Halo: Cryptum

Halo: Cryptum is the first novel in the ongoing Forerunner Saga by Greg Bear. The novel explores Forerunner society and their shared history with humanity. The story is told in a first-person narrative, from the perspective of a Forerunner Manipular known as Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting.

It was released on January 4, 2011.

Plot synopsis

Ten thousand years after the human and San 'Shyuum civilizations lost a devastating war to the Forerunners whilst driving the parasitic Flood beyond the edge of the galaxy, Earth, then known as "Erde-Tyrene", is the last repository of the human species, now under control of the Forerunner Lifeshaper, the Librarian.

Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting is a young Forerunner Manipular who refuses to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Builder. Bornstellar's rebellion prompts his father to send him to live with the Miners; one of the lowest rates in Forerunner society. After living with the Miners on Edom in the Sol system for some time, he is inspired by his assigned ancilla to hunt for artifacts left by the Precursors — beings of extraordinary power that preceded the Forerunner civilization. Bornstellar escapes to Erde-Tyrene, where he crosses paths with two humans - Chakas and Riser, who guide him on his search for Precursor artifacts. In the Djamonkin Crater, they find an artifact that is revealed to be a Cryptum — a "warrior keep" created by a Forerunner Warrior-Servant group known as the Prometheans, guarded by ancient war machines known as war sphinxes.

To Bornstellar's surprise, the Cryptum is unlocked by a code the humans had been unknowingly programmed with. Upon opening the Cryptum's seal, Bornstellar finds that it belongs to an ancient military leader known as the Didact, who is then unwillingly revived from his millennial hibernation. Some days after the Didact's revival, a fleet of Forerunner ships arrives in the area, apparently aware of the Didact's presence despite the bafflers that hide the central region of the crater. The Didact realizes that the ships have arrived to ask for his help in something that is at this point unclear to Bornstellar. However, the Didact has other plans. He deduces that his revival, Bornstellar and the humans were part of a larger plan engineered by the Librarian, his wife. He decides to make his escape using a ship created from a design seed planted under the crater's central peak, taking Bornstellar, the humans and his war sphinxes with him.

They jump into slipspace and make their way to the formerly Precursor-occupied world Charum Hakkor in a distant system, where they find that every Precursor structure has been destroyed and that a mysterious entity that had once been imprisoned on the planet is nowhere to be found — something that greatly troubles the Didact. Further scans of the system reveal that all neurologically complex life in the entire system, including the planet Faun Hakkor, has been eradicated some decades prior.

Shortly afterward, they travel the system where the San 'Shyuum species had been quarantined after their war with the Forerunners, in order to meet the San 'Shyuum elders and find answers by triggering the humans' ancestral memories the Librarian had imprinted them with. In order to access the quarantine system, they meet the Confirmer, a Promethean who once served alongside the Didact and has now been placed in charge of the San 'Shyuum. Before they arrive, Bornstellar undergoes his first mutation from Manipular into first-form, acquiring the genetic imprint of the Didact. After meeting with the Confirmer on his Fortress-class vessel Deep Reverence, they travel to Janjur Qom, the San 'Shyuum homeworld.

As they approach Janjur Qom, it becomes apparent that they have walked into a trap. The world is in ruins, swarming with Forerunner ships and war machines; the San 'Shyuum have attempted a rebellion that is now being violently suppressed. The Didact's ship is intercepted and destroyed by the vastly superior Forerunner warships, its occupants forcibly dragged to the surface of the San 'Shyuum world. As he is slowly dragged toward the surface, Bornstellar witnesses a massive ring being transported into the system. The Domain — the repository of all Forerunner knowledge — is suddenly opened to him for a brief moment, and he learns the ring's destructive capability and its name; Halo.

Bornstellar wakes up and finds himself restrained and questioned by the Master Builder. He has few answers regarding the mission the Librarian had planned for them, and soon falls unconscious again. Later, he wakes up onboard a Builder ship over Janjur Qom and is again met by the Master Builder and some of the surviving San 'Shyuum leaders. Chakas, Riser and the Didact are also present, all in restraints. The Master Builder reveals that the destruction at Charum Hakkor's system was due to a test firing of a Halo ring that has gone missing — along with the mysterious captive that had been imprisoned on the planet. The Master Builder also attempts to extract information from the San 'Shyuum elders on how the humans and San 'Shyuum managed to defeat the Flood ten thousand years prior. However, it is revealed that the only one alive who knew the secret — the First Prophet - died in the initial assault. Frustrated for the lack of answers, the Master Builder tells Bornstellar that he will be shipped back to his family, and intends to interrogate the Didact on what the may know.

Bornstellar is sent to the Orion complex, where he is reunited with his family. On their homeworld, he studies Forerunner history and discovers the Master Builder's plan to gain more power and to diminish the role of the Warrior-Servants — a scheme that has been in motion since conclusion of the human-Forerunner wars. This plan involves removing the Warrior rate from the Forerunner Council, and a Builder weapon that would make all other weapons obsolete — Halo. Over time, Bornstellar also finds that the Didact's memories and consciousness are slowly gaining more and more prominence within him, with the Didact occasionally making comments and observations in his mind.

One day, exploring his family's vast domicile complex, Bornstellar overhears his father and another, younger Builder conversing in secret. It is revealed that the Flood has returned to the galaxy, and has taken twelve bordering Forerunner systems over the last 300 years. He also learns that the Master Builder activated the Halo ring at Janjur Qom, as punishment for the San 'Shyuum rebellion. The Council disapproves of this use, considering Halo installations as weapons of last resort, and is preparing to hold a trial for the Master Builder for a violation of the Mantle. They also discuss a missing Halo ring that was tested near Charum Hakkor. Further complicating this is the fact that a powerful, metarch-level ancilla went missing with it.

The next day, Bornstellar confronts his family with a message from the Didact within. He reveals that he knows of the Halo installations and that a Halo released the captive imprisoned at Charum Hakkor. Bornstellar's father, the designer of the Halo rings, is displeased to see his son taken from him and become a "mouthpiece for the Warrior-Servants", but reveals that Bornstellar has been asked to come to the Forerunner capital to testify against the Master Builder in his trial. Bornstellar's father reveals that there is a massive shift ongoing in Forerunner government due to the Master Builder's misuse of the Halo ring. Many elders have resigned in protest while younger, first-form councilors have taken their places in the Council.

Aboard the Council ship Seedling Star, Bornstellar meets the First Observer of the Court, Splendid Dust of Ancient Suns, one of the young first-form councilors who instructs him and gives him access to historical records. During the journey to the capital, Bornstellar studies the background of the Flood and its defeat by humans and the San 'Shyuum. Following the wars, there was a millennia-long political strife between the Builders and the Prometheans, with the Didact proposing a strategic solution, the building of fortress worlds known as Shield Worlds to monitor and control potential Flood outbreaks. On the other hand, an extreme faction of Builders led by the Master Builder began designing a superweapon which could decimate life on a galactic scale. The Builder faction was victorious and the Prometheans were forced out of the Council, with most of them going into exile.

The Master Builder's trial takes place in the Forerunner capital, a massive construct now orbited by the remaining eleven Halo installations. The trial is interrupted by the rogue Contender-class AI Mendicant Bias, who launches a full invasion on the capital, first disabling its defense systems. The AI takes control of Bornstellar's armor, but the Didact's consciousness within him issues a series of commands and frees Bornstellar of the Contender's control. Bornstellar escapes the capital construct along with Glory of a Far Dawn, a Warrior-Servant, and Splendid Dust of Ancient Sun, the councilor he met earlier. The three are plunged into freefall over the edge of capital disk and caught by a Falco-class space pod.

While the escape pod rockets away from the capital, Bornstellar witnesses the immense construct seal off in defense as the orbiting Halo rings, now under control of Mendicant Bias, align themselves on the structure. There is also one more ring among the installations; the one that went missing at Charum Hakkor 43 years prior. Forerunner reinforcement fleets arrive through a portal to defend the capital, assaulting the Halo installations controlled by Mendicant Bias. However, the AI can only control five out of twelve installations; the rest maneuver into the portal to save themselves, while the ones controlled by the Contender begin firing sequence.

At this point, Bornstellar feels his memories split into two compartments, with the Didact's consciousness taking full control. He maneuvers the Falco pod amidst the chaos of battle toward the capital system's portal, through the atmosphere of one of the rings attempting to escape. As they approach the portal, a Fortress-class warship emerges and attacks the Halo ring, which disintegrates in a spectacular display. Barely avoiding debris and pieces of the ring, the Falco pod makes it into the portal.

After a passage through the severely strained slipspace portal on the verge of collapse, they emerge a great distance away, with the slipspace journey's causal reconciliation effects being much stronger than normal. At this point, Bornstellar has become more and more detached from his original self; all barriers surrounding the Didact's imprint have broken, and he now has access to all of the Promethean's memories. Splendid Dust of Ancient Suns addresses him as if he was the Didact, inquiring him about the missing ring and Mendicant Bias. The Didact's consciousness reveals that the AI was charged by the Master Builder to test the Halo ring near Charum Hakkor before its disappearance. The being held captive on Charum Hakkor was likely transported on the ring, and Mendicant Bias may have communicated with it.

With everyone aboard wounded and the pod's life support is on the verge of collapse, the three occupants fall asleep, to wake up an unspecified time later, still adrift in an unknown part of space. Waking up, Bornstellar sees the galaxy from the pod's window, then six Halo installations suspended over the petals of an enormous construct his ancilla identifies as the Ark, the place of construction for the Halo rings and the Librarian's base of operations. They are then rescued by a Lifeworker ship and given medical care.

Days after their rescue, Bornstellar takes a walk on the surface of the Ark installation. The Lifeworkers have begun restoring the ecosystems on the six Halo rings resting over the Ark's petals. A Lifeworker named Calyx explains that the ecosystems on the Halo rings were originally intended to preserve the species the Librarian had gathered from across the galaxy and used by the Master Builder to test captured specimens of the Flood on those species in order to research the Flood.

The Librarian and the Lifeworkers now consider Bornstellar to be the Didact, as the Promethean's imprint now controls a large part of his consciousness. He meets the Librarian who treats him as if he were her husband; the Librarian reveals that on Janjur Qom, the Didact refused to give the Master Builder information on how to control the Contender-class intelligences or where the Didact's Shield Worlds were located. As a result, the Didact was evidently executed, making Bornstellar, by all intents and purposes, an incarnation of the Didact.

The Didact and the Librarian spend time together on the Ark, inspecting all the species she had gathered from across the galaxy. They know little on the status of the Forerunner government or the remaining Halo rings, but due to the Flood's return, the Didact takes control of Forerunner defense once again, preparing to reactivate the Shield Worlds and the defenses he had planned thousands of years earlier. There is no knowledge of the status of Chakas and Riser, but the Didact suspects they may have been spared by the Master Builder if he realized their value; their memories contained the answer to defeating the Flood.

Now, the Didact seeks to find the lost Halo ring, controlled by Mendicant Bias, and the captive from Charum Hakkor. In the end, the Didact finally remembers what the captive said when he communicated with it thousands of years prior:

Characters

Forerunners

• Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting
• Bornstellar's father
• Calyx
• Confirmer
• Didact
• Faber
• Glory of a Far Dawn
• Librarian
• Splendid Dust of Ancient Suns

Humans

• Chakas
• Morning Riser

Artificial intelligences

• 05-032 Mendicant Bias

Glossary

Halo Waypoint features a glossary of nouns used in Halo: Cryptum to make sure readers understand the meaning of the terms and phrases used in the novel.

Trivia

• Greg Bear had stated at the Emerald City Comic Con that the novel's working title was "Antediluvian", Latin for "before the deluge." This term refers to the time between the creation of Earth and the biblical flood.
• The cover of the novel, which was illustrated by Nicolas "Sparth" Bouvier, depicts two small figures, possibly Forerunners or humans, standing on a ledge overlooking a large Forerunner structure. Given the different heights of the two, it is possible that these two figures are either the Didact and Bornstellar or Chakas and Riser.
• A preview of the novel containing the first two chapters was released online on December 22, 2010.

Gallery

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  Final jacket artwork, including a synopsis of the novel's premise.

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  A high-resolution version of the cover art. Note the two figures in the foreground.

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  A wallpaper version of the cover.