The UNSC spaceship Pillar of Autumn arrives at the gigantic ring world, Halo, after a desperate escape from the Covenant-invaded planet Reach, and is forced to crash land on the structure's surface.

The Covenant, for which the ring is a sacred artifact, set out to cleanse Halo from the taint of the human survivors. But the Covenant are not the greatest threat the crew of the Pillar of Autumn will encounter. Buried deep within Halo, another enemy has been waiting for millenia, and now it has been set free...

Halo – The Flood not only re-tells the story of the critically acclaimed game Halo: Combat Evolved, the first part of an epic trilogy, but it sheds light on many events the players didn't experience themselves. What did the other survivors of the Pillar of Autumn do in the meantime, and how did they avoid getting slaughtered by the Covenant? How did Sgt. Johnson survive the attack of the Flood, and how did he and other crewmen escape from the Halo ring before it was destroyed? What were the Covenant really searching for?

The answers to these questions are told right here: Halo – The Flood.

The UNSC spaceship Pillar of Autumn arrives at the gigantic ring world, Halo, after a desperate escape from the Covenant-invaded planet Reach, and is forced to crash land on the structure's surface.

The Covenant, for which the ring is a sacred artifact, set out to cleanse Halo from the taint of the human survivors. But the Covenant are not the greatest threat the crew of the Pillar of Autumn will encounter. Buried deep within Halo, another enemy has been waiting for millenia, and now it has been set free...

Halo – The Flood not only re-tells the story of the critically acclaimed game Halo: Combat Evolved, the first part of an epic trilogy, but it sheds light on many events the players didn't experience themselves. What did the other survivors of the Pillar of Autumn do in the meantime, and how did they avoid getting slaughtered by the Covenant? How did Sgt. Johnson survive the attack of the Flood, and how did he and other crewmen escape from the Halo ring before it was destroyed? What were the Covenant really searching for?

The answers to these questions are told right here: Halo – The Flood.

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant war, UNSC Admiral Preston Cole enacted the United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1, colloquially known as “the Cole Protocol.” Its content is as simple as it is vital for the survival of mankind: in the event of any human installation being attacked by the Covenant, they are to destroy any and all navigation databases, star charts, and other information that could reveal the location of Earth and other colony worlds to the genocidal aliens.

The Cole Protocol is strictly enforced by the whole UNSC, but the Insurrectionists do not see themselves as part of the UNSC anymore...

At the edge of the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continue to glass human-occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling rocks into a tenuous yet ingenious settlement known as The Rubble. They still possess navigation databases that could lead the Covenant to Earth, and renegade Covenant are closing in!

In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant war, UNSC Admiral Preston Cole enacted the United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1, colloquially known as “the Cole Protocol.” Its content is as simple as it is vital for the survival of mankind: in the event of any human installation being attacked by the Covenant, they are to destroy any and all navigation databases, star charts, and other information that could reveal the location of Earth and other colony worlds to the genocidal aliens.

The Cole Protocol is strictly enforced by the whole UNSC, but the Insurrectionists do not see themselves as part of the UNSC anymore...

At the edge of the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, a gas giant surrounded by a vast asteroid belt. As the Covenant continue to glass human-occupied planets near Hesiod, many of the survivors, helped by a stronghold of human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to the asteroid belt for refuge. They have transformed the tumbling rocks into a tenuous yet ingenious settlement known as The Rubble. They still possess navigation databases that could lead the Covenant to Earth, and renegade Covenant are closing in!

The formerly top-secret Spartan-II program has gone public. Tales of these super-soldiers fending of countless Covenant attacks have become the stuff of legend. But just how many Spartans are left?

In a desperate attempt to buy a little more time in the Covenant's genocidal war against humanity, an ultrasecret cell within the Office of Naval Intelligence, only known as „Section Three“, devises the new Spartan-III program. Super-soldiers almost on par with their legendary successors, the Spartan-IIs, yet cheaper, easier and quicker to train, and not drawn from a limited pool of genetically and mentally perfect candidates, but from the vast numbers of orphans the Human-Covenant war has created. And, unlike the Spartan-IIs, expendable.

The planet Onyx is virtually abandoned, and thus the perfect place to set the Spartan-III program in motion. But when the most successful Spartan-II, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, destroys the Halo ring to prevent the destruction of all sentient life in the galaxy, something is triggered deep within Onyx. Ancient technology stirs, created by the mythical yet long-extinct Forerunners, and fleets of UNSC and Covenant race to claim it for themselves. But this re-awakened force, having lain dormantand for hundreds of millenia, has plans of its own...

The Covenant have found Reach! Mankinds largest shipyard and military outpost in the Inner Colonies is attacked by a fleet of more than 300 battleships. Yet the Covenant don't follow their usually strategy of first neutralizing orbital defenses and then proceeding to destroy the planet itself.

A massive Covenant army lands on the surface of Reach, and the aliens have different goals this time. They are searching for something.

Hidden deep in the bowels of Castle Base, a gigantic underground complex of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Dr. Catherine Halsey and a handful of survivors from the Spartan-II Beta Team discover what the Covenant are searching for: the ruins of an ancient race only known as the Forerunners, treated as sacred forefathers and Gods by the Covenant. And as it happens to be, these ruins are located even deeper underground – right below Castle Base.

In the year 2524, the planet Harvest is a peaceful and prosperous agricultural colony at the very edge of human-controlled space. Largely spared from the terrorist attacks of the Insurrectionists, a militant group strifing for independence from the United Nations Space Command, it is this very planet where mankind first encounters the aggressive alien empire known as The Covenant. And it is here where humanity's fight for survival begins in what turns out to be a war lasting nearly three decades.

Despite being a rookie novelist, Joseph Staten is the lead writer and cinematics director of Bungie Studios, the developers of the critically acclaimed and highly successful Halo series. And in his remarkable debut novel Staten not only tells the story of how the war between humans and Covenant started, but also finally explains the reasons behind it.

After all, there has to be a reason for the leader of the Covenant to relay this message to mankind: „You are, all of you, vermin! Cowering in the dirt, thinking... what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No! Your world will burn until its surface is but glass!“

In the year 2524, the planet Harvest is a peaceful and prosperous agricultural colony at the very edge of human-controlled space. Largely spared from the terrorist attacks of the Insurrectionists, a militant group strifing for independence from the United Nations Space Command, it is this very planet where mankind first encounters the aggressive alien empire known as The Covenant. And it is here where humanity's fight for survival begins in what turns out to be a war lasting nearly three decades.

Despite being a rookie novelist, Joseph Staten is the lead writer and cinematics director of Bungie Studios, the developers of the critically acclaimed and highly successful Halo series. And in his remarkable debut novel Staten not only tells the story of how the war between humans and Covenant started, but also finally explains the reasons behind it.

After all, there has to be a reason for the leader of the Covenant to relay this message to mankind: „You are, all of you, vermin! Cowering in the dirt, thinking... what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No! Your world will burn until its surface is but glass!“

Vorbei sind die Zeiten in denen Shrek (Mike Meyers) sich wie ein Oger benehmen konnte. Nun ist er treusorgender Familienvater und Fionas (Cameron Diaz) Ehemann. Und auch wenn er seine Familie heiß und inniglich liebt, so sehnt Shrek sich doch von Tag zu Tag mehr nach den guten, alten Zeiten, in denen er sich noch so richtig nach Ogerslust austoben konnte.

Dieser geheime Wunsch scheint nun tatsächlich in Erfüllung zu gehen, als Shrek eines Tages auf Rumpelstilzchen trifft. Und alles, was Shrek dafür opfern muss, ist ein einziger Tag seines Lebens. Klingt nach einem tollen Geschäft. Doch getreu nach dem Motto „sei vorsichtig, was du dir wünschst – es könnte in Erfüllung gehen“ wird Shrek von Rumpelstilzchen über den Tisch gezogen.

Dieser eine Tag, den Rumpelstilzchen als Bezahlung nahm, war eben jener Tag, an dem Shrek geboren wurde. Und nun ist nichts mehr so, wie es war. Shrek und Esel sind einander nie begegnet, sie haben Fiona nie aus ihrem Turm befreit, Rumpelstilzchen ist jetzt König und er führt Krieg gegen alle Oger. Doch wie immer gibt es auch in dem Vertrag zwischen Rumpelstilzchen und Shrek ein Hintertürchen – aber das muss Shrek erst einmal finden...

Der vierte und vorläufig letzte Teil des Shrek Serie dient als wahrlich krönender Abschluss.

Vorbei sind die Zeiten in denen Shrek (Mike Meyers) sich wie ein Oger benehmen konnte. Nun ist er treusorgender Familienvater und Fionas (Cameron Diaz) Ehemann. Und auch wenn er seine Familie heiß und inniglich liebt, so sehnt Shrek sich doch von Tag zu Tag mehr nach den guten, alten Zeiten, in denen er sich noch so richtig nach Ogerslust austoben konnte.

Dieser geheime Wunsch scheint nun tatsächlich in Erfüllung zu gehen, als Shrek eines Tages auf Rumpelstilzchen trifft. Und alles, was Shrek dafür opfern muss, ist ein einziger Tag seines Lebens. Klingt nach einem tollen Geschäft. Doch getreu nach dem Motto „sei vorsichtig, was du dir wünschst – es könnte in Erfüllung gehen“ wird Shrek von Rumpelstilzchen über den Tisch gezogen.

Dieser eine Tag, den Rumpelstilzchen als Bezahlung nahm, war eben jener Tag, an dem Shrek geboren wurde. Und nun ist nichts mehr so, wie es war. Shrek und Esel sind einander nie begegnet, sie haben Fiona nie aus ihrem Turm befreit, Rumpelstilzchen ist jetzt König und er führt Krieg gegen alle Oger. Doch wie immer gibt es auch in dem Vertrag zwischen Rumpelstilzchen und Shrek ein Hintertürchen – aber das muss Shrek erst einmal finden...

Der vierte und vorläufig letzte Teil des Shrek Serie dient als wahrlich krönender Abschluss.