Recruiting for a project!

After some brainstorming, I believe I have come up with a way to “light a spark” so to speak, but I can’t do it alone.

I was thinking of starting a Youtube Channel for Halo Archives, something of a combination of the Halo Council, and Xbox Ahoy’s Call of Duty weapon guides. Unfortunately, writing is really my only strength. I can’t edit video footage or images to save my life.

Which is where the Halo fanbase comes in. You guys are immensely talented and I really would like to do this to reinvigorate not only this blog, but possibly the Halo population in general.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in doing please send Halo Archives a message

PSA: Halo Archives Needs you!

Followers of Halo Archives,

I’d like to apologize for the severe lack of content these past few weeks. Life has gotten in the way of maintaining this blog. As much as I’d like to update with content every week, It’s simply not possible for me to do so anymore; and I fear that Halo Archives will eventually die out due to lack of new content.

I don’t want that to happen.

Because of the aforementioned, I would like to recruit a few fresh faces to help turn the blog around and make it the best damn Halo related blog on Tumblr. If interested please let me know by sending Halo Archives a message of interest and a demonstration of an article related to the Halo Universe to show off your writing abilities and knowledge of the lore.

Remember, this blog can’t survive without you!

Spartans never die.

They just go to hell and regroup.

///INTEL: DR. CATHERINE ELIZABETH HALSEY///

The creator of the SPARTAN-II and MJOLNIR PROJECTS, Dr. Halsey is one of the UNSC’s brightest minds. Indeed, Halsey is an example of both the best and worst traits of humanity. Halsey was born on Endymion in Port Vernon in 2492 and from a young age was considered deeply intelligent. At the age of 15, Halsey was in the process of writing her second doctoral thesis paper on the topic of archaic line commands. Around the same time, Halsey; now a rising star in the scientific community, was invited to an academic social party where she met Dr. Elias Carver. Carver was giving a speech on “matrix mechanics of the socio and political vectors of human expansion”. While Halsey respected Carver, she found his algorithms obsolete and corrected him in the middle of his lecture. Carver was not pleased with the interruption or being corrected by a teenager. He would commit suicide two years later, Halsey would later confess some remorse and had she known the doctor’s mental state; would have treated him less harshly. During Halsey’s interuption, then Captain and future Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth made note of Halsey’s brilliance and temperament.

Sometime after, Halsey joined the UNSC and headed numerous scientific endeavors including the creation of artificial intelligence constructs, decades later this would set the foundation for smart AIs including Cortana. In 2511 began looking for ways to improve the ORION PROJECT, retroactively known as SPARTAN-I. Six years later after having set up numerous genetic and psychological markers for candidates, Halsey traveled the UNSC’s colony worlds with Jacob Keyes in order to observe some of the candidates.

Keyes and Halsey began their task by observing the boy would eventually become the Master Chief. This mission also began a somewhat cold romance between the two which would later result in the birth of their daughter, Miranda.

Once the candidates had been observed be either Halsey or her team, SPARTAN-II’s next phase was put into action. In a highly controversial move, 75 children were kidnapped and brought to the planet Reach for training and indoctrination. The children were replaced by flash clones that would die early deaths and lessen the suspicion that the UNSC was willing to sacrifice even children to quell the insurrection. Halsey would carry the guilt of this decision with her for the rest of her life. Later one, the decision to replace the children with clones was seen as unethical, even to Margaret Parangosky, the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, and resulted in Halsey’s arrest years later. Nevertheless, Halsey pressed forward with CPO Franklin Mendez and proceeded to turn the children into soldiers.

At the age of 14, the children were surgically augmented, the process of which was developed and overseen by Halsey herself. Roughly half of the children would not survive the augmentations or be crippled for life.The survivors however, became Spartans. Capable of superhuman feats of agility, strength, and, intelligence; they were the finest soldiers ever produced by the human race. When the Covenant attacked, Halsey pushed for MJOLNIR’s development to better equip them. During the war, Halsey was primary at Castle Base on Reach, researching and developing new technologies to aid the war effort. Despite her busy schedule and the Spartans’ deployments to numerous contested worlds, Halsey would often attempt to contact her Spartans whenever possible; contradicting the perception of her as cold and uncaring.

In 2552, the Covenant discovered and invaded Reach. The Spartans, who were preparing to deploy for OPERATION: RED FLAG, quickly mobilized and valiantly defended the planet. The Covenant would overwhelm the human forces and the majority of the Spartans would be killed. The Master Chief was able to escape the battle with Cortana and discover Halo, which would start a chain of events that would bring about the end of the war.

During this time, Halsey would reunite with the surviving Spartans and head to Onyx, where: she, CPO Mendez, the remaining Spartan-IIs, and the recently discovered Spartan-IIIs, would uncover a Forerunner shield world. There they would remain trapped until rescued by the black ops team Kilo-Five. Halsey was promptly arrested by Parangosky’s protege, Captain Serin Osman, a Spartan-II candidate who had failed to take to the augmentations successfully.

Halsey was held aboard the station UNSC Ivanoff where she helped integrate Forerunner technology into the UNSC Infinity, and researched the recently discovered Composer. Halsey would later be brought back aboard the Infinity to help uncover the mysteries of a Forerunner artifact discovered on Requiem.

///INTEL: TYPE-27 SPECIAL APPLICATION SNIPER RIFLE///

The Covenant counterpart to the UNSC’s SRS99AM, the Beam Rifle, as it is commonly called on the field, is a lethal long range alien weapon. Manufactured by the Sangeheili by the Merchants of Qikost on the moon of the same name, the Beam Rifle is derived from the same Sangehili design as its cousin the Type-52 SAR (Focus Rifle), and has proven to be both accurate and deadly efficient.

The Beam Rifle is most commonly seen in the claws of Sniper-class Jackals who are both synonymous and infamously skilled with the weapon. The Beam Rifle compliments the Jackals’ blood thirsty nature and innate ability for tracking and hunting. Being of Sangheili design, the Elite’s are also seen with the rifle, though their use of it is remarkably lower than that of the Jackals. Unlike the alternative Beam Rifle model that saw use during the end of the Human-Covenant War, the T-27 features an enclosed focusing crystal which powers its lethal beam. This enclosed design is believed to better protect the delicate firing crystals from external damage.Another major difference is that the Type-27’s grip faces straight back, whereas the Type-50’s is angled upward; this allows the user to maintain a conventional shooting posture rather than being forced to fire from below the shoulder.

///INTEL: GLASSING///

Glassing (more formally known as plasma bombardment) is the term used to refer to the act when Covenant ships bombard the surface of a contested planet with plasma.

The Covenant typically glass an enemy occupied world after the opposition has been defeated or is no longer considered a threat. Glassing is typically seen as a highly religious ceremony in which a high ranking Ship or Fleet Master is accompanied by a Prophet who blesses the glassing. A Forerunner glyph is chosen and carved into the surface of the contested planet. An example being the UNSC world of Kholo, which was scarred with the glyph meaning faith.

Before the glassing begins, all Covenant ground forces are recalled and evacuated. Once the ceremony has ended and the chosen glyph etched into the planet’s surface, the Covenant begin a very precise and methodical task. Their ships group together and blanket sections of the world in crisscrossing orbits. These glassed sections are typically uninhabitable, at least for a few decades.

It should be known that glassing, even for the Covenant is a very time consuming and exhausting process. Although partial glassings of lost UNSC worlds are common, stories of the Covenant glassing entire planets are typically embellished. It has since been determined that for the Covenant to glass the entirety of a planet roughly the size of Earth (a rather small planet, it would take the Covenant around three decades to do so.

The plasma fired by Covenant ships is contained by a magnetic bubble which bursts on impact with thunderous force. The resulting impact is similar to a nuculear detonation and UNSC electronic devices within certain proximity to a glassing have been known to fail due to the resulting EMP. Environmentally, the immediate location surrounding the impact site are often completely destroyed, and thermal expansion causes fires to spread and create a pyroclastic surge which have been known to burn affected areas until it can no longer affect the surface of the planet.

As any surface water is boiled away, soil and stone that are not instantly vaporized become molten. After cooling they from into lechatelierite, a mineral similar to glass that is seen naturally when lightening strikes the surface of a planet. Hence, where the term “glassing” comes from. Ash from the bombardment can also form and spread, and has been known to alter the natural weather patterns on a planet, as seen with the nuclear winter induced by the Covenant on Harvest.

After the successful glassing of a world, the Covenant would collect a shard of the lechatelierite and place it within the Sanctum of the Hierarchs on the Covenant capital city High Charity. The High Prophet of Truth himself, was often noted to visit this location and seek refuge from his daily tasks amongst the shards of conquered worlds.

Even humanity’s homeworld of Earth was not safe from the act of plasma bombardment. After the Prophet of Truth entered the system to search for the portal that would lead him to the Ark, a global battle inevitably ensued. Truth found the portal and fled through just as a CCS Cruiser that had escaped the Sangheli blockade of the Flood infested High Charity, crashed in the city of Voi. In order to totally eliminate the possibility of a Flood infected Earth, Ship Master Rtas Vadum glassed a portion of the continent.

///INTEL: CCS-CLASS BATTLECRUISER///

While the Covenant utilize several different classes of space-fareing ships, one of the most recognized are ships carrying the CCS-Class Battlecruiser classification. CCS Battlecruisers were in encountered in 2526 and had a presence in nearly all Covenant combat locations. Throughout the war, these vessels paralyzed ground forces with fear. Anytime large numbers of the cruisers gathered, a glassing would soon follow.

The battlecruiser is an excellent example of typical Covenant architectural design. Resembling an Earth Manta Ray, the ship possess sleek contours, and bulbous sections aligned in perfect symmetry. Fin-like structures beneath the bow aid not only in space combat, but allow the ship to maneuver more easily within a planet’s atmosphere. To provide an intermediary role between the CAS-Assaultcarrier and the CPV-Heavy Destroyer; the CCS is capable of deploying large amounts of military assets, and is able to wreck massive damage upon UNSC structures and personnel. For this reason it is the most numerous class of vessel deployed by the Covenant fleet.

The CCS is aggressively armed. Several dozen pulse turrets and plasma torpedo cannons line across the surface of the ship and provide adequate protection against the majority of UNSC fighters. In addition to these, the CCS is armed with two frighteningly powerful energy projectors used for glassing operations. These are located with one under the bow and the other on the underside of the gravity lift platform, and fire what the Covenant call a “cleansing beam”. Covenant shipmasters often go through a ritual with a Prophet in order to gain the blessing of their gods before they carve ritualistic Forerunner glyphs onto the surface of a human controlled world with the weapon.

In regards to troop deployment, the CCS has multiple cargo bays for storing food, military equipment encased in protective crates, and both land and air vehicles such as Wraiths and Banshees. In addition to these cargo bays, four hangers with two on either side of the cruiser are present. These hangers are often the home of deployable Seraph fighters and Banshee Interceptors. The hangers are equipped with powerful energy barriers that allow the fighters to both exit and enter, while retaining atmosphere and pressure.

If a contested world is thought to be in possession of Forerunner artifacts, CCS-Battlecruisers may be ordered to take part in a ground invasion. If found in such a circumstance, the vessel may send down troops and supplies via an underside gravity lift. Using the lift, the ship may remain relatively safe off the ground while maintaining a position that allows it to deploy military assets.

The Covenant faction known as The Storm has been noted to field these vessels, though not in numbers previously seen by the Covenant. They are still very much a threat to UNSC activities on Requiem.

///INTEL: THE FLOOD - A BRIEF HISTORY///

The extra-galactic parasite known as The Flood, played a brief but all important role during the closing years of the Human-Covenant War. While little is definitely known by both the UNSC and the Covenant, the parasitic species colloquially called the Flood; is in truth a both a form of punishment and a test for the denizens of the Milky Way. The true origins of the Flood are a mystery but it is known that the Forerunners, much like humanity later; rose up against the Precursors and nearly wiped out the species. In retaliation, the last surviving members of the Precursor race, brought the Flood from another galaxy to prove that the Forerunners were unworthy of what they called “The Mantle”.

For three hundred years, the Flood battled the Forerunners. The Forerunners, in desperation built and ultimately activated the Halo Array; a series of planet sized rings with enough firepower to eliminate all life in the galaxy capable of sustaining the Flood. The Forerunner took precautions against the annihilation of entire species by taking them to the Ark, the installation outside of the kill distance of the Halo Array. The Ark preserved and protected these species after the Forerunners fired the super weapon, and automatically returned each species to its planet of origin after the majority of Flood had essentially starved to death. Those that did not entered a state of hibernation and bided their time.

Thousands of years later the Flood were unleashed yet again during the Covenant War in 2552 on Installation 04. In order to prevent the Flood from fleeing Halo, Spartan-117 known better by his rank of Master Chief detonated the UNSC Pillar Of Autumn’s fusion reactors and destroyed the ring. The UNSC came into contact with the Flood again on Installation 05 also known as Delta Halo. Here, the controlling Flood intelligence known as the Gravemind, made its presence known. Not wishing to be deprived of sustenance again, it aided the Master Chief and the disgraced Elite commander now known as the Arbiter in halting the activation of Delta Halo.

While the UNSC focused on defending Earth from the Covenant invasion, the Elites’ split from the alien alliance and focused on keeping the Flood contained on the infested Covenant capital, High Charity. One ship would break through the Sangheili blockade just as the Covenant leader, the Prophet of Truth activated the portal that led to the Ark where he planned to activate the six remaining Halo rings. Pursuing the Flood ship to Earth, the Sangheli ship Shadow of Intent aided the UNSC in sterilizing the Flood presence on Earth. The Shadow of Intent along with the crew of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, followed Truth and the bulk of his forces through the portal.

After ascertaining the Prophet’s location, the Gravemind once again in the act of self preservation, allied itself with the Master Chief and the Arbiter. The numerous Flood troops at its disposal eliminated Truth’s remaining guard, clearing the way for the Master Chief to stop the Ark from activating the Halo Array, and for the Arbiter to assassinate the Prophet for his deceit. With the immediate threat neutralized, the Gravemind laughed manically, as its forces surrounded the duo with the Arbiter remarking, “We trade one villain for another”.

The pair escaped to discover that the Ark had built a replacement Halo for the one the Master Chief had destroyed months earlier. Formulating a plan to activate the unfinished ring and destroy both the Ark and the Gravemind, the Master Chief made his way into the Gravemind’s stronghold on High Charity to rescue the AI that had helped him destroy the first Halo. After suffering months of torture at the clutches of the Gravemind, the AI Cortana was in a fragile state. Upon seeing that the Master Chief had fought through hell to save her, she regained her composure and showed him that she still posed the activation index that would allow her to destroy the new Halo.

Along with the Arbiter and Sergeant AJ Johnson, who had survived and escaped the first Halo, the two fought through the Flood that were defending Halo’s control room. Upon discovering that they planned to destroy it, the ring’s caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark mortally wounded Johnson and attempted to kill the Master Chief. With a dying Johnson’s aid, the Chief defeated the rampant Forerunner AI and began Halo’s selfdestruct sequence. The Spartan, Cortana, and, the Arbiter all made it aboard the Forward Unto Dawn just as the unfinished and unstable Halo shook itself to pieces trying to fire, and managed to destroy a significant amount of the Ark in the process.

Unfortunately, the Ark was too damaged to sustain the portal back to Earth and collapsed, severing the Dawn in half. The half carrying the Arbiter made it successfully back to Earth. The half carrying the Master Chief and Cortana did not and drifted in space for four years until crashing onto Requiem.

As there are still six Halo rings remaining, the UNSC continues to develop counters to a potential Flood resurgence and the UNSC Infinity trains Spartans to effectively combat the parasite via war game simulations.

///INTEL: M808 MAIN BATTLE TANK///

The M808 MBT, more commonly called the Scorpion due to a passing resemblance to the arachnid; has been in service with the UNSC for years. The M808 MBT is the primary armored ground vehicle of the UNSC and has seen action on numerous contested worlds during the Human/Covenant War including: Harvest, Reach, and even Earth.

The Scorpion tank is well suited to most worlds. Its four-track design allows for each tread to be independently mounted on a computer controlled suspension system. This system enables to the Scorpion to cross over most types of terrain, and allow it to easily maneuver across the battlefield.

The chassis of the tank is made of a heavy titanium ceramic armor plating, giving the vehicle a very high resilience against small arms fire, having noted the tank’s resistance to damage from small arms, it is still vulnerable to man-portable high yield damage weaponry such as the Rocket Launcher, Fuel Rod Gun, and Plasma Launcher. Those operating the MBT should take care to dispatch hostiles with such weaponry immediately.

The Scorpion’s armament is somewhat simple when compared to a Gauss Cannon equipped Warthog, but nonetheless is highly effective. The main weapon controlled by the driver is a M512 Smooth-Boore High Velocity Cannon that fires 90mm tungsten or canister rounds. The cannon can also be modified to fire 105mm tungsten rounds if the extra firepower is warranted. The main cannon is equipped with an auto load system that negates the need for manual reloading personnel. The operator need only wait 3-4 seconds for the shell cycling to complete. A secondary weapon can be utilized by a passenger. The pintle-mounted M247T Machine Gun is useful for mopping up infantry or deterring lighter enemy vehicles. The M80B variant of the Scorpion posses a pintle mounted machine gun that is useable by the driver, removing the need for a secondary gunman. Both models of the Scorpion allow for up to four more passengers seated on the tank’s treads. This is recommended for traveling purposes only, not for combat as the position is unprotected and leaves passengers open to enemy fire.

While the MBT is certainly one of the toughest ground vehicles fielded by the UNSC, and has been known to completely reverse losing infantry battles; it is by no means invincible. The tank is slower than most vehicles and some vehicles (such as the Ghost or Mongoose) are capable of outrunning the main cannon’s swivel speed. The slow speed and large size of the Scorpion also leaves it vulnerable to the adhesive Covenant Plasma Grenade, although it often takes 2-4 grenades to outright destroy the MBT.

These disadvantages are considered acceptable when contrasted with the damage output and overall rugged reliability of the Scorpion tank. It has seen us through the brutal and bloody Human/Covenant War and it will certainly see us through the Requiem conflict.

///INTEL: HALO ARRAY///

The Halo Array. A weapon of mass destruction capable of obliterating all life forms in the galaxy with a single activation. The Array was responsible for wiping out the entirety of Forerunner civilization, and came very near to doing the same to both the UNSC and the Covenant empire in late 2552.

Designed and constructed eons ago by the Forerunner caste known as Master Builders, the Array was to be a last resort against the Flood menace to ensure their infection did not taint all life in the galaxy. Originally, 18 rings were designed to make up the Array, but only seven survived the duration of the Forerunner-Flood War.

As weapons, the Array’s capacity for sheer annihilation is unrivaled. The seven rings communicate with one another at near instantaneous speeds, and in unison, fire a superluminal conveyance burst of cross-phased super-massive neutrinos tuned to a harmonic frequency that destroys the nervous system of any life form within range of the Array. Organisms that lack a “proper” nervous system are left unfazed, as are most non-organic structures, and, artificial intelligence systems.

In stark contrast to the Array’s primary purpose of eliminating sentient life, each individual halo ring is capable of supporting life as well. Two of the three rings the UNSC has discovered (Installations 04 and 05) are capable of supporting oxygen based organisms and are perfectly suited for homo sapiens, atmospherically speaking. Nearly all information on Installation 03 is classified and kept securely on board the orbiting ONI research station, Ivanoff.

This support of life conceals a somewhat darker purpose however. As it is assumed that the Forerunners were at least somewhat evolutionarily similar to humans and equally adaptable to Halo’s environment; the Halo installations were used as testing and researching centers to analyze the Flood. Lifeforms were deliberately infected to study how the Flood co-opted an organism’s nervous system, and more perhaps more importantly, discover a form of resistance to the parasite. As previously stated the Array was designed as a last resort against the Flood should all other efforts, military or otherwise fail.

We know now that they did.

The Forerunner Promethean known as The Didact was en route to Earth to save his lover known as The Librarian, who had destroyed her own Keyships to destroy an approaching Flood threat, leaving her stranded on Earth. Didact’s rescue party was ambushed by the treacherous AI Mendicant Bias and a massive force of Flood. With his entourage slaughtered and consumed, Didact activated the Halo Array as a form of twisted vengeance upon the Flood.

Thousands of years later, the UNSC was embroiled in a war with the alien alliance known as the Covenant. The Covenant worshiped the Forerunners and believed the Halo Array as a way of transcending from this existence to that of a higher one. Near the end of the war, JOHN-117 also known as the Master Chief, destroyed one of the rings, leading to a chain of events that would lead to the destruction of not only a second ring, but the very core of the Array’s network, the ARK.