Halo: First Strike

Eric Nylund returned to write the third novel, Halo: First Strike, a sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved taking place before the events of Halo 2. It was published in December 2003, after being written in a period of sixteen weeks.

DATE: August 30, 2552-September 13, 2552 (Date Revised due to an Anomalous Slipspace Bubble)

Brief Summary
Halo: First Strike clarifies a few plot questions that might have been raised by Halo fans, including exactly what happened to the SPARTANs on Reach and also how Johnson survived the attack of the Flood. It is written by Eric Nylund, who also wrote Halo: The Fall of Reach, and is part of the official Halo canon. This has led to certain inconsistencies in Halo 2, however. They include Lord Hood's comment on the fleet attacking Earth, that the Covenant fleet that attacked Reach was "50 times this size", seemingly ignoring the impact of the First Strike mission, unless, however he had not been debriefed on Operation: First Strike, and what exactly happened to the other surviving Spartans upon their return to Earth. Alternatively, he may be expressing surprise that such a drastically reduced fleet would still attempt to attack Earth.

Detailed Summary
Spoiler Warning: Following contents may contain ending details

Section 0: Reach
The novel starts out before the Battle for Reach, at the part in Halo: The Fall of Reach where Captain Keyes informed the Master Chief of the matter of the undeleted NAV database. Frederic-104 is made the leader of Red Team and ordered to take the other SPARTAN-IIs down to Reach to protect the generators powering the orbital MAC guns.

Red Team takes a Pelican down to the surface, but are forced to freefall to the ground after the pilot gets hit. The impact kills a few of the Spartans. The survivors group up with the few remnants of Marine Charlie Company.

Vice Admiral Whitcomb contacts the Spartans and orders an extraction. Fred takes Spartan-087 (Kelly) and Spartan-029 (Joshua) on a mission to destroy a large Covenant camp in a valley near to the bunker Charlie Company once occupied. Taking three Banshees, they delivered a Fury tactical nuke into a Covenant starship. Joshua's Banshee slipped under enemy fire and fell behind, his fate is unknown and he is listed as MIA, Fred and Kelly completed the mission.

Despite their efforts, however, the Covenant managed to take the reactors on Reach. The Covenant starships then initiated glassing of Reach. However, Fred refused to sit around and die to the plasma firepower.

Section 1: Threshold
The novel then moves to the debris field of Installation 04, right after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Aboard the Longsword used to escape the destruction, Cortana and the Chief converse, with the Chief insisting that Cortana repeat her scans of the debris.

A battle group of 7 Covenant starships enters the system, as does a Covenant flagship. Cortana finds three cryopods that were jettisoned from the Pillar of Autumn prior to its crash on Alpha Halo. While she moves the Longsword towards the cyropods, she finds a Pelican landed on a nearby asteroid. As the Chief retrieves the cryopods and returns to the Longsword, the Pelican takes off and attacks the lead Covenant starship, diverting attention away from the Longsword. The two small ships link up, and several survivors jump out of the pelican, including Sergeant Johnson, Corporal Locklear, Petty Officer Second Class Shelia Polaski, and Lieutenant Haverson.

Together the group manages to attack the flagship, called the "Ascendant Justice". After fighting their way to the bridge, they plug in Cortana to the vessel, who effectively kills most of the combat crew by decompressing most of the decks of the vessel. The humans are not effectively in control of the vessel. In the confusion between the other vessels, the Ascendant Justice enters slipspace, escaping Halo's remains. The group argues about where to go next, but ultimately, the Chief persuades them all to return to Reach. First off because the Cole Protocol forbids them from taking a Covenant vessel to Earth directly. Second because the Chief wants to see what became of his Spartans.

Meanwhile, back at Earth, UNSC High Commander Facility Bravo-6, Sydney, the military learns of the destruction of Reach and concludes that they cannot try to retake the planet and must prepare for the final defense of Earth. All Spartans and vessels are assumed destroyed, though they do know that the Pillar of Autumn escaped destruction.

Section 2: Defense of Castle Base
The novel then returns to Reach, where Kelly and Fred, after destroying the Covenant ship, crash-land their Banshees into a pair of Hunters, killing one and disabling the other's gun. They then steal a pair of Wraith tanks, and blast their way into the ONI base under the mountain. There, they meet up with the surviving Spartans of Delta team, the injured and the four Marines, including Issac, Vinh, Grace, and Will. They meet up with Doctor Halsey, who treats their injuries, and sends them to retrieve some new weapons, which in Halo 2 appear as the Battle Rifle and the Magnum Pistol. At the lab, Dr. Halsey discovers Colonel Ackerson's files, which were extensive lists on "her Spartans", a star chart reference, and a third file labeled "King Under the Mountain." The Covenant then invade the base, and the Spartans and Doctor Halsey escape to the lava tubes beneath Castle Base, right before its destruction.

In the tunnels, the Spartans receive armor upgrades, and Spartan Frederic-104 discovers several symbols which ultimately lead to a huge tunnel that leads into an even larger room. In the center of the room, there is a crystal which plays an important part later. The Spartans and Halsey find that if they walk straight towards it, it will bend time and space. They retrieve the crystal, and the Covenant finds them due to emission of radiation from the crystal. They land forces inside the giant room, and Issac and Vinh die while fighting the Covenant.

Section 3: Rescue
While out in space, Master Chief and Cortana. Along with the last survivors of Installation 04. Sergeant Johnson finds out that one of the cryotubes, that Master Chief found is a SPARTAN-II. The Spartan happens to be Linda-058. While in the pelican the Master Chief strips off some pieces from the pelican, to put reinforce a Covenant dropship they're going to use. As they walk into the hanger of the Ascendant Justice, the two men (Master Chief and Sgt.Johnson) witness Polaski practicing how to drive a Covenant dropship. As they enter Reach in real space, they see what has happened to it after the Covenant glassed the planet. They move the flagship closer as they that, during glassing that the Covenant "missed" a spot. The small fleet consisting of a dozen cruisers,two assault carriers and three squadrons of seraphs, ask why a flagship is at Reach. While on the ship the survivors hear a UNSC E-band. The E-band is "Oly Oly Oxen Free". No one on the bridge recognizes it, but only the Master Chief understood it. The section then returns to the year July 14, 2523. The memory plays the time when the Spartans played capture the flag against Tango Company. Back on Ascendant Justice the human crew debate whether they should go down to Reach in the reinforced covenant dropship. Cortana looks around to see a spot in which can be a extraction site to pick up the people going down to Reach. On the way down cruisers start to surround them in their dropship. They find a canyon with some movement in it. Before landing Master Chief says the code for "Oly Oly Oxen Free" and says to land them in a safe spot where the survivors would find them. The Chief wanders out alone to see if there is a trap and if there is he wants to trigger it. Haverson backs him up. At the bottom of the ramp Chief senses a single signal. The friend-or-foe tag wasn't working, so the signal isn't working. Chief drew his pistol and turned to see it was a Spartan. The Spartan was Anton-044 who led the Master Chief to the entrance of a cavern where two Spartans, Grace-093 and Li-008 were operating chainguns that were bolted to the sides two boulders. Master Chief and Anton followed by Grace went into the cavern where a person in navy outfit, Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb was standing at foldout card table which was the headquarters for Camp Independence. Admiral Whitcomb asked why Master Chief was here instead of a mission with Captain Keys deep in Covenant territory. Master Chief told him about the events that happened in Halo Combat Evolved, and while he was telling the story Haverson and the others from the dropship arrived. Haverson asked Whitcomb how he was alive and he told Haverson that while everyone was evacuating he had stay behind because the UNSC was working on a new bomb called a Nova. Whitcomb armed the Novas with failsafe tampering detonators and a start a countdown timer. Whitcomb had a team of Marines, Charlie Company, to help arm the Novas, but they were wiped out, but he then saw Red Team on coded COM and asked to borrow a few Spartans, who armed the Novas and give the Covenant trouble with hit-and-run exercises. The rest of the Red Team where trapped underground in tunnels beneath the mountain where the CASTLE facility was. They used a Covenant dropship to rescue the remaining Red Team. They entered a huge cavern filled with about hundred Covenant forces containing few Elites, Jackals, and mostly Grunts that were clearing a cave-in. They landed the dropship a half a kilometer away from the Covenant forces. They destroyed the Covenant forces and three Spartans, Kelly, Fred, and Will, emerged from cover. Whitcomb asked if that was everyone and Fred replied that was one more. That person turned out to be Dr. Halsey who was holding a fist-sized crystal. They were about to leave when they detected Covenant forces. They were surrounded by thousands of Covenant forces on each of the 12 levels of the gallery, and crowding the balconies were Grunts, Jackals, Elites and several pairs of Hunters. They all prepared to open fire on them and then a Hunter pair roared with range and aimed their weapons at the Master Chief and his team and opened fired with the rest of the Covenant forces opening fire a split second later. Back in space the Ascendant Justice emerged from slipspace into a frozen Oort cloud to hide from the Covenant forces because they knew that the Ascendent Justice wasn't one of theirs. Cortana eavesdropped on the data streams of the Covenant by using the dissected Covenant AI to help. Cortanta discovered that the Covenant forces were heading to Earth.

Trivia

 * On the cover of the novel there is a purple/pink symbol which looks like it is Forerunner or mathematical showing below a Marine's arm behind the Master Chief. It is actually the artist's signature.
 * When Admiral Whitcomb and John-117 are talking about the Alamo, John says 300 Spartans fought against the Persian empire and lost (Battle of Thermopylae). Whether or not this is a reference to Project spartan is unknown.