Halo Fanon:The Weekly

The Weekly is a community project in the form of a series of micro-fiction contests, inspired by the discontinued Community Writing Competitions on Halo Waypoint. Each week, users can challenge themselves to write a short prose response to a prompt chosen at the start of the week by the competition's judge. At the week's end, the judge selects a winner to receive a shiny new Weekly Winner eraicon on their entry's page, and the entry will then be displayed on Recent Changes for the next week for all to easily see and read.

The project was conceived in response to a long-standing downturn in prose writing on the site, in hopes of encouraging more prose by presenting a painless, easily-attainable length as a target instead of a hopelessly-long novel length. The ideas the writers incorporate to hone their craft under such constraints might then become the seeds for events their own characters go through, or even be worked into whole other long stories.

How To Participate
At the beginning of each week, a new prompt will be posted on this page, for users to write in response to. Working with in the length and topic restraints (which could have to do with theme, or subject, or writing style like "only dialogue"), users then write their response and create a new page on which to post it. Remember to include a Writer Template (" ") at the top and categorize it "The Weekly" ("  ") at the bottom. A paragraph at the top can be added to introduce the piece and context for it without going towards the word count, so long as there's a horizontal line (" ") between to make set them apart distinctly. Unless specified otherwise, the word length is 1000 words, and the maximum stories you can submit per entry is two, and it is frowned upon to use two entries to create one longer entry, each should be a stand-alone piece.

Then, simply add a link to your entry's page in the scrollbox for the appropriate week for it to be counted. The judge (, currently) will then read the entries, between the following Monday-Wednesday depending on availability, and pick a winner for the week. Bear in mind, the judge's decision may be based on subjective judgements, but good spelling, grammar, and punctuation go a long way towards impressing by presenting a professional and easy-to-read appearance. Winners will then be given a unique Weekly Winner eraicon and displayed on the Recent Changes page.

Users can also visit the talk page to suggest prompts and topics for future weeks.

Week 121: Sympathy for Revenge
Prompt: Revenge is probably one of the most common themes in any media format. A driving force behind many character's motivations, its an emotion most of us can sympathise with. While its common to see the beginning of this sequence of events, and the ending of it, rarely do we get to see the emotional and physical toil it takes on a person, whether they're finding the motivation to keep going with their revenge, or how they go on with their life when it is over and done with. As the usual, roughly 1000 words.

Start Date: January 19, 2018

End Date: January 27, 2019

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 * Best Served by
 * This was a really great read from start to finish. Aside from the odd janky sentence here and there, from a technical perspective it was great. The descriptive nature of the story sets every scene, as it goes, so even with jumps in the narrative, we still get a crystal clear picture of each scene as it happens, from the bombing, to their revenge, to boot camp, to the diner, and beyond. Its also got a great, and very fresh take on the subject. We often see Insurrectionists swearing vengeance on the UNSC, or humans swearing vengeance on the Covenant, but so rarely do we get a revenge narrative aimed at the Insurrection. Even the formatting used helps to drive the narrative, using text formatting to show the jump between past and present. Even if it creeps a bit far over the (roughly) 1000 word limit, I think its well deserving of this week's winner.
 * A Chance by
 * As expected, a good read from D042 that takes us directly into the psyche of Cody, through a simultaneous look of the physical aspects of his revenge, and the psychological drive. Its a great spin on the revenge theme, where his driving force isn't simple bloody minded revenge, but an ever present fear of seeing his loved ones without seeing them avenged. Its a fresh spin on the revenge theme that certainly separates it from the normal revenge schlock, and was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to see for this Weekly. My main feedback would be that, and I fall prey to this myself, is that the characters are introduced by name, and little beyond. Even with familiarity, some good descriptors to set the scene, and set the character works wonders to transplant the reader.

Week 122: Round the Twist
Prompt: Weird stuff happens. Its a fact of life. You've probably seen something weird yourself. But what happens when that weird gets real, and real threatening? Halo is no stranger to the weird either. The otherworldly horror of the Flood, Gravemind projecting itself into your thoughts, or even the stranger threads in the Forerunner trilogy, as the Lovecraftian horror of the Precursor's plan comes to fruition, even costing the sanity of some characters. From our own users, we've seen the strange, bordering on supernatural, like our Halloween tales, The Silent Garden, and beyond. Some of this inspiration has been drawn from SCP - Secure, Contain, Protect, an urban fantasy dealing with the strange, and paranormal. Some of it has also been taken from the weird hellscape that is late 80s early 90s children's TV too. So, in roughly 1000 words, I'd like to see characters reacting to the strange, the odd, the bizarre, or downright horrifying. Whether this is a perfectly normal event that's been skewed to seem paranormal, a paranormal event with a logical explanation, or strange, with no explanation, anything goes for this.

Start Date: January 27, 2018

End Date: February 3, 2019

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 * Never Odd Or Even by
 * Slipspace drives are weird. And I like that we get to see one being weird. Its got that feeling of existential space terror that really gets your hairs on end, knowing that there's no escape, from something that is totally unexplainable. And the cyclic ending, that brings us back to the beginning of the story almost perfectly, is a great ending and beginning, a good ouroboros twist. Its aa really deserving winner, and really encapsulates what I imagined for this Weeks entry.


 * Comeuppance by
 * So this was a great story to read. The story is well paced, it really takes us through a tale of vengeance with a really satisfying conclusion. Great efforts have been taken by the writer to guide the reader to the conclusion, and connect the dots along with Teka. I really liked the the overall 'three act' layout to, to take us through the stages of vengeance. However, because its over 2000 words, and not really on subject (might have been better for last week!), I'm going to have to take it out of the running.

Week 123: Tanks, forward!
Prompt: Tank beats Ghost! Tank beats Hunter! Tank beats MEXT! Tank beats everything! Tanks are, undeniably, great to play with, and terrifying to fight against. Your task these week is roughly 1000 words detailing a story about tanks. Commanding tanks, fighting against tanks, tank on tank action, heck, even repairing tanks. Give me something tank centric, and you've got a week to do it. Armoured fighting vehicles only.

Start Date: February 3, 2018

End Date: February 9, 2019

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 * Contact, Operation: Horseshoe, No Rest for the Weary, Remembrances, and New Dawn by
 * So, you've continued to show off your really strong world building, and produced not one, but five works demonstrating it. The individual stories vary from traditional to novel in approach to the topic, and each fit the topic too. My only complaint would be the use of the weekly to submit a story in five parts, rather than five individual stories.
 * A Well-Oiled Machine by - Winner
 * There's something really satisfying and evocative about three Spartans working together to make a tank work. Its a really great microcosm of shenanigans, bullshit, and a good old charge at the end, to create a story that really gives us a fantastic take on the topic. An enjoyable read, that keeps us withit from start to finish, and works great as its own little self contained episode.
 * Third Battle of El Alamein by
 * So, with this, the story does stray a little from the topic. Tanks are second fiddle in the story, and sort of exist as passing mentions, or in the distance. While there's some good dialogue, it sort of serves as a build up to something that starts and ends very quick. Remember that its a short story contest, building your story as a self contained short story would yield better results, rather than compacting a larger event.

Week 124: Step out of your shell
Prompt: Spartans are undoubtedly the stars of Halo. All but one of the game features them as central protagonists, and alone or together, they're a big draw of the universe. But sometimes, I've seen Spartans play second fiddle to the armour they inhabit. As iconic as MJOLNIR is, I'm looking for stories that take Spartans out of their armour, and leaves them naked to the dangers of the universe. Lets put the super back in super soldier, and see Spartans out of armour (MJOLNIR, and SPI, anything that needs batteries), and fighting tooth and nail.

Start Date: February 9, 2018

End Date: February 17, 2019

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 * Warm Welcome by
 * A great read, that perfectly captured the spirit of this Prompt. A single spartan, with just his senses, training, experience, and augmentations. Great pacing from start to end, and an exciting description of combat that flows well from start to finish. It really shows off the mentality and strength of Spartans, even without their armour, and as a bonus I got to read about some BDS mooks job super hard.
 * Endgames by
 * While Endgames is very mcuh a story written to your strengths, I feel it drags on a little bit. In the short, punchy world of the weekly, the story feels a little slower and sedate, and aside from the energetic final portion, a lot of it carried on with the Chess set as the central element, which sort of derails the objective of the prompt.
 * Rival by
 * Compared to your other entry, I feel this one might be a little lacking. While the intro is good, and strong, the fight with it is the direct opposite of your previous entry. It is a little confusing, and hard to follow, and I think the attempts to be deliberately vague with their identity worked against you. Otherwise, the story was very visceral, especially in the final stages, really gave oomph to the fight.
 * Ambush on Ihsir by
 * So, I would be thinking this is probably your first entry? As your first attempt at a weekly, its an impressive effort. Your writing sets the tone, and takes us to the events with some great descriptors to highlight exactly what is happening and where. Combat was good to follow, and gave us a sense for the battle, which is sometimes tricky to pull off. A few things to bring up though, was some of the sentence structure seemed a bit off, like "All of time got seemed to get even slower from his point of view", as well the story had some pacing issues. It felt like efforts were made to cut it to size, leading to a few moments where some changes, like the armour explodes, or Reff shoots the ODST, and it seems to carry on without really responding to that. It seems like it was cut down to make the length. With this, you only have a short prose, and it might have been better to focus only on the first fight and omit the second, or combine first and last to make a more satisfying story. Otherwise, its a great first attempt, and you've got the makings of a good writer.

Week 125: Journey and Salvation
Prompt: Last few weeks have been UNSC heavy. Lets get some spangly purple space aliens in here. You can write about any member of the Covenant, of any rank. The only rule is that it has to take place during the final Age of the Covenant, the Age of Reclamation. Your timeline is from Truth, Regret, and Mercy ascending to their thrones, to the end of the war.

Start Date: February 17, 2018

End Date: February 24, 2019

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 * Prey by
 * Another really solid performance. The story sets a great dichotomy between 'Zafamee's life on Sanghelios, and his role as a warrior, with great scene setting that's come to mark your stories, and the short and brutal combat between him and four luckless UNSC soldiers is a great battle to read.
 * Eye for an Eye, Plus Some by
 * I think this is your first entry? In which case its an entry to be proud of. You've set a good idea for it, that doesn't follow normal expectations for this story in a good way. Its enjoyable to read, and transports us to the battle. Some things of note, would be the formatting is a little off, and some extra paragraph breaks would make it a little easier to read, and some of the descriptive text falls a little flat, like for instance descriptors used for the Spirit. Some of the sentence structure is a little confusing, for instance the sentence about dropping off warriors may have better served to be broken into smaller ones. One of the key ones, that everyone does on their first go, is the story pacing. The key to short stories is creating stories to the size, and because of this it feels like the ending is sudden and unintended, like you hit your word limit there.

Week 126: Slings and Arrows
Prompt: Time for something a little different. Some of you may already be familiar with Halo Fanon:Mythic Requisitions, where you can add REQ weapons that fit with the style of weapon you'd find in Warzone. Your challenge these week is to add a REQ item to this article. For this, you need a name, rank, REQ level, a quote (no more than ten words) and a description that gives a brief overview of the item's role, and a brief description of it's function (no more than 100 words). It must be a newly added weapon or vehicle. Best of luck!

Start Date: February 24, 2018

End Date: March 3rd, 2019

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Week 127: Lets get tactical
Prompt: After a weekend of rediscovering the joys, and miseries of Rainbow 6: Siege, I wondered how this kind of battle, a small scale operation between terrorists and counter-terrorists, could be applied to the Halo universe. We've briefly seen similar things in Contact Harvest, and a few other pieces of Halo media, but I'd really like to see a user's take on it. You've got 2000 words to depict a short, brutal siege between UNSC special forces and Insurrectionists over hostages, or a bomb, intelligence or something similar, fought over single building/compound/something of similar size. Best of luck!

Start Date: March 3rd, 2018

End Date: March 10th, 2019

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 * Keep Moving by
 * A good solid outing from yourself. A tense fight through a rebel compound, and into the bunker. The fighting was easy to follow, the concept simple but well executed, and with a good and solid ending. The only improvement I would perhaps suggesting is a greater use of descriptors. There was a lot left to our imagination.
 * Scoped by - Winner
 * A really novel approach, taking us through a hostage crisis step by step. The moment it all comes together is a really satisfying ending. My only suggestion would be that the shifts of POV were a little jarring. Using some clever formatting might have made them a little easier, like the moments it shifts to the sniper, using italics.
 * Knock, Knock by
 * So, a excellent outing from yourself. My strongest recommendation with this is simplifying and streamlining the story. You might have done better by focusing in on one of the fireteams on their own, rather than spreading yourself out. The result is several streams of less memorable action.

Week 128: It belongs in a museum!
Prompt: There's a trope on this wiki. Its not a trope I particularly like. The idea of somebody carrying some ridiculous antique revolver/M4/family Katana, kinda sits uneasy with me. But what if it could be done right? Some old, antiquated piece of kit being used to settle a dispute, to escape, to kill an enemy. An old hunting rifle, a sawn off shotgun, a big chunky revolver, even something antiquated in a contemporary setting, like an old out of date ship, a ancient M6 pistol (Its been around for a century!) or even a set of Mk 4 MJOLNIR used after the Great War has ended. Also, must adhere to canon. 1000 words, have fun!

Start Date: March 11th, 2018

End Date: March 16th, 2019

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 * Legacies by
 * A great read that set us in the desperation of the collapse of a colony following a Covenant attack, and with great pacing. But, your story was 700 words over the limit, so I'mma have to disqualify this entry.
 * Laconic by
 * Its great to see improvement in your work, where you're getting better at setting the scene, and creating a more engaging narrative, and creating a narrative that better fits the Weekly limits. The narrative is pretty inventive, starting with a the present, a flash back that then brings us back to the present. Some of the sentence structure early on is a little janky, so its a little hard to follow and I had to reread it a few times to quite get what was happening. I think that may be a consequence of cutting the story length to fit.
 * The Late Summer Hunt by
 * So, a great read that really hit the theme I had in mind. Old meets new as Elena combines traditional tools with new tech in a great read. It really shows that a lot of effort has been put in, with a lot of the details of the dog being spot on for real life. This level of research, and the general level of polish to the writing, really earns its spot as this week's winner.

Week 129: Goliath, meet David
Prompt: A tale as old as time. The little guy takes on the big guy and wins. Against all odds, they scrape a victory against a seemingly undefeatable enemy. Maybe its because I've been watching Godzilla films non-stop for several weeks, but the story really speaks to me. I want a 2000 word story where the 'little guy' takes on the 'big guy' and wins. Maybe a Frigate winning a duel against a battlecruiser, a human defeating a Brute, a Grunt defeating a Spartan. A one on one fight where the victor is significantly smaller and weaker than the loser.

Start Date: March 18th, 2018

End Date: March 24th, 2019

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Week 130: Improvise. Adapt. Hopefully don't die
Prompt: Sometimes shit breaks. And sometimes its important stuff. The engine, the firing mechanism, the macguffin that will win the day, you name it. And fixing that all important device requires some inventive thinking, whether that's a paper clip in the right place, holding it together with bubblegum, shutting down life destroying apocalypse weapons with just your shields, or infecting the alien mothership with a Virus from a Apple Powerbook. In 1000 words I want your characters to encounter a malfunction that totally derails their plans, or otherwise places them in jeopardy, and they have to get creative to fix it.

Start Date: March 25th, 2019

End Date: April 1st, 2019

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Week 131: BFFS
Prompt: Everybody needs a friend. Chief had Cortana, Holmes had Watson, Mettermeyer and Reuental, that tree Bob Ross is painting. The objective of this week is to show the strength of friendship between two friends, however you want, in 1000 words.

Start Date: April 2nd, 2019

End Date: April 8th, 2019

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Week 132: Post-Human Rights
Prompt: Time for a change of pace. Some of you may remember a few years ago 343i advertised a position by asking for an essay exploring the topic of the Mantle. For a very special weekly, we're looking at that again. The topic of this essay are smart A.I., and the morality surrounding their creation, use, and then decommission. Is it humane to use a living brain to create a machine, at the expense of human. Is it enslavement to force this post-human into service? When that machine has serviced its purpose, and is no longer functioning, is it decommissioned, euthanised, or even murdered? These are all topics you can argue for, against, or both sides. As a special, this weekly is capped at 10,000 words, but you do not need to hit that limit. You also have an extended period. It is to be done in an essay style format.

Start Date: April 12th, 2019

End Date: April 29th, 2019

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 * The Continued use of Smart AI in UNSC Service by
 * While I didn't look for something created as an in universe setting, your work was certainly better for it. Of the two, this was a much more focused, with a direction it maintained from start to end, and gives a great insight to the UNSC's continued military use, and requirement of A.I.s.
 * The Study of Smart AI (TPF) by
 * While undoubtedly the more metaphysical of our two essays, I feel that it lacked the laser focus of the previous essay, and while it undoubtedly delves into a much heavier topic, the execution of it is somewhat lacking.

Week 133: Microfiction for Big Heroes
Prompt: This week, we're doing Microfiction! For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of it (also known as drabble), it is 100 words to express a story in it's entirety. Your story must have setting, at least one character, some kind of conflict, and a resolution. Other than that, the rest of it is for you to decide. Any entries over 100 words will be disqualified.

Start Date: May 1st, 2019

End Date: May 6th, 2019

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 * Fools (TPF) by
 * My main feedback for this is that it didn't really seem to fit the category, of a story with a beginning and a conclusion. It just feels like an acted out scene, and it also feels like, in order to complete the scene, something was cut, because some of the dialogue doesn't seem to have context, particularly the last line of dialogue.
 * Shell by
 * A really great entry giving the after effects on battle, and its ongoing effects. A deserving this winner
 * Faceless by
 * A good entry, and although I think it's a little ellipsis heavy, it was a great introduction to the Ballista project for me.
 * Exposed by
 * While it starts very strongly, especially getting dialogue down to a tee, and setting the scene really well, the last paragraph is probably the part that knocked it out of the running for this week's winner. The grammar and punctuation are a little off, so it reads in a very stilted manner. The second comma and first period are the parts that break that paragraph down
 * Sacrifice by
 * Its not often we get an entry about a canon character, but this one was certainly worthwhile! its got a great level of focus, the tone really works, but there's two parts that stick out. Injuredly isn't a word, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you might be thinking of a similar word, but its not coming to me at the moment. Also, the third sentence doesn't quite make sense. I don't know if it's supposed to be a run on, or if there's something absent, but it doesn't seem to work.
 * Faith by
 * Faith is a subject we don't see much of in Halo, or HF, but I really like this interpretation. In the face of absolute annihilation, Morgan simultaneously denies the existence of god, and makes a prayer to god, giving a great sense of duality. This is easily the runner up for the week, and a great entry.

Week 134: Were it so easy
Prompt: War is over! Except there's several billion dead, a few dozen worlds melted to glass, and an awful lot of bad blood. And now we've got new neighbours responsible for that whole war. Peace was never going to be easy, and being neighbourly even less. We're back to 1000 words this week, and your goal is to show Human-Covenant relations in a post-war era. The race, the context, and nature of the story are up to you, so long as it is post-war.

Start Date: May 12th, 2019

End Date: May 19th, 2019

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Week 135: A Time To Binge
Prompt: here, taking over this Weekly! What a depressing galaxy our characters live in with no culturally-significant media to devour through, or, at least none that we actively discuss. With Game of Thrones coming to an end, maybe its time for us to stop bingeing and to let our characters binge themselves. 1000 words, as per usual; write about an in-universe cultural past time or activity that a character or characters enjoy indulging or taking part in. It can be a canon or fanon thing, however, I prefer it to be relevant to a society's popular culture: some form of media, fiction, activity, sport, etc. This should not be their occupation, nor something they have to for the sake of others. This is their fun time, for them, make the most of it.

Start Date: May 20th, 2019

End Date: May 27th, 2019

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Week 136: Happy Birthday!
Prompt: In honour of the birthday of your benevolent overlord Bureaucrat Ajax 013, your goal this week is to celebrate the birthday of one of your own characters, in whichever method would suit them best. Whether their birthday is spent among friends, in isolation, or on the battlefield, even celebrating the birthday of one who passed on. You have 1000 words to celebrate with!

Start Date: June 3rd, 2019

End Date: June 9th, 2019

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