Archive:Halo Waypoint/2014 to 2020/Universe/Locations: Difference between revisions

===Overview===

In [[2552]], the [[SPARTAN-II Program|SPARTAN-II]] super soldier known as [[UNSC rank structure|Master Chief]] [[John-117]] successfully detonated the fusion reactors of the [[Halcyon-class light cruiser|Halcyon-class cruiser]] [[UNSC Pillar of Autumn]], destroying the alien artifact known as Installation 04 (Alpha Halo). Nearly all of the resulting debris was confirmed to have either fallen into the gravitational fields of the gas-giant [[Threshold]] or its moon, [[Basis]]. The remaining shards and pieces formed a debris field that remained in orbit. While various [[United Nations Space Command|UNSC]] craft have surveyed and studied pieces of the broken ring - including the [[UNSC Red Horse]] in late 2552 – at least 30% of its mass and curvature remain unaccounted. The whereabouts of the missing material/objects are unknown, and no viable conjecture can be given at this time.

===Discovery & Deployment===

In late [[2555]], information was obtained from an Automated UNSC Scout Vehicle, [[Recon-14]], which immediately piqued the interests of the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] (ONI). The signal emanated from an area deemed Location 6201 and was quickly analyzed by multiple ONI specialists analyzed. However, it was a scientist and ONI attaché for astrophysical phenomenon, Dr. [[Madeline Tress]], who correctly surmised that the signal had indeed come from the missing fragment of Installation 04.

===Current Status===

Currently, the fragment appears to be at least partially functioning, even to the point of attempting to continually reduce radiation levels. However, the fragment’s spin exposes it to the harsh radiation emanating from its anchoring star during the fragment’s “day” period, which lasts approximately every 16 hours.

===Summary===

Over one hundred millennia ago, the Forerunners developed a collection of ringworlds, collectively called the Halo Array, in hopes of stopping the advancement of the merciless parasite known as the Flood. The firing of the Halo Array was the final effort by the Forerunners to save all life in the galaxy – ironically by destroying it, as the Array was meant to deprive the Flood of its food source: intelligent life.

===Discovery===

On September 19, 2552, humanity stumbled upon Alpha Halo, and the UNSC Pillar of Autumn crash landed on its surface while trying to escape the pursuing Covenant. When the Covenant unwittingly released the Flood onto the ring, the Master Chief was forced to destroy it by detonating the UNSC Pillar of Autumn’s fusion reactors. The ring’s destruction triggered the Ark to forge a replacement, coined Installation 04b. Months later, the Chief destroyed this ring as well, but this time by firing the partially constructed weapon in an effort to permanently quell the Flood.

===Summary===

Far beyond the periphery of the Milky Way galaxy resides an ancient and massive foundry known as the Ark. Approximately one hundred thousand years before humanity fought the Covenant above the Ark, the Forerunners used this massive machine to build a number of ringworlds—the Halo Array. The Ark was also meant to be a refuge, giving selected species protection from the Flood and the Array itself in the event the rings were fired. At the end of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC followed their enemies to this remote construct, prevented them from firing Halo. They also used a newly formed ring – intended to be a replacement for Installation 04 - to obliterate the extant Flood population. The Ark was heavily damaged in the process.

===Summary===

Corbulo Academy of Military Science (CAMS) was a UNSC officer training school. Located on the Unified Earth Government colony of Circinius IV, the school was tasked with preparing cadets for military service against the Insurrection. This school was named after the Roman General, Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, who, when ordered to fall on his sword in the name of Rome, obeyed without question, shouting “Axios”—“I am worthy.” General Daniel Black, the superintendent at the time of Circinius IV’s fall, often said that the school was named after the Roman General because he represented the “honor, valor, and allegiance” expected of cadets. A statue of General Corbulo holding an MA5 series assault rifle stood in the central courtyard.

====Colonel Kennedy Lynn Mehaffey – Professor====

A hardened UNSC veteran of the Insurrection, Kennedy Lynn Mehaffey was raised on the outer colony of Desdoron. On her initial deployment as an ODST, a young Mehaffey was placed in a squad with a then-first-lieutenant Audrey Lasky. The two ascended the ranks together and both developed impressive reputations; Lasky for her encyclopedic intellect and Mehaffey for her relentlessness on the field. Her penchant for engaging rebels in close proximity, particularly in hand-to-hand combat with a blade—in addition to her often cold and calculated demeanor—earned her the handle "Icepick."

====General Daniel Black— Superintendent====

A proud Marine officer, Daniel Black earned his stripes during his involvement in Operation: TREBUCHET. Throughout the course of the war he was awarded numerous decorations and achieved the rank of General. Black maintained an unwavering loyalty toward the UNSC and viewed their military governance over the colonies as both necessary and practical. In juxtaposition to this, he ardently believed the insurrectionists selfishly endangered lives and that it necessitated swift reciprocity by the UNSC in order to prevent further losses.

===Summary===

Before activating the Halo Array, the Forerunners stored dormant specimens of the Flood on each installation for future study. However, centuries before humanity located Delta Halo, the installation’s containment protocols failed. This breach led to a Flood outbreak that festered for decades due to the disappearance of the installation’s monitor – 2401 Penitent Tangent.

===Lisbon Station===

Though the surface of the ringworld is too dangerous for permanent habitation, the UNSC continues to monitor the installation and recover useful artifacts. These activities are staged from Lisbon Station, built a safe distance away from Delta Halo’s automated defenses.

===Summary===

Fathom Station was an extensive network of underwater facilities nestled along the Aleutian Rim, in Beta Gabriel’s Cortez Ocean. It was designed to research and explore a submerged Covenant carrier rumored to house numerous technological secrets, including a weapon so powerful that it would render their already cruel orbital weapons obsolete. Funded by ONI and constructed by the Imbrium Machine Complex (IMC), Fathom operated unhindered for a number of years, though only gleaning mild discoveries.

===History===

When the Epsilon Eridani system fell in August 2552, most of its human population centers on Reach, Tribute, and Circumstance were obliterated. And although the smaller, ocean world of Beta Gabriel did see Covenant occupation, its lack of any major human settlements left it mostly intact upon their departure. During a brief skirmish, however, UNSC Uncommon Courage sacrificed itself to force the Covenant carrier Splendid Intention into the ocean, stopping it from transferring a prototype super-weapon to the frontlines of the war. Recognizing the significance of this potential find, ONI deployed a Xeno-Materials Exploitation Group in 2554, facilitated by the IMC, to recover whatever it was that the Covenant were building.

===End of Fathom===

Little of import was actually discovered during the Fathom’s exploratory commission, but in 2556, during a routine survey, the Covenant carrier suddenly shifted from its resting place, violently sliding down into a nearby trench and sending debris and water directly into the station’s northern terminals, tearing the complex apart and claiming the lives of 41 researchers. Splendid Intention would be lost forever, along with 23 explorers who were trapped within it; this solemn event triggered the end of Fathom Station’s research activity though it would secretly live on during War Games simulations.

===Summary===

Also known as Installation 03, Gamma Halo was discovered on October 8, 2552, when a human civilian transport, the Floral Express, appeared in the Khaphrae system after executing a random slipspace jump while escaping the Covenant assault on Tribute.

===Summary===

The Holy City of High Charity was an enormous mobile space station created early in Covenant history to exist as a centralized capital of their religious, political, and military force, as well as the home to millions of Covenant constituents. As a testament to their truce with the Sangheili, the San’Shyuum used their Forerunner Dreadnought, set within the station’s interior, as High Charity’s primary power source. Around the ship’s moorings, the Covenant developed a vast metropolitan complex which covered the city’s primary floor, extending from the center all the way to its interior walls. Externally, High Charity was heavily armored and maintained a substantial umbilical docking system and maintenance facilities on its lower sections.

===Locations===

====GEMINI - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 840-5====

Although under control of the Flood parasite, the UNSC In Amber Clad continued to transmit data to its remote nodes, attempting to accumulate as much information about both Delta Halo and High Charity as possible before the ship’s termination. Remote relays captured these details and one peculiar mass image was a site within High Charity now believed to be the Garden of Reverent Contemplation. This site was believed to be a place of thought and worship dedicated to the High Prophet of Truth. The intention of this place was quiet solitude in honor of the Hierarch, but Spartans currently use Gemini’s impressive symmetry and multiple levels to more acutely hone their combat skills.

===Summary===

Created shortly after the activation of the SPARTAN-IV program, orbital combat stations such as Munera Platform A7 are designed as a discrete, self-contained arenas, capable of simulating a vast number of terrains and scenarios. Utilizing War Games technology, the platform can readily generate any environmental schema using advanced holographic and hard light technology. Although it can cater to a number of practical scenarios, it’s most common involves two surgical fireteams facing-off in a symmetrical, or semi-symmetrical arena.

===Summary===

On October 20, 2552, the High Prophet of Regret arrived in the Sol system with a small Covenant fleet. Regret’s flagship, Solemn Penance, quickly broke through Earth’s orbital defenses and initiated a ground assault on New Mombasa to seize control of a Forerunner artifact buried beneath the city. UNSC forces from Diego Garcia and the Master Chief were immediately deployed ground-side in an effort to stop the Prophet. In addition, as the Solemn Penance hovered above the city, an ODST task force prepared to drop onto the vessel and seize it in a boarding action.

====District - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 411-1====

During the Covenant’s first assault on Earth and the occupation which would follow, Old Mombasa became a key engagement point for UNSC forces seeking to prevent the Covenant from establishing what they initially believed to be an invasion beachhead on the planet. Recreated in the War Games environment to train Spartans for urban warfare, District is a near-perfect simulation of the terrain as of October 20, 2552.

====Headlong - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 622-3====

Prior to the Covenant’s assault, Section 14 was a construction site founded on one of the many coastal sites of New Mombasa’s mainland territory. This portion of docks was renowned for being the primary monitoring outpost of ports traffic along Nyali, Tudor, and New Mombasa island itself.

====Ivory Tower - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 950-9====

Once home of a wealthy socialite, Ivory Tower was later converted into a “public” park visited only by the upper echelon of New Mombasa society. Intended to be conducive to solitary contemplation and repose, the architecture for this site was fancied by War Games analysts for its unique verticality and vague symmetry, making it a compelling scenario for close-quarters combat simulations.

====Turf - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 409-3====

As the Covenant assaulted the Earth, the city of New Mombasa and its outskirts, including Old Mombasa, were beaten and battered by enemy infantry. This War Games scenario is set at the site of a brief skirmish between a detachment of UNSC Marines and a Covenant battle force commanding a Scarab. When UNSC Brasidas’ MAC managed to disable the Scarab from orbit, the Marines engaged the surviving enemy forces in an attempt to recover the downed war machine.

===Summary===

New Phoenix was originally two separate cities - Phoenix and Flagstaff - but as the cities continued to expand, they eventually merged into a single sprawling metroplex.

New Phoenix Incident

===New Phoenix Rebirth Ceremony===

Spartans Thorne and Grant attend reopening event for New Phoenix, inaugurated by UEG President Ruth Charet, on March 24, 2558.

===Summary===

Along the coastlands of Nuusra, ancient Sangheili elders had once erected stone fortresses to observe and protect a site they deemed sacred -- a mysterious and immense machine that had first been discovered by dive-hunters and fishing skiffs. Centuries later, the Sangheili built a temple city on pylons even closer to the submerged relic, now recognizing it belonged to their gods, the Forerunners. This city was called Sunaion.

===Staging Site===

After the war, Sunaion initially remained neutral amid a flurry of civil skirmishes among kaidons. When the Arbiter’s own territory became a target of would-be revolutionaries, however, this all changed. Sunaion was now viewed as an optimal staging site, giving one quick access to the coasts of Yermo, including Vadam Harbor and the heavily fortified Kolaar Mountains.

===Summary===

This gas mine is a Forerunner mining facility orbiting the gas giant, Threshold. Its construction actually predates Installation 04 by several hundred years, but was retrofitted to research possible offensive and defensive measures against the Flood. Monitor 343 Guilty Spark oversaw the design and construction of the facility's various outbreak management systems.

===Summary===

Before its destruction, Alpha Halo orbited a large gas giant known as Threshold (Earth Survey Catalogue Number B1008-AG), anchored at the L1 Lagrange point between the planet and its largest moon, Basis. An extensive network of Forerunner gas mining and refinery stations was suspended in the atmosphere through a number of band orbitals, though only a handful remained active into the modern era.

====COLOSSUS - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 201-7====

Similar to the mining facility which the once-heretic leader and now-deceased Sesa ‘Refumee took occupation of, the War Games map called ‘Colossus’ is a separate and distinct Thresholdian satellite. Acquired by scans conducted by the UNSC Red Horse in its survey of the area, and also later corroborated by human-Sangheili dialogues, this structure mined gas from the high above Threshold’s roiling ‘surface.’ The environments symmetry, scalability, and obstacles presented unique challenges to Spartans training in the War Games, and thereby became a favorite of fireteam leaders, particularly for objective-based combat simulations.

===Summary===

The world of Genesis is an artificial planet utilized for the construction of ‘seed worlds.’ Mining natural satellites physically placed in orbit around the installation, Genesis used these resources to develop new worlds, populating them with the incredibly vast diversity of flora and fauna teaming on its own surface, so that they could be used for civilizations in need of them. In addition to this, Genesis housed a critical gateway facility connecting it to the Domain, an enigmatic information repository utilized by the Forerunners.

===The Domain===

The gateway was hidden on the planet, buried within the primeval coral highlands where its strong energy output could be masked by the site’s excessive bio-readings. Although this gateway was monitored and rarely utilized by the Forerunners, most of their civilization did not even know of its existence and used merely passive conduits to connect to the Domain. When Halo was activated at the height of the Forerunners’ war with the Flood, the gateway closed and the Domain was believed to be destroyed. 031 Exuberant Witness, the monitor charged with the installation’s manage, remained behind to care for Genesis.

===Cortana’s Rise===

In 2557, Cortana’s sacrifice to defeat the Didact forced her matrix into the Domain. There, she discovered that not only was the Domain slowly repairing itself, but her own rampancy (a smart AIs’ mandated mortality) was effectively cured while in the Domain, seemingly making her immortal. Believing that she was to reclaim the Mantle from the Forerunners, in 2558 she and the Warden Eternal began to awaken the Guardians, a destructive network of ancient machines, preparing to deploy them in order to enforce her newfound power. Spartans tracked her to Genesis, but were unable to stop her before she deployed the Guardians, placing much of the charted galaxy under her control.

===Summary===

Once a thriving frontier colony famed for its rich mineral resources and robust economy, Aleria is now a dry, desolate, world home to some of the most desperate and dangerous pirate and smuggling groups in human space.

===Collapse===

The colonization of Aleria unfortunately occurred near the very end of a millenia-long period of low solar activity. Shortly after settlement, human terraforming efforts coupled with Elduros’ renewed instability threw the planet’s weather system into a dangerous feedback loop that caused massive droughts, which quickly turned the planet into an importer of most food supplies.

===Summary===

Founded in 2412, the colony of Alluvion was a border world and prominent waystation between inner colonies and those located on the periphery. Its vast oceans and moderately tropical climates required little planetary engineering when humanity first arrived, though aggressive tidal activity due to the orbit of its moon, Fallow, forced most population centers into the continental interiors. Despite being highly cherished by those who lived there, Alluvion’s history remained largely uneventful until the Covenant’s arrival in 2542.

===Battle for Alluvion===

Covenant scouting patrols located Alluvion in 2541, signaling a full-scale invasion one year later. The UNSC managed to muster a substantial military force to defend the world, keeping the enemy at bay for weeks, before a Covenant support fleet arrived, severing critical support lines and bringing a quick end to the colony. The Covenant glassed major population centers and spaceports, leaving few survivors in its wake. By early 2544, no record of human activity remained on Alluvion.

===Sundark Phenomena===

Upon returning to Alluvion in 2554, the recolonization support fleet discovered a strange anomaly within the Sundark Sea. A series of Forerunner shield pylons, previously hidden from the colony’s inhabitants, had emerged and forced back massive walls of water revealing the seafloor. After years of surveying this area, an exploration team discovered a hidden repository containing an exotic fuel source thought capable of replacing deuterium for human starships.

===Summary===

Earth, known as Erde-Tyrene in the ancient past, is the homeworld of the human species. It is the capital of the Unified Earth Government (UEG) and the center of UNSC power. With renewed civil unrest in the Sol system and the Covenant threat ever in question, Earth’s future hangs in the balance.

===HABITATION===

Earth is the third world in the Sol star system. In stable orbit around Earth is one moon, Luna. By the end of the 21st century, humanity had establish colonies both in orbit and on Luna’s surface.

Locations

===Summary===

Though Erebus VII’s atmospheric composition makes it habitable, it has yet to be considered a viable candidate for colonial residence, due to extremely hostile indigenous wildlife and interference by the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI). For some time, ONI had operated a number of facilities across Erebus’ immense equatorial forest, though their research goals have yet to be revealed. After ONI lost contact with onsite personnel in 2557, several remote contact teams were sent to determine the reason. They found empty labs, with no explanation as to the whereabouts of the staff. ONI has since suspended its efforts on Erebus VII and has no plans to commit new resources.

===Summary===

Found in the Epsilon Indi system, Harvest was a chief exporter of agricultural goods throughout human-occupied space for almost a century, until it became the first of many colonies to be destroyed by the Covenant in 2525. Prior to its fall, Harvest’s impressive seven tethers were connected to the orbital space station Tiara and managed by the AI construct Sif.

===Ancient Past===

Before the activation of Halo, the Forerunners knew Harvest as CE-309-8 d. A minor asset in their vast interstellar domain, the planet was used as a Shield waystation facility, complete with Flood research/containment centers and administrative nodes that directed Forerunner defenses in the surrounding region. Covenant excavations later revealed several of these Forerunner structures.

===Fall of Harvest===

In 2525, the colony was assaulted by the Covenant and communications were cut off to the UEG and UNSC. For several months, the fate of the colony remained a mystery, but in 2526, Vice Admiral Preston Cole arrived with one of the largest fleets ever assembled. Despite incredible losses, he drove off the Covenant fleet, but his forces became entangled in a vicious siege that lasted over five years.

Locations

===Summary===

Janjur Qom was one of three planets in the nascent star system of the San’Shyuum. Following a civil war, a group of renegade San’Shyuum fled the planet, taking with them the Forerunner Dreadnought. As the massive ship had been partially buried below the Great Apothtea - a vast blue sea - a sizable chunk of Janjur Qom was ripped from the planet in the escape. The ocean rushed to fill in the resulting crater.

===Habitation===

Records indicate that much of the main continent was covered by dark green vegetation and dense forests with high canopies, while the outer regions were more rugged and rocky. These barren regions held many mysterious artifacts and facilities, including ruins dating back to when the San’Shyuum supposedly once walked among the Forerunners, though many who dwelt on Janjur Qom forbade their excavation and study.

===Destruction===

In 648 BCE, the San’Shyuum homeworld is said to have been destroyed when its star went supernova. This was viewed with some suspicion by many in the Covenant, but little was done to dispute it, and only the most revered Prophets knew where the world was located. At this point, High Charity became the adopted homeworld of all surviving San’Shyuum.

===Summary===

Kamchatka would have remained an obscure world at the fringes of civilization but for the presence of a Forerunner communication hub that flared to life in 2558, attracting the attention of both Jul ‘Mdama’s Covenant and the UNSC.

===Domain Node===

It is unclear what role that Kamchatka played in the Forerunners’ galaxy-spanning ecumene or reasons for its recent activity, beyond it serving as a link in the long-dormant Domain – the Forerunner knowledge network that once linked their empire together.

====March on Stormbreak - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 122-5====

The Stormbreak mountain range is the broken spine of Kamchatka, mended a  thousand millennia ago by the Forerunners' godlike power. Shortly after Kamchatka's discovery, the UNSC set in motion a plan to establish a military complex and power station to control the planet's Forerunner sites.  

===Summary===

In 2080, Mars became the first planet colonized by humanity. Even before terraforming, Mars quickly became a major industrial hub in the Sol system. The city of Kenosha in the Tanais region has the distinction of being home to the UNSC Marine Corps’ ODST headquarters.

===Rebellion===

Mars has the dubious distinction of being the first colony to rebel from Earth’s control. In the events leading up to the Interplanetary War in 2164, Mars harbored many activists and rebels who would later take part in the conflict. When the first shots were fired, many Martians joined the neo-Communist Koslovics. These revolutionaries were eventually put down in harsh crackdowns that followed the signing of the Callisto Treaty in 2170.

===Covenant War===

After centuries of tranquility, Mars once again saw war when the Prophet of Truth’s fleet arrived in the Sol System in late 2552. Though the UNSC forces on the planet were eventually destroyed, their valiant defense delayed Covenant forces from pressing their assault on Earth.

===Notable Locations===

New Manila, New Legaspi, Chiron Testing Station, Chiron TL-34, Argyre Planitia, Mare Erythraeum, Phobos Penal Colony, ODST Primary HQ (Kenosha)

===Summary===

Meridian is the natural satellite of the gas giant Hestia V. Its impressive, Earth-like features, earmarked it early for human colonization. Although an Outer Colony, Meridian’s natural makeup and rich culture, attracted many outsiders, eventually fueling a robust economy and cultural diversity. Before the war, Meridian was easily one of the most vibrant and quickly growing colonies in all of human space. Now, however, years after the Covenant’s vicious assault, only a small pocket of Liang-Dortmund contractors can be found on its surface. Huddled around their only remaining space elevator, these excavators have constructed makeshift town referred to as Meridian Station.

===History===

Founded in 2431, Meridian’s colonists initially took residence along the verdant equatorial coastlands, later migrating to the vast supercontinent, which would be the center of Meridian civilization for decades. Despite a number of conflicts fueled by antagonistic political ideologies, including the Free Patriot Movement of 2457 and the Sundered Legion of 2495, intervening decades ultimately led to the colony’s stabilization. Military contractors such as the Chalybs Defense Solutions took residence there in 2479, and the even though the Insurrection had some level of prominence on Meridian, prior to the Covenant War there was a strong UNSC presence across the moon.

===Covenant Attack===

When humanity was already decades into the Covenant War, most of those on Meridian thought they had somehow evaded the alien alliance. Such was not the case. In 2548, the Covenant found Meridian and began their attack, attempting to cut off supply lines from the colony to other fronts in the war. Meridian’s impressive Air Force and their extensive orbital defensive grid allowed them to fight for three full years, before the Covenant’s sheer power swept away the colony’s resistance. By 2551, the world had been reduced to molten slag and vitrified soil.

====The Rig - WAR GAMES MAP_SET/: 769-2====

Still clinging to the ghosts of commerce, mining platforms like this one scour what remains of the world’s surface—a tragically hollow attempt to resurrect Meridian’s past opulence and splendor.

====DARKSTAR STATION====

While the loss of Pinnacle Station dealt a massive blow to Liang-Dortmund’s operations on Meridian, demand for the planet’s vitrified resources has neither slaked nor slowed. Working quickly and quietly to avoid the notice of the Created, regional directors at Liang-Dortmund quickly implemented contingency plans to mitigate the economic impact and reconstitute operations on the frontier planet-moon. Though the company’s local headquarters at Meridian Station was devastated, the remote polar outpost of Darkstar Station survived, its workers and engineers largely unaware of the disaster that unfolded on the other side of the planet and the uncertain future that awaits them under Cortana’s rule. Despite the uncertain astro-political climate, Liang-Dortmund continues an accelerated resource gathering operation while tacit permission exists, transferring one of its largest resource processor ships, additional workers, and human resource specialists to Meridian’s orbit in order to continue work and assess the company’s remaining investments. But anomalies abound beneath the battered surface as ancient machinery buried deep in the planet’s mantle stir to life, and the UNSC makes plans to once again revisit the surface in search of answers, regardless of what forces that intervention may unleash.

====JORTA STATION====

Jorta Station was an important cog in Liang-Dortmund's operations on Meridian, as the site was a central hub for the megacorporation's seismographic network and labs devoted to solving the hard problems of "deglassing" the planet. Due to the sensitive nature of the task at hand, Jorta Station also served as the command center for Liang-Dortmund’s private security forces, housing a fleet of Warthog utility vehicles, Pelican dropships, Scorpion tanks, and Mantis walkers in case of intrusion by Kig-Yar raiders or rival corporations seeking to conduct kinetic espionage.

===Summary===

The 4th largest planet in the Epsilon Eridani star system, Reach was the undeniable hub of humanity's military fortification—outside of Earth—possessing the UNSC's biggest and most prevalent shipyard. The planet was also home to the training facilities for the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODST). Prior to the planet’s glassing by Covenant forces, the Epsilon Eridani fleet was a full strength Carrier Group headed by the supercarrier UNSC Trafalgar. The planet itself was armed with a semi-mobile array of 20 Orbital Defense Platforms, and defended by multiple wings of single ships and a vast array of tactical multi-role craft. However, the tragic events leading up to the planet's fall led to a fracture in the Covenant and eventually some measure of hope for the human species.

===Summary===

The shield world of Requiem is essentially an enormous series of concentric planetary shells enclosed within each other and hidden beneath a vast armored surface. This artificial planet was the Didact’s main refuge during his command of the Forerunner military. Requiem was placed in dormancy when the Didact’s wife, the Librarian, discovered his crimes against the humans and betrayed him, locking him away in a Cryptum. After his awakening, Requiem once again became a key strategic point for the Forerunner, and the UNSC would contend with this world, its extensive Promethean army, and its mysterious secrets for some time. Eventually, the artificial world was hurled into its system’s sun, Epoloch, and is presumed destroyed.

===SUMMARY===

Sedra is an outer colony world in the Orrichon star system. Despite the heavy toll taken on human colonies as a whole throughout the Human-Covenant War, Sedra was among the colonies that were lucky enough to have escaped the conflict virtually unscathed. This has allowed Sedra to remain largely autonomous from the UNSC, though the colonial government has maintained relatively close ties in regards to military hardware acquisition. As a result, the Sedran Colonial Guard has been able to remain relatively well-equipped in efforts to safeguard their colonists.

===Summary===

The planet of Sanghelios is the primary home for the Sangheili species, and was once host to a population of over eight billion. In the aftermath of the civil war however, the planet’s population has dwindled to less than four billion in total. Many victims fled to Qikost and Suban, Sanghelios’ pair of moons, which now host large population centers, major industrial sites, and a number of significant armories. This sudden shift in population density and the territorial vacuum created in its wake has placed the planet’s remaining citizens in a chaotic state of political unrest, with keeps clashing against keeps for territory and governance.

===HISTORY===

Sanghelios, as the cradle world and center of government for the Sangheili people, was a pivotal site during the War of Beginnings (938-852 BCE), which would eventually result in the Writ of Union and the founding of the Covenant. The Covenant used this world as its primary outpost until the completion of High Charity in 648 BCE, after which it returned to Sangheili exclusivity, fostering soldiers for the Covenant military over the centuries which followed.

===GEOGRAPHY===

Sanghelios is largely composed of water, though it has five individual continents: Yermo, Tolvuus, Kaepra, Qivro, and Vaardma. Large desert regions stretch across the interior portions of the continents, forcing the vast majority of Sanghelios’ populations to live on the coasts and islands, locations which are usually girded by steep mountain ranges or rocky tombolo drifts and provide protection during the planet’s harrowing rain season.

===Summary===

The colony of Talitsa has always had a strong anti-centralization and pro-colonial autonomy sentiment, forcing UNSC intervention after a series of uprisings in the planet’s major population centers in 2493, 2516, and 2520. The results of these military actions were less than ideal, with many outlying rebel sects coalescing into larger and stronger groups that ultimately made the planet ungovernable outside of the heavily fortified capital. Though these groups officially disbanded in 2528, separatist sentiments remain high.

===Outland Bases===

OUTCAST - War Games Map_Set/:822-2

Some of the Talitsa rebels’ outland redoubts sites have been discovered by the UNSC following the Covenant War, but many others remain well-hidden, sparking concern within the upper echelons of the Unified Earth Government (UEG) that the planet’s population will once again erupt in armed confrontation. The UNSC acquired scans of a known rebel base in the distant outlands of Talitsa for use in the War Games simulations.