Mount Haven

Mount Haven was a small city on an unspecified UNSC colony. It sat in the center of a horseshoe-shaped range of small mountains. Its center plaza sat on top of where four mountain streams joined up to become the head of a strong river that trickled out of the valley.

In September 2552 the city was invaded by the Covenant, who proceeded to dig downriver of the city in search of Forerunner artifacts. In response the UNSC sent in a Company of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers for a snatch-and-run operation; they would steal the artifacts then retreat from the planet.

However, unbeknownst to the UNSC, a team of ODST's had their own agenda. The eight ODST's were all former Colonial Military Administration veterans, and felt that they had given enough to the UNSC cause. Their plan was to break into a bank in the city center, and use a spare Pelican dropship to steal the gold and platinum ingots stored in the bank's vault. They justified their theft by saying that the precious metals were going to be glassed anyway, and therefore they "didn't exist anymore." The team would use the gold to retire.

Their plan hit a snag however when they discovered a schoolteacher and a group of children taking refuge in the bank vault, causing an argument to erupt between the ODST's. Gage Yevgenny wanted to abandon their theft and evacuate the children. Felicia Sanderson was in favor of calling in an extra Pelican. Sita, Dale and Orrin however wanted to abandon the civilians to their deaths. Tempers flared, and the ODST's turned their weapons on each other, resulting in the deaths of Felicia, Dale, Orrin, and Sita.

Gage, in shock, went outside to find teammate Eric Santiago, who informed him that the UNSC were falling back. Gage knocked him out with his gun and called for more Pelicans, claiming they were under heavy fire. He then flew Eric's Pelican to the pickup point and collected the artifacts the Covenant were looking for, as well as a Shiva nuclear device, then flew away from the city. Gage believed that the Covenant forces would follow him in pursuit of the relics. As he was being pursued by Covenant Banshees, he was "accidentally" shot down by rogue ODSTs who knew of his betrayal.

Gage violently crashed near the mountains outside the city, and was found mortally wounded by a rookie ODST who had arrived with the reinforcements Gage had requested. Gage, who knew he was dying, told the rookie his life story, right up until he crashed the Pelican. The rookie, who had listened intently, promised to remember Gage, and do whatever he could against the Covenant. Gage then told the rookie that Covenant forces and the rogue ODSTs were on their way to the crash site, and warned the rookie to get as far away as possible, as Gage was going to detonate the Shiva, killing them all. The rookie ditched most of his gear, and ran for his life, until he reached the other side of the mountain, at which point Gage detonated the nuke, killing himself, his renegade teammates, and thousands of Covenant troops. The city's civilian and military survivors were evacuated and fell back to Earth, having been informed that Reach had just fallen.