Halopedia:Letter - The Cole Protocol

This was a conversation between CommanderTony, Administrator of Halopedia and Tobias S. Buckell, Author of Halo: The Cole Protocol.

1. What is the SPARTAN number (Like John-117) for Mike, the techie for Gray Team?

That is currently top secret ;-) I hope to reveal it sometime.

2. When does The Cole Protocol take place?

The year 2535. The years and days of when in that year are left up to the reader.

As a new writer to the franchise I didn't want to make any mistakes that would lead to anyone having to retcon anything, or to having to redo parts of the book as we were on a tight schedule.

3. How old is Miranda Keyes during the novel?

Possibly as young as 8 maybe as old as 11 :-)

4. What is the rank of the ODST officer, Faison?

Major. I imagine that Keyes, either under stress and not having seen Faison may have been slipping and referring to Faison as Commander due to an equal rank (lt col, but you call them all commanders out loud) and his command of the large boarding party. Commander isn't referred in text, it's Keyes who audibly keeps making the mistake, and the narrative notes Faison sounds annoyed but doesn't comment or correct him.

To document this, in Part Two Faison is called Major when Keyes is trapped on the roof with Watanabe (I don't have the official page number at hand, but it's Chapter 15, I think). I would trust that as his rank, and that Keyes was mentally regarding him as a LCDR, but addressing him as commander on the air without thinking.

I should have added some ribbing of Keyes about his use of Commander, but never got around to it.

Here's some trivia: the 'Bug Hunter' on his knife is my nod to the influence Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein had on Halo :-)

5. Who's the Gray Team SPARTAN on the cover?

That only Bungie knows, I wasn't in on the cover design, authors never are.

6. Is Thel 'Vadamee the name of the Arbiter that we saw in Halo 2 and Halo 3, and what were some of your experiences working on this character?

Yes.

I tried to drop as many clues without saying 'Arbiter,' as that is an event in his future, but I think everyone got the hint.

It was the most fun I had while writing the book, to be honest. And getting to add in stuff about the society, the Keeps, the concept of Kaidons, and legend history of his family was a lot of fun. I looked forward to writing all those scenes :-)

Hope that's not too much XD.

No problem, I don't mind answering questions at all, I try to be as available as possible to readers!