Halo: Contact Harvest

Halo: Contact Harvest is the title of a Halo book by Joseph Staten. Published by Tor, it was released on October 30th, 2007. It is the fifth official book in the Halo series, and the second of three that will be published by Tor.

The price of the novel in the US will be $14.95. The novel will also be available as an audio book CD. The price of the audio book CD in the US will be $29.95

As part of Bungie's contract with Tor, there will be at least one more Halo novel released after Contact Harvest.

It is possible that the novel may lead up to the upcoming Halo game: Halo Wars, which deals with the UNSC's first encounters with the Covenant.

Summary
On the UNSC colony Harvest, there is only peace and prosperity. Governed by two A.I., Sif and Mack, the colony produces much of Humanity's food. This peace is interrupted when a Jackal controlled vessel discovers the planet. A Covenant Grunt, Deacon Dadab, is alarmed when the ship's sensors seem to register millions of Forerunner artifacts and an Oracle, the Covenant term for an A.I. The opportunistic Jackals plan to take some artifacts for themselves before reporting the discovery to the Hierarchs, and begin surreptitiously raiding human freighters. Unfortunately for the Jackals, ONI had recently organised a strike team to counteract local piracy, including one Staff Sergeant Avery J. Johnson. First contact is made, leading to the destruction of the Covenant vessel. The Deacon escapes inside a life-pod, along with his Engineer friend Lighter Than Some. While the UNSC prepares the colonial milita for a possible alien invasion, two ambitious Prophets plan to use the unprecidented find in a power play. They send a ship crewed by Brutes (including a youthful Tartarus) to rescue Dadab and Lighter Than Some and investigate the find. The humans want to make a peaceful second contact, and the Brutes want to gather the artifacts for the Covenant. An attempt at peaceful contact falls apart after an errant Grunt attacks a wandering militiaman, and the one-sided Battle of Harvest begins.

Meanwhile, the ambitious Prophets, The Minister of Fortitude and the Vice-Minister of Tranquility seek a third Prophet to help them usurp the throne. They visit an old, supposedly senile Philologist, for blessings and advice. While they wait, the Oracle aboard High Charity, a Forerunner construct much like 343 Guilty Spark, suddenly awakes from eons of dormancy and reveals that they've been misinterpreting their find- What the Jackals thought were artifacts were actually registering the presence of the Humans on Harvest, which it claims are Reclaimers and the designated successors of the Forerunners. Realising that this revelation would tear the Covenant apart, the Prophets induct the Philologist into their conspiracy and accelerate their plans for takeover.

Back on Harvest, the UNSC forces are pulling back to their space elevator for evacuation; However, any attempt to use the elevator would result in the Covenant ship destroying the refugee convoy. All seems lost when Lighter Than Some, horrified at the carnage, contacts the humans and offers to help.

With the Engineer's assistance, the humans manage to lure the Covenant ship in range of the colony's sole MAC gun and cripple it. While Johnson leads a small force up the Space Elevator to clear the way, Tartarus usurps control of his Pack and counterattacks, killing Lighter Than Some for heresy. A devestated Dadab wounds Tartarus, allowing the humans to escape.

As the Brutes glass Harvest and the refugees flee, the scheming Prophets usurp the Hierarchs and, as the High Prophets of Truth, Regret and Mercy, declare a holy war on the human race, for if the rest of the Covenant discover their connection to the Forerunners, the Covenant will disintegrate.

United Nations Space Command

 * Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson
 * Lieutenant Commander Jilan al-Cygni
 * Captain Ponder
 * Staff Sergeant Nolan Byrne
 * Governor Thune
 * Attorney General Rol Pedersen

Covenant

 * Jiralhanae Chieftain Maccabeus
 * Tartarus
 * Huragok Lighter Than Some
 * Unggoy Dadab
 * Prophet of Truth
 * Prophet of Regret
 * Prophet of Mercy

Trivia

 * Johnson is seen wielding a BR55 Battle Rifle on the cover of the book which according to Halo: First Strike wasn't created until 2552, meaning it won't exist until 27 years after the events in Contact Harvest. However, on Bungie Podcast Episode III, Joe Staten stated that there are specific reasons that Johnson has the battle rifle, hinting about what kind of soldier would be responsible for testing out weapons such as the Battle Rifle. It should also be noted that it says in the book its a prototype at the time.


 * Johnson gets into a relationship with Lt. Commander Jilan al-Cygni. She was sent by ONI to use Johnson and Byrne in a covert operation to figure out who kept boarding freighters that would send out a distress signal. It wasn't until the second to last chapter of the book did anything of intimate nature occur.


 * In an excerpt found in OXM, it is revealed that the Hornet appears in Contact Harvest in the sense that they have been in service since 2524.


 * The Unggoy Dadab could refer to Tim Dadabo, the voice actor of 343 Guilty Spark