History Literature / HaloLastLight

* AdaptationalBadass: Four Sentinel drones are a heavy challenge for four Spartans, being armed with particle lasers and durable energy shields. In the games... just spray them a while with an automatic weapon and they'll shatter. Considering that ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' had already established that there are multiple types of even just basic Aggressor Sentinels, it's possible the ones in ''Last Light'' just happen to be a particularly tough variant.

''Halo: Last Light'' is a novel in the ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' series by Creator/TroyDenning, which follows the [[SuperSoldier Spartan]] squads Blue Team and Team Saber on a mission to a distant colony.

''Halo: Last Light'' is a novel in the ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' series by Creator/TroyDenning, which follows the Spartan squads Blue Team and Team Saber on a colonial mission.

It is July 2553, four months after the end of the devastating Human-Covenant War. Now lacking a common enemy, the United Nations Space Command and colonies sympathetic to the Insurrection have started to grow hostile again. These tensions flare on the independent colony of Gao, where mysterious murders occur in its Montero Caves shortly before the UNSC sent their forces, including Spartans, to lock down the site. Demanding their own investigation, Gao's government sends special inspector Veta Lopis to solve the murders, though the UNSC insist that their Spartans "supervise" her. But the Spartans have their own mission, and Veta suspects they may have had the means to carry out these crimes...

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade / HistoricalVillainUpgrade: In-universe. Intrepid Eye dismisses AI Wendall's accounts of the Flood-Forerunner War as Lifeworker propaganda. As she was constructed by Builders, Intrepid views the Lifeworkers as obsessed eccentrics and the Builders as the geniuses whose measures like the Jat-Krula Line and Halos were for the greater good of the galaxy, even though much of what Wendall is quoting is from ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'', which showed the Builders to be xenophobic tyrants and the Jat-Krula to be outdated and ineffective, while the Lifeworkers were the most moral caste.

* PsychoSerum: Veta eventually discovers what makes Gamma Company Spartan-[=IIIs=] unique from other Spartans: they've been injected with unique "cocktail" drugs that make them more persistent and aggressive. While ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' showed them to have the issue of altering their brains so much that Forerunner AIs couldn't recognize them as human, ''Last Light'' introduces another side-effect: [[spoiler:if they go for more than a day and a half without taking their "Smoother" drugs, they risk going on rampage.]]

* AdaptationalBadass: Four Sentinel drones are a heavy challenge for four Spartans, being armed with particle lasers and durable energy shields. In the games... just spray them a while with an automatic weapon and they'll shatter. Considering that ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'' had already revealed that there were multiple types of even just basic Aggressor Sentinels, it's possible the ones in ''Last Light'' just happen to be a particularly tough variant.

* AdaptationalBadass: Four Sentinel drones are a heavy challenge for four Spartans, being armed with particle lasers and durable energy shields. In the games... just spray them a while with an automatic weapon and they'll shatter.

* TheSocialDarwinist: [[spoiler:Intrepid Eye eventually accepts her new mission is to serve humans, but it doesn't slow her murderous tendencies in the slightest. Instead she decides that these "barbarians" aren't worthy of the Mantle yet and her actions are "pruning" them to become a worthy species.]]

** In fact, after attempting to [[spoiler:kill Veta]] three times and failing, [[spoiler:Intrepid Eye starts to view her as one of those branches of humanity that may be worth keeping]].

* LipReading: It turns out Veta has picked up a few tricks from a deaf friend of hers and is able to pick up parts of the conversation between Fred and his superior, including words like [[spoiler:"Forerunner"]] and [[spoiler:"ancilla"]].

* ReverseWhodunnit: * ReverseWhodunnit: Intrepid Eye is revealed as the murderer from the second chapter, and Fred and ONI know it. The conflict instead comes from how long they're going to insist on keeping it secret from Veta per ONI's orders, and how which innocents Veta might mistakenly charge if not told the true killer, not to mention Intrepid herself running amok.

** Both get a chance to admire each other's bodies. While crawling through a dark tunnel, Fred annoyed notes that the most he can see is Veta's butt blocking the view ahead. Later on Veta sees him changing out of malfunctioning armor on the field, and thinks she might've found his superhuman muscles a nice view if not that they are currently on the run for their lives.

* ReverseWhodunnit: Intrepid Eye is revealed to the reader as the murderer from the second chapter, although the characters don't know this. The conflict comes from whether Veta might mistakenly charge innocents if the true killer isn't revealed.

* ReverseWhodunnit: Intrepid Eye is revealed as the murderer from the second chapter, and the Spartans know it. The conflict instead comes from how long they're going to insist on keeping it secret from Veta per ONI's orders, and how which innocents Veta might mistakenly charge if not told the true killer.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Like most other Forerunner [=AIs=], Intrepid Ere has become sanity-deficient thanks to millennia alone in her facility. With her, it manifests in a sociopathy towards humans, contempt for lesser constructs like Engineers or human [=AIs=], and a refusal to believe that the Forerunners are extinct like all the records she finds tell her.

* PsychoSerum: Veta eventually discovers what makes Gamma Company Spartan-[=IIIs=] unique from other Spartans: they've been injected with unique "cocktail" drugs that make them more persistent and aggressive. While ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' showed them to have the issue of altering their brains so much that Forerunner AIs couldn't recognize them as human, ''Last Light'' introduces another side-effect: [[spoiler:if they go for more than a day and a half without taking their "Smoother" drugs, they start to risk going on rampage.]]

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Due to an incident in her teens where an abuser locked Veta in a tiny cellar for three weeks, she's since had a fear of tight spaces. As such, this cave mission is not high on her favorites, though she refuses to be coddled and insists on crawling through anyway. While her phobia never gets further than momentary hesitation, just a few seconds of reluctance are enough for the Spartans to notice [[spoiler:and to cause her trouble when she tries to escape from an airlock Intrepid Eye locks her in.]]

** Both get a chance to admire each other's bodies. While crawling through a dark tunnel, Fred annoyed notes that the most he can see is Veta's butt blocking the view ahead. Later on Veta sees him changing out of malfunctioning armor on the field, and thinks she might've found his superhuman muscles a nice view if that they are currently on the run for their lives.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Like most other Forerunner [=AIs=], Intrepid AI has become sanity-deficient thanks to millennia alone in her facility. With her, it manifests in a sociopathy towards humans, contempt for lesser constructs like Engineers or human [=AIs=], and a refusal to believe that the Forerunners are extinct like all the records she finds tell her.

''Halo: Last Light'' is a novel in the ''{{Franchise/Halo}}'' series by Creator/TroyDenning, which follows the Spartan squad Blue Team on a colonial mission.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Like most other Forerunner AIs, Intrepid AI has become sanity-deficient thanks to millennia alone in her facility. With her, it manifests in a sociopathy towards humans, contempt for lesser constructs like Engineers or human AIs, and a refusal to believe that the Forerunners are extinct like all the records she finds tell her.