A Halo Infinite prequel is out next month as an all-new tie-in novel

gamesradar.com:

Halo: The Rubicon Protocol, a tie-in novel that details the events that precede the story campaign in Halo Infinite (opens in new tab), is out next month.

While some details of what happened before Halo Infinite kicked off can be gleaned from the game's various audio logs, Halo: The Rubicon Protocol - written by Kelly Gay and set to release on August 9, 2022 - further explores "some of the events in those six months before the Master Chief was reawakened, and the game’s campaign begins".

“Captain Lasky to all hands. Banished forces are present above the ring—repeat, Banished forces are between us and our target."Witness the devastating Banished ambush at Zeta Halo from a different point of view in HALO: THE RUBICON PROTOCOL on August 9.https://t.co/cHDwtASgGT pic.twitter.com/43MKWWAyIBJuly 8, 2022

Not all fans are happy at the news of a tie-in product, though. 343 Industries' accompanying tweet didn't mention that the story expansion would be in a separate book - leading some (opens in new tab) to think, at least initially, that it was in-game content - and others (opens in new tab) think that the story in the book should be delivered in-game, perhaps as DLC (opens in new tab). 

The good news, however, is that you can try before you buy and preview the beginning of the novel right now over on Halo Waypoint (opens in new tab) (thanks, PCGN (opens in new tab)). 

Did you catch the news that 343 Industries is working to preserve a bunch of content from pre-release versions of Halo and Halo 2 (opens in new tab), rebuilding them for players and modders to enjoy in the Master Chief Collection?

You'll be forgiven if you've forgotten - or weren't even born yet - but footage of Halo 2's Earth City demo was presented at E3 2003.