So I came up with an awesome idea on how the stoty should turn out, part of it came from a conversation I had with a friend about how cortana might be infected by the logic plague.
So at the end of halo wars 2, how awesome would be to see the spirit of fire take down a guardian? Impossible it may seem but the crew blew up a planet and stopped the covenant from getting a forrunner fleet.
Any ways, cortana is infected by the logic plague (go with for now) and finds out that a team was sent to the ark, realizing that it could cause some trouble for her, she sends a guardian to wipe out the possible threat and it appears during a battle between the spirit of fire and the banished. Cortana recognises the sof as the missing ship that dissapeared so long ago and tells them that the galaxy has changed and that she is in charge now.
The new ai will refuse to join her and the sof refuses to surrender and then against all odds, manage to take down the guardians. During the battle, atriox is killed by the prometheans and the banished surender to cortana and the power of her guardians.
The sof manages to activate the arks portak and return to earth to aid humanity once more.
Remember the ring at the end if h5? If cortana is infected she probably wouldnt fire the rings but release the flood maybe? Cortana would be seen as the new gravemind and terminates warden after he doubts her decision about the flood and the banished turn against her half way through h6, so now she has the flood and prometheans at her command.
The factions of galaxy the unite in one final moment inorder to stop cortana and chief and locke are sent to eliminate cortana. Cortana figures out that the gravemind is using her to control the prometheans and tries to undo what she has done but as long as she is intact, the flood has control over its former enemy.
Chief and locke finally make it to cortana with help from the swords of sanghielios and locke injured right before the reach cortana.
Cortana tells chief that she cant disable herself and that the gravemind is using her to control the forruner. The gravemind sense that chief doesnt have what it takes to kill off his former partner and tries to persuade him not to. Cortana tells chief that its rhe only way to stop the flood and he is forced to shut her down.
Chief feels broken after doing away with her and the gravemind is enraged by his actions.
Impossible waves of flood begin to enter the room when the prometheans teleport in and aid the chief in fighting the flood.
Then we get all of the great heroes in the battle against the flood, blue team and fireteam osiris arrive with arbiter while infinity provides air support. Sof can start dropping in odst’s cuz we want odst’s. Palmer leads the team to a central core room where they can destroy it and cause a chain reaction that will destroy the facility with the gravemind inside. Palmer is killed when they reach the core and the 2 teams hold off the flood while prometheans start spawning turrets to fight off larger flood forms like tentacles and tanks (343, if possible, how about a new form that can infect prometheans?)
After the core is destroyed we get another warthog run to where infinity will pick them up. Say 2 of the spartans die, can be from either team but not chief or locke cuz they’re the main 2 we need, they get in a couple hogs, make it to the waypoint which is over run with flood, they must hold off until laskey’s pelicans arrive.
The flood start creating anti air stuff as the pelicans arrive and here is when you get to play as arby once more.
Equipped with prophets bane, you and a team of elites will fight through the flood to destroy 3 anti flood in 15 minutes. Arbiter sacrifices him self in order to help the spartans escape, give him a memorable line like johnsen as the facility starts to go off and he dies an honorable death like every sanghieli wishes for.
I know some of you don’t like the idea of some of these characters dieing, but death of great characters has been something that has defined halo since the beginning. And it certainly made h3 and reach very memorable.