Great story, you really should come back to it

That last line, hoo, gave me warm tingles. Not many who play in halos sandbox acknowledge the mantle or the meaning of "reclaimed" but you have done both with care and attention to detail, both to the games and the wider works. I applaud you. My only criticism is the minor spelling and grammar errors, and the tendency to use the wrong words that use the same letters. Example; quite instead of quiet.

One word for this story. AWESOME! [funny thing is that I actually enjoyed following the Arbiter's story-line more than the Master Chief's :)]

Also, RIP in peace, Halo 5 writers.

I was reading through this while I'm stuck waiting in an ER and, you know, I was just about to click over to the next chapter - did, actually - until I thought better of it, remembered, "Hey, I'm a writer too, we're all absolute fiends for feedback, and I loved this shit, I should say something!" and backed up.

So, here goes:

The whole story's great and I'm loving it. Minor nitpicks with spelling and grammar, but then again, find me an author who doesn't occasionally put the wrong word down or forget a comma or screw up formatting and I'll eat my own shorts, so don't sweat it. Characterization is flawless, OCs are rich and build the world wonderfully, the lore is being upheld wonderfully despite the wacky nature of crossovers, the action is well done enough that I'm not just skimming it like I usually do, etc.

All that is great. But the thing that prompted me to write out a review? The little interlude with the Asari survivors at the end of this one. Does it advance the plot? Well, no, not particularly. Does it feature the whole ensemble? Nah, just Cortana for majors. Is it a big, sprawling, epic cinematic masterpiece? Also no, it's on the smallest scale you can get. And yet, I think it might be the most important thing you've put into the story so far as I read it. The whole galaxy's made up of little people, and getting a heartwarming, humanizing little glimpse through their eyes is a beautiful thing. I'm in love with it. Little segments like that, I think, separate a good story from a great one.

The highest of high-fives to you, my dude. I can't give you enough praise. The piece isn't flawless, but it's about as close to it as I've ever seen. Shut up and take my favefollow!

A sensible plan using tools not previously available that worked as trained professionals thought it should. Kudos to you for a good end to the arc.

Sometimes it really do be like that

Good to see TIM is finally dead due to bad luck of 3 cubes :D

Your story is great so far. Second best to "ME:Clash of Civilisations" imo. Nice atmosphere is created by words of this story.

I just realized that the beginning of chapter 2 and 1 are almost exactly the same... after 4 rereads of the story. I feel so dumb right now.

great story so far, I read the first 5 chapters or so ages ago and just got around to reading the new chapters. Great work, please continue soon!

Always good to see your work fam! I love this story! Please keep it up!

Yes! Fuck you TIM!

God this was so cathartic and an awesome read all through the chapter. As always with the rest of your writing.

It’s been a while since I left a review but I just like this latest chapt fucking needed it.

Your quality of writing, descriptions, characterizations, and imagery are all magnificent as I’ve come to expect from you. Seriously, yours is, hands down, STILL among the *best* fics, Halo/ME or otherwise, on this site.

I applaud you and your skill.

Thank you for your writing. Cheers.

To everyone with criticism (which has all been constructive and very welcome!) about the nuclear yield in this chapter, know that I made a second pass at it. 100 megatons changed to 10 gigatons, a tenfold increase. Given the nature of science-fiction, emphasis on the fiction at times, it can be very difficult to get straight, realistic figures, and that is especially so when you are working with TWO different sci-fi universes! Nonetheless, I try very hard to keep things both realistic as I can, while both maintaining the vision of the story that I have. I at least hope that the thought I try to put into these things shows.

And don't even get me started on MAC power yields... ;)

I agree with 1529 on this. 100 megatons is a bit low, considering the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear device ever detonated, was 50 megatons in yield, and the soviets even theorized a beefed up Tsar Bomba that had a 100 megaton warhead. Considering the Halo universe takes place 500 years in the future, the UNSC most definitely would have created nukes with a much higher yield.

Take the NOVA Bomb in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx. It was powerful enough to crack a moon, and has been estimated to have 1.2 petatons, or 1.2 billion megatons, of force, equivalent to 83,203 Tsar Bomba's.

I think you should bump the yield of the SCBM to a higher level. Other than that, great chapter and keep up the good work.

Good chapter, but I have a comment about the middle... the yield seems pretty low for their heaviest warhead. I'm not an expert on HALO lie, but I though one of the mines from canon was 30 gigatons... if that is true 100MT is pretty small, heck there have been larger built on Earth. A current ICBM on Earth would have at least a significant amount of that yield spread over a few warheads.

As abraxas said, the effect of a nuclear weapon would also be more limited in space, although the electro-magnetic radiation would be partially effective and the blast would still be useful on both point targets (ships, stations, etc) as well as anywhere with access to mass (a warhead that penetrated a large ship prior to detonation would turn the ship into a massive hand grenade... same with stations, asteroids, planets that were small enough compared to weapon yield).

Another point, ships in the ME verse would likely form tighter groups for overlapping point defense fire as naval battlegroups did on Earth prior to nuclear weapons... since nuclear weapons have been fielded that has changed somewhat, naval doctrine now will often spread a formation out to avoid the possibility of a one shot kill on the entire fleet.

Thanks for writing.