Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp

Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp is the first story arc in Halo: Fall of Reach, a comic-book adaptation of the first Halo novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach published by Marvel Comics.

Consisting of four issues, Boot Camp chronicles the childhood of future SPARTAN-II commander John-117 as he is kidnapped and thrown into the elite supersoldier program early on in the 26th century. The story arc culminates in the Spartans' first real mission, an operation to capture the rebel Colonel Robert Watts at their hidden asteroid base, Eridanus Secundus. As with the rest of the adaptation, Boot Camp largely follows the plot of the original novel, though some events have been omitted. In turn, a new subplot which further explores the Eridanus rebels and their leader, Colonel Robert Watts, has been added. For a full list of the differences, see list of changes in Halo: Fall of Reach.

Boot Camp is succeeded by two additional story arcs; Covenant and Invasion.

Issue 1
Official summary:

Synopsis The first issue opens with the battle over Eridanus II during Operation: TREBUCHET in 2513 and the rebels' escape from the planet. The story then jumps four years forward, as the shuttle Han arrives in the Eridanus system with Dr. Catherine Halsey and Lt. Jacob Keyes onboard. In Elysium City on Eridanus II, they observe the boy who will later become John-117. A month later, the Spartan conscripts, having each been kidnapped and brought to Reach, are rounded up as Halsey tells them of their conscription to the SPARTAN-II project. Later, Halsey is seen drinking in her apartment, when she receives a message from Vice Admiral Ysionris Jeromi, regarding the risks involved in the planned SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures.

Issue 2
Official summary:

Synopsis The second issue focuses on the training of the SPARTAN-IIs. John and the other recruits are woken up and are put through various exercises by CPO Franklin Mendez. Afterward, they are taught of the Battle of Thermopylae by Déjà in the Reach Naval Academy. A UNSC transport vessel is then shown exiting slipspace and soon being boarded by rebels near Eridanus II. The narrative then returns to the Spartan trainees, who are dropped into the Military Wilderness Training Preserve on Reach and are given a mission to find a way to the extraction point, each on their own. The Spartans team up, and with John on the lead, seize a dropship and use it to return to the base. After the incident, John is promoted squad leader by Chief Mendez.

Issue 3
Official summary:

Synopsis The third issue begins with the funeral ceremony for those who died in the SPARTAN-II augmentations, aboard the UNSC carrier Atlas. Several months later, Halsey and Mendez arrive at one of Reach's abandoned titanium mines where the Spartans are training against UNSC personnel wearing Mark I Prototype Exoskeletons. Soon after, the Spartans are assigned to their first real mission: to capture Colonel Robert Watts, who is hiding somewhere in the Eridanus asteroid belt. After being briefed onboard the, the Spartans sneak aboard the freighter Laden and manage to get inside the rebel-controlled asteroid habitat, Eridanus Secundus. The issue ends as the Spartans assault Watts' private residence inside the base.

Issue 4
Official summary:

Synopsis The fourth issue opens with Blue Team capturing Colonel Watts and stuffing him into a sealed storage crate. The Spartans then rappel down the building and escape via a tram as more insurrectionists arrive. The team arrives at the station's docking bay, where they split up, with Samuel-034 planting explosives on the main door and Linda-058 covering the rest of the team as Kelly, John and Fred get Watts onboard a Pelican. Once everyone is aboard, Sam blows the doors open and the Spartans escape Eridanus Secundus just as the entire hangar bay is depressurized.

Several weeks later, the Spartans gather inside the secure briefing room of Reach's UNSC military complex. Vice Admiral Stanforth arrives to brief them on a new threat; a remote farming world known as Harvest has been reduced to ash by an alien hegemony that calls itself the Covenant. The issue ends with a message by the Prophet of Regret, proclaiming humanity's destruction.

Trivia

 * The shadow of John-117 in a MJOLNIR Mark VI armor seen on Issue 1's cover seems to be roughly based off of a screenshot of Halo 3 released by Bungie.
 * The ancient Greek Spartan soldiers depicted in the hologram of Thermopylae resemble the Spartans of the 300 comic and film series by Frank Miller, not as the heavily armored hoplites they were historically.
 * In Issue 4, Linda-058's bodysuit is incorrectly labeled with the tag 059.
 * In the comic, the population of Harvest is said to be three million, despite Halo: Contact Harvest listing the said population as a mere 300,000. Since Halo: The Essential Visual Guide also lists the population as three million, it can be assumed that the 300,000 number in Contact Harvest has since been ignored.
 * In the series, John-117's face is fully shown only as a child. In scenes which depict him as an adolescent, his face is mostly obscured, most often by shadows or view angles. In the funeral ceremony after the SPARTAN-II augmentations in Issue #3, most of his face is covered by bandages.
 * In the second issue, the captain of the retrieves several shotguns from a cryo chamber. In the first two panels, the shotguns appear to be M45s, though they resemble M90s in subsequent panels.