Spartans: The AWOL Squad

Halo.  An interactive space opera where the player gets to be the hero against a backdrop of history, technology, and a racial struggle to survive spanning eons back in time.  I loved the story enough to buy all the games, to read all the books and comics.  I may suck at the game play, but I play anyway just see the story unfold.

The universe of Halo is so vast and open that you can’t help but want to fill it out a little.  Because doing so would put anything I did into the realm of fan-fiction, I was a leery of embarking on this project.  It’s hard for me to write something that I can’t consider as mine.  Then my brother introduced me to Rooster Teeth’s Red vs. Blue.  I think it was because of Bungie’s cooperation with the Rooster Teeth guys, allowing them to take a kind of ownership over their fan-fiction series, that let me begin to think of this project as my own.

I first began to write SPARTANS: The AWOL Squad in 2007.  Though I’d never written in script form before, it seemed the more appropriate format.  It was also one that allowed me to knock out episodes quickly.  I’d work a few lines in during breaks at work then e-mail a finished episode to friends and fellow authors, Tricia Sparks and LJ Gastineau, to see what they thought.  They enjoyed it enough to ask for more.

Since then, I’ve written several episodes every 8 or 9 months or so, referencing the multiplayer maps in the games as my stage sets.  This is the project I work on when I need a change of pace.  The tone is not as serious as the rest of my writing and that’s one of the reasons it has become a pet favorite of mine.  Every now and again, I gather my friends together for a reading of the script, just for kicks.

Since we enjoyed it so much, I thought I’d share.  So here it is.  Read, laugh, and enjoy.

Click here to access the episodic script of Spartans: The AWOL Squad.

CHALLENGE

I’d like to see how many of you know what’s going on.  There are hidden agendas, glossed over directives, and a lot of questions left unanswered.  So here’s the challenge: answer any of these questions below.  If you get any one of them right, I’ll send you the next three un-posted episodes, whichever they may be, and a coupon code for a free copy of the Descent Into Darkness novella e-book of your choice.  E-mail your answers/speculations/theories/guesses to AWOL@dorisross.com with “AWOL Challange” in the subject line.

1. Did the Spartan IIIs, Edge, Gypsy, and Shade, have a relationship with any of the 2-Theta members prior to their meeting Joyrider in Episode 9?  If so, who and what is the nature of the relationship?
2. Why did Joyrider trap 2-Theta in cryo-stasis?
3. What is the Cucchulain Project, which sometimes referred to as CP?
4. Where is 8-Ball getting all of his data from?
5. Does Shadow have an agenda of his own?

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