Transcript
Speaker: Hey there everybody, welcome back to Pixel It.
Speaker: My name is Kevin, with me as always is Phil.
Speaker: Hey everybody.
Speaker: And today we are continuing on our journey to find out what the heck actually happened to the planet Reach.
Speaker: What's going on with Reach?
Speaker: What's going on with Reach?
Speaker: We got this book called The Fall of Reach that evokes the fall of the Roman Empire, right?
Speaker: So let's dig into it and find out what happened.
Speaker: Where we last left off, we had just finished section three of the book, and now we are in section four, aptly titled Mjolnir, or as the audiobook would say, Majolnir.
Speaker: You couldn't let it go.
Speaker: Couldn't let it go.
Speaker: So we're on chapter 25, section 25, section four, chapter 25.
Speaker: It is a Dr. Halsey section.
Speaker: Love, love the Dr. Halsey sections, by the way.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This is like Dr. Halsey's sections are like the, this is going to be lore dump slash what the hell is going on sections.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: It's like, I like to call them.
Speaker: So talk to me, mom.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Mom, get out of my room.
Speaker: The first half of the chapter is just kind of like a backdrop of.
Speaker: Dr. Halsey being upset that she can't have Deja active while she is reading sensitive material.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah, because because it's just too easy to hack.
Speaker: It's too easy for, you know, that stuff to get out somewhere.
Speaker: Everyone's just like before.
Speaker: Everyone's really paranoid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they want to, especially now that the Spartan project is now a hit, like it has been given, you know, project.
Speaker: I almost called it project, but Joel near project.
Speaker: Mjolnir has been given the green light and like, so Halsey is, is even more important than before.
Speaker: And she was pretty important before.
Speaker: So yeah, they're not taking any chances.
Speaker: So she can't have a promotion.
Speaker: She, she, she was offered a promotion that she turned down because,
Speaker: She wanted to remain in charge of the project.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's just like, she's, it's the, it's the pure, I'm not in it for the money kind of thing.
Speaker: You know, like I'm in it for the love.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's in it for being mom.
Speaker: She wants to, these are her children.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's Spartan mommy.
Speaker: She's Spartan mommy.
Speaker: She's, she's, she's someone we can look up to.
Speaker: And they talk a little bit about how after 20 years of study, they still have no idea what the covenant is all about.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I point out here that they have done a pretty good job of keeping the covenant kind of shrouded in mystery.
Speaker: I think most writers at this point, even if it was just a throwaway chapter, would have given us a chapter where it was like,
Speaker: from the point of view of someone in the covenant.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, and he has not done that at all.
Speaker: No, I agree.
Speaker: I actually hate those chapters nine times out of ten when we're supposed to get something written from the point of view of, like, an unknowable force.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yeah, it's it's it.
Speaker: You don't need, you know, me and my fiance just went and saw A Quiet Place 2, and they did do they did a good job of, like, expanding a little bit on the universe in the first movie.
Speaker: But we both agree they didn't explain most things.
Speaker: And we both agree that's probably fine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We don't.
Speaker: We're in the overexposed age of entertainment where you need everyone to.
Speaker: Michael Myers needs his backstory told.
Speaker: Every detail.
Speaker: It's every TV, TV tropification of.
Speaker: Storytelling.
Speaker: Yeah, it's too much and it's and it's almost never necessary every now and then you do get something that's interesting and kind of fun like this book, for example.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, this book gives us background on Master Chief that we wouldn't have had otherwise.
Speaker: And it's done in a clever and interesting way.
Speaker: But he still keeps his cards close to his chest.
Speaker: There are still things that there's still mysteries to unlock, basically.
Speaker: So the fact that not only does the...
Speaker: you know, the human population have no idea what Covenant's about.
Speaker: Neither do we as the reader.
Speaker: And that's pretty cool.
Speaker: That's good stuff.
Speaker: And that's, that's fine.
Speaker: That's totally fine.
Speaker: I, um, I remember having this debate with, did you play control?
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's basically kind of like X-Files meets Twin Peaks kind of game.
Speaker: It's it's it's got it.
Speaker: Is it based around that that one creepypasta thing?
Speaker: What do they call that?
Speaker: Oh, SCPs.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's kind of like an SCP game set in the Alan Wake universe.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: It's made by the same company, same director and all that stuff.
Speaker: Mm-hmm.
Speaker: There is in in during the course of control, there are a lot of things that are brought up and never really explained.
Speaker: They just they just are like there is there is this this extra dimensional force.
Speaker: called the Hiss, that they just are.
Speaker: They are the main villain.
Speaker: There is these other extra-dimensional forces.
Speaker: There's this thing called the Board.
Speaker: And they defy explanation.
Speaker: They just are.
Speaker: And I remember getting into a debate with a few people that...
Speaker: well, control doesn't explain anything.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And my counter was like, it doesn't need to like it.
Speaker: Sometimes things can just be weird or unknowable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Ineffable.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: basically.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: With, we don't, we don't need for no reason other than, yeah, you, you can't know what it is because there is no way to know what it is.
Speaker: It just sometimes, sometimes the monster is a representation of creeping dread in a communist society.
Speaker: And sometimes the monster is just something to chase you screaming down the hole.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And they're both equally good if they're done well.
Speaker: They're both equally good if they're done well.
Speaker: And not to spend too much time on it, but another example is the creature or the entity or whatever you want to call it, the thing, from the thing.
Speaker: Oh, hell yes.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: Is there a true form to it?
Speaker: Is there an original form of it?
Speaker: What's our art or its intentions?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: The keeping it completely shrouded in mystery.
Speaker: Through the course of the John Carpenter film, the 1982 John Carpenter film.
Speaker: actually increases the tension and terror and dread of it because our characters, we, the audience, are in the same boat as our characters that we are following in not understanding what is going on.
Speaker: And when you have somebody, something like The Covenant, uh,
Speaker: It's imperative that if you're going to keep your characters in a state of mild panic and confusion and tension towards this enemy that they just can't scrutinize in any meaningful way,
Speaker: you have to keep the audience in the same position or else that veil of mystery just falls away.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: The audience's awareness of the threat really shouldn't go much further than the protagonist in a situation like this.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Or just kind of throws it away.
Speaker: But yeah, so long story short, they don't know much about Covenant.
Speaker: We don't know much about Covenant.
Speaker: And that's okay.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: You can tell I've thought a lot about this.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No way to give you guys an idea.
Speaker: Kevin and I met in grad school for film studies.
Speaker: So there you go.
Speaker: That tells you a lot about what you need to know here.
Speaker: So as the chapter continues on, we meet a very important character that we haven't met yet.
Speaker: We meet the best girl.
Speaker: The best girl.
Speaker: I friggin' love her.
Speaker: We meet Cortana.
Speaker: I love her.
Speaker: You love her.
Speaker: We all love her.
Speaker: She's adorable.
Speaker: And so unlike basically anyone in this book, she takes a level of smart acidness to the very serious military stuff that makes up most of this book.
Speaker: And it is a breath of fresh air.
Speaker: It is wonderful to have that.
Speaker: Basically, they explain that she is also AI, but she is what they call smart AI, as opposed to Beowulf or Deja.
Speaker: They refer to them as dumb AI, where they have a huge amount of information at their fingertips, but they lack a certain level of independence or a soul, if you will.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: When it comes to that.
Speaker: And through some, you know, managing Cortana is this level of AI that can grow and has opinions on things and and is more human, if you will.
Speaker: And they even say that the problem with that kind of AI is they slowly kind of start to.
Speaker: They start to become too self-aware and they didn't go into details of like what happens then.
Speaker: But I think we all know you got to shut them down at a certain point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cortana would effectively die after an operational life of seven years.
Speaker: Yeah, they just there's too much too much information.
Speaker: And I think the word that Eric Nyland uses is creativity is one of the things that Cortana can do.
Speaker: And that's basically it's like synthesis, right?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Cortana can take multiple sets of data and synthesize something new and have an opinion on it.
Speaker: Whereas the other AIs are like, this is what you do.
Speaker: This is the best option out of this data.
Speaker: Cortana might be able to come up with something different.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a level of that creativity, that spark there.
Speaker: And so basically the idea is that Cortana was designed by Halsey and is Halsey in a way.
Speaker: And Kevin, you kind of hinted at this in the last episode.
Speaker: I hadn't gotten this far yet.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And you basically implied exactly this, that Cortana is basically a younger Halsey.
Speaker: Cortana, what is it?
Speaker: So, so they, uh, Dr. Halsey cloned her brain and then scanned it.
Speaker: And that was Cortana.
Speaker: And, and, and, and except that Cortana isn't, uh, held back, uh, by, uh, uh,
Speaker: military mores and social mores.
Speaker: And that's it.
Speaker: She basically just, she's like a spunkier version of Halsey who would say whatever the heck she wanted if she could.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she does.
Speaker: Indeed she does.
Speaker: She's lacking guile and filter.
Speaker: Right, right, right.
Speaker: And if you're, if you're going to lack filter, thank God you lack guile.
Speaker: That is, whoo.
Speaker: But so basically the idea is that Cortana is going to be a care.
Speaker: She's going to have a carrier.
Speaker: She, one of the Spartans is going to have her in their new Mjolnir armor.
Speaker: And this has never been done before having an AI at their fingertips like that at any point.
Speaker: And anyone who's played the halo game knows basically how this goes.
Speaker: You know, it's, it's having an AI, a guide with you no matter what.
Speaker: And that's, that is a,
Speaker: indispensable tool.
Speaker: And Cortana seems to have a bit of a crush on John.
Speaker: She's it's kind of adorable.
Speaker: And it's and I was expected because, you know, last episode we joked around about how I interpreted the
Speaker: Halsey's intentions as more of a romantic gate and you interpret them as more of a motherly gate.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and I, and I ended up agreeing with you.
Speaker: I was like, oh shit, you're right.
Speaker: Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker: But then when this happened, I started to think, oh, I was right after all.
Speaker: But I will say it's kind of like it's there's something very innocent and sweet about it.
Speaker: It's not a it's not a look at that hunk of man.
Speaker: Like, yeah, she's just kind of she she wants him to be her carrier.
Speaker: You get a very Tinkerbell and Peter Pan kind of vibe.
Speaker: Yeah, it could be very Tinkerbell and Peter Pan.
Speaker: And there was a section here where.
Speaker: She's asking about him and Halsey's basically kind of making sure that she has the right intentions on this.
Speaker: And she says she turned to Cortana and stared into her odd translucent eyes.
Speaker: You've read his CSV.
Speaker: I'm reading it again right now.
Speaker: Then, you know, he is neither the smartest nor the fastest nor the strongest of the Spartans, but he is the bravest and quite possibly the luckiest.
Speaker: And in my opinion, he is the best.
Speaker: Yes, Cortana whispered.
Speaker: I concur with your analysis, doctor.
Speaker: And then it gets into, I didn't expect this.
Speaker: She says, could you sacrifice him if you had to, if it meant completing the mission?
Speaker: Could you watch him die?
Speaker: And Cortana makes it very clear that, you know, the mission comes first and she absolutely could do that if she had to.
Speaker: You know, the mission is always paramount.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That's a very interesting place for it to go.
Speaker: Like, duty is still above all, no matter how much of a mother hen she seems to be with these Spartans.
Speaker: They have this interaction, and then they move on to other business, which is selecting the new base ship for the Spartans.
Speaker: Oh, yes, baby.
Speaker: We're getting the band back together.
Speaker: We're getting the band back together.
Speaker: Hell yes.
Speaker: Now, like, if you've played the first Halo game, we're getting some things that you can recognize right off the bat.
Speaker: So they end up choosing basically the smallest of the cruiser class called the Pillar of Autumn.
Speaker: Pillar of Autumn.
Speaker: Which is...
Speaker: super old.
Speaker: It's been in service for, it's been around for 43 years, which is a pretty long time for a spaceship.
Speaker: And they pick it out because there's a bunch of reasons they get into because it wouldn't stand out too much.
Speaker: It's kind of good for a stealth ship because it's so old, nobody would have any expectations of it.
Speaker: Yeah, they wouldn't assume that some of the most important people in the entire army are on this hunk of junk.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But because of the way it was really expensive to produce because of the way it was built, it is actually virtually indestructible.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: So the reason why nobody used them is because they were too expensive.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Capitalism.
Speaker: It's just too beautiful.
Speaker: So she essentially chooses the pillar of autumn.
Speaker: We get, we're getting master chief Cortana and keys all together.
Speaker: And it's finally happening.
Speaker: Nerds.
Speaker: It's finally happening.
Speaker: You had a potato to that.
Speaker: Some, some garlic, some onions.
Speaker: You got a stew, baby.
Speaker: You got a stew.
Speaker: You got a master stew, a master stew, a master stew, master stew reporting for duty.
Speaker: No, come here, master stew.
Speaker: You're so delicious and nourishing.
Speaker: Oh, you're even better when it's cold outside.
Speaker: Oh, I feel so comforted by you, Master Stu.
Speaker: It's just a mess after a while.
Speaker: It's just plate armor and just like whatever leftover bits of carrot I didn't want to eat.
Speaker: Nobody wants that carrot.
Speaker: I know who cares about that carrot.
Speaker: The carrot's fine in the beginning, but then at the end, it's just like you're eating carrot and it's like, I can't tell if this is potato or is this a sweet potato or carrot anymore.
Speaker: I'm very grateful, Master Stu, but some parts of you I don't need.
Speaker: I'm good.
Speaker: I'm full.
Speaker: Anyway.
Speaker: That skit was brought to you by Halo, the fall of reach available on auto.
Speaker: That's gotta be our first t-shirt.
Speaker: Master Stu.
Speaker: Oh, Master Stu.
Speaker: That brings us to chapter 26.
Speaker: It's more talking about the covenant.
Speaker: I mean, we've been talking about the covenant a lot.
Speaker: Chapter 26 is more like the Spartans are getting more low down on what the covenant is.
Speaker: Um, there is, they're breaking down the races that are in the covenant.
Speaker: There's the grunts, there's the jackals.
Speaker: Everybody knows them.
Speaker: There's the elites.
Speaker: And then there's the, there's the scientists, which is the ones that John recorded on Sigma Octanus four.
Speaker: And then there, then there's the, there's also the big boys, uh, the behemoths, I believe they're called.
Speaker: Is that, is that what they're called?
Speaker: I can't remember.
Speaker: They actually don't say it in this chapter.
Speaker: I think they're the behemoths.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Behemoths.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then O&I hypothesizes that there's two more.
Speaker: And this is kind of where this is setting the direction for the rest of the plot is that O&I thinks that there are two more cast.
Speaker: There's another warrior group.
Speaker: And then there is the leadership cast and basically the plan.
Speaker: And at the end of this, Master Chief says, you son of a bitch, I'm in.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And their plan is, by the way, their plan is they're going to capture a covenant ship.
Speaker: They're going to hack the CPU to find the covenant home world.
Speaker: They're going to go there and they're going to capture leadership.
Speaker: It's really just that simple.
Speaker: It's just that simple.
Speaker: Is that all?
Speaker: Like, oh, of course, of course.
Speaker: Why didn't we think of that before?
Speaker: Yeah, I really feel like we should have had that done earlier.
Speaker: My God, man.
Speaker: And so and they want to kidnap the leadership because, you know, they figure they can broker some sort of peace treaty with the covenant if they have the leadership.
Speaker: And that gets kind of existential all over John because he gets into and this is something they talk about a lot in Warhammer 40K, a lot in the fiction.
Speaker: with these super soldiers, these men that literally all they were trained to do, they were literally bred genetically to be the greatest warriors in the galaxy.
Speaker: And when you get the piece that theoretically you're aiming for, what the hell do you do?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: What do you do with this guy?
Speaker: What does he become a farmer?
Speaker: Like, how does that work?
Speaker: Farmer John.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Farmer John 117.
Speaker: I think 117 Farms.
Speaker: 117 Farms remembers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It just it's it's it's a pretty good question.
Speaker: And we certainly not a question that's ever been answered in our history books with what happens with those guys when there's nothing left to fight.
Speaker: They find things.
Speaker: They find things.
Speaker: Basically, spoiler alert.
Speaker: They find things to fight.
Speaker: They find things to do.
Speaker: Oh, yes.
Speaker: And but most importantly, with this mission, Halsey has basically told the top brass, she says, we are not going to order anyone to do this mission because it is basically a suicide mission.
Speaker: So we need volunteers and all the volunteer.
Speaker: They all stand up immediately, say, I am Spartacus and we're rolling.
Speaker: On to chapter 27.
Speaker: I love this chapter.
Speaker: I love it too.
Speaker: It's very action-packed.
Speaker: And this is another one of those chapters where you are better off, you the listener, if you have any intention of recording, not recording, what am I saying, of reading this book.
Speaker: If you have any intention of reading this book, chapter 27 is one of the chapters that you want to really dig into.
Speaker: It's so good.
Speaker: It is such good action.
Speaker: But the broad strokes.
Speaker: John arrives.
Speaker: He's on reach.
Speaker: He arrives at one of the many buildings, bases on reach.
Speaker: Who cares?
Speaker: They're all the same.
Speaker: And he is getting his Mark II Mjolnir armor.
Speaker: that has Cortana able to download into it and kind of merge, basically live in his brain.
Speaker: And they can kind of talk to each other.
Speaker: Because Cortana is in the suit now, his reaction time is even faster now.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: And she offers tactical advice and she can look up.
Speaker: very specific bits of information that he wouldn't normally have access to.
Speaker: You know, it's having a supercomputer in your armor.
Speaker: And on top of that, this armor has shields similar to the ones that the Covenant has shown.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So it is not only tougher, it's smarter.
Speaker: It's got...
Speaker: It's just fully loaded.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: And it's you're going to recognize a lot of it if you play the first game.
Speaker: The the the shields, the whole thing.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: And finally, we have our smart ass member of the team locked and loaded and ready to go.
Speaker: Cortana immediately just starts.
Speaker: The first thing I think she says when she basically enters his head and she says, there's not a lot of room in here.
Speaker: And it's just like some kind of read immediately right off the bat.
Speaker: But then it gets to my favorite part.
Speaker: This is this is this is how it all starts off.
Speaker: And I knew we were in for some great shit, but this was hilarious to me.
Speaker: Let's see.
Speaker: There's a moment where.
Speaker: They're all there.
Speaker: He's wearing the armor.
Speaker: Halsey tells him basically that the brass, the O&I brass, have arranged a test for you and the new Mjolnir system, Dr. Halsey said.
Speaker: There are some that believe you two are not up to our proposed mission.
Speaker: Ma'am, the Master Chief snapped to attention.
Speaker: I'm up for it, ma'am.
Speaker: I know you are Master Chief.
Speaker: Others require proof.
Speaker: And this feels to me like a band, like a big arena band that shows up in Pittsburgh.
Speaker: And they're like, oh, well, we were over in Philly yesterday and a bunch of them told us the people in Pittsburgh didn't know how to party.
Speaker: And everyone in Pittsburgh goes, fuck you, fuck Philly, we can party.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Let me hear it.
Speaker: I don't know, man.
Speaker: Let me, I don't know.
Speaker: That cheer wasn't quite big.
Speaker: You know, in Philly, they were really cheering.
Speaker: That's exactly what it feels like.
Speaker: Master Chief, someone told me that you didn't know how to rock.
Speaker: He's like, ma'am, I know how to rock, ma'am.
Speaker: Master Chief, I was just in Cleveland.
Speaker: Cleveland said that Kelly knows how to rock harder than you.
Speaker: And he just said he like going every time he's every every bullet he dodges every shot he takes.
Speaker: You can just hear him grunting.
Speaker: Fuck Cleveland.
Speaker: Just beautiful.
Speaker: So yeah, that's how this starts.
Speaker: The test obviously hasn't begun yet, but it starts with her basically going, I don't know, these guys don't think you can...
Speaker: You can hang master chief.
Speaker: I don't know, man.
Speaker: And so the test begins and he's going up against those.
Speaker: What do they call them again?
Speaker: The ODST guys.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: These, these, yeah.
Speaker: Feet first into hell, hardcore Marines.
Speaker: And they are out for blood.
Speaker: Like they have been, they're using live rounds.
Speaker: They've basically been told, try to kill them.
Speaker: Go, go ahead.
Speaker: Kill them.
Speaker: Yeah, trying to kill him.
Speaker: And Master Chief makes it, he kind of makes a point that he's not going to kill the Marines.
Speaker: Oh, he maims them terribly.
Speaker: But he basically says to himself that, you know, we need as many soldiers as we can get in this war.
Speaker: I'm not going to kill any of these guys.
Speaker: And Cortana...
Speaker: You know, she says basically questions what he's doing.
Speaker: And he says, you know, my my my mission stated that I had to neutralize these guys, not necessarily kill them.
Speaker: So that's what I'm doing.
Speaker: And I just love that he had to like that.
Speaker: Please, please don't be a psycho, I suppose, wasn't given in the orders.
Speaker: He was just like, I'm following the general rule 659.
Speaker: Don't be a fucking psychopath during training.
Speaker: Oh, okay.
Speaker: He really goes by the book.
Speaker: Semantics, Cortana replied.
Speaker: She sounded amused.
Speaker: I can't argue with the results, though.
Speaker: See, I'm telling you, she's got a crush on him.
Speaker: It's adorable.
Speaker: It's adorable.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: And she does use Cortana a lot throughout the training.
Speaker: And basically, they're a terrific team.
Speaker: And it draws parallels to earlier in the book when he was first doing his...
Speaker: when he was a kid and he ran and rang the bell before his team did.
Speaker: And, uh, and he had to learn about teamwork and basically he, he learns about teamwork and this, and again, we're not going to go into all the specifics.
Speaker: You really ought to read this chapter.
Speaker: It's great.
Speaker: But basically after the Marines leave, they throw mines at him and they bring in an entire air force down on his ass.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it gets a little over the top.
Speaker: It's a little over the top.
Speaker: Basically, like, I don't think Master Chief necessarily realizes that this was not supposed to be part of the test.
Speaker: No, and he doesn't because he still absolutely trusts in the higher-ups and everything...
Speaker: has a reason and just because he doesn't fully understand it, but they get through it.
Speaker: They get through the testing, you know, bleeding and bruised, but alive.
Speaker: He tears his Achilles tendon, by the way.
Speaker: Yeah, and keeps running and keeps running.
Speaker: And I remember I remember thinking, oh, right.
Speaker: The armor, because.
Speaker: There was a part of me that was like, I mean, it doesn't matter how awesome you are.
Speaker: It doesn't matter what a super soldier you are.
Speaker: Physically speaking, you cannot run without your Achilles tendon.
Speaker: It's the thing that makes the whole bottom half of your leg work.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so, but then you're like, oh, right, the armor, he basically thinks his way to running.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, yeah, it's a pretty intense chapter, but he gets through it and proves that they have placed the armor and Cortana in the right hands.
Speaker: Indeed.
Speaker: And then chapter 28 is just the gravy on top of that delicious meal.
Speaker: You've heard that revenge is a dish best served cold?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: No, it's a dish best served digitally.
Speaker: Because Cortana is petty as hell.
Speaker: She is a petty bitch, and I love her for it.
Speaker: I love her.
Speaker: Yeah, so Cortana's on the Pillar of Autumn, and she's bored.
Speaker: That's basically, like, she doesn't sleep.
Speaker: You know, she's an AI.
Speaker: And so she's bored.
Speaker: And so her first thing that she does is decide the brass that just put them through hell like that.
Speaker: The guy that was in charge of all of it.
Speaker: Ackerman.
Speaker: She's going to get a little.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's going to get a little payback.
Speaker: And she and she agrees with the with the Master Chief's assessment that we need all the people we can get.
Speaker: So she isn't like gunning for him to be hanged, you know, or something like that.
Speaker: But she basically puts enough scandal under his name that he's going to get dropped into a because he had been a higher up.
Speaker: uh, when it came to like, he, he'd seen a lot of battles.
Speaker: He'd seen a lot of war.
Speaker: And then he went into the O and I and started doing intelligence work.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And he, and he basically was playing politics.
Speaker: He was, it was more of a self-serving thing for him at that point.
Speaker: Uh, and so she sends like fake receipts from a whorehouse to his wife.
Speaker: Uh,
Speaker: heights of other shit just to it just to make it clear that he's taking advantage of certain things and that he'd get in trouble and basically get bumped back down to being a battlefield commander again yeah and it's just it should just take such glee in the whole thing uh it's it's wonderful uh but she isn't done after that no she's not
Speaker: No, she she decides she's going to keep looking and she she ends up through a lot of chicanery and hacking and that kind of thing.
Speaker: Q. I'm in.
Speaker: G. I. F. I'm in.
Speaker: I'm in.
Speaker: And she she slips past Beowulf, which I love.
Speaker: I love the description of that is she knew Beowulf and Beowulf knew her and knew not to let her in.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: You say, no, no, absolutely not.
Speaker: And she and she tricks him, gets around him, and she basically finds out all about Master Chief's childhood kidnapping and everything that happened.
Speaker: And she has a like kind of an ethical quandary.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, she she she considers that, like, on one hand, this is a horrible thing that they did to a child.
Speaker: It's insanely unethical.
Speaker: But on the other hand, he just might be the the person that's going to save the entire human race.
Speaker: And I think what the thing I thought was really interesting and they don't really go into it that much is like Master Chief actually died once before.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It was like, he was just, he's like, he, he died on a black op and was flash cloned.
Speaker: Like what?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It just throw that in there.
Speaker: Like what's the.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Like that's just like something through there's like, just in case I need to do a pre prequel, make a little extra cash.
Speaker: Gotta pay for this car.
Speaker: Uh, in the end, she basically vows that she's going to protect him and, and goes all herself goes into this kind of mom mode with him.
Speaker: Nothing is ever going to happen to him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She's, she truly is Dr. Halsey in her own way.
Speaker: So it's a really she goes from petty to really sweet in a quick amount of time.
Speaker: It's just it's one of those chapters that on its face might seem unnecessary if you want to get if you want to get really nitpicky about it.
Speaker: But I totally disagree because it tells us.
Speaker: about her and it shows us a bunch of sides of her and it's just good writing.
Speaker: Like, it's good writing just because it didn't have a bunch of bullets and bloodshed.
Speaker: It's still really solid.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that brings us to chapter 29 and the pillar of autumn.
Speaker: Yeah, this is the... This is kind of a shit-has-hit-the-fan chapter.
Speaker: Not the first part of it, but by the end of it.
Speaker: Chapter 29 is basically Captain Keyes giving his pre-leave inspection of the Pillar of Autumn.
Speaker: He's flying around it in a shuttle, just kind of looking out the outside, kicking the metaphorical tires...
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Of the ship, if you will.
Speaker: Noticing that there's like there's guns that are hidden in spots that people wouldn't expect on it.
Speaker: All that kind of cool, cool, neat stuff.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All the kind of stuff that you as the captain of a ship would actually be quite giddy to find out about.
Speaker: And the ship actually has two A.I.,
Speaker: um cortana obviously but because cortana is um is interchangeable into master chief's suit there's a secondary ai that handles the cannon fire um but yeah and you get to see sorry go ahead yeah no it's neat just like kind of going through like here's all the cool shit
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's more tech porn.
Speaker: It really is.
Speaker: It's more it's more tech porn, more weapons porn for the ship.
Speaker: Very cool stuff.
Speaker: And you also get to see Cortana's interaction with keys, which I thought was really funny because when it came to hanging out with Master Chief, she is a, you know, a total smartass.
Speaker: But when she is on the bridge with keys and the whole crew of the pillars of autumn pillar of autumn, she is she's a total pro.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's really funny.
Speaker: Like there's nary a smart ass remark coming from her.
Speaker: You know, it's, it's, it's pretty cool.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Later in the book, she puts a little, a little, a little twist on some of her phrasings, but yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: She puts a little stank on it later on, but for the time being, she's, she's a pro.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We also get a really interesting glimpse into keys is head.
Speaker: Cause as long as we're, as long as we're talking about,
Speaker: Master Chief's kidnapping in the previous chapter, Keyes finds out that the Spartans are on board.
Speaker: And we get a little glimpse into his head that he's still haunted by his part in kidnapping those kids.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And I assume that he kidnapped most of them.
Speaker: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker: I think he would.
Speaker: And it's funny because you do kind of forget at this point that he had that sort of that he had had.
Speaker: Kind of a scummy background.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, because at this point he is a hero with a capital H and it's it's it's kind of a neat little reminder.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's it's because when you think about Keyes is past and maybe it's the guilt from the kidnappings that kind of fueled him into becoming a better person.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: And that's something both Phil and I believe is that you can't let – you can always feel guilty over things that you have done in your past.
Speaker: But as long as you're fueling it to make yourself better, then it can be a good thing.
Speaker: Absolutely.
Speaker: But in this case, for Keys, the things in his past were previously –
Speaker: refusing to testify against a superior officer who rightfully deserved the court-martialing that he was under for killing a bunch of people and also kidnapping like a hundred children.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I think Kevin's being a little too broad here.
Speaker: What he's not saying is that I kidnapped a bunch of kids several years ago and have moved past it, and I'm not a bad person anymore.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, that's... And Kevin doesn't think I'm a bad person, and he's correct.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: So we get all that.
Speaker: And then, as Kevin mentioned before, we get the shit hits the fan notification that another fleet is being attacked by the Covenant.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Basically, they were about to leave off on their mission.
Speaker: They were just about to jump into slipstream space.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And they get notification.
Speaker: Lieutenant Dominique on comms gets the notification.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so it's like, well, shit, we're going to have to make some changes to the whole situation there.
Speaker: And that actually brings us to section five.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And these last two sections are a little shorter than the other ones.
Speaker: And I don't know, Kevin, do you want to let's let's make a finale out of this thing.
Speaker: Let's let's make a finale.
Speaker: Welcome to the finale of Halo.
Speaker: The finale of Halo, The Fall of Reach.
Speaker: Welcome.
Speaker: Welcome.
Speaker: You can know you're there.
Speaker: Section 5, Reach.
Speaker: There's like an entire chapter just dedicated to the message that they received.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Shoot!
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: Jesus.
Speaker: Oh, bless you.
Speaker: I'm getting emotional.
Speaker: Thank you.
Speaker: I'm getting emotional about The Fall of Reach.
Speaker: Oh, jeez.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: Oh, no.
Speaker: Oh, Jesus.
Speaker: So, yeah, but the first chapter is just an entire chapter dedicated to
Speaker: To... Hey!
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's... Oh, you know, so basically this message is... There's a ship that is... It's undergoing some stuff and it has... It has the... Basically, what is it, the coal protocol?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like, because it's undergoing certain repairs, it can't be accessed remotely or something like that to detonate.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So, it's just this message, you know, like...
Speaker: Pay it no mind.
Speaker: Chapter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Chapter 31.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It will have no impact on anything at all.
Speaker: None whatsoever.
Speaker: Don't you kids worry.
Speaker: Oh, boy.
Speaker: So in chapter 31, we get a new character.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Chief Petty Officer McRobb.
Speaker: McRobb.
Speaker: And he's basically one of the defenders of Reach.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He's he's one of the people who is he's on a what is it?
Speaker: He's on a sensing station.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they're there to basically make, just monitor the situation around reach.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And they make a point of saying that, you know, this is a really important position and job.
Speaker: But they also happen to believe that no one would be stupid enough to hit Reach.
Speaker: But guess what happens?
Speaker: Guess what?
Speaker: The Covenant's here.
Speaker: Covenant's here.
Speaker: Oh, boy.
Speaker: Knock, knock, bitches.
Speaker: Yeah, the Covenant shows up.
Speaker: It's basically that Big Bird gif.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: A Big Bird kicking the door open.
Speaker: Yeah, that's really it.
Speaker: It's a shit ton of them.
Speaker: And so McRob immediately demands a purge of records.
Speaker: They've got to get rid of all their information because everything, the locations of every human planet
Speaker: including the soul system are on board there.
Speaker: And so they need to purge immediately.
Speaker: But that data is, as Kevin mentioned, is offline due to repairs.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And I don't think that's a coincidence.
Speaker: I'm sure the, the covenant figured that out is the best time to show up.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And it, and it becomes clear that,
Speaker: that they're going to be overtaken by the covenant.
Speaker: So he it's, it's really grim, sad moment that he, he initiates a self-destruct sequence and blows them all to hell because everyone on the ship anyway, on the, yeah, on the, on that, because,
Speaker: If they get taken, then the entire species as they know it is gone.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And it's really sad.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's what about the astrophysics data?
Speaker: They're still trying to end the diagnostic cycle, but that could take a few minutes.
Speaker: And then McRob basically...
Speaker: There's an officer who is just standing at the stealth destructs and McRob basically has the officer stand down and says, it's all right, Lieutenant.
Speaker: We've done the best we could.
Speaker: We've done our duty.
Speaker: There's nothing more to worry about.
Speaker: And he sets his palm print on the control station.
Speaker: He locks out the reactor safety, saturate the fusion chamber, and then McRob's last words are just one last order to carry out.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that line about there's nothing more to worry about is that one hit me.
Speaker: I'm not going to lie.
Speaker: That one hit me really hard because you think about the fact that these soldiers and naval officers and everybody else, they are on a constant state of.
Speaker: alert because of this massive war, the entire, it's not about nations anymore.
Speaker: It's about the entire species.
Speaker: And he basically says, well, at least we don't have to fight anymore.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: You know, you're not going to have to fight anymore.
Speaker: You're not going to have to worry about this anymore because we're going to be fucking stardust in a second.
Speaker: So it's over for us.
Speaker: So right.
Speaker: And it's, and he's, and he's right.
Speaker: And there's something like that's the comfort he is taking.
Speaker: He's like, oh, thank God I'm going to die soon.
Speaker: Have you ever seen the movie Finding a Friend for the End of the World?
Speaker: No, no.
Speaker: That's on my list.
Speaker: I need to see that.
Speaker: No, I won't get into it then.
Speaker: But it's like that and melancholia, both letting go in the face of inevitable, like inevitability, you know, just letting go with the fact that, well, I don't have to worry about this anymore, you know?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that's definitely what's happening here.
Speaker: And it's, it's grim.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: And don't get me wrong.
Speaker: There's been plenty of grim moments in this book so far.
Speaker: I think this one is the one that has kind of stuck with me throughout all of it.
Speaker: It's, it's a really sad moment and it's a good bit of writing because we've just learned about this guy.
Speaker: It's not a long standing character.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: We've been through shit with, and I still just absolutely felt for him.
Speaker: Now, this brings us to chapter 32.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And in this chapter, basically, they it's it's told from John's point of view, and he realizes that something's wrong right away.
Speaker: Not because he's heard anything, but because he can feel the ship turning.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: He knows they're changing course.
Speaker: They're changing course.
Speaker: They were about to enter slipstream space, and now they are not.
Speaker: And basically, Keyes comes down to address Master Chief and basically the Spartans directly, because Master Chief points out and be like, well, they can hear you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They can hear you, man.
Speaker: Like, yeah, he, he just wants at first it's just master chief and he goes, well, just so you know, they can all hear you on the intercom here.
Speaker: So you might as well.
Speaker: He's all right, cool.
Speaker: Fine.
Speaker: Everyone's listening.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're all going to die.
Speaker: Basically.
Speaker: It's basically the, the, we're all going to die.
Speaker: And, um,
Speaker: So yeah, yeah.
Speaker: So basically there the the pillar of autumn is trying to regroup to rally point Zulu and the rally point Zulu will come up several times because that is that's like the final that's like that's like, you know, Custer's last stand.
Speaker: That is the Alamo basically for for the UNSC.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And and if you know anything about Shaka Zulu and the story there, I to talk about history nerd stuff again, I don't think that's a coincidence.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So he basically gives the he gives them a low down.
Speaker: There are over 100 covenant ships that they know of that are approaching Reach, and they got to change plans to defend Reach.
Speaker: And and and for the first time ever,
Speaker: Master Chief kind of contradicts a superior officer.
Speaker: He says, I don't think we need to change our mission because in the long run, what we're going to, what we, what you want us to do, this could still work.
Speaker: So they kind of alter things and the Spartans are going to, uh,
Speaker: basically attempt to take a covenant ship and continue their original mission at very least.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because the covenant ships are here now, so we don't need to go somewhere else to get one.
Speaker: They're here.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: They're here.
Speaker: Let's just do it.
Speaker: You know?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that brings us to chapter 33.
Speaker: Like I said, which basically jumps, jumps forward right into the action.
Speaker: Like it is like, is like shit hit the fan already for the pillar of autumn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Prior to this chapter starting, like in between chapter 32 and 33, they have engaged now with the covenant.
Speaker: Yeah, they go straight into it.
Speaker: They're like, you know, look, we've got like 50 pages left.
Speaker: Let's just get straight into the.
Speaker: Let's just do it.
Speaker: Yeah, the seraph ships are firing at them and there's a cruiser.
Speaker: This gets right back into, you know, maybe five, ten chapters ago when we had the battle outside of Sigma Octanus.
Speaker: The really hardcore space flight battle.
Speaker: The dog fighting.
Speaker: And they talk and they make comparisons to it constantly, too.
Speaker: This is a very similar situation.
Speaker: And Keyes does more fancy shit.
Speaker: basically.
Speaker: He does some really cool moves.
Speaker: The Covenant's got a brand new energy weapon that they've never seen before that's basically like a sniper rifle for spaceships.
Speaker: It's this really narrow beam.
Speaker: It's like a mini Death Star laser, basically.
Speaker: That's exactly what I thought of it, too.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a little Death Star, and it's bringing down destroyers left and right.
Speaker: Yeah, they talk about the Minotaur, which is one of the largest UNSC ships.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: This beam just slices through it.
Speaker: It's it's like, you know what?
Speaker: The list of Death Star, it's like a it's like a ship shooting out a lightsaber.
Speaker: It just it just it just slices right through the Minotaur.
Speaker: like cuts it in half and it's like it's like when uh in in a in a samurai movie when the the guy has been cut in half but he doesn't realize it yet and he takes like another step and then he goes he likes he like falls apart that's basically what happens to the slides in half that's basically what happens to the minotaur
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And basically the Covenant ships, they're losing a ton of ships, but they're still moving forward and they're basically killing their way to the Super Mac emplacements, which defend Reach.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which are the things that were the reason that they were so certain that Reach would be fine.
Speaker: These Super Mac emplacements.
Speaker: Because the Mac guns are basically the weakness of the Covenant ship.
Speaker: Yes, yes.
Speaker: And they've realized that, and they put a lot of money and weapons into that.
Speaker: And they're bringing down lots of Covenant ships, but not before they start to notice that there are drop ships that are making their way to the surface of Reach.
Speaker: So it does have a direct parallel to our last giant naval battle.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: They are not...
Speaker: They're turning around.
Speaker: A lot of them are turning around, but it's because they need to.
Speaker: They're going to be dropping their soldiers off onto the ground.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And then and then this is where Cortana adds a little adds a little flavor editorializing at the end of the chapter.
Speaker: Captain Keys, I'm picking up another distress signal.
Speaker: It's from the Reach Space Dock AI.
Speaker: And if you think this is bad, wait until you hear this.
Speaker: It gets worse.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's the end of the chapter.
Speaker: It's like, thank you, Cortana.
Speaker: You are a beam of comfort in an otherwise uncaring world.
Speaker: And now we kind of like we basically get to that little mini chapter at the beginning where it was talking about there's a ship on on one of the space docks that they they can't get to.
Speaker: They can't do any remote access to.
Speaker: And the chapter 34 starts with the mission had just encountered another snag.
Speaker: And if we know anything about snags, it's that Master Chief hates them.
Speaker: He hates snags.
Speaker: It's like Garfield with Mondays.
Speaker: He hates snags because they can't, they can't plan for a snag.
Speaker: I need, I need art of master chief, like in the Garfield, in Garfield's bed, like all curled up and just thinking like snags.
Speaker: We're coming up with a lot of good t-shirt ideas.
Speaker: These are all good t-shirt ideas.
Speaker: These are all good.
Speaker: Vote!
Speaker: Get on Twitter and vote for your favorite Halo t-shirt.
Speaker: The winner will have their design made.
Speaker: So they get this, Captain Keys gets a message, and I like that the public key for the message is Red Rover, Red Rover.
Speaker: I was like, come on, guys, Jesus.
Speaker: Are people still playing Red Rover?
Speaker: Well, there's clearly, because they're still playing King of the Hill.
Speaker: They're still playing King of the Hill.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: That's true.
Speaker: So I would assume, yeah.
Speaker: I mean, Red Rover is just a slightly more organized version of King of the Hill.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So basically at this point, the Spartans have decided that they're going to split.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: They're going to in chapter 34.
Speaker: They've decided that they're going to split one.
Speaker: One group is going to go and get the nav data from a ship called.
Speaker: There's a ship called the basically the covenant wants a ship called the circumference, which is on the reach space dock.
Speaker: for repairs and they, they need, and basically they, they think covenant is targeting their circumference to plunder the nav database.
Speaker: Yes, exactly.
Speaker: So one half of the Spartans need to go and defend that data and get it so that before they can get it.
Speaker: And the other team is going to go and join the ground forces on the, on the surface of reach.
Speaker: to defend the area down there.
Speaker: And John is going to lead the nav data op.
Speaker: And he has this wonderful little moment of pride with his Spartans, you know, these kind of Captain America, they're damn good soldiers.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Kind of thing.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Which means they're all gonna die.
Speaker: They're all gonna die.
Speaker: Let's face facts.
Speaker: You know, it's like the moment at the end of mass effect three, where you say goodbye to like all your, all your, all your friends, because it's like, yeah, this is probably it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like, oh, they're damn good soldiers.
Speaker: So proud to have worked with you.
Speaker: You're all going to die.
Speaker: You're all going to die.
Speaker: We all know that's going to happen.
Speaker: We all know that this is the end.
Speaker: So after they have this little moment and Master Chief leaves with his team in a pelican and immediately runs into a covenant ship.
Speaker: Immediately.
Speaker: Like it's almost comical the way they describe it.
Speaker: They're like, okay, we're getting out of here and oh, fuck.
Speaker: So it felt the covenant frigate materialized a kilometer from the dropship's nose.
Speaker: And like, that's the thing is like, it's like kilometers a pretty good distance.
Speaker: Like, well, no, in space, a kilometer is basically like that's like no distance at all.
Speaker: Yeah, it's right the fuck there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it is it is there.
Speaker: It is in front of them.
Speaker: So Master Chief.
Speaker: And this is where the book basically it's like an it's like a it's like a boulder rolling downhill at this point.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: You were in Chapter 35 and and Master Chief is like basically like, oh, well, you know, let that.
Speaker: I'm going to shoot a rocket.
Speaker: And then he realizes he should not shoot the rocket.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: It's like that Fensler.
Speaker: It's the in the back of my head.
Speaker: I think of the Fensler films, G.I.
Speaker: Joe cartoon where you have the guy saying, give him the stick.
Speaker: Don't give him the stick.
Speaker: What the fuck are you?
Speaker: talking about.
Speaker: I will send it to you after the show.
Speaker: I need this.
Speaker: For those of you listening, we will share this on Twitter at PixletPod on Twitter.
Speaker: If you also don't know what the fuck Kevin's talking about right now, we'll share it.
Speaker: We'll share it so you can see it.
Speaker: Take this moment to pause the podcast and watch all 30 minutes of the Fensler Films G.I.
Speaker: Joe PSAs and then come back.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Come back and join us again.
Speaker: Come back and join us.
Speaker: We'll post that.
Speaker: We'll post that on Twitter.
Speaker: We'll post that on the website.
Speaker: Because I need to see it, too.
Speaker: So they decide the best thing to do is to crash into the station.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Yeah, they just drop it.
Speaker: Yeah, because the giant ship that's right in front of them ignores them.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Which is the reason that he doesn't give them the stick, because they assume that it's a dead ship.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because they've turned the power off, and so they're just kind of ignoring them.
Speaker: So he takes advantage of that, and they just crash into the station.
Speaker: It's like...
Speaker: Launchpad McQuack.
Speaker: They don't know how to land.
Speaker: They've just got it.
Speaker: Everybody gets tumbled about and they crash into the station and they just go about their mission after that.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: And they end up getting pursued by these elite aliens.
Speaker: One of the casts that they haven't experienced before.
Speaker: These big... They're a head taller than John.
Speaker: They've got a big mouthful of chompy, chompy teeth.
Speaker: And during a space battle... And they do a really good job describing the battle because they are in space.
Speaker: They're in zero gravity.
Speaker: So even the slightest...
Speaker: you know, kick in one direction or another can just send you spiraling off course.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And sadly, that's exactly what happens to the Spartan James.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He James had already lost his arm at one point in an earlier chapter.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: He he does not.
Speaker: He has zero luck.
Speaker: He gets hit by a needler.
Speaker: The Needler blows up one of the tank of his thruster harness and he basically just gets spun out into space.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And John wonders if he's dead, if the Needler killed him.
Speaker: And I don't think he actually ever says this, but you kind of you kind of get the impression that he's like, well, I hope he's dead then because he's just going to be twirling around in space, slowly suffocating and starving to death.
Speaker: So I hope the Needler did it.
Speaker: That's that's what I assume he's thinking.
Speaker: But like, I really hope he dies a lot sooner than.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: What a terrible way to go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So, and cause you figure they're enhanced, uh, physiotomy, you know, and all that stuff, uh, they can probably go a lot longer without food.
Speaker: They can probably go a lot longer.
Speaker: They don't get into it, but you can probably go a lot longer on smaller amounts of air stuff.
Speaker: So it just, it's just going to prolong how long it takes this poor guy to die.
Speaker: out in space oh this poor guy he's just he's just just he just he's doing his job man he does his job and and he just gets shit on it sucks so they continue on so now it's what is it it's just linda and the master chief now yes that was that was the it was linda and james and the master chief on this mission yeah it was a three-person team and now they are down kelly and kelly and the rest uh went down to the ground forces
Speaker: Yeah, Benny and the Jets went down to the planet side.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: They took their electric boots and mohair suits down to reach.
Speaker: That's just what happened.
Speaker: So that's them.
Speaker: That's all that's left.
Speaker: And at one point, Master Chief, he takes on this elite alien one-on-one, and after a long extended battle... In fisticuffs.
Speaker: In fisticuffs, just, just, just punching back and forth and tangling with a pistol, you know, the whole, the whole pistols point at you, no, the pistols pointed at me, all that shit goes down.
Speaker: And, uh, and, and he notes that the alien is just as strong as he is.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Uh, just in his natural state, which sucks.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That is not fun information to have.
Speaker: That is not fun information.
Speaker: Like, like John has had, uh,
Speaker: He's he's in this this battle suit.
Speaker: He is augmented.
Speaker: He was the best of the best even before that.
Speaker: And the elite is an even match for him.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That is right.
Speaker: That's it's crazy talk.
Speaker: That is that is baby town frolics.
Speaker: That is absolute insanity.
Speaker: So but he does manage to kill it.
Speaker: He shoots it in the fucking face like we all hoped he would.
Speaker: Which is which is how you do.
Speaker: This is how you do.
Speaker: So you do.
Speaker: And and he gets a he gets contacted by keys that asks him if they've been able to succeed in their mission.
Speaker: He's like, no, we haven't even gotten there yet.
Speaker: We're on our way.
Speaker: It's like, are you done yet?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: No, I'm fine.
Speaker: Thanks for asking, by the way.
Speaker: And he tells him he's.
Speaker: And so he says, look, if you can't get the information, then we're going to have to blow it up with the pillar of autumn's weaponry.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So one way or the other, we got to get rid of that fucking information.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And that was the reason they didn't do that in the first place is because if the Pillar of Autumn did it, there was actually no guarantee that it would do the thorough destruction of the nav database that was needed.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's kind of like it's it's it's the Internet.
Speaker: You know, it's like trying to blow up.
Speaker: a computer that has it.
Speaker: And there's no guarantee that you couldn't find it on another computer or something like that.
Speaker: It's just not as thorough.
Speaker: But if you actually get the nav data in hand and are able to do something with them, that's a different ball of wax.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: That is a tech talk with Phil, who clearly knows what the internet is.
Speaker: He knows what the internet is and how to blow it up.
Speaker: Phil the Conquistador.
Speaker: I know what the internet is.
Speaker: So that brings us to chapter 36.
Speaker: We are back on board the Pillar of Autumn as they attempt to destroy as many of the Covenant ships as they can.
Speaker: Keyes is just being as fancy as he possibly can.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And they know that there's this new weapon that's being used to snipe all these UNC ships, and they gotta destroy it.
Speaker: That's their new main mission.
Speaker: And just like Kevin said before, he does some fancy dogfighting shit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's really cool.
Speaker: He basically causes their shield to fall long enough that they could slip a torpedo in there.
Speaker: And, and then the shield goes back up because they're way too close to the ship.
Speaker: And if the ship blows up at this point, they will also blow up.
Speaker: But the, the torpedo slips in under the shield, the shield goes back up and then explodes taking out the ship.
Speaker: But the ship's shield system protects the pillar of autumn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: I was like, I was like, that is the coolest.
Speaker: Like that was one of the coolest uses of shields in a sci-fi setting ever.
Speaker: Yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker: It is a great, great scene.
Speaker: It's fantastic.
Speaker: Chapter 37.
Speaker: Like I said, these things, they're speeding along here at this point.
Speaker: It's all bite-sized action bits.
Speaker: We're jumping back and forth between... At this point, it is just between the two main characters, basically, Arkees and Master Chief.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so we come back to Master Chief and his Spartans and they find the nav data.
Speaker: And it's just I just want to say the chapter starts with like it's got to be a reference to to aliens because the opening line is multiple signals on the motion tracker.
Speaker: Master Chief said they're all around us.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: I didn't even think about it.
Speaker: Yeah, it's totally aliens.
Speaker: Yeah, they are.
Speaker: Yeah, they're surrounded by jackals specifically.
Speaker: They have hundreds of them.
Speaker: And jackals, in case you didn't realize, are the ones for those who have played the game and it's been a while or haven't played the game.
Speaker: They're basically they are what they they say they are.
Speaker: They're they're these dog like creatures and they are instead of a shield on their head.
Speaker: They hold a physical shield in front of them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And they are a pain in the ass.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: They're they they they suck.
Speaker: So they're surrounded by hundreds of these guys.
Speaker: They find the the nav data and destroy it.
Speaker: They just they find it.
Speaker: They blow it up.
Speaker: Now they've got to get out alive.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So they are they they they run into a bunch of Marines and
Speaker: And they commandeer a Pelican and they're trying to, you know, they're just using the onboard guns to just take out as many Jackals as they possibly can.
Speaker: It's it's if you ever seen Hot Shots part do when they have the guys doing a Rambo parody and they're just blowing up people.
Speaker: And there's this there's this number bar that's showing you exactly how many people
Speaker: are dying that's basically what's happening here yeah yeah the only problem is the so earlier in an earlier chapter they had mentioned that the dock master AI had locked they had locked everything down tight in order to to protect the circumference from from basically invasion by the covenant it it didn't do anything obviously the covenant found their way onto the
Speaker: But what happens is they send a signal.
Speaker: Linda sends a signal to the Dockmaster AI to open the outer bay doors.
Speaker: But the Dockmaster is not doing it.
Speaker: And there is a manual release by the outer door.
Speaker: And I knew it was going to happen.
Speaker: As soon as it was said.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: It is like there's a somebody has to go out there and it's like the Jurassic Park moment of like, yeah, oh, somebody needs to just go out down the down the road and throw the switch to get the power back on.
Speaker: Yeah, no problem.
Speaker: Real easy.
Speaker: Let's have a cigarette with Samuel L. Jackson and celebrate.
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: Everything's fine.
Speaker: It's fine.
Speaker: There's nothing that's going to happen to me just turning the power back on outside down the road.
Speaker: Let's not be silly.
Speaker: You're being paranoid.
Speaker: Being paranoid.
Speaker: It's gonna be fine.
Speaker: It's gonna be fine, except it wasn't fine for Linda.
Speaker: She gets the shit killed out of her.
Speaker: She just gets fucking aced!
Speaker: Like, just one shot after the other.
Speaker: She just gets peppered to the point where they pull out the pelican, they hop out, they load her back in, and this is how tough the fucking Spartans are.
Speaker: She's...
Speaker: She's just been perforated.
Speaker: And she just kind of looks up at... Did we win?
Speaker: Did we win?
Speaker: And she's like, no, it's fine.
Speaker: We won.
Speaker: And those are her last words.
Speaker: And it's like, it made me think of...
Speaker: Oh, what was it?
Speaker: The walk hard movie where the kid gets chopped in half with a machete and he looks at his brother goes, listen, man, this is pretty bad.
Speaker: I'm probably not going to get probably not going to live through this.
Speaker: She got.
Speaker: killed and she yeah she rolled a nat one on a death save and the DM basically said to her do you want it you have any last words yeah do you have any cool last words that's all I can offer you at this point um
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And so, uh, uh, he is the last survivor of that mission.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And, uh, they, they make it back to, uh, the, the pillar of autumn and, uh, master chief and keys find each other and, uh, slow motion hug.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker: Just, just, it was, it's a beautiful moment.
Speaker: And, uh, and, uh,
Speaker: And Master Chief says to him, when are we going to go pick up my other guys?
Speaker: The ground.
Speaker: Because Keyes is like, we're getting the fuck out of here.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's like mission complete.
Speaker: Let's go.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We're gone.
Speaker: And Master Chief says, when are we going to go get my other Spartans?
Speaker: And Keyes says, we're not.
Speaker: We are not going to be getting them.
Speaker: They got overrun.
Speaker: They didn't even make orbit.
Speaker: They're like, they're probably dead.
Speaker: No, yeah, they're gone.
Speaker: And Master Chief's like, okay, well, can we send a search party down there to find him?
Speaker: He goes, no.
Speaker: He's like, absolutely not.
Speaker: Covenant one, we're going.
Speaker: Right, yeah, which is basically it.
Speaker: Like, look, the win is that we got the NAV data and blew that up before they could, so Earth is safe, the solar system is safe, Reach is gone.
Speaker: This is all we can hope for.
Speaker: This is as good of a victory as we can hope for.
Speaker: And and and it really frustrates Master Chief because this is kind of one of the this is one of those first moments for him that there's literally nothing he can do to save his soldiers or to save Reach.
Speaker: And he wonders if he's the only Spartan left at this point.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And then he, we have a brief moment where he recognizes some symbols on the nav, but he can't quite, you know, recognize why he recognizes them.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and that's kind of just seated right there.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, and that's, so like the, the story proper, that is, that's the end.
Speaker: Then we move on to the epilogue.
Speaker: Yeah, and onward to the epilogue.
Speaker: Reach is glassed, though.
Speaker: Yeah, Reach is gone.
Speaker: And it sets up that Master Chief is possibly the only Spartan left.
Speaker: Now, there's been a bajillion Halo games.
Speaker: We know there are Spartans that lived through this.
Speaker: But at this point, it basically is dovetailing into the beginning of the first Halo game where...
Speaker: um because one of the questions in the back of my mind is like in the beginning of the first halo game there's only one spartan on the ship that's master chief there's nobody else like what i don't get it and then you're like oh this every this is it's like it's like a prequel you know where it is a prequel but it's one of those prequels where it's like well i know all these people have to die before
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If you've played Halo and you read this book, you're like, oh, something's going to happen to these guys.
Speaker: Something is going to happen.
Speaker: So, yeah.
Speaker: Reach is glassed and all other Spartans, including Fast Girl Kelly, are assumed dead.
Speaker: Assumed dead.
Speaker: But not all hope is lost.
Speaker: In the epilogue, we find out that
Speaker: Cortana basically the symbols that Master Chief recognized.
Speaker: She basically runs through a billion different processes of what they could be, what they could mean while they're in slipstream.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And she will not not while they're in slipstream.
Speaker: She she she determines basically that there is she figures out a navigational route based on those symbols.
Speaker: And they know that there's something there that Covenant wants.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: And going there would be Cole Protocol compliant, so...
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: So they go.
Speaker: And it's a really kind of sad moment because I hadn't thought about it at this point.
Speaker: But while they were in Slipstream, Cortana kind of wonders if Halsey was on reach.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And whatever happened to her, did she get off?
Speaker: Is she alive?
Speaker: She did.
Speaker: She has no idea.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And so they're going through Slipstream.
Speaker: It's unclear at this point if Covenant was able to follow them through the Slipstream.
Speaker: But when they get to their coordinates, they see Halo for the first time.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: There it is.
Speaker: The, the, the Halo, the titular Halo of the Halo series.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And, uh, for, for those of you who, uh, have not played Halo, do not know what the heck we're talking about.
Speaker: Uh, I think they did a pretty good job of, uh,
Speaker: describing it.
Speaker: I'll give this a little read.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: The object spun serenely in the heavens.
Speaker: The outer surface was gray metal reflecting the brilliant starlight from this distance.
Speaker: The surface of the object seemed to be engraved with deep ornate geometric patterns.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So it's this massive heavenly object that's a halo.
Speaker: It's a ring.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it's their first time seeing this.
Speaker: And for the first time, Cortana has no idea what the hell is going on.
Speaker: Keys asks her, what is that?
Speaker: And she runs through a bunch of different ideas and finally comes up with, I have no idea.
Speaker: She processes the question for three seconds.
Speaker: And if you know anything about AIs, three seconds is probably like...
Speaker: forever.
Speaker: That was like a long dinner for her sitting down with a bottle of wine and a nice, you know, a steak trying to ponder what the heck they were looking at.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Sorry.
Speaker: I get most of my best ideas done when I'm eating.
Speaker: That's why I'm so fat.
Speaker: It's why I'm fat and accomplished.
Speaker: And that brings us to the end of Halo, the fall of reach.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And it is you you said it, I think, a couple of times in the previous episodes for covering Halo.
Speaker: The book has is better than it has any right being.
Speaker: There's no reason or reason because they do set it up.
Speaker: And having just finished Halo again, they are setting it up like the video game.
Speaker: Halo picks up immediately, immediately after this epilogue.
Speaker: Basically, the epilogue ends and Halo begins with the Covenant ships exiting slipstream space.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And Master Chief coming out of Hypersleep.
Speaker: It's immediate.
Speaker: And I really enjoyed playing Halo.
Speaker: I really enjoyed it.
Speaker: You can see why it's as important of a franchise as it is just from the first game.
Speaker: The music's incredible.
Speaker: The world building's incredible.
Speaker: It holds up for a lot of different reasons.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But it's not a complex game.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: You know, it's fine.
Speaker: It's cool and it's interesting, but it's James Cameron at best.
Speaker: Now, as the games progressed, they get a little more ambitious and it becomes a little bigger and that kind of thing.
Speaker: But this book, they went to Eric Nyland.
Speaker: I don't know what the conversation was, but at some point someone said, no, fuck this.
Speaker: It's got to be a really good book.
Speaker: Let's just make a good book.
Speaker: You know, it's something more than just, you know, and then he blew up another guy and then he blew up another guy.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: We didn't need Halo is not a naval battles game.
Speaker: We didn't need several engaging, exciting naval battles.
Speaker: But we got him.
Speaker: Well, we got him, but we got him.
Speaker: And I got to say, for the second book we've read on this podcast, I mean, this is this is.
Speaker: Hands down the best one so far.
Speaker: So far, this is ranking number one out of two out of two out of two.
Speaker: And and I would be very interested because.
Speaker: You know, kind of like the Resident Evil series where the first one we read, that was a novelization of the first game.
Speaker: And the second one is an original story that picks up after that.
Speaker: This is almost the opposite.
Speaker: The Fall of Reach is an original story that is before Halo.
Speaker: But the next book, which is called The Flood, is also by Eric Nyland.
Speaker: And that is a novelization of the first game.
Speaker: So I will be very interested whenever we get to it.
Speaker: Yeah, whenever we circle back around to it, I'll be interested in how it basically tells the story of the first game.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: I, you know, because Eric and Island had lots of room to just play clearly with this right now.
Speaker: I wonder how he's going to do when he has somewhat of a more tightened, you know, set of rules to work with him.
Speaker: I will be very interested to see how he does that.
Speaker: So we will definitely be coming around to this series again, especially if it happens that we get like two or three really shitty books in a row.
Speaker: I imagine one of us is going to look at the other and go, can we read the next Halo book next week?
Speaker: That's probably going to be pretty good.
Speaker: But in the meantime, any video game novelization that you guys...
Speaker: read as a kid or read now or or or even if there's a video game you love that you wonder if it has a novelization hit us up on Twitter and let us know we will we will see what we can do because we want to there's there's a surprisingly large number of these out there I don't think we're ever going to be without something to read.
Speaker: Yeah, no, I mean, I'm looking at the... There's the end of the book says don't miss the other thrilling stories in the worlds of Halo, by the way.
Speaker: Yeah, I did a quick... Have you counted how many there are?
Speaker: Yeah, I did a quick, you know, just like, you know, that kind of thing.
Speaker: And roughly 812 Halo books.
Speaker: Roughly.
Speaker: They are infringing on Warhammer 40K's...
Speaker: property, their intellectual property of putting out 40 books a year.
Speaker: It's offensive.
Speaker: It's just absolutely.
Speaker: And, uh, and since I have the first edition paperback here, uh, I do, I'm we'll post this online.
Speaker: Uh, but, uh, it has a, on the very last page directly across from the last page of the book, there's a, there's a, uh,
Speaker: a big picture says you learned the story of Halo soldier.
Speaker: It's time you learned.
Speaker: If you can survive, Halo, Halo combat evolved, Microsoft.com backslash games, blackslash Halo play.
Speaker: Hey, no.
Speaker: So I recommend you guys go out and do that.
Speaker: Cause that was fun.
Speaker: Uh, it's, it's, uh, it's a, it's a, it's a good book.
Speaker: It's a good game.
Speaker: Why the hell not?
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: I think, uh, I think about that about wraps it up.
Speaker: Right, Phil.
Speaker: I think so.
Speaker: Thank you guys so much for listening.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to our second book recap review.
Speaker: Whatever the hell we're calling what we're doing.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a book book.
Speaker: It's a book thing.
Speaker: Yeah, it's very clear.
Speaker: And take care, everyone.
