Editing Halo: The Fall of Reach

{{Title|''Halo: The Fall of Reach''}}
{{Era|RW}}
{{ratings}}
<center>''This article is about the novel written by [[Eric Nylund]]. For the military engagement see the [[Fall of Reach]]. For the game, see [[Halo: Reach]]. For the comic, see [[Halo: Fall of Reach]].''</center>
{{Book Info
|name= '''Halo: The Fall of Reach'''
|image=Fall-o-reach.jpg
|Author= [[Eric Nylund]]
|Publisher= [[Del Rey Books]]<br>[[Tor Books]] (2010 edition)
|Date Released= October 30, 2001 (original)<br>August 3, 2010 (2010 edition)
|Length= 340 Pages
|US Price=$7.99
|Can Price=$10.99                   
|UK Price=£6.99
|AU Price=$19.99
|ISBN= 0345451325
|ISBN-13= 978-0345451323]]
|Amazon=http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Reach-Halo-Eric-Nylund/dp/0345451325/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6869926-5685403?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173094680&sr=8-1 
|Availability= Paperback
|Product Dimensions= 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
|Product Dimensions Metric=17.4 x 10.7 x 2.5 cm
|Shipping Weight= 12.67 ounces 
|Shipping Mass= 358
}}


'''''Halo: The Fall of Reach''''' is the prequel to ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'', and is also the first ''Halo'' novel to be published. It was written by [[Eric Nylund]], and published on October 30, 2001.<ref name=xbox.com2>[http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo/spotlight.htm '''Xbox.com''': ''Game Worlds in Written Words'']</ref>

The novel was reportedly finished in [[seven]] weeks<ref name="xbox.com2"/>, eventually becoming a ''Publisher's Weekly'' bestseller with nearly 200,000 copies sold in the United States and United Kingdom.<ref name=xbox.com3>[http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo2/spotlight2.htm '''Xbox.com''': ''First Strike Author Eric Nylund Q&A'']</ref>

The novel was reissued in early August [[2010]] by [[Tor Books]], with the new reissued version including some content updates and additional content.<ref>[http://kotaku.com/5543023/halo-novel-trilogy-to-be-republished-with-updates-new-content '''Kotaku''': ''Halo Novel Trilogy to be Republished with Updates, New Content'']</ref> In addition, a comic book adaptation series titled ''[[Halo: Fall of Reach]]'', comprising of three story arcs will be published by [[Marvel Comics]] and [[343 Industries]], starting with ''[[Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp|Boot Camp]]'' on September 14, 2010.<ref>[http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/transmissions/article/2010-06-22--Marvel-Comics-to-Adapt-The-Fall-of-Reach-This-September '''Halo Waypoint''': Marvel Comics to Adapt ''The Fall of Reach'' this September]</ref> 

==Story Synopsis==
The story begins on the planet [[Jericho VII]] on February 12, [[2535]], and reveals the Spartans as a whole, as well as their purpose. As the seemingly unstoppable Covenant war machine moves into place to [[glass]] Jericho VII, Spartan Red and Blue teams are sent to prevent the destruction of the planet. The Spartans manage to kill a thousand Grunts and even destroy a Covenant air strike with [[Fougasse|fougasses]]. However, soon the situation in space deteriorates, and the Spartans are forced to retreat before the surface of Jericho VII is [[Glassing|glassed]]. 

The story itself begins with [[Catherine Elizabeth Halsey|Dr. Catherine Halsey]] and Lieutenant Junior Grade [[Jacob Keyes]] on board the ''[[Han (Ship)|Han]]'', a [[United Nations Space Command|UNSC]] diplomatic shuttle. Their mission is to identify a potential candidate, [[John-117|John]], for Halsey's [[Spartan-II program]]. Dr. Halsey finds John in a school playground on [[Eridanus II]], where she tests if he is good enough to be a Spartan. Using a coin, she tests John's reflexes by flipping the coin in the air and having him identify the side it will land on. John catches it and correctly identifies the side: the eagle. During this time, Halsey gives John the coin, which is later taken from him.

The plot then goes on to show in detail the brutal indoctrination and training regime that John and his fellow Spartans are put through. [[Chief Petty Officer]] [[Franklin Mendez|Mendez]] trains the Spartan-IIs, showing them the many necessary virtues of a soldier (e.g. courage, teamwork, skill, etc.) while [[Deja]] teaches them history, mathematics, and physics. After a daring training mission in the wilds of [[Reach]], where the young Spartans regroup and escape with pieces of a map that they all put together and stole a [[Pelican]] back to base, where John-117 is made squad leader of the remaining Spartans. When the Spartans are fourteen, they undergo [[SPARTAN-II Augmentation Procedures|intense biological enhancements]], such as effectively increasing their strength by three times, drastically decreasing reaction times, making their bones practically indestructible, increasing blood flow to the eyes so that they can almost see in the dark, and other various improvements. However, of the 75 Spartans, less than half emerge still fit for combat; the rest washed out (died during the operations) or were horribly injured by the augmentation progress.

The Spartans are then issued orders to capture [[Robert Watts|Colonel Robert Watts]], an [[Insurrectionist]] leader in the Eridanus asteroid belt. John leads a small team,  which manages to capture Watts. John is wounded during this mission and is subsequently awarded a [[Purple Heart]].

On February 3, [[2525]], first contact is made with an alliance of alien races that refers to itself as the [[Covenant Empire|Covenant]]. On that day, a single Covenant warship exterminates the entire surface population of the Outer Colony [[Harvest]]. Three UNSC warships, the destroyer ''[[UNSC Heracles|Heracles]]'' and the frigates ''[[UNSC Arabia|Arabia]]'' and the ''[[UNSC Vostok|Vostok]]'', are sent to investigate this incident, initiate first engagement protocols, and attempted contact, engage the Covenant ship in battle, and are subsequently routed. Only one, the ''[[Heracles]]'', manages to return to Reach, having been badly damaged. By December of the same year, the UNSC has mobilized a massive [[UNSC_Fleet|fleet]] under the command of famed war hero [[Vice Admiral]] [[Preston Cole]], with orders to reclaim the Harvest colony and stop the Covenant advance.

Cole's fleet manages a victory at Harvest, but at a high cost - two thirds of his ships are destroyed. Despite significant tactical brilliance on the part of certain Human commanders, Covenant technology combined with effective use and tactics guarantee a three to one kill/loss ratio in most space battles. One by one, the Outer Colonies fall to the onslaught and, by 2536, all have been destroyed.

To protect the location of [[Earth]], the Vice Admiral Cole establishes the [[United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1]], more commonly known as the [[Cole Protocol]]. If any Covenant forces are present, selective purges of databases on all ship based and planetary data networks are to be activated. When human forces are forced into retreat, they must not execute a [[Slipspace]] jump in the direction of Earth, or any major population center, even if this forces them to jump without the necessary navigational calculations (a "blind jump"). If such a jump is not possible, and if capture is imminent, the commanding officer must order a self-destruct. The on-board ship [[Artificial Intelligence]] construct, normally imperative to navigation and tactical decisions, must either be destroyed or removed.

Due to the shortage of effective officers, Keyes is promoted to Commander and assumes command of the [[UNSC Iroquois|UNSC ''Iroquois'']]. Shortly thereafter, he foresees a Covenant attack on [[Sigma Octanus IV]] thanks to a paper by Spartan [[Fhajad-084]]. His actions result in the destruction of a [[Covenant Destroyer|Covenant destroyer]] and two [[Covenant Frigate|frigates]] as well as the routing of a [[Covenant Carrier]] with a daring maneuver dubbed the "[[Keyes Loop]]". This unprecedented victory against a Covenant force earns him a promotion to Captain and helps him to become recognized by the entire UNSC. Keyes and the ''Iroquois'' remain in the Sigma Octanus system to partake in the [[Battle of Sigma Octanus IV]]. He later returns to Reach, inadvertently disclosing the location of the planet to the Covenant via a homing beacon attached to the ''Iroquois''. He is debriefed by an [[Office of Naval Intelligence|ONI]] council. Here he meets John-117 once again.

By [[2552]], many of Humanity's [[Inner Colonies]] have been destroyed by the Covenant. In a move of desperation, ONI Section 3 orders the execution of a secret plan to capture a Covenant ship using the Spartans. The ship would be taken to the Covenant [[High Charity (Structure)|home world]] in order to capture a [[San'Shyuum|Prophet]], one of the aliens' religious leaders, and then use the Prophet as a bargaining chip to negotiate a truce.

To aid the Spartans in this mission, an AI, [[Cortana]], is created based on a younger Doctor Halsey. John is introduced to Cortana during a live-fire mission to test their capabilities working together, and they perform spectacularly. With Cortana's aid, John manages to overpower a full squad of [[Orbital Drop Shock Trooper|Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]], pick his way through a minefield, destroy automated chain guns, and even evade an air strike from a [[Skyhawk Fighter|Skyhawk fighter]], all of which are using live rounds.

Every remaining Spartan-II - with the exceptions of [[Gray Team]], [[Kurt-051]], [[Jorge-052]], [[Maria-062]], the original Red Team, and [[Team Black|Black Team]] - boards a specially outfitted [[Halcyon-class_Cruiser|''Halcyon''-class cruiser]] known as the [[UNSC Pillar of Autumn|''Pillar of Autumn'']], which is under the command of Captain Jacob Keyes. The ''Pillar of Autumn'' moves out towards the edges of the system to make a Slipspace jump to begin the mission.

This plan, however, is interrupted when a [[Fleet of Particular Justice|massive Covenant fleet]] of over 300 ships enters the [[Epsilon Eridani System]]. Captain Keyes orders the ''Pillar of Autumn'' back towards Reach, but the Master Chief convinces him to allow the Spartans to continue their mission by finding a damaged Covenant ship to capture and take to Covenant space. Reach's fleet, with about a hundred ships and twenty [[Orbital Defense Platform|Orbital Defense Platforms]] on hand, engages the Covenant fleet, but takes massive losses. However, the Super MAC platforms manage to repulse the initial Covenant assault.

The Covenant return and land troops on Reach with the objective of destroying the generators for the Super MACs, the only things which are stopping the Covenant. At the same time, the UNSC realizes that the ''[[Circumference]]'', a [[UNSC_Prowler|Prowler]], is still docked at a station orbiting the planet of Reach just before its fall and has not initiated the Cole Protocol. John takes Linda and James to deal with the Circumference, while the rest of the Spartans are sent down to the planet to defend the MACs' power generators.

[[File:Battle_of_Reach.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[UNSC Pillar of Autumn|UNSC ''Pillar of Autumn'']] flees from [[Reach]].]]

John's team crash-land their [[Pelican]] on the station which the ''Circumference'' is docked on and move towards the NAV data. However, James' thruster pack is hit by a [[needler]] shard and explodes, sending James flying uncontrollably into space, where he presumably dies. John and Linda proceed to the ''Circumference'', where they find [[Avery Junior Johnson|Sergeant Johnson]] and his Marines, including [[Wallace A. Jenkins|Jenkins]] and [[Bisenti]], also fighting to wipe the data. With John's help, the Marines are successful, but Linda is shot by five separate plasma blasts. The humans fall back to the ''Autumn''; Linda is clinically dead because of the extensive wounds she receives, but is placed in a cryotube in the hope that she can be resuscitated. 

The surface of Reach is also overrun. The Spartans who John sent to the surface are presumably overrun and all slaughtered. Without the generators, the Super MACs fall silent and are destroyed by the Covenant, who soon begin glassing the planet. The remaining UNSC ships are all destroyed, except for the ''Pillar of Autumn'', as Cortana plotted an exit vector in compliance with the Cole Protocol, though not completely at random. She had decrypted [[Forerunner]] glyphs found by the Master Chief on [[Sigma Octanus IV]]. The NAV coordinates led the ''Pillar of Autumn'' to what the Covenant had been searching for: [[Installation_04|Halo]], an extremely sacred Forerunner artifact. The book ends with Captain Keyes looking through view screens at the ring, asking Cortana to identify the object.

==Characters==

*[[Catherine Elizabeth Halsey|Dr. Halsey ]]
*[[Chief Petty Officer|CPO]] [[Franklin Mendez|Mendez]]
*[[Ensign]] [[William Lovell]]
*[[Colonel]] [[James Ackerson]]
*[[Staff Sergeant]] [[Avery Junior Johnson]]
*[[Captain (Navy)|Captain]] [[Jacob Keyes]]
*[[Spartan-II]] [[Master Chief Petty Officer]] [[John-117]]
*[[Lieutenant Commander]] [[Fhajad-084]]
*[[Petty Officer Second Class]] [[Linda-058]]
*[[Petty Officer First Class]] [[Frederic-104]]
*Petty Officer Second Class [[Joshua-029]]
*Petty Officer Second Class [[James (SPARTAN-II)]]
*Petty Officer Second Class [[Samuel-034]]
*Petty Officer Second Class [[Kelly-087]]
*[[Hieronymus Michael Stanforth]]
*[[AI]] [[Cortana]]
*[[Déjà]]
*[[Toran|AI Toran]]
*[[Dominique|Lieutenant Dominique]]
*[[Aki Hikowa|Lieutenant Aki Hikowa]]
*[[Hall|Lieutenant Hall]]
*[[Jaggers|Lieutenant Jaggers]]
*[[Corporal]] [[Harland]]
*[[Private]] [[Fincher]]
*Private [[Walker]]
*Private [[Cochran]]

==2010 bonus content==
The Tor Books edition of ''The Fall of Reach'' features a new "Adjunct" section at the end, which features several pieces of short fiction:
*[[ONI Directorate Memorandum Interrogation Findings]] - a series of excerpts from the interrogation of [[Subject 386]] by [[Preston Cole|Admiral Cole]] after the [[Battle of the Great Bear]] in [[2530]].
*Word from the [[Third Fleet of Glorious Consequence]] - a message sent by [[Supreme Commander]] [[Luro 'Taralumee]] to the [[Vice Cleric of Zeal]], after the [[Battle of Miridem]].
*A transmission from [[Vice Admiral]] [[Berlin M. Tursk]] to [[Captain (Navy)|Captain]] [[Lucius R. Jiron]], concerning the capture of [[Catherine Elizabeth Halsey|Dr. Catherine Halsey]] during the [[Battle of Miridem]] and [[Raid on the Third Fleet of Glorious Consequence|the UNSC response]].
*A message from [[Mike (civilian)|Mike]] to [[Agnes]], regarding [[Ralph-303]]'s upbringing and  reintegration into society.
*[[United Nations Space Command Transmission 34670J-17]] - A transmission sent by [[Captain (Navy)|Captain]] [[Jacob Keyes]] of {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} to [[Vice Admiral]] [[Kopano N'Singile]] of [[Reach]] [[Central Command]] in [[2552]].
*An ONI post-incident investigation report on a possible security breach that may have contributed to the Covenant's discovery of Reach. It involves a transcript of a [[SecNet]] conversation between Sergeants [[Joseph M. Poteet]] and [[Alasdair R. Schicker]].
*[[WINTER CONTINGENCY Declaration Supplemental Orders]], an ONI directive containing orders for field agents on Reach in the event of a [[WINTER CONTINGENCY]] declaration.

==Reception==
Critical reception to ''Halo: The Fall of Reach'' was mostly positive, though with a few negative comments. Gene Park, from ''Game Critics'', stated that it "...exceeds expectations by being an intelligently written and well-paced story with enough imagination to improve on the original Halo mythos."<ref>[http://www.gamecritics.com/feature/report/halofallreach/page02.php '''Game Critics''': ''Halo: Fall of Reach'']</ref> Many reviewers praised Nylund's writing skill, saying that it was "solidly written" and had many "vivid" details.

==Trivia==
*On page 306, John, Linda, and James are preparing to board a space station in order to destroy the navigation data on board the Prowler ''Circumference''. John tells the other SPARTANs to secure their harnesses onboard the Pelican. However, the book says, "'All secure!' Kelly shouted." Kelly is not on the Pelican; at this time, she is inside another Pelican with Fred to go down to Reach.  However, in the 2010 reprint corrects this to "'All secure!', '''Linda''' shouted."
*On page 126, John is referred to as Master Chief. Having just recently graduated from training, it is highly unlikely that he could have attained this rank. The SPARTANs were promoted to the rank of Petty Officer Second Class upon graduation. But it is possible that John obtained this rank in between the time in which the novel skips forward a few years.
*The Banshee on the original front cover of the book projects the same "energy beams" that the Banshee projects on the front cover of ''Halo: Combat Evolved''.
*An excerpt from this book, along with excerpts from ''Halo: The Flood'' and ''Halo: First Strike'', is included in a directory on ''[[Halo PC]]''. It is found in the "Goodies" section of the disk.
*The first section of this book is titled "Reveille" and involves characters emerging from cryo-sleep. The first section from ''Halo: Combat Evolved'' is also appropriately titled "Reveille", and also involves someone waking from cryo-sleep. Reveille is a traditional bugle call of the U.S. Military, which is sounded at the start of each day on military installations, to wake up the troops. "Reveille" is French for "to awaken."
*In ''[[Halo 3]]'', Cortana states several of Dr. Halsey's quotes from this book during Cortana moments, such as: "Can I speak with you please? What's your name? It's very nice to meet you. You like games? So do I.", "You have been called upon to serve, you will be trained...and you will become the best we can make you. You will be the Protectors of Earth and all her Colonies.", and "Could you sacrifice yourself to complete your mission? Could you watch him die?" In the game, "yourself" and "him" are changed to "me", referring to Cortana. This may be because Cortana was malfunctioning, as she was created from Dr. Halsey's mind.
*During the battle of Sigma Octanus IV, the Pelican that is used to evacuate Blue Team from Cote D' Azur is carrying fourteen Marines, twelve Spartans and twenty civilian survivors, forty-six total. However, the Pelican is only capable of holding fifteen passengers and in ''Halo: The Flood'' it is stated that fifteen is pushing the limit as it is. Despite this inconsistency, the Pelican is stated as taking off normally and moving off at maximum speed, even though it is overcrowded and overloaded, especially since the SPARTANs each weigh around half a ton. But it is possible that they used a [[Pelican]] with an extended carriage.
*During the beginning of the book, the Grunts are said to sound like dogs and their speech could not be translated. Yet in all the ''Halo'' games, with the exception of ''Halo: Reach'', the Grunts speak English and they do not sound like dogs at all. This is because the prelude to the book takes place nearly twenty years before the events of the games, before advanced translation software was invented and utilized by the UNSC armed forces.
*The book states that the ''Pillar of Autumn'' has a command chair, but in ''Halo: Combat Evolved'', this chair is absent.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Fallofreach.jpg|The original book cover, used from 2001 to 2010.
File:TFoR_2010.png|The full cover art of the 2010 Tor Books reissue.
File:FoR-343var.png|A full picture of the newly-issued novel.
</gallery>

==Sources==
<references/>

==Links==
===Internal===
*''[[Halo: Fall of Reach]]''
*[[List of changes in Halo novel reprints]]

===External===
*[http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0345451325/ref=sib_dp_pt/102-6002849-0256936 Read the first chapter of ''Halo: The Fall Of Reach''.]

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