Speaking with Stevivor, 343 Industries Kevin Grace explained just how Halo Wars 2 will fit into the larger Halo universe.

“The Halo universe is a great big universe, and so Cortana is getting up to her shenanigans — galactically-threatening shenanigans — over there,” Grace said, referring to the conclusion of Halo 5: Guardians.

“The Ark is so far away from everything else, and that’s actually by design. The Forerunners created the Ark to be so far away that it… bought them enough time to be outside of the immediate threat of the Flood while they were trying to catalogue all of that life and make the Halo. Right now it is… outside of Cortana’s immediate threat range.”

The events of Halo 5 impact one character in a major way — the AI known as Isabel.

“What happened to the AI is a very real thing,” Grace continued. “Actually, Isabel’s relationship position in regards to Cortana’s offer to the other AIs, is a relevant detail for the game. But, again, we’re going to let people experience that when the game out.”

Grace maintained that Halo Wars 2 is all but one piece of a very large puzzle.

“We’re putting all of these stories together cooperatively. We’re doing them at the same time [with] the same team. I’m working with the internal, the shooter story team constantly to see what plans they are getting up to. What do they do? Where did they drop us off in [Halo] 5? Where does Halo Wars 2 pick up? What could this mean, events of Halo Wars 2, for games in the future that are coming from 343 in the Halo universe. This is all done very intentionally.”

Halo Wars 2 is available from 21 February 2017 on both Windows PC and Xbox One as part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program.