Halo: The Fall of Reach

Reader’s Log

Chapter 1: The story is set in the year 2517. The first scene is on a ship in Slipspace, which appears to be some sort of third dimension in which starships can travel at near the speed of light. Lt. Keyes wakes up out of cryosleep and discusses an upcoming military project with a civilian named Dr. Catherine Halsey who is an important scientist in the UNSC, or the United Nations Space Command.

Chapter 2: The two land on a planet called Eridanus 2 and into Elysium City. They go to what seems to be a school yard where Dr. Halsey is observing a young boy. She tells Lt. Keyes to keep watch as she goes to talk to the boy. The boy is a little blonde-haired six-year-old named John. Dr. Halsey refers to him as John-117. He is one of 75 prescreened kids needed for their project. She gives the boy a small test to prove the identity and the chapter ends with her walking away, cursing at herself for the pain and suffering she will have put the little boy through.

Chapter 3: (Planet Reach Military Complex) Now its about a month later and Dr. Halsey is standing in a room with Chief Petty Officer Mendez and they are discussing the children. They have abducted the 75 children from various planets and flash cloned them in the middle of the night. They took the real children and left the clones for the parents. They are also speaking to an A.I. named Deja. They decide to tell the kids the truth in case they find out what really happened and turn on them.

Chapter 4: Here begins boot camp for all the children. They are given clothes and perform calisthenics all morning and have class during the afternoon with Deja. Their training is extremely difficult and John makes two friends, Sam and Kelly.

Chapter 5: Now its been two years of hard training and lessons for the children. They are eight years old and being flown into the forest for a training mission. CPO Mendez drops off all the kids at separate locations. The kids, led by John-117, showed remarkable teamwork skills. Together, they met up in the forest and captured a Pelican Dropship. After their mission, John-117 was promoted to squad leader.

Chapter 6: After an intense 6 years of hard training and advanced classes the 14 year-old kids have the bodies of 18 year-old Olympic athletes and the minds of Naval Honors Graduate. All the kids are in separate operating rooms, ready to undergo surgery. They are having a number of different procedures including: Carbide ossification, which grafts advanced material onto their bones to make them virutally unbreakable, muscular enhancement, which will increase their muscle density and decrease lactase recovery time, thyroid implant, boosting muscular and skeletal growth, occipital capillary reversal, which will increase their vision to nearly impossible accuracy and perception, and last superconduct their brain neurons, giving them the ability to think abstractly extremely well, advanced memory, and nearly unchartable reaction times.

Chapter 7: A few months later, only half of the children survive the operations. A ceremony is held and the ashes of those who died are sent into space. Another few months later, John is entering a gym. He is still recovering from his painful procedures but is starting to notice the positives. In the gym, everything he tries is far too light until he realizes he has to curl at least 40 kilos per arm to feel normal. Four men enter the gym, John senses a negativity and he understands why. He has realized that many people don’t like the Spartans, the codename for John and his augmented fellows. The four men are significantly older and larger than John but they engage him and he kills three of them in fight-or-flight reaction. CPO Mendez enters the gym and tells him to forget about it.

Chapter 8: Again, it is another several months later and Dr. Halsey is waiting in CPO Mendez’s office. He enters and tells the CPO that he had to move her Spartans to another facility because they were causing problems. Dr. Halsey is upset at why but CPO Mendez says it would be easier to show her. He takes her for a drive where they arrive at a large complex. They enter an office where they a view of a large “cave” filled with floodlights, autocannons, and 8 soldiers in Mechanical suits. Mendez speaks “Start the drill,” into a mic and it echoes into the cave. All of a sudden the lights go out and, summarized, five Spartans in plain black suits infiltrate the base, incapacitate each Mech and take the flag in the middle, flawlessly. Dr. Halsey is stunned. It turns out the combined effects of the procedures produced even greater results. The Spartans are faster, stronger, and smarter than they could’ve predicted, and they’re ready for a real mission.

Chaper 9 This chapter explains the Spartans being briefed on a