by Various
We still don’t understand everything about Voi, but we do know that the structure is still active, still drawing power from an unknown source, and as far as we can tell, riddled with passageways and conduits that we have, as yet, minimal access to. There are more secrets locked under our feet than we dare speculate on. We’re looking particularly for answers as they relate to doors, encryption, and other passageways. This isn’t something we can blast or arcweld our way through. It’s something we must think through.
Again, I want you all to understand the entirety of the material you are now investigating. To those of you already at sites, I advise caution and diplomacy in equal measure. The Sangheili have promised nothing—and indeed warned us that they do not yet control either the Covenant client species, or even their own domestic situation. Hostilities may have ceased for now, but we should be alert and logical.
This may be the greatest archaeological boon we have ever received as scholars, but it is certainly the most perilous. Be careful. I expect daily reports filed regardless of slipstream delay. I will reassemble chronology later.
Good luck.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. William Arthur Iqbal
Department of Xenoarchaeology
Edinburgh University
* * *
* A tiny aberration in the fossil and carbon rec ords of Earth, noted by two Earth geologists in 2332—and matched on several other worlds, demonstrating a gap in certain species so tiny and uniform, that it had been attributed not to a biological catastrophe, but rather had been investigated and then abandoned as odd evidence of warping or stretching of spacetime itself. The Ross- Ziegler Blip is now being opened and reinvestigated in connection to the events of 2552.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* * *
THE AMOUNT of work that goes into a project like this defies understanding. The behind-the-scenes of making a multi-author book that ties into the vanguard of modern science fiction could easily make the stuff of bad reality television. Juggling the franchise’s wonderfully high story expectations while simultaneously maintaining authors’ creative freedoms, all under fun and tortuous time constraints, requires heroic actions from many. This book wouldn’t have been at all possible without the Herculean efforts of Nicolas “Sparth” Bouvier, Alicia Brattin, Gabriel “Robogabo” Garza, Jonathan Goff, Kevin Grace, Alicia Hatch, and Frank O’Connor.
The amazing team at Tor has to be praised as well. Led by Tom Doherty and masterfully marshaled by Eric Raab, the unsung heroes of Karl Gold, Justin Golenbock, Jim Kapp, Seth Lerner, Jane Liddle, Whitney Ross, Heather Saunders, and Nathan Weaver and their efforts in the trenches to make it all happen is legend. Special thanks to Shelley Chung, Patricia Fernandez, and Christina MacDonald for desperately trying to make every story in here read without a blip.
Additional thanks to 343 Industries, Bungie Studios, Ryan Crosby, Scott Dell’Osso, Nick Dimitrov, David Figatner, Nancy Figatner, Josh Kerwin, Justin Osmer, Pete Parsons, Bonnie Ross-Ziegler, Phil Spencer, and Carla Woo.
More from this Series
Halo: Silent Storm
Book 23
HALO: Renegades
Book 24
HALO: Cryptum
Book 8
HALO: Primordium
Book 9
HALO: Silentium
Book 10
HALO: Glasslands
Book 11
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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TOBIAS S. BUCKELL is a New York Times bestselling science fiction author born in the Caribbean. He grew up in Grenada and spent time in the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, and these places influence much of his work. Along with stand-alone novels such as Halo: The Cole Protocol, Halo: Envoy, Hurricane Fever, Arctic Rising, and his more than fifty published stories, Tobias has been translated into eighteen different languages. He has been nominated for such awards as the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus, and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Bluffton, Ohio, with his wife, twin daughters, and a pair of dogs.
B. K. EVENSON is the author of the Aliens tie-in novel Aliens: No Exit, and the Dead Space novels Martyr and Catalyst. Under the name Brian Evenson, he is the author of more than a dozen books of fiction, most recently the story collection A Collapse of Horses and the novella The Warren. He has also recently published Windeye and Immobility, both of which were finalists for a Shirley Jackson Award. His novel Last Days won the American Library Association’s award for Best Horror Novel of 2009. His novel The Open Curtain was a finalist for an Edgar Award and an International Horror Guild Award. Other books include The Wavering Knife (which won the IHG Award for best story collection), Dark Property, and Altmann’s Tongue. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches in the Critical Studies Program at CalArts.
JONATHAN DAVID GOFF is a writer and artist raised on a healthy diet of Saturday morning cartoons and sugary breakfast cereals. After serving in the United States Air Force, Jonathan spent six years developing creative content for action figure, comic book, and entertainment properties at the McFarlane Companies in Tempe, Arizona, before relocating to the Pacific Northwest, where he assisted Microsoft Game Studios’ 343 Industries in all manner of Halo-related goodness. He was a writer for Bungie, Inc.’s award-winning Destiny and Destiny 2. He currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona, with his lovely and infinitely supportive wife, Maria.
KEVIN GRACE is a Narrative Design Director at 343 Industries and a longtime resident of the Halo universe, where he wages a never-ending war on the Hexagonal Scourge. He has written the short story “The Return” for the Halo: Evolutions anthology, and worked on the story for Halo Wars 2 as well as the upcoming Halo: Infinite.
By day, TESSA KUM sits at her computer and types. By night, she also sits at her computer and types. Hers is the very definition of a rock ’n’ roll lifestyle. She is a graduate of the Clarion South Writers Workshop, editorial assistant for Weird Tales, and assistant editor for the Best American Fantasy series. She has been published in Daikaiju 3 and ASIM, with fiction appearing in anthologies such as Baggage and Last Drink Bird Head, and her short-story collection 7wishes is currently free to read online. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, and owns neither an Xbox nor a TV (which is, you know, a bit of a drag).
ROBT MCLEES does two things well: kill zombies and speak in a robot voice. Both of these life-skills served him well in his many years at Bungie. He married his best friend and has produced, with the help of his wife, two wonderful boys. If you give Robt a bite of your pizza, he’ll ask for a beer. And when you get back from grabbing a beer from the fridge, like half the damned pizza is gone! WTF, Rob?!?
ERIC NYLUND is the author of many novels, including the New York Times bestselling works Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: First Strike, and Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, and the World Fantasy nominated Dry Water. As a writer for Microsoft Game Studios, Nylund helped develop such game franchises as Halo and Gears of War. He has also helped shape the intellectual property for some of the world’s best videogame developers including Bioware and Epic Games, and also worked with Amazon’s game studios. Nylund lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, award-winning science fiction/fantasy writer Syne Mitchell, and their son.
FRANK O’CONNOR is the Creative Director for the Halo franchise at 343 Industries. He lives in Washington.
ERIC RAAB was born in the city of Newburgh, New York, which rests majestically on the western bank of the Hudson River. He was a senior editor at Tom Doherty Associates for Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, Halo: Contact Harvest, and Halo: The Cole Protocol, among other projects well worth your time and money. For several years now, he has been a managing editor, senior story editor, fiction consultant, narrative designer, and writer for Bungie, Inc. His passions include skipping rocks on water and driving nowhere.
#1 New York Times bestselling novelist, screenwriter, and comic book author KAREN TRAVISS has received critical acclaim for her award-nominated Wess’har series and Ringer series, as well as regularly hitting t
he bestseller lists with her Star Wars, Gears of War, and Halo work. She was also the lead writer on the blockbuster Gears of War 3 video game from Epic Games. A former defense correspondent and television and newspaper journalist, she lives in England.
JEFF VANDERMEER is the 2016-2017 Trias Writer-in-Residence for Hobart-William Smith College. His most recent fiction is the New York Times bestselling Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), which won the Shirley Jackson Award and Nebula Award. The trilogy made more than thirty year’s best lists, including Entertainment Weekly’s top ten, and prompted The New Yorker to call the author “the weird Thoreau.” The trilogy has been acquired by publishers in twenty eight other countries, with Paramount Pictures releasing the movie adaptation starring Natalie Portman in 2018. A three-time World Fantasy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, VanderMeer serves as the codirector of Shared Worlds, a unique teen SF/fantasy writing camp located at Wofford College and now entering its tenth year. Previous novels include The Ambergris Cycle, with nonfiction titles including Wonderbook, Booklife, and The Steampunk Bible. Widely regarded as one of the world’s best fantasists, Jeff VanderMeer grew up in the Fiji Islands and spent six months traveling through Asia, Africa, and Europe before returning to the United States. These travels have deeply influenced his fiction. He is the recipient of an NEA-funded Florida Individual Artist Fellowship for excellence in fiction and a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant. VanderMeer’s nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Atlantic.com, and the Los Angeles Times. He has taught at the Yale Writers’ Conference and the Miami International Book Fair, lectured at MIT, Brown, and the Library of Congress. His most recent novel from Farrar, Straus and Giroux is the bestseller Borne, and upcoming works include Hummingbird Salamander, and the YA series Jonathan Lambshead and the Golden Sphere. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, the noted editor Ann VanderMeer.
FRED VAN LENTE is the #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning writer of comics like Archer & Armstrong (Harvey Award nominee, Best Series), Action Philosophers! (American Library Association Best Graphic Novel for Teens), and Cowboys & Aliens (with Andrew Foley), the basis for the feature film. In 2017, Van Lente branched into the world of prose with his debut novel, the stand-up murder mystery Ten Dead Comedians. His follow-up novel, The Con Artist, a “geek noir” about murder at San Diego Comic Con, debuted in 2018. His many other comics and graphic novels include Weird Detective; The Comic Book History of Comics; The Incredible Hercules (with Greg Pak); Ivar, Timewalker; Marvel Zombies; and The Amazing Spider-Man. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, the playwright Crystal Skillman, and some mostly ungrateful cats.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
* * *
ROBOGABO (GABRIEL GARZA) has been a professional artist for the last twenty years. Born in Mexico, he now lives in Seattle, working for 343 Industries as a senior concept artist. His artwork is heavily influenced by his years of experience working at a newspaper. His passion for video games attracted him into the concept art community and led him to live and work across the United States working on video games. When Gabo is not painting, he likes to spend time at home with his family, while trying to enjoy life outside his art cave. Visit his website at www.robogabo.com.
SPARTH (NICOLAS BOUVIER) is a veteran of the video game industry and the art director for Halo at Microsoft/343 Industries in Seattle. Sparth has contributed to the development of multiple games and books since 1996, including his own art book series, Structura, published by design studio press. He is credited on major games like Alone in the Dark 4 (2001), Cold Fear (2005), Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004), Assassin’s Creed (2007), Rage (2011), Halo 4 (2012), and Halo 5: Guardians (2015). He has also published more than 100 book covers in France, Canada, and the United States.
DON’T MISS THESE OTHER THRILLING STORIES IN THE WORLDS OF
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Halo: Silent Storm
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Halo: Bad Blood
Matt Forbeck
Halo: Legacy of Onyx
Matt Forbeck
Halo: Retribution
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Halo: Envoy
Tobias S. Buckell
Halo: Smoke and Shadow
Kelly Gay
Halo: Fractures: More Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (anthology)
Halo: Shadow of Intent
Joseph Staten
Halo: Last Light
Troy Denning
Halo: Saint’s Testimony
Frank O’Connor
Halo: Hunters in the Dark
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Halo: New Blood
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Halo: Broken Circle
John Shirley
THE KILO-FIVE TRILOGY
Karen Traviss
Halo: Glasslands
Halo: The Thursday War
Halo: Mortal Dictata
THE FORERUNNER SAGA
Greg Bear
Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Primordium
Halo: Silentium
Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (anthology)
Halo: The Cole Protocol
Tobias S. Buckell
Halo: Contact Harvest
Joseph Staten
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
Eric Nylund
Halo: First Strike
Eric Nylund
Halo: The Flood
William C. Dietz
Halo: The Fall of Reach
Eric Nylund
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ISBN 978-1-9821-1174-8
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