Halo: Smoke and Shadow: Difference between revisions

{{Title|''Halo: Smoke and Shadow''}}

{{Novel infobox

|name=''Halo: Smoke and Shadow''

|image=[[File:Halo Smoke and Shadow cover.jpg|300px]]

|publisher=Simon & Schuster

|publication=[[2016|November 28, 2016]] (Digital)<ref name="s&s">[http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/HALO-Smoke-and-Shadow/Kelly-Gay/HALO/9781501144608 '''Simon & Schuster''' - ''Halo: Smoke and Shadow'']</ref><br>[[2018|January 16, 2018]] (Print)

|length=98 pages<ref>[https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/smoke-and-shadow/id1156181485?mt=11 '''iTunes''' - ''Halo: Smoke and Shadow'']</ref>

}}

==Official summary==

==Plot synopsis==

The story opens in the city of [[New Tyne]] on the colony [[Venezia]] in January [[2557]], where Rion Forge oversees a sale of salvaged weapons to a [[Sangheili]] customer. Drinking at a bar with the money earned a month earlier selling [[Forerunner]] technology, she considers the financial rewards for recovering and using a luminary to hunt down other relics while sitting with a fellow businesswoman, a [[T'vaoan]] salvage dealer named [[Nor Fel]] who she provided a [[stasis field]] generator to earlier that day. Having formed a close business relationship over the past few years since her mate's death, Nor Fel trusts Rion enough to go on a salvage mission to recover an object that would keep them wealthy for the rest of their lives.

Onboard the crew conduct a meeting over their new job. Kip is the first to express concern, as he believes they will be recovering a UNSC ship, which salvaging is restricted due to the [[UNSC Salvage Directive]]. Niko assures him however that the directive is unenforceable due to the Post-War condition of both the UNSC and the UEG's control over the colonies in general, and the few [[Outer Colonies]] in particular. Rion, otherwise, sees no problem to be had with the UNSC, who are known to re-buy recovered materiel from New Tyne anyway, though she is unwilling to take weapons of mass destruction to the depot and instead offers to report it to the Salvage Directive. With the crew in agreement over the mission, Rio confirms the ship is in the [[Ectanus 45 system]], which the UEG lost in [[2535]] with the glassing of [[Chi Rho]]. A small post-war settlement exists on its moon, [[Eiro]], with the ship crashed nearby.

When the ''Ace of Spades'' arrives at Rion's position, she orders Niko to find a nearby communications satellite and find information on the ship that attacked the ''Roman Blue''. Rion then leaves to take a shower. There, she starts thinking of her first job as a crewman on the cargo ship ''[[Hakon]]''. There the aging condition of the senior staff led to growing disorder among the crew, with Rion killing a newer crew member, [[Sorely]], six years into her service. Gaining full respect from the crew and the staff, she received training in how to run the ship, finally doing so when the two senior officers died. When Rion returns to duty, Niko gives her an update: the nearest comm satellite is orbiting [[Chi Rho]], and the attacking ship is virtually undetectable when not in combat. Rion and Cade discuss the likeliness of ONI just happening on the ship at the same time as them. It doesn't fit, and they suspect they have been tracked ever since leaving [[Venezia]]. Moving to the issue of their exploration of the ship itself, Rion reveals to the crew having found information on the missing UNSC ''Spirit of Fire'' - that the Covenant ship ''[[Radiant Perception]]'' picked up a navigation buoy dropped by it to alert the UNSC of its intended course. Their salvage mission is thus changed to finding the ''Radiant Perception''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s wreckage and the buoy.

Rion sends a message to [[Nor Fel]] via the comm satellite asking about Covenant destroyers. Fal is hesitant to get involved as the Covenant remnants and pirates are more than willing to take out anyone who could recover a wreckage before them. Rion demands for money; having paid Nor for the location of the ''Roman Blue'' and lost equipment in the attack as well as the wreckage, she finds it a worthless sale. Aware of the [[Kig-Yar]] race's obsession with collecting things, she knows the threat of refund would make Nor more approachable. Rion quickly relaxes her demand and instead asks for the Covenant Navy's logistical records on the ''Radiant Perception'', particularly relating to its current fate. Rion is more sure of success this time, as its active career so early into the war would show a decent record.

Niko meanwhile tinkers with the buoy. Over the course of the night he writes various decryption codes in an attempt to hack into the buoy, but is constantly denied access to a message recorded by the UNSC ''Spirit of Fire''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s AI, Serina. He is almost asleep when the final process works. He fetches Rion to examine the message:

The coordinates surprise Rion greatly. The ''Spirit of Fire'''s role in the [[Battle for Arcadia]] was little understood, let alone what happened after. The coordinates indicated it successfully left the system into uncharted space, explaining why no wreckage was recovered. Rion's happiness is cut short however when Lessa notifies her that the Covenant freighter is on approach.

Cade heads back to support Rion, who tries to warn him about Gek near the entrance, but he's caught off guard by the Sangheili commander. Cade slides a bag of grenades across the floor toward Rion, right before Gek plunges his energy sword into his chest. Horrified and enraged, Rion charges Gek, jumping on his back and firing her pistol at his head at the same time that he strikes her with his forearm. The bullet cuts across his left eye and blinds him. Gek grabs Rion and flings her across the room into a wall, before going to Cade and ripping his dog tags from his neck. Despite the pain, Rion manages to crawl toward the bag of grenades and pulls out a [[fragmentation grenade|frag]], holding it high and flicking the safety. She faces off with Gek, prepared to die before leaving Cade. Gek hesitates, understanding that the blast would kill them both, before he retreats with the luminary. Rion crawls to Cade's side. The wound has been cauterized by the sword's plasma and his breath comes in shallow, and Rion knows there's nothing she can do. She grabs his hand, and Cade fights to speak past the blood in his throat, managing to tell her that it's okay before he dies.

On ''Ace of Spades'', Rion meets Lessa in the med bay with Cade and, after comforting the grieving girl, goes to work on removing Cade's gear, cleaning him, and putting on his dress blues. The process is slow, her way of saying goodbye. She regrets the distance they had kept between them and their fear of losing each other. Afterward, the crew takes ''Ace'' to the nearby dwarf star, and they send a pod with Cade's body into the heart of the star.

*[[Hesduros]] {{Mo}}

*[[Korinth Prior system]]

*[[Orrichon system]]

**[[Sedra]] {{Mo}}

**[[Harvest campaign]] {{Im}}

**[[Battle for Arcadia]] {{Mo}}

**[[Fall of Arcadia]] {{Mo}}

*[[Post-Covenant War conflicts]]

*[[Rocket launcher]] {{Mo}}

*[[Type-1 energy sword]]

|title-7=Vehicles|

*{{Class|Bactrian|freighter}} {{Mo}}

*{{UNSCShip|Burlington}} {{mo}}

**''[[Radiant Perception]]''  

*{{Class|Halcyon|light cruiser}}

*[[Log buoy]]

*[[Luminary]]

*[[Combat harness|Sangheili combat harness]]

*[[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] {{Mo}}

==Gallery==

<gallery>

File:Halo Smoke and Shadow clean cover.jpg|Cover art.

</gallery>