Timeline of the Fall of Reach

This is a timeline of the events slightly before, during, and slightly after the Fall of Reach. Officially, the Fall of Reach took place between July 25 and August 30, 2552. Though notable skirmishes and engagements took place before and after this timeframe. Concurrently with these events, the Battle for Tribute as well as skirmishes for Site 17 in the Oort cloud of the Epsilon Eridani system were taking place.

July 23

 * Fireteam 3 Charlie, along with other special warfare fireteams under command of Colonel Holland, are sent to invetigate Visegrad after contact with the comms relay is lost.

July 24

 * 0728 Hours: Noble Team is ordered to investigate a possible Insurrectionist activity at the disabled Visegrád Relay. Shortly after, the team learns that the Covenant are responsible for the attack on the relay. After retaking the relay, Noble Team discovers a data module on one of the dead staff. WINTER CONTINGENCY is declared.

July 26

 * 1128 hours: A Covenant corvette attacks ONI SWORD Base. Noble Team is deployed to secure the base and surrounding outposts. After the corvette is destroyed by orbital bombardment, Noble Team meets up with Dr. Catherine Halsey and hands over the data module retrieved from Visegrád Relay.

July 27

 * Commander Ádám Virág receives a memorandum concerning the shipment of H-165 target locators sent to SWORD Base.

August 5

 * Part of Cortana is copied in order to continue her mission with Blue Team, as well as translate Forerunner data.

August 11

 * 2630 hours Two members of Noble Team, Noble Six and Noble Three, investigate a Covenant-held "dark zone" in the Viery Territory, which UNSC instruments are unable to penetrate. The pair pushes into the zone, encountering moderate Covenant resistance, and locates a Covenant stealth pylon. After rigging the pylon with explosives, Six and Three push further into the zone and discover that the Covenant have covertly established a large landing zone, with at least two Corvettes and many ground assets.

August 12

 * 0800 hours: UNSC forces begin a full-scale assault on the Viery Territory. Noble Team is sent to gather intelligence of Covenant-occupied sites and to destroy an EMP-emitting Covenant tower. It is later discovered the tower served as a teleporter linked to a cloaked Covenant supercarrier. The is destroyed by the supercarrier's energy projector.

August 13

 * 2007 hours: Covenant invasion of Reach is fully underway. Noble Team begins developing a plan to destroy the enemy supercarrier with a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine used as a makeshift bomb. Auntie Dot informs Noble Team that 60% of the UNSC fleet is en route to Reach, with the first battlegroup set to enter the system in 48 hours.

August 14

 * 1248 hours: Covenant forces once again attack SWORD Base and occupy the site.


 * 1248 hours: Noble Team assaults and retakes the Sabre launch facility and uses it as a staging point for Operation: UPPER CUT. Noble Team disables and boards one of the Covenant corvettes to use it as a delivery system for their improvised slipspace bomb. Due to a malfunction with the triggering mechanism, a member of Noble Team is forced to detonate it manually. The supercarrier is destroyed just as a larger Covenant fleet arrives above Reach. Simultaneously, Operation: LEFT JAB took place, distracting parts of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence.

August 18

 * Siege of New Alexandria: Covenant invasion force under the command of Jiralhanae begin an assault on New Alexandria.

August 23

 * 1534 hours: The Covenant fleet begins glassing targeted areas of Reach, and a battle breaks out in New Alexandria. Noble Six and remaining Army troopers assist in the evacuation of civilians from the city.


 * 1857 hours: Noble Six links up with the rest of Noble Team. The team destroys three jammers installed by the Covenant, allowing the UNSC to safely evacuate all personnel from the ONI HQ. When the team reunites, they are ordered by Colonel Holland to proceed to Sword Base. New Alexandria is glassed, and another member of NOBLE Team is killed by a Sangheili Field Marshal shortly after its commencement.

August 26

 * The remnants of NOBLE Team are extracted by a Pelican from the ruins of New Alexandria.

August 27

 * Operation: RED FLAG is given the official "green light" by Hieronymus Michael Stanforth.
 * 0800 hours: 25 of the 28 surviving Spartan-IIs assigned to Naval Special Weapons, (the remaining three being Gray Team), are recalled to the FLEETCOM Military Complex and are debriefed by Dr. Halsey and Captain Keyes on Operation: RED FLAG.

August 29

 * SPARTAN-B312 and a team of ODSTs secure a landing zone for NOBLE Team's Falcon. Later NOBLE Team proceeds inside Sword Base only to learn their true mission: escort a part of Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn.
 * John-117 tests the new MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Mark V as well as AI integration on Reach.

August 30

 * 0414 Hours: The UNSC Pillar of Autumn is kept in Reach orbit by FLEETCOM over Lábatlan.
 * 0447 Hours: The remote scanning outpost Fermion detects more incoming Covenant vessels. An emergency message is relayed to FLEETCOM. The outpost then self-destructs per the Cole Protocol due to an unsecured science library and nearby Covenant forces.


 * 0500 Hours: A Covenant armada comprised of 315 vessels exits slipspace on the edge of the system. With the planet's defenses weakened by the invasion fleets that had arrived previously, the fleet begins to press forward.


 * 0517 Hours: Admiral Roland Freemont (FLEETCOM Sector One Commander) issues a general order to all vessels in the Reach system. All vessels and stations initiate the Cole Protocol and rush to Rally Point ZULU.


 * 0534 Hours: Covenant vessels make pinpoint slipspace jumps attempting to destroy any incoming or outgoing human vessels before they can regroup. A targets the  but is destroyed.


 * 0545 Hours: The Covenant vessels begin a frontal assault. As the Covenant and human fleets engage above Reach, it seems to be a stalemate, as Covenant ships take out UNSC ships, while the UNSC ships and MAC cannons take out an equal number. The first salvo by the UNSC vessels destroys a third of the remaining Covenant fleet. An unidentified Covenant warship arrives and destroys several UNSC ships while outside human weapons range.


 * 0558 Hours: Station Gamma Dockmaster AI Doppler is unable to implement the Cole Protocol on the, an ONI prowler docked at Reach Station Gamma, due to measures taken to maintain the secrecy of Operation: HYPODERMIC. Doppler sends priority message to FLEETCOM concerning this violation. Covenant intrusion software detects this oversight, and the Covenant deploys troops to seize the NAV database aboard the Circumference.


 * 0616 Hours: The Spartan-IIs are dispatched from the Pillar of Autumn. John-117, Linda-058, and James-005 form Blue Team and go aboard the Dock to destroy the Circumference, while the remainder form Red Team and head to the surface of Reach to defend the power generators for the MAC guns. James goes MIA when a Needler hits his thruster pack and propels him into space during combat. Blue Team continue through the station, rescuing Staff Sergeant Johnson; Private O'Brien, Private Bisenti, and Pvt. Wallace A. Jenkins from Kig-yar and Sangheili.


 * 0620 Hours: Most of the Covenant fleet retreats from the system after deploying more dropships toward the surface. The UNSC fleet fires on the ships, destroying many although hundreds still land on Reach.


 * 0621 Hours: The boarding craft are landed and the armory is overrun; the Covenant fleet re-enters the system. The Covenant split their 150+ remaining ships. One fleet attacks the UNSC ships, while another takes out the MAC cannons and send in troops to land on Reach. The UNSC try to split their 50+ remaining forces to engage the Covenant, but there are too many platforms to cover and too many casualties. The supercruiser continues to destroy UNSC ships, allowing the other ships to attack the MACs. Eventually, the supercruiser is destroyed by the Pillar of Autumn, but the UNSC fleet is practically decimated so it is too late to do any good.


 * 0631 Hours: Red Team's Pelican is shot down. They have no choice but to jump from the crashing Pelican and make a "hard landing" on the ground. Results in four dead and six seriously injured.


 * 0637 Hours: John-117, the clinically dead Linda-058, and the Marines board the Pillar of Autumn.


 * 0647 Hours: Captain Keyes of the Pillar of Autumn orders the vessel to retreat from the system. However, Dr. Catherine Halsey contacts the Autumn, urgently requesting that Keyes drydock at the Asźod ship breaking yards on Reach to collect Cortana's fragment and the vital information she held. Keyes used the brief time on the surface to make minor repairs to the Autumn.


 * 0649 Hours: Red Team sets up defenses around ODG Facility A-331.


 * 0711 Hours: Fred-104, Joshua-029, and Kelly-087 plant a nuclear warhead through the gravity lift in a landing Covenant cruiser, leaving Joshua-029 MIA (presumed KIA) in the process.


 * 0720 Hours: The Covenant destroys ODG Facility A-331 by aerial bombardment, though some Spartans escape. The surviving MAC guns are now offline and are quickly destroyed by plasma torpedoes. Remaining UNSC vessels have no choice but to retreat. The Covenant warships are split into two groups: five-ship teams that hunt down the surviving UNSC vessels and a group of ships that align themselves in formation and begin to glass Reach.


 * 0901 Hours: Dr. Halsey, Fred, Kelly, William-043, Vinh-030, and Isaac-039 begin rummaging through CASTLE Base's abandoned interior and plan to head deeper into the base. Dr. Halsey initiates Operation: WHITE GLOVE at CASTLE Base.


 * 1652 hours: The remainder of Noble Team consisting of Carter-A259, Emile-A239, and SPARTAN-B312 head to the Asźod ship breaking yards to deliver a fragment of Cortana, which holds important navigation data, to the Pillar of Autumn. Carter rams his Pelican into a Scarab, allowing the remaining parts of Noble Team to pass. Emile and SPARTAN-B312 head to platform D in the ship breaking yards to meet with Captain Keyes and to deliver Cortana over. Emile dies when he is stabbed by a Covenant Zealot wielding an Energy Sword. SPARTAN-B312 successfully delivers the package to the Autumn and allows the vessel to escape by destroying an incoming Covenant battlecruiser using a mass driver. The Pillar of Autumn, pursued by a dozen Covenant vessels, retreats from the system, heading for Installation 04.


 * 2000 Hours: SPARTAN-B312 is one of the few standing survivors at the ship-breaking yards of Asźod and the planet Reach. The Spartan makes a final stand, fighting off waves of Covenant ground forces, eventually being overwhelmed and killed by a swarm of Sangheili warriors.

September 5

 * UNSC fleet actions in the Reach Defense Coordination Zone cease.

September 7

 * 0002 Hours: The Spartan Red team survivors and Dr. Halsey, after days of walking through the abandoned Titanium mines below CASTLE base, reach a corridor covered in Forerunner symbols.
 * Shortly afterwards: A series of detonations by Covenant forces looking for them cause the deaths of Vinh-030 and Isaac-039.

Unknown

 * At an unknown point, Siófok was attacked.
 * Manassas, used as a civilian evacuation conduit, was eventually attacked.

Additional reading

 * Halo Wars Timeline Events - A transcription of the timeline provided in Halo Wars. Several dates in the Fall of Reach are listed.
 * Data Drop - A series of Halo Waypoint files and communiques primarily between Margaret Parangosky and Michael Stanforth that detail some elements of Operation: RED FLAG before and across the Fall of Reach.
 * Dr. Halsey's personal journal - The written thoughts of Dr. Halsey that also detail her experiences and some her actions over her life including at the Fall of Reach.