Halo: First Strike
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Halo: First Strike is a 2003 novel based off the video game Halo: Combat Evolved (2001). By Eric Nylund, it is the story between the first game and its sequel Halo 2. It starts where the game left off, with the Master Chief and Cortana finding a few survivors from the destruction of the ringworld. With valuable information, they must return to Earth and do so by infiltrating The Covenant flagship Ascendent Justice with the help of Covenant Engineers. Once they secure the ship, their first jump is back to Reach, where they pick up surviving UNSC forces, including a few Spartans, and Doctor Halsey. In addition to survivors, they also find that the Covenant have discovered the location of Earth and are about to deploy the entire Covenant fleet. It is revealed by Dr. Halsey that Sergeant Avery J. Johnson survived the Flood encounter because he was diagnosed with Boren's Syndrome, which originated on the fictional planet of Paris IV. The Sergeant used a whole crate of plasma grenades to fight the flood just long enough for evac - he gained a high dose of radiation resulting. The UNSC forces rendezvous with the rebels of the Eridanus asteroid field. Dr. Halsey sedates Kelly-087, taking her on her mission that the others do not understand. It presumably relates to the anomaly she had that was mentioned at the beginning of the novel. Determined to buy time for Earth to prepare for the inevitable onslaught, the Chief and his Spartans decide to go to the fleet's rendezvous point and disrupt its initial operations in a decisive first strike. John and the rest of his Spartans infiltrate and destroy the Covenant space station, the Unyielding Hierophant. They completed their mission, but it cost Grace's life. The surviving Spartans head back to Earth to warn them of the Covenant's upcoming invasion.
Meanwhile, the High Prophet of Truth and the Brute Chieftain, Tartarus, bring forth the incompetent one who lost the Ascendant Justice, who is the Arbiter we play as in Halo 2.
Problems With The Novel
Whereas "The Fall of Reach" and "The Flood" kept the Halo universe relatively intact and stayed intrinsically linked with the style and continuity of the games themselves, "First Strike" conversely almost seems like a piece of poorly thought-out fan fiction. The plot ratchets up the complexity of the universe immensely, adds in many very large aspects of the Halo universe, and does not seem to correspond in the slightest with the manner and knowledge of the Master Chief who is portrayed in Halo 2. As well, its explicit confirmation of many live and interacting Spartans seems not to jibe with the solo-minded Master Chief of the games. While these criticisms are inherently vague, "First Strike" nonetheless left a sour taste in many fans' mouths after truly contemplating what it meant for the series. Hopes are high that any novelizations associated with "Halo 2" will bring the universe back to its roots and eliminate some of the altogether too-ambitious, too-complex complications that this title introduced to what appeared to be a fairly straightforward and well-grounded series.