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. Simultaneously, the battle of Beta Eridani saw Rho 'Barutamee capture a vessel that had failed to enact the Cole Protocol, giving him the coordinates of what he believed to be a clue on the path to the fabled Maethrillian. Upon learning of 'Barutamee's plans to attack the Epsilon Eridani system - compromising the steady infiltration built up over the course of two weeks - Thel 'Vadamee saw an opportunity to use the Fleet of Valiant Prudence to augment his own forces in the Fleet of Particular Justice. While either fleet would be capable of taking on the gathered military forces at Reach, doing so would be extremely costly individually, but much safer a victory together. As such, the Fleets of Valiant Prudence and Particular Justice formed into a temporary alliance, the Combined Fleet of Righteous Immolation. While each commander had differing goals, both agreed that their chances of taking out the instrumentally important Reach would be better done together. As part of this deal, several of Rho's Devoted Sentries, led by Field Marshal (Elite name here) joined the existing Silent Shadow on the ground, to ensure the continuation of the joint-cooperation.

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 action at SWORD Base saw one of the Silent Shadow's personnel captured - albeit heavily injured - and interrogated by ONI personnel. While the naturally resistant Sangheili refused to part with any useful information before his death, a recovered datadisc was able to provide the ONI analysts with intelligence on the location of the Covenant's operating base on the planet.

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. While this mission saw little in the way of combat, the compromised nature of the attack on Sword Base and the intrusion into the titanium mine saw the Field Marshal commander of the scouting group alert Thel 'Vadamee of his compromised nature, resulting in the Combined fleet of Righteous Immolation jumping into slipspace to begin their assault on Reach.

August 30
At 0330 hours in the morning of August 30, NOBLE Team began a strike operation into the Covenant strike zone, leading an Army battalion under Special Warfare Group Three to take control of the region and capture the Covenant stealth craft, to allow ONI analysts to sieze the craft for data on additional Covenant force deployments. At 0447 hours, 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, consisting of 315 vessels exited slipspace on the edge of the system. Minutes following, a number of attacks and explosions rocked 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.

By 0647 hours, the battle in space had devastated the Epsilon Eridani fleet, resulting in the UNSC Pillar of Autumn escaping the battle, pursued by a not-insignificant of the Fleet of Particular Justice under Thel's command. With the battle for Reach erupting in orbit, the strike engaged by NOBLE was rendered moot, particularly following the emergence of supercarrier Long Night of Solace over the Viery territory to reinforce the ongoing battle. Despite the ongoing engagements in orbit, Rho's overeager and overzealous nature saw him place his supercarrier in low Reach orbit - desparate to claim the Forerunner relics of the world below before the Fleet of Particular Justice could attempt to lay claim to them. This out-of-place positioning allowed an opportunity Special Warfare Group Three were quick to take advantage of, managing to convince Admiral Stanforth to "lend" a slipspace drive to the cause, initiating Operations: UPPER CUT and LEFT JAB, respectively. The operation was a success, destroying the supercarrier whole and causing the carrier's back end to impact the surface of Reach in the mountains south of New Alexandria, while the front end impacted in the sea off the coast of the region. Remaining NOBLE elements not involved in the space operation - Nobles 1-4 - led a SWG3 force to the crash site to hunt down critical command personnel from the carrier before they could be reinforced. With Particular Justice's command element retreating and Valiant Prudence's commander dead, the remaining Covenant vessels in the Epsilon Eridani system were thrown into disarray, though Shipmaster Kanat 'Utaralee was able to eventually unit a significant fraction under his command to regroup near Turul. Nonetheless, this gave the final remaining UNSC aerospace forces at Reach a brief respite to reorganise and repair. While Reach was undoubtedly lost, the fight was still ongoing and it was still possible to evacuate the cities that hadn't been yet attacked.

Over the course of August 30, the remaining forces of the Combined Fleet of Righteous Immolation poured landing craft and insertion pods onto the planet, hesitant to indiscriminately glass for fear of damaging the numerous relics scattered across the world. New Alexandria, Manassas, Esztergom and Sopron - among others - became targets of brutal sieges by the Covenant, with Jiralhanae shock troops deployed into the warren-like metropolises of these cities to root out the humans while the Sangheili had the honour of beginning excavation efforts elsewhere. By the end of August 30, the first waves of UNSC reinforcements began arriving in-system to assist the already battered forces there.

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, while teams ECHO, RED and GAUNTLET were deployed to similar such facilities.

During their mission, NOBLE Team were commissioned by SWORD Base's surviving AI construct Auntie Dot to take a data packet containing the collated data from the UNSC battlenet of the Covenant's activity on Reach alongside research conducted at SWORD and CASTLE (among other) facilities and deliver it to a site

Even following the official cessation of activities in the Reach AO by UNSC Naval forces, survivors on the ground continued to wage a lengthy ground campaign against the now-consolidated forces of the Covenant. With Covenant fleets in orbit victorious, forces organised under the Minor Prophet of Candor began a consolidated occupation of key critical Forerunner sites across the planet, deploying heavy equipment to begin excavation and reclamation of the relics. These occupation forces were continually harassed by human guerillas made up of a combination of UNSC personnel, local police departments and paramilitary forces and former insurrectionist troops coordinated by surviving UNSC commanders. One particularly notable group commanded by Vice Admiral Whitcomb operated within the Highland Mountains, forming a large militia operating within the pioneers' home territory. These forces holed up in abandoned former-Titanium mines across the territory, and were able to employ some of the numerous caches of weapons and equipment held by the regional insurrection, once intended to fight against their UNSC enemies. However, many other regions of the planet continued to host human survivor groups, who continued to ensure the Covenant occupation would not go undisturbed.