Halo: The Fall of Reach

Summary
Halo: The Fall of Reach is a book written by Eric Nylund describing how the Spartans were created and suited up with advanced MJOLNIR armor. Later on in the book Master Chief and his fellow Spartans come across a transmision sent by a new threat, the Covenant, a race of ailen invaders who have been watching and studying our civilization for who knows how long. Armed with dangerous weapons Master Chief and his Spartans seek to destroy the Covenant and to keep Reach under the control of the human race.

Story Synopsis
On April 3, 2530, first contact is made with an alliance of alien races that refers to itself as The Covenant. On that day, a single Covenant Warship exterminated the surface population of the Outer Colony Harvest. Three UNSC battleships are sent to investigate this incident, engage the Covenant ship in battle, and are subsequently routed. Only one, the Hercules, 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 four to one kill/loss ratio in most battles. One by one, the Outer Colonies fall below the onslaught, and by 2535, virtually all have been destroyed.

To protect the location of Earth, the UNSC establish the Cole Protocol. When human forces are forced into retreat, they must not execute a Slipspace jump in the direction of Earth, 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 onboard ship AI construct, normally imperative to navigation and tactical decisions, must either be destroyed or removed.

By 2552, many of Humanity's Inner Colonies have been destroyed by the Covenant. In a move of desparation, UNSC orders a secret plan to capture a Covenant ship using a SPARTAN task force and find the coordinates of their home planet. A group of SPARTANs, led by the Master Chief, are chosen for this mission, and board a specially outfitted ship known as the Pillar of Autumn (under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes). This plan, however, is interrupted when the Covenant launch a surprise attack on the fortress world of Reach.

During this battle, Reach is overrun and glassed, and the human fleet is obliterated. Worse still, the Master Chief thinks that all of the SPARTANs but himself are killed on the surface of the planet. The last remaining SPARTAN, the Master Chief, escapes with the Pillar of Autumn. In accordance with the Cole Protocol, the Autumn makes a blind slipspace jump, and emerges in the vicinity of an unexplored and remarkable world.

Related Links

 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo: First Strike