 built them up in Spartan Ops and in Escalation, but then they didn’t so much as get a mention in Halo 5.
I’m kind of assuming that Halo 6 will probably take place strait after Halo 5, so that will probably cover the aftermath pretty well anyway. If it doesn’t then I would welcome a book that takes place between 5 and 6, perhaps as a sequal to the one I suggested, following similar characters?

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I would’ve liked the idea of an AI POV novel a year ago, but now it would seem like hasty backpedaling, trying to justify the sudden 180 of the AI’s attitude towards humanity in Halo 5. But since it seems that’s the direction the plot is heading regardless, I guess an AI novel can’t hurt at this point…I’d just be more than a little bitter about it.

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> 2535455577605144;5:
> I would’ve liked the idea of an AI POV novel a year ago, but now it would seem like hasty backpedaling, trying to justify the sudden 180 of the AI’s attitude towards humanity in Halo 5. But since it seems that’s the direction the plot is heading regardless, I guess an AI novel can’t hurt at this point…I’d just be more than a little bitter about it.

Perhaps they could do something similar in style to Saint’s Testemony.
But yeah, I totally get the point about backpedaling.

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None of them really seem that captivating, to be honest. “People watching events they had no real influence or agency over unfold” is essentially Halo 5’s story in a nutshell, and the fact that none of these storylines appear to have any of the characters do a damn thing to stop the Guardians in any way, shape or form doesn’t look promising. Halsey putting aside her differences with Palmer and Lasky is the closest any of these stories have to any real sort of character arc, or even actual plot progression to be honest. Shoehorning Fireteam Majestic into Halo 5’s climax comes off- to me, at least- as completely unneeded and kinda cheesey. Maybe it’s because they don’t actually do anything except act as a glorified taxi service? Or maybe because they do even less than Blue and Osiris, a massive flaw of Halo 5’s story?

Lasky’s story is also unneeded, not least because he doesn’t seem to actually do anything. He sends people on missions? People we all know survive? Wow, I’m on the edge of my seat already. There’s no climax to this story at all, no final battle or intense standoff or impossible choice; it’s just Lasky sending other people to do the actual story while he sits around on the Infinity. He doesn’t make a mistake and realize how tough commanding can be, or feel guilt about the people he sends to their deaths, or do anything actually engaging; he just talks to people and doesn’t evolve or change as a character whatsoever. And when all you’ve got to support this entire subplot is the strength of this single character, that’s kind of a fundamental flaw.

The only actual important event that would be depicted that hasn’t already been done in Halo 5 would be Madsen’s death, which you freely admit is because Majestic team have one too many characters and you like him the least. Even then, he dies to a villain who has nothing to do with the main villain in a subplot that has nothing to do with the main plot.

Sorry, just seems like there’s a billion more interesting stories to tell.

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> 2533274875814858;7:
> None of them really seem that captivating, to be honest. “People watching events they had no real influence or agency over unfold” is essentially Halo 5’s story in a nutshell, and the fact that none of these storylines appear to have any of the characters do a damn thing to stop the Guardians in any way, shape or form doesn’t look promising. Halsey putting aside her differences with Palmer and Lasky is the closest any of these stories have to any real sort of character arc, or even actual plot progression to be honest. Shoehorning Fireteam Majestic into Halo 5’s climax comes off- to me, at least- as completely unneeded and kinda cheesey. Maybe it’s because they don’t actually do anything except act as a glorified taxi service? Or maybe because they do even less than Blue and Osiris, a massive flaw of Halo 5’s story?

We’re all entitled to our own opinion. To be fair, I can’t change what happened in Halo 5, only offer a sugestion to cover areas that they left out.
The reason none on the characters do anything to stop the guardians is because they don’t know how. The game covers this pretty well. They randomly pop out of the ground, destroy a bunch of stuff, then vanish to an unknown location. Please enlighten me on how they would go about stopping them?
And to be fair, I wasn’t going to add Majestic in to the end to get Osiris and Blue Team back, but a lot of people on here seem to have an issue with how they got back in a pelican, and why it was Sanghelios that they chose to go to. So I figured this was an opportunity to explain that.

> 2533274875814858;7:
> Lasky’s story is also unneeded, not least because he doesn’t seem to actually do anything. He sends people on missions? People we all know survive? Wow, I’m on the edge of my seat already. There’s no climax to this story at all, no final battle or intense standoff or impossible choice; it’s just Lasky sending other people to do the actual story while he sits around on the Infinity. He doesn’t make a mistake and realize how tough commanding can be, or feel guilt about the people he sends to their deaths, or do anything actually engaging; he just talks to people and doesn’t evolve or change as a character whatsoever. And when all you’ve got to support this entire subplot is the strength of this single character, that’s kind of a fundamental flaw.
> The only actual important event that would be depicted that hasn’t already been done in Halo 5 would be Madsen’s death, which you freely admit is because Majestic team have one too many characters and you like him the least. Even then, he dies to a villain who has nothing to do with the main villain in a subplot that has nothing to do with the main plot.

Again, you are right, he does pretty much just send people on missions. But you’re wrong about the choice. He could have stayed to support Osiris, Plamer and Halsey on Sanghelios, but instead we see him at the end of the game above Earth. There was obviously a choice to go back there, or an order he had to choose to follow which took him back to Earth. Nobody knows why he was back there, thats somthing the book would cover.
And what you say about Madsen, are books not allowed to have subplots anymore?

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I book set parallel or around the time of Halo 5 would be good to have

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“To be fair, I can’t change what happened in Halo 5, only offer a suggestion to cover areas that they left out.”
Fair’s fair, I suppose; it’s not your fault Halo 5’s story was disappointing IMO, and looking at this you’d probably be able to do a better job than Reed seeing as there’s a sense of world building and actually showing the effects this conflict would have on a larger scale. That said, I really don’t think this is a story that can be salvaged without rewriting the entire thing.

“The reason none on the characters do anything to stop the guardians is because they don’t know how. The game covers this pretty well. They randomly pop out of the ground, destroy a bunch of stuff, then vanish to an unknown location. Please enlighten me on how they would go about stopping them?”
That’s not my job, it’s yours as the person pitching me reasons why this should be a book. An entire novel about characters milling about, looking at an approaching threat, shrugging their shoulders and saying, “I dunno,” wouldn’t be remotely interesting or entertaining. If they don’t know how to stop them then it’s their job to find out, not just push it aside. Jon Snow didn’t know how to defeat the Othor’s Wight, that didn’t meant he just looked apologetically at the camera and said, “Well, life sucks sometimes,” while he got stabbed.

“He could have stayed to support Osiris, Palmer and Halsey on Sanghelios, but instead we see him at the end of the game above Earth. There was obviously a choice to go back there, or an order he had to choose to follow which took him back to Earth. Nobody knows why he was back there, that’s something the book would cover.”
But that’s hardly even a choice. His options are, what, stay at Sanghelios to watch over an allied force that already had already defeated all hostile forces or follow orders to go back to Earth to defend it in case of an attack by the guardians? And that’s the choice his entire arc has been leading up to? A choice we know has pretty much no consequences at all seeing as the Infinity just fled anyway? Look, let’s be honest here; the Infinity was at Earth because Brian Reed said so.

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All of these plots are great except the Fireteam Majestic plot, they have lost DeMarco already. No sense in killing off another team member.

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> 2533274875814858;10:
> “To be fair, I can’t change what happened in Halo 5, only offer a suggestion to cover areas that they left out.”
> Fair’s fair, I suppose; it’s not your fault Halo 5’s story was disappointing IMO, and looking at this you’d probably be able to do a better job than Reed seeing as there’s a sense of world building and actually showing the effects this conflict would have on a larger scale. That said, I really don’t think this is a story that can be salvaged without rewriting the entire thing.

You’re right there. Given the opportunity, I would rewrite most of Halo 5.

> 2533274875814858;10:
> "The reason none on the characters do anything to stop the guardians is because they don’t know how. The game covers this pretty well. They randomly pop out of the ground, destroy a bunch of stuff, then vanish to an unknown location. Please enlighten me on how they would go about stopping them?"That’s not my job, it’s yours as the person pitching me reasons why this should be a book. An entire novel about characters milling about, looking at an approaching threat, shrugging their shoulders and saying, “I dunno,” wouldn’t be remotely interesting or entertaining. If they don’t know how to stop them then it’s their job to find out, not just push it aside. Jon Snow didn’t know how to defeat the Othor’s Wight, that didn’t meant he just looked apologetically at the camera and said, “Well, life sucks sometimes,” while he got stabbed.

Obviously they would try different approches to try and stop the guardian, all of which they hope would work. And we as readers wouldn’t know if they would work or not. The only reason we know they wouldn’t is because I outlined the rest of the plot. For instance, if I told you what happened in a Storm of Swords and Feast for Crows, leaving out the fact that Rob dies so that its a suprise for you, you’d have a pretty good idea that Rob isn’t around any more given he isn’t in Feast.

> 2533274875814858;10:
> "He could have stayed to support Osiris, Palmer and Halsey on Sanghelios, but instead we see him at the end of the game above Earth. There was obviously a choice to go back there, or an order he had to choose to follow which took him back to Earth. Nobody knows why he was back there, that’s something the book would cover."But that’s hardly even a choice. His options are, what, stay at Sanghelios to watch over an allied force that already had already defeated all hostile forces or follow orders to go back to Earth to defend it in case of an attack by the guardians? And that’s the choice his entire arc has been leading up to? A choice we know has pretty much no consequences at all seeing as the Infinity just fled anyway? Look, let’s be honest here; the Infinity was at Earth because Brian Reed said so.

The force may be defeated, yet Palmer’s Pelican crashlanded on the planet. Him and her seem to be pretty good mates, and he just left her there.
And yes, Infinity is only at Earth because Reed wanted it there. The point I was making was why can’t there be some kind of sub-plot to take him back there. Perhaps ONI found somthing that could help with the guardians, and Osman wanted to Brief Lasky personally?

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This is a great idea, but there is only a month where this events could happen, between 15th September and 25th August, after the events of Halo Escalation and the beginning of Halo 5…I think it would be difficult to narrate all these events in only one month

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> 2533274972631064;13:
> This is a great idea, but there is only a month where this events could happen, between 15th September and 25th August, after the events of Halo Escalation and the beginning of Halo 5…I think it would be difficult to narrate all these events in only one month

Well Halsey says that she sent Lasky her position 3 weeks ago, so the book could pick up a couple of weeks even before that as she descovers the signal and makes the choice of calling it quits with Jul and wanting back in with the UNSC.
Then there would be Blue Teams briefing of their Argent Moon mission, plus maybe a little time spent on Infinity interacting with other characters.And the Arbiter’s plot could pick up anywhere before the events of the game.