Rubicon Protocol was a great read, and a little thing I thoroughly enjoyed was how colossal and larger then life the Spartans were written as. It’s that ruthless, ferocious war machine that’s equal parts agile and strong, this tank on legs that steamrolls anything short of a well experienced Jiralhanae or Sangheili.
Kelly Gay conveys perfectly how surreal that must be, that distinction in how Spartans approach engaging the enemy compared to how the normal human would. The marines, the civilian personnel are scrambling in this battle, trying to avoid getting their throats clawed out by Kig-yar hungry for a midnight snack—Stone is running up like a freight train to the biggest threat she can find and putting it six feet under using her bare hands. The action is fantastic here.
Again here, you get a picture of the thundering weight behind Spartans, that immovable force capable of trampling anyone who dares get in the way.
It reminds me of how combat was described in earlier novels, with less pragmatism and more flair I think, which is fitting. The IVs stationed on the infinity are excellent warriors, and it’s impressive they lasted as long as they did with their degrading armor and guerilla tactics—they aren’t quite as pragmatic in how they fight as their predecessors. They’re leaning harder on the advancements in technology and divergent(weirder) augmentations, like how they’re actually cyborgs, and are running a bevy of artificial organs and implants.
It’s that they have a lesser focus on teamwork given the nature of the IV program, and focus on putting together similarly talented individuals like we see with Fireteams Shadow and Windfall. There isn’t the hard coded reliance and understanding on pack mentality and group cohesion like there is among prior generations.
much pondering for the prospective spartan writer, much pointless pondering
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Nina Kovan/Bonita Stone
Characters: Nina Kovan, Bonita Stone, Erik Bender, Robin Dimik
Additional Tags: Heavy Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Canon-Typical Violence, Rubicon Protocol Spoilers, Canonical Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Not Beta Read
Summary:
Having some time to think, Spartan Nina Kovan reflects upon the last ten years of her life alongside Bonita Stone.
Rubicon Protocol is really good but it’s a little jarring to read (complimentary.) you’ll go through some pages of relatively hard military sci fi and then you’ll get slapped in the face with some Themes or Character Development and I’m like ohhhhhhhh. Right. Kelly Gay wrote this one.
