CRITICAL TORTOISE PRESENTS
A HALO FANFIC
"BLOOD TIES"
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I realize that I didn't properly introduce this new fic. I forgot to include an author's note, as well as several scenes I had planned to include in the chapter. I'm not going to go back and add them, simply because I can easily incorporate the scenes in a different way in this chapter.
Anyway... about this fic.
I've never done a fic with an OC before.. only completely original stories or straight-up fanfics. I've decided to change that with Blood Ties.
Blood Ties serves two goals. One: To help me practice characterization, something I've found to be sorely lacking in both my fanfiction and my original work. Two: to show a side of my writing I've never really tried before, except with The Child - a less action-oriented story. I've noticed that hardly any Halo-related fiction (both official and fan-made) sheds any light on the more pedestrian aspects of the Halo universe. In other words, while I realize Halo is about an interstellar war between humanity and an alien empire (or, really, about the legacy of the Forerunners), that doesn't mean that's all that happens in Halo. Take the Star Wars expanded universe, for example. Not every story, be it in the form of a game, TV show, book, short story, short film, etc. focuses on the "wars" in Star Wars. Some simply showcase the backstory of these worlds, giving us a glimpse of what it would have been like for an average citizen of the Republic or the Empire or any other of the dozens upon dozens of societies in Star Wars. Same goes with Blood Ties. While there will definitely be action, and several of the main characters are part of the military, several others are just average citizens of the UNSC or of the Sangheili government, and others still are diplomats or explorers. Blood Ties has no real 'main' story, instead it's more of several different interconnected stories that each have an effect on the other. Really, it's structured more like a TV show that anything else. Think of each chapter as an episode of a show, and each fic (if I write more than one, anyway) as a season. The stories do eventually converge though. Just give them time.
And as for more detailed information as to what it's about... Well, I'll tell you this much:
For those of you who weren't paying attention to Thel's (yeah, you're not mistaken. The same Arbiter from the main trilogy of games is now a diplomat. I figured it kind of fit his personality. Besides, I wanted to have at least ONE pre-existing character in the fic) speech, when he said "thirty-six years ago", Blood Ties takes place AFTER the Human-Covenant War (AKA the Great War), in the year 2561. And yes, my math is right. I know that several canon sources (such as the original Halo: Combat Evolved, and Contact Harvest, and The Fall of Reach, to name a few examples) cite the War as having started with the First Battle of Harvest in 2525. This is correct. However, here is where the discrepancy lies: the manual for Halo CE states that as of 2552, the War had been going on for thirty-two years. THis isn't correct. Assuming that the Battle of Harvest did indeed take place in 2525, then that means that as of 2552 (the year in which Halo CE, Halo: Reach, Halo 2, and Halo 3: ODST take place in [Halo 3 takes place mainly in 2553]), the War would have lasted twenty-seven years, not thirty-two. I double-checked. 2552-2525=27. Get over it. This fic takes place in 2561. No sooner, no later. And, more specifically, the first chapter take place in June 2561.
The fic's focus is three-fold: the efforts of diplomats trying to form a joint government (or at least a trading pact or something) between the humans and Sangheili; the efforts of an elite unit comprised of Sangheili warriors and SPARTAN-IIIs (as well as a new program called, predictably, the SPARTAN-IVs) tying to secure the border between Sangheili and UNSC space while cleaning up any remnants of the Covenant; and a family of civilians trying to rebuild their lives on a planet that is in the process of recovering from the war (I'll give you a hint: it starts with an 'R.').
Yes, I know this note is staring to be longer than most of the chapters I write for my fics themselves, so I'll end the note and start the chapter now, K? Or.. you know what? I'll just post this as a chapter in and of itself.
The actual chapter I meant to write before I got sidetracked will be posted later today.