Outer Colonies

The Outer Colonies are the human-colonized planets farthest from the core worlds, including Earth and the Inner Colonies loyal to it, with colonies founded after. From the late 25th century well into the Human-Covenant War, disorder and rebellion were commonplace. The majority of the Outer Colonies were glassed by the Covenant during the war.

For a list of notable Outer Colonies, see here.

History

Founding

The Outer Colonies were founded mostly over the course of the 25th century, following humanity's first wave of extrasolar colonization between 2362 and 2390. Unlike the inhabitants of the Inner Colonies who had been selected from Earth's "best and the brightest", the recruiting standards for the Outer Colonials were far more varied. Due to the colonization contractors' main interests being in valuable resource rights rather than having the best personnel, some Outer Colony settlers were selected from pardoned law-breakers, while others were illegally conscripted. In addition, some colonists used their own means, legal or illegal, to transport to the distant colonies in order to escape Earth's control. All of these factors led the colonists having no particular loyalties to Earth.

The Outer Colonials' resentment of UEG control often manifested as various forms of civil disobedience, such as refusal to pay taxes or living in illegal settlements outside the government's surveillance grids. It was also common for Outer Colony citizens to avoid registering births and deaths to Colonial Administration Authority databases; as such, there was no complete gene registry of Outer Colony inhabitants. However, these registrations were not mandatory, as the UNSC suspected it would have further agitated the Outer Colonials. Most Outer Colony citizens, however, took advantage of the benefits offered to them by the CAA, including the free Outer Colony vaccination program, which was secretly used to catalog children's DNA. This program was later used in drawing suitable recruits for both the SPARTAN-II and SPARTAN-III programs.

Insurrection

Earth and the Inner Colonies would become heavily dependent on materials supplied by the Outer Colonies, which prompted the Unified Earth Government to keep them under its control. However, as human-controlled space grew in volume, Earth began to lose its logistical ability to control the far-flung colonies. By 2490, the Outer Colonies encapsulated the Inner Colonies, in addition to surpassing them in numbers. With increased trade restrictions and taxes set up by the CMA, the tension between the Outer Colonies and Earth increased all the more. This caused many inhabitants of Earth and the Inner Colonies feel threatened by the increasingly hostile Outer Colonies, which now literally surrounded them. Others thought that through diplomacy over enough time, the situation between the core worlds and the Outer Colonies could be stabilized. Despite this, the UNSC increased their military presence in the Outer Colonies, which would in turn provoke them to increased aggression, eventually sparking numerous brushfire wars across the Outer Colonies, collectively known as the Insurrection. However, according to later analysis, without military action by the UNSC, the Outer Colonies might have risen against the core worlds, leaving humanity even more vulnerable in the onset of the Human-Covenant War.

Covenant War

Beginning in 2525, Harvest was the first world to fall to the Covenant's genocidal wrath. By 2535, with the destruction of Jericho VII, most Outer Colonies had been lost. By 2552, though some Outer Colonies still remained in UNSC hands, most were small and rather insignificant worlds. The significant colonies still under UNSC control lived in constant fear of Covenant invasion.

After the end of the Human-Covenant War in early 2553, tensions in the remaining Outer Colonies were on the rise again. Some of the colonies had cut off communications with the UNSC during the war, using the chaos to their advantage. Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood set off on a diplomatic mission across the colonies to discuss reconstruction, but some refused his offer, feeling that the UNSC abandoned them during the war. Some Outer Colonies seeking to extend their autonomy from the UEG favored small, long-range, slipspace-capable utility craft such as the D81-LRT Condor to scout potential trade routes and manage diplomatic relations with other worlds, allowing them to avoid the UNSC's control over interstellar commerce.

List of appearances

Halo: The Fall of Reach (First appearance) Halo: The Flood (Mentioned only) Halo: First Strike Halo: Ghosts of Onyx Halo 3 (Mentioned only) Halo: Contact Harvest Halo: The Cole Protocol Halo Wars: Genesis Halo Wars Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe Dirt Palace Hotel (Mentioned only) Pariah The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole The Return

Halo: Reach (Mentioned only) Halo: Fall of Reach Boot Camp Covenant Halo: Glasslands Halo Living Monument (Mentioned only) Halo: The Thursday War Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Scanned Halo: Escalation Halo: Mortal Dictata Halo: Nightfall Halo: New Blood Hunt the Truth (Mentioned only)