Halo: The Fall of Reach
 
      Time line: August 17, 2517 - August 30, 2552
 



While the brutal Covenant juggernaut sweeps inexorably through space, intent on wiping out humankind, only one stronghold remains…the planet Reach. Practically on Earth’s doorstep, it is the last military fortress to defend against the alien onslaught. But Reach’s defenders have another, higher priority: to prevent the Covenant from discovering the location of Earth. Outnumbered and outgunned, the soldiers seem to have little chance against the Covenant, but Reach holds a closely guarded secret. It is the training ground for the very first “super soldiers” Code-named SPARTANs, these highly advanced warriors, specially bioengineered and technologically augmented, are the best in the universe…quiet, professional, swift, agile, and deadly. This, is how the SPARTAN program began…
 
Lieutenant Junior Grade Jacob Keyes had an assignment to assist Doctor Halsey in an experiment that would turn the tide of the war and change the future forever. They were on their way to the Eridanus Two system onboard a diplomatic shuttle, known as the Han. They were to examine one of their test subjects’ number 117, John.

They enter the Eridanus Two system and make there way to the playground on the Elysium City of Primary Education Facility No. 119. Their subject is a child, six years old to be exact. Their mission for now was to only examine the child, Dr. Halsey and Lt. Keyes made there way to the playground only to see a group of kids on a hill, pushing and shoving each other, they were playing king of the hill. But one of them stood out from the others, he was a head taller then the rest and also had a more muscular body then the other children. He was on top of the hill denying anyone who would try and topple him over. Dr. Halsey pulled out a palm-sized pad and opened the file on the subject. The child had all the generic markers she had flagged in her original study…he was as close to a perfect subject for her purposes as science could determine. He was a typical six-year old male. He had brown hair and a slight grin that reveled a gap between his two front teeth, along his face a few freckles. Dr. Halsey took a picture of the child and scanned the freckles on his face and compared them, a match, that was their subject. They finished examining the child and made there way back to Reach.
 
 During that night the UNSC had kidnapped 75 children, put them into cyro-sleep, and entered slip-space to Reach. They brought them to an auditorium, each child was escorted by a trainer, some of the children tried to get up and were forced back down by a strong hand. Dr. Halsey told them that they couldn’t go back to their parents and that they were here to be trained, to become the best, and to save mankind…When Dr. Halsey was done they sent the subjects to a barracks where they would sleep.

In the morning, Chief Mendez, their leading officer woke them up for extreme exercises, 100 jumping jacks, 100 sit-ups, and so-forth. After their PE, a 2-mile jog to where they went to school, an AI named Deja who frequently thought the children gave them a lesson about wars and kings. When school was over Mendez waited for them outside, he took them to the playground. But it was like no other playground John had seen, cargo nets, poles, bridges, and ropes. All in a maze like fashion. Mendez separated the children and game them a number and whatever number you were that was your team, John got number 3 he looked to his right, he saw a boy named Samuel-034, and to his left a girl, a tall girl, her name was Kelly-087. Their goal was to ring the bell, Mendez pointed to the highest pole. The winners won dinner, the losers would not be eating. The teams to have all their members to ring the bell before the others won. John looked for the easiest way to get their first, he wasn’t going to let his team slow him down, he was going to win, he always won.

Mendez told them to start and John shimmied up a rope, it was a long rope, but he forced himself to climb it. He rang the bell first, but his team got stuck at the end as the line built up to ring the bell, his team lost. The next day the same exercises were performed, Deja taught them about wolfs and their tactics, after school, the playground for the same activity as the day before. There were the same teams; Sam and Kelly didn’t look too happy to see him. John looked for a way they could all get there together. He found one, a basket with a rope to pull yourself up in. Kelly told them she could run, fast, so she when ahead and held it for them, they were only half way when she got there. They got in the basket and pulled their selves to the top. They were 3rd, but they finished together. From that point on…they were friends and allies.
 
Several years of training passed, then the augmentation began. The augmentation consisted of multiple body enhancers such as muscle, reflex, optical, and many others. This whole process took place in 4 weeks. After the augmentation was finished, many of the subjects died, or their bones were twisted so much they didn’t look hardly human. With the Spartans new enhancements they had to relearn how to walk with their new muscles and reflexes. They were back on track after a few weeks of rehabilitation. Shortly thereafter, the Spartans were given their first mission. They were to capture and bring back a rebel by the name of Captain Watts alive for interrogation and debriefing. Watts had a base camp on an asteroid belt on one of the inner colonies. The Spartans were to use extreme caution; Watts’s men weren’t too fond of strangers on their heavily protected asteroid. The Spartans accomplished that mission with pinpoint accuracy and skill. After their mission was over, Dr. Halsey called for them on Reaches’ UNSC Military complex for a briefing on their new mission. Dr. Halsey told them that they had a new project that would change the Spartans into something…new.

She told them about project MJOLNIR. An armor system, it would enhance the Spartans reflexes and speed to 10x the normal humans. The new armor was on a testing facility in the Damascus system on Chi Ceti 4. They would get aboard the Commonwealth with Captain Wallace and enter the system that way. They went aboard the ship and were on their way, they were just about to enter the system when they were surprised and attacked by a Covenant ship. Captain Wallace pulled brilliant attack maneuvers but the covenant ship had energy shields, so it could take a tremendous amount of damage. The Covenant technology was light-years more advanced then the UNSC’s. So Dr. Halsey and the Spartans to an escape pod and went the rest of the way their with Captain Wallace distracting the Covenant vessel. Once they arrived on Chi Ceti 4, they entered the testing facility and tried on the new armor. It was amazing, it enhanced their already enhance reflexes and strength. The technicians actually were able to replicate the covenant shielding, so their armor had rechargeable shields. They would move the armor and in return…it would move them. All the Spartans had to do was think about moving their arm to their chest and it sprang into motion. It was extremely efficient. Dr. Halsey fitted John with a special AI named…Cortana. She was one of the Smartest AI the ONI (Office of Navel Intelligence) developed. She could help the Chief tremendously. Once they were used to the armor, they decided to go back to the Commonwealth to help Captain Wallace against the Covenant ship. John decided to take 2 other Spartans with him. Sam and Kelly. They were going to Infiltrate and destroy the ship from the inside, since they couldn’t from the outside. The team took some ARCHER missiles with them, to help them in their mission.

So John, Sam, and Kelly entered the ship through a hole that Captain Wallace had blasted through with a missile. They were making their way through the ship when an Elite showed up; the three Spartans eliminated the target quick. They continued to move when yet another Elite showed up; this one had his shields on…He shot and the Spartans returned fire. Sam was hit in the side but kept firing. John ran up to the Elite and side kicked it, the shields fluttered and disappeared, he then shoved his gun into the Elites mouth and pulled the trigger. The target was dead before it hit the ground. Sam lay on the floor clenching his side. The shot burned a hole right through the armor. They helped Sam up and moved to the next room, it was the room where the covenant held their Plasma, a source for their main weapon for their ships. They set the timers on the missiles they carried and through them in the room. Sam had to stay behind and keep the Covenant from stopping them. He couldn’t get out of the ship; he would die from the atmospheric pressure because of the hole in his suit. So John and Kelly ran and escaped the ship before it blew into tiny pieces of shrapnel. It was a victory, they now knew they could kill the Covenant, at a high cost however. John knew that he had to sacrifice lives to save many others, but no one told him it would feel like this…He then pulled up a list of his Spartans and placed Sam as “MIA”. The Spartans were to never be listed as KIA, they were heroes, Spartans. In Greek mythology the Spartans were greater even then the gods. They ruled their universe with absolute power.

They were a symbol of hope, a symbol of courage to the young soldiers. To list them as KIA would bring a massive decrease in morale for the UNSC and they could not have that, as the war was already being won by the Covenant dramatically.  John closed the screen and removed the thought forever. A few days later John was promoted to Petty Officer Master Chief.
 
Shortly after this happened, Captain Jacob Keyes was on the Iroquois enroot to Sigma Octanus Four. When he arrived in the system he was stunned to see 4 Covenant ships and a Covenant carrier. Four Covenant ships were an even match for 7 UNSC battleships. He had seen the Covenant carrier’s make Swiss cheese of UNSC ships with their plasma torpedos. He called for backup from any ships in the area; it would take a while for them to arrive there. He had to fight; 17 million lives lied behind him. He wasn’t going to just sit here and watch the Covenant glass the planet. (Glassing is a term used by the UNSC because the Covenant would surround a world they didn’t need and fire all their plasma weapons on the surface till it looked like a glass ball). This battle would be over in minutes…Captain Keyes managed to pull a brilliant maneuver to destroy 3 of the covenant ships. But the other ships turned and left. The covenant didn’t just leave. They killed everything or died trying. He told one of his deck crewmen to check the planets atmosphere to see if anything was there. There were 43 drop ships inbound for Sigma Octanus Four…it was an invasion. Their predicted trajectory was the city of Corte De Azure.
 
Master Chief and his team were given a mission to stop the Covenant Invasion of Corte De Azure and evacuate the citizens there. When they landed on Sigma Octanus they made their way to the city only to find that thousands of Covenant were in the city. John armed a HaVoK tactical nuke and placed it in a sewer drain. The rest of the team rounded up survivors and headed back to the evacuation point. John met them there and they entered the Pelican, once inside they took off, John pressed the detonator and the Nuke exploded into a plume of fire and smoke. John was them told to meet with Captain Jacob Keyes onboard the Iroquois. While Master Chief was on his mission Keyes and his crew were in repairs as a dozen UNSC ships and a Repair station called the Cradle entered the system. They went in orbit around Sigma Octanus, shortly thereafter 18 Covenant ships entered the system in perfect formation, this time the UNSC was ready for them.

The UNSC ships entered battle formations. The battle lasted only minutes, all the UNSC ships fired their MAC cannons (Their most powerful weapons) simultaneously to take out 8 covenant ships. They then scattered and the UNSC took out 5 more. But the covenant destroyed 8 of the UNSC’s ships. The fleet was spread thin as it was. This didn’t help that at all. Once the UNSC fought off the Covenant the rest of the ships turned and entered Slipspace. This was a Victory for the UNSC. But the war was far from over. Keyes got a new ship for is bravery, The Pillar of Autumn. Master Chief then met up with Keyes and went aboard the ship. They were going to the Andreedy system when Keyes got a message from FLEETCOM that the Covenant were going to attack the only thing left between them and Earth…Reach.

The UNSC moved every battle worthy ship to Reach for one last stand against the Covenant. They had one advantage though, the orbiting super MAC cannons, the UNSC’s most powerful non-nuclear weapons, there were 16 of them. Covenant ships entered space around Reach, 314 ships to be exact. The battle was huge. So much firepower in space it looked like a solar flare. Eventually the covenant took out the Super MAC cannons and engaged the UNSC ships which were no match. Reach had fallen. Keyes and his crew, with Master Chief and Dr. Halsey had to make a Randomized Slipspace jump to escape the Covenant and live to fight another day…

Und hier noch ein Bild von der wichtigsten Person in der Geschichte von Halo - dem Master Chief