With Microsoft's newest campaign in Halo 5: Guardians coming to a close, we gather to discuss what the ending of Master Chief's latest means for fans of the franchise.

As one of the most anticipated Xbox One titles this year, Halo 5: Guardians had to knock it out of the park in order to keep the franchise viable for Microsoft. Fortunately, the game did just that, and while we pointed out several issues with the game's campaign during our review of Halo 5, it was still chock-full of interesting developments that are sure to hit home for longtime followers of the series.

Since it's so hard to avoid talking about the plot, we've opted to create a spoiler post for readers to talk about the beginning, middle, and end of Halo 5: Guardians without fear of ruining the game for anyone else. Suffice to say, those that want to avoid the ending of Master Chief's latest adventure should turn back now for obvious reasons. Alright, still here? Let's get into it then.

As gamers quickly find out during the second mission of the game, Cortana is alive and well. After establishing communications with the Master Chief, the longstanding faceless face of the franchise opts to ignore official requests to head back home in order to locate his formerly deceased AI companion. Not willing to abandon their childhood friend, the entirety of Blue Team (Fred, Linda, and Kelly) accompany the Chief. This is what causes the newcomer Locke to get the order to go after him, alongside his squad Fireteam Osiris (which is comprised of Buck, Vale, and Tanaka).

As Fireteam Osiris pursues the Master Chief and friends, they take time to aid the former Covenant elite, Arbiter, and his army the Swords of Sanghelios as they wage war against the reformed Covenant. In doing so, the Spartans successfully put an end to the current powers controlling the Covenant, and give Arbiter full control – at least for the time being. Meanwhile, Chief learns of Cortana's plans, as she has found a cure for rampancy and intends to extend it to all other AI.

Realizing that Cortana has killed thousands, if not millions, to summon giant Forerunner enforcers known as the Guardians, Master Chief takes a firm stance against the seemingly corrupted Cortana. As a result, Cortana opts to forcefully put Blue Team into cryosleep for thousands of years until her plan can be fully realized. This is around the time that Locke and his team arrive on the Cortana-occupied Forerunner planet Genesis, and, after befriending Exuberant Witness (the Guilty Spark of the planet), they manage to catch up to the agenda-driven AI and rescue Chief and his crew before she can slip into subspace.

As the game ends, Cortana and AI across the universe that are all seeking eternal life cut off UNSC control, just as the Infinity ship enters subspace – dodging Cortana and her massive Guardians in the process. The game ends with Chief and Locke meeting up with some members of the UNSC Infinity, as well as the Arbiter, with Halsey accusing them of taking a while. For those that tackled the campaign on Legendary, however, a brief scene of a Halo ring is shown hovering over a planet with Cortana humming in the background.

So, what did you guys think of Halo 5's ending? What do you think will happen in the next iteration? Get at us in the comments.

Halo 5: Guardians is available now, exclusively for Xbox One.