00:00:00:04 - 00:00:00:19 Speaker 1 So. 00:00:00:19 - 00:00:03:00 Speaker 2 Stupid. It's. It's fucking stupid. 00:00:03:19 - 00:00:07:09 Speaker 1 Huh? So fucking stupid. Yeah. You know what's not stupid? 00:00:07:28 - 00:00:08:14 Speaker 3 What's that? 00:00:09:09 - 00:00:12:25 Speaker 1 Hey there, buddy. Welcome to Pixelate. 00:00:13:15 - 00:00:23:20 Speaker 2 I never know if you're going to. I could. Sometimes I think I was like, Oh, that would be a good opening for Kevin to do it as he think he's going to. And you give it sometimes a long enough pause that I'm like, Oh, okay. 00:00:23:22 - 00:00:27:15 Speaker 1 Do you thinking of moving on? And then I hit you with it. 00:00:27:21 - 00:00:29:24 Speaker 3 There's hit you with it. 00:00:31:20 - 00:00:59:12 Speaker 1 Welcome back to Fix It. My name is Kevin Goodman, as always and still. And today on the show, we're starting a brand new book. Yes, Halo, The Rubicon Protocol, which is a prequel to Halo Infinite. Look at that. Look at that book. And we're just going to say say right up front that this episode and the following few episodes on this book. 00:01:00:04 - 00:01:24:00 Speaker 1 This is courtesy of the publisher of the book. We received these copies of the book gratis. So we want to be upfront about that, and that would not color our views of the book one way or the other. But we want to make sure you, the audience knows that. Yeah, we didn't pay a goddamn thing for this book. 00:01:25:00 - 00:01:27:14 Speaker 2 But as we've said, the best we can be bought. 00:01:27:25 - 00:01:42:18 Speaker 1 We can. We can be bought. No, there's been other books that we've read for free during this series. And hey, we've been pretty mean to those books. So yeah, whether we get it for free or not is not really something that. 00:01:43:07 - 00:01:48:19 Speaker 2 Goes out, knows we can be bought, but not for, you know, to trade publications. You know, it's. 00:01:48:21 - 00:01:50:13 Speaker 1 It's not free to trade paperbacks. 00:01:50:23 - 00:01:52:02 Speaker 2 Not really worth it to us. 00:01:52:15 - 00:02:03:14 Speaker 1 But this is a tie in to Halo Infinite Halo Infinite was released, I want to say around this time last year almost. 00:02:03:14 - 00:02:03:19 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:02:03:19 - 00:02:29:20 Speaker 1 It was actually towards the end of the year. Yeah. First and Halo Infinite is just, it's the most recent game in the Halo series. You could call it Halo six, even though it's like Halo 30 in terms of the number of Halo games that have come out in the years. And it is a unlike the other Halo games, it's an open world Halo experience. 00:02:29:20 - 00:02:50:24 Speaker 1 I have not played it. I'm actually considering picking it up. I have to I still have to kind of fight. I have done I've played one in reach. So I have a I have a lot of halo to catch up on even though we've read This will be our third Halo book. But yeah, it was pretty well received. 00:02:50:24 - 00:03:10:06 Speaker 1 It was it's it's the latest in the three for three industries verse of Halo who three for Three Industries took over the franchise after Bungie absconded away to make destiny and and the like. 00:03:10:20 - 00:03:12:16 Speaker 2 Become destiny machines basics. 00:03:12:16 - 00:03:23:06 Speaker 1 And make to be the destiny machines. And now to be owned by Sony which is just a weird. I still don't it's it's still weird. 00:03:23:21 - 00:03:26:23 Speaker 3 It's still weird because. 00:03:26:23 - 00:03:36:07 Speaker 2 We're old enough to remember, like, the grand opening of Halo, you know, of like, yeah, this, this new upstart, you know, a. 00:03:36:13 - 00:03:43:24 Speaker 1 Company that was acquired by Microsoft. Yeah. From under the noses of Apple. Like that whole. 00:03:43:24 - 00:03:46:19 Speaker 2 Thing. Yeah, it was a big deal. 00:03:47:00 - 00:04:08:16 Speaker 1 Apple was going to get into the gaming industry with. With, with halo and halo combat evolved was going to be their killer, you know, killer game. That was going to be, you know, an Apple exclusive. And Microsoft said, hey, that's a nice game. You got. There would be a shame if somebody stole it. 00:04:09:23 - 00:04:12:01 Speaker 2 And it totally worked. Like, that's that's. 00:04:12:12 - 00:04:22:06 Speaker 1 It totally worked. And Steve Jobs said never again and basically gave up on gaming on Apple forever. You know, he just didn't he just did not care anymore after. 00:04:22:07 - 00:04:42:08 Speaker 2 No, after that. And it's and it's and it was an and it was a legendary enough. I mean, this it carried the Xbox for a very, very long time. Like, yeah, you have to wonder it. Would we be in like, you know, because as far as the PlayStation versus Microsoft argument is concerned, Nintendo was not really in that war. 00:04:42:09 - 00:04:56:25 Speaker 2 Nintendo is their own thing. They've got their own universe there. But you got to wonder, would we be in a Apple versus Sony versus Microsoft world in consoles if if they had released Halo or would Halo be. 00:04:58:00 - 00:05:21:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, go ahead. Because we're I mean, we're at the time in the late nineties, early 2000s. We're in a time where Apple is they're kind of starting a little bit of a comeback. They had just Steve Jobs had just returned to the company after Apple had acquired his old his the company that he started after he left Apple, which was a high end workstation. 00:05:21:01 - 00:05:44:23 Speaker 1 So Apple at the time was kind of becoming known for being a professional's workstation type of computer. It had the power and if they had made a really dedicated push to being, yeah, it's a powerful machine, it can run it. It could be your gaming machine, too. I mean, I think maybe we start to see a little bit of a different the I think the early 2000 play out in a slightly different way. 00:05:45:01 - 00:05:51:19 Speaker 1 I don't know if Apple continues down that path, but it's an interesting it's an interesting thought experiment. 00:05:51:28 - 00:06:24:22 Speaker 2 Absolutely. You know, there's a part of me that wonders if Halo wouldn't have ended up being like, think of a game that nowadays we look at as incredibly positive and like a groundbreaking game, but one that wasn't appreciated in in its time. You know, what would Halo be like one of those games you know. Yeah that that didn't didn't get its fair due but we live in the timeline where it's this Titanic it is this thing. 00:06:25:00 - 00:06:43:28 Speaker 1 Yeah. It really shaped the way first person shooters were made for a fairly long time. I mean it's, it's, you know, it's, it's your, your halos and yeah. Or in the early nineties and we can talk about the history of first person shooters all day. But you know, in the early 19. 00:06:43:28 - 00:06:45:00 Speaker 2 Seventies we made have. 00:06:45:01 - 00:07:15:20 Speaker 1 ID software, you know, you have your ID and the children of ID and all the games that are inspired by ID, you know, you have your doom and then you have your Duke Nukem and your, you have your, your Raven software making things like hexane and Arctic and you have all that stuff. And hey, that sounds like a good idea for a podcast to talk about mid-tier shooters, listenable time folks, sometime next year. 00:07:15:20 - 00:07:43:09 Speaker 1 But anyway, Halo Infinite is the latest release. It's gotten mostly positive reviews and the basic plot is Master Chief. It was on the internet when the infinite gets blown to smithereens and he's just floating out in space for six months and they pick him up and they resuscitate him because he's a goddamn master chief and he can live in the vacuum of space for six months. 00:07:43:09 - 00:07:43:28 Speaker 1 Sure. Why not? 00:07:44:06 - 00:07:45:09 Speaker 2 Doesn't mean squat to him. 00:07:45:15 - 00:08:02:04 Speaker 1 Doesn't mean squat to him. But yeah, they were the the unseen, infinite was on its way to Halo Zeta to take on Cortana and her guardians when they drop out of sleep space and oops, all banished. 00:08:03:06 - 00:08:05:23 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:08:05:23 - 00:08:12:08 Speaker 1 And that's that's also wouldn't you know it where this book picks up it's the exact same scene. 00:08:13:05 - 00:08:19:06 Speaker 2 And it's it's it's kind of fascinating because you know, you think about it we're jumping ahead here. We were doing we're. 00:08:19:06 - 00:08:25:24 Speaker 1 Jumping so far ahead in the in the halo verse. I mean, we were on the flood and now we're on the latest book. 00:08:26:04 - 00:08:26:14 Speaker 3 Right. 00:08:26:27 - 00:08:46:25 Speaker 2 Right. But but it works in a way because and we're going to get into all that. But it it is kind of a self contained story slash universe kind of thing that we're about to get into here. So, yeah, it shouldn't it shouldn't befuddle too many people, although what is befuddlement? 00:08:46:25 - 00:09:00:09 Speaker 1 Really, what is befuddlement anyway? Just some confusion, persevering. What? I didn't say anything. 00:09:00:09 - 00:09:01:16 Speaker 2 Where are we? I smell toast. 00:09:01:16 - 00:09:05:28 Speaker 1 Where we. So can you tell me a little bit about Kelly? Gay. 00:09:06:08 - 00:09:48:14 Speaker 2 Kelly gay. She is the author of Halo The Rubicon Protocol. And this is actually her third Halo book. She's been writing Halo books since 2017, one every two years, Halo, Smoke and Shadow, Halo, Renegades and now Halo. Oh, sorry. And Halo Point of light. Last year, this is her fourth one, Rubicon. And she is it's kind of fascinating, to be completely honest, because she is primarily an urban fantasy author, which is this very popular genre these days, especially among the white crowd. 00:09:48:14 - 00:10:07:02 Speaker 2 And she does do a little wire, but she does a lot of adult stuff, too. And I've always admired Urban Fantasy, even though it's not exactly my genre, I see it as kind of like the other side of the coin from horror. It's weird. It's out there. It's trying to create a strange universe in your current worlds. 00:10:07:02 - 00:10:10:21 Speaker 1 Is it like magic in present day type stuff? 00:10:10:21 - 00:10:21:00 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah, that kind of thing. Like, you know, you've got a city with trolls in it, kind of almost like shadow run. It doesn't, but. But less cyberpunk. 00:10:21:27 - 00:10:27:09 Speaker 1 Okay, okay. Yeah. Shadow run minus cyberpunk is urban fantasy. 00:10:27:18 - 00:10:28:02 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:10:29:09 - 00:10:53:09 Speaker 2 We'll get a lot of people who will be like, no, no. But like, you know what? Our purposes. Yes, you know, let's not get too precious about this people is not wrong. And that's her thing. And she's really well known for a series called the Charlie Madigan series, which is this alternate reality sort of thing. It takes place in Atlanta. 00:10:53:15 - 00:11:22:27 Speaker 2 Humanity's discovered like different paranormal dimensions. And so you've got all kinds of supernatural beings interacting with people on our planet, and it follows a woman who is both a policewoman and a single mom. And that's another thing you see a lot with with the urban fantasy, there is a very you do get magic and action and dragons and trolls and all that kind of shit, you know, set against an urban background. 00:11:23:26 - 00:11:48:08 Speaker 2 But it also very heavily draws into, you know, people's everyday lives and that sort of gotcha. So it tends to be you can get a lot of light fluff out of it, but you get a lot of people who take it very, very seriously. And Kelly Gay seems to be one of them. It's surprising when you look at this book and again, we're going to get into this here soon. 00:11:48:18 - 00:12:10:11 Speaker 2 But knowing that that's her genre of choice kind of fascinates me with covering a sci fi military universe like Halo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It requires a level of versatility that I think would be daunting for most people. But this is her fourth Halo book, so she knows what she's doing. 00:12:10:17 - 00:12:28:02 Speaker 1 Very comfortable, it seems, in being in this universe, which is, oh, which is neat. You know what I just thought of? I just realized the thing that just popped in my mind for Urban Fantasy, which is a terrible example, is that Dell movie Brite written by them. 00:12:28:02 - 00:12:29:17 Speaker 2 Yeah, they were shitty. 00:12:30:01 - 00:12:41:12 Speaker 1 Shitty human being. Max What's his last name? My dad killed some people. Max Oh, my dad killed some people. 00:12:41:20 - 00:12:50:01 Speaker 2 My dad. My dad is. Is an unforgivable monster and a piece of shit who was responsible for the death of a child and two. 00:12:50:01 - 00:12:51:21 Speaker 1 Children and grandchildren. 00:12:51:21 - 00:12:54:13 Speaker 2 Actor Yeah suck John by. 00:12:54:13 - 00:12:56:01 Speaker 1 That by the name of. 00:12:56:01 - 00:12:57:00 Speaker 2 Wrinkled asshole. 00:12:57:21 - 00:13:13:28 Speaker 1 Two Vietnamese children, I believe. And Vic Morrow. Yeah. So just Google that, you know, if you want to we're not we're not lying here John Landis is that he did a thing and it killed Vic Morrow and two kids. 00:13:14:05 - 00:13:17:02 Speaker 2 And apparently Max Landis isn't is that much? 00:13:17:04 - 00:13:22:12 Speaker 1 Max Landis is a huge piece of shit. So the shit doesn't fall far from the shit tree. Exactly. 00:13:22:16 - 00:13:25:01 Speaker 2 As far as we know, he hasn't killed anyone at least. 00:13:25:03 - 00:13:28:00 Speaker 1 Yeah. I wonder how litigious they are. Anyway, we'll find out. 00:13:29:09 - 00:13:34:09 Speaker 2 Join us next week and find out. 00:13:34:09 - 00:13:36:20 Speaker 3 But we'll see to. 00:13:37:14 - 00:13:53:10 Speaker 2 To answer your question. Yes, actually, I would. Bright. Bright is a piss poor urban fantasy. Urban fantasy. It's a piss poor urban fantasy. It's a good example of of a neutral. 00:13:53:10 - 00:13:54:04 Speaker 1 Bad urban. 00:13:54:04 - 00:13:56:24 Speaker 2 Fantasy. Bad, but a bad movie. Yes. 00:13:56:28 - 00:13:57:09 Speaker 3 Yes. 00:13:59:02 - 00:14:06:26 Speaker 1 And you know what? Just watching that that might actually slide into that is where I was catching up on a show called Lock and Key. 00:14:07:11 - 00:14:08:12 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, I've read the. 00:14:08:12 - 00:14:36:11 Speaker 1 Context for that. Yeah. Yeah. On Netflix and my wife is really into it. So and season three just came out. So I've been catching up on, on season two and you know, it's set in a small Massachusetts town and magic, it's basically only the kids know that magic exists. And there's something there's like a barrier at adulthood that forces you to forget that it exists, that they really haven't gotten into the why that needs to be the case. 00:14:36:11 - 00:14:47:14 Speaker 1 But I have seen some hints. But yeah, I, I could see that, that falling into that genre it's definitely that. Why a feeling as well. 00:14:47:26 - 00:14:55:28 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how they do to the show but yeah the Joe Hill Stephen King's kid wrote that and oh. 00:14:55:28 - 00:14:57:05 Speaker 1 That makes a lot of sense now. 00:14:57:06 - 00:15:00:12 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. He's a great solid writer. 00:15:00:26 - 00:15:03:06 Speaker 1 Right down to right down to a New England setting. 00:15:03:18 - 00:15:07:29 Speaker 2 Exactly. He he exercised some level of restraint and kept it out of man. 00:15:08:22 - 00:15:17:19 Speaker 1 So he's like, you know what? They're going to all get there. They're all going to think it's going to be in Maine. I'm going to move it to states over to Massachusetts. 00:15:17:25 - 00:15:19:03 Speaker 2 Their minds. 00:15:20:19 - 00:15:24:03 Speaker 1 Oh, wow. I did not know that. That's that's Stephen King's kid. 00:15:24:14 - 00:15:26:03 Speaker 2 Yeah. He's all over the place. 00:15:26:08 - 00:15:30:25 Speaker 1 And he goes he goes he doesn't go by his is his dad's name. 00:15:30:25 - 00:15:45:16 Speaker 2 No, no. He try I don't know if it's specifically because he was trying to distance himself from his dad, but it's kind of like it's kind of just it's it's not a secret that it's pretty well known that he's he's is. 00:15:45:22 - 00:15:48:27 Speaker 1 Oh, I just looked up a picture of him and God damn it. Yeah. 00:15:49:12 - 00:15:50:25 Speaker 2 He's got a lot of his dad in that face. 00:15:50:27 - 00:16:00:00 Speaker 1 He's got a lot. He is he is his father in a very intense way. He is his dad. 00:16:00:00 - 00:16:30:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, very much so. And seems to have his work ethic as well because the man is also a graphic maniac. He he writes comics, he writes TV shows and film and a lot of short stories, a lot of books. He's he's all over the place and very talented. But, you know, and I will say, as a as a, you know, a big horror fan who has, you know, read a lot of Stephen King and a fair amount of Joe Hill not I don't see a lot of his dad in his writing. 00:16:30:06 - 00:16:38:15 Speaker 2 Yeah. And that's not a bad thing for the for the record. Like he's he's got his own voice going and it's, it's it's pretty great all on its own. 00:16:38:15 - 00:16:54:00 Speaker 1 So yeah, apparently they've collaborated a couple of times, but interesting. Yeah. Hill was his is his middle name. Oh, I don't know. It's like Carter. It's Joseph HELLSTRÖM King or something. 00:16:54:00 - 00:16:55:19 Speaker 2 Oh, good call. 00:16:56:09 - 00:16:57:04 Speaker 3 Good change. 00:16:57:19 - 00:17:01:15 Speaker 2 The change, Joe. 00:17:01:15 - 00:17:10:00 Speaker 1 But yeah, interesting. So a lot of a lot of stuff to talk about. We haven't even gotten into the book yet. 00:17:10:06 - 00:17:12:06 Speaker 2 I know this is a this is a big one. 00:17:12:27 - 00:17:36:23 Speaker 1 This is a big one. So, all right. Merge is going to get right into it. This book came out at the beginning of August. We are reading this. We're recording this a couple of weeks after it came out. Y'all aren't hearing this until like, I don't know, late September or something like that. Should be should be October, should be October. 00:17:37:11 - 00:18:04:21 Speaker 1 So there's going to be a little bit of gap. But don't you worry, it should not affect the review one way or the other. No. So here we go. So we start with chapter one. And I actually wanted to make sure this time because a lot of Halo's stuff is very precise on dates and days. So I broke it up, broke them up mostly into the days rather than the chapters for my notes. 00:18:05:15 - 00:18:29:06 Speaker 1 Oh, that's just going to cause just because it felt like it's going to try and get together in timeline. So day one chapters wanted to happen in day one and we are with the USC flagship Infiniti has been ambushed by the banished when they exited slip space above Zeta halo and we the first character we meet is Spartan Stone and we meet her. 00:18:29:06 - 00:18:53:01 Speaker 1 She is holding up like a bulkhead that has has collapsed and is just waiting for people to get through this area so that they can get to the to the lifeboats. And she's about to go when she sees a medic, like a dazed medic, kind of like walk through the hallway. He probably has some smoke inhalation issues, whatever. 00:18:53:01 - 00:19:24:06 Speaker 1 And she's like, get up, you know, you got to go. If you can hold this box, if I can hold this bulkhead, you can walk. So she she gets him to go and she she escorts him to the lifeboats. She throws him into one of the lifeboats. It's very similar to the opening of Halo, the first game where you have a Spartan like Master Chief, basically throwing somebody into a lifeboat and then getting into his own. 00:19:24:18 - 00:19:26:29 Speaker 2 I know you're absolutely right. I never thought about that. 00:19:26:29 - 00:19:55:28 Speaker 1 So there's some parallels here. And it was kind of start with the destruction of a big U.S. ship, both start with focused on a single Spartan, escorting somebody to a lifeboat and getting off the ship. So, yeah, she she gets it. She throws him into one of them, she gets into the other lifeboat and they take off and it is chaos out in and out there. 00:19:55:28 - 00:20:20:19 Speaker 1 You know, it is there's just there's fighters everywhere. There's some Spartans that are flying, you know, doing some of the dogfighting out there. There's some Spartans that are still on the ship fighting off boarding parties. It's it's just straight up bananas. And so stone is on one lifeboat. There's on the other lifeboat is Lieutenant Murphy, who had to look up. 00:20:20:19 - 00:20:34:15 Speaker 1 And Lieutenant Murphy was like, oh, when he was introduced in the back of my head, it was treated as if he needed some sort of like like the audience. Like give a round of applause for Lieutenant Murphy. 00:20:34:15 - 00:20:38:21 Speaker 2 That was the same thing when they introduced him. It was in a way that I was just like, Should I know who he is? 00:20:38:21 - 00:20:44:09 Speaker 1 It's like the applause sign is flashing and it looks it up. And his first appearance is in Halo four. 00:20:44:09 - 00:20:46:05 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, been around. 00:20:46:11 - 00:20:47:16 Speaker 2 He's been around for a little while. 00:20:48:10 - 00:21:17:27 Speaker 1 So they're piloting to the so they're piloting their respective ships to the surface. Murphy's ship is hit, though, and they lose contact and the only other notes that I have for chapter one is that the only evacuate, the only two Spartans from that specific team Stone's team is her and another Spartan named Koven. Yeah, they're the only two evacuating. 00:21:17:27 - 00:21:28:23 Speaker 1 The rest were staying on the ship. And the purpose of the mission was to stop Cortana. Yeah. And that's, that's pretty much the entirety of chapter one. Yeah. 00:21:28:25 - 00:21:31:09 Speaker 2 And it's, it's just, it's a dense. 00:21:31:09 - 00:22:00:12 Speaker 1 You into it, it launches you right into it. It's yeah it's in media rez like just sirens blaring fires are are firing. Chapter two We flipped perspectives and we now are from Coven the other Spartans point of view and it's a pretty fucking awesome scene. She gets into one of the the drop pods. Everybody else is getting on lifeboats. 00:22:00:12 - 00:22:13:23 Speaker 1 She gets into one of the drop pads and the drop pods are basically I remember from I believe it was the flood. The drop pod is basically like a bullet. Yeah. Single person bullet being shot to this. 00:22:13:23 - 00:22:18:03 Speaker 2 You can melt yourself alive. And one of them if everything doesn't go completely right. 00:22:19:13 - 00:22:46:16 Speaker 1 So she gets in one of these drop pods and and shoots off and she sees a banished phantom chasing down one of the lifeboats and she aims her drop pod to hit the phantom and pin it into the ground. And then she gets out of the drop pod boards the phantom, and kills everybody inside and. 00:22:49:01 - 00:22:49:07 Speaker 3 It's. 00:22:49:12 - 00:22:50:03 Speaker 2 It's pretty bad. 00:22:50:09 - 00:23:20:06 Speaker 1 It's pretty bad at the moment. So this is like the introduction to these two Spartans that we're getting. And then she she hops out of it and she meets up with the lifeboat that she had just she basically just saved. And there's, there's a marine fire team and a couple of people in lifeboat. And there's, there's one guy in the lifeboat who is name his name's Bender and yeah. 00:23:20:07 - 00:23:24:22 Speaker 2 I couldn't stop thinking about that. 00:23:24:22 - 00:23:51:15 Speaker 1 His name is Bender. And here's the thing. If you're naming your character Bender, you're doing it intentionally as a callback to several characters in in film and animation history who are name Bender. It's two. You can't just name Bender. It's two distinct name to be like. And he's just he's just like this straitlaced dude and he's not going. 00:23:51:15 - 00:23:51:27 Speaker 3 To. 00:23:52:27 - 00:23:54:04 Speaker 1 Be anything interesting. 00:23:54:15 - 00:23:58:08 Speaker 2 Nothing unusual about him. Bender. 00:23:59:05 - 00:24:04:02 Speaker 3 Boca, Johnny, you're. 00:24:04:26 - 00:24:06:12 Speaker 2 It's a it's a rebellious. 00:24:06:14 - 00:24:35:10 Speaker 1 If you don't know what I mean. Yeah. If you don't know it. I mean, there's two, there's two benders there. There's, there's bender from the breakfast Club and there's Bender from Futurama, and they're both pretty memorable characters. This Bender described like he's like this well-built marine is actually a barber. He's a barber. 00:24:35:11 - 00:24:36:15 Speaker 2 Yeah. What? 00:24:37:06 - 00:24:37:20 Speaker 3 Okay. 00:24:38:00 - 00:24:52:24 Speaker 2 Well, all right, look, we're going to get into a lot of stuff here. We're going to get a lot. And I think it's very cool that we meet characters who are barbers and will meet Will meet like all will meet retail people and like like the the. 00:24:52:24 - 00:24:54:22 Speaker 3 Unsung heroes. 00:24:55:03 - 00:25:11:23 Speaker 2 Of humanity in Halo that that that you don't normally get to see. But Bender the barber that's a that's a choice that was made. And I can't I can't get it out of my head. It literally drove me crazy. 00:25:11:24 - 00:25:17:27 Speaker 1 It's such a strong choice. It is a very bold choice, Scott. And let's see how it pays off. 00:25:18:12 - 00:25:19:06 Speaker 3 Yeah, exactly. 00:25:19:19 - 00:25:20:08 Speaker 2 Let's do. 00:25:22:04 - 00:25:46:13 Speaker 1 So. Chapter three. We're now into the following day. We meet, we actually get a name for the medic that Stone saved in chapter one. His name is Lucas Browning, and the ship that he was on crashed into a ravine. Basically, they can't get out there. The ship is wedged into a very confined area and they're in pretty rough shape. 00:25:46:29 - 00:26:12:07 Speaker 1 The several of the Marines that were on the ship are dead. One is dying. And another another person, actually, the remaining people outside of Lieutenant Murphy, I don't think any of them are soldiers. Lucas is a medic. What's your name? Jim begins with a D. 00:26:12:21 - 00:26:13:05 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:26:14:03 - 00:26:23:26 Speaker 1 She's a firefighter, basically. Dimock. Dimock. Dimock is a firefighter. Cam is something. 00:26:24:14 - 00:26:25:29 Speaker 2 You see the mortuary assistant. 00:26:26:10 - 00:26:39:17 Speaker 1 Know that that guy was that guy actually was on the boat with Bender. I got so, so, so hooked on Bender. I forgot to mention there was a mortician on the boat as well named Gavin. Joe. 00:26:39:28 - 00:26:44:07 Speaker 3 That's it. Joe Yeah. 00:26:44:07 - 00:26:53:08 Speaker 1 There's a lot, a lot of fun characters in this book. Yeah. Cam is communications, I think. Yeah. 00:26:53:08 - 00:27:00:19 Speaker 2 So you'll notice that these characters all have very distinct professions and just distinct things. 00:27:00:20 - 00:27:02:14 Speaker 1 Fresh faces and names. 00:27:02:19 - 00:27:21:11 Speaker 2 Yeah, just all kinds of ways to. To make them stand out. Yeah. And develop up. Interestingly enough, even though not all of them are going to be with us throughout the entire book, we still take a little time to get to know them and watch them develop, even if it's only a little bit. 00:27:22:05 - 00:27:22:21 Speaker 1 Even a little. 00:27:22:21 - 00:27:22:27 Speaker 3 Bit. 00:27:23:14 - 00:27:26:23 Speaker 2 I don't I don't know why I felt the need to point that out. Oh, I don't know. 00:27:26:23 - 00:27:29:03 Speaker 3 It's just it's. Mm hmm. 00:27:30:12 - 00:27:39:17 Speaker 1 We're now looking at you, Scott Carson, because you retired quitter. 00:27:39:17 - 00:27:40:13 Speaker 2 Which quitter? 00:27:41:06 - 00:27:41:18 Speaker 3 That's true. 00:27:41:23 - 00:28:12:29 Speaker 1 That's true. Yeah. So they they're in rough shape, and they're they're sending out the mayday calls. And the mayday calls are answered by another Spartan named Thomas Horvath. And so Horvath is making his way to the ship. And one of the things that I love about Horvath and I forget if it's mentioned specifically here, but he has in his eye is tallying how often he swears. 00:28:13:03 - 00:28:13:14 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:28:13:22 - 00:28:14:01 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:28:15:03 - 00:28:21:13 Speaker 2 You're literally they've got a bet going to see who like basically to see who would. 00:28:21:13 - 00:28:23:07 Speaker 1 Or who could swear the least. 00:28:23:07 - 00:28:23:21 Speaker 2 Right. 00:28:24:05 - 00:28:27:23 Speaker 1 Among his team. 00:28:27:23 - 00:28:28:07 Speaker 3 They've got like. 00:28:28:07 - 00:28:30:24 Speaker 2 A built in swear jar for their helmets and their age. 00:28:30:24 - 00:28:31:20 Speaker 3 You know. 00:28:32:21 - 00:28:35:19 Speaker 1 It's he's like he can see the leader. 00:28:35:19 - 00:28:37:00 Speaker 3 Boner, right? 00:28:37:14 - 00:28:41:04 Speaker 1 It is. And I mean that's a nice D to bring. 00:28:41:05 - 00:28:49:19 Speaker 2 Yeah. And every now and you'll forget about it, you'll forget about it. And like, pages later he'll see something. You go shit and you'll hear me like. 00:28:49:19 - 00:28:54:09 Speaker 1 Like a ding goes towards this little thing. 00:28:54:21 - 00:28:58:24 Speaker 2 It's such a fun detail. 00:28:58:24 - 00:29:04:21 Speaker 1 So they're talking but and swerve at is on their way but then there's there's an interruption. 00:29:05:29 - 00:29:06:08 Speaker 3 A. 00:29:07:06 - 00:29:31:17 Speaker 1 Horvath is basically realizes that Lucas Lucas and him are from the same planet, alluvial and alluvial, and was one of the first planets to get glassed by the Covenant years ago. So. But they're there. Yeah. Talk and they're reminiscing about like oh what, what town you from, what city you from, blah blah. And like, oh yeah, I heard that accent and were like, Oh, did you go to this school? 00:29:31:18 - 00:29:47:03 Speaker 1 Like now they had shut that down or, you know, all the other bullshit that you go through when you, when you like randomly meet somebody who's from the same area that it was like that's kind of a cool detail that because that's kind of shit that people do. 00:29:47:17 - 00:29:49:03 Speaker 3 Oh yeah, yeah. 00:29:50:06 - 00:29:52:29 Speaker 1 Like they're just making that small talk about high school. 00:29:53:23 - 00:30:12:07 Speaker 2 Especially in the military. Like in the military, they're like, you know, you're going to look for any kind of connection, right? Even right. I was just an Army brat. And and we still with you know, you met a kid your own age and you'd say, where were you last? Is like, I was in Benning. Oh, I was in Benning with my dad five years ago. 00:30:12:07 - 00:30:17:06 Speaker 2 Did you go to this? It goes exactly like this. It was it's a pretty terrific detail. 00:30:17:19 - 00:30:52:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, but they're cut. They're interrupted. When there's a gigantic shockwave that ripples through the entire area, basically it starts to create fractures and stuff like that in a whole chunk of the ring, basically breaks off and it it's just gone. It's just the and like parts along the edges are now just floating into as like islands and yeah and you can actually see it on the cover of the book on the, on the, in the background you can see. 00:30:52:01 - 00:31:19:19 Speaker 1 Yep, there it is. You can see the that's, that's the literal in your head. It's this chunk of just the chunk of the ring is missing. And now there's these little floating islands of Halo that are just being kept in place by the gravity of of the ring so that that interrupts their, their, their conversation. And that was chapters three and four. 00:31:20:11 - 00:31:28:17 Speaker 1 Moving on to Chapter five stuff is now very bad inside the lifeboat. The Marine that was dying is now dead. 00:31:28:17 - 00:31:33:06 Speaker 2 The is he's downgraded his status. 00:31:33:27 - 00:31:34:03 Speaker 3 To. 00:31:34:03 - 00:31:48:25 Speaker 1 Have downgraded the status of that Marine to dead. And so and the and cam now has a glass shard lodged underneath his kneecap. 00:31:48:28 - 00:32:12:01 Speaker 2 Oh it's just probably one of the worst place. Just like God, this book does not let up. I'm sure you guys at home, you can tell like we didn't start with a we are floating through space and everything's great and I'm and I'm a barber and sure I'll give you a haircut and let's go get hoagies first, though. 00:32:12:07 - 00:32:29:22 Speaker 2 Boom. Oh, no. What's that? No, we it starts in shit down and now we're in shit town with glass under our kneecap like it doesn't let up. And every time you get a little moment of like, well, maybe things aren't so shit, boom, this shit again. 00:32:29:22 - 00:32:36:26 Speaker 1 There's there's shit again. And they are a looser stool than before. Oh, it is. And it's slippery. 00:32:36:27 - 00:32:42:18 Speaker 2 And the snakes get hotter and hotter. 00:32:42:18 - 00:32:43:15 Speaker 1 They get gross. 00:32:43:17 - 00:32:49:28 Speaker 2 Itself out of it. I don't know that to say that I dig. I had to say that. 00:32:49:29 - 00:32:54:02 Speaker 1 You didn't have to say it. We're already there. We were already in a pretty gross spot and. 00:32:54:17 - 00:32:59:18 Speaker 3 They were just made it. Oh. 00:33:00:09 - 00:33:01:00 Speaker 1 Toasty. 00:33:01:10 - 00:33:06:24 Speaker 3 Toasty. Uh. 00:33:07:27 - 00:33:08:24 Speaker 1 Was I saying. 00:33:09:25 - 00:33:10:15 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. 00:33:10:28 - 00:33:14:05 Speaker 2 Yeah. That kind of reference as a way of throwing shit off, doesn't it? 00:33:14:05 - 00:33:35:09 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shit. Speaking of shit. Anyway, Spartan Stone finds them. She finds them. And as we've seen before, Spartan Stone is very known for her feats of strength. She rescues them by. By reaching down and ripping the whole front end of the lifeboat off so that they can climb through it. 00:33:36:06 - 00:33:55:14 Speaker 2 Yeah, she's she's a bad as she's described as like I think six foot ten. She's nearly seven feet tall. She's like opening up like metal pieces, like a tuna can lid and oops, my nipples are erect. How did that happen? 00:33:55:14 - 00:33:57:13 Speaker 1 I think you have a type feel. 00:33:57:20 - 00:33:58:29 Speaker 3 I guess we. 00:33:59:06 - 00:34:19:06 Speaker 2 Know. Chip bedeviled. He went on a date the other night and she put on like some really way higher heels than normal for her. And she was like maybe half an inch taller than me. And I was like, you might maybe need to put on those heels more frequently. They're pretty good, but she's like, Oh, right. You like tall women. 00:34:19:06 - 00:34:19:15 Speaker 2 Like I. 00:34:19:15 - 00:34:27:11 Speaker 1 Do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We we played resident Evil Village on one of our first dates. 00:34:28:06 - 00:34:36:27 Speaker 3 It's you remember your you remember how I reacted to that to Lady Dimitrescu. It's, you know, how lucky. 00:34:40:03 - 00:34:47:06 Speaker 1 And she is. She's depending on whether this episode comes out, she will be or is your wife. So I have to check it. 00:34:47:06 - 00:34:53:00 Speaker 2 We will be according to the schedule. This will be coming out three days before our wedding. 00:34:53:04 - 00:34:54:02 Speaker 1 Oh, my God. 00:34:54:20 - 00:35:02:25 Speaker 2 Yeah, this is. This is the time. It's the time is now your wave? 00:35:03:18 - 00:35:05:15 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:35:05:15 - 00:35:14:27 Speaker 1 So gimmick and cam, they received some medical treatment, and Lucas pulls the shirt out. 00:35:14:27 - 00:35:17:20 Speaker 3 That's candy. It was. 00:35:18:00 - 00:35:19:03 Speaker 2 I love that moment. 00:35:19:14 - 00:35:26:02 Speaker 1 And he's like he's like, oh, they're just probably going to pull the shirt out and like, and Lucas is like, Yeah, I'm going to do. 00:35:26:02 - 00:35:27:24 Speaker 3 The same thing, right? I love. 00:35:29:10 - 00:35:35:19 Speaker 2 Breeds. Like, Oh, I was just going to pull the shirt out. The guy's like, Are you were you kidding? In the medics? Like, Oh, that's totally what that's. 00:35:35:19 - 00:36:02:00 Speaker 1 That that's totally what is going to do. Just the biofilm to put in the wound that it limits. So with that they're, they're off to find higher ground. And that's that's the end of the first two days on Halo Zeta and we pick up five days later. Yeah. And Horvath is basically been on his own since then. He's just been trying to piece together what happens. 00:36:02:08 - 00:36:13:20 Speaker 1 He's been following a group of banished, seeing what they're up to. He is not too pleased with how the banished treat the wildlife he is. 00:36:13:20 - 00:36:14:26 Speaker 2 Yeah it's an interesting. 00:36:15:16 - 00:36:35:11 Speaker 1 It's an interesting detail he's he's one of these types of he basically lays out that Horvath is one of these hunters that is like respects the animal you don't like you don't you don't treat animals poorly. You kill them with honor and dignity. 00:36:36:04 - 00:36:37:24 Speaker 2 You for value their sacrifice. 00:36:37:24 - 00:36:42:29 Speaker 1 You thank them for their sacrifice. Horvath is wearing a cowboy hat in my head, in my head now. 00:36:43:09 - 00:36:48:19 Speaker 2 Absolutely. It's built into the the Spartan helmet. 00:36:48:28 - 00:36:54:05 Speaker 1 Spartan helmet is in the shape of a cowboy. 00:36:54:05 - 00:36:54:09 Speaker 3 A. 00:36:54:09 - 00:36:59:23 Speaker 2 Ten gallon mill near hat. 00:36:59:23 - 00:37:03:09 Speaker 1 Well, I reckon they don't treat those deer to will. 00:37:04:16 - 00:37:09:18 Speaker 2 Almost as I must respect all living things. 00:37:09:18 - 00:37:29:10 Speaker 1 So Horvath's tally. And while he's like sir so basically what happens is these deer kind of get trapped in a ravine and they can't get out and the banished are just like being really gross with how they kill them and pick them apart and eat them. And Horvath is like, God damn. 00:37:29:12 - 00:37:31:11 Speaker 2 Nothing at all. Like the way humans do it. 00:37:31:16 - 00:37:32:26 Speaker 1 Not nothing at all. Like the way. 00:37:32:26 - 00:37:34:17 Speaker 2 Nothing at all like the way we do it. 00:37:35:10 - 00:37:43:06 Speaker 1 Or barf is clearly born too late for for like the chicken and cow farming. 00:37:43:16 - 00:37:44:28 Speaker 3 Of the. 00:37:47:07 - 00:38:16:05 Speaker 1 21st century anyway. Yeah, yeah. He his curse tally goes up a few times during this scene as he talks about how much he's not a fan of how the band is treat or treating their animals, and he keeps following them until there's a phantom that lands and there's a bunch of, like, banished ups that meet up with this group of of banished that had been separated. 00:38:16:16 - 00:38:36:25 Speaker 1 And he starts like listening in with his he's got like little, you know, spy microphone that he's pointing at them and they're like, well, we're will well, we're going to stop here. This will be a good choke point. One of the other banners is like choke Point for fucking what? They're scattered. What do we need to choke? And like, I love this detail where. 00:38:36:25 - 00:38:43:24 Speaker 2 Oh yeah, he totally talks back. Like, we've just decimated these people who's like, we've already. 00:38:43:26 - 00:39:03:05 Speaker 1 Wondered what choke point this is. The Battle of Thermopylae. Zack Snyder Loving piece of shit. And then. And then the other grunt. The other no brute like backhands the other. And it's not a grunt. 00:39:04:00 - 00:39:06:16 Speaker 2 No, unfortunately, more depends. 00:39:07:15 - 00:39:11:12 Speaker 1 Unfortunately there is no. Yeah, yep, no. 00:39:11:12 - 00:39:16:25 Speaker 2 Yeah, yep. Yet he's going to be here though. I have to. He's going to be here that he didn't die. 00:39:16:25 - 00:39:18:02 Speaker 1 He did not die. 00:39:18:03 - 00:39:19:15 Speaker 2 No. Yeah, yep. Lives. 00:39:21:00 - 00:39:28:15 Speaker 1 Yeah, yep. Lives. So they catch wind of Horvath, though. They're like, listen, I smell something. 00:39:28:21 - 00:39:41:25 Speaker 2 And you which which by the way, like if you're a Spartans you bridge, I feel like, you know, it's like, oh, wait, these guys are super good at smelling people. I should maybe sit and just they found a. 00:39:42:09 - 00:39:42:18 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:39:43:04 - 00:39:55:05 Speaker 1 So they, a couple of them hop into the phantom and they, they go up to take a, a reconnoiter around and Horvath is he's running he's doing his marathon man. Oh impression. 00:39:55:05 - 00:39:56:19 Speaker 2 Running up that hills playing in the. 00:39:56:19 - 00:40:10:19 Speaker 1 Distance, running up that hill. Kate Bush is is is she's asking to make a deal with God to trade places. And but God ain't happening. And Horvath is going to have to run up that. 00:40:10:19 - 00:40:12:11 Speaker 2 Hill by himself. 00:40:12:22 - 00:40:23:02 Speaker 1 By himself. One has to imagine that Horvath is happy pushing that boulder up the hill. 00:40:23:02 - 00:40:23:23 Speaker 3 Oh, that's. 00:40:24:00 - 00:40:24:10 Speaker 2 Deep. 00:40:24:18 - 00:40:25:25 Speaker 1 Mythology, esoteric. 00:40:26:06 - 00:40:26:19 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:40:28:01 - 00:40:48:16 Speaker 1 Sisyphus reference. Anyway, so Horvath runs up hill and he jumps off a cliff, and basically he's, like, jumping off towards, like, another platform that's kind of, like, broken. And he gets on it, right? And he's on it. And he miscalculated his jump, which is unlike a Spartan, but, you know, horrible. 00:40:48:18 - 00:40:49:29 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:40:49:29 - 00:40:51:26 Speaker 1 Horvath seems to be a bit of a wild card. 00:40:52:09 - 00:40:54:24 Speaker 3 Right? 00:40:54:24 - 00:40:57:26 Speaker 2 In his his cowboy hat through his aerodynamics off. 00:40:58:10 - 00:40:59:24 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:40:59:24 - 00:41:22:04 Speaker 1 And so he's hanging on the ledge, and then the Phantom comes up, and then a sentinel comes out of that open segment of the the halo ring. Because, remember, it's a it's a it's a halo. So it was built by the forerunners and therefore it has the those sentinel robots. So the Sentinel comes out and it's like it goes right to town. 00:41:22:04 - 00:41:52:06 Speaker 1 On The Phantom. Yeah, the thinking that The Phantom did some sort of damage in the ensuing chaos, the entire section breaks off that horror that jumped on to and just like starts floating away as an island and twisting through space. And we're in chapter we're in chapter six. Now, this is kind of why it organized a bike day instead of chapter, because the action is very continuous through through these days. 00:41:52:06 - 00:42:12:03 Speaker 1 So so the section breaks off and it's, it's flipping around and at the end of it, by the time it's settled, it's just kind of floating out in space, in fact, under a massive pile of dirt and debris. And his eye is like, by the way, you only have 90 minutes to dig yourself out. 00:42:12:18 - 00:42:12:28 Speaker 3 Right? 00:42:13:04 - 00:42:22:02 Speaker 1 So he does. He digs himself out. He gets up to the top, he takes his helmet off, puts it aside, lights a marlboro, and he asks. So. 00:42:22:15 - 00:42:23:06 Speaker 3 Yeah, of course. 00:42:24:10 - 00:42:51:27 Speaker 1 Yeah, selfie like. All right, so what's the status? And she's like, Well, there's an atmospheric leak in the, the shielding, environmental shielding around this section is going to fail. And you got seven days to figure out a way to get off of it. And he's a timer exist. The timer starts and he takes a long drag of his cigaret and he says, Well, partner, better get to work. 00:42:51:27 - 00:42:55:08 Speaker 2 And I thought, You're going with I'm too old for this shit. I'm impressed. 00:42:55:24 - 00:43:06:17 Speaker 1 I'm too old for this shit. Throws a cigaret down, stamps it out with his boot and we get a smash cut. 00:43:06:17 - 00:43:07:15 Speaker 2 I mean, yeah. 00:43:08:23 - 00:43:11:18 Speaker 1 I mean, that's how I'm directing it. The adaptation is this. 00:43:11:19 - 00:43:14:12 Speaker 2 This is just a book full of smash cuts like that. Yeah. 00:43:14:13 - 00:43:17:14 Speaker 1 That's just by the way, this is all smash guts. 00:43:17:21 - 00:43:18:03 Speaker 3 Yeah, it's. 00:43:18:03 - 00:43:20:04 Speaker 2 Just one smash hit after another one. 00:43:20:04 - 00:43:24:09 Speaker 1 Smash cut from a shitty from shitty situations into shittier situation. 00:43:24:09 - 00:43:27:10 Speaker 3 Exactly. 00:43:27:10 - 00:43:46:28 Speaker 1 Meanwhile, Murphy and his crew are traversing through and so earlier, when Stone had rescued them, she had found an entire like troop of Marines. And we get caught up there in the intervening days, all of those Marines have died. 00:43:47:11 - 00:43:47:20 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:43:49:05 - 00:43:51:18 Speaker 2 Yeah. Remember those people we got? They're gone. Don't worry about that. 00:43:51:18 - 00:44:25:25 Speaker 1 They're gone. It was they. They did end up getting replaced, though, because they she they meet up. So stone and the lifeboat people meet up with Koven and the odious TS and Marines that she had with her, as well as Bender, the Barber and Gavin, Joe Mortuary mortician and Bender and Gavin Joe kind of like shuffle over to be with Murphy's lifeboat people because thematically all kind of vibe more together. 00:44:26:00 - 00:44:27:26 Speaker 3 Yeah yeah. 00:44:28:02 - 00:44:34:13 Speaker 2 It's just they they picked their they picked their cafeteria table. They picked their group of kids to hang out with. 00:44:34:14 - 00:44:39:09 Speaker 1 We're like where like the non soldiers with their one soldier friends. Who is Murphy. 00:44:39:18 - 00:44:42:26 Speaker 3 Yeah, exactly. He's cool guys. 00:44:42:26 - 00:44:46:28 Speaker 2 He's cool. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. 00:44:46:28 - 00:44:50:28 Speaker 1 Is is the football player who hangs out with the marching band kids for some. 00:44:51:00 - 00:44:52:24 Speaker 3 Reason gets it. 00:44:53:08 - 00:45:00:19 Speaker 2 He gets this is cool. People don't tell anybody but he plays the barbarian dad d game after school. 00:45:00:19 - 00:45:27:25 Speaker 1 So yeah the odious teachers are assholes like normal fucking Orestes. Basically in every piece of halo media are just pieces of shit. That's just. Yeah, that's just the way it is. One of them just like, nearly kills Murphy for like, Murphy stopped to look at something on the trail in the audience. He just, like, hits him with his shoulder and it's like, knocks him off a ledge. 00:45:28:01 - 00:45:28:11 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:45:29:03 - 00:45:56:25 Speaker 1 And Bender saves him. But yeah, they they bent Murphy in the boat crew of bonded and they have a campfire chat basically during one of their breaks on a march and you know they're they're having fun they're getting to know each other Bender spins a yarn about how he like was a marine at some point and got busted down so many times that's why he's a barber now. 00:45:57:09 - 00:46:24:29 Speaker 1 And you know they don't necessarily know to believe it because he seems to let the kind of guy that just make shit up cam, ironically, the one who got the the glass into the knee was like the fastest person on the infinity and and bender meanwhile they mention has fallen in love with Koven because Koven gave her gave him her knife. 00:46:24:29 - 00:46:47:22 Speaker 1 Yeah. And he's, he's really is really smitten with that. The talk gets interrupted when one of you remember those that fresh batch of Marines we got after all the other ones are killed. Sure. Yeah. Well, Mosley, this one got a name. Mosley is just kind of sitting there against the tree. I like to imagine that he had a guitar out. 00:46:47:22 - 00:46:49:06 Speaker 1 He was starting to play Wonderwall. 00:46:49:24 - 00:46:50:12 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. 00:46:51:09 - 00:46:56:06 Speaker 2 It only makes sense when you find out what happens next, folks. Trust me on this one. Okay. 00:46:56:25 - 00:47:00:27 Speaker 1 Well, anyway, here's Wonderwall and then an ax comes out of the darkness. 00:47:02:20 - 00:47:06:01 Speaker 3 Go. 00:47:06:01 - 00:47:09:09 Speaker 2 Thank you. The act speaks for all of us. 00:47:09:24 - 00:47:31:08 Speaker 1 And just like, impels the guy against the tree. And there is there's a group of banished that just attacks this group. And what I forget which one one of the Spartans is not there. I think it's stone because they were or Cobain's stone. 00:47:31:08 - 00:47:31:16 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:47:31:25 - 00:47:55:08 Speaker 1 Yeah. Because she was trying to get a better signal because the comms on her suit are, they have, they don't have much in the way of communications equipment at the moment. Yeah. So she was trying to get like better information, better signal. So she was she was higher up on a mountain when this attack happens and it is a pretty brutal scene. 00:47:55:15 - 00:47:55:24 Speaker 1 Oh. 00:47:56:05 - 00:47:56:17 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:47:59:13 - 00:48:03:27 Speaker 1 Marines get ripped in half. Yeah, it's it's rough. 00:48:04:08 - 00:48:31:27 Speaker 2 We've seen some you know, the Halo books have never shied away from moments of, you know, extreme violence and that kind of thing. They, you know, they've done a pretty good job of just agreeing that, at least for the books here, they're going to go full ship, full starship troopers on our asses. Yeah. And this moment to me kind of separated the beginning of the book where we're it's like, okay, we've got action. 00:48:31:27 - 00:48:41:00 Speaker 2 You got we got, you know, thrills and chills. And it's a it's a high tension halo book. Great, great. This is where it gets fucked. Where it. 00:48:42:06 - 00:48:43:15 Speaker 3 This is this. 00:48:43:15 - 00:49:05:04 Speaker 2 To me is where we're not just dealing with this is kind of the introduction to everything is awful. War is hell. None of this is none of this is heroic or good or safe. This is this is just it's brutal. It's a really, really rough scene. 00:49:05:04 - 00:49:27:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. All of the Marines and all of the stars die in horrible ways. Murphy gets Jackal Claw into the back of his neck and starts getting dragged away when he is able to, he shoots the jackal in the eye, I want to say. 00:49:28:06 - 00:49:28:13 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:49:29:09 - 00:49:45:26 Speaker 1 And like the back of its head explodes all over him. And there it's like there's this silence. And then Stone had came back and she did some really fucking wild like luchador shit to kill a brute. 00:49:47:07 - 00:49:48:04 Speaker 3 Like she like. 00:49:48:28 - 00:50:19:04 Speaker 1 She did like a spinning hurricanrana off of the top rope of a tree. Yeah. Just snap his neck or something like that. It was, it was pretty cool. But like then, you know, it's like this moment of, oh shit, the Spartans are really cool too. Like, you know, it's, it's then suddenly super quiet and everybody's dead and you just, you, you just there's like Gavin Joe is standing there, like, and he just keeps saying, I'm not a killer, I'm not a killer, I'm not. 00:50:19:09 - 00:50:35:05 Speaker 1 And he's like, he is covered in blood. And and, you know, Bender is like curled up in the fetal position. And it is just this gross scene of like, oh, this shit is. 00:50:35:05 - 00:50:36:22 Speaker 2 Terrible. Yeah. 00:50:37:24 - 00:50:38:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. 00:50:38:20 - 00:51:04:06 Speaker 2 This is this is a real, like, war is not heroic or fun or like, this is this is not like an adventure. This is this is some seriously fucked up shit going on. And you've got people who were not trained for this who are in the middle of it. It basically is like this is the part where if this were a game, we we're not playing a first person shooter anymore. 00:51:04:07 - 00:51:18:14 Speaker 2 This is a survival game now. Like, it's it's absolutely bonkers. It just has a completely different vibe in many ways to the other couple of Halo books we've read in this segment. This is where it starts. 00:51:18:23 - 00:51:57:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. So we move on. It's the oh, I forgot to say Stone did get a lead on a place to go. And there is a frigate that crash landed on Halo Zeta called The Mortal Reverie that is pretty much intact. And and that's kind of where the U.S. is is calling base for now. Yeah. So the next day they arrive, the two Spartans and the boat crew make their way towards the mortal reverie. 00:51:57:18 - 00:52:06:09 Speaker 1 And when Stone and Koven get there, they like, receive the earth and they just leave without saying anything to the boat. 00:52:06:27 - 00:52:07:17 Speaker 3 It's like, yeah. 00:52:08:13 - 00:52:11:01 Speaker 1 And the Spartans are kind of dicks. 00:52:11:01 - 00:52:22:08 Speaker 2 They, they're just like I mean it's, it makes me think of, you know, how they wrote John in the first two books. Ah, it's just like you're here for your duty, man. Like you're here, you're now here. You marching orders, get on out. 00:52:23:05 - 00:52:49:05 Speaker 1 And they go off and to wherever they're there, there's like one of their one of the Spartan commanders is, is on the ship and like go meet with them and they're like, Yep. And they leave. And there's some sobering moments, you know, they they deposit the dog tags that they have and that the dog tags are just go into this gigantic bucket filled with dog tags. 00:52:49:05 - 00:53:03:10 Speaker 2 Yeah I like that. Yeah. Yeah that was good writing. Ah. Because, Yeah. Because when they collect it was, it wasn't Murphy, it was Lucas. Get all the names mixed up. That's the trouble. 00:53:04:25 - 00:53:07:03 Speaker 1 Murphy was the one who had the dog tags on him. 00:53:07:14 - 00:53:11:12 Speaker 2 Oh, it was him. Okay. Oh yeah. Yeah, I get, I can get them. 00:53:11:13 - 00:53:12:19 Speaker 1 Lucas is there but. 00:53:12:28 - 00:53:41:00 Speaker 2 Yeah but okay. Yeah it was him then and he like when he takes them from the fallen Marines, there's a sense of reverence and like, you know, just like doing the right thing. This is this is, you know, evidence of you were here. This is, you know. You shall not have died in vain and everything. And they've got a God damn like it's like a fucking legal box filled with dog tags of all the other dudes and women who died. 00:53:41:07 - 00:53:44:20 Speaker 2 Like, it's, it's oh, it's crushing. 00:53:44:20 - 00:53:46:11 Speaker 1 It's just drop with the rest. 00:53:46:20 - 00:53:49:18 Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly. Oh, my God. 00:53:49:18 - 00:53:54:01 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. 00:53:54:16 - 00:54:15:08 Speaker 1 So, you know, they're, they're given, they're like the breakdown. And like, if you're using the showers of the bathrooms, you got to use these main bathrooms. Don't use the bathrooms in the quarters. Mm. They've been, they've been turned off to conserve water and all that. So just use the these main areas, your passes to go get food and, and all that stuff. 00:54:15:08 - 00:54:47:05 Speaker 1 And, and Murphy basically he has like a, a panic attack when he gets to the cafeteria. He just has like this breakdown and the boat crew, it's like this really touching scene of like Murphy is, is like he's he, you know, he's he's overcome with this grief and and survivor's guilt, I think, is the phrase that's used. And the boat crew basically all comes around. 00:54:47:05 - 00:55:00:10 Speaker 1 They all put their hands on him and they're like, you got us here. Like, this is this is you. You were response, you saved us. And it's a really touching moment. Yeah. And then they get to eat pizza. 00:55:00:20 - 00:55:06:27 Speaker 3 Yes, they do. Because the pizza heals all wounds. Yeah. 00:55:09:04 - 00:55:10:23 Speaker 3 How big is. 00:55:10:24 - 00:55:12:00 Speaker 2 Pizza? Will fix just about. 00:55:12:00 - 00:55:13:08 Speaker 3 Everything they. 00:55:13:08 - 00:55:16:06 Speaker 1 Go in the in the mess hall is serving pizza. 00:55:16:06 - 00:55:17:23 Speaker 3 Yeah. And they're. 00:55:17:23 - 00:55:18:02 Speaker 1 So. 00:55:18:02 - 00:55:19:19 Speaker 3 Happy about it. Yeah. 00:55:19:22 - 00:55:28:12 Speaker 2 And it's plain, there's no toppings, it's just cheese pizza and they cry. They're so happy to have that pizza. I get it. I've been. 00:55:28:12 - 00:55:31:09 Speaker 3 There. I've literally been to the exact same. 00:55:31:09 - 00:55:35:19 Speaker 2 Position as these people. 00:55:35:19 - 00:55:43:02 Speaker 1 Just being crying over pizza, not surviving on a hostile alien planet for a week. 00:55:43:13 - 00:55:46:03 Speaker 2 Yeah, sure. It's not about it, you know? Yeah. 00:55:46:07 - 00:55:49:01 Speaker 3 Let's talk about it. Come on. 00:55:49:01 - 00:55:49:29 Speaker 2 We're just having fun. 00:55:50:16 - 00:55:56:06 Speaker 3 You know? 00:55:56:06 - 00:55:58:13 Speaker 1 No alien planet. Savannah, whatever. 00:55:58:14 - 00:55:58:20 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:56:00:10 - 00:56:09:25 Speaker 2 If Savannah isn't an alien planet, I defy you to explain to me what it is I. 00:56:09:25 - 00:56:28:02 Speaker 1 Yeah. So day nine, we get a little mini ark now that they're safe now that the boat crew is safe. For now, we got a little mini ark kind of catching horvath's up with with everyone else, and, yes, a rough go of it in this. 00:56:29:08 - 00:56:31:14 Speaker 3 This is it turns into enemy mine. 00:56:31:14 - 00:56:55:01 Speaker 1 It's it's he hasn't he has an enemy mine sequence. So basically we're is walking around this island that he's on and he's he's like walking like around it as in like he's on the topside. He's on the bottom side. He's he's just walking in circles trying to find something. He finds the phantom that was killed by the Sentinel. 00:56:55:15 - 00:57:09:01 Speaker 1 It's like, and it's in a bag. It's basically like the X-Wing in Dagobah when Luke lands his X-Wing in Dagobah and it sinks in in the mock he he he put. 00:57:09:07 - 00:57:10:29 Speaker 2 The X-Wing ends up in the mash. 00:57:11:04 - 00:57:13:15 Speaker 1 In the mirror, she put the Phantom in the. 00:57:13:28 - 00:57:14:22 Speaker 2 In the movie. I tell. 00:57:14:22 - 00:57:15:16 Speaker 3 You to. 00:57:15:16 - 00:57:22:19 Speaker 1 Put the Phantom in the marsh. You put the phantom in the mash sees this. 00:57:22:19 - 00:57:27:28 Speaker 2 God, we have to have a departed supercut. Yeah, time has come. 00:57:30:21 - 00:57:32:04 Speaker 1 Now where somebody from John. 00:57:32:04 - 00:57:37:18 Speaker 3 Hancock goes to get a blowjob. 00:57:37:18 - 00:57:39:04 Speaker 2 That's where. Yeah. Yep. Is. 00:57:39:23 - 00:57:40:22 Speaker 1 That's right. Yeah. Yep. 00:57:40:22 - 00:57:47:14 Speaker 2 Is a it really makes sense. 00:57:47:14 - 00:58:13:17 Speaker 1 So he's like he sees the phantom, he knows there's a life sign in it. There's like somebody alive in it still, and he's like, not going to go to that first. He goes for a few hours looking around, there's no better option. He has to go into the Phantom. He goes into the Phantom and he finds he looks around and he finds one of the he's basically looking for like just a jump pack and there's none there. 00:58:14:06 - 00:58:32:03 Speaker 1 And he finds one of the brutes pins to a one of the chairs basically like fell backwards and pinned him against the wall. And he can't his his arms are pinned and he can't move. And he's very, very angry. 00:58:33:10 - 00:58:34:01 Speaker 3 Yes, he is. 00:58:34:14 - 00:58:35:09 Speaker 1 Is season. 00:58:35:13 - 00:58:36:27 Speaker 2 Deeply frustrated as. 00:58:36:28 - 00:58:57:06 Speaker 1 A deeply frustrated boy? And he's like Horvath is like, I tell you what, I need to dig out that sentinel out there. What say I free you and we have a little bit of a truce, and Horvath is like, I'm going to have to make him give me a truce. Yeah. He's like, I'm this guy is going to fight me as soon as I get in. 00:58:57:12 - 00:59:07:08 Speaker 1 And he's like, oh, yes, human truce. So. Horvath Freeze. And first thing that the brute does, Gordian is his name is again. 00:59:07:09 - 00:59:07:16 Speaker 2 Yeah. 00:59:07:18 - 00:59:24:01 Speaker 1 Fucking punches Horvath. Right. And they're just, they fall right out of the Phantom and they're just rolling around in the mud, fighting each other. And Horvath just keeps punching him in the ribs over and over again, which because it's gory and fractured ribs. 00:59:24:01 - 00:59:24:05 Speaker 3 Yeah. 00:59:24:06 - 00:59:29:18 Speaker 1 So Horvath keeps punching him in the ribs until Gordon's like, All right, fine, fine. Yeah, it's for real. 00:59:29:28 - 00:59:35:26 Speaker 2 Larry. He's like, No, but I mean, at this time, this time, I actually think we should have a truce. I'm sorry. 00:59:35:26 - 00:59:42:16 Speaker 3 I guess it's a great moment. It is. 00:59:42:16 - 00:59:57:27 Speaker 1 So it's four days later. We fast forward. It's day 13 now, four days later, if you're keeping track at home. He has three days to get off this island now. Yeah, three days. Is it? 00:59:58:11 - 01:00:02:22 Speaker 2 Uh, well, it would be if they had a week, so, yeah, they have three days left. 01:00:03:10 - 01:00:12:21 Speaker 1 Yep, three days left. So Horvath and Goran are trading barbs over the campfire again. 01:00:12:24 - 01:00:16:11 Speaker 2 I'm getting a lot of Drax vibes, by the way, from Gorey and he's. 01:00:16:11 - 01:00:24:01 Speaker 1 Very, very Drax. This. Yeah, yeah. Nothing could go over my head. My reflexes are too fast. 01:00:25:08 - 01:00:36:13 Speaker 2 It's exactly it. It's just everything's such a it's not it's not the, the misunderstanding metaphor so much. It's just everything is such a big God deal to him. 01:00:36:25 - 01:00:39:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. By honor. 01:00:39:20 - 01:00:42:05 Speaker 2 Demands. It's cute. Yeah. Just like. All right. 01:00:42:19 - 01:00:49:07 Speaker 1 It's. It's Christmas Eve, by the way. At one point, Christmas moment, it's this is a this is a Christmas book. 01:00:51:02 - 01:00:52:25 Speaker 3 Our first rehearsal. 01:00:53:04 - 01:01:03:28 Speaker 1 And at one point we're gorey in like throws him some chicken and it's like raw on the inside. It's like, hasn't been cooked all the way through. And Horvath. 01:01:03:29 - 01:01:09:24 Speaker 2 Plays well. He throws him some bird like some bird. It's a bird that he killed. 01:01:10:08 - 01:01:16:00 Speaker 1 A bird that he killed. And he just, like, lightly, like toasted the outsides. 01:01:16:03 - 01:01:17:27 Speaker 3 Right before. 01:01:18:11 - 01:01:21:05 Speaker 2 Liam's outside chewing on the inside the way you yeah. 01:01:21:14 - 01:01:25:15 Speaker 1 Your bird back you've been nice and creamy on the inside. 01:01:25:15 - 01:01:26:02 Speaker 3 Yes. 01:01:27:01 - 01:01:46:05 Speaker 1 Horvath like throws it back at him and basically says, Merry Christmas, you filthy animal. And Gregorian says, I don't what is this merriment you speak of? And Horvath is like, of course, you wouldn't know that. And he's like, Yeah, he Gorey wouldn't know that it's a fucking alien dude, right? I mean. 01:01:46:16 - 01:01:47:25 Speaker 3 Of course you we have. 01:01:48:12 - 01:01:53:13 Speaker 2 I really thought we could have we could have a Halo Hallmark moment. 01:01:53:22 - 01:01:54:08 Speaker 3 We could. 01:01:54:19 - 01:02:08:15 Speaker 2 It was like it was like it was then that Horvath realized that the gory and didn't understand the true meaning of Christmas and he like reads to him from from Matthew or something like. Yeah. Yes, it does. In his speech in the. 01:02:08:15 - 01:02:11:04 Speaker 1 Whoville, whose come. 01:02:13:01 - 01:02:14:12 Speaker 3 On, it is like. 01:02:14:12 - 01:02:18:00 Speaker 1 And gorey it's hard grew three tons that day. 01:02:18:09 - 01:02:30:19 Speaker 2 Through the power of Christ. It's the miracle child warmed his soul. He becomes this weird converted missionary. 01:02:31:05 - 01:02:34:21 Speaker 3 It's just a super good. It's Horvath, like. 01:02:34:21 - 01:02:38:04 Speaker 1 Badly misremembering the story of. 01:02:38:13 - 01:02:39:09 Speaker 3 The Nativity. 01:02:40:20 - 01:02:41:19 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. 01:02:41:19 - 01:02:45:22 Speaker 3 That's exactly what it is. Yeah. 01:02:46:15 - 01:02:57:14 Speaker 2 And there are three bikers going through, and one of them had Frankie says, relax on CB and the other. 01:02:57:14 - 01:03:02:26 Speaker 3 One goes, and you know, what is, is. 01:03:03:11 - 01:03:19:05 Speaker 1 Horvath. Horvath is now played by oh fuck, what's his name from the Righteous Gemstones. Danny McBride. Horvath is not Ronnie McBride's character. He is now Danny McBride's character from the Righteous Gemstones in my. 01:03:19:05 - 01:03:31:13 Speaker 2 Amanda it I'm into it. That's the only thing I've ever liked. Danny McBride and so sure let's go for it. 01:03:31:13 - 01:03:37:01 Speaker 1 And then then the sweet baby Jesus. 01:03:37:01 - 01:03:39:04 Speaker 3 Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh. 01:03:39:14 - 01:03:40:18 Speaker 2 It it all makes sense. All right. 01:03:41:08 - 01:03:42:01 Speaker 1 So what makes. 01:03:42:01 - 01:03:45:23 Speaker 3 This. 01:03:45:23 - 01:04:05:14 Speaker 1 So they go and they dig. They they work together. They dig out the sentinel, they figure out lifeis like, you know, I can control it for, like, 10 minutes if you let me let me in there. And he's like, Yeah, do what you need to do. So they start walking, they pick it up, they start walking the next day. 01:04:07:05 - 01:04:31:13 Speaker 1 They basically have finished their trek to the edge of the islands. And on the other side of the void of space is the rest of the ring. And they're like, they're basically going to turn on the sentinel each grab on to it, and it's just going to rock it off. Yeah, it's like Wiley Coyote strapped to a rocket. 01:04:31:13 - 01:04:32:10 Speaker 1 Basically, at this. 01:04:32:10 - 01:04:41:13 Speaker 2 Point, they're going to boogie board their way out of this fucking situation. So we. Okay? Yeah, fine. Fuck it. Let's get out of here. 01:04:41:26 - 01:04:45:26 Speaker 1 Let's do it. It's. It is the worst option of options. 01:04:45:26 - 01:04:47:14 Speaker 2 But, you know, horrible idea. 01:04:47:14 - 01:05:02:18 Speaker 1 Let's let's. It's a terrible idea. Let's do it. So they they they turn it on. They shoot off into space. And would you know what the first thing gory and fucking does is he tries to punch you right? 01:05:02:18 - 01:05:03:23 Speaker 2 He gets right into it. 01:05:04:17 - 01:05:33:27 Speaker 1 It gets right into a bunch of Horvath. Horvath. Lets go. He flies off, he springboards back off of some debris and he grabs on to Gordon's heel. But now the weight distribution is off, so it fucks up the trajectory and the the sentinels coming in way too hot, way too low, and basically they make a crash landing on the other side of the void of space. 01:05:34:07 - 01:05:46:10 Speaker 1 It's it's a mess. Yeah. And and Horvath has like a steel beams sticking into his side, and Goran is mostly untouched. 01:05:47:03 - 01:05:52:00 Speaker 2 If you hear him saying something like, Sorry, dude, I'm a scorpion. Like. 01:05:52:13 - 01:05:54:25 Speaker 3 You know, I'm a square. It's in my nature. 01:05:55:18 - 01:05:56:24 Speaker 2 Dammit, Taurean, what. 01:05:56:24 - 01:05:57:20 Speaker 3 The fuck. 01:06:00:04 - 01:06:06:08 Speaker 1 So gory Scully is like gives laughs at Horvath. 01:06:06:19 - 01:06:07:00 Speaker 3 And. 01:06:07:00 - 01:06:24:02 Speaker 1 He's like, huh and but does doesn't take this opportunity to finish him off. He's kind of bummed out that Horvath is not at full strength anymore for their their great epic showdown. Like Gordon, you just try to kick him off of a rocket. Yeah. You just. 01:06:24:16 - 01:06:28:17 Speaker 2 Try to sucker punch him off with a goddamn rocket sled like. 01:06:28:17 - 01:06:29:24 Speaker 1 Wait a minute. Your goalpost. 01:06:29:25 - 01:06:31:10 Speaker 3 Gordon Right. 01:06:32:01 - 01:06:54:00 Speaker 1 So he goes. Gordon walks off into the distance and he meets up with a crew of banished that are gathering over yonder. And Horvath is like watching this all play out. And Gordon gets on one of the ships, and Horvath is like, This is it. They're going to come and they're going to get me. And Gordon doesn't tell them that Horvath is over there. 01:06:54:10 - 01:06:56:22 Speaker 1 He just gets on the ship and they go. 01:06:57:01 - 01:07:23:22 Speaker 2 And this is and this is why I was getting so excited earlier, because all makes sense, because he spared him, because Horvath taught him about the miracle of the Christ child. And it changed Gordon's life. And Gordon is like, No, I'm good. And Gordon turns into the Robert Redford gif and just kind of like nods at him in the distance and says, Praise Jesus and they fly away. 01:07:24:00 - 01:07:28:05 Speaker 2 It makes so much sense now. God, I'm a good writer. 01:07:29:08 - 01:07:33:18 Speaker 1 So good. You know, it's in the years to realize that that was Robert Redford in that gif. 01:07:34:12 - 01:07:36:27 Speaker 2 Oh, I get it. I absolutely. 01:07:36:27 - 01:07:39:17 Speaker 3 Get. 01:07:39:17 - 01:07:41:25 Speaker 1 Oh, Robert Redford could grow a full beard. Could make the. 01:07:42:02 - 01:07:45:02 Speaker 2 Real son of a bitch of a beard. That is a yeah. 01:07:46:27 - 01:08:08:09 Speaker 1 But yeah, that's that's that's that's 12 chapters, 14 days. Yeah. Of of Halo. The Rubicon Protocol. We're 14 days into the six months of basically it's like filling in the six months before Halo Infinite starts. Yeah. What are your thoughts so far? 01:08:08:09 - 01:08:44:07 Speaker 2 This is Halo. PTSD is what this is. This is like let's take all of the all of the heroics and the grand space opera, military war, fun stuff and remind you that war is a real son of a bitch and and a nightmare. And it's which is amazing for so many reasons, it very surprisingly tough to at times just because the subject matter is bleak and and it does not let up. 01:08:44:07 - 01:09:06:24 Speaker 2 We get our brief moment at the mess hall. They've got, you know, a little bit of respite, you know, at the base. And but they but they are immediately told they're like, you're getting here tomorrow, so eat up all your delicious pizza. Yeah, you're going to need the calories for tomorrow. You dine and hell, yeah, it is. It does let up. 01:09:06:24 - 01:09:16:09 Speaker 1 It's it's like from from pizza pizza fun times to Horvath in the middle of literal enemy mine you know? 01:09:16:11 - 01:09:17:03 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. 01:09:17:18 - 01:09:20:05 Speaker 3 Yeah. 01:09:20:05 - 01:09:21:27 Speaker 2 It's pretty constant. 01:09:22:07 - 01:09:32:13 Speaker 1 Except it's it's like enemy mind. But they but the enemy doesn't learn anything and still tries to kill. 01:09:32:13 - 01:09:36:22 Speaker 3 I swear to God, it's like just. 01:09:36:29 - 01:09:46:25 Speaker 2 Just like God. My honor demands that you be fully arrested when I kill you. And he's like, Oh, okay, I'm tripping you up, tripped up, and we interrupt you. 01:09:47:02 - 01:09:49:19 Speaker 1 God damn it. Yeah. Gory in that piece of shit. 01:09:50:23 - 01:09:53:13 Speaker 2 I wonder. Yeah, he's going to return later. 01:09:53:23 - 01:10:29:19 Speaker 1 I, I, I think we, we've, we've set up the big bad for, for the book for, for Horvath at least. At least. Yeah. So I am, I'm loving it so far. Yeah, you're right. It is pretty fucking bleak. But I think it's, I think it's a, it's a pretty fresh take on the I think some of the best parts of Halo stories have been when it's instead of like a master chief for. 01:10:29:21 - 01:10:56:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. Like when, when we're, when we're not being treated to that. But we're, we are treated more to the grim realities of the universe around him because I think that a lot of the times it's easy to forget with how much of a badass like Master Chief is that for a while, for long stretches of these, the U.S. is losing like it's you're you are on the side of the side. 01:10:56:10 - 01:11:15:10 Speaker 1 You're on the side that's not winning. And even at the end of games, it's not like it's more of a Pyrrhic victory than anything else. Like at the end of Halo, like, oh great, you destroyed one of the halos and lost everybody doing it. 01:11:15:26 - 01:11:16:06 Speaker 3 Yeah. 01:11:16:09 - 01:11:28:16 Speaker 2 You just feel like you're delaying the inevitable. And this. This really clenches its teeth into that. Yes, yeah, yeah. It's. It's wild. 01:11:28:16 - 01:11:30:08 Speaker 1 These goddamn halos. 01:11:30:19 - 01:11:32:16 Speaker 2 Fucking halos. They just keep showing, you know? 01:11:32:16 - 01:11:38:00 Speaker 1 It's just keep showing up. Why don't you hope Zeta is the last of them? 01:11:38:00 - 01:11:40:06 Speaker 2 Yeah, well, I mean, it's crazy there, so. 01:11:40:11 - 01:12:09:24 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's got a Z and yeah, we'll see. So I'm really looking forward to continuing through this one. We're going to be doing three parts. It's going to be a three parter. So it should be should be good times. Now you have a brand new computer. So I have to ask you, what do you play in? 01:12:09:24 - 01:12:40:17 Speaker 2 Well, as you pointed out, I do have a brand new shiny rig, very quiet, very lovely. I'm playing vampire survivors. I, I, I got I got to catch up on my cheekbones. I got two of them left for this current run. No But I did I did start playing at your recommendation. I did start playing called the lamb. 01:12:41:02 - 01:12:43:10 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. Hey. Hey. How you liking that? 01:12:43:17 - 01:13:15:08 Speaker 2 I, I, I want to thank the designers for creating this game for me, because that's certainly how it feels. The sense, humor, the gameplay. It's terrific because I was starting to feel nervous because I didn't realize how similar the gameplay or at least part the gameplay was going to be to a binding of Isaac. Sure. Which was not a game that I wanted to like binding of Isaac, but the the gameplay, the controls, that sort of thing. 01:13:15:08 - 01:13:41:04 Speaker 2 Just it, it, I didn't care for it. So when I saw that the esthetic, the, the overworld, the action of the games were very clearly influenced by that. I got nervous, but the fact that it's using the slash roll kind of Zelda style action stead puts it right in my wheelhouse. And I am just in love with the the cult building simulator aspect of it. 01:13:41:13 - 01:13:58:26 Speaker 2 And that kind of thing. It's just right. It's not as deep and obtuse as some survival games can get with it, right? It's very accessible, very friendly. I love the style involves a lot more poop than I expected. So much poop, so much poop. 01:13:59:04 - 01:14:06:25 Speaker 1 So I actually use my poop. I rushed to learn how to build an outhouse. 01:14:07:06 - 01:14:07:25 Speaker 3 Yeah. 01:14:08:05 - 01:14:11:07 Speaker 1 I got really tired of the shit. Yeah, like. 01:14:11:07 - 01:14:31:25 Speaker 2 Literally that I'm going to get in on that especially, especially because I'm working heavily on making sure I'm an man. So I'm trying to make sure that we've got a really kick ass farm setup going. Yeah, and we're going to need a lot of shit for that. Yeah. So yeah. 01:14:31:25 - 01:14:40:19 Speaker 1 So now get yourself a couple outhouses yourself. Couple outhouses get yourself a janitor station janitor station's great for the vomit. 01:14:40:19 - 01:14:42:28 Speaker 2 Uh oh. Haven't run into the vomit just yet. 01:14:42:28 - 01:14:45:26 Speaker 1 So now, yeah, you'll get the vomit. 01:14:46:06 - 01:15:06:16 Speaker 2 I'm sure. I'm sure it's a didn't feel like a shy away from that but yeah, I'm nearly to the first big bad joke, I believe at this point. It's, it's fun. I'm really enjoying it. It's the kind of thing I can while away some serious time with so I'm I'm happy to be back yeah. With something like this. 01:15:06:28 - 01:15:08:02 Speaker 2 And so what about you, Kevin. 01:15:08:21 - 01:15:45:01 Speaker 1 So I actually just finished called to the lab. Oh, nice. I just rolled credits on it this week, so I was playing that up until up until a few days ago. I wrapped up on call to the lab and I real, I'd say, I really like it. I, it's one of those games where it does a lot of things and it does them good and it does it's not like, it's not like don't starve, which is one of the esthetics that it seems to kind of borrow from. 01:15:46:14 - 01:16:15:03 Speaker 1 It's, it's got tighter combat than I felt than, than binding of Isaac. Yeah, it's, it's, it would be, it's one of those, it's a game that had binding of Isaac not a justice to it. It would have been like, ooh, this is very edgy. But binding of Isaac makes it seem like, like simple and, and lighthearted in comparison. 01:16:15:03 - 01:16:34:16 Speaker 1 But yeah, it does a lot of things very well. It's fun. It has a lot of nice little side quests. I think I completed almost all the side quests in the game I didn't get all the achievements I was I was missing like six by the time I wrapped up on it. But yeah, it's totally worth the the time and money that I put into. 01:16:34:16 - 01:16:35:09 Speaker 3 So yeah. 01:16:35:21 - 01:16:42:10 Speaker 2 Yeah. I thought, I thought I paid full price. There's 25 bucks. I think that's a good sweet spot for this game. 01:16:42:26 - 01:17:05:14 Speaker 1 Yeah, I agree. I agree. It's not like other because it does have a bit of a roguelike element to it. Yeah. But it's not a so took me 13 and a half hours and total to to roll credits on it. It's not like other roadblocks where I come back to it time and time again and just keep playing because it is very story based. 01:17:05:14 - 01:17:06:20 Speaker 3 So yeah. 01:17:06:27 - 01:17:37:09 Speaker 1 14 hours is was a good amount. I also got back into vampire survivors, try to try to catch up on my achievements there. And so what I need to get back into now now that I've done that is working on a little bit more of last call BBC. I still have a few puzzles solve and 20th century food court and what else? 01:17:38:04 - 01:17:41:15 Speaker 1 Weird West I still need to still want a role credit so weird West. 01:17:41:22 - 01:17:44:00 Speaker 2 That's that's what I'm going to have to pick up next. 01:17:44:21 - 01:17:48:19 Speaker 1 Yeah so yeah that's that's what I'm playing. 01:17:51:08 - 01:17:51:19 Speaker 2 Yeah. 01:17:52:04 - 01:18:16:07 Speaker 1 Yeah yeah. So that'll do it for tonight's episode. Uh, I really appreciate you all coming in and, and listening to us. We're, we're coming off some pretty good months for the, for the podcast. And, and I'm happy that all of you are listening and laughing and loving, listen, laugh, love, you know. 01:18:16:17 - 01:18:29:07 Speaker 2 And every every week at some point lately, Kevin will share the numbers with me on on the downloads and fuck you people are out there like every. 01:18:29:07 - 01:18:36:02 Speaker 1 Tool out there and they seem they like their media, they like their novel, their novelizations and their tie ins. 01:18:36:02 - 01:18:48:10 Speaker 2 And they and man and we're thrilled to have you like, cause this is it. We've said this before, but, like, this is such this is not exactly mainstream. The subject matter. 01:18:48:10 - 01:18:50:00 Speaker 3 What we're doing. 01:18:50:00 - 01:18:51:28 Speaker 1 So, yeah, it is. 01:18:51:28 - 01:18:53:25 Speaker 2 It's it's thrilling to have you there it is. 01:18:53:25 - 01:19:23:16 Speaker 1 It is not mainstream. You know, like you're listening you're putting sure. Yeah. So thanks for listening, everybody. If you are so inclined, please follow us on Twitter at Pixelate Pod and on Instagram at the same handle at Pixelate Pod Rating. Five stars on all of the platforms that you perchance listen to us on. That would be podcast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Good Pods or anything else. 01:19:23:16 - 01:19:55:25 Speaker 1 Five Star Reviews. Really help us out if you want. You can go to our website Pixelate podcast where we have the automated transcript of each app as well as links to all of our guest appearances in other podcasts and YouTube videos and links to our Discord and Steam curator pages. So that'll do it for tonight's episode. Thank you so much for listening and have a good night, everybody. 01:19:56:23 - 01:20:04:28 Speaker 3 My.