Chronique:Canon Fodder - Midnight Oil

Issue 169

29 May 2026

By Alex Wakeford

Welcome back to Canon Fodder! Here we are at the end of May which means that the latest novel, Halo: Waypoint Chronicles – Volume One, has hit shelves across the world. You’ll have plenty of fiction to digest from that colossal compendium, and we’re here to give you a peek at what’s in store for the future of Waypoint Chronicles as a storytelling medium for Halo.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In this issue, we’ll be exploring some of the editorial updates to The Flood as part of Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus, as well as the consolidated system we’ve compiled for the Covenant Battle Calendar as part of our collaboration with some of the admirable admins of Halopedia.

WAYPOINT CHRONICLES – VOLUME ONE[modifier le wikicode]

Halo: Waypoint Chronicles – Volume One is out now!

This ample anthology contains within it all twenty-four Waypoint Chronicles released from 2022 through 2025, as well as ten new short stories that will take you all over the galaxy—from the fractured landscape of Zeta Halo to the Quezon 24-hour endurance race on Reach, a Sangheili-owned restaurant in Rio de Janeiro, and many more.

Halo Infinite Intel and Armory Infinitum entries are also included in this titanic tome, structured in such a way that they are thematically connected to specific Waypoint Chronicles and serve to vary the pace between the longer stories.

Oh, and did we mention the audiobook?

We’ve got an incredible line-up of voice actors who have previously appeared in Halo media. Jen Taylor, Gideon Emery, Tricia Helfer, Darren O’Hare, Erika Soto, Tamara Taylor, Scott Brick, and many more—hell, we even got Jeff Steitzer to narrate one of the new stories!

Whether you’re experiencing Waypoint Chronicles for the first time or you’ve followed us on this journey over the last few years, hearing these incredible actors—both returning and new—easily makes this audiobook the definitive experience. Can one beat hearing Tricia Helfer reading a story about Veronica Dare in 2026? I don’t think so...

Here’s a full breakdown of the stories and narrators:

Whether you’re after some military action and Spartans facing overwhelming odds, perilous exploration of ancient mysteries, horrific tales about Flood infestations and tortured Promethean essences, or simply spending more quality time with beloved characters from across the series, there’s quite assuredly something in this anthology for you!

And on top of that, one simply has to admire the incredible cover art illustrated by Levi “Leviathan” Hoffmeier.

ORDER HALO: WAYPOINT CHRONICLES – VOLUME ONE

(NOTE: For folks in the UK, the publisher is aware of the issue around audiobook availability and working to resolve it!)

PREVIEW PRIMER[modifier le wikicode]

For a closer look at all things Waypoint Chronicles, check out the following articles below!

POLYGON: 'LONDON CALLING' PREVIEW

Courtesy of Polygon, read or listen to an excerpt of 'London Calling', one of the ten new short stories in the anthology. This story follows Laurette Agryna during the Covenant invasion of Earth in 2552.

AGE OF RETRIBUTION: HIDDENXPERIA EDITION

The one and only HiddenXperia narrates 'Age of Retribution' in the Waypoint Chronicles audiobook. Here's a great video of him reacting to listening back to his own narration for the first time, accompanied by some fantastic visuals in Halo 2 itself.

WAYPOINT CHRONICLES – VOLUME TWO[modifier le wikicode]

“Volume One” naturally implies that there’s going to be Volume Two, right?

You are, of course, correct for making such an assumption, and Volume Two begins... now!

As Waypoint Chronicles grew over the last few years, so too did our hopes and ambitions for what could be achieved with these short stories in the long term. We wanted V1 to walk so that V2 could run, and it’s thanks to your engagement with these stories over the last few years that this has come to fruition. The time has arrived to lift the lid on what the future holds.

Waypoint Chronicles are evolving and expanding to include a larger stable of authors, enabling us to bring in both fresh new voices and existing favorites on a more regular cadence—we'll have more to share on that front in the near future. Where there have previously been gaps of many years between anthology releases, we're instead going to be building one along the way.

Additionally, we are experimenting with some new ways to evolve the format of Waypoint Chronicles, starting with an exciting new partnership detailed below...

HALO x JUMPERSCAPE[modifier le wikicode]

As part of the festivities celebrating Halo’s twenty fifth anniversary, we’ve partnered with JumperScape to deliver a special Waypoint Chronicle audio drama.

Still Midnight will be told over three parts later this year. This story will follow a group of new characters aboard the UNSC Infinity while it is en route to Zeta Halo.

Those who have been following JumperScape will know that they have already been making some truly fantastic audio adaptations of the Waypoint Chronicles which made them the perfect community partner for this opportunity to do some cool new storytelling.

We’ll have more to share in the coming months. For now, if you haven’t acquainted yourself with JumperScape’s work, be sure to check out their content linked below!

• JumperScape website
• JumperScape YouTube
• JumperScape Discord

OMNIBUS OVERVIEW: THE FLOOD[modifier le wikicode]

Over the next few issues, we’ll be doing a deep dive into some of the updated edits made to the three books that form Halo: The Master Chief Omnibus, releasing later this year on November 10.

Halo: Combat Evolved isn’t just getting a fancy new remake in game form, but the novelization by the late and great William C. Dietz is getting a snazzy remaster as well. Last issue, we detailed our collaboration with some of the fine folks at Halopedia as part of the effort to definitively update the omnibus trio (The Fall of Reach, The Flood, and First Strike), and here is a peek at some of the work we’ve done on that front.

CIA391 of the Halopedia admin team will be making a few interjections here and there to provide some additional context where appropriate!

WAIT, I DON’T REMEMBER THEM SAYING THIS...

Throughout The Flood, there are areas where dialogue does not necessarily reflect what is said in the game.

Careful consideration was given to ensure that the flavor of Dietz’s authorial voice is maintained while striving for accuracy and authenticity where it matters most. An emphasis has been placed on ensuring that dialogue in the book is in parity with the core cinematics of Halo: CE and that the sections directly adapting the Master Chief and Cortana’s story feels true to the game experience.

THEY CALL IT... RINGWORLD

A notable difference between the book and the game is the fact that the name “Halo” is actually revealed by Cortana at the end of the first chapter as the Pillar of Autumn’s crew make for the ringworld’s surface.

In the game, the name “Halo” is not revealed until Captain Keyes is rescued toward the end of the mission The Truth and Reconciliation. This small but impactful element has been adjusted in the omnibus to reflect how it is in the game. (CIA391: As it turned out, the "Halo" reveal that early had zero impact on the story, allowing us to move stuff appropriately. Such a big story change was actually a pretty small editorial one.)

RANKING ORDER

Today, thanks in no small part to sources like the Official Spartan Field Manual from Senior Halo Franchise Writer Kenneth Peters, we have a much more consolidated understanding of ranks in the Halo universe across different military branches than we did in 2003. Some ranks and roles for both the UNSC and Covenant have been adjusted to reflect established lore.

For some examples on the Covenant side, a Sangheili "half-commander" is now an obedientary, and "Minor Prophet" is now precentor.

ALL THE RIGHT WORDS

The terminology within this book has been updated in several places to reflect the authenticity of the lore as it has evolved over the years, or to correct certain erroneous elements. (CIA391: BaconShelf and TheArb1ter117 are true heroes here as they served as a tremendous force multiplier for identifying a lot of these!)

For an example of an obvious clear-cut correction: “clip” has been replaced with “magazine” when referring to reloading human weapons. This has been applied throughout the entire omnibus.

Covenant species names have been implemented in the text as well. During sections that are told from human perspectives, they will typically say Elite, Grunt, Jackal, etc. When following Covenant perspectives, the proper species names are used—Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-Yar. Similarly, just as the name “demons” became codified for Spartans from Halo 2, ODSTs were known to the Covenant as “imps.” This has also been added to the book when Covenant characters converse about ODSTs.

Back when The Flood was written, the name of the Covenant dropship in Halo: CE wasn’t established and was just described as “the fork-shaped alien troop carrier.” It may surprise you to learn that it wasn’t until 2006 when Ghosts of Onyx released that the name "Spirit" first appeared in print. This has been addressed and adjusted.

There are plenty more that we're sure you'll discover when the omnibus is in your hands!

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE ON ALPHA HALO

Within The Flood is another story that takes the form of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, told from the perspective of a Sangheili and Unggoy—Zuka ‘Zamamee and Yayap. As a matter of fact, these gave us our first look at the universe through the Covenant’s eyes even ahead of Halo 2.

Zuka ‘Zamamee is nothing like a “typical” Sangheili in the Covenant military. He is far more worldly in his characterization than the average Sangheili would be by the time The Cole Protocol was published. Indeed, Zuka not only accepts medical treatment but commends Yayap for having the initiative to assist him in this way.

Our philosophy toward this was to treat Zuka’s characterization as a feature, not a bug. He is a bit of an oddball and a few additional lines have been implemented to account for Yayap making note of this, nodding to some elements of the lore that came later without changing anything about these marvelous characters Dietz introduced.

CLOCKING OUT

Throughout the Halo books, there has been a largely standardized method of presenting time, date, and location at the start of a chapter. This appears very differently in The Flood, mostly taking the form of a mission clock which reads as follows:

BEFORE
D + 44:38:19 (LIEUTENANT MCKAY MISSION CLOCK) / THE HILLS BETWEEN ALPHA BASE AND THE PILLAR OF AUTUMN

EDITED
2005 Hours, September 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)
The hills between Alpha Base and the UNSC Pillar of Autumn

For greater clarity and a more uniform reading experience with The Fall of Reach and First Strike (and the rest of the series), we have audited the timestamps of each chapter and converted them to the more standardized form that readers are familiar with.

Timeline inconsistencies and oddities have been cleaned up through this process which means that some of the hours will be different in the omnibus. For instance, after awakening from the crashed Bumblebee lifepod, it no longer takes the Master Chief over three hours to fight his way up the hill to the first Forerunner beam tower. (He must’ve been playing LASO!)

(CIA391: A personal favourite scenario of mine was the Memory Agent incident. We thought that we were almost done with the timeline of the book, then BOOM! We revisited the third episode of Memory Agent, "We Deliver", which defined that certain events happened on September 20. This caused a minor revision of a handful of dates to make sure everything still worked. Yes we tried to account for everything throughout the omnibus.)

OCEANS APART

There are certain descriptions in The Flood that don’t quite match up with the environments seen in the game. An example of this is the desert plateau where Truth and Reconciliation settles. It’s a barren, desolate wasteland as far as the eye can see in Halo: CE, but in Chapter Four of The Flood it is said that there is “a massive ocean” below. At the time of the book's writing in 2003, playing on what must've bene a tiny CRT television, this would've been an easy mistake to make when looking down from atop the cliffs.

On an even smaller scale, the Autumn is described in the book as having a curved viewport when it is actually boxy and rectangular. The Bumblebee is described as having wings and skids instead of airbrakes.

In the earlier years of the franchise, Unggoy were referred to as simian, but as graphics improved and visuals were more consolidated they have ended up becoming more arthropodal. This, too, has been addressed.

JEN TAYLOR’S MOST ICONIC ROLE

Jen Taylor is known for her portrayal of some of Halo’s most iconic and brilliant characters. Cortana, Dr. Halsey, Joyeuse... yeah, they’re pretty cool, but did you know that she also voiced the Bumblebee escape pod pilot? (Well, you do now.)

In honor of Jen, we took the opportunity to name this character in the omnibus and have dubbed thee Lieutenant Taylor.

HOW ABOUT THAT NEW ADJUNCT?

For as many tidbits of ancillary lore as there are about what [REDACTED] was up to during the events that transpired at Alpha Halo, we’ve never actually seen them through his eyes...

COVIE CALENDAR[modifier le wikicode]

Let’s talk about one of the coolest additional worldbuilding elements that has come as a result of work on The Master Chief Omnibus in collaboration with Halopedia.

Over the years, we have had a few glimpses here and there at how the Covenant track time, but there has never been a truly consistent, uniform system codifying exactly how it all fits together. Until now.

Working alongside CIA391 of Halopedia, we have formulated a full and workable system for the Covenant Battle Calendar based on the data points of existing lore that is utilized in the omnibus.

We know that seven ages form the key progression of the Covenant’s history: Abandonment, Conflict, Reconciliation, Discovery, Conversion, Doubt, and Reclamation. These do not necessarily run sequentially but represent broad overall themes—hence why there can be twenty-three Ages of Doubt but only nine Ages of Reconciliation.

We also know they use certain measurements of time like cycles, units, and centals. These can vary greatly depending on context—day-cycles, annual cycles (or "revolutions"), lunar and solar cycles, and so on. (CIA391: These are separate to the "cycles" given on High Charity that the calendar uses.)

Here’s a breakdown:

With that established, it becomes easy to start building upward. Five cycles equates to 1326 hours, or 55.25 days. Ten cycles equal 2652 hours, 110.5 days, and so on...

Here’s the rub: As useful as it is to have this framework, it is ultimately useless unless there is a record of the date and time an age begins. So, let’s crack open the lore vault and take a look at the Ninth Age of Reclamation.

ONI data analytics posit that, based on shared Covenant records, the Ninth Age of Reclamation began, in human time, on February 26, 2525 at 0749 Hours. From here, one can properly begin working out where certain key events occur in the Covenant Battle Calendar.

As we know from Ascension on Atropos, the end of this age—marked by the Prophet of Truth’s death and the aversion of the Halo Array's activation—gave way to the Nineteenth Age of Abandonment. After a consultation with some very shifty-looking ONI analysts, we can confirm that this occurred on December 12, 2552 at 1947 Hours.

As stated earlier: For the UNSC, we have a standard way of writing dates pertaining to the military calendar as it appears in the novels at the beginning of each chapter.

1533 Hours, January 29, 2535 (Military Calendar)

For the Covenant, it would be written as follows.

Cycle 328, Unit 263 (Covenant Battle Calendar)
Ninth Age of Reclamation

You will note that centals are not included in the date. They are treated as being akin to "seconds" in the human military calendar and don't get recorded. However, this doesn’t mean they are not important because they are still very much accounted for in calculations, and in the date above it would be 14 centals. (CIA391: This date is actually Tul 'Juran's birthday. She was the primary example I used when I was working on this and we felt it was a good one for us to use!)

Of course, that’s just the Ninth Age of Reclamation. There are well over a hundred ages that make up the San’Shyuum scribes’ accounting for Covenant history.

So how about today’s date: May 29, 2026, at 0900 Hours? What does that look like in the Covenant calendar?

Cycle 614, Unit 211 (Covenant Battle Calendar)
Fifteenth Age of Discovery

Pretty nifty!

(CIA391: For those wanting that extra detail, as they don't get recorded in the Battle Calendar, there are also 34 centals at the end of that date. That should help anyone wanting to try their hand at calculating the calendar themselves!)

And yes, we find ourselves living within the Fifteenth Age of Discovery. Notable occurrences in this age include:

• 2070: Ardent Prayer is launched from its shipyard.
• 2135: Shadow of Intent being designed by the Prophet of Expediency in conjunction with the Vice Minister of Sacral Assembly. (NOTE: Halo Warfleet places the Third Age of Discovery in 2135 and the Twentieth Age of Discovery in around 2070—these are considered errata, no timey-wimey shenanigans to be seen here!)
• [REDACTED]: The discovery of the Tala system where a diminutive species known as the Unggoy reside on the methane-rich world Blahao, leading into the Fourth Age of Conversion in 2142.

Unfortunately, we are being ushered out of the analytics lab and ONI security personnel are starting to fiddle with black bags, so that is where we will leave the topic on this occasion.

SPARTAN CHATTER[modifier le wikicode]

In case you missed it, we’ve recently been doing some fiction-focused Spartan Chatter episodes on the Halo Discord server.

In these podcasts hosted by Snickerdoodle, you’ll find myself and sometimes my illustrious and ever-elusive co-conspirator Jeff Easterling discussing a particular fiction topic of the month.

Interested to hear more behind the scenes details about the making of the Waypoint Chronicles? Take a listen to the three of us delving into the tales we’ve been telling over the last three years, along with some teasers for the additional ten stories in the anthology.

COMMUNITY LORE CORNER[modifier le wikicode]

The community narrators for the Halo: Waypoint Chronicles audiobook—Austin Murphy, Kat Peterson, Installation 00, and HiddenXperia—banded together for some Cursed Halo fun. And boy, traffic cone Flacons and Super Saiyan Jorge are just the beginning on that front...

LoreWithWes has a full hour-long primer for the Waypoint Chronicles hitherto released!

Panels ‘N Pages has published a video listing the top five Halo novels “that changed the lore forever.” What would your picks for this be?

Speaking of rankings, Kammyshep has personally ranked every Halo novel from 2001 through 2025. What do your rankings look like in comparison?

ChellPLAYS has undergone the brain chemistry-altering pilgrimage that is experiencing the Halo 2 campaign for the first time, followed by checking out the amazing Terminals added in the 2014 remaster.

Vineevra has created a wonderful animated video based on the scene in Halo: Edge of Dawn where Joyeuse chooses her name. Also, a moment of appreciation for the username which I can only assume is based on Vinnevra from the all-timer that is Halo: Primordium.

Do you ever wonder why we’re here? Installation00 has put together a video exploring the lore behind the various versions of Halo’s most iconic multiplayer map.

MetaNerdz Lore has been on quite the video spree lately! One of his latest details the lore around the Mulsanne-class frigate introduced in Halo Infinite.

The Fall of Reach is a story that continues to offer an endless wellspring of foundational narrative richness for the series. It is really no wonder that Halo Repository’s review and discussion of the book is feature-length!

That’s where we’ll bring things to a close for today. Check out our latest Spartan Chatter episodes, have fun playing around with the Covenant Battle Calendar for the Ninth Age of Reclamation, and—whether you prefer a physical copy, ebook, or audiobook—be sure to secure yourself a copy of Halo: Waypoint Chronicles.

In the immortal words of Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson: “Buy one! Heck, buy two. That’s an order, soldier!”

Source[modifier le wikicode]

• Halo Waypoint - Canon Fodder: Midnight Oil