A Forgotten Story Arc - Halo
As William Butler Yeats said: 'The centre cannot hold.'
Introductions:
Well, here we are in a probably long forgotten article that I had teased not long ago, probably a few months back, I don't remember the exact date.
But, I gotta say that I love the picture Icey did for me, it couldn't be better.
But, here we are, I wasn't lying when I said I would do this article!
So, let's not hold it back any longer.
A Cold Proxy War:
To better explain this, I should look back at the variety of events that have happened throughout the Post-War events and the resurgence of the Insurrection and the Covenant Remnants making their rise, shaping their Covenant into their own image.
Some of which are as follows:
The NCA's Raid on the UNSC: Infinity, In January 2553, infiltrated the UNSC Infinity disguised as construction personnel and captured most of the bridge crew, using them as hostages. They then secured the ship's bridge in the hope of capturing the prototype UNSC flagship, threatening to vent the ship's atmosphere and kill everyone aboard it.
The Massacres against the Sangheili: In 2553, over the Sangheili colony of Rahnelo, there was an assault in the months following the end of the Covenant. In order to set a trap for Rtas 'Vadum and his CAS-class assault carrier, Shadow of Intent, the San'Shyuum Prelate Tem'Bhetek, working alongside the former Minister of Preparation had Jiralhanae forces indiscriminately attack the colony, killing many and taking the kaidon and two of his sons hostage.
The Massacres against the Jiralhanae: Some fanatical Sangheili, who did not associate themselves with any particular Sangheili-led faction, continued to hunt down and eliminate all Jiralhanae they discovered, as well as any forces under their control. A notable example of such Sangheili was the Silent Shadow squad under the command of First Blade Resa 'Azavayl.
Battle of Ealen IV: In 2558 and an increase in Jiralhanae attacks across Sangheili and Kig-Yar colonies as a result. During this crisis, the Jiralhanae Chieftain Lydus and his clan were willing to initiate peace talks with Arbiter Thel Vadam and the Swords of Sanghelios, overseen by the UNSC. However, the negotiations were interrupted by Covenant mercenaries hired by the New Colonial Alliance.
The Blooding Years; Assault on 'Vadam Lands: A religious sect known as the Servants of the Abiding Truth, led by war veteran Field Master Avu Med 'Telcam, took to believing that any tampering with Forerunner relics was heresy, just as most Sangheili did before the founding of the Covenant. As a result, 'Telcam and his followers grew angry with Arbiter Thel 'Vadam's government. After winning the favour of several keeps and mustering a small space fleet, the Servants led an uprising in the state of Vadam. They initially held the upper hand, but the tide turned when UNSC Infinity arrived and intervened on behalf of the Arbiter, shooting down a rebel destroyer and firing a MAC round into massing rebel ground forces besieging 'Vadam's keep. - Behind the scenes, however, ONI was backing the Servants in hopes to create unrest on the planet and keep the Sangheili occupied, in fear that they could aim their sights on Earth once more.
Operation: COALKEEPER: In 2554, the remainder of Alpha-Nine was deployed to repulse a violent United Rebel Front takeover attempt on Draco III. Although the insurgents were defeated the ODST known as the Rookie was killed in action. In the following year, the URF captured the Huragok Quick to Adjust and his human handler Sadie Endesha on Talitsa. In August 2555, the still-active members of Alpha-Nine—now Spartan-IVs—participated in a mission to rescue the captives and ultimately succeeded, though the operation saw Spartan Michael Crespo's defection and subsequent incarceration.
Spartan-IV Training Station Terror Attack: On March 29, 2554, Rudolf Schein, one of the recently inducted Spartan-IVs, who was secretly associated with the United Rebel Front, murdered another Spartan trainee, Hideo Wakahisa, during his attempt to recruit him on Spartan-IV training station. Realizing the discovery of his true loyalties was imminent, Schein had covertly installed several explosives throughout the station and slung a bandolier of grenades across his chest. However, Spartan Operations Chief of Staff Jun-A266 managed to neutralize Schein by kicking him out into space, where he died before he could be recovered.
Terrorist Attack on Sedra: On February 7, 2556, the capital city of the human Outer Colony of Sedra was targeted by a Sangheili terrorist, who unleashed a powerful bioweapon that randomly broke down human DNA obtained by Humans from the shard they would later discover, then subsequent ONI investigation revealed that the substance used to create the bio-weapon originated from a surviving fragment of Installation 04, propelled through slipspace into orbit around a red giant star.
You can probably see a pattern in some of these, hell, the entire existence of Ayit 'Sevi is a total follow up to all that I have shown here.
The Post-War events are Proxy Wars, perpetrated by numerous factions at play. They're meant to be a play to the Cold War's Proxy Wars only with the relations and events of the Halo Universe.
Some of the Proxy Wars that you might recognise just by thinking about it are probably the Suez Crisis, Vietnam, Korean War, etc.
Nevertheless, I want to stress, this is what Halo has truly been leaving behind for the Halo 5 story arc; which brings me to my next point:
What Has Been Forgotten:
Forgotten is, both the right and the wrong word for this. Seeing as how Hunt The Truth played perfectly into this but was subsequently abandoned in order to give way to the Halo 5: Guardians story arc.
And well, it is a surprise to me, that quite a few people haven't really seen this story arc, especially from people who are somewhat big on Halo. They always look at me as if I'm crazy about it.
However, this has been a while in the making, ever since Halo 4, might I add. So you can imagine how I felt when the dots I started to see connecting were dropped so hard in Halo 5: Guardians. These are years of work put into this story arc that was about to pay off, that was ditched like a half cooked meal on the road.
It pained my heart to see, especially as a writer and all of it can be attributed to the community's adamancy during Halo 4's backlash. As I quoted in my Halo 5: Guardian - A Marvel Stolen Out of Fear; article.
'Well. . . Not everyone liked it.' Is very much the best way to explain why Halo 5: Guardian exists at the front-door of Halo 4.
From Halo 4 to Initiation, Escalation, Hunt The Truth Season 1, Last Light, among other sources of media. All of these followed that single trope and theme, Government Conspiracy, Organisations paying each other, backing off one another, etc.
So, you could quite honestly say a lot of things, however, the most important one would definitely be to express disappointment, or rejoicing, however you see it.
As for me, I will express my disappointment and my sadness towards what could've been the best story arc in the franchise, truly, 343's Magnus Opus, and it got crapped on.
How To Best Make Humans Bleed:
One thing I have often seen said is basically this; 'Fighting humans in a Halo FPS would be boring'. Which is exactly what brought me to make this section of the article, to further explain how you can make good and compelling firefights against Humans.
How exactly do we make Innies or Humans fun to fight overall in a Halo FPS game, though? Well, rather easily, we have the answers in our own game as is. Have you seen the Covenant forces? Have you seen what made them so great to fight? Well, that's very much so the answer to our problems.
Make the encounters with the variety of different humans have some meaning, differentiate your units, give them strengths and weaknesses.
For example, without going too far, heavy titanium alloy armour, heavy machine gun, etc.
But, I want to fully bring up the fact that humans are not uninteresting to fight, CoD has made them uninteresting, years of lack of innovation, the same point and shoot the braindead NPC mechanics, among other things.
I think we should capitalise on the advanced NPC behaviour that Halo has always attempted to venture into as well as looking at a certain game named F.E.A.R.
GVMERS did a in-depth analysis of the game in their channel, so I will obviously leave it below this sentence. Give it a watch, then keep on reading, you'll have a better understanding of how to pull things off with Humans. Which, would also derive to F.E.A.R.'s engaging gun play, which Halo already has - Or at least had to some.
A lot of this can easily be achieved with the simple use of behavioural trees, it includes some work but it can definitely be done.
But I think I gotta dedicate a large chunk of this section to fully realise the ideas for Human enemies, and well, would-be human allies, as well; so let's segway into that. - I will also focus on writing overall human behaviour, not just for Innies, but for UNSC.
The Pack Leader:
I want to have a bit of an emphasis on this guy at first, he's not the basic Unggoy grunt, he's the Elite Major leading the herd, the mechanics for him would be somewhat similar to that of the Elite leading an Unggoy and Kig-Yar unit. They're the head of the team, so respectively they should be far more protected by the others, he gives the orders and the others follow suit.
He should have a calculative behaviour, he wouldn't go attacking with the herd, he'd stay behind while the rest of the unit moves.
The SPI:
Now, he would probably be the hardest to beat, he'd probably play the role of a Sangheili SpecOps, or an Ultra. Something akin to them because they should be hard to take down by nature. They should also take the lead of units gameplay wise.
Let's take the scenario where we are only using bullets against them, they should have a higher resistance to it than plasma.
The Guy With The Big Gun:
Self explanatory, give him the big guns, LMGs, rockets, didn't do a thin-- Shit, I got carried away, but you catch my drift. He would take the job of suppressing and keeping you down as best as he can, probably allowing the basic grunts and other units of the such to take advantage of the situation and flank you.
Keep his back covered and he'll keep yours. Perhaps they could be the Jackals of the UNSC and Innie forces. Taking hold of the specialised weapons such as the Needler Rifle and such.
Comm-o:
This is basically the guy that pops the flare and has all the enemy units come down on you, or well, that or he can be a cool ornamental feature allowing to heighten the feeling of the battlefield adding a sense of urgency to the conflict.
Perhaps you can tap into their COM Chatter, or just by listening to the dynamic dialogue in the firefight. The one thing I can directly reference for this will be obviously, Metal Gear Solid's CP radio chatter.
The ODST:
A grizzly combat veteran, the elite of the elite, if they were any better, they'd be Spartans. And as such, their behaviour should be different to other units. They should flank, lead, etc. All in one package with several visual differences to separate them from the rest such as a lightweight variant of their gear
Or a simple red decal on their shoulders to signify a different rank or perhaps their roles and position. They should be the Brutes of the UNSC or Innies in many ways.
The Basic Grunt:
And obviously, we have these guys, much like in every other Halo game their behaviour should stay the same except for some minor changes, the ability to flank, to suppress you, etc.
Could be interesting if we actually see them scared, much like the Unggoy running off when their leader gets killed, we could have them cry out, insult you, among other things. Kill one of their comrades and they'll grow reckless or enraged.
These are people they have learned to love, people they have trained with, fought with. Give an emphasis towards genuine pain when one of their brothers go down. This could also bring some room for comedic relief as well, insults and things of the such.
The Snipers:
This is an often neglected role in the UNSC ranks, oftentimes the enemy would have their own snipers, but you wouldn't have any on the battlefield on your side.
So why not allow ourselves or the human enemy to have a Jackal unit? Have them alone in the rooftops or positioned in Corridors, if you remember Outskirts, that one place, you know. Yeah, I want that with humans as well.
Now, given that I am talking too much about AI behaviour and things of the such, I will leave a video below that is certainly proper as to how AIs work.
Which the most popular form to work on an AI is through the use of behavioural tree nodes. One such form that Alien: Isolation takes and runs with it with heavy steps.
Also keep in mind that the Alien quite literally has 100 behavioural nodes, while this is a representation of how Halo's look like.
Now, I wanted to mention something else, the human weapons arsenal of which these units could use to make encounters new and refreshing.
Shoot me, Kill me; Such is an Arsenal:
Now, how would we really add to the already existing sandbox? Well, we shouldn't have to look any farther than Halo Wars 2, what they did to the sandbox is amazing, and well. If only we could have half of the vehicles we see in there in an FPS Halo game.
However, we can definitely steal some ideas from it. And as such I will create another short table of equipment with brief explanations as to how they could work in the FPS sandbox and how they could be balanced - albeit in my own, mostly inexperienced opinion.
Someone else could explain it far better and have a better understanding overall, but I am going to leave the ideas out there and hopefully, someone else will pick them up.
I also want to take a lot of ideas from the lore and such, but a lot of the vehicles you'll see explained here will be from Halo Wars 2 first and foremost.
All things considered, I want to take a quick moment to say 343 do not use robots for the innie arsenal. We already have enough robots with the Promethean and Sentinel bs, if you want to do something with humans, circumvent it in clever ways. - I'm looking at you Halo 5: Guardians Concept Art.
Like; use any of these vehicles I will put below. But again; no robots.
The Cyclops:
By far the most interesting vehicle in Halo Wars 2, and by far the most interesting concept of a vehicle, visually and practically. A normal heavy machinery vehicle, refitted for combat, with heavy weapons.
How can you not love the concept of it?
Imagine undergoing a firefight and then seeing one of these bad boys make his way towards you, now that is when everything gets real.
It could also play as some kind of boss - being able to ride in it and try to hijack it, similarly to a Wraith or a tank, of course, planting grenades as well. - it could come in as an amazing flavour, and a challenging one.
Hellbringers:
We've seen the Flamethrower before, let's see it again, what ever can we ask?
Also, make sure you can blow up the napalm tank. That'll be satisfying to see, and something we haven't seen before.
Grizzly Tank:
Cmon, two barrels? It leaves the Scorpion to bloody shame, give me. Please, give me. And this isn't a request for you to give it to the enemy, this is a plain and open card request so that the Grizzly is put in at least one FPS title.
Please.
Pelican Gunship: Similar to the Phantom, I want to be able to watch these blow up in the sky and, well, I always liked to see the charred up debris in Halo 3, so that's also something I most definitely want along with this beautiful bird.
And since it hasn't really been something before to actually see Pelicans go down, or to be able to shoot them down. This is something that has been missing from the equation for a while.
Armoured Warthog: I can already picture it, an armoured warthog rolling in front of you and mowing down units, having to get clever in how to blow it up, moving to the back, getting some rockets, etc.
And well, I would love to see a very rough version of this for the Innies, although, in fact, I can show it right now.
A design by the talented guys from the Operation Trebuchet Mod for Arma 3 of an armoured Innie Warthog.
Author's Notes:
And that should bring this article to a close, it wasn't too short, nor too long, but I took my time with it, certainly seeing as how I had teased this, very article, months back and it was certainly nowhere to be seen for the days beyond it's teasing.
But here we are, christening its departure from the draft status and onto the complete status. I hope you all enjoyed the research I had done for this - and most importantly the ideas I present.
But that'll be all for today, nevertheless, I want to go ahead and give my Patreon shout-outs before properly saying my goodbyes.
Consider donating to my Patreon! It'll certainly help me out much more, with my research and my current situation in my country. So any kind of help you can provide would be much appreciated!
And that should be all for today, remember to live your life, be safe and as always, play vidya gaems. - Especially Halo.
There's still battles to fight
