The story so far...
In the distant past, an intelligent race called the Forerunners used their advanced technology to protect life. The Forerunner fought an alien parasite known as the Flood. The Flood, which spread through infestation of sentient life, overran much of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Forerunners conceived a weapon of last resort to combat the Flood. Using an installation known as the Ark, they built seven large ring-shaped megastructures known as Halos. The Halo Array, when activated, would destroy all sentient life in the galaxy—depriving the Flood of their food. Delaying as long as they could, the Forerunners activated the rings and disappeared.
Tens of thousands of years later in the 26th century, humanity—under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command or UNSC—colonize many worlds thanks to the development of faster-than-light "slipstream" travel. Tensions escalate between the older and more stable "Inner Colonies" and the remote "Outer Colonies", leading to civil war. The UNSC creates an elite group of enhanced supersoldiers, known as Spartans, to suppress the rebellion covertly. In the year 2525 the human colony of Harvest falls under attack by a theocratic alliance of alien races known as the Covenant. The Covenant leadership declares humanity heretics and an affront to their gods—the Forerunners—and begins to methodically exterminate human worlds. The Covenant's superior technology and numbers prove decisive advantages; though effective, the Spartans are too few in number to turn the tide of battle in humanity's favor.
In 2552, the Covenant arrive at Reach, the UNSC's last major stronghold, and launch an invasion of the planet. The last Spartans and UNSC military are unable to stop the Covenant from bombarding the surface with plasma. Following directives to avoid leading the Covenant to Earth, the artificial intelligence (AI) Cortana aboard the fleeing UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn selects coordinates that lead the ship to a Halo installation. The Covenant follow, damaging the Autumn and leading its crew to take the fight to the ring's surface. The Covenant accidentally release Flood imprisoned on the ring; in order to nullify the threat, the ring's AI caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark, enlists the help of the Spartan, John-117. Before the pair can activate Halo's defenses, however, Cortana reveals that Halo's activation would mean their own destruction. Master Chief and Cortana instead detonate the Autumn's engines, destroying Halo and preventing the escape of the Flood. They and a few other human survivors return to Earth, warning of an impending Covenant attack.
Soon after, a Covenant fleet arrives at Earth. Most of the fleet is destroyed, but a single ship under the command of one of the Covenant's Hierarchs, the Prophet of Regret, breaks through the human defenses and invades the African city of New Mombasa. Before the humans can assault Regret's carrier, he retreats through a slipspace portal, pursued by the Master Chief aboard the human ship In Amber Clad. Regret travels to another Halo installation, where the Master Chief kills Regret. Inner turmoil in the Covenant leads to civil war between the various member races. Learning that the activation of the Halo Array (a central tenet of the Covenant religion) would lead to their extinction, the Covenant warrior Arbiter and his brethren ally with humanity to stop the rings from being fired. The aborted activation of the ring puts all the Halo installations on standby: the remaining rings can be activated remotely from a location known as "The Ark".
The Covenant begin a full-scale invasion of Earth and excavate a Forerunner artifact in the African desert that creates a slipspace portal to the Ark. The Master Chief and Arbiter travel through the portal to kill the last High Prophet, Truth, and discover the installation is building a new Halo ring to replace the one destroyed previously. In order to destroy the spreading infestation led by the Flood intelligence Gravemind, the Master Chief activates the incomplete ring—as the Ark lies outside the Milky Way Galaxy, the blast destroys the Flood but spares the galaxy at large. Because the ring's construction is incomplete, the resulting pulse destroys the ring and damages the Ark. The Arbiter escapes the explosion, but the Master Chief and Cortana are left drifting in space, trapped in the severed rear half of their ship. The Master Chief cryonically freezes himself as he and Cortana wait for rescue. In an alternate ending, the rear half is seen floating towards an unknown planet.
Due to the fact that Halo is a very vast storyline, I'll leave the main info at that. For more info, please use the shortened URL at the bottom of the above article. If you can't find any info about Halo you're looking for, use my
Q/A topic. I hope you think Halo is/sounds like a good game, because it is.
Lastly, If you are thinking about trying the game out for the gameplay, go buy Halo: Reach or wait for the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved re-make or Halo 4 in 2012. If you want to play the games for the fun of experiencing the story, play the games or watch videos of them in the order of the Chronological Game List below.
Games (Chron. order)--Halo: Wars
--Halo: Reach
--Halo: Combat Evolved
--Halo 2
--Halo 3: ODST
--Halo 3
--Halo 4 (2012)
Games (Release order)
Novels(NOTE: I have personally read these books more than 5-10 times each and they have an advanced vocabulary reccomended for adults or anyone with an above average reading Lexile over the age of 13, the Forerunner saga being the hardest.)
--Cryptum (Part 1/3 of the Forerunner saga. Parts 2 and 3 are coming soon.)
--Contact Harvest (Sgt. Johnson and the first contact with the Covenant)
--The Cole Protocol (The early adventures of Cpt. Keyes)
--The Fall of Reach (Halo: Reach from MC's perspective)
--The Flood (Halo: CE)
--First Strike (MC's journey back to Earth from Halo)
--Ghosts of Onyx (The new SPARTAN project, SIII) (NOTE: Noble team is 85% SIII)
Graphic Novels(NOTE: These books are short, extremely detailed, and for some people: expensive. The good part is that they do not have to be read in a specific order.)
--Halo Graphic Novel (4 short stories from the Halo universe including: The "Shipmaster" Elite's backstory, how Sgt. Johnson escaped Halo, the testing for the newest MJOLNIR (Spartan armor), and a journalist's adventures during the attack of New Mombasa.)
--Halo: Bloodlines (The adventures of a certain SPARTAN Team Black.)
--Halo: Helljumpers (Dutch and Romeo's (2 ODSTs) classified adventure to an attacked UNSC colony)
--Halo: Uprising (Story of a young man and a woman trying to survive the Covenant's attack on Cleveland, Ohio. Meanwhile, what Master Cheif did on his ride to Earth via the end of Halo 2.)
WARNING!: Please do not post hate comments towards the topic or anything remotely related to the Halo saga. The last thing we need are 8-year old COD fans raging about how it's better than Halo.
All haters will be reported.COPYRIGHT: All credit where it's due to Bungie, 343 Industries, Halo Nation (wiki), and my own personal background knowledge of the franchise.
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