So if you've read the chapter you know that the crap has hit the fan hard and is about to go on high speed. This and the next chapter took a lot of work to really organize and layout. Honestly, probably should’ve got in on paper, but I’m desperate to get this story squared away. Probably not helping myself since the current news cycle is making me super stressed. Welcome to my attempt at self-care by talking about my process! Come with me on magical mystery tour of this first half of the culmination of so many storylines!
And things really start spiraling in the chapter after next too!
Eridanus Secundus: First and foremost, I hate writing that name. It sounds nice to say, but its impossible to shorten in any fashion. I ended up just calling it the asteroid or station, generic but at least I don’t have to write the whole thing out. However, I needed to go here because, for once, this is adapting something from the canon and not me making most of the story up originally. While I’d never go TO the asteroid station, it’s at least a cool backdrop and also a really cool returning location in a sense. This is the site of the Master Chief’s first real mission.
The Asteroid also allowed me to bring in pre-Covenant Halo lore into things again. As well as have some Insurrectionists that aren’t openly hostile for once. I can’t always make them unreasonable murdering assholes. Sure, I have no sympathy for them, unlike a certain awful show that is now finally dead, but they’re like this for a reason and I don’t want to pretend the UNSC is perfect. So the Innies here are jerks, but they won’t shoot you at the drop of a hat like the ones we’ve run across.
For example, Governor Jiles, the thing I remembered most about him from the book was him being a bit of a dick. And how hard it was to get him to be neighborly for the damaged ship that stumbled into the area. However, he’s not wrong to be a little suspicious and unsure about his guest. His predecessor WAS black bagged and the guy who did it is literally on the ship in question. I did actually enjoy writing an asshole like Jiles without him being just a sacrificial lamb in the end. Although he might’ve ended up that way if my original plans had panned out.
More on that later.
Overall, I just appreciated not having to think up a location for once but have one provided me. Adaptation is easier than trying to come up with something original. Not that I don’t love the creative process, but it makes getting a chapter out a lot simpler if you don’t have to come up with a bunch of new locations. More so if you don’t actually have to go to said location, you’re just next to it.
Cerberus Sleepers: Let’s stop beating around the bush, this is what you guys want to hear me talk about. Cerberus infiltrated Eridanus Secundus, using it as a means to keep an eye on Insurrectionist activity and to have an outpost of their own this far out. It was a long shot, but they presumed Shepard and the Normandy could show up here based on the scant information they had about future events in the Halo Universe. They didn’t really think their shot in the dark was going to work out, but when it did they moved quickly to act. Maybe too quickly, because as you can see it was not exactly the most subtle operation. But when has Cerberus ever done anything subtle?
You can probably also chalk up how they’re operating to a number of other factors. The Covenant potentially being on the way, the carrier isn’t intending to stay long, and the fact Shepard is literally right there and if they act fast they can take him out of the equation. The only reason they didn’t jump him from the second they saw him was because they were waiting for the go-ahead from command.
That’s right, as will be made clear in-story later, the Ceberus Cell within ONI was in contact with this Sleeper Cell. So now they know that Shepard knows they’re around. Maybe not all the details of course, but enough to adjust their plans going forward. So that’s going to be a problem.
Honestly, this element of the story changed a lot as I understood how this chapter was going to be structured. It was only going to be one or a few Cerberus agents making a nuisance of themselves. But it became increasingly obvious this wouldn’t work. With the Jackals about to secede from the Flotilla, I needed the Cebrerus-ONI Agents to pose a greater threat for a number of reasons. Chief among them, if I wasn’t having the Jackals use lethal force in their heist/escape plan, I needed to increase the danger the UNSC were facing from someone. That way the actions of the Jackals would still be pretty hard to forgive, since they were taking advantage of a crap situation. I also needed the Cerberus Sleepers to be a bigger problem in general and I couldn’t do that with just a few guys. They could be stopped more easily in that case. They needed to be a threat in general that could conceivably cause significant problems that force the decisions the characters need to make next.
I can justify this though, as this was a years long operation on the part of Cerberus and ONI. They slowly infiltrated the asteroid over the years with new arrivals, or turned a number of residents to their cause. It took a long time of course, but they were successful enough that they had a lot of willing agents. Maybe not all of them are as fanatical, but they’re in deep enough they aren’t going to abandon the cause at this point.
I did my best to use Greek Mythological References, specifically in terms of Underworld related stories. It’s not easy, you really have to dig for the best references that make the most sense. Honestly, I feel I could’ve done better naming a few things. Perhaps I should invest in a big book of Greek Myths for the future.
It’s nice to finally have Cerberus active in the story proper now. It was a long time setting up, but we finally have some human antagonists for Shepard, Chief and Friends to square off against. I was wondering if people had forgotten they were around or if they believed they weren’t going to show up again after so long. But I don’t plan out loose ends, not intentionally anyway. I’m a firm believer in planting and payoff. I just hope I managed the latter.
Persephone: It’s not her real name, but it was easier than just calling her “Lead Cerberus Agent.” I had planned on making the enemy agent for this chapter a woman to begin with, so little changed there. My introduction of her though was greatly altered, if only to try and maximize the shock.
When I had Caleb be a double agent, I hid his motives behind being an agreeable, friendly dude. Persephone wasn’t going to go that way. Her boss was there to be a completely horrible jerk to her to garner a sense of sympathy for her and suggest maybe Shepard can make a connection to this woman who is clearly in a bad working position. Instead, she outright rejects every hand offered and berates not just Shepard himself but his world view. I was concerned a bit that I was making it too obvious, but my editor, Crow, seemed to think that it was just more Insurrectionist Jerkassery shining through. Well, given how Kwan was on that stupid show, it’s not far off. But unlike there, Persephone’s petulance had a purpose.
Persephone wasn’t intending to stay nice for long. She was just waiting for her moment to strike. And the second she got it, anything left of her mask dropped away. Her killing her boss was actually fairly satisfying, even if she’s a crazed terrorist zealot. Orland was just a despicable person, so seeing him die the way he did was a joy to write. I think I wrote the whole scene as fast as I did purely so I could watch him die really.
A little bit about Persephone’s backstory. For one, that’s not her real name. She isn’t even named Persys. It’s just a deep cover codename, one that I’ve decided Cerberus uses a lot for its female operatives. She’s also, as pointed out, not from the Mass Effect universe. No, she’s from the Halo universe, recruited from ONI’s ranks by the Sleeper Cell. Frankly it makes sense Cerberus would find a lot of potential footsoldiers here. Persephone herself is younger, probably watched her homeworld get glassed as a teenager and it left her vulnerable to being radicalized. Given how the war is going, I don’t think there’s a shortage xeno-hating humans who feel a desire to get back at the aliens who ruined their lives. And with the promise of not just beating the Covenant, but conquering them, it becomes even easier to turn some of these people around.
Persephone hates Shepard because of everything she’s learned about him. An alien lover, a traitor to the organization that brought him back to life, part of the reason the original Cerberus back in the ME Universe compromised itself, someone with too much idealism and not enough ruthlessness. She sees him as an infection that needs to be cut out. It’s why she’s so determined to black bag him. However, her entire plan is really just a re-adjusted version of the “Take Over the Asteroid” contingency. They really just put this thing together really fast as soon as they saw the Normandy flying around. They hadn’t expected the unique circumstances and had a very small window of opportunity. So if Persephone’s actions feel incredibly rushed and reckless, it’s only because this plan is a real hail mary. I think her bosses back on Earth only ended up approving it because the Covenant were on their way and the Asteroid was deemed a loss. Might as well get something out of it.
Persephone ultimately is just a glimpse into what Cerberus has become while paired up with ONI. We’ll be seeing more of them soon enough. I’ll talk more about her specifically in the next chapter though. To close out her section, I’ll freely admit calling her Persephone was mainly because there aren’t many women connected to Ancient Greece Underworld stories. I figured, goddess of spring, goes to underworld, depictions of her actually WANTING that, there’s some double agent connotations there. Also she’s in a position of authority, just as Persephone is down there. She is the queen after all.
Halsey Ditches: Halsey leaving wasn’t planned. I have to admit this, I honestly forgot she leaves in the book and heads to Onyx. I also forgot she kidnapped Kelly. It’s been years, okay? I’ve forgotten a ton of details and summaries don’t always give out all of them. I was happy to be reminded of these details though as I was researching the events of the battle and had a lot of people ask questions about what I was going to do concerning Onyx. Which, I also admit, I have never read. However, it actually worked out to my benefit.
Halsey leaving meant I didn’t have to come up with a flimsy excuse for why she’d just let the Jackals get away with those highly valuable relics. I didn’t have to have her lose a fight, or get out smarted, or be unable to call for help, none of that. She just let’s them take the relics. Why? Well in the original book she had Locklear attempt to destroy one because it was going to kill everyone with its radiation. She probably doesn’t want them on the ship anyway because she sees them as dangerous, even if they’re reduced in deadly nature as a result of them all being together. Mostly though, Zek stealing the relics is just an additional distraction to assist in her escape.
Unfortunately she can’t get her hands on Kelly this go around, so that’s changed. But in any case, Halsey is going to be long gone by the time anyone realizes what she’s doing. And it means I don’t have to concern myself anymore with at least one character in an already bloated cast. So in general, it worked out on a number of levels, made things more dire for our heroes, easier for Zek, and didn’t detract from anything else I had planned anyway.
I did have to do the scene between Chief and Halsey though, that was always planned to set up Johnson’s greater importance to the proceedings in future installments. Also, it’s in the book so I wasn’t just going to ignore that. At least this way I could finally do a little discussion about the nature of Chief’s relationship with the good doctor before she finally exited stage left. Long overdue really, but there are so many moving parts in this story to begin with.
The Mob Rules: This was a huge moment I was setting up for years now. The secession of the alliance between Zek and the UNSC. While I never intended it to be a violent secession, I had to make it a bitter and cruel one. Enough to sour relations and make things problematic in future chapters. There were a lot of changes though, the nature of the secession, how exactly its executed, who is involved and in what capacity... and the Batarians. Originally, they were supposed to side with Zek and Varvok would help them. But as Varvok’s character changed and grew over time, that suddenly made no sense. So instead, he’s left out of the loop and the consequences of that will be explored soon enough.
What didn’t change though was the kick off. You may have thought BBR was just a fun little way to stick my favorite songs in the story. And to explore the Lower Decks of the narrative now and then in its spin off. All of that is true, but BBR always served as a greater plot point, as a means to signal the Jackals to secede and to do so in a way that would hamper UNSC operations at a critical time. And the signal I chose was the song “The Mob Rules” by Black Sabbath.
The moment was always clear in my mind. Black Sabbath playing as things are going to hell. Jackals ambush Marines, capture security officers, seize the armory and lock off parts of the ship. They go nearly full pirate in all ways except lethally. Why? Well, a few reasons we can discuss later, but mostly it’s because they’re not trying to make enemies here. They’re just quitting the alliance and taking whatever they want while they do it.
But why this song? “The Mob Rules” just evokes this imagery for me, of a mass of people striking back, the regular status quo upended, law and order completely fallen away as anarchy reigns. And the confusion, hurt and breaking apart of what was up until then normal for everyone that this secession brought? It fit the song to a T.
So much so I ended up actually using a lyric from it to name the chapter after. That wasn’t planned, it just became necessary when my original title fit the next chapter better. But the chosen title really seemed to fit. As the song says, if you listen to fools, the Mob rules. Persephone had to listen to a fool for years while undercover, and she also believes the foolish promises Cerberus has presented her. Zek, meanwhile is a pretty big fool in his own right. and everyone is listening to him. So the chapter title pretty much lays out how we’ve gotten to this terrible situation overall.
I really liked how this all came out. Finally, at last, I did one of the big scenes I’ve been planning for years. And we got more coming up soon. The culmination of so much planning is finally paying off, dear readers. I hope you’ll stay with me just a little longer to see it all come to fruition. Until then, see you guys around!
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