Editing Halo: Ghosts of Onyx

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{{Book Info                 

|name= ''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''

|image=Onyx cover.jpg

|Author= [[Eric Nylund]]

|Publisher= [[Tor|Tor Books]]

|Date Released= October 31, 2006

|Length= 383 Pages

|ISBN= 0765315688

|ISBN-13= 978-0765315687

|Availability= Paperback

|US Price=$7.99

|Can Price=$10.99                       

|UK Price=£6.59

|Amazon=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0765315688

|Product Dimensions= 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches

|Product Dimensions Metric=20.8 x 14 x 2.8 cm

|Shipping Weight= 11 ounces

|Shipping Mass= 341 g

'''''Ghosts of Onyx''''' is the title of the fourth novel in the Halo series. The book is written by [[Eric Nylund]] and published by [[Tor Books]]. It was officially released on October 31^st, 2006.

In addition, the announcement of the title also included a confirmation that ''Ghosts of Onyx'' was not the last planned Halo book. At least two more novels would follow, as part of a contract with Tor. The other two being ''[[Halo: Contact Harvest]]'', and ''[[Halo: The Cole Protocol]]''.

==Brief Summary==  

The [[Spartan-II]] program has gone public. Tales of supersoldiers fending off thousands of [[Covenant]] atacks have become the stuff of legend.

But just how many Spartans are left?

While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions of the Covenant continue thier crusade to eliminate humanity, an ultrasecret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as "Section Three" devises a plan to buy the [[UNSC]] vital time. They're going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though...and one more Spartan to get the job done.

The planet Onyx is virtually abandoned and the perfect place to set this new plan in motion. But when the Master Chief destroys Halo, something is triggered deep within Onyx: Ancient [[Forerunner]] technology stirs, and fleets of UNSC and Covenant race to claim it to change the course of the Human-Covenant war.

But this reawakened and ancient force may have plans of its own...

[[Image:Notfinal Onyx back.jpg|left|thumb|Concept art of ''Onyx''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s back cover.]]

=== Section 0: Beta Company's Victory at Pegasi Delta ===

The prologue begins with the 300 [[SPARTAN-III]]s of [[Beta Company]] being deployed to the [[Covenant]] Planet, [[Pegasi Delta]] in [[2545]]. Out of the 300; 291 hit the ground and proceed towards their target, a Covenant refinery. The Spartans manage to destroy the facility, but due to unexpected heavy Covenant resistance, in the form of seven large [[Covenant]] cruisers, misidentified as part of the factory by the orbiting STARS Satellite, only two; SPARTANS [[Tom-B292]] and [[Lucy-B091]], survive. Tom and Lucy are revealed to be only twelve years old, and Lucy is severely traumatized and rendered mute, being diagnosed with post traumatic vocal disarticulation after the deaths of the other Spartans and several of her companions from [[Team Foxtrot]] [[Adam-B004]] and [[Min-B174]].

The narrative then moves back to 2531 to a raid by [[SPARTAN-II]] [[Blue Team]] against insurrectionists on Planet [[Victoria]] to recover stolen [[FENRIS]] nuclear warheads. Though the team is almost captured, the timely intervention  of [[Kurt-051]] allows the team to complete their mission without any other serious problems. Five months later, [[Colonel James Ackerson]] of Section Three of the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]], meets with the top brass of ONI. During the meeting, Ackerson moves forward a proposal for a new SPARTAN program which retains most of the effectiveness, of the Series II program without the high costs of the previous project. This becomes the [[SPARTAN-III]] program, a more streamlined, "disposable", as well as more numerable, company of SPARTANS that must be trained for high-risk operations.

=== Section 2: SPARTAN-III ===

Like the [[SPARTAN-II]] program, candidates are selected at a young age, and undergo radical biological augmentations as they reach (What would be considered) the normal age of pubity. They are also equipped with special SPI Armor ([[SPI Armor|Semi Powered Infiltration Armor]]). However the difference with the Series-III lies in selecting orphaned volunteers from ages 4 to 6, who are gathered from worlds destroyed by the Covenant. They are trained by the SPARTAN-IIs' original trainer, [[Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez]] Who even in his later years, is still considered the recruit's best and only hope of becoming true SPARTAN's. Had he been a Spartan himself, he would have been one of the the best. Ackerson and the ONI brass agree that only a Spartan can train Spartan's, Ackerson selects Kurt-051 as he is viewed as the best [[SPARTAN-II]] for instructional duties. His death is then staged during a scout mission on a seemingly, and very much so, desolate plateu. He awakens sometime after and meets Colonel Ackerson; who later promotes him to [[Lieutenant, Junior Grade]] and assigns him the name: Lt. Kurt Ambrose. Kurt is then told of the SPARTAN-III project and is given orders to progress and succeed with the seemingly impossible task of creating hundreds, if not thousands of new, 'Disposable Heroes'. The operation is conducted on a classified UNSC controlled world called "[[Onyx]]", which was the site of a major archaeological survey of alien artifacts conducted by ONI.

The first SPARTAN-III company, [[Alpha Company]], proves highly successful, but is wiped out when deployed to a major Covenant shipyard just outside of Human controlled space in a mission codenamed [[Operation PROMETHEUS]]. Devastated by the images of the battle and the loss of his soldiers, [[Kurt]] improves the training regime for Beta Company, but most are killed in action. So in an effort to reduce casualties, Kurt then institutes an illegal bioaugmentation procedure on [[Gamma Company]], which will harden their minds and bodies against pain and shock to better their chances against the Covenant onslaught.

=== Section 3: Intruders ===

The narrative switches to October 31, 2552, the top three teams of the SPARTAN-III [[Gamma Company]], Teams [[Team Saber|Saber]], [[Team Katana|Katana]], and [[Team Gladius|Gladius]], conduct a training exercise near a restricted area on the planet deemed [[Zone 67]], only to find themselves and other U.N.S.C. personnel under attack by an unidentified class of alien drones. Very quickly, the few humans on the planet are either wiped out or struggling to survive against this new, unexpected threat.  

=== Section 4: Dr. Catherine Halsey ===

[[Doctor Catherine Halsey]] and [[Kelly-087]] arrive in the [[Zeta Doradus System]], as they  get closer to Onyx they are attacked by the drones and crash land. Once on the planet, they meet up with the [[human]] survivors of the attacks, including S-III Team Saber, Kurt, and Chief Mendez. Halsey identifies the drones as [[Onyx Sentinel|Sentinels]] from the [[AI| Artificial Intelligence]], [[Cortana]]'s logs of the events of [[Halo: Combat Evolved]]. Halsey proceeds to call for reinforcements, piggybacking her transmission on, ironically, another transmission made by Cortana at the end of [[Halo 2]]. On the message she calls out for caution about the danger coming from the [[Dreadnought]] that includes SPARTAN-117, as well as the omniscient threat of the Flood, which was trying to escape from Delta Halo at the time. 

[[Image:SpartanIII.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Kurt-051 in [[SPI Armor]].]]

The narrative switches to Earth, two weeks after the destruction of New Mombasa, where the planet is under siege by Covenant forces. [[Fred-104]], [[Will-043]], and [[Linda-058]] are pulled out of the line of fire by [[Fleet Admiral Hood]], who responds to Halsey's call for reinforcements by dispatching the Spartans to Onyx. After hijacking a Covenant destroyer called ''[[Bloodied Spirit]]'' and killing all Covenant on board by suffocation, the Spartans head for Onyx, only to be caught in the middle of a battle between [[Brute]] and [[Elite]] ships on the way. The Spartans barely escape and arrive at Onyx only to be attacked by the Sentinels. They escape using a Covenant Dropship and link up with the survivors, and then make their way toward the restricted area of Onyx after shaking Sentinel pursuit.

=== Section 6: The Ghosts of Onyx ===

The narrative switches to [[Delta Halo]], where the Covenant are in the midst of a civil war. The Elites intercept Halsey's message and learn of the existence of Onyx and its Forerunner artifacts and regroup at a Covenant world called [[Joyous Exultation]]. There, the Sangheili leader [[Xytan 'Jar Wattinree]] rallies the Elites together and discuss the apparent treachery of the Brutes and Prophets, and how to go about handling the situation. Ship Master [[Voro 'Mantakree]] speaks to his fellow ship masters and suggests that they go to Onyx, as well as be vigilant of the [[Flood]] threat. He is promoted to the rank of Fleet Master and is given command of a fleet of eighteen [[destroyers]], two cruisers, and one carrier. They then prepare to go to Onyx, and retrieve the [[Forerunner]] technology. Meanwhile on the [[Covenant]] Super-carrier called ''[[Sublime Transcendence]]'', a [[Grunt]] named [[Kwassass]] stumbles upon the [[Huragok]] who are busy examining what is revealed to be [[Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb| Admiral Whitcomb]]'s [[Nova| NOVA]] bomb. The Huragok unknowingly arm it after Kwassass messes with the arming device for sometime. Shortly after the fleet departs for Onyx, the NOVA detonates, scorching the Covenant world with over 300 km per hour winds, shattering its nearby moon, Malhiem, into a billion fragments, and disintegrating the Covenant armada, as well as severely devastating the surface of ''Joyous Exultation''.

Fighting off determined Covenant pursuers, they press on into the heart of the planet to find its secrets, but not before the ONI [[AI]] communicates to Dr. Halsey the importance of shutting down a Forerunner "factory located at the "tip" of the plant that manufactures a new Sentinel every six seconds, or 600 per hour. Disabling the factory, they press on to the planet's core, where they discover a Slipspace rift that shunts those that pass through it to a miniaturized [[Dyson Sphere]] that is separated from normal space-time by advanced Forerunner Slipspace technology. Will-043 and Holly-G003 fall fighting off the Covenant forces, Will-043 engaging several Mgalekgolo in hand to hand combat, before meeting his demise, earning him even the Sangheilli's respect. Halsey, Mendez, Tom, Lucy, and the other Spartans escape. Kurt remains behind in order to stop the Covenant from following the humans into the Dyson Sphere. He waits for the core doors to fully close and then he lists Kurt Ambrose as MIA under SPARTAN-051 along with the other Spartans, adhering to the tradition of never listing a fallen Spartan as KIA. He ends his life responding to the Elite Fleet Master, "''Die? Didn't you know?... Spartans never die,''" he detonates the two [[FENRIS]] nuclear warheads that the team had taken with them.

From outside [[Onyx]], the surviving UNSC prowler ''Dusk'' watches on as the planet's surface rips apart, to reveal that the entire world is constructed of literally trillions of Sentinels, all connected together to provide an impenetrable defense around the Dyson Sphere at the heart of the planet. Within this sphere, which features terrain similar to that of Earth. Dr Halsey reveals that five pods they recovered before destroying the sentinel factory are pods that suspends the user inside a Slipspace field, the user is extruded into an alternate set of spacial co-ordinates excluded from time and nothing can harm them, because technically they are not there. 5 of the remaining Spartans, known as Team Katana, are each trapped in a [[Slipspace Field Pod]]. Concluding the story, Fred-104 takes command of the remaining survivors who find themselves alone in the vast habitat. Fred orders Dr. Halsey and the others to find the Forerunner artifacts and search for method of escape. Kelly then welcomes the new Spartan III's to the Blue Team, ensuring that they were "going to make a great team."

Although the ending winded up having an upbeat tone, nonetheless, the problem remained of the Spartan-III's lack of proper medication to keep their mental and physical capabilities intact.  In time, they would fall prey to their own bodies' needs.

==Characters==

{{Scroll box|

*Senior Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-II [[Fred]]-104 (Presently Lieutenant, Junior Grade)

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-II [[Kelly]]-087

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-II [[Linda]]-058

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-II [[Will]]-043

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-III [[Spartan-Shane|Shane-A]]

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-III [[Spartan-Robert|Robert-A]]

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-III [[Spartan-Jane|Jane-A]]

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-III [[Tom-B292]]

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-III [[Lucy-B091]]

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-III [[Adam-B004]]

*Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-III [[Min-B174]]

*Private SPARTAN-III [[Ash-G099]]

*Petty Officer Third Class SPARTAN-III [[Holly-G003]]<ref>Halopedian [[User:Strongbadrunner|Strongbadrunner]] contacted Eric Nylund, and he said the notation of her as G122 was an error.</ref>

*Petty Officer Third Class SPARTAN-III [[Spartan-Olivia|Olivia-G]]

*Petty Officer Third Class SPARTAN-III [[Spartan-Mark|Mark-G]]

*Petty Officer Third Class SPARTAN-III [[Dante-G188]]

*[[Catherine Halsey|Dr. Catherine Halsey]]

*[[John-117|Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN-II John-117]] (appears briefly in Chapter 1)

*[[Fleet Master]] [[Voro Nar 'Mantakree]]

*[[Xytan 'Jar Wattinree]] ([[Imperial Admiral]] and Regent Command of the [[Combined Fleet of Righteous Purpose]]).

==Errors==

On his blog, [[Eric Nylund]] has confirmed that there will be a reprint some time in the future, fixing many errors in the book. The time for this is not yet known.<ref>http://www.ericnylund.net/2006/11/quick-fix.html</ref>

===List of Errors===

:''[[Oly Oly Oxen Free]]''—"Olly Olly Oxen Free"

*On page 92 Senior Chief Mendez says that Tom and Lucy are 10 years old, but in the Prologue, which takes place 4 years later, they are only 12 years old.

*On page 209 a [[Brute Shot]] is described as an RPG, or rocket-propelled grenade (see [[Wikipedia:rocket-propelled grenade|rocket-propelled grenade on Wikipedia]]). The Brute Shots are type-25 grenade launchers and do not use rockets and are simply grenade launchers.

*On page 287, Commander [[Lash]] mentions a watch given to him by his father upon graduation of OSC, but it is likely that he graduated from ''OCS'', or Officer Candidate School.

*On page 314 the A.I. [[Endless Summer]] says U.S.N.C. instead of U.N.S.C.

*On page 320, after Holly says "Hurry", it misspells her name as "Holy".

==Trivia==

[[File:Onyxandterminalsymbol.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Forerunner]] symbol from the front cover and the symbol from the [[terminals]].]]

*The cover of the book displays the three primary armor types worn by the [[Spartan-II]]s and [[Spartan-III]]s. The figure in the left (Presumably [[Kelly-087]], as she did not return to [[Earth]] to receive the upgraded armor as the other Spartans did) wears [[MJOLNIR|MJOLNIR Mark V]] armor. The center figure (the book reveals this figure to be [[Fredric-104]], [[Will-043]], or [[Linda-058]], though it is likely not Linda, as she would be armed with an SRS-99C [[SRS99C-S2 AMB Sniper Rifle|Sniper Rifle]]) wears the newer [[MJOLNIR Mark VI]] Armor. The figure on the right (revealed to be either [[Kurt-051]] or one of the Spartan-IIIs) wears [[SPI Mark II]] armor.

*During the stage that it was still called ''Ghosts of Coral'', two chapters were cut from the novel for 'pacing reasons' though Nylund has expressed a desire to release these. <ref>http://www.ericnylund.net/2008/02/foul.html</ref>

==References==

<references/>

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