OK, so I wrote up my reasons for why I think the Spirit of Fire should make a comeback in Halo Lore and these are the reasons from that post.
> 1. Captain James Cutter
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> James Cutter is an experienced Commander who I thought was an interesting character. Promoting him to Admiral and having him play a role of some kind would be welcomed. If it weren’t for Lasky being such a likable character I could see Cutter taking command of the Infinity but that probably wouldn’t happen. The Admiral Cutter idea would be good.
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> 2. Professor Ellen Anders
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> With everything that is happening with Halsey, bringing in someone like Ellen Anders would be great. She had a chance to study some Forerunner stuff as well as encountering the Flood. This doesn’t make her an uber expert but her genius would still be good to have around.
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> 3. Red Team
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> More Spartans, duh.
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> I would add Serina to that list but if she’s not dead she’s probably not in very good shape right now. Then again her Rampancy can play some role in the episode. Can you imagine Serina and Roland speaking to each other? I would like to see that, even if she has gone crazy.
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> Honestly I think they could bring the Spirit of Fire back fairly easy. If they didn’t want to dedicate a novel to it, they could bring it back in an episode of Spartan Ops. The Infinity can come across the Spirit of Fire and we rescue the crew. Maybe they made an emergency landing on a Planet or construct with some significance and that’s how the Infinity finds them?
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> I’m really liking this idea actually. They should definitely bring back the Spirit of Fire in Spartan Ops.
Now since I wrote that this morning I have been thinking how the first cinematic episode would play out and so I came up with this…
“The UNSC Infinity tracks a distress beacon originating from an unexplored star system. The transmission is garbled but they were able to make out the service number “SNA 1292-4” which identifies it as belonging to UNSC Smart A.I. Serina of the UNSC Spirit of Fire. The Spirit of Fire was last reported over Arcadia in 2531 and was declared lost with all hands in 2534. After Entering orbit of the fourth planet, they clear up the signal and track it to a continent in the south eastern hemisphere, where they discover the wreckage of the Spirit of Fire. Before they can react to this discovery, several CCS Class battlecruisers lead by a single CPV Class Heavy Destroyer, drop out of Slipspace and surround the Infinity. However as they prepare to fire on the Infinity, a large stream of hard light energy erupts from the surface of the Planet, gutting the Covenant ships. As the remains of the ships fall to the Planet, Roland determines the shot originated from an energy cannon which Doctor Glassman explains must be part of a Forerunner Line-Installation. They theorize that it most likely hadn’t shot down the Infinity because her engines are of Forerunner origin and may have identified them as friendly. The wreckage of the Covenant vessels rain down near the remains of the Spirit of Fire and the surviving forces begin to regroup and move in to assault the wrecked ship. Taking a quick scan of the remains, Roland discovers that the ship’s power levels are minimal but a hundred or so cryo pods are still active. Captain Lasky orders Spartan deployment to secure and rescue the Spirit of Fire survivors, before they are slaughtered by the incoming Covenant forces.”
The chapters themselves would consist of getting aboard the Spirit of Fire and fighting off Covenant forces while Majestic does the same elsewhere on the ship. Once the Spirit of Fire crew wakes up they can finally give us some detail about the Covenant Remnant. For example they would notice they’re fighting Covenant and ask if the War is still going, to which case they explain "No the war ended 6 years ago but these guys are a different faction lead by Jul “Mdama.” Then some of their Promethean Knights could show up and they would be like “WHAT THE FUU…” lol.
That would be amazing. If there is a Spartan Ops Season 2, I seriously hope that they go with an idea similar to this. The tie in with the Line Installations and the reintroduction of the Spirit of Fire would make for a great season.
Maybe Jul’s faction could be left out of this though. The Covenant enemies could be the ones who crashed on the planet, and could be from a Sangheili colony they found or something. They could introduce new Sentinels to take the place of the Prometheans, and a Monitor enemy. Or the Covenant ships could be from Jul’s forces, but also crash on the planet and carry a Promethean or two.
Spartan Ops is an excellent opportunity to bring to life a lot of EU material that’s been left by the wayside. The Spirit of Fire’s story sounds like a great element to include.
Though personally, I think it makes more sense if the Infinity stumbles upon it and you spend a mission inside its derelict hull, fighting scavengers. It’s been decades, and it never returned.
> Maybe Jul’s faction could be left out of this though. The Covenant enemies could be the ones who crashed on the planet, and could be from a Sangheili colony they found or something. They could introduce new Sentinels to take the place of the Prometheans, and a Monitor enemy. Or the Covenant ships could be from Jul’s forces, but also crash on the planet and carry a Promethean or two.
Well it makes sense to use Jul’s forces because they’re the enemies we have been fighting. They haven’t said if there are any other factions in conflict with the UNSC. I suppose they could just be random scavengers who are stranded there but it wouldn’t be the same. The idea would be for the Spirit of Fire’s crew to wake up and find themselves facing off with Jul’s forces.
They naturally don’t blink an eye at this because the last they heard the War was still on going. This would be when the Infinity crew would bring them up to speed, explaining that the war is over and Jul’s faction is just a splinter group of religous zealots. Then when the Knights show up, because Jul could still have some at his disposal, they get their first encounter with them.
It would be interesting if they added some enemy Sentinels though. Perhaps they could launch from the Line Installation once fighting breaks out on the surface.
> Though personally, I think it makes more sense if the Infinity stumbles upon it and you spend a mission inside its derelict hull, fighting scavengers. It’s been decades, and it never returned.
I would definitely expect to fight inside. They would have to fight their way in and clear the ship for evacuation. Perhaps if the ship can’t be saved, they self destruct it or something? Maybe they have no choice but to do it in order to destroy the Line Installation? Once the Sentinels mark the ground forces as enemies the guns may end up re-tagging Infinity as hostile and so they destroy the Spirit of Fire to take out the guns so they can get away.
They’d need to make a novel regarding the discovery and such of the Spirit of Fire’s remaining crew, such as who discovers them and how the Spirit’s crew reacts.
You know kinda like the opening missions of Halo 4
> They’d need to make a novel regarding the discovery and such of the Spirit of Fire’s remaining crew, such as who discovers them and how the Spirit’s crew reacts.
> You know kinda like the opening missions of Halo 4
We don’t need a novel when Spartan Ops can take care of it. Why read about what happens to the Spirit of Fire when we can be the ones who rescue her?
I appear to be a lone dissenter here. I want nothing more than to know the eventual fate of the ship and its crew, but I’d find it a bit hard to swallow for the ship to end up in the “present” of the Halo timeline. That would mean the discovery of the Chief/Cortana and another long, lost ship pretty much back-to-back.
We learn of how/why they never returned and it’s tragedy: I’ll take it. Someone discovers them marooned on a planet where they’ve set up a small colony: I’ll take it. We just get a brief mention of a discovered derelict or wreckage that explains its fate: I’ll take it. For them to return just in the nick of time to be wholly important to the current crisis: that would be a bit much for me.
I’d love to see them again in any way, shape, form or medium that 343 can come up with. Maybe in a Spartan Ops spin-off after the current storyline finishes (Spartan Ops in other time periods would blow the door open for game-driven story possibilities in the series), but I just can’t see how them interacting with Lasky or Jul can be made to make sense. Just my opinion, of course.
> I appear to be a lone dissenter here. I want nothing more than to know the eventual fate of the ship and its crew, but I’d find it a bit hard to swallow for the ship to end up in the “present” of the Halo timeline. That would mean the discovery of the Chief/Cortana and another long, lost ship pretty much back-to-back.
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> We learn of how/why they never returned and it’s tragedy: I’ll take it. Someone discovers them marooned on a planet where they’ve set up a small colony: I’ll take it. We just get a brief mention of a discovered derelict or wreckage that explains its fate: I’ll take it. For them to return just in the nick of time to be wholly important to the current crisis: that would be a bit much for me.
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> I’d love to see them again in any way, shape, form or medium that 343 can come up with. Maybe in a Spartan Ops spin-off after the current storyline finishes (Spartan Ops in other time periods would blow the door open for game-driven story possibilities in the series), but I just can’t see how them interacting with Lasky or Jul can be made to make sense. Just my opinion, of course.
But it’s not that far off when you consider Infinity’s mission to begin with. Her job is to go out and search for the remaining Halo Rings, which are probably in areas not yet explored. If anyone is going to stumble across something in deep space, it would be her. We also know Line Installations are already shooting down UNSC and Covenant ships so there is one or two within reach. The fact that Doctor Glassman is aware of Forerunner Line Installations could be the indication the UNSC has already determined they are out there.
Perhaps, for example, they can throw in a hint that Black Team has already been rescued from a Line Installation and the Infinity has been informed they should be on the look out for such weapons. For one they would want to avoid them and second, they would want to keep an eye out for other lost ships which may have theoretically been shot down by such weapons. In this case the UNSC Spirit of Fire was in fact shot down.
Please 343i! Please read this! Please check this thread! Please give us a second season of Spartan Ops! Please return the Spirit of Fire from the gallows of the lost ships!!
I love this idea. I’ve always been curious about SoF’s eventual fate, and I think it would be really interesting to see how the crew react to the new situation in the galaxy (ie Covenant defeated, live Forerunners etc).
Good idea, although it has nothing to do with halo 4, most of the characters from halo 4 and nothing to do with the plot of halo 4. Would love to see it happen, but it is far fetched.
You already know this won’t happen because frankie said the SoF hasn’t been touched canon wise and while he would love to go back to it they don’t have plans for it.
> You already know this won’t happen because frankie said the SoF hasn’t been touched canon wise and while he would love to go back to it they don’t have plans for it.
I know but I can still dream. It’s a damn shame too because it would work so well. Professor Anders would be a welcomed addition to the Infinity’s crew. I would even toy with the idea of making her a potential love interest for Doctor Glassman. I wouldn’t force it though as she would still be emotionally scarred over the loss of Sergeant Forge.
They don’t really need to force the characters into the story either if they don’t want to. Once they made their appearance in the one episode they could go back to Earth and remain on the sidelines for a while. The only one that makes the most sense in the story is Anders because she’s perfect.
> You already know this won’t happen because frankie said the SoF hasn’t been touched canon wise and while he would love to go back to it they don’t have plans for it.
They didn’t have plans for it during Halo Fest 2011. At that time they probably didn’t have plans for a Season 2 of Spartan Ops either, and Spartan Ops was probably in the early stages.
> Serina would be way beyond rampancy by then. AIs can barely survive 8 years, let alone 30 something.
Usually no they can’t but sometimes they can live a pretty long time or at least longer than usual. All they needed to do was find something to occupy their time, such as Juliana who spent all her power keeping the Rubble in one piece. This doesn’t fix them or anything but it keeps them going.
Rampancy can play into the Episode though. She could be going crazy and falling apart but she holds on long enough for you to save the crew. Opening doors for you, maybe finding ways to kill Covenant or something.
I love the idea but SPOPS Season 1 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger and for the infinity to suddenly stop searching for the greatest covenant terrorist holding the UNSC’s greatest scientist with half of the greatest forunner relic to go pick up the SoF is just a bit random…
