Podtacular 886: Reaching for Champion

Pod Tackler, the unofficial Halo Universe podcast presents episode 886, Reaching for

Champion, recorded live on September 5th, 2024.

Hello everyone, welcome to Pod Tackler, the unofficial Halo Universe podcast.

I am one of your co-hosts, DustStorm.

I'm your other co-host, GodzillaT.

And it's been a month since we've been behind the microphones, and with the month comes

a new operation for Halo Infinite.

We've got a little bit of things to catch up on.

We were chatting a little bit, catching up pre-podcast recording.

For those that come to the Twitch livestream, you can catch those pre- and post-discussions

on the podcast, a little shout-out to our Twitch stream.

And also for our patrons, they can get the VOD of the stream too.

But since it's been a while, GT, we've been having a couple game nights still.

I know I took over one of them.

You've been hosting several more during our interim.

Step up.

Step away from the microphones over the last month.

Mostly my fault.

One week I was out of the country.

One week I was on vacation.

One week I was sick.

I forget what the week before that was.

But here we are.

I know one week you didn't have a voice.

Yeah, that was my sick week.

That was three weeks ago.

And that was...

I mean, we had a lot of fun.

We actually played some of the new game modes.

We played Headhunter for a little bit.

But I'm glad...

I'm glad they didn't limit that to just one person per lobby.

Yeah.

It's still a free-for-all game mode.

But you can have multiple people playing.

It's pretty much just like I remembered.

I still suck at it.

I was quickly reminded how much I suck at FFA.

Playing Headhunter.

And I would imagine there would be a way to make it a team mode as well.

So hopefully we get a Headhunter team.

Because they did have that.

I don't know.

I don't know that it would be quite the same as a team.

They had team and reach.

They started with FFA.

But then they eventually added team to reach.

Yeah, I just...

I'm just more of a team player.

So the FFA is like, okay.

I did win my first game.

Well, the funny thing is, my first game, I was actually in the lead for most of the game.

I actually won my first game.

And then this guy came out of nowhere.

And I...

You know, he...

He didn't score 10 skulls.

But he did outscore me.

Yep.

Because we were...

So I had...

I had like 12 skulls.

And then I just...

I don't know.

I hit a wall.

Kept dying.

And this guy, he just came around me and won.

That's part of Headhunter is it can turn around in a flash.

If there's someone that has a decent amount of skulls and they just get those skulls and they're right by a capture point,

then that's all it needs.

Mm-hmm.

They're...

My second game I played, someone did win within, I think, like three or four minutes with a 10 skull capture.

Mm-hmm.

They don't have the Skullman Jaro audio bit in here like they did for Reach.

Maybe they'll add that later on.

But that was the second game I played.

First game, I actually won.

Managed to pick up seven skulls.

And score to win the game.

But it quickly reminded me just how much of a non-FFF player I am.

And just...

I'm a lot better playing with a team.

Give me objective.

Give me a team.

My Slayer's gotten a little bit better.

But I'm mostly...

Definitely a team player.

Mostly objective player.

Well, today I reinstalled Infinite on my PC to see if I was still having the same connection issues.

Oh, yeah.

Thankfully.

Hopefully.

I didn't have any of the old connection issues.

And I didn't have any of the new connection issues yet.

Okay.

I was going to say, does that mean you have new connection issues?

That's good.

You don't have connection issues anymore.

The reason being is I was browsing YouTube and came across a video of a program that will...

That can hook into the game and actually track your kills and record video clips of them.

Okay.

It can do kills, deaths.

It can do kills, deaths, assists, and wins.

That's cool.

So if any of those events...

And you can pick which of those events you choose, or you want it to record.

But when any of those events happen, it takes a snapshot of the actual gameplay.

It watches the gameplay.

And then it saves a clip.

It's actually pretty good.

So it doesn't integrate with the game bar or...

Like the Nvidia or AMD.

This is its own application.

This is its own app.

I'm still playing with it to see how well it works before I say anything about what it is.

But yeah, so far it's been doing pretty good.

I played like four games today.

Took me three games just to get everything set correctly to get what I wanted.

But yeah, it records nice, clean clips.

It records nice, clean clips.

It records nice, clean gameplay.

I'd be curious to check it out if you could share it with me at some point.

Yeah, I'll send you a link to it.

Okay.

But yeah, I was playing Fiesta.

Of course, I had Fiesta Slayer, Super Fiesta Slayer.

Husky Raid.

Fiesta, or Husky Raid and Super Husky Raid all checked.

In all four of my games were Husky Raid.

Wait, is there a separate...

Did they separate Husky Raid out to Husky Raid and Super Husky Raid?

Yeah.

Oh, I need to go check that.

Because before it was just Husky Raid.

Yeah.

I guess the latest update changed things.

Yeah, they broke the regular random weapons and then the campaign weapons into two separate playlists.

When was that?

Because it wasn't that way before.

Well, I don't remember it being that way before this latest update.

No, before.

Well, like last week, there was only two games.

There was...

It was Super Fiesta.

And Husky Raid.

Well, I had...

So, before this last update, I had to select Super Fiesta, Fiesta, and Husky Raid.

Those were the three I had checked in Quick Play.

Yeah.

And then when VIP moved out, they moved VIP into Quick Play.

And I forgot that.

So, when I went to Quick Play, I didn't see that it had changed to four.

So, I went in the first game and I was like, oh, it's VIP.

Oops.

So, I removed that.

Did you do that?

Yeah.

No.

But, yeah, I was enjoying it quite a bit.

Very good.

Did you get to play any VIP?

Yes, I did play some VIP.

Actually, played it on a game night.

Nice.

I spent our first game basically being VIP.

Hiding in a corner with a hammer.

I think the one game night episode for you, we also played VIP.

Yeah.

If I remember correctly.

I'm not entirely 100% sure.

It's been more than a month since we had the last podcast.

So, I'm not quite sure what happened over the last month.

We've got a new mode for Halo Infinite.

The firefight has been updated with the latest champion operation,

which has a little bit of a tie-in with the Halo World Championships,

which is happening at the beginning of October.

So, I believe the weekend after that happens,

it'll be.

The next operation, which I think leads into the holiday one,

if I'm not mistaken.

I think that's kind of the plan.

But, I did play a little bit of the new firefight,

and it is on Reach-inspired maps.

So, we've got high power, which is the...

I somehow got high power twice,

so I played on that two times for the new firefight.

There is...

The Argent Moon.

Instead of Argent Moon, it's Argent Prayer.

It's the Forge version of that map.

Yeah.

I don't know how much of that is similar to Corvette.

The picture that they have is just from the outside on Halo Waypoint.

So, I'm not entirely sure which...

Like, if it's a version of the map that is similar to Corvette,

or if it's a little bit different.

They have the...

What is it?

The Sword Base Courtyard.

I forget what the actual name of it is in Reach,

but that one is a firefight map.

The Lone Wolf, the last campaign level in Halo Reach,

that's a map for firefight as well.

And the last one is...

Well, the last two are not actual Reach maps,

but Refuge, which is the...

I'm blanking on the headlong.

No.

Right.

Yeah, headlong on Halo 2,

and then the Gyre fight,

which is the Tempest Reach multiplayer map.

So, those two are in for the firefight Battle for Reach playlist.

I'm guessing...

Since you have the small lobby tomorrow,

you'll probably start off with that.

I don't know.

Kind of all depends.

I'm thinking I should be there tomorrow.

I don't see why I shouldn't be.

So, hopefully I'll be able to join you guys.

Kind of all depends on how bad my truck kicks my butt tomorrow.

Ah.

Well, if I need to fill in, just let me know.

I'll let you know.

Cool.

So, that's the update for Infinite that has dropped.

Of course, there is a new Battle Pass that comes with that.

The...

Ghost...

Visor thing.

I forget what it's called at the moment.

That's still in the...

Exchange.

For those that weren't able to get enough Spartan Points to get that unlocked,

that's still there.

Yeah.

I think that's the majority of stuff.

If you want to see the details of what's coming into the shop

and what's in the Battle Pass as far as rewards,

you can check that out in Infinite

or go into the Halo Waypoint article and check it out there.

Not going to read through the entire list.

If you want to go check it out, there is the link.

Some other things news-wise that's happening.

Okay.

We have HCS Salt Lake City happening this weekend,

hosted by Space Station Gaming.

So, that is the last major before the final road

to the Halo World Championships taking place in Seattle,

which I will be in attendance this year.

Don't have another baby coming.

So, that's not a...

Sure about that?

...issue this year.

Yes, I'm sure about that.

So, yep.

That's happening this weekend.

I'll be watching some of the action before I head off on my work trip.

And...

Yet.

Thanks.

In addition to that, we have the 10th birthday of Cannon Fodder.

Started by Grimbrother1 10 years ago

and at the home of Haruspis now on Halo Waypoint.

It's been quite a while since we've...

I guess this has been started on Halo Waypoint.

It has been started on Halo Waypoint.

Mm-hmm.

With that, there is a new...

I forget what they call these,

but it's their mini short story that they have the narrative for as well.

I forget what they call it.

But it's Halo The Machine Breaks.

It's a new little audio book on YouTube.

I started listening to that.

Waypoint Chronicle.

That's what it is.

I haven't gotten through it yet.

I think there's like six now.

Yeah.

Once we get through...

Once I get updated on the books,

we'll probably circle back around to these

and just do quick little blurbs on these as well.

Because now I'm three books behind at this point.

Yeah, that sounds right.

I think.

So that's most of the news stuff.

One other thing, actually,

that was also posted on Waypoint.

Border is closed.

Not getting in.

That's funny.

One of the co-founders...

One of the co-founders of Women of Halo,

I'm Generic,

was in the spotlight.

I'm hoping to actually get them on a podcast interview.

They've been making some waves

since they've gotten a lot of traction earlier on this year,

especially within the competitive scene.

And I think they're an HTS Grassroots partner now.

So looking to get them on the show.

And I think that kind of wraps things up from a news perspective.

One thing I do want to address

that's been going around the community quite a lot,

across social media,

YouTube, Reddit.

I'm not sure if you're aware of this, GT,

but there's been a big issue with MCC lately.

If you've been in MCC matchmaking,

hopefully you haven't run across this.

I've dabbled into it a few times

and thankfully haven't run across this.

But it is an issue where hackers will modify your gamer tagging

and basically get you banned

by doing some pretty nasty things.

There's some memory hacks too on the server side

that they're able to exploit

and basically make it to where

you're either firing your gun or dropping your gun

or reloading your gun

and you're basically left inoperable.

So there's lots of bad things out there.

There's numerous of Reddit threads,

social media threads, YouTube threads.

So right now, if you're on MCC,

be careful if you're going into matchmaking.

It kind of sucks that it's the state of where MCC is in

and the only reason why it's not working.

So I think that's a big issue.

I think it's a big issue.

The only response that we have from 343

is that they're judging the level of effort

that they need to put into this

and if they have the resources to actually address it,

which is kind of sad

because you have a game that's like,

it took so long to get to where it is

and to have it just unfortunately

be at the whim of hackers now for matchmaking

is unfortunate.

Well, as a product that is managed by Microsoft,

they need to get off their ass,

find the resources and fix it.

If they're not going to fix it,

then they, unfortunately they need to shut it down

because if they don't have the resources

to maintain their product,

then it just needs to be shut down

because they're exposing a lot of people to a lot of risk.

If they can get in and modify your gamer tag

and screw with your game while you're playing,

that's a door into your computer.

So it's not into the client.

It's only on this.

It's kind of like in the game.

Like I said, it's a door.

It's a door that probably will be exploited

to get into people's systems.

Right now, they're just screwing with people.

We don't know how far this can go.

Dust might have a better idea of it than I do.

But I mean,

if,

if they can get in and mess with your max mess

with something that affects your gamer or your gamer tag

or your account,

all it takes is somebody that wants to screw

with you a little bit more to keep pushing that limit.

So,

so it's only,

it's only done within MCC.

It's only done within a game session.

So this is only server side stuff right now.

So that,

that doesn't necessarily lead to not yet.

Someone's computer getting hacked.

And it's not,

not very likely with it being,

it's basically,

they could use this injecting.

Who knows what they're,

what they're extracting out of that information too.

It's,

it's ingestion into the server.

It's,

it's not extracting.

Well,

the one thing I've learned about people like that is they're very inventive.

And if they figure out that there's,

there's a way to make money on it,

they get really inventive.

Yeah.

But anyway,

it regardless,

Microsoft needs to address the address,

the problem in very short order,

not think about it.

They need to fix it.

Yeah.

It needs to be fixed,

especially that it's a game that's still being sold and matchmaking is its

main attraction at this point.

But yeah,

hopefully they put forward the resources to actually get this fix.

I forgot that the three 60 marketplace shut down this year.

I had a video roll through my YouTube feed in July.

Yep.

Like that happened.

Yeah.

That happened at the end of July,

like July 26th or 27th,

something like that.

I'd forgot all about that.

That made me sad.

Yeah.

Of course the community being the community have already found a way around it.

Really?

Yep.

What's what's the worker hat?

Oh,

you have to have a modded Xbox.

It's not,

it's not a plug and play thing,

but they've actually,

they've actually found and copied the API for a lot of the information that

was on the store,

like downloads and stuff.

And they basically have a,

I don't know what do you call it?

You,

a package manager.

Yep.

That you can install.

And it is a faux three 60 store.

Okay.

Interesting.

It sounds similar to how the sunrise works.

Take them all of three months.

So the steam numbers,

it looks like since this has happened,

hasn't gone down too much over the last,

there's a decent fall off about 600 players since it,

it's happened.

But I mean,

that's kind of insignificant because there's,

it rises and falls with holidays and,

and some other things.

So don't know if it's impacted player counts too much other than just like

natural fall off,

but it's still an issue that needs to be fixed.

So that's the news that we have for today.

And now we'll get onto the main topic of the podcast,

which is touching on shadows of reach and divine,

divine wind.

So we see blue team,

back in action,

going to reach a disclaimer again.

I know we do this every book podcast.

We're not going to go through the book chapter by chapter or story B by story

B,

plenty of other content that out there that does that really well,

a lot better than I have time for maybe GT has time for,

but check out the installation.

Zero,

zero has some good stuff.

5.5 layer.

Shadows of reach.

Just six.

Also check out podcast evolved.

They've got their whole book club stuff.

So check them out.

They dive into it a whole lot more than,

than we could ever do.

Very detailed podcast on it.

I almost went to go listen to their episode to prep for the podcast night,

but didn't have time to.

So I'm going to be relying on GT to help fill in some of the gaps that I have

probably forgotten over the last two months since I finished reading,

both books.

So I have to admit the shadows of reach.

I was,

I was actually very impressed with it.

There's whenever revisiting a place,

the,

whenever revisiting a location,

it's,

you have expectations.

Like sure.

We've all read the fall of reach and you have expectations about what is going

to be,

in the books and they did a good job of hitting those beats.

And some of them were very small details that just harken back to fall of reach.

They're the,

the opening sequence is the master chief with blue team and three Marine or

three.

Yeah.

Marines Marines flight commander pilot.

And then I forget what the title of the equipment manager was,

but they're doing a,

a stealth insertion to go to castle base and recover stuff for Dr.

Holocene to complete well,

to help all the create a weapon,

um,

to use against Cortana,

AKA the weapon that we find in halo infinite.

Exactly.

Anyway,

they're made that connection.

They,

they,

they can't at what the package is,

but they never say what the package is that they're going to retrieve anyway.

And even at the end,

when,

when they get the package,

they keep it pretty.

Yeah.

They never say what it is.

No,

they hit.

It's a bomb.

It's a box.

They do say it's a cryo container and a box.

It remains very cryptic.

Yes.

Yep.

And then the weapon shows up.

So what was in the cryo container?

You know,

thinking of brain.

Anyway,

where was it mentioned before that Halsey made,

like there are multiple flash clones of her brain made reach.

Okay.

So it wasn't fall of reach.

It was that early on.

Yeah,

it was,

it was in full fall of reach.

Uh,

it was also in her journals.

Yeah.

I haven't read her old journal yet,

but in the fall of reach,

they say only one survived and that's the one they made Cortana with.

So before they retconned it,

well,

you could look at it that way potentially,

or you could look at it like,

like a CYA moment because there's some,

there's some flexibility there in the fall of reach.

Catherine Halsey is playing very defensive to keep Oni off of her so that she

can work and do what she wants to do.

Also in the fall of reach,

Oni is getting a little squeamish about what she's been doing,

what the Spartans leading up to the end of the book or up to the initial

engagement with the covenant.

So,

you know,

she's been very guarded as to what she lets people know is there like this

vault that the they're going after in shadows of reach.

She is the only one that knew that vault existed,

which is why they have the whole,

the whole bio gloves and right other things to get past security.

It was,

it was designed so that no one,

but Halsey can enter the vault and any,

anybody else that tried to,

uh,

it would basically vaporize anything,

any evidence that was in the vault and that survived,

survived the glassing of reach the,

the trip down.

They had the,

this is where we get introduced to the banished that are currently occupying

reach and their purpose there is to find a portal so that atriox can return

from the arc,

AKA halo wars to now to return from the arc from that fight.

And,

uh,

the,

they have a little bit of issue getting,

to the planet some in a crash and I guess it was,

it was banished and keeper.

Well,

the keepers at this point in time,

the keepers have joined the banished on reach.

Yeah,

they're still,

they're still their own little group,

but they,

they are part of the banished banished as a whole.

They do follow to find the portal.

Well,

cause they're still kind of their own group.

Yeah.

At this point,

they still follow atriox's orders and his lieutenants orders and the orders

were to find this portal.

Well,

they have three different groups within the banished that are occupying reach.

You have the keepers of the one freedom,

which they're a recent add to the banish.

Um,

and then you have two other groups,

uh,

the legion of the corpse moon and the ravaged tusks.

Thank you.

Those two are long members of the banished.

So at the beginning of the book,

you have the keepers just trying to do what they were told by atriox and find

the art.

And then the other two are in fighting over,

uh,

land.

There are a set,

there's a group of pioneers there that are trying to,

to recover the land from the glassing.

Uh,

they're trying to get crops to grow and their ultimate purpose is to be able

to sustain a mining operation on reach because it's still rich in minerals.

That the UNSC needs stuff to make battle plate,

their electronics,

all kinds of stuff.

So,

I mean,

that's their end goal,

but they've got a very small window where,

uh,

where they,

and they basically only have one shot to do this is to,

to restart the agricultural side of reach because they have to be able to feed

the people that are there before they can move on to a more industrial type of

society.

You know,

they gotta be able to feed everybody before they can dig holes in the ground.

So there's around,

I'm guessing the numbers were between four and five,

5,000 of these pioneers.

And of course,

while they're on reach,

they've,

they were attacked and they had been recovering weapons and explosives from the abandoned military bases around reach.

The introduction to these pioneers was quite interesting.

You have blue teams sneaking up on a banished base,

which is they recut.

They,

the banished had,

well,

I don't think they were speaking up on it yet.

Right.

Because they're,

they're trying to stick to some kind of well being that was glass and they were trying to like continue their way forward.

And then the deal was after the,

after the owl crashed,

they had two pieces of heavy equipment,

basically a little dump truck and a drill,

uh,

that they had to move across a glass wasteland.

Keep in mind,

this is construction equipment.

It's not a Warthog.

It can only move at a certain rate,

you know,

which is basically a fast walk and not even a fast walk by Spartan standards,

like normal people's standards.

It's like a laser mining drill for one.

And then like,

uh,

like a front front end loader dump truck ish type deal is the other one,

um,

of which Fred manages to use the drills as an anti-aircraft weapon.

Yeah.

Hey,

get creative with what you got,

right?

Yeah.

So,

you know,

Spartans can use anything as a weapon,

but anyway,

they're moving along and they know they're being watched by banshees.

And it turns out it's the keepers that are washing them.

They're just trying to figure out the keepers are trying to figure out why they're here,

what they're doing.

Yep.

You know,

why are there four Spartans and three regular humans and two pieces of equipment moving around?

I mean,

it's not like it's an invasion force.

So they're looking for something.

And the keepers initially assumed that they're looking for the portal,

the same portal that keepers are.

And then,

you know,

the Spartans are afraid or theorize that their plan has been leaked to the banish to recover these assets out of all these vault,

which are,

uh,

honestly no value to anybody other than Halsey.

So each group thinks the other one knows what they're onto,

but they really don't.

Cause at the end of it,

they're after two separate things,

but they're sneaking up on this banished base to acquire transportation.

They want to steal a phantom.

Yeah.

And in the process of that,

they're coming up this ravine,

which to sneak up on the base.

I think,

I didn't think they went for it until after,

they,

they ran into the militia because they were,

that's what they were going for when they ran into the militia.

Gotcha.

And they,

they were going to take out the base,

steal a phantom,

go back,

pick up everybody else and then fly to castle base,

the loader and the drill.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Yeah.

So that order in the process of sneaking up on the space,

they're in like the stream bed slash canal.

Yeah.

It's like a,

like a dried up river bed almost.

And in the process of moving up,

they notice that shadows are running around underneath them.

And of course all hell breaks loose and they'll get shot by banshees and they go,

they,

they have to dig in and Kelly makes a hole and they jump in it and okay,

now they're in this big drainage tube,

which is what they were walking on.

And surrounded by the militia.

Yeah.

Cause when they got glass,

the parts underneath the top layer,

uh,

or the top layer cooled,

it basically just made a tunnel.

Yeah.

So basically kind of like a big shell and the militia had been underneath it.

They had been running back and forth underneath and sewing discontent between the two banished factions.

Good old UNSC fashion.

Anyway,

yeah.

Why fight the enemy when you can make them fight each other?

My favorite part of that initial confrontation is when the guy puts a desert Eagle to the back of John's head.

Not a smart guy.

Well,

I kept calling them side boards until the person in command came by and said,

Hey,

what do you,

what are you doing?

Yeah,

it,

he was there for being backup for their operation.

I was trying to take out the banished and she was like,

eh,

no,

that's not why we're here.

We have more pressing things.

And well,

initially didn't,

didn't that one person tried to pull rank on chief and it's like,

I don't report to you.

Yeah.

Later on.

But eventually I think they,

they do wind up helping them because it becomes a point where they have to,

because these pioneers have managed to come across multiple.

Nuclear weapons.

And they are planning to use these nuclear weapons.

And if they use these nuclear weapons,

guess who parks a guardian on the doorstep.

Yeah.

So,

so as far as like,

okay,

we'll help you out,

but do not use the nukes unless we tell you to.

Yeah.

But there are,

there are some,

there are some crazy fight scenes that new,

new,

new mo Hanks,

new mo hatch.

Yeah.

New mo hatch.

The Spartans in their prime.

I mean,

it's,

oh yeah.

Do you seen it?

Shoot a rocket.

Great.

Right.

A fighting narrative barrel of a barrel of a cannon.

Yeah,

sure.

Everybody can do that.

There are,

there are a few little callbacks to other books in there that don't really pertain

to master chief story.

Um,

like there is,

there is the warthog driver for that.

Uh,

the,

the warthog driver that takes the chief and blue team to meet the leader for the first

time.

Her name is Bella Dista and she's a tantalus 10,000 winner,

pre-time winner.

And in one of the other books with,

or the,

the final book,

uh,

with spark and,

uh,

Ryan forge.

Yep.

She is mentioned in that,

in that book.

I mean,

uh,

when they are talking to,

when they're on the planet hiding to try to,

uh,

reacquire Brian.

Cause they think that's where the,

the,

uh,

foreigner portal took her.

It turns out she didn't anyway,

but,

uh,

but her name is mentioned in there.

You know,

they're all admiring how good of a competitor that she is.

And they even mentioned how in one race,

two people were disqualified for juicing.

And she won because the two people in front of her were disqualified.

And then back in.

Yeah.

Shadows of reach.

mention that make mention of it again and uh this is one of the few times you will hear

master chief say hold on and mean it huh when when they collect fred because fred gets injured and

he has to catch up with him later he gets in the warthog with belladista driving john and kelly

and john's like you want to hold on he's like really yeah you want to hold on just to give you

kind of an idea of the woman's driving style i'll see this name on the uh halopedia article

like i said it's a it's a small detail that sometimes that stuff gets on it yeah and you have

one

the pilot of the owl mocks chap off he's a fan of her as well and this is this is kind of one of

the sad moments in the entire book belladista doesn't make it out front she doesn't make it

through the assault on the new mohatch she is killed by uh grunt or an elite or something

it was kind of sad because she was a fun character and just the way she was written she was a really

fun character and i enjoyed it i mean any anybody you can make a spartan hang on

right now is it anything you want to talk about the i mean the reason we're doing both the books

is actually kind of plays one into the other way which i thought was cool and i didn't remember

i guess that

the ferret team were embedded with the banished like i think well it's actually it's actually

not mentioned in any of the material that i can remember but isn't like isn't retribution where

well retribution was it the the previous engagements with the previous engagement to

this to this one was their

interaction on gal well that was last light right which is last there's another book

retribution was not was another story with them right oh yeah that because because they were

salvaging stuff and they were trying to yeah that was like avoid they were investigating

investigating uh the murder of an admiral in that book and because somebody was trying to weaponize

a

a subspace drive or no they were trying to weaponize a virus that is contained to a single

world the world has been quarantined because this is how dangerous this virus is and this particular

admiral's family is immune to it so they're basically using her to create an antidote

for this virus so that they could release it

and that was being headed up by uh oh god what's her name the ai from last light

intrepid i yeah that was a foreigner and still is intrepid i which we meet in divine wind

again well intrepid's been busy she was captured on gal and then she was transferred to a certain

research station that we may or may not have visited

in a previous game before we blew it up she escaped from there and she basically

created her version of oni and we hear from we hear about it in a couple of

you know a couple of different places one of it one place we hear of it is when the ferrets are

going through their initial training it's a short story okay in fractures i think

it was that's where you first learn about it and then they continue that story in retribution

and then it culminates in divine wind but intrepid i has been in the background guiding

caster she has decided that humanity needs to be prepared to hold the mantle well the part of that

she didn't say until later in the book

i know we skipped over a lot

yeah is the best way to do that is to eliminate humanity as it stands and recede it so she can

guide the human race from the beginning with no preconceptions or anything any of the baggage

that we already have basically count to the librarian's plans but sure intrepid i sure

mm-hmm

dope

i just remember how we were with narrator i thought brian was a good person but he was Amb beeps

when it came to the hang much probably Ari and morgan you were fragment again e wants to say

vintage Lee Barber and the justice career that was an interesting way of getting them this wrong so

now so before you dive into that a little bit more it's just interesting how they made that connection

between the two stories and they just led right into the next book well i said at the end of

space but here's the but at the end of that book veda actually accidentally saves his life

so it's quite the tale and got a guy is still kind of on the fence of like i wouldn't trust

these humans oh he never does nope and you and when you you during shadows of reach you hear that

you hear castor talk about these four humans and there are little clues as to who they are

but i mean for me it wasn't enough for me to put two and two together until the very end

i knew yeah i don't think they were military

military

i think i didn't know who they were until the scene where veda came up to fred while fred was

at the bottom of this shaft that they went down to get to the very end of the book yeah the very

end of the book but that like that was kind of like that oh my gosh moment for me in the book

was was when veda was met up with fred and fred knew who veda was and you have they've been in

bed

for like two years so yeah you know this was a this was a long plan but it was interrupted by

cortana and you know after cortana did what she did veda and the ferrets were kind of trapped

they had no they had no support structure to supply them with anything so they had to work

off what they had and unfortunately one thing they had

that they needed or they didn't have lots of is smoothers for the spartan threes augmentations

for the gammas yep which will play into effect in the next book but anyway yep like i said

throughout shadows of reach you get these little hints of who these people are but well for one

they never come out and say it until the very end and they give you just enough information to

know that they're not really keepers

but you don't know who they really are at least the first time i read through it

so that's an interesting little twist in there because you have caster the leaders of the keepers

the one freedom and you have got a guy who is one of atriox's lieutenants he's there to keep an eye

on caster to make sure caster does what he's supposed to and report back to

atriox or eshrom which i forget which which one either way to report back and

gattaguy is an interesting character gattaguy is a very interesting character

gattaguy is a sangheili sangheili blade master so he he is silent shadow yeah i was gonna say

he is more just a blade master he's silent shadow so he for one has a unique

look at unique outlook on situations and he is very lethal you know that's interesting how his

allegiance changes changes at at the end of shadows of breach and then how that continues on

throughout the interaction between between caster and gattaguy and divine wind is interesting to

see how that kind of grows and like yeah that friendship develops you see kind of a it's kind

of a growth of their friendship and the trust that has developed between the two but the whole

time caster knows that the reason gattaguy is there is to kill him

he knows atriox does not trust him because caster is a believer atriox is not he has lost all faith

in anything the covenant preached well to atriox caster is just a tool exactly gonna use his

devotion to get things done find what he needs exactly and the fact that in the final scene with

caster he sets gattaguy up and gives him a choice you can kill me but you will die too

yeah yep with atriox present atriox orders gattaguy to kill caster in front of caster

and atriox has planned ahead and at the time that atriox gives gattaguy that order

there are three

red dots on his test chest gattaguy wears no armor so you know caster is basically

i have no doubt you can kill me but you cannot kill me with the three snipers before you die

and then when they uh gattaguy learns who the snipers were it feeds into his distrust of the

humans and then divine wind well i guess it's a good thing that gattaguy is not a sniper

to wrap up the actual story of shadows of reach they got the package they made it back to the

infinity they give the stuff to dr halsey they leave the system just as guardians are arriving

and shows up yep some of the crew of the infinity do get stranded on reach the if you go back to

doesn't the portal close down after i guess they they go through like obviously atriox came

from actually if i remember right the portal stayed open until the guardian actually attacked

right anyway the and this is another callback to which book was it first strike when they

far back oh yeah when john is on his way to the portal he's on his way to the portal he's on his

way back where they captured covenant cruiser no less back to reach they come across the covenant

unburying castle base well when they're there this time caster and his clan are basically digging out

that same hole that was created when

when they tried to

capture the the holy light yeah slips place crystal in first strike so like i said there's

these little callbacks throughout the book and on their on blue team's final assault

to get to castle base just that final leg they do crash again banshees of course unfortunately

chap off is injured and pinned in the

pelican but he goes out with a bang takes out two banshees doing it and while they're standing

there after the fight they notice something standing in the distance something the spartans

know very well something that was first was the first lesson john ever learned about being a

spark oh

it was the bell it was the bell yeah right it was still standing there that's right and in honor of

chap off's fight to make sure the mission succeeds john pulls out his rifle and rings the bell three

times i thought that was just perfect very chief thing to do but like i said is the the whole book's

full of those little

little little details that gosh you know if you if you you know if you read the book it's fine

it doesn't mean anything other than the meaning that it's there but the fact that that bell has

history and if you haven't read all the other books you wouldn't know the history but it's fine

because it's still a nice part of the the book they do enough explaining in the book that you

get the meaning dang i should listen to those back to back

once i'm caught up obviously but but you know like i said there's a cool connection there's all

these just little hints and nods to previous stuff and it's done in such a good way that's cool

well on to the next book i know we've dabbled in a little bit but next book i mean we've already

talked about going through the slip stage portal and intrepid eye is riding along yep ferret's trying

to avoid visual contact from intrepid eye but well i has in the portal suspicions we haven't learned

that intrepid eye is actually riding along yet no we don't find that out until they get to the

other side and the lich they are riding in crashes and we meet up with the spirit of fire yes we get

we get to hear about spirit of fire and captain cutter and

you get to hear some names and stuff you don't hear directly from them but caster as part of the

banished exits the slip space portal and uh of course being banished he falls under attack

well currently the banished are fighting off they're fighting two fronts they're fighting

the forces from spirit of fire but

they're also fighting the forces from the forerunner dreadnought from halo 3. they have been

holding out until they can find a way either home or find a way to communicate with another

you know other parts of the covenant and they are led by a prelate so you have three factions

fighting over the portal

the banished are protecting the portal because of atriox spirit of fire wants the portal so they can

get home and you have the covenant that wants the portal to call in reinforcements so pretty

pitched battle going on when all of a sudden the lich pops out after a truck's fled and this is the

first as they are exiting the portal they

intersect a broadsword and seeing they weren't exactly solid yet the broadsword kind of appeared

in the cargo bay or the thing is like you know just like the the uh pilots compartment which

was interesting so there's a little bit of slip space theory there two objects cannot exist in the

same space

kind of

torrential

some things up as it uh oh well it did damage in this you get the first hint that you you start to

see veta work to disrupt castor's plants as part of a decoy to try to get through without getting

blown up he uses her to talk to the human forces to try to keep them from shooting them down by

claiming to be rescue workers and to try to keep them from being killed and then he uses her to

SVGs in a stolen

Covenant ship and then

you have

Gattaguy talking to

the banished

leadership there

trying to keep the banished

or having the banished protect them

from the Covenant

so it's kind of a unique thing

and to get

the funny thing is to get

the

communications officers attention

on Spirit of the Fire

Veda basically calls

in for an

airstrike or a

strike on their position

an artillery

strike and the

luckily

the communications officer says

this is weird

but throughout it you have

the Ferrets and

Veda communicating with the Spirit

of Fire forces

they've had a

recon they have a recon

falcon follow them throughout the rest

of the book

and

but the Lich crashes

the banished forces

abandon it because

they're busy defending the portal

and of course

the leadership

believes that Gattaguy is lying

about everything he says and which he is

and he knew they know it

so the Covenant shows up

and just as

the Covenant is showing up

these creatures come out of the water

they're like crab-like

crab-like

things

yeah don't try to follow along

we're bouncing all over the place

yeah we're not going through

the book chapter by chapter

here

so big fight breaks out

to what do they call them

Krillydunk

is that what they call them?

Krillydunk?

they're like little crab-like

creatures that

they are definitely carnivores

and they like shiny things

kind of like crows

they pick up shiny things to decorate

their underwater home

but there's

a big fight and then

at the end of that

fight this is where

Intrepid Eye makes herself known

by hijacking

the Pellet's weapon

yeah because it has a

hologram

holographic thing

yeah

takes the

the weapon he uses

it's a

a hard light

it's a

hard light staff weapon

and she uses the hard light function

of the weapon to project

her likeness

and then she broadcasts her voice

through the radio

all the comms units

yeah

so it's a

it's

yeah

it's an interesting

this book kind of bounces around

a lot between

the

the different factions and

everyone trying to figure out

what the heck is going on

it seems like the UNSC are

the ones that kind of have

the most clear picture

given

what the ferrets are trying to do

but they're

they're kind of unsure at first

because of

okay here's this group of

marines that

are

humans that

seem to have

like

there's no military authority there

but somehow

this

like okay this person has

some kind of authority

just by the way that

she's acting

so

thankfully the

the person on the comms

is like

at least

receptive to what they're doing

well you have like

four stories going on

you have the story

with Veda and the ferrets

trying to disrupt

Castor

you have

Castor's story

and then you have

the Covenant story

and then you have

one faction of the

Banished story

which is

the brothers from

Halo Wars 2

for this

exactly

which you know

after

the events of Halo Wars 2

they

are kind of

low on

totem pole

but they're finding a way

to make

make it back up

the totem pole

and

yeah

but

it's

it actually took me

a couple of times

to actually

be able to follow

what was going on

fully grasp everything

yeah

and then they went to

went to one spire

that they got

to

one

monitor

which only talked

to Veda

being a reclaimer

and then they were

redirected to another

spire

to actually

attempt to light

the rings

all the meanwhile

like Veda

and the ferrets

are trying to

like signal to the

UNSC what's going on

but also

Gattagise

like keeping an eye

on them

so trying to deduce

what their actual

intense

intentions are

and Castor's

like

we've made it this far

the gods are watching us

and are

like everything's happening

for a reason

so he's just kind of

like blind faith

I'm going down

this path to light

the rings

and it's not

until at the very end

where all this kind of

culminates and everyone

realizes what everyone

else is doing

and at that point

it's too late

it's a nail biter

like leading up

to the end of the book

and how everything

comes together

and

I still get the sense

that Intrepid Eye

is not

like

the book kind of

like lays it out

that Intrepid Eye

is done

but it's like

I'm pretty sure

she's dead

but not

completely

yeah

with how

with how they described it

like

Intrepid Eye is like

trying to calculate

all that's possible

but has limited

calculating capacity

and is trying to

infiltrate and overtake

the ancilla

that's in this

last tower

to get all the

processing power

that it needs

but

it didn't quite

get ahead of

the ferret's plan

as much as

it wanted to

and

so the

attack on the facility

which was

happens to be

the last

communication tower

that

is working

on the arc

in this epsilon

section of the arc

yeah

how all the

dominoes

were stacked up

and it's like

okay which one

is gonna fall

first

and

yeah

and

come out on top

and then unfortunately

we lost

one of the

the Spartan 3's

yes

unfortunately

mark

was it mark

or ash

mark

caster and gattaguy

make it

yep

vortis and pavion

make it

the prelate

makes it

and then

ash

olivia

and veda

make it

out of the

press

preferal of

characters

or

god dang

my mouth just

does not work

right

anyway

the plethora

of characters

in the

yeah

tongue

broken

people

again

another good book

it takes some

twists

that

i wasn't

expecting the

first time

through

like this

it's a very

chaotic book

yes

it is very

chaotic

happening

i would

have liked

a little

bit more

explanation

on the

whole

infiltrate

the keepers

thing

but

i mean

it

kinda

in

in the

mystery of

it

of it

and how

like

it kind of

plays to that

how are they

going to

pull this

off

type of

thing

i mean

there were

some

breadcrumbs

laid

down

in

earlier

stories

but

they were

just never

really

acknowledged

i'm gonna

have to

listen to

those books

again

just so i

can

and now

the spirit

of fire

is in

play

i don't

think we

have any

books

leading up

to

because

it

shadows of

reach

was the

last

or the

latest

master chief

book right

because we

got

and

what's

next

shadows of

reach

leads right

up

into

the beginning

of infinite

right

or pretty

close to

yeah

within

months of

the events

of

infinite

the

well i

should say

the beginning

of infinite

the part

that we

don't get

to see

right

yeah

the

the latest

you have

protocol

which is

oh outcast

which is

the story

between

shadows of

reach

and infinite

so not

technically

the latest

book

before

infinite

this one

actually takes

place during

infinite

at least

the very

beginning

of it

infinite

and there's

a lot of

stuff in

that book

that is

referenced

in the

game

and then

you have

outcasts

and then

the last

book was

epitaph

okay

then empty

throne is

the one

that's

releasing

next year

yeah

so i'm

on rubicone

protocol

for the

next book

don't think

there's

anything

much else

that

kind of

i guess

stuck out

it was a

very active

book

and how it

bounced around

between

the

keepers

veda

pavium

and vordis

and

i'm

like how

it kind of

bounced back

and forth

between all

those and

like everyone's

trying to

figure out

everyone else

at the same

time it kept

it was

definitely on

on the

edge of

your seat

book

pretty much

interested

yeah

so and

i and i

like how

shadows of

reach just

kind of

met into

this book

like it was

like they're

kind of

separate stories

but it was

a direct

feed into

it like you

could read

one after the

other and

it's it's

basically one

one kind of

primed you

for the next

one yeah

it's like you

start the story

here and then

the second

act just

carries it on

but now it's

over here

so how soon

after shadows

of reach does

the rubicon

protocol take

well it

takes place

on the initial

like six months

after no it

did take it

takes place

in that space

before the

beginning of

infinite

right where

atriox

the

before

the halo

ring

well it

starts at

before the

halo ring

blows up

right

okay

and then

kind of

continues into

that but

gotcha

so it's

probably some

of the i'm

guessing i

mean i'm

projecting here

a little bit

but i'm

guessing some

of the

spartans

over here

and some

of the

audio logs

are in

our characters

in this

book

gotcha

am i

gonna tell

you anymore

because i

won't spoil

it i

know it's

all good

you

will now wrap

it up for

us tonight

a little bit

longer of a

show just

because we're

doing a book

podcast but

we'll be back

in two weeks

for the show

again taking

off next week

since i will

be out of

the country

for work

and we will

have fragment

friday i

think for the

next couple

of weeks so

hop on

taylor infinite

as long as

nothing pops

up

true that

that we're

planning on it

we'll just put

it that put

out there for

that i'm

finally getting

help back

next week

i might actually

get a normal

schedule

that would be

nice in six

months

oh you've

been you've

been pulling

some extra

time at

work

well i

took a

management

position so

that in

turn creates

extra time

to spend

at work

so you know

instead of

having an

eight hour

work day

now i have

a ten hour

work day

hopefully comes

with a pay

raise

sure

that's good

not as big

as one as

i

initially

asked for

because between

them

offering me

in the job

and then me

getting the

job i got a

big pay raise

in between

so basically i

got the pay

that i was

asking for

the management

position before

i even got

the position

oh gotcha

okay

but you know

it's one of

those things

i'd already

given them

the number

so you

can't really

change it

you know

yeah

oh by the

way

uh yeah

oh by the

way since

you've already

given me a

raise to

this point

now i want

this

yes

right

no so far

they've been

taking pretty

good care

of me

that's good

as long as

they're

well

i know some

of your past

experience with

the employment

value hasn't

been the

greatest so

glad that there

have been some

trying to take

care of you

now yes

that's unfortunate

all right folks

thanks again for

tuning in on

twitch and

listening to us

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couple of weeks

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listening

thank you for

listening to

podtackler the

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