New Phoenix

New Phoenix
Overview
Location:	Arizona, URNA
Population:	7 million (prior to the New Phoenix Incident)
Governed by:	Unified Earth Government

New Phoenix is a metropolitan area of Arizona, a location in the United Republic of North America on Earth. It was the fourth most populated city in the URNA, after New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.^[2]^[3] It was one of many well-developed cities in the URNA.^[4]

History

Gabriel Thorne discussing the history of New Phoenix, showing the cities of Flagstaff and Phoenix on a map.

New Phoenix was originally two separate cities, Flagstaff and Phoenix. As the populations and boundaries of both cities grew to intersect, they agreed to become one large metropolis.^[2]^[1]

New Phoenix Incident

Main article: New Phoenix Incident

During his swift attack on Earth on July 24, 2557, the Didact was able to position his flagship, Mantle's Approach, in geosynchronous orbit above the city. Despite resistance from the UNSC Home Fleet, he activated the Composer, converting New Phoenix's population of seven million into digital form and disintegrating their bodies within ninety seconds.^[2] The attack ended when the SPARTAN-II known as the Master Chief destroyed Mantle's Approach and the Composer with a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon, sparing the rest of the planet New Phoenix's fate.^[5]

However, many of the harvested minds were sent to the Composer's Abyss on Installation 03 and later to Requiem via slipspace translocation, to be implanted into new Promethean Knights for the Didact's mechanical army.^[6]^[7]

Attack on the ONI facility

Main article: Skirmish in New Phoenix

Not long after the attack, the Didact's Covenant followers opened slipspace portals in an ONI base located in the city through a Forerunner device ONI had been studying there. Covenant and Promethean forces invaded the city through the portals, but an ONI research team, with the help of a Spartan Headhunter, managed to use a Forerunner artifact known as the Conduit to close the portals and halt the assault.^[8]

Quarantine

New Phoenix's Rebirth ceremony in March 2558.

Due to the nature of the Composer, the city's infrastructure remained intact.^[9] New Phoenix was quarantined after the holocaust and remained off-limits. The UNSC hid the details of the incident from the public, concealing it as a Covenant attack,^[10] a story that was likely corroborated by the invasion of the ONI facility.^[8] Six months later, however, John Sullivan, an Office of Naval Intelligence public relations officer, released a statement that the attack was not of Covenant origin.^[11]

On March 24, 2558, eight months after the attack, the city's quarantine was lifted. Doctor Ruth Charet, President of the Unified Earth Government, presided over New Phoenix's Rebirth ceremony. Spartan Tedra Grant accompanied Spartan Gabriel Thorne as he returned to the city and visited his family's home.^[2]

Geography

Locations

New Phoenix ONI facility

Culture

New Phoenix housed the New Phoenix Philharmonic, an orchestra that Gabriel Thorne's grandmother played in as a violinist for twenty years.^[2]

Trivia

New Phoenix is the second North American city to be depicted in a Halo game, the first being Chicago in the Halo 2 multiplayer map Foundation.
Spartan Gabriel Thorne had family and friends who were killed in New Phoenix,^[12] most notably his maternal grandmother.^[2]