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{{Title|''Halo: Mortal Dictata''}}
{{Title|''Halo: Mortal Dictata''}}
{{Era|RW}}
{{Status|RealWorld}}
{{disambig header|the novel|the legislation|UN Colonial Mortal Dictata}}
{{disambig header|the novel|the legislation|UN Colonial Mortal Dictata}}
{{Novel infobox
{{Novel infobox
|image=[[File:HaloMortalDictata.jpg|200px]]
|name=''Halo: Mortal Dictata''
|variant=KiloFive
|image=[[File:HaloMortalDictata.jpg|300px]]
|author=Karen Traviss
|author=Karen Traviss
|publisher=[[Tor Books]]
|cover artist= Dave Seeley{{Ref/Site|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=https://www.daveseeley.com/p318928939/h684299F8#h684299f8|Site=The Art of Dave Seeley|Page=Halo Mortal Dictata - Tor Books - Karen Traviss}}
|publication=[[2014|January 2014]]
|illustrator=
|media=Print (Paperback, hardcover), Audiobook
|editor=
|length=
|audio=Euan Morton
|ISBN=
|publisher=[[Tor Books]] (original)<br>[[Simon & Schuster]] (2019 edition)
|publication=[[2014|January 21, 2014]] (original)<ref name="amazon">[http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Mortal-Dictata-Karen-Traviss/dp/076533545X '''Amazon''' - ''Halo: Mortal Dictata'']</ref><br>April 2, 2019
|media=Print (paperback, hardcover); audiobook
|length=496 pages (original)<br>544 pages (2019 edition)
|ISBN=[[Special:BookSources/0765323958|0765323958]], [[Special:BookSources/978-0765323958|978-0765323958]], [[Special:BookSources/978-1982111854|978-1982111854]]
|series=[[Kilo-Five Trilogy]]
|preceded=''[[Halo: The Thursday War]]''
|followed=
|multiseries=
|notable=
}}
}}
'''''Halo: Mortal Dictata''''' will be the third and last novel in the [[Kilo-Five Trilogy]] by [[Karen Traviss]], and a direct follow-up to ''[[Halo: The Thursday War]]''. It will be released in [[2014|January 2014]].<ref name="tor">[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/the-halo-kilo-five-trilogy-will-conclude-this-january '''Tor.com:''' ''The Halo Kilo-Five Trilogy Will Conclude This January'']</ref>


==Official Summary==
'''''Halo: Mortal Dictata''''' is the third and last novel in the [[Kilo-Five Trilogy]] by [[Karen Traviss]], and a direct follow-up to ''[[Halo: The Thursday War]]''. The book was published on [[2014|January 21, 2014]].{{Ref/Reuse|amazon}}<ref name="tor">[http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/07/the-halo-kilo-five-trilogy-will-conclude-this-january '''Tor.com:''' ''The Halo Kilo-Five Trilogy Will Conclude This January'']</ref>


{{Article Quote|Wars end. But hatred, guilt, and devotion can endure beyond the grave.
==Official summary==
{{Article quote|Wars end. But hatred, guilt, and devotion can endure beyond the grave.


With the Covenant War over, the Office of Naval Intelligence faces old grievances rising again to threaten Earth. The angry, bitter colonies, still with scores to settle from the insurrection put on hold for thirty years, now want justice—and so does a man whose life was torn apart by ONI when his daughter was abducted for the SPARTAN-II program. Black ops squad Kilo-Five find their loyalties tested beyond breaking point when the father of their Spartan comrade, still searching for the truth about her disappearance,prepares to glass Earth’s cities to get an answer. How far will Kilo-Five go to stop him? And will he be able to live with the truth when he finds it? The painful answer lies with a man long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place.}}<ref>http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/07/halo-mortal-dictata-excerpt#more</ref>
With the [[Human-Covenant War|Covenant War]] over, the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] faces old grievances rising again to threaten [[Earth]]. The angry, bitter colonies, still with scores to settle from the [[insurrection]] put on hold for thirty years, now want justice — and so does [[Staffan Sentzke|a man]] whose life was torn apart by ONI when [[Naomi-010|his daughter]] was abducted for the [[SPARTAN-II program]]. Black ops squad [[Kilo-Five]] find their loyalties tested beyond breaking point when the father of their Spartan comrade, still searching for the truth about her disappearance, prepares to glass Earth’s cities to get an answer. How far will Kilo-Five go to stop him? And will he be able to live with the truth when he finds it? The painful answer lies with a man long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place.<ref name="excerpt">[http://www.tor.com/stories/2013/07/halo-mortal-dictata-excerpt#more '''Tor.com:''' ''Halo: Mortal Dictata (Excerpt)'']</ref>}}
 
==Plot synopsis==
{{Spoiler/begin}}
In [[2517]], [[Naomi-010|Naomi]], the daughter of [[Staffan Sentzke]]—then an ordinary family man living on [[Sansar]]—fails to return home from school in time. Abducted by an [[Office of Naval Intelligence|ONI]] recovery team for the [[SPARTAN-II program]], Naomi unexpectedly awakens and escapes her captors for a time, but is eventually caught and a [[flash cloning|flash clone]] is left in her place. After several hours' search, Naomi is evidently found in a [[New Stockholm|nearby town]]. However, Staffan begins to doubt whether this is his daughter after all, and after the child's death and [[Lena Sentzke|his wife]]'s subsequent suicide he dedicates his life to uncovering the truth about Naomi's disappearance.
 
In the present, in [[2553#April|April 2553]], [[Malcolm Geffen|Mal Geffen]] and [[Vasily Beloi|Vaz Beloi]] of [[Kilo-Five]] are deployed on [[Venezia]] disguised as UNSC deserters to infiltrate into the local militia and find ''[[Pious Inquisitor]]'', a [[Ket-pattern battlecruiser|Covenant battlecruiser]] which Staffan Sentzke seeks to acquire. Sentzke plans to use the ship to threaten Earth with [[glassing]] in order to coerce the authorities into providing answers about his daughter's disappearance decades earlier. ''Pious Inquisitor'' is in the possession of the [[Kig-Yar]] [[Sav Fel]], who stole the ship from the Sangheili rebel faction known as the [[Servants of the Abiding Truth]]. [[Avu Med 'Telcam]], leader of the Abiding Truth, hires the Kig-Yar [[Shipmaster|Shipmistress]] [[Chol Von]] to hunt down Fel and ''Inquisitor'', but Von has plans of her own: she intends to keep the ship to herself as part of her effort to build a unified Kig-Yar navy.
 
While selling ''Pious Inquisitor'' to Sentzke, Sav Fel demonstrates the destructive power of the battlecruiser's [[energy projector|ventral beam]], destroying a [[Forerunner]] ruin on [[Shaps III]]. [[Sometimes Sinks]], a [[Huragok]] aboard the ship, is horrified about this and develops a particular loyalty to Sentzke after he convinces the Kig-Yar to test the beam away from the ruins. Sentzke then buys ''Pious Inquisitor'' and the Huragok with it, dubbing the ship ''Naomi'' in honor of his daughter. After Mal and Vaz have infiltrated Sentzke's organization, they are soon taken to see the ship due to their professed experience with Covenant equipment. Using a tracer planted by Vaz, Kilo-Five attempt to remotely seize control of ''Pious Inquisitor'' from Venezia, but Sometimes Sinks blocks the intrusion.
 
After questioning [[Huz Mor-Kha]], cousin of Fel's associate [[Eith Mor]], Chol travels to the [[Station of Constant Sustenance]], where she tracks down Mor and learns the last known whereabouts of Fel and ''Pious Inquisitor''. Chol and her crew track down and capture Sav Fel on Venezia in order to force him to reveal the location of ''Pious Inquisitor''. Deducing they have something to do with Fel's disappearance as well as the earlier hacking attempt of ''Pious Inquisitor'', Sentzke has Mal and Vaz captured and interrogated; Vaz soon reveals that he has information about Staffan's daughter. While Sentzke continues to question Vaz in a secure location, [[Black-Box]] uses Mal and Vaz's [[neural interface|neural transponders]] to locate them. Naomi takes the team's new dropship, ''[[Bogof]]'', to free Mal from the rebels' compound while [[Lian Devereaux]] goes after Vaz on ''[[Tart-Cart]]'', also taking Sentzke prisoner. They make it to {{UNSCShip|Port Stanley}} and Staffan Sentzke is soon allowed to reunite with his daughter. While he receives closure for his decades of pursuit of the truth, Staffan also learns that despite her opportunity to leave, Naomi is unwilling to give up her life as a Spartan in favor of a normal family life.
 
Meanwhile, Chol Von's crew locate ''Pious Inquisitor'' and make their way inside. Sometimes Sinks, distrustful of the Kig-Yar and only compliant to Sentzke's orders, places the ship in complete lockdown and transitions it to coordinates previously designated by Sentzke. After Kilo-Five locate the ship, Sentzke convinces Sometimes Sinks to allow them to come onboard. However, it is revealed that Sentzke plans to escape, having surmised that ONI would never allow him to go free. Sentzke has Vaz promise to take care of Naomi, in turn giving his word to cease his aggression against Earth. Mal and Naomi board the ship in a different location; on their way to the bridge, they are forced into a firefight with members of the Kig-Yar crew. Chol Von, still adamant in her refusal to give up ''Pious Inquisitor'', finally sets the ship to explode and escapes with her remaining crew. While Kilo-Five escape to their dropships, Sentzke takes a [[Dextro Xur-pattern Spirit|Spirit]] from the [[shuttle bay]] but stays in range, seemingly at the risk of his own life, until he can ensure Naomi is safe. Vaz requests BB to give Sentzke the file on Naomi's kidnapping to prove him right to his doubting family; BB complies and sends the files to Sentzke's Spirit. BB confronts Sentzke, noting that while the Spirit's conventional engines would never allow him to make it to a safe distance of the explosion, Sometimes Sinks had secretly rigged the dropship with a miniature [[slipspace drive]] which would enable him to escape. However, Black-Box points out that ONI would never stop hunting Sentzke if they knew he was alive, but instead chooses to erase his own recollection of the incident, leaving Kilo-Five to conclude that Sentzke died in the explosion.
 
After a debriefing with [[Margaret Parangosky|Admiral Parangosky]], Osman finally chooses to look at her personal file and uncover the truth about her family after years of reluctance. She learns that her mother was a drug addict and prostitute who abandoned her in an early age and that the only one who cared about her was [[Alkmini Leandro|her schoolteacher]]. Osman goes to meet her teacher on her former homeworld of [[Cascade]] while the rest of the team take a short shore leave. Back on ''Port Stanley'', Vaz receives an anonymous package in the mail. Naomi and the others gather to inspect the contents, which are revealed to be a miniature chair for a doll's house Staffan was building for Naomi, and a [[planetarium lamp]] he had planned to give her on her sixth birthday. From this, Kilo-Five surmise that Sentzke is still alive, but they choose to quietly bury the matter.
 
In the epilogue, the identity of Black-Box's brain donor is revealed as [[Graham Alban|Graham J. Alban]], a scientist and personal friend of Admiral Parangosky who worked on the SPARTAN-II program and committed suicide over the perceived ethical violations he had been part of.
{{Spoiler/end}}
 
==Appearances==
{{Featurelist|secondcolumn=title-5|title-1=Characters|
;Human
*[[Alkmini Leandro]] {{1st}}
*[[Andrew Remo]] {{Fm}}
*[[Arthur-079]] {{Mo}}
*[[Catherine Halsey]] {{Mo}}
*[[Damien Hogarth]] {{Mo}}
*[[Edvin Sentzke]] {{1st}}
*[[Evan Phillips]]
*[[Franklin Mendez]] {{Mo}}
*[[Gareth]]
*[[Graham Alban]] {{1st}}
*[[Hedda Sentzke]] {{1st}}
*[[Jakob]] {{1st}}
*[[Janey Sentzke]] {{1st}}
*[[John-117]] {{Mo}}
*[[Kelvin]] {{1st}}
*[[Kerstin Sentzke]] {{1st}}
*[[Laura Sentzke]] {{1st}}
*[[Lena Sentzke]] {{1st}}
*[[Lian Devereaux]]
*[[Malcolm Geffen]]
*[[Margaret Parangosky]]
*[[Mike Spenser]]
*[[Nairn]] {{1st}}
*[[Naomi-010]]
*[[Nor Fel]] {{1st}}
*[[Peter Moritz]] {{1st}}
*[[Pinar Çelik]] {{C|First mentioned}}
*[[Saul]] {{1st}}
*[[Serin Osman]]
*[[Staffan Sentzke]]
*[[Terrence Hood]] {{Mo}}
*[[Vasily Beloi]]
;Kig-Yar/T'vaoan
*[[Ais]] {{1st}}
*[[Bakz]] {{1st}}
*[[Chol Von]] {{1st}}
*[[Dhak]] {{1st}}
*[[Eith Mor]] {{1st}}
*[[Gon]] {{1st}}
*[[Hiiq]] {{1st}}
*[[Huz Mor-Kha]] {{1st}}
*[[Isk]] {{1st}}
*[[Jec]] {{1st}}
*[[Kij]] {{1st}}
*[[Laik]] {{1st}}
*[[Lig]] {{1st}}
*[[Noit]] {{1st}}
*[[Nulm]] {{1st}}
*[[Ril]] {{1st}}
*[[Sav Fel]]
*[[Skal]] {{1st}}
*[[Ved]] {{1st}}
*[[Vek]] {{1st}}
*[[Zim]] {{1st}}
;Sangheili
*[[Avu Med 'Telcam]]
*[[Dural 'Mdama]] {{Mo}}
*[[Jul 'Mdama]] {{Mo}}
*[[Raia 'Mdama]] {{Mo}}
*[[Thel 'Vadam]] {{Mo}}
;Huragok
*[[Leaks Repaired]]
*[[Prone to Drift]] {{Mo}}
*[[Requires Adjustment]]
*[[Sometimes Sinks]] {{1st}}
;Artificial intelligence
*[[Araqiel]] {{Mo}}
*[[Black-Box]]
*[[Cortana]] {{Mo}}
*[[Harriet]] {{Mo}}
|title-2=Species|
*[[Forerunner]] {{Mo}}
*[[Flood]] {{Mo}}
*[[Human]]
*[[Jiralhanae]]
*[[Kig-Yar]]
**[[T'vaoan]]
*[[San'Shyuum]] {{Mo}}
*[[Sangheili]]
*[[Unggoy]]
|title-3=Organizations|
*[[Covenant]] {{Mo}}
*[[Covenant remnants]]
**[[Servants of the Abiding Truth]]
**[[Swords of Sanghelios]] {{Mo}}
***[[Fleet of Retribution]] {{Mo}}
*[[Insurrectionist]]
**[[Venezian militia]] {{1st}}
*[[Unified Earth Government]]
**[[UN Repatriation Office]] {{Fm}}
**[[United Nations Space Command]]
***[[UNSC Marine Corps]]
****[[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]]
*****[[105th Shock Troops Division]]
******[[10th Shock Troops Battalion]] {{Mo}}
******[[15th Shock Troops Battalion]] {{Mo}}
***[[UNSC Navy]]
***[[Naval Special Weapons]]
****[[SPARTAN-II program]]
***[[Office of Naval Intelligence]]
****[[Kilo-Five]]
****[[Department of Colonial Security]] {{1st}}
***[[UNSC Fleet Auxiliary]] {{Mo}}
**[[Colonial Administration Authority]] {{Mo}}
***[[Colonial Military Authority]] {{Mo}}
***[[Reach militia]] {{Mo}}
|title-4=Locations|
*[[Brunel system]]
**[[New Llanelli]]
*[[Cascade]]
**[[Lhopat]]
***[[Mindoro]]
****[[Fort Southwick]] {{1st}}
****[[Nova Austin Station]] {{Mo}}
**[[Kowloon]] {{1st}}
***[[Old Admiralty Hotel]] {{1st}}
**[[St. Malo]] {{1st}}
*[[Cordoba system]] {{Fm}}
*[[Criterion]] {{Mo}}
*[[Dryad]] {{Fm}}
*[[Epsilon Eridani system]]
**[[Reach]] {{Mo}}
*[[Far Isle]] {{Mo}}
*[[Herschel]] {{Fm}}
*[[Imber]] {{Mo}}
*[[Ivanoff Station]] {{Mo}}
*[[Korfo system]] {{1st}}
**[[Station of Constant Sustenance]] {{1st}}
*[[Lostwithiel]] {{Fm}}
*[[Qab system]]
**[[Venezia]]
***[[Grexco tantalum extraction plant]] {{1st}}
***[[New Tyne]]
****[[Jarrow Crossroads]]
****[[Mount Longdon Road]] {{1st}}
****[[New Tyne Airfield]] {{1st}}
****[[Stavros' Middle East Asian Cuisine and Bar]] {{1st}}
****[[Stuttgart armory]] {{1st}}
***[[Weymouth Island]] {{1st}}
*[[Reynes]]
*[[Sansar]]
**[[New Atlantic Province]] {{1st}}
***[[Alstad]] {{1st}}
**[[New Stockholm]] {{1st}}
*[[Shaps system]] {{1st}}
**[[Shaps III]] {{1st}}
*[[Sol system]]
**[[Earth]]
***[[Australia]]
****[[Sydney]]
*****[[HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6]]
***[[United Republic of North America|Canada]] {{Mo}}
***[[Scandinavia]] {{Mo}}
*[[Urs system]]
**[[Sanghelios]] {{Mo}}
***[[Acroli]] {{Mo}}
****[[Nes'alun keep]] {{Mo}}
***[[Mdama]]
****[[Bekan keep]] {{Mo}}
***[[Ontom]] {{Mo}}
****[[Temple of the Abiding Truth]] {{Mo}}
***[[Vadam]]
****[[Vadam keep]] {{Mo}}
*[[Y'Deio system]]
**[[Ap'ot]] {{1st}}
**[[Dal'koth]] {{1st}}
**[[Eayn]]
***[[Tilu City]] {{1st}}
****[[Riran highway]] {{1st}}
**[[T'vao]] {{1st}}
***[[Myur City]] {{1st}}
|title-5=Events|
*[[Great Schism]]
*[[Human-Covenant War]] {{Mo}}
*[[Insurrection]]
*[[Operation: TREBUCHET]] {{Mo}}
*[[Blooding Years]]
*[[Skirmish on Pious Inquisitor|Skirmish on ''Pious Inquisitor'']] {{1st}}
*[[SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures]] {{Mo}}
|title-6=Vehicles|
*[[AC-220 Vulture]] {{Mo}}
*[[AV-14 Hornet]] {{Mo}}
*[[B-65 Shortsword]] {{Mo}}
*{{Class|Calypso|exfiltration craft}}
*{{Pattern|Ket|battlecruiser}}
**''[[Pious Inquisitor]]''
*{{Pattern|Mjern|agricultural support ship}} {{Mo}}
*[[Covenant frigate]] {{Mo}}
*[[D82-EST Darter]] {{Mo}}
*[[D96-TCE Albatross]] {{Mo}}
*''[[Distant Beacon]]'' {{Fm}}
*[[Freighter]] {{Mo}}
*[[Kig-Yar shuttle]]
*[[M274 Mongoose]]
*[[Missionary ship]]
**''[[Paragon]]'' {{1st}}
*Modified [[Pelican]]
**''[[Tart-Cart]]''
**''[[Bogof]]'' {{1st}}
*[[Prowler]]
**{{UNSCShip|Port Stanley}}
*[[Refit station]]
**''[[Anchor 10]]'' {{1st}}
*{{Pattern|Dextro Xur|Spirit}}
*{{Pattern|Ru'swum|Phantom}}
*{{UNSCShip|Infinity}} {{Mo}}
*{{UNSCShip|Thatcher}} {{1st}}
|title-7=Weapons|
*[[Anvil-II air-to-surface missile]]
*[[BR55 battle rifle]]
*[[Energy projector]]
*[[Flashbang grenade]]
*[[M6 series|M6 magnum]]
*[[M41 rocket launcher]]
*[[M45 shotgun]]
*[[MA5B assault rifle]]
*[[Plasma turret]]
*[[SRS99 series|SRS99 series sniper rifle]]
*[[Type-25 plasma pistol]]
*{{Pattern|Okarda'phaa|plasma rifle}}
*[[Type-50 particle beam rifle]] {{Mo}}
*Unidentified [[Kig-Yar]] laser pistol {{1st}}
|title-8=Equipment and Technology|
*[[Artificial intelligence]]
**[[Avatar]]
**[[Smart AI]]
*[[Arum]]
*[[Data pad]]
**[[TACPAD]]
*[[Flash cloning]]
*[[Laser-cutter]]
*[[Methane tank]]
*[[Mind transfer]] {{Mo}}
*[[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor]]
**[[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark VII]]
*[[ODST armor]]
*[[Planetarium lamp]]
*[[Portable computer]]
*[[Series 8 jetpack]]
*[[Rucksack]]
*[[Series 12 Jet pack]]
*[[Space elevator]] {{Mo}}
*[[Weapon attachment]]
**[[KFA-2 x2]]
*[[XTCC]] {{1st}}
|title-9=Miscellaneous|
*[[Undercover]] {{Mo}}
}}
 
==Trivia==
*The name of the novel is a reference to the [[UN Colonial Mortal Dictata]], a piece of legislation associated with the ethics of medical science. [[Catherine Halsey|Dr. Catherine Halsey]] broke the Dictata on several occasions, namely when [[flash cloning]] humans.<ref>'''[[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]]''', ''May 21, 2549''</ref> The novel further elaborates on the specifics of the Dictata, which had previously been mentioned only in passing in [[Dr. Halsey's personal journal]].
*The cover art depicts a young [[Naomi-010]] looking at a [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark V(B)|Mark V(B)]] helmet, foreshadowing her induction into the SPARTAN-II program. However, the cover art of ''[[Halo: The Thursday War]]'' and the text of ''Mortal Dictata'' indicate that her armor is blue, not gray. Both illustrations show her visor as bluish-silver, whereas ''Mortal Dictata'' describes it as reflective gold.
*Dr. Alban's suicide note in the epilogue is dated [[2523|March 2523]], yet it refers to the Covenant's campaign of genocide. The Covenant's existence was actually unknown until [[2525]].
*An online excerpt of the novel's prologue was released at Tor.com on July 17, 2013.{{Ref/Reuse|excerpt}} A preview consisting of the novel's first chapter and the audiobook's second chapter was released at HaloWaypoint.com on January 16, 2014.<ref name="HWE">[https://blogs.halowaypoint.com/Headlines/post/2014/01/16/Halo-Mortal-Dictata.aspx '''Halo Waypoint''' - ''Exclusive Halo: Mortal Dictata Prologue and Chapter One Excerpt'']</ref> The second chapter was released online at Tor.com on January 17, 2014.<ref>[http://www.tor.com/stories/2014/01/halo-mortal-dictata-excerpt-karen-traviss '''Tor.com:''' ''Halo: Mortal Dictata (Excerpt 2)'']</ref>
 
==Gallery==
===Cover art artwork===
<gallery>
File:Mortal Dictata Cover Art.jpg|Full cover art.
</gallery>
 
===Edition covers===
<gallery>
File:HaloMortalDictata.jpg|2014 edition.
File:HMD Cover 2019.jpg|2019 edition.
File:HMD Back 2019.jpg|Back cover for the 2019 edition.
</gallery>
 
===Early sketches===
<gallery>
File:HaloMortalDictata Cover WIP 1.jpg|Early sketches for the book cover.
File:HaloMortalDictata Cover WIP 2.jpg|Early sketches for the book cover.
File:HaloMortalDictata Cover WIP 3.jpg|Early sketch for the book cover.
File:HaloMortalDictata Cover WIP 4.jpg|Early paintover of the book cover.
</gallery>


==Sources==
==Sources==
<references/>
{{Ref/Sources}}


{{Literature}}
{{Navbox/Media/Novels}}


[[Category:Novels|Mortal Dictata]]
[[Category:Novels|Mortal Dictata]]
[[Category:Canon|Mortal Dictata]]
[[Category:Canon|Mortal Dictata]]

Latest revision as of 08:43, March 22, 2024

This article is about the novel. For the legislation, see UN Colonial Mortal Dictata.
Halo: Mortal Dictata
HaloMortalDictata.jpg
Attribution information

Author(s):

Karen Traviss

Cover artist(s):

Dave Seeley[1]

Audio book narrator(s):

Euan Morton

Publication information

Publisher:

Tor Books (original)
Simon & Schuster (2019 edition)

Publication date:

January 21, 2014 (original)[2]
April 2, 2019

Media type:

Print (paperback, hardcover); audiobook

Pages:

496 pages (original)
544 pages (2019 edition)

ISBN:

0765323958, 978-0765323958, 978-1982111854

Series information

Series:

Kilo-Five Trilogy

Halo: The Thursday War

Halo: Mortal Dictata

 

Halo: Mortal Dictata is the third and last novel in the Kilo-Five Trilogy by Karen Traviss, and a direct follow-up to Halo: The Thursday War. The book was published on January 21, 2014.[2][3]

Official summary[edit]

“ Wars end. But hatred, guilt, and devotion can endure beyond the grave.

With the Covenant War over, the Office of Naval Intelligence faces old grievances rising again to threaten Earth. The angry, bitter colonies, still with scores to settle from the insurrection put on hold for thirty years, now want justice — and so does a man whose life was torn apart by ONI when his daughter was abducted for the SPARTAN-II program. Black ops squad Kilo-Five find their loyalties tested beyond breaking point when the father of their Spartan comrade, still searching for the truth about her disappearance, prepares to glass Earth’s cities to get an answer. How far will Kilo-Five go to stop him? And will he be able to live with the truth when he finds it? The painful answer lies with a man long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place.[4]

”

Plot synopsis[edit]

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In 2517, Naomi, the daughter of Staffan Sentzke—then an ordinary family man living on Sansar—fails to return home from school in time. Abducted by an ONI recovery team for the SPARTAN-II program, Naomi unexpectedly awakens and escapes her captors for a time, but is eventually caught and a flash clone is left in her place. After several hours' search, Naomi is evidently found in a nearby town. However, Staffan begins to doubt whether this is his daughter after all, and after the child's death and his wife's subsequent suicide he dedicates his life to uncovering the truth about Naomi's disappearance.

In the present, in April 2553, Mal Geffen and Vaz Beloi of Kilo-Five are deployed on Venezia disguised as UNSC deserters to infiltrate into the local militia and find Pious Inquisitor, a Covenant battlecruiser which Staffan Sentzke seeks to acquire. Sentzke plans to use the ship to threaten Earth with glassing in order to coerce the authorities into providing answers about his daughter's disappearance decades earlier. Pious Inquisitor is in the possession of the Kig-Yar Sav Fel, who stole the ship from the Sangheili rebel faction known as the Servants of the Abiding Truth. Avu Med 'Telcam, leader of the Abiding Truth, hires the Kig-Yar Shipmistress Chol Von to hunt down Fel and Inquisitor, but Von has plans of her own: she intends to keep the ship to herself as part of her effort to build a unified Kig-Yar navy.

While selling Pious Inquisitor to Sentzke, Sav Fel demonstrates the destructive power of the battlecruiser's ventral beam, destroying a Forerunner ruin on Shaps III. Sometimes Sinks, a Huragok aboard the ship, is horrified about this and develops a particular loyalty to Sentzke after he convinces the Kig-Yar to test the beam away from the ruins. Sentzke then buys Pious Inquisitor and the Huragok with it, dubbing the ship Naomi in honor of his daughter. After Mal and Vaz have infiltrated Sentzke's organization, they are soon taken to see the ship due to their professed experience with Covenant equipment. Using a tracer planted by Vaz, Kilo-Five attempt to remotely seize control of Pious Inquisitor from Venezia, but Sometimes Sinks blocks the intrusion.

After questioning Huz Mor-Kha, cousin of Fel's associate Eith Mor, Chol travels to the Station of Constant Sustenance, where she tracks down Mor and learns the last known whereabouts of Fel and Pious Inquisitor. Chol and her crew track down and capture Sav Fel on Venezia in order to force him to reveal the location of Pious Inquisitor. Deducing they have something to do with Fel's disappearance as well as the earlier hacking attempt of Pious Inquisitor, Sentzke has Mal and Vaz captured and interrogated; Vaz soon reveals that he has information about Staffan's daughter. While Sentzke continues to question Vaz in a secure location, Black-Box uses Mal and Vaz's neural transponders to locate them. Naomi takes the team's new dropship, Bogof, to free Mal from the rebels' compound while Lian Devereaux goes after Vaz on Tart-Cart, also taking Sentzke prisoner. They make it to UNSC Port Stanley and Staffan Sentzke is soon allowed to reunite with his daughter. While he receives closure for his decades of pursuit of the truth, Staffan also learns that despite her opportunity to leave, Naomi is unwilling to give up her life as a Spartan in favor of a normal family life.

Meanwhile, Chol Von's crew locate Pious Inquisitor and make their way inside. Sometimes Sinks, distrustful of the Kig-Yar and only compliant to Sentzke's orders, places the ship in complete lockdown and transitions it to coordinates previously designated by Sentzke. After Kilo-Five locate the ship, Sentzke convinces Sometimes Sinks to allow them to come onboard. However, it is revealed that Sentzke plans to escape, having surmised that ONI would never allow him to go free. Sentzke has Vaz promise to take care of Naomi, in turn giving his word to cease his aggression against Earth. Mal and Naomi board the ship in a different location; on their way to the bridge, they are forced into a firefight with members of the Kig-Yar crew. Chol Von, still adamant in her refusal to give up Pious Inquisitor, finally sets the ship to explode and escapes with her remaining crew. While Kilo-Five escape to their dropships, Sentzke takes a Spirit from the shuttle bay but stays in range, seemingly at the risk of his own life, until he can ensure Naomi is safe. Vaz requests BB to give Sentzke the file on Naomi's kidnapping to prove him right to his doubting family; BB complies and sends the files to Sentzke's Spirit. BB confronts Sentzke, noting that while the Spirit's conventional engines would never allow him to make it to a safe distance of the explosion, Sometimes Sinks had secretly rigged the dropship with a miniature slipspace drive which would enable him to escape. However, Black-Box points out that ONI would never stop hunting Sentzke if they knew he was alive, but instead chooses to erase his own recollection of the incident, leaving Kilo-Five to conclude that Sentzke died in the explosion.

After a debriefing with Admiral Parangosky, Osman finally chooses to look at her personal file and uncover the truth about her family after years of reluctance. She learns that her mother was a drug addict and prostitute who abandoned her in an early age and that the only one who cared about her was her schoolteacher. Osman goes to meet her teacher on her former homeworld of Cascade while the rest of the team take a short shore leave. Back on Port Stanley, Vaz receives an anonymous package in the mail. Naomi and the others gather to inspect the contents, which are revealed to be a miniature chair for a doll's house Staffan was building for Naomi, and a planetarium lamp he had planned to give her on her sixth birthday. From this, Kilo-Five surmise that Sentzke is still alive, but they choose to quietly bury the matter.

In the epilogue, the identity of Black-Box's brain donor is revealed as Graham J. Alban, a scientist and personal friend of Admiral Parangosky who worked on the SPARTAN-II program and committed suicide over the perceived ethical violations he had been part of.

Spoilers end here.

Appearances[edit]

Characters

Human
Kig-Yar/T'vaoan
  • Ais (First appearance)
  • Bakz (First appearance)
  • Chol Von (First appearance)
  • Dhak (First appearance)
  • Eith Mor (First appearance)
  • Gon (First appearance)
  • Hiiq (First appearance)
  • Huz Mor-Kha (First appearance)
  • Isk (First appearance)
  • Jec (First appearance)
  • Kij (First appearance)
  • Laik (First appearance)
  • Lig (First appearance)
  • Noit (First appearance)
  • Nulm (First appearance)
  • Ril (First appearance)
  • Sav Fel
  • Skal (First appearance)
  • Ved (First appearance)
  • Vek (First appearance)
  • Zim (First appearance)
Sangheili
Huragok
Artificial intelligence

Species

Organizations

Locations

Events

Vehicles

Weapons

Equipment and Technology

Miscellaneous


Trivia[edit]

  • The name of the novel is a reference to the UN Colonial Mortal Dictata, a piece of legislation associated with the ethics of medical science. Dr. Catherine Halsey broke the Dictata on several occasions, namely when flash cloning humans.[5] The novel further elaborates on the specifics of the Dictata, which had previously been mentioned only in passing in Dr. Halsey's personal journal.
  • The cover art depicts a young Naomi-010 looking at a Mark V(B) helmet, foreshadowing her induction into the SPARTAN-II program. However, the cover art of Halo: The Thursday War and the text of Mortal Dictata indicate that her armor is blue, not gray. Both illustrations show her visor as bluish-silver, whereas Mortal Dictata describes it as reflective gold.
  • Dr. Alban's suicide note in the epilogue is dated March 2523, yet it refers to the Covenant's campaign of genocide. The Covenant's existence was actually unknown until 2525.
  • An online excerpt of the novel's prologue was released at Tor.com on July 17, 2013.[4] A preview consisting of the novel's first chapter and the audiobook's second chapter was released at HaloWaypoint.com on January 16, 2014.[6] The second chapter was released online at Tor.com on January 17, 2014.[7]

Gallery[edit]

Cover art artwork[edit]

  • Full cover art.

    Full cover art.

Edition covers[edit]

  • 2014 edition.

    2014 edition.

  • 2019 edition.

    2019 edition.

  • Back cover for the 2019 edition.

    Back cover for the 2019 edition.

Early sketches[edit]

  • Early sketches for the book cover.

    Early sketches for the book cover.

  • Early sketches for the book cover.

    Early sketches for the book cover.

  • Early sketch for the book cover.

    Early sketch for the book cover.

  • Early paintover of the book cover.

    Early paintover of the book cover.

Sources[edit]

  1. ^ The Art of Dave Seeley, Halo Mortal Dictata - Tor Books - Karen Traviss (Retrieved on Jun 1, 2020) [archive]
  2. ^ a b Amazon - Halo: Mortal Dictata
  3. ^ Tor.com: The Halo Kilo-Five Trilogy Will Conclude This January
  4. ^ a b Tor.com: Halo: Mortal Dictata (Excerpt)
  5. ^ Dr. Halsey's personal journal, May 21, 2549
  6. ^ Halo Waypoint - Exclusive Halo: Mortal Dictata Prologue and Chapter One Excerpt
  7. ^ Tor.com: Halo: Mortal Dictata (Excerpt 2)

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