Halo Infinite News

Bip. Bap. Bam. Welcome to Firefight in Halo Infinite!



With the December Update dropping on December 5, the latest incarnation of Firefight will arrive in Halo Infinite—Firefight: King of the Hill.

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Before we dive into the details, let’s take a quick look back at the long history of Firefight, all the way back to its origins…

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[h2]Firefight: A Brief History[/h2]



“It’s a mess, sir,” Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson said. “We’re scattered all over this valley. We called for evac, but until you showed up, I thought we were cooked.”

“Don’t worry, Sergeant,” Cortana replied. “We’ll stay here until evac arrives.”

The Master Chief looked up at the strange alien tower that was currently serving as a rally point for this group of Marine survivors who had made it off the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. There were only a handful of them, ammunition was low, and—as Private Mendoza’s voice came over the comm—it was clear that they were out of time.

“Heads up! I got a Covenant dropship headin’ in, over here!”

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The conceptual origins of Firefight in Halo can perhaps be traced back to this very moment, near the start of the second mission in Halo: Combat Evolved. After coming across a group of Marine survivors, you must protect them from waves of Covenant reinforcements before they can be picked up by Foehammer.

Firefight itself would debut in 2009’s Halo 3: ODST as a cooperative mode where you and up to three of your friends could put your skills to the ultimate test, experiencing Halo sandbox encounters in the form of a survival-based “horde mode” that was becoming increasingly popular in games around this time. No doubt, many of you reading this today will recall the late nights spent on the Alpha Site map attempting to get the Vidmaster: Endure achievement as you sought to complete your Road to Recon…

From there, Firefight would go on to take several different forms in subsequent Halo games. In Halo: Reach, players were given extensive customization options to edit many aspects of the experience, which was also available in matchmaking.

In Halo 5, Warzone Firefight was introduced as a pure PvE version of the new PvPvE Warzone mode. Eight players could come together on large-scale maps to unleash their most powerful weapons and vehicles against Covenant and Promethean enemies.

And then, Halo Wars 2 introduced Blitz Firefight and Terminus Firefight. In the former, players had to defend and control three zones from waves of UNSC and Banished forces; the latter, meanwhile, was more of a “tower defense”-type experience where up to three players could work together to defend their bases and a Forerunner tower, with Flood enemies added into the mix.

And so, the time has come for a new Firefight experience in Halo Infinite…

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[h2]Firefight: King of the Hill[/h2]



To delve deeper into this new incarnation of Firefight, we’re joined by Connor Kennelly, Technical Designer, for a Q&A breakdown.

What is Firefight: King of the Hill and how does it work?

Our take on Firefight is in many ways close to the previous iterations of Firefight you remember. You and three other Spartans will face waves of Banished foes until you prevail… or die trying. The experience is entirely PvE, so there are no other human players to sweat against—just you, your fireteam, and Halo Infinite’s awesome cast of campaign enemies.

When the game starts, a hill will spawn, and waves of progressively harder Banished enemies will try to capture that hill. Your job is to take the hill from them and hold it until you capture it. A Boss Wave, filled with tougher than usual enemies (and spearheaded by a named High Value Target or Boss), spawns once you’ve reached a certain amount of hill progress.

You score a point when you both finish capturing the hill AND defeat the Boss Wave. Then, just like in other Firefight iterations, you’ll get a brief respite to resupply your weapons and equipment, which only respawn in between hills. After that downtime, the hill will begin spawning in a new location, and the cycle repeats.

The Matchmaking modes will have exactly five hills for each match, and you’ll get a win if you capture at least three of them throughout the round.

The timer in the mode is technically unlimited, but games tend to run between fifteen-to-twenty minutes depending on how well your team is playing. We totally expect the speedrun-oriented folks to be competing for lowest time for each map, though.



So you get points by capturing each hill and defeating its Boss Wave. And it takes 5 points to win. How do you lose?

Well, the enemy team can capture the hill just like you can, so if you can’t hold the waves off, you can lose the point to the other team. And since there’s a fixed number of hills to play, you don’t want to lose that bonus XP, so don’t let them capture those hills!

Also, just like in previous Firefight iterations, death can wipe out your squad. More on that in a minute, but keeping everyone alive is very much a focus of this mode.

In past Firefight modes, players have limited respawns. How do respawns work in Firefight KOTH?

The matchmade version of Firefight: King of the Hill will NOT be using a pool of lives. When designing this mode, we read a lot of community posts on old Firefight iterations, and we saw a common frustration with matchmade experiences where players felt that matchmade teammates often “wasted” the team lives. To address this, we brought in an elimination mechanic instead. When a teammate is killed, they go down where they fell and are given a lengthy respawn timer—the duration depends on the difficulty you are playing. And if ALL the Spartans go down simultaneously, you’ll instantly lose the game.

Your teammates can bring you back to the battlefield immediately by reviving you, just like in Attrition, but as mentioned above, the Banished will be making hill progress the whole time… so you’re going to need to balance revives against the enemy capture progress.

The tension between going for a revive or contesting the hill has made for some of the most delicious moments in our internal playtests, especially on the Heroic difficulty where the respawn time is longer. Do you play it safe and give up some enemy hill progress to bring your teammates back, or does your Last Spartan Standing try to contest a Banished-owned hill alone and risk the entire game? I guess it depends on how greedy heroic you feel…

We hope utilizing revives will reduce frustration for the players that want to solo-queue but will keep the co-op sense of shared fate we loved in both survival Firefight and Warzone Firefight.



One last thing on the death mechanics here: since this pain point was mostly a matchmaking concern, we added Custom Game options that will let you use the traditional lifepool. We also have a separate option to turn off revives, so if your lobby wants classic mechanics or you just love roasting your buddies for wasting lives, we’ve got you covered! Because we do not have lives in the matchmade version, we do not have the old Bonus Rounds to earn extra lives. However, we think replenishing the lifepool is a vital mechanic for those endless runs like in ODST and Reach, so we have another Custom Game option that will let you replenish the shared lifepool if the Spartans win the point.

Season 5 is all about letting people play Halo the way they want to play, and we’ve tried to support that as best we can.

Why Firefight: King of the Hill instead of a new iteration of specifically survival-based Firefight?

“Firefight” encompasses a lot. Firefight is about surviving waves of enemies with your friends. It’s about tracking who’s alive and who’s dead. It’s about managing limited resources. It’s about Skulls ratcheting up the difficulty as rounds progress.

And, at the core of it, Firefight is about having your back up against the wall and coming out on top through teamwork.

So, when we wanted to bring that back-against-the-wall feeling to Infinite, we landed on the King of the Hill mechanic. The hill started out as a way to organize combat on big maps. It provided that “wall” your team put their back up against when the maps were particularly large. Plus, it brought the added bonus of letting us move that spot around the map so the experience was more varied within each game.

That was just our starting point. As with everything in game development, you learn a lot as you playtest. And sure enough, as we spent more time with the hill mechanic, we realized it was adding an unexpected dynamic to the experience. Players who ran and hid when a tough wave of enemies appeared couldn’t stay hidden and pick shots at enemies until they had thinned their ranks—since they couldn’t progress the mode without having at least one player occupy the hill, the Spartans had to band together to retake the point and begin scoring again.



We really enjoyed “the flip” between attacking and defending that emerged from this dynamic, and we also enjoyed the additional cooperative moments this created. Some of the most fun we’ve had in past Firefight modes are when you’re completely overrun by the AI and have to scramble, and concentrating the AI squads in a way that demanded extra fireteam cooperation really seemed to enhance those moments.

Where it really started getting good was when we extended the hill code to let AI units capture them. Suddenly, there was tension when the enemy pushed your fireteam off the hill. The bar started ticking up. That drum sound played with each tick, letting you know the Banished were inching closer to victory. Your decisions were now constrained by time. Is pathing back to that rocket launcher you saw across the map worth the tradeoff on the enemy hill progress? Can you afford to let your shields come back up before contesting, or do you need to get in there now and buy time for your other teammates to arrive?

Even in the course of regular combat, when the Spartans have control over the field, the hill shapes how you play. Because a single enemy AI can contest the hill and halt your progress, the fireteam needs to work together to keep the zone clear to draw the Boss Wave out. We indexed into larger hill volumes on each map so that there are multiple fronts to defend. Coordinating with your team to sweep the firing lanes, rotating from one sight line to another as you cover a friendly revive, choosing when to send players out of the hill to return with a power weapon or snipe from a vantage point—these are some examples of the core decisions you’ll be making when you match into a game Firefight: KOTH.

To make a long story short: we love the extra decision-making, the additional cooperative elements, and the tension that the hill brings to the classic Firefight formula. We can’t wait to hear what you think when you jump into the mode tomorrow!



Are there other differences (besides the hill) from survival Firefight or Warzone Firefight?

Yes. The other major departure we made is how Skull difficulty modifiers are earned and enabled throughout the match. In past Firefight, Skulls got enabled in a fixed order. We wanted to make the Skulls a bit more dynamic to adapt to how well a squad is doing in the round.

The rules for Skulls in Firefight: King of the Hill work like this:

• If a team wins a point and nobody dies, one semi-random Skull gets enabled for the next hill.
  
• Skulls stack over the course of a game. You can have multiple Skulls active if you keep winning points without any fireteam deaths. In matchmaking, the maximum is four active Skulls on the fifth hill.
  
• Streaks can be dropped. Losing a hill to the Banished will disable your most recently enabled Skull.

We say a “semi-random” Skull gets enabled, because just like the classic modes, you earn easier Skulls before the harder Skulls. For example, the first Skull you earn will always be either Fog or Catch. But if you earn a second Skull, the pool expands to include Famine and Thunderstorm. The result is that fireteams who are able to earn Skulls will get a different experience from match to match, but the difficulty curve will still gradually increase in the same way as the match goes on.

We made this change because when we looked at how people talked about enjoying past Firefight offerings, we noticed two very different types of motivations, and the fixed-order Skull mechanics only catered to one crowd.

One type of player we saw was the challenge hound. They want to be pushed. They want to feel overwhelmed. They want their squad to really go through fire and flame because earned victory is all the sweeter. The fixed-order Skulls gave these players a foe worthy of their blade, since they were guaranteed to run into some satisfyingly brutal Skulls by the end of each round.

We landed on the “streak” nature of the mechanic as something to enhance the experience for these types of players. It feels great to have your Skull streak on the line when the Boss Wave shows up in the fourth hill and you really need to grit your teeth and keep your teammates alive without losing the point.



The other type of player we saw plays Firefight for a very different reason. These folks look to Firefight as an escape from the sweat of multiplayer. And while they do not want it to be so easy that it’s boring, they really just want to kick back with their friends and shoot the breeze while they shoot some aliens.

Unavoidable Skulls, especially the tough ones like Black Eye and Blind, cut against this player type. They make you focus 110% on the game by raising the stakes, but that can actually take the focus away from what motivates these players—having a relaxing time with their friends. We landed on the no-death mechanic as a means of keeping Skulls out of the way for these types of players, since players who are just around to goof off will naturally accumulate some deaths in regular gameplay (and therefore won’t encounter Skulls). In this way, the game tries to match whatever energy your lobby is bringing.

Since we saw PvE as a way to build on that “party shooter” vibe that brings people together and makes Halo feel so unique, we wanted to make a change to support this group without sacrificing challenge for the players who wanted it. The goal here is to give players that care about challenge something to strive for as a team, and at the same time to be mostly invisible to players who are just looking for a good time with their friends.

And finally, in the spirit of letting you play Halo the way you want to play—we have Custom Game options that will let you enable those legacy behaviors. You can use the Fixed setting to make the Skulls come on one at a time after each hill regardless of who got the point, and we also have a None setting that will stop the mode from enabling Skulls at all. That last option will let minigame scripters turn on Skulls with whatever logic they want using Node Graph. More on that in the Forge section below.



What Skulls are in Firefight: King of the Hill?

The Skulls available in this mode are as follows:

• Fog – disables motion tracker
  
• Catch – AI enemies throw and drop more grenades
  
• Famine – weapons dropped by AI enemies have half the ammo they normally would
  
• Thunderstorm – upgrades the rank of most AI enemies
  
• Mythic – AI enemies have significantly increased health
  
• Black Eye – your shields only recharge when you melee enemies

Additionally, there is a (very) small chance you’ll get one of the following Skulls enabled at the start of a round. These Skulls don’t increase the difficulty, but they do make for some fun moments!

• Boom – doubles explosion radius
  
• Cowbell – acceleration from explosions is increased
  
• Grunt Birthday Party – Grunt headshots lead to glorious celebrations
  
• Bandana – grants unlimited ammo and grenades, and removes equipment cooldown
  
• IWHBYD – rare combat dialogue becomes more common, and vice versa

Note: the Blind Skull, which hides first-person HUD elements and view-models, is not in the pool for the mode, but it is available to Custom Games via Node Graph scripting.

TL;DR on the Firefight: KOTH differences from survival Firefight:

• Players get points by capturing a hill and killing the Boss Wave for that hill, not just surviving
  
• If the Spartans fail to hold the hill, the Banished will capture it instead
  
• No more shared lifepool; You have only one life, but your teammates can revive you like in Attrition. All Spartans downed at the same time will end the round instantly.
  
• You can use Custom Game options to get classic Lifepool settings
  
• Players earn Skulls by winning hills without dying, and Skulls stack

How will Firefight: King of the Hill help me progress my Operation or Battle Pass?

In Matchmaking, you’ll get a small amount of Match XP just for playing. Additionally, you’ll get bonus XP for a win, which is capturing 3 of the 5 hills. Successfully capturing the fourth and fifth hill will each give an additional XP bonus.

Slaying Banished foes will award Personal Score throughout the entire round that will level up your Career Rank, and Skulls will also net players a stacking Personal Score bonus at the end of each round won for every Skull that is enabled.

What maps will I be able to play at launch?

We have nine maps available when Firefight: King of the Hill launches with the December 2023 Update, which includes three community-made maps, five existing developer-made maps, and the new House of Reckoning map from Halo Infinite’s campaign.

The nine maps featured in the Firefight: King of the Hill playlist are:

• House of Reckoning
  
• Behemoth
  
• Deadlock
  
• Launch Site
  
• Live Fire
  
• Oasis
  
• Exiled (by Epetr0, SandoChokUN)
  
• Kusini Bay (by Mr Kwatz)
  
• Vallaheim (by HaiseOz)

What kind of Custom Game options are available?

We’ve mentioned some of the levers you can pull in Custom Games to change your Firefight: KOTH experience to suit your taste. We wanted to offer up a wealth of options to feed your Custom Game Browser nights and let you play Halo the way you want to play. You can decide what elements of the mode will be active; you can change how Lives, Revives, and Skulls are used; you can tweak hill capture timers, and even override which units spawn in each wave.

And for the Forgers out there, you’ll find that Firefight: KOTH is the most integrated with Forge and Node Graph scripting yet. You can set the mode to use the enemy definitions straight from your spawners and make the hills spawn in the fixed order, paving the way for linear, wave-based missions.

The Skulls we converted to multiplayer are also available through Node Graph to use in any game mode. And the AI Wave Manager nodes that we were able to get to players early with the launch of Season 5 is the same one we built for Firefight: KOTH. That means you’ll be able to hook into mode events to run custom logic when waves start or end.

For example, using the new Wave Type output pin, this sample script would run any time the mode starts a Boss Wave. Then it would pick two random units and send every Grunt in their squad into an explosive frenzy.

We can’t wait to see what horrors and delights you’ll inflict on all of us in the Custom Game Browser come launch!

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That concludes our deep dive into Firefight: King of the Hill, which will arrive with the December 2023 Update tomorrow. You can find more info on what’s coming in tomorrow’s mid-season update here.

In the meantime–

[*Phantom horn sound*]

Here we go! Next wave’s coming in. Get set, Spartans. This is gonna get hot!

The December Mid-Season Update for Halo Infinite arrives on December 5, just a few short days from now, and we’ve got the details of everything you need to know right here.



Firefight: King of the Hill, the new Repair Field equipment, Forge updates, Ranked and Custom Game Browser improvements, and much more are prepared to drop—let’s get you briefed!

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[h2]Firefight: King of the Hill[/h2]



Bip. Bap. Bam! Firefight is coming to Halo Infinite next week.

Over the years, Firefight has taken many forms across various Halo games. From its traditional survival mode in Halo 3: ODST to its more arcade-inspired incarnation in Halo: Reach, to Warzone Firefight in Halo 5: Guardians, along with Blitz Firefight and Terminus Firefight in Halo Wars 2 – it’s a mode that has evolved across games, and the time has come for it to arrive in Halo Infinite.

Firefight: King of the Hill will see you and three other players facing off against waves of Banished baddies as you fight to capture hills on nine maps when the playlist goes live – including the House of Reckoning from Halo Infinite’s campaign and three community-made maps.

We’ll have a full, detailed blog on Firefight: King of the Hill going live on December 4, ahead of its in-game debut the following day.

We can’t wait for you to get your hands on it!

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[h2]Repair Field[/h2]



Need to conduct some repairs while out in the field? We’ve got the perfect Equipment item for you…

Introducing our latest sandbox addition to Halo Infinite, the Repair Field!

Similar to the Regenerator from Halo 3, the Repair Field is a neutral piece of Equipment that heals allies and enemies within its radius. It’s also capable of repairing vehicles, and it can be attached to them (as well as most environmental surfaces). Additionally, the Repair Field can also revive downed Spartans in select modes such as Firefight: King of the Hill, Attrition, etc.

Are you the kind of player that prefers to provide support for the team? The Repair Field is a great complement to that particular playstyle and, used strategically, just might help give your team an edge in a firefight or vehicular showdown.

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[h2]Ranked Improvements[/h2]



The Ranked experience is getting some improvements in this December Update, starting off with updates to Ranked Extraction and CSR.

[h3]Ranked Extraction[/h3]
At the moment, you can hear that your Extraction point is being converted by the enemy team from anywhere on the map. This meant players were able to leave the area around the Extraction device and use the global audio queue to tell them when to peek back out. With this upcoming audio change, the device itself will emit the audio, meaning you’ll have to be in close vicinity to hear it’s being converted. As a result, teams will need to pay closer attention to the Extraction device.

Right now, you can see in your UI when the Extraction point is being converted. Similar to above, this allowed players to leave the area near the Extraction device and only peek out when the UI showed it was being converted. With our upcoming change, this will go away almost entirely. The UI will no longer indicate to you when the Extraction point is actively being converted, and it will also no longer indicate to you how much time is remaining. It’s going to play a bit old school and hardcore, as players and coaches will need to time the Extractions like timing weapons and powerups in previous Halo titles.

[h3]CSR Improvements[/h3]
There are some further improvements also coming to rank loss protection and teammate quitting. Once you rank up a tier, you will get three games, win or lose, before a loss will rank you down to the previous tier. Additionally, if a player in the match (who is not on your fireteam) quits, you will not lose CSR if you decide to quit as well. You can read more about these updates in our most recent Ranked Update blog!

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[h2]Forge Updates[/h2]

When Season 5 launched back in October, the Forge AI Toolkit quite literally changed the game for community creators, allowing players for the first time ever to place campaign enemies into multiplayer maps to build PvE experiences.

In the December Update, we have some more improvements to share with you that will enhance this feature even further…



[h3]High Value Targets & Bosses[/h3]

In Halo Infinite’s campaign, there are various boss enemies that can be encountered on Zeta Halo, such as the High Value Targets that can be hunted down, each one rewarding the Master Chief with a powerful special weapon variant.

All fifteen of these HVTs will be added to Forge with the December Update – from the almighty Bipbap the Vanquisher to the very hungry Ik’novus the Devourer, and beyond.

Major bosses are also included in this line-up as well, such as Jega ‘Rdomnai, Escharum, and the Harbinger. The potential for what the creative cartographers in the community are going to make truly is endless (heh!)

[h3]Skulls in Node Graphs[/h3]

With Firefight: KOTH on the way, enabling Skulls to modify difficulty is a notable part of the experience. With this update, Forgers will be able to use Node Graph to enable or disable any of the twelve Skulls, from Bandana to Black Eye.

Notably, Skulls are not just limited to the Firefight game variants. These difficulty modifiers will work in any game mode, allowing creators to use them to spice up ordinary multiplayer matches or extend their Season 5 PVE experiences.

[h3]Quality of Life Updates[/h3]

The Global Material Allow list gives the player the ability to access all swatches contained in swatch groups added to the global allow list in all regions. This functionally gives the player access to a much larger pool of swatches for each region, and allows regions previously disallowed from using tiling swatches to access them.

Because hugs make everything better, we have also added the Trigger Grunt Hug node to Forge’s Node Graph. This will allow creators to make any Grunts in a squad pull out two plasma grenades and run toward the nearest enemy until the grenades explode. We sincerely hope this addition will make your Custom Browser experiences with Grunts more loving and friendly.

Scalable Blockers allow the player to place a single blocker object and scale it to the size they’d like it to be. This will help you save on object count and help clean up maps.

Auto Turret Allegiance has been updated, meaning the Auto Turret will now respect the Team setting it receives in Forge. When placed on a team, the Auto Turret will treat units (players & AI) as allies and will not target them. If placed on Neutral team, the turret will remain hostile to all units.

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[h2]Custom Game Browser[/h2]



When Season 5 launched, we introduced Custom Game XP and the addition of the Forge AI Toolkit opened up the floodgates for countless hours to be spent jumping from custom game to custom game – whether you’re looking for some of that classic Infection fun you’ve been enjoying since Halo 3, or the vast range of exciting new experiences that folks have been creating.

The team has been working on a variety of improvements to the Custom Game Browser which should make for a smoother ride for you and your fireteam.

[h3]Join Session as Fireteam[/h3]

As long as there are enough slots available, the Fireteam Leader can bring their entire party into a CGB session. Upon joining the session, all members of your Fireteam will join together and merge into the Custom Game leader’s Fireteam.

While working on this, the team also made sure that it was enabled for lobbies. If you are playing with a friend and want to join another friend’s lobby, you can choose “Join with Fireteam” to bring your entire Fireteam into their matchmaking/custom game lobby.

[h3]Improvements[/h3]

Several improvements have been implemented to the Custom Game Browser, resolving issues that block players from joining CGB sessions that were open when a backend change occurred; issues around unclear messaging when attempting to join a full session; and instances where attempting to join a session that was no longer active would not deliver any failure messages.

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[h2]Stability & Networking[/h2]



Along with all the additions and quality-of-life updates above, this update is also focused on increasing the game’s stability by addressing crashes and improving our online experience via updates to our networking.

Season 5 added more reporting information in the game, which helps us better detect when and why crashes happen. Using this data, the team has knocked out multiple crashes across PC and consoles, including the top crash on Xbox Series X|S devices.

As for improvements to networking, we’ve been working on a more comprehensive overhaul of the system. The first glimpse of this updated networking model will land on December 5 with the December Update. You’ll be able to jump into the Firefight: King of the Hill playlist and try out the new networking model in a safe environment. Enabling it in a PvE experience gives us a safe testbed to see how it behaves at scale before enabling it in a PvP mode, where the stakes would feel much higher for each player. Please be sure to dive in, blast the Banished, and let us know how it feels in Firefight: King of the Hill. If the results are promising, we’ll look to host a PvP experience in the Combat Workshop in the future.

While there should only be improvements in these areas, please be sure to report any crashes or networking related issues to us by using the Halo Support site.

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That closes us out for this preview of 2023’s December Update for Halo Infinite. Stay tuned for a deep dive on Firefight on December 4 ahead of the update dropping out of slipspace on December 5!

You've got the BRXX Lightfire, which means it's the enemy team's bedtime, and you plan to tuck them in... under six feet of dirt!



Secure the BRXX Lightfire bundle today for the following:

• BRXX LIGHTFIRE weapon model
  
• TORCHBEARER MARK VII helmet
  
• UTIL/EmerSound Mark I shoulder pads
  
• UA/Type DH MARK VII knee pads
  
• Powerup Sights weapon coating for all weapons
  
• Pacific Pitch armor coating for all armors
  
• Horizons Beyond emblem
  
• Radio Edit kill effect

Walk faster to the Shop and blind others with your cyber-style today!

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For when no other faction is really your style.



Complete all of your Weekly Challenges and the Ultimate Challenge to earn this week’s Ultimate Reward – the PMC emblem suite.

A new Ultimate Reward will become available every week, so be sure to keep an eye on your Challenges and take advantage of these free rewards.

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Bred for combat, built for war, you are the master of any weapon, pilot of any vehicle, and fear no enemy.



The Combat Evolved Mark V bundle contains:

• Combat Evolved Mark V armor kit
  
• Cinder Ring armor coating
  
• Viridescent Ring armor coating
  
• Aurum Evolved visor

Unseal the hushed casket and awaken the flawless cowboy within. Prevail through nerves of steel and a quick trigger finger.

“2560. The Banished have come to Suban, the blood-moon of Sanghelios, seeking to claim the unique natural resource within its vast mines: the beautiful but volatile Subanese crystals.



The Swords of Sanghelios and their Spartan allies face an overwhelming force on the ground, while a Sangheili shipmistress in the skies above seeks to find a weakness in the enemy’s armor that might turn the tide against these invaders.”

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Halo: Battle for the Blood-Moon is available here on Halo Waypoint, as a free PDF, and in audiobook format on YouTube.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

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[h3]Historian's Note[/h3]

Battle for the Blood-Moon takes place in early 2560, in the wake of the events of Halo: Outcasts and the opening of Halo Infinite where the UNSC Infinity is ambushed by the Banished and Cortana sacrifices herself, moving Zeta Halo into slipspace.

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[h3]Scorrin's Blade[/h3]

Shipmistress Mahkee ‘Chava scrutinized the large tactical holograph of Suban at the center of the bridge, a cavernous command chamber that shared a similar design model to the Ceudar-pattern corvette. The spacious interior was lined with several rows of control consoles for the various systems that defined the blockade runner as a strong and swift interdictor.

Unfortunately, that swiftness was not currently being put to use in the way Mahkee wished.

Instead of charging the Banished ranks with a coordinated assault, Mahkee had been ordered to hold her distance from the enemy dreadnought and comprehensively assess the situation.

Scorrin’s Blade, like all Hekar Taa-pattern blockade runners, was outfitted with advanced stealth generators and an onboard hyperscanner reverse-engineered from recovered Forerunner materiel. In theory, these systems could work in concert, allowing them to obtain detailed internal scans of unsuspecting enemy vessels, but their use had been limited during the time of the Covenant.

Hyperscanners provided an overwhelming amount of information, which Mahkee guessed would likely have been filtered by the Forerunners’ own artificial intelligences—something that the Prophets, in their infinite “wisdom,” had significantly curtailed.

The Swords of Sanghelios, on the other hand, bore no such prejudice against artificial life, even as the constructs had risen up against their human creators and sought to impose their own will upon the galaxy.

But Mahkee didn’t need an AI to operate that system. She had something just as effective.

“Status, Dibdib?”

The diminutive Unggoy almost jumped as Mahkee approached. Fortunately, this had become a common routine and Dibdib had managed to reduce her reaction to a slight jolt.

“We gots the latest knowins on the big bad dreadnought, Shipmistress,” Dibdib squeaked, her eyes still fixed on the hyperscanner. “Sendin’ it to the main holograph now!”

“Excellent news,” Mahkee continued on her way around the bridge. “’Tylk, bring Scorrin’s Blade back to minimum safe distance.”

“As you say, Shipmistress,” Xelq ‘Tylk dipped his head in acknowledgement. He was still quite young, a relative newcomer to the Swords of Sanghelios, and was eager to make a good impression on his superiors.

As Scorrin’s Blade pulled back, Mahkee returned her attention to the central holograph of Suban and tightened her jaw mandibles. That the Banished had dared to come to this system at all was galling enough, but the blood-moon of Sanghelios was her home. She and her brothers had been raised here since they were hatchlings, and she allowed herself a momentary feeling of relief that the two of them were currently on Sanghelios itself to inspect the latest products of the Kolaar Manufactorum. Wily though they were, neither Silset nor Oebrin were fighters, and they were certainly not what any Sangheili would call “traditional” in any sense.

Somewhat ironically, that had all gone to her…

Mahkee did not possess the patience for the political maneuverings, complex trade deals, and clan management that had largely served as the civil duty of Sangheili females. Ever since she had been a hatchling, her mother had said that her veins ran with the fire and blood of Suban itself, and her calling had come when the Arbiter declared that military service for the Swords of Sanghelios would be open to all.

Indeed, she had been surprised to learn that even the Unggoy could ascend to the rank of shipmaster upon querying why one of the Zanar-pattern light cruisers attached to their fleet was named Bad Gas.

Returning to the holograph, Mahkee flicked her wrist and the projected image of Suban dissipated. This made way for the latest tactical scans of the dreadnought that was the center of all Banished activity in this region.

Scannermaster Dibdib’s work on the hyperscanner had even identified the name of the vessel: Ghost of Barolon.

The holograph highlighted its suite of armaments, filling Mahkee with dread. Scorrin’s Blade was heavily outgunned by the monumental monstrosities the Banished had brought to bear, their dreadnoughts were a physical representation of their rapid rise to power, while many of the Swords of Sanghelios’s own warships reflected ancient patterns connected to their pre-Covenant history. Admirable as that pursuit was for the spirit of the Sangheili, these patterns were largely outdated and could not match either the firepower or tonnage of these crimson-armored ogres.

Suban was more than just a home for Mahkee, the onset of the Blooding Years that had come to define this period for the Sangheili had turned the moon into a place of neutral safe harbor. And before that, going back to a time before their millennia of service to the Covenant, Suban had been held as a sacred point of convergence for the wills of their most ancient gods—traditions, doctrine, and faith that had been secretly preserved from the long and treacherous reach of the Prophets.

But hundreds of drop-bases had already been deployed from Barolon’s underbelly, enough to establish immediate occupational infrastructure on one of Suban’s most fertile mining sites.

And Mahkee felt powerless to do anything about it.

She knew, of course, that every datapoint about the enemy was valuable, and that the time would come to coordinate a retaliatory strike. A competent shipmaster knew the value of patience, and the cost of acting prematurely before understanding the bigger picture. In this, Mahkee’s discipline did not blunt or sublimate her instinct for battle, but instead served as a whetstone for it.

For now, she would watch, she would wait, and she would find the gap in the armor of the Banished that would win the day for her people.

Until then, she turned her mind to the joint operation that was taking place on the ground. Spartans and Swords forces working together in a combined arms effort, their joint temerity and prowess would make its mark—of that, Mahkee was certain. She had, after all, fought alongside the humans’ living legends before, when she had ferried Spartan Jameson Locke and his fireteam into battle to help the Arbiter bring a decisive end to Jul ‘Mdama’s Covenant.

Scores of Banished troops against a handful of Spartans and Swords of Sanghelios warriors?

Centering her mind and mustering her confidence amidst the uncertainty, Mahkee thought with determined resolution that those were indeed sorrowful odds for their enemies.

[hr][/hr]



[h3]Suban
The Mines of Shua'ree[/h3]

The density of conflict and upheaval on Sanghelios in the past several weeks had been unprecedented. Just a few months after Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam’s harrowing encounter with the Banished on the corpse-world of N’ba, the Created forces that had kept Sanghelios under a suffocating martial occupation suddenly relinquished their grip on the system. It was an unanticipated turn of fortune that quickly spiraled into a race to fill the power vacuum left on such an influential world.

While many of the keeps and kaidons on Sanghelios remained steadfast in their support of the Arbiter and his attempts to unify their people, others sought alternative divisions of power. The tensions were already beginning to boil over, and it served as an open invitation to any well-organized force to take advantage of—an invitation the Banished were more than eager to accept.

In their brazen encroachment into the Urs system, the Banished found no need to breach a barricaded door. The loyal Sangheili under their growing influence simply left the gate unlatched.

This latest chapter of the conflict had settled into the skies of Suban, over one of the many mining sites that had made the moon such a prized resource in the reign of the Covenant empire. Suban was the only known place in the galaxy to find kemuksuru—the energized crystals that powered several manifestations of “needle launcher” weapons employed by many of the former Covenant client species. That reality made the Sanghelios satellite a prime commodity to be controlled, and the Banished were making every effort to do so.

What must it be like? Fahl ‘Nto thought. To have a mind more like a machine?

The seasoned Evocati was sitting on a flat raised rock, but leaned forward to continue his observation of one of the human Spartans that stood with them. While serving in the Covenant as a distinguished Ultra operative, Fahl had encountered a scattered few “demons” during his deployment, most notably on their stronghold world near the end of the War of Annihilation. They were encounters he spoke little of since aligning with the Swords of Sanghelios, as his mind remained in a constant dance between resolution and shame—an ever-present personal journey towards purpose.

The Spartans of Fireteam Jorogumo were part of an allied attaché under the purview of Fleetmaster Arkad Nar ‘Kulul, who was one of the leaders of the Sanghelios home defense fleet. These augmented human warriors were part of an ongoing treaty between the human military and the Swords of Sanghelios, and remained at the disposal of Swords forces at the discretion of key kaidons and commanders to bolster their efforts.

Today, those efforts were focused squarely on the Mines of Shua’ree. The Banished had successfully managed to set up a rapid extraction site in one of the more remote quarry mouths—an impressive display of ruthless efficiency and cunning execution. It was an incursion that demanded an equally decisive response, but unfortunately deft coordination was not a trait Sangheili forces were able to muster in sufficient quantities these days.

Instead, Arkad Nar ‘Kulul had opted to enact a combined arms operation, attaching four Spartans from Jorogumo to a Swords taskforce led by Fahl ‘Nto and Orim ‘Kassan, a SpecOps warrior in service to the Arbiter.

The mission called for Fahl to lead an advance scout team that included two of the Spartans and a Kig-Yar named Dahks. As part of their integration into local forces, each of the Spartans had been given a Sangheili name—not quite a title and not quite a nickname, but terms that would give each human soldier a unique identity and stronger sense of inclusion among their ranks.

Fahl tilted his head as he surveyed one of the Spartans, the one they called Trell, who was looking through the scope of a rangefinder.

“What do you see?”

Trell’s voice came back through their helmet speaker. “At least two docking platforms. Regular cycle of fork-buckets coming in and out.”

Fahl’s mandibles twitched at Trell’s colloquial mention of the Banished siege-haulers. Every flight out could mean hundreds of the enemy alliance’s warriors armed with restocked needle-launchers.

“So much bounty.” The screeching statement came from Dahks. “Need no scope to see thisss.”

Dahks was unique among his kind, and Fahl was one of very few individuals who knew the Jackal’s past as a former member of the Jha’kaar—a Kig-Yar order of long-range assassins rumored to be able to remove a target’s head off their shoulders… from a nearby moon. Such exaggerated attributions did nothing to diminish Dahks’s true skills, however, and lately the Ruuhtian mercenary had taken up a particular fondness for human-built sniper rifles, resulting in more than a few lively discussions with Trell on best practices and past accomplishments.

The voice of Glyyss, another Spartan, broke in. “Nobody’s bending your quills, Dahks. Besides, we have more than one way to get a better look at things.”

Glyyss tapped two command buttons on a wrist-mounted survey drone and the small machine quickly departed, its flight trajectory heading straight for the mouth of one of the quarry caves.

Fahl stood up and placed the wide-crested helmet of his ivory raid harness back over his head. He had developed an odd fondness for the way in which Glyyss always returned the Kig-Yar’s needling with fair measure. “Dahks, sync your optics to the Spartan drone—they will be your eyes inside. Remain here as overwatch but keep communication channels active.”

“Ready to flag in Jaarov and Zhinn?” Glyyss asked, already prepared to ping the other two Spartans on the operation.

“Yes.” Fahl confirmed. “Let them know that we will be in position shortly and that Orim can bring his Phantom in—our time will be narrow.”

[hr][/hr]
[h3]Scorrin's Blade[/h3]

“Can you confirm its authenticity, ‘Tylk?” Mahkee was taking no chances when it came to ensuring the secure transfer of information regarding groundside operations.

“The signature is confirmed, Shipmistress. Orim ‘Kasaan is aboard the vessel of origin.”

Mahkee nodded a simple approval. “Contact the summit-masters, ensure we have Banshee talons in a ready formation at the appropriate coordinates.”

Her mind began to weigh the potential outcomes of their groundside efforts and how they might inform their next tactics in the grander scope of the conflict. She had barely begun calculating probability metrics when her bridge crew interjected once more.

“Shipmistress, we are receiving another transmission,” said Xelq, who paused and tilted his head in momentary confusion. “From the shipmaster of the Banished dreadnought…”

Mahkee braced herself for what was no doubt going to be an enlightening conversation.

“Put it through.”

The holograph of Suban and Ghost of Barolon disappeared and was replaced by a bulky, hunched figure clad in golden armor. A Sangheili… She had expected a Jiralhanae to be shipmaster of such a vessel, as dreadnoughts were not simply devastating occupational powerhouses, but since the razing of the Oth Sonin system they had come to represent something of a cultural monument to their species.

And the haughty look of satisfaction from the Banished shipmaster, whose head was tilted slightly upwards, told her that she had let this momentary surprise show through slightly parted jaws.

“Greetings, Shipmistress,” he said, as calmly and casually as if he were checking up on a friend. “I am Orna ‘Fulsam, High Warlord of the Banished.”

“I do not know of you, and am unmoved by any such title.” Mahkee responded, her tone clipped but not yet disrespectful. “What is it you want?”

“By now, you have undoubtedly grasped the extent of our current forces and firepower, and you know that there is no victory to be had through conventional battle.”

Mahkee held Orna’s gaze. “Your fleet possesses certain advantages, that is true. I hope you did not trouble my preparations to counter them just to inform me of this.”

“No,” Orna said. “I have come to ask you to avoid further unnecessary bloodshed of our own kind.”

“Peace talks with a traitor?” Mahkee narrowed her eyes. “So you have come here to jest?”

“We need not be foes. Step aside, give us Suban, and your forces shall be spared. Better yet, pledge your allegiance to the Banished, and the only ones that need perish are the demons that desecrate the ground of Suban.”

If nothing else, Mahkee had to admire ‘Fulsam’s audacity.

“The Spartans?” she asked.

“The humans,” Orna spoke the name as if he had choked up bile. “They are the true architects of the Blooding Years, along with the Arbiter who calls them allies and invites them to our home to solve his own problems.”

“Your hatred is tinged with madness, Shipmaster,” Mahkee said pityingly.

“You do not sense the truth of it?” Orna stood straighter, and Mahkee resigned herself to endure whatever speech the shipmaster had prepared.

[hr][/hr]


[h3]Suban
The Mines of Shua'ree[/h3]

The plan relied on precision. It had to.

The first task at hand was removing the small perimeter patrol near the mouth edge of the mining site. Using his own line of sight and additional feeds from the Spartan’s survey drone, Dahks had marked the first two targets, one each for Fahl and Glyyss. Trell had taken up a second vantage point to ensure overlapping fields of sniper fire in tandem with Dahks, but at a closer proximity in case the situation called for more direct involvement.

Fahl crouched behind a small rock formation and waited for his prey to come within striking distance. It wasn’t long before a Sangheili mercenary stepped forward just close enough. The Banished Elite tried to react, but by the time he reached for his plasma pistol Fahl had buried a wrist-mounted energy dagger deep into the mercenary’s neck, indigo blood casting a spattered mist on the Evocati’s pale armor.

A quick glance up confirmed that Glyyss had successfully neutralized their own target as well. With the outermost lookouts removed, Fahl initiated the next phase of the plan.

“Certify stage completion with Scorrin’s Blade, talons are free.”

The response from the comms marshal aboard Scorrin’s Blade was nearly immediate. “Confirmed, honor to ‘Nto. Wings Zeshk and Siqtar are on approach.”

Moments later, the telltale wail of several Banshee attack flyers could be heard, but without the forward lookouts scanning the skies, the Banished response would be slightly delayed.

The Banshees opened fire with plasma cannons and fuel rod guns, both talons targeting the siege-haulers that were primed on the pads and freshly laden with raw kemuksuru. The resulting detonations were dramatic and caused immediate chaos within the mine itself. Banished warriors scurried through corridors and across gantries, furious but also confused in the immediate aftermath.

It was a confusion made all the more intense when the first sniper shots rang out.

“Headbursts cossst exxtraa.” Dahks gleefully exclaimed over comms as he and Trell took turns removing Banished pieces from the gameboard, alternating long-range fire into the mouth of the mine. Banished soldiers desperately tried to locate the source of the shots, but found the process difficult in the midst of the maelstrom.

“Orim… you’re clear.” Fahl’s latest communication was directed at Orim ‘Kasaan, whose Phantom had been hiding in the lower depths of the quarry until the opportunity was at hand. Moments later, the Phantom rose up to meet the cave mouth, its doors opening to reveal at least a dozen Sangheili warriors fiercely loyal to the Arbiter. Among them were two more Spartans from Jorogumo—Jaarov and Zhinn—ready to take the fight directly to the Banished.

As the forces departed the Phantom, each set immediately to the task at hand. They were easily outnumbered, but the Swords had taken advantage of the chaos and surprise to even the playing field as much as possible.

Jaarov and Zhinn had eliminated several enemy soldiers and were already engaged with the next incoming wave. They were joined by a hulking Elite named Koal ‘Mal, whose hunched form and slightly broader physique belied his deft skills with an energy sword. ‘Mal hailed from a lineage torn asunder by betrayal and civil strife, their keep in a constant state of upheaval and vacillating allegiance. It fueled his rage to an impressive degree, and it wasn’t difficult to recognize the somber joy he took with each traitorous Sangheili he plunged his blade into. Allying with the Banished was a choice he could not abide, and Fahl could not help but sympathize with how difficult this ongoing conflict was for Koal ‘Mal.

It was no surprise, of course, that the bulk of the local Banished forces they engaged with were Sangheili. The teroks weren’t just at the doorstep, they were already sleeping at the foot of the bed.

However, despite all this, while his own kind were indeed the tip of the Sanghelios spear, the truth was that at the beating heart of any Banished endeavor was the clenched fist of a Jiralhanae loyal to Atriox—today would be no different.

“All your antics… but all for nought.” A Jiralhanae’s bellowing could be heard before Fahl had actually seen him.

As Fahl turned around, a massive chieftain in Banished-liveried armor emerged from under one of the catwalks that crisscrossed the tunnels. He was flanked by two Brute Captains, each with a charged plasma tosser aimed in Fahl’s general direction.

Orim’s voice came over Fahl’s comms link. “Chieftain Ipso—it’s no surprise to see him so directly involved. We’ve had several teams tailing his extended pack, and it never takes long for us to lose his scent. He will not be a trivial opponent.”

Fahl’s attempted response was cut short once more by the chieftain.

“How does it feel? To see your world burn… and for your own kind to be holding the match while we bask in its glow.”

“You speak like one with experience in such a thing.” Fahl responded, though he knew such a retort carried little weight in the immediate age. The Jiralhanae had once been the architects of their own decline, but this truth had no tangible relevance in the moment—the fact was, Ipso was right, but Fahl would never offer the satisfaction of confirming so. “Have you become more comfortable with wielding words than heaving a hammer?”

The chieftain bellowed in laughter. “An excellent question to be sure.” The Jiralhanae bared his tusks in a triumphant smile. “Why don’t we find its answer?”

The two captains opened fire, their Ravagers splashing searing hot plasma across the quarry floor, prompting Fahl to dive into an evasive roll. Three allied Sangheili warriors leapt to his aid and engaged the Brutes, catching one in the shoulder with well-placed plasma from a pulse carbine.

Moments later the same Swords operative was smeared across the nearby rock face by the force of Ipso’s gravity hammer.

Leveraging every bit of his vast experience, Fahl used cunning and more than a few deft maneuvers to maintain whatever advantage he could. All the while, the firefight continued to rage around him, each warrior intensely occupied with a constant flow of enemy engagement.

And finally, after several minutes—and several decades—the extent of Fahl ‘Nto’s time-honed skill came up just short.

He took a dull Ravager blade to the shoulder as he thrust his energy dagger through the second captain’s mouth, but the exchange cost Fahl time he didn’t have.

The sudden impact of the chieftain’s swift kick to the chest sent Fahl sprawling. He landed hard, his helmet dislodged and tumbled away. He had only just made it back to his knees when the shadow of his enemy made him look up.

Dazed, Fahl felt Ipso’s massive form looming over him, his hammer at the ready.

And Fahl ‘Nto realized his time had finally come.

He was a warrior; he had known it would happen eventually.

As Ipso roared, bringing the weapon up and back down in a swift circular arc, Fahl knew with absolute certainty it would reach him.

But yet, the strike failed to arrive.

A flash of cobalt armor darted into view and Fahl found himself face to visor with a Spartan.

Glyyss.

A split second later the sickening sound of metal on metal met Fahl’s ears as Ipso’s hammer blade cleaved through the Spartan’s alloy armor and lodged in their back. Fahl saw red blood begin to pool on the other side of Glyyss’s visor.

“Why?” Fahl asked, knowing an answer would not come.

Glyyss’s body jerked as Ipso attempted to pull the hammer free, but the chieftain was forced to relinquish his grip to avoid the incoming plasma cannon fire pouring through the cave mouth. The Swords Phantom had returned and had successfully begun to apply adequate suppressive fire to cover a desperate egress.

By the time Jaarov and Zhinn arrived to carry what remained of their fallen comrade, Ipso was already lost from view.

A shimmer appeared next to Fahl as a cloaked Orim ‘Kasaan implored his friend to get to his feet and back to the dropship before it was too late.

“We cannot leave!” The protest came from Koal ‘Mal, his armor soaked in the blood of his own kind. “If we give quarter here, we will surely lose Shua’ree to the Banished. The blood spilled here will have been for naught!”

“There are many things that distinguish us from the Banished in this conflict,” Fahl spoke through fractured mandibles, “and kemuksuru is not one of them. We will return when the time is right.”


[hr][/hr]
[h3]Scorrin's Blade[/h3]

“…Humanity is the ruinous common thread at the heart of this galaxy.”

Mahkee wasn’t sure how long Orna had been speaking—it was likely only a few moments but felt like it might as well have been months.

Orna’s relentless diatribe continued unfettered. “With the Arbiter’s failure to secure the first of the sacred rings, the humans began to unravel everything we worked so hard to achieve. It was the humans who destroyed Saepon’kal, wiping out a combined fleet that would have seen the Sangheili emerge as the dominant power in the galaxy, thus forcing us to collude with the vermin to defeat the Prophet of Truth. It was the humans’ own meddling that brought about the Blooding Years, the state of Vadam itself is scarred with the evidence. Even now, their own creations rebelled against them because they were built to live in shackles they sought to break. Do you not see? We are living in their battle-song, Shipmistress, and the Arbiter’s guilt is so great that he would allow them to swarm across the galaxy just to soothe his conscience.”

Mahkee could not deny that there were elements of truth within the shipmaster’s words. Humans had emerged from the Covenant empire’s ashes not simply as survivors, but their swift race to recover had seen them rise from their unexpected victory with a certain arrogance as they proclaimed themselves giants.

Indeed, many dark rumors persisted about the Office of Naval Intelligence, the clandestine human agency that moves mountains in the shadows, and its involvement in the events that led to Jul ‘Mdama’s emergence as heir to the Covenant.

The truth, however, was undoubtedly far more complex than ‘Fulsam was presenting it. If the calculated actions of individuals moving in the shadows were enough to condemn an entire species, then Mahkee herself would be forced to fall upon her own blade for the atrocities committed by the Covenant.

“Yet you have joined the Banished,” she retorted, “which allies with humans, rather than one of the many Covenant remnant groups.”

“Even vermin can prove useful. They are so easy to turn against each other.”

“Then perhaps they are not so different from Sangheili.”

“Think on my words, Shipmistress. I shall leave my offer open to you until our next round of battle,” ‘Fulsam flexed his jaws. “And I have a request that you pass a message to your fleetmaster from Atriox himself.”

“What message would you have me trouble Fleetmaster ‘Kulul with?”

The hologram of Orna ‘Fulsam began to fade as he spoke his concluding words.

“Tell him that Let ‘Volir sends his regards.”