Link to updated story in my Portfolio: Chief
The First Halo
John had woken up from his crash landing on Halo. His only companion was Cortana, an advanced AI that resided in a chip implanted in his suit of armor. With the rest of his squad dead and Covenant forces approaching, he moved into the tree line.
Some time had passed and Cortana chimed in, "Chief, I'm getting a few distress signals, it seems the Captain and a few squads of marines made it off the ship too! We have to regroup with them."
Chief agreed and slowly but surely rounded everyone up. Eventually, they reached a strange building and decided to make that their base of operations. They set up defenses and hunkered down for the night. As Chief was the only Spartan II among them, everyone admired him in awe as he moved around and towered over people. The Captain, Chief, and Cortana started thinking up plans of what to do next as they were stranded, but knew this place, the ring, was important to the Covenant. Suddenly, they were interrupted by a floating orb that appeared behind them by means of teleportation.
Master Chief from Halo by Gunner111 (April 2008). Source: Flickr
"Greetings, I am 343 Guilty Spark, the Monitor of this installation. I noticed a Reclaimer signature appeared on the ring not long ago," as it stared at John, "I need you to come with me to stop the meddlers who have released the Flood."
Before anyone could get a word in, the Monitor teleported John and Cortana to the control room.
"You must hurry Reclaimer, only you can activate this ring as your forefathers intended," exclaimed the Monitor.
"Slow down, what am I activating, what does it do? Why is the Flood so dangerous?" asked the Chief.
Before anyone could get a word in, the Monitor teleported John and Cortana to the control room.
"You must hurry Reclaimer, only you can activate this ring as your forefathers intended," exclaimed the Monitor.
"Slow down, what am I activating, what does it do? Why is the Flood so dangerous?" asked the Chief.
"Reclaimer, surely you know the Flood will consume all life in the galaxy. Activating the ring ensures they cannot spread by eliminating their food, of course," responded the Monitor.
"Their food...? You mean us? They consume life right, so they the ring will eliminate us?" Chief inquired.
"Why yes, precisely," answered the Monitor.
"Sorry, can't do it. I'm not killing all of my people to stop an enemy I haven't even seen yet," said the Chief.
"Then you too shall perish," retorted the Monitor as his sentinels appeared and took aim at the spartan.
"Chief, time to go!" urged Cortana.
Chief immediately took cover to avoid the first barrage of fire, and made his escape as the sentinels recharged their weapons. He had to get back to the Captain and warn his people.
Author's Note
The story I took elements of to write this story was Part A of the Public Domain Edition: Ramayana. In the story, Rama is the main character and is part of the human embodiment of a god. He accomplishes many great things through his journey such as bending many great godly bows that no human has been able to, marry a beautiful princess, and being a beloved prince of the people. However, he was betrayed by a queen who wanted her son to become king and had him exiled.
I used characters and places from the Halo universe and blended them into the Public Domain Edition: Ramayana story. I tried to write the story by making Chief/John share similarities with Rama. The main similarities were how only they could yield certain mighty weapons, they were both admired by their people, they both had a trusty companion, and they were both betrayed unnecessarily by someone who could have helped them. I believe the endings to also be similar in that Rama was exiled and had his wife and brother accompany him, where as Chief is left in an unfamiliar area with Cortana by his side.
Bibliography
"Public Domain Edition: Ramayana" by M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder.
Hi Manny! This was such an interesting concept to incorporate into the Ramayana. While I do know of Halo, I do not have much experience with the game. I enjoyed the unique details of the Halo characters, considering I did not know much about the game. However, I do wish there more details about the Halo theme because I do not know much about the story line. For example what does it mean that Chief is a Spartan II? Does that give him extra powers and is that why he is called Chief? Also what does it mean for there to be a Reclaimer signal? Overall, some of these details can make the story confusing because they are so many terms, so one suggestion to the story would be to add more explanations. I also enjoyed reading the author's note as I was curious to see how were inspired to write a Halo themed version of the Ramayana. I think it is cool how you did not choose on a singular story of the Ramayana but rather include many elements. Again, great story!
ReplyDeleteHey Manny! I am super familiar with the Halo franchise. Halo 3, Reach, 4, and even quite a bit of ODST I have all under my belt. It was cool to see references to things I am already super familiar with. I think it was a rad idea to incorporate such a fantastical setting like the Halo universe with The Ramayana. I think for viewers unfamiliar with the Halo franchise, this would probably be a bit confusing though. You make many references to multiple alien factions in the Halo Universe like: the flood, covenant, and sentinels. You name them, but the lifeforms are not really explained further, which only adds unanswered questions. Someone like me who is already familiar with all these names can understand what is going on with ease, but for people unfamiliar with the Halo world, it might be a bit confusing.
ReplyDeleteHi Manny!
ReplyDeleteYour writing style was very precise and it made reading this piece very easy even though I'm not very familiar with Halo myself. However, it would have been nice to have some in-text explanations for some of the terms you used when referring to Halo because it made it hard to keep up at times. For instance, should I know what the Flood is from Halo or is that something that you have created solely for the purposes of this story? If some more follow up on what the Flood is had been included, it would have made for an even more intense ending than what you've already created. This is another thing that you did really well in your writing: suspense. It was a very epic ending to a good story. Good job!
Hey Manny.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your story and have played a couple halo games my self. While all the elements didn't completely make sense to me when I read your story the reading notes definitely helped me tie it all together. I like how you didn't use just one story but you used elements from all the stories from that book. I am excited to see more of your work great job!
Hey Manny,
ReplyDeleteI am not super familiar with Halo, but I thought that this was a very interesting way to incorporate the Ramayana into something else that you enjoy. I was a little confused at the beginning what the story was supposed to be similar to, but the author's note really helped me understand everything at the end. I think maybe you could put an author's note at the beginning as well, just to give a little background information to those who are maybe not as familiar. That might help us understand where the story is going right from the beginning! I really liked the way that you made the Captain similar to Rama. I think something else that would be interesting would be to a story in a similar format, but instead of it being Rama, you could do Ravana. Great job on this story, I am looking forward to reading more from you!
Hey Manny,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the fact that you made your story about Halo. Growing up, I played a lot of Halo and it is an important part of my childhood. After reading the story, I thought that it would hard for people who didn't play the games to understand what was going on in the first place. However, your author's notes section thoroughly explained how it related to the Epics. It's so weird how so many stories can relate to the epics just because of one or two characters. I didn't really think that the Master Chief and Cortona could ever be compared to Rama and Sita, but if you really think about it, it makes sense. I didn't think about the comparison of Rama getting buried and the Chief being left for dead. I look forward to seeing more of this story if you are planning to use it for your project.