First echelon, you’re with me—blanket those cruisers, take ’em out one by one.  Second echelon, keep those carriers busy. 

Well, I struggled into bringing this one in the making, from many discussions on the Twitterdel to a lot of brainstorming, I thought that I should make something very important which surfaced in the making of many arguments in my mind. 

We don’t know much about the conflict still do we? 

For a centrepiece of the games, there really is an immense lack of information regarding it, we know more about Reach than we do Earth, at least in my experience.  Questions like

How many countries were affected by the conflict? 

Did the Covenant just land on New Mombasa? 

For the average player that’s how things seem, which is not reality, of course, we know Cuba, Arizona, Antarctica, Australia, etc were heavily affected by the conflict, but what else?  What happened to Admiral Joseph Harper?  How did we lose Mars? 

The question itself just becomes a question of what we can do to fix it and not what is missing, at least in my eyes, there’s plenty of stories left to tell about the conflict that started on October 20th, 2552. 

I’ll be going through all of those today, as well as giving an in-depth timeline of the conflict that we have at hand right now with all the events that are specified with dates, times, etc that I have gathered from Halopedia.org

So, without further a due, let’s start. 

A Timeline:

October 10, 2552

The UNSC CVA-92 Totem Lake is lost with all hands after reports of outdated Civilian IFF Codes were detected near Enceladus, upon approach twelve of the vessels made unauthorised slipspace transit leaving the Sol System, the UNSC Totem Lake was lost with all hands in the process. 

October 20, 2552

1248 hours: Io Station station pings the encroaching Fleet of Sacred Consecration and relays this data to flag headquarters on Cairo Station. 

At flag headquarters, Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood awards SPARTAN-117, Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson and Captain Jacob Keyes medals for their efforts during the Battle of Installation 04 and subsequent actions, in the case of John-117 and Johnson, now a Sergeant Major.  Miranda Keyes received her late father’s medal posthumously. 

1412 hours: The Covenant Fleet, consisting of 2 CAS-class assault carriers and 13 CCS-class battlecruisers exits slipspace just beyond the effective range of Earth’s orbital defence platforms Fleet Admiral Joseph Harper prepares all available vessels to engage the Covenant.  This order is overruled by Lord Hood, who instead orders the fleet to form a defensive perimeter around the ODP clusters. 

1421 hours: The Fleet of Sacred Consecration launches Type-28 Tick boarding crafts toward the orbital defence stations to plant antimatter charges.  Two are destroyed in the process: Athens and Malta Stations.  Cairo Station is safe from the same fate by the efforts of John-117.  The fleet subsequently clears the defensive grid and sends a first wave toward the planet’s surface. 

1450 hours: John-117 uses the antimatter charge brought aboard Cairo to destroy a the Day of Jubilation, one of the two CAS-class assault carriers in the Covenant Fleet. 

1459 hours: The Solemn Penance, the other assault carrier the Prophet of Regret’s flagship, blows through the Malta’s debris field and heads straight for New Mombasa, Kenya and deploys ground forces.  The First Battle of Mombasa begins. 

1512 hours: A number of Huragok deployed to New Mombasa are designated tier-one assets by the Office of Naval Intelligence and judged to be exposed to capture or kill.  One of these, Asset RD-9743-X, would successfully be acquired by ONI in the hours to come. 

1557 hours: A squad of ODSTs, Alpha-Five, confirms the successful procurement of the Conduit, a Forerunner device, from the Covenant pursuant to Operation: WINDOW PANE. 

1602 hours: Operation: BUMRUSH is greenlit and ODSTS of the 65th Shock Troops Division are launched from the UNSC Say My Name with the goal of breaching the Solemn Penance. 

1603 hours: Solemn Penance makes a sudden slipspace jump only hundreds of meters above the city.  The assault carrier is pursued by the UNSC In Amber Clad, which is in turn followed by two UNSC corvettes and two other frigates.  This atmospheric slipspace jump creates a massive overpressure wave and electromagnetic pulse.  The ODSTs’ drop pods are scattered throughout the city.  With Regret gone, Jiralhanae elements in the fleet suddenly turn on their Sangheili compatriots, heralding the Great Schism soon to come. 

1606 hours: Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck exits his drop pod and moves toward Tayari Plaza, the location of Captain Veronica Dare’s. 

1624 hours: All members of Alpha-Five are designated KIA and the Conduit is determined to be lost. 

1636 hours: UNSC Marines launch an attack on Covenant occupiers in Uplift Nature Reserve. 

1649 hours: The Mombasa Tether collapses.  38% of New Mombasa is occupied and controlled by the Covenant forces, now without Sangheili, at this time. 

1736 hours: Fierce fighting is waged along Kizingo Boulevard. 

1810 hours: In cooperation with the NMPD, ODSTs from Alpha-Nine set demolition charges on a bridge leading to ONI Alpha Site, in order to destroy it and slow the Covenant advance in reaching the site. 

1852 hours: ONI Alpha Site, the Office of Naval Intelligence’s headquarters in the EAP, is destroyed by the UNSC and New Mombasa Police Department in order to deny intelligence to the enemy. 

1914 hours: Gunnery Sergeant Buck and Lance Corporal Kojo Agu make their way to the NMPD Headquarters for pickup by an NMPD Pelican.  The pelican is shot down before it can reach them and a skirmish breaks out between Alpha-Nine and Covenant air units. 

2141 hours: Remaining CCS-class battlecruisers from the Fleet of Sacred Consecration coalesce over New Mombasa. 

2101 hours: Alpha-Nine moves toward Kikowani Station, intending to escape the city through the MagLev train tunnels leading to Old Mombasa. 

2206 hours: Lance Corporal J.D., an ODST from Alpha-Nine, awakens after being knocked out after his Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle was thrust off-course in the wake of the assault carrier’s slipspace jump to careen into the side of a building.  He begins to search the city for others from Alpha-Nine. 

2215 hours: The excavation of the Excession begins. 

2227 hours: The Covenant controls 78% of New Mombasa. 

2319 hours: Asset RD-9743-X is sighted and reported by Captain Veronica Dare beneath New Mombasa in its data centre. 

2324 hours: 94% of New Mombasa is lost to the Covenant. 

2359 hours: Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck consolidates with Veronica Dare and Lance Corporal J.D. The Huragok, Asset RD-9743-X, is reported as secured. 

October 21st, 2552

Another Covenant fleet arrives at Earth. 

New Mombasa is fully occupied by the Covenant and it and its surroundings are glassed in efforts to uncover the portal.  Alpha-Nine extracts Asset RD-9743-X from the city safely. 

October 20th – November 3, 2552

Spartan-II Blue Team, composed of Fred-104, Linda-058, and Will-043, is deployed on numerous zero-gee operations to repel Covenant warships over Earth.  They team also participates in numerous combat missions around the world, including the Battle of Ross Island in Antarctica and an engagement with Covenant forces on the sea floor off of the Yucatan Peninsula. 

November 3, 2552

1420 hours: Blue Team is deployed to Cuba, where the Battle of Havana is underway. 

1550 hours: The Centennial Orbital Elevator is recaptured from the Covenant but destroyed by the intentional detonation of nuclear devices in close proximity to its upper reaches.  Shortly thereafter, the team uses a captured Covenant Destroyer to depart for Onyx. 

November 10, 2552

The Covenant begins to excavate and occupy built-up positions centred at Free-fire Area OZONE in Arizona, United Republic of North America, while also attempting to activate an artefact there. 

November 15, 2552

1725 hours: Avery Johnson interrogates Quick to Adjust, the Huragok recovered from New Mombasa, at the terminus of the Quito space tether. 

November 17, 2552

The Forerunner Dreadnought arrives at Earth.  Spartan 117 bails from the ship, landing in a Kenyan jungle.  He is recovered by a group of Marines led by Avery Johnson. 

The Marines, with Spartan-117, make their way to Crow’s Nest, where a plan for a counterattack is devised.  The base is invaded by the Covenant and eventually destroyed by the UNSC. 

The UNSC forces regroup along Tsavo Highway, eventually assaulting the Covenant-held town of Voi. 

UNSC Forces neutralise Covenant anti-air defences in Voi.  A battle group from the UNSC Home Fleet initiate the assault on the Forerunner Dreadnought, with no effect.  The Portal is activated.  Covenant Loyalist forces flee to Installation 00 through the Portal. 

Immediately thereafter, a Flood-controlled ship emerges from Slipspace over Voi, crashing to the town.  Flood infestation starts spreading around the region.  The Sangheili Fleet of Retribution, having given chase, arrives at Earth and glasses Voi as well as its surroundings. 

A transmission from the UNSC AI Cortana is retrieved from the Flood ship.  The Sangheili fleet, along with the remnants of the UNSC Home Fleet, goes through the Portal to the Ark.



UNSC forces launch a counteroffensive against the Covenant at free-fire area OZONE. 

November 19, 2552

0630 hours: UNSC flag word LUX is declared and UEG emergency broadcast is initiated. 

0700 hours: A tactical nuclear deployment is carried out against multiple shielded Covenant positions. 

December 3, 2552

Operation: MARSH FLASH sees clusters of Jiralhanae leadership eliminated. 

Now, that’s the timeline of the conflict, surely it seems like there was a lot more to it than just all we did in Halo 2, 3, ODST, etc.  But still, blanks remain in between, and that’s what I hope to help fill with a few ideas I would like to present for a hopeful future in the franchise. 

The Ideas:

Well, I will divide it into three categories for each one, gameplay, story and prices.  Of course, I will list them all in different styles and be varying and I’ll list the one I’d want out of all of them, the ideal game for me.  Which, will quite possibly be shocking. 

Spacefaring civilisation, the sky is not the limit:

The first one, which is certainly my ideal game, expands from the ideas that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare presented.  Shocking, I know, how could I get something good out of a Call of Duty game of all things?  Well, It’s certainly quite easily. 

Going through that game was an experience that didn’t really feel like anything else I have ever played before, how?  Well, for one, we had control of an entire vessel to go wherever we really wanted across the Solar System, and that is something that can be applied easily to Halo. 

Let’s go ahead with the mechanics first. 

Gameplay:

My idea for the mechanics of the game have absolutely nothing to do with enhanced mobility, no boosters, no crazy double jumps, just good old mechanics very akin of that of Halo 3: ODST, no power armour, just normal people fighting the good fight with the return of Health Packs, maybe even make it some sort of ability of which you can trigger only when you’re injured and it allows a more thoughtful lay of the field, you gotta back up, get to cover, heal, then keep on fighting these alien bastards. 

But of course, the fun comes from controlling this giant warship, right?  That sense of exploration, well, Halo games are really good at making vehicle mechanics, the ship could possibly become driveable as well, but that’s a stretch.  So here’s where the map mechanic from IW comes in, allow us to explore the main destinations of the Sol System while engaging the enemy. 

If anything allows us to play different characters with the use of signets like ODST, however, just use all of these things and implement what you can into the game but allow that sense of exploration of different locations in the world or maybe the solar system to remain.  Something that we haven’t done before, explore a war barren Solar System. . . 

Story:

Well, the story layout in my head is very simple, we go around the Solar System fighting the covenant in certain locations of priority issued by Admiral Joseph Harper and maybe even Admiral Terrence Hood himself. 

We go from location to location, filling in the blanks in between Halo 2, Halo 3: ODST and Halo 3 while still bridging into EU territory and acknowledging the events of Cleveland, OZONE, Cuba, etc.  I believe it would make for the definitive experience of the Battle of Earth and beyond. 

Prices:

Now, of course, this would be a Spin-off game, something very ambitious to pull off especially at this time where the franchise is at its lowest due to all these other things, posing no real returns at the moment.  But if anything this is the best bet for the best Halo experience in my honest opinion. 

I would believe that it should obviously be sold like a Triple A title, at $60. 

Halo On Mobile; Again??  Like the subtitle says, another mobile game, something that also comes to Xbox One like Spartan Assault did, but go much more in depth into the conflict on Earth without it being a simulation class for Spartan-IVs. 

Gameplay:

It could be anything, not top-down like the Spartan games, maybe but more like a 2D platforming game, a la Inside solving puzzles and such.  Fun, exhilarating, etc

Something exactly like LIMBO or INSIDE, heavily stylised, gritty art style with accentuated colours, lots of reds and blacks to signify the dark night illuminated by the fire of the city of Paris. 

It could use stylised versions of the uniforms used by each military force at the time, it could also give us a gritty and dark look into the universe from the eyes of a civilian escaping the city to the UNSC designated LZ. 

Lots of sounds, rain, very much like ODST but in a LIMBO/INSIDE type of game. 

Story:

We follow the story of an unarmed civilian through the City of Paris, escaping the Covenant as they lay waste to the city while we find UNSC forces holding out against the Covenant forces while we strive to run.  We hop onto our extraction pelican and it is abruptly shot down. 

We, however, wake up hours later in the rubble of the Pelican surrounded by dead civilians and UNSC personnel as the city is on fire, Covenant patrol ships everywhere, there is a working radio on the Pelican, though, and it is telling us where to go, but now we must escape the burning city controlled by the Covenant.  But you must make it by dawn, or they’ll leave you behind, as the city has fallen to the Covenant. 

Price:

It couldn’t be much more than $10 dollars obviously, much like other mobile games it could become somewhat indie, even, platforming, and fun. 

The Scrolls of the Loremasters:

Well, the simplest platform, Comics and Novels. 

What can you create? 

Here is fairly simple.  Absolutely anything. 

Wanna tell a story about Admiral Joseph Harper?  Go ahead, that’ll be amazing to see and a great way to humanise an otherwise 2-Dimensional character that we only see in two parts of Halo 2. 

Tell a story about the battle in Mars, how Ackerson got captured and do it in depth.  A nice connection to a must-have Uprising. 

And you can obviously tell a story about the underdog, the Marines or Army troopers on Earth.  Humanise these soldiers fighting for the last bastion of Humanity.  Dirt 2.0. 

In what formats? 

Comics, Novels, Audio Dramas, Short Films, etc, etc. 

Writers. . .  Companies? 

My choices would obviously be Tobias Buckell or Kelly Gay for a novel about Earth.  Beyond that I’m sure whoever controls this at 343 Industries can go nuts with this, however, I don’t know much about the publishing process where I stand right now.  As a writer, I feel I will have to learn about that eventually.  But I won’t stand here and talk like I know what I am talking about in regards to this. 

Author’s Notes:

This is certainly one article I’m one hundred percent proud of, I hope it is a good read for everyone certainly a lot of ideas that came into this for making it, so this is the final product which you see here.  I was gonna add a lot more images as well, but well as you see I didn’t add a lot because I thought it would cloud out the entire thing.  I hope you enjoyed! 

Also, make sure to go by my Patreon if anything!  Anything that you in regards to helping me support my content and make it better for all our sakes is very appreciated!  I’m just a humble Venezuelan Rat making content for all of you! 

– Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/haruspexofhell

And as always, live your life, be safe and play lots of Halo.  ❤