So, for those of you who have finished the campaign story - where do you think this new trilogy goes from here?

Personally, I was actually kind of surprised that the story in Halo 4 tied off as neatly as it did. I expected to have a few infuriating story threads left dangling open for the next game.

We could presume that the Didact survived his fall, or that Cortana is still around in some form right now, but the game gives you no line of dialogue, or scene, to stoke these beliefs (unless I missed something?)

My own guess is that we are going to see either human Cortana by the end of this trilogy, or a Cortana/Promethean construct at some point. I'd actually be kind of impressed if 343 had the balls to keep her dead and gone, and have John cope with her absence in some way, but I doubt that's the case (though how she survives the Composer being blown literally to bits, is beyond me). The function of the "Composer" technology just seems too convenient, considering how they are making John and Cortana more of a meaningful relationship.

Another possibility, is that the events of Spartan Ops could bridge the gap between Halo 4 and Halo 5. Right now in the Spartan Ops story, the Storm Covenant seem to be trying to activate some piece of technology that they are claiming the Librarian inhabits (in some form, anyway). The fact that a major Halo character like Dr. Catherine Halsey is involved in the story, also made me raise an eyebrow. I doubt any of the Spartan-IVs in Spartan Ops will matter in the next game's story, but this stuff with Halsey and the Forerunner artifact... maybe?

I had a friend say that he thought the Didact-overdubbed CG cutscene at the end of the game was the Didact talking to the Storm Covenant or Prometheans, meaning he survived his fall - but it seemed clear to me that was just a speech he gave to the Forerunners during the previous Forerunner-Ancient Human war.

What do you guys think? And what from the Halo 4 story do you base your predictions on?

John 117 get digitized ala Lawnmower Man and than proceeds to make sweet digital love to Cortana.

They could be setting Cortana up to eventually lead the prometheans and be an antagonistic force... that would be kinda neat.

Cortana getting a body is very high on my list of things that I think we will see

John will start drinking because Cortana. John always knew there was only one way to really finish the fight.

I honestly don't know. Cheif will probably get fitted with a new AI of some sort, and proceed to fight more covanant for some reason.

I hope they use this opportunity to add a bunch of new characters, I want a new bad ass Male AI, A forerunner or even promethean AI would be cool.

I think the Infinity stuff might lead up to what is going to come next, I've been watching the short episodes for the last five weeks and theyre pretty interesting.

Honestly, I just hope they do something new. I'm so, so sick of sequels and franchises and 'third person cover based rank up perk unlock system game' (you know what I mean)

Please Halo franchise, and games industry in general, TAKE MORE RISKS.

You only need look at Mass Effect 3, AC3, Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Borderlands, Darksiders, New Super Mario Brothers, this years biggest games are largely disappointments because you can only polish these games so far before you wear away what made them truly unique in the first place.

I love where Spartan Ops is going so far. The CGI movies are a great set up for a new title especially if they keep this going till Halo 5 (which would be insane).
 
I'd love to have some more characters however. Arbiter could be good to be in the frame again (perhaps missions from his side?), one of the other old Spartans (Kelly, Fred, or whoever the hell is left from John's homeboysquad) or perhaps even one of the new Spartans that gets his own moment of glory. 
Which is possible, because if Noble 6 and The Rookie can be big goddamn heroes so can these circus clowns called Spartan IV's.
 
I wouldn't mind Palmer either but I'm a Jennifer Hale fangirl. So I won't say that.

Honestly, get rid of the Covenant. Get rid of Halo planets.

Let's have Master Chief have an all new experience. I'd like the enemies types to be more terrifying like Xenomorph style aliens, or something along those lines. Have a better story line than "ancient civilization wants to come back and destroy humanity." Or make the conflict more personal, and solely on how Chief is going to try to get Cortana back or something.

I just think it needs a bigger shake up.

i think weill see where its going through spartan ops. which that seems like where they focused the conflict side of the story more in. and kept the campaign to be more about chief and cortana.

halo 4 doesnt really give a sense of whats next other than the chief will be becoming more "human" now that cortana is dead for the time being. and obviously that the didact survived the fall (theres no way you kill off one of the most important characters in this trilogy so quick they dedicated the books and the terminals to this guy, theres no way that dude is dead that would be so retarded,)

if didact is dead, then its gonna be the master builder or the precursors that will take over as new villains

@Bobby_The_Great: well ill say this, if the foreshadowing in the books is any indication ( which it seems they are heavily relying on that stuff) then halo 5 should shake things up more.

lets say maybe another race or 2 races of new enemies i think would be added into the mix.

and as you saw in the ending, chief is pissed, and the didact 99% survived that fall, so id imagine chief would be out for revenge in the next game and be emotionally unstable.

see the covenant do play a good part in this trilogy, its just most of their story seems delegated to spartan ops. so id also expect to see arbiter make a return as well

It seems they're going to explore John as a person, since they touched on it in some really interesting moments in the main campaign. I'm sure the Didact, if he really is dead, had some back-up Prometheans composed to lead a strike force or something. As well, there's the stuff with Earth being mini-assaulted to deal with and John's involvement in that, as well as his blatant disregard of orders. I'm not saying he'll go full-on rogue or anything, but there's definitely some drama to be had there, as well as a deteriorating mental state to deal with.

@The_Nubster said:

It seems they're going to explore John as a person, since they touched on it in some really interesting moments in the main campaign. I'm sure the Didact, if he really is dead, had some back-up Prometheans composed to lead a strike force or something. As well, there's the stuff with Earth being mini-assaulted to deal with and John's involvement in that, as well as his blatant disregard of orders. I'm not saying he'll go full-on rogue or anything, but there's definitely some drama to be had there, as well as a deteriorating mental state to deal with.

The interesting part about Chief refusing Del Rio's order to hand over Cortana, is that if you've read the books, you know Spartan-IIs never - NEVER - disobey an order.

I'm not sure they are going to address that, however. Del Rio ended up getting removed as Captain of the Infinity for leaving Chief behind on Requiem, and Lasky is obviously far more sympathetic to the Chief.

Maybe it'll like halo 2. Some part of the game we'll be played by masterchief and some parts would be played by Arbiter. Masterchief's story would be his dealings with the death of cortana, him being given a new AI but with a twist, maybe cortana left a few data or a tiny tiny bit of her inside masterchief's armor and then that would be like a gateway for cortana to control that AI like what she dis to the covenant's AI then poof there's cortana again but of course there would be some malfunctioning still because the previous AI which cortana corrupted would be fighting her and regain control for sometime until cortana fights back, that is if and only if they dont replace the chief's armor with new armor tech. But i doubt that cuz chief already has the latest mjolnir mark VI. OR Chief would find a piece or shard from the ruins of remains of composer or the ship contacts infinity and tries if there's still some parts of cortana in that shard or piece. Afterall, she did say most of me is down there. But there's still a lot of theories to what john has to accomplish to get through his problem. Now for the arbiter's story, maybe he's fighting the storm covenants and at the sametime trying to return back to earth to assist john or if ever earth gets attacked by some random storm covenant fleet, he'll come back and provide some help, hopefully then the two guys would meet then poof just like in halo 3, john and Thel' would be fighting side by side again. :) And at the end the didact will return from the dark abyss of the slip space portal thingy which he fell into. I think he was just stunned by that bomb. Not killed. Those bombs could kill a fuckin promethian knight with one blast much more will it take to kill the didact. Btw i think thats the original didact not the bornstellar one. Or vise versa. Then maybe a prediction in halo 6 ending. If cortana doesnt go human or even,like the promethians, get a body like them, maybe they'll find another composer and digitize the chief, if he's that desperate to be with cortana, aaand there they'll see each other talk talk talk then some alone time. :))))) well those are my opinions of course but all i know is that the next halos would be so much more better than halo 4 because of all the feedbacks 343 have been getting ever since.