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 were published by Tor.

Though not intended as an exclusive prequel for Halo Wars, the novel serves as a good explanation for the beginning of the Human-Covenant War.

Summary
On the UNSC colony Harvest, there is only peace and prosperity. Watched by two A.I., Sif and Mack, the colony produces much of Humanity's food. This peace is interrupted when a Covenant controlled vessel, Minor Transgression, discovers a malfunctioning unmanned human cargo ship. The coordinates registered in the cargo ship's navigation computer lead the aliens to Harvest. A Covenant Unggoy, Deacon Dadab, is alarmed when the ship's Luminary seems to register thousands of Forerunner artifacts and an Oracle (Forerunner A.I.). The opportunistic Kig-Yar's plan to take some artifacts for themselves before reporting the discovery to the Hierarchs, and begin surreptitiously raiding human freighters. Unfortunately for the Kig-Yars, ONI had recently organized a strike team to counteract what they believed to be a growing Insurrectionist group, including one Staff Sergeant Avery J. Johnson. They successfully deceived Minor Transgression into boarding a freighter where they were immediately attacked by Staff Sergeant Johnson and Staff Sergeant Byrne. Staff Sergeant Johnson received a cracked skull from their meeting and Staff Sergeant Byrne was stabbed in the leg with an energy cutlass. This raid marked the first meeting of the humans and Covenant forces, and makes the humans aware of a brand new threat they may be facing. Jilan destroys the vessel, with only the Deacon Dadab and his Engineer friend Lighter Than Some escaping in an escape pod. While the UNSC prepares the Colonial Militia for a possible alien invasion, two ambitious San 'Shyuums, the Minister of Fortitude and the Vice Minister of Tranquility learn of the large amount of "relics" found on Harvest and begin to plan a coup of the current Hierarchs using this as a fulcrum. To keep the Sangheili from using this discovery as a way to upset the balance of power, they utilize a Jiralhanae-controlled ship, Rapid Conversion, captained by Maccabeus, the Brute Chieftain at that time, and crewed by his pack of Jiralhanae (including a youthful Tartarus). The two began a secret attempt to seize the planet. This marks the beginning of the powerful alliance between the Jiralhanae and the San 'Shyuum, and the key to their eventual betrayal of the Sangheili leading to the Covenant Civil War later in the war.

Rapid Conversion arrives in the system to find the escape pod containing Dadab and the Huragok, Lighter Than Some, much to the devout Maccabeus' delight. The Jiralhanae use the Deacon as a way to motivate their own lackluster complement of Unggoys and Lighter than Some to repair their intentionally crippled ship. They all soon discover the planet's vast store of reclamations and a message of peace left by Sif and Mack in the form of a crude pictogram displaying a desire for peace. The Jiralhanae land two Spirit dropships at a specified date, with only the desire to capture the entire planet at any cost. The attempt at peaceful contact falls apart after an errant Unggoy attacks Harvest Colonial Militiaman Osmo, and the one-sided Battle of Harvest begins.

Meanwhile, the ambitious San 'Shyuums begin their mutiny of sorts by invoking the Prophet of Restraint in a conspiracy that will lead to his removal if revealed. They seek a blessing by the long silent Oracle present on the Forerunner Dreadnought. They visit an old, supposedly senile Philologist, for blessings and advice. When they input the discovery of Harvest and the Luminary's data, the Oracle, which is in fact a fragment of the Forerunner Contender-class A.I. Mendicant Bias, a Forerunner construct, but more advanced than 343 Guilty Spark, suddenly awakens from eons of dormancy and reveals that they've been misinterpreting their findings. What the Kig-Yar thought were artifacts were actually registering the presence of the Humans on Harvest, which it claims are Reclaimers, and refers to them as his makers, or living Forerunners. Realizing that the discovery of living Forerunners would tear the Covenant apart, the San 'Shyuums swear to secrecy, induct the Philologist into their conspiracy and accelerate their plans for takeover.

On Harvest, the humans begin to resist the assault by the Jiralhanae ship on select towns on the planet by shuttling as many civilians as possible to the town's capital. The planet's A.I., Mack, normally responsible for the agricultural JOTUNs, hands over his vast network to his previously concealed doppelganger, Loki, a ship A.I. now implemented as a defense mechanism. The Colonial Militia manages to ferry most of the surviving population to Utgard, the capital, and then begin their plan to send these people to safety aboard the Freighters on top of the seven Space elevators present on Harvest, the Tiara. The Jiralhanae, having stationed their Unggoy forces in the Tiara, unwittingly allow the Huragok Lighter Than Some to come into contact with Loki and the now nearly destroyed A.I. Sif. The Huragok, disgusted by the killing and wishing to end it, shows the A.I. how to duplicate the Forerunner symbol for Oracle and helps lure the Covenant ship in range of the colony's sole mass driver and cripple it. While Johnson leads a small force up the space elevator to clear the Unggoys on board, Tartarus challenges Maccabeus, kills him and takes control of his Pack and counterattacks. During the assault, a jealous group of Yanme'e kills Lighter Than Some. A devastated Dadab slaughters them with his plasma pistol, accidentally irreparably damaging Sif's arrays, and then uses the pistol's last shot to wound Tartarus. Tartarus, who was about to engage Jenkins, loses his energy shields and retreats, but not before obliterating Dadab with the Fist of Rukt.

The Jiralhanae raze Harvest while the refugees flee. The scheming San Shyuums usurp the Hierarchs and become the High Prophets of Truth, Regret and Mercy, and finally declare holy war on the humans, to prevent any of the Covenant from ever discovering their true place as the Forerunner's heirs. The last we hear of Avery is him in the cockpit having sex with Jilan, while Sif and Mack communicate about what remains of Harvest. The newly established High Prophets, Truth, Regret and Mercy, recommission the Luminary as a means to locate human planets, and thus begins the Human-Covenant War.

United Nations Space Command

 * Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson
 * Lieutenant Commander Jilan al-Cygni
 * Captain Ponder
 * Staff Sergeant Nolan Byrne
 * Petty Officer First Class Healy
 * Governor Thune
 * Attorney General Rol Pedersen
 * Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins
 * Private Forsell
 * Private Osmo
 * Loki
 * Mack
 * Sif
 * Squad Leader Dass

Covenant

 * Jiralhanae Chieftain Maccabeus
 * Tartarus
 * Huragok Lighter Than Some
 * Kig-yar Chur'R-Yar
 * Kig-yar Zhar
 * Unggoy Dadab
 * Minister of Fortitude aka (Prophet of Truth)
 * Vice Minister of Tranquility aka (Prophet of Regret)
 * Philologist aka (Prophet of Mercy)

Other

 * Dr. Catherine Halsey

Reception
Critical reception to Halo: Contact Harvest was mostly positive, but with a few complaints that the book was "overly descriptive" and used too much military slang. However, many reviewers stated that, despite being a new writer, Staten was on the same level as Eric Nylund and William Dietz.

Trivia



 * Contact Harvest was the first book written by Joseph Staten.
 * Covenant species are referred to throughout the book by their native names (e.g. Huragok, Unggoy, Jiralhanae, etc.) rather than by the nicknames designated in the game series.
 * Starting in this book and onward to The Cole Protocol, the author does not refer to weapons' specific models when they are mentioned, but rather to their series, such as the MA5.
 * The novel depicts the first human death (Henry Gibson) at the hands of the Covenant, which is inflicted by the Huragok (Engineer) Lighter Than Some.
 * Prior to the release of the novel, which takes place in the year 2525, confusion arose over the appearance of the anachronous battle rifle in the cover art. In Bungie Podcast III, Joseph Staten hinted as to why the BR-55 would appear in Contact Harvest, and it was confirmed that the BR-55 had been in use as a prototype ONI weapon since 2524.
 * Battle rifles in general were still being field tested in the Fall of Reach thirty years later. Such extensive testing of future weapons is highly improbable and the prototype explanation is probably just an excuse to cover up a chronological mistake.
 * In an excerpt found in OXM, it was revealed that the Hornet aircraft would appear in the novel in the context of having been in service since 2524 at the latest. An explanation has not been offered as to why Hornets were not deployed in conflicts such as the the events on Installation 04 and the Battle of Earth, although in the former case the Pillar of Autumn may simply not have been carrying them for the reason that its original mission did not involve planetside operations.
 * The Huragok Lighter Than Some is revealed to have been the creator of the Brute Chopper, originally intending them as a peace offering modeled after human farming plows.
 * One of the Unggoy of Rapid Conversion makes reference to a cousin Yayap, a soldier under the Elites. This is thought to be the same character featured in Halo: The Flood who serves as Zuka 'Zamamee's assistant.
 * The Brutes are described to be wearing power armor in accordance with their depiction in Halo 3.
 * Interestingly, Brutes wear power armor in Halo: Contact Harvest and Halo Wars but not in Halo 2. Tartarus is mentioned in the novel to possess power armor, which he does not wear in Halo 2. This is speculated by some to be punishment from the Prophets until Truth reinstated them as a main fighting force.
 * As with all the Halo novels, the Marathon symbol appears between the "A" and "L" of the cover's Halo logo.
 * Catherine Halsey makes a very brief "appearance" in the post-epilogue conversation between Mack and Sif under the pseudonym "Charlie Hotel".
 * On page 189, Dadab describes how the Prophets knew how Mendicant Bias betrayed the Forerunners to the Flood.
 * The book explains that the Jiralhanae were assimilated into the Covenant a relatively short time before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and that they were initially excluded from major Covenant affairs as a result of interspecies political tensions with the Sangheili.
 * The Seropian Center for Active Retirement is named for Bungie Co-Founder Alexander Seropian.
 * This is currently the only Halo book not to feature SPARTAN-IIs, although it does perhaps reference the Spartan-Is with the ORION Project.
 * This is also the first novel to introduce female members of the Covenant.
 * Joseph Staten received advice from Eric Nylund, the author of previous Halo books, while writing the first chapter of Halo: Contact Harvest.
 * At the beginning of Chapter Five, the date is incorrectly labeled as "December 21, 2525" instead of "December 21, 2524".
 * The cover artwork incorrectly shows Johnson wielding a BR55 HB SR when it should show a BR55, as the BR55 HB SR is not introduced until Halo 3.