Modification de Canon Fodder - Parasite’s Cake

'''Issue 167'''

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19 November 2025

By Alex Wakeford

Welcome back to ye ol’ Canon Fodder in 2026, a year of rather significant proportions as ''Halo'' will be celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. A whole quarter of a century—our very own and very first quadranscentennial!

Indeed, it has already been over a month since ''Halo: Edge of Dawn'' released, and the latest novel from Kelly Gay gives us a lot to talk about as we look to the immediate aftermath of ''Halo Infinite''’s campaign. We’ve also got a veritable feast of fiction coming this year, from the release of the Waypoint Chronicles anthology and the Master Chief Omnibus to debut of Tim Lebbon’s ''Halo: Parasite's Wake''.

Oh, and I heard there’s a remake of ''Halo: CE'' releasing this year with new missions, Terminals, Skulls, and more.

Let’s unpack all of that, shall we?

== '''PARASITE’S WAKE''' ==
Just a few months ago at the 2025 Halo World Championship during the Canon Fodder LIVE! panel, we announced a new horror novel coming later this year. ''Halo: Parasite’s Wake'' by Tim Lebbon.

While Tim may be a new author to ''Halo'', his highly acclaimed work has touched many franchises, from ''Star Wars'' and ''Firefly'' to ''Alien'' and ''Predator''. We couldn’t be more excited to have him aboard!

''Parasite’s Wake'' is set during the events that take place on Alpha Halo which you will be reliving (or experiencing for the first time) when ''Halo: Campaign Evolved'' releases later this year.

During the panel, we also teased that the cover art was being made by the one and only Rythaze, whose work and aesthetics are highly influenced by some of the foundational artists of the ''Halo'' series—notably Eddie Smith and Craig Mullins, along with further influences from cassette futurism and ‘90s anime.

Well, you’ve waited to see what Rythaze has been cooking up and we’re tremendously excited to at last reveal the cover art of ''Parasite’s Wake''. Feast your eyes—and stay tuned for further news about the book later this year as we prepare to squad up with Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto!

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''2552. As the planet Reach falls to the alien alliance known as the Covenant, a lone human ship—the ''UNSC Pillar of Autumn''—fled into slipspace and has arrived at a place that could change the course of this decades-long war. An ancient, mysterious ringworld: Halo.''

''With human forces scattered across the surface of this immense alien construct, Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto must now lead his fellow crewmates—survivors from the ship’s brig—back to the Autumn’s crash site to rally and regroup with their allies. Desertion, drunk and disorderly, and murder are only a few of the charges that Mobuto's squad carries—and keeping them in line might prove to be just as difficult as surviving the zealous, entrenched Covenant warriors who believe they have found the gateway to paradise.''

''But as war rages across the ring's landscape for control of the installation’s weapons and secrets, a far more terrible threat from deep within Halo’s underworld is hellishly unleashed that transforms this conflict into a desperate battle of survival for UNSC and Covenant alike....''

== '''EDGE OF DAWN''' ==
''Halo: Edge of Dawn'', the latest novel from the acclaimed and beloved author Kelly Gay, dropped out of slipspace on December 16, 2025, serving as both continuation and coda for ''Halo Infinite''’s campaign as the Master Chief’s fight against the Banished continues on Zeta Halo.

The AI formerly known as “the Weapon” chose her name, embracing both her own unique identity and her lineage as a “sister” to Cortana with the name Joyeuse. A pretty explosive funeral for War Chief Escharum was held at the House of Reckoning; the young corpsman Lucas Browning was rescued from the sadistic and vengeful Jega ‘Rdomnai’s captivity, the secrets held within his mind—placed there by the Harbinger—led us to delve into deeper mysteries within Zeta Halo, and... well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

''Edge of Dawn'' is available in trade paperback, ebook, and unabridged audiobook formats.

[https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-Edge-of-Dawn/Kelly-Gay/Halo/9781668017555 PURCHASE HALO: EDGE OF DAWN]

'''CHAPTER PREVIEW'''

Audiobook listeners are in for a treat as this story is narrated by the following video game voice talent:

'''Nicolas Roye''' - Fernando Esparza, Narrator<br>
'''Jen Taylor''' - Joyeuse, Cortana, Dr. Halsey<br>
'''Steve Downes''' - John-117<br>
'''Debra Wilson''' - The Harbinger<br>

In case you missed it, we released a preview of the book’s first chapter where the Weapon announces the name she’s chosen for herself.

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'''CONVERSATIONS WITH KELLY'''

If you’re looking to get some further insight into ''Edge of Dawn'' from the author herself, be sure to check out the following interviews conducted by Jesse Bartel and Paul Semel.

DAMAGE PER SECOND: [https://jessebartel.substack.com/p/a-review-of-halo-edge-of-dawn-and ‘A Review of HALO: EDGE OF DAWN and Interview with Author Kelly Gay’]

PAUL SEMEL: [https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-halo-edge-of-dawn-author-kelly-gay/ ‘Exclusive Interview: “Halo: Edge Of Dawn” Author Kelly Gay’]

And in Kelly’s own words regarding the novel:

''“I want readers to know that while they’re getting a closer look into the Master Chief’s thoughts, into his grief about Cortana, how his past has shaped him, the impact that war has had on him, and how he is now building new relationships, that they’re still getting the Master Chief they know and love in this story, complete with a dicey rescue mission, brutal fight scenes, cool new settings on Zeta Halo and interactions with new and old characters. I want them to know there is something for everyone in this book, and that you don’t need to read other books or even played the game to “get” what’s happening in the story, though, as always, those previous stories definitely enhance the experience.”''

== '''SPOILER SECTION''' ==

'''SPOILER WARNING''' for ye who dare to proceed! If you haven’t read or listened to ''Edge of Dawn'' yet, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.

'''SPARTAN CHATTER'''

Jeff Easterling (Senior Franchise Story Lead) and yours truly were assembled by snickerdoodle for our latest Spartan Chatter episode to discuss ''Edge of Dawn'', which you can watch in full on YouTube.

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We delved into a variety of story elements and details from the book and we thought we’d expand upon some of those topics here.

===FAMILY MAN===

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Fernando Esparza’s journey continues in ''Edge of Dawn''. He’s not quite the Cowardly Lion here that he was in ''Halo Infinite'', he’s still reluctant and finding his courage, and this book really afforded us the opportunity to explore more of his interiority as he reflects on his actions up to this point.

A notable reveal early in the book is the fact that the holo-emitter of the mother and child are not actually Esparza’s own. The roots of this reveal actually originate in the development of the game itself, but was held for a later time.

Esparza’s defining moment in the campaign was his admission that, in a moment of cowardice, he stole the Pelican aboard ''Infinity'' when it came under attack by the Banished. He didn’t fill the Pelican’s troop bay up with other personnel evacuating from the ship, he just took it and ran to save himself.

There was a notion of peeling back the layers of these things over time where the mother and child would represent both what Esparza is hoping to return to but also his guilt. When he stole that Pelican and fled by himself, how many others will never get to see their own families again because of that choice? And since there’s not really anybody to judge Esparza in a formal military sense, especially given the state of things for the UNSC on Zeta Halo, the only vehicle for punishment really is himself.

===JUGGLIN’ JEGA===
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Jega ‘Rdomnai presented an interesting “probletunity” with this book. To a degree, there was some anticipation around the possibility of a big rematch between Jega and the Master Chief following their fight in ''Halo Infinite''. We certainly explored that possibility but it just wasn’t something we found to be as interesting or satisfying as it sounded in theory.

We looked at what the conflict between Jega and the Chief really was to figure out the best way to continue it in this particular format. What happens at the end of ''Halo Infinite''? The Chief kills Escharum, the closest thing that Jega had to a friend—and the Chief does that because Jega wasn’t able to stop him in the House of Reckoning.

The Chief has taken something from Jega, and as a result of that it became a more interesting question to ask: What could Jega take away from the Chief?

===XALANYN XENIA===
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The Endless… This was a pretty big thing that was introduced in ''Halo Infinite'', a new species of the ancient era who survived the activation of the Halo Array before being discovered and sealed away within Zeta Halo by the Forerunners.

Obviously ''Edge of Dawn'' was not the venue to blow the lid off and reveal everything about this enigmatic new species, but an opportunity to see how our present understanding of them from various fictional sources can coalesce.

At the end of the Forerunners’ war with the Flood, after activating Halo and cleansing all thinking life in the galaxy to starve the parasite to death, they followed the Librarian’s designs for humanity to one day inherit the Mantle. The galaxy was effectively “reset,” they had put the things in place to ensure their succession plan would come to fruition before departing the galactic stage...

And then they discovered that another advanced species seemingly survived the firing of the rings.

Just as the Forerunners had one foot out the door, they found a species possessed of unknown technology and capabilities—unknown motives and goals. They understandably saw that as a big problem. And since the Xalanyn were not forthcoming with answers, they were imprisoned within Zeta Halo to be contained and studied.

A little more is revealed in the poem at the very end of the book, ''Harbinger’s Lament'', read by the incredible Debra Wilson. We’ve already seen a lot of spirited speculation in the community about what this little piece of prose could mean for the past, present, and future of the universe.

== '''TIMELINE TROUBADOUR''' ==

Something that ''Edge of Dawn'' provides greater clarity on was the timeline of events that transpired in ''Halo Infinite''’s campaign.

It has long been assumed that the entire game’s events up to the Silent Auditorium take place over the course of a single day and the book afforded the opportunity to provide a bit more detail in that regard, particularly concerning the three days spent within the Auditorium itself. This was not a case of the Master Chief time travelling three days into the future after jumping through the portal at the end, but time being compressed within the facility in much the same way as we’ve seen with other locations (such as Onyx).

Here’s the breakdown:

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'''MAY 28-29, 2560'''<br>
''Warship Gbraakon – Pelican Down''

Recovered by Pelican Echo-216, the Master Chief awakens to lead the fight against the Banished on Zeta Halo and discover what has happened to Cortana. Over the next seven hours, Spartan-117 retrieves the Weapon from the substructures of the ring, recovers several UNSC forward operating bases from Banished control, encounters the Harbinger within the Conservatory, begins to put a halt to the Reformation by disabling a spire, and eliminates notable Banished targets—notably Chak ‘Lok, Hyperius, and Tovarus.

(Also, it is Atriox’s birthday!)

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'''MAY 29-30, 2560'''<br>
''The Sequence''

The Master Chief traverses the local area of the ring, accessing four beam towers to reconstruct a Forerunner sequence that will grant access to the command spire. Along the way, UNSC prisoners are freed from Banished captivity, enemy outposts are neutralized, and high value targets are eliminated.

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'''MAY 30, 2560'''<br>
''Nexus – House of Reckoning''

The Master Chief breaches the nexus to enter the command spire. Fernando Esparza is kidnapped by Jega ‘Rdomnai and brought to the House of Reckoning where Spartan-117 defeats the Sangheili blademaster and eliminates War Chief Escharum.

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'''MAY 31-JUNE 3, 2560'''<br>
''Silent Auditorium''

The Master Chief enters the Silent Auditorium where the true nature of Cortana’s final moments are revealed and the Harbinger is eliminated. While Spartan-117 is within the Auditorium for a few hours, due to the compressed temporal nature of the facility three days pass outside.

== '''WAYPOINT CHRONICLES – VOLUME ONE'''==
Our next book release is ''Halo: Waypoint Chronicles – Volume One'', an anthology collection of all the short stories released from 2022-2025—along with ten additional stories.

Naturally, the astute among you may note that “Volume One” implies the eventual existence of a Volume Two, which is certainly not an unreasonable assumption! We’ll have more to share about the future of Waypoint Chronicles later this year.

In the lead-up to the book’s release a few months from now, we’ve got some teasers for those additional stories we’ll be doling out with each Canon Fodder issue, starting with these two...

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'''LONDON CALLING'''

''October 2552. The Covenant invasion of Earth has come to London. As the alien alliance relentlessly assaults humanity’s military infrastructure, civilian courier groups—such as the Beekeepers, run by Laurette and her father Holden Agryna—are contracted to aid the off-world transportation of key personnel and assets.''

'''RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMEN'''

''Chapter excerpt from the book Rendezvous with Ramen by renowned chef and food critic Arturo Bustamante, published in 2558. The Office of Naval Intelligence audits Bustamante’s account of visiting the Sekibo District in Rio de Janeiro—a compound occupied by Sangheili and Unggoy asylum seekers.''

'''[https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Halo-Waypoint-Chronicles/Jeff-Easterling/Halo/9781668215227 PRE-ORDER HALO: WAYPOINT CHRONICLES - VOLUME ONE]'''

== '''MOTION COMIC MENAGERIE''' ==
Over the last year or so, we’ve been rereleasing the ''Halo: Evolutions'' motion comic adaptations on our official YouTube channel. As of last month, this process is now complete and you can watch them all.

'''HEADHUNTERS'''

''Halo: Evolutions'' story written by Jonathan Goff, adapted by MoreFrames.

''Spartan-III "Headhunter" operatives Jonah-B283 and Roland-B210 are deployed to neutralize a Covenant outpost on a distant moon, but find themselves facing off against Silent Shadow assassins.''

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'''THE RETURN'''

''Halo: Evolutions'' story written by Kevin Grace, adapted by Juan “ONE” Feliz.

''A lone Sangheili shipmaster wanders the glasslands of Kholo, the site of his greatest victory, seeking a new purpose after the Covenant's fall.''

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'''MIDNIGHT IN THE HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN'''

''Halo: Evolutions'' story written by Frank O’Connor, adapted by Juan “ONE” Feliz.

''As Sergeant Michael Baird undergoes cancer treatment aboard The Heart of Midlothian, an elite Covenant boarding party kills the UNSC ship’s entire crew. Awakening as the sole survivor, the ship’s AI recruits Baird to initiate the Cole Protocol and protect humanity—whatever the cost.''

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'''THE MONA LISA'''

''Halo: Evolutions'' story written by Tessa Kum and Jeff VanderMeer, adapted by Juan “ONE” Feliz.

''As the UNSC Red Horse investigates the shattered ruins of Alpha Halo, a discovery in the debris field prompts the UNSC to send a detachment of marines on a mission to investigate the derelict prison transport known as the Mona Lisa where an ancient horror has been unleashed.''

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== '''UNSC HEROES''' ==

Each month of this celebratory year is dedicated to a particular theme, starting off with “UNSC Heroes.” Who are some of our favorites? Well, we reached out to some folks at the studio to get their input and here’s what they had to say!

'''JACK FLETCHER'''

''In Halo we have a lot of heroes that are larger than life characters, physically in most cases but also on a spectrum of personalities. In many cases you have characters who fight because that's all they know, others because that's all they can do, and some, like Captain Jacob Keyes also do this for one very simple but human reason: Family.''

''Keyes understands both his civic and militaristic duties and their importance to humanity's greater cause, but this is a man who—under immense pressure—does so to protect his daughter from a future that at the best of times looks uncertain. Despite his ultimate demise, in his final moments as he is consumed by the Flood, he fights to remember what's so important to him. Miranda. This is why I believe Keyes will remain one of the greats as far as heroes go.''

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'''NINA MARIEN'''

''Have you ever met a character that fundamentally changed the way you thought about heroes and what it meant to be cool? For me that was Linda-058, the near-silent but always present sniper of Blue Team. And she’s been there from the beginning, or at least, she was for me.'' The Fall of Reach ''and'' First Strike ''are her origin stories, but she emerges late in those first novels; mentioned in several of the training courses, but not in focus the way the rest of Blue Team is (Fred and Kelly, I’m looking at you). And that’s fine, because when she finally gets added to the roster in a more active way she’s a powerhouse, entirely self-contained and fantastically blasé about the fact that she’s badass.''

''Eric Nylund does a wonderful job introducing her as someone who knows what it means to show up for her people, demonstrating this through actions rather than words. And (at least in my opinion) he gives her some of the coolest combat moments in his novels. The mental image of her hanging suspended by a rope, caught between light and dark, upside down, sniping Banshees out of the sky has never left me.''

''Linda was the one who heroically sacrificed herself to propel the Master Chief’s mission forward right before ''Halo: CE'' and she was the one that players could find in that second cryo chamber aboard the Pillar of Autmn (eventually… I spent the first decade just keeping that as my personal headcanon whenever I played co-op with my dad).''

''Thankfully time has given us even more Linda content, and in addition to appearing as a member of Blue Team in ''Halo 5 ''there was also the ''Halo: Lone Wolf'' comic, which I highly recommend. No one does it with quite as much flair, or as much amused silence, as Linda-058.''

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'''AMANDA M'''

''I had a hard time choosing between Serin Osman and Sarah Palmer, because they've both followed really tough paths to get to where they are (and everyone loves a good spy story).''

''In the end, I think I find Palmer more interesting. She's a stable force on the Infinity behind Lasky (and the size difference between the two is always eye-catchingly hilarious), but in the field she can lean hard into the recklessness that defined her early career. She's the bridge presence who represents all of the Spartan-IVs on the ship, but she's also the first to jump onto any dangerous mission. She's a thoughtful commander and seems to be a balancing force in tense situations, but she also makes pretty questionable decisions that put her, and occasionally the entire ship, in danger. I enjoy seeing how she relates to other characters—her obvious disdain of Halsey and her casual fondness for Lasky caught my attention in'' Halo 4 ''and'' Halo 5.

''I just think she's a fun character who could have very easily melted into the background, and yet has managed to survive against all odds and demonstrate personality and messy humanity in a way that kind of represents how the Spartan-IV program differs from previous iterations.''

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'''SNICKERDOODLE'''

''“Hey Sam, would you say the Master Chief is your favorite character? How about Dr. Halsey? They have to be up there for best UNSC character, right?”''

''Wrong! ''

''I mean, sure. Who doesn’t love the big man himself? And yes, Dr. Halsey is one of the most fascinating and morally gray characters in the franchise so she definitely is up there, but my favorite? Nah. There’s only one answer to that.''

''This man didn’t just win impossible battles—he humiliated the Covenant. He consistently outplayed enemies when they should have crushed him. He re-wrote the battle book and outsmarted anyone in his way.''

''This man was able to outmaneuver alien armadas with ease, but his personal life? That resembled a flaming Warthog sliding on ice. Between failed marriages and scandalous affairs, his domestic entanglements reached legendary status''.

''And when all was said and done? This man dipped out in the galaxy’s most dramatic Irish goodbye, leaving folks to wonder whether the UNSC’s greatest hero just became its greatest ghost.''

''Shoutout to the man, the myth, the chaos engine himself: Admiral Preston J. Cole.''

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'''MUTINOUS CORE'''

''You’ve just sprung the Brutes’ “baited trap,” Johnson’s A-okay, and the Arbiter is hewing a new Brute-skin rug beside you. With your intended ride sunk by Banshees (the very same who dropped Johnson half a klick upriver), you’ll be sitting tight until help arrives.''

“Kilo two-three, what’s your ETA?”

“Imminent, sergeant. Find some cover! Got to clear a path...”

''Your objective updates: “Stay alive—Pelican inbound.” Don’t have to tell me twice.''

Halo 3''’s opening mission ends with a sainted rescue by Hocus, a mostly unsung UNSC pilot, and more of a convenient plot contrivance than a character when all is said and done—but it is Hocus’s relative anonymity that so endears her to me. I like to imagine her callsign harkens to the apparent magic of her feats. While the Covenant is watching this hand, Hocus performs the prestige with a lazy wrist on the stick.''

“I see ‘em. Stand by. Going loud. Everyone down!”

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''Can you beat it? Here you are, under the gun, surrounded by Brutes, still up a well-known creek without a paddle, and in breezes this laconic southerner picking targets like dandelions. The “path” is there; those varmints just don’t know it yet.

''Her irregular, somewhat placeless Pennsyltucky accent (wandering, at times, from a West Virginia “Clarice Starling” to the slow-cooked vowels of the neighboring, strictly canonical URNA state of Kentucky) stands in stark contrast to the whoosh of rockets overhead.

“Scratch one Phantom. Scratch two!”

''Hocus’s real “magic” is her total nonchalance. She downs enemy birds with a revelatory indifference; she’s no “Southern tomboy” archetype cribbed from a page-turner, but a jobber going about her routine vocation as a pilot of the UNSC.

''If today that means blowing away Phantoms, or shaking loose a few jump-pack Brutes, well, then, that’s what it means. When she tells allies to find cover, the implication is that the work is getting done—and if your head gets blown off in the process, that’s your affair.

''Her upbringing (on Earth, I presume, though her dossier is incomplete) has little bearing on her function, but she likewise makes no apologies for its intrusion. You come to equate her drawl on the mic with progress, salvation, and the end of trials.

''Air superiority endows Hocus with a dignity that’s wholly separate from the muddy ground realities of gameplay. In her first appearance, the Master Chief, foundering in blood, having respawned countless times, is buoyed by an angel calmly counting kills on her fingers.

''It may seem strange to extol the virtues of a minor character (especially one who mainly serves as a nifty story device for getting the Chief from “A” to “B”), but for me Hocus typifies the tragic inverse euhemerism of UNSC service, where we do not conjure a real person from the whole cloth of legend, but see uncelebrated everymen unconsciously participating in their own mythmaking. “I was there when they took Crow’s Nest...”

''As Hocus takes each new wrinkle in stride, she embodies the matter-of-fact heroism relayed in ''Halo 3''’s “Believe” campaign; her given name may be unremembered, but the one bestowed—the one earned—shall persist.''

''“Hocus” is the name Johnson barks into the walkie. It is “Hocus” who arrives in the nick of time over the dam to bear away the Spartan that inspires hope to the beleaguered troops hunkered down at Crow’s Nest. Whoever she was before lingers only in her vowels.''

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''She proves nigh-untouchable until the raid on the Ark, when she helps Johnson kick the door as part of the alliance with the Sangheili. And maybe it’s the inversion of her role as savior that ultimately clips her wings.''

''Like Icarus strayed too high, she gets “cooked” on entry and is later aggrieved (“I lost my wingman and my only ‘hog!”) while skimming too low over the waters (Daedalus’s other prescription for his son). I always suspected those wounds prefigured her death, but we never do see her final trick—she vanishes right in the middle of the act.''

''When Johnson’s team is pinned down at the third Forerunner tower, you need to get to the beach and cowboy up for a skeet-shoot. Waiting there is who but Hocus—possibly against orders, since Commander Keyes told her to scram—eager to shepherd you to your next story beat. This time, chastened but no less nonchalant, she beseeches your help.''

“Sir, got a flight of birds that need an escort. Take the Hornet...”

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''Simple. Matter-of-fact. Easy as pie. As her Pelican’s shadow looms over the two descending Hornets, you’re tempted to wonder: who is providing overwatch for whom?''

''Hocus and her latest “wingman” join a sortie of jade-green Phantoms for an assault on the final Forerunner tower—and that’s the last we see of her. Hocus’s final sleight of hand. If she met her end in the ensuing fight, I like to think she gave them a real wallop first.''

''(One of Johnson’s IWHBYD lines—“I did it for Hocus!”—strongly implies her death, but I doubt the Elites’ references to Christmas and the Meow Mix jingle are canon, either… Right?)''

''Whether she lived or died, we can at least take comfort in the knowledge that her unlikely ability to appear at just the right moment will outlive her among the navy’s long memory. Soon we may doubt she existed at all.''

=='''COMMUNITY LORE CORNER''' ==

Woody has put together a video on the “high value targets” that appear in Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, enemy encounters with characters who have a bit more lore behind them—from Cethegus and Bracktanus to the Yanme’e hiveward and the fallen Vero ‘Ahtulai.

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When I shipped out for basic, the orbital defense grid was all theory and politics. Now look! Invicta has got a whole video detailing the ins and outs of the UNSC’s orbital weapons platforms.

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Chance has taken a closer look at the legendary Preston Jeremiah Cole himself, the farm boy who became the UNSC’s tip of the spear in naval combat against the overwhelming might of the Covenant.

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Kammyshep recently released a review of ''Halo: Edge of Dawn'', and it is truly a joy to see him get choked up about the fate of a certain character as he retells the tragic tale!

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That’s a wrap for this month’s issue, but don’t you worry because we’re just getting started!

Oh, and if you’re looking to put your ''Halo'' knowledge to the test, check out the first of our monthly quizzes—this first one being on UNSC heroes—and see how many correct answers you can get.

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