Halo: Divine Wind
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Halo: Divine Wind is a Halo novel written by Troy Denning and released on October 19, 2021.[3] The book serves as a sequel to 2020's Halo: Shadows of Reach and 2017's Halo: Retribution. The novel additionally follows up on elements established in the short story Sacrifice.
Official summary[edit]
| “ | October 2559. With the galaxy in the suffocating grip of a renegade artificial intelligence, another perilous threat has quietly emerged in the shadows: the Keepers of the One Freedom, a fanatical and merciless Covenant splinter group, has made its way beyond the borders of the galaxy to an ancient Forerunner installation known as the Ark. Led by an infamous Brute named Castor, the Keepers intend to achieve what the Covenant, in all its might, failed to: activate Halo and take the last steps on the path of the Great Journey into transcendence…
But unknown to Castor and his new, unexpected ally on the Ark, there are traitors to the cause in their midst—namely the Ferrets, composed of Office of Naval Intelligence operative Veta Lopis and her young team of Spartan-IIIs, who have been infiltrating the Keepers to lay the groundwork for Castor’s assassination. But with ONI’s field operations now splintered and cut off by the Guardian threat, Veta’s original mission has suddenly and dramatically escalated in scope. There’s simply no choice or fallback plan—either the Ferrets somehow stop the Keepers or the galaxy faces an extinction-level event….[3] |
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Plot synopsis[edit]
Divine Wind picks up immediately following the end of Halo: Shadows of Reach, with the Keepers of the One Freedom having stolen Atriox's personal Lich Pegoras and mid-transit through the Menachite portal to the Ark. The group intend to travel to the Ark and fire the Halo Array due to their religious beliefs, though a handful of the personnel aboard (Veta Lopis and several SPARTAN-III "Ferrets") are double agents working for the Office of Naval Intelligence.
The Lich emerges from slipspace over the Ark in the middle of a raging battle between the Banished guarding the slipspace portal and both Covenant and human military forces assaulting the Banished lines. This causes confusion for the Keepers, with the humans using massively outdated hardware and the Covenant believed to have been destroyed many years earlier. Upon reentry into normal space, the Lich fuses with a Shortsword bomber, destroying the bomber and severely damaging the Lich. A Sangheili aboard the craft, Inslaan 'Gadogai, surmises that if Atriox is back in the galaxy then Let 'Volir must be in charge of the Ark garrison, and as such attempts to deceive the shipmaster into believing that Atriox is aboard the craft, injured. 'Volir is suspicious of the ruse, but reluctantly assigns an air escort for the Lich. Veta Lopis then tries the inverse, ordered by Castor to contact the UNSC forces in the battle to convince them that the Lich has friendlies aboard. While on the radio with the UNSC, she attempts to call in a final protective fire via a coded message, hoping that the Lich will be shot down so that the Keepers can not try to fire the rings.
Ultimately, the Lich crashes in the Chasm Lands, and the survivors are intercepted by the arrival of several Covenant Phantoms. It is soon revealed that these soldiers are loyalist remnant soldiers of the Covenant that had been stranded on the Ark after the original battle in 2552, and are led by a San'Shyuum Prelate, Dhas Bhasvod. Bhasvod initially wants to kill the group, but he is talked down when a Forerunner ancilla, Intrepid Eye, reveals herself, having hidden inside some of the electronic equipment carried by the Keepers. Intrepid frames herself as an "Oracle" for the religious troops and instructs Bhasvod to work with the Keepers, recognizing that the still-religious soldiers will stand a better chance if they work together to light the Halos. The Covenant then bring the Keepers aboard their Phantoms and depart.
Shortly after the Keepers/Covenant leave, the crash site is visited by the Clan of the Long Shields, a Banished clan led by warlords Pavium and Voridus. Thanks to their previous failures (as depicted in Halo Wars 2: Awakening the Nightmare), they had been demoted from the glory of being allowed to participate in the battle, and were instead relegated to acting as the rearguard. In the chaos, the two warlords decide to investigate Pegoras' crash site in the hopes of regaining their lost glory. The Long Shields arrive at the site but are attacked by a group of Kralidonk scavengers. After fending off the creatures, Voridus uncovers a hidden note from Veta Lopis intended for the UNSC to find, and surmises that the Keepers have a spy among their ranks. From the note, the brothers also learn that Castor has joined forces with the Covenant and realize they are the only Banished unit in a position to stop them.
Aboard the Covenant Phantoms, Dhas Bhasvod is brought up to speed on the state of the