Halo: Primordium: Difference between revisions

[[Frank O'Connor]] has mentioned that the story will have "resonant connections" to ''[[Halo 4]]''.<ref name="SDCC"/>

The book begins with an ONI science team interrogating a damaged Forerunner [[monitor]], believed to be a duplicate of a previously encountered device, questioning it about the [[Didact]] and the ancient relations between Forerunners and humans. The monitor, revealing that it was once a human named [[Chakas]], then proceeds to tell the story of its origins through a series of flashbacks. Over the course of the story, the monitor breaches [[UNSC Rubicon|the ship]]'s firewall several times, much to the team's dismay. None of the human characters in the present-day segments are identified by name and are only referred to by their titles.

At first, the monitor describes his childhood and youth as Chakas, and how he met his companion Riser. He then recounts the events of ''Halo: Cryptum'' from Chakas' perspective and explains how the [[Librarian]]'s ''[[geas]]'' caused "old spirits", or genetically imprinted personalities of humans who fought in the [[Human-Forerunner war]]s, to surface within him and Riser. After the Didact, Bornstellar and the two humans are captured by the [[Faber|Master Builder]] at [[Janjur Qom]], Chakas is separated from the others and is put into stasis.

After Chakas recovers, he soon finds that he is host to the archived personality of [[Forthencho]], the Lord of Admirals, who commanded the [[Prehistoric human civilization|human]] military forces against the [[Ur-Didact|Didact]]'s [[Forerunner fleet|fleets]] in the [[Charum Hakkor campaign|final battle]] of [[Charum Hakkor]]. Vinnevra takes Chakas to see Gamelpar, who explains that he was originally from Earth and, like Chakas, also holds an "old spirit" within him. The old man also explains the history of the humans on the installation, and reveals that he has once been taken to what the humans call the [[Palace of Pain]]; this is later revealed to be a general term for the [[Flood research facility|Flood research facilities]] on the installation.

After crossing the lake, the three are found by a Lifeworker named [[Genemender Folder of Fortune]], several [[Denisovan]]s, and a [[Wikipedia:Gigantopithecus|large ape]]. Strangely, Genemender and the humans cast off no smell and the insects are not interested in them. After being fed by Genemender and sent to sleep, Chakas awakens to see Riser, who warns him not to trust the Lifeworker and the other humans. Genemender then takes Chakas to a laboratory and explains what has occurred regarding the history of the [[Flood]], the [[Halo Array]], the devastation of [[Janjur Qom]], and the battle of the Capital. Genemender also explains that the Master Builder's attack on Janur Qom caused a small civil war to break out among the Forerunners defying the Master Builder, of which Genemender was one. Genemender is eventually forced to reveal that he and the humans in his compound are not actually alive, but archived personalities manifesting as life-like [[hard light]] [[holography|holograms]]. Genemender, who is actually based within a monitor, is under orders to salvage the humans' genetic records to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Flood and the Master Builder. The monitor wants to do this to Gamelpar, who is dying, but Gamelpar rejects him and has Chakas accompany him in his final moments. Before dying, Gamelpar has Chakas promise to watch over Vinnevra. The systems in the area then power down, leaving Chakas, Riser, Vinnevra, and the ape, whose name is revealed to be [[Mara]] by Riser, who can communicate with her, to continue their journey.

Riser then tells Chakas how he found them. During the battle over the Forerunner capital, Riser and the Forerunners that were holding him crashed on Installation 07. One of the Forerunners, who was locked up by the others due to him being on the opposing side of the small civil war caused by the Master Builder, told the others that Riser was valuable due to his ''geas'', and thus the others protected him as they moved out. After a while of traveling over a desert infested with Flood biomass, the group was covered in [[Flood spores]], killing the Forerunners but not Riser, who continued traveling until he stumbled upon Chakas.

Shortly afterward, the Didact brings a mortally wounded Chakas ‌– who is already undergoing conversion into a monitor ‌– with him to confront the Primordial, who has been imprisoned. The ensuing conversation reveals that the Primordial is actually a Gravemind, and that more Precursors may have survived [[Forerunner-Precursor war|their war with the Forerunners]]. The Didact claims that war happened because the Precursors resented any who might take up the [[Mantle]], but the Primordial explains that the Forerunners had been deemed unfit for the Mantle. The Primordial asserts that "there is no difference" between the Flood and the Precursors, although it does not reveal the precise nature of their relationship. It also reveals that no human was ever truly immune to the Flood, but the Flood can choose whether to infect or not infect. The Primordial states that the Flood is a test to judge a species' worthiness of inheriting the Mantle, stating that the Forerunners are to be eliminated and that humans will be tested next once they rise again. At the conversation's conclusion, the Didact kills the Primordial by activating a reverse stasis chamber that forces the Primordial to go through a billion years of aging in several seconds, causing it to disintegrate.

The book ends with the Guilty Spark duplicate being ejected into space after powering down, but not before he injects his data stream into the ship's computer, subdues the shipboard AI and takes control of the ship. He then explains to the crew that he desires to resume his quest to find the Librarian and retrieve the old spirits of Riser and Vinnevra. Asserting that the Librarian is actually alive, he puts the crew to sleep and has the ship proceed to her location.