Menachite Mountain

Menachite Mountain was a mountain in the Highland Mountains on Reach. Housed underneath it was the secret ONI Section Three CASTLE Base, built out of a titanium mine. The mine was built above a network of volcanic tunnels and a series of Forerunner ruins, which was housing and hiding the Forerunner Crystal. The space under the base was filled with explosives powerful enough to level the whole facility.
==History==
In the 2530s, Menachite Mountain housed a titanium mine. The mine eventually closed, turning into storage before being acquired by ONI.
===Human-Covenant War===
When the SPARTAN-II Red Team was deployed to the surface of Reach, Frederic-104, Red Leader, split the Spartans into four groups. Team Delta was assigned to secure Menachite Mountain as a fallback point for Red Team if necessary. Team Delta consisted of all the seriously wounded Spartans and the surviving Marines of Charlie Company, but only some Spartans actually managed to reach the mountain.
Team Beta was destroyed and contact with Team Gamma was lost, so only Frederic-104 and Kelly-087 managed to actually fall back to the mountain when the Covenant began glassing Reach.
As the Covenant surrounded the mountain, the surviving Spartans managed to enter the facility using the secret Oly Oly Oxen Free code, where they encountered Doctor Catherine Halsey, who had stayed behind to clear information and data inside the base should the Covenant gain entrance. Halsey treated the Spartans of their various wounds as the Covenant began to dig in the mountain searching for a Forerunner artifact. The humans only barely escaped with experimental prototype weapons and MJOLNIR Mark V armor upgrades, and as they retreated, they destroyed what was left of the mountain behind them to annihilate CASTLE base.
==Appearances==
*Halo: First Strike 
==Sources==
Category:Reach Locations
Category:Mountains