Halo universe

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

Location

 * The Milky Way

Eridanus 2
Eridanus 2 is the home planet of the SPARTAN II supersoldier Master Chief. It is mentioned in the 2001 science fiction novel Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund.

Reach
Reach was destroyed in the Covenant war against the human race. Until its destruction, Reach had been the most heavily fortified human world, with 20 'Super' MAC cannons (designated Mark V) in orbit, and one of the two United Nations Space Command Headquarters. The Spartans of the Spartan II program were trained on this planet. The subterranean facility CASTLE Base was also located on Reach.

Civilizations

 * The Covenant
 * United Nations Space Command - The primary human civilization.
 * The Forerunners
 * The Flood (Halo)

The Halos

 * Halo (megastructure)
 * The Ark (Halo)

Travel

 * For interstellar travel, see Slipspace
 * List of vehicles in the Halo universe

Weaponry

 * List of weapons in Halo: Combat Evolved
 * List of weapons in Halo 2
 * The Halos themselves are weapons

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 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 develop humanity's first faster than light drive, the Shaw-Fujikawa Trans-light 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 Brushfire Wars in the Outer Colonies in which Rebel Insurrections including the one at the Eridanus System led by Colonel Robert Watts were suppressed.

The Human-Covenant War begins
On February 3, 2525, first contact was made with an alliance of alien races that referred to itself as The Covenant. On that day, a single Covenant Warship exterminated the surface population of the Outer Colony of Harvest. Three UNSC battleships and a Colonial Military Administration scout ship, the Argo, were sent to investigate this incident and in doing so, engaged the Covenant ship in battle. Only one, the Heracles, managed to return to Reach badly damaged. The Heracles returned with a message that was sent to them pre-translated by the Covenant saying, "Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument". By December of the same year, the UNSC mobilized a massive fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Preston Cole, with orders to reclaim the Harvest Colony and impede the Covenant advance. Cole won the battle and reclaimed the glassed planet, but it required the sacrifice of over one third of his numerically superior fleet.

Covenant ships possess several technological features which make them far superior to their human counterparts. First, they have superior maneuvering and tracking abilities when employing faster than light travel (ships in Halo, like many other science fiction titles, achieve faster than light speeds by moving through an alternate realm. In Halo it is called "slipspace"). Although the Covenant and humanity use essentially the same techniques to enter slipspace, the Covenant are unaware that their engines can be used much more accurately than human technology.

Second, Covenant ships possess resilient, recharging shields, which must be destroyed in order to physically damage the ship. This is quite difficult, as they can withstand a near-direct nuclear explosion.

Third, Covenant ships employ more powerful weapons, including a form of guided plasma, which can often destroy human vessels in a single hit. It should be noted that the Covenant also uses plasma to exterminate the surface population of a planet (a process known as 'glassing').

The Cole Protocol
Quoted from Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 135:

United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1 Encryption Code: Red Public Key: file/first light/ From: UNSC/NAVCOM Fleet H. T. Ward To: ALL UNSC PERSONNEL Subject: General Order 098831A-1 ("The Cole Protocol") Classification: RESTRICTED (BGX Directive) The Cole Protocol To safeguard the Inner Colonies and Earth, all UNSC vessels or stations must not be captured with intact navigation databases that may lead Covenant forces to human civilian population centers. If any Covenant forces are detected: 1. Activate selective purge of databases on all ship-based and planetary data networks. 2. Initiate triple-screen check to ensure all data has been erased and all backups neutralized. 3. Execute viral data scavengers. (Download from UNSCTTP://EPWW.COLEPROTOCOL/Virtualscav/fbr.091) 4. If retreating from Covenant forces, all ships must enter Slipstream space with randomized vectors NOT directed toward Earth, the Inner Colonies, or any other human population center. 5. In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces, all UNSC ships MUST self-destruct. Violation of this directive will be considered an act of TREASON, and pursuant to UNSC Military Law Articles JAG 845-P and JAG 7556-L, such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or execution. /end file/ Press ENTER if you understand these orders.

The SPARTAN Project
Several decades before contact with the Covenant was made, the UNSC military embarked on a secret project to create a group of elite soldiers that would deal with occasional unrest in the Colonies. Code-named SPARTANs, these genetically enhanced troops were trained from the age of six into a life of battle, and became a great asset against the Covenant. While humans suffered defeat after defeat in space, they could almost always prevail with the help of the SPARTANs in ground engagements. The main character of Halo 's gameplay, the Master Chief, is a veteran SPARTAN.

All SPARTANs were given special armor designated MJOLNIR Mark V, which, in laymen&#8217;s terms, can increase their strength and speed. They were the only ones who could wear it, as those without the proper SPARTAN body training or body augmentations (like the SPARTAN upgrades) killed themselves with strength-enhanced convulsions.

The Battle of Reach
By 2552, many of Humanity's Outer Colonies have been destroyed by the Covenant (although they were repulsed with significant losses at Sigma Octanus IV). In a move of desperation, 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, also known as Spartan 117, are chosen for this mission, and board a specially outfitted Halcyon-class cruiser, 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 which they had deviously located via an automated probe attached to the hull of the UNSC destroyer Iroquois.

During this battle, half of 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 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 makes a blind slipspace jump, and emerges in the vicinity of an unexplored and remarkable world: Halo. Although considered a blind jump, the Pillar of Autumns AI Cortana found the coordinates in a Covenant battleship and decided to make a blind jump, again revealing Halo.