2531

Captain James Cutter of the UNSC Spirit of Fire makes an entry in his log, reflecting on the five years leading up to this point in the war against the Covenant.^[1]

The Spirit of Fire arrives at the planet of Arcadia during battle, and meet up with the original members of Red Team and their leader.

The Spirit of Fire goes missing, Captain Cutter drops a log buoy and the UNSC Roman Blue is assigned to retrieve it.

Battle of Shield 0459. Medical officers aboard the Spirit of Fire mistake the Flood as a virus.^[2]

The final battle of the Harvest Campaign is won in space: Preston Cole's fleet engages the alien warships that have again returned to the Harvest colony. Six years after the planet was attacked, UNSC forces emerged victorious at great cost.^[3]
The UNSC Spirit of Fire enters the Epsilon Indi System and arrives back at a glassed and partially frozen Harvest, encountering the remnant of Covenant troops led by an Arbiter that are in the process of uncovering a Forerunner relic on the planet.^[4]
Serina instructs that production of M41 LAAG weaponry cease on Harvest, Warthogs instead to be upgraded with the M68 Gauss Cannon. Not that it makes much difference as drivers continue to 'splatter' their Covenant enemies, much to the frustration of their maintenance teams.^[5]
Helena Roman is KIA against the Covenant. Captain James Cutter sends a message to her family in regards to her death.
Ellen Anders receives some unexpected readings on an EM band and asks a Hornet squadron en route to Rally Point Baker to investigate. They end up sighting a battalion of Sangheili. Sergeant John Forge is assigned to Quadrant 4 to investigate.^[5]

Spartans Kurt-051, Kelly-087 and Fred-104 are dispatched to investigate Construction Platform 966A for suspected Rebel activity.^[6] Kurt-051 experiences a thruster pack malfunction and is sent into interplanetary space. The Prowler UNSC Circumference and the frigate UNSC Tannenberg start immediate rescue operations, however, after over 5 hours of searching, nearby Covenant activity forces the search to be terminated, and Kurt-051 is 'officially' declared MIA. In actuality the operation was a ruse: Kurt is picked up by Colonel James Ackerson and recruited to train his Spartan-IIIs.

497 recruits arrive at Camp Currahee on Onyx beginning the SPARTAN-III Program under the command of Spartan-051 forming what will later become SPARTAN-III Alpha Company.^[6]

Cole is promoted to Admiral upon his return to Earth and learns that a number of outlying colonies have been destroyed, leaving behind almost no survivors. He begins to move his fleet around, trying to intercept the invaders. Ground and ship-to-ship battles begin in earnest, raging throughout the Outer Colonies.^[7]
Spartan-II Blue Team disrupts United Rebel Front activity in Micronesia and breaks up a saboteur ring on Reach between November 2530 and May of this year.^[6]
The Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor/EOD variant enters service.^[8]