Reach

"...our fortress among the stars."

- Dr. Catherine Halsey

Reach is a human colony world in the Epsilon Eridani system, located within the Inner Colonies. At 10.5 light years from the Sol system, it is located at Earth's metaphorical doorstep. Reach is the fourth largest planet in the Epsilon Eridani system, and second closest to the star Epsilon Eridani.

Overview


For a young planet with an age of less than one billion years, compared to Earth's 4.6 billion year existence, Reach is remarkably geologically stable. Reach is larger than Earth, having a diameter of 15,273 kilometers, compared to the 12,756 kilometers diameter of Earth. Reach was originally inhospitable for human life, requiring some degree of terraforming before it could be colonized. Mostly a rugged and harsh wilderness filled with towering mountains, deserts and weather-beaten forests, Reach's surface is pockmarked with meteor impact craters, some of these forming large seas. It is also located near a small nebula, which has a visible effect on the planet and its moons, casting an "aura" similar to the Aurora Borealis, though this could be caused by a stronger magnetic field.

Many of the original settlers hailed from Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary, which is reflected in some of the place names on the planet. Many of the planet's inhabitants also spoke Hungarian as their first language. Despite Reach's harsh nature, some settlers chose to live in small communities of homesteads, referred to as "kivas", in the wilderness instead of the major cities. Rounded and enclosed, they were comfortable but practical, shuttered against Reach's forceful climate and bunkered into hillsides. It also related their independent nature; powered by wind turbines and hydroelectric plants, they were off the grid and self-sustaining.

Reach was the most important headquarters for the United Nations Space Command outside of Earth and the main supplier of military and civilian spacecraft, and the location of the UNSC's largest and most active shipyard. High Command, Fleet Command and the Marine Corps maintained headquarters on Reach, as well as many primary Naval Intelligence bases, which included the highly classified CASTLE Base. It was also where the UNSC's most elite troops, including the ODSTs as well as the SPARTAN-IIs, were trained. Reach's purpose was not solely military however; the surface of the planet also featured farmland and civilian towns and districts. The largest cities on Reach were Manassas, Quezon, Ezhtergom and New Alexandria. Reach had nine space elevators, three of which were located near the city of New Alexandria.

Reach was the largest non-automated exporter of titanium within the human colonies. Deposits of the element could be found in abundance on the planet, sometimes breaking the surface in the form of large spires.

Before the Covenant invasion, Epsilon Eridani's superior interstellar jump point had been the most active Slipstream space transfer zone (arrivals and departures) for over thirty years, with the system's inferior IJP and Sol's superior IJP regularly trading second and third place spots.

The Forerunners
The Forerunners maintained a presence on Reach long before human colonization. They built at least two complices; one beneath Menachite Mountain, and another beneath the Babd Catha Ice Shelf. Both of these were later discovered by the UNSC.

UNSC powerhouse
First planetary confirmations of Reach were in early 21st century. Originally colonized during humanity's first wave of extrasolar colonization in 2362 for its rich titanium deposits, Reach exported more of it than any other non-automated human world and had mines throughout it running thousands of meters deep. ONI's secret CASTLE Base was located in one of these mines underneath Menachite Mountain. The Office of Naval Intelligence commandeered the mine after it breached a secret complex beneath Reach's surface containing a Forerunner artifact that was highly desired by the Covenant. The fact that this artifact was so valuable to them is perhaps the main reason anyone survived the aftermath of the Fall of Reach at all, as the Covenant were afraid of destroying it. This facility was also the birthplace of the legendary SPARTAN-II Program.

The SPARTAN-IIs were trained and housed on Reach. Fred-104 said Reach was their home and every SPARTAN-II would fight to the death to defend it. Reach may be more important to the SPARTANs than Earth, the home world of humanity.

Despite its position as the UNSC's largest naval base, strategic headquarters, and second-largest population center, the Epsilon Eridani system was wracked by Insurrectionist activity throughout the early 26th century. Reach's sister planet, Tribute, was one of the fronts for the UNSC's anti-terrorist campaign, Operation: TREBUCHET. In 2525, mere months before the outbreak of the Human-Covenant War, Reach was the site of a major terrorist bombing against the luxury liner National Holiday. Two orbital taxis filled with explosives were crashed into the liner, causing the liner to plummet into the atmosphere, incinerating everyone on board.

The Fall of Reach


Reach fell to the Covenant during the Human-Covenant War in 2552. An advance strike force first arrived at the planet in late July, taking out a major communications outpost and attacking several UNSC facilities over a span of several weeks. A significantly larger Covenant fleet arrived on August 14 and began to lay siege on several cities on the planet. The final battle for the planet was fought when a massive Covenant invasion fleet over 300 ships strong arrived in the morning of August 30.

The final attack halted Operation: RED FLAG, a plan devised by the UNSC to bring an end to the war, as the, which was already on its way to the mission, was recalled to Reach to defend the planet against the massive Covenant attack. The majority of the SPARTAN-IIs aboard the ship were dispatched to the planet's surface to protect the generators for the orbital defense platforms while a small team led by John-117 boarded Reach Station Gamma to secure an unprotected NAV database aboard the ONI prowler Circumference. Eventually, the Autumn was one of the few ships to escape the battle.

The battle was a disaster for the numerically-inferior UNSC fleet, despite the orbital defense platforms. The Covenant glassed most of Reach with plasma bombardment. CASTLE base was destroyed after the planet's fall and the Covenant began searching for a Forerunner crystal. UNSC forces finally abandoned the planet during a small raid a few days later.

Revival and re-terraforming
By 2589, Reach had been terraformed and restored to a habitable state, and new human colonists were re-settling the planet.

Defenses


While Earth was rightly seen as the UNSC's commercial, political, and cultural center; Reach was undeniably the hub of its military power. The Epsilon Eridani Fleet was a full strength carrier group with the supercarrier at its core.

A semi-mobile array of twenty orbital defense platforms (ODP), equipped with heavy MAC guns also known as "big sticks," orbit around Reach, some of which were in place as early as 2527. The "big sticks" were defended by multiple wings of single ships and tactical multi-role craft. In addition, there were also about 100 to 150 warships stationed in the Epsilon Eridani system at any time. Reach also had a network of 18 refit stations orbiting it. The ODPs were destroyed during the invasion of Reach, or were disabled by ground troops by destroying their power source. Despite their huge numbers, the fleet of warships was destroyed by a massive combined Covenant fleet.


 * Total Available Military Manpower: 385,421,100
 * Total Land Assets: 58,430
 * Total Naval Assets: 1,209 (T); 75 (X)
 * Total Air Assets: 11,050
 * Serviceable Airports: 1,246
 * Defense Budget: cR. 38,287,000,000 [2548]

Ground locations

 * ODG Facility A-412
 * Pálháza
 * Quezon
 * Viery Territory
 * Ütközet
 * Alföld
 * Bars
 * Mohács
 * Manassas
 * Manassas Spaceport
 * Esztergom
 * Eposz
 * Aszod
 * Aszod ship breaking yards
 * Babd Catha Ice Shelf
 * Sword Base
 * Babd Catha Forerunner Complex
 * Farkas Lake
 * Sabre Program Launch/Research Range
 * New Alexandria
 * Fleet Command Headquarters
 * Szurdok Ridge
 * Ütközet hydroelectric power plant
 * Highland Mountains
 * Menachite Mountain
 * CASTLE Base
 * Big Horn River
 * Camp Hathcock
 * Camp Independence
 * Fairchild Field
 * HIGHCOM Armory Omega
 * Longhorn Valley
 * Military Reservation 01478-B
 * Military Wilderness Training Preserve
 * ODG Facility A-331
 * Visegrad
 * Visegrad Relay

Orbital locations

 * Anchor 9
 * ONI Medical Facility
 * Reach Station Gamma
 * Orbital defense platforms
 * Reach orbital shipyards

List of appearances

 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Pariah
 * Dirt
 * The Return
 * Halo Wars: Genesis
 * Halo Legends
 * Origins
 * Homecoming