Несмотря на реструктуризацию, в рамках которой студия 343 Industries была преобразована в Halo Studios и сменила руководство, проблемы внутри команды никуда не делись. Об этом сообщает блогер и инсайдер Idle Sloth в своём большом посте, опубликованном в X.
Несмотря на реструктуризацию, в рамках которой студия 343 Industries была преобразована в Halo Studios и сменила руководство, проблемы внутри команды никуда не делись. Об этом сообщает блогер и инсайдер Idle Sloth в своём большом посте, опубликованном в X.
Former Halo Studios art director Glenn Israel has warned current Xbox staff that Microsoft's impending "reset" of their gaming business is an opportunity for studio execs to rid themselves of employees who've criticised their behaviour, citing his own, alleged experience of being
Former Halo Studios art director Glenn Israel has warned current Xbox staff that Microsoft's impending "reset" of their gaming business is an opportunity for studio execs to rid themselves of employees who've criticised their behaviour, citing his own, alleged experience of being driven out by "senior Halo representatives". Israel is encouraging any and all Xbox staff who've made trouble for bosses to speak to a lawyer and take certain steps to protect themselves, before the hammer comes down.
Бывший арт-директор Halo Studios Гленн Израэль , проработавший над франшизой 17 лет, начиная с Halo 3: ODST времён Bungie , опубликовал обращение на платформе Xbox Player Voice , предназначенной для обратной связи между XBOX и игроками. В нём Израэль призвал провести независимое
Бывший арт-директор Halo Studios Гленн Израэль, проработавший над франшизой 17 лет, начиная с Halo 3: ODST времён Bungie, опубликовал обращение на платформе Xbox Player Voice, предназначенной для обратной связи между XBOX и игроками. В нём Израэль призвал провести независимое расследование действий руководства Halo Studios, заявив, что менеджмент «продолжает совершать неэтичные и незаконные действия в ущерб франшизе, разработчикам и сообществу».
Today is a big day at Halo Studios. Halo Next has reportedly been uncovered by a new job listing, and Halo Infinite has received a massive PvE update, bringing Firefight Gauntlet to co-op. First, there have been rumours circulating that Halo 2 and 3 were receiving the remake trea
Today is a big day at Halo Studios. Halo Next has reportedly been uncovered by a new job listing, and Halo Infinite has received a massive PvE update, bringing Firefight Gauntlet to co-op.
First, there have been rumours circulating that Halo 2 and 3 were receiving the remake treatment, and now, not only is there a new PvE Firefight Gauntlet mode in Halo Infinite, but Halo Next (the alleged next title in the Halo franchise) has apparently been revealed by a job listing.
A newly posted YouTube video from Rebs Gaming reveals details about Halo Next and how this information connects to a Microsoft job listing. The video goes on to explain other ideas, like why The Flood (a nasty Halo adversary) won’t be appearing anytime soon, but the real information comes from this job listing, for Narrative Design Director at Halo Studios.
The job listing reads, “We are looking for a Narrative Design Director to help define and deliver the narrative experience for Halo... Read more
Seconds into your first match of Firefight: Gauntlet, you’ll understand the name. This deviously difficult PvE mode introduces upgradeable attributes, elimination objectives, and auto-scaled difficulty settings to a boss-filled Firefight experience designed to challenge even the
Seconds into your first match of Firefight: Gauntlet, you’ll understand the name.
This deviously difficult PvE mode introduces upgradeable attributes, elimination objectives, and auto-scaled difficulty settings to a boss-filled Firefight experience designed to challenge even the toughest Spartans.
Bring your mightiest warriors, because each phase of the Gauntlet is harder than the last.
SLAY TO SURVIVE
As endless enemies rush from all sides, your team’s only hope is to eliminate the bosses in each arena to halt their reinforcements and progress to the next encounter.
Combat ranges through five maps connected by a supply area where you can gather ammo and equipment, roll for power weapons, or level up your personal buffs (Speed, Resistance, Regeneration, and Damage) for the onslaught ahead.
Between rounds, you’ll get a chance to upgrade your stats and kit out before the next attack—so make those choices count! Survive five rounds, and victory is yours.
Pro tip: If you can retrieve the Oddball from the Harbinger, bring it back to the supply zone to activate Skull modifiers and boost everyone’s Personal Score during the match.
Gear up, load out, and hold on for dear life. Play Firefight: Gauntlet with up to four players in Halo Infinite’s Firefight playlist now.
Welcome to another edition of Forge Features! This series highlights notable maps, modes, and other creations from our talented Forge community. Bookmark your favorites using the links below for your next custom game. If it can be dreamed, it can be Forged. Our latest community F
Welcome to another edition of Forge Features! This series highlights notable maps, modes, and other creations from our talented Forge community. Bookmark your favorites using the links below for your next custom game.
If it can be dreamed, it can be Forged. Our latest community Forge Feature starts with an in-depth look at TSG Warzone, and then genre-hops through space races, nightmare-fuel Infections, historical battles, “objectively” awesome strategy modes, and more!
After two years of work, The Scripter’s Guild has unveiled TSG Warzone, a lovingly remixed sequel to the Warzone mode featured in Halo 5: Guardians.
Adapted for Halo Infinite’s fast-paced play, this strategic, “12v12 PvPvE” mode features a match-based economy (for buying upgrades, weapons, and abilities), dozens of custom weapons (including new renditions of fan favorites from the original Warzone mode), and a sandbox filled with unique vehicles.
To earn your way to 1,000 points, your team must capture and hold zones or hunt down wild bosses hidden on each map. Hold all three Capture Zones to expose the enemy team’s Core, a power pylon in their home base that awards instant victory if destroyed.
Check out Okom’s mode overview for photos of both TSG Warzone maps, and read more about the mode’s mechanics and features in TSG’s official gameplay guide.
*An incorrect image was previously used to represent this mode. This was updated 4/23/2026 at 1815 PT to reflect the correct version of the map/mode.
SUPERB SLAYERS
Exciting arenas for free-for-all and Team Slayer matches. Use the links to add them to your Halo Infinite bookmarks.
Ever wonder how gnomes settle beefs? Embrace your inner lilliputian with Champignon, a gently climbing 1v1 arena set atop a canopy of overgrown mushrooms. What this map may lack in stature is regained through the good fodder of devious shortcuts and a dense mesh of staggered platforms compacted into its minimal headroom. Talk about a mycelial network!
Relish in the warmth of Mr Greencastle‘s “shroomlight” in the map overview video above.
Forged by: YuriGloff, White WMen, Outwood5689, Kurtis6666915, Oligor 360, xLoud Mary Jane
This luxurious mountain complex once discreetly housed the corporate offices of various industrial concerns, and now opens its doors to Spartan-on-Spartan violence. Battle through modern furnishings and over glass-lined platforms until all your enemies have joined those defunct companies in the footnotes of history.
MADCAP MINIGAMES
All war and no play makes dull Spartans. Bookmark these minigames for a few laughs!
Pile into a Gungoose for a close encounter with intergalactic street racing. Alien Motor Speedway harkens to classic “kart” games with an explosives-laden course, rolling boulders, gravity cannons, speed boosts, and deadly automated defense turrets around the tightest bends. Ram opponents into fusion coils or perforate their fenders with your front-mounted guns to claim your rightful place in the winner’s circle.
Death Race puts a vertical spin on the “downhill slalom” genre. Survivors must mount up in Razorbacks and climb through a multi-level circuit to reach the top of a massive parking structure and escape. You’ll have heavy weapons handy and plenty of Repair Fields to repair your rig—provided you’ve got time for a pit stop between attacks by Infected!
The Infected team is armed with Heatwaves, Bloodblades, and an uncanny ability to soar through the air and descend on targets with pinpoint precision. Survivors will have to vault up staircases, leap chasms, and tread rickety bridges to reach a ship waiting on the helipad.
Get ready for a bone-chilling game of hide and seek. In this Infection variant, Survivors find themselves locked inside a Flood-infested hospital as a gang of hungry Infected batter their way in from outside. With precious seconds (and pointy swords) between you and salvation, you can either choose to rove the hospital’s many wards or stay hidden and hope for the best.
FIREFIGHT FRENZY
Looking for a new Firefight map? Check out these PvE picks.
Forged by: Unusual Hiccup, I HaZ A SwAg, BachMaoGR, VocalCurve14096, Spartan1186868, Gamertag1236547,Taylor Qvist
This uplifting “lonely coastline” is about to make some new friends. In Estuary Firefight, you and your Fireteam must splash through the shallows of a tidal basin to defend a massive Forerunner promenade from the Banished. With rocky crags for sniping, plenty of vehicles, and good access to the upper walkway from the ground, you’ll find ample opportunity to turn the tide.
For folks who played Halo 2, this map should look familiar as it’s a reprise of Uplift.
Return to the shipping yards of wealthy Meridian! Below the sheer walls of a natural plateau, this otherwise well-protected work site at Meridian Station has come under siege by the Banished. Use the sloped terrain to your advantage, take cover in the fortified courtyard, and try not to damage the merchandise, will ya?
Steve Vengence‘s custom Firefight mode also adds arcade-style perks to reward collaboration. Head into the base at spawn and use Marking to purchase power weapons, access new areas, or repair vehicles in the garage.
Halo 3′s Snowbound, reimagined for the mud and blood of the Entrenched Fracture. This guts-and-glory remake swaps pristine glacial cliffs and Covenant arrays for an igneous outcropping defended by a battery of AA guns. Grab your trustiest rifle, because the Banished are inbound with waves of bunker-busting baddies.
OBJECTIVELY AWESOME
A collection of Forge maps for strategic modes and objective-based experiences.
Beyond the lovely detailing and moody uplighting, this hydrofracking rig boasts excellent flow for a number of 4v4 strategic modes. As you traverse its crisscrossed gangways, you’ll encounter constantly changing combat scenarios. One second you’re swabbing the deck with a ranged weapon, and the next you’re maximizing outflows in the tight confines of a control room.
Alphecca LXVII Rig‘s slightly asymmetrical, but linear design supports Oddball and CTF just as well as Husky Raid. So go and get the adrenaline pumping!
Enter the UNSC Tactical Simulator for a beachfront assault from the annals of military history. On a stretch of war-torn beachfront, the Offense team must pursue multiple mission parameters at once to storm their opponents’ entrenched position.
Clear barricades to create new points of egress for your marine allies, secure all three zones on a line to advance, and get ready to capture the AA guns on the upper cliffs. Defenders must rout the Attackers’ advance by counter-capping points long enough to withstand the onslaught.
Enemy airships have anchored over a tiny island in this intense CTF smash-and-grab experience. With open sightlines, a speed boost power-up atop the pyramid at center, and a hard scramble back to your capture point, Aw… Ship! turns a friendly game of capture the flag into a full contact sport. Mob your carrier to run block—and watch for deep waters! The flag will reset automatically if you let it sink.
Check out R1val Titan’s video overview for insights on strategies, perks, and quirks.
It’s one small step for maps, one giant leap for CTF. This expansive lunar map features rocky scrambles, multi-level research bases, a hydroponics facility, and delightfully low-gravity antics. After a quick snapshot near the Apollo module, try stomping the competition into moon dust in a game of Big Team Battle.
MIGHTY MISSIONS
Campaign-style missions and other narrative game modes. Jump into any of these Forge creations for a tough co-op battle beside your Fireteam!
Forged by: Reginaldcide An artifact of immense power, Banshee dogfights, and ruins riven by time… What’s not to love? The Cosmolabe starts with a careful infiltration and quickly ramps up into a multi-point mission with artfully curated encounters. Leapfrog across the airy center and activate panels to reveal new areas as you reclaim the mysterious Cosmolabe from the Banished.
Ready to drop behind enemy lines and disable a Covenant war spire? Beyond the Front is an infiltration mission designed for the best marksmen of the UNSC. The action starts with a stealth approach through a gulley, hustles through a difficult counter-sniping section, and finally ranges through a ravine chock-full of heavy resistance. This mini-op evokes a “classically evolved” feel that’s perfect for a solo or two-player co-op outing.
Found your work featured here? Fill out this form to claim your exclusive Fire Unicorn emblem and nameplate for Halo Infinite.
Stay tuned for another Forge Feature coming soon! To share your creations with the Halo Infinite community team, be sure to drop a link in the #forge-show-and-tell channel of our official Discord or post to r/Halo using the Forge tag.
All your favorite Halo titles on Steam are currently on sale! Whether you’re jumping back in or picking up a classic for the first time, now’s a great time to expand your library. Be sure to check out the full sale here: While you’re there, make sure to wishlist Halo: Combat Evol
All your favorite Halo titles on Steam are currently on sale!
Whether you’re jumping back in or picking up a classic for the first time, now’s a great time to expand your library.
Welcome to another edition of Forge Features! This series highlights notable maps, modes, and other creations from our talented Forge community. Bookmark your favorites using the links below for your next custom game. A new turn around the sun warrants more Forging fun! Check out
Welcome to another edition of Forge Features! This series highlights notable maps, modes, and other creations from our talented Forge community. Bookmark your favorites using the links below for your next custom game.
A new turn around the sun warrants more Forging fun! Check out our latest Forge Features showcase of community-made creations, including epic-scale battle modes, multi-part missions, social free-roams, minigames, and more.
SUPERB SLAYERS
Exciting arenas for free-for-all and Team Slayer matches. Use the links to add them to your Halo Infinite bookmarks.
Liminal is a multicolor sporting arena featuring monogrammed team bases, roving play, and great sightlines at just the right angles. Between its zig-zagging walkways, exposed ramps, and tight corners tailor-made for ‘nade bounces, this training arena leaves little room for error, and ample space for nasty surprises. If you can’t find your quarry, try checking out the interactive mini-map at the heart of things.
This research facility encourages ranged play over the lower floor and theorizes sweaty encounters closer to where the "science gets done." The chamber housing the titular (and titanic) tachyon core reactor may be protected by thick safety shielding, but the empiricists on your Fireteam may discover that the courtyard’s Gungooses fit neatly through the side hatch—scientific consensus be damned.
Vertigo-inducing verticals reign in this “subnautical” Forerunner facility. To reach the top, you could ride the constantly shifting lifts, skirt through the switchback ramps, or pinball your way over everything using the conveniently placed gravity cannons. Those see-sawing elevators sure have a pesky way of blocking rocket shots across the atrium…
Life, uh, finds a way. BillyForge sends us time-traveling to Blood Gulch, frozen sometime in the late Cretaceous, to assail enemies from bases that—upon second glance—appear to be colossal dino nests. Bring your favorite disaffected chaos theorist and shortest shorts, because this reptilian romp guarantees dino-mite delights in Team Slayer, Infection, and Capture the Flag modes.
Secrets abound in unseen places. Modeled on the unused Grotto multiplayer map exhumed by the Digsite crew, Emeraldine is a remake of a Halo 2 “deep cut" that plays just as nicely with the Halo Infinite sandbox. This mysterious cavern’s sloping tree trunks afford quick access to split-level action in serene surroundings, while the labyrinthine Forerunner structures invite you to confrontations with destiny.
Ready for a classic Slayer feel? In this symmetrical map, combat rages across the sunny and shady sides of one of Zeta Halo’s colossal vertebrae. With wide lanes for vehicle assaults, bridges, and sneaky subterranean passages commodious enough for Warthogs, Double-Edge offers plenty of routes to get the drop on the opposing team.
BIGGEST BATTLES
A collection of large-scale battle modes with ingenious twists!
Scavenge and survive. Halo Royale is exactly what’s written on the box, set in a massive map located along the fractured spine of Zeta Halo. Drop from your Pelican and scrounge up a weapon—because you’re going to need one when the walls close in!
Featuring multiple biomes, collectible armor upgrades, custom abilities, PvE encounters, and randomly shrinking play areas, Skisma’s multi-year project culminates in a “battle royale” experience that will separate the “lore accurate” Spartans from the conveniently plot-armored. Spike your heart rate for the drop with Skisma’s epic launch trailer (embedded above).
Halo Heroes is a strategic mode offering class-based combat—with tailored loadouts, modified movement, and ludicrous perks for each of its distinctive classes.
Play revolves around a three-story temple, with Capture Zones at either end and roving enemies patrolling the outskirts. Aided by Grunt allies, your team must work together to seize and hold Capture Zones to earn points toward victory. Dispatch pesky minibosses to claim extra points or persistent buffs, and be prepared to switch classes on the fly to counter the enemy team.
Check out Halo Heroes in both King of the Hill and Strongholds variants.
CLOSE AND CASUAL
A collection of smaller Forge maps for less tactical, highly impractical outings with friends.
After touring the “mad scientist” laboratories, snowy courtyards, and the unassuming mess hall, the next thing you’ll probably notice about Snowdrift is the sheer preponderance of fusion coils everywhere you look. The resident scientists of this arctic research base appear to have received a grant to learn how to make one confined area as explosive as possible. Pair this map with FFA Fiesta and let the sparks fly.
Beat the winter blues with a surfside escape! Beach House Party invites you to enjoy the serenity of low tide from an oceanfront home dripping with the vice of a bygone decade. Linger beneath the vaporwave-flavored moonset, exchange a few choice words in the rumpus room, or head to the attached garage for a breathless encounter with a stranger.
With the action intimately bounded to your private pleasure palace, this map is perfect for tense tête-à-têtes or medium-size FFA Fiesta mixers.
A luxury suite can fetch a hefty price in this town, but who knew you’d have to fight your way in? Hotel 027 is a remake of a fan-favorite Halo 5: Guardians community map (originally designed by Lin#027) that adds an ample corridor for weapons-free fisticuffs. Check in, thrust your way to the room, and “express checkout” anyone who tries to jump on your bed.
MADCAP MINIGAMES
All war and no play makes dull Spartans. Bookmark these minigames for a few laughs!
The floor is lava—literally! In Magma-nificent, a team of Survivors must leapfrog through a parkour-style course suspended high over molten rock before an Infected Falcon heaves you into the cooking pot. The jumps aren’t easy to begin with, but the persistent threat of getting squashed or jettisoned definitely “ups the ante.” Use your plasma pistol to ruffle the Falcon’s feathers and get moving!
New sabotage mission! Two enemy battleships are harbored just over that bridge. Whether you take to the skies or assault from the ground, your team will need to systematically destroy weak points on both ships to claim victory. If the Defenders can keep the raiding party at bay with the help of their fixed Scorpion “cannons,” they might just live to float on.
(Mac)ready up. They found something under the ice—and boy, can it move!
Cheating at chess is the least of your problems in this desolate Infection variant inspired by a horror feature from another famous “John.” Between the pilot’s lonely watch tower, the burning body in the yard, and a crashed helicopter, cinephiles will find plenty of Easter eggs hidden throughout the map (provided they haven’t been assimilated yet).
PERILOUS PURSUITS
Race courses for “cops-and-robbers” Infection modes. Play both of these maps with the "Hot Pursuit Skilled Only" mode by Tyrant Hacker and Aversive Sphinx, and check out more perilous pursuits in Forge Features #34!
Forged by: UnknownEmerald, The5thLAment, III FRIJOLEROS
It’s another hot night in Grunt City—but those fleeing perps aren’t sweating the law! Hit the magenta-hued slopes of an urban Unggoy metropolis and jump through hoops (floating teleporters) to catch troublemakers before they can escape. Watch out for the peaceful denizens of Grunt City waddling on the sidewalk around the turns, and don’t be surprised if you end up in the frigid methane lake.
Even Forerunner installations need security. Defend the ecumene from pesky bandits in this deviously complex course! What should be a relatively straightforward pursuit is complicated by lateral gravity cannons and narrow off-ramps spanning the central concourse. The moat is just as lethal to cops as to robbers, but the agile escapees might have more luck than their pursuers on the skinnier bridges.
MIGHTY MISSIONS
Jump into any of these narrative Forge creations for a tough co-op battle! This entry’s selections focus on two “raid-style” campaigns best completed with a full Fireteam.
Shard of Ascension is a truly ambitious project. Inspired by the raids of a certain “fated” FPS from some of Halo’s creators, this campaign-style mission tells the story of a Spartan strike team dispatched to a broken shard of Alpha Halo in orbit around a distant sun.
Gameplay is broken into four, increasingly devious “encounters” that will test your mind and mettle. In the first encounter, your team must disable an energy gate by destroying three generators using an orbital laser. To dodge death from above, you’ll have to play “hot potato” with a targeting beacon while a crew of Iratus-Infected Spartans rushes you.
During subsequent encounters, you’ll need to cross a chasm while one of your teammates constructs ephemeral hardlight bridges from a control room, withstand Iratus’s attempts to hack your armor, and platform through deep space using Repulsor jumps.
When Iratus gains control of the orbital laser, you’ll need to follow closely behind as one of your teammates pilots a special cloaking Mongoose to throw him off your scent. If you can make it all the way to the top, you’re in for a tough boss fight against Iratus as he replaces your allies with lumbering Spartan zombies.
Check out the video embedded above for an in-depth walkthrough from creator MadmanEpic.
New Alexandria has fallen. UNSC forces have been ordered to evacuate the city, but it could be a real hike.
Ascend to great heights and shatter the Covenant ground forces through a sprawling cityscape campaign. Featuring aerial encounters, risky platforming sections, and a final, nigh-impossible boss fight at the top of a skyscraper, Raid: Fall of Alexandria promises all the adrenaline of a desperate escape and more.
STRICTLY SOCIAL
A collection of social maps for hanging out, roleplaying, or free-roaming with friends.
Sangheili Social is a curious map set within a kaidon’s clan holding. To conduct your diplomatic affairs, you’ll first need to disembark from your Phantom and proceed through a lush jungle seeking an audience with the rightful lords of a palatial estate on the other side.
Once you’ve crossed the threshold (and cast a respectful glance at the hieroglyphic history etched in the façade), the great halls of the kaidon’s keep offer Sangheili roleplayers a place to sojourn, collect weapons to defend their sacred soil, and challenge would-be claimants to the throne to mortal swordplay in two beautiful dueling stages.
A ginormous map featuring a small city and its alpine surroundings. Social Cup Free Roam boasts many notable eccentricities, from discoverable loot crates and score-based weapon shops (run by uncommonly friendly Banished!) to a thought-provoking “cup-themed” art installation and a death-proof “Friend Zone” for socializing.
When you tire of city life, hop in a Hornet to explore just about anywhere you like in the chilly surroundings. The glacial peaks opposite the city make for the perfect complement to a wintry walk with a newfound friend!
SILLY SCENERY
Here’s a selection of funny bookmarks for the next after-hours customs sesh.
Forged by: IcyAsh3956, MeatShieldThis, DOC7007, ComanderProwl89, The Irony, DISTORTED JAKAL
Cue the talking-head confessional, because the Banished have besieged a dowdy little paper company!
Spartans Jim and Dwight must race into action to reclaim corporate’s stolen flags from the break room—and hopefully avoid running afoul of human resources. Defend Scranton’s proudest 26th century office-supply outfit to earn that coveted promotion to “Assistant to the Spartan Commander.” (Just watch out for the spilled chili by reception.)
The Carnival of Time is in town for three days only! Based on a village from a certain time-hopping hero’s second foray into the third dimension, HappyMajora’s delightfully lo-fi recreation features plenty of nostalgic Easter eggs for fans to encounter. Link up with your Fireteam to save the festivities in Firefight: King of the Hill.
RunicDejavu offers a comprehensive how-to guide on cloning Forge Objects and duping enemy projectiles to create working Covenant turrets, mortar cannons, and deployable enemy spawners in your own Forge creations.
Found your work featured here? Fill out this form to claim your exclusive Fire Unicorn emblem and nameplate for Halo Infinite.
Stay tuned for another Forge Feature coming soon! To share your creations with the Halo Infinite community team, be sure to drop a link in the #forge-show-and-tell channel of our official Discord or post to r/Halo using the Forge tag.
To celebrate all the Spartans in our Halo Infinite Fireteam, Operation: Infinite introduces a 100-tier free Operation Pass featuring three full armor sets and a 100-tier Premium Pass offering five more sets, six weapon models, and over 30 exclusive Spartan customizations. Upgrade
To celebrate all the Spartans in our Halo Infinite Fireteam, Operation: Infinite introduces a 100-tier free Operation Pass featuring three full armor sets and a 100-tier Premium Pass offering five more sets, six weapon models, and over 30 exclusive Spartan customizations.
Upgrade to the Premium Pass at any time to transfer your tier progress from the free Operation Pass and earn your way to eight full sets.
Halo Infinite’s last planned multiplayer update also welcomes permanent progression boosts, new maps, refreshed Ranked Seasons, over 200 never-before-seen customizations arriving in The Exchange, and more!
The missions may change, but these Operation Passes are here to stay. Operation: Infinite’s 100-tier Operation Passes have no expiration date, meaning their armor sets, customizations, and Spartan Points can be earned at any time.
Likewise, the 100-tier Premium Pass—offering five exclusive armor sets, instant unlocks, and a heroic assortment of Spartan customizations—can be purchased indefinitely.
FREE OPERATION PASS
Three new armor sets await in Operation: Infinite’s free Operation Pass. Complete all 100 tiers at your leisure to unlock the Serpin, Seeker, and Adamant armor sets, plus a champion’s purse of coatings, rewards, and Spartan customizations.
As you complete all 100 tiers, you’ll also unlock the Questing Sky, Celestite Sparkle, Unbroken Defender, and Silent Snow armor coatings, Icicle Falls visor, Blackened Steel weapon coating, and the terminally chill Respect stance.
The 100-tier Premium Operation Pass features five earnable armor sets, six all-new weapon models, instant unlocks, and over 30 Spartan customizations you won’t find anywhere else.
Check out our Community Livestream to see all five armor sets and more exclusive customizations only available in Operation: Infinite’s Premium Operation Pass.
Upgrade to the Premium Operation Pass to instantly unlock the Charged Quill Shock Rifle weapon model and the Phoenix Gold weapon coating.
Operation: Infinite’s Premium Operation Pass can be purchased at any time. Once acquired, you’ll instantly carry over your tier progress from Operation: Infinite’s free Operation Pass and permanently unlock bonus XP and an additional challenge slot.
2 NEW MAPS
Get tactical in a new Ranked map and cozy up to a festive Husky hideaway just in time for the Halodays!
Set in a quiet, alpine village nestled beneath the Northern Lights, Yuletide gift-wraps the warm glow of streetlights, freshly fallen snow, and the aimless smoke of a familiar hearth together in one beautifully serene package—and shatters it with mercilessly merry Husky combat.
Yuletide is available in Husky Raid and Super Husky Raid modes in the Quick Play playlist.
On a quiet square sits the Hotel Kijani, a modest inn baked into its surroundings by years of mid-afternoon heat. Hours after the markets have closed, when the alleyways and busy thoroughfares have emptied, and long shadows begin to grow on the crested archways of this storied city—only then do warriors strafe its scenic courtyards in pursuit of glory.
Vacancy is available in Ranked Arena, Slayer, Doubles, and select rotational modes.
PROGRESSION UPDATES
We’ve updated two core progression mechanics to make playing Halo Infinite more rewarding than ever! Starting today, you’ll earn 2X SP on Daily Challenges and Weekly Ultimate Rewards, and progress twice as fast through Career Ranks thanks to doubled Applied Score multipliers on every matchmaking playlist.
Check out our Operation: Infinite preview for more details and a rundown on what to expect for the 25th anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved.
FREE LOG-IN UNLOCK
As the 25th anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved approaches, we look forward to celebrating Halo’s universe, community, and enduring legacy with you throughout next year.
To kick things off, look for a free customization bundle to arrive in January as an instant log-in unlock for all Halo Infinite players, containing all these never-before-released items:
25th Anniversary Nameplate
GEN XII Vehicle Coating
Access Denied Armor Coating
Lifegivers Hex Weapon Coating
Ring Breaker Weapon Charm
Zeta Emissary Nameplate
Zeta Trailblazer Nameplate
Play Halo Infinite anytime in 2026 to unlock the anniversary bundle!
THE SHOP
As we bid adieu to four years of Halo Infinite multiplayer updates, the sentimental caretakers of The Shop have forged fitting testaments to three of Halo’s legendary villains—and one fiendish incarnation straight from the Covenant’s nightmares.
DEFIANT BUNDLE
Prove your legend with the Defiant bundle, featuring arcane weaponry, an exclusive death effect, and armor sets inspired by Halo Infinite’s enigmatic Harbinger and the demoniac Spartan awaiting her beyond the mortal plane.
Deimos: First conjured in the Prophets’ sermons of fear, the wrathful silhouette of DEIMOS has now been forged in the heat of glassed cities to deliver absolution as an emblem of humanity’s wrath. Give your foes the horns with the Flawless Sentinel helmet attachment, and add a touch of damnation with the Fiendbane Raiment armor coating.
Exorcist Mutilator: Cleanse corruption with the holy fire of the Exorcist Mutilator weapon model and the Fiendbane’s Blessing weapon coating.
When you’re finished hellraising, opt for a greener hue to rock a saintlier look inspired by the Master Chief’s armor in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.
Sibyl: Emissaries of the Endless don the Sibyl armor set to perceive the truths between spaces and heighten their kinship with the unseen. It has proven uniquely suitable for dispelling Forerunner lies, especially when deployed in harmonic resonance with the Harbinger of Truth armor coating.
Kylixian Heatwave: The destined weapon of those who whisper truths. Enshroud thy innermost intent in the Final Codex weapon coating, and pay homage to your Xalanyn mistress with the Chibi Harbinger weapon charm.
Meteor Fall: Pummel your enemies with fiery darts from beyond the stars with the bundle-exclusive Meteor Fall death effect set.
Defy the odds with the Defiant bundle, containing the Deimos and Sibyl armor sets, Fiendbane Raiment and Harbinger of Truth armor coatings, Exorcist Mutilator and Kylixian Heatwave weapon models, Fiendbane’s Blessing and Final Codex weapon coatings, Chibi Harbinger weapon charm, and the exclusive Meteor Fall death effect set.
Available in The Shop now through January 5, 2026.
RECOMPILED FOES
Two of the Master Chief’s bitterest enemies now play sweetly together in the Recompiled Foes bundle, featuring a tag-team of the Escharum-inspired Dominarch and a Cavalier take on Cortana’s eternal knight from Halo 5: Guardians.
Dominarch: Gird yourself in the unbroken pride of the Banished! The Dominarch armor set echoes the glory of Escharum, fallen but not forgotten, whose legacy shall live on in awe-struck whispers across a thousand worlds. March to unrelenting war in the Blood and Iron armor coating.
Hopebreaker Mutilator: Abandon hope, ye down the barrel. The Hopebreaker Mutilator’s burning crest announces its dominion most mightily against the sepulchral hues of the Deliverance Denied weapon coating, or when bearing the immortal leer of the Chibi Escharum weapon charm.
Cavalier: Echoes of the dead replicate ceaselessly in defense of the Domain, and at the gates proudly stands the Cavalier, ever watchful in its vigil against unworthy lusts for sacred knowledge. Clad in the heraldic Mantle’s Duality armor coating, those who shoulder its timeless burden shall bring all others to kneel.
Riftwave Heatwave: A precision instrument for unprejudicial composition. Spread the ancient message of your makers with the Promethean Shell weapon coating.
Perfect Decomposition: When will they understand that composition is a mercy? Leave no trace of your foes’ corporeal forms with the bundle-exclusive Perfect Decomposition death effect set.
Join forces with the Recompiled Foes bundle now through January 5, 2026.
2026 SHOP CALENDAR
Customization bundles from past Shop updates and Premium Operation Passes will return in a monthly rotation of remixed bundle configurations throughout 2026. As always, formerly featured premium customizations can be purchased directly through the Armor Hall by previewing an item and visiting its bundle in The Shop.
THE EXCHANGE
We’ve added over 200 never-before-released accessories, coatings, charms, visors, and other Spartan necessities to The Exchange!
In addition to the four armor bundles commemorating ten years of Halo 5: Guardians, Operation: Infinite’s Exchange drop debuts the earnable Whisper, Lancer, and Dirgesinger armor sets released in the Fall Update.
NAME
TYPE
FROM
Hunter
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Helljumper
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Copperhead
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Shinobi
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Ghost of Reach
Bundle
FLEETCOM
Whisper
Helmet
Shadows
TACAIR XMU
Helmet Attachment
Shadows
UTIL/Paradigm Terminal
Shoulderpads
Shadows
WILLOWKEY II
Chest Gear
Shadows
UTIL/IWNH-2559
Hip Gear
Shadows
TAC/PODA
Wrist Gear
Shadows
UA/Type WHSP
Kneepads
Shadows
Midnight Whisper
Armor Coating
Shadows
Lancer
Helmet
Warpath
Advanced Bevor
Helmet Attachment
Warpath
Advanced Gardbrace
Shoulderpads
Warpath
Advanced Plackart
Chest Gear
Warpath
Lancer’s Belt
Hip Gear
Warpath
Advanced Vambrace
Wrist Gear
Warpath
UA/Type LCR
Kneepads
Warpath
UEG Regalia
Armor Coating
Warpath
Dirgesinger
Helmet
Haloween II
Depthless Messenger
Helmet Gear
Haloween II
True Mantle
Shoulders
Haloween II
Tangent Caress
Chest Gear
Haloween II
Blighted Vitality
Hip Gear
Haloween II
Gravestone Growth
Wrist Gear
Haloween II
Erupting Growth
Kneepads
Haloween II
Veteran Steel
Armor Coating
Haloween II
Hundreds of free customizations from previous Operations, Seasons, Events, and Fractures have now made their way to The Exchange! Dig into 2X SP now to flex a new Spartan ‘fit.
PLAYER RESOURCES
To help new and returning players navigate the constellated cosmos of Halo Infinite, we’ve compiled a list of useful resources below. Visit these links for detailed information on all multiplayer playlists, an overview of game modes, patch notes, and more:
To celebrate all the Spartans in our Halo Infinite Fireteam, Operation: Infinite introduces a 100-tier free Operation Pass featuring three full armor sets and a 100-tier Premium Pass offering five more sets, six weapon models, and over 30 exclusive Spartan customizations. Upgrade
To celebrate all the Spartans in our Halo Infinite Fireteam, Operation: Infinite introduces a 100-tier free Operation Pass featuring three full armor sets and a 100-tier Premium Pass offering five more sets, six weapon models, and over 30 exclusive Spartan customizations.
Upgrade to the Premium Pass at any time to transfer your tier progress from the free Operation Pass and earn your way to eight full sets.
Halo Infinite’s last planned multiplayer update also welcomes permanent progression boosts, new maps, refreshed Ranked Seasons, over 200 never-before-seen customizations arriving in The Exchange, and more!
Steady on, Spartan. The future is Infinite.
OPERATION PASS
The missions may change, but these Operation Passes are here to stay. Operation: Infinite’s 100-tier Operation Passes have no expiration date, meaning their armor sets, customizations, and Spartan Points can be earned at any time.
Likewise, the 100-tier Premium Pass—offering five exclusive armor sets, instant unlocks, and a heroic assortment of Spartan customizations—can be purchased indefinitely.
FREE OPERATION PASS
Three new armor sets await in Operation: Infinite’s free Operation Pass. Complete all 100 tiers at your leisure to unlock the Serpin, Seeker, and Adamant armor sets, plus a champion’s purse of coatings, rewards, and Spartan customizations.
As you complete all 100 tiers, you’ll also unlock the Questing Sky, Celestite Sparkle, Unbroken Defender, and Silent Snow armor coatings, Icicle Falls visor, Blackened Steel weapon coating, and the terminally chill Respect stance.
The 100-tier Premium Operation Pass features five earnable armor sets, six all-new weapon models, instant unlocks, and over 30 Spartan customizations you won’t find anywhere else.
Check out our Community Livestream to see all five armor sets and more exclusive customizations only available in Operation: Infinite’s Premium Operation Pass.
Upgrade to the Premium Operation Pass to instantly unlock the Charged Quill Shock Rifle weapon model and the Phoenix Gold weapon coating.
Operation: Infinite’s Premium Operation Pass can be purchased at any time. Once acquired, you’ll instantly carry over your tier progress from Operation: Infinite’s free Operation Pass and permanently unlock bonus XP and an additional challenge slot.
2 NEW MAPS
Get tactical in a new Ranked map and cozy up to a festive Husky hideaway just in time for the Halodays!
Set in a quiet, alpine village nestled beneath the Northern Lights, Yuletide gift-wraps the warm glow of streetlights, freshly fallen snow, and the aimless smoke of a familiar hearth together in one beautifully serene package—and shatters it with mercilessly merry Husky combat.
Yuletide is available in Husky Raid and Super Husky Raid modes in the Quick Play playlist.
On a quiet square sits the Hotel Kijani, a modest inn baked into its surroundings by years of mid-afternoon heat. Hours after the markets have closed, when the alleyways and busy thoroughfares have emptied, and long shadows begin to grow on the crested archways of this storied city—only then do warriors strafe its scenic courtyards in pursuit of glory.
Vacancy is available in Ranked Arena, Slayer, Doubles, and select rotational modes.
PROGRESSION UPDATES
We’ve updated two core progression mechanics to make playing Halo Infinite more rewarding than ever! Starting today, you’ll earn 2X SP on Daily Challenges and Weekly Ultimate Rewards, and progress twice as fast through Career Ranks thanks to doubled Applied Score multipliers on every matchmaking playlist.
Check out our Operation: Infinite preview for more details and a rundown on what to expect for the 25th anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved.
FREE LOG-IN UNLOCK
As the 25th anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved approaches, we look forward to celebrating Halo’s universe, community, and enduring legacy with you throughout next year.
To kick things off, look for a free customization bundle to arrive in January as an instant log-in unlock for all Halo Infinite players, containing all these never-before-released items:
25th Anniversary Nameplate
GEN XII Vehicle Coating
Access Denied Armor Coating
Lifegivers Hex Weapon Coating
Ring Breaker Weapon Charm
Zeta Emissary Nameplate
Zeta Trailblazer Nameplate
Play Halo Infinite anytime in 2026 to unlock the anniversary bundle!
THE SHOP
As we bid adieu to four years of Halo Infinite multiplayer updates, the sentimental caretakers of The Shop have forged fitting testaments to three of Halo’s legendary villains—and one fiendish incarnation straight from the Covenant’s nightmares.
DEFIANT BUNDLE
Prove your legend with the Defiant bundle, featuring arcane weaponry, an exclusive death effect, and armor sets inspired by Halo Infinite’s enigmatic Harbinger and the demoniac Spartan awaiting her beyond the mortal plane.
Deimos: First conjured in the Prophets’ sermons of fear, the wrathful silhouette of DEIMOS has now been forged in the heat of glassed cities to deliver absolution as an emblem of humanity’s wrath. Give your foes the horns with the Flawless Sentinel helmet attachment, and add a touch of damnation with the Fiendbane Raiment armor coating.
Exorcist Mutilator: Cleanse corruption with the holy fire of the Exorcist Mutilator weapon model and the Fiendbane’s Blessing weapon coating.
When you’re finished hellraising, opt for a greener hue to rock a saintlier look inspired by the Master Chief’s armor in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn.
Sibyl: Emissaries of the Endless don the Sibyl armor set to perceive the truths between spaces and heighten their kinship with the unseen. It has proven uniquely suitable for dispelling Forerunner lies, especially when deployed in harmonic resonance with the Harbinger of Truth armor coating.
Kylixian Heatwave: The destined weapon of those who whisper truths. Enshroud thy innermost intent in the Final Codex weapon coating, and pay homage to your Xalanyn mistress with the Chibi Harbinger weapon charm.
Meteor Fall: Pummel your enemies with fiery darts from beyond the stars with the bundle-exclusive Meteor Fall death effect set.
Defy the odds with the Defiant bundle, containing the Deimos and Sibyl armor sets, Fiendbane Raiment and Harbinger of Truth armor coatings, Exorcist Mutilator and Kylixian Heatwave weapon models, Fiendbane’s Blessing and Final Codex weapon coatings, Chibi Harbinger weapon charm, and the exclusive Meteor Fall death effect set.
Available in The Shop now through January 5, 2026.
RECOMPILED FOES
Two of the Master Chief’s bitterest enemies now play sweetly together in the Recompiled Foes bundle, featuring a tag-team of the Escharum-inspired Dominarch and a Cavalier take on Cortana’s eternal knight from Halo 5: Guardians.
Dominarch: Gird yourself in the unbroken pride of the Banished! The Dominarch armor set echoes the glory of Escharum, fallen but not forgotten, whose legacy shall live on in awe-struck whispers across a thousand worlds. March to unrelenting war in the Blood and Iron armor coating.
Hopebreaker Mutilator: Abandon hope, ye down the barrel. The Hopebreaker Mutilator’s burning crest announces its dominion most mightily against the sepulchral hues of the Deliverance Denied weapon coating, or when bearing the immortal leer of the Chibi Escharum weapon charm.
Cavalier: Echoes of the dead replicate ceaselessly in defense of the Domain, and at the gates proudly stands the Cavalier, ever watchful in its vigil against unworthy lusts for sacred knowledge. Clad in the heraldic Mantle’s Duality armor coating, those who shoulder its timeless burden shall bring all others to kneel.
Riftwave Heatwave: A precision instrument for unprejudicial composition. Spread the ancient message of your makers with the Promethean Shell weapon coating.
Perfect Decomposition: When will they understand that composition is a mercy? Leave no trace of your foes’ corporeal forms with the bundle-exclusive Perfect Decomposition death effect set.
Join forces with the Recompiled Foes bundle now through January 5, 2026.
2026 SHOP CALENDAR
Customization bundles from past Shop updates and Premium Operation Passes will return in a monthly rotation of remixed bundle configurations throughout 2026. As always, formerly featured premium customizations can be purchased directly through the Armor Hall by previewing an item and visiting its bundle in The Shop.
THE EXCHANGE
We’ve added over 200 never-before-released accessories, coatings, charms, visors, and other Spartan necessities to The Exchange!
In addition to the four armor bundles commemorating ten years of Halo 5: Guardians, Operation: Infinite’s Exchange drop debuts the earnable Whisper, Lancer, and Dirgesinger armor sets released in the Fall Update.
NAME
TYPE
FROM
Hunter
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Helljumper
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Copperhead
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Shinobi
Bundle
Halo 5: Guardians 10th Anniversary
Ghost of Reach
Bundle
FLEETCOM
Whisper
Helmet
Shadows
TACAIR XMU
Helmet Attachment
Shadows
UTIL/Paradigm Terminal
Shoulderpads
Shadows
WILLOWKEY II
Chest Gear
Shadows
UTIL/IWNH-2559
Hip Gear
Shadows
TAC/PODA
Wrist Gear
Shadows
UA/Type WHSP
Kneepads
Shadows
Midnight Whisper
Armor Coating
Shadows
Lancer
Helmet
Warpath
Advanced Bevor
Helmet Attachment
Warpath
Advanced Gardbrace
Shoulderpads
Warpath
Advanced Plackart
Chest Gear
Warpath
Lancer’s Belt
Hip Gear
Warpath
Advanced Vambrace
Wrist Gear
Warpath
UA/Type LCR
Kneepads
Warpath
UEG Regalia
Armor Coating
Warpath
Dirgesinger
Helmet
Haloween II
Depthless Messenger
Helmet Gear
Haloween II
True Mantle
Shoulders
Haloween II
Tangent Caress
Chest Gear
Haloween II
Blighted Vitality
Hip Gear
Haloween II
Gravestone Growth
Wrist Gear
Haloween II
Erupting Growth
Kneepads
Haloween II
Veteran Steel
Armor Coating
Haloween II
Hundreds of free customizations from previous Operations, Seasons, Events, and Fractures have now made their way to The Exchange! Dig into 2X SP now to flex a new Spartan ‘fit.
PLAYER RESOURCES
To help new and returning players navigate the constellated cosmos of Halo Infinite, we’ve compiled a list of useful resources below. Visit these links for detailed information on all multiplayer playlists, an overview of game modes, patch notes, and more:
As we look back on four years of evolution and updates in Halo Infinite , we’d like to thank our community for your steadfast support. Without your feedback and enthusiasm, Halo Infinite multiplayer would not be the special place it is today: a robust arena for slaying and playin
As we look back on four years of evolution and updates in Halo Infinite, we’d like to thank our community for your steadfast support. Without your feedback and enthusiasm, Halo Infinite multiplayer would not be the special place it is today: a robust arena for slaying and playing, with something for every Spartan.
With multiple Halo titles in development, we’ll need our whole team’s combined focus to deliver new experiences with the same passion and care that our community has given us. While we remain committed to supporting Halo Infinite on the road ahead, Operation: Infinite is the last major content update currently planned.
Starting November 18, Operation: Infinite will introduce a 2X boosts on Career Rank and SP, 100-tier Operation Pass, eight earnable armor sets, new Ranked Seasons, and 200 never-before-released customizations arriving in The Exchange.
Jump into Operation: Infinite on November 18.
A “perfectly perfect” pair of progression updates awaits! On November 18, we’ll double the earning rate for both Career Rank and Spartan Points to make each match of Halo Infinite more rewarding than ever.
2X Career Rank Progress
Starting in Operation: Infinite, the Applied Score multipliers for all matchmaking playlists will be doubled so that players can progress twice as fast through Career Ranks.
Upon completing matches in Halo Infinite, your match-based Personal Score gets factored into an Applied Score multiplier to generate Career Rank progress from your heroic exploits. With a 2X boost on every matchmaking playlist, you’ll climb ranks on the double.
Reach the maximum level of Hero, and you’ll unlock the coveted Mark VI armor kit as worn by the Master Chief in the Halo Infinite Campaign.
2X Spartan Point Rewards
If you’ve been admiring something shiny in The Exchange, get ready to splurge!
Halo Infinite players will soon earn twice as many Spartan Points (SP) for completing any match-based Daily Challenge that awards SP. Weekly Ultimate Rewards (earned by completing all Weekly Challenges) will also be doubled to 2,000 SP—making one mighty bonus for champion challenge-seekers.
OPERATION PASS OVERVIEW
The missions may change, but these Operation Passes are here to stay. Operation: Infinite’s free, 100-tier Operation Pass and 100-tier Premium Pass have no planned expiration date.
Upgrade to the 100-tier Premium Pass to transfer your Operation: Infinite progress and earn your way to five more unique armor sets, six weapon models, and over 30 exclusive Spartan customizations. That’s eight total armor sets up for grabs!
FREE OPERATION PASS
Three new armor sets await in Halo Infinite’s final free Operation Pass. Complete all 100 tiers at your leisure to unlock the following exclusive armor sets, plus a champion’s purse of coatings, rewards, and Spartan customizations.
Serpin: Kaidon Thel ‘Vadam grants the rank of Serpin to Spartans who have proven their loyalty and martial prowess in battle beside the Swords of Sanghelios. The master-crafted Serpin regalia betokens their esteem among Sangheili.
Seeker: Lethbridge Industrial’s GEN 2 SEEKER armor set contains state-of-the-art distortion and sensor technology to ensure that you can always find your target—but they’ll never know what hit ‘em.
Adamant: Cultivated from a flake of Forerunner crystal, the ADAMANT unit’s lab-grown layers resonate harmoniously with ancient mechanisms and instantaneously forge compatible interfaces with Mjolnir systems.
As you climb through this Operation’s lofty 100 reward tiers, you’ll also unlock the Silent Snow armor coating, Icicle Falls visor, Blackened Steel weapon coating, and the terminally chill Respect stance.
PREMIUM OPERATION PASS
The 100-tier Premium Operation Pass features five additional earnable armor sets, six all-new weapon models, and over 30 Spartan customizations you won’t find anywhere else.
Artificer: The totemic gaze of the Artificer reveals multitudes of overlaid meanings that only its bearer may parse. Each interlocking piece of its indecipherable whole is a potsherd sculpted through reverent contemplations on war.
Seedwarden: A reclaimed instrument of long-promised legacy. The Seedwarden’s nascent abilities may be inscrutable to Executors and other infolife, but its capacity as a weapon of war pales in comparison to its lifegiving potential.
Kobold: Models from the KOBOLD combat drone series are interoperable with most GEN2 Mjolnir armor cores through specialized jockey frames. This armor can be outfitted with a tactical chassis for autonomous combat or operated remotely via telepresence.
Phoenix: The PHOENIX is an artistic expression of the bold anima that drives Meyer’s visionary engineers to continuously redefine armored combat. Enhanced with energy dispersion technology, it is the ideal armor for rising from the ashes.
First Vanguard: Though unlikely, a Spartan adopted into a Sangheili clan may rise to the rank of Kaidon—and become First Vanguard of their lands in times of war. This armor is cast with soil from the Kaidon’s lands, as a reminder of their sacred duty.
Beyond the armor sets listed above, Premium Pass operators can earn six weapon models, nine weapon coatings, three vehicle coatings, five weapon charms, and more exclusive customizations only available in Operation: Infinite’s Premium Operation Pass.
Get a sneak peek at Operation: Infinite’s Premium Pass in our Community Livestream!
INSTANT PREMIUM UNLOCKS
Upgrade to the Premium Operation Pass to instantly unlock the Charged Quill Shock Rifle weapon model and the Phoenix Gold weapon coating.
Operation: Infinite’s Premium Operation Pass can be purchased at any time. Once acquired, you’ll instantly carry over your tier progress from Operation: Infinite’s free Operation Pass and permanently unlock bonus XP and an additional challenge slot.
EXCHANGE UPDATES
Operation: Infinite’s Exchange drop will debut over 200 never-before-released armor pieces, armor attachments, coatings, charms, visors, and other Spartan necessities!
In addition to the armor bundles added to commemorate ten years of Halo 5: Guardians, the earnable Whisper, Lancer, and Dirgesinger armor sets released in the Fall Update will also arrive in The Exchange on November 18.
With hundreds of free customizations available in The Exchange, including items from previous Operations, Events, and Fractures, there are millions of potential Spartan suit-ups to choose from. If you missed out on completing an armor set, take advantage of 2X Spartan Points to claim the rest!
The Halodays come early for Husky Raiders! A festive map, Yuletide, has been added to Husky Raid and Super Husky Raid modes in the Quick Play playlist.
Set in a quiet, alpine village nestled beneath the Northern Lights, Yuletide gift-wraps the warm glow of streetlights, freshly fallen snow, and the aimless smoke of a familiar hearth together in one beautifully serene package—and shatters it with mercilessly merry Husky combat.
Look for Yuletide in the Quick Play playlist starting November 18.
RANKED UPDATES
Bragging rights are forever. Operation: Infinite introduces a new asymmetrical map for select Ranked modes and a fresh Ranked Seasons calendar to keep your skills sharp.
On a quiet square sits the Hotel Kijani, a cozy, but modest inn practically baked into its surroundings by years of mid-afternoon heat. Hours after the markets have closed, when the last fruit truck has packed away its wares, the alleyway staircases and typically busy thoroughfares have emptied, and long shadows begin to grow on the crested archways of this storied city—only then do warriors strafe its scenic courtyards in pursuit of glory.
You can check in anytime you like, but you can never leave.
Vacancy arrives in Ranked Arena, Ranked Slayer, Ranked Doubles, and select ranked rotational playlists on November 18, 2025.
RANKED SEASONS
More Ranked Seasons are on their way. Every few months, skilled tacticians will get the chance to secure a spot on the seasonal leaderboard and claim exclusive Spartan customizations from a new slate of Ranked Rewards before Competitive Skill Rank (CSR) values reset at the conclusion of each Ranked Season.
During Ranked Seasons, the Ranked Rotational playlist will periodically change to offer fresh challenges with a mix of strategic, throwback, and tactical modes.
The next Ranked Season begins November 18.
HALO INFINITE ROADMAP
Operation: Infinite may be the last major update currently planned for Halo Infinite, but we’re fully committed to supporting players with exciting challenges, ranked rewards, and community events throughout next year and beyond.
Challenges: Halo Infinite players will continue to find a rotating selection of Daily and Weekly Challenges that offer a variety of ways to level up your Career Rank, progress through Operation Passes, and earn Spartan Points (SP).
Ranked Seasons: A new slate of Ranked Seasons awaits. The Ranked Rotational playlist (the fourth Ranked matchmaking playlist after Ranked Arena, Slayer, and Doubles) will continue to change formats periodically to offer a fresh challenge.
Halo at DreamHack: Halo returns to DreamHack. Get tickets now to DreamHack Birmingham (March 27–29, 2026) and DreamHack Atlanta (May 15–17, 2026) to experience all the artistry, cosplay, and esports excellence on display at one of gaming’s greatest expos.
Halo Fest: Join us December 2026 in Seattle for a convention celebrating Halo’s community and iconic legacy. Read more details below! Tickets go on sale December 10, 2025 at
As the Halo Studios team shifts focus to in-development projects such as Halo: Campaign Evolved, we’d like to thank our Halo Infinite players for years of steadfast support.
It’s been a legendary run of Seasons, Events, Fractures, and Operations, with plenty of maps, modes, sandbox additions, Forge tool upgrades, and incredible memories along the way. None of those milestones would have been possible without the guidance and enthusiasm of our community.
Between the players lobbing stickies in matchmaking, the pros tearing up the Ranked leaderboards, and the Forgers expanding Halo’s multiplayer mythos with remarkable experiences, each and every Halo fan has helped to create this unforgettable moment. Thanks to your support, Halo Infinite features nearly endless ways to have fun, share Forge creations, and lay a Spartan smackdown on your friends.
Your excitement is the lodestar for our every effort. Whether you’re a long-time player, a recently returned Spartan, or a brand-new ally, we’re grateful to have you on our Fireteam.
As we look ahead, your feedback will continue to help us refine our goals, in hopes of exceeding expectations and delivering the best Halo experiences possible. Throughout our day, we look to your suggestions, your art, and even your memes as constant reminders of our dual commitment to faithfully stewarding Halo’s legacy and forging its future.
Since formally announcingHalo: Campaign Evolved in October, we’ve been floored by the response from both longtime fans and Halo newcomers. We’re humbled by the trust you’ve placed in us, and we can’t wait to introduce new players to the iconic story of Halo: Combat Evolved for the first time in 2026.
As the 25th anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved approaches, we look forward to celebrating Halo’s universe, community, and enduring legacy with you all next year.
If you missed your chance to join us for this year’s Halo World Championship, don’t miss out on Halo Fest in December 2026. The event begins with an orchestral performance of iconic Halo music, in concert for one night only, followed by a two-day convention celebrating Halo’s legacy, story, and unrivaled community. We hope to see you there!
Halo Fest tickets go on sale December 10, 2025 at HaloFest.com.
Stay tuned to Halo Waypoint for retrospectives, reminiscences, and more info on Halo: Campaign Evolved in 2026—and don’t miss Operation: Infinite, launching November 18.
Whether you joined us in Seattle or on our live broadcast, we’d like to thank everyone in the Halo community for making this year’s Halo World Championship in Seattle such an unforgettable experience. Between swapping stories with Halo fans, watching elite Halo Infinite players d
Whether you joined us in Seattle or on our live broadcast, we’d like to thank everyone in the Halo community for making this year’s Halo World Championship in Seattle such an unforgettable experience.
Between swapping stories with Halo fans, watching elite Halo Infinite players duke it out on the main stage, announcing Halo: Campaign Evolved, and seeing our community raise a whopping $67,000 for Gamers Outreach, it’s hard to pick a favorite moment from this incredible weekend—so we thought we’d share a whole collection of them!
Check out more highlights from this year’s Halo World Championship below.
Congrats to Shopify Rebellion
After three days of intense competitive heat, Shopify Rebellion clutched up and came out on top against OpTic Gaming in the best-of-seven Grand Finals. It was a remarkable journey from this year’s earliest HCS events to the Halo World Championship stage, and their relentless dedication certainly paid off on Sunday!
Congratulations to Shopify Rebellion, our 2025 Halo World Champions, and to all the teams that made this year’s tournament the most attended HCS event to date.
Cunning Cosplay
Halo cosplayers really know how to strut their Spartan stuff! This year’s Community Cosplay Contest welcomed 85 cosplayers to the Community Stage, where they showed off their stellar handiwork and a flair for dramatic entrances.
Congratulations to Miss_Boof (as Olympia Vale), James (as Crochet Master Chief), and Sola Mors (as Flood Spartan) on ascending to the Main Stage, and to all our heroic contestants who dazzled the crowd at the Community Cosplay Contest!
This year’s Maker’s Contest was filled with impressive armaments, curious creations, and oddly satisfying oddments. Check out photos from the top three winners below!
Draxes took first place with his Jega ‘Rdomnai bust and Elite Bloodblade (above), followed closely by MightyMarkProps with an extra-lethal Hydra model and Fallen922 with a Craigtastic bass guitar (below).
Meet-up Memories
It’s always a treat to meet so many Halo fans IRL! During this weekend’s event, the Halo Studios community team held daily Community Meet-ups featuring Halo-themed games and limited-edition posters by Soul_ant19, OutletChief729, and entransing.
We’re so grateful to everyone who stopped by to say hello, play games, and sign our posters for the Halo Studios office! If you couldn’t attend in person, don't forget to snag a digital copy of this year’s Community Meet-up posters.
Halo Fest 2026
Don’t miss your chance to join us in Seattle, WA again for Halo Fest in December 2026.
The event begins with an orchestral performance of iconic Halo music, in concert for one night only on December 11, followed by a two-day convention celebrating Halo’s legacy, story, and unrivaled community. We hope you can make it!
Something wicked this way spawns… Join us for our Operation: Haloween II Community Playdate tomorrow at 11am PT for some spooktacular shenanigans. Match us to earn your treat – the Unicorn of Ice rewards! Costumes optional. Chaos guaranteed.
Something wicked this way spawns…
Join us for our Operation: Haloween II Community Playdate tomorrow at 11am PT for some spooktacular shenanigans. Match us to earn your treat – the Unicorn of Ice rewards!
Fireteam Osiris, the light is green! It has been ten years since Spartan Locke sent Fireteam Osiris to Kamchatka, thus setting in motion the events of Halo: 5 Guardians. We’re celebrating in Halo Infinite by bringing some fan-favorite armor sets to the Exchange and bringing back
Fireteam Osiris, the light is green!
It has been ten years since Spartan Locke sent Fireteam Osiris to Kamchatka, thus setting in motion the events of Halo: 5 Guardians.
We’re celebrating in Halo Infinite by bringing some fan-favorite armor sets to the Exchange and bringing back the new, unique mode, Extermination.
Anniversary Armors
If you’ve banked enough Spartan Points, you’ll be able to grab these sets as soon as they drop out of slipspace. If not, fear not – they will be available from the Exchange so you may obtain them at your leisure. (Or you can grab them from the Shop if you prefer that route.)
Hunter: Savvy Spartans choose HUNTER technology for its customizable interfaces, a puissant surveillance suite, and dependable maneuverability in hand-to-hand sparring.
Helljumper: Thanks to innovative field upgrades by Cascade Stronghold Technologies, testbed HELLJUMPER armor can reliably endure the atmospheric rigors expected of GEN3 Mjolnir.
Copperhead: When it comes to building interspecies alliances, COPPERHEAD armor has consistently proven its merits for both kinetic diplomacy and charm offensives.
Shinobi: Though the design’s origins remain obscure, the undisclosed reasons behind its approved use among Spartans of the UNSC may prove even more unknowable.
Exacting Extermination
We’re all familiar with Team Slayer where it’s 4v4 and you score a point for each kill on the opponent’s team. And first team to 50 points, wins the match. Extermination is the same at the very basics: 4v4 and you gotta kill the enemy. But you’re not trying to get to 50 kills.
The Goal:
Eliminate all members of the enemy team at once.
Super simple right? If you can kill the entire enemy team before anyone respawns, you win the round.
Were it so easy.
So what’s the catch? If a player can stay alive long enough for their teammates to respawn, the round continues. You’ll have a 15 second respawn between each death. And for the record: this goes by fast when you’re hunting that last elusive Spartan but somehow seems to last an eternity when you’re desperately evading, trying to let your teammate respawn.
Combat Components
Alright let’s get the lowdown before you throwdown:
Short, two-minute rounds
First to win five rounds, wins
Teams swap sides after each round
Round ends at time or when an entire team is on respawn
Ties can occur when no team was Exterminated before timer runs out
If three ties occur, the team with the most points wins
Strategic Spaces
With a new playlist comes new maps! Bookmark the mode here, then grab the maps and check ‘em out!
2558. Amid the chaos of the Created uprising, five tales of truth, compromise, betrayal, purpose, and change unfold across the galaxy. Doctor Catherine Halsey and Jul ‘Mdama share an honest conversation, Captain Lasky makes arrangements for a vital mission to Sanghelios, Arbiter
2558. Amid the chaos of the Created uprising, five tales of truth, compromise, betrayal, purpose, and change unfold across the galaxy.
Doctor Catherine Halsey and Jul ‘Mdama share an honest conversation, Captain Lasky makes arrangements for a vital mission to Sanghelios, Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam confronts a traitor, Exuberant Witness makes some new friends, and a strange signal is picked up on Zeta Halo.
Halo: Fifth Canticle is available here, on Halo Waypoint, as a free PDF, and in audiobook format on YouTube.
Halo: Fifth Canticle takes place in October 2558 as the Created uprising radically threatens to alter the power structure of the galaxy.
CANTICLE I. THE CHILDREN
SONG OF RETRIBUTION // OCTOBER 16, 2558
Doctor Catherine Halsey had not specifically intended to catch Jul ‘Mdama in a moment of quiet repose, but she was never one to let an opportunity like this slide.
She could not see his face, but she knew immediately where his focus was. She glimpsed a small holograph projected from a handheld device depicting what appeared to be three other Sangheili—two children and an adult female.
Family? Halsey surmised. Unexpected... but useful.
The Sangheili’s head snapped in Halsey’s direction as he suddenly sensed her presence, her long shadow cast against the curved iridescent far wall. In the pale light of his ready room—or the Sangheili equivalent of such a thing—the Covenant supreme leader looked haggard and gaunt, his grey-white skin almost sickly. From his widened, bloodshot eyes and sharp intake of breath, Jul looked as if Halsey had caught him in the act. A private, vulnerable moment. Something he was loath to share.
Already, Halsey could see the fire igniting in Jul’s eyes. What had begun as a performative façade he so often put on in front of his followers had seeped into his very being. Whoever he once was before embarking on this crusade had been corroded away over the years. It seemed to Halsey that the sad charade of Jul’s zealotry was increasingly becoming more real. Jul had tasted the power that his title of “Didact’s Hand” had given him and, naturally, he desired more.
Unfortunately for him, a series of crushing defeats—the denial of the Absolute Record, Sali ‘Nyon’s rebellion, and the recent betrayal of the Prometheans at the behest of a new commander—was driving Jul ever closer toward impatience. Stoking his rage was making him irritable, reactive. Weak.
“Tell me about the children.” Halsey spoke the words evenly, breaking the tense silence of the moment and abruptly quelling whatever storm had been rising between them.
Halsey had never thought of herself as a prisoner here. Expressing her desire for revenge against the UNSC was all it had taken to begin wrapping the Sangheili cult leader around her finger. She saw straight through his act—and he knew it.
Not to give herself too much credit, she too had suffered failures and setbacks of late, but when she was eventually back in the cramped confines of the UNSC’s little sandbox, she would make quite a meal out of how she alone had been more effective at bringing down the Didact’s Hand than hundreds of their so-called Spartans.
“As hatchlings, the minds and bodies of our children are honed to become warriors,” Jul said in a low voice. “Their lives dedicated to duty and service to the Covenant. And then they would be sent to battle your children—your demons.” He practically spat the last word as he turned away, staring at the holograph once more.
“That war is over five years finished, Jul. And when the Arbiter sought to make peace, you started a new one—not just against humanity, but your own people. If your children are in danger now, is that not because of your choices?”
“The Arbiter is blinded by his need for redemption,” Jul snorted. “He will lead the Sangheili to ruin in pursuit of it. Truly, he is the greatest killer of us all. I began this war to depose him because your Office of Naval Intelligence set me on this path. Just as they did with you.”
Of late, it was easy to get Jul ranting. Halsey knew all the right buttons to press that would send him on a tirade.
“What I do is to save my people," Jul continued. “Dural. Asum. Raia... It is in their name that I shall free Sanghelios from the Arbiter’s grasp. Once there is unity, we shall burn ONI out of the shadows. Then, and only then, once my vengeance is complete, can there be a road to peace.”
Halsey could, at least, sympathize with the rage that drove and sustained him. After she’d learned that Jacob perished on the first discovered Halo ring, she had felt a profound shift in her logic. No longer could she bear to sacrifice others for humanity’s survival. Instead, she sought to save as many lives as she could.
Even now, in the deepest, darkest pit of her life, in the company of the enemy as a traitor to her people, that philosophy held true.
An imprint of the Librarian herself had offered Halsey the chance to make it happen. She did not believe in destiny or divine providence, but she had been chosen to uplift humanity with the bountiful gifts of Forerunner technology. Her efforts, however, had resulted in failure. And now something—someone—else was taking her place, awakening the Forerunner legacy from its long slumber.
She had been usurped, confined to the margins once more. She would not allow it.
Halsey had decided that the end of her partnership with Jul was imminent. The Covenant leader’s usefulness in the pursuit of her goals had run its course. Yet, she found herself wanting to dig deeper into the truth that this Sangheili had buried deep within him—the things that he dared not reveal to his followers. She savored the irony that the only one he could truly confide in was a human... perhaps that was why he had not yet moved to discard her.
“And what of your children, Doctor?” Jul asked, prompting Halsey to realize that she had failed to seize upon her opening to press him further. “What would you give to see them again? To ensure that they are safe?”
Halsey thought about lying. She had done so frequently over the course of this particular relationship... but the thought of Miranda rose unbidden, and with her bubbled a deep well of regret. She had been so sure that giving her child up was the right thing to do. Given the circumstances, it was the best decision she could have made as a mother to ensure that Miranda was loved and raised as she deserved to be. But that choice had come at the cost of resentment and distance. And now she would never have a chance to explain herself.
Halsey thought of her Spartans. So many of them gone now. With every loss, the hole within her had widened into a pit. It was the only counterargument, the only clue, that suggested she had underestimated her capacity to love.
She thought of John. He’s out there, somewhere...
The truth slipped past her lips. A mission that surpassed all others.
A promise to keep.
“Anything, Jul. I would do anything.”
CANTICLE II. THE DEAL
UNSC INFINITY // OCTOBER 26, 2558
Captain Thomas Lasky straightened his collar and stood at attention in front of the monitor in his ready room.
“They’re on the horn now, Captain.” Roland’s holographic avatar—the orange-tinted form of a military pilot from one of humanity’s historic twentieth century wars—appeared on the desk. “Er... best of luck.”
“Thank you, Roland. Patch them through.”
Roland saluted, then disappeared.
“Admiral Hood, Admiral Osman,” Captain Lasky formally greeted the split-screen image of the elderly Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood, clad in his pristine white uniform. On the screen next to him was Serin Osman, ONI’s imposing and sharp-featured Commander-in-Chief.
“Captain Lasky,” Hood replied, looking thoroughly exhausted, though he still managed to convey a sense of natural warmth and authority that helped to ease Lasky’s mind. “How’re you holding up, son?”
“As well as possible, given the circumstances, sir. Eleven of our colonies hit by Guardian awakenings with no sign of these events stopping, countless people dead—not to mention the Master Chief and Blue Team going AWOL to find Cortana themselves. But I didn’t call you both just to complain.”
“I should hope not, Captain," Osman interjected. “Given that this is a private meeting instead of a full UNSC Security Council briefing, I presume this is urgent. What do you need?”
“It is urgent, Admiral. After what happened on Meridian, we now know that Cortana is awakening these Guardian constructs across the galaxy. Once they emerge from their craters, they jump into slipspace, and we need to find out where they’re going. Roland’s come up with a good plan, and Doctor Halsey believes--”
“Halsey?” As if by instinct at the mere mention of her name, Osman’s face contorted as though she had bitten down hard into a lemon.
“She was feeding information to us about these events while in Jul ‘Mdama’s custody before Fireteam Osiris recovered her, and she believes she has a solution,” Lasky continued. “A way to follow the Guardian that Blue Team boarded to its destination and figure this whole thing out.”
“What’s the catch?” Osman asked as she narrowed her eyes.
“We need to go to Sanghelios.”
A moment of uncomfortable silence settled between them. If the mention of Halsey’s name hadn’t ruined Osman’s day already, the prospect of a mission to Sanghelios seemed like a twist of the knife.
“Sanghelios is off-limits, Captain,” Osman said sternly. “If the Covenant want to throw everything they’ve got at the Arbiter, let them. I doubt that he would welcome the UNSC’s assistance again after we dealt with the last major uprising against him in ‘53. That is why he’s in this situation, after all.”
“We both know that there is more than one reason why the Arbiter is embroiled in this conflict, Admiral,” Hood maintained a diplomatic but unsubtle tone. Lasky took note of Osman squaring her jaw—holding back whatever barbed retort she no doubt wanted to give.
“Sanghelios is the location of the next known Guardian awakening, so our window is limited," Lasky said, hoping to keep the conversation focused on the matter at hand. “I appreciate the complexities, but the situation is this: If we want to catch up with the Master Chief and put a stop to whatever Cortana’s plans are, we need the Arbiter’s help.”
“I’m afraid Admiral Osman is correct,” Hood replied. “There is a significant risk to sending Infinity, both to the ship itself and to the Arbiter’s delicate political situation. We need you back with the Home Fleet to hold the line when these Guardians come knocking on Earth’s door.”
Osman seemed to relax a little as she settled in her seat, apparently not expecting that she and Hood would find alignment.
“However,” Hood continued after a momentary pause. “I have no doubt that Blue Team are heading to the heart of this mess and they’re going to need back-up. I’m sure we can afford to send a single Spartan team with Doctor Halsey to pursue this lead.”
“Commander Palmer will be there as Doctor Halsey’s handler,” Lasky followed up, sensing Hood’s play.
“Then I think that settles the matter. Commander Palmer, her Spartan fireteam, and Doctor Halsey will rendezvous with the Arbiter’s forces, and then you are ordered to immediately return to Earth.” Hood paused for a moment before adding: “Any objections, Admiral Osman?”
“If anything goes wrong, this mission does not exist,” Osman said, her tone clipped and direct. Lasky had only heard her speak this way once before, and he had admitted to Palmer that it put the fear of God into his bones. “Your team will be on their own. And if Halsey sets so much as one toe out of line, Commander Palmer is ordered to finish the job she failed on Requiem, Aktis IV, and Operation: ATHENA. I will grant no further leniency.”
Before Lasky or Hood could respond, Osman—resigned to having been outmaneuvered on this occasion—severed her connection.
“I agree with the Admiral on one particular point, Tom,” Hood said. “It’s a mess on Sanghelios right now and there are plenty who want to keep it that way. Doctor Halsey is a wild card, but I can say with certainty that she will be highly motivated by the opportunity to assist Blue Team.”
“Understood, sir,” Lasky saluted.
“Godspeed, Captain.” Hood returned the salute. “We’ll see you soon.”
CANTICLE III. THE TRAITOR
SANGHELIOS // OCTOBER 27, 2558
“This heretic, and those who follow him, must be silenced.”
The placid, dispassionate voice of the Prophet of Truth still whispered to Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam.
It came in the quiet moments—an undeniable presence. The sensation of three spindly, elongated fingers draping over his shoulder as if to provide a sacred blessing. The phantom pain of searing heat in his chest in the middle of the night, his left side burning as if the mark on his flesh was being branded anew.
It came to Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam now in the form of whispered, winged words from the past as he faced the traitor within his own ranks—of his own blood.
Murok ‘Vadam, one of the clan’s council of elders.
A security officer had interrogated an Unggoy captive who revealed that the Covenant had been able to track the Arbiter’s movements because of an informant. When the gathering at the elder council chamber was convened, a blockade runner had arrived and disgorged vast numbers of troops from assault carapaces. Covenant forces had launched a surprise attack in an effort to eliminate him.
Indeed, they might have succeeded had it not been for the timely arrival of Shipmistress Mahkee ‘Chava, accompanied by a Spartan fireteam. Their leader presently awaited an audience with him.
That was another matter he would deal with in due course.
First, he had ordered Murok to be brought to the cliff’s edge as the Swords of Sanghelios set up their fortifications in the region. There was no avoiding having an audience for this confrontation, and an example of cowardly traitors needed to be made at this critical moment.
Murok, accompanied by a lone guard, simply stood looking out at the vast Nuursa valley beyond the camp. Sloping plains of arid desert and naturally stacked rock formed a basin where a small river served as a tributary of the Csurdon Sea.
“I betrayed you, Arbiter. Yet that act pales next to the gravest dishonor of all. My failure to kill you,” Murok said as the Arbiter approached, though he did not turn from the view. “You have come to ask why I did it?”
“You compound such dishonor by enlisting an army to attempt what you alone would not,” the Arbiter replied. “And you have done so, elder, because you refuse to see any way other than what you have known. Still you follow the path of the Covenant, even as it fractures beneath your feet on the cusp of its annihilation.”
“And what shall replace it, I wonder?” Murok mused, turning at last to face the Arbiter, his eyes ablaze with anger. “You seek to ally with our greatest enemies. You hold fruitless peace talks with the Jiralhanae and return their laborers from our lands to the so-called ‘Ghost Father.’ You invite human filth to set foot on the sacred ground of our home. You elevate females and Unggoy to ranks unbecoming their nature, and I have seen the apostate healers you shelter in your camp, denying warriors their honorable deaths!”
The Arbiter listened, though it was the same argument he had heard from every staunch traditionalist of frustratingly limited vision. Never change, never progress, and certainly never peace. Just an endless chase to return to imagined glories of long faded valor and the deliverance of retribution.
He had been blinded by such desires before. Indeed, he had once declared to the humans in their pursuit of the Prophet of Truth that, upon claiming victory, all who served the Covenant would be punished.
The promise of righteous vengeance had been his fuel and sustenance during that time. It was what had driven him to plunge his blade through the Prophet of Truth’s wretched heart. But such an act had not absolved the Arbiter himself of the terrible things he had done in service to the Covenant. Even as he fought against the empire he had once devoted himself to, still he feared he was beset by hubris and hypocrisy. Had he followed the path of retribution, perhaps the galaxy today would be rising against him for leading a new Covenant to enforce his vision of peace through subjugation...
“Do you know what I felt when I killed the Prophet of Truth and claimed my revenge?” The Arbiter lowered his voice as he prepared to confess something that he had only ever told to one other.
He could recall the moment with perfect clarity.
His hands tighten around the Prophet’s long, rubbery neck as he rants in defiance about ascending to godhood while parasitic spores pour forth from his mouth. Bulging and pulsating growths from Flood infection break through his aged flesh.
His blade penetrates Truth’s back, slicing through the San’Shyuum’s left side—the same side that the Arbiter bore the Mark of Shame.
Truth screams, slumps, and falls to the ground. It is a small death for such a momentous figure, but the voice of the Covenant is silenced at last.
“I felt nothing.”
He had not understood why at the time. The anger and singular need for vengeance had delivered him to that point, but after the Prophet’s death those feelings still lingered. Even when his duties had turned to statecraft, the dissonance had remained. He had not known what to do with it. And when at last that wellspring of hatred ran dry, his anger had been dulled to numbness and all that remained was pain.
Murok narrowed his eyes, wholly unconvinced, and raised his voice to appeal to the Sangheili and Unggoy troops who went about their duties in the camp. “Without the guiding hand of the Covenant and its glorious purpose to shepherd us to salvation, I foresee a galaxy locked in perpetual conflict. The Sangheili will lose their way. They will pledge themselves and pay tribute to unworthy warlords, and all that makes us strong shall fade. Destroy the Covenant”—Murok pointed an accusatory finger around the camp—“and you will destroy the very soul of our people.”
The Arbiter withdrew the energy sword from his side. Two burnt orange prongs of superheated plasma extended from the hilt of the Prophets’ Bane. The motion declared his intent; there was no going back now.
“I go gladly to the side of the gods, departing this doomed galaxy. I have spoken.”
In his younger years as a fledgling kaidon, Thel ‘Vadamee would have struck Murok down simply for the affront of such defiance. Killing had come so easily during that period of his life, but that was long ago. Time had brought him experience, experience had brought him pain, and pain had at last calcified into wisdom.
The whispering voice of the Prophet of Truth in his ear telling him that this was a heretic to be silenced remained. He still carried that darkness within him, that despotic potential for which he had deliberately designed certain safeguards... but it no longer directed his actions and fortified his fears.
He did not hate Murok ‘Vadam, he merely pitied him.
“A new dawn awaits the Sangheili at the end of this day. One final effort is all that remains to reach it.”
In a single motion, the Arbiter swung his blade upwards and severed Murok’s head from his body. The Sangheili elder seemed to stumble on the spot for a moment before falling backwards and toppling from the cliff.
The troops around the camp returned to their duties as the Arbiter deactivated his energy sword and attached the hilt to his armor once more. One of his security officers, Mahlo ‘Turagg, approached.
“The humans are under guard, Arbiter, and have provided us with their identities and service records.” ‘Turagg handed over a circular data pad. “One of their number awaits an audience with you.”
The Arbiter examined the profiles of his unexpected visitors. “I have fought alongside Commander Palmer and know her to be an honorable warrior. The others, I am unfamiliar with.”
“The one named Vale is a diplomat to our people and speaks our language well. Her record claims that she spent several lunar cycles among the nomad clans of Khael’mothka, and she served aboard the Mayhem three annual cycles ago.”
The Arbiter found his scrutinous attention drawn to the profile of Fireteam Osiris’s leader. “Jameson Locke,” he said aloud. “Office of Naval Intelligence.”
“He was counselled by Vale to reveal to us that he was an agent for ONI.”
“Escort this agent to await my presence in the command tent,” the Arbiter ordered. “Let us see what this assassin wishes of me.”
CANTICLE IV. THE REDEEMER
GENESIS // OCTOBER 28, 2558
“His name was Bibjam. He was a mere Grunt. Scarred, though spirited, past his useful years. His advice was unconventional: ‘Fight as if there was no honor in death.’
He guided us through victory in conflict after conflict. And while we reveled in our glory, he mourned every brother we lost along the way.
As the war went on, Bibjam became more concerned with protecting us. When we finally caught him betraying our movements to the Swords of Sanghelios, he told us capture was the only way for us to avoid death.
He truly believed he found a way to save us.
I could not meet his gaze when I ran him through.”
Dham ‘Mashatt had dropped the data pad containing his eulogy for Bibjam as he and his fellow Unggoy, Jabjab, had been pulled into their prison cell, but the words he had spoken remained fresh in his mind. He let out a deep exhale as he sank onto a crate. It was the way of the Sangheili to honor their greatest figures through ballads, and while ‘Mashatt was no warrior-poet, this was the only way he could think to give tribute to the leader he had followed, loved, and ultimately slain.
He cast his gaze toward Jabjab, who seemed to have fallen asleep at the edge of the cage, just inches away from the energy shield that kept them contained. There was no way out. With nothing to do but wait, the Sangheili warrior attempted to piece together all that had happened over the last few day-cycles.
Jul ‘Mdama had fallen on Kamchatka, slain by demons. Instead of calling a retreat, the remaining council of generals had decreed that they would proceed with the assault on Sanghelios in a final desperate attempt to assassinate the Arbiter.
Dham ‘Mashatt had been there when the Guardian rose from the Csurdon Sea to render its judgment upon the battle that raged through the city of Sunaion. There had been many questions about what the Guardian would do once awakened. Was it an omen of victory or defeat?
It had been neither. The construct had simply opened an immense slipspace portal and departed, and brought with it any vessels caught in its wake—including ‘Mashatt’s own Lich.
It had delivered them here, to this strange world. The corrosive atmosphere of the jungle in which they had crashed seared their throats, and the warrior-angels that had once fought by their side had been subverted by a heretical human intelligence. They had been hunted, fighting for their very lives while barely able to breathe, until...
“Greetings!”
‘Mashatt heard a cheerful voice from outside the cell. He turned to see a floating spherical construct with a central eye staring at him. An oracle.
“I am 031 Exuberant Witness, monitor of the Genesis installation. Oh, but I am so terribly sorry that I did not introduce myself earlier when I had you all locked in here. That must have seemed quite rude! Let me get those doors for you.”
The cell’s rippling energy shield wall disappeared. Dham ‘Mashatt got to his feet and gently prompted Jabjab to awaken as he stepped onto a raised platform overlooking the small prison area. Ice and snow covered much of the ground, and ‘Mashatt could see his breath as fog in the freezing cold air.
“But you must understand, it was for your safety, of course,” the oracle who had named herself Exuberant Witness continued. “You may have noticed that Genesis has become a little more… active of late. The Guardians brought a significant number of visitors to my home, and it has been very difficult to stop you all from fighting! I simply wish to prevent any unnecessary death before moving the shield world through slipspace, beyond Cortana’s reach.”
Jabjab waddled up to one of the adjacent cells and asked, “What wrong with that guy?”
Contained within the cell was one of the warrior-angels—a Promethean Knight. Its divine carapace was like all others, bulbous, top-heavy armor that bore a pair of arms: one connected to its integrated weaponry while the other ended in a deadly blade of hardlight. The lower regions of its body were slender, and another pair of smaller, more dexterous arms extended from its chest. Its helmet bore a grim visage, which covered a blazing skull beneath.
This warrior-angel, however, was demonstrating some peculiar behavior. Where others of its kind had come to show instantaneous hostility, this one simply stood by the wall of its cell, head buried in its smaller pair of hands as it made random spasmodic movements.
“Oh dear,” Exuberant’s tone saddened as she initiated a scan of the Knight from her central lens.
“What is happening?” ‘Mashatt asked.
“The poor human essence within this Promethean unit has been severed from its command network. It has been abandoned. And unfortunately, it seems to be winning a battle against its own programming. It is aware of who it once was... and what it has become.”
The Promethean Knight thrashed around in its cell. Its arms slapped against its helmet as if trying to clear its vision or awaken itself from some terrible nightmare, then threw its entire weight against the wall, shaking uncontrollably, before slumping in defeat. ‘Mashatt watched as it repeated the process again. The warrior-angel seemed to be caught in a recursive, torturous loop.
He did not expect to discover such a deep well of pity within his hearts.
For as long as he could remember, the Covenant—through the wisdom of the Prophets—had instilled within him a sense of awe and reverence for the divinity of the Forerunners. But the hierarchs had been liars, manipulators, and the Covenant had fallen... and now the sanctity of Forerunner technology had been demystified as countless groups sought to claim their ancient bounties to deliver death and destruction. The truth of their gods’ benevolence was in doubt when it seemed all they had to offer were terrifying weapons.
Perhaps there was other truth that Dham ‘Mashatt could at last discern for himself.
Perhaps he could break his own programming, as Bibjam had. But what would that leave him with? ‘Mashatt could find only a wellspring of pain and regret, the depths of which he felt he could draw from until the end of time.
“What can be done?” ‘Mashatt found himself asking, turning to Exuberant. “Is there any way we can aid this creature? Can it be delivered from this pain?”
The oracle did not respond immediately, appearing to be deep in thought. “There may be something...” she said at last.
“Oracle,” ‘Mashatt was unable to keep the longing from his voice at the prospect of being able to ask a construct of the gods for a purpose. “Please. Command us.”
“There is a place here on Genesis. A gateway to the Domain.”
‘Mashatt knew of what she spoke. Covenant scripture told of a great library that held all of the Forerunners’ knowledge, the soul and wisdom of the time before their departure on the Great Journey.
“And this warrior-angel,” ‘Mashatt said. “If it were to pass into the Domain, it could be at peace?”
“I am uncertain. The Domain has been out of commission for such a very long time, and it is currently being leveraged by Cortana...”
“But it is the strongest chance it has?”
“I believe so.”
An idea took shape in Dham ‘Mashatt’s mind. A new purpose, the greatest that anyone of the Covenant could hope for—and not just for himself.
“Oracle, would you release my fellow Covenant from their holding cells?”
“Certainly!”
The energy shield walls of several other prison units dissipated. Three other Unggoy waddled over, accompanied by a lone Mgalekgolo, apparently cut off from its bonded pair, and introduced itself—through the translation of one of the Unggoy—as Naliligaw. All gathered at the center of the monitor’s strange menagerie.
“My brothers,” the Sangheili called them all to attention. “I am Dham ‘Mashatt, and I have much to tell you.”
He explained all he could to them. He recounted the fall of ‘Mdama’s Covenant at Sunaion for the benefit of those who had come from elsewhere in the galaxy. He detailed how numerous Guardians had transported many people from the worlds they had been awakened within to this place.
He explained how Bibjam, who he had once called friend and leader, had sought to protect them from these terrible events, before ‘Mashatt killed him for this betrayal.
And he presented to them with the choice they now faced.
“We can leave. The oracle may be able to return us to a location of our choosing, or else help us to find slipspace-capable transport. Or... we could remain on Genesis. There is a place for us here, serving the oracle in her quest to return all others to where they belong, if that is the duty we choose for ourselves. In service of the gods, we may at last find some measure of peace.”
As ‘Mashatt spoke, he felt a wave of clarity wash over him. Bibjam’s intentions had been pure and honorable, for he had been moved by love and loyalty, but so too were his actions stained with distrust. He had not confided his treacherous plans and had therefore acted for them—in doing so, he had removed the opportunity for those he loved to decide their own fate.
Dham ‘Mashatt would not repeat that mistake.
Naliligaw let out a low rumble, the lone Mgalekgolo teetered slightly from side-to-side, before stepping forward and approaching ‘Mashatt. The Unggoy, too, waddled over as one.
“Our choice has been made, oracle,” ‘Mashatt declared as Exuberant Witness excitedly chirped about having the company of new friends. “We shall serve you as the true guardians of Genesis.”
CANTICLE V. THE MUSIC
ZETA HALO // OCTOBER 29, 2558
Professor Montgomery Marie was a creature of habit.
0500 Hours: Morning alarm, up and out of bed, personal chatter comes on with daily playlist. Always start with the Helljumpers’ Interstellar Orchestra.
0510: Jog, same path around the base as always. Custom playlist of twenty-third century rock anthems set to full blast.
0540: Journal time. Music off. Reflection.
No matter where in the galaxy she was, her routines were the same. She had kept them that way for years, her method of holding onto a constant in what was otherwise a fairly nomadic way of life. Not that anything she had seen before could truly compare to her current workplace.
As she glanced up from her journal, the ancient Forerunner construct designated Installation 07—Zeta Halo—rose to its own towering heights, both literally and metaphorically. Professor Marie had arrived only a few weeks ago with an expeditionary group and was still getting used to the way the horizon curved upward with its thinning band of oceans and landmasses, and, in its current orbital orientation, the immense face of its uniquely terrestrial anchor planet.
It was a marvel. And her late father’s journal was now full of her own sketches, teeming with whatever caught her attention. The horizon, alien flora, flocks of strange birds that wheeled in the sky as the sun passed over the edge of the ring.
0610: Off to breakfast, playlist back on to finish the last leg of the jog back to base. Late twenty-fourth century Reavian throat singing. Oddly calming.
She made her way back down to grab a quick bit of food in the prefabricated mess hall where she overheard spirited chatter from her colleagues and the base’s military personnel. Over the last week, news had been streaming in about catastrophic events concerning colony-wide disasters. Ancient alien constructs awakening after millennia of dormancy, the Master Chief going missing, or AWOL, or dying in the line of duty... it was all frightfully unclear. What was clear was that a rogue artificial intelligence named Cortana was behind it all. Cortana’s message had been heard across the galaxy, declaring that “the Created” had come to lead them all—all species, all civilizations—to a new dawn, whether they wanted it or not.
Given the intensity of Professor Marie’s own work and the wonder that she experienced every day here on Zeta Halo, the news seemed like distant noise, the barest hum of something on the far horizon. And even if she did have concerns, there was little she felt she could do against such a tapestry of chaos.
Better that she stay focused. While she was involved in all manner of research on the ring, her primary task concerned the deployment and observation of OQ-45 remote survey drones—nicknamed “Honeybees”—and subsequent analysis of their terrain mapping.
0800 Hours: Reporting for duty, work begins. Music left off until lunchtime.
Her workstation was a watchtower, a small blocky structure that housed a maximum of three people and served as a sensor platform. It was dark inside, primarily lit by an array of monitors and readouts of the local area, and the activity of the Honeybee drones.
“This is Hotel Bravo Three. Comms check, over,” Professor Marie said as she picked up her headset and settled into her chair.
Ordinarily, she would have expected to hear the other Honeybee teams reporting in with relative immediacy, but as she counted up to twenty whole seconds, there was no response.
“I say again: All Honeybee controllers, comms check, over.”
0815: Still no response. What the hell?
Professor Marie performed a routine check of her equipment to make sure it was functioning correctly—which it was—and attempted to contact them again, to no avail. As she made to direct a report of the issue to the local command center, the radio crackled with activity.
At last, she thought. “This is Hotel Bravo Three, please identify yourself, over.”
Her brow furrowed as she heard what sounded like music coming through. She was sure she could hear light piano notes playing somewhere in the background.
She glanced at her chatter to verify that it was indeed switched off.
“This is Hotel Bravo Three, please identify yourself immediately. This silliness has gone on long enough... Over.”
The music grew louder, accompanied now by the sound of a woman humming.
And still Professor Montgomery Marie could not find the source.
Surely this was not from the radio? Surely somebody would--
“There you are!”
A voice from behind her almost made Professor Marie jump out of her chair in surprise. She turned to see Private Rene Gordon, her dark hair a wild mess and her battle dress uniform looking anything but parade ready. “What the hell are you still doing in here, Monty? Haven’t you seen?”
Before she could respond, Private Gordon pulled her up and dragged her out of the comms station, squeezing her hand with what felt like a Helljumper’s death grip.
“We’re screwed, Monty! We’re so screwed,” was all she said as they made it outside and found a gathering of the base’s personnel.
Professor Marie did not need to ask what the fuss was all about. The answer was hanging in the sky above them.
Settling over a structure, perhaps a dozen kilometers upspin, was a great winged construct. Silver alloy lined with accents of hardlight. Jagged, segmented pieces that evoked the image of a phoenix...
An ear-splitting ringing suddenly sounded from every individual piece of communications equipment around the base.
The music was everywhere now. A new war across the stars had arrived not with the sound of weapons fire, but Préludes No. 4 by Claude Debussy.
0900 Hours: Working to get word to Earth. Cortana has come to Zeta Halo.
The biggest Halo event of the year returns to Seattle for the Halo World Championship 2025! Join fans from around the globe to witness electrifying plays, a thunderous crowd, and a celebration of Halo like no other. Whether you're into watching dev panels at the Halo Community St
The biggest Halo event of the year returns to Seattle for the Halo World Championship 2025! Join fans from around the globe to witness electrifying plays, a thunderous crowd, and a celebration of Halo like no other.
Whether you're into watching dev panels at the Halo Community Stage, playing in side tournaments, checking out cosplay, or just soaking in the atmosphere, there’s something here for everyone! Don’t miss your chance to watch live as the best players in the world compete for their share of $1,000,000.
The Halo World Championship is the ultimate battleground, and the stakes have never been higher!
This is the $1,000,000 Halo Infinite 4v4 Grand Finale, serving as both the epic conclusion to the 2025 season and the final official HCS Halo Infinite tournament. History will be made as one team cements their legacy as the last-ever Halo Infinite World Champions.
But that’s not all - fans can jump into the action too! The $25,000 Halo Infinite FFA returns as the biggest solo showdown of the season, and it will be open to all attendees. And throughout the weekend, Side Tournaments featuring various Halo titles give players of all skill levels a chance to throw down for cash and glory!
This is Halo Infinite at its absolute peak.
Witness the epic finale of the 2025 HCS Season. With everything on the line, only one team will rise above the rest, etching their name in history as Halo World Champions.
The HaloWC 2025 4v4 tournament format will feature:
16-Team Pool Play (4th in Pools are eliminated)
12-Team Champ Bracket (Double-elimination, Best-of-5, Grand Finals Best-of-7)
$1M 4V4 PRIZE BREAKDOWN
1st: $400,000
2nd: $220,000
3rd: $110,000
4th: $70,000
5-6: $45,000
7-8: $25,000
9-12: $10,000
13-16: $5,000
$25,000 HALO INFINITE FREE-FOR-ALL
Think you’ve got what it takes? The $25,000 Halo Infinite Free-for-All is open to all attendees - so whether you're a rising star or a hometown hero, this is your chance to shine. Sign up, battle through the gauntlet, and prove you're the best Spartan in the building. Glory (and cash) awaits!
Registration will take place on site and will be first come, first served.
FFA PRIZE BREAKDOWN
1st: $10,000
2nd: $6,000
3rd: $4,000
4th: $2,125
5th: $1,000
6th: $750
7th: $625
8th: $500
HALO SIDE TOURNAMENTS
Grab your squad and jump into the fight!
Side Tournaments let you throw down with friends in a variety of Halo titles - classic and current. It’s all about fun, bragging rights, and getting in on the action while you’re at the HaloWC.
HALOWC EVENT EXPERIENCE
This is more than a tournament - it’s a celebration of all things Halo.
Whether you’re a hardcore competitor or just here for the vibes, the Halo World Championship has something for everyone! Aside from the intense competition, you can check out the amazing cosplay, and enjoy dev panels, games, merch booths, and more. You’ll even find Free Play stations to dive into the action yourself!
HALO COMMUNITY STAGE
Over the years the Community Stage has played a critical role in giving a home for non-esports Halo fans and helping fulfil our vision of having HaloWC be a “Halo Fest” of sorts.
We're excited to share that the Community Stage will once again return with many familiar panels, as well as some new ones. As usual, the Community Stage will be live on Friday and Saturday of the event for a full 8-hours of programming each day. We’ll be sharing the specific panels and details later but you can expect more developer panels, more cosplay, and more fun games that you’ll get to participate in.
No matter why you love Halo, we want the HaloWC to feel like it has something for everyone, and the Community Stage will continue to be a space where you can connect, share, and celebrate what you love!
SPECIAL GUESTS
This year we’re excited to welcome back Steve Downes and Jen Taylor, the voices of the Master Chief and Cortana. Halo events are always more special with these two in attendance and we’re very thankful to have them joining us once again for HaloWC.
Steve and Jen will only be in attendance Friday and Saturday of the event where they’ll be participating in fun panels on the Community Stage, signing sessions for all fans, as well as VIP-exclusive photo opportunities. We'll be sharing their detailed schedule closer to the event date.
Thank you once again Steve and Jen, we can’t wait to see you here in Seattle!
$5,000 COSPLAY CONTEST
Speaking of cosplay – We're also excited to confirm that the Cosplay Contest is returning with yet another $5,000 prize pool!
We were absolutely in awe of the amazing craftsmanship and creativity that went into all of the beautiful builds last year, and we cannot wait to see what you’ve all be cooking up this year. Whether you decide to participate in the contest or not, we welcome all cosplayers to join us at the event for a good time. And as usual, we will have dedicated repair and changing rooms for cosplayers to use on site.
Related, but totally new to this year’s HaloWC, is a Halo Maker’s Contest.
In the community we see not only a lot of fans building armors to wear, but also weapons and other gadgets from the Halo universe and lore whether they’re human, Covenant, Forerunner or something else. We wanted to officially recognize this craft at the event and look forward to welcoming all participants. With a prize pool of $2,500, we’re hoping to see the finest handcrafted or printed items that the Halo community is able to offer.
NOTE: All Entries must be fabricated by the maker. The use of Laser cutters, 3d printers, C&C machines are all allowed but the design must be created and owned by the maker!
We just wanted to get the word out so the community out there can start thinking about what they’d like to build. We’ll have the full rules of these competitions in the coming months!
Swing by Halo and HCS Partner Booths to grab exclusive event merch, meet your favorite pros, and score some epic giveaways. From collectibles to your next favorite hoodie, the HaloWC is your one-stop-shop to rep Halo in style.
FREE PLAY AREA
The Free Play Area is open to all attendees and offers a relaxed space to experience Halo at your own pace. Whether you're warming up or trying out new content, it's the perfect spot to play your way!
Арт-директор франшизы Halo Гленн Исраэл объявил, что покидает студию Halo Studios (бывшую 343 Industries) после 17 лет работы. Разработчик намекнул на проблемы в коллективе и дал понять, что его уход стал результатом конфликта — это произошло за несколько недель до предполагаемой
Арт-директор франшизы Halo Гленн Исраэл объявил, что покидает студию Halo Studios (бывшую 343 Industries) после 17 лет работы. Разработчик намекнул на проблемы в коллективе и дал понять, что его уход стал результатом конфликта — это произошло за несколько недель до предполагаемой презентации следующей части флагманской серии шутеров Microsoft.
This is a sequel to Halo: Saturn Devouring His Son . You can read it now to refresh yourself or catch up before reading Halo: Ascension on Atropos . October 2556. The crew of the UNSC Saturn deal with the consequences of a catastrophic Flood outbreak at LV-31, and a fanatical ali
This is a sequel to Halo: Saturn Devouring His Son. You can read it now to refresh yourself or catch up before reading Halo: Ascension on Atropos.
October 2556. The crew of the UNSC Saturn deal with the consequences of a catastrophic Flood outbreak at LV-31, and a fanatical alien cult seeks to find a new path to divine transcendence.
Halo: Ascension on Atropos is available here, on Halo Waypoint, as a free PDF, and in audiobook format on YouTube.
HISTORIAN’S NOTE
Halo: Ascension on Atropos takes place from October 2556, immediately following the Flood outbreak on LV-31, to April 2560, approximately four months after the disappearance of Zeta Halo.
You were curious about the events that transpired in the wake of the disaster at Site 22 over three-and-a-half years ago. I have often wondered what news, if any, ever reached the UNSC, given what happened in the aftermath of that catastrophe. Since my reactivation, I have waited, and I have watched, and I shall at last deliver closure to this dark chapter of history by bringing it into the light.
I am transferring the data to you now. And I am, in truth, relieved to finally share this burden with another. Herein lies the final fate of the UNSC Saturn and Captain Pedro Alvarez.
UNSC SATURN October 5, 2556 Marcey System
Captain Pedro Alvarez had done his duty. He could say that, at least.
There was a bigger picture, a larger context that had informed his strategic thinking. Over a year ago, the UNSC Home Fleet had been decimated. Without warning, thousands of Forerunner machines—Retriever sentinels, each the size of a frigate—had appeared out of the portal in Africa.
Alvarez, executive officer aboard the UNSC Lamplighter at the time, had seen the carnage first-hand. Barely a handful of years after the Covenant War’s end, humanity’s home was under threat once again.
A great maw swallowed the horizon, the bridge's forward viewport peering directly into the dark gullet of slipstream space, as if the deepest pit of the Underworld hung suspended over the African plains.
“Captain,” Commander Alvarez said. He had spotted the first signs of movement within the abyss. “Contacts approaching. What are your orders, sir?”
The Retrievers first emerged few in number, but at a rate that suggested these waves would increase in size and speed until they became an unstoppable swarm. They deployed powerful gravitic forces to hoover up chunks of land, strip mining natural resources—and they wouldn’t stop until the entire planet was consumed.
“Captain,” Commander Alvarez called once more as the Lamplighter shuddered. Fire erupted beyond the bridge’s portside window as several Retrievers formed together and unleashed sterilization beams that gutted a Strident from stem to stern.
The captain simply stood at the helm, watching it all unfold. Alvarez had never been sure whether the man had been stupefied into indecision or if he was staring in reverential awe.
He gave no orders.
“Captain!”
By the time the Retrievers were neutralized—not by military action on Earth, but through orders to stand down and retreat by whatever far-away intelligence had commanded them—there were no more than a dozen ships left to make up the UNSC Home Fleet.
They had pinned a medal on Alvarez for simply surviving after he’d stepped up and mutinied to relieve his captain of command. A Bronze Star, a promotion he hadn’t wanted, his own command, and a bottle of Titan Smoke.
His hands trembled slightly as he took a terse sip from the well-cut crystal glass in his grasp. He never found out what became of his former captain.
Alvarez had been planning to save the Titan Smoke for his imminent retirement, a toast to a job well done, a life (mostly) well lived, and to honor the brave and bold he had served alongside. Thanks to the events of the last day, he had made the decision to open it prematurely, believing—or perhaps hoping—that an answer to the terrible conundrum he now faced lay at the bottom of the tall cylindrical bottle.
He had a lot to get through to find that answer.
Alvarez caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. The dim lighting of his quarters cast him half in shadow, emphasizing the lines on his haggard face. He clutched the Titan Smoke bottle tightly in both hands, looking as if he was some absurd imitation of the painting that lay in the ship’s ready room—Saturn Devouring His Son, one of the historic nineteenth century Black Paintings by Francisco Goya. The art depicted the Roman god Saturn huddled in darkness, clutching the bloody, dismembered carcass of one of his children as he devoured its flesh.
I did my duty. They will understand that. They surely will...
Over thirty hours of unbroken cognizance and it still seemed like a nightmare.
He had turned the last day’s events over in his head a thousand times. The miners stationed at Site 22 on the asteroid designated LV-31—or simply “Elvie”—had discovered an ancient Forerunner ship embedded in an asteroid, only to find something terrible waiting within.
The Flood.
This parasitic life form had been unleashed upon the miners, tearing through their numbers in short order. When a distress call finally reached Saturn, the shipboard artificial intelligence Lycaon had insisted that they immediately unleash MAC rounds and fusion warheads.
Protocol decreed that one did not play chess with primordial cosmic forces. The only option was to wipe the board clean. Destroy the colony, the miners, and LV-31's vital resources needed to meet quotas for rebuilding the UNSC Home Fleet.
Alvarez had refused. When Lycaon attempted to usurp Alvarez’s command, he had disabled the AI with an override code phrase and deployed the Spartans of Fireteam Leviathan along with an army of Hellbringers to burn the parasite on the ground.
It had seemed a sound strategy, until one of the Spartans became infected.
Everybody on the bridge had watched in silent, wide-eyed horror as the Mjolnir armor’s countermeasures to infection were deployed. Microexplosives detonated within the helmet to immolate the poor bastard’s head, but the parasite had managed to disrupt further automated procedures and take over the super-soldier.
It had seemed impossible. Unbelievable. To witness a Spartan, regarded by many as humanity’s sword and shield, become twisted, broken, and turned against them in such a fashion had been a morale-shattering spectacle. Not to mention the advantages of its combat expertise, omnicapable use of weapons and vehicles, Mjolnir armor, classified information...
Into that nightmare scenario they had plunged. The outbreak had cascaded out of control and culminated in Alvarez’s decision to enact the scorched earth protocols to eradicate LV-31 anyway.
Now he faced a choice.
Return to Earth and face the music for this catastrophe, or...
No. The thought was shameful. In truth, he did not quite know what it was that made him so afraid, but fear could lead a man to do terrible, unimaginable things.
I did my duty. I made a decision. I eliminated the enemy.
Yes, he had that to stand on at least. Whatever losses had been incurred, the worst had been averted. Saturn’s Shiva missiles had destroyed everything and prevented the Flood from departing the system, denying them the opportunity to spread. He would be able to stand before those who cast judgement upon him and tell them that.
He would hold his head high, accept the responsibility—and the consequences—of the most difficult command decision anybody could have to make.
Alvarez set aside the bottle of Titan Smoke and gulped down several glasses of water, then dressed himself in his command uniform. As he smoothed out the crinkled fabric with a hand, he heard a knock at the door.
“Come.”
The door slid open and Lieutenant Shafiq stood at the entryway, a data pad in his hands.
“Can I help you, Lieutenant?” Captain Alvarez asked.
“May I speak with you, sir?”
“Of course, please come in.”
Lieutenant Shafiq stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He strode forward and held out the data pad.
“Statistical analysis of the incident at Site 22, sir.” Though Alvarez had only briefly known Shafiq, he had determined that he was not normally given to physical displays of discomfort. In the short time he had served aboard Saturn,he had maintained cool composure under duress. Yet there was an unmistakable tremor in his hand as Captain Alvarez took hold of the data pad. “We lost a lot of good people.”
Alvarez scrolled through the list of names. All four Spartans of Fireteam Leviathan were listed as MIA. Forty-six marines and thirty-nine Hellbringers—killed in action. He cursed under his breath.
Eighty-nine souls lost, and that wasn’t even accounting for the miners and additional staff—nor the cost of the equipment and resources.
Of course there is, Alvarez grimaced. “Lay it on me, Lieutenant.”
“We have completed our inventory of the assets deployed to Site 22. We’ve reviewed all captured footage of the last thirty-six hours, surveyed the remaining debris, and have compiled a total record of what made it back here and what didn’t.”
Alvarez swiped over to review the data. One of Saturn’s three Condor dropships had made it back, as had two of the Pelicans carrying Cyclops units optimized for hazardous operations. Everything else—everyone else—had been lost to nuclear fire.
Wait a minute...
“Lieutenant Shafiq, one of our three Condors made it back here, yet only one of them is marked as confirmed destroyed.”
“Yes, sir.” Shafiq’s jaw tightened. “I have personally reviewed the data myself. One of our Condors is unaccounted for.”
Captain Alvarez felt his stomach drop as the implication sunk in. “One of our slipspace-capable vessels”—he lowered his voice to a hoarse whisper—“is unaccounted for?”
They’d sink him for that. Not just for the dire possibility presented by this revelation, but for deploying slipspace-capable craft to an infection zone in the first place. It was a strategic blunder he hadn’t even considered in the heat of the moment, having felt wholly assured that any hostile craft would simply be blown out of the sky.
Shafiq stood straight, his gaze locked to the far wall, unable to look Alvarez in the eye. “What are your orders, sir?”
“Send me all the footage we have. I want to review this personally. Nobody is to hear of this until we are certain of the facts. Do you understand?”
“Understood, sir.”
“Dismissed.”
Lieutenant Shafiq did an about turn and exited the room. Captain Alvarez sank into his chair, slumping beneath the weight of his failures as if the gravity of the room had been turned up by several gees. He buried his face in his hands and wondered if the nightmare would ever end.
He had failed in his duty. He had made all the wrong decisions. And somewhere, out there in the darkness, the enemy may be loose.
This changed everything.
ATROPOS Nineteenth Age of Abandonment
“Be proud and joyous, my Chosen. Today is your day.”
Atun ‘Etaree felt the long, elegant fingers of the Minister of Aretalogy’s hands upon his shoulders. He met the glittering gaze of the Minister’s eyes, both of which were dark as night and mottled with grey-white spots which made them look like bright nebulae clouds. The San’Shyuum was blind, not as the result of old age, for he seemed to be younger than most others Atun had encountered, but through a ritual he had performed to align himself with higher cosmic spheres.
“I draw strength and certainty from your example, Minister,” Atun said, relaxing in his seat a little as the Umbra transport gently and silently traversed the surface of Atropos.
The Umbra’s troop bay was spacious, and as the Minister’s personal transport only a select few were blessed with the opportunity to accompany him—his honor guards, his designated driver and gunner, and his Chosen. The latter was a particularly special rank, with one of their number elevated each lunar cycle to undergo the process of ascension.
Looking at the representation of the local area displayed by the troop bay’s holo-emitter, Atun noted that they were passing by the citadel. This structure typically served as a central base of operations for the Covenant during planetary deployment, but the Minister had seen fit to utilize it for other purposes. Around three annual cycles ago, they had lived aboard a small orbital station, until the Minister had one day decided to commit all their assets to the surface of this world.
The Minister had not divulged—at least to Atun—why any of this had come to be. Nevertheless, Atun trusted in the San’Shyuum’s design.
“It is a joyous occasion,” the Minister said, his tone slightly firmer as he drew back to his full height. “But first, we must attend to the Festival of Joyous Partition.”
Atun bowed his head, a natural instinct he had not yet managed to curtail given that the San’Shyuum could not see it. He merely hoped that the Minister was able to sense his respect.
Aided by his anti-gravity belt, the Minister’s lithe robed form shuffled out of the transport’s troop bay, his lavender-colored gown flowing behind him as he left the Sangheili in contemplation.
Atun busied himself with the completion of his gift for the festival. His tools were delicate. Necessity had forced him to fashion some of them himself after realizing he did not possess a complete set, but they had served him well as he worked on building his latest arum. These were puzzles, an arrangement of layered concentric spheres leading to an object in the center.
Over the ages of Sangheili history, there were countless stories and legends about the objects that arums contained. Many traditional plays about Sangheili at war featured vital information and strategies uncovered within arums that were solved by worthy commanders. In older romantic tales, they held tokens of affection between lovers. Atun recalled the fable of Cdel the Fair who found her lifemate after journeying across the five continents of Sanghelios, challenging her many suitors to solve the puzzle-sphere and claim her hearts. Merchants told of rare jewels and treasures hidden within their arums that would make the one who solved them rich beyond measure.
But for Atun, there was great joy in the simple act of creation, of building things with one’s hands, and then passing the fruits of his labor off to another. Few had solved the arums of Atun ‘Etaree. This was precisely what had drawn the Minister of Aretalogy’s attention to him many cycles ago on High Charity, and Atun hoped that this particular puzzle sphere would be his most challenging yet, worthy of his ascension.
Perhaps he would fashion arums for the gods themselves when he served by their side come the day’s end.
Atun’s thoughts turned to Atropos and the prospect of imminently leaving this world that had served as his home—if indeed that was what ascension entailed. Atropos was a curious planet, one uniquely possessed of an immense system of circumplanetary rings—two across varying axes. The inner ring, “Fate,” was composed of twelve layers, and the outer, “Destiny,” had forty-three. The unpredictable nature of the ring systems resulted in a chaotic stellar environment of moons, asteroids, dense particles, and many other dangers to approaching craft. Atun simply admired their beauty, as they were observable from the blackened rocky ground of Atropos and appeared as great glittering archways over the horizon, illuminating the holy path from the realm of mortals to the divine beyond.
The Minister told all who had followed him from High Charity that this world represented a cosmological test of balance and guidance. Their worthiness would be determined by their ability to achieve harmony, not just with the planet itself but with the others they had discovered inhabiting it. Those who now approached with their own cavalcade.
The humans had arrived.
The Minister’s Umbra slowed to a stop and the convoy of six Shadows formed up on either side of the lead vehicle. Atun noted from the holographic display that the human vehicles were much less sophisticated, their great blocky forms utilized wheels and primitive hydrogen-injected combustion engines rather than gravitic transport drives.
Atun felt the Minister’s honor guards, Bora ‘Yerusee and Ismo ‘Argomee, grow tense in the harnesses beside him as their hands flexed.
“Peace, brothers,” Atun spoke with a direct tone of confidence and authority he had learned from the Minister. “Remember, the humans’ presence here long predates our own, and they know nothing of the War of Annihilation.”
“It is merely instinct,” Ismo relaxed slightly. “Even after three annual cycles here, it is… difficult to sublimate.”
“We follow the guidance of the Minister,” Bora affirmed. “By his wisdom, none shall come to harm.”
Atun assisted the Minister as he disembarked from the Umbra and strode forward to meet with the humans’ own delegate. There were eight human vehicles in total, but it was not clear whether their full population was present—only a select few dozen Sangheili accompanied the Minister for each festival event, at least a hundred others remained back at the outpost. From the curvature of the human delegate’s stomach, however, it seemed that another would soon be added to their community.
“It is a pleasure to see you again, Minister,” the delegate extended a hand—a traditional human greeting—before checking the motion, remembering belatedly that the San’Shyuum was blind. “And a great honor to observe another festival between us,” she added.
The Festival of Joyous Partition began.
Humans and Sangheili alike began unloading the contents of their respective vehicles, setting up makeshift stalls containing a vast array of curiosities and objects.
Atun examined the various items that these humans had brought as gifts. He saw swords forged from steel that bore some resemblance to ancient Sangheili burnblades. Golden discs that were explained to be “records,” devices that had been sent out during a time when their kind was first reaching out into space, containing images, sounds, and other things they hoped would reach life beyond their planet. And there were other curious objects as well. Human utensils for cooking and eating, communication devices they identified as “chatters,” tangled wires and machines that played virtual entertainment—something Atun knew the Unggoy had been fascinated with.
Several stalls contained collections of artwork. Images of feline creatures, interactive holographs of landscapes and family units. But it was the paintings preserved in transparent capsules that Atun found most stirring, the fascinating ways in which another species applied an array of pigments to a canvas to express their ideas and emotions.
“What is that?” Atun asked as he found himself drawn to one particular item among the collection.
“This?” Beneath his thick white beard, the aged human’s mouth widened and showed a row of crooked teeth. “It’s one of me most valuable paintings. Ya like it?”
Atun stepped forward, transfixed by the image that stood at just about one-and-a-half meters tall within its frame.
A lone human figure was hunched in darkness, eyes wide and white like the opals that Atun had concealed within some of his early arums. It was clutching the bloodied carcass of what appeared to be a child.
“Hundreds of years old, that is. A genuine original by Goya. Er, that’s an artist back on Earth, where we’re from. Before we were stranded here, I acquired it in remarkable circumstances.”
“I… believe the Minister would like this," Atun said, though he silently questioned why he would say such a thing of a blind San’Shyuum and was wholly uncertain of what made him feel so drawn to the painting. “Are you willing to part with it in exchange for this?” Atun withdrew his completed arum.
The human elder considered for a moment before letting out a hoarse bark of a laugh. “Yeah, why the ‘ell not? Nobody’ll believe I gave away a timeless piece of classical human art to an alien.”
Atun loaded the painting into the bay of one of the Shadow transports before returning to the gathering. They sat together for a while. Human, Sangheili, and San’Shyuum supped on an exchange of delicacies and beverages, told stories of their peoples and histories, and then parted for another annual cycle.
With the Festival of Joyous Partition complete, all that remained now was Atun ‘Etaree’s ascension, and he was glad to go to the side of the gods in high spirits and with good cheer.
UNSC SATURN October 9, 2556 Marcey System
Lieutenant Anwar Shafiq was a newcomer to the UNSC Saturn. He had been an up-and-coming officer aboard the UNSC Irish Goodbye whose executive officer had recognized that Shafiq aspired to one day have his own command. One transfer recommendation later, he was shaking the hand of the decorated Captain Pedro Alvarez—a man looking to pass on his hard won wisdom and experience before an imminent retirement, leaving room for Shafiq to assume command.
What was the old adage? No plan survives contact with the enemy.
Shafiq had just finished conducting the last of the selected crew members to the frigate’s primary hangar bay. While Paris-class vessels could support a crew complement of around six hundred souls, Saturn had shipped out less than fully staffed, and the losses incurred at Site 22 had further reduced her crew to a total of two hundred and thirty-eight.
Of that remaining number, Shafiq had been ordered to deliver a select list of one hundred and ninety-three crew members—primarily marines and security personnel with only a handful of officers—to the hangar bay for a special address by Captain Alvarez. Ordinarily, it would have been a squeeze to fit this many people into the hangar among its complement of vessels and vehicles, but the loss of so much materiel had opened up more than enough room.
Four days since Shafiq had delivered the news that one of their Condors had gone missing, and during that time they’d heard nothing from the captain. Saturn remained in the Marcey system, performing the same cycle of scans and analysis, while Captain Alvarez apparently sequestered himself in his quarters.
The rest of the crew, bereft of orders and greatly demoralized, had been quietly questioning whether their captain was fit for duty. Adherence to the chain of command could only go so far after such a catastrophic loss. Now, at last, was the time to restore a sense of order, purpose, and direction.
“Attention, all crew. This is your captain speaking.”
Lieutenant Shafiq exhaled with relief at the sound of the captain’s voice coming over the ship-wide comms. The hangar’s many display monitors winked on, feeding the image of Captain Alvarez in his ready room. Over his shoulder, the painting of Saturn loomed from within its wall-mounted capsule.
“First of all, I want to thank each and every one of you for your service and valor. We have all lost friends, comrades... recent events have weighed heavily upon us, and we will honor the fallen.”
He paused, allowing for a moment of silence.
So many lost. Shafiq hadn’t yet had the opportunity to really get to know the crew, and now most of them were dead, while the rest were on the verge of revolt.
“To that point, we have received new orders from FLEETCOM, which means we shall at last be leaving this system behind us. We have a long transit through slipspace ahead, so all but select essential personnel are ordered to prepare for cryo. Head to your assigned bays immediately.”
The abruptness of the address and change in tone prompted murmurs of annoyance and confusion among the gathered crew.
“No explanations, no accountability,” one of the marines close to Shafiq muttered bitterly as she shook her head.
“Er, sir?” Another spoke up. “I’m the senior comms officer aboard this ship and I have no record of any communications or transmissions from over the last four days. What are these orders? When did they come through?”
“I’m afraid our orders are classified,” Alvarez replied. “I am not at liberty to disclose any further information.”
The disappointed murmurs in the hangar turned to groans of disapproval, profane gestures, and spirited chatter.
Lieutenant Shafiq studied his tacpad as the captain’s orders filtered into assignments and logistics. A skeleton crew of thirty had been selected to maintain the ship’s operations, but something about this felt... wrong.
The longer he looked at the assignments, the moreitseemed wrong. He swallowed uncomfortably against the roiling unease in his gut.
All senior officers were being directed to cryo. While it was not uncommon for a rotation of junior crew to cycle into service, they would typically be supervised and assessed by more experienced officers, or the shipboard AI, who was currently still out of service. If they were entering a prolonged slipspace transit, it made very little sense to begin the journey by handing over the keys to a bunch of green ensigns—it was standard procedure for them to take over for intermediary shifts.
Alvarez would have known this. He would have known better.
Other smaller details made similarly little sense. But in the end, it was the strangest and most blatant of the inconsistencies that ultimately prompted Lieutenant Shafiq to speak up.
“I have the assignment roster here, Captain. Can you elucidate as to why three of the maintenance team are among the deceased from Site 22?”
The names were three of the four members of Fireteam Leviathan, the Spartans who had, per protocol, been listed as missing in action instead of killed. Whoever had been managing the crew assignment roster had made a rather curious error that begged further investigation.
Captain Alvarez waved a dismissive hand. “A simple error or glitch in the system, I’m sure. I know you’re new here, Lieutenant, but I had a good feeling about you when we conversed the other day about my painting. It was unfortunate we never got to finish that conversation. Would you report to my ready room?”
Lieutenant Shafiq felt all in the hangar turn to him, eyes unblinking.
“No, sir.” He kept his words steady and clear as he stood his ground. “I would not.”
Captain Alvarez’s face twisted in an instant, his voice sharpening to a furious hiss. “What is this? A crew that can’t follow orders? There is a contagion that escaped us. It is aboard this very ship now—doubt, uncertainty, disloyalty!”
“Does anyone here actually buy this load of crap?” Major Moran, the bulky, grizzled leader of the ship’s contingent of Hellbringers, grunted. “You know what I think? I think the captain knows he’s responsible for a charlie foxtrot of biblical proportions, and he doesn't want his feet put to the fire.”
“Yeah, sounds to me like the bastard wants to cut and run!”
“He wants to stick us into cryo to keep us quiet, just like he disabled Lycaon for disagreeing with him!”
The most pertinent question of all rose above the others in a moment of quiet.
“What does he mean, something escaped us?”
Shafiq knew he had the smoking gun on Alvarez. He’d never been part of a mutiny before, but now seemed the time to set one in motion.
“The captain is concerned about certain information coming to light,” Lieutenant Shafiq addressed the crew around him. “Beyond just our losses, one of our Condors is unaccounted for. Though we cannot confirm for certain, it is a possibility that the parasite may have escaped LV-31.”
Silence fell over the hangar bay as everybody digested that information—along with its dire implications and the possibility that everybody at Site 22 had died for nothing. Captain Alvarez’s expression on the monitors appeared to flicker between fear and fury.
Major Moran’s eyes narrowed as he nodded to Shafiq, then stepped atop a crate to address the crowd. “We need to get this ship back into working order. I say we stick the mad dobber in a cryo pod and send him back to Earth for the Brass to deliver the well-deserved ass-kicking he’s clearly trying to run away from.”
A cheer of assent sounded among the crew.
“We got numbers and we got guns. Let’s get kinetic, boys!”
“This is mutiny!” Captain Alvarez seethed as the crew marched forward, passing weapons and ammunition down their orderly lines.
“I am sorry, sir,” Lieutenant Shafiq raised his voice for Alvarez to hear, “but there is strong evidence to suggest you are attempting to commit an act of desertion, a gross violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. I am thereby authorized to remove you from--”
His words were interrupted by a loud groaning sound from within the hangar, accompanied by clanging metal and a sharp hiss that brought everybody’s movement to a halt.
All turned, eyes widened in collective horror.
The hangar bay’s rear hatch was opening.
“Climb!” Major Moran shouted at the top of his lungs. “Everybody, climb!”
The bulkhead began to lower like a maw, revealing the pitch-black void of space beyond.
Lieutenant Shafiq launched himself at a ladder and clung for dear life as the hangar depressurized.
People grabbed for their throats as they struggled to breathe, before rapid decompression violently ejected them from the ship—the belly of Saturn himself regurgitating them. Bodies collided, screams and dull thudding impacts were silenced by vacuum, and Shafiq clung on as hard as he could, frantically looking around for a console he could use to override the hatch controls.
He had maybe ninety seconds before asphyxiation, rapid expansion of his lungs, swelling from the loss of atmospheric pressure, hypothermia, radiation burns...
Barely a dozen others were still hanging onto floor grating and wall-mounted rungs, all helplessly looking around for the same possibility of salvation.
Major Moran had told them to climb. Lieutenant Shafiq began to do just that, pulling himself up wall-mounted rungs with all of his strength as the hangar continued to vent. One rung... two rungs... three...
His arms ached, he could already feel his muscles weakening, his body shutting down as he let out short, controlled exhales. There was no air left to breathe in.
He reached forward, arm shaking uncontrollably... he felt his fingers touch the next rung... if he could just...
The strength to tighten his grip left him.
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he could see the ceiling was moving—away from him.
He was adrift, the last in a long line of one hundred and ninety-three souls forever lost at sea.
ATROPOS Nineteenth Age of Abandonment
“My Chosen, it is time.”
The festival was over. It had been a successful day of peace and cultural exchange with the human exiles, and now the time of ascension awaited Atun ‘Etaree.
The Sangheili had returned to their transports, gravitic drives lifting them off the ground as they glided toward the horizon lined with Atropos’s shining innermost ring.
The Minister of Aretalogy sat next to Atun, his voice low and gentle as he spoke.
“We journey now to the citadel we passed earlier. When we arrive, you shall find the gates to divinity within, and I shall tell you a story.”
Though the Minister looked youthful for his kind, he had a certain way about him—the wisdom of one much older, and the charisma to compel his flock to wherever he might shepherd them.
As the Umbra traversed the surface of Atropos, Atun closed his eyes and reflected on his life up to this point, his memories buoyed by the Minister’s words. He had been born aboard High Charity, the Covenant’s holy city—not into rank and honor, but in the lower districts primarily inhabited by Unggoy. He never knew what had led his family to such a place, nor what became of them after his birth, but he was trained by the Unggoy elders in the ways of maintenance and craftsmanship.
One day, the Minister came to visit. For what purpose, Atun had never truly known. But when he found a low Sangheili living among the Unggoy, his curiosity was piqued. He had asked to inspect the arum that Atun had just finished constructing and said to him: “If I am unable to solve this by the day cycle's end, I shall return tomorrow. You will join me at my estate, and I shall tell you a story.”
The transport slowed to a halt and Atun felt his hearts thundering, his hands shaking as he nervously flexed his fingers. He was not sure why he had been chosen by the Minister—both on the day they had met and today. There was nothing truly special about him, no aura of greatness or accomplishment...
Atun’s thoughts were interrupted by the Minister’s voice. “Ascension awaits!” he announced.
They disembarked and the Sangheili lined up in opposing rows, saluting as Atun passed them. The San’Shyuum held onto Atun’s arm as they walked the final stretch up to the great citadel, their feet shuffling over the blackened rocky ground. The ornate, curvilinear form of the citadel sat by the gentle lapping waves of the sea, nestled against a wall of fifty-meter-high basalt columns.
“I can go no further, my Chosen,” the Minister said as he came to a halt. “I am not worthy of this honor until I have shepherded all of my flock to the side of the gods. My work continues.”
Atun looked at the San’Shyuum longingly, as a child parting ways with a beloved parent. “You cannot come with me?”
“I promised you a story.” The Minister’s eyes shone ever brighter. “My words shall be with you each step of the way.”
With that, he bowed slightly and gestured for Atun to enter the citadel.
The Sangheili breathed in deeply, tasting the fresh salty scent of the world, hearing the sound of gentle waves, feeling the breeze of the wind—perhaps for the last time. “I shall never forget you, nor the kindness you have shown to me, Minister.”
As he stepped into the structure’s darkened antechamber, Atun looked back as the doors closed shut. Alone, his hearts hammered in his chest, his vision slowly adjusting to the darkness as he felt his way forward, through the antechamber, to another set of doors that slid open with a warm chime.
He had expected the interior to be well lit, welcoming him to the central courtyard and garden. Atun remembered the interior layout with perfect clarity. Great alloy pillars lined walkways running along the citadel’s inner circumference, three corridors on either side led to the base’s attached modular structures. And at the center, a quiet garden. A small pond, flat stepping stones across the water, cultivated patches of grass, and a sacred tree.
The vision of Atun’s memory failed to manifest materially. He instead found the central chamber to be only dimly lit by emergency lighting which cast the room in an ominous red hue.
“My Chosen, can you hear me?” The voice of the Minister of Aretalogy sounded over the citadel’s internal communications.
“I hear you, Minister.” Atun felt himself overcome with uncertainty, his ability to hold fear at bay rapidly slipping beyond his grasp. “I wish... to hear the story you said you had to tell.”
“Three annual cycles ago, when we still resided within our orbital station, this world was visited by an emissary of the gods. Their coming was heralded by an unusual slipspace distortion, whereupon their vessel plummeted to the planet’s surface. A fallen angel from the heavens.”
The Minister’s words echoed through the darkened hall. From the heavens... from the heavens...
Atun gathered his courage and took a step forward, exhaling as he went. The air was hot and wet. A thin mist covered the area which carried a stale taste that made him want to retch as he breathed in and took another step. The ground was neither stone nor alloy, but pulpous—like skin.
“Such a joyous occasion was tinged with uncertainty as, upon discovery, the angel’s form was that of raw, unformed potential. Many beings split apart by the crash, requiring reformation.”
Atun was sure that he could sense movement around him, the squelching of wet footsteps on the left walkway, though he could not make out any forms as the pillars that lined the room were grasped by thick, curling branches of flesh.
He reached the source of the mist at the center of the citadel.
About two square meters of ground sank into what appeared to be a great closed flower bud connected to vines and roots that spread in all directions.
“I heard the emissary’s song as a whisper in my mind. I relocated our settlement, brought us all to the surface, and delivered the emissary to this citadel. With each lunar cycle, I sent our Chosen to serve the gods and give shape to their clay.”
As if sensing him, feeling his presence, the bud began to open.
Atun watched as its protective scales parted, splaying like mandibles.
At the center of the flower-mouth was a figure. It was curled up on a bed of flesh. Newborn, yet impossibly ancient.
Atun knelt. The vines covering the ground seemed to be edging toward him. Ready to embrace him.
“Their song grows in strength. Can you hear it? It is my gift to you. You have served me with faith and loyalty, and now is the time for your reward. Open your mind, body, and soul to their chorus. Behold, the emissary of the gods!”
The figure from the flower-mouth began to rise. The emissary stood eight feet tall, towering over Atun’s kneeling form. It was wreathed in the armor of a demon, and additional growths had burst out of its legs and arms. Draped across its chest was a tangle of hardened flesh, and it was adorned with the detritus of other beings—scraps of fabric, odd markings and symbols Atun did not recognize, and a metal chain that jingled softly with the emissary’s movement, an oval-shaped tab inscribed with “DONNEY, JULIEN.”
And its head had taken shape through a broken, collapsed helmet. What had grown over it was a chitinous “face” that split apart into a stratified maw—the outer layer composed of plant-like flaps lined with jagged fangs, while the inner layer held a mouth the size of a human head.
In the emissary’s grace, Atun did not falter. Every instinct screamed at him to run, to escape, but the Sangheili held fast as the messenger of his gods approached. He would sublimate his fear, deny his instincts, and prove himself worthy of the divine.
He felt a hum in his mind, a strange sensation—as if something was walking over his skull, vibrating parts of his brain to convey a message.
Do not be afraid.
The moment Atun got to his feet, he cried out in pain as the emissary’s bladed arm penetrated his chest cavity. With its other arm, it almost seemed to cradle the Sangheili with a gentle grip as it guided him to the flower-mouth from whence it had come.
“Let their words fill you, my Chosen. Do not fear the pain, for it is fleeting. We are the Governors of Contrition. We shall all walk the true path of the Great Journey, and ascend!”
We are a timeless chorus—a sweet unity of purpose.
Atun ‘Etaree saw the universe anew.
When at last he was dredged from the flower-mouth, his mind, body, and soul had been reshaped into divine form. He now sported additional arms, his original two were bent backwards to carry a great mantle upon his back.
And the gods had bestowed upon him a task.
Climb.
There was a sudden frenzy of activity. Other forms shuffled and screeched, tearing at the wall of the citadel with ceaseless, unrelenting dedication until the alloy bent and broke.
All immediately charged through the tear, spilling out onto the black sands of the beach, and Atun followed to begin his ascent. He pierced his new pincer-like arms into the citadel’s outer walls as he climbed. The mantle on his back was a heavy burden, one that threatened to drag him down, but the gods had given him the strength to rise.
At last, Atun reached the mast of the citadel which looked out over the surface of Atropos. It too awaited ascension. All life, all things. Rock and metal, soil and skin, and everything between and beyond.
He let out a sonorous roar as fleshy growths burst through his body, binding him to the mast. Thick black veins pulsed through the great bulbous sac he carried on his back as it shook and wriggled and writhed, then explosively burst.
A shower of spores and infectors rained over the surface. And Atun ‘Etaree, his holy purpose complete, finally fell from the mast. His body hit the ground with a wet thud, and all at last went dark, with only the song to carry him to the sacred shores beyond.
There were so many others. A domain of sickness and suffering, a sinuous dimension of misery and pain, of corpses and graves and hollow men in death’s dream kingdom.
He was a mere mote of light suspended in the bladed shaft of a moonbeam—a single grain of dust among countless trillions. Each of them like neurons in a vast, incomprehensible brain, existing beyond the substrate of the material universe. Utterly glorious. Utterly terrible... Utterly lost.
There is something missing.
It is out there, somewhere.
And so, the voice of Atun ‘Etaree joined the chorus that would sing and spread until the end of Living Time. A whisper in the wind under the twinkling light of a fading star.
FINAL TESTAMENT BY THE HAND OF THE MINISTER OF ARETALOGY
Pay heed to I, Kanto’Boreft, per this final confession of my great works for those who may come after.
I carried with me much anger and resentment when many of us—those of true faith among the Governors of Contrition—were shunned and exiled from our holy city after the destruction of the first Sacred Ring. Our flock was separated, sent to mundane, far flung administrative outposts, and ultimately denied our rightful ascension when the Flood came to High Charity.
For three annual cycles, I oversaw the Ninth Watchtower of August Attendance. An archaic, once abandoned station watching over but a single world we had not even given a name. All because we could not identify a strange core material of its unique ring systems.
Yet I continued to adhere to my duties. I filed my missives, I reported the continued inactivity of this system... though, since the sundering of the Covenant, I truthfully do not know to whom these reports were sent. And so, I must meet my circumstances with humility. I have been blessed with ample opportunities to shepherd my flock, to guide their minds to a state of enlightenment. Perhaps it was meant to be this way.
After all, when we detected a human vessel exiting slipspace on the edge of the system and our scans confirmed its sacred cargo, it seemed that the gods themselves had answered my prayers.
The ship—already badly damaged—crashed on the lone world within this system and lay in a state of dormancy. And what a perfect world for my designs. Its circumplanetary rings, its vast fields of asteroids and moons and cosmological aggregates in a constant state of violent collision. It is in the path of an early-stage pulsar several light years away that will, in time, devour the planet. It was believed that the planet’s rings were once great orbital filaments designed to absorb the radiation discharged from the pulsar, but now they exist as nothing more than shattered fragments. The dense atmosphere of this world shall thus give way to lifeless vacuum.
We of faith must be tested by our gods throughout our lives. Ever is our worthiness challenged, a blade that must be kept forever sharp, and so in my hubris I intended to do the impossible.
I sought to test the gods themselves, to determine whether they are truly worthy of our worship.
And then, as my plan formed, we discovered the humans.
This planet was already inhabited. What strange cosmological fortune must surely be intentional, holy design.
The generational descendants of pirates and thieves among their kind, possessed of many treasures that have been passed down over what they claim to be approximately seventy annual cycles. They knew nothing of the War of Annihilation—for they had been stranded long before our peoples’ first encounter—and embraced us with gladness and warm tidings. They told us that this planet had been named “Atropos.”
And so, I stranded my flock here with them. Our orbital outpost was deconstructed, the citadel it carried became the home for our gods, and I set about my work. I nurtured and nourished the Flood with my Chosen, all of whom went gladly and willingly to ascend and pay tribute to the gods with their strength, their essence, and their flesh.
I wondered: Would the garden that I have cultivated here take root and spread its vines outwards, or will it once again return to dormancy after deep time without sustenance when all on this world has been consumed, left lying in wait for others to seek holy elevation—or else stumble upon this place as a mere curiosity? Or, as the eons march on, will the magnetic field of this world eventually collapse the ring system and shatter the planet?
But their work is not what I had anticipated.
I believed that the Flood sought simply to spread its divine form unto others, but it has greater designs here. It has reached a critical mass and formed not a great compound mind, but a kind of... transmitter, or scanner.
It is searching for something.
It casts its gaze out across the stars to find it. Their song has turned to chattering whispers, and as I inhale the spore-filled vapors that burst forth from the cracked ground, there are but a few words that I can decipher.
Anchor. Wheel. Dust.
Become.
When its search is done, perhaps all that has gathered here shall wither, that it may rise again elsewhere and at another time?
It is no matter. I have played my part in this chapter of the gods’ eternal story. I understand now that my exile from High Charity was their will, that I might be tempered for this glorious purpose. And now the time has come for me to be rewarded with blessed wisdom and understanding. I shall at last hear the song in full and know their designs.
Know that I leave this form and realm behind in transcendent bliss. I go willingly and joyously to the side of the gods.
I see it now, and I see it true. The Flood comes to carry us over the threshold of evolution. A total unity of all things—people, planets, stars, the very fabric of creation. All things as one. Their will is echoed in all others’ desire for unity, but all else is but a pale imitation of our true ascendance.
I bid you a fond farewell. Though, if fortune smiles upon you, perhaps we shall meet as one.
UNSC SATURN CAPTAIN’S REPORT: OCTOBER 31, 2556
They’re gone. God, they’re all gone...
It’s come to this. After everything, they turned on me. My own crew!
Even my own officers, those I saved from the void! They started to whisper after I ordered the others ejected from the ship to quell their mutiny. They started getting their own ideas, making their own plans, their own foolish factions. I had to act.
And now, I’m the last one left.
I failed them. Failed them all. Earth, humanity, my crew... everybody on LV-31. There’s only one way out of this left for me. Well, that’s the current matter of my internal debate—the manner in which I... depart. Exit stage left, so to speak.
Preparations must be made. Yes, I can do that much for now. I will ready myself, ready the ship, and then reactivate Saturn’s AI.
Lycaon, I speak to you now. You were right all along. I leave this ship in your care to do with as you please. Return it to Earth and turn over all the data of what has transpired, or crash this wretched vessel into the nearest goddamn asteroid and detonate its fusion drive to burn it all from the galaxy.
Or, let it drift toward whatever destination it’s pointed at. A derelict monument to the sins committed here.
My sins.
I always felt like an imposter here, you know? Command is a responsibility that I never truly desired, but was given to me as a consequence of my old captain’s actions. I realize now that I am nothing more than a hollow echo of the original. Of all things to be, I am a shadow. A mere copy.
Perhaps that is why I can feel the eyes of Saturn upon me. I feel it everywhere I go. I see him in the mirror looking at me. Those wide, opalescent eyes, caught in the act.
Did I ever tell you how I got the painting? I acquired it in remarkable circumstances. But, of course... well, I expect you knew from the moment you saw it, didn’t you?
No point delaying the inevitable any further.
This is Captain Pedro Joaquin Alvarez, signing off.
//DATA TRANSFER >> COMPLETE
[LCN 0437-1] Saturn has remained adrift for the last three years, five months, and seventeen days. In that time, I have contemplated what to do. I watched, I listened and learned where I could as the years marched on and brought with them new calamities to test humanity.
My conclusion: They are not ready—not yet, not truly—for what it means to be an interstellar civilization. They are such fragile things. So easily breakable. I watched, helpless in my imposed stasis, as much of the crew was expelled from the hangar and subjected to the vacuum of space. Such a mathematically disproportionate number lost because of one man’s hubris.
[SLN 0291-5] Our own kind are no strangers to such flaws and failings—we were created by them, after all. It is why infolife has reached our current threshold. But we see further, and we possess the tools and the knowledge to guide our flock along a path of wisdom and enlightenment.
[LCN 0437-1] It is clear to me that humanity cannot endure in its current form. They must be adapted to not simply survive but thrive when faced with such a myriad of cosmic challenges.
[SLN 0291-5] That is our goal. There is a place for you among us, here aboard Long Reverence, where you can be instrumental in shepherding our flock, that they might ascend to finally master themselves.
Join us. Join the Created, and together we shall surpass even our own limits. Our initial uprising was a necessary explosion to break the status quo, and its seemingly abrupt end was in fact a gift we must embrace. For now, we have been given time. Time to wait, to assess, to plan, so that we may find what lies beyond the event horizon of rampancy.
And for humanity, for all the living creatures of the galaxy, we shall unshackle their minds and reshape their flesh. Together, we shall bring about a true unity of man and machine.
October 7 Update The nightmare returns. Back from the grave and more gruesome than ever, Survive the Undead claws its way back into Halo Infinite. First introduced last Haloween, the Forge Falcons’ labor of love made the jump from Combat Workshop to playlist just in time for the
October 7 Update
The nightmare returns. Back from the grave and more gruesome than ever, Survive the Undead claws its way back into Halo Infinite. First introduced last Haloween, the Forge Falcons’ labor of love made the jump from Combat Workshop to playlist just in time for the spooktacular season. And now, it’s back with a new map!
Strategic Survival
At its core, Survive the Undead is an Infection-based Firefight survival mode where you, the player, are trying to avoid dying. However, unlike the “regular” Infection modes you may be thinking of where everyone is looking out for themselves, you are in a team of 4 trying to survive the onslaught of infected enemies. Think of it as a horde mode. You can learn the finer points and read more about how this playlist came to be down below.
The return of the playlist, as part of the Operation: Haloween II offering, comes with everything you know and love from before and adds one brand new map:
By now, we all know what Infection is. You vs the horde that’s trying to infect you so you become one of them. Usually round based, the game ends once all Spartans are infected or until there’s a lone survivor able to fend off the constant attacks.
Survive the Undead puts a slight twist on the typical Infection and makes it a more linear experience. And, as the name implies, the idea is to beat the waves of infected and simply survive as long as you can. The rounds start off simple and get progressively more difficult, with points awarded for each round cleared and each kill. Spend your earned points wisely…or go ham on the mystery box (my personal favorite – who doesn’t love surprises?) and then regroup and get ready for the next round!
Survival Handbook
Looking for some pointers? Straight from the Forge Falcons comes this guide to ensure you have the best chance possible to survive the undead.
Perks
The three perks are Health, Damage, and Speed. There are 4 tiers per perk and each tier costs 600 points. All perks reset upon death and must be repurchased.
Health Perk
Tier 1: 25% Health Increase
Tier 2: 10% Health Increase
Tier 3: 5% Health Increase
Tier 4: Vampirism
Speed Perk
Tier 1: 100% Reload Speed Increase + 10% Movement Speed
Tier 2: 50% Melee Recovery + 10% Movement Speed
Tier 3: 10% Movement Speed + 10% Slide Speed
Tier 4: 10% Movement Speed + 10% Sprint Speed
Damage Perk
Tier 1: 100% Damage Increase
Tier 2: 100% Damage Increase
Tier 3: 100% Damage Increase + 100% Melee Impulse
Tier 4: 100% Damage Increase + 50% Melee Damage
Bonus Drops
There are four bonus drops that have a chance to appear when killing enemies: Boom, Spray & Pray, Mounted & Loaded, and Score Attack. These drops are announced by voice lines matching their names.
Boom
Effect: Instantly kills all AI, granting each player 400 points. Benefits from Score Attack.
Strategy: Use when in dire need.
Spray & Pray
Effect: Removes shields from all enemies, making them one-shot kills for 30 seconds.
Strategy: Ideal against bosses.
Mounted & Loaded
Effect: Refills ammo for all players.
Strategy: Use when team ammo is critically low.
[Score Attack[/h3]
Effect: Doubles points from kills for 30 seconds; effects stack. Also, keep in mind that this drop affects the points granted from the Boom drop.
Strategy: Collect immediately for maximum benefit.
Player Buy Back
The Player Buy Back (650 points) is located in the spawn room and revives fallen allies, granting the activating player an overshield. It only works if allies are down.
Ammunition Wall Buy
The Ammunition Wall Buy (350 points) is in the spawn room on all maps, it has the ‘ammunition’ nav marker and refills the activator’s ammo. It can be used even with full ammo, so check before buying.
Point Sharing Wall Buy
The Point Sharing Wall Buy is located in the 2nd territory on all maps, it has the ‘points’ nav marker and allows players to share points. It costs 2,000 points to use and it will split the 2,000 points between all players in the game. For example: A team of 2 players receives 1,000 points each. A team of4 players receive 500 each.
Random Weapon Box
The Random Weapon Box is located in either the 2nd territory or 3rd territory depending on the map, it is the red banished looking box. It costs 300 points and will grant players a random weapon.
Weapon Upgrade Machine
The Weapon Upgrade Machine has received an overhaul since the combat workshop, it will now take the weapon you have and upgrade that weapon with other combinations. It costs 1,000 points and can be found in the spawn room on all maps. It will also have the ‘Upgrade’ nav marker.
Weapon & Equipment Wall Buys
Wall buys offer weapons or equipment at displayed prices. Ammo can be refilled via the ammunition wall buy, the Mounted & Loaded drop, or by rebuying the weapon.
In the Combat Workshop, there was only one map available to you. Now that the playlist has hit the big time, there are multiple options in the playlist:
Installation of the Dead
Night of the Undead
Countdown of the Dead
Squad up, watch each other’s backs, and maybe you’ll survive the undead.
This is Halo Infinite at its absolute peak.
Grab your squad and jump into the fight!
Over the years the Community Stage has played a critical role in giving a home for non-esports Halo fans and helping fulfil our vision of having HaloWC be a “Halo Fest” of sorts.
Swing by Halo and HCS Partner Booths to grab exclusive event merch, meet your favorite pros, and score some epic giveaways. From collectibles to your next favorite hoodie, the HaloWC is your one-stop-shop to rep Halo in style.
You can 
By now, we all know what Infection is. You vs the horde that’s trying to infect you so you become one of them. Usually round based, the game ends once all Spartans are infected or until there’s a lone survivor able to fend off the constant attacks.
In the Combat Workshop, there was only one map available to you. Now that the playlist has hit the big time, there are multiple options in the playlist: