Halo: Blood Line

Halo: Blood Line, formerly known as Halo: Spartan Black, is a five-part comic series about a team of stranded SPARTAN-II commandos, set before the Fall of Reach in mid-2552. The first issue was released on the 23rd of December 2009, with the fifth and last issue released on April 28, 2010. Blood Line is written by Fred Van Lente.

Marvel summary
"Blood Line is also a pre-"Halo: Combat Evolved" story, focused on a small Black Ops sabotage and intelligence fire team of Spartans assigned to the ONI, the Office of Naval Intelligence. While on a top-secret mission in enemy space, their ship crashes on a remote moon along with a Covenant cruiser. When a mysterious entity that has lurked on the moon for millions of years threatens both groups, Spartans and Covenant have to forge an uneasy alliance to take down the common threat ... but not all humans and aliens can suddenly start treating the other like allies.."

- Fred Van Lente

Plot synopsis
Narrated by the AI construct Iona, the parts of the story are told in nonlinear fashion, with the narrative occasionally jumping to the Spartans' training days, in flashbacks explaining the team's history. During their training, Black-One and Three secretly have a romantic relationship. Black-Four is jealous of them and reports them to CPO Mendez, who sends both to the brig. Red Team hears of this and track down Black-One, and give her a beating to send the message that her team should take their training seriously. One loses her left eye in the ensuing brawl, and later, Black Team gives Red Team a beating in return and are thrown in the brig for ten days as a result. The team would never speak of the incident again, and while Four puts the incident behind, deep down, his jealousy toward Three stays and he even develops a delusion that he had the relationship with One.

The story's main narrative begins as Team Black is sent to a covert mission in uninhabited space. Their cryo-chambers are hidden aboard the ONI vessel Long Time Coming, which crashes on an uncharted moon after being hit by unknown energy bombardment. Meanwhile, the Covenant carrier Clarity of Faith suffers a similar fate. Its command crew, led by Shipmaster Thon 'Talamee and his brother and second-in-command Reff 'Talamee set off to explore the moon's surface.

Black-One, Three and Four move out of their ship and soon engage the Covenant, while Two stays behind to send a distress call. Soon after, Black-One, Reff and several other Covenant soldiers are abducted by mechanical Gatherers. Black-Four and Three reluctantly ally with the Covenant forces in order to rescue their captured comrades. They then proceed into the vast underground installation where the captives are taken. Deep inside the installation, Black-One and the Covenant are encountered by the installation's Monitor, 686 Ebullient Prism, who informs them that they will be vivisected in order to investigate immunity to the Flood.

After Two follows the rest of the Spartans into the facility, the Monitor hacks into Four's and Two's MJOLNIR HUDs, tricking them into attacking each other, as well as coming close to breaking their temporary truce with the Covenant. Four's grudge against Black-Three resurfaces as a result of the manipulation and he attacks Three. Meanwhile, Black-One and Reff break out of their cells. Once they manage to escape and blind the Monitor, the two discover the Installation's control center. Accessing a console, One learns that a Covenant fleet is approaching their position. She tries to contact the rest of her team but finds that Three and Four are engaged in a brawl. To stop this, One tells Four that she forgives him for the incident, giving Three the opening to jack in Iona's Data Crystal Chip into Four's MJOLNIR armor, causing an influx of the team's various missions together to bring Four out of his tantrum.

Then suddenly, One is slammed into the console by a Hunter and knocked out. Reff tries defending to Thon that the Spartan saved him. Thon replies that he honored the truce only to rescue him, and then inquires how to contact the holy city of High Charity. However, Reff proclaims that they should instead blow the servants of the Prophets out sky, having developed a delusion that his kidnapping was the work of destiny. Thon proceeds to kill Reff for speaking heresy, but is impaled by Reff instead. Soon, Prism arrives at the control center and vaporizes Reff.

Black-One manages to recover to assist the rest of the team in stopping Prism, directing him into the path of the Installation's main gun, vaporizing the Monitor while simultaneously sending the Covenant fleet crashing down to the moon. Black Team then begins to fight through the surviving Covenant to commandeer a ship with a functional Slipspace drive.

Issue #1 Summary
"Based on the Best-Selling X-Box Game! The Spartan team codename: Black is the top-secret unconventional warfare unit of the United Nations Space Command's Office of Naval Intelligence, engaging in sabotage and assassination missions deep inside Covenant space. But when this quartet of super soldiers is shot down over a desolate moon along with a Covenant Cruiser, humans and aliens will have to forge an uneasy alliance against a common foe before an eons-old threat destroys them both!''"

- IGN article

Issue #2 Summary
"Greetings! I am the monitor of Line Installation 1-4. I am 6-8-6 Ebullient Prism. My function is to collect and inspect any and all specimens captured within this sector for evidence of immunity to infestation by The Flood. I require your assistance. Please do not move while you are dissected and all your tissues are properly analyzed and cataloged."

- Marvel.com

Issue #3 Summary
"The Elites and Spartans' uneasy alliance to rescue their captured comrades from the depths of the ancient complex is pushed to the breaking point when a traitor is revealed in their midst. But is the turncoat human, Covenant...or something even more terrifying?"

- Marvel.com

Issue #4 Summary
"Time is running out for Spartan: Black. Their commanding officer is about to be dissected by the psychotic monitor of The Line. Their AI Iona has been infected by Forerunner technology. One of their own has turned against them, pushing their already uneasy alliance with the Elite to the brink. A massive Covenant armada is converging on their position. Only a desperate gamble will save them -- but that's why you always bet on Black."

- Marvel.com

Issue #5 Summary
"THE ACTION-PACKED SERIES BASED ON THE BESTSELLING X-BOX GAME COMES TO ITS WHITE-KNUCKLE CONCLUSION! Spartans, Covenant and Forerunners engage in a furious three-way battle for control of the mysterious Line installation, the power of which rivals the fabled Halos themselves! Will Spartan: Black be able to heal the rifts within their unit long enough to secure The Line for the forces of Earth...or is this their last stand against overwhelming alien forces?"

- Marvel.com

Characters

 * 686 Ebullient Prism
 * Alexander Reaves
 * Black-One
 * Black-Two
 * Black-Three
 * Franklin Mendez
 * Iona
 * Jubub
 * Moreland
 * Reff 'Talamee
 * Roland Freemont
 * Thon 'Talamee
 * Victor-101

Events

 * Operation: BLOWBACK
 * Battle of Line Installation 1-4

Locations

 * Oasis 6
 * Sub-Sector 35
 * Unnamed Moon
 * Line Installation 1-4

Organizations

 * Covenant Empire
 * Forerunner
 * United Nations Space Command
 * UNSC Navy
 * Naval Special Warfare Command
 * SPARTAN-II Program
 * Red Team
 * Office of Naval Intelligence
 * Team Black

Species

 * Human
 * Mgalekgolo
 * Sangheili
 * Unggoy
 * Kig-yar (mentioned only)

Vehicles

 * Assault Carrier
 * Clarity of Faith
 * M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle
 * Type-25 Assault Gun Carriage
 * UNSC Frigate

Weapons

 * Assault Cannon
 * M41 Vulcan Light Anti-Aircraft Gun
 * M6D Personal Defense Weapon System
 * MA5C Individual Combat Weapon System
 * Sentinel Beam
 * Sniper Rifle System 99D-S2 Anti-Matériel
 * Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher
 * Type-51 Carbine

Technology

 * Holography
 * MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Black
 * Slipbeacon
 * Gatherer
 * Sentinel

Trivia

 * The armor the Spartans wear in the series appears similar to the MJOLNIR Mk. VI, which was not in use by the time the comic takes place. As stated by Frank O'Connor, this armor is a "skunkworks prototype" produced in Songnam, Korea, explaining its unique appearance.

Related pages

 * Halopedia Interview with Fred Van Lente