Outer Colonies

The Outer Colonies are the human-colonized planets farthest from the core worlds, including Earth and the Inner Colonies loyal to it, with colonies founded after. From the late 25th century well into the Human-Covenant War, disorder and rebellion were commonplace. The majority of the Outer Colonies were glassed by the Covenant during the war.

History
The Outer Colonies were founded mostly over the course of the 25th century, following humanity's first wave of extrasolar colonization between 2362 and 2390. Earth and the Inner Colonies would become heavily dependent on materials supplied by the Outer Colonies, which prompted the Unified Earth Government to keep them under its control.

Unlike the inhabitants of the Inner Colonies who had been selected from Earth's "best and the brightest", the recruiting standards for the Outer Colonials were far more varied. Due to the colonization contractors' main interests being in valuable resource rights rather than having the best personnel, some Outer Colony settlers were selected from pardoned law-breakers, while others were illegally conscripted. In addition, some colonists used their own means, legal or illegal, to transport to the distant colonies in order to escape Earth's control. All of these factors led the colonists having no particular loyalties to Earth.

The Outer Colonials' resentment of UEG control often manifested as various forms of civil disobedience, such as refusal to pay taxes or living in illegal settlements outside the government's surveillance grids. It was also common for Outer Colony citizens to avoid registering births and deaths to Colonial Administration Authority databases; as such, there was no complete gene registry of Outer Colony inhabitants. However, these registrations were not mandatory, as the UNSC suspected it would have further agitated the Outer Colonials. Most Outer Colony citizens, however, took advantage of the benefits offered to them by the CAA, including the free Outer Colony vaccination program, which was secretly used to catalog children's DNA. This program was later used in drawing suitable recruits for both the SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III programs.

As human-controlled space grew in volume, Earth began to lose its logistical ability to control the far-flung colonies. By 2490, the Outer Colonies encapsulated the Inner Colonies, in addition to surpassing them in numbers. With increased trade restrictions and taxes set up by the CMA, the tension between the Outer Colonies and Earth increased all the more. This caused many inhabitants of Earth and the Inner Colonies feel threatened by the increasingly hostile Outer Colonies, which now literally surrounded them. Others thought that through diplomacy over enough time, the situation between the core worlds and the Outer Colonies could be stabilized. Despite this, the UNSC increased their military presence in the Outer Colonies, which would in turn provoke them to increased aggression, eventually sparking numerous brushfire wars across the Outer Colonies, collectively known as the Insurrection. However, according to later analysis, without military action by the UNSC, the Outer Colonies might have risen against the core worlds, leaving humanity even more vulnerable in the onset of the Human-Covenant War.

Beginning in 2525, Harvest was the first world to fall to the Covenant's genocidal wrath. By 2535, with the destruction of Jericho VII, most Outer Colonies had been lost. By 2552, though some Outer Colonies still remained in UNSC hands, most were small and rather insignificant worlds. The significant colonies still under UNSC control lived in constant fear of Covenant invasion.

After the end of the Human-Covenant War in early 2553, tensions in the remaining Outer Colonies were on the rise again. Some of the colonies had cut off communications with the UNSC during the war, using the chaos to their advantage. Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood set off on a diplomatic mission across the colonies to discuss reconstruction, but some refused his offer, feeling that the UNSC abandoned them during the war.

Known systems

 * 23 Librae system
 * Madrigal - Planet glassed by the Covenant in 2528
 * The Rubble - Abandoned and destroyed except for Habitat Exodus
 * 111 Tauri system
 * Victoria - Planet with unknown status
 * Alpha Aurigae system
 * Origami Asteroid Field - Asteroids with unknown status, attacked by the Covenant in 2526
 * Chi Ceti system
 * Chi Ceti IV - Planet still held by the UNSC.
 * Epsilon Indi system
 * Harvest - Planet invaded by the Covenant and mostly glassed, bringing in a nuclear winter, but recaptured by UNSC forces in a campaign lasting from 2525 to 2531
 * Eridanus system
 * Eridanus II - Planet glassed by the Covenant in 2530
 * Eridanus Secundus - Asteroid with a rebel base, presumably destroyed by the Covenant in 2552
 * Escala system
 * Escala III - Planet still held by the UNSC.
 * Groombridge 1830 system - System attacked in 2530
 * Groombridge-1830
 * Lambda Aurigae system
 * Roost - Planet with unknown status
 * Lambda Serpentis system
 * Jericho VII - Planet glassed by Covenant in 2535
 * Procyon system
 * Arcadia - Planet attacked unsuccessfully by the Covenant in 2531, but attacked again and destroyed in 2549
 * XI Boötis A System - System still held by UNSC
 * Biko - Planet glassed by the Covenant in either 2525 or 2526
 * Coral - Planet glassed by the Covenant in September 2552
 * Dwarka - Planet presumed glassed by the Covenant, as all contact was lost
 * Emerald Cove - Planet with unknown status, abandoned by the UNSC in 2542
 * Hat Yai - Planet glassed by the Covenant in either 2528 or 2529
 * Paradise Falls - Planet with unknown status
 * Talitsa - One of the few worlds left unscathed by the Covenant.