Halo universe

The Halo universe is a fictional setting for the video games Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, the future games Halo 3 and Halo Wars, and the books listed on Halo (video game series).

The Covenant
A theocratic hegemony comprising many species of aliens led by a caste of religious leaders known as "Prophets." Engaged in a 27-year war with humanity and currently embroiled in a genocidal civil war, they serve as the initial and primary antagonists throughout Halo, Halo 2, and other Halo media.

Covenant Locations

 * High Charity - A giant station that serves as the captial of the Covenant alliance and the home of its theocratic leaders the Hierarchs. It exists as a massive mobile space station with a dome-shaped surface. Inside it harbors an entire city powered by a Forerunner ship touching the roof of the station in the center of it. It can travel through slipspace like any other Covenant ship. As of the end of Halo 2, it has been occupied by the Flood.

United Nations Space Command
Primary human faction in the Halo universe. A world government evolved from the original United Nations that coordinates military action in human space.

UNSC Planets and Locations

 * Earth - Humanity's homeworld, also heavily fortified with 300 Super MAC Platforms and having the second of the two United Nations Space Command Headquarters. Earth is being invaded and occupied by Covenant forces during the ending of Halo 2 and during Halo 3.
 * New Mombasa, East African Protectorate - The first city attacked when the Covenant invaded Earth in October 2552. The Ark, a Forerunner structure that commands the Halos, is rumored to be located just outside of New Mombasa, somewhere between the city and Mount Kilimanjaro. In the final story in the Halo Graphic Novel, "Second Sunrise over Mombasa", a journalist and several Marines overhear a conversation between two Elites, one of whom confirms that the Ark is present at New Mombasa's location and that they must clear the area to secure it.
 * The Ark (Halo) - Located in the vicinity of New Mombasa, this structure is buried deep underground and is indicated to be a mechanism to activate the Halo network.
 * Reach - The planet Reach was the strategic and military HQ for the human United Nations Space Command Located in the Epsilon Eridani star system, Reach was the biggest spaceport after Earth and served as the main fortress of defense during the 27 year Human-Covenant war.

Originally colonized for its rich titanium deposits, Reach had mines throughout it running thousands of meters deep. UNSC High Command, Fleet Command and the Marine Corps had headquarters on Reach, as well as many primary Office of Naval Intelligence bases, which include CASTLE Base. CASTLE base was located on Reach underneath the Menachite Mountain range. This facility is where the Spartans first began their training. The facility was destroyed after the planet's fall to the Covenant in October 2552. A secret area beneath Reach's surface contained a Forerunner artifact that was highly desired by the Covenant. The fact that this artifact was so valuable to them is perhaps the main reason anyone survived Reach at all, because the Covenant were fearful of destroying it and did not target a large area around the mountain range when the glassed the planet and wiped out the rest of its inhabitants.

The Covenant discovered the location of Reach after the battle of Sigma Octanus IV. Using a diversionary attack, they ensured human ships would scan for survivors after the battle then attached a spy drone onto the UNSC ship Iroquois. This drone took images of star constellations for several days before returning to a waiting ship by Slipspace, telling to the Covenant every place the human ship had been. They presumably scouted every system before finding Reach.

Reach was defended by more than a hundred UNSC ships, including the Hannibal, Pillar of Autumn, and the supercarrier Trafalgar. In addition to the fleet, Reach was defended by 20 Mark V Orbital Magnetic Accelerator Canon satellites (called SMAC, or Super MAC guns, and capable of propelling a round at 40% of lightspeed using superconducting magnets). Though the defenses were enormous, they couldn't hold back the Covenant onslaught, which was prepared to sacrifice a single ship for the destruction of a MAC gun. The human fleet was decimated and its ground forces obliterated by the Covenant - the remaining ships, including the Pillar of Autumn, were forced to jump out of the system. After the Forerunner artifact on the surface was located, the Covenant "set fire" to Reach by "glassing" the planet with plasma. This presumably killed all remaining humans on the planet and scorched it to the point of being uninhabitable, save for the tiny section in which the search for artifacts continued.

After the events at Halo, the Master Chief returned to Reach on the captured Covenant flagship Ascendant Justice to search for any survivors of the Spartan team he sent down to defend the surface. Several Spartans had survived, along with a member of Reach's high command, Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, and Dr. Halsey, the head of the Spartan project and a major human scientist. During the novel, Halo: First Strike, the survivors of Reach returned to the small section of the surface that was not destroyed and recovered a Forerunner artifact that was buried deep in the surface. Several more Covenant ships were destroyed by the AI Cortana aboard Ascendant Justice, and the survivors escaped Reach to Slipspace.

Several experimental nuclear bombs (codenamed Novas, and featuring a lithium triteride casing that would boost the yield a hundredfold) were in development on Reach at the time of the Covenant attack. Vice Admiral Whitcomb rigged the bombs to explode ten days after the initial invasion, hoping that the Covenant would either take the bombs back to their homeworld for study or that when they exploded, the Novas would take out their fores on Reach. Due to the fact that just ten hours was left on the countdown when the Admiral and other survivors escaped, it is likely Reach and the Covenant on it was destroyed completely.


 * ONI Castle Base - Located on Reach, is the headquarters of Office of Naval Intelligence operations. A crystal of unusual characteristics with the ability to affect not only gravity, but space time is found in an ancient Forerunner cave buried deep underneath the Castle Base.


 * Jericho VII - The location of the battle at the beginning of the Fall of Reach, an Inner Colony, destroyed by the Covenant at the beginning of 2535.
 * Paris IV - Site of a major battle between the UNSC and Covenant forces; Sergeant Major A.J. Johnson is a veteran of the battle, where he supposedly contracted Boren's Syndrome, making him immune to Flood infestation.
 * Eridanus 2 – Eridanus 2 was the home planet of the SPARTAN II supersoldier Master Chief John-117.
 * Harvest – A human outer colony "farm" planet, first target of the Covenant and glassed by them in 2525.
 * Sigma Octanus IV — A colony planet in the Halo series, significant because Installation 04's "coordinates" were discovered there on a shard of ancient rock.
 * Onyx - A planet in the upcoming novel Ghosts of Onyx by Eric Nylund. Contains a new discovered Forerunner artifact that is of great importance to the Covenant and Humanity that could possible turn the tide of the war.
 * Coral - An inner colony which is glassed by the Covenant during the I Love Bees plot line. Formerly the site of a UNSC/ONI archaeological dig that uncovered a Forerunner structure.
 * Troy - A colony which had prior warning from an ONI Corvette, of an impending attack by the Covenant. Evacuation was slow and had barely begun when the attack occurred and the evacuation was covered up by ONI and the UNSC to prevent hostilities rising from the civilian populace against the UNSC.
 * Draco III - A world attacked by the Covenant sometime before the events of Sigma Octanus IV. Because they couldn't reach the location in time, the SPARTAN-II's watched via satellite as Covenant Grunts and Jackals slaughtered a group of survivors.

The Forerunners
An ancient, mysterious race that died out millennia ago after an extended period of war with the Flood. Built the Halos and many other artifacts and structures throughout the galaxy.

Forerunner locations

 * Threshold - The Gas Giant Installation 04 (or Alpha Halo) orbited before its destruction in the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. Two campaign levels in Halo 2 are set on a gas mine in Threshold's low orbit, as well as a multiplayer map set on its moon Basis.


 * Substance - The Gas Giant Installation 05 (or Delta Halo) orbits.


 * Halos - Titanic ring-shaped constructs that serve as weapons of last resort to contain the Flood.

The Flood
A virulent, xenophobic alien race that absorbs individuals with sufficient mass and intelligence as part of itself. The Flood appears to be a hive or communal mind, possibly under one leader (such as Gravemind). The Flood spores mutate the host's body into a combat form, which if sustaining sufficient damage becomes a carrier form, an incubator for more spores. The Flood is considered a parasite and dangerous enemy by both the Covenant and UNSC.

Travel

 * Slipspace is the primary method of faster than light travel in the Halo universe.

UNSC

 * M6D Automatic Pistol: A semiautomatic sidearm. Fires a 12.7mm semi-armor-piercing high-explosive projectile. The M6D has a 12 round magazine and the ability to link up to suit or helmet optics to create a 2x optical smart-link scope.It also appears to be a powerful weapon when fired at weaker enemies such as Grunts, Jackals, Hunters, and Flood combat forms. - Halo: Combat Evolved armament
 * M6C Magnum: A less expensive version of the M6D without the 2x scope. Fires 12.7mm semi-armor-piercing ammunition. - Halo 2 Armament
 * M7 Caseless Sub-Machine Gun: A short-range SMG that fires caseless rounds from a 60-round magazine. 5x28mm caseless ammunition with a cyclic rate of 1500 rpm. - Halo 2 Armament (makes a chronological appearance in the novel Halo: First Strike)
 * MA5B Assault Rifle: A short range assault rifle designed with a small LCD screen to display remaining rounds and the relative position of the gas giant, Threshold. The MA5B has a 60 round magazine of 7.62x51mm ammunition. - Halo: Combat Evolved armament
 * MA2B Carbine Rifle, a smaller, compact version of the MA5B with smaller magazine, scope, and higher accuracy. - Book Armament (Not found in either Halo game)
 * BR55 Battle Rifle: The BR55 is a battle rifle with a 3-round-burst setting and a 36 round magazine. Fires 9.5mm rounds. Normally fitted with a 2x optical scope, no smart-link feature. - Halo 2 Armament
 * M90 Pump-action Shotgun: The M90 is an 12-gauge standard issue pump action shotgun. It can carry up to 12 rounds of ammunition. The pump-gun is a very effective weapon against flood combat forms. - Halo & Halo 2 Armament
 * S2 AM Sniper Rifle:The S2 AM is a semiautomatic magazine-fed sniper rifle. The rounds can travel up to 500 meters and the optic connection through the hand can give the visor a 2x (replaced by 5x in Halo 2) or 10x zoom. Carries four 14.6x114mm APFSDS (Armour piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot) rounds per magazine.The S2 is not effective against the flood combat or carrier forms as the heavy round passes straight through their soft tissue.- Halo & Halo 2 Armament
 * M19 SSM Rocket Launcher: The M19 SSM Rocket Launcher is a 2-round double-barreled rocket launcher that fires high explosive projectiles. Nicknamed the 'Spanker' due to the SPNKR stamp on the body of the launcher itself. Upgraded with a tracking system in Halo 2. - Halo & Halo 2 Armament
 * M9 HE-DP Fragmentation Grenade: Standard issue UNSC fragmentation grenade. - Halo & Halo 2 Armament
 * Ship-based Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, "MAC Gun": The ship-based MAC gun is the standard primary weapon system on most large UNSC starships.  It fires a super dense projectile capable of destroying most human made starships in one shot.  Against a Covenant ship however, it takes one or two of these rounds just to bring down their shields.  Usually, a third or fouth follow up shot is required to disable or destroy a Covenant ship. Since the ship-based MAC gun can take two or more minutes to recharge, multiple UNSC ships will launch their MAC rounds at one Covenant ship in order to destroy it.  The one exception to this is the modified Halcyon-class UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn.  The MAC gun on the Pillar of Autumn fires a special light round with a ferrous core, and an outer core of tungsten carbide causing the round to splinter on impact like a hollow point bullet.  This particular MAC gun has magnetic recylers coupled with booster capacitors allowing for three consecutive shots before needing to be recharged.
 * "Super" Magnetic Accelerator Cannon: The Super MAC orbital defense gun is the most powerful non nuclear weapon employed by the UNSC. It fires a three thousand ton projectile at point four-tenths the speed of light.  The linear accelerator coils that propel these rounds are larger than a UNSC cruiser.  This gun recharges it's power directly from a planet based fusion reactor complex, and can fire another round within five seconds.  Nicknamed the "big stick", this gun can penetrate a Covenant ship's shields and shatter it into a million pieces.

Covenant

 * Plasma Pistol: A Covenant pistol that fires green plasma. Can be overcharged to do more damage. The over-charge mode of fire can completely destroy an energy shield in one hit and also has the ability to home in on the nearest target but causes an instant over-heat. - Halo & Halo 2 Armament
 * Plasma Rifle: A Covenant automatic rifle that fires blue plasma at a rapid rate. Sustained fire can lead to overheating. - Halo & Halo 2 Armament
 * Brute Plasma Rifle: A Covenant automatic rifle used by Brutes, resembling a red Plasma Rifle. It has a significantly higher rate of fire than the standard Plasma Rifle, but it overheats faster and uses up more energy per shot. - Halo 2 Armament
 * Covenant Carbine: A Covenant semiautomatic rifle that fires highly charged radioactive projectiles. - Halo 2 Armament
 * Needler: A Covenant weapon that shoots explosive needle-like projectiles that have the ability to home in on targets. The needles detonate if eight or more are embedded in a single target, usually killing or destroying the victim. - Halo & Halo 2 Armament
 * Particle Beam Rifle: An energy-based Covenant sniper rifle, capable of 5x and 10x zoom. The high power of the rounds limits the rifle's capacity to 18 rounds. - Halo 2 Armament
 * Fuel Rod Cannon: A Covenant heavy weapon that fires explosive, radioactive green rods from a 5-round magazine. - Halo 2 Armament
 * Brute Shot: A Covenant grenade launcher prominently used by Brutes. It carries four low-yield grenades in a magazine, and it has a breech-mounted blade that makes for a very effective melee weapon. Projectiles bounce once before exploding. - Halo 2 Armament
 * Energy Sword: A Covenant sword made of magnetically shaped plasma energy. Lethal at close range. - Halo 2 Armament
 * Plasma Grenade: A Covenant hand grenade with a three second delay which has the ability to stick to enemies or vehicles. - Halo & Halo 2 Armament

Forerunner

 * Sentinel Beam: A weapon mounted on Foreunner constructs called Sentinels. Standard designs fire an orange energy beam; more powerful designs fire a blue energy beam. - Halo 2 Armament

Early Conflicts
In the years 2160-2200, various governments, and factions fought for control of Earth and its first Colonies. As overpopulation and unrest on Earth mounted, new political movements formed including the Jovian Frieden and Koslovics led by Vladimir Koslov, resurgences of Fascism and Neo Communism which waged the Interplanetary, Rain Forest Wars Campaign and Mars clashes and were defeated by the United Nations Space Command.

The human colonization of the Orion Arm
In the years 2170-2291, the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) successfully developed humanity's first faster than light drive, the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. For the first time in history, the rapid colonization of other worlds is made possible. By 2390, 210 worlds had been occupied by humans, and were being actively terraformed to suit man's needs. These worlds are to become known as the Inner Colonies. By 2490, the UNSC's fledging Interstellar Empire had expanded to between 800 to 1000 planets throughout the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. During this period, the planet Reach becomes one of the two headquarters of the UNSC military and government (the other was Earth itself), and is destined to become the most heavily fortified world under human control and the Inner Colonies became the heart of the United Nations Imperial Government.

In addition, there were numerous small-scale brushfire wars in the Outer Colonies, which served to tax UNSC resources.

Shutting down piracy/SPARTAN Project
At the time of 2517, The UNSC was facing extremely low morale due to piracy and the Brushfire Wars. In order to remove the rebellion without a significant sacrifice of human life, Dr. Catherine Halsey moves forward with the SPARTAN-II project. 75 gifted children were abducted and replaced by flash-clones, and drafted into the UNSC. The Spartans went through rigorous training and physical augmentations. Code-named SPARTANs, these genetically enhanced troops were trained from the age of six into a life of battle, and will become a great asset against the Covenant.

On September 12, 2525 the Spartans were sent to the Eridanus II system to capture Colonel Robert Watts. The mission was successful, and therefore significantly reduced the pirate threat. The SPARTANs' roles however did not end with the capture of Robert Watts, since they were needed for the new war against the Covenant.

Shortly after the capture of Colonel Robert Watts, the SPARTANs are now part of the UNSC's military ground forces. Before engaging the Covenant, all SPARTANs were given special armor designated MJOLNIR Mark IV, which, in laymen’s terms, can increase their strength, speed, and reaction time. They were the only ones who could wear it, as those without the proper body training or biological augmentations (like the SPARTANs) killed themselves with strength-enhanced convulsions.

The Human-Covenant War begins
On February 3, 2525, an orbital platform near the UNSC colony of Harvest detected an unknown object on its long range radar. The object was contructed with materials unlike anything seen before. All contact with Harvest was lost soon after. The Colonial Military Administration sent the scout ship Argo to investigate. That ship arrived in-system on April 20, but other than a brief transmission to confirm it arrived in the system, no further reports were made. In response, UNSC Fleet Command assembled a battle group consisting of the destroyer Heracles as well as the frigates Arabia and Vostok. They entered the Harvest System on October 7 and discovered the once-lush planet to be completely incinerated and the surface melted down to glass. All three million inhabitants were presumed dead. The battlegroup soon then found the vessel responsible for the attack still orbiting the planet. The vessel, which was identified later as belonging to the alien alliance known as the Covenant then launched an immediate attack upon the three UNSC ships. Only one, the Heracles, managed to limp back to Reach, badly damaged. The Heracles returned with a message that was sent to them, pre-translated, saying, "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument".

In response, the UNSC was placed on full alert and on November 1; Vice Admiral Preston Cole mobilized the largest space fleet in human history to retake Harvest.

Vice Admiral Cole's war fleet defeated the Covenant ships at Harvest in 2531. The victory was celebrated and publicized on every colony all the way to Earth. The UNSC media however didn't mention that Cole had won only because he outnumbered the Covenant three to one, and even then, he had lost two-thirds of his fleet. Promoted to Admiral, Cole spent the next four years waging a costly campaign to defend the colonies from continued Covenant assault. However despite his excellent leadership and tactical brilliance, one by one the colony worlds fell. The highly advanced Covenant ships simply outclassed the UNSC vessels due to the fact that they had energy shields and their plasma weapons were vastly superior to UNSC chemical and projectile weaponry.

By 2535, virtually all of the Outer Colony worlds had been destroyed by the Covenant and the Inner Colonies were being invaded. The Cole Protocol was established by military order: all human vessels must ensure that Covenant forces do not find Earth. To do this they must jump out of a battle to a randomised vector that points away from any human worlds.

The Battle of Reach
By 2552, many of Humanity's Outer Colonies had been destroyed by the Covenant (although they were repulsed with significant losses at Sigma Octanus IV). In a move of desperation, the UNSC ordered 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 Halcyon-class cruiser, the Pillar of Autumn, under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes, as well as an upgrade to the MJOLNIR Mark V armor, completely integrated with an energy shielding system and AI interface. The Master Chief meets and is assigned Cortana, who is to serve as his team's hacker and Covenant technology specialist. This plan, however, was interrupted when the Covenant launched a surprise attack on the fortress world of Reach, which they had deviously located via an automated probe attached to the hull of the UNSC destroyer Iroquois.

During this battle, most of Reach is overrun and glassed, and the human fleet is obliterated, as the humans were outnumbered over three to one, giving them absolutely no chance, even with orbital MAC emplacements. Worse still, the Master Chief believed that all of the remaining SPARTAN-IIs were killed on the surface of the planet during its bombardment (a few of the SPARTANs are revealed to have survived in Halo: First Strike). The last remaining SPARTAN, the Master Chief, escapes with the Pillar of Autumn. In accordance with the Cole Protocol, the Autumn follows a "randomized" slipspace vector which leads to the discovery of the Halo installation. This vector is later revealed to have been quickly generated from some Forerunner hieroglyphs by Cortana.

First Strike
Occurs between the first and second Halo video games. The story starts off with Master Chief and a few other survivors in space above the destroyed Halo. They capture a Covenant flagship and make their way back to Reach. When they arrive they find the entire planet ravaged. Yet something is strange. The Covenant usually glass a world and move on, but there are small patches of the planet left unscathed. In an alternate storyline we find out that other spartans have found an ancient Forerunner structure under ONI's Castle Base. There they find a special artifact that warps space time.

Cortana, now in control of the Covenant ship, docks with a partially destroyed UNSC ship and combines their power. After toying around with the controls she realizes that the Covenant know virtually nothing about the technology they posess. She redesigns the plasma cannons to fire more effectively, increasing their destructive power. She also finds out how the Covenant move so easily through slipspace. The technology she gathers could effectively turn the tide of the war.

After going through many battles the Master Chief and other spartans discover a massive plot to attack the Sol system (Earth). They covertly attack and destroy a massive Covenant refit and repair station along with an attack force many times larger than the one that attacked Reach. In doing so they lose the Covenant flagship; however, they save the UNSC ship and escape back to earth with it. Thus begins Halo 2.