Halo: Contact Harvest

Halo: Contact is the fifth halo novel ever to be released and was released shortly after Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. It, like Ghosts of Onyx and Cole Protocol are all located in the Halo boxset.

It is based on the events that lead to the Human-Covenant War. Contact Harvest is based on the main character-Sergeant Johnson as he tells of the carnage on Harvest during that fatal first contact.

This book is the fifth book in the Halo Main Book Series.

Halo: Contact Harvest
Author:	Joseph Staten
Publisher:	Tor Books
Date Released:	October 30,2007
Length:	400 pages
Availability:	Paperback
Price:	The Following Prices Apply
US:	$14.95
Canada:	$17.25
UK:	$9.99

Summary

On the UNSC Colony world of Harvest, there is only Peace and Prosperity. Overwatched by two AI's, Sif and Mac, the colony produce's much of Humanity's food. This peace is interrupted when the Kig-Yar trading vessel, Minor Transgression, discovers a malfunctioning unmanned human cargo ship. The coordinates registered in the cargo ship's navigation computer lead the aliens to Harvest. A Covenant Grunt, Deacon Dadab, is alarmed when the ship's luminary seems to register thousands of Forerunner artifacts and a Oracle (Forerunner AI). The greedy Kig-Yar plan to take some artifacts for themselves. before reporting the discovery to the Prophets, and begin to routinely raid Human Freighters. Unfortunetly for the Kig-Yar, ONI thinks they are Rebels and they send a ship with a organized strike team comprising of Sergeant Johnson and Sergean Burne. When they board the freighter, they are immediately engaged by the Jackals. Johnson suffers a cracked skull from the attack and Burne is stabbed in the leg by a Energy Cutlass. This sparks the first encounter with a alien race for both sides and shows ONI and later the UNSC of a new threat they could be facing. The Minor Transgression later self-destructed by the dying Captain and only Dabab and his Huragok friend, Lighter Than Some escape the exploding ship via Escape Pod.

While the UNSC prepares the Harvest Colonial Militia for a oncoming invasion, two ambitious San'Shyuum, the Minister of Fortitude and the Vice Minister of Tranquility learn of the large amount of relics found on Harvest and begin a plan a coup of the current High Prophets using this as a falcrum. To keep the Sangheili from using this discovery as a way to upset the balance of power, they ultilize a Brute-controlled vessel, the Rapid Conversion, captained by Chieftain of the Brutes Maccabeus and crewed by a pack of brutes including his nephew, War Chieftain Tartarus. The two begin a secret attempt to seize Harvest. This marks the beginning of the powerful alliance between the Brutes and the Prophets, and the key to their eventual betrayal of the Sangheili leading to the Great Schism/Covenant Civil War later in 2552.

Rapid Conversion arrives in the system to find the escape pod containing Dadab and Lighter Than Some much to Maccabeus's delight. The Brutes use the Deacon as a way to motivate their own lackluster complement of Grunts and Lighter Than Some to repair the intentionally crippled ship. They all soon discover the planet's vast store of reclamations and a message of peace left by Sif and Mack in the form of a crude pictogram displaying a desire for peace. Their Luminary also indicates that there is a Oracle on the planet. The Brutes land two Spirit Dropships at a specified date, with only the desire to capture the entire planet at any cost. The attempt at Peaceful contact falls apart when Pvt. Wallace A.Jenkins mistakes Maccbeus's gesture as a sign of attack. He snipes Maccabeus's who has his shields up. They try to settle things down but Osmo is killed by a Grunt. Johnson uses his Warthog to ram Maccabeus's against a rock and severely wound him. Maccabeus however survives and the First Battle of Harvest begins.

Meanwhile, the ambitious San'Shyuum begin their mutiny of sorts by invoking the Prophet of Restraint in a conspiracy that will lead to his removal if revealed. They seek a blessing by the long silent Oracle (Mendicant Bias) present on High Charity's Forerunner Dreadnought. They visit an old, supposedly senile Philologist, for blessings and advice. When they input the discovery of Harvest and Luminary's data, the Oracle, which is in fact a fragment of the Forerunner Contender-class AI, 05-032 Mendicant Bias, suddenly awakens from eons of dormancy and reveals that they've been interpreting their findings. What the Kig-Yar thought were artifacts were actually registering the presence of humans on Harvest, which it claims are Reclaimers, and refers to them as his makers. The Minister Fortitude concludes that these Reclaimers are living Forerunners and were left behind when the rest transcended. Wishing to make amends for his bias, Mendicant powers up the dreadnought's thrusters and prepares to take off. He wants to take the humans to the Ark. If he takes off, it will destroy High Charity. Unfortunetly for Mendicant, the Lekgolo worms in the system short circuit the connection between Mendicant and the rest of the ship. Realizing that the discovery of living Forerunners would tear the Covenant apart, the ambitious San'Shyuum swear to secrecy, induct the Philologist into their conspiracy and accelerate their plans for takeover.

On Harvest, the humans begin to resist the assault by the Rapid Conversion by going to every town and shuttling all civilians down to the planet's capital. Maccabeus is informed that his ship's luminary was broken and he is to glass the planet, but the devout chieftain decides to continue his search for relics while attacking the humans. One of the planet's AI, Mack, normally responsible for the agricultural JOTUN's, hands over his vast network to his previously concealed dopplelganger, Loki, a ship AI now implemented as a defense mechanism. The Colonial Militia manages to ferry most of the surviving population to Utgard, the capital, and then begin their plan to send these people to safety aboard the Freighters on top of the seven Space elevators present on Harvest, the Tiara. The Brutes, having stationed Grunt forces in the Tiara, unwittingly allow the Huragok, Lighter Than Some to come into contact with Loki and the now nearly destroyed, AI Sif. The Huragok , disgusted by the killing and wishing to end it, shows the AI how to duplicate the Forerunner symbol for Oracle and helps lure the Covenant ship in range of the colony's sole mass driver and cripple it. While Johnson leads a small force up the Space elevator to clear the Grunt force, Tartarus, angered by his uncle's refusal to simply glass the planet, challenges Maccabeus, kills him and becomes the new Chieftain of the Brutes. He assumes command of the Rapid Conversion. During the assault, a jealous group of Drones kill Lighter Than Some as he builds a machine of peace which will later be used to create the Chopper. A devastated Dadab slaughters the Drones with his plasma pistol, accidentally irreparably damaging Sif's arrays, and then uses the pistol's last shot to wound Tartarus. Tartarus, who was about to kill Jenkins, retreats with his shields down but not before crushing and obliderating Dadab with the Fist of Rukt, a symbolic Gravity Hammer of unimaginable power. Just after the last human survivors escape the Tiara, Loki fires the Mass Driver, destroying the station along with Sif and bringing the elevators down on the planet.

The Brutes then commence their glassing of the planet while the refugees flee. Back at High Charity, Fortitude, Tranquility and the Philologist usurp the Hierachs and become the new High Prophets and leaders of the Covenant. Fortitude is renamed Truth, Tranquility becomes Regret and the Philoligist becomes Regret. Together, they declare holy war upon the humans which is the only way to keep the Covenant from falling apart and for Humanity's true identity to be revealed. The last we hear of Avery Johnson is him beginning to have sex with the ONI spook, Jilan in the cockpit. The newly established High Prophets recommission the Luminary as a means to locate human planets, and thus begins the Human-Covenant War. In the following months, the United Rebel Front are thrown into hiding and the UNSC focus their full might on the deadly new threat. During Harvest's glassing, Mack, who is desperately in love with Sif, tries to contact her as the Tiara falls apart and the JOTUN's are incinerated.

Characters

• Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson
• Lieutenant Commander Jilan al-Cygni
• Captain Ponder
• Staff Sergeant Nolan Bryne
• Petty Officer First Class Healy
• Governor Thune
• Attorney General Rol Pedersen
• Private First Class Wallace A.Jenkins
• Private Forsell
• Private Osmo
• Loki
• Mack
• Sif
• Squad Leader Dass
• Captain Henry "Hank" Gibson
• Dr.Catherine Elizabeth Halsey (Briefly seen)
• Cheiftain of the Brutes Maccabeus
• War Chieftain/Chieftain of the Brutes Tartarus
• Grattius
• Druss
• Strab
• Vorenus
• Licinus
• Ritul
• Lighter Than Some
• Jackal Captain Chur'R-Yar
• Zhar
• Deacon Dadab
• Bapap
• Flim
• Guff
• Yull
• Minister of Fortitude (later High Prophet of Truth)
• Vice Minister of Tranquility (later High Prophet of Regret)
• The Philologist (later High Prophet of Mercy)
• Minor Prophet of Restraint

Trivia

• Complaints were received about the book saying it was "overly descriptive" and used too much military slang. This could be considered a compliment.
• Contact Harvest was the first book ever written by Joseph Staten.
• Covenant species in the book are always called by their native names (eg. Huragok, Unggoy, Kig-Yar, Jiralhanae etc.) instead of their human given names (eg. Engineer, Grunt, Jackal, Brute etc.)
• In Contact Harvest and the Cole Protocol, the authors to not refer to the weapons specified models but instead call them by the series they come in (eg. MA5B Assault Rifle, MA5 series, M90 shotgun, M90 series etc.).
• In Contact Harvest, confusion arose as too why the BR55 Battle Rifle was shown in the book's front cover. It is confirmed by Bungie that the Battle Rifle was in use by ONI as a prototype weapon as of 2524.
• One of the Unggoy on Rapid Conversion makes reference to his cousin, Yayap. This is the grunt who would later die on Alpha Halo in Halo: The Flood.
• As with all halo novel's, the Marathon symbol is located inbetween the "A" and the "L" in Halo.
• Dr.Halsey makes a very brief appearence in the post-epilogue where she is talking with Sif and Mack.
• This currently the only halo book that does not involve SPARTANs
• This is the first halo novel to feature female Covenant soldiers. Chur 'R-Yar, captain of Minor Transgression, is one of these females.
• Joseph Staten was receiving advice from Eric Nylund, when writing the first chapter of this book.
• At the beginning of Chapter 5, the date is incorrectly labelled as "December 1, 2525" It's correct date is "December 1, 2524."
• This book, along with Ghosts of Onyx and The Cole Protocol are part of the Halo boxed set.

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