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HALO Summarized: By
SimoTheFinlandized - 2022 CE
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Hundreds of thousands of years
ago, the mantle of responsibility
belonged to the Forerunners.
However, the Precursors wanted
to remove such power from
Forerunner hands and give it to
the human race. In retaliation, the
Forerunners drove the Precursors
into extinction. Among the last of
the Precursors, one let out a
spore, hoping for it to spread and
repopulate the Precursors. It
spread like wildfire. However,
instead of creating Precursors,
the spore made a parasite known
as the Flood. The Forerunners
fought the Flood, which spread
through infestation of sentient
life, overran much of the Milky
Way Galaxy. Exhausting all other
strategies, the Forerunners
conceived the Halo Array —
ring-shaped megastructures and
weapons of last resort that would
destroy all sentient life in the
galaxy to stop the Flood. Delaying
as long as they could, the
Forerunners activated the rings
and disappeared.
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Nearly a hundred thousand years
later in the 26th century,
humanity—under the auspices of
the United Nations Space
Command, or UNSC—colonize
many worlds thanks to the
development of faster-than-light
"slipspace" travel. Tensions
between the government and
colonies desiring independence
sparks violent clashes. The UNSC
sponsors the SPARTAN-II Project
to create an elite group of
enhanced supersoldiers, whose
purpose is to suppress the
rebellions covertly. In the year
2525, human worlds come under
attack by a theocratic alliance of
alien races known as the
Covenant, whose leadership
declares humanity heretics and
an affront to their gods — the
Forerunners — and begin a
genocidal holy war. The
Covenant's superior technology
and numbers prove decisive
advantages; though effective, the
Spartans are too few in number
to turn the tide of battle in
humanity's favor. After the
Covenant invade Reach, the
UNSC's last major stronghold
besides Earth, Master Chief
John-117 is one of the few
remaining Spartans left.
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The rediscovery of the Halo rings
sets the humans against the
Covenant, who believe they are
instruments of transcendence,
not destruction. Master Chief and
his artificial intelligence Cortana
are instrumental in the
destruction of a Halo ring to stop
the Covenant and the threat of
the Flood. The Covenant
descends into civil war following
the expulsion of the Sangheili
species, with many grappling over
the revelation that their religion is
false. The disgraced former
Covenant Sangheili commander
known as the Arbiter, along with
the rest of his race, help the
humans destroy the Covenant
and stop its leader, Truth, from
activating the Halo Array via the
Ark. The Human-Covenant War
ends, though new conflicts begin
to emerge throughout the
universe.
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In the post-war era, the UNSC
created a new generation of
Spartans, and tensions between
the UNSC and colonist rebels
resume. The Forerunner known
as the Didact briefly returns to
assert supremacy over humanity,
though he is foiled by the Master
Chief and Cortana, who is
believed to perish in the attempt.
Cortana's survival through the
Forerunner repository of
knowledge known as the Domain
leads her to break with the UNSC
and assert a new hegemony over
the galaxy, with artificial
intelligence (the "Created") in
control. After two years of a
scattered war, during which the
Created are successful in
completely dismantling the UNSC,
Cortana attacks the Banished, a
mercenary organization largely
led by the Jiralhanae race. The
Banished win the resultant
conflict, terminating Cortana and
battle the UNSC for control of
Zeta Halo.
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