"We're Spartans. What could possibly go wrong?"
Fred-104, First Strike

Buzz Feed

Co-authored Project: Minds' Eye with Author: Mr. 125

Significant Updates

7 DEC 2020
I have to say, I can hardly wait to start working on the next chapter for Ten Days in Mombasa. It is going to be quite rowdy .

29 JUL 2020
Okay, it took way longer than expected, about two years as of the preceeding update just below. But I'm certain is was worth the wait. 10DIM's third chapter has been up for the last three weeks and you should check it out!

11 AUG 2018
It's almost time for the third chapter of 10 Days to be released. Just one more quick act within the chapter to type up, then the coat of polish will be applied to the whole installment. I'm personally excited for this one - there is so much battle action happening now, it's almost tough to keep track of! A truly epic fight. Stay tuned!

31 DEC 2016
The time is finally upon us. By us, I mean the readers and fans who've been patiently waiting for Me and Mr. 125 to start showing our writing project to the world. It's going to be worth your time - of that I am certain! Stay tuned and happy new year to all!

18 DEC 2015
The end of an era...
Final chapter of Alone is published. It's done. After all these years, it feels good to see it off properly. Now...

Who is EmF?

A little about me...
Name's Jeff. If you want a last name from me, you'll have to provide a full name of your own, a valid state ID, and credit card numbers. And of course the obligatory five-day waiting period in order for me to...um...verify these credentials.

I enjoy the HALO universe. It started out as I'm sure it has for many others here: a cool video game. It turned into so much more when I quite by chance stumbled upon the triple box-set of the first HALO novels. Gave them a read and realized not only how awesome the books were, but how much potential in the HALO universe they opened up. It was a true shock to me when I later learned that The Fall of Reach published one month before HALO: Combat Evolved was released for the Xbox! Since I first discovered the vastness of the HALO novels (2005), not much has passed me by since. I am still of the opinion that 343i came out swinging when they produced Halo 4, which to me is the best one yet. Don't hate.

What else to say about myself without being a bore to you, the curious onlooker? Not a whole lot. Gaming and writing would be the obvious pastimes as well as gearhead types of hobbies. I enjoy the occasional read here at the site as well as that of certain authors in my favs list.

Story Info

Collaborative Story Projects...

Ten Days in Mombasa
Co-authored by Mr. 125 and featured under the banner of our collaborative profile, Minds' Eye.
Status: In-progress

Combines five of our stories:

Alone
Where Duty Ends
Though Hell Should Bar the Way
Metro
Aim High, Dig Deep

See our repertoires for synopses of these tales if you have not already read them. Their timelines and characters all converge inside this unforgettable epic.

Stories of my own...

Aim High, Dig Deep
Status: Complete
The story continues with Ten Days in Mombasa
I was fascinated by the pre-HALO 3 alternate reality game, called IRIS. It was unique. It was mysterious. It was the first time something other than a quirky Monitor of an "Installation" was initiating contact with us humans like in the first two games. Many would say that IRIS raised more questions than it did answers at the time it was unveiled. But I think that was the hidden intent at the time. IRIS, looking back, was just one half of a larger mini-plot - the later part revealed at The Ark during HALO 3's gameplay (specifically the messages we saw in the terminals). Each of the terminals look like an iris, right?

To think...something more was going on than just the Covenant saga. Something that would seem small in volume compared to the hours of gameplay we'd take part in during the Halo 3 campaign proper, but there was that notion in the back of my mind that, "This tiny, little ARG goes far deeper than the last two games we've played...because the last two games we played didn't even scratch the surface of Forerunners themselves." Again, looking back, IRIS (combined with the terminals in HALO 3) essentially paved the way for the next trilogy!

Ultimately, the IRIS mini-campaign was deep. Some would say too deep. In order to decipher everything while on the hunt for some truth, you had to be dedicated to HALO, to say the least. The amount of work you had to put in to be at the very forefront of the discovery of each clue was somewhat monumental. But ultimately, it had to be a community of fans that could hope to unlock the summer of 2007's secrets, not just one or even a handful of fans. Me...I was definitely not at the forefront. I would check into that website everyday after work and wait for the next server to be unlocked, largely unaware of what the super-hardcore people had to go through behind the scenes to get it that way.

Really, just to be able to observe everything unfold and view the video transmissions and everything else was very cool.

I never thought I could shoehorn IRIS into one of my stories, but here I am doing it. If you're ever perplexed by the technical jargon in this story, any of it can be googled but that'd be for gee-whiz purposes. I strove to make it weave into the plot seamlessly and I swear there's not an overwhelming amount of jargon. But if you do understand most or even all of it, you are in a club of sorts and your story experience will be just that little bit sweeter than others' could be (I believe this because if you truly understand the ramifications of the main character's discoveries then you will have a nice little dot-connecting experience of your own!).

In retrospect, I look back on the summer of 2007 and I genuinely miss being able to access that website and poke through those odd Forerunner informational terminals and scour over the wealth of lore and knowledge they stored. It's sort of comparable to ILB (I Luv Bees, the HALO 2 ARG), although I'd say this one has a bit more depth to it and is surely presented to us in a different fashion. Anyways, if you want your mind to be sort of blown (and to receive some very interesting background info), go to these places for brief summaries on what I've been talking about so far: IRIS Youtube Synopsis Synopsis 2 Most Comprehensive Archvie Archive Sound Sample The HALO 3 Terminals A Convenient Bulletin Board for IRIS Mendicant Bias Transmissions And for interest, Believe

Alone
Status: Complete
The story continues with Ten Days in Mombasa
A young enlistee is transferred from Reach to a forward assignment at Zaragosa Prime, where he's embedded into a unique fighting unit: Lima Company. There, the newly-arrived Marine befriends others and quickly thinks of this new world as home and his new unit as family. Very soon after his in-brief and integration into Lima Company, a night mission commences that sends them all battling toward a nowhere spot in the middle of a nondescript valley infested with Covenant. Here, at a remote mining station, they witness extraordinary events unfold which bring them deeper to the bottom of a wonderful mystery.

The back history...

Tthis fic started in 2007 in the same way that I'm sure it has for many other writers: out of boredom. It was nothing more than an experiment, and in truth I had only considered it a poetic one-shot at first and nothing more. But I got even more bored. Started to take it further. While the current (truly completed) incarnation is not the first, it is by far the best. I say that because this fic first started in April, 2007 and so I was considerably less experienced in life and a little bit naive. If you could've seen the first version of this fic, you'd make the same judgment. To add, the chapters were short. While perhaps vivid and entertaining with pure plot, I'm certain more depth and life could've been added. But I was an utter amateur back then.

Well, fast forward to present day and this is just one of a few stories (some from another author as well!) that has been woven into the biggest (maybe even the biggest ever in all of cyberspace) fanfic project I've ever taken part of or even heard of for that matter. It's late-2020 and Ten Days in Mombasa is only three chapters elapsed but already over 150k words - and plenty more to come.

Getting back to the individuality of this fic though, I managed to contemplate enough on it here and there during its nascent years to determine I could make a trilogy out of it, with each contributing tale being maybe three-quarters of a full novel. But see that was a stretch and I wasn't even sure it was guaranteed. I had to force myself to conjure up a worthy plot that could even take it as far as just a sequel. Alas, over the years it sort of floundered before even getting into the second story in the proposed trilogy. But it was for the better. New life was breathed into it during the course of a years-long email thread between myself and Mr. 125 (the other afore-mentioned author) and we toyed with story ideas because we both enjoyed each of our works over the years since 2007. That's where Ten Days in Mombasa started, in an email chain (a pretty massive one, too). So, in short, Alone become Alone 1.5, a story that could've stood complete in its own right but instead had its later chapters re-tooled in order for it to segue into 10DIM. All in all, about 45k words from what would've been plot from a second Alone story was dovetailed it into the first one.

I would not have changed the course of history on this one! It all worked out grand!

The Call to Arms
Status: Paused
This is a story dealing with Spartan-062, Maria. She is featured in the "Halo Graphic Novel". Her character is somewhat of a mystery and a very intriguing prospect in creating a story for. It's definitely a challenge, but definitely one I'm working on!

Underworld Trilogy
Status: In-progress
Chronology:
-Underworld
Status: Complete
It's a story about the bleak outlook on life from the eyes of five mishappen colonists set in the HALO universe, yet no Covenant zealots show face and there are no one-thousand pound supersoldiers wielding revolutionary armor and the setting does not feature some exotic, alien ringworld whose glyphs and runes spell galactic doomsday. No, this story is essentially de-HALO'd. You might be asking yourself, how the hell is that interesting?!
Unfortunately, I cannot give you an explanation. It's better explained by simply taking a chance and reading.
-Underworld: The Calling
Status: In-development
This will be the sequel to Underworld, detailing certain significant events in the HALOverse and the exploits of the survivors of Traxus IX.
-Underworld: Apocalypse
Status: In-development
This story is the prequel to Underworld, detailing the events of Emigration Day (E-Day) and leading up to the battles that re-shaped the planet of Traxus IX into what it became during the original tale.

The Halo Genesis Trilogy
Status: Paused
Chronology:
-The Argo
Status: Complete
We make first contact with the Covenant. This was written pre-Contact Harvest as a submission to a Nylund-hosted writing contest circa spring, 2007 and did contradict HALO canon at the time of creation. But, unwittingly, it does contradict canon. Well, it won the contest, so it's not a total loss for me. Due to contest rules, it had to be 13k words or less, so this is a terse read even though it's been fleshed out a bit in its current post-contest form.
-The Last Drop
Status: Paused
Sequel to The Argo.
-OPERATION: ZENITH
Status: Paused
Sequel to The Last Drop and the final chapter in the Genesis Trilogy that sheds light on the aftermath of the clandestine operation. Facing a much-needed reboot.

Seriously?
Status: Ongoing
Short, vulgar, humorous episodes based on any cutscene from any HALO game. A no holds-barred critique of all we cherish! Requests welcomed!

Believe
Status: Complete
This is a touching, Halo-based Memorial Day tribute/one-shot for 2008.

Starry Night, Fateful Day
Status: Complete
One-shot based on the HALO 3 TV commercial back in December of 2006.

Haunted HALO
Status: Complete
Just a short Halo-based story themed on Halloween with only mild horror. Ponders existence, consciousness, hereafters, etc.

Removed Stories (the graveyard)

When the Smoke Clears (the ultimate bored fanboy's wetdream story)

The Yankee White (just a concept that never took flight, and a goal without a plan is just a wish, right?)

Countdown to Doomsday (interesting concept, but the plot was thin as a wafer and so it could never be more than a simple one-shot)