Combined Fleet of Virtuous Ascendancy

Fall of Reach proposal timeline to incorporate Halo: Reach. This is just WIP thoughts for now, particularly focusing on how to reintegrate the existing Reach campaign into the book timeline more or less intact - the full writeup will include the details from other sources too.

The Fall of Reach
The Fall of Reach, also referred to as the Battle of Reach or Reach Campaign' was a major military defeat for the UNSC in the final months of the Human-Covenant War. It was fought primarily on and around the colony world of Reach between August 28 and September 14, 2552. Additional conflicts were fought across the Epsilon Eridani system, though these battles are typically grouped under the Fall of Reach banner, despite later efforts to use the term "Fall of Epsilon Eridani" to better represent the duty and loss of those involved in the conflict not in the immediate vicinity of Reach. In the post-war era, the Fall of Reach remains a cultural and political touchstone of the Covenant war, with slogans such as "Remember Reach" prominent amongst the anti-alien factions of humanity.

Prelude
The events leading up to the Fall of Reach remain extremely controversial within the political discourse of humanity even following the end of the war, with multiple widespread causes linked to the planet's fall as it happened.

Insurrectionist scare
By early-mid 2552, the People's Occupation was conducting a number of operations in the more rural areas of the Visegrad region of Reach, causing a number of attacks on military and other strategic facilities in the region, coinciding with a raid on a drydock at Harmony. Around this time, SPARTAN-III NOBLE team returned from their actions at Fumirole, with Reach's extensive medical facilities on-hand to provide an artificial replacement for the arm lost by Kat-B320 in the conflict. By mid-June, NOBLE were assigned to assist the Army's SpecWar Group 3 in dealing with the local insurgent presence, and began a series of highly successful strikes on suspected rebel hideouts throughout the Highland Mountains, Visegrad and the Viery Territory in conjunction with Army teams. Nonetheless, the mobilisation of Army forces into several rural towns such as Pálháza in the region stirred up anti-Earth sentiment, leading to moderate unrest in the region.

Covenant discovery
On July 17, the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice launched an invasion of Sigma Octanus IV, which was repelled at great cost by the UNSC Navy. During the conflict, Particular Justice was able to use a spy probe to attach itself to the hull plating of the UNSC Iroquois and transmit data on the vessel's destination to the fleet, leading to Thel 'Vadamee discovering the location of the fortress world of Reach. Hesitant to commit his fleet to attacking such a heavily fortified world, Thel instead authorised the deployment of a half-handful of special forces insertion teams onto the planet. In extremely small numbers and employing stealth corvettes, a small number of Silent Shadow and a smaller number of Zealots of the Devoted Sentries were able to make landfall on the planet, managing to land their ships in an abandoned Titanium mine in the midst of the Viery undetected. While UNSC records were never able to ascertain the precise date and time this action occurred - a source of extreme investigation as to colonial aerospace security and threat detection later on - these teams are estimated to have made landfall by at least August 12.

For the next two weeks, the Silent Shadow units on-planet were able to successfully infiltrate and observe a number of UNSC facilities in the region, providing Supreme Commander 'Vadamee with extremely valuable intel as to the composition of Reach's defences and strategic targets. Later reports identified this extensive reconnaissance as key to the Covenant's brutal assault on the planet, as extensive modelling and assessment allowed 'Vadamee to take the UNSC off-guard and exploit several weaknesses with extensive pre-planning and foresight.

By August 27, these Sangheili special forces units had managed to identify several key industrial facilities, orbital defence platform generator facilities, bases and other targets. Some of these facilities were later identified as ones that had reported enemy activity in the same timeframe, though the ongoing anti-rebel military activity in the region was assumed to be the cause of this with the Covenant not seriously entertained as a true threat. In the early hours of the morning on August 28, Army fireteams were deployed into Visegrad to investigate the Visegrad Relay, a vital communications hub believed to be attacked and under the control of the People's Occpuation. Contact with these fireteams was lost later that day, prompting NOBLE Team to be deployed into the region to investigate the following day on August 29. NOBLE were quick to encounter Covenant forces, but ultimately able to take back control of Visegrad and confirm the presence of Covenant scouting parties on Reach.

Following confirmed contact with the Covenant in Visegrad, NOBLE were swiftly redeployed to SWORD Base to help fend off a similar intrusion attempt, wherein they fought off another unit of Silent Shadow and were debriefed by ONI personnel; the WINTER CONTINGENCY order had been suppressed before it could reach widespread knowledge, in the hopes that a reconnaissance mission could be done to assess the strength of Covenant presence on the planet before inducing a widespread military mobilisation and associated mass panic that would come with a WINTER CONTINGENCY declaration.

The late hours of August 29 saw NOBLE deploy into the Viery Territory alongside Army Ranger units of SWG3 to conduct reconnaissance on what was believed to be the Silent Shadow's landing zone. The teams identified three small intrusion corvettes and a single SDV-class heavy corvette hidden under the cover of a stealth field pylon, prompting the teams to fall back while command determined what to do in response.

August 30
At 0447 hours on the morning of August 30, remote scanning outpost Fermion detected a large incoming mass of Covenant vessels, resulting in the message being relayed to FLEETCOM and WINTER CONTINGENCY being declared across the planet. At 0500, the Covenant Combined Fleet of Righteous Immolation. of 315 vessels exits slipspace on the edge of the system - minutes following, a number of attacks and explosions rock several strategic facilities in the Viery region, thanks to planted Silent Shadow teams (and bombs delivered by them) - causing mass confusion and havoc across the planet. NOBLE team simultaneously leads a strike force into the Covenant landing zone, though the strike is rendered moot following the emergence of the Covenant supercarrier Long Night of Solace over the region.

Over the course of August 30, Covenant landing craft and insertion pods spill onto the planet with attacks on New Alexandria, Manassas, Esztergom and Sopron - among others. NOBLE team devises a plan to use Sabre starfighters to deliver an improvided "slipspace bomb" to the Long Night of Solace, resulting in the simultaneous operations UPPERCUT and LEFT JAB, respectively. The supercarrier is one of many casualties on both sides in the battle, but ultimately the UNSC suffers incredibly heavy losses, though are granted slight reprieve following what seems like a partial Covenant rout from the system to hunt down the escaping UNSC Pillar of Autumn. With the Fleet of Particular Justice gone and the Fleet of Valiant Prudence's flagship destroyed, the relentless Covenant attack takes a backfoot for a short time while the remaining alien fleet elements reorganise, allowing what remains of the UNSC Navy to reorganise and attempt a full evacuation of the areas of the planet not yet glassed.

September
As September 1 rolled around, the Covenant forces remaining in the Reach AO began to consolidate under Kantar 'Utaralee, beginning targeted strikes on remaining areas of UNSC resistance. The now Ministry of Fervent Intercession-led fleet elements refocused the attack on Reach with an emphasis on obtaining and taking control of the numerous Forerunner artifact sites scattered across the planet. While Zealot-led Sangheili forces were deployed to these prized relics, Jiralhanae shock troops were sent into the urban metropolis of Alexandria to root out humans by any means possible while the fleets were still engaged in combat in orbit. The Siege of New Alexandria saw human forces hold out against these troops for several days, thanks to particularly effective use of snipers to pick off Covenant infantry from above. Over the course of September 1-3, the New Alexandria Police Department coordinated with the UNSC (including NOBLE team) to evacuate over 100,000 civilians from the city, though these efforts ultimately culminated on the eve of September 4 as the city became a target of glassing by CCS-class battlecruisers. The evacuation of the ONI Olympic Tower saw Kat-B320 assassinated by a Devoted Sentry Field Marshal.

During these days, UNSC Naval battlegroups continuously poured into the Epsilon Eridani system from deployment in nearby star systems, only to find the planet they had been called to defend a cinder. These reinforcements were able to extend the fight in orbit past the initial August 30 date, taking advantage of the chaos in Covenant ranks caused by the departure of the Fleet of Particular Justice to make a stubborn holdout for nearly a week, though by September 5 all activities in the Reach Defense Coordination Zone had ceased. Nonetheless, these vital days of fighting were able to provide cover for countless civilian evacuation craft to escape and, provided the necessary cover for several covert operations across the planet to enact the Cole Protocol on a number of vital research facilities - collectively named Operation: WHITE GLOVE. One such operation saw NOBLE Team deploy to SWORD Base on September 5, where they were ultimately charged with scuttling the base.