Halo: Ghosts of Onyx was Eric Nylund's last Halo novel. It's about the birth of the SPARTAN-III project by Colonel James Ackerson and Lieutenant Kurt Ambrose. Yes, these were the Spartans seen in Halo: Reach. The SPARTAN-II program has gone public. Tales of super-soldiers fending off thousands of Covenant
attacks has become the stuff of legend.
But just how many Spartans are left?
While the Master Chief defends a besieged Earth, and the myriad factions
of the Covenant continue their crusade to eliminate humanity, an
ultra-secret cell of the Office of Naval Intelligence known as "Section
Three" devises a plan to buy the UNSC vital time. They're going to need hundreds of willing soldiers, though...and one more Spartan to get the job done. Planet Onyx is virtually abandoned and the perfect place to set
this new plan in motion. When the Master Chief destroys Halo, however,
something is triggered deep within Onyx. Action begins to boil and the
Ancient Forerunner
technology stirs. Armadas of UNSC and Covenant race to claim the
Forerunner secrets in order to change the course of the Human-Covenant war. But this reawakened and ancient force may have plans of its own...
The prologue begins with the 300 SPARTAN-IIIs of Beta Company being deployed to the Covenant Planet, Pegasi Delta in 2545. The only survivors are SPARTANS Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091. They are revealed to be twelve years old and Lucy, as a result of loosing all her friends, goes mute. Rewind back to 2531 to a raid by SPARTAN-II Blue Team against insurrectionists on Planet Victoria to recover stolen FENRIS nuclear warheads. Five months later, Ackerson meets with three ONI officers, Rear Admiral Rich, Captain Gibson and Vice Admiral Margaret O. Parangosky. During the meeting, Ackerson moves forward a proposal for a new SPARTAN program which retains most of the effectiveness of the Series II program without the high costs of the previous project. This becomes the SPARTAN-III program, a more streamlined, "disposable", as well as more numerous, company of SPARTANS that must be trained for high-risk operations. Ackerson is given the UNSC controlled world Onyx with the purpose of training the SPARTAN-IIIs, and is promised one of the SPARTAN-IIs to train them. The next month, Kurt, Kelly and Fred are sent to Station Delphi in the Groombridge 34 system to "investigate" a ruptured Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. When Kurt tries to approach the engine, his T-Pack malfunctions and sends him spinning away into deep space. Kurt awakes a month later and meets Ackerson, who informs him that the events as Station Delphi were staged in order to recruit him. Kurt is told of the SPARTAN-III project and is given orders to train the volunteers of the SPARTAN-III program. Ackerson promotes him to Lieutenant (Junior Grade) and assigns him the surname Ambrose to hide his previous service as a Spartan.
Kurt trains the recruits with MCPO Franklin Mendez. The first batch of SPARTAN-IIIs dies completing a mission Kurt vows to do better. The next batch is the one that Lucy and Tom came from. After their mission, Kurt has them assigned to him. A few years later, another group of SPARTAN-IIIs are one a live-fire exercise on Onyx when a sentinel shows up. It begins to attack and, after a few days, Kurt and the rest are warring with the sentinels. In transit to the planet, Dr. Catherine Halsey and Kelly approach and try to make contact. Their ship crashes and Kurt finds them. Kelly is shocked to learn that Kurt is still alive. Halsey wakes up and berrates Kurt and Mendez for what they did to make the SPARTAN-IIIs. Kurt points out that now isn't the best time and that he didn't have to take orders from her as his superior officer is Ackerson. Halsey notes that there's a Forerunner construct where the sentinels are coming from. They go there, but not before Halsey sends word to Admiral Lord Terrence Hood--piggybacked off of Cortana's warning about Halo Installation 05--for SPARTAN reinforcements.
Hood gets the message and sends Fred, Linda, and William to Onyx. They get there and everyone reaches the Forerunner construct and find out that the Sangheili are there. Both sides fight for control with Will ad four of the SPARTAN-IIIs dying. Halsey, Mendez, Ash, Olivia, Mark, Fred, Kelly, and Linda make it through. Kurt, Tom and Lucy attempt to hold them off. Kurt's dying and, in an attempt to save his two proteges, knocks Tom unconscious and orders Lucy to take Tom and enter the portal. The portal seals as Kurt dies killing the rest of the Sangheili troops. Inside the portal, it's revealed that the landmass inside is about the size of Earth orbit around the Sun. Halsey says they're in a Dyson Sphere and that Onyx's surface was false. The novel ends there, but if you read my review of Halo: Glasslands, then you know the ending to that story.
All in all, a decent novel and one of the best by Eric Nylund. Well crafted, fast-paced, and everything a Halo fan could ask for. Oh, and great characters too.
The prologue begins with the 300 SPARTAN-IIIs of Beta Company being deployed to the Covenant Planet, Pegasi Delta in 2545. The only survivors are SPARTANS Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091. They are revealed to be twelve years old and Lucy, as a result of loosing all her friends, goes mute. Rewind back to 2531 to a raid by SPARTAN-II Blue Team against insurrectionists on Planet Victoria to recover stolen FENRIS nuclear warheads. Five months later, Ackerson meets with three ONI officers, Rear Admiral Rich, Captain Gibson and Vice Admiral Margaret O. Parangosky. During the meeting, Ackerson moves forward a proposal for a new SPARTAN program which retains most of the effectiveness of the Series II program without the high costs of the previous project. This becomes the SPARTAN-III program, a more streamlined, "disposable", as well as more numerous, company of SPARTANS that must be trained for high-risk operations. Ackerson is given the UNSC controlled world Onyx with the purpose of training the SPARTAN-IIIs, and is promised one of the SPARTAN-IIs to train them. The next month, Kurt, Kelly and Fred are sent to Station Delphi in the Groombridge 34 system to "investigate" a ruptured Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. When Kurt tries to approach the engine, his T-Pack malfunctions and sends him spinning away into deep space. Kurt awakes a month later and meets Ackerson, who informs him that the events as Station Delphi were staged in order to recruit him. Kurt is told of the SPARTAN-III project and is given orders to train the volunteers of the SPARTAN-III program. Ackerson promotes him to Lieutenant (Junior Grade) and assigns him the surname Ambrose to hide his previous service as a Spartan.
Kurt trains the recruits with MCPO Franklin Mendez. The first batch of SPARTAN-IIIs dies completing a mission Kurt vows to do better. The next batch is the one that Lucy and Tom came from. After their mission, Kurt has them assigned to him. A few years later, another group of SPARTAN-IIIs are one a live-fire exercise on Onyx when a sentinel shows up. It begins to attack and, after a few days, Kurt and the rest are warring with the sentinels. In transit to the planet, Dr. Catherine Halsey and Kelly approach and try to make contact. Their ship crashes and Kurt finds them. Kelly is shocked to learn that Kurt is still alive. Halsey wakes up and berrates Kurt and Mendez for what they did to make the SPARTAN-IIIs. Kurt points out that now isn't the best time and that he didn't have to take orders from her as his superior officer is Ackerson. Halsey notes that there's a Forerunner construct where the sentinels are coming from. They go there, but not before Halsey sends word to Admiral Lord Terrence Hood--piggybacked off of Cortana's warning about Halo Installation 05--for SPARTAN reinforcements.
Hood gets the message and sends Fred, Linda, and William to Onyx. They get there and everyone reaches the Forerunner construct and find out that the Sangheili are there. Both sides fight for control with Will ad four of the SPARTAN-IIIs dying. Halsey, Mendez, Ash, Olivia, Mark, Fred, Kelly, and Linda make it through. Kurt, Tom and Lucy attempt to hold them off. Kurt's dying and, in an attempt to save his two proteges, knocks Tom unconscious and orders Lucy to take Tom and enter the portal. The portal seals as Kurt dies killing the rest of the Sangheili troops. Inside the portal, it's revealed that the landmass inside is about the size of Earth orbit around the Sun. Halsey says they're in a Dyson Sphere and that Onyx's surface was false. The novel ends there, but if you read my review of Halo: Glasslands, then you know the ending to that story.
All in all, a decent novel and one of the best by Eric Nylund. Well crafted, fast-paced, and everything a Halo fan could ask for. Oh, and great characters too.
