Halo - The Fall of Reach Part 3

It’s more Halo: The Fall of Reach! We TEAR through a huge chunk of the book in this episode and also become acquainted with fan favorite, and person we love very much, Jacob Keyes.

Automated Transcript

Kevin Erhard 0:00
Hey everybody welcome back to pixel it’s it’s Kevin here and with me as always is Phil and we’re still talking about Halo. The Fall of reach is like air horn sounds is that where we’re?

Phil 0:17
Yeah, the kids, kids kids like it’s like that. So we left audio video game playing kids.

Kevin Erhard 0:23
Yeah, yeah, the children’s. We left off our audience, our audience, children. We’re off to a great start here. episode nine is just rockin and rollin Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, it’s it’s really just kicking off right into section three, which is called sigma octane has to do like that transition right into the Oh, smooth. And in the book, at least in the Kindle version. There’s like two titles to this section. I don’t know why. It’s section three sigma octane is and then the next thing is a poster. I guess. It’s like a motivational poster on the next page. But

Phil 1:10
what I don’t have that in my in my upper back. So

Kevin Erhard 1:12
it probably came from a newer edition of the book, because it’s not sure it’s on the Kindle version. So it goes that section title section three sigma octane. And then the next page is like a motivational poster of masterchief kind of like running and it just says momentum.

Phil 1:33
Well, that’s that. I mean, how could you not be inspired?

Kevin Erhard 1:37
How could you not be inspired Ensign William level new character being introduced chapter Phil Kane. He’s a dude. Over on someplace is he’s on Archimedes. And you know that famous character from that Disney movie? Yeah, it was it this Sword in the Stone?

Phil 1:58
Yeah, certainly.

Kevin Erhard 2:00
Archimedes the owl,

Phil 2:02
I think but Archimedes I believe was a Roman philosopher. Now

Kevin Erhard 2:05
he was an owl Phil. Sorry. I’m sorry.

Phil 2:11
I forgot. I forgot. I missed that part.

Kevin Erhard 2:16
damage. Anthony Williams.

Phil 2:20
On the Archimedes. It is it is midnight on the outpost of Archimedes and William level is is hitting on his computer. Yeah, right off the bat. He he Yep, they the computer says good morning to him and guess it’s got a lady voice. And it’s so he says morning sexy and and right off the bat. I’m like, okay, I feel way too comfortable with this guy. I know who he is. I feel like I’m playing him in the film adaptation. He’s the things we’ll find out about him is he’s lazy. He doesn’t really want to be there. He has literally found the job that requires the least amount of effort on his part. And he’s seen some shit I’m like, well, I’ve just got too much in common with this guy. I am not comfortable with that. not comfortable he hits on inanimate objects. It’s all weird it’s all weird and odd and his password

Kevin Erhard 3:19
is There once was a girl

Phil 3:22
There once was a girl yeah. Yeah. Which I don’t know what that if that is that a reference or is that you know I looked that up I don’t think it is I took way too much time looking at that because he it says he typed There once was a girl listeners it’s all one word right there once and a are all capitalized and was and girl is not capitalized. And I spent way too much time This tells you the kind of reader I am I would have I would have read twice as many pages in this section. If I had if I could get over that and stop going well what does that signify? What is it Why is why is girl uncapitalized and you know and was isn’t there once to a wg I don’t know and then I fell asleep and I had to start all over again the next day

Kevin Erhard 4:15
Yeah, there’s it I don’t know if there’s like there’s like a song in the back of my mind that is and i i don’t know

Phil 4:26
i immediately or maybe you’re thinking of this I immediately thought of natureboy I Nat King Cole there but that’s there was a boy Ah, right. But that’s that’s the only Yeah, I thought of that too. But

Kevin Erhard 4:39
yeah, there’s like there’s like a mid mid 90s rock song that I feel like oh, yeah, I don’t know. Anyway, There once was a girl it’s his password and may mean something but it probably doesn’t. Hey, everybody, your friend future Kevin here. Just to clarify, I figured out what I was thinking about. It was the song By the crash test dummies, which includes the lyric, once there was this girl, which is not the same line, anyway, on with the show,

Phil 5:12
but we find out a little bit about about Ensign level or Lavelle if you want. And, and he was he was he started out as the golden boy didn’t he he was he was the kind of, you know, naval young naval officer that was just shooting up through the ranks. And then and then he just as quickly as he gained a bunch of ranks, he launched a bunch of them because even at that point,

Kevin Erhard 5:39
he’s up and down the ladder.

Phil 5:42
And he’s just he’s just, he’s a wild card. He’s I lose can I’m

Kevin Erhard 5:46
gonna go that his name is Franz Lovell, because I think he’s a he’s a I think he’s a that’s a reference to Jim Lovell. The astronaut? Ah, maybe I don’t know, I don’t know, maybe. Or maybe it was from a name generator, who knows. But I think one of the big things that we learned from this chapter other than Ensign level who becomes a character later, and he also discovers something is we learned about the coal protocol, which is basically I thought this was really cool. It’s it’s pretty neat. It’s basically the failsafe that is given to all un Space Command ships to basically get rid of all of their data, all their their navigation data in case they encounter covenant ships.

Phil 6:36
Yeah, it’s it’s the it’s a it’s a, what do you call it? scorched earth policy, right. And it’s really, it’s fascinating because he has to it literally, they they have this document that has the protocol on it. And before work every day before he shifts, he has to read it every day. And they have retinal tracking to make sure that he actually reads the damn thing. And it points out that he’s got it all memorized at this point. But they they do not take chances. He says later, he doesn’t blame them for not taking chances, because it’s absolutely shithouse out there. But I thought that was there was something vaguely like, I don’t know, vaguely fascist comfortable. But it was it was a nice touch. I thought it was a really very

Kevin Erhard 7:26
nice touch. But what we’re finding out what I mean, and we’ve had these these qualms, so to speak about, about the way that the UN is kind of run in this universe. Oh, yeah. You know, with the rebels and stuff like that, or the way the rebels are painted, it feels a little fashi

Phil 7:46
a little, a little. And I as I point, as I pointed out before, I’m a Warhammer 40k fan, where the literal the good guys are fascists in space. You know, and so this is nothing compared to that, but you still pick up on stuff.

Kevin Erhard 8:04
The good guys or bad guys, and the bad guys are worse, guys.

Phil 8:07
Exactly, exactly. And the only thing worse than a worse guy is a bad worse guy, which you learn with the heretics,

Kevin Erhard 8:16
which you learn repeatedly with the 40,000 no pun intended Warhammer 40k novels.

Phil 8:23
I’ve going there are so many. I’m going to trick you into reading one. I’m going to I’m going to make us I’m going to I’m going to force us to do a few episodes where we read a 40k novel and then we review a 40k game. Okay, and I don’t know if that counts based on our parameters, but I’m gonna make it happen.

Kevin Erhard 8:40
You know, look certain broad reezy will broaden the scope just for you.

Phil 8:44
Yay. I mean, I’m 50% of the hosts here. I feel like I’ve got a little bit of weight to throw around you go on a ton, but a little less. Yeah. Yeah. Enough.

Kevin Erhard 8:56
so lovable find something in space. Yeah, it’s you’re never finding anything good in space. Let’s Let’s be on

Phil 9:04
Xbox. Follow me and he never expects to find anything because the whole point of him taking the job that he took that that post is that nothing’s ever out there. So it’s just a really intensely boring job where nothing ever happens and that’s why I took it because he’s clearly got some PTSD and clearly he’s he’s really not happy with the way things are going. He’s probably lost some friends and it’s he just clear that he’s seen some shit

Kevin Erhard 9:32
he just wants to hang out on the Archimedes watches program is an owl which is now which is an owl watches programs read a few books and that’s it. That’s all he wants.

Phil 9:46
Again, me in space like and would have done the stack of paperbacks and a shitty boring job but today is not a boring day. Yeah, because he sees something see

Kevin Erhard 9:59
some And he still doesn’t believe that it is anything run initially. He just like, he just like, sends it off because he believes, as he probably should that it’s nothing because it’s never been anything before. And right there’s just some Blip. It’s just some Blip. chapter ends Ensign level, kicked up his boots and reclined once again feeling perfectly safe in his little corner of the universe. Yeah, so that was a mistake. Feeling perfectly safe, as we find out in chapter

Phil 10:37
1616 where you find out why why buy safety is just never a good standard demeanor in this in this world. So good happens,

Kevin Erhard 10:53
Phil, as you apologized last episode. Here he is. He’s actually the first three words of this chapter. Commander,

Phil 11:03
Commander Jacob peace. But as I also rescinded my apology I rescinded it because I’m never wrong and only the weak admit their mistakes. I have to assume that this is a different character from the Jacob keys we met in the very very beginning of this book. And it’s just over you know, an oversight on the author’s part and a flaw of Eric nylund and not of mine. Because I am perfect in every way. Yeah, in any case, this new this brand new character commander Jacob keys we he is on the bridge of the yuan SC destroyer, Iroquois, which I thought was awesome. I was like that’s a great name for for a destroyer. Yeah, I like it. No, if you don’t know anything about the Iroquois change that like learn about the Iroquois and they were fucking badasses. So cool. So I’m, I’m all about it right off the bat. So what’s happening on the Iroquois?

Kevin Erhard 12:12
So keys is just kind of floating around. And they he’s, he’s, so part of this chapter is keys, his inner monologue on how shitty his crew is.

Phil 12:26
It really is. It’s just kind of rolling his eyes at them. He’s like, these are all terrible people. And we learned that he himself is just he’s not all that well respected. He’s a teacher.

Kevin Erhard 12:38
Yeah, he’s a former professor who got Yeah, holed into active duty, because they are running out of power. They are running out of commanding officers. Right. So not

Phil 12:49
a lot of people have a ton of faith in him. You know, they don’t no one really takes them all that seriously. And so his crew is kind of the the bee squad. Let’s just it’s whoever’s left. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much

Kevin Erhard 13:04
so he liked he has one person that he likes. Dominic Lieutenant Dominique, who is read with a terrible French accent in it. Yeah. audio version of the book, which Yeah, it drifts in and out.

Phil 13:21
We’ve talked about the audio book version of this. And I mean, I love audiobooks. I’m a huge fan. And, and, but this kind of thing does often, it’s not the author’s fault. Now, this is not the author’s fault that I’m just pointing to. And you kind of can’t really blame the the Meritor because they in this chapter, for example, in the following chapters, there are about a half a dozen characters, right? And, and so it’s not enough for him just to do a lighter voice for lady genders and a deeper voice for manly genders. He’s got he’s got to come up with other things. So he kind of froze accents into them. And the French one was okay. Yeah. But later, he does like a vaguely Jamaican slash Caribbean one. Yeah. Which I didn’t think was necessary.

Kevin Erhard 14:23
Yeah. And then he he starts slipping into like, the Japanese one for Lieutenant hico. And I was like, oh, man, buddy. Like, you really just shouldn’t have done accents at all.

Phil 14:38
But I don’t think we needed that. We don’t need this. Now, for those of you who are just reading the book, or otherwise not reading it, you have no idea what we’re talking about. But trust me when I say it, in the audio book, it does get a little district,

Kevin Erhard 14:53
it gets a little bit distracting. Especially since they’re not even referenced as necessarily have These exits and the tracks

Phil 15:01
No, no. I mean, they now know they if and only and there’s only the Vegas sense of where they might originally be from like, there’s this, you know you. You mentioned that she’s Japanese I believe. And I think another person he vaguely mentions where they’re from, but it’s otherwise not. There’s not really anything going there. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 15:28
We try. He tried, everyone tried and it was just and I gotta tell you, if we’re if we’re nitpicking, if this is where we’re nitpicking, it still says something about the quality of this book. It’s still a really good book. Basically, after he’s done dumping on his crew. He receives a, you receives a message, a file, who’s remembering something from when he was teaching about covenant ships in slipstream space. And he they’re looking at the Archimedes data. And he sees this this mass in the in the Archimedes data and he opens a file. And this was authored This is actually a nice touch. So the author is Lieutenant Commander facade. Oh, three, four. That is, that’s one of the former Spartans.

Phil 16:23
Oh shit that slipped right by me. Oh my god, one of the one

Kevin Erhard 16:28
of the ones that didn’t make it through the the augmentations.

Phil 16:33
Holy shit. Oh, yeah. And they and they have said we’ll find other things for them to do exactly. So

Kevin Erhard 16:37
there it is. So john is working as I guess an astrophysicist for the OSI and writes this paper about the way things look in slipstream space. And that’s when which and that is when Keyes makes the connection that the Archimedes report isn’t just some sort of anomaly it is actually the covenant.

Phil 17:08
Right. And I thought that was a nice touch in the he talks about and for those of you who who this is the the gist of what slipstream spaces for me is like if you’re in Star Wars world, it’s hyperspace if it’s, you know, if you’re in warp or decay, it’s the warp. Yeah. You know, yeah, Star Trek. It’s the warp. And also, yeah, well, yeah, exactly. So that that’s what we’re looking at. And he talks about that the covenant have techniques that they use, where they can actually position their ships their shoe, so good at traveling through slipstream space that they can position their ships just so so you think it’s just a single ship. But then like a dozen of them come out of slipstream space and you’re ambushed, which I thought was really cool, right? And yeah,

Kevin Erhard 18:00
yeah. So the the UN SC has is not able to do that they have to fly pretty much very far apart from each other through slipstream space because they risk running into each other. And so basically, they’re figuring out how many ships it is there. They’re guessing that it’s four frigates. They’re they’re basically they’re getting ready to go because they realize that the Sigma taneous system is going to be under attack. They’re gonna they got to get more ships in he warns Admiral stanforth who stands for stand for what am I saying that right? stands. Stands paddle stand forth. Stand forth. He he was the guy with the he had the AI that looks like Palpatine

Phil 18:52
Yes, yes. Heavily robed AI

Unknown Speaker 18:59
destroyer rebels do it the eights get it the slipstream do it. Join the dark side of the UN is the Would you like to see my slipstream underneath my room.

Phil 19:20
All they have to do is slip off my rope and you’ll see my stream. I’m really upset with myself. You should be right should be agreed that we’re in full agreement.

Kevin Erhard 19:38
So they have a couple of frigates that are inbound the allegiance and the Gettysburg, which I don’t like that. I like the fact that they have. It’s the Gettysburg that is one of the ships because there’s actually some parallels to the way this battle kind of plays out to the Battle of Gettysburg if I had dust off my my history thing. Basically, the way Gettysburg plays out is there are Confederate soldiers, a confederate unit spotted approaching the city of Gettysburg or actually approaching a shoe factory because they need new shoes. There is a union units that sees them and basically gets in their way. So in this case, the Iroquois is basically like that initial union force that kind of observes it. And then what ends up happening is both sides keep calling and sending out messages until it becomes one of the largest engagements of the entire Civil War.

Phil 20:42
The kind of some grand battle that was like planned, it wasn’t an advanced.

Kevin Erhard 20:46
No, no, it wasn’t. It was just some happenstance of these two, two brigades running into each other turning into this massive conflict. So having one of the frigates called the Gettysburg in a conflict that almost shapes out kind of like Gettysburg. is is is kind of cool.

Phil 21:04
I love that. I love that. I hope that’s why, but if Eric nylund is a smart man, and I think he is, if he were to have someone asked him that, whether he meant it to be that way or not, if he’s a smart man, he just go Oh, yeah, totally, totally planned it that way. You got to do it, man. Yeah, and so but unfortunately, those frigates, they’re coming in at maximum speed, but it’s gonna take them an hour to get there, which basically means they’re toast. Yeah, you know, that it’s only going to take a few minutes for them to get annihilated by, you know, him and his and his third rate C class crew, C class through with the E and he’s the class commander. He’s

Kevin Erhard 21:44
a professor was a professor who is

Phil 21:47
now all all analysis. You know, that’s, that’s what he he’s not. He doesn’t have a lot of, you know, he’s, he’s, he’s, he’s watched a bunch of pornos, but he hasn’t done a lot of fucking You know, that’s, that’s where he is at this point.

Kevin Erhard 22:02
That is the best analogy I think you have ever brought up on this show.

Phil 22:07
Thank you, sir. Thank you. I try.

Kevin Erhard 22:09
I think that’s a real winner.

Phil 22:11
That’s what I’m here for my friend.

Kevin Erhard 22:15
All right, so we’re into chapter 17. We’re still with keys and the Keystone cops.

Phil 22:22
And can I just say, by the way, that I have never, I, I have never done a lot of reading of naval engagements. You know, like I just the usually when I read military, or, you know, warry kind of books or stories or that sort of thing. It’s the boots on the ground, swords and clubs and spears and guns and that kind of thing. I’ve never been terribly interested in the naval battle kind of genre says, this chapter changed my fucking mind. This is good. I’m just right. Before we even get into it. I’m just gonna say like this, this this battle that’s about to take place. nylund did such a good job that I was like, Fuck, I might need to find some cool like battles on the high seas or in space kind of stuff. Yeah, I didn’t think I would be into that. So yeah,

Kevin Erhard 23:22
yeah. You ever ever think something isn’t your shit? And then you find you find it that it is total your shit? That’s this? Yeah,

Phil 23:30
absolutely. Absolutely. Enough about my sex life. Ah. But um, so he’s he is there and they are basically facing down. Death is on its way. And basically, I think this is good writing because he basically says that the only thing in this point that he can do is look calm. So he immediately puts his pipe away, because he’s going to be seen to be fidgeting with it. And he wants his crew to believe sincerely, he has everything in control, no matter how bad it looks. And if they see him fidgeting with a pipe, then he’s you know, that’s that’s just write a little giveaway Exactly. So basically he’s just trying to keep his himself level at this point. Right.

Kevin Erhard 24:22
So this is this chapter and and we’re not going to go through all of the things that that they do. No, no, no

Phil 24:31
Do yourself a favor just by

Kevin Erhard 24:32
the by the book and read this chapter. It is got there is a lot of cool, cool little things that happen. But in terms of the broad strokes, basically keys figures out a way to kind of maneuver around the planet to to kind of like avoid getting hit completely by the the covenant ships, and meanwhile he’s dealing with a crime. is on the on the bridge because one of his lieutenants is basically starting to refuse orders. Yeah,

Phil 25:08
he’s he’s committing Yeah. Oh, he is. He’s gonna get court martialed, like he is fun. Yeah. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 25:15
He Tennant. Jagger’s basically wants to just flee. He wants to he wants to get out of there. And, you know, keys is like, No, we actually can’t do that.

Phil 25:27
I don’t I like I don’t know what his cuz that’s the thing they basically said, Now here, my thinking is this on one hand. And just like any action movie in a moment like this when you can tell that your protagonist has some trick up his sleeve that he’s trying out. And he’s not going to tell you how the magic trick works right until until the very end. And I know that’s what he but he even says later on in the next chapter. He he even says maybe I should have told them what I was planning. But they do a really good job of keeping the suspense up. Because it’s like, we have seven seconds left, we have five seconds left. So he doesn’t have time to go listen, this is what I’m planning on doing. But you have to they’re facing down death no matter what. So I would feel like, I just want to slap this kid because it’d be like, what? Woody, we’re gonna die, right? If we were gonna die either way, like so we might as well give something a try here. But he freaks out and literally says we’re going to die, right? At a certain point. And it’s like, oh, he’s just he’s lost it. He’s lost it.

Kevin Erhard 26:35
He’s lost it. He lost his cool. So basically, he keys. They it and I feel like I’ve I feel like I’ve seen this maneuver somewhere else before. But he basically gets these torpedoes locked onto him and then hits like directs them around so that the covenant destroyer hits itself with its own torpedoes was isn’t that Yeah, what happens?

Phil 27:04
He basically the first thing he does is he sends off a torpedo away from the the the governor right? And then yeah, and then he and then he does this he orders this really sharp movement where he almost Rams the ship and they’re so basically long story short, they become so distracted by the maneuvers that he’s pulling off that the covenant ships basically just walk into the nuke right exactly and yeah and and it takes down their shields and it gives them the time to fire some maca them it brings them the brings most of them down right Yeah, and it’s Yeah, it’s a suicide

Kevin Erhard 27:59
suicide mission they’re they’re one on where they went on four went on to one or four one on four. And you know, just as the battle is is wrapping up, they realize that the aliens are putting dropships on to on to sigma taneous rewards for a city called coat ashore on sigma t octane and basically the battles were at wrapping up now they’ve they’ve basically destroyed the ships but the covenant has dropped has put its dropships onto the planet and they’re they sending out like the messages to the allegiance in Gettysburg which should be showing up shortly by be cut but by this point the Iroquois is out of the fight

Phil 28:47
you know after hours like yeah they are they they they’ve got their their shields are fucked there they are their reactors fucked basically they have no choice but to literally hide behind the planet. Yeah, I’d like to charge a little bit bottom of the hole is just like gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. We find out in the next chapter when they because he came so close to them. And, and this was hilarious. I thought it was a funny detail. They have these emergency canisters at different points in the ship that will go off and they literally it’s it’s literally something mixing with hydrogen peroxide. They say that at the end, it sends out a bunch of gas that causes the ship to take a really dramatic turn. And he does that right before they run into the cover one of the covenant vessels and you find out in the next chapter, that basically a single degree in one direction or another would have caused a massive hole breach that would have killed them all.

Kevin Erhard 29:57
It’s just it’s just amazing. It It’s really good writing it Really? Yeah. It’s nice and tense. And it’s got those little miracles in it, you know, like, these, these characters basically get through all of this by the skin of their teeth. And yeah, Jess and a slight deviation would have wrecked it all

Phil 30:20
right, and he’s already hearing people at a certain point when they they’re starting, they’re there. You know, he can’t do anything about the drop ships that are coming into the onto the planet, you know, they Admiral tells them, hey, it’s the Marines problem now. So you need to take care of your ship, take care of your crew. And he’s already hearing people whispering about this crazy, amazing thing that he pulled off and he feels kind of some guilt. The the the educator in him, right? kind of feels guilt because he wants to tell him like, this was not you know, this was not a good move. This was a desperate move, right? Like, I don’t know I did this because Yeah, I did. I you know, it’s like it could have absolutely killed us. But we were absolutely going to die no matter what. So it was worth a shot. And it just happened to work. We rolled a 20 and it happened you know, and so he goes to bed. He literally he takes he goes to his his chambers. He says Leave me alone. He said until the next shift leave me the hell alone. And he pours himself some some 75 year old scotch that his dad gave him at some point when he was a young buck and and and he has it he has a before he can even like start enjoying the whiskey he’s immediately interrupted by the admiral showing up right and what happens then Kevin what happened store dear Captain keys

Kevin Erhard 31:51
keys is sitting there in the room and he’s he’s thinking it’s Dominic, who is his favorite, but he’s still annoyed. He says I said I was not to be disturbed. And then Vice Admiral walks in and they basically they have a little you know, back and forth. He pours Vice Admiral some of his whiskey his his whiskey that his dad gave them and stands for stanforth is like trying to congratulate keys and keys is like no don’t please please don’t tell me that it was good. Stanford. Exactly. holds up a finger and says Don’t interrupt me son. So yeah, basically that stanforth just gives them the lowdown the aliens are assaulting code does your there’s really not much that they can do only that it’s weird that it’s happening that keys points out that it’s really weird that this is happening because the covenant never does this they never do this they invade they glass a planet and then they leave so what is different now and this is where like he’s he’s his professor ship is like is churning and like what’s going on here what’s different ways he’s the academic in him is starting to to start kick start kicking off. right but then stands for stanforth leaves, and by enhance him a new brand new rank medallion to put on his uniform. And now commander keys is now Captain keys.

Phil 33:41
No, it’s the other way around, I think. Oh, no, no, he’s Yeah, that’s right. Fuck

Kevin Erhard 33:44
no. Yeah. Commander then captain.

Phil 33:46
Yep. Commander then captain. Yeah. Yeah. So he’s gotten his his is a very quick promotion. And he’s overwhelmed. And then he I love this moment because it’s, it’s it’s one of the more relatable moments in the book, where he’s the guy leaves, leaves him alone. He’s sitting there pondering the day. And he’s sipsey he’s finished his whiskey pours himself another nice big glass of whiskey. And he sits at his desk and he puts his head down on his desk. Just to just to rest his eyes. They almost literally say that old mom excuse I’m just resting my eyes. Yeah. And he’s woken up by by by one of his crew. And he looks at the clock and it’s it’s it’s six hours has gone by. He couldn’t even blame him.

Kevin Erhard 34:41
So he could freaking blame. Stand for now is making a broadcast a fleet wide broadcast, basically giving the lowdown to the fleet with what they want him and Keith had already discussed, but then they kind of they kind of get into their own readiness. So they’ve actually made some repairs in the meantime, you know, the meat, the Mac guns are ready to go. Some of the lower decks, lower deck repairs are started but the engines are operational, all that good stuff. So the Iroquois is kind of okay. And then he’s, it’s, it’s,

Phil 35:17
it’s on it’s, it’s okay. But it’s okay.

Kevin Erhard 35:20
You know, a good a good, you know, solar breeze is probably going to take could probably take

Phil 35:25
but, but they but they’ve received word that there are a huge amount of Covenant ships that are showing up at the edge of the system. They think about 10 of them. And so he’s just like, we can’t look around. We got to get over there immediately got to get in on this.

Kevin Erhard 35:42
Even though he probably shouldn’t they they’re gonna get in on this. And he orders everybody to battle stations.

Phil 35:50
Yep, yep. Everyone, everyone back back to the same old shear.

Kevin Erhard 35:59
Chapter 19 we got some we got some grunts that grunt says in the covenant kind we’re talking. We’re talking we get some sorry. jarheads actual jarheads on

Phil 36:12
the ground. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 36:13
Get some Marines. And they’re they’re doing marine shit. They’re driving their warthog around.

Phil 36:20
I love Warhawk those those word hog. That’s such a great design. Yeah. driving it works so much fun. They got but this is this is what begins a series of really kind of fast moving good action packed chapter. Yeah. And yeah, there. They are basically running for their lives because they have been overwhelmed by covenant forces. As was suggested with the dropships and they are just running. And we talk about private Cochran who they filled them up full of foam, but they put right they say Cochrane zebb sites were meat, Walker and fetcher had filled him up with biofoam and taped him up, they even managed to stop the bleeding. But if the man didn’t get to a medic, soon, he was a gunner. And it’s like, it’s about 10, maybe 12 pages of all of this action happening. And every now and then something happens where you’re like, Okay, so Cochrane said this time the man is invincible somehow this poor private Cochrane just like survives one thing after the

Kevin Erhard 37:26
other because there you’re basically running from one area to another thinking that another case is is still existing. And they get there and it’s also been

Phil 37:40
Yeah, they find out very quick that there’s nothing that that that that that base was also completely wiped out. Well, not completely. There are only a few people left though. So and there there go there.

Kevin Erhard 37:53
It’s there’s like a lot of it’s there’s a lot of Saving Private Ryan basically stuffing in this chapter. Saving Private Cochran is basically a chapter. So you know, Firebase Bravo, bravo, alpha headquarters have gone there. They’re asking for help. And then suddenly, there’s a drop ship inbound, and it’s one of ours. And they’re like, one drop ship. That’s all they sent Christ. That’s not backup. That’s a funeral detail. And but guess what? Guess what? Oh, they didn’t count on who was in that drop ship. And they’re basically the first one that stepped off the ship strode toward him through his armor. Though his armor was devoid of insignia, Harland could see the insignia of a Master Chief Petty Officer in his helmet, HUD. And it’s been a while since we’ve actually had a master chief chapter.

Phil 38:55
And then we haven’t we haven’t seen them. We haven’t seen them this, this entire section. And then, yeah, we

Kevin Erhard 39:01
haven’t seen him for a few chapters now. And Master Chief Master Chief’s helmet quiz lead one side, we’ve come to take sigma octane is four back from the covenant corporal, he said calmly. To do that. We’re going to kill every last one of them. And it’s like

Phil 39:20
the 300 soundtrack, just start. Don’t attempt to dump the tent what

Kevin Erhard 39:25
I love in the audio book, one of the things I actually do love about the audio book is in this exact only in this scene, they actually added some reverb to the voice. voice when he says this to corporal as if it’s like being projected out of his helmet as like, That is awesome.

Phil 39:48
And it conveys a really what you’re going to start seeing from here on out with masterchief with any of the Spartans, but with masterchief in particular, is is the way that people react. To him, the way that normal people look at him he is he’s this kind of God among men. And this is the perfect intro introduction to this, because we know who john is. We know he’s just he’s Captain America, he’s just this kind of clean cut, brainwashed frankly, kid who happens to, you know, have this incredible strength and speed and tactical mastery and that kind of thing. He has these incredible powers, but he’s, he’s, he’s a he’s a lap dog, you know, and I mean that in both the positive and the negative sides. Yeah, he’s, he’s all about his duty. And that’s exactly it. That’s exactly it. And he’s, he’s there to do his job. And he’s, and that gives him purpose. And everyone looks at him as if he’s got these. You know, it’s never stated but it made me think it kind of makes me think of the watchmen a little bit when they talk about people reacting to doctor man hat. Yes. You know, they they look at these he’s got these secrets that that we don’t know, we don’t understand. The differences is in watchmen, Dr. Manhattan totally had those secrets. And in this Master Chief, it’s like, oh, if you want to know the most efficient way to blow the hell up out of this building or something like that, I yeah, I can help you with that. But outside of that, he actually might have less information than your average jarhead route because he doesn’t really have a personality or an opinion or a point of view. Now he just he’s not in intelligence. He doesn’t do anything like that. He just he gets pointed in a direction and told to go Right. Right. He’s a weapon. He is a he is a weapon.

Kevin Erhard 41:49
He is Doom guy for all intents and purposes he is he absolutely

Phil 41:52
is Doom guy right now. Like right now

Kevin Erhard 41:55
I Doom guy has a little bit more personality in in the Jawad Aviv of the way he kills short, the genetic jobs and the way he kills.

Phil 42:06
He’s clearly enjoying himself. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 42:09
But in the same molds in the same molds. Yeah, masterchief is just rip and tear until the job is done. Right.

Phil 42:19
And now and and nylund has done a good job of setting it up that we know there’s going to be a big drop eventually, that happens where you know, the wall is pulled out from, you know, over his eyes. We don’t know when that’s gonna happen. But right now, yeah, he’s he’s basically he’s basically Doom guy without the enjoyment of his job on that level. Anyway, yeah, he enjoys doing a satisfaction for his job

Kevin Erhard 42:47
satisfaction out of doing his duty, not the actual execution of his duty. And that’s the clear difference between the two.

Phil 42:56
Right, exactly, exactly. So yeah, so this is this is a in this chapter. Basically, we get another look at the Spartan team. They’re still hanging out. They’re still together.

Kevin Erhard 43:08
Now. We got we got we got the Linda. You know, sniper and I think there’s Joshua’s a new guy that that is now part of the team.

Phil 43:19
Kelly’s still there

Kevin Erhard 43:20
he’s still there. All the old favorites except Sam because Sam

Phil 43:23
all your favorites. Yeah, Sam died because he’s, he’s he’s, he’s floating around the asteroid belt.

Kevin Erhard 43:30
Sam is somewhere in space. And that’s fine. That’s a good spot for him.

Phil 43:37
A small detail this area is called coat desert. Yeah. which literally translates and I By the way, I’m not trying to throw French around like I’m some like, I understand I work in the wine industry. So there are certain words you just know what they mean. Yeah. And coat refers to hills, right? So kotas or blue Hill, I’m assuming Yeah, the Blue Hills that’s literally what it mean. Now to bring up the audio book. The way he pronounces it he says it really fast and this might be the proper way to pronounce it I’m not sure but he’s he’s coat does your sounds like like hail of the day? coat does your I would love to try your latest coat is your that’s good soil. Yeah, I like that. You said it’s 10,000 years old. Lovely, lovely. This is a developer that he kept going to and I was trying to I was doing work and stuff like that and listening to a lot of times I’m listening to the audiobook and reading along and it just helps keep me up. Keeps keeps me reading and but this time I wasn’t so I had to stop and grab the book and open up and go there’s no way they named this place the coke does your couldn’t have done that. Although and but here’s the thing. The more I thought about it, the more I said, but if he did name it the Koch does your that’s kind of genius. Because when you think about it, this is just another place for them to plant their flag. It’s just another battle for them to win another plan is to save. Nope, it’s the hill of the day.

Kevin Erhard 45:21
Yeah, no, I mean, I think I think the where you took it to justify it being called Koch does your is more clever than anybody would have naming something?

Phil 45:37
I’ll be accepting my PhD and literary analysis now, please. Anyway, I had to bring up the code is yours. It’s rattling around away. Oh, no, I’m It was like a song that you can’t get out of your head.

Kevin Erhard 45:52
You know what, that’s what this podcast is, is is bringing up these little things that pop up, like these books, because it is we are out of the macro that is this chapter. The pronunciation the repeated pronunciation in the audio book of code disor. is the thing is it’s it’s funny. It is funny, because

Phil 46:15
he does. He does. It’s up there with madonia. Joe.

Kevin Erhard 46:20
And john 117, instead of john 117.

Phil 46:25
Right, right. Well, that one, I have no idea I would never like I

Kevin Erhard 46:29
mean, I’m fine with that. I don’t care. I think I it doesn’t matter to me. I think the Magellan nears, it’s probably the most egregious one. That’s pretty bad. So yeah, he masterchief does his thing red team is going to do this and green team is going to do that and blue team. I’ll take him downtown questions. So yeah, they’re, they’re just gonna, they’re just gonna do an app on this town. And they’re splitting into red, blue and green.

Phil 46:56
That’s really, really what it comes down to. It’s like this chapter is it’s good battle description. But it really is just that so we’re not going to again, we we’re not going to give you every detail, because a read the book, it’s you’ll you’ll enjoy the book. But be it also bore you to tears at this point to hear it from us. And it’s actually a fun action.

Kevin Erhard 47:17
It’s a fun, action packed thing. And I think so one of the big things that comes out of this chapter is actually and this is actually after a few scene breaks is the introduction of a new alien to the covenant, which they Yes, or it’s basically like, it just kind of floats. And it’s approaching cars on the street and disassembling them, and then reassembling them with its brain. It’s different, like different ways. Let’s just play it’s basically playing with the car parts like Legos.

Phil 47:52
Right? It’s some kind of brain bug basically. It’s it’s, yeah, it’s it’s, and this is the first time they’ve ever seen seen one of these. And john makes it make sure that whatever recording device is built into his helmet is working so that they can report this back. Right, because

Kevin Erhard 48:09
they’ve seen grunts before they’ve seen jackals. I believe they seen the elites at this point.

Phil 48:15
I think so. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 48:16
Yeah. So and those are, if you’ve played the game, those are the three most common that you run into the the grunts, the the jackals and elites. But yeah, they they see this and they’re like, Oh, well, what the what the heck is happening, but that’s actually not even the first. That’s only the first of two new aliens that they run into chapter 21 We’re back with Captain

Phil 48:44
keys. We are and there’s an important detail that happens in this chapter. That there was a little bit of mention in a couple of chapters ago that I think bears mentioning here. One of the first things that Kees has to figure out after that insane battle situation that that he pulled off is what to do about the near treasonous Bridgman member that basically was not about was about to not accept his orders. And I’ll go ahead and admit that I that I, that this cabin keys might he might be the same one, what’s that’s brought up in the opening chapters he might be and if and if he was, that would be very smart because he considers that the kid made a mistake. And he does and he could be court martialed for this kind of thing. But he remembers his own background, where he himself had been court martialed. He had gotten in trouble, and he believes in, you know, second chances, but he does, but he does need to replace the guy. He doesn’t have the courage. Right. He doesn’t he don’t want to he doesn’t want a firing squad on him. But he also can’t have him on his ship that that wouldn’t work either. So in chapter 21, we find out that he has replaced him with Ensign level. Yeah, because he looked, he looked the kid up. And he also saw another person that he he resonated with. Yeah, in the sense that he’s got this up and down kind of career path that if we can’t, yeah, and let’s see if we can’t give this kid a second chance to while we’re at it. Yeah. So levels hilarious in this because he’s just kind of like, what the hell am I doing? Like, what

Kevin Erhard 50:34
am I doing? And he’s like, you’re there. Sit there.

Phil 50:39
sit there and do your job. And he’s like, oh, okay, cool. And literally, he goes, he’s like, Oh, good. He did his job. I told him to sit there and he sat there. That’s good. It’s good. You’re still like this kid. He’s got he’s got Moxie. This kid. What’s funny,

Kevin Erhard 50:58
though, is that level it’s weird though. Just a little bit because level is set up at in the earlier chapter as like, definitely not wanting to do any shit any ever again. And then Ryan quickly jumps into Yeah, I’ll do it.

Phil 51:15
Right. I think I think part of him is kind of like, intrigued by the fact that he is he has been hand chosen by this commander who is now a hero. Yeah, you know, he i think i or Captain as the case may be. I think he is. I think that might that’ll catch anybody’s attention at that point. So you’re at least gonna go in there long enough to go Why am I here?

Kevin Erhard 51:41
Yeah, now that’s so true. So otherwise, we get some fleet maneuvers. And and we have a reference to the Revolutionary War. A web of trajectories crossed the map with tiny countdown times next to each Vice Admiral Stan fourth had the fleet exchanging fire with the covenant, like a line of Redcoats and colonial militia in the Revolutionary War tactics that could best be described as bloody or suicidal.

Phil 52:12
So keys was a long line of broadsides. Yeah, soaking up shots. He’s

Kevin Erhard 52:18
like this is terrible.

Phil 52:20
Yeah, this is awful. It’s just yeah, this is this is not good maneuver and yeah.

Kevin Erhard 52:29
So yep, he’s despite the Iroquois is rough shape basically gets back into the shit.

Phil 52:39
Yeah, like wastes no time. And they we get another great big damn naval battle.

Kevin Erhard 52:47
Yeah. The cradle, which was the repair station that they were just on gets destroyed. They the cradle basically, like, lurched into in between the Iroquois and the fleet and a bunch of like, a salvo of missiles and gets taken out,

Phil 53:04
you know, basically takes the shot for Yeah, it’s sacrifice itself. And so they’re not going to they absolutely are not going to waste that sacrifice. And they just push their engines to the point. And if you remember correctly, when they first left, their engines were at 50%. So they’re just pushing themselves as hard and as fast as they can and going on a collision course. Yeah, for this covenant ship. Yeah, there’s gonna slam into what hat Yeah,

Kevin Erhard 53:36
so basically, what happens is, they detect that there is a different covenant ship around simultaneous word that has broken off from the main fleet, and realizing that they can’t engage along with stand forth and all that all like a with basically the larger scale where they find this other ship. It’s basically like, it’s like a it’s it’s a small vessel. It’s basically what it looks like. It’s like a it’s like stealth. So it’s like a stealth ship. So

Phil 54:06
it’s a stealth vessel. It’s an intelligence vessel of some So basically, they’re

Kevin Erhard 54:10
like, yeah, we’re we’re gonna ram it. Right. Yeah,

Phil 54:14
cuz fuck it, like, like, we got to do something. And indeed they do.

Kevin Erhard 54:18
They ram it and destroy it.

Phil 54:21
And just destroy it. Because they needed they because Fuck it. Let’s get another one on the board. Yeah,

Kevin Erhard 54:26
yeah. So Swift, Lieutenant Hall saying, Jesus, I think we actually won that one. Yeah,

Phil 54:35
yeah. It’s such a great ending to the chapter where everyone says we’re still following masterchief and so we see a lot of bad ass stuff happening. So it’s really easy to forget that. At no point have they started winning this war? It’s, they are just they’re constantly just hanging on by a thread there. It’s so they win this thing. Yeah, this is I think we actually won that. Yeah and and but but keys as always realizes that they want because they got luck Yeah,

Kevin Erhard 55:08
they got a lot of levels so stand for baith basically stand for with his line of ships had kind of outgunned the covenant in this battle and then he’s managed to ran this other ship

for the most part going into chapter 22, the B engagement out in space is done, which is super rare because the book starts with the prologue. If you remember the book starts with the opposite happening masterchief and his team easily win the ground can campaign and meanwhile up in space. The conflict up there is is just a mess.

Phil 55:52
Yeah, it’s just them running from one planet to another. So if anything, this is this is about as optimistic as again.

Kevin Erhard 56:00
Yes. So then in chapter 22, basically, basically they’re going to do the Raccoon City maneuver. Yeah, on Cote d’Or. Which is, which is just our like, place a nuke in the center of the city and blow it up.

Phil 56:23
Yeah, they’re just Yeah, they’re just like, it’s it. Once again, we are back to, you know, scorched earth politics here where it’s just like, let’s we’re just going to, we’re just going to burn this thing down because everyone’s dead. And and therefore this will kill a bunch of the covenant and any intelligence we might have had in there. Gone. Yeah. So they just basically long story short, that that’s what they do.

Kevin Erhard 56:49
Yeah. That’s, that’s the goal. It’s, but meanwhile, they’ve find out that they start, you know, john starts to gather some intelligence regarding why the covenant is actually there. And they’re in a museum of all places. Insert your Indiana Jones references here.

Phil 57:13
Absolutely. They’re in a museum. Fewer than six, please. Yeah, they belong in the museum. Well, they’re

Kevin Erhard 57:18
in a museum bloggin Museum clearly. So yeah, they they approached the museum to get in there. Basically, Kelly asks, mass Chief, what are our orders and he goes, we’re going in use your silencers don’t engage the enemy places too hot. We’ll just poke our noses and see what’s what’s going on. You just want he’s just curious. He is just curious at this point, which is not which

Phil 57:40
is not something he’s no he’s

Kevin Erhard 57:42
not known for his curiosity. But even there, like, that’s the thing is like, this is so out of the ordinary for the covenant, that even somebody like masterchief is like, maybe I should take a look.

Phil 58:00
We need to know what’s going on. Exactly. You know, the covenant has been nothing if not reliable lately, it will since the beginning

Kevin Erhard 58:08
then like they’ve been fighting them for 10 years or something like that.

Phil 58:11
Yeah. At this point, you know, what to expect from them at this point, and and suddenly, the narrative is getting changed, right? And a in an even a, you know, point towards enemy and get away a guy like Matt masterchief wants to know what the hell that’s all about.

Kevin Erhard 58:30
Right? They find a jackal that had been crunched under foot under boot by a larger creature. They’re like, Well, okay, this is also kind of weird. We’ve never seen a covenant alien like that would have done this. And then finally they they see them masterchief hadn’t seen them at first, because they were so emotionless and so massive. He had no doubt that one of them had crushed the jackal that had gotten in its way and we basically get this mass this this battle against these giant two gigantic aliens. Oh, yeah, that can go toe to toe with the Spartans easily. Physically, they’re just they’re just big boys.

Phil 59:15
And I forget what they’re called. But these these these are these are these are pretty familiar again.

Kevin Erhard 59:22
They take a lot they’re basically

Phil 59:25
just the bullets but

Kevin Erhard 59:27
they’re they’re very bullet spongy. I remember last time I was

Phil 59:31
there is a waiting list sponge porcupine. Yeah, yeah, they’re just they just covered in spikes. They just use all your ammo, giant pain in the ass. And that’s what he finds.

Kevin Erhard 59:41
Yeah. And he’s recording all of this as well. So they find that basically they’re, they’re protecting this, this pink quartz monolith that, that that’s what that’s what the covenant is after,

Phil 59:55
seemingly and that Yeah, and the reasoning behind that is definitely a mistake.

Kevin Erhard 1:00:00
Yeah, masterchief is not the one that’s going to figure that out.

Phil 1:00:05
No, but you know, everything we know about the covenant up until this point is that they’re basically a religious organization. So that’s that’s, that’s immediately what got into my head with this. You know, there’s there’s there’s a level of idol worship there. Right. So yeah, it was that was that was pretty cool that was a that was a pretty cool detail

Kevin Erhard 1:00:26
after this encounter, they leave they beat it out of code or

Phil 1:00:31
they get some civilians out of there you know,

Kevin Erhard 1:00:35
those like red and green team they were charged with getting civilians out of their there

Phil 1:00:39
and and this is this was an interesting moment when they finally get back. One of the corporal horrorland here shows up and he he asks them, this is a very telling moment today. He says Sir, how did you do it? their civilian said you got them out of the city pass it an army of Covenant S.T.A.R.S. How? JOHN cocked his head quizzically. It was our mission corporal. It’s just like, and, and he’s not being a smartass. And he’s not being a tough guy. It’s literally just like, that’s the you know, that is literally how he did it. Right. Exactly. Nothing, nothing supersedes the mission. And the corporal has nothing. Nothing to do but just go. Okay, cool. Thank you. Yeah, and they detonate and that’s that’s a little bit about what I was talking about with the way that people regard him you know that he’s so alien to them.

Kevin Erhard 1:01:33
Yeah, you know, it’s it’s it’s really interesting. Exactly. He is his see he is seemingly from another world. And the chapter ends with they detonate the the nuke Eric nylund doesn’t even add any any flavor text to this. He just says Mission accomplished.

Phil 1:01:51
Mission accomplished.

Kevin Erhard 1:01:53
quote is or is destroyed, along with whatever covenant detachment was occupied.

Phil 1:02:00
Right. Right. That’s that’s that that is that that is that. Brush your hands of it. And we’re good. And that brings us back to the Iroquois Captain Canada and our captain keys who’s steadily becoming my favorite. I love this guy.

Kevin Erhard 1:02:20
He’s he is he’s a really good character. And I’m glad that I’m glad that they took that Eric nylund took our advice from Episode One and brought him back

Phil 1:02:31
and brought him back just in time, by the way, because like he was he was paying close attention. And I really appreciate I appreciate it as well.

Kevin Erhard 1:02:40
So Captain keys is our victory. People that is that is our our win.

Phil 1:02:49
And it’s a really good thing. Having played the first Halo, let me just say right here that it’s a really good thing that nothing bad happens to him in that just because that you know, you know, after all that I was paying, like really close attention to what happens. Yeah. And it’s just such a good thing. That throughout the first Halo game that nothing bad happens to Kevin keys. So we come back to him. And he’s, he’s, he’s upset. He’s he is he is the grumpiest of guesses because he’s just basically contemplating what they just dealt with basically what we talked about, you know, Admiral stand forth is is excited because they got their win. But they lost just a ton of angle on the casualty what’s

Kevin Erhard 1:03:36
what’s the word for that? It’s a Pyrrhic victory.

Phil 1:03:39
A Pyrrhic victory exactly when you win but at what cost? Yes, right yeah and that’s it that’s exactly what this is. And they it’s it’s it’s them you know, doing a sensor sweep and basically just kind of cleaning up all the broken lives and the debris and everything like that everything was was just crazy but he gets he does get his his little his own personal when it’s a good thing he gets his own little victory here because at this point, even even this level of pessimism would would wear on some yes it would but but he starts to notice that his crew based on how everything was going the the morale is increasing levels like the fact that they lost so many Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 1:04:33
Experience the right amount of experience points. The Final Fantasy battle music is playing in the background of all of their heads.

Phil 1:04:43
Right. It’s this is a great example. It says as he looked at this crew, he noticed that something was different Lieutenant had cow his movements were crisp and determined is everything she did now would decide their next battle. It made a startling contrast or normally lethargic, efficient See, and then he describes, you know, various members of the team that no matter how tired they are, no matter what they’ve seen everyone step in lightly, everyone’s looking sharp and determined and focused again. And so he has to kind of concede that, you know, maybe it maybe there’s a win after all was pretty damn important because this is how we’re going to win. We can’t. if everyone’s just accepting death and defeat, then that’s exactly what’s going to have. Exactly, exactly.

Kevin Erhard 1:05:30
And then he gets he gets a message from Stan forth saying, to basically get back to reach you need to get back to reach right away. Because the OSI needs to have words.

Phil 1:05:46
Yeah, because because nothing changes because even in a situation where it’s It is literally our entire world fighting against a alien invasion. Intelligence is still trying to fuck Exactly. It’s just it’s, it’s the local cops versus the FBI all over it. Basically. It’s

Kevin Erhard 1:06:13
it’s that trope, and the Oh, ni is just the worst kind of FBI agent. They’re the Oh, ni is basically agent Johnson and Johnson from Die Hard.

Phil 1:06:25
Right? Exactly, exactly. So they start heading back to reach. And we get this brief moment here at the very end of the chapter that tells us as the Iroquois is plowing through space, anybody who cared to notice, and of course, no one does a tiny piece of debris, which is what turns out to be a tiny, automated probe of the covenants. So it’s going which is going to be reporting back to the covenant telling them, the Iroquois every move. So it’s a very dumbed down young kind of moment, to end the chapter.

And then finally, we come to chapter 24. Yeah. Which I think this is my favorite chapter in the section. series because it’s set in Camp hathcock. I mean, that’s, that’s only part of it. It’s like 35% of it, Max. That’s how good this stuff for all of the this is basically what I would go. So this is the last chapter in the section. And I would call this basically a post mortem, because you find out exactly what he’s talking about, with the intelligence coming in. And it’s a moment where keys masterchief and even holsey. Everyone kind of you see everybody again, and everyone has to talk to intelligence and report what happened. And we only see it from Master Chief’s point of view. But they are clearly agitated, they’re frustrated with him. They’re frustrated with the actions he took in destroying the city. And he doesn’t get it right he truly doesn’t get it up because he

Kevin Erhard 1:08:19
did what he was ordered to do and intelligence is angry at him.

Phil 1:08:24
Right exactly. And and it’s it’s it’s the beginning of what must be a Master Chief’s. his loyalty is brainwashing slowly starting to appeal back because it’s the first time ever that he’s basically he describes the tone of voice and the way they’re treating him. It says that he feels a little bit like he’s in combat. Which of course he is. In a way Yeah, they are. They are second guessing him. They’re they’re reprimanding him questioning kind

Kevin Erhard 1:08:57
of like questioning his I forget his wit. So you do know masterchief that not answering truthfully, or omitting any relevant details will lead to a court martial. JOHN bristled as if he could ever forget his duty. Right?

Phil 1:09:15
That’s all he does.

Kevin Erhard 1:09:18
This is his love that is that is him. Like his duty and his ego are are completely intertwined at this point. As a carrier, right?

Phil 1:09:28
There’s there’s nothing to him, but his duty since he’s been six years old, right. And so the idea that the people that he’s on it’s it kind of harkens back to when he killed all of those, those od STS, the ODS T’s Exactly. And he was like, well, these guys were on my side, but they were an enemy at the same time. And it’s like, the system error. You know, it’s the same kind of thing because it’s like, these guys are on my side, but they’re questioning My motives and their questioning my motivations. I because he has no other he has no other motives or motivations. There’s nothing to it. But what they want him to do you know him I feel like this is the beginning of him just starting to go. Oh, fuck yeah. And then at the end we have a we have a lovely reunion with him and holsey yeah halsy which, which kind of sweet in a way it is.

Kevin Erhard 1:10:27
It is very sweet for them. It’s like basically his it’s basically seeing his mommy.

Phil 1:10:31
Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s exactly. It’s so cute is he like, he sees her. And he and he salutes her right? And, and you can kind of see in her the way she reacts to it. She just kind of like, sweetie. She’s not still a civilian job. Right? And she’s not and she’s not the warm and cuddly type. So it’s not like she’s gonna go in for a hug or any damn right. But like, it’s awkward. Like, he’s awkward. She’s a little off. Yeah. And and they’re just kind of talking about, you know, she just she literally goes, how are you? masterchief which no one’s ever done. And that brings me back to what I’ve been saying this whole time about how people react to him. Before this, he had seen commander keys, who had treated him who he only recognized after, after a moment, and who who kind of looks at him and kind of this amused way and give him some advice on how to handle the intelligence. And then Dr. Hall see who does kind of treat him like a you know, like an immensely waspy mother but a mother nonetheless. Yeah, uh, you know, very cold but but still mommy. And and. And these two people are the only people who treat him in this non austrac sort of way. Yeah. Which I think is it’s it’s very interesting. He’s, like, he’s his relation to him is interesting, because he’s new. Like, what? So

Kevin Erhard 1:12:04
both of them knew him as a child. Right. And

Phil 1:12:09
they saw exactly where it

Kevin Erhard 1:12:10
came, they saw where he came from, they’re the only two people that know that song literally his home. So I think that’s, that’s kind of an interesting dynamic to have with these, these characters. Now, john doesn’t remember keys at all. The keys definitely remembers john as a kid.

Phil 1:12:32
Right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it’s a very, so it’s a very, that’s why I’ve really liked this chapter because it really says something about the character. Yes. And, and, you know, it’s a moment to stop. There’s a bunch of blood and guts and killing and it’s terrific. And then you stop and you get, you know, these are all heroic, you know, characters in their own way. And then you get a moment and go, Oh, well, they’re, they really are different, though. in their own ways. And it’s, it’s really, it is neat, and then to and then to ruin that tender moment. the very final page has this moment. I’m gonna read. She asks him how he is and he says, I’m fine, ma’am. We want it sickness. Antonis It was good to have a complete victory. Indeed, it was she paused and glanced about how would you like to have another victory? She whispered. The biggest we’ve ever had. And and I wrote in my book is, are they gonna fuck?

Unknown Speaker 1:13:37
So I didn’t, I didn’t read it. Like I read it as like, as like, because she’s like, She’s like a parental figure. So she’s like, it’s just imagine john has a

Unknown Speaker 1:13:55
little boy. And she’s like, how would you like to have another victory? The boys like?

Phil 1:14:03
Okay, see? See? See you’re a father. And I’m like, and I’m a recently reformed scum. tells you about that makes more sense than I ever meant. That was a really good reading on on us as that just was amazing. Yeah, basically cut this clip out and send it to my side basically, like, yeah, she’s like a parent. Like saying, Do you want a bigger piece of candy? Yeah. Now that you point that out, you’re right. And that brings us to the end of section three.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai