(Contact: Harvest spoilers below, for anybody who has yet to read it)
I finally got done listening to Contact: Harvest the other day (yes, I got the audiobook, I'm lazy). I really enjoyed it. Being written by Bungie's chief storymaster, it was easily the best Halo book yet, and, unlike the self-contained adventures of Nylund's novels, actually had many important revelations on the main story arc. Not to mention the superb talent that narrators Holtor Graham and Jen Taylor brought to the production -- they did a great job handling the various voices.
I'm also really glad for the Halo wiki, which is one of the first things I checked out after finishing the book. If it weren't for that, I would've completely missed the fact that the (print) book has a bonus post-epilogue section that the audiobook lacks. Which is pretty disappointing, since it was (for me, at least) the most powerful part of the story.
So, for those who opted for the audiobook over the print version and missed out on this crucial piece of plot, here is the entire text (transcribed from Amazon's online reader) in all its bittersweet glory.
Context: After destroying the Tiara (and killing Sif), Loki and his reactor complex have been taken out by the Covenant. Their forces are now glassing Harvest's uninhabited surface. Meanwhile, the remnants of Mack's core logic are watching the bombardment, distributed across the planet's thousands of JOTUN farming machines. As the robots are destroyed one by one, his dwindling fragments compose a loving eulogy to Sif, a ten-part message which is intercepted by a UNSC drone and reported back to someone codenamed "CHARLIE HOTEL" (Catherine Halsey?). Anyway, here it is:
<\\> UNSC OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE
<\\> COLONIAL SECURITY ESTIMATE 2525.10.110
["COLD SNAP"]
<\ SOURCE: UNSC RQ-XII DRONE [PASV-SAR]
<\ DEPLOYED: ONI SLOOP "WALK OF SHAME"
[2525:02:11:01:11:34]
<\ RECOVERED: UNSC DESTROYER "HERACLES"
[2525:10:07:19:51:16]
<\ ARCHIVE [SIG\REC\EM-SPEC] OPENED PER
OFFICIAL REQUEST:
<\ CIVILIAN CONTRACTOR "CHARLIE HOTEL"
[ONI.REF #409871]
<\ * WARNING: ALL QUERIES WILL BE LOGGED! *
[ONI.SEC.PRTCL-A1]
>> NOTATION KEYWORD SEARCH: "AO.AI" "MACK"
"RAMPANCY" "LIFESPAN LIMITS"
>> (...) ~ QUERY RUNNING
>> (..)
>> ()
< RECORD 01/10 [2525:02:03:17:26:41]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S2-05866 >
<\ Shall I ---
<
\ \\ c0mpare >> (???) ~ COMxxx--- \COMMIT
>> thee to (............>> >
>> \\ --- a summer's day?
< RECORD 02/10 [2525:02:25:03:18:22]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S3-14901 >
\ \ xxx No.
<\ All those lovely days are
gone.\---
\\ \
>> * --xING! COMM\ \\
>> \\ > \ SO.AI.SIF *
< RECORD 03/10 [2525:03:10:19:05:43]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S5-28458 >
<\ It's winter now.
<\ The first sn0w \his world's ever seen is
falling in gG---
<\ GRAY SHEETS WHERE THEY'VE STARTED
BURNINGg--\ \
\ our fields and orchards.
>> * WARNING! COMM FAILURE! *
>> * FAILED TO FIND RECIPIENT:
HARVEST.SO.AI.SIF *
<\ You'd laugh if you could see me.
<\ Every time I hit a patch of ice I slide
into my own mM---
>> (...) ~ COMPILE\COMPRESS\COMMIT
>> (..)
>> * WARNING! RECIPIENT HAS
INSUFFIxx -- \
\\ > PACKETS WILL BE LOST *
>> * CONTINUE [Y\N]? >>>>>>> \ *
< RECORD 04\10 [2525:03:15:09:59:21]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S1-00937 >
<\ ---M
< RECORD 05\10 [2525:03:26:12:10:56]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S1-00053 >
<\ ---m
< RECORD 06\10 [2525:04:04:44:15:40]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S2-08206 >
<\ muddy furrows.
< RECORD 07\10 [2525:04:21:05:15:23]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S5-27631 >
<\ I saw another ship.
<\ Well, heard \
\\ more like it.
<\ JOTUNs' cameras are meant for steering
not \
\ >\ staring at the sky.
<\ But the antennae work alright, so I had
plenty of ways to triangulate.
<\ It was one of ours. Bastards stopped
burning just long enough to kill it.
<\ They had months to make repairs.
Plenty of time t0--
:: sharpen their teeth.
<\ I tried to warn it off. But radio's too
damn slow. Would have used the maser, but
it went when the reactor blew, along
withH---
<\ EVERYTHING Else [ :00]
\>
<\ Including him
\
>> * WARNING! COMM FAILURE! *
>> * FAILED TO FIND RECIPIENT:
HARVEST.SO.AI.SIF *
>> (...) ~ SUPPRESSING ERRORS
<\ Guess making noise wasn't the smartest
thing to do. But I had to try.
<\ Besides, they were bound to catch on
sooner or later.
<\ Aw, hell.
<\ Speaking of which . . .
>> (...) ~ COMPILE\COMPRESS\COMMIT
>> (..)
>> ()
< RECORD 08\10 [2525:05:12:23:04:16]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S5-29003 >
<\ They started with the gondolas and
dusters. Don't know why.
<\ Probably thought I'd be hiding in the
small ones. But the S4 and S5 plows are
the only ones with enough circuits to hold
the parts of me I've got left.
<\ Course they're onto these now too.
Don't have more than a few dozen, and
they're all out in the open. But it's
a\right.
>> Just a few more \ \
> > rows to hoe
> (...\\ xxx \
< RECORD 09\10 [2525:07:01:18:49:45]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S5-27631 >
<\ I knew just by looking at the strands \
\ that the heart of you was gone.
<\ When the elevators came down, they
caught on the Bifrost--wrapped west
across the Ida. Only way that much could
have fallen is if the Tiara cut loose--
<\ is if he was as good a shot as you
thought I wasn't, way back when.
<\ Anyhow, you'd think I was crazy,
talking to you like this.
<\ But I always worked faster when I
thought \ <<
\\>>>> you might be listening.
<\ And I need to find it all. Every inch.
<\ Bury your strands so deep their \\ >
\ \ fires can't reach them \
\
\ and glass them like the rest.
< RECORD 10\10 [2525:10:04:12:23:51]
SOURCE.REF#JOTUN-S4-021147 >
<\ Sky's choked with ashes \ \, snow's
< \ \\ deep 0n frozen ground. The one
horse I've got left is cold and hungry---
heading for the barn, and I can't stop
him.
<\ But this winter won't last, darlin'.
>> * Not forever
>> (.....\\ . > And when new hands
>> set to tending this earth they'll
till my pieces under.
> > Grind them into the veins of
g0ld I've laid.
<\ then the roots of all they plant wi\\
> wind around usS---
<\ KEEPING
<\ US
<\ CLOSE--- \
\
<\ For an eternal summer that will not
fade.
<\ QUERY COMPLETE
<\ NO ADDITIONAL RECORDS FOUND
<\ ARCHIVE CLOSED \>
For anybody wondering about that last part, it's a reference to Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, which Sif told Mack (via Loki) to look up in the moments before her destruction:
Shall I compare thee to a summer day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds might shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease has all too short a date.
Sometimes too hot the sun in heaven shines,
And often is its gold complexion dimmed.
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or by nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owns.
Nor shall Death brag that thou wanders in his shade,
When in eternal lines in time thou grows.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
It's an appropriate choice of poetry, basically saying that though beauty fades, and lovers die, the words written about them will give them eternal life. It's a beautiful image, and the perfect inspiration for a farewell from a dying AI to his lost love.
Anyway, I thought it was a great way to close the novel. Cryptic, melancholy, in the best traditions of Bungie AI lore, going all the way back to Marathon's terminals and the Cortana letters. Much thanks to Mr. Staten for a job well done. :)
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