6 Halo stories better than what the Paramount show gave us

5. Halo 2

While The Flood book and First Strike novel flesh out Halo 1 and the events afterward, Halo 2 and Halo 3 are great enough stories that don’t need tie-in novels. On Earth, John receives updated MJOLNIR Mark VI armor before he and Johnson get recognized in a military ceremony for their efforts in the battle for Installation 04 and operation First Strike. Miranda Keyes also accepts commendations on her father’s behalf for his unwavering effort to protect humanity.

Meanwhile, Thel Vadumee is stripped of his fleet commander status and labeled a heretic for allowing the humans to destroy Halo. The brute chieftain Tartarus brands him on the chest with a massive hot iron. Instead of killing him, the high prophets decide to make Vadumee into an Arbiter, which basically means he gets sent on suicide missions until he dies. His first task is to kill Sesa Refumee, who has been publicly bashing the prophets after his conversations with 343 Guilty Spark.

A Covenant invasion force shows up on Earth. This small force of 15 ships is led by the Prophet of Regret, who had just recently been informed of Earth’s importance. Regret’s researchers were interpreting a Forerunner artifact and informed Regret that it showed the location of all the Halo rings and an installation that can light them all called the Ark. The portal to the Ark is located on Earth, since they were the original inheritors of the Forerunners’ civilization. Regret did not know that Earth was humanity’s home world, which is why he jumped the gun and didn’t show up with enough ships.

Searching desperately for the portal, Regret’s forces are routed by Earth’s stronger defenses; Regret loses all of his vessels save his own capital ship. At the last moment, Regret makes a slip space jump in the middle of the African city of New Mombassa to escape to Installation 05, another Halo ring. Miranda Keyes’ ship, the In Amber Clad, is able to follow Regret through the portal before it closes; Cortana, Johnson and John are on board. The humans follow Regret to the ring’s surface, where he is sending apology holograms to the Prophet of Truth for jumping the gun on Earth’s invasion. John tracks down the Prophet, fight through his honor guards and punch him to death.

After killing Regret, John walks outside the temple to see the Covenant capital of High Charity coming out of slipspace escorted by the largest fleet ever seen by human eyes. Before he gets blown to hell, John jumps into the lake and a giant tentacle pulls him into the depths.

While John was murdering crazy aliens, the Arbiter is doing the same thing to Sesa Refumee and his group. After killing the “heretic,” the Arbiter is greeted by 343 Guilty Spark, who is then forcibly taken by Tartarus. They return to High Charity, where the Prophet of Truth is replacing the elites with the brutes as the main “protectors” of the Covenant. In reality, Truth knows that the elites are smarter than the brutes and he is putting the brutes in position to betray the elites, Order 66 style.

These events transpire when the Arbiter is sent to Installation 05 to retrieve the activation index for the ring. He makes his way through the Forerunner facilities, fighting off sentinels, humans and even the Flood. After fighting off Johnson and Miranda, the Arbiter secures the index but Tartarus and a group of brutes show up. They capture the human leaders and steal the index. Tartarus reveals that the prophets ordered them to kill him before using his gravity hammer to send the Arbiter into a deep pit.

John and the Arbiter then have a meeting with the gravemind. For years a Flood outbreak was occurring on this ring because of the incompetence of the installation’s monitor, 2401 Penitent Tangent. The gravemind explains that the Covenant are about to kill everyone by lighting the halo ring. The Arbiter doesn’t buy it. The gravemind decides to send the pair to search for the index and stop the Covenant plan.

John is teleported to High Charity, which is dealing with a civil war between the elites and brutes as well as a Flood infestation. He fights his way to Truth and Tartarus, mercilessly killing everything in his path. Tartarus takes a phantom to the control room with Miranda while Truth makes his way to the massive Forerunner dreadnaught that powers High Charity. John decides to follow Truth because he is about lead a large fleet to Earth. Cortana stays on High Charity in case Tartarus tries to light the ring, in which case she will detonate In Amber Clad to destroy it.

The Arbiter fights through hordes of brutes to reach the control room. He regroups with the Shipmaster Rtas Vadumee and Sergeant Johnson. Johnson pilots a scarab to clear a path for the Arbiter, who shows up at the control room while Tartarus is trying to force Miranda to light the ring. The Arbiter tries to convince Tartarus that the prophets are liars and Spark shines light on the rings’ true purpose. Unwilling to hear reason, Tartarus forces Miranda to start the lighting sequence and engages the Arbiter in a 1v1 fight, which he loses thanks to Johnson. The sequence is stopped by Miranda but Spark explains that the rest of the Halo array is now on standby mode and can be activated at the Ark.