2552

17/7/2552
A Covenant fleet is discovered by Ensign William Lovell on UNSC Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes, entering the Sigma Octanus system. Commander Keyes, on board the UNSC Destroyer Iroquois, takes on 4 medium-tonnage Covenant craft (two Frigates, one destroyer, one carrier), and destroys 3 of them in what becomes known as the 'Keyes Loop'. The Carrier heads to Sigma Octanus IV and drops Covenant troops, invading the city of Côte d'Azur. Keyes is promoted to Captain by Admiral Micheal Stanforth. General Kits and his marines take on the Covenant invaders groundside.

18/7/2552
The Marines are massacred by a new type of Covenant: Hunters. Corporal Harland, Private Fincher, Private Walker, and Private Cochran evade Covenant attacks in a warthog and win a battle against two banshees. However, they return to Alpha Base, marine headquarters at Côte, and discover that most of the base is destroyed. Out of 1,600 marines, 14 remain. Even so, they have defeated a large amount of Covenant even though they were up against bad odds.

The Spartans and the Marines engage Covenant forces on the ground and discover some civilians that hid in cargo ships. After discovering a new breed of Covenant, engineers, they find some hunters stealing an artifact from a museum. The SPARTANS, civilians, and marines escape, eventually nuking Cote D'Azur and most of the Covenant invasion force. During this battle, 4 dozen UNSC ships engage 20 Covenant craft. Seven human craft survive. The Iroquois destroys a stealth ship receiving an encrypted transmission from the surface. Once this ship is destroyed, the surviving Covenant ships break off and flee. The Iroquois heads back to Reach for debriefing. A Covenant tracker attaches itself, unseen, to the Iroquois' hull.

12/8/2552
The Master Chief and Corporal Harland are debriefed by ONI at Camp Hathcock, Reach, on the events of Cote D'Azur.

25/8/2552
The Pillar of Autumn is chosen by Dr. Halsey and Cortana (with Keyes as Captain) to handle a secret mission that Dr. Halsey is planning.

27/8/2552
John rejoins the remaining Spartans (except for three that are otherwise engaged) in the FLEETCOM Military Complex on Reach, where they learn of their next mission: To acquire a Covenant vessel, navigate to the Covenant home world, and return with captured Covenant leadership.

29/8/2552
The Master Chief gets a neural interface upgrade and new armour with built-in Covenant shield technology. He is also introduced to Cortana, an A.I. created from Dr. Halsey's own neural patterns.

30/8/2552
Cortana gets revenge on Colonel James Ackerson, part of ONI's Special Warfare branch, for attempting to eliminate Cortana and Master Chief - she gets him transferred to the front. Bypassing several other colonies, the Covenant arrive at Reach and begin what has become all too familiar to the embattled Human forces: the destruction of the planet. The Spartans are divided into two teams: Red and Blue. John and the rest of Blue team (Linda and James), while on an orbital mission to ensure that a NAV database stays out of Covenant hands, end up onboard the Pillar of Autumn when she jumps away from the Reach system to evade Covenant forces. James is lost and Linda is mortally wounded, and the subsequent mission on Halo is left to the Master Chief to complete. When the Master Chief retreats to the Pelican, he meets up with some marines: Private Jenkins, Private O'Brien, Private Bicenti, and Sergeant Johnson. The Covenant take the surface of Reach, and Red team splits, one group to retrieve Admiral Whitcomb, while the rest hole up in ONI's Castle Base underground facility with Dr. Halsey. The Spartans receive parts of a MJOLNIR Mark V upgrade and new weapons, while Dr. Halsey learns of Colonel Ackerson's mysterious plans, plans that seem to involve "her" Spartans.

4/9/2552
Lieutenant Wagner returns to Earth and reports on the evident destruction of Reach to Colonel Ackerson, Admiral Hood, and General Strauss at an ONI facility in Sydney, Australia.

7/9/2552
The Time/Date Record Anomaly of Sep 23, 2552 most likely rejoins the timeline here. Dr. Halsey and members of Red team discover an enigmatic shard in an ancient installation below the ONI facility. Blue team joins with team Gamma to retrieve Admiral Whitcomb, and rejoin the rest of Red team who have been besieged by the Covenant, who apparently revere the artefact that the Humans have found.

??/??/2552
The remaining Spartans, Admiral Whitcomb, Dr. Halsey, Sgt. Johnson, Lieutenant Haverson, Warrant Officer Polaski, and Corporal Locklear jump to Slipspace on board the Covenant/Human hybrid ship Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice, and discover that the shard seems to have the ability to bend both space and time.

12/9/2552
The Gettysburg/Ascendant Justice arrives for refit and provisioning in Eridanus system and meets with the rebels under Governor Jiles. Dr. Halsey sedates Spartan 087, Kelly, and absconds with her on Governor Jiles ship, a Chiroptera-class vessel, the smallest UNSC classification that contains an SFTE. Before she goes, she gives the alien artifact to Corporal Locklear, with implicit instructions to destroy it.

13/9/2552
In Operation: FIRST STRIKE Admiral Whitcomb and Lieutenant Haverson destroy the majority of the surrounding Covenant fleet by detonating the Unyielding Hierophant. John, Linda, Will, and Fred, the last known remaining Spartans, along with Sgt. Johnson, and, of course, Cortana (A.I.), depart for Earth to warn of the impending Covenant invasion.

19/9/2552

 * The UNSC Pillar of Autumn arrives at Halo . The Master Chief is revived by Tech Chief Thom Shepard and Tech Officer Sam Marcus. Sam is soon killed by an Elite and Thom is killed by an explosion caused by the Autumn's space combat with the Covenant. The covenant attack and force the pillar of autumn’s crew to evacuate to the newly discovered ring world. Lieutenant Hall and Lieutenant Dominique are killed when it crashes.
 * Captain Jacob Keyes is captured by the Covenant, he is brought to the CCS class battle cruiser: the Truth and Reconciliation. Lieutenant Hikowa, Abiad, Singh, Wang, Ensign William Lovell, Corporal Wilkins, Ensign Ellen Dowski, and three unknown marines are killed when captured.
 * Chief rescues a large number of Marines, taking them on board the pelican: Echo 419.

20/9/2552

 * Chief and a number of Marines make their way into the Truth and Reconciliation.
 * Chief, Keyes and some prisoners, escape the covenant on a drop-ship.
 * A pair of Pelican’s transport troops, containing Master Chief, to the Island where the ‘Silent Cartographer’ a map room that can show the location of the Control Room is.
 * After saving the new information into Cortana’s data-banks, the two take Echo 419 through a path of underground tunnels the the area where the Control room is.
 * Chief finds a group of Marines from Fireteam Zulu that were not ‘wiped-out’ like the rest of the other Marine groups in the area. They lend him their Scorpion main battle tank. Chief brings the platoon, along with another he later finds, to a canyon, where Echo 419 is sent to rescue them. Chief enters the Control room, he is warned that weapons cash that Keyes is looking for is actually a Forerunner base, and that Halo isn’t covenant. He runs to Echo-419 for a lift.Chief land in a swampy area. Whilst exploring around, he discovers the ‘Flood’.Chief finally escapes from the labyrinth of the under-ground research facility via lift, he finds a team of soldiers scared half to death, waiting for Echo-419. Chief takes control of the Platoon, when Echo-419 is almost at a tower that they chose to meet at, is almost there, Chief is captured by the ‘Monitor’ of installation 04, who uses the Halo network to teleport each other to the ‘Library’.

21/9/2552
Chief goes on a search to find the ‘Index’ a Key that can activate Halo’s firing sequence.Chief reaches the top-floor of the Library, after killing at least 200 ‘Flood’. As soon as he grabs hold of the key, 343 guilty spark teleports themselves to the Control room.When Halo is mealy seconds away from firing, cortana, still inside the computer system’s, cancels the firing order. 343 guilty spark sends out a message of war to the sentinels. Chief destroys the 3 pulse generators that create the energy used to activate halo. Chief is then teleported with Cortana to a Covenant cruiser, where Keyes is being held.The Chief is to late, Keyes has been taken over by the ‘Flood’. Chief takes the neural interface, out of Keyes by literally punching his brains out. The duo capture a Banshee, and lock on course for the Pillar of Autumn.

22/9/2552
The Master Chief and Cortana, onboard a Longsword in the debris field of the destroyed Halo, find oneRemaining Pelican containing Sgt. Johnson, Lieutenant Haverson, Warrant Officer Polaski, Corporal Locklear, and a set of cryotubes containing Spartan 058, Linda.

23/9/2552
The Master Chief, Cortana, Linda, Polaski, Sgt. Johnson, Haverson, and Locklear depart for ReachVia Slipspace aboard the Covenant Flagship Ascendant Justice, captured near the Halo debris field.A Time/Date Record Anomaly continues from this point in the narrative, resolved above on Sep 7, 2552.

19/10/2552
The High-Prophet of Regret prepares his private fleet for an endless search for the other Rings, without authorization from the other two high-prophets The survivors of the Pillar of Autumn land on UNSCDF ODA142 "Cairo”.

20/10/2552
Mjolnir MK VI arrives at Cairo from Seong Nam (North Korea), giving Spartan 117 a chance to utilize it after Spartan-062 has given it a field-test. At the same time The Covenant council deems the Fleet Commander of Particular Justice a Heretic, and sentences him to death. Whilst the Commander is attending his punishment ceremony, on the Cairo the Master Chief and Sergeant Avery Johnson recieve various decorations for their actions on the Pillar of Autumn, while Miranda Keyes recieves a post-mortem award for her father's brave sacrifice.The High Prophet of Regret begins to seige the Planet Earth at this point with a woefully underequipped force, not having expected any humans to be present; they attack without messaging the other High-Prophets. The Master Chief successfully destroys one Carrier of the fleet and repels Cairo Station's boarders, but the first Covenant Assault Carrier had already deployed ground soldiers in New Mombassa, Africa. Spartan 117 is deployed New Mombassa and drives out many Covenant patrols out of the City. Before he can reach the Assault Carrier containing the Prophet of regret, it makes a jump inside the city. In Amber Clad follows the tear in Slipspace that the Assault Carrier makes, getting sucked into the vortex along with half of the City. On High Charity the former Fleet Commander is made the Arbiter by the High Prophets of Truth and Mercy. He goes on his first mission, to find and kill the heretic leader. After killing him, ‘Tartarus’ captures 343 guilty spark. SPARTANs-104, 058, and 043 defend Earth during In Amber Clad's disappearance for two weeks.

21/10/2552
The High Prophet of Regret's Carrier and In Amber Clad reach Delta Halo. The Master Chief is deployed with the 7th Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Battalion, following Regret to a lake-based Forerunner temple. He manages to pursue and kill the Prophet of Regret, but doing so causes the now active fleet above to bombard his location, forcing him into the lake to be dragged down under the water by the Gravemind. The Arbiter is sent on a secret mission to retrieve the ‘index’ As he completes his mission Tarturus throws him down in to the depths of the ring-world, on the order of the Prophets. They mark Civil War!

22/10/2552
Gravemind reveals itself as the Flood intelligence of Delta Halo.He sends both the Master Chief and the Arbiter on a secret mission. Master Chief is teleported to the Covenant holy city, High Charity in pursuit of the High Prophets of Truth and Mercy, who have in their possesion the Index. The Arbiter is teleported near the control room; cutting a path toward it through the Brutes guarding the way. The Drones and jackals ally themselves with the Brutes and Prophets, putting themselves against the Grunts, Elites, and Hunters in their new Civil War. The Master Chief's pursuit of the Prophets comes to no avail; Truth has left with the index. Chief is told by the Prophet of Mercy that the Prophet of Truth intends to go to Earth and finish what they had started. the Master Chief fights his way through wave after wave of flood, looking for the forerunner ships energy-transfer unit. The Spartan gets caught in the transfer field, and is thrown into the ship seconds away from launching. As he is jettisoned the Arbiter finds himself locked in combat with Tarturus, killing him but failing to stop him from activating Halo. Miranda Keyes removes the Index before the ring manages to fire, cancelling it's destructive wave but sending a signal out that activates all the remaining installations in the galaxy, as well as all Sheild Worlds (such as Onyx). She, Johnson, and the Arbiter call a truce to their rivalry in order to seek out the Ark that 343 Guilty Spark informs them of.

3/11/2552
A very long day, all of the events on Onyx take place on this day.

SPARTANs-104, 058, and 043 re-take an orbital elevator in Havana, Cuba shortly before being given a mission re-direct by Lord Hood, to aid Catherine Halsey on Onyx. The three SPARTANs steal a Covenant ship, Bloodied Spirit and transfer into Slipspace, arriving at Onyx after a slight detour at Joyous Exultation, answering a distress call to all available Elite-controlled craft in the area.

Cortana sends a Slipspace Message to Lord Hood, informing him that the Master Chief is aboard the Forerunner ship traveling to Earth.