Halo Universe

Set 500 years in the future, the Halo Universe has humankind colonizing the stars only to stumble upon a hostile group of Aliens called the Covenant, who are bent on humanity's destruction. It is this Universe where the Halo video game series: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, the future games Halo 3 and Halo Wars take place. In addition to the games a number of Halo books have been released.

Primary Factions
In the Halo Universe there are many players/factions/political groups/races. The main factions are as follows:

United Nations Space Command


500 years into the future, most of humanity is ruled by the United Nations Space Command (UNSC). As the most of the canon material from the Halo Universe is from the ongoing war we see the future mainly through the eyes of the UNSC's military arm called the United Nations Space Command Defense Force (UNSCDF). The UNSCDF are commonly seen defending planets. Stations such as the Cairo Station are part of the UNSCDF. During the events of Halo 2 the UNSCDF fought the Covenant over Earth in a last-ditch attempt to protect the human race.

The UNSC was formed by the United Nations when over-population on Earth started becoming a severe problem in the early 22nd century. Run by HIGHCOM, the UNSC is Earth's premiere defense against the Covenant. The Navy houses the divisions of Marines (including the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers), the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), and the fleet. Originally designed to keep the peace between neighboring planets and star systems, when certain rebellious factions began to present a problem in the late 2510s the UNSC was forced to police its colonies to keep privateers and pirates from raiding them.

There are several breakaway factions opposed to the Colonial Administration and UNSC as well, including the United Rebel Front.

The Covenant


The two original species of the Covenant the Prophets and the Elites spent years locked in a bitter war before the Prophets discovered the remains of an ancient species called the Forerunner and learned of the Forerunner's Great Journey which the Covenant believes was when the Forerunner turned themselves into Gods and disappeared from this Universe. The English word "Covenant" means "a binding agreement." This name is well suited to the Covenant because of the "binding Covenant" formed between the two Alien races the Prophets and the Elites, when the latter promised to defend the Prophets as they searched for the Sacred Rings which are said to start the "Great Journey". As the Covenant Empire grew over the millennia, more species were enslaved to their cause, although, up until the Covenant Civil War, none of them were quite as important to the Prophets as the Elites.

At first, the Covenant were mostly held together by a need to survive, but, as their society advanced, so did their technology, culture, and religion. Now the Covenant control a large part of the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy, and their society is a complicated caste system, with the Prophets still on top, governing the Covenant along with the Elites. The Covenant is a theocracy, based on a prophecy about the Sacred Rings and the Great Journey. The actual context of this prophecy is unknown, but the Prophets' faith in it is the reason for their yearning desire to activate the Halos, to "propel all who are worthy along the path to salvation!"

The Flood


The Flood (sometimes called The Parasite by the Covenant) is a species of virulent, parasitic organisms that thrive by consuming other sentient life of sufficient biomass. The Flood appears to be a hive or communal mind, possibly under one leader (such as Gravemind). Next to nothing is known about their origin. It has been revealed that the Forerunners discovered and then fought them until the Forerunners were overwhelmed. Faced with the Flood spreading throughout the Universe and consuming every sentient being the Forerunners activated the Halos killing all sentient life in order to stop the Flood from spreading. The Covenant view this activation of the Halo as their "Great Journey" and strive to activate the Halos again.

The Flood were kept by the Forerunners for scientific study on the Halos. Although the intention was to wipe out the Flood by destroying everything of significant bio-mass, therefore starving the Flood, the fact that they still exist indicates that the Forerunner's plan may have failed.

Travel

 * Slipspace, used by both the Covenant and UNSC, is the primary method of faster than light travel in the Halo universe. A Forerunner crystal captured at Reach allowed for manipulation of space-time and Slipspace, dramatically shortening the length of travel time through Slipspace.
 * Where as wheeled vehicles similar in appearance to today's vehicles are used by the UNSC the Covenant prefer to use hovering technology assumed to be based on Forerunner technology.

Rebellion/SPARTAN Project
In the years 2160-2200, various governments, and factions fought for control of Earth and its first Colonies. As overpopulation and unrest on Earth mounted, new political movements formed including the Jovian Frieden and Koslovics led by Vladimir Koslov, resurgences of Fascism and Neo Communism which waged the Interplanetary, Rain Forest Wars Campaign and Mars clashes and were defeated by the victorious United Nations Space Command emerged as the rulers of most of humanity.

While the UNSC became the governing body for most of human space they never fully defeated various rebel groups. By 2517, The UNSC was facing extremely low morale due to piracy and the Brushfire Wars. In order to remove the rebellion without a significant sacrifice of human life a Dr. Catherine Halsey moves forward with the SPARTAN-II project. 75 gifted children were abducted and replaced by flash-clones, and drafted into the UNSC. The children went through rigorous training and physical augmentations. Code-named SPARTANs, these genetically enhanced troops were trained from the age of six into a life of battle, and would become a great asset against the Covenant.

The Human-Covenant War begins
On February 3, 2525 the UNSC colony of Harvest detected an unknown object on its long range radar. The object was constructed with materials unlike anything seen before. All contact with Harvest was lost soon after. Ships sent to the system revealed that it had been totally destroyed by a new Alien group called the Covenant. A battle group was sent but was defeated by the military superior Covenant ships. Only one ship made it back, the Heracles returned with a message that was sent to them, pre-translated, saying, "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument". The book Halo: Contact Harvest (being released Fall 2007) also takes place here in the view of Avery Johnson.

In response Vice Admiral Preston Cole mobilized the largest space fleet in human history to retake Harvest. The fleet defeated the Covenant ships at Harvest in 2531 but at great cost with Cole losing two-thirds of his fleet. The highly advanced Covenant shielding and weapons systems simply outclassed anything they had and so began the slow destruction of the human race. One by one the UNSC colonies were lost until by 2535, virtually all of the Outer Colony worlds had been destroyed by the Covenant and the Inner Colonies were being invaded. The Cole Protocol was established by military order: all human vessels must ensure that Covenant forces do not find Earth. To achieve this whenever they must jump out of a battle, they must do so to a randomized vector that points away from any human worlds.



The Battle of Reach
By 2552, many of Humanity's Outer Colonies had been destroyed by the Covenant. The UNSC leadership assembled a strike team, including some Spartans, at the human command base on the planet Reach. In a move of desperation the UNSC planned to launch a targeted strike against the Covenant leadership. This plan was abandoned when the Covenant launched a surprise attack on the world of Reach.

During this battle, most of Reach is overrun and glassed, and the Human fleet is obliterated. One of the Spartans, Master Chief, is able to escape on the ship Pillar of Autumn (POA). In fleeing the Covenant fleet the POA onboard AI, Cortana, uses some coordinates from a recently discovered Forerunner artifact which leads them straight to the Forerunner Halo

Halo: Combat Evolved


The Pillar of Autumn exits Slipspace to find a mysterious ring shaped space station orbiting a gas giant. The ring, quickly named "Halo", is obviously artificial and teeming with life. A Covenant fleet, however, is also present, and a subsequent battle heavily damages the Pillar of Autumn and the ship crash landed onto Halo. Before the POA went down the ship's AI construct, Cortana, leaves the Autumn with the Master Chief in a Bumblebee escape pod which also crash lands on Halo. The first Halo game begins in earnest with the Master Chief's escape from the Autumn, and continues upon landing. The first levels of the game deal with an attempt to reach Halo's control center to uncover its purpose. It is soon discovered that the Covenant have accidentally released The Flood. The Flood then sweep across Halo and devastate human and Covenant forces positioned on it. The release of the Flood prompts 343 Guilty Spark, an eccentric Forerunner Artificial Intelligence, to try to activate Halo's defense system, a pulse weapon that, when fired, would wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy large enough to be hosts for the Flood. Technically, that installation only has a maximum effective radius of 25,000 light years, but the pulse would trigger other installations as well, effectively killing all intelligent life in the galaxy. This system is designed to stop the Flood from spreading through the universe if they escape confinement from Halo by the only way possible: starving the Flood of any life source that can sustain them.

Naturally, this would wipe out Humanity as well, and so the final levels of the game revolve around the Master Chief's attempts to destroy Halo before it fires by self-destructing the POA. Despite the abuse sustained during the space battle and the following crash the Pillar of Autumn remained intact, and was subsequently occupied by investigating Covenant forces and later by Flood.

Having manually triggered a destabilization of the power cores the Master Chief and Cortana commandeered a Longsword from one of the Pillar of Autumn's docking bays and achieved a safe minimum distance before the ship exploded, causing the ring-world to fragment.

First Strike


Occurs between the first and second Halo video games. The story starts off with Master Chief and a few other survivors in space above the destroyed Halo. They capture a Covenant flagship and make their way back to Reach. When they arrive they find the entire planet ravaged. Yet something is strange. The Covenant usually Glass a world and move on, but there are small patches of the planet left unscathed. In an alternate storyline we find out that other Spartans have found an ancient Forerunner structure under ONI's Castle Base. There they find a special artifact that warps space time.

Cortana, now in control of the Covenant ship, docks with a partially destroyed UNSC ship and combines their power (and also to allow them to return to Earth without violating the Cole Protocol by bringing a potentially "bugged" Covenant ship with them). After toying around with the controls she realizes that the Covenant know virtually nothing about the technology they possess. She redesigns the Plasma cannons to fire more effectively, increasing their destructive power. She also finds out how the Covenant move so easily through Slipspace. The technology she gathers could effectively turn the tide of the war.

After going through many battles the Master Chief and other Spartans discover a massive plot to attack the Sol system (Earth). They covertly attack and destroy a massive Covenant refit and repair station along with an attack force many times larger than the one that attacked Reach. In doing so they lose the Covenant flagship; however, they save the UNSC ship and escape back to earth with it. Thus begins Halo 2.

Delta Halo


The game starts with a Covenant attack on Earth. Master Chief begins on one of the three hundred space defense platforms which orbit the planet. After repelling the Covenant boarding parties, the battle shifts to Earth's surface. During which a Covenant ship makes a Slipspace jump which destroys the city of New Mombasa, the UNSC ship the In Amber Clad, with the Master Chief aboard gets swept up in the warp field in a desperate effort to follow it.

The player is transported to the vicinity of another Halo ring - the Delta Halo - on which they land. Through an alternating game play story lines a power struggle within the Covenant is revealed, with Brutes usurping the role of the Elites. Furthermore, there is a movement, regarded by the Covenant leadership as heretical, which argues that Covenant teachings aren't true. Lastly, we are introduced to an creature called the Gravemind, which appears to be the controlling mind of the Flood. The creature is obviously highly intelligent and gives the impression of knowing a great deal.

The Halos, we learn from 343 Guilty Spark, were built to prevent the Flood from spreading throughout the Galaxy, and that the Forerunners who built it were wiped out when they fired it as a "weapon of last resort" at some point in the remote past. In spite of this the Covenant activates the ring in preparation to fire, to bring about the Great Journey. Through gameplay the Index is retrieved and the Halo cannot fire. 343 Guilty Spark reveals that although the Index was removed before Delta Halo had time to complete it's firing sequence, it sent signals to other Halos in the Galaxy, putting them on standby mode. Now, they can be activated remotely from the Ark (assumed to be either on Earth or the Forerunner Ship itself). The game ends here and the credits roll.

After the credits end, one final movie plays. The Gravemind has taken control of High Charity and with it, Cortana.

Halo: Ghosts of Onyx


The novel begins with a group of SPARTAN-IIIs deploying to a Covenant fleet refueling depot on Pegasi Delta. They proceed to destroy the facility, but due to unexpectedly heavy Covenant resistance, all but two of the three hundred Spartan team is wiped out. The only survivors, Tom-B292 and Lucy-B091, are revealed to be only twelve years old, and Lucy is traumatized and rendered mute.

The novel then cuts to a raid by the SPARTAN-II Blue Team on a rebel base at planet Victoria to recover stolen nuclear warheads. The team is nearly captured by a rebel ambush, but is saved by the timely, intuitive intervention of Kurt-051. Shortly afterward, the novel cuts to a meeting between the top leadership of ONI. In this meeting, they agree that the SPARTAN-II program is prohibitively expensive and that a more streamlined, "disposable" breed of Spartans must be trained for high-risk operations.

Trained on the restricted planet of Onyx the top three teams of the S-III Gamma Company, Teams Saber, Katana, and Gladius, conduct a training exercise run into some previously undiscovered Forerunner Sentinels. Through a series of events the Covenant are alerted to the existence of Onyx and the human force discover an ancient Forerunner city, and are guided into a massive dome by Halsey, who determines that the entire planet is a shield world referred to by the Forerunners as The Sharpened Shield. Fighting off determined Covenant pursuers, they press on into the heart of the planet to discover that the planet is literally a massive bomb shelter for the Forerunner to survive the activation of the Halos. However they find themselves alone in the vast habitat; for some reason, the Forerunner never entered this structure when the Halos were first activated.

Halo 3
 Halo 3 is'' the third installment in this story arc in the world of Halo, announced at Microsoft's E3 2006 Press Conference via trailer. The plot is a closely guarded Bungie secret but Bungie has confirmed that the Master Chief has returned to Earth. The Covenant has uncovered a massive and ancient Forerunner artifact under New Mombasa (The mountain in the background is indeed Kilimanjaro)and Cortana is still trapped in the clutches of the Gravemind.

In Our Universe
The first Halo title Halo: Combat Evolved quickly became known as the first "killer app" for Microsoft's Xbox video game console when it was released in 2001, achieving both critical acclaim and financial success. Halo was later published on the PC and finally released for the Mac (for which it was originally developed prior to Microsoft's acquisition of developer Bungie).

The second game, Halo 2 was released in 2004, breaking sales records and becoming the fastest selling United States media product in history. Halo 2 US sales top 125 million dollars; UK retail celebrates successful launch September 7. A third game, Halo 3, is in development for the Xbox 360, announced for release on September 25th, 2007. The Halo games have become well known for the high quality of their graphics, gameplay, physics, and storyline. Further expanding the Halo universe are several novels, which provide insight into the background story, and two upcoming Xbox 360 projects: a Halo RTS named Halo Wars and an as-yet untitled Halo project to be made in partnership with Peter Jackson. A Halo movie is also being developed.