Halo Infinite: The Great Journey is Nigh

 

There are those who said this day would never come... what are they, to say now?

Brothers and sisters, all who partake of the divine light that is the Halo franchise, the time is finally here! Waiting 5 years for a franchise to return after its previous title, then a month before release being told that we must wait nearly another year and a half... this is the ultimate definition of blue balls. It has been a long time coming, and certainly a rough ride through and through for both fans and 343 Industries developers alike--even now as both sides hold their breath with the coming fire of the campaign's release that shall either be cleansing or damning of Halo as a whole. I cannot help but wonder if this Great Journey that is Halo Infinite will be a path to divine ascension, or a death sentence to all who love this universe.

Tomorrow, the game will release at 10:00 AM Pacific time and, barring any download issues, will have people playing somewhere between 10:30-12:00--or if you're particularly unlucky with your internet, a couple of days to weeks. Some of you, like me, have told your respective employers or teachers that you will be catching an acute case of the flu tomorrow. Others will wait more patiently than I to experience Halo Infinite. In either case, I thought writing a last-minute article would be entertaining while you and I wait. Before you play (or watch the online streams of your favorite content creators), I have some final thoughts you may be interested in reading.

Before you play, you may want to brush up by watching the cutscenes of Halo 5 Guardians and Halo Wars 2. Both of these titles will likely be the most relevant and quick thing to get your proverbial-pallet wetted in anticipation of the title. It would also be a good idea for you to understand some of the things the books since Halo 5 released have revealed in recent months. I'll be covering most of that here, and then giving some last-minute predictions to what may happen in the game. Some of you may think that Halo Infinite is going to be sweeping the disastrous Halo 5 under the rug and pretending it didn't happen. Luckily, half a dozen content creators I have watched in recent days have confirmed that this is not the case, and having read the more recent books I can also independently-verify that it would be very stupid of 343i to allow the books' contents they have written in anticipation of Infinite to go unused. Be assured that this title is going to put the Reclaimer Saga (Halos 4 & 5) to rest. I'll leave whatever that means up to your imagination.

So let's get started. First up, I want to give a couple bullet points on what's happened with the new trilogy. Halo 4 set up the Prometheans (whom reviewers can't say whether or not they and/or the Flood show up, but have done everything they can to blink twice confirming their absence without breaking their NDA), as well as separating Cortana from the Master Chief in a bittersweet move that left fans divided on whether or not that was a good idea, storytelling-wise. Halo 5 was this franchise's The Last Jedi, with a vast majority of fans panning the title and enduring a very sour taste in the mouths of Halo diehards, who now hold a strong disposition against 343 Industries; the game pitted Cortana against the rest of the galaxy, who controls the Guardians and the Prometheans left behind by the long-dead Forerunners. It began a crisis that I personally am interested in seeing more of, a fascistic, tyrannical lockdown of the entire galaxy at the hands of an AI who once insisted that she was not a megalomaniac (I laugh every time I hear that line in Halo 2), rebranding her army of Promethean forces and AI defectors to The Created.

50 bucks says this structure isn't Forerunner.
It's human. I DARE you to disagree with me.

I really don't care for Spartan Locke or Fireteam Osiris (Buck excepted; Buck is always excepted). However, the Created crisis is a creative decision that I actually defend. Halo 5's story sucked food-nipples, don't get me wrong. That whole campaign was a dumpster fire. But I want to separate the wheat from the tares here for a second. The Guardians themselves are a unique idea, even if 343i borrowed heavily from the Transformers school of "ancient technological McGuffin never mentioned until now in every subsequent title". It's a serious crisis that changes the landscape drastically in a unique way that Bungie never did. It resets the game board to be heavily in The Created's favor. It forces humanity to be on the run and constantly on the back foot, where humanity is honestly at its best in this universe. Now that the Covenant are finally a distant memory (like they should have been after Halo 3), humanity has another enemy, one of their own making. In every book I've read since Halo 5's ending, I've been excited by the tension caused by tiptoeing across the galaxy, both the UNSC and the Banished doing everything they can not to tip off The Created of their position, making engagements both complicated and interesting. Both sides agree to an unsaid rule that is the Mutually-Assured Destruction if either side grabs Cortana's attention. I may not like Halo 5 one bit, but loving The Created crisis is a hill I will die on.

Now, Halo Wars 2 takes us back to the perspective of The Spirit of Fire (every time I say the ship's name I get Bionicle vibes, and can hear Turaga Vakama's voice in my head). They have been adrift for 28 years, but some unknown individual transported them to the Ark--no one knows who or why, even to this day. However, this is the title that introduces The Banished, but more-importantly, their leader: Atriox. This Jiral'Hanae (Brute) is... well, I don't often swear on my blogs, but today I'm going to make an exception: He's a bona-fide BADASS. Most of my friends know that I have a steamy-mancrush on Atriox. For those who don't know, Atriox served during the Human-Covenant War, with his clan being selected by the Covenant to go on suicide missions. 40 at a time they would go into battle, and only 1 of them returned, each and every time. Atriox kept coming back, battle after battle, watching 39 of his brothers die before humanity's might. Eventually he got sick of it, and when the Covenant tried to execute him for his blasphemy, he defied them and, for the first time in Covenant history, won. Atriox gained a lot of followers that day, and The Banished were born. The Covenant had two targets during those years: Humanity and The Banished. They almost wiped humanity off the face of the galaxy, but Atriox? Not even close. The Banished are now the main villain in Halo Infinite. They are not fanatical zealots like the Covenant, but that makes them all the more deadly. Having a leader whom everyone in The Banished reveres is a major plus, and I have an entire point on that for another time. But when it comes to a dude who convinced his Silent Shadow assassins to work for him AS they were attempting to assassinate him, this is a monke whose charisma, skill, and intimidation factor knows no bounds. Despite his numbers, however, the resourcefulness of Spirit of Fire frustrates his as-of-still shrouded plans. The game ends with Captain Cutter (my hero in this series) scoring a major victory against Atriox, getting a replacement for Installation 04 off the Ark and to a comms beacon for Professor Anders to ask for help--who is stopped by a Guardian in the final cutscene of the game and we don't know the status of.

Halo: Bad Blood focuses on Buck, who has been given a mission by his love interest, the only tolerable ONI spook in existence Veronica Dare, to reform Alpha-Nine, his old ODST squad, in order to discover the secret to an off-the-books Insurrectionist colony that seems to avoid the doomsday gaze of The Created. The only problem: He must break his former colleague, Mickey, out of a Spartan IV prison, an Insurrectionist traitor that got The Rookie from ODST killed. The story brings along Vergil and Sadie from the same game, as well as Dutch and his wife Gretchen, and Romeo. All of them are now Spartan IV's at this point in the story (which kind of makes me wonder: if so many ODST's are getting placed into the Spartan IV program, what does this mean for the ODST's? Are they going to exist in this new vacuum between Marine and Spartan?), and sport the appropriate genetic modifications and armor. Their last pit stop was to pick up Mickey at a Spartan IV training station in the middle of space, a training facility headed by our favorite surviving Noble Team member, Jun, and also the location of a prison specifically made for traitorous Spartans--such as Mickey, who defected to the Insurrectionist faction in the book Halo: New Blood. Little did they know, the AI administrator of the facility, named Leonidas, had defected to Cortana's Created, and was keeping everyone on the station out of the loop until a Guardian could arrive. After a tense situation where the AI kept everyone on-station hostage with the life support systems, they managed, with Vergil's help, to outsmart the AI and destroy the chip he was on. They left and went to the colony, without realizing that Leonidas had stowed away in Gretchen's armor and was contacting Cortana. In a gut-wrenching turn of events, a Guardian arrives at the colony and forces the Insurrectionists there to surrender to Cortana's ultimative grip. Leonidas gets attached to the Guardian's hull as a data chip in part of ceasefire negotiations, which Romeo double-crosses immediately by sniping the chip off the Guardian's hull and thus fully-killing the treacherous AI. The end of the books sees Alpha-Nine escape empty-handed, but also with Buck getting married to Veronica and breaking off from Fireteam Osiris to reform the old Alpha-Nine.

Halo: Shadows of Reach is an interesting story that all-but sets up the events of Halo Infinite. With Cortana having a vice grip on the Orion Arm of the galaxy, the UNSC Infinity sends Blue Team on a special mission to return to the glassed Reach, once home to the Spartan II program where Blue Team was raised. The Master Chief and friends were tasked with digging down to the now-buried Castle Base to recover some boxes that are, as Dr. Halsey explains, imperative to defeating Cortana. The contents of these boxes are as-of-yet confirmed, but when Palmer pressed on what was in them, Halsey insisted that the Spartan IV and Lasky would immediately arrest her if they were to discover what was inside. Not like either of them haven't done that before... At any rate, the mission immediately goes south, mainly due to the fact that The Banished are also seeking something from Castle Base. Three subfactions of The Banished are here, including one called The Keepers of the One Freedom, which still believes in The Great Journey and for that reason they allow humans into their ranks (which ONI took advantage of and placed a group of Spartan III's called Fireteam Ferret inside as sleeper agents). They seek Forerunner Artifacts which were actually retconned artifacts from an earlier, fantastic novel, First Strike by the great Eric Nylund, one of five shards that can activate a portal on Reach directly to the Ark, where their leader Atriox could return to the galaxy (there was no way for him to do so conventionally because Spirit of Fire from Halo Wars 2 had destroyed their mercenary ship, The Enduring Conviction, in an ingenious way). By book's end, Atriox does so, but before he can return, The Keepers of the One Freedom betray Atriox and travel to the Ark using Atriox's Lich so they can activate the Halo Array from there and begin the Great Journey, leaving Atriox on Reach; that particular story continues in Halo: Divine Wind. 

Lastly, Master Chief is able to recover the aforementioned boxes, but not before some kind of Cortana lookalike, this time a dumb AI, shows up as a security measure before Blue Team can take the boxes. Some have taken this to mean that this AI is The Weapon. But I have been the first to explain that she is not, mainly due to the fact that she is not a smart AI. We know this for a fact because not only is it explicitly stated in the book, but it's also been more than 7 years since Castle Base was buried in First Strike. Smart AI succumb to rampancy after 7 years, so this AI couldn't be The Weapon, who is herself a Smart AI. However, they wouldn't have put this into the book if it weren't some kind of clue. The contents of the box are, likely, flash-cloned brains of Dr. Halsey; Smart AI are created through electrically-copying the brains of individuals and converting those scanned brains into data. This process will fry the brain like an Elite swallowing a venting plasma grenade, so usually the subjects of this scan are brilliant individuals who are either dead or dying, neither of which Halsey was. She was the first to use a flash-cloned brain of herself to create Cortana. It is more-than likely that these contents were brains of Halsey. The only stance against this idea is how cellular degradation works on a flash-cloned body--which also includes body parts, such as the brain. Flash-clones typically suffered extreme degradation and ultimately the bodies of those clones shut down within a month of life. ONI used flash clones to swap the children they kidnapped, and when they died ONI made up a fake disease to cover their tracks so nobody would be the wiser. Therefore, I disagree with the notion that these boxes contained flash clones of Dr. Halsey. This will feed into a theory I have later in the article.

Halo: Divine Wind just came out, but it's so far removed from the story of Halo Infinite that I don't rightly care to discuss it in this already-lengthy article. It very briefly involves what's going on post-Halo Wars 2 and Spirit of Fire, but really only gives us a glimpse. If anything, it actually opens up a very interesting subplot involving the true plans of The Prophet of Truth and the San'Shyuum council members of the Covenant; I see some very dangerous plotlines on the horizon involving the Prophets, and I'm looking forward to this being explored. Nothing of value is added to what is to come in Halo Infinite, however. Therefore, this is more of a footnote than anything in today's article. The same is mostly-true of Points of Light (however, I highly-recommend you listen to the Audible version of the book, as Tim Dadabo, 343 Guilty Spark's voice actor, does an amazing job narrating the story, and every minute of that story is a treat hearing it come from his mouth). Even though a very small part of the book takes place on Zeta Halo, nothing of note comes of it other than establishing that science teams were on the ring at that point in time, which was literally days before the Created crisis.

So now let's talk about theories. This is my last-minute attempt to get some theories out. I don't have much to brag about in my life, but being correct in theorycrafting is absolutely one of them! I was the only one that I am aware of who managed to correctly guess the plot of XCOM 2, as well as Metroid Dread (I really should have made an article before that one came out, and I'm kicking myself for not doing so). I also correctly-predicted back in 2017 that Nintendo would announce not one, but two Metroid titles at E3 that year, and I have the Facebook comments to back me up on that. So with my record laid bare before you, let's get on with my Halo Infinite theories!

First, let's talk about my boy Atriox. This is a dude who stood up to the Covenant and won in spades. He does not take threats lightly, and under no circumstances does he bow to anyone. Not Covenant, not Forerunner, not human, not Created... So for a while I've been wondering: What is Atriox doing in the galaxy between Shadows of Reach and Halo Infinite? I don't quite know the answer to this... However, I suspect that his absence in Infinite may have something to do with it. I have already looked at the credits for Halo Infinite when the multiplayer came out. Atriox is credited in the game (but voiced by Spartan Locke's voice actor, whose character is not credited in the game), so he definitely has lines. But then again, Captain Keyes is credited in the game as well, so it could very well be that he's only credited in audio logs like I assume Keyes is (unless, of course, we walk into a cave in Infinite and see some dude in a ragged navy uniform, sporting a beard and smoking from a splintered pipe saying, "Good to see you Master Chief! Things aren't going well"). I have a strong feeling that he is going to do absolutely everything to defy Cortana, and if he puts up as much of a fight as he did with the Covenant, Cortana is going to have to fight harder than she ever has to try to defeat him. When you play the game, you may notice some lines delivered by characters referencing "The Apparition". This is the Banished's name for Cortana, as referenced in Halo: Shadows of Reach and in Divine Light. So bear that in mind. I don't know who would win this particular war, but I suspect that both sides are going to score major points against the other. As much as I hate to admit it, Atriox might be dead because of this. It would be an absolute shame if they did this, and it proves that 343i did not learn their lesson with Jul 'Mdama being killed in the first 5 minutes of the game in a CUTSCENE of all places. To kill him off-screen would be a terrible decision, and the fact that it is your most-interesting villain since Truth would be an even bigger mistake. Either way, Atriox isn't one to hide from the Guardians, I just don't see that in his character. So here's hoping he does something jaw-dropping.

Secondly, I want to discuss The Harbinger. I don't really have much to go on, so I won't be giving out a theory about what she is--rather, I'm going to dispel what she isn't. I have seen way too many people on Discord, YouTube, and Reddit saying, "She's a Precursor! Precursor! There's no way she isn't a Precursor! Shut up I'm right, there's no other possibility!" Your input has been noted, now go away. Sorry, but if it's the only option, that isn't much of a theory, now is it? Not everything has to be based in established canon. After all, the Prometheans weren't before Halo 4. In fact, they weren't even in the books until after Halo 4 released! This is the end of the Reclaimer Saga. A new Saga is beginning, one that will have its weight placed in a new story, a new threat. While I'm not exactly fond of the phrase uttered by The Weapon in some revealed gameplay footage courtesy of IGN ("What could possibly be worse than the Flood?"), I do see this as an opportunity to tell a new story, one that isn't bound by the admittedly-lackluster Forerunner books. Whatever the Endless, Harbinger, and Auditorium are, this is going to be new. There may be some references here and there connecting them to the Forerunners, humans, and maybe even the Precursors; however, I can say with a 93% assuredness that they are something completely new. I wanted to clear the air on that.

The last thing I want to discuss is perhaps the best, which I think is the biggest theory of all: The Weapon is Cortana. As I have mentioned a couple paragraphs up, I don't believe that the boxes contain brains for Halsey to scan into AI. If that's the case, then where did The Weapon come from? I believe that whatever is contained within those boxes was a lure for Cortana; perhaps a facsimile of a copy of her. After all, there was this quote where Cortana says she encounters something that is familiar to herself, yet completely different. It could be that the UNSC sets a trap for her and then, for lack of a better term, "resets" her. It would be interesting to see Cortana rediscover the world for herself, while also serving as the vessel for new players to discover the Halo universe as the developers have promised. My only caveat to this is whether or not 343i follows George Lucas' "rhyming" devices. "The Star Wars Trilogies are like poetry: they rhyme!" If this is the case, then we will see Cortana and The Weapon play out similarly to everyone's favorite subject to theorize about: Mendicant Bias and the lesser-known Offensive Bias. Mendicant Bias suffered from a Flood-induced Logic Plague, while Offensive Bias was created specifically to destroy his corrupted brother. I personally find this to be a tool of lazy storytellers, however. Rhyming trilogies is really how The Force Awakens ended up being a "meh" kind of film, as it had retreaded too many plot points as A New Hope. I'm hoping they don't do this, but if they don't, then I believe this is the path that they take in terms of storytelling: The Weapon is Cortana.

So there you have it! This is my Before-You-Play article for Halo Infinite. Hopefully you'll have learned something and are well-prepared for the release of this highly-anticipated title. I also am hoping I scored some theorycrafting brownie points with you today. I take a lot of time thinking about things from different angles, and I am happy to know that I have a knack for this sort of thing. This is the stuff I live for! So hopefully I was at least on the right track with some of it. Let me know what you guys think!