RELEASED: October 30th, 2001

SUMMARY

In 2517, Doctor Catherine Halsey, under the Office of Naval Intelligence, began a top secret program to develop a squad of super-soldiers called the Spartan-II program.  Over the next eight years, Doctor Halsey and SCPO Franklin Mendez trained 75 children into the most elite group of soldiers that had ever existed.  Once trained, the candidates were put through a series of physical augmentations to make them even stronger, and while about half made it through the augmentations, the other half were either physically disabled or killed by the process. The remaining Spartans were soon paired with the most advanced armor ever created, MJOLNIR, a powered exoskeleton that more than doubled the Spartans' strength, speed, and durability in the field.

While the Spartan program was created to help defend the UNSC and UEG against insurrection, they were quickly re-purposed at the start of the Human-Covenant War.  For the next three decades, the Spartan-II super-soldiers were deployed throughout the galaxy to help defend human colonies against Covenant attack.

By 2552, the Covenant had destroyed most outer colonies and were working to wipe out the remaining human inner colonies.  In July, the UNSC won a major victory at Sigma Octanus IV, thanks in large part to the actions of Captain Jacob Keyes and the crew of the UNSC Iroquois.  Though the UNSC managed to defeat a large Covenant fleet, they still suffered major losses and were struggling to field enough ships to defend the remaining human colonies.

Just a month later, the UNSC would lose the most well-defended and heavily fortified colony in Reach.  Though the UNSC threw every possible weapon at the Covenant, including twenty orbital defense platforms and one-hundred warships, the Covenant still managed to destroy Reach's defenses and glass the planet using a fleet of over three-hundred ships.

Retreating the battle, the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, now under command of Jacob Keyes, jumped to slipspace, only to arrive at what is now known as Installation 04.

VISITED WORLDS

The Fall of Reach saw the fall of two major human colonies at each end of the Human-Covenant War, Harvest in 2525, and Reach in 2552.

FEATURED CHARACTERS

Spartan-II Blue Team, led by John-117, grew up together in The Fall of Reach, including their struggles against the Covenant at Reach.

FEATURED WARSHIPS

The Fall of Reach features possibly the most infamous warship of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, which fled the battle on Reach following the destruction of the UNSC defense fleet.

CREDITED CONTRIBUTORS