I began playing the Halo series with Halo Reach, and then continued on to Halo 4. I missed the entire original trilogy, which I’m planning on buying eventually. But for the moment I need to know what the whole backstory is for Halo. If anyone could post a brief summary of all of the important details of Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 it would be much appreciated. Thanks!
It would be easier to read what has already been written here. It covers the entire Human-Covenant War.
> I began playing the Halo series with Halo Reach, and then continued on to Halo 4. I missed the entire original trilogy, which I’m planning on buying eventually. But for the moment I need to know what the whole backstory is for Halo. If anyone could post a brief summary of all of the important details of Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 it would be much appreciated. Thanks!
The WHOLE backstory, or just starting at Combat Evolved? We’d have to go back millions of years for the whole backstory…
PART I: Halo: Combat Evolved - First Strike
After the Fall of Reach, the Master Chief, aboard the Cruiser Pillar of Autumn, fled the Covenant, stumbling upon a Forerunner Installation, known as Halo.
Marooned, the Chief fought past Covenant and the Halo’s guardians: the Sentinels, and eventually against the Flood, a parasitic all-consuming life-form which destroyed the Forerunner Empire.
Allying with Halo’s caretaker, the Monitor 343 Guilty Spark, the Chief brought the Installation’s activation index to the Control Room, only to be stopped by Cortana, who revealed that Spark almost had him activate the Halo, which would annihilate all sentient life in the galaxy (the final weapon used by the Forerunners to stop the Flood’s advance)
Escaping Spark’s betrayal, Chief and Cortana eventually rigged the crashed Pillar of Autumn to explode and destroy the Halo Installation, narrowly escaping it as one of the few survivors, along with a veteran marine Sargent Johnson.
Returning to Reach and rescuing the Spartan Blue Team and Doctor Halsey, Cortana uncovered the Covenant’s immediate plan to send a massive fleet to Earth, the Covenant not even realizing themselves where they were heading at the time.
Delaying the invasion, and destroying a majority of the Prophet of Regret’s fleets; one of three Hierarch’s {Truth, Regret and Mercy} that command the Covenant Empire. Chief and the survivors return to Earth.
PART II: ODST - Delta Halo - Uprising
Meanwhile, the Sangheili (Elite) who led the Covenant Fleet at Halo, is punished for his failure, and stripped of his rank. The Hierarch Prophet Truth however, does not execute him, but grants him the status of Arbiter, a warrior who shall go into suicidal mission on behalf of the Prophets until death.
The Arbiter attacks the Heretics; defectors from the Covenant, in a station above a gas giant not far from the now destroyed Halo installation.
Confronting the Heretic’s leader, the Arbiter learns that 343 Guilty Spark; having survived Halo’s destruction, is the catalyst for this rebellion, sharing his knowledge with the Covenant he meets, informing them that their religion; centered upon the Great Journey into transcendence via activating a Halo, is a lie.
Spark is captured by the Brute Chieftain, Taterus, and they return to the mobile Covenant Capital City of High Charity.
Not soon after, Earth is invaded anyhow, but Regret’s fleet; reduced to only thirty ships from the original ten thousand, fail utterly, but not before they make an incursion into Kenya, Africa, into the city of New Mombasa.
ODST squads were deployed to take down Regret, but Regret’s flagship fled into Slip Space, with the Frigate In Amber Clad in pursuit with the Chief aboard.
The In Amber Clad uncovers another Halo Installation, number 05, or otherwise: Delta. Dropping onto this new Halo, the Chief finally corners the Prophet of Regret, overcomes his honor guard, and slays the Prophet. However, the Chief does not escape in time, as the Covenant Fleet bombards his position and sends him hurtling into the ocean, fate unknown.
The Arbiter meanwhile, witnesses the arrival of High Charity at the new Halo Installation. He is sent by Truth and Mercy to the Halo to attain the activation index. Fighting through, the Arbiter recovers the Index, but is betrayed by Tarterus, who reveals the Prophets have put into motion a reformation of the Covenant Empire, that would see the Elites exterminated and the Brutes rise to the role of protectors. The Arbiter is sent hurtling into a pit below.
Waking up in a lair of the Flood leader, known as the Gravemind, both the Chief and Arbiter are informed by the Gravemind of the Covenant’s task to activate the Halo; something neither three of them want, the Flood relying upon living organic to feed.
The Gravemind resolves to aide them, teleporting the Arbiter to the Halo’s Control Room and the Chief to High Charity.
The Chief and Cortana battle through High Charity, but are unable to stop Truth from escaping with the Index as the chaos of the Covenant Civil War begins around them.
Meanwhile, on the Halo Ring, the Arbiter teams up with Sargent Johnson, forming an uneasy alliance between the Elites and Humans, to stop Tarterus from activating the Halo, which is already set into firing mode.
Eventually, the Arbiter kills the Chieftain of the Brutes and stops the Halo, and 343 Guilty Spark reveals that the fact that this Halo entered firing mode, has put all Halos (a collective seven) into standby mode for immediate activation from the Halo’s command and control center: an installation known as the Ark beyond the edges of the galaxy.
Meanwhile, on High Charity, the Flood invades and kills the second remaining Covenant leader, Mercy, who is abandoned by Truth.
Truth boards a Forerunner Dreadnought in the center of the city, preparing to lead the Loyalist Covenant Fleet to Earth, in search of the Ark, which Regret had previously uncovered the existence of, under New Mombassa.
Chief manages to board the ship too, but Cortana is left behind on the Flood infested space-station-city.
PART III: The Ark - Remnant - Return of the Didact
The Master Chief fails to stop Truth however, and is captured aboard the Dreadnought. Eventually escaping, the Chief is forced to bail when the Dreadnought reaches the atmosphere of Earth, falling into the jungle below, eventually uncovered by Sargent Johnson and the Arbiter, who the Chief reluctantly decides to tolerate.
After a series of battles, Truth manages to activate what is believed to be the Ark, but is actually a portal which leads to the Ark itself. Joining the Covenant Separatist Fleet that pursues, the Chief and Arbiter land on the massive Ark Installation.
Accompanied by Spark once more, the Monitor reveals that Truth has managed to reach the Ark’s communication array, and plans to send out the signals for all Halos in the galaxy to activate.
Teaming up with the Flood once again, who arrive in full force on the Ark, the Chief and Arbiter manage to stop Truth, with the Arbiter killing him. The Flood however, immediately turn on them again once the threat of the Halos is disposed of.
Afterwards, they uncover the original Halo Ring, being rebuilt on the Ark. Deciding to use the Halo to purge the Flood Army which pursued them to the Ark, seeing as the Ark is outside the galaxy and a threat to nothing nearby.
Eventually returning to the wreckage of High Charity, the Chief rescues Cortana from the clutches of the Gravemind. Now with Cortana, who still possesses the activation index stolen from Spark on the original Halo ring, the Chief returns to the Control Room to activate the Halo.
However, they are confronted by Spark, who believes that firing the Halo before it’s completion would destroy both it as well as the Ark. Falling into rampancy, Spark betrays them once more, killing Sargent Johnson and unleashing a crazed rambling.
The Chief destroys Spark, and activates the Halo, before escaping onto the Frigate Forward Unto Dawn. Barely managing to escape in time before the Halo and the Ark detonates, the Dawn is cut in half. The Arbiter and the forward section returns to Earth, but the Chief and Cortana are stranded on the rear half, and are left floating in space.
Back on Earth, a memorial to the Covenant War is held, with the Chief believed to be Missing in Action. The Arbiter returns to Sanghelios, the Elite’s home-world, with the war ended.
In the time between the end of the Covenant War, an Elite rebel rises up known as Jul 'Mdama, discontent with the Arbiter’s policy of peace towards the Humans, believing that too much blood was shed in the service to the Covenant that there can never be any peace.
Uncovering evidence of the Didact’s existence on a far flung abandoned Forerunner Shield World of Oynx,Jul rallies like-minded fanatics to his cause, and leads his remnant Covenant fleet to Requiem.
From here, Halo 4 begins. With the Chief awakening aboard the Forward Unto Dawn.
Hope you appreciate my efforts putting that all together. And that isn’t even touching upon the Forerunner Trilogy, or the Covenant War prior to the Fall of Reach.
> Hope you appreciate my efforts putting that all together. And that isn’t even touching upon the Forerunner Trilogy, or the Covenant War prior to the Fall of Reach.
Thank you so much! I appreciate that you took the time to help me out.