Halo: The Fall of Reach

Halo: The Fall of Reach is a novel based on the Halo Franchise. It is based on the events surrounding Halo: Reach and also focuses largely on Master Chief's origins. It is the first halo novel ever to be published and the first in a series.

Halo: The Fall of Reach
Author:	Eric Nylund
Publisher:	Del Rey Books
Date Released:	October 30,2001 August 3,2010 (remastered)
Length:	340 pages
Availability	Paperback
Price:	The Following prices apply (whatever price it is in the US, it will be the same price in Australasia)
US:	$7.99
Canada:	$10.99
UK:	$6.99

A remastered version was created and released August 3,2010. A Graphic Novel series called "Halo: The Fall of Reach" will be released soon and is being created by Malvel and 343. It will have 3 books. The first will be called "Boot Camp."

Story Synosis

The story begins on the UNSC colony of Jericho VII on Feburary 12, 2535, and reveals the Spartans as a whole, as well as their purpose. As the a unstoppable Covenant Armada moves in to glass the colony, Spartan Red and Blue teams are deployed to stop the colony's destruction. They killed a thousand grunts and and even managed to destroy four banshees with fouglasses. However, soon the UNSC Fleet in orbit are forced into retreat and to prevent being left behind, Master Chief orders both teams to fall back as the colony is glassed by the Covenant.

It then carries to Dr.Catherine Elizabeth Halsey and Lieutenant Junior Grade Jacob Keyes aboard the UNSC Shuttlecraft, Han. They are sent in to identify a potential host for the SPARTAN II program named John. Obviously, this is years before the Jericho VII glassing since John is only a child. John is found in a playground in Elysium City on the colony of Eridanus II, where she tests his abilities to be a SPARTAN. Using a coin, she tests John's reflexes to catch and identify the side she is thinking of. He passes. Later the coin is taken from John.

Later on, John is kidnapped by Halsey and Keyes and taken to a UNSC Training Camp reshaped for Spartan training. John meets alot of kids also kidnapped. However, he takes interest in two kids in particular. A young girl named Kelly and a young boy named Fred. They are brutally trained by Chief Petty Officer Mendez. He teaches them what spartans will need and how to get these qualities. The Camp's Dumb AI, Deja is given the job of training them of Earth's History what "Spartans" are in Ancient History. She also teaches them maths and physics. After a daring mission in the wild forests of the fortress-world of Reach, where the young spartans regroup and escape with pieces of a map that they all put together and stole a Pelican back to base, John is given the designation of "117" and is made squad leader of all the remaining spartans. When the Spartans turn 14, they undergo intense biological enchancements and augmentations to increase their strength, speed and stamina. Their bones also are indestructible. This increases blood flow to the eyes, allowing them to see in the dark. However, of the 75 Spartans, less than half emerge ready and prept for combat. The others either have bodies that are too deformed to keep alive or died during the augmentations.

As now fully grown spartans, they are given orders to storm the URF Base Asteriod and capture their leader, Colonel Robert Watts. He leads all rebels in the Eridanus Asteriod Belt. They are aided by the UNSC Commonwealth. John leads a small team (later known as Blue Team) and captures Watts. John however is wounded during the destruction of the URF base and subsquently awarded the Purple Heart.

On Feburary 3, 2525, first contact is made with a alien race over the colony world of Harvest. They call themselves the Covenant. On that day, a Brute controlled warship, the Rapid Conversion exterminates the entire population of Harvest in a single day, with Sergeant Johnson and Jenkins being the only survivors. A UNSC Scout ship, the UNSC Argo is sent to identify the warship. However, with superior firepower, the warship destroys the Argo. Realizing the threat, three CMA warships, the destroyer, CMA Hercules and the frigates CMA Vostok and CMA Arabia are sent to destroy the warship. They attempt to overwhelm the enemy vessel but they underestimate the warship and the Vostok and Arabia are both destroyed in the enemy's return fire. The Hercules escapes heavily damaged and survives to tell the tale. The Hercules receives repairs at Reach and Admiral Cole starts assembling a gigantic UNSC Fleet to retake Harvest and destroy the alien vessel. On December of the same year, the Covenant arrive with reinforcements to hold Harvest. Cole attacks with his fleet and achieves victory at Harvest. However, he loses two-thirds of his fleet in the process. Despite tactical brilliance by a veteran admiral, the odds are 3 to 1 when versing Covenant weaponry. One by One, the Outer Colonies fall and by 2536 are all destroyed.

To protect Earth's location, Cole establishes the United Nations Space Command Emergency Priorty Order 098831A-1 a.k.a "The Cole Protocol."

Due to shortage of effective officers, Keyes is promoted to commander and given command of the UNSC Iroquois. Shortly therefter, he foresees a impending Covenant invasion of the colony world of Sigma Octanus IV thanks to intel provided by spartan Fhajad-084. His actions result in the destruction of a covenant destroyer and two frigates and he routed a Covenant Carrier using a famous maneveur later called the "Keyes Loop." This unexpected victory gained him the rank of Captain and a pick of any UNSC Vessel that is currently not under command of a current officer. Keyes and the Iroquois stay behind to help UNSC reinforcements engage the full might of the Covenant invasion fleet. He later returns to Reach, inadvertiningly revealing the location of Reach via a Covenant homing beacon attached to Iroquois's hull. He is then briefed by ONI. This is where he meets John-117 again.

By 2552, many of humanity's Inner Colonies have been destroyed by the Covenant. In a move of desperation, ONI Section 3 orders the execution of a secret plan to capture a covenant ship using spartans. The ship would be taken to the Covenant homeworld in order to capture a Prophet, one of the alien's religous leaders and then use the Prophet has bribery into peace talks and neigoitate a truce.

To aid the Spartans in this mission, a Smart AI, Cortana is created based on Halsey's mind. She decides to let the AI choose a spartan to set into, she chooses John. Thanks to Cortana, John manages to overwhelm a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, pick his way through a minefield, destroy automated chainguns and even evade an air strike from a Skyhawk fighter all of which use live rounds.

Every remaining spartan, with the exceptions of Grey Team, Kurt-051, Jorge-052, Maria-062, the original Red Team and Black Team- boards a specially outfitted Halcyon-class Cruiser called the UNSC Pillar of Autumn commanded by Captain Keyes. The Autumn moves out towards the system's edge to make a slipspace jump to this new mission.

This plan, however, is interrupted when a massive covenant fleet of over 700 ships enters the Epsilon-Eridani System. Keyes orders the Autumn to return to Reach and to abandon the mission. However, Chief convinces him to let them to continue with the mission. They later find a damaged Covenant Cruiser and Chief's Blue Team board. He takes Kelly, Fred, Linda, Joshua, James, Will and Sam as part of his team. Reach's Defense Fleet engage the enemy fleet. They have a hundred vessels and 20 Orbital "Super" MAC Gun Platforms. However, they take massive losses. Luckily, the MAC Platforms repel the Covenant's initial assault.

The Covenant return with dropships landing on the surface to deploy troops and take out the generators powering the MAC Gun Platforms, the only things standing between Reach and the Covenant Assault Fleet. The Autumn returns with Blue Team, however, Sam is dead after the mission failed. The UNSC realize that the UNSC Circumference, a Prowler is still docked and hasn't initiated the Cole Protocol. John takes Linda and James to destroy the Circumference's NAV data. Meanwhile, Will, Josh, Kelly, lead by Fred go to the planet surface to defend the MAC Generators.

During the Circumference mission, James activates his thruster pack but is hit by a needler shard. It explodes sending him flying uncontrollably into space where he is presumed KIA. John and Linda proceed towards the Circumference. On the way, they find Sergeant Johnson and his marines, including Jenkins and Bisenti also trying to wipe the NAV Data. With John's help, the marine's suceed however, Linda is hit by 5 seperate plasma bursts. They fall back to the Autumn while John drags Linda's "body" since she is clinically dead due to the wounds contents. However, Linda is placed in Cryo, hope that she can be revived.

The surface of Reach is also overrun. Kelly, Fred, Josh and Will are prusumed dead and slaughtered. Without the generators, the Super MAC Guns fall silent and are destroyed by the Covenant fleet. The Covenant Fleet then proceed to glass the planet. All remaining UNSC Ships are hunted down and destroyed. However, The Autumn escapes, destroying a Covenant Supercruiser on the way. Cortana plots a course away from Earth, like the Cole Protocol spectates except it is not random. She decrypted the Forerunner glyphs found by the Chief on Sigma Octanus IV. The NAV Coordinates led the Pillar of Autumn to what the Covenant had been searching for, Halo, an extremely sacred Forerunner ring-world. The book ends with Keyes looking through view screens at the ring, he then asks Cortana to identify the object.

Characters

• Dr.Catherine Elizabeth Halsey
• Chief Petty Officer Mendez
• Ensign William Lovell
• Colonel James Ackerson
• Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson
• Lieutenant/Commander/Captain Jacob Keyes
• SPARTAN II Master Chief Petty Officer John-117
• Lieutenant Commander Fhajad-084
• Petty Officer Second Class Linda-058
• Petty Officer First Class Frederic-104
• Petty Officer Second Class Joshua-029
• Petty Officer Second Class William-043
• Petty Officer Second Class James-redacted
• Petty Officer Second Class Samuel-034
• Petty Officer Second Class Kelly-087
• Hieronymus Michael Stanforth
• Cortana
• Deja
• Al Toran
• Lieutenant Dominque
• Lieutenant Aki Hikowa
• Lieutenant Hall
• Lieutenant Jaggers

Trivia

• The 2010 reprint of the novel shows the Spartans wearing the Halo Wars spartan designs and them holding Halo Reach Assault Rifles
• A fail in the book as been found. Kelly, Fred, Will and Josh on Reach while James, John and Linda are destroying NAV Data. However, when John calls to James to see if he destroyed it says "All secure!" Kelly shouted. Kelly isn't there and it is James he's asking.
• On page 126 John is called Master Chief. This is odd since he hasn't obtained the rank yet. It is known to Mendez that all of them are Petty Officer Second Class.
• Halo: Reach focuses on Noble Team, who were never mentioned in this novel except for Jorge.
• The Banshee on the front cover of the old book is firing the same "Laser Beams" that it does on the front cover of Halo CE.
• Interestingly, the first chapter is called "Revielle" and involves people getting out of cryosleep. The First level part of Halo CE is called "Revielle" and it involves Chief getting out of cryosleep.
• It is stated in the book that grunts sound like dogs and their language can't be translated. However, in the halo games (exception of Reach) the grunts speak english and don't sound like dogs at all.
• The book states the Autumn having a command chair. In Halo CE, the chair is absent.

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