Buck and Alpha-9 working their way across an unknown planet. Credit to Isaac Hannaford on Artstation as found Here.

Note: The excerpt provided here come from my personal copy of Halo: Bad Blood, written by Matt Forbeck and Published by Gallery Books in 2018.
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         Bad Blood is a very ironic title as this is exactly what the Halo franchise had with its fans going into this novel. Bad Blood was going to be following up the most unpopular Halo game. It needed to be good. Folks need good stories, to give ’em hope. Most importantly, Bad Blood needed to avoid 343 Industries (now Halo Studios) greatest narrative flaw: completely sidestepping their previously established story due to backlash and soft reboot the franchise. Seriously, Halo 4, Halo 5, AND Halo Infinite have all been soft reboots. So, does Bad Blood deliver? Somewhat.

         I’ll be honest, I really enjoyed Bad Blood. The main character is Edward Buck, a fan favorite who was introduced in Halo 3: ODST. Buck was previously a normal ODST soldier, but was further trained and biologically enhanced to become a spartan. Matt Forbeck writes the entire book in Buck’s POV, which I find to be one of its greatest strengths. The insane amount of charisma Nathan Fillion brings to Buck in the games is captured perfectly in Bad Blood’s pages. Buck’s arc is twofold. The first is a somewhat generic love plot where Buck must finally overcome his fear of commitment and marry his lover, the ONI spook Vericona Dare. While this doesn’t exactly break new ground, I still found it very enjoyable, especially their wedding at the end of the book.

         The second involves learning to trust his friend Mickey after he betrayed Buck to the Insurrection (a series of rebel groups dedicated to destroying the UNSC) in the previous book, New Blood. Buck and Mickey bicker constantly throughout the book, and this battle of wits is always fun to read. It is my understanding that there was some backlash against making Mickey a traitor in the previous novel, but I liked the Mickey and Buck dynamic so much here that I have no issue. I’ll touch on this with an excerpt later.

        The plot also is fairly basic. After a brief rundown of what happened seconds after the end of Halo 5, the cast of that game returns to the UNSC Infinity. The ship is on the run from Cortana, who at the end of Halo 5 deployed the Guardians all across the Halo Universe and now effectively controls all of it. A significant number, but not all, of UNSC AIs also defected to serve Cortana instead of the UNSC. Humanity is on the ropes, and its capital ship the Infinity is the last bastion of resistance and a mobile command center. The main game cast (Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris) departs from the story fairly quickly, but Osiris in particular gets a few very humanizing moments that I wish that Halo 5 had included. There’s a bar scene with Buck and Locke that perfectly establishes not only their friendship and Buck’s enormous respect for Locke, but also a sort of side arc about how Buck was content letting someone else lead his team instead of dealing with the stress of doing it himself. Seriously, this one scene does so much more to make me care about Locke than all of Halo 5, and it’s not even a particularly fantastic scene.

         Anyway, it is hinted that the UNSC has a couple of plots in motion to find some kind of defense against Cortana. I like this setup a lot, with the previously most powerful faction now on the run and sending out teams to search for a way to win. It’s a great canvas to tell several individual stories that all lead up to one overarching goal. Anyway, Buck was been worrying fiercely about Vericona all the way up until he meets her again on the Infinity. The two have a very touching reunion that abruptly turns sour when Buck realizes that Vericona has a new mission for him. This scene is a sort of microcosm of their relationship dynamic, passion swept aside by their line of work. Vericona reveals to Buck that his old team, Alpha-9, is being put back together in order to investigate a potential weapon against Cortana. Buck is in shock, as most of Alpha-9 is dead, retired, or otherwise unavailable. Most of all, he is upset at one thing: Vericona asks him to work with Mickey again. Buck’s anger is very strong, and is presented in a very relatable way. Mickey betrayed him in the worst way possible, putting a gun to his head and using him as a bargaining chip for the Insurrection. Even though this was years ago, it still haunts Buck. Why does the mission even need Mickey anyway?

         Vericona answers: the device they will be investigating is in the hands of the Insurrection. Here is where the factional interplay really begins. If you’ll remember from last week, the Insurrection existed even before the Covenant found humanity. The first Spartans were originally created to crush the Insurrection and the acts of terrorism it committed in resistance of what it believed was the tyranny of the UNSC. After the Covenant began severely defeating Humanity, the UNSC called a truce with the Insurrection for the common goal of saving the human race. However, after the war was once, the war between the UNSC and the rebels resumed almost instantly. The rebels are very sour about this, as they seemed to hope fighting together against the Covenant may release the UNSC’s grip on them. If the UNSC approached them again with a similar line, “Unite against Cortana or disappear”, they are unlikely to agree a second time. Worse, since the UNSC created Cortana, the rebels view her as the UNSC’s problem. They need Mickey, who as a traitor spartan is considered a hero in the rebel front, as a bargaining chip.

         That last bit helps establish a major theme of the story: Sometimes you have to put aside your old rivalries in service of the greater good, even if the problem you’re facing is objectively the fault of one person. It’s a simple theme yes, but executed very well. It is mainly expressed through Buck and Mickey and the greater factions of the UNSC and the Insurrection. One could argue this is also a perspective that Halo could have towards 343 Industries, now Halo Studios.

         This kicks the stories’ plot into gear: Dare and Buck go planet to planet to put Alpha-9 back together and then go to the Insurrection to bargain for the device. But what exactly is this device, and why is it so important? Cassidy III, an Insurrection-held planet, is somehow hidden from virtually every kind of detection. What device they use to do this is completely unknown, but if the UNSC could replicate it, it would prove invaluable to the Created Conflict (the war against Cortana). Chiefly, it could be used to hide the Infinity so that it wouldn’t have to be constantly on the run. After a short scene of Buck saying goodbye to his old team, Fireteam Osiris, he and Dare setoff in a Condor (sort of a larger, FTL-capable variant of the series’ iconic Pelican dropships).

         From there, the story becomes a planet-trotting adventure book, which unlike some other sci-fi novels (cough, Endymion) I actually liked a lot. First stop is Balaho, homeworld of Halo’s grunts, the short and comedic cannon fodder of the old Covenant. The set piece on Balaho does several things. It does some great world-building of the universe during the Created Conflict. One caveat on Cortana sending her Guardians out to take over the universe was that any planet who agreed to join her would benefit from her protection and gifts of supplies. Balaho agreed to join up, and is being shipped literal shiploads of resources when Buck and Dare arrive. The need for stealth is also emphasized, as Cortana has eyes and ears everywhere. Guardians are immensely powerful and capable of slipspace (FTL) travel, so they could show up at anytime unannounced. Buck and Dare rescue the first returning team member, Romeo, who was also in Halo 3: ODST. Romeo is a fun character: a wise-ass, womanizer but nevertheless a very competent soldier and essential to the mission.

          After this, the trio go the Earth’s Moon, Luna, in order to rescue an engineer. This engineer is an old Covenant species called a Huragok, which are floating jellyfish/squid-like creature that are biologically designed to be living super computers. This Huragok, named Quick To Adjust, also appeared previously in Halo 3: ODST and New Blood. To massively paraphrase, Quick to Adjust ended up fusing with an AI called Vergil, which ran the Earth city of New Mombasa. Because of this, Quick to Adjust is even smarter than the average Huragok and could be instrumental to reverse engineering whatever the device on Cassidy III is. The team rescue Quick to Adjust, and his human handler Sadie (who the AI part of him was programmed to watch over) and escape before Cortana can learn they’re there. Sadie adds a nice civilian angle to the story, while Quick to Adjust is both very useful and a bit funny, as he is a super intelligent alien squid that speaks through a text-to-speech tablet (absurd).

         The growing team heads to their second to last stop: the Spartan IV training facility that was under construction when Mickey betrayed Buck. Mickey is still being held in the brig here due to his spartan enhancements, as they would make breaking out of a normal prison child’s play for him. The facility in under the control of the AI Leonidas, whose allegiance is unknown. He may be on the side of the UNSC, the side of Cortana, or neutral and trying to ride it all out. After some tricks to hide the team from Leonidas, who has been acting friendly but somewhat suspicious, Buck enters the station and talks to Mickey. Mickey agrees to join the mission, but the two have a moral argument (first of many) that greatly upsets Buck.

         To break Mickey out, the team must disconnect Leonidas from the station and awake the station’s commander, Jun, whom Leonidas has frozen in a cryotube. Through some more hijinks, including Leonidas telling the entire facility that Buck is a traitor, this is accomplished and Mickey is freed. Buck smashes Leonidas’ data chip, and during the escape from the station, runs into Dutch, an old member of Alpha-9 who wasn’t on this mission as he had retired. Dutch reveals that he and his wife Gretchen simply couldn’t adapt to civilian life and has signed up to become Spartans. This is a bit of a lazy way to get them into this story, I’ll admit, but it’s executed decently. The husband and wife join Buck on the mission and the at last complete team sets out for Cassidy III.
  
         There is a major verbal altercation in route to the planet involving most of the team. Every character has a role to play and the dynamics are both natural and gripping. Mickey believes that the rebels will never help the UNSC after the fallout of the Human-Covenant war. Dare comes across very somber, and believes that the rebels will see the severity of the situation. Buck is mainly pissed at how Mickey is still as preachy as ever, showing no remorse for his betrayal of Buck. The argument gets very heated, before Romeo at last chimes in on pages 181-183 with his opinion on Mickey’s argument:

         I’ve already run a bit long, so I’ll try to make the next sections brief: after a tense negotiation, Alpha-9 sets down on the planet and begins bargaining with the planet’s Mayor Wells. It’s revealed that Cassidy III’s stealth comes from a trio of Forerunner towers that surround the Hole in the Wall (the settlement where this meeting is taking place). Though they have tried, the rebels have not been able to reverse-engineer the technology, and the towers are far too large to be transported easily. Dare and Wells work out a deal where Quick to Adjust and Sadie will be left behind on the planet to attempt to understand the technology, while Mickey will be left with the UNSC as collateral to ensure the Huragok and his companion aren’t hurt. This comes as a surprise to Mickey, who feels betrayed by the Front. Buck obviously enjoys this.

         However, Sadie is far less receptive and gets (rightfully) upset over being used as a bargaining chip for terrorists. But before this can be resolve, Quick to Adjust makes a startling discovery: Leonidas embedded pieces of himself into Dutch and Gretchen’s armor before his destruction, and has potentially been active this entire team. The pieces are reassembled and Leonidas reveals that he has been in contact with Cortana the entire time, and that a Guardian has already been sent to Cassidy III. This is a crushing blow for Alpha-9 and the rebels, but after some short bickering, they begin working together to evacuate the planet.

         The Guardian arrives and begins smashing the Hole in the Wall’s local militia to pieces, including EMPing the planet. A series of stolen aircraft, which were hidden safely out of range of the EMP, move in to lure the Guardian away from the town. This works, and Quick to Adjust begins to repair some evacuation ships that were damaged by the EMP. The craft make it out safely, and soon the only people left in the Hole in the Wall are Alpha-9, Mayor Wells, and those who couldn’t fit into the limited evacuation ships. Mayor Wells informs Leonidas that Cassidy III is surrendering to Cortana, and the Guardian (along with the forerunner armiger soldiers it had brought) stop attacking. The Guardian sends down a durance piece of itself, called a node, to pickup Leonidas. Romeo moves off to higher ground while Leonidas talks over the planet’s future with Mayor Wells. Buck places Leonidas on the durance node, but as it retreats into the air, Romeo obliterates Leonidas’ tablet with a shot from a gauss rifle.

         The remaining team members make a mad dash for the Condor and take off towards space as quickly as possible. However, the Guardian sees them and sends out a second EMP. Quick to Adjust begins to rapidly fix the ship but needs access to one of the engines outside the craft in order to fully fix it. Holding on to the free-falling ship’s exterior desperately, Buck and Quick to Adjust manage to get the ship’s engines working once again. One of the straps on Quick to Adjust’s harness that Buck had been holding him by snaps, and as he reaches out to grab the Huragok, Buck loses his grip and goes free flying through the air. Buck takes a moment or two to contemplate his likely death, as even a spartan cannot survive a fall from that height, before telling Verionca that he loves her and how he regretted that he never married her. This moment is cut short, as Gretchen (who is piloting) swings the condor in a daring arc to catch Buck. Swinging out the back of the Condor, Dutch, Romeo, and lastly Mickey form a human chain to grab Buck and save both him and Quick to Adjust.

         Alpha-9 escapes Cassidy III and returns to the Infinity, where Buck is debriefed by Lasky and Palmer (characters from Halo 4 and 5) about the results of their mission. Touched by how quickly Mickey had put himself at risk to save Buck from his fall, Buck argues for Mickey not to be imprisoned once again. Besides, the UNSC can use all the help it can get.

         The final scene is set in the same bar, where Buck and Mickey meet back up with most of the side characters, including some of Fireteam Osiris. It does a great job at showing just how far Buck has come in this book’s pages, and the novel ends with a touching improtu wedding of Buck and Dare. Shortly following, there is a very short epilogue of sorts describing their “honeymoon”, where Alpha-9 is on an unknown mission on an unknown world, where Buck feels confident and secure once again leading his own team.

         And now, after all the setup mentioned (including plenty which was not discussed here), how did Halo Infinite resolve all of this?

         By completely sidestepping the established story AND killing Cortana offscreen!

         Disappointing? Yes.

         The topic of next week’s article? Also yes.

See you next week!