NEW HALO INFINITE STORY DETAILS (6 Month Time Jump DETAILED) 

I really enjoyed how graphic this book was at times, it really didn't pull any punches and was absolutely NOT a T-Rated story at any point, M-Rated and then some, here's to hoping Halo's game stories start to adopt a more mature tone like this in the future 🤞

This sounds like a great addition to the lore but at the same time, it's disappointing we were not able to experience it in Halo Infinite. Even worse, we are yet to get any additional campaign expansion news or anything of that nature...

With Halo Canon stepping back from RU-vid I think it’s really important that content like this still exist in the halo community. Not everyone has time to read the books and a cliff notes videos are important for key plot points in the halo universe

I like how ODST's are frequently mentioned in the game's campaign, mentioned and seen several time's in the index and the start of foundry with all the deceased and it's stated the infinity had over 780 of them, now the ship had 7150 so it was understaffed in comparison to it's 17,000 compliment but still the fact they are talked about and in the rubicon protocol and yet they are *NOWHERE* to be seen in game. I just want the boys back 😭

My favorite part about this book is how Spartan IVs view their armor compared to Spartan IIs. IIs have spent so long in their armor and are so use to it that to them it is a part of their body, it’s their outermost layer of skin. Spartan IVs however view their armor as just equipment to either help them when it’s working properly or a burden when it’s malfunctioning. It’s very interesting hearing Spartan IVs with damaged armor debating on whether or not they’ll be better off without it.

The interesting thing about them managing to get a signal out to the galaxy and ask for help is that the encyclopedia seems to be heavily implying the Swords of Sangheilios will be one of the forces (maybe even Agryna and her Spartans since I think they have to tie that mp story into the main story stuff eventually) because the description for the Swords of the Sangheilios in the encyclopedia says "With the sudden emergence of a formidable Banished presence on Zeta Halo, their greatest challenge appears to lie ahead"

They should have let us play the Infinity Invasion. This would’ve been a great callback to CE.

Book was sooo good. It honestly made me want to go back through Infinite and get revenge on the Banished all over again. Amazing book

It's basically guaranteed the Swords of Sangheilios will answer the call. The Encyclopedia confirms the SoS are fighting the Banished on Zeta Halo which hasn't actually happened yet.

Stories like this would make for great odst style dlc. Different stories focusing on different characters during overlapping events.

I thought this was story expansion news 😭😭

If people forgot there was a removed cutscene at the end of Halo Infinite with Chief, the Pilot and the Weapon back out in space when something shows up, likely reinforcements because he’s happy. So wherever they are, reinforcements have arrived. We really need to get a DLC or more books, comics or just something that expands it Edit: Forgot to mention there was concept art of four UNSC Phoenix carriers (spirit of fire like ships) over Zeta Halo

The environment containment field is likely the blue aura we see around the broken part of Zeta Halo. It's function being to keep the atmosphere in the ring and to prevent it from floating into space, alongside ensure that life can live on the ring.

New lore info is always good to hear for infinite’s story

Alright, so, naturally the very, very, VERY small tidbits of info on the Endless we got from this book fascinated me the most. I'm surprised you didnt mention this moment, but We now know that the Skimmers (Species name: Gasgira) are possibly not very smart by deafult, as they were attacking both Spartans AND Banished at first, possibly showing that they need the Harbinger to command them in a sophisticated way... Also, the story with Lucas Browning fascinates me to no end...you think if the Harbinger was just mentally torturing him, she would have killed Lucas long ago....actually giving him food and making it so that he physically cant share what she tells him is incredibly strange, and sorta hints that she has a very important plan for him... Here is a bit of a small theory: During her 'Boss Fight' the Harbinger can say "Kill the Spartan! Earn your place among the Endless!" and she can say to Chief "I might have let you join us...but no more!" now remember that the Skimmers are a separate species to the Xalanyn...but with certain similar physical simularities, and they never talk...ever. What if Lucas Browning went through the early stages of *'joining the Endless'* for some type of special task? The Skimmers have completed this process, having their bodies resembling Xalanyn, their legs corrupted, so they need jetpack-wings to move, their minds have been damaged, so they can never speak and can ONLY do what a Xalanyn tells them to do...its also worth mentioning that the original description of the Precursors had them described as having "Degenerative legs, constantly floating" a trait shared by the Xalanyn and Gasgira...

I can't believe you missed it but amidst the psychological torture, Lucas Browning is repeating his own service number, just like Captain Keyes did in the Halo 2 Anniversary terminals. This proves that the Harbinger and the Endless have some sort of connection to the Primordials.

I really enjoyed the Rubicon Protocol. Spartans Kovan, Stone, and Horvath are the goats and the Banished are very brutal compared to anything we’ve so far. Lucas Browning’s experiences in the Tower was extremely heartbreaking, demoralizing, and terrifying. Also, reading the book while listening to a variety of Halo soundtracks was the best thing I’ve done so far. Also, either Kovan failed to liberate the Tower or Chief beat the boat crew to it :P

I have an idea. Because of the nature of a super-liminal message, there are two possibilities of who it reaches first. 1. Zeta Halo may be closer to the Spirit of Fire and they come to save the day but that is unlikely. 2. Zeta Halo may be further from the Ark and closer to Human space but it could be maybe a light year away, a super-luminal message going at, say, 1.5 times the speed of light would reach the UNSC within six or so months. I think the most likely possibility is our MP Spartans get the message and go to back up the UNSC on Zeta Halo.

The book has set 343i up for two major things here in combination with in game lore: The first is the dancing around whereabouts of major characters. The book sets it up perfectly for those characters to come into the game through DLC (remember, the game is supposed to last for 10 years), possibly right when Chief needs them. The second is with the Harbinger, she quite literally quotes word for word the single most dangerous villain in the entire franchise, the Gravemind, in that first log in game (which sends chills down my spine every time). This sets 343i up to use that as a potential entry point for the Flood. Just think about this, the Endless hate the Forerunners, the Flood hunt the Forerunners and anything else with sufficient biomass. Remember that Halo 3 showed the Flood CAN and WILL team up with their food if it benefits them, so maybe the Endless and the Flood could form an alliance against everyone else. I just hope they wise up and use this setup.

I just finished this book. I feel like this was 100% supposed to come out before Halo Infinite which is why so many Spartan IV armor coatings are in the game, yet there’s no mention of them anywhere apart from Stone and Griffin. Could be why there are cut audio logs of each S-IV as well. Also think each S-IV was supposed to have their own Armor Kit in the game, but instead we just got their coatings.

It's good to hear the Infinity is still out and about, along with some of the fav characters like Captain Lasky. Ideally, it would be good to actually learn what has happened to him. It leaves the door open for future campaign DLC... if we ever hear anything about that.

Fun fact: 26 Spartan IVs were operating out of the Mortal Reverie prior to its fall. Known Spartans include Stone, Sorrel, Vettel, Kovan, Griffin, Jade, Rosado, Sarkar, Malik, Panago, Oshiro, Makovich, and Dimka). 4 went on the on a covert mission to assassinate Escherum (Malik, Panago, Sarkar, and Griffin); this means that 24 Spartans were left to defend Mortal Reverie during the banished assault (Attacks by air and ground units). During the battle Spartans along with Marines, Army, and ODST'S were stationed at 1 of 2 barricades with additional units scattered along the outer perimeter which were most likely the first line of defense. The outer perimeter was defended by an unidentified number of soldiers (Marine, Army, and ODST's) along with a number of Warthog, Scorpion battle tanks and 6 Spartans, the first barricade was comprised of a significantly larger force featuring Wolverines similar to the first barricade but also 12 Spartan defenders (3 fireteams of 4), the second barricade was comprised of a significantly smaller group of personnel, along with Wolverines, and 6 Spartan defenders (Among them Makovich and Sorrell). Of all those Spartans only 7 were confirmed to have made out alive (Makovich, Sorrell, Stone, Kovan, Jade, Rosado, and Vettel) - meaning that the rest of Fireteam Taurus died during the fall of Reverie.

Kinda worried that so far the only confirmed continuation of plot and lore for Infinite is via text (books and Waypoint). It's not terrible, but some reassurance wouldn't be so bad either

Especially now with Humans being a part of the banished being full cannon, I’m curious if there is a potential to see any rouge Spartans being adopted into the bloodstars at some point

I think it’s interesting Stone and Kovan are apart of Fireteam Shadow. They were a Spartan Fireteam that assisted Crimson way back in Spartan Ops when there was a Covie ship above us preventing exfil. Would be interesting to see if Horatio Fry who we heard on the comms (in Spartan Ops) survived or is still alive on the ring somewhere. Either way Kelly Gay is one helluva an author, and she always does a good job tying things already existing in the universe into her stories, making them feel connected to the world and not just an isolated story

Spoilers in this comment for my theory. Those reinforcements are probably linked to the secret ending in Infinite's files. If it covers everything within that six month period and the signal to human space takes place near the end of the book, it wouldn't surprise me if reinforcements arrived not too long after the end of the main campaign.

I think this book really ties the knot between halo infinites intro and actual start of the game really well especially with all the Spartans.

Can't wait to see UNSC ships being the ones hovering above the ring instead of banished once reinforcements arrive/ Speaking of reinforcements, could it be related to that deleted/hidden ending cutscene where Chief, the weapon and Fernando looked outside the pelican and saw something that had tag designation Friend?

This is just horrifying and I love it. If only atriox didn't put cheif in cryo then maybe most of the people who died would've been alive.

Hey guys welcome back. Never gets old thanks for your content

I enjoyed how the book draws from the Flood and the Fall of Reach books with its tone and graphic depiction of fighting enemies that can easily overpower Spartans of all things. Bit of a shame there’s no answer as to what happened to Locke, Lasky, or the Infinity. Annoying that it only doubles down on what we know from Infinite: the ring jumped to FTL after taking damage, the Infinity is MIA, everything else from the audio logs. Really seems like Kelly was hamstrung this time around. Nothing was really learned, just elaborated on. And for the love of god, these “this should have been in the game” comments. *Its a Master Chief story*. Y’all lost your shit when you didn’t get to play as him last game, you really think they’ll turn a deaf ear that? This is because of that.

Lasky better be alive, that man is too important.

I very glad you still make content thank you .

i love your videos man, keep them going halo is going through a tough time but it will rise, maybe not as high as before but it will rise

I really love the danger emphasized in intelligent brutes. Atriox and Escharum are each ruthless in their leadership, while Tartarus leads with skill. While 343 has not done a super great job with elite characters (looking at you Jul 'Mdama), they really have stepped up their game by creating fascinating brutes (Tartarus is Bungie, I know).

I'm currently on chapter 17 and I had the same thought about it being comparable to the flood

Maybe they’re planning to make a campaign DLC on the events that occur in this book? They DID say Infinite would be a Spartan story…

22:38 Correction! Adjutant Veridity isn't new, they're the same monitor that Spark and co encountered in Point of Light!

For Everyone that keeps asking how Echo-216 and Chief are with Zeta Halo even through it jumped here's your clarification: They were in close proximity to Zeta Halo when it jumped so the slipspace bubble carried the wreckage along. We've seen the same thing happen in Halo 2 when Regret jumped into Delta Halo from inside New Mombasa. There was wreckage that could be seen as the carrier exited slipspace...

I can't wait for more story content to be added to the game itself. That said, it's always great to hear more context in some form! Thanks for the coverage! Also may I ask, is the machinima style presentation at 5:04 something you did? Cause I love it. I miss Halo machinima. I'm sure I just need to hunt for it.

Thank you for returning to halo content. I've said it before, I'll always support you but Halo is your bread and butter man. Comes so naturally.

If only the game was rated M we would've seen how brutal the Banished-UNSC war was in game

Hidden posts a new video. A HALO video. Fastest and most furious click I’ve ever done. Loving the recent content man! You have my full support 💪 Get well soon bro!

I love these lore videos you do. Thank you so much!

I have a theory: If the infinity has been moved outside the previous zeta halo location... is it possible that the spirit of fire detects the mayday signal?

Good video. I saw it pop up on my feed but waited to watch it before I finished the book myself. I Super enjoyed reading about locations that I had already played on in the campaign. And would also love to meet Kovan or Horvath in the next playable DLC/game

I never knew what the destroyed skiff was. I actually thought it was supposed to be a destroyed phantom for a long time. Of course, it's way too small to be a phantom obviously. After watching this video, I want to play more of the Halo Infinite campaign just to slaughter more of the Banished in brutal ways (specifically the brutes and elites), especially by driving around in a jeep filled with heavily armed marines.

Finished the book a few minutes ago, been saving this for now. I’m hyped

To find out what happened to laskey I hope he becomes an assassin type character where when he’s about to take out a Hunter who’s a HVT he runs into chief and they recreate the scene between laskey and chief where they fight a Hunter in forward unto dawn but the roles are reversed

I saw the first minute of this video the day it came out. Left and got the book, finished reading it. And now I've returned to finish the video. Great content! 👍

Awesome! Watched the intro and outro haha. Glad to see how much you enjoyed it. I'll maybe come back once I've read it. :D Hope the algorithm doesn't hate that haha.

Sup Xperia love your content

Scott Brick once again killed it with his work on the audio book!! He's my go to for reading these novels and he does a fantastic job every single time!

hope your wrist gets better soon lad! it's almost bulking season too 💪😈

Man Xperia has had a MAJOR glow up since I started watching lookin good man

Finished it yesterday it’s a pretty good read or even listen on audible

15:38 that halo evolutions story "stomping on the heals of a fuss" Involves a lot of people being torn apart and eaten by brutes. Does this book also confirm that the banished ate humans? I remember an audio log where a grunt vaguely references it but what is something that they did on the regular with hundreds orbthousands of people? Because thats dark

Very nice to know more lore but really just think they should have had more stuff explaining this in the actual game so we could learn more from that instead of having to dive into tons of material outside the game

I'm so glad there was mention of Human Banished, I really enjoy the concept of having humanity be included into this alien force of ideological mercenaries. It just feels so Atriox to include even humans into his meritocratic army of looters. I just wish we saw them in Infinite, would've been cool to fight the Marine AI on the enemy's side for once. Hope we get it in future games.

Might get buried but I've speculated that the "kind" voice Lucas Browning talks to might be Lasky. He hesitates when Browning asks for his name and says that he shouldn't reveal it. Or it could be an Oni operative but still it could be Lasky.

Rubicon protocol is a really good book, but I wish there was more action and details during the chapter 17, otherwise everything was really really good

Idk what it means, but in the harbinger audio log she quoted halo 2s gravemind by saying "I shall talk and you shall listen" Thought it was interesting

Everyone Else: *Talking about Marines and ODSTs and other Spartans in the book* Me: *the only person in the background excited about actual Endless appearing*

Sorry about the injury, but you're looking good brother! Keep lifting.

I love your videos!

Cool to hear the Grave Mind reference quote at 17:17

24:13 It's gonna be the Spirit of Fire I'm calling it 😂

Bro been hitting the gym you look great 💯

The harbinger said "I shall talk and you shall listen" like the gravemind in H2!

Always a fan of lost haven't seen a reference in ages!

Your videos are the best

sick video bro.

22:20: “Stabbed in the back by Jega, who taunts her as she bleeds out” oh my god Jega emoted on her

Just finished it today, I loved it. Still lots of questions left to be answered but love what we got in the book.

If the ring teleported away in the 6 months chief was floating in space wouldn't that mean it left both him and the engineer behind where ever it left?

I would love a video of some of the locations in the book that you can also see in game. like some of the drop pods and the beam tower that the boat crew fought at.

11:05 on my knees praying to every possible deity rn

Always a good day when our boy Luke posts.

I had the book on my audible wish list but it has been removed from sale in Australia unfortunately by audible. I'm willing to bet because of the graphic descriptions in the book

This book was so good. I just finished the audio version a couple days ago. It’s one of the best Halo books in my opinion

17:19 I shall talk and you shall listen “ omg like what the grave mind said

This book makes you respect Chief even more, all the hell the UNSC went through in 6 months, and the Chief comes up and in 24 hours he killed Escharum, thousands of troops and even an ancient species. And I like to think that the marines in the game that are optimistic and hopeful is because they just saw THE spartan return to them.

Spartan Griffin: “THE NUMBERS LUCAS! WHAT DO THEY MEAN?”

I love the vanished human part

thanks

“Now I shall talk and you shall listen.” Nice Gravemind call-back.

I know that 343 is most likely not going to do this, but I would love if they both continued Chief’s story in additional campaigns and began a side story akin to Spartan Ops/Halo Reach where our multiplayer character is used, sorta following the trail of Chief and other members of the Infinity as a part of reinforcements from the Spartan Academy. That might be a good way to sort of follow up with this book more directly.

Before you said you sprained your wrist lifting, I was just about to say homeboy been hitting the shoulder shrugs heavy! The Traps are looking massive 😂💪

Yeah the environmental failure was just on the chunk of ring that Horvath was stuck on, which is what made him and Gorian agree to work together since they were on a time limit.

Gym injuries suck... I wish you a speedy recovery man.

Man yeah i love how graphic and dark this book was makes me wish the game could have been this dark but i get why they can't be i guess. This book was so well done god damn man the references and inspirations it takes from all over the Halo universe is incredible. Also very cool/interesting how they did manage to get a request for help out to human space, DLC may be awhile away but they're definitely setting it up big laying the groundwork for it on this book. Who will show up to help first, Swords of Sanghilios an Arbiter? Spirit of Fire? Or a big ass battle group of humans? Can't wait to find out man.

I was really impressed with this book i agree with you it's easily one of my favorites if not my favorite. They may not have touched on any of the missing major characters but like you said im glad they didn't because that stuff should be told in the game. One thing i noticed more than anything else is they're definitely starting to sprinkle and tease bits of flood. The mention of a damaged containment field, the spartan that's still alive on the ring that's trained specifically in hivemind training / flood containment. There's a couple other things too but man so cool. God i want more of this story!

I think the reason that the game’s atmosphere isn’t as dark as the book’s was is because of Master Chief. The marines say a couple lines here and there about how they thought they might not make it, but Master Chief is THE symbol of Hope for humanity. He is the savior and his presence is likely near God Like in terms of it’s effect on Morale

Hang on, the UNSC Army is mentioned in the book? We really need to see them more in the Halo series, preferably in a cool new game taking place during the Human-Covenant War.

Spirt of Fire vibes growing with the signal sent.

Hey the dude talking to the harbinger kinda reminds me of how in the lore the old humans had ancestry memories so old so far we didn't know (the primordial becoming the flood on there homeworld)

Just finished this book and it was great. Deffinatly wish Halo was more dark like this book. Sometimes it felt like I was listening to a Warhammer 40k book with how dark it got sometimes.

I feel like a halo wars 3 during this time jump would be very fun

I loved that we saw Banished Humans up close and that there are on Zeta Halo. Wonder if we'll fight them in a DLC. Still it was great to see it in the book. Interesting that Escharum hate Humans so much but then allow them to serve in his army. I wonder if the Human inspector at the Redoubt of Sundering is a personal friend of Escharum similar of how Jega is. Also happy to know that Blue Team was on the Infinity. This mean that they are somewhere on Zeta Halo, so we'll probably meet them in future DLCs. I think that in general the story focused on the wrong characters. A Banished point of view would have been nice. I think that a cameo from Locke, Hyperius and Tovarus was a must, considering also how little presence these characters had in the game. Also I think that something as important as to contact the outside galaxy and ask for reinforcements should have been a in-game storyline and not confined to the book. Besides at the end they decided to free the prisoners at the Tower but we know that, by the time Chief return, Griffin was still imprisoned at the Tower. So we must assume that Kovan (and Vettel) died trying ? In the end The Rubicon Protocol wasn't a bad book but honestly could have been much better. I think Denning would have been more suited to this style of story. Especially with the opening chapter and the battle at the Reverie. These were pretty important battles and while I can see the benefit of focusing on the individual characters in these events I would have personally preferred a more tactical overview of how they went down. Especially since we’re always told the Banished have amazing tacticians but we never really get much of an explanation for that other then they just overwhelm their opponents.

I said this earlier on a Late Night Gaming video, but I'll put it here too. It feels like they don't wanna give us any info on preexisting characters because they could possibly show up in DLC. There's this weird desire to block the player off from any info about the outside world. We have a few scenes in the Academy, but only in the Academy. The only people who come in just tell us that they were fighting the banished on some random planet. I wasn't even aware that the Banished had a presence outside Installations 00 and 07. Tell us how Arbiter is doing, where Hood is, or what the heck is happening on Earth now that Cortana is gone. Are the Created even still around? It's a shame that they're probably keeping the two biggest bundles of characters, Infinity and Spirit of Fire, hidden in some closet b/c they're the most likely DLC expansions. The shame is we won't get either for a very long time, and then have to wait again for the other to show up. At least give us confirmation that Locke and Palmer are alive. Listen, I'm a huge fan of Infinite's campaign. I also love the gameplay and genuinely want the game to do well. I've given them a lot a slack, probably more than I should, but it's finally catching up to me. I loved how the story was extremely Chief focused, and I appreciate how it brought the series back to its roots. However, by doing that they've left a lot of loose ends hanging, many of which have been there since 5. At least with 5 we had some idea of what would happen next, we even got a book taking place right after. (whether or not that was a good way of doing it is another discussion, but at least we knew) The cliffhanger of 5, annoying as it was, also let us know what the next thing would be. All we know right now is that Atriox is alive with the Endless, and we're gonna have to fight them. We have no idea what that'll look like, or even why we need to fight them. Infinity is... gone? There's no wreckage. Locke is somewhere on the Ring nekked, Lasky is alive ig, and Blue Team is... somewhere. Also, poor Dr Anders has been stuck on a ring with a guardian for the last five years. There're too many options that eventually all have to happen, but it'll take five years of us not knowing where our favorite characters are. I'd love a co-op of Chief and Jerome, but that makes less sense if Infinity is there with Osiris, Majestic, Alpha 9, Palmer, etc. Is Halsey alive? Where's my boy Fred? Did Osiris get decent looking armor? TL:DR-- 343 has a lot of stuff they can use, but also a lot to wrap up. We have no indication of what's happening, and no idea when or in what order we'll find out. We can't connect to the story outside of "Chief and friends' because they won't let us see the characters we've grown to love, and are instead stuck with bland expositors in Mjolnir shells.