Frankly, if you don't know what the Cole Protocol is -- a (fictional) military law established by the United Nations Space Command which states that any ship in danger of Covenant capture cannot reveal the location of Earth at any cost, even if that cost is the erasure of all shipboard data along with a ship's self-destruction -- we're not sure why you're still reading this, unless of course you just love Halo and don't bother with the details (shame on you!). Suffice it to say that if you know what the Cole Protocol is, if you do love Halo and, above all, if you love reading, this news is for you: the latest in the Halo series of novels -- titled The Cole Protocol -- will be hitting retail shelves on November 25. The audio version will be made available at the same time, for those of you who would prefer a format you can enjoy while actually playing Halo.

Written by Tobias S. Buckell, the book follows "an unexplored conflict of the Human-Covenant War" involving the Spartan Gray team. We would venture to guess that the novel covers the events that led to the creation of the Cole Protocol. We are excited.