Fall of Reach/Timeline

This is a timeline of events that took place during the Fall of Reach.

July 24, 2552

 * 0728 Hours: Noble Team is ordered to investigate a possible Insurrectionist activity at the disabled Visegrád Relay. Shortly after, the team learns that the Covenant are responsible for the attack on the relay. After retaking the relay, Noble Team discovers a data module on one of the dead staff. WINTER CONTINGENCY is declared.

July 26, 2552

 * 1128 hours: An attacks ONI Sword Base. Noble Team is deployed to secure the base and surrounding outposts. After the corvette is destroyed by orbital bombardment, Noble Team meets up with Dr. Halsey and hands over the data module retrieved from Visegrád Relay.

August 12th, 2552

 * 0800 hours: The UNSC Army begins a full-scale assault on the Viery Territory. Noble Team is sent to gather intelligence of Covenant-occupied sites and to destroy a EMP-emitting Covenant tower. The UNSC learn too late that the tower served as a teleporter linked to a cloaked Covenant Supercarrier. The is destroyed by the Supercarrier.


 * 2007 hours: Covenant invasion of Reach is fully underway. Noble Team begins developing a plan to destroy the enemy Supercarrier with a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine used as a makeshift bomb. Auntie Dot informs Noble Team that 60% of the UNSC fleet is in route to Reach, the first battlegroup is set to enter the system in 48 hours.

August 14th, 2552

 * 1248 hours: Noble Team assaults and assists UNSC Army troopers in the Sabre Launch Facility and use it as a staging point for a battle above Reach. Using the Slipspace Drive from the, Noble Team disables and boards one of the Covenant corvettes and use it as the detonation point for the bomb. Due to a malfunction with the triggering mechanism, a member of Noble Team is forced to detonate the bomb manually. The Supercarrier is destroyed just as a Covenant Fleet arrives above Reach.


 * 1248 hours: Covenant forces once again attack Sword Base and occupy the site. Dr. Halsey escapes capture by hiding under the facility.

August 18, 2552

 * The Covenant begin their attack on the city of New Alexandria.

August 23, 2552

 * 1534 hours: The Covenant fleet begins glassing targeted areas of Reach, and a battle breaks out in New Alexandria. Noble Six and remaining Army infantrymen assist in the evacuation of civilians from the city.


 * 1857 hours: Noble Six links up with the rest of Noble Team. The team destroys three jammers installed by the Covenant, allowing the UNSC to safely evacuate all personnel from the ONI HQ. When the team reunites, they are debriefed by their supervisor to proceed to Sword Base. Catherine-B320 of Noble Team is killed by a Needle Rifle.

August 26, 2552

 * The remnants of Noble Team are extracted by a Pelican from the ruins of New Alexandria.

August 27, 2552

 * Operation: RED FLAG is given the official "green light" by Hieronymus Michael Stanforth.

August 29, 2552

 * SPARTAN-B312 and a team of ODSTs secure a landing zone for Noble Team's Falcon. Later Noble Team proceed inside Sword Base only to learn their true mission: escort a package, from Halsey, to the Pillar of Autumn.

August 30, 2552

 * 0414 Hours: The UNSC Pillar of Autumn is kept in Reach orbit by FLEETCOM over Lábatlan.
 * 0447 Hours: The Remote Scanning Outpost Fermion detects more incoming Covenant vessels. An emergency message is relayed to FLEETCOM. The outpost then self-destructs per the Cole Protocol due to an unsecured science library and nearby Covenant forces.


 * 0500 Hours: Another fleet of 314 Covenant vessels exits slipspace on the edge of the system.


 * 0519 Hours: Admiral Roland Freemont (FLEETCOM Sector One Commander) issues a general order to all vessels in the Reach, Jericho, and Tantalus systems. All vessels and stations initiate the Cole Protocol and rush to Rally Point ZULU.


 * 0534 Hours: Covenant vessels make pinpoint slipspace jumps attempting to destroy any incoming or outgoing human vessels before they can regroup. A Covenant carrier targets the, but is destroyed.


 * 0545 Hours: The Covenant vessels begin a frontal assault. As the Covenant and human fleets engage above Reach, it seems to be a stalemate, as Covenant ships take out UNSC ships, while the UNSC ships and MAC cannons take out an equal number. The first salvo by the UNSC vessels destroys a third of the remaining Covenant fleet. A Covenant supercruiser arrives and destroys several UNSC ships while outside human weapons range.


 * 0558 Hours: Station Gamma Dockmaster AI Doppler is unable to implement the Cole Protocol on the, an ONI prowler docked at Reach Station Gamma, due to measures taken to maintain the secrecy of Operation: HYPODERMIC. Doppler sends a priority message to FLEETCOM concerning this violation. Covenant intrusion software detects this oversight, and the Covenant deploys troops to seize the NAV database aboard the Circumference.


 * 0616 Hours: The SPARTAN-IIs are dispatched from the Pillar of Autumn. John-117, Linda-058, and James-005 form Blue Team and go aboard the Dock to destroy the Circumference, while the remaining SPARTAN-IIs form Red Team and head down to the surface of Reach to defend the power generators for the MAC guns. James goes MIA when a Needler hits his thruster pack and propels him into space during combat. Blue Team continue through the station, rescuing Staff Sergeant Johnson and Privates O'Brien, Bisenti, and Jenkins from Kig-yar and Sangheili.


 * 0620 Hours: Most of the Covenant fleet retreats from the system after deploying more dropships toward the surface. The UNSC fleet fires on the ships, destroying many although hundreds still land on Reach.


 * 0621 Hours: The boarding craft are landed and the armory is overrun; the Covenant fleet re-returns to the system. The Covenant split their 150+ remaining ships. One fleet attacks the UNSC ships, while another takes out the MAC cannons and send in troops to land on Reach. The UNSC try to split their 50+ remaining forces to engage the Covenant, but there are too many platforms to cover and too many casualties. The Supercruiser continues to destroy UNSC ships, allowing the other ships to attack the MACs. Eventually the supercruiser was destroyed by the Pillar of Autumn, but the UNSC fleet is practically decimated so it is too late to turn the tide of battle.


 * 0631 Hours: Red Team's Pelican is shot down. They have no choice but to jump from the crashing Pelican and make a "hard landing" on the ground. Results in four dead and six seriously injured.


 * 0637 Hours: John-117, the clinically dead Linda-058, and the Marines board the Pillar of Autumn.


 * 0647 Hours: The Pillar of Autumn attempts to retreat from the system, but remains there for unknown reasons and heads for a drydock at the Aszod ship breaking yards on Reach, possibly.


 * 0649 Hours: Red Team sets up defenses around ODG Facility A-331.


 * 0711 Hours: Fred-104, Joshua-029, and Kelly-087 plant a nuclear warhead through the gravity lift in a landing Covenant cruiser, leaving Joshua-029 MIA, (presumed KIA) in the process.


 * 0720 Hours: The Covenant destroys ODG Facility A-331 by aerial bombardment, though some Spartans escape. The surviving MAC guns are now offline and are quickly destroyed by plasma torpedoes. Remaining UNSC vessels have no choice but to retreat. The Covenant warships are split into two groups: five ship teams that hunt down the surviving UNSC vessels and a group of ships that align themselves in formation and begin to glass Reach.


 * 1652 hours: The remainder of Noble Team head to the Aszod ship breaking yards to deliver a fragment of Cortana, which holds important navigation data, to the Pillar of Autumn. SPARTAN-B312 successfully delivers the package to the Autumn and allows the vessel to escape by destroying an incoming Covenant battlecruiser. The Pillar of Autumn, pursued by a dozen Covenant vessels, retreats from the system, heading for Installation 04.


 * 2000 Hours: SPARTAN-B312 is one of the few standing survivors at the ship-breaking yards of Aszod and the planet Reach. The SPARTAN makes a last stand, fighting off waves of Covenant forces, until eventually being overwhelmed and then finally killed by a squad of 7 Sangheili warriors.

September 7, 2552

 * 0002 Hours: The SPARTAN Red team survivors and Dr. Halsey, after days of walking through the abandoned Titanium mines below CASTLE base, reach a corridor covered in Forerunner symbols.
 * Shortly afterwards: A series of detonations by Covenant forces looking for them cause the deaths of Vinh-030 and Isaac-039.

September 11–12, 2552

 * Unknown time: The Installation 04 survivors arrive at Reach, having experienced a temporal anomaly, causing them to be sent nearly two weeks into the past, after traversing through Slipspace with a Forerunner Crystal.

Unknown

 * At an unknown point, Siófok was attacked.
 * Manassas, used as a civilian evacuation conduit, was eventually attacked.