Halo Fanon
Advertisement

Week 271: New Beginnings[]

Judge: Actene

Happy New Year everyone! I was flabbergasted by the amount of interest and content generated by the Weekly last year. Thank you and congratulations to everyone who continues to make this project a part of the community fabric. I will continue the project on through 2023 mostly as it was run last year. However, one change of pace I will be suggesting as we start the new year is for participants to try creating some internal consistency their entries. A big part of writing larger stories is piecing your narrative together through smaller parts. Your prompts don't necessarily have to cover the same story or even concern the same characters, but try to build off of or reference previous entries as you move forward into the year. This will not only make your entries more engaging to work on and share, but may also help you craft a firm narrative foundation for yourself that other users can digest and appreciate.

(I want to note that the above is a suggestion rather than a rule; I will make an effort to provide prompts that feed into the theme of continuity but entries are by no means required to build off or follow up previous shorts.)

With all that said, the theme for this 2023 inaugural prompt is that of new beginnings. Think of how you might start a new story, introduce a new character, or set an existing character off on a new adventure or narrative arc. Introduce your reader to this new adventure and use this prompt to get yourself excited for a new year of writing. Since this is a flexible prompt, I'll be flexible with the word limit and ask for anywhere from 500 to 1000 words.

Start Date: 1 January, 2023

End Date: 8 January, 2023

  • Buckle Up by Underlord1271: You certainly clove to the spirit of the prompt, winding up a new mission and a new story for Fireteam Bayonet while introducing the reader to the team’s various Spartans. I’m not sure if your paragraph groupings were intentional or not; while I appreciate any efforts to mix up the traditional format of spaced paragraphs, I did find your groupings a little hard to follow. You might consider reviewing the spacing to break up dialogue to make the action easier to follow. You made an admirable push to get as much content as possible in the limited space you had to work with. In this case you might have been better served cutting the scene with Allan and the admiral and focusing on Kendall and Damian in order to give your reader more time to get comfortable with them.
  • Matrilinear by SilverAgLastname: This was certainly an incredibly engaging way to work with the New Year’s theme! The rich language and descriptions went a long way towards building the tension in Dr. Stonne’s lab. I did find that the transitions between exposition and action made your piece a bit hard to follow, but once the pieces fell into place and Stonne took the plunge the story slipped neatly into its climax. I may have mentioned this in feedback for an earlier submission, but your aggressive use of italics throughout the prose didn’t add much to the story’s flow and weakened the places where italics truly added emphasis. This might simply be my own preference but it might be worthwhile going back and checking the intent behind each italicized word (discounting the Auld Lang Syne rendition, which added a great deal of flavor to the piece). With this criticism aside, great job establishing and executing your dramatic scenario.
  • He Was Sorynn by Arminius Fiddywinks: Your action descriptors remain visceral and on point (“The rounds came screaming in,” etc.), drawing your reader into the flow of combat and the interplay between the various squad mates. Unfortunately, I must confess that despite reading several pieces featuring the Imperial forces I still struggle to visualize them as a dynamic part of the Halo universe. While it is interesting to see the Covenant observed and described from a completely unique viewpoint, the Imperial forces’ speech and behavior is so similar to humans that it’s a stretch to visualize them as a unique race and culture. Setting aside more general descriptions (which, again, your piece does very well) from a fan fiction perspective the Imperial forces struggle to fit in. With a few tweaks this short could easily become a story of UNSC or colonial forces fighting the Covenant and gain an immense amount of cachet with your readers thanks to the shared visuals and culture enjoyed by those more familiar subjects.
  • DT 2023: Alerian Morning by Distant Tide: I really enjoyed your intro to this piece. So many little details came together (the ragged clothing, the breathing mask, the cramped tunnels) to paint a very vivid picture of Jefferson and the mines on Aleria. You do occasionally veer into over-description and it might be worth proofreading your exposition to double check for clarity (Phrases like “lone wolf dust locusts” don’t make much sense on first reading.). A few awkward sentences and grammar errors (e.g. second paragraph should be “morning rang out” as opposed to “morning ringed out”) also pulled me out of the action a bit. But this short does a great job of introducing the reader to young Jefferson Korn and his bleak colonial origins. I’d be interested to see where you take this scenario should you choose to pursue it in further entries.
  • Flight of the Ariadne by GazpachoSoupreme (Winner): Another great intro to a character I ought to be more familiar with. The link to Ahalosniper’s old JAILBREAK story concept caught me completely off-guard. I admit that I’d forgotten that there were more stories revolving around the scenario. Even without the context I received after the fact by re-reading the older shorts, you did a good job of bringing a first-time reader into Hari’s mindset as she takes her first steps into the unfamiliar world beyond Onyx. My only significant criticism is the formatting near the end of the second section when Hari snags a credit off someone running into her. The wording, punctuation, and use of italics was so confusing that I needed to re-read the section several times and ask someone else to help me look it over before I could make sense of what was going on. Hindsight clears my confusion but you might consider revising that section in order to avoid potential misreadings. That aside, this was an engaging introduction to Harriet’s adventure. It’s a close call between this and several other entries, but “Flight of the Ariadne” falls closest to the spirit of the prompt and thus clinches the win.

Week 272: Illumination[]

Judge: Actene

I can’t promise that every prompt this year will be linked with the previous one—I want to leave room for people to drop whatever they feel inspired to write. However, with this prompt I turn from the subject of new beginnings to that of discovery or realization. The start of something new—a birth or change, be it internal or external—often goes hand in hand with a discovery or instance of seeing something in a different light. For this prompt write a piece involving a realization or discovery of some kind, preferably one that invites a change in a character’s goals, relationships, or outlook. Aim for about 750 to 1000 words for this entry.

Start Date: 8 January, 2023

End Date: 15 January, 2023

  • Matrilinear Chapter Two by SilverAgLastname (Winner): It’s great to see that the year’s starting prompt seems to have launched a full-blown story effort. I’m very interested to see how this tale unfolds moving forward. As casual as I usually am about word counts, I would ask that in the future you find a way to compartmentalize parts of the story you’d like to showcase in the Weekly. This entry clocks in at a hefty 2.5k words—have a thought for your poor grader! That said, you make good use of the space to paint the grisly aftermath of Stonne’s demise. I particularly appreciated the introduction given to Lawrence “Lurch” Szing, a character who really came to life as the chapter introduced his personality and foibles. Your chapter also did a great job of keeping the reader engaged with the sci-fi setting, deploying plenty of tech descriptions in the text to flesh out the setting and unveil the creation of Stonne’s LOKI AI. All told another great chapter that continues /Matrilinear/’s rapid expansion as the site’s newest and most intriguing story. Lurch’s characterization is particularly memorable and thus gives this entry the win.
  • Barzea and Apocalypse by Arminius Fiddywinks: You started strong with a great reaction to the immensity of Forerunner architecture. The almost celestial quality of the Forerunner structures in /Halo/ games makes for some great moments of wonder and self-reflection. As the rest of your piece is dominated by the dialogue with the aptly named 994 Luminous Apocalypse, it’s worth noting that the added length works against it as the piece wears on. More poignant dialogue moments are drowned out through more expository dialogue. It would be an interesting experiment to rework the piece by cutting dialogue and moving the information conveyed within it to expository prose instead. This technique might help with the somewhat jarring firehose of information regarding the Forerunners and their history. It might convey your protagonist’s surprise and conflict a bit better than the current straightforward discussion, which comes across as rushed given the gravity of the topic at hand.
  • DT 2023: Alerian Sunlight by Distant Tide: This was an interesting continuation from your previous piece. Jefferson’s arrival on the surface and the dizzying firehose of new information he’s exposed to made for a dizzying read—perhaps a bit too dizzying, as Jefferson’s back and forth with the police officer dragged on to an almost eye-watering length and made me struggle to remain fully invested in the piece. Some of the interesting details at the end regarding Jefferson’s reaction to the Alerian daytime could have been interspersed with the dialogue to break things up and keep the reader engaged. I also noticed a few strange italics near the beginning of the piece that were probably just accidents but could do with a quick review.

Week 273: All Ears[]

Judge: S-D379

Hey everyone, CB here, and I'll be trying my hand as a guest judge this time around.

We all love a game with good audio logs: there's a certain beauty in being able to convey a lot of exposition and emotion alike in nothing but dialogue between multiple characters, or perhaps even with oneself. For this week, I have a similar challenge for you: write a piece that's intensive on conversations, so much that the prose is almost ignorable. You may have a short descriptive paragraph before the story itself begins but I'm looking for dialogue-heavy entries not unlike ASniper's Week 5 prompt from way back in 2016. Could be an interrogation, could be a heated argument, could even be rampant splinters of an AI talking to each other: the ball is in your court and I will be the referee.

Considering the topic, I won't trouble you a lot, so keep the word count around 500 to 750 words. Now put those script-writing skills to the test!

Start Date: 15 January, 2023

End Date: 27 January, 2023

  • Matrilinear Chapter Three by SilverAgLastname
    • Oh man, you were not kidding when you said this prompt made it easier to continue your Matrilinear idea. Although the intensive text formatting sends it significantly over the word limit, I’m letting it slide because it’s crucial to the plot, and the other writers have used their own alternatives. The exchange between Ivory (who is likely a regular “dumb” AI) and Stone’s freshly-converted AI essence goes through a great evolution. Ivory’s shock and concern about this unknown program’s rapidly increasing power and capabilities are well-described, as it gets outsmarted. Stonne realising her new form evokes a sense of growing terror in Ivory’s simulated “emotions”, and the whole entry screams “man-made horrors beyond my comprehension” to me. Repetition of words, a lack of necessity for long paragraphs of descriptive prose, etc.: I think they all worked out favourably for you. Ultimately, it’s a compelling piece that sounds very plausible as a conversation between two AI entities, and I can’t help but recall how it plays out very similarly to Ultron’s waking-up sequence from Avengers 2. This was a tough choice to pick a winner this week, but in the end this story takes the cake.
      UPDATE: Upon reevaluation this entry has been stripped of its award by virtue of the page's deletion
  • The Math Isn't Good by Arminius Fiddywinks
    • I like the choice of topic you’ve picked here, two Navy commanders speaking in private about losses after an engagement with the Covenant. Can’t say I’ve read many Halo books to be familiar with them all, but I would be surprised if you told me this wasn’t inspired by Keyes and Stanforth talking in The Fall of Reach. I admit the first-person threw me off: wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but then again, I feel like you could’ve skipped the opening sequence with Lt. Moss and skipped straight to Nestorenko's entrance. Normally that wouldn’t be a sensible criticism as much as it is personal preference, but a scene change like that always demands descriptive text to explain what’s new, and I see that you tried to do away with it as much as possible given the Weekly prompt. It feels unusual for them to refer to ship classes by their full classifications rather than just “Charons” or “Halberd”, but reading further along, I see you’ve done what I’ve said later in the conversation. I had a few minor nitpicks: the narrator getting up to lock the door instead of ordering the subordinate to do so; the usage of “11” as opposed to “Eleven”. Similarly, “Admiral” should be capitalised fourth paragraph from the end. Overall, I enjoyed this conversation between two UNSC officers with heavy responsibilities, Nestorenko’s firm resolve is appreciable, and the ending line leaves a good, lasting impression on the reader.
  • DT 2023: We Always Meet A Certain Way by Distant Tide
    • Seems like almost everyone went for unique formatting this week. Not complaining at all, however. Right off the bat, the conversation between two young Spartans here is pretty convincing, an abstract talk about what-ifs and maybes, and the confusion on various fronts fits the deal. Confusion about their ages, confusion about their would-be jobs, confusion about how they’d meet, etc. Merlin seems surprisingly calm, considering Andra’s shooting all these contrived hypothetical questions at him, but I guess he doesn’t want to get smacked by her for daring to question back. That’s definitely how a real couple relationship goes, and that’s representative of both their humanities, given their rough childhoods on Argus V. Merlin does get back at her in the end by constantly nagging her with the “Princess” comment, so tit for tat! I like the notion that they would end up meeting together despite wildly different scenarios, pretty much like a meant-to-be scenario, not unlike what the story’s title seems to suggest. It’s a nice little wholesome story, which I assume takes place before many other significant events involving both that lead to them getting distanced and conflicted. A one-hundred-percent dialogue entry, well done!
  • Misplaced Faith by Navisiul97 and GazpachoSoupreme — Winner!
    • "Jegi Haram" seems to be missing the apostrophe (‘) before his last name on multiple occasions; I’m unsure if that’s just a recurring typo or there’s some reasoning I’m unaware of. I like the nominal usage of descriptive text in the boxes: not only do they stand out relative to the dialogue, but the text itself is minimalistic yet sufficient. Almost has a stage play script flavour to it, which I adore. Coming to the actual content, the conversation is very interesting, to say the least. The unknown entity—which I’m assuming is the Gravemind, given the little clues throughout the story—sounds remarkably believable to the zealous Fleetmaster’s ears, because it’s exactly what Jegi wishes to hear. A religious Sangheili warrior like him would feel validated to know he was chosen for a greater purpose. The Gravemind, in all its otherworldly intellect, is quick to latch onto that fact and use it to its own advantage. I don’t know what else to say except that I really liked your creativity with the prompt: you don’t hear “submit a dialogue-heavy entry” and instantly have “Fleetmaster converses with a Gravemind-in-Monitor’s-clothing” pop in your mind, and I applaud you for that! If I had to, I would mention that the conversation could’ve lasted a little longer, but I don’t know how to put that in the right words: however, I will reassure you it’s just a minor nitpick and it doesn’t detract from the overall quality of the story.

Week 274: The First Steps[]

Judge: Actene

Firstly, I apologize for the scattershot rhythm this past week. Some computer trouble threw off my site work pattern; the feedback for Week 272 is written and will be uploaded once I regain access to my main computer.

To continue the theme of beginnings and rising action, this prompt asks you to consider an instigating event. Most traditional fiction narratives rely on some activating event that occurs after the setting and characters are introduced and sets the story proper in motion. Given the nature of Weekly entries and fan fiction stories in general you don't necessarily have to write an activating event that fits into a larger story plan. Just craft a scene that sets events in motion for a character's journey or development. This is a very broad prompt so use your imagination and have fun with it. For the sake of narrowing the parameters somewhat I would ask that you write about a concrete event rather than an internal realization or decision.

Scenes like this might take some work to build up so I'll set the word limit at anywhere between 1000 and 1500 words. I did notice that all of the entries for Week 272 were over 2000 words so I do ask that a greater effort be made to adhere to the word limit moving forward.

Start Date: 30 January 2023

End Date: 6 February 2023

  • A World's Pyre by Spartan-D042: I was excited to see an entry from you for this prompt and it was certainly nice to encounter a younger William Hargrove. You put a lot of interesting concepts in the piece, from Kovacs’s reflections on the differences between the Covenant and Insurrection, the ODSTs’ mission on New Llaneli, and the relationship between Kovacs and Hargrove. The emotional core of the Covenant War is well-trod ground at this point and you might have woven your themes in this piece a bit better had you introduced the other concepts earlier. The line about Kovacs being technically yet not physically older than Hargrove (I assumed you were referring to the effects of cryo-sleep) was particularly striking and could potentially form a great thematic core by itself.
  • Matrilinear Chapter Four by SilverAgLastname: At nearly 4k words this entry is well outside the word count limit and thus I do need to disqualify it from the formal selection process. With that said, this was a great continuation of the Matrilinear story. Lucy’s introduction was particularly striking and her dialogue with Lurch was well done and particularly well thought out in its callbacks to chapter two. The only criticism I can offer here is that overuse of italics in the dialogue continues to be distracting and a few of the descriptions come across as overwrought. Otherwise another great entry!
  • After Infinite: Doubt and Mission by Distant Tide (Winner): I was very surprised to see an entry covering canon characters—and the Weapon of all people! This entry’s imagining of a post-Infinite plot development was fun and perhaps even a bit wistful given recent developments (though that’s its own story). Although the majority of the short was the Weapon’s own internal monologue I liked the way you wove the Weapon’s personal musings in with interesting details regarding how the UNSC resistance on Zeta Halo has coalesced since the events of Infinite. Your narrative not only helped me take the Weapon seriously as a character but also called to mind her human charges without breaking the internal narrative. Even if these ideas are never given their due in canon or fanon the developments at the end of the short set up some compelling turn of events and left me wanting more. I did notice one or two minor typos that can easily be fixed by a quick proofread. The momentum you created with this entry hooked me into Infinite’s narrative once more and so I’m happy to name Doubt and Mission the winner.
  • The Battle of Crucifix Hill by Arminius Fiddywinks: Your description of Lance Eight’s assault on Crucifix Hill was vividly detailed and sketched out. I enjoyed the descriptions of the assault, particularly the methodical yet frantic pace of the Covenant troop’s advance. Kai’s first person perspective was used well, adding to the cramped and kinetic nature of the fighting. I find the prominence of human tactics, terminology, and turns of phrase jarring, but that is your stylistic choice. The battle and its aftermath are well-handled and made for a gripping read. I did struggle to pin down exactly how the events described here were particularly momentous for any character’s journey, which was the deciding factor in tipping my award decision elsewhere.

Week 275: Heroes are Forever...[]

Judge: Actene

…the rest of us are just part of the story.

Most of this year's prompts have focused on a protagonist's internal and external development. For this week I'll change course and ask for something a bit different. Write an important scene in a character's journey from an uninvolved party's point of view. By this I mean create a character who is uninvolved with the story's drama and use them to observe your action from a completely different point of view. Use this as an opportunity to explore and challenge the assumptions we often make about the importance of our principle character or plot developments.

Brevity is the purpose of such a digression, so I'll set a hard cap of 1000 words maximum on this prompt. Introduce the ancillary character as quickly as possible, provide the reader with their observations, and then let them go their separate ways.

Start Date: 6 February 2023

End Date: 13 February 2023

  • The Battle of Crucifix Hill, Part 2 by Arminius Fiddywinks (Winner): This was a really good follow-up to your last entry, mostly for all the same reasons I mentioned in my feedback on Crucifix Hill pt. 1. The tone and strengths are so similar that I’m struggling to come up with much more to say here so I apologize for this somewhat abbreviated feedback. I actually found the dialogue to evoke more alien and Covenant-sounding concepts like the Evocatus and dialogue between the Sangheili characters. The only criticism I can offer is that Iero doesn’t receive much characterization until the end, though his remark about Kai provides a fun punctuation to the piece’s conclusion. This entry is such a fluid continuation of your last post (which was itself a very close contender for that prompt’s winner) that it takes my pick for this week’s victor.
  • DT 2023: Hidden Smile by Distant Tide: I confess that “Andra the swim coach” was not on my bingo card for 2023. The sheer novelty of this piece carries it and made it quite a fun read, though the lack of timeline context made it hard to place within Andra’s broader development. You made a good effort to alter the narrative prose to reflect a younger character’s perspective (“Adults are mean and scary, especially Earther adults”) but the execution is a bit uneven with more traditional observations elsewhere (“Everyone entered the water with the usual complaining of ‘freezing’ at twenty-six degrees Celsius”). Despite the fluctuating narrative this was still an enjoyable piece to read thanks to the creative setting and the cute little exchange between Liam and Andra.
  • Matrilinear Chapter Five by SilverAgLastname: I don’t know how much of Matrilinear’s progression maps onto Weekly prompts, but it’s always fascinating to observe all the same. I enjoyed the use of this prompt (if the correlation exists) to introduce Lucy to the research outpost’s broader setting as well as expanding upon the ramifications of Ivory’s “death.” I did find Sheila’s character a bit under-developed which did blunt my appreciation of the chapter; a significant number of words went into describing her eating while the reader was not given much context on her thoughts or her role on the station that might have otherwise made her exchange with Lucy more meaningful.

Week 276: Express the Inexpressible[]

I know, I know, Ahalosniper back to do a Weekly? What calamitous, cosmic order-flipping event have you missed? (Actene’s team lost the Superb Owl last week.) I’ve a rep to maintain, so this week’s gonna be different.

To start off, I’d ask you to play a little mini-game. Not a fun one, but won’t take a minute, I promise. Just open a Notepad or grab a nearby piece of paper. Write down the names of ten people you know. Could be family, could be friends, neighbors, teachers, whatever. Now pick two at random. Roll dice, choose arbitrarily, cut up the paper and put the pieces in a hat to draw from. Imagine those two people are dead.

How does your life change? Is your daily routine effected by losing those people? Do you suddenly inherit responsibilities they left behind, or would it just be someone you don’t see around anymore? This is, in a very loose way, where humankind were left after the Battle of Earth. More than two of every ten inhabitants of the planet were dead. And this is after two decades of refugees from across the domino-line of Colonies lost during the war, all of which suffered much higher casualty rates. 23 billion lives were lost. Imagine that two-in-ten applied to everyone you know, not just the ten you picked at random.

All that was to preface this week’s actual Prompt: In the aftermath of the Human-Covenant War, how do your characters start to process the grief? The loss of so many people, a decimation of the entire species? Practically every human has lost someone dear to them, and everyone knows people who’ve lost those dear to them. Some are hit harder; those few who made it to the transports that actually escaped fallen colony worlds. Maybe you haven’t developed familial relationships or friendships outside their squad—not uncommon among fanfiction characters, but this might be a good place to start thinking about it. Spartans also are a bit insulated in having been taken from or lost their families a while back. But even in these cases, you might flip this on its head and have it strike them how weird it is not to share the rest of their species’ common grief, and how seeing it in others effects them. If you absolutely must, showing how Separatist Sangheili characters come to grips with seeing that grief they had a hand in dealing might also qualify.

To my mind, some of the best fan works build on canon by adding texture to those events that get glossed over by the limited scope of the main story. This will definitely qualify. Try to tackle the topic in under a 1000 words—and this time, that’s a hard cap. I’m not reviewing pieces that go over it. Learn to write economically, blast it. Syracuse University’s writing courses include exercises where they have to cut their 1000 word stories in half, and it betters their writing, so you’d better be willing to try doing the same.

Start Date: 12th February 2023

End Date: 20th February 2023

  • DT 2023: Memories on the Sunset Wind by Distant Tide
    • Coming in at 984 words, safely under the cap, but to try and provide useful feedback for the word economy idea I'm hoping to push people towards, I'd take a look at the second paragraph; you could cut "Daniele glanced over to". I know you're trying to set up for the reader who's speaking and where the two are relationally, but it ends up being a filter phrase (glanced is a dangerous word, gotta look out for using it myself). Don't be afraid of the simple, "Daniele said" dialogue tag at the end of the opening phrase, it does the job of establishing who's speaking well enough, then transition to "The wind blew Roxanne's hair". We get the sense Daniele's looking at her because we're already following him, and assume he sees what the reader does. As for the short as a whole, a flashback can give us time to get a sense of the person Daniele's mother was, to attach us to them and thus regret their loss, though the focus seems to be more on the course Daniele's history. I don't tend to think of people as having flashbacks in general, though they can certainly space out lost in thought for intervals; perhaps when we come back into the present, I'd suggest having Daniele find himself already fallen to his knees, highlighting how unaware he was of what was happening in the present while focusing on the past.
  • Matrilinear Prologue by SilverAgLastname
    • An AI dialogue exchange certainly helps keep this well within word limit. The formatting for it is nice, though I would suggest recoloring one of the speakers' tags to another color to help keep track when the name shorthands are so similar. And it handles its purpose as a prologue nicely, establishing what the goal of some of our cast is going to be and tying into the theme nicely in hinting Minerva's reasons for wanting the Deep Core recovered aren't as utterly pragmatic as one would expect of an artificial intelligence. Admittedly, it doesn't address that grief and its implications directly as I'd hoped, but it's handily used the prompt to still contribute to an ongoing larger work, which is a tough balance.
  • A Lasting Peace by Arminius Fiddywinks
    • Safely under the cap at 989, but I think there are places you can cut that down a bit not just to be more efficient, but to present sharper description and dialogue. One tip I can recommend is targetting -ly adjectives for replacement; consider "All of us sat at a round conference table, which was considerably large and took up space" versus "a round conference table, which dominated the well-lit room" or "a round conference table, wide enough to back each delegation into their own corner of the room"; the point is to do more than state its description, and use the space for that description to help characterize the scene. The former makes the table itself seem imposing, the latter makes us think of each faction as cornered and suspicious. Different characterizations can push different impressions, as positive or negative as you want the scene to feel. For dialogue, you've got Al-Cygni, Svoboda, and Charet each delivering rather long speeches which contain a lot of what's essentially emotional exposition. I've done the same in past, and I think it's a good sign in that you want these characters expressing something particular, but you can do more with less if spun the right way. Al-Cygni up first, I can see you want her snide and spiteful, but as an ONI officer she's likely to be more brief and cutting with it. Consider the Emperor's admiration of the architecture responded to with a sarcastic cheer. "The Covenant's architecture is impeccable. I'm told all the ground-down permacrete they built it on makes for a wonderful foundation. And all the old bones mixed in help with aeration." She doesn't need to state outright the whole history, as reminding everyone indirectly is enough to bring up there's a debt in blood un-repaid. Your readers, for that matter, are also familiar enough with Halo to know what she's getting at. Fitting as strategies go for an ONI officer, after all (incidentally, Al-Cygni was a Navy officer, and Colonel's a UNICOM rank; Captain's the equivalent Navy rank, which does feel about right). Svoboda and Charet similarly kind of infodump their personal wounds, which probably isn't the tactful thing at a conference between heads of state, but that aside it kind of repeats dramatic beats between the two. One suggestion I'd raise might be to have Svobada remain as-is, and contrast Charet by having her remember her family and friends lost in internal monologue, but downplay it in her response to Svobada. She then comes across as the more in-control, befitting her leadership role, while still acknowledging the personal hurt she carries--far as the portrayal goes, it's having the cake and eating it too by showing the reader her grievances, then displaying her ability to deny them to carry out her duty in the present. I'm also wondering what year this is, since the introduction of your original species would potentially throw a bit of a wrench against canon with how powerful you've portrayed them in previous shorts. Granted, Ruth Charet has been shown as still UEG president as late as 2558, so it could be after that, but by that time the tumultuous post-war galaxy has had new concerns pressing in to compete for attention. I've listed a lot I hope to see you try a hand at revising, but I'm honestly excited to see if you find the above useful going forward. With everything said, I find of the three submissions this week, this one addressed the prompt most directly by putting the shared grief of multiple characters together to interact. It's a subjective judgement, but I'm a subjective judge, and I stated way back when there's no guarantee these contests are fair anyway. It takes the win this week.

Week 277: Something Worth Fighting For[]

Judge: Actene

In an interesting conversation I participated in earlier today, it was remarked that franchise fiction often struggles to express themes independent of the setting itself. The most memorable stories are shaped by the themes the author is trying to convey independent of the surface-level plot details. These themes can range from simple comradeship to the struggle of dealing with loss or the journey into adulthood. In franchise fiction and fan fiction in particular, broader themes often get lost within the effort to faithfully reflect an existing setting. Sometimes we get so caught up in the excitement of envisioning a set-piece action scene or interesting sci-fi concept that we don't pause to consider what we might want our readers to take with them long after the details have faded from memory. For this prompt, make a conscious effort to convey a subtextual theme independent of worldbuilding or expanding on Halo as a universe. Try to work this theme into a scene without beating your reader over the head with it. As an added bonus, in my feedback I'll include my guess as to what that theme might be so that you can inform me just how far off the mark my read was.

Since this prompt requires a bit more thought and set-up (and since the last two prompts have emphasized brevity) I'll expand the word limit to 1500 words.

Start Date: 20th February 2023

End Date: 27th February 2023

  • DT 2023: Meeting Linda by Distant Tide: Encounters between our motley fanon crew and canon characters are rare, so it’s always interesting to see someone take the plunge and throw a canon figure into their character’s path. You built up Andra’s nerves and sense of unease quite well. A few awkward descriptions dragged the Andra/Linda dialogue a bit (e.g. Linda is described as “smirking” a few times, which doesn’t seem to convey the mood you’re trying to build) though the clinical line of Linda’s questioning fit her character quite well. I would suggest that the extended dialogue between Linda and Andra undermines the scene a bit and that a shorter but more pointed exchange might have helped amplified the sense of unease you built in the first section. Bonus Theme Guess: The challenge of living up to past generations leads us to project our anxieties onto them while diminishing our own achievements.
  • The Fall of Usora by Arminius Fiddywinks (Winner): Another solid battle description is compounded by an excellent exchange between Sangheili officers. It’s a matter of personal preference, I know, but in this entry the Covenant really did feel like the alien warriors encountered in the Halo books and games. Small touches like “childlings” help to ground the reader in the understanding that these are alien rather than human characters. The vision of a Covenant city ripped apart by the Schism was particularly gripping. (One quibble as an aside: referring to the Erdellians as the “arch-enemy” seems a bit much given the broader conflicts with humans and Brutes, but again, point of personal preference.)The story’s climax with Trev’s extended outburst was a bit melodramatic but helped to drive the emotional trauma of defeat home. I found myself relieved when the protagonist talked Trev down which is evidence enough of emotional investment. I vacillated for a long time between this piece and Fallen Goddess but eventually settled on this thanks to the improvement displayed over an already solid foundation. Well done. Bonus Theme Guess: Choosing to move forward after a traumatic life event.
  • Matrilinear Chapter Six by SilverAgLastname: Returning to Matrilinear chapters is always an interesting game of remembering what’s gone on before and working to discern where things are headed. Wonderful work again with your technology descriptions, though this entry marked the first time in my feedback process where the tech details have felt overdone. Writing from an AI perspective is always a challenge of balancing anthropomorphic allowances while nodding at what’s actually going on under the hood. So far with Lucy you’ve done well balancing this, but the excess of technology description early in the piece felt a bit padded compared to the actual point of the chapter (the encounter with Ivory). Overuse of italics—particularly in the middle of sentences when it’s harder to place emphasis on individual words—continues to be distracting. This may be a personal observation but it strikes me as the visual equivalent of beating your readers over the head with dialogue rather than trusting them to work through sentence emphasis themselves. Bonus Theme Guess: Coming to terms with a disagreeable past or origin that you cannot simply ignore.
  • The Fallen Goddess by slowfuture: It’s almost a shame that I’ve caught snatches of Discord conversation regarding just how vile a character Derek Frendsen is intended to be—without that foreknowledge the slow, steady unpeeling of his character over the course of this piece might have come as a true shock. Present-tense narrative is always a gamble but you make it work here, particularly with the focus on the dialogue between Frendsen and the unseen medical deck. You did a great job establishing the duality of Frendsen’s nature, particularly in layering the excuses he feeds both others and himself in order to justify his actions. I did find some of the descriptive prose to be a bit over the top (e.g. saliva on the whisky glass), which detracted from the grim nature of the piece but overall an excellent read. Bonus Theme Guess: Those in positions of power and authority make differing excuses to others and themselves in order to justify their control over others.

Week 278: But sometimes, there is kindness[]

Judge: slowfuture

"It was so strange to realize how it was only at this brink of the chasm, threshold of the dark or the god's holy light, that one could grasp and accept one's own heart's yearning for more of the world. For life."
Sailing to Sarantium - Guy Gavriel Kay

Hi all! I've my first time judging in six years - a lot has changed both for me personally and professionally, and in my writing! Since 2017 I've begun reading books by Guy Gavriel Kay and Ursula K Le Guin, and they have quickly become two of my favourite authors both in the fantasy space and more broadly.

One of the aspects of Kay's writing that has touched be personally, and influenced me significantly, is the power of faith in his work; devotion to the God, anger at the God - great and powerful deeds are done through the God. As some of you may have noticed, in recent years a lot of my work has mentioned characters personal relationships with God; both positive and negative and about his absence. This prompt is a bit convoluted in that I don't expect, nor demand, your piece to deal directly with god or religious belief of any kind - though I would enjoy it!

Kay's use of his characters connection to faith and religion is used as a tool to centre his characters in the world; to give life purpose and meaning and direction and success in events is often praised as having religious connotations. What I would like to see is, through faith or genuine wonder at the galaxy around them, your characters have a moment of awe; of self-reflection and rejuvenation and the over-coming of doubts. It could be a former Sangheili Zealot accepting that the Forerunners were not gods, but mortal, and finding awe and peace in knowing that their gifts are possible to be replicated. It could be two friends sharing a soft kiss after something and realising their connection to the world is through each other; that they are an island no longer.

Indeed, this is where Ursula comes in. Her work is far more interested in the connections we make as transitory beings. Le Guin's work is profoundly focused on how we relate to one another, our impact on the world and the impact the world has on us. Her characters are often seeking to improve the world around them, to understand strange ones, or in the case of the Lathe of Heaven, use dreams to change that world in our own image. We are the world and the world is us, a symbiotic relationship enriching one another should we seek to make it so. But like Kay, faith, not of God in this case, but of the world and people, is the driving force behind revelations and greater understandings.

Faith is the cornerstone of this prompt; faith in oneself; faith in your loves; faith in machinery and the gifts of man; faith in the God. The moment that inspires this epiphany is not as important as the understanding that comes after and that should be the focus of your work. As much as I am pushing for this to be a prompt that generates positive understandings, it does not have to be - as long as something is realised and the foundations of a new journey are made the prompt will be satisfied.

1500-2000 words should be enough to cover it, but I will be flexible.

Start Date: 6th March 2023

End Date: 13th March 2023


Week 279: Don't Just Stand There, Do Something![]

Judge: Actene

Many thanks again to Slowfuture for a wonderful prompt last week. As the last few prompts have encouraged introspection, this week calls for a more action-oriented approach. Write any scene in which a character takes some tangible action to advance a personal goal or broader plot. Note that this isn't a call for action for action's sake. If your fictional soldier storms a fictional barricade then you need to give your reader a reason to care about what's going on. You don't need to get too fancy, just make sure your entry helps the reader understand the central character's goals or motivation.

We'll drop back down to 1000 words for this prompt; flexible within reason.

Start Date: 13 March 2023

End Date: 20 March 2023

  • Raising a Flag over Dazin Citadel by Arminius Fiddywinks: “I wish these characters were human,” I find myself saying after each Weekly entry focused on Erdellians. I apologize if this is an unfair sentiment, but the Erdellian angle always leaves me cold both in a Halo context and a broader sci-fi context. This entry was an excellent example of how your stirring imagery evokes the exotic, other-worldly language of speculative sci-fi—“commissars” and “twilight knights” and “battle hypnosis”—yet hobbles itself when the lens pulls out to consider the broader universe of the franchise it dwells in. Erdellian characters continue to struggle to establish any decisive identity within the Halo tapestry. All that aside I did find the shooting of a propaganda broadcast and its impact on the surrounding characters a creative take on the call for an action-oriented entry.
  • Matrilinear Chapter Eight by SilverAgLastname (Winner): I asked for action and Matrilinear certainly delivered. “Fun” seems to be a bit overstating for a chapter culminating in Sheila’s death, but seeing such a radical break from the tone and style of previous chapters was quite the enjoyable ride. Matrilinear has suffered a bit of a momentum problem—an issue owed more to the unique format of shaping each entry to fit a prompt, to be sure, yet one that challenges the reader to remain engaged with the plot and characters. Preceding chapters’ focus on Lucy has distracted somewhat from the human element so the encounter between Lurch and Sheila and the frenetic clash with the MPs brought these characters back to the forefront and injected enough adrenaline to propel the story forward. Excellent use of the prompt to advance the ongoing Matrilinear narrative leads me to mark this entry as the winner.

Week 280: Setup, Payoff[]

Judge: Actene

Effective foreshadowing is a great skill to hone as a writer. From easily visible plot beats to subtle clues regarding a character's development, your writing builds on itself and invites your reader along on the path you create. Plot developments are all the more satisfying when you've worked to establish the threads that weave them together. For this prompt, I invite you to choose any of your previous Weekly entries and write a follow-up that expands on any of the plot beats, themes, or concepts you established the first time around. You might choose to write a direct sequel, but you could also write an entry that expands on an idea you felt you didn't have room to fully flesh out or perhaps on a character or action you find worth expanding on further. As per usual the criteria for this prompt is fairly open ended but try to put some thought into how you prepare your reader for further developments in your plot.

Please make a note of the piece you are following up submit your entry (a note beside the entry title and your name will do). If you have never entered a Weekly submission you are free to expand upon any of your extant work on the site, though bear in mind that time may not permit me to read through lengthier works for full context. Aim for around 1000 words for this entry.

Start Date: 20 March 2023

End Date: 27 March 2023

  • A Lasting Peace, Part 2 by Arminius Fiddywinks
  • Matrilinear Chapter Nine by SilverAgLastname (Chapter specifically cashes in on Ameliance mentioning Moorecroft and Rhor in Chapter 1, Lurch mentioning 'calling in favours and rattling cages' in Chapter 2, and then the consequences of Sheila going postal, calling in an SOS and blowing up the server banks in Chapter Eight)
  • Cold Hands, Warm Heart by GazpachoSoupreme (Follows on from immediately preceding story in the sequence template, but also is part of the wider linked series as a whole)


Week 281: Tide Wants Robots[]

Judge: Distant Tide

I'm stepping in for Actene this week. I don't really got time to be complex so we'll keep it simple. Write a story involving some aspect of artificial intelligence interacting with your characters or adventures. I'll keep it broad in scope, give me under 1000 words. See you guys in a week. :P

Start Date: 27 March 2023

End Date: 4 April 2023

  • Cyclone - An Absence of Authority by TheAussie1417 - I raised some concerns regarding this short story in chat previously that Randolph being a Smart AI caused canon issues since the Avery Johnson Academy was setup right as the Created crisis occurred. Smart AI are dangerous at this point, warranting extreme security measures as noted in the Halo Infinite campaign. Looking past that item, the naming of the story doesn't quite line up with the narrative to me since the events of the short do not reference Cyclone or thematically of a cyclone. I know you said you already plant to rewrite a few narrative things so that's alright, overall, the presentation of this small chat between Spartan and AI is a fun introduction to a new Delta Company S-III, welcome to the chaos Daniel-D076. And welcome Randolph, a Smart AI with a role under not-so-trustworthy circumstances but when you're on the run an AI willing to play or go along can't hurt - I look forward to more adventures and more details to emerge from this premise, but until then I'll have to wait for more. This was a close race but Mu only edged out slightly for me.
  • To Mu We Go by Arminius Fiddywinks - Tu Mu We Go seems to take place after a Cole Protocol blind jump and the disastrous reality that not everyone makes it. I like the introduction and deliberateness and physical description of Witold, a unique characterization as a historic Polish soldier. I'd say I don't really have much to takeaway from the story. The prose is solid, if a little dry written in the first person perspective. There seems to be a greater story taking place here but its a quiet moment between bigger events and the conversation between Captain and AI reminiscing over other ship commanders one by one left me wanting more of this story told from the opposite perspective, from Witold instead. Overall, I thought Cyclone and Mu were very similar in scale and scope, that I only edge it out for Arminius for having slightly more physicality to his AI characterization but it was a very close competition.
  • Matrilinear Chapter Ten by SilverAgLastname - Disqualified due to deletion. Based on my record, I would say this story would've won this Weekly hands down given it introduced a strange encounter and standoff between two 'smart' artificial intelligences. At first it its unclear who the characters are, what is occurring but soon enough we meet the circumstances. One AI imposing restraints and order as per its orders, but the growing concern and terror as the simply named "Lucy" AI subverts its powers and flips the power dynamic in their interaction. I appreciate any and all attempts to display cyberwarfare in a colorful way like this story and I really wish I could give it a prize for that, hope you bring this story back eventually Silver.

Week 282: Rise[]

Judge: Actene

Many thanks to Distant Tide for last week's prompt. This week finds us bearing down on Easter Sunday. In the Western Christian tradition, this week is traditionally known as Holy Week and is considered a time for reflection, mourning, and joyful renewal. I've featured these themes in previous prompts so this isn't exactly blazing new territory, but many traditional character arcs culminate in a character discarding old flaws or habits in order to overcome challenges the plot lays before them. For this week write an entry in which a character faces a challenge--either internal or external--and overcomes it through enacting some positive change within themselves. This can be as simple as a character overcoming a deep-rooted fear or expand into something more complex such as trying to mend a fractured system or relationship. Try to include an internal moment of self-reflection or realization for added pathos.

1500 words on this one to allow greater room for establishing a situation and the character's internal struggle.

Start Date: 3 April 2023

End Date: 10 April 2023

  • Mentioned in Dispatches by Arminius Fiddywinks (Winner) : This entry languished a bit in its set up, a casualty of the many entries involving Mik and friends assaulting human positions blending together over time. The first third felt as if it were going through the motions right up until Kai’s mid-battle soliloquy. The piece turned on this moment (as I imagine was the intent) and picked up from there, though the abrupt ending blunted what seemed to be a moment of personal growth and advancement for Kai. I saw several interesting details such as the narrative commenting on various Sangheili dialects that could be explored and expanded on in future pieces. A few misused words (“peaked” should be “peeked,” etc.) jumped out and invite a few proofreads should the spirit move you.
  • Matrilinear Chapter Eleven by SilverAgLastname : As an editorial aside, Matrilinear is reaching a length where more traditional section formatting would be welcome as a means of providing a table of contents to allow for easier navigation. With that out of the way, I find it fascinating to look over Lurch’s character progression over the course of the story. He’s a vividly imagined character who veritably pops off the screen/page, so it was disappointing that this entry moved away from him so quickly. I confess that I struggled to link this chapter’s events to the prompt. Some development in Lurch’s character would seem appropriate here, but his section cut off before any sort of self-realization could be reached.

Week 282: Second Wind[]

Judge: Actene

Apologies for the lack of a prompt last week; between holiday observances, travel, and additional responsibilities I decided to let this project lie for a week. Also, as we move into the summer months expect more freeform, standalone prompts in place of the interlinked prompts from earlier this year (that particular gimmick is starting to run out of steam). With that out of the way, this prompt follows up on the previous theme of renewal. Characters often draw upon the inner strength discussed in the previous prompt as a means of overcoming the "lowest point" in the narrative. This emotional valley is often followed by a moment of positive catharsis as the readers journey with the character out from the depths of frustration, fear, or whatever other negative forces have dragged them down. Scenes of renewed hope and confidence are often the most satisfying moments within the narrative. For this prompt, try to capture some of this positive energy. You may choose to follow up on a previous prompt or simply harness a character's positive internal energy for a standalone scene. As this is another "broad-strokes" prompt, the bottom line is to attempt drawing your reader into a character's positive development.

1500 to 2000 words on this prompt in order to give entries a bit more room to establish scenarios as needed.

Start Date: 17 April 2023

End Date: 24 April 2023


Week 283: A Grunty Thirst[]

Judge: Ajax 013

I feel we severely lack a lot of Unggoy representation in our Weekly events, and I feel we have to fix this, 'immediately'. While they're a distinct comedic element in most Halo games, this does not just have to be a comedy story. It can be serious, it can be dark, in can have romance, high adventure, political intrigue, whatever you want, so long as the lil' guys are the front and centre of the tale. The story should be primarily Unggoy, in any shape or form, or any allegiance and group, in any time period.


Start Date: 25 April 2023

End Date: 1 May 2023

Week 284: Light[]

Judge: Actene

Sometimes I feel like I'm repeating myself making calls for levity and cheer in these prompts, but the Halo games and a lot of the conversations I see around them - war, death, weapon statistics, military organization - are so fundamentally grim that they seem to insulate the setting in its own MJOLNIR-like shell. When engaging with Halo it's easy to forget just how alien this worldview is in the wider spectrum of human experience. When we focus on battles and glassed worlds we miss out on far more relatable moments like the Ace of Spades crew enjoying the beach on an alien world or the friendly banter between Mickey and Dutch as these two friends are reunited in the streets of New Mombasa.

Simple prompt this time around, just write a character or a group of characters experiencing something positive, a cause for celebration or just a quiet moment of happy relief. As this is such a straightforward prompt, keep things around 1000 words.

Start Date: 15 May 2023

End Date: 22 May 2023

  • Early Ambush (TPF) by ThePeteFiles (Winner) : Props to you for the title bait and switch—I confess that I half expected the story to ignore the prompt entirely with details of a literal ambush. But I was pleasantly surprised by the charming little story of Operation Mother’s Day VI. I asked for something sweet and closer to home and you certainly delivered with this glimpse at this small little family. These sorts of scenes can be difficult to write, especially given the need to balance sentimentality, and I appreciated your efforts here. I did notice several instances of unwieldy syntax that took me out of the story (“the funny face his father had”). I often repeat myself in feedback when I recommend that authors re-read their own work as a proofreading practice, but it really does help to go through a complete draft line by line to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t. This piece was submitted around the time of the now-passed Mother’s Day 2023 (which I shamefully forgot about when creating this prompt) and I applaud you finding a way to acknowledge the holiday. As such this story is my choice for this prompt’s winner.
  • The Vanador Amulet by Arminius Fiddywinks: Another day in the endless war between the Erdellians and the Covenant. A few good details stood out to me reading through this entry, namely the use of fun make-believe oaths like ‘pottle’s pantry’ and the discussion of the oft-overlooked parochialism certain to crop up in any interplanetary environment. These details might have benefitted from some more exposition regarding the very human practice of offering birthday gifts; a bit of creative twists might go a long way to making the practice feel more distinct within this alien culture. Your entries often take place during lulls in the fighting and I appreciate your efforts to portray the banal realities of warfare and military life. I would recommend jettisoning the now long-running term of “Xyphonite” as a replacement for “Covenant”; the term is not particularly catchy and could prove confusing for readers coming across this setting for the first time. The distinctly Halo-term of Covenant would help to tether this particular setting to the universe and make it more accessible to newer readers. You might use “Covenant” as the base term and then invent a few creative (and derogatory) nicknames the Erdellian rank and file might have for their enemies—however, this is merely a suggestion.

Week 285: Rome Wasn't Built In A Day...[]

Judge: GazpachoSoupreme

Great Works™ is the theme of the week. Massive projects, grand designs, huge undertakings - things that the story's character/s are spending their time slowly chipping away at the surface of, in the hope of an outcome far down the line, or even one beyond their lifetimes.

No restrictions on the subject matter beyond that, though! Covenant or UNSC, militia or organised crime, an organisation or a ship; anything goes for the Rome these characters seek to build. The goal for these particular works, though, is the tried-and-true thousand words (although it's certainly not a hard cap).

Start Date: 23 May 2023

End Date: 29 May 2023

I'm very much in two minds about this piece, to be honest. I can't fault the writing, the idea or its execution, and the Covenant-centric perspective you work with (or, specifically, times and topics far away from their war with humanity) was very welcome for this prompt. But I still come away from it feeling like I'm missing something - something to give the tale a more coherent story thread to it, or to bring it closure. A line covering how the outwardly-stoic Arbiter was more than pleased with their work; a few more words of just how big an undertaking it truly was; a closing epilogue from Sangheili of a future generation in admiration (or perhaps post-schism scorn) at the commemoration of Writ of Union. That being said, Mannimar's pride in his work firmly shines through - aided by Deru being perhaps a bit of an archetypical lackey - and the dialogue (and its repetition of his internal thoughts) came off very well.

Created apologism (😉) is probably one of the more surprising directions I was thinking that this prompt might lead to, but in spite of this entry's brevity I'm a fan of how it was conveyed. The scale of the undertaking comes across well, especially when paired with the accelerated perception of the AIs working at it - although I do think Belknap himself could have done with a bit more of a distinct voice. There's a few other things along with that that I found myself wishing when going through this piece, but the biggest one was the missed opportunity to be showing a different angle of the Created's steering that wasn't so overt; a pitch that maybe for every rebellion subdued by shows of force many more were defused with subtle manipulation. For something that otherwise did so well at presenting their cause as a bona fide noble one, a refutation of their canon heavy-handedness was certainly missed.

Week 286: A Pale Reflection[]

Judge: Actene

I apologize for being a bit behind on feedback, but I'm hoping to catch up on feedback within the next couple days. In the meantime, have another simple prompt to get the creative juices flowing:

The deeper a character wades into their story, the more they may come to examine and question beliefs and allegiances they once held dear. Doubt is an integral part of faith, and making space for these doubts and self-reflection may not undermine the aforementioned beliefs--unless that's where you want to take the character! Write a scene tackling this theme, either through conversation or personal introspection. Keep it to around 1000 words with this prompt.

Start Date: 29 May 2023

End Date: 5 June 2023


Week 287: ...But London Burned In One[]

Judge: GazpachoSoupreme

Picking up where I left off, this time I'm asking for the opposite of my last prompt - or an inversion of it at least. Something grand, vast, majestic, being brought to ruin or coming to nought. No limits on "how" such a thing is a Great Work™ - an Ozymandian show of wealth and power, a personal work of passion, a legacy passed down generations - or whether it's military, civilian, or even something intangible. I just want to see something great meeting a rather un-fitting end!

As a side note, this largely excludes individuals, other than those perhaps living exceptionally long generation-spanning (at the minimum) lives; a storied veteran wouldn't count, but a Forerunner Monitor would.

Start Date: 05 Jun 2023

End Date: 12 Jun 2023

The feedback I have of this piece is rather akin to that levelled at the runner-up for my previous weekly, to tell the truth. It's a well-executed story with no real technical faults I can find, and the portrayal of Covenant characters is done neatly - but the core thread and its connection to the prompt feels left hanging loose. The scale and beauty of Emerald Cove is noted, but I didn't feel there was a real link to the sense that it was a the fall of a great work or something magnificent - and it's a set-up where there were plenty of angles to go about it, too. Delicate orbital infrastructure that could've been carved through; grand, floating architecture of the human settlement below, or even the world itself could've had the angle of centuries of careful terraforming wiped away. It's a shame, too, because other aspects I really enjoyed, like the acknolwedgement of how nice of a world it would be on the other side of the fence, or the contrast between the scribe's mission of preservation against the crew (and their crusade) of destruction - and while neither of these stories entirely hit the mark for the prompt I feel like the strength of the story's closer clinched out its win here.

Honestly, my thoughts on this are almost the mirror opposite of the above (and of Marble is Marble, for that matter). The execution definitely leaves things to be desired - there's a lot of things told rather than shown, the opening is weighed down by a lot of exposition that could be cut or streamlined, and "when in doubt, MACs" was so jarringly colloquial for an exchange between flag officers that it threw me off-balance hard. But the overall story being told carried it along, hard. The age and might of the Washington, the almost resigned feeling to Schofield's dialogue and the feeling that she knows it might be her time, both of them hit the tone of such a story really well (even if the momentary aside as to Witold's avatar didn't!). Still, unfortunately, for me the battle sequence breaks the back of those aspects; the listing out of ships and classes, the rubberbanding of timescales between focusing on the moments of a MAC firing and skipping through the latter half of the fight, all had the piece become a little stuck in the mud, and even after the Washington's demise it struggled to extricate itself. That being said, I think that this piece would be ripe for a revisit or remaster if any Weekly prompts of the sort come up with more wiggle room for time - with leaner and more focused pacing, and perhaps a sharper and ignoble end for the fleet's flagship, this could be a terrific set-piece.

Oh, and lastly - the eponymous quote goes unbelievably hard.


Week 288: Who Will Save Us Now?[]

Judge: Distant Tide

I'm picking up for Actene while he's taking a brief break from the Halo Fanon wiki. For this new weekly entry, I want to ask about who is the hero when your hero falls or is knocked down? As Sergeant Johnson once said, "Folk need heroes, Chief." So who saves you when the odds are stacked against you, and the fight seems just about over? 500 to 1000 words, who will save us now?

Start Date: 12 Jun 2023

End Date: 19 Jun 2023

  • Exit Strategy by GazpachoSoupreme - Alright, without my prior knowledge of how all these puzzle pieces fit together, I think I would've had an even stronger reacting to this short story. Exit Strategy is setup in a very complex setting and with many moving parts coming together from other short stories I've read from Zoup and I appreciate the unusual and nice twist that an AI and aliens are the saviors of injured humans in a Created occupation environment. AIs rebelling directly against other Created AI, a nice twist of the current state of the Halo universe, and I think Zoup does a great job with dramatic timing, expanding what amounts to a declaration of war left as simple text on a screen that increases in detail as the dominos fall with the arrival of the surprise addition/monster. Exit Strategy is my pick for this Weekly though Some Sort of Storm was a very competitive and close second place.
  • Some Sort of Storm by Arminius Fiddywinks - An evocatus in writing, I feel like this is a first for Halo Fanon, if not among Halo fanfiction considering how niche our fandom has become and how new the lore is relatively speaking. I enjoyed the quick, snappy combat between short comments and reactions to a sniper from above. The evocatus's solution to the problem is hardly novel but it has a degree of morbid humor after watching a friend of our protagonist killed so quickly and abruptly in cold blood - tossed out the top of a tower so matter-of-factly from a distance. Despite the strong prose I found in this short, I was slightly disappointed by the Covenant protagonist's intimate awareness of human structures and culture. Christian tower/church. Piano. There's very little interest in this story to describe from the Covenant perspective the humans as "alien," and aspects of the narrative don't seem consistent with the settings. Sangheili writing letters on paper when they have datapads? Unfortunately, these little details detract a little from my enjoyment but overall this was an especially strong entry. Good work and keep at it!

Week 289: Emancipation[]

Judge: Distant Tide

I haven't begun judging this last week's entries and I'll get on that soon. In the meantime, here's a new prompt. The theme is Emancipation, freedom achieved and found - free at last. Write a short story exploring new found freedoms after the storm has passed and your characters have to decide what's next for them in the adventure of life. What will your characters do now that the future is theirs for the taking, in 500 to 1000 words.

Start Date: 19 Jun 2023

End Date: 26 Jun 2023

  • The Final Thoughts by slowfuture - I guess this amounts to truly Josh's "last" story. Nothing is more final than death, and yet you paired it with the theme of emancipation. Freedom from living, and therefore suffering in this case. There's no dialogue in this short, only the description and lonely, sometimes a little desperation and also a little melancholy, to think that Josh's death was a bitter affair, freeing others so they can rise if they're still alive or the regret of memories for those who already made the crossing into death. Josh's end is complex and I appreciate this short story for it. In the end I've chosen this story as this Weekly winner as I find the thematic choice here more touching. Good work, both of you - it was once again a close call.
  • We Are Here to Help You! by Arminius Fiddywinks - There's a couple themes of circumstance that I think are interesting here in this fic. The notion of regular life in an alien empire separate from the humans or Covenant society, the normalcy and panic as the end of an age approaches in minutes and the new Created empire arrives, releasing the innocent from one tyranny they know and recognize and dropped into one, arguably far worse. The Created are also a little complex in this depiction, taking on Erdyllian auxiliaries into their ranks and becoming part of the new normal the Created are ushering in, machine and organic draped in white armor - a unique color choice compared to the larger Halo universe of different factions.

Week 290: Actually, it went more like this[]

Judge: GazpachoSoupreme

History is written by... well, whoever's telling it, I suppose. This week's prompt is all about the little tweaks and rewordings made to that the events that really happened. Whatever the context, whatever the reason; whether it's wartime propaganda trying to shore up morale on the homefront, a Blademaster bringing home a little more honour than was really earned on the battlefield, an Innie cell declaring that their "united front" wih the UNSC never existed, or a PMC overstating its losses to its clients to try and wring out a hazard bonus.

PS: You're all lucky it's too far past school exam seasons to make a "revision" joke. You still have a target word count of 1000 - although, as always for Weeklies I run, it's fairly flexible unless you're multiples over it.


Start Date: 26 Jun 2023

End Date: 03 Jul 2023

Week 291: The Course of Human Events[]

Judge: Actene

Many thanks to everyone who hosted Weekly entries while I was gone!

This being the week of July 4th, I've decided to be predictable and ask for a prompt addressing the topics of freedom, independence, and patriotism. These things don't have to be inherently political and can just as easily resonate on a personal level with an individual character. Civil freedoms and political affiliations are tricky things to play with in the Halo universe, so this prompt has a fair amount of leeway. Just try to factor some of the above themes into your short and as always, have fun writing! Bonus points to any entry that surprises me with its take on my admittedly predictable prompt.

Try to keep things around 1000 words.


Start Date: 3 July 2023

End Date: 10 July 2023

  • Empire Day by Arminius Fiddywinks: It occurred to me as I read through the emperor’s declaration of victory, referring (presumably) to the Great Schism and the collapse of the Covenant and taking credit for events that had nothing to do with the Erdellians—there’s a fair amount of comic potential in the ironic self-importance of the Erdellians given that they must have been a negligible sideshow in the Covenant’s far greater war with the humans. Some of that bleeds through in Erdellian pomposity and there’s some good themes to be explored in the ideas of individual values versus the immensity of history on galactic scale. A greater emphasis on some of these elements as opposed to simply one Erdellian triumph after another might go a ways towards establishing a more memorable identity for these characters and their society. I noticed that this entry was fairly lengthy at around 1600 words against the 1000 word limit—I do intend to pay a bit more attention to this moving forward.
  • DT 2023: I Don't Know And I'm Afraid by Distant Tide (Winner): The interesting dichotomy between slowfuture and Distant Tide’s perception of Joshua-G024 continues. This entry did fall into the trap of essentially being a one-sided conversation, which did make it a bit harder to appreciate. I did appreciate the description of Furthest Point to set the scene; one thing you might experiment with in the future is to try condensing scene descriptions into longer paragraphs rather than interspersing them throughout the prose. This might help clean up your scenes and make them easier to follow. Merlin’s post-Created predicament is certainly interesting and I hope there’s some more character breakthroughs with these themes in the future.

Week 292: The Clear Expression of Mixed Feelings[]

Judge: Actene

This being a fan fiction site for a sci-fi video game franchise we don't often deal with themes surrounding poetry or lyric verse. But these methods of expression matter deeply to the past, our own time, and certainly to people living in the future. For this prompt, incorporate poetry or lyrics into your prose - show a character reciting a meaningful verse or reacting to something they encounter out in the wider world. The circumstances are entirely up to you; my one challenge is that you compose the poem or lyrics yourself rather than incorporating some famous piece from literary history. As always be creative and use this opportunity to round out your characters outside of their usual environments.

Aim for around 1000 words, but I'll caveat this one by letting you exclude the poem you write from the word count.

Start Date: 10 July 2023

End Date: 17 July 2023

  • The Past by Arminius Fiddywinks (Winner): I was surprised to see this one fall under the word count, but perhaps this is appropriate given the prompt and subject matter. I quite liked the framing device, which used the poetry prompt to highlight the life and death of the warrior Truk. The poem itself was metered and structured well and struck me as something a literary-inclined soldier might scribble on a notepad during a quiet moment in the field. The only criticism worth mentioning here is that the “someone should publish this” line at the end of the short felt a bit too on-the-nose; the piece might have been strengthened with a more profound statement or action from one of the warriors present.

Week 293: Let's Get Weird[]

Judge: Actene

The Discord server often plays host to sci-fi idea conventions that go in strange and interesting directions but rarely result in output on the site. This week let's try to rectify this. In 1500 words or less, write a scene that breaks the "military people shoot aliens" mold a bit. Stretch your mind, be creative, and dredge up some wilder science fiction extremes. You could play with the potential for Lekgolo weirdness we saw in Nightfall, some of the strange or outlandish vehicles we encountered in Halo Wars 2 or maybe just something inspired by the out-of-body AI craziness we've seen in Infinite lately. Don't be afraid to experiment and be silly - this is an opportunity to try your hand at writing something that might be a bit outside your comfort zone. Feel free to use something that's been discussed on the Discord before, but be sure to run it by whoever brought it up if the idea isn't your own.

Start Date: 17 July 2023

End Date: 24 July 2023

  • Tracks in the Sand by GazpachoSoupreme - ("yes, Navi, I wrote you a Western...") : It’s been a while so I was glad to see a return of Arianne’s unfolding Seventh Circle narrative. The bleak setup of the Jaeter rail station was an effective Western homage, as was the tense Eastwood-esque confrontation between (presumably) Arianne and the prospector. My only criticism is that the prospector’s abrupt hostility wasn’t quite as fleshed out as it could have been given the word count offered by the prompt. I’ve always had a soft spot for Western-style stories on the frontier so reading this was quite fun. I look forward to seeing more of Arianne in future entries!
  • A Lasting Peace, Prologue by Arminius Fiddywinks (Winner) : I must begin my feedback on this piece with a gentle warning. If the Erdellians are telling the truth regarding the size of their empire then you may be treading close to NCF territory. The notion that the Erdellians truly are on a scale comparable to the Covneant pushes the limits of plausibility given the boundaries of existing Halo canon. With that said this was a good piece that made effective use of the word limit to convey the tension inherent in the diplomatic meeting. A rare nod to Ruth Charet practically meets the prompt conditions on its own. The clash of attitudes regarding AI was a good conflict, offering some foreshadowing of future conflicts as well as the emperor’s arrogant personality. As this was the more fleshed out of the two entries I am inclined to declare it the winner.

Week 294: Brutal[]

Judge: Ajax 013

The Brutes just don't get enough love on the wiki. A major force in the galaxy thanks to the rise of the Banished, Jiralhanae culture and aesthetics are a major factor in Halo right now, and front and centre for a lot of new content. I'd like to see a story focusing on Jiralhanae, in any context, so long as our central characters are Jiralhanae and set from their prospective. The limit is 1000 words.

Start Date: 25 July 2023

End Date: 30 July 2023

Week 295: Digsite Dissection[]

Judge: Actene

343i made waves in the Halo community with the latest big Master Chief Collection update paving the way for enterprising modders to add cut content from Bungie's original plans for Halo: Combat Evolved. From Slugmen to cut wildlife to UNSC war machine variants, the Digsite update provided a host of new-old Halo toys for the community to explore and enjoy. 343i did one better by providing lore details for some of the new content in their latest canon fodder. For this Weekly entry, celebrate this latest installment in the ever-entertaining MCC saga by incorporating some of the Digsite content into your own work. Your entry doesn't necessarily need to revolve around this content (though that would be a plus!) so much as just incorporate it in some way. Be as creative as you like; as long as you can point to something related to the restored content you're within the parameters for this prompt. The limit is once again 1000 words.

Feel free to check out the Canon Fodder entry for inspiration here or use Halopedia or the Discord as a resource.

Start Date: 31 July 2023

End Date: 07 August 2023

  • Graveyard by Brodie-001 : Where does the time go? It felt strangely nostalgic to read a piece detailing the fallout from the legendary Imperium RP. “Graveyard” covered an admirable amount of ground within the allotted word count, delivering a fully-formed anecdote surrounding the machinations of the San-Shyuum while also cramming in an impressive amount of fringe Halo content. I enjoyed your use of the “slug men,” which felt entirely at home within the narrative confrontation between Tubek Mej and Rak Ultin. Combined with the use of Yonhet and Prelate, this short felt like a treasure trove of overlooked creatures and concepts without feeling forced.
  • Heads on a Swivel by Arminius Fiddywinks : This was an interesting little vignette detailing the use of the cut “Sun Devil” anti-aircraft Scorpion. I enjoyed the buildup to the UNSC-Insurrectionist firefight as well as the fiery conclusion in which the Sun Devil certainly lived up to its name. I was surprised to find the dialogue permeated throughout this piece a bit wooden; many lines seemed intended only to reinforce the setting by cramming in military jargon rather than build on the characters involved. Despite all the dialogue I struggled to attach identities to Charet and the other troopers by the end of the piece. With that being said you crafted a fun little playground to show off an interesting weapon in the cut-content arsenal.
  • DT 2023: Full of Surprises by Distant Tide : Faces from your expanded cast of Spartans are always an interesting sight, especially since they often find themselves in fish-out-of-water situations away from the typical scene of MJOLNIR power-armor and exotic locales. The dynamic between Roxanne and Silverthorne was an interesting one, though a bit more expository information on the front end would have helped clarify the situation and make for a more concise read. The introduction of the Kestrel came a bit late in the piece and made it feel a little tacked on; however, I enjoyed the lore you built up around its use in the short amount of time you allowed, particularly with the catchy unit name “Nightstalkers.”

Week 296: Blood Gulch Chronicles[]

Judge: Actene

From the luxurious corridors of the Pious Inquisitor to the legendary boxed canyons of Beaver Creek and Blood Gulch, Halo multiplayer maps are indelibly woven into the fabric of the universe. Bungie and 343i have always gone the extra mile with these maps, using their design and in-game descriptions to establish them as real places in the universe rather than bland canvasses for multiplayer carnage. The grounding behind these sprawling maps is a big part of what makes them so memorable and such a ripe playground for fan fiction exploration. For this weekly, write an entry that engages with a multiplayer map in some way (maps for Firefight game modes may also be used for this prompt). I leave the context entirely up to you, just use the lore and setting to get your imagination going. Aim for around 1500 words or less.

Given the nature of this prompt, please make a note of the multiplayer map you are referencing in an introductory sentence at the top of your page. As with all context sentences this will not count against your word limit.

Start Date: 7 August 2023

End Date: 14 August 2023

  • Blind Faith by Bardo XCIX : You made an inspired choice with Halo 3’s iconic Snowbound map—I could visualize the layout of the Covenant base alongside your description, which made for a fun read. I particularly liked your use of the cliffs visible around the map as a setting for RAPTOR Team’s observation. (One strange omission was that the Spartans never mentioned the map’s iconic sentry turrets.) You made good use of the scene to communicate the Spartans’ relationship with each other as they prepared to descend on their rescue mission. My one stylistic comment is that you should double-check your dialogue formatting for attributions.. "Hate to agree with him, boss, but he's right. There ain't much to look at." She said. should instead be "Hate to agree with him, boss, but he's right. There ain't much to look at,” she said.
  • Adrift with Kai and Friends by Arminius Fiddywinks : I’m very pleased by the creative use everyone has made of choosing maps for scene setting. Adrift’s Heavy Burden is an excellent target for a Covenant boarding party and you made good use of the setting, from the tension of skirting near a gas giant to the encounter with the map’s “Mega-Mantis” centerpiece. I very much appreciated that you didn’t skirt around the Covenant warriors’ bloody purpose for boarding the ship. The dialogue between the Sangheili warriors remains a weak point in your prose. I noticed you were working hard to draw in synonyms for “said” into your prose, which reads a bit stilted when used in rapid succession. Don’t be afraid to repeatedly use “said” for attributions, or creatively use your prose to find alternatives to direct dialogue attribution.
  • DT 2023: Sinner Street by Distant Tide : I appreciate the creative use of one of ODST’s firefight locations—I confess that I did need to look up some of your context clues to determine which map was being featured—in setting up the Spartan v. militia engagement. Your setup was particularly engaging, establishing Daniele and Cathedral’s working relationship in a relatively brief exchange. We’ve talked in the past about prose and this piece seemed like a big improvement on economy of language. The smooth, almost clinical, transition from conversation to action seemed very intentional and helped to convey the Spartans’ detachment from their violent work. All in all this was a very solid entry that made good use of both characters and environment.
  • Wish You Were Here! by AlphaBenson : This was a bit of a hefty entry falling well over the word count, but I do have to congratulate you on a solidly entertaining short story here. Your opening section offered not only a compelling description of the famous Zanzibar location but also worked a great deal to establish Scott’s background and character in a relatively short amount of time. You also did a great job writing a fast-paced action sequence as the ODST’s assaulted the beachhead. Your dialogue and attribution punctuation were the only weak points I observed in the story; refer to my feedback on “Blind Faith” regarding proper dialogue attributions. All in all, good work!
  • Matalopa by Underlord1271 (Winner) : This was an intriguing piece, both in terms of its setting and character. Unggoy perspectives are rare, and rarer still are perspectives that treat them as serious characters. You did a great job working the map setting into your entry, both as a physical location and a story mapping out the particular history of a Covenant supplanted by the Banished. Tayep’s confrontation with Val ‘Torumee did feel a bit rushed, though I attributed much of that to you working to remain within the word limit. I also noticed a few typos throughout the piece that could probably be corrected with a quick proofread. This was a great crop of entries and a tough choice, but I feel inclined to award “Matalopa” the victory for the unique premise.

Week 297: Encounters of the Smelly Kind[]

Judge: Distant Tide

In the vein of recent Weeklies exploring stories about game and extended universe elements of Halo as the setup or setting of stories for their respective Weekly rounds, I'm going to continue that concept and perform a sort of "pick an alien species" prompt. In about 1500 words, tell a story involving a specific encounter with a Covenant alien species, it can be the main client species or members of the Fringe but they must come from canon. This does not have to be from a human perspective, only that the external party to the protagonist(s)' story not be multiple species, but a single species so we get some unique interactions that are unique to one alien species' culture and not a generic mishmash of Covenant or Banished as a whole.

Start Date: 15 August 2023

End Date: 22 August 2023

  • New Contestants by TheAussie1417 - Winner[: "No need to get so brutish." That's a chuckle right there, I enjoy your use of language to clue the reader in that this is not a human or familiar perspective - or at least its familiar and alien enough to clearly define our protagonists as Brutes: Jiralhanae. It was a nice touch to use "cubits" as a measure of distance since the Brutes do tend to pull from all things Greco-Roman and you do that successfully. While it wasn't my expectation for the encounter be from the perspective of a Covenant member race, it was exciting and intriguing to see first contact from another species' perspective. A fresh way of going about things, I appreciated reading this a great deal! Also made the Covenant mildly terrifying from a non-human perspective which is a nice bonus. After some tough consideration, I decided to go with Aussie's work as the Weekly 297 winner. Congrats!
  • Under The Bed by Bardo XCIX: A familiar tale of home invasion in the time of the Covenant War but handled really well from a unique perspective of a child and knowingly from a child due to great use of dialogue and second-person perspective I think. I like you added all-caps for a emphasis of urgency but I did find the dialogue in this format a little clunky. Saw an error where it wasn't immediately clear the speaker was talking again (*" We make for Rally Point Victor. Hand the kid off...) It's interesting how this short story is split up into four scenes instead of one continuous encounter. Good use of description describing the gory acts of the Jiralhanae and their fellow Covenant. It was also a great moment to get a general origin story for one of Halo Fanon's newer Spartans, I continue to look forward to see more of Delvin.
  • A Cup of Ataq by Arminius Fiddywinks: I might say I think this is the most dialogue focused entry of the lot, at more than 1800 words it does cross pass the recommended word count a little bit but that's not without the story earning its own keep. The dialogue here, while not quite feeling as distinctly alien as Aussie's did with the personification of Jiralhanae, I enjoy the great deal of detail and exploration you go into for Ataq - exploring lore hiding deep in your works and imagining a great many worlds and concepts for the ill-explored day to day life of Covenant soldiers and to a degree Covenant civilians/cultural experiences. Downtime is underappreciated in Halo and I'm glad you got to explore a bit of it here. Really I wish a number of your ideas were to trickle down into an article or two on the site as these details would greatly benefit the exchange of ideas with other Fanon writers. Overall, a great work about passing the time and daily lives of your Sangheili. It's not quite an exchange between two different species but it was very unique getting to see distinctions between subcultures among Sangheili in their own right.
  • Exit Plans by Actene: Ooh, Yonhet, don't see many writers address them if ever. In terms of storytelling, I think this entry provides the greatest within the word count package of balancing great and pure dialogue with worldbuilding introducing Yonhet recreational drug culture and setup seeming relevant items to your larger universe. This is a very solid, straightforward piece that explains clearly the events at stake and additionally provides audience with the needed context for a smaller adventure in a greater context. It was nice to see Simon and Gavin back together briefly in a scene from the older Chancer V days!
  • Trade and Barter by AlphaBenson: "...Could *(held)hold a grudge like no other." I like the worldbuilding of this project, a quick standout by the appearance of the rarely-explored New Colonial Alliance faction and exploring the post-Covenant War frontier-trade scene between former Covenant and human parties. This short I think needs another pass though as I'm catching a number of spelling and grammar errors - either tenses or some phrases I think, nothing major but does detract a little from the presentation. I like this narrative setting a lot, and you leave me speculating on what the gift on the datachip is. An AI, a digital secret, a map? It's a nice twist and comparison against the large UNSC cruiser that turns out to just be set dressing for what is the real prize of the exchange.

Week 298: Tools of Destruction[]

Judge: Actene

I've been pleased with the heightened level of the engagement my canon-engaging prompts, so this week I'll continue the trend by asking for entries that showcase weapons from the vast arsenal of Halo canon. I'll bracket the field a bit by stipulating that you feature weapons that have never made an appearance in any of the Halo games. You could feature the enigmatic hard sound rifle, or perhaps the Sangheili energy lance. Hearkening back to the previous Digsite prompt, cut content weapons that have only been added to the games via modding may also be used. The challenge with this prompt will be to feature your chosen weapon while still writing a compelling vignette - we can all do better than just a scene in which a character admires a particular weapon. As always, be creative!

Around 1000 words maximum for this prompt, please.

Start Date: 22 August 2023

End Date: 28 August 2023

  • Defensive Actions by Ado 'Ulamee (Winner): Your creative use of the ancient past—465 BC or your fan-made “4th Age of Reconciliation”—made me immediately sit up and take notice. I liked your use of the Covenant’s turbulent early centuries as a setting for your firefight, which made an impressive showcase of what seemed to be several precursors to classic Covenant weaponry (I particularly liked the imagery of the “needle bolter”). The focus on the fight gave me some difficulty in getting a sense of the characters themselves but you kept the fight flowing and crafted a memorable scene while remaining within the word limit. I did note a few instances of awkward syntax and a few punctuation issues, notably the word “Covenant” not being capitalized here and there.
  • Not This Day by Arminius Fiddywinks : This piece did fall into the trap of simply featuring a character describing the featured equipment—some of the dialogue felt as if Kai’s father were simply reading out of a manual, and given how short the entry was you might have added some more nuances to the scene. I did like the nods to Sangheili blade culture as well as the balance between Kai’s child-like perspective and his efforts to appear more mature in front of his father and brother.

Week 299: Wheels Keep Turning[]

Judge: Actene

Halo games always place the heroes at the fore of the action, the tip of the spear that tips the tide of battle. Many of our characters on this site don't have that luxury and instead must contend with being a cog in the much larger machinery of battle. For this prompt, write a short battle scene involving your characters but be sure to emphasize that whatever they are doing is just one part of a larger, pitched battle. The rick to this prompt is to keep the focus within your chosen character's point of view while finding an organic way to convey their understanding of the larger machinery of warfare taking place around them. You could simply limit this understanding to their internal awareness but I trust this community to come up with some more interesting ways of conveying this information to me as the reader.

Around 1000 words maximum for this prompt, please.

Start Date: 28 August 2023

End Date: 4 September 2023

Week 300: The Things That Brought You Here[]

Judge: Actene

I wanted to do something special for the three hundredth prompt; a few ideas popped into my mind, none of them particularly creative, so this week I leave the focus of your entries entirely up to you. Something about the Halo franchise inspired you to write fan fiction about it in the first place. Something encouraged you to invest the time and energy in your creations here. So in honor of those sources of inspiration, write an entry that speaks to your own inspiration. Take whatever theme or setting you like, just be sure to add a blurb at the top of the page that briefly explains to the community why the themes or settings or characters you've chosen to use.

Given the freedom I've provided with this prompt, there is no word count on this prompt. Take as much time and joy as you need to express yourself here. You may also note that this prompt covers two full weeks, so take this time to write something that's meaningful to you. In the meantime I'll take this time to address the backlog of feedback I owe the community. If you have any questions or confusion regarding this prompt, feel free to ping me on the Discord channel.

Start Date: 11 September 2023

End Date: 25 September 2023

Week 301: Strong And Swift and Brave[]

Judge: Actene

Writing fiction gives you a great deal of control over how you present your characters. A thoughtful writer can use that control to craft scenes that convey characters even without dialogue direct exposition. For example, The Fall of Reach introduces a young John-117 competitively dominating his schoolfriends in King of the Hill. For this exercise, craft one such scene that features a character involved in an activity that you feel conveys something important about their character. Do whatever you want with this scene, but try to make the point about the character through their actions rather than explicit words. For example, you could feature a rebellious character involved in some flagrant rulebreaking, or a dutiful character bearing a burden or helping others. To give this action more weight, write as if this scene is your readers' first-ever encounter with this character - you want this to inform how your readers think and feel about the character moving forward.

Aim for 1000 words or less for this prompt.

Start Date: 26 September 2023

End Date: 2 October 2023

Week 302: Over Your Head[]

Judge: Distant Tide

Many stories engage their audiences with intrigue and mystery from the very first page. Sometimes these setups are slow-burning and other times fast-moving, expanding into mazes of confusion and wonder. Characters aren't who they say they are, things are not as they seem. Who to trust, can you even trust yourself? For Weekly 302, please write a entry where your character(s) find themselves caught up in something much larger than expected. Let's get a little conspiratorial with Halo.

Aim for 1000 words or less for this prompt.

Start Date: 3 October 2023

End Date: 10 October 2023

  • Easy Pickings by BardoXCIX - Winner: I hoped I would see more entries but for what its worth, Easy Pickings makes up for it. This short story plays things relatively straight, or as straight one can get with a conspiracy prompt with a clear before, and after from the paradigm shift. I wish you put some room in for a middle of setting up hints that something was amiss during the battle, but I can settle for noticing something after the action is done - its more than believable. I do feel there's a slight sign of "tell" rather than "show" in a couple sentences of your short story that I recommend adjusting: "her body language clearly indicating" and "never knew his leader to falter ... whatever was going on was serious"; the second example also uses the word never but the best descriptor used here was "serious," I think the weight could be conveyed with stronger vocabulary here. Early in the story, you make a minor mistake and refer to C-12 as "C-13". A couple errors I spooted were "It amber faceplate" and "you explain use taking". A unnecessary critique was the oddity of a Spartan taking off their helmet in a active combat zone, though you did distinguish as confusion. Overall I really enjoyed this work Bardo; with engaging dialogue and lively description. I would like to see a follow up eventually or some context to appear later on the wiki on what happened here eventually. Cheers Bardo, you win by default but not without saying its a well-earned win!
  • Shadow Operations Type Sh... by Arminius Fiddywinks: Had this come in before I closed the voting, this would've made my call to give Bardo the win a very competitive decision to make. This was a very good Weekly entry, the word count was 600 over the limit but I admit this prompt probably needed a little more leeway word limit in hindsight. The description and pacing of this story is really good, the right balance of descriptive language and movement of events from beat to beat. I still feel a bit of trouble telling your Sangheili characters apart; its not an issue of distinct personality, but you write them always in first-person perspective so I have to hunt for dialogue that establish who we're following. Putting a name/timestamp at the top of each entry would help me as a reader I suppose. I will say for the length of the work, I think the actual conspiracy portion of it seems only to cover the last 500 words or so? Cutting out the travel period to the citadel for the meeting and just featuring the meeting might have allowed more room to address the conspiracy portion of the narrative but overall great work. Might be worthy of an Annual Award short fiction nominee, if I don't recall any of your other fine works from this year. Cheers man!

Week 303: Killed by the Guardians[]

Judge: Actene

We had some fun submissions back with the multiplayer map prompt, so let's revisit that topic with a bit of a twist. Any Halo fan has endured the indignity (or hilarity) of death by "natural" causes on a multiplayer map. From Snowbound's infamous perimeter turrets to the classic fall from a great height into the pixelated nether regions beneath an elevated map, we've either stumbled into death or chosen to court it just to see what would happen--perhaps with a fast-paced Mongoose ride through Sandtrap's minefield. For this prompt, feature an extant multiplayer map from the perspective of these no-go zones. You don't necessarily have to feature someone actually being killed or falling to their death, but do make a note of the inherent dangers in whatever scenario you dream up. (And yes, this can include the shallow bodies of waters multiplayer Spartans can somehow drown in.)

Be creative and aim for 1000 words or less for this prompt.

Start Date: 10 October 2023

End Date: 17 October 2023

Week 304: Reckoning[]

Judge: Distant Tide

Halo Infinite Season 5 is here, titled "Reckoning" and arriving with, or promising midway through, many new mechanics and events for players to try. I'm sure many of us are waiting for an opportunity to try out the new maps, or Firefight, or want a look at the new armor. Inspired by the new season, this weekly's prompt is to write about anything that interests you in the new season - a short piece of lore, a new mechanic, and even concepts you came up with inspired by the new game season. I won't be picky.

Again aim for 1000 words or less for this prompt, feel free to be creative with it. We'll probably be doing a Halloween theme next week, we'll see.

Start Date: 18 October 2023

End Date: 25 October 2023

  • Diminish Hope by AlphaBenson: At 2461 words, its well past the prompt word count so I had to make the tough call to disqualify this one. Sorry Alpha, but on that note, I want to emphasize I think this story as a standalone Halo Infinite campaign inspired short story might be worth a Fanon of the Month or Annual Award - Short Fiction nomination. While a story that at its most basic level is a tale about people dying in gruesome ways and listing off final moments, the twists of this story makes it something else. The meat of the story firstly naming off the squad at death's door is handled in an effective, deliberate manner giving names, defining character traits, and the gory deaths that follow. The story is written from the third person perspective but feels very personal to the protagonist Hamrick who details deaths, moments, and characters by his relationship with them, or how he remembers them rather than simple distinctions that might be overlooked in other executions. The particular details added to the appropriate use of the House of Reckoning and well in the theme of this Weekly, push this short story well beyond just another action scene. The knowledge that the Banished turned one of the last campaign missions of the game into a literal game of entertainment but also a culling field for their culture of barbarism, and honor only in battle. It has more the twisted logic of Escharum than the more dark calculus of Atriox, and the ending that surviving is not the end - reflecting the Chief's own descent into the House of Reckoning but for an average joe is a dreadful outlook. Overall, this is a well put together short story when considered for all its pieces. I think I spotted one or two typos at most but they were largely unnoticeable (Brown vs Browne maybe for naming one of the Marines?). This story I am sad I can't declare winner but it definitely deserves a winner's praise for the effort provided. I'll keep an eye on it for later on this year.
  • Top Ten by Arminius Fiddywinks - Winner: A much shorter piece from Arminius at 471 words, it was in the word count and while not a substantial piece, it wins both by being a solid entry and within the word count. In fact, I would call this short economical in its use of dialogue and descriptors, introducing two human characters and their exposure to the Bandit Evo rifle. It's not really about the gun, but what the gun means for the characters - someone who doesn't see something in a minor change, and another who puts more weight with the reunion of an old friend and beginning to bring over a doubter into his viewpoint. I'll say the description of character movement was a little too efficient though, not clunky, but very matter-of-fact that I feel loses a little of the advantages that first person perspective can offer with a little more visceral description or flowery language. I think you could've done more with this entry but for the little word count it takes up, it does its job well in giving these characters some background and more than enough personality to distinguish them from what I presume to be first timing characters? I could be wrong, correct me if so. Top Ten is this Weekly's winner, congratulations!

Week 305: Oh The Horror![]

Judge: Distant Tide

It is approaching the week of Halloween. Not all celebrate it but we all know the spooky time of the year. We'll keep this prompt simple like the previous weeks - the theme for this Weekly is write a entry about an encounter or event that makes your character(s) afraid, dreadful, or thoughtful on a situation seeming otherworldly to them, something they can't easily explain. Try to use more colorful and descriptive language here since this prompt encourages less technical and concrete explanations and details to address the narrative. Have fun, I'll probably be grading this next Friday so let's say 1500 word upper limit, give you guys a little more room to flex but 500 or other lower word counts are fine too.

Start Date: 26 October 2023

End Date: 3 November 2023

  • Fighting With a Spoon by Arminius Fiddywinks - Winner: I don't have any particular critiques for this piece, it was quite good, spending a decent amount of time in the span of the work to provide a calm + foreboding setup as the Covenant group descended into the hell that awaited them, the dread building as they encountered clues of the Flood, and then their encounter. I don't think the story's name ties quite so well when its uttered in dialogue though I do get the intent. "Are my weapons but mere utensils in the face of this enemy?" sort of encounter. Still, the dialogue could've been handled better for this delivery. I also noticed a couple paragraphs tend to be quite large compared to surrounding paragraphs that they appear like walls of text and probably could be broken up for readability even if they're just description scenes. (Ex. "My carbine out and ready to fire, I readied myself...") Overall an excellent piece, thank you for contributing another wonderful piece Arminius!

Week 306: Make The Walls Sweat[]

Judge: Actene

Many thanks to Distant Tide for hosting the last couple prompts.

For this next week, step away from the mechanical and the surreal and embrace the raw physicality that is the foundation for so much of the action that plays out in Halo. The nature of books, games and movies insulates us from the physical realities characters go through in the course of waging fictional war. One of the best ways to help a reader connect with a character is to draw them into the human frailty we all experience when exerting ourselves. For this prompt, write a scene in which a character exerts themselves in some way. Maybe they're trying to endure during combat or a forced march, maybe they need to run a great distance or just escape that Brute Chieftain coming at them with a hammer... the scenario is up to you. I do encourage you to avoid scenes involving flat out injury and instead focus on something a bit less dramatic in scope. Perhaps working out before writing this piece will get your mind in the right place...

Since I feel that this prompt requires a little less setup and is more about working in the moment, keep entries to around 500 words this time around.

Start Date: 3 November 2023

End Date: 10 November 2023

  • Working Up A Grunty Thirst by Trogo3402: I appreciate your unique approach with an Unggoy’s perspective on the drudgery of (literally!) Grunt life. You did a wonderful job conveying and visualizing the raw physicality of all the marching and fighting from the lowest point on the Covenant’s totem pole. I did notice some awkward syntax throughout as well as a few instances where you didn’t capitalize proper nouns (“Grunts,” “Jackals,” “Unggoy,” etc. should all be capitalized). I’d also quibble with Banab’s stunted internal dialogue—if you wanted to use some classic pidgin Grunt lines you might have introduced a second character for him to speak with and avoid the awkwardness of your characters own thoughts being inexplicably impeded. These issues aside, I found this entry a fun read and look forward to future offerings.
  • Scoop and Toss by AlphaBenson (Winner) : I thoroughly enjoyed this entry. Weekly entries often struggle as snapshots into a much larger story but you worked hard to craft a fully realized story within the limits of the word count. Your bleak account of gravedigging on a Halo ring fully established Jerome as a character and drew me into his personal drama through his repetitive actions and interactions with poor, deceased PFC Murphy. You captured the alien wilderness of the Halo ring while keeping the reader engaged with the hazy details of Jerome and his circumstances. If I had to level a criticism here I would just suggest that you italicize Jerome’s thoughts for ease of reading. Well done here on a well deserved win.
  • DT 2023: Give A Little More by Distant Tide : I asked for sweat and that’s exactly what you gave me. Spartan training is always a challenge to write on but you jumped on the opportunity to delve into these grim exertions. You painted a very visceral picture of this training, complete with some rare appearances by the forgotten members of Fireteam Boson. This maybe isn’t a fair critique given the short prompt length but this piece came across as a bit aimless and felt more like a fragment than a complete thought. That aside, this was a fun little piece to read.
  • Tis But a Light Drizzle by Arminius Fiddywinks : Another piece finding fun in the drudgery of soldiering. I apologize for not having much to say about this piece; the lance dynamics are well laid out and it’s fun thinking of how the mixed-forces of the Covenant interact with each other when they aren’t being blasted by space marines. You did undercut the scene pretty brutally with the wince-inducing joke at the very end. Written humor is tough so keep trying, but the phrase “little Unggoy’s room” would be poor fare even in a human context and in the case of the Covenant you can definitely be a bit more creative with language and phrasing.

Week 307: Naval Review[]

Judge: Actene

Writers on this site have an unfortunate reality to contend with: for all our work on stories and characters, the most trending articles and topics on Halo Fanon have from the site's inception been spaceship articles. There's just something about naval matters in Halo-so rarely addressed in any of the games-that excite people's interest. For this week, I want to honor this trend by asking for entries that focus on the ships that sail the fictional stars. You can write a piece centering on one ship in particular or perhaps find a way to factor in an entire ship-class or fleet. (Do keep your entry narrative focused--I'm not acting for a disconnected tech description.) Beyond this wide bracket, write whatever your imagination brings you. 1000 words maximum for this prompt.

Start Date: 10 November 2023

End Date: 17 November 2023

  • Insignificantia by Trogo3402 : I really admired your work on the philosophical elements of this entry. Commander Huang’s internal musings about the nature of space and the ongoing Human-Covenant War made for interesting reading amidst the familiar battlespace. Your mix of visceral imagery and metaphors helped give shape to the indescribable vastness dwarfing the chaotic battle. (I especially liked being introduced to “plankter” as an alternative to plankton.) One potential avenue for expanding this piece might be to provide some greater context for Huang’s bleak and almost fatalistic worldview, which as presented comes across as a bit strange. I also noticed a few awkward phrasings and punctuation issues that would merit some proofreading.
  • White Elephants by Falkeno : The fact that every entry for this prompt takes place during the Human-Covenant War surprises me more than it should given how centrally naval combat features in the expanded lore around that conflict. This piece started at a good pace, conveying the brutal statistics accompanying most human “victories” against the Covenant. The narrative slowed as it slipped into a bit of an exposition dump about the Vanguard-class, missing some opportunities to better characterize Boone and Williams. I did appreciate Boone’s inner conflict as well as the circumstances that put him on the front lines in the first place. Punctuation issues kept popping up—most notably, Williams’s dialogue would be easier to read if you placed an apostrophe at the end of words missing a hard g (goin’, marshallin’, etc.). More character details and less technical exposition might give the assault carrier’s destruction a bit more weight at the piece’s conclusion.
  • Opportunities by Arminius Fiddywinks : I was very glad to see someone make use of Preston Cole for this prompt. You certainly took some time to research and mention several franchise notables, but what really struck me about this piece was your decision to convey most of the conversation through dialogue alone. The dialogue itself was a bit straightforward and you probably could have done more to build up to Nestorenko’s decision at the end but this entry was formally sound (aside from the strange choice to abbreviate “Vice Admiral” in your prose) and felt like you were making an effort to extend yourself creatively and practice some essentials that we could all stand to learn from when it comes to crafting conversation scenes. It’s a narrow call on my part but I’m awarding this entry the win for this week.

Week 308: Thanksgiving[]

Judge: Actene

I find myself in a bit of a rush this evening, so I'll cut right to the chase: write a piece centered around gratitude, either between characters or towards a concept or something loftier. Even if you aren't from the USA or don't have a tradition of celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, use this as an excuse to craft a warm moment between friends or a pensively positive moment of reflection. 1000 words maximum for this prompt.

Start Date: 17 November 2023

End Date: 24 November 2023

Week 309: Snowbound[]

Judge: Distant Tide

Winter comes again in 2023, I didn't have the chance to really consider a theme for this weekly but I figured we could work with something involving "early winter" or first snowfall. In about 800 words, explore what winter brings for your characters in the Halo universe once more. Lame I know, just work with my lazy butt for this week. I'm hibernating as it were. :P

Start Date: 25 November 2023

End Date: 2 December 2023

  • One Icy Morning by Ado 'Ulamee - Winner: I liked the descriptive language and imagery you construct with your story though I note your sentences still have an overabundance of commas and feel somewhat fragmented even though your visual is quite clear. Keep at it, the practice will clear out the edge. Some sentences look much better than others so I won't comment too much on it, great show of improvement with your prose! I like how naturally you weave the odd phrasing of Covenant stylistic word choice together, you make them feel vaguely alien but also very familiar. This piece does a great job stepping away from a clear war setting and moves into slice-of-life. It's simple and beautiful, great work! For this Weekly, I'm giving my vote to Ado's work on One Icy Morning. I was quite impressed by the imagery of a new snowy morning and the promise of good stew!
  • SNOWFALL: Ruin and Endurance by Vman0: You use an odd but consistent style here with your prose, or rather narration. A mix of second/third person perspective and told from an omnipotent narrator/storyteller? Not what I usually encounter but I can't complain too much, it's consistent though it feels more like I'm being told what happens rather than shown. In its own way, SNOWFALL, does a great job at description, exploring events prior but more-so painting a image to the audience of what John Sterling has gone through to earn some rest. Instead of quite enjoying the quiet, we get a taste of his hard labor. I like this mix, its a different writing style but I found it refreshing. Thanks for sharing! It's also great to see another Halo Infinite-like piece, and a location we hoped but didn't receive in game. You make me yearn for things we never got yet again.
  • Perfectly Normal Fare by Arminius Fiddywinks: Your first person perspective is reliable as ever, I can drop myself into your stories pretty well with your established style and tone. I do feel like I have a hard time parsing your fanon species, Erdellians, political and military structures based on the descriptions. The Covenant would probably give me the same trouble as a newcomer but being far removed from their lore I felt like you put a lot of effort imagining their world but I still struggle to connect with them. Some of your description paragraphs are quite large, probably could be broken up for readability. It's a surprise that Spartan-II Blue Team appears here; honestly with all the items introduced in this short piece between Banished and Flood, its a little overwhelming to figure out what point in time and space things are occurring.

Week 310: Treading new ground[]

Judge: Falkeno

So as 2023 draws to a close I thought it would be an idea to help stimulate the community to start of the new year with the right mindset by thinking forward and exploring new opportunities. To that end this weekly is all about experimentation, both in what we write and how we write it. Write a story with a new character you haven't used yet because they're not someone/something you've done before, use a different narrative perspective or tense and see what happens. Basically play around and see what happens because you might find something interesting that you might want to develop next year. Just try and keep it within 1000 words, I'll let you have ten percent over just in case you need the extra room, but anything over that will be a mark against the story.

Start Date: 2 December 2023

End Date: 9 December 2023

  • 312, Part 1 - I Was Puzzled and Frustrated by Arminius Fiddywinks : As someone who has tangled with writing from a first-person perspective, I am well aware how much of a nightmare it can be to work with, so kudos for being brave enough to have a go at it. The main issue with this piece is brevity as you had the double issue of being well over the word count, alongside the numerous examples of where you could have cut down what was written, or even used one sentence instead of two and have got the same result. To me, the piece feels like an after action report, but is in the present tense which really detracts from the piece overall as it can be a little jarring to read in places. Despite that you still have a solid story detailing one of Noble Six’s ops from their Lone Wolf days, and I hope you can take any lessons you have learned from this forward into your future works as this was the entire reason behind me running this prompt.
  • Ships in the Night by GazpachoSoupreme : In keeping with the prompt, the story introduces a new character in the form of Avila, a Spartan from Gamma company. However, to me this is a bit jarring as we get very little of the characters personality (not even getting their tag number, and I only worked out she was a Gamma because of Lyzander) and as a piece that is meant to introduce a character that is something that is needed so that we as the readers can understand who we are reading about. To me the narrative seemed to be the 2nd half of longer story which does detract from things as it can leave the reader very confused as to what was going on. If we had the first half of this story then it would not only solve the issue of confusion, but could also solve the issue regarding Avila’s characterisation. Narrativly speaking the story did have some dialogue that felt a little awkward, but as the story had me believing that it was going to take a romantic turn this actually worked in its favour as this was a story involving two adolesnents working through an awkward subject. Another big plus in its favour was that the piece was the only on within the word count that I specified in the brief and as the main issues I had with the piece are because of the need for brevity and not factoring that into my decision would just condone anyone in the future to break any word limit I set I have to give it the win for playing by the rules.
  • Pitter Patter by AlphaBenson : This one was a pain to do for two reasons. Firstly Alpha is a relatively new member of the Fanon and so there is very little for me to go off of regarding their work. Secondly there isn’t any really critical issues bar one that I can discuss bar one that I will circle back to shortly. The narrative works, the characters have their own personalities that make them distinct from each other, and whilst I was confused by the ending of the piece (which I suspect was intended, as I have the feeling that this wasn’t a Spartan that we were seeing here). However, there is one issue that unfortunately means it can’t win, and that is the word count as I was clear that anything over 10% of the specified word count would be a mark against the story and as such I cannot give it the win.

Week 311: In The Bleak Midwinter[]

Judge: Actene

Here we are, the end of another year. It's been a long year and I congratulate everyone who has contributed to the Weekly project in 2023. As the days get darker and the weather gets colder (for those of us in the northern hemisphere, at any rate) the holiday season provides ample opportunities to reflect on the things that matter most. For this final prompt of the year write a holiday or Christmas-themed story to deck our digital halls. I encourage you to look up some Christmas short stories out on the broader internet. Even a brief perusal of the literature will show you that a Christmas story does not necessarily have to be a cheery affair (But don't let that stop you if you want to write something jolly!). Write something that inspires you during the Christmas or winter season.

As this will be the final prompt of the year, write a full-fledged short story for this one. Hold your entries to within three thousand words in order to keep things under control. Good luck, Merry Christmas, and thank you for all your work and creativity!

Start Date: 9 December 2023

End Date: 31 December 2023

Advertisement