Okay, I’m not gonna so much ‘review’ this chapter so much as give my thoughts on this story, and journey, as a whole. Just so ya know.

...Damn. What is there to say? Seven freaking years, man. That’s how much time has passed since I discovered Noble Wolf. In that time, I finished my first big story, started my second, rebooted both, discontinued one due to own stupidity and lack of note-taking (I still want to give it yet another shot, though! Someday I will!) and am still working on the other.

Also in that time, you have finished a trilogy that puts most published ones to shame. I’m not kidding when I say I’d be proud to have these things as books on a shelf, and you really should consider getting these made into custom books- not to sell, just to have as something physical. There are services that do that if you look online a bit. Though this might be the end of the road for this journey, I’ll always look back on it fondly. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for giving the world these stories.

As for your next project on this site, if you intend to do one, I still do HIGHLY recommend the first Dead Space. Even if you don’t end up novelizing it, for Altman’s sake, man, at least play it. It’s SOOOO good! The sequels aren’t as great IMO (the third one especially so) but I speak no hyperbole when I say the first one is a stone-cold classic. So go diving through bargain bins or order a copy off Amazon and give it a shot. The USG Ishimura awaits! If, that is, you have the courage to brave its bloodstained corridors...

Ah yes, and so we reach the classic (one might even say... ICONIC? Damn you, Hidden Expiria...) ending of Halo 3. Like before, you added some much-needed context surrounding the scene the game simply couldn’t, which, for the last time, is a great thing to see. The actual novelizing of the scene itself was masterful. Beautiful descriptions, tangible emotions, and the detail of the UNSC Army not being invited to the memorial ceremony added a (tragically plausible) dash of realism.

About the memorial, I always thought it straight-up WAS a Pelican wing they’d just chopped off a dropship with a blowtorch, just to show how beaten into the ground and utterly spent humanity was. Basically, it’s a case of, ‘we literally don’t have the resources/money/whatever to make a big fancy monument, just cut a wing off a dropship, stencil some (frankly, pretty generic) text onto it and that’ll have to do.’ Also, I’m pretty sure the ‘someone’ who carved the ‘117’ number into the memorial was the Arbiter.

The wrap-up convos, too, featured some pretty great dialogue. The stand-out was Mike’s reunion with Mendez, because, like was said, for all his bone-shatteringly brutal training methods, it WAS ultimately what kept the Spartan 2’s and 3’s alive in combat. While I DO wish Parangorsky and Osman faced at least SOME kind of comeuppance, canon prevented that from happening. I guess it’s a case of ‘can’t have everything’, but at least Mike and Natalia get their happy ending. In the end, that’s really what counts.

Scene 1: Like I said in a previous review, I love how this story adds more context to things the games just can’t. In this case, however, it’s a much more grim context. I never ONCE considered that UNSC forces would still be in the killzone once the Elite cruisers started glassing Voi. They did what had had to be done, I know, but geez...

At least Mike and Natalia got out alright, and their reunion (like pretty much everything else in this chapter) was appropriately heartwarming. Speaking of which...

Scene 2: Like I said, character development. Beautiful thing, ain’t it?

Scene 3: And here we deal with the love triangle, and I’m pleased to announce you handled the end of it with tact. Melanie going off to do missions after the war with Dani seems like a fitting way to end things, I think.

Scene 3: While I know this isn’t Parangorsky’s final appearance in the story, I have to praise you for leaving the reason why she wanted Natalia dead ambiguous. I personally think it was deep-seated form of jealousy, even though she’d never admit it. I guess the feeling of finally having one of her schemes not going to plan was enough to get her to back off. For a while, at least, because if what I understand about the postwar years is true, ONI goes right back to clandestine black ops pretty much immediately. *sigh* Human tenacity, everybody: Both our greatest asset... and our greatest folly.

Anyway, I’ll wrap this up with another double-header review tomorrow. Took longer than I would have liked, but procrastinator extraordinarie, that’s me! ;P Probably misspelt those last two words, too, but I’m not in the mood to care right now.

Screw it, gonna knock out two chapters of this in a row. Get ready for two near-simultaneous emails... if the site doesn’t break.

Scene 1: Hoo, boy... Thought for a second Natalia wasn’t going to make it out of that. Macgregor might be one of the best characters in the story, even if I don’t think I’ve ever even mentioned him in one of my reviews before now... Either way, the action sequence with him and the ODST’s fighting off the Flood was really damn good, as is the usual. The Elites coming in at the eleventh hour was the icing on the cake. The way you described that was fantastic.

Scene 2: Even though it’s pretty obvious that Natalia made it out alive, it’s hard not to feel for Spanner in this, especially with how much he’s changed. Character development- it’s a beautiful thing. :)

*curls up in fetal position* It’s just a story... remember that... You’re not actually playing the game... the Flood can’t hurt you... Why oh why did I think playing the Library on Heroic was EVER a good idea..?

Either way, this really did a good job, more than anything, of portraying the sheer overwhelming virulence of the Flood. They don’t get you with strength, they get you with just how goddamn MANY of them there are. Nice little touch was also mentioning that the Infection Forms are over a meter tall in reality. Playing as 7-foot-tall armoured supersoldiers tends to skew just how HUGE things are in Halo. In the games, Infectors look like party balloons, but they’re actually MASSIVE, and having a swarm charging towards you as a standard Marine would be pants-shittingly terrifying.

Uh... well, how Mr. ONI Assassin went out was kinda anticlimactic, but it was definitely unexpected. Take that, Parangorsky. You ain’t getting your way this time. And do I need to say it at this point? Amazing action scenes all around.

Posting as a Guest this time because this godforsaken browser on my iPad keeps logging me out and I’m too lazy to log back in. Without further ado...

Really running outta things to say here... Um, um... Well, the opening was really well-done exposition, and it’s nice to see Mike and Natalia finally starting to make things work. (Yeah, grasping at straws here, can’t you tell?).

One thing I actually DO have something to say, though, is that the paragraph beginning with, ‘“Alright, let’s exploit the opening the Chief has given us,”’ is absolutely MASSIVE, and could have easily been split into two or more chunks.

Anyway, the iconic scene where the last of the human forces attack the Dreadnought. Gotta say, that was pretty much the best novelization of that scene I’ve read, and before you ask, yep, there’s a full Halo 3 novelization on FFN, though it’s been a while since I’ve read it. Do some googling if ya wanna find it.

One thing I particularly like and can particularly praise is that you make a lot of the poorly-explained stuff from Halo 3’s cutscenes MAKE SENSE, mainly why all the ships were just aimlessly floating around in the air because of the energy wave.

And... oh, NO. Yeah, I don’t think I’m gonna enjoy next chapter, mainly because I’m still getting over my Flood PSTD from beating the Library on Heroic. That was AWFUL, and I’m never doing anything like it again...

Approaching the end here... Which is good, because Jesus, I am running out of things to say. Never doing what I did with this story ever again...

Scene 1: Ah, yes, the classic Tsavo Highway level, albeit the first half of it. The chase scene was good, if short, but I guess it speaks to your skill that you can make an action scene that short and still have it be good. The boots-on-the-ground battle that followed, however, was excellent as usual.

Scene 2: Hoo, boy... Parangorsky’s getting a wee bit obsessed with her off-the-books assassination mission. And just going by the described accent of the assassin, it’s probably Jun. Boy, is he in for a nasty surprise when he bumps into Mike...

Scene 3: And now for more character stuff, which is one of the things you’re best at! (I think I’ve said that at least eleven times by now... see what I mean when I said I’m running out of things to say?). Either way, that scene with Adam and Maia was great! As someone who admittedly has issues with self-confidence myself, that was downright inspirational to me. And that, I think, is where I’m gonna leave this for now. See ya tomorrow with another one.

Only one scene in this chapter, so I have to give this a more traditional review.

Got a missing period right at the end of the first sentence, and there were some missing commas here and there, but nothing major. Other than that, holy crap, that was insane. Between this and another story I’ve been reading, it’s been nothing but great action scenes lately!

Now, where to even begin with this? First of all, the scene with the team running down the corridor just DESTROYING everything in their path was breathtaking. I’m not kidding when I say that was your best action scene yet, though the battle with the two Scarabs might top it, if you do cover that.

Eh, can’t blame Mike for wanting to gun down Arby for half a second, given how he’s fought against Elites for how long and killed how many at this point?

Y’know, I always did wonder just how the Brutes in those barracks managed to overrun all the Marines in there in seemingly a matter of minutes. I know Halo’s writing runs on ‘Rule of Cool’ but I think the writers were bending time a little TOO much there. Ah, well. Not your fault.

Eight more chapters! And since I’m taking a bit of a break from my story to dodge incoming burnout, I’ll try to knock ‘em all out in the next few days!

Scene 1: I really, really like Mike’s introspection here, but what I find just downright astonishing, is the fact that you’re actually writing a love triangle...and it’s GOOD. Usually that sorta thing would get me to nope out immediately, but you’re somehow making it work, even if I don’t count Melanie’s chances of survival as very high...

Scene 2: All I’m gonna say about this scene is one single question: Is ‘why do I want to kill Natalia’ a question Parangorsky won’t answer... or CAN’T answer? Perhaps she just wants her gone for no reason and can’t come to grips with that...

Scene 3: We’re finally intertwined with Halo 3! Yay! :D Even though there’s a fair amount of dialogue copied from the game word-for-word (unavoidable, really...) you’re still not getting what I’d call lazy with it, plus there’s just enough original dialogue to offset the copied stuff. Also, ‘“Nothing I hate more than a mutual admiration society”’, lolol. Oh, Sergeant Johnson, you are missed.

Wait... WHAT!? The Prophet of Truth has a NAME!? O-0 I legit didn’t know that. Every single Halo video I’ve ever watched, plus even the games themselves, only ever call him ‘the Prophet of Truth’ or just ‘Truth’. Learn something new every day, I guess. Oh, that final line, though... While a good cliffhanger stop, it was narmy and melodramatic in the game, and it is here, too... Sadly, again, there was no getting around that...

Alright, I'm tired, so I'm gonna TRY and make this a bit shorter than usual. That, and I'm starting to sound like a broken record in these reviews, because I am legitimately running out of different ways to praise this... Good thing there's only nine more chapters.

Scene 1: And FINALLY, we're into the Halo 3 stuff! :D What I liked most about this scene is that it gave me a better understanding of where the base actually IS, as well as the geography surrounding it, because you don't really get a good look that in the game, because you're in mostly dense rainforest in the first mission. Plus, to the best of my recollections, there aren't any wide establishing/landscape shots in the cutscenes, either. Makes me wonder how you're extrapolating all this detail... As for the action scene, well, what the hell can I say about it that I haven't about all the others? I know it's good. you know it's good, my *grandmother* knows it's good. 'Nuff said, moving on.

Scene 2: ...Okay, much as I hate to say this, Parangorsky's got a point, cold and harsh as it is. They can't exactly worry about human rights when they face the very real possibility of there being no humans to HAVE rights pretty soon. This subplot is getting pretty damn gripping (I say that like it wasn't before, lol) and the dialogue with Lord Hood was written very well.

As a final note, I need to highlight this sentence, mainly because it confused the hell out of me: 'Though the Smart AI came in the form of a dark-blue cube so had no expression the tone of voice betrayal that it was disgusted by the order.' I KNOW this story is done and you're probably in no mood to go back and make edits, but that sentence... yeah, it just makes no sense. Other than that, great chapter.

And like clockwork, just a matter of WEEKS after I said so, the reviews went down. So if you're wondering why I've been absent... that's why. Also, congratulations on getting this story and series done, man. Been a long road, but I'll focus more on that in the final chapter. For now, let's review this one. DeadSpacenovelizationwhenbtw? SeriouslyIhavetheperfecttitleforit. ;p

Scene 1: Yeah, you weren't kidding in your response to my last review... ONI really DOES play for keeps. Knocking out all the security cameras in a one-block radius to cover up a clandestine murder... Just... Jesus. The thought gives me chills. 0-0 That and they have the power to do by barely lifting a finger, as well... Halo's universe is freakin' DARK sometimes.

Scene 2: Ah, no! Jun, not you too! Parangorsky and Osman are gonna turn him into their personal hitman, aren't they! D: Well, if there's anything positive I can say about this, it's that you REALLY know how to make your antagonists completely and utterly vile and despicable in every sense of those words. It's something that's surprisingly hard to get right, which is something I'm noticing with Ghetsis, and it speaks to your mastery of this craft.

Scene 3: OKAY. Jaw. On floor. That was an INCREDIBLE action scene there. That's really all I can say about it. I don't know how you do it, man, but you just capture the *feel* of Halo combat in your writing. I can attest to this, as last night I was playing Truth and Reconciliation on Heroic on CEA's 360 version (finally beat the campaign on Heroic, by the way! :D) and everything just felt... simultaneously hectic and chaotic, yet like a choreographed dance. It's a weird mix, but somehow you get the essence of that down PAT every time. It's really quite remarkable.

And then Natalia finds out Mackenzie's dead. Yikes. You effectively got across the sense of paranoia and panic she was feeling, that's for sure. Plus, her seeing Sgt. Stacker again was a nice touch. And, ooh... The anticipation is KILLING me! I want this story to cross over the events of Halo 3 so bad! But I can't binge things, that's not how I work, nor is it how the human brain works. Gotta pace myself, give everything time to sink in. Either way, I'll be back with another review tomorrow. ...Assuming the site's review system doesn't die again. Fuck you and your shitty coding skills, Xing.

Damn, I can’t believe it’s finally over. Congrats!

Well, after seven long years, this trilogy has finally come to a close. I always feel a little sad to see a long-running fan fiction end, but it’s also great to see it wrap up in a way we can all appreciate. Thank you for telling such a great story! I hope you’ll continue to write in future, as the Halo fanfic archive has so few writers that stick around nowadays. All the best :)

And now to live a life together and forge a new path. Free of the Legacy that previously chained him, if only he knew that he was already being judged on his own merits. But it was up to him to come to that conclusion, no one else could have had him realize other wise.

A fine end to a good story. Fantastic work man, some good stuff.

Wow! Can't believe this story is over!

Got to say, this was one of the most interesting Halo stories out there. The way the trilogy was weaved throughout the canon events was incredibly well-done and expanded on so much material already present! My favourite would have to be in the second story with the tie-ins with Halo: Uprising, a pretty mediocre comic in the grand scale of things, and how you made it fit into the story made me grin all the way.

Mike as a character is exactly how I envisioned Noble 6 - he's your own creation, your OC, which is exactly how Bungie imagined the protagonist of Halo Reach. But the way his character evolved throughout the story is without a doubt, the highlight of the story. Natalia was also very relatable and a very well-developed love interest that wasn't annoying like so many others, and the way she interacted with Mike until now always either made me laugh or feel warm fuzzy feelings inside.

If I have one complaint, it would be how this third installment didn't really show much of the Battle of Earth while the Master Chief was on the Ark. I was really surprised at how the whole thing wrapped up, and I felt that some of the side characters (like Melanie especially) didn't have their arcs wrap up entirely. Though I am wondering if those are sequel or spinoff hooks?

All in all, great job, great story, and I hope to see more in the future!