Continuing the saga of the bestselling game series! In the third of three official tie-in novels to the hugely successful videogame from Microsoft and Epic Games, Marcus Fenix and his Gears defend humanity's final city from the Locust horde.
With the Locust Horde apparently destroyed, Jacinto's survivors have begun to rebuild human society on the Locust stronghold. Raiding pirate gangs take a toll-but it's nothing that Marcus Fenix and the Gears can't handle. Then the nightmare they thought they'd left behind begins to stalk them again. Something far worse, something even the Locust dreaded, has emerged to spread across the planet, and not even this remote island haven is beyond its reach. Gears and Stranded must fight side by side to survive their deadliest enemy yet, falling back on the savage tactics of another bloody siege-Anvil Gate.
A New York Times bestseller! In the first of three official tie-in novels to the hugely successful videogame from Microsoft and Epic Games, the last human survivors of a vicious alien attack fight a pivotal battle for the fate of mankind.
As kids, the three of them were inseparable; as soldiers, they would be torn apart. Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago fought alongside Dom's elder brother Carlos at Aspho Fields in the epic battle that changed the course of the Pendulum Wars. There's a new war to fight now, a war for mankind's very survival. But while the last human stronghold on Sera braces itself for another onslaught from the Locust Horde, ghosts come back to haunt Marcus and Dom. For Marcus-decorated war hero, convicted traitor-the return of an old comrade threatens to dredge up an agonizing secret he's sworn to keep.
As the beleaguered Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments take a last stand to save mankind from extermination, the harrowing decisions made at Aspho Fields have to be relived and made again. Marcus and Dom can take anything the Locust Horde throws at them-but will their friendship survive the truth about Carlos Santiago?
Based on the blockbuster Xbox game, this is the stunning story of the men and women who stood between a planet and total destruction-and now have to face the consequences of their actions.
After a brutal fifteen-year war for survival, the Coalition of Ordered Governments is forced to destroy mankind's last city in a final bid to stop the Locust Horde. As the survivors flee Jacinto, they must contend with the last of the Locust, bent on vengeance, as they struggle to stay alive in an icy wilderness. Marcus Fenix, Dom Santiago, and their fellow Gears fight to get Jacinto's refugees to a safe haven, but find themselves in a lawless new world where the enemy is human-and as desperate and dangerous as any grub.
The second novel of the Kilo-Five Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!
2553. Welcome to humanity's new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for the Office of Naval Intelligence's black-ops team, Kilo-Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Sangheili, once the military leaders of the alien alliance known as the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation—keeping the Sangheili occupied with their own insurrection—turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo-Five from the seething heart of a brutal civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo-Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the human worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan Naomi-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the Forerunner shield world of Onyx is being put to work, even as a kidnapped Sangheili plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction…
The first novel of the Kilo-Five Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!
2553. The theocratic military alliance known as the Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war with humanity that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and its colonies. For the first time in thirty years, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting has stopped, the war is far from over: it's just gone underground. The United Nations Space Command's feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five—a clandestine team of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, a Spartan super-soldier, and a diabolical AI—to accelerate the insurrection within the Covenant's warrior species, the Sangheili, even as their notable defector-turned-leader Thel 'Vadam—the Arbiter—struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people.
Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died in the Covenant attack on the planet Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartan program, and now she's broken some more rules to save them. Marooned with Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, Halsey finds that this place has been guarding an ancient secret—a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind. As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity's violent past begins to catch up with all of them as the disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth…and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone's loyalty to the limit.
The final novel of the Kilo-Five Trilogy by #1 New York Times bestselling author Karen Traviss—part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo!
2553. With the thirty-year-long Covenant War finally over, the Office of Naval Intelligence faces old grievances rising again to threaten Earth. Angry and bitter colonists—still wanting to settle scores from an insurrection put on hold for three decades—crave justice…as does a man whose life was torn apart by ONI when his young daughter was abducted for the SPARTAN-II program. Black-ops squad Kilo-Five now find its collective loyalty tested beyond the breaking point when the father of their Spartan comrade, still searching for the truth about her disappearance, prepares to glass Earth's cities to get an answer. How far will Kilo-Five go to stop him? And will he be able to live with the truth when he finds it? The painful answer lies with someone long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place…
Wars end. But hatred, guilt, and devotion can endure beyond the grave.
With the Covenant War over, the Office of Naval Intelligence faces old grievances rising again to threaten Earth. The angry, bitter colonies, still with scores to settle from the insurrection put on hold for thirty years, now want justice -- and so does a man whose life was torn apart by ONI when his daughter was abducted for the SPARTAN-II program. Black ops squad Kilo-Five find their loyalties tested beyond breaking point when the father of their Spartan comrade, still searching for the truth about her disappearance, prepares to glass Earth's cities to get an answer. How far will Kilo-Five go to stop him? And will he be able to live with the truth when he finds it? The painful answer lies with a man long dead, and a conscience that still survives in the most unlikely, undiscovered place.
Book 3 in the Gears of War series.
The third Gears of War novel continues the saga of the bestselling Xbox game series.
With the Locust Horde apparently destroyed, Jacinto's survivors have begun to rebuild human society on the Locusts' stronghold. Raiding pirate gangs take a toll—but it's nothing that Marcus Fenix and the Gears can't handle. Then the nightmare that they thought they'd left behind begins to stalk them again. Something far worse, something even the Locust dreaded, has emerged to spread across the planet, and not even this remote island haven is beyond its reach. Gears and Stranded must fight side by side to survive their deadliest enemy yet, falling back on the savage tactics of another bloody siege—Anvil Gate.
Welcome to humanity's new war: silent, high stakes, and unseen. This is a life-or-death mission for ONI's black-ops team, Kilo-Five, which is tasked with preventing the ruthless Elites, once the military leaders of the Covenant, from regrouping and threatening humankind again. What began as a routine dirty-tricks operation?keeping the Elites busy with their own insurrection?turns into a desperate bid to extract one member of Kilo-Five from the seething heart of an alien civil war. But troubles never come singly for Kilo-Five. Colonial terrorism is once again surfacing on one of the worlds that survived the war against the Covenant, and the man behind it is much more than just a name to Spartan-010. Meanwhile, the treasure trove of Forerunner technology recovered from the shield world of Onyx is being put to work while a kidnapped Elite plots vengeance on the humans he fears will bring his people to the brink of destruction.
Ten years after Emergence Day, as the Locust Horde advances on humanity's last defended area - Ephyra - in a bloody war that has seen billions die, Marcus Fenix does the unthinkable: he defies orders and abandons his post during a critical battle in a bid to rescue his father, weapons scientist Adam Fenix. But Adam is buried in the rubble during a ferocious assault on the Fenix mansion, and Ephyra falls to the enemy. Marcus, grieving for a father everyone believes is dead, is court-martialed for dereliction of duty and sentenced to forty years in the Coalition of Ordered Government's brutal maximum security prison, known simply as the Slab.
But Adam is very much alive, snatched from the destruction by the elite Onyx Guard on Chairman Richard Prescott's orders. He's now a long way from home and in a prison of his own - a COG doomsday bunker on the tropical island of Azura, a place hidden from the rest of Sera since the Pendulum Wars. His own guilty secret has been exposed: Adam knew the Locust existed deep below the surface of Sera long before Emergence Day, and were being driven from their tunnels by a lethal parasite known as the Lambent. Now he has to find a way to destroy the Lambent while the dwindling COG forces fight to hold back a growing Locust army that's threatening to overrun the city.
As Adam struggles to find redemption in his comfortable island jail, Marcus seeks his own atonement in the squalid, closed world within the Slab's granite walls. While Dom Santiago and Anya Stroud fight to get him released, ready to make any sacrifice to free him, Marcus gradually finds unexpected kinship among Sera's most dangerous criminals - and a way to carry on his personal war against the Locust.
The Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and her colonies. For the first time in decades, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting's stopped, the war is far from over: it's just gone underground. The UNSC's feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five, a team of ODSTs, a Spartan, and a diabolical AI to accelerate the Sangheili insurrection. Meanwhile, the Arbiter, the defector turned leader of a broken Covenant, struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people.
Across the galazy, a woman thought to have died on Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartans, and now she's broken some more to save them. Marooned with Chief Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, she finds that the shield world has been guarding an ancient secret – a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind.
As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity's violent past begins to catch up with all of them as disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth, and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone's loyalty to the limit.
When the Locust Horde burst from the ground fifteen years ago to slaughter the human population of Sera, mankind began a desperate war against extinction. Now after a decade and a half of bloody fighting, and with billions dead, the survivors - the Gears of the Coalition of Ordered Governments, along with a small band of civilians - have been forced to destroy their own cities and sacrifice their entire civilization to halt the Locust advance.
The last-ditch measures have succeeded, but at an enormous cost: the survivors have been reduced to a handful of refugees.
Escaping to a haven on the remote island of Vectes, they begin the heartbreaking task of rebuilding their devastated world. For a while, there's hope . . . making peace with old enemies, and once again planning for the future.
But the short respite is shattered when Vectes comes under siege from an even deadlier force than the Locust - the Lambent, a hideous and constantly mutating life-form that destroys everything in its path. As the Lambent's relentless assault spreads from the mainland to the island, the refugees finally understand what drove the Locust from their underground warrens and sparked the global war.
While Marcus Fenix and the Gears struggle to hold back the invasion, the Coalition faces a stark choice - fight this new enemy to the last human, or flee to the wastelands to take their chances and live like the human pariahs known as the Stranded . . . even as Coalition chairman Richard Prescott still guards one last, terrible secret about the Locust, the Lambent, and the future of mankind. . . .
