"Okay, and here we are for the final interview on the last of the current Halo/Wall.E Fanfics Battle of Reach. Unfortunately, we can only get an interview with the main character, Marcus, as there is an event happening and the others have had to go to that. First of all, as always, we talk to Cossacks. Thank you for being able to talk to us again, Cossacks,"
("It's okay,")
"Okay, so tell us; what the plan for Battle of Reach whilst you were making Those who Fought?"
("Well, Battle of Reach is mainly a parody of the one in the Halo universe and is set on the point of view of a taskforce soldier who has to battle against the Covenant as they launch a full scale invasion of Reach and his important part in the battle is much like that of the main character in the Reach instalment in the Halo universe. It was quite a long Fanfic because, as you know, at the same time we were working on Those who Fought and this was slowing down work on Battle of Reach, but we did get to the end of the Fanfic eventually, and it was a little earlier than expected so that was good as well,"
"Okay, and was it difficult trying to plan out Reach as well as finding characters for the main roles?"
*nods* ("Yes. I think Battle of Reach was probably the hardest Fanfic to work on for plotline and for finding characters because even though this Fanfic was following much of the plotline as the instalment in the Halo universe, I didn't want to make it a complete copy of the plotline, or make it a large copy of the plotline, like what had been done with the main series of the Halo/Wall.E Fanfics so it was difficult for the plot of the story. Characters was also difficult because almost all of them in the story, apart from Eve, John and Auto, were completely new and it was hard trying to find a mixture of soldiers like what had been done in the instalment in the Halo universe, and, like with what we had done in the making of Those who Fought, we had placed ads and such and after about three days, we had a few people come forward and we interviewed them and tested them on the roles and…they were absolutely perfect and that was the character problem solved,")
"Okay and our final question: was it difficult for you to film on the area of Reach where it was set because it was sandstorm season?"
("Yes, that was a very difficult area and very annoying. The real reason we were there is because there was no other area on Reach that fitted the description of the base and landscape and such that had been described before, and plus some of the buildings were still there from when they were being used before so we decided it was best to use them again rather than start from scratch. We could only film around about the middle of the afternoons and quite early in the mornings because most sandstorms started around midday. I think altogether, there was only…about…three or four days when we didn't have a sandstorm so we used those days very wisely and filmed what was needed in the terrain that we could use whilst we had the chance. We did have an incident when a sandstorm had caught us on the way back from a mountain area when we were filming scenes for the battle outside the Michigan and we were stuck for about two hours because of poor visibility and when we came out, we all looked like sandmen. *chuckles* So that was a bit annoying, but thankfully, that was the only incident so were okay,")
*chuckles* "Oh dear. Well, thank you for being able to talk to us, Cossacks, and we'll speak with you again later,"
("Thank you and I'll see you later,")
Marcus
"Okay, as said before, we were only able to get one interview for the Battle of Reach Fanfic and that is with the main character, Marcus, so we might not get as much out of this Fanfic as we expected. First of all, thank you for being able to talk to us today, Marcus,"
"That's alright,"
"Okay, our first question is: what was it like for you to join the Halo/Wall.E series?"
"I was actually really excited to join the series because I really liked it from the start and when I heard that they needed help with one of these two side-line stories, I applied to be a part of the Fanfic and they got back to me the next day and I went in with an interview and met everyone else and did a practice role and Cossacks said I was really good and so was everyone else and we all got the parts, so that was it. I wasn't really nervous at all,"
"Okay, our second question: how is Marcus' character portrayed in Battle of Reach?"
"Marcus is portrayed as a UNSC marine that has seen a lot in the war with the Covenant. He's been involved in most of the major battles and he's lost a lot of friends and that is quite bad for someone who's only in his mid-twenties. He is kind and willing to do anything and he is also a proven leader, but does find it difficult, as I would suspect most squad leaders today would, and throughout Battle of Reach, he, like Eve and Wally and other characters in the Halo/Wall.E series, really cares for his friends and this is shown especially towards the end of the Fanfic in the last few chapters. He also especially cares for Anya, who is his 'lover', in a way, and is worried about her when she goes off to battle without him and this is also shown in the last few chapters of the Fanfic as well and is actually one of the main themes in the story, alongside friendship and several others I can't remember,"
"Okay, our third question: what were you like with the other characters involved in the Fanfic?"
"I got on with them very well. I hadn't known any of the characters that would be appearing in the Fanfic with me before so I will admit that next to my happiness of joining the Halo/Wall.E Fanfic series, I was quite nervous. But, in the end, I got on very well with everyone. We had a few drinks and laughs and…I became friends with them all very quickly. They're all really nice people and I don't think I could have made better friends,"
"Alright and our final question: what is your opinion on Cossacks as the author of the series?"
"He was okay… I mean, he is a nice person and caring as well and is there for you, but he does have a bit of a temper and he can get stressed out when there's no need for it. Most of the time he doesn't mean it, but sometimes he can be just outright rude and ignorant. But probably the real thing I can remember about him is that he is a fool and can make himself look like a complete idiot. Like there was one time when we had just gotten out of a sandstorm after filming in an area of Reach and on top of the car he was in, there was this large tarpaulin, which was to hold a large bunch of equipment, and it was full of sand, almost to the very brim, and he wanted to take it down to make sure that the equipment was okay and not clogged up with sand and we warned him not to do it, but he just said: "Oh no! Don't worry, It'll be fine!" so he pulls the side down to pull himself up into the tarpaulin and all of the sand fall out onto him and makes a mound that covers him almost completely, only just saving a little of his hair. And we were just on the ground laughing and holding onto each other and the cars for support and he brushed the sand off him and said: "Well, that was surprising,". Next to being nice and rude, he can be funny, but most of the time It's inadvertent,"
*chuckles* "Well thank you for sharing that with us, and thank you for talking to us today and we hope to speak to you again in the future,"
"That's okay, and thanks,"
