Halo: A Fistful of Arrows

Halo: A Fistful of Arrows is a fan-made Internet graphic novel about Jun-A266's past and fate after the Halo: Reach campaign level The Package. The graphic novel explores new characters and events, but is generally consistent with the canon of official Halo franchise media. The comic has received a great deal of attention from the Halo community, including Bungie and 343 Industries, and has a large following that wish it to be accepted as canon.

It is written and drawn by Levi "Leviathan" Hoffmeier, who also drew the cover for the Halo: Evolutions short story Pariah. The graphic novel was initially published in Hoffmeier's DeviantArt gallery on October 15, 2010, but Claude Errera later constructed a blog format for Hoffmeier in bungie.org. An interactive flip book, constructed by OneBitRocket, was later released on November 11th, 2011. A soundtrack, composed by Sean Mortensen, is released on the website, for people to listen as they read the novel.

Plot

Prologue

On May 2552, in the coastal city of Nastrond on Reach, NOBLE Team faces a hostage situation with an insurrectionist on a building rooftop. Carter tells Jun, who is riding on a Falcon hovering nearby, that they need an "accurate solution". After a subtle and short debate, Jun shoots the insurrectionist in the head, leaving the hostage, a woman, in shock. While Carter reports to Colonel Urban Holland, Emile and Jorge, standing on another rooftop, discusses Jun's action. Emile, with a standard, uncarved EVA helmet, claims that Jun was hesitant, something that will get a military man killed, while Jorge tells him that Jun has a conscience, something Emile would "have to look up sometime". Just as they are extracted by a Pelican, Jorge then tells Emile that he doesn't need to worry about him, nor Jun, and all he knows is that Jun's "got their back [and they]'ll always have his". The Falcon and Pelican, carrying NOBLE Team and the rescued hostage, leave the city.

Act One

The scene fades to August 30, 2552, the Fall of Reach, a Pelican, piloted by Doctor Catherine Halsey and with Jun onboard, flies over a mountain range. Jun, using the Pelican-attached M247H Heavy Machine Gun, takes down a few pursuing T-26 GSA Banshee before Halsey's "distraction", a UNSC fleet, arrived. The UNSC fleet engages the Covenant fleet that is glassing the area, while Halsey's Pelican escaped the scene. Several UNSC frigates manage to bring down the shields of a a Covenant CAS-class assault carrier, but are unable to destroy it until Marathon-class heavy cruiser, the UNSC Daedalus Wing, sacrifices itself by ramming into the carrier while simultaneously detonating its Shiva-class nukes. Jun, staring at the explosion, experiences a flashback.

On the night NOBLE Team rescued the hostage, as they return to a UNSC base, Carter discusses with Jun what happened earlier on that day. Jun expresses his suspicion about the rescued woman, but Carter tells Jun that he needs some rest. That night, as Carter takes off his armor, he and Catherine have a conversation about Jun's rationality. Their conversation is interrupted by an explosion in the base's main structure. Carter, realizing the rescue hostage is responsible for the sabotage, sends Emile, the only Spartan who is still combat ready, to chase after the woman. While Carter and Catherine get back into armor, Emile eliminates a couple of rebels who attempt to cover the woman. Just as Emile corners her, an insurrectionist Warthog arrives and the gunner fires at Emile, who the rest of NOBLE Team loses contact with subsequently. Carter and Catherine, now equipped and armored, get in their own Warthog to search for him.

The two find Emile injured but alive, with his damaged helmet off. Noting the damage to it, Catherine tells him that "[he] can paint a pretty picture over it [and] no one will notice." They returned to the base while their Falcon search for the insurrectionists. A Pelican douses the base's fire while Jun and Jorge help search for the wounded. Jun looks at a buried body in the debris, only with a hand visible.

Jun's flashback is cut off as Halsey calls to him, asking if he is okay. Halsey asks Kalmiya about the status of CASTLE Base, which is currently out of the Covenant's suspicion since its defenses are down. Halsey is so far the only known ONI personnel fall back to the facility. Halsey then asks Kalmiya to access NOBLE Team's reports, believing that she will probably spend a lot of time in CASTLE alone with Jun, who she resents, so she might as well as know more about the Spartan. Kalmiya finds a partial footage of a NOBLE Team mission accessed from the Superintendent AI in Quezon. When Kalmiya says she is uncertain about accessing such data without clearance, Halsey activates her nullification code, "whateverittakes".

Act Two

The scene switches to July 2552, before SPARTAN-B312 joined NOBLE Team. NOBLE Team had hunted down each of the members of the Insurrectionists on Reach, save one, their leader Eliza Ingrid, who was the false hostage caught earlier. Having traced her down to Quezon City. Jun takes charge of tracking the target on a construction crane, while the others were to capture her. With the city's Superintendent's assist, the Spartans managed to block Ingrid's taxi on the highway leading to the Quezon Interstellar Spaceport.

While Ingrid forced the taxi driver at gunpoint to find another way off the highway to the ship port, Emile appears beside the taxi, managing to rip open the taxi door, but gets shaken off when the taxi takes off. Carter, Catherine and Jorge pursue the taxi on a Falcon, but one of Insurrectionists riding inside fires a M319 IGL, temporarily disabling it. Carter fell off the Falcon during the impact, but Kat, wearing a portable jump-jet, dives off and saves him. The damaged Falcon landed on top of a tower east of the highway, while Carter and Kat landed safely, but they were unable to chase after Ingrid.

Jun made his way to another construction crane, ready to assassinate Ingrid in the moving car. Carter tells him that ONI wants her alive, so Jun shifts the reticule to the terrified driver. He fires his sniper rifle, saying that "sometime even I impress myself", but the driver loses control and Jun hits the taxi's tire instead. The taxi fell off the highway, and everyone onboard was killed, except for Ingrid, Emile capturing her seconds later. As Jorge comes to pick Jun, he tells the ashamed Spartan something Chief Franklin Mendez once said to him, only for his speech to be cut off as the footage ends.

Kalmiya apologizes for the inability to learn the message, but Halsey says that she believes what Jorge told Jun helped Jun to fight in the Fall of Reach. At that moment, Halsey looks behind her and sees Jun standing in the cockpit, having overheard their conversation. This tense moment is interrupted as Kalmiya informs them the Pelican has arrived at their destination: Menachite Mountain, home of CASTLE Base.

Last Act

Halsey is greeted by ONI Captain Laird McLean at CASTLE Base's landing pad. McLean's ODSTs, near the base's entrance, show their distastes in Spartans immediately. Halsey tells McLean that only one personnel is required for Operation: WHITE GLOVE, and McLean should leave with his ODSTs if they know a safe extraction point. McLean argues that he and his ODSTs are staying, ensuring that they will not let the ODSTs died in the drop for nothing. Their conversation is cut short as they see a Covenant SDV-class heavy corvette being shot down.

They look up into the sky, and witness the UNSC Paris-class heavy frigate responsible for the destruction of the Covenant corvette, the UNSC Forlorn Bell, being shot down by a Covenant CCS-class battlecruiser. Numerous Covenant aircraft scatter around the area, looking for survivors. Jun tells Halsey they need to get inside the base, and as long as they don't draw attention, the Covenant will never notice them. However, McLean just ordered his ODSTs to ready for battle, including activating the M71 Anti-Aircraft Guns. One of the ODSTs, Bryan "Grim" Mulheran, destroys a Banshee fighter with his Spartan Laser. Halsey tells McLean that "[he] just kicked the hornet's nest".

They immediately draw the Covenant aicrafts' attention, however, the ODSTs cannot activate the M71s. Halsey suggest she can activate them, and Jun tells Halsey that he will buy her the time she needs, while taking out some supplies (sniper rifle ammunition, biofoam canisters, armor lock amplifier plug, eight Lotus anti-tank mines and C-12 shaped charges) from the Pelican dropship.

While Jun sets a trap on the landing pad, McLean takes Halsey to the base's entrance on a Mongoose. Halsey begins to work her way to activate the turrets in the guard house. Meanwhile, a Spirit dropship lands on the landing pad the Pelican dropship is on, and deploys a lance of Covenant. Jun activates the charges, demolishing the landing pad and at the same time, destroys the Spirit as well as kills the Covenant lance on the pad.

More Covenant aircrafts approach, and the ODSTs barely evaded their fire. Halsey orders Kalmiya to reroute CASTLE base's power to the turrets. Kalmiya tells Halsey that she is working on it, and should be able to bring the turrets online as soon as she "[finishes] pushing Ackerson's AI out of the way", which she does immediately. The M71s open fire and destroy most of the aircrafts, which crash into the path under CASTLE's entrance. Surviving Covenant troops leave the wreckages and begin to advance on the ODSTs' position. Jun assists the ODSTs and takes down the Skirmisher sniper that was taking cover behind the group of Kig-Yar.

Jun spots a Mgalekgolo leaving the wreckage of a T-52 TC "Phantom", and fires at it, having a difficult time taking it out. Meanwhile, McLean notices the barrel of the M71s have been cut off and before he can alert the others, a Special Operation Sangheili has impaled him from the back using an Energy Sword. Jun, distracted by the Mgalekgolo, cannot assist the ODSTs, who are ambushed by three SpecOps Sangheili.

The End

Jun finally takes out the Mgalekgolo, but realizes it's too late, the ODSTs have already been killed. Halsey has been captured the SpecOps Sangheili, Energy Sword at her neck. The Sangheili holding Halsey tells Jun to come out of hiding, or they will kill her. Kalmiya, however, still in the guardhouse, overhears the other two Sangheili discussing that they actually cannot harm Halsey, "by the order of the Prophets".

Kalmiya informs Jun that the Covenant captured Halsey before, and will not kill her due to the secret she holds. Kalmiya tells Jun that he is Halsey's last guard, and he cannot let the Covenant walk away with her. Jun remembers the order Carter gave him, repeats his answer to Carter, and shifts his reticule to Halsey's head. At that moment, Jun remembers the deaths he had seen: Verdansky, the buried body in the UNSC base's debris, and the taxi driver. Jun loosens his grip on the rifle's trigger, and jumps off the cliff he was holding position on.

Jun tackles the Sangheili that captured Halsey, and Halsey runs into cover near the base's entrance. Jun, surrounded by Sangheili, shoots off the SpecOps leader's helmet off, elbows the Sangheili coming from his back, and dodges the SpecOps leader's slash, causing the SpecOps leader to impale its own teammate. Before Jun can melee the leader's back, the third SpecOps Sangheili grab him. Two Unggoy "help" by grabbing Jun as well. The SpecOps leader, picking up its Energy Sword, orders the third SpecOps Sangheili to hold the Spartan, since Jun dishonored his blade by making him stab his own teammate, so he must restore its honor by killing Jun with it.

Jun compliments them, saying they came prepared. He steals one of the Unggoy's plasma grenades, and detonates it, killing the entire lance. Jun, however, survives by activating his armor lock. He asks Halsey if she is okay, but at that moment he is smashed to the cliff wall by a second Mgalekgolo, wounding him and damaging his armor. The Mgalekgolo heads for Halsey, who stands at CASTLE's entrance calmly. Before the Mgalekgolo can touch her, Jun comes from behind and stabs the Hunter through the head with his combat knife.

Halsey leads Jun into CASTLE Base, but as she tells him theres a medical center in CASTLE Base, Jun puts his helmet back on, saying that he needs to ensure the Covenant won't follow her. Halsey attempts to persuade Jun to stay with her, but Jun is determined not to do so. Before Jun leaves, Halsey asks him what Jorge said to him in Quezon, and Jun replies, quoting Chief Mendez:

“

That a Spartan can't have his own baggage…His own weight. There's just no room. He already carries the weight of all of humanity on his back.

”

Jun comments the phrase as "wise words" and runs out of the entrance as the door closes, but his own thoughts upon them appear:

“

But just words. In the heat of it all, words can't always help you pull the trigger. Sometimes you just know what you have to do. When you resist that, that's when you can still feel it, shaking you form the inside. That's why you're alive Doctor. I stopped resisting. Be seeing you.

”

Adjunct

On the credits and Adjunct cover page, two Spartans (presumably from Red Team), both clad in MJOLNIR Mark V armor can be seen near CASTLE Base. One of them is pointing at the base, looking at someone offscreen, while the other is looking at the sinking wreckage of the UNSC Forlorn Bell.

Trivia

References

• The name of the graphic novel is a reference to Jun-A266's tattoo, which is located on the left side of his head, as well as a reference to the Sergio Leone film "A Fistful of Dollars".
• On the second panel of page 27, an advertisement can be seen, and even though most of it is cut off by the side of panel, one can clearly make out the words:

BUNG(IE)
MAKING THE BEST VR SINCE THE 20(TH CENTURY)

This is obviously a reference to Bungie, the creators of the Halo franchise.

• The ODST team, consist of Laird MacLean, Louis Errera, Bryan Mulheran, and Jeffrey Easterling, is named after well-known members of halo.bungie.org, with Louis Errera a mix between Claude Errera and his webname, "Louis Wu".
• Hoffmeier follows Bungie's obsession with the number "7", and completes the graphic novel (excluding the Adjuncts) with 77 pages.
• Adjunct D, a guide for the city Quezon, has a few headlines at the bottom of the image. One of them reads: "(NEW AL)EXANDRIA'S POPULAR CLUB ERRERA - SITE OF MAJOR DRUG OPE(RATIO)N?" Another reads: "SEASON PREMIERE OF 'SAMURAI FRONK' AIRS TUESDAY", referring to a fan-webcomic series once released on halo.bungie.org. The third, "QUEZON NEWSNET: UNSC CAUSES ROADRAGE AS HIGHWAY IS SHUT DOWN FOR TRAINI(NG OPERATION)", references an advert for the comic called "Keep It Clean, Keep It Quiet", and also alludes to Noble Team's secret mission on the highway.
• Eliza Ingrid, and her boyfriend Nor Verdansky, are designed off of Hoffmeier himself and his girlfriend. As a tongue-in-cheek joke about this, Hoffmeier's avatar Verdansky ends up being the first person killed in the comic.

Easter eggs

• On the first and third panels of page 27, one of the messages from the Quezon Superintendent can be seen:

• The first message is obviously a reference to NOBLE Team and Red team. The "guardians" are members of NOBLE Team, the "more soon will arrive" is referring to Red team, and "they fall in the burning sky" is referring to Bravo 001, the Pelican dropship carrying the SPARTANs, which is being shot down and therefore forcing those aboard it to jump off.

Miscellaneous

• While the origin of Emile's carving of his helmet is explored, the events depicting it happened after the Battle of Fumirole, where Emile was seen briefly with his carved helmet. Hoffmeier later explained that Emile has had the habit of making carvings on his helmets for quite some time before.
• In a conversation between Bungie employee Martin O'Donnell and Hoffmeier on the halo.bungie.org forums, O'Donnell joked that "[...] Jun tripped and broke his neck on the way to escorting Halsey off Reach [and] he's dead." Hoffmeier then drew a short comic strip, named "FoA- THE END", depicting the event, and at the same time, referenced the difficulty of achieving the "If They Came to Hear Me Beg" achievement, as well as many players' confusion upon Jorge calling Halsey "ma'am" with a Hungarian accent, which sounds like "mom" in American English.
• The Quezon Superintendent's avatar is based on that of Mombasa's Superintendent AI, with the circles replaced by equilateral triangles. The avatar is used by Hoffmeier as his profile image on DeviantArt and leviathan.bungie.org.
• On December 11, 2011, Jessica Shea, as part of the Weekend Webcomic section on Halo Waypoint, posted the first page of Halo: A Fistful of Arrows. This, however, does not mean that 343 Industries has accepted it as a canon material.