Halo: Outcasts (eBook)

Troy Denning (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023
TITAN BOOKS (Verlag)
9781803367514 (ISBN)

Infos

An original novel set in the Halo universe - based on the New York Times best-selling video game series. The year 2559. Formerly one of the Covenant's greatest and most fearsome warriors, Arbiter Thel 'Vadam is now allied with his former human enemies while deeply entrenched in leading the Sangheili people to a new era of unification. But his aspirations are under constant threat, whether by the dangerous, warring factions of rival Sangheili keeps or the relentless shadow of oppression spread by the renegade artificial intelligence Cortana??. An opportunity to break Cortana's chains has suddenly presented itself through the rumored existence of an ancient artifact located on the hostile world of Netherop. Spartan Olympia Vale, trained with the skills to live and thrive among the Sangheili, also recognizes this alien prize as an essential means to aid humanity in reaching the same goal of freedom. But behind the scenes, both 'Vadam and Vale are being manipulated by a mysterious figure with their own agenda. And to make matters worse, all involved are unknowingly placing themselves at perilous odds with forces beyond their comprehension....

Troy Denning is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-five novels, including Halo: Shadows of Reach, Halo: Oblivion, Halo: Silent Storm, Halo: Retribution, Halo: Last Light, a dozen Star Wars novels, the Dark Sun Prism Pentad, and many bestselling Forgotten Realms novels. A former game designer and editor, he lives in western Wisconsin.

Textauszug

CHAPTER 1

Perhaps the high kaidons wanted the Sangheili to remain divided and weak.

That was the only explanation Arbiter Thel ‘Vadam could imagine for their squabbling and intransigence, for putting their own interests above the need to stand strong and united. Did they truly expect the Tyrant’s “peace” to protect Sangheili space from the encroachments of the Jiralhanae and the Kig-Yar? To overcome mercenary legions, Covenant remnants, and any last vestiges of the San’Shyuum? That was a sand song. Even the Tyrant Cortana and her army of artificial intelligence spies could not watch every asteroid in every system, could not turn back every moon grab at the edge of every sector. Only the Sangheili themselves could protect their colonies—and only if they came together to create a Concert of Worlds so capable that no thief would dare test it.

But the Sangheili had lived under the deceptions of the Covenant for more than two thousand orbits, and they had grown complacent. Their kaidons had forgotten how easily prosperity could be stolen, how swiftly a keep could become a prison. Now, instead of learning from their recent history, they accepted the Tyrant’s lies as fact and trusted her despotism to protect the holdings of their clans.

They were fools.

The Covenant had kept order not just because of its strength, but because of its unity. Its San’Shyuum hierarchs had used religious fables to bring together its member species, promising that all true believers would ascend to divine transsentience. Cortana offered no such hope. She brought only fear and subjugation, and she promised nothing but death to those who defied her.

How could the high kaidons not see that Cortana’s hand was already on their throats? She was crushing all that made the Sangheili strong, their discipline and honor and courage, and the kaidons were happy to let her . . . so long as she allowed them to believe they were still masters of their own worlds.

The Crav in which ‘Vadam was riding came to an abrupt stop, then sat hovering on its propulsion field. He grabbed a plasma repeater off the cabin wall and opened the rear firing port. They had stopped in the cramped confines of the Old Borough. A mazelike warren of narrow lanes lined by stone domiciles with no windows on the ground floor, it was an ideal place for an ambush . . . and given the divisions at the High Gathering today, ‘Vadam was certainly ready for one.

In Sangheili culture, assassination was the customary way to settle disagreements with authority, and as the reigning Arbiter, ‘Vadam was the closest thing the Sangheili had to a supreme leader. That was why he had elected to send his Phantom ahead as a decoy—and covertly return home in an armored ground racer.

When ‘Vadam saw no threats in the street behind the Crav, he glanced forward. His two escorts sat opposite him on rear-facing saddles. They were peering out through the side-door firing ports, their reddish helmets tipping and rocking as they searched nearby rooftops for firebomb casters and plasma cannons. It was almost unthinkable for a Sangheili to use such weapons to assassinate a superior, but that did not make it impossible. During the Blooding Years, the Sangheili civil war that had erupted after the Covenant fell, ‘Vadam’s enemies had done many unthinkable things to their own kind.

At times, ‘Vadam wondered if he had, as well.

But no attack came. The partition at the front of the passenger cabin descended into its pocket, revealing ‘Vadam’s adjunct, N’tho ‘Sraom, in the drop-deck operator’s compartment. Like ‘Vadam himself, the young warrior wore no armor, only a belted red tunic that covered his saurian body to the knees. His pebbly brown face and golden eyes were less oval than most, and his four mandibles a little shorter than the Sangheili norm.

“Have no alarm, Arbiter,” ‘Sraom said. His head was half-turned, so that one diamond-shaped pupil was looking back and up into the passenger cabin. “It is only a Tyrant checkpoint.”

‘Vadam leaned down so he could look through the forward viewscreen. A trio of the Tyrant’s armigers stood in the lane, blocking the way. Standing a full head taller than most Sangheili warriors, they had bipedal frames that resembled nothing quite so much as disarticulated suits of armor. Here and there, a ghostly orange light limned the edge of a silvery plate or shone through a seam. A similar glow showed through the eye and mouth openings of their masked helmets, creating the impression of sinister-looking faces.

‘Vadam knew without looking that another squad would be stepping into the street behind the Crav, emerging from its hiding place to block any retreat attempt. Whether armigers were purely robotic or sentient-infused hybrids remained unclear to him, but he had no doubts about their effectiveness. They were Forerunner-designed constructs fabricated many millennia ago—presumably to police civilizations deemed lower than that of the armigers’ makers—and they executed their tasks with ruthless and cold efficiency. They wielded advanced Forerunner energy weapons like light rifles and suppressors, and they knew how to use both assets to maximum tactical advantage. Some were even quicker than human Spartans.

It made ‘Vadam’s skin burn to see the Tyrant’s forces patrolling his ancestral home in the Vadam Valley, but he did not dare destroy them. She would only send more, and when he destroyed those, she would send a Guardian.

And for a Guardian, ‘Vadam had no answer.

No one did. Constructed by the Forerunners to impose order in their ancient ecumene, Guardians were so powerful they could destroy a planet’s infrastructure in mere moments. Now the Tyrant employed them as weapons of terror, using them to enforce her “peace” as she had just three days earlier at Doisac, when she used them to punish the defiance of the Banished warmaster Atriox by destroying the homeworld of the entire Jiralhanae species.

‘Vadam considered Atriox a looming threat and the Jiralhanae in general his potential enemies, but the last thing he wanted was the Tyrant imposing her peace on them. Because if she was willing to use her Guardians against Doisac, she was willing to use them against Sanghelios, and no one knew how to neutralize them. The only hope ‘Vadam could see was to overwhelm her forces with a grand alliance of interstellar civilizations, but he had no prospect of making that happen. He could not even unite the worlds of the Sangheili, much less those of the other spacefaring species.

When ‘Sraom kept the Crav hovering in place, the lead armiger approached the left side of the operator’s compartment and pointed to the ground, ordering him to kill the propulsion field. The armiger’s armor was more white than their typical silver, and the light shining out through its eye and mouth openings was yellow rather than orange, with its head armor fanning out to both sides. It was an Officer, probably the squad leader. The second and third armigers remained in front of the vehicle, their light rifles pointed at the forward viewscreen.

“This does not look like a normal checkpoint,” ‘Sraom said, speaking over his shoulder and ignoring the lead armiger’s order. “Perhaps we should push through. It could be an arrest action.”

“If so, they already know who we are, and they will be ready to stop us,” said Kola ‘Baoth, a ranger who often served ‘Vadam as an escort. ‘Baoth wore the red-orange armor of the Swords of Sanghelios. Once an alliance of keeps that was the closest thing the Sangheili had had to a central government, the Swords of Sanghelios were now a group of forces united under ‘Vadam’s leadership in pursuit of the same ideals as the original Swords: a formal union of all Sangheili worlds. “We should not give them an excuse to turn it into an execution.”

“Let us hear what they want,” said Usze ‘Taham, the second escort. Before the Blooding Years, he had been known as one of the deadliest Special Operations commandos in the Covenant. Now ‘Taham served ‘Vadam in a variety of roles. Today, he was both adviser and escort, and he wore armor identical to ‘Baoth’s. “If it comes to a fight, it will be better to leave the Crav.”

“Agreed,” ‘Vadam said.

Manufactured by Iruiru Armory in western Yermo, the Crav was essentially an incognito armored personnel carrier designed for the low-profile transport of civilian dignitaries. In place of weapons mounts, it had a reinforced cabin large enough to carry six individuals, and the armor could deflect the strikes of most portable plasma cannons. But against the kind of hard light and antimatter artillery the armigers could call into action, it was a soft target.

“Keep the propulsion field active,” ‘Vadam continued. “But be prepared to depart the vehicle. Usze, you will see what they want.”

“As you command.” ‘Taham waited until ‘Sraom had unlatched the driver’s canopy and ‘Baoth had unsealed the door on his side of the compartment, then lifted his own door partially open and called out, “You can speak to me. I am leaving the vehicle.”

The Officer raised its light rifle and retreated a single pace into the lane. ‘Taham lifted the door the rest of the way and, leaving his plasma repeater in its mount, stepped out of the Crav.

“Why have you stopped us?” ‘Taham asked calmly. He was standing between the Officer and the Crav’s open door, but the armiger was so tall it could peer over his helmet into the passenger...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.8.2023
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: Al • Arbiter • blood gulch • brute • Cortana • Covenant • drop ship • Elite • Flood • ghost • Grunt • guilty spark • Guns • Halo • halo 2 • halo 3 • halo: infinite • halo: reach • Infinite • jackal • Keith David • Masterchief • Master Chief • needler • new mumbasa • ODST • Orbital • orbital drop ship • Phantom • Prophet • REACH • Sangheili • Science Fiction • scorpion • Space Opera • Spark • spartan • the arbiter • the covenant • the flood • Wraith • Xbox
• ISBN-13: 9781803367514 / 9781803367514