Halo: The Fall of Reach

Halo: The Fall of Reach is a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved and is also the first Halo novel to be published. Written by Eric Nylund and published on October 30, 2001.

The novel was reportedly finished in seven weeks eventually becoming a Publisher's Weekly bestseller with nearly 200,000 copies sold in the United States and United Kingdom.

22:31 Kaneda Tony Stark is farther ahead in his mind than anyone on the planet. That's why he's a genius. 22:31 Tenshu I know the Halo universe has some serious Tech but I forgot some of it 22:31 Kaneda They have the warp drive at the least 22:31 Kaneda And AI. Though, so does Tony. 22:31 Tenshu I'll give you that 22:32 Tenshu There was an engine in the Halo universe 22:32 Kaneda They've got spaceships. Tonyverse doesn't have spaceships 22:32 Kaneda There's the Halo. 22:32 Kaneda But that's not really a human achievement, so it doesn't count. 22:32 Tenshu that chill Ions I think so they didn't need to waste supplies on cooling foam 22:32 Kaneda Chill Ions? wtf? 22:32 Tenshu yeah 22:32 Kaneda That's like...almost suicide 22:33 Tenshu idk if it was Ions 22:33 Tenshu but it was something really fucking tiny 22:33 Kaneda Chill them too much you'll reach absolute zero. If you maintain absolute zero for any length of time, it'll cause a chain reaction that freezes the entire universe, and then collapses everything in on itself. 22:33 Tenshu basicly 22:34 Kaneda The colder it gets, the closer Electrons get to Protons. When electrons and protons touch, everything goes to hell. 22:34 Kaneda Luckily, electrons and protons can't touch, because it takes too much energy to cool something that much. 22:34 Tenshu the engines on the Pillar of Autumn ran super hot so they made a system that when it ran hot, it would make it cold 22:35 Kaneda Makes sense 22:35 Tenshu which in turn upped its preformance in combat 22:35 Kaneda Anyways, the Arc Reactor gives limitless energy. 22:35 Kaneda It's basically free energy. 22:35 Tenshu instead of firing 1 large MAC round it could shoot 3 light ones in half the time, energy, and do the same if not more damage 22:35 Kaneda Technically impossible, amazing none the less. 22:37 Tenshu ok 22:37 Tenshu so now we have MS vs. IM 22:37 Tenshu not just the heroes but their universes 22:37 Kaneda MS vs IM? 22:38 Kaneda MC perhaps? 22:38 Tenshu Master Cheif 22:38 Tenshu yeah sorry 22:38 Kaneda Okay. Just got confused. 22:38 Tenshu so lets break this down 22:38 Tenshu Chief is lucky 22:39 Tenshu Iron is super Smart 22:39 Kaneda And has a hefty budget 22:39 Kaneda xD 22:39 Tenshu both do 22:39 Tenshu kinda 22:39 Kaneda Yea, but Chief has someone else do his techie work 22:39 Tenshu MC cost the same amount to a small war fleet 22:39 Tenshu yeah 22:40 Tenshu but the USNC will buy him anything 22:40 Kaneda Of course 22:40 Kaneda He IS Master Chief. 22:40 Kaneda A fairly...universe saving character. 22:40 Tenshu now 22:41 Tenshu in terms of smartness Tony wins 22:41 Kaneda Obviously. He beats most any character in intelligence. 22:41 Tenshu but in terms of Combat intellegence Chief has it hands down 22:41 Kaneda Well yea, Chief is a soldier. Tony isn't 22:41 Tenshu which matters here 22:41 Tenshu its a fight 22:41 Kaneda Nah. The reason being 22:41 Kaneda Tony can load combat tactics into his suit, and have it tell him what's best. 22:41 Kaneda His AI unit is pretty amazing 22:42 Tenshu as is Cortana 22:42 Kaneda Tony also is able to view more of what's going on, due to whatever sensors he has in the suit that seemed to map everything around him 22:42 Tenshu shes the best AI ever 22:42 Kaneda Cortana is cool, but she's got personality 22:42 Kaneda Once you give AI personality, they don't function quite as well. 22:42 Tenshu but her objectives over ride that 22:42 Tenshu not in Halovers 22:42 Kaneda Because they question things 22:42 Tenshu Haloverse* 22:42 Kaneda Oh alright. 22:43 Tenshu heres an example 22:43 Kaneda But still, the only thing Tony is lacking is combat experience 22:43 Tenshu MC has a missle coming right at him, and he can't out run it 22:43 Kaneda Which his AI makes up for 22:43 Kaneda Vash wins. 22:43 Tenshu Dante! 22:43 Kaneda He shoots the missile with pinpoint accuracy. XD 22:44 Kaneda Have you seen all of Tri-Gun? 22:44 Tenshu most 22:44 Kaneda Good show. 22:44 Tenshu damn right 22:44 Tenshu anyways 22:44 Kaneda Right 22:44 Tenshu Cortana calculates the speed of the missle, MC's speed, and tells him when to turn around and deflect the missle. 22:45 Tenshu another example is she automaticly ups his reaction time to 1/50th of a second 22:45 Kaneda That's fine 22:45 Tenshu AND he can throw a tank 22:45 Kaneda Explosions are still effective against him. 22:45 Tenshu so Tony is hard to hit yes 22:46 Tenshu but once he is hit he is fucked! 22:46 Kaneda Nah 22:46 Kaneda Tony's suit is still ridiculously effective. 22:46 Kaneda Remember, tank missile to the face. 22:46 Tenshu yes 22:46 Tenshu oh I forgot 22:46 Kaneda Just scratched the paint. 22:47 Tenshu MC's reaction time is so quick everything apears to be going threw water 22:47 Kaneda Regardless of the fact that it takes several tank missiles to kill Master Chief, they still hurt him. 22:47 Kaneda Or his suit or whatever 22:47 Tenshu so he has a solid chance at hitting Tony 22:47 Kaneda Nah, he doesn't 22:47 Tenshu thats just the armor 22:47 Kaneda His reaction time can be really fast 22:47 Kaneda But, gimme a second, I need to check something 22:48 Kaneda Alright, so yes, the speed of sound is 768 mph on a normal day. 22:48 Kaneda That's one mile every five seconds 22:48 Kaneda Sorry, Master Chief may have a great reaction time 22:48 Kaneda But that's just obscene 22:51 Kaneda Master Chief may be able to see it happening, and begin to react to it, but he's going to be too far away to hit effectively with anything but the Spartan Laser 22:51 Kaneda Which has a long charge up time 22:51 Kaneda Can you sweep the Spartan Laser? 22:52 Kaneda Oh my gosh, back the movie 22:53 Tenshu sweep? 22:53 Tenshu afk 22:54 Kaneda Can you sweep the laser around, or is it a straight shot? 22:57 Kaneda He says Bub. 22:57 Kaneda Once so far 22:57 Kaneda But he said it 22:57 Kaneda I let ya know that, just to make you happy. 22:57 Kaneda xD 23:00 Tenshu XD 23:00 Tenshu its a straight shot and Cortana would tell him where to shoot to ensure a solid shot 23:01 Kaneda Yea, but remember, Tony's AI lets him know things like that too 23:01 Tenshu but Tony's AI wouldn't know that MC has an AI and Vice Versa 23:01 Kaneda That, and the laser could be deflected with enough magnetism. Pretty sure Tony has something on hand that could help with that 23:01 Kaneda Sure they could. System scans 23:01 Tenshu doubt ti 23:01 Tenshu it* 23:02 Tenshu the laser deflection thing 23:02 Kaneda No. Lasers are effected by magnetism. 23:02 Kaneda Yay for light behaving like a wave and a particle. 23:02 Kaneda Interesting movie so far 23:02 Tenshu I'm saying that Tony couldn't have something like that prepared 23:03 Kaneda Sure he could. 23:03 Kaneda But anyways 23:03 Tenshu fable 2 Mjolnir armor 23:03 Tenshu 23:03 Kaneda What's the name of the chick who fights Wolverine? 23:03 Kaneda The chick who has adamantine fingernails? 23:03 Tenshu master chief wins 23:03 Tenshu thats it 23:04 Tenshu Lady Deathstrike 23:04 Tenshu that was Joe Btw 23:04 Kaneda God dammit 23:04 Kaneda The link broke my video 23:04 Kaneda I have to find my place again 23:04 Tenshu XD 23:05 Kaneda Speaking of Fable 2 23:05 Kaneda Such a fucking disappointment 23:05 Tenshu I know 23:05 Kaneda Just made me sad 23:05 Kaneda Once Ben finished it 23:05 Kaneda I couldn't touch it 23:06 Tenshu I know 23:06 Tenshu such a fucking waste of money 23:06 Kaneda Damn straight 23:06 Kaneda At least I didn't pay for it 23:06 Tenshu >_> 23:06 Kaneda Christmas present 23:06 Tenshu bastard 23:06 Kaneda xD 23:07 Kaneda Interesting movie 23:07 Kaneda Currently though, not seeing a ton of point to it. 23:08 Kaneda I wish Wolverine was able to growl like Sabertooth. 23:08 Tenshu to steal money from hopeful fans 23:08 Kaneda I'll still go see it in theaters 23:08 Kaneda I'mma point out 23:09 Kaneda In this one, they take into account that all that adamantine weighs a fucking ton 23:09 Kaneda It's just a subtle line, but they do it 23:09 Tenshu well its good to know that 23:11 Kaneda Yes it is 23:11 Kaneda There are several little things that're makin' this mostly worth it 23:12 Kaneda Poor Cyclops. 23:12 Tenshu son of a bitch! 23:12 Kaneda He's kinda a fag in this one. XD 23:12 Kaneda He's just a kid 23:12 Kaneda Not doing anything 23:12 Kaneda Deadpool? Is...is this deadpool? 23:13 Tenshu yeah 23:13 Kaneda Well 23:13 Kaneda That's interesting 23:13 Tenshu kinda 23:13 Tenshu if he doesn't have his suit by the end of the movie I'mma be pissed 23:13 Kaneda This movie basically seems to be leading up to a big fight between Wolverine and Deadpool 23:14 Kaneda Okay, Cyclops just did something pretty neat 23:14 Kaneda Why the fuck doesn't Deadpool have any lips? 23:15 Tenshu umm they healed over? 23:15 Kaneda I can't tell 23:15 Kaneda Oh fuck 23:15 Kaneda He can teleport 23:15 Tenshu I think so 23:15 Tenshu he is a ninja of sorts... 23:16 Kaneda Somethin' 23:16 Kaneda Some funny lines here 23:16 Kaneda "Back to back!" 23:16 Kaneda "I got him!" 23:16 Kaneda "Oh no you dont.." 23:16 Kaneda wtf? 23:17 Kaneda Wolverine's stopping Deadpool's version of Cyclops's blast with his claws 23:17 Kaneda That's cool as fuck, but doesn't make a ton of sense. 23:17 Tenshu shit happens 23:17 Kaneda I don't think deadpool is livin' long enough to get his suit 23:18 Tenshu deadpool cant die 23:18 Kaneda Well, they took off his head 23:18 Kaneda So we'll see 23:19 Kaneda Gambit is kinda not that cool in this movie 23:19 Kaneda Makes me sad as fuck 23:20 Kaneda Cause Gambit's my favorite 23:20 Tenshu Deadpool all the way 23:20 Kaneda Head. Detached. 23:20 Kaneda All in all, not that great a movie 23:21 Kaneda Ten minutes left though 23:21 Kaneda They're getting rid of Logan's memory by shooting him in the head with Adamantine bullets 23:22 Tenshu lol 23:22 Kaneda Isn't...isn't Striker in the next movie? 23:22 Kaneda Ah hell 23:22 Tenshu Striker? 23:22 Kaneda I was hoping she was going to have him blow his head off 23:22 Tenshu I can't rember him 23:22 Kaneda It's okay 23:22 Kaneda He's the gvmt guy who ran the project that made Wolverine what he is 23:23 Kaneda is that 23:23 Kaneda Magneto? 23:23 Kaneda No 23:23 Kaneda It's Charles 23:23 Kaneda wtf? 23:23 Kaneda He's walking? 23:23 Tenshu he walked before 23:23 Kaneda True 23:24 Tenshu Steven 23:24 Kaneda Yes? 23:24 Tenshu get me your favorite long ass quote 23:25 Tenshu and link it to me 23:25 Kaneda From? 23:25 Tenshu something totally random 23:25 Tenshu IDC 23:25 Kaneda Alright 23:25 Kaneda Lemme see. 23:25 Kaneda How long is long? 23:25 Tenshu as long as you want it to be 23:25 Kaneda Alright 23:27 Kaneda "And they all lived happily ever after. Except for a minor character in the second act who gets eaten by a bear, and the Duke's brother's son's who, unable to pay back the Old Jew, give themselves Labatomese. And they all get married and go out to dinner." 23:28 Tenshu MOAR 23:28 Kaneda Hm? 23:28 Tenshu MMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR 23:28 Kaneda More what though? You want another quote, or a longer one? 23:28 Tenshu GIVE ME A LOT OF TEXT 23:28 Kaneda Alright 23:30 Kaneda Without his roe, like a dried herring: flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura to his lady was but a kitchen-wench; marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her; Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and harlots; Thisbe a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! there's a French salutation to... 23:30 Kaneda ...your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night. 23:30 Tenshu YOU KNOW WHAT FUCK IT THIS CONVO IS GETTING LOGGED!

Story Synopsis
The prologue begins on the planet Jericho VII on February 12, 2535 and it reveals the Spartans as a whole as well as their purpose. As the seemingly unstoppable Covenant war-machine moves into place to glass Jericho VII,Spartan Red and Blue team's are sent to prevent the destruction of the planet. Unfortunately, their mission is unsuccessful, and they retreat to their nearby vessel and watch as the planet is glassed.

The story itself begins with Dr. Catherine Halsey and Lieutenant,Junior Grade Jacob Keyes on board the Han, a UNSC diplomatic shuttle. Their mission is to identify a potential candidate, John, for Halsey's Spartan-II program. The plot then goes on to show in detail the brutal indoctrination and training regime that John and the other Spartans are put through. Chief Petty Officer Mendez trains the Spartan II's, showing them the many virtues required (ex. courage, skill, etc.) while Deja (an AI created by Dr. Halsey for the Spartan-II program) teaches them history, mathematics and physics. After a daring training mission, John is made squad leader of the remaining Spartans. Later, the Chief meets Cortana (Halsey's identical AI) and, through teamwork, passes a test, which required them to pass an anti-tank minefield, kill/injure fellow soldiers, and survive air-raids from a Skyhawk jump jet armed with rockets, but not without quite a few scratches and bruises.

On February 3, 2525 first contact is made with an alliance of alien races that refers to itself as The Covenant (although it is frequently mentioned that, at this point, humanity does not fully understand the Covenant caste system). On that day, a single Covenant Warship exterminated the entire surface population of the Outer Colony Harvest. Three UNSC battleships, the destroyer Heracles and the frigates Arabia and the Vostok, are sent to investigate this incident, initiated first engagement protocols and attempted contact, engaged the Covenant ship in battle, and are subsequently routed. Only one, the Heracles, manages to return to Reach badly damaged. By December of the same year, the UNSC has mobilized a massive Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Preston Cole, with orders to reclaim the Harvest Colony and stop the Covenant advance.

Cole's Fleet manages a victory at Harvest, but at a high cost - two thirds of his ships are destroyed. Despite significant tactical brilliance on the part of Human commanders, Covenant technology guarantees a three to one kill/loss ratio in most battles. One by one, the Outer Colonies fall to the onslaught and by 2535, all have been destroyed.

To protect the location of Earth, the UNSC/Vice Admiral Preston Cole established the Cole Protocol. If any Covenant are present, selective purges of databases on all ship based and planetary data networks are activated. When human forces are forced into retreat, they must not execute a Slipspace jump in the direction of Earth, or any major population center, even if this forces them to jump without the necessary navigational calculations (a "blind jump"). If such a jump is not possible, and if capture is imminent, the Captain must order a self-destruct. The on-board ship AI construct, normally imperative to navigation and tactical decisions, must either be destroyed or removed.

However, due to the shortage of good officers, Keyes was promoted to Commander in 2552 and assumed command of the UNSC Iroquois. Shortly thereafter, he foresaw a Covenant attack on Sigma Octanus IV thanks to a paper by SPARTAN-084. His actions resulted in the destruction of a Covenant Destroyer, two Frigates and chasing off a Covenant Carrier with a daring maneuver dubbed the "Keyes Loop". This unprecedented victory against a Covenant force earned him a promotion to UNSC Captain and helped him to become recognized by the entire UNSC. Keyes and the Iroquois remained in the Sigma Octanus system to partake in The Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. He later returned to Reach (inadvertently disclosing the location of Reach to the Covenant via a homing beacon attached to the Iroquois) and was debriefed by an ONI council. Here he met SPARTAN-117 once again.

By 2552, many of Humanity's Inner Colonies have been destroyed by the Covenant and Reach was next. In a move of desperation, the Office of Naval Intelligence Section-3 SPARTAN division orders the execution of a secret plan to capture a Covenant ship using their SPARTAN forces and find their home world in order to capture a Prophet, one of their religious leaders. A group of Spartans, led by the Master Chief, are chosen for this mission, and board a specially outfitted Halcyon class cruiser known as the Pillar of Autumn (under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes). This plan, however, is interrupted by the necessity of destroying the Navigational Database of the UNSC Circumference, a Prowler, still docked at a station orbiting Reach just before its fall. The rest of the Spartans were sent down to the planet to defend the Orbital MAC generators. During the Battle of Reach, Reach is overrun. All attempts to resist are futile and are crushed by the Covenant, and the UNSC Fleet is obliterated. Worse still, the Master Chief thinks that Dr. Halsey and all of the Spartans but himself are killed on the surface of the planet. Cortana plots an exit vector in compliance with the Cole Protocol, though not completely at random. She had decrypted Forerunner glyphs found by the Master Chief on Sigma Octanus IV. The NAV coordinates led the Pillar of Autumn to what the Covenant had been searching for: Halo, an extremely sacred Forerunner artifact.

Trivia

 * An excerpt from this book, along with excerpts from Halo: The Flood and Halo: First Strike, was included in a directory on Halo PC. It is found on the disc, in the "Goodies" section.


 * John-117 is playing King of the Hill on the playground of Elysium City Primary Education Facility No. 119, which contains a 7 reference(9-1-1=7)


 * In the final three sections of the book, starting at Sigma Octanus IV there is a typo which records all events as occurring 2542 instead of 2552.


 * While the Pelican is said to carry only 15 Marines, it somehow is able to carry sixty-seven children and CPO Mendez in the troop bay. Also, John is still able to make his way to the back of the dropship with all these children on board.


 * Interestingly, the first section of this book is titled "Reveille" and involves characters emerging from cryo-sleep. The first section from Halo: Combat Evolved is also appropriately titled "Reveille" and also involves someone waking from cryo-sleep. Reveille is a traditional bugle call of the U.S. military, which is sounded at the start of each day on military installations, to wake up the troops. Also, "Reveille" translates in French, to "Awaken".


 * The power of the energy shields on the Covenant ships is inconsistent, following the canon of the universe and this book. In one instance, a ship hit with nuclear warhead is still functional, actually appearing to shrug the explosion off. However, during a battle with Keyes using a pair against two Covenant ships (which were larger then the one from the previous instance), the EMP from the warheads knocks out the shields on the ships through the potent blast. Though it could be explained that in the years following the first Nuke attack on a Covenant ship, the UNSC might have upgraded its nukes. Or that different Covenant ships have different levels of shielding like the elite rankings but instead of rank its based on size.


 * At the end of the book, there is the Halo: Combat Evolved logo with a rating box, saying that it is rated T (for Teen) while it is actually rated M (for Mature).


 * In Halo 3, Cortana states several quotes from this book during Cortana moments, all of which are Dr. Halsey's. Such as: "Can I speak with you please? What's your name? It's very nice to meet you. You like games? So do I.", "You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained...and you will become the best we can make you. You will be the Protectors of Earth and all her Colonies.", and "Could you sacrifice yourself to complete your mission? Could you watch him die?"(In the game, "yourself" and "him" are changed to "me", referring to Cortana) However, this may be because she was malfunctioning, since Cortana was "spawned" (created) from Dr. Halsey's mind.


 * In Halo 3 at the beginning of the arrival clip scene, there is a reference to Spartan 117 being extremely lucky. Master Chief's luck was mentioned quite a bit during the series. Notably, John's luck is shown when Dr. Halsey flips an old coin.


 * The Cortana terminal in the level Cortana makes a reference to Dr. Halsey's coin test.


 * During the battle of Sigma Octanus IV the pelican that is used to evac blue team from Cote D' Azur is carrying 14 marines and 4 spartans, a load out of 18 total. However the pelican is only capable of holding 15 passangers and in Halo: The Flood it is stated that 15 is pushing the limit as it is. Despite this inconsistency the pelican is stated as taking off normally and moving off at maximum speed, even though it is overcrowded and overloaded.


 * The Battle of Reach is one of the only documented battles in which a Covenant Supercruiser participated.


 * Both Sam (correctly) and Fhajad (incorrectly) are given the service tag 034 in the book.


 * The Chinese version has many mistakes: e.g. Cortana mentioned that there were 314 Covenant ships whereas the Chinese version stated that there were 31,400 Covenant ships. Also in Chapter 36, the "UNSC Pillar of Autumn" was translated into Pelican dropship.


 * In the beginning of the book the Grunts are said to sound like dogs and their speech could not be translated. Yet ın all three Halo games you can understand the Grunts and do not sound like dogs at all. This is most likely because the UNSC's translation software has been upgraded in the later games.


 * In the first half or so of the book, a typo removes most "fi" pairs in the italicized text (as seen in the words "start le" in which the first two letters are missing from the word "file").


 * On the cover, between the "A" and the "L" in the word Halo, there is a Marathon symbol. It also has 7 circles surrounding it, another reference to 7. This is the same for all of the Halo Novels.


 * There is a running inconsistency in the franchise regarding when humans first encountered the Elites. According to The Fall of Reach the Master Chief first fights an Elite above Reach during the battle. The Cole Protocol describes Gray team's encounter with Elites several years before the Battle of Reach. Ghosts of Onyx reveals that the Spartan-IIIs first encountered the Sangheili in 2537. In First Strike, Spartan-104 notes that the Elites never ran away. . Halo Wars prominently features Elites during the Second Battle of Harvest. Similarly, there is some inconsistency as to first contact with the Engineers, since Master Chief reportedly first observes an Engineer during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV; however, Avery Johnson saw the Engineer Lighter Than Some during Halo: Contact Harvest and Engineers are featured during Halo Wars


 * On the second to last page of chapter 22, James (a Spartan) salutes the Master Chief with his left hand. Which means his arm must have been flash cloned because it was burnt down to the elbow earlier. This also has the possibility of being a mistake on the writers part.


 * There are several inconsistencies in the Halo novels, written by different authors, concerning the UNSC tech level, and weaponry of the time. In “The Fall of Reach”, around the time of the first Covenant engagement, John and the other Spartans were said to be using MA3 assault rifles, a precursor to the MA5Bs and MA5Cs shown in other novels, at around the same time. In addition to this, “First Strike” was apparently the first contact with the BR-55 battle rifle, even though a prototype had been in existence several years before. Considering the role the Spartan II s played, it seems ridiculous that they didn't also receive field tests of this weapon in the twenty seven years from which it was first used. The prototype BR-55 was issued to the marines on Harvest during the first engagement with the Covenant, 2525.

Related Pages

 * Flash clones

fr:Halo de: la Chute de Reach