The Return

The cover of The Return by Rachel Beaudoin.

The Return is the twelfth short story in Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe. Written by Kevin Grace, this story follows a Sangheili Shipmaster as he travels back to the human colony world Kholo. This story takes place after the events of Halo 3 in which the Sangheili are no longer serving the San'Shyuum. The Return follows a unique writing style in which as the Shipmaster recalls past experiences, the text turns to italics to indicate a shift to a previous time period.

The Return was adapted into a motion comic series by ONE, in the same vein as Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian, with the first part released on April 3, 2010 and the last part on April 24, 2010.

Plot synopsis

The Shipmaster carving the Glyph of Faith onto Kholo's surface via glassing.

Set six years after the end of the Human-Covenant War, a Sangheili Shipmaster returns to the glassed colony of Kholo in order to find forgiveness for his sins. He ventures lonely through the remains of the colony, occasionally remembering the glorious days of when he interrogated a human pilot and glassed the colony, as well as the dark days of the Great Schism.

He experiences flashbacks where he showed his loyalty to the Prophet of Conviction by glassing Kholo. During the process, the Shipmaster marked the Covenant glyph representing "Faith" on the surface of the planet.

Years later, when the Jiralhanae betrayed the Sangheili over High Charity, the Shipmaster confronted the Prophet of Conviction and disarmed him. The Shipmaster then exposed the Prophet's deception and killed Conviction in front of his crew.

In the present timeframe, after several days of searching, he discovers Kig-Yar pirates fighting humans at an excavation site. After killing the Kig-Yar, he finds a lone human survivor. Realizing the survivor would soon be dead, the Shipmaster leaves him and continues looking around the base. Soon, he finds photos of humans interfering with Forerunner technology, including what the Shipmaster remarks as resembling an Oracle that once existed in High Charity. Realizing this could be what he was looking for, he returns to the human survivor and calls for help to save him. If the human manages to survive, the Sangheili plans on questioning him in order to collect information on his studies.

Appearances

Characters Prophet of Conviction (First appearance) Prophet of Truth Thel 'Vadam Unidentified Sangheili Shipmaster (First appearance) Species Forerunners (Mentioned only) Human Jiralhanae Kig-Yar Mgalekgolo (Mentioned only) San'Shyuum Sangheili Unggoy Unidentified aquatic creature (First appearance) Organizations Covenant High Council Covenant Honor Guard Covenant fleet Fleet of Righteous Vigilance (First appearance) Covenant remnants Swords of Sanghelios Joyous Exultation Covenant (Mentioned only) Unified Earth Government United Nations Space Command UNSC Marine Corps (Mentioned only) UNSC Navy (Mentioned only) Locations Epsilon Eridani system (Mentioned only) Reach (Mentioned only) Installation 00 Citadel Kholo (First appearance) Urs system Sanghelios

Events Great Schism Human-Covenant War Battle of Kholo (First appearance) Fall of Reach (Mentioned only) Vehicles CAS-class assault carrier CCS-class battlecruiser M12 Warthog LRV Type-25 Spirit Type-26 Banshee Weapons Class-2 directed energy cannon Curveblade (First appearance) Energy projector Fuel rod cannon Heavy plasma cannon MA5 series assault rifle Type-1 energy sword Type-2 gravity hammer Type-51 carbine Technology Energy shielding Gravity throne Methane tank Monitor (Mentioned only) Navigation computer (Mentioned only) Sangheili combat harness Arbiter body armor Unggoy combat harness Weapon attachments Flashlight

Motion comic

The Return has three instalments that were later edited into one long episode. Screenshots converted to wallpapers are released on Halo Waypoint in July 20, 2011. From January 28, 2012, the series was available for download on the Zune Video Marketplace before the Zune marketplace shut down in 2013. Each episode could be purchased for 80 points or a season pass can be purchased for 280 points. Below is the link to the long episode featured at the Halo Official Site:

• The Return Motion Comic Adaptation

Gallery

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  The Zune Video Marketplace logo for the motion comic.

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  Human research of a Forerunner Monitor.

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  A still from the motion comic.