"It didn't take long for Reach to fall. Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren't nearly fast enough. For you had already passed the torch. And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secrets, shattered our enemy's resolve. Our victory - your victory - was so close... I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything...except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild."
@@tuiman5212 seriously, even though 343 guilty spark tried to fire the rings and killeed jhonson, he did accidently save humanity by revealing the truth to the elites.
This is something modern Halo is missing. Just how well and truly screwed humanity was until a bunch of tiny scattered phyrric victories combined to turn the tide at the end.
Feels like the banished brings that kind of potential. We went through a weird cold war like event in the halo universe nearing the end of the covenant. Then the construct event, now humanity is back on its knees again, but it feels oddly watered down.
@@Back_in_ur_hole The banished are pretty lame, I can never really take them seriously and their reasons for fighting us are cartoon villain stuff. Compared to the Covenant where they were fighting us on a lie perpetuated by their religious leaders for the promise of salvation, very realistic stuff that.
@@zakattack1945 the mission after carter dies, its in a section where you fly in a falcon before getting out to turn on AA guns. its not a cutscene, its a background scene off the right side of the falcon.
I feel that newer Halo writers whether for the show or for the games missed the part where Halo isn't just about Spartans being heroes, where humanity is under threat of extinction from the alien menace, that it is also about the grey in-between, the infighting, the troops on the ground, the shady parts of the UNSC, etc. I feel an aching in my heart, when Infinite's campaign ends just like that, no big underlying military operations, not much of the bigger picture, too much of what would be a first mission if it were linear, it's too much soft of a soft reboot to me. I think Infinite has one of the best gameplay and aesthetics in the franchise, but is severely bogged down by its presentation and service issues. I might nominate it second to CE in my book. Halo in general has that old Aliens/Starship Troopers feel, if they focused on that instead of the whimsy of modern Star Wars then they would get a better foundation.
All the culmination of your humanity fine tuned into one calling: *Resistance* For your species, for your genetic code, for your DNA, and for your memories not to be lost in dust and echoes. One final stand.......
"We were just a radio station. The last left broadcasting. Splitlip bastards missed us in the first barrage, focused on the troops outside in the valley below. The blast had taken out everything digital, so all we had was a box of antiques from Earth that the boss kept. He never made it to work that day. When we called him, he said he was fine, and he was with his family. That they were getting out of there. We saw the pelicans get shot down. We knew there was no making it off that sinking ship we were all on. So we did what anyone would do. Kalowski got the backup generator running, since the power grid was out from the bombardment. David, he took a shotgun we'd been hiding in case of insurrectionists... walked out into the fray. Last thing we heard from him was a few shots and plasma bolts. Me though, I picked up some of those old relics from the blue marble and I started playing em. They were real oldies. Two-hundred years, some of them. Names you'd see in music class, like Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and of course Johnny Cash. It's the last thing I remember before waking up on the shoulder of an ODST. Now will you ONI bastards let me go home?"
Mission log: T-788 5,475 Days since PROMETHEUS Location Reach To anyone reading this. You already know the Covenant are on Reach… Ironic isn’t it? I knew coming here would be the end of my story. ONI is putting all their eggs into two baskets and I used up the last of my luck picking the right one for them, the Tyrants. I can understand, fully endorse the Cole Protocol and the lengths taken to enforce its compliance. It has bought us time to fight, to bleed the Covenant dry and try to figure out how to survive the next day. I understand the hard choices of this and respect the dead hero’s who went headfirst fighting and enraged into the dark abyss of those choices. What I will not stand for is the cowardice required to sacrifice the many for the few. Those who believe they can buy their way into the Covenant good graces and would be spared. Like those of who sold out my brothers and sisters all those years ago. They who purposely lead the Covenant to blacked out colonies settled in the hopes to hide out the genocide. I hunted them since that day just as they hunted me. 117 of us survived the Shipyards, 43 survived the Nuclear Traps ONI left for us because it would be apparent someone sold us out and was trying to clean up their mess. As time went on we would fall, one by one. Either by death of a thousand cuts or in nuclear pyres. Last year there was 3 of us. Now it’s only me with my mission completed. The head of ONI still eludes me and probably always will but I got most of their rat groundwork ablaze. Whatever is left of humanity will be able to actually fend for itself without the traitorous cancer within poising it. Hopefully they can stand without feet for the beating we taken in the time it took. End of Log ____ Mission log: T-789 5,476 Days since PROMETHEUS Location Reach In these final hours I did what any Spartan would do. I fought and killed as many as I could. I found marines escorting civilians to evac zones. I did my best to get as many as I could to the ships from afar. Must have been hella nerve wrecking having a Guardian Angel with a Beam Rifle and a Fuel Cannon. I remember a far too young policeman waving in my direction and saying “Thanks Angel” in Hungarian on the radio. While searching for more patrols I found a platoon of Hell Jumpers who definitely looked the part. Tough bastards looked like walking corpses with bloodied bioform bandages making up more fabric on them than their uniforms and their armor is patched up with police and army armor pieces but still fought through a clan of brutes with just more scrapes and bruises. Though their only marksman kept taking pot shots as me occasionally. Can’t blame them as I been using alien weaponry and she must of thought I was a skirmisher. Still I shot her cigarette and burned her hair bun in return as a way to warn them of incoming covies twice. Yes I was petty too. End of Log ______ Mission log: T-790 5,476 Days since PROMETHEUS Location Reach The platoon made its way to a radio broadcasting station. They must have sent a signal because covies started swarming the area. Fighting got brutal but they were too focused on what they could see and not what was around them. I seen a prowler land nearby and the Troopers withdraw to it. I seen on carrying a civilian that must have been in the station because he was not in the group beforehand. Two Phantoms show up to pick up the remaining forces and I take the chance to destroy one with the last of the fuel rod ammunition. The prowlers roars off into the sky but not before blowing the other phantom into pieces. Pieces that directly fall onto my position. The sky was still a bright golden orange with the sun about set when I lost consciousness. The sky was dark and raining when I awoken, only light being that of the plasma fires and the light show of the carriers classing the planet. I took refuge in the radio station and hear music from within. Coming from some truly ancient looking equipment that I admittedly won’t touch because I am unsure of the fragility of it and the melody it plays is both haunting yet comforting. I listen to it as I write this as my last statement. I have done all I can and will be forgotten. As I await the end I can only ask myself and the void if everything I done was enough and would my brothers be proud? End of log. _______________ Agent’s notes: TacPad and Data log found at Relay Station Gamma. Inter footage shows footage of the remains Crimson Company fighting off hostile pratrols with a 4 hours gap between Crimson’s departure and an Unknown Spartan entering the Station. Spartan appears heavily injured as he inspects the old record player before sitting down and typing on the data log. Footage cuts away an hour later as the Spartan appears to be resting or has passed on due to his wounds and is disabled. Next footage shows the data pad in the same spot as before but the spartan is no where in sight and a small pool of blood where he sat as entry teams enter two years later. We have no clues on where he left or was taken. The record player was still playing though we don’t know how.
Somehow, a video game made the fictional destruction of a planet into what feels like a very real global tragedy mourned by Millions whenever someone mentions the name... *Reach*
@@PhilCoulsonthebald Rally point omega is the last level of Reach, where you hold your ground against an infinite number of covenant troops. As far as I could find, no one actually says this line, but it is a good one
"For us the storm has passed. The war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure."
"Valkyrie what is your status? Valkyrie what is your status?" "Uhh... Birdeye... this is Valkyrie, over" "Where's Lieutenant Lopez Valkyrie?" "Carlas' dead, ma'am, brutes found her... there's only 4 of us left, we've got about a dozen army troopers with us" *distant protest* "and a marine, ma'am. we've got a couple of resistance fighters as well. They speak, Polish or Russian or something." "Confirmed, move to the ridge on the far end. Extract will take you to the evacuation, you can get out of this." "I'm calling broken arrow on our position, and we're running." "I can't allow that Birdeye, your odds aren't good" "Respectfully ma'am, I knew we were fucked the second they told us to hot drop in to slow the split lips advance. Send it Ma'am!" "... confirmed Valkyrie, sending rounds now. God save you" "Give 'em hell Birdeye" -Transcript of last known contact with echo company of the 84th UNSC Airborne division, codename VALKYRIE. During the latter stages of the reach campaign many units were organised in ad hoc battalions. Various men from across the services fought and died together. Some who were evacuated report never having seen the people in their ship till today. - REMEMBER REACH -
@@AnakinSkywakkaI’m still chuckling to myself. World falling apart, planet about to be glass, but that marine will be damned if they are going to be lumped in with the army.
“It was a shit situation, no doubt about it. I just didn’t think my luck would hold out the way it did.” SSG Michael Langston drew a long puff on his cigar. The Marine Veteran stared off into the corner, avoiding my eyes but clearly reliving the horror on Reach. He finally turns his head to meet my gaze and I proceed with the interview. “You were part of the 21st Regiment, correct?” His eyes lit up at the mention of his unit. A small smirk crossed his face. “That’s right, formed up in ‘42. Gave the covies a black eye at Sigma Octanus. Felt good. We lost some good men though.” His smirk faded and he took another buff. He continues, “Their sacrifices meant something, yanno? We won because of them. Sure, the Spartans did what they did best. But we still pulled in our weight.” I asked him about the Spartans. Particularly on Reach. “Man…. I didn’t get to see many. At one point, I was trapped in New Alexandria. We ended up fighting alongside Army guys. Those damn covies were everywhere. Grunts, jackals, fucking brutes. The bastards just kept coming. We were trying to protect the civvies and then our damn flanks started to fold. Ever fought a Brute in a fucking hallway? They can do a number on a squad, even without shields. Shotguns is usually the go to. But still….” I noticed his eyes began to water. I didn’t say anything and just let him process his memories. His tears stopped short as it seemed he remember something. “When the covies were practically bringing hell to the planet. When we were surrounded, doing what we can to save lives, I’ll never forget seeing the most amazing thing that day.” I listened intently, wondering what saved him. “What was it, Sergeant?” “Not a what, but who.” I waited, anxious to hear. “It was a Spartan, kid. My squad and I were trying to take down this damn chieftain. Yanno, the hammer wielding fucks? He took out two of my marines, injured another, and was heading for myself along with…..” he choked at the thought. “SGT Sierra is the bravest woman I ever met. We put as much fire on him as possible. His shields depleted, she pumped shotgun shells in his damn face like no tomorrow. One smash to the ground sent us both flyin’. When I came to, it wasn’t lookin good for Sierra. Then out of nowhere, I heard another assault rifle. Whoever it was, they were pepperin this fool like it was nothin’. Chieftain gets pissed, then like lightning the spartan just came out of view. I just remember seeing black armor and an orange visor. And man….. he was quick. The chieftain swung for his head, but he was too fast. Two quick punches to the gut later and the chieftain stammered. From PUNCHES. Spartan whipped out a plasma grenade and stuck it to that bastards face. Head exploded like a piñata.” The Marine smiled at the thought. “I thank God everyday for that Spartan. I’ve heard of the Master Chief. I mean, who hasn’t? But this guy…. I swore he was a guardian angel. My only regret is he didn’t come sooner.” I looked at my notes from the previous interviews. Particularly of the injured marine, PVT Ramirez. So this confirms it. Noble Six. Hyper lethal. Hero of New Alexandria. “Thank you, Sergeant. You’re dismissed.” Before I left, the Marine stopped me. “Hey. You ONI or somethin’?” I replied, “Just a man looking for the truth. My mother told me of a Spartan that covered her evac ship that day. Black armor. Orange visor.“ The Marine nodded his head and kept his curiosity in check. “Beware for what you diggin’ for. ONI don’t take it kindly when you start snoopin for somethin’ you ain’t supposed to smell in the first place.” I motioned him out the door. “I’ll take my chances, Sergeant.” New Mombassa, Earth November 21, 2554
@@PhilCoulsonthebald no I wrote it. I saw a couple of people write stuff and I wanted to try myself. Figured it was good practice since I’m trying to write a story myself.
Reach and Halo really gave me a reality check on what potential interstellar war would be like. Like damn...I know the UNSC are the under dogs of the story, but even in this game you weren't safe no matter who you were.
Ah yes. The universe so incoherent everyone has a galactic war winning unit they genuinely are too stupid to use and so the war continues on end and the 800 authors cant decide whether lasguns are lasers or not.@shadedwulf
This really does capture the desperation of Reach. Humanity realized they couldn’t hold it, but they could buy some time. Every second was another life that escaped the fire.
Had a dnd campaign of halo with a few friends, my girlfriend, and her little sister who never knew of halo. That feeling of horror and hopelessness when their first evac zone was overrun, only for them to fall back, dying one by one just for their pelican to be shot down right before picking them up. Her little sister was devastated. :)
Currently doing a fallout dnd Wacthed as my newest friend sacrificed himself by slamming a cargobird( vertibird made for cargo transport) filled with mininukes into the Chicago enclave behemoth. Because of his sacrifice we won the battle . Our alliance with the bos broken our civilians hurt and injured .but our spirits are not broken we shall take the kovdoc satellites and sending it piecing into the heart of the Chicago enclave for Kennedy for the true enclave
This just makes me imagine a lone ODST marksman. His entire plantoon was wiped out by the covenant. He fights with marines and army troopers in New Alexandria. Listening to the last radio station playing this song as the city falls. Covenant carriers fly over and start their glassing beams. Everyone else still has some fighting spirit, this ODST has given up any hope. He mans a missle pod and tells the rest of the troops to get to an evac. He holds off the covenant advance as long as he can before finally being overrun as a wraith fires nearby, the shockwave knocking him to the ground. A group of brutes walk up the stairs to him. Laughing as they think of how to tear him limb from limb. He chuckles back and pulls a detonator from his side. He set the position to collaspe. "Checkmate." His final words before detonating the charges, blasting away a few dozen covenant and sealing off the fastest route to the evacuating troops.
"We got the orders to pull out. But we didn't want to leave a job half-finished." -Unknown, attributed to a Military Volunteer who stayed behind on Reach, located on the wall of New New Alexandria's UNSC Military Base, 2610.
When we received news that first contact had been made on the outer reaches of the solar system, there was a sense of apprehension and hope, i mean- it was like a movie. we had all dreamed of this moment. Speculation ran rampant, there was plenty of fear, true; but mostly... we were excited- y'know, to be alive during the era of first-contact. We were gonna see aliens! I remember the internet was abuzz with the words "we're not alone!" 3 months later, i was fighting alongside a squad of 3, as the last escape ships fled a planet, no longer habitable by my species. We were tasked to stay behind and fight, they told us that after the colony ships were safely out of orbit they would give us a rendezvous point for our own escape. but it's been 3 hours since atmospheric exit now, it's become clear that they left us here to die. the worst part is the not knowing. not knowing whether they would make it out of sol alive. not knowing if this was the end for our species. the, uncertainty if... our sacrifice was worth it.
"You ever wonder what's up there?" "Like what?" "Maybe someone up there is wondering what it's like here." "I guess. Do you think we'll ever meet them?" "I hope so. Don't you?"
"It is an undeniable, and may I say fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable." - Some.guy named after an old earth religous building
A skirmisher crawled through the long grass of a soon to be burnt world the humans called Reach. Ged Moc was barely keeping himself together with a mix of terror, excitement and anticipation, this was his very first mission. But nearly as soon as it began he had become separated from his recon partner when a bridge collapsed, each T'voan had ran in opposite directions. His thoughts are interrupted by a noise. "Is that singing?" He asks himself as he slowly gets to a postion where he could see where this singing is coming from. Through the scope of his needle rifle he sees a lone human sitting on a chair in the ruins of what he thinks is a farmhouse. He nearly squawks in excitement,his first human and one that is such an easy shot. One light press and he will have his first kill,but something isn't right. Where's the human's armor,where is their weapon? He was told he was going to fight those most foul and dangerous heretics,amd get well paid for it,but theres nothing threatening about the one he sees in his sight. The human looks old,by what Ged can assume by its features. 'Theres no way someone that age could be a warrior.' Ged thinks to himself. He hesitates,then just listens to the song he can't understand and in the end, crawls away.
Very well written, however I think the soldiers invaded Reach (and the worlds before it) knew they were going to mostly be killing civilians from the start of the invasion.
I always wonder how the Covenant species reacted after the Great Schism and the revelation that The Prophet’s lied. Did they feel any guilt? Imagine finding out that you committed genocide on a galactic scale based on a lie. Surely it would way heavily on your conscience?
A cool guy said this: Warhammer 40k is what Humanity believes if they were to fight Aliens Halo is what happens to Humanity if they were to fight Aliens
Hearing the sound of that covenant CCS class battlecruiser pass over at 0:17 while he says "we are being overrun!" Just gives you that sense of hoplessness
There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith. Ain't that a bitch.
Just got recommended this and the Kickstart my Heart Coruscant one, talk about a tone shift... Gonna go watch all of them now, incredible work keep it up!
Thank you! This one was definitely a switch-up from the usual fast-paced, action-packed style I usually do for these. I based it heavily off of the more famous one about “hurt but you’re evacuating Kabul”.
I was a part of 4 Charlie 27, I was in New Alexandria, some club in the high-rise, I was a Lance Corporal at the time, those hunters, the way they killed, I'll never forget, and I'll never forget how we were saved, a Spartan, he came in VIA falcon then blasted his way through the hunters with a shotgun and took care of the last hunter with a spanker, then he took down the jammer, after that he gave me his shotgun in exchange for my AR, I guess he knew the rest of my time in that city, 9 hours, would be CQB, me and 4 other survivors, PFC Elrod, PFC Miller, LCPL Philips and PFC Falred, got off world VIA emergency extract alongside a team of ODSTs, turns out I had picked up very important intel that O.N.I. wanted their hands on, after that, I was debriefed, then I was at Earth, I'd never been, I was born on the Lunar colony, but somehow didn't go to Earth, anyways I was at New Mombasa with the 405th out of Diego Garcia, I was meant to be there temporarily until they could find me proper placement, but I jumped straight on that pelican and into New Mombasa I went, I'd say it was on par with the brutality of New Alexandria. Those brutes weren't as merciful as the elites I fought in New Alexandria, they'd put you out of your misery quickly, but the brutes, they prolonged your suffering, I saw one of them rip a leatherneck's arms off, then shoot him and throw him into a window, that day I saw where they got the name "Brute".
"Yeah, I remember when my squad first encountered Brutes. My unit was doing this long flank maneuver through a small city in... God's what colony world was that? Oh anyways to take out and commandeer a high position that was chock full of Covvies with everything and including Fuel Rod cannons. Picking our way through the streets, I'd known that the evacuation of the civilian pop. was haphazard, and many people got stuck all over that battlezone. I didn't know that the pieces of, this wet and red "stuff" were Something, much less parts of humans, until I saw a half of a small hand... it had a little girls bracelet wrapped around it still. 'pauses' Her family were in pieces near that position, too. But as we moved through that charnel house... I mean, I've walked through some meatgrinders before, and I've seen fellow marines get blown into nearly unidentifiable pieces, before. A plasma grenade singes the parts of people at around 8 meters instead of vaporizing some, blowing away people completely the closer you get... ... Sorry Lieutenant, I haven't thought back to that particular place in awhile. Some thing's about the charnal warehouse we were making through had changed. Less the usual battlefield weapon effects. More like people were being cut apart, limbs all along our paths. Then we found the jiralhanae, the "Brutes" and they were, preoccupied to notice us. We got to this forward unit of theirs, "trimming" apart this man. They had nailed him to this Bistro's outer wall, using one of their "Spiker" carbines to do that trick. 'pauses' Saying that the brutes were carving him up would be an understatement. As my fellow officer corp would say in slightly archaic words, "We held no quarter, so we Gave those Brutes No Quarter." We held at least a minute amount of Quarter to treatment of the rest of the Covenant, but the Brutes, we Always treated with "Extreme Prejudice." They learned how we felt about all their actions in the war."
@@dragonsword7370 I was at the Siege of Paris IV, back in 49, place was a meat grinder, covies shelled the shit out of one of the space ports, I was in it with 2 Police officers and 4 men from my Regiment as security, PFC Jarid, PFC Baits, LCPL Henderson and CPL Dickens, I was a PFC back then, 3 months out of training from Reach. The first wraith barrage hit the area where me and the guys were, Dickens was vaporised, Baits turned to red mist, the rest of us were alright, I had a shard of glass in my neck, nothing too serious. The civies weren't as lucky, I had befriended a few of the kids, I wanted them to not be scared, to be brave, I gave them some of my rations, the chocolates. That was their last meal, I had to pick the bodies up and bury them, 4 kids. What was left of them anyway. For the next 4 hours we were barraged, then came the siege, the elites led it, I was on the 2nd floor of Terminal 6, just me, PFC Jarid and Officer Dragun, we held out for 3 hours before military evac was ordered, we evacuated with 7 civilians, 3 mote police officers and a Leatherneck, PFC Perez. I got hit 3 times by plasma rounds, I still bear the scars and the memories.
We were the last thosand or so humans on this dying planet. Most of use huddled in a trench trying to fight the millions of aliens currently breaching our defenses at every angle. Every marine getting gunned down by atleast a dozen sangheili in the most brutal and humiliating way possible. At every turn, hundred's are shredded down, as we try and last as long as possible, delaying the inevitable. Every man scrambling and clawing at each other for the chance to escape the pounding fist of the covenant, only to get turned to ash like rats in a corner. Smoke covered the purple sky, as we are outnumbered 1,000,000,000 to 1. In just an hour, we go from a million army soliders, marines, ODST, Spartans, even civilians - to just a few hundred. Running scared, crying, some ending themselves right then and there. A hundred, a thosand, a million. Gone. A planet, Gone. The last soilder, on the last day of the last battle that this planet would ever fight felt one thing. Fear.
Yet they stood in the face of adversity. Odds hopelessly against them, outmanned and outgunned, fighting back to back tooth and nail for the planet they called home and it's people. Remember reach.
I NEED A MEDIC PETRA WAS HIT!!! Your not dieing on me marine you have a family to return to and no one wants to bury you SO LIVE DAMNIT!!!! - Some unsc marine corporal
Bullshit. The UNSC wouldn't be reduced from millions to hundreds in such a short amount of time. We need to give our non-augmented humans more credit. Bungie writers need to modernize the UNSC.
The elites actually described the war much differently, believing mankind to the single most challenging and noble race they’ve ever fought (besides the prophets). They saw us as dangerous and honorable apes that almost always fought instead of fleeing when cornered. The blue elite from Halo 3’s co-op campaign was actually a member of a political party that wanted to annex humanity into the Covenant instead of annihilating us, they had a lot of pull in the government and were a reason why the Covenant had a huge civil war that saved humanity.
It's a well made position. Places to change positions and hide from shelling. Air defenses to knock down artillery and aircraft. Soldiers and armored vehicles dug in and emplaced behind armored shields. They buy time. That's all they can do. But it is with pride.
I wasnt on Reach, not many who were are here to tell the tale. But one of my best friends Spc. Thomas Kewalski was a weapons engineer on the U.N.S.C. Savannah when she gave her jump drive to a group of Spartans for their crazy plan to use it as a bomb to destroy a real big Covenant carrier that had brought the first invasion waves to Reach. As far as what I was told he manned the mass drivers even as his frigate broke apart around him, refusing to board an escape shuttle so he could buy that Spartan team just a little more time. I suppose it was a mercy he didn't live to see Reach fall. But he always believed that the human spirit would prevail in the end. He was right. Semper Fi.
"I'm alone. The screams, the shooting, the hell from the sky, the archaic animal roars, and the movement. All gone. I don't know how long it has been. Long enough for my frame to shrink to skin and bone. That's with even my knack for survival on this once beautiful rock. I grow tired now. I find it hard to write this. I am Allen Middleton. I was a mechanical engineer working on wind turbine projects for the local farmers of our valley. Their names have faded from my starving mind. Their faces stay with me.... both of their past joys.... and their ends..... They burned it all...... Nothing but smoke for a long time. The air is thick and wrenching. I don't know when the last time was that I stood on soft ground that didn't cut or shatter at my footsteps. I grow so tired. I wish for humanity to have lived. However if my words are the last to be known of our species. Let it be known we fought to the bitter end. Except hunger quelled us. Not the Covenant......." - excerpt of added text from within a class 4 wind turbine operation manual. No remains were present at site of discovery.
"Never has the name Hell Jumper been this literal. This is my very first jump, and most likely my last. Our mission is to take a covenant position near New Al, and provide covering fire for a convoy of UNSC and civilians to evacuate the planet. We'll be dropping in far behind enemy lines, jumping feet first into Hell. To either win, or drag as many bastards with us..."
“Dragged my buddies through hell and the devil only to watch as everything we stood to defend turned to ash and glass. One by one we dropped onto the broken earth for a lost cause. But we gave as good as we got, and made those freaks pay for every bloodied, ash ridden, glassed inch of Reach.”
The artillery barrage began at 0800, on the dot. For the next forty eight hours the guns didn’t stop firing. They blanketed the Szurdok Ridge with more firepower than had been unleashed on the whole of Europe during the Second World War. And not just that, but mortars, rockets, MLRS, pretty much anything that could carry an explosive charge. I swear, I thought the ground beneath was going to crack open and swallow the bastards whole. First Armored Battalion made contact with the Covenant tanks at 0805. I was driving lead Scorpion of Second Platoon. Each platoon was made up of six Scorpions, four Badgers, two Cobras and a complement of Warthogs. We were ready, man. Ready to get it on. We hit them with everything we had. Longsword bombers carpet bombed the shit out of the place. We unleashed a wall of fire that God himself would have trembled to behold. It was the single most awe-inspiring display of lethal force I had ever seen. We should have known we were driving into a trap. The plan had never been to break out of the valley, it had been to draw us in so that the cruiser they’d had hidden in orbit could annihilate the entire strike force. The Covenant were experts in conventional and psychological warfare. They knew how to kill us and they knew how to instill terror in us. When I close my eyes at night…I can still see that cruiser, blotting out the sky, charging up its plasma cannon…
I can only hope that one day, some enterprising studio decides to make a game with as much heartfelt storytelling and breathtaking action as the original Halo series. Anything after 4 was a disservice to the franchise, and even 4 was pushing it, but 1-3, ODST, and Reach were the pinnacle of heroic storytelling through the medium of video games. May we all be so lucky as to experience such a thing for the first time again.
Agreed, after the disappointment of H4, I gave up on the franchise. I tried Halo infinite the other day and it felt like a hollow shell of the originals. They had a dressed up forge world map that made me remember my youth but it was fleeting and felt wrong. I quit it after a few hours.
“We weren’t left behind. we were the vanguard. Reach still stands, if only in our hearts, but let it be known… the planet fell before the marines did.”
"This is cody. I know i'm just here as a technician on reach, but I somehow lived this massacre. I hear the screams of people outside right now, and I'll be joining them soon, so don't forget us. This planet has had millions die for it, so don't you dare forget a single one of em. May god have mercy on me and forgive what I must do now. I didn't secure this pistol for nothing... *loud bang followed by a heavy thud* "
Just found your stuff today and I love these kinds of videos. Here's my own suggestion: "Zombie" but you're at Yonkers (World War Z) and the hordes are approaching.
Thats cool. Like battalions of US Army soliders in full chemical dress and BDU as the hoarde approaches and it gets worse every second and more hopeless
You should do one for the humans that stayed to fight the Reapers on Earth in Mass Effect 3. They were literally getting slaughtered like cattle for months.
"We setup a hasty defensive line outside New Alexandria, with a ragtag assortment of Army, Marine, and Reservist units, all understrength, but knowing what we had to do. The first orbital bombardment started soon after sunset, the plasma beams cutting through the gloom of night and superheating the air just enough that we could see them light up the horizon like a dozen tiny suns, and it was then that we began to lose hope. That maybe, just maybe, Reach wouldn't make it through that dark night. Unfortunately for us, that would turn out to be more truth than we'd like."
What's beautiful is that, even after reach and its surface was glassed to oblivion, people survived reach. I forget where it's mentioned in the extended lore but pockets of the UNSC Army and militias were active and hidden in bunkers and anywhere deep enough to survive. In the current day of the Halo universe, Reach is in the process of being terraformed again, and the indomitable human will to survive has given life to a dead world.
I work on a dusty ass job site doing Tile work and I used my finger on dust to write in big letters on a slab of glass, “REMEMBER REACH” I’m almost certain no one understood the reference. 😭
Listening to the radio transmissions in MP of the Beta-red spartan team and the troopers. You really get a sense of how hopeless the situation was. An 11-man Spartan team running straight up into 2 armored covie divisions of 30,000 just to give the men and civilians time to escape. Crazy.
Was a real big fan of Halo in my youth, all the way back when i found a battered copy of Fall of Reach in a thrift store, but didn't have an xbox so i didn't get to play the games themselves until about 3. When i finally got an 360, i was excited to catch up on everything, and burned through up to Reach really quick. The emotional gut punch i felt every time a cutscene ended hit hard, and i don't think I've ever felt that way about a game before or since. Not even Johnson's death in 3 hit me as hard as Noble team. This got me tearing up more than i expected. Well done
"The Humans, I think, knew they were doomed. But where another race would surrender to despair, the Humans fought back with even greater strength. They made the Mimbari fight for every inch of space. In my life I have never seen anything like it. They would weep. They would pray. They would say goodbye to their loved ones. Then throw themselves, without fear, or hesitation, at the very face of death itself. Never Surrendering. No one, who saw them fighting against the inevitable could help but be moved to tears by their courage. Their stubborn nobility. When they ran out of ships, they used guns. When they ran out of guns they used knives, and sticks, and bare hands. They were, magnificent. I only hope that when it is my time, that I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes at the end. They did this for Two. Years. They never ran out of courage. But in the end, they ran out of time." -Babylon 5 "In the beginning"
Just to think about during Pillar of Autumn mission, you're on your way to deliver the package to Captain Keyes, but you look at the background and see the battle miles away, Scorpion Tanks, Warthogs and Troopers fighting off a distant battle againt the Covenant with their Wraiths and Scarabs, they know full well no matter the outcome of their battle, they will be left behind either way....
We need a Halo game where you’re just a marine fighting with your squad. I think it would make for a pretty good story, and a chance for some new gameplay mechanics perhaps large battlefield style levels, completing objectives while fighting your way through with your platoon. The Marines need their time to shine.
I think we need a game like this for every fandom lol. No special abilities, no super soldiers, no main characters already established. Just a Marine in Halo, or something like a normal ass rebel or clone trooper in Star Wars
Of all the Halos, nothing is like Reach. In an odd way it felt very fitting, Bungie’s Magnum Opus in gritty storytelling, not shying away from desperation & sheer hopelessness. Humanity comes closest to “extinction” in Halo, than WH40K that treats it as Galactic Fantasy Soap Opera. Factions upon factions with terrible plot armors.
She grips the steering wheel with white knuckles. Yanks to the left. Swerves around a burning warthog. Yanks to the right. The tyres bump over bodies. She loses control. The car slams into a wall. She feels her left leg snap. The engine hisses. A tyre screeches as it spins. His crying brings her back to consciousness. She jerks around. He isn't hurt. Thank God, the baby belt held! Sobbing with relief, the pain flashes white hot. She cries out, then covers her mouth. A flash of purple light ignites the mist. Growling in the distance. Alien screeching. Aircraft fly low, quick. Fireballs ignite in the sky. A blastwave smashes the car. Glass pricks her cheek. She grits her teeth. She presses a hand agains the door. Screaming, she glares at her dislocated fingers. With her other hand, she heaves on the door. She falls to the ground outside. Its a sewage ditch. Stinks. She adds to it. She presses against the car and lifts herself up with one leg. So damn hard. So damn... purple flashes. Alien grunts. Gunfire. She rips open the back door. Clicks open his baby belt. Soothes his grumpy wails with a desperate smile. Tears streak her dirty face. She bundles him close. His mouth searches for a nipple. She collapses to the ground. A shadow looms. She raises a hand. A soldier! ODST. A sob of relief spasms through her chest. She holds up a hand. Her dislocated fingers. He...shakes his head slowly. She knew it. She'd always known. All the pelicans are gone. She shoots a glance down at Jack. The soldier removes his helmet. She looks up at him. My God, just a boy. She begs with a pleading look. Smiling, nodding, begging. He hesitates, his eyes aching. Slowly raises his rifle. A smile breaks her face. "Thank you" she whispers. Closing her eyes, she kisses Jack's head. Smells his baby smell. Smiling, she releases her nipple to his toothless, hungry mouth. Two gunshots echo into the dull mist. He stares for a long time. It's almost peaceful. No more shouting. No more gunshots. Then, a shadow appears behind him. "C'mon. Covvies are prepping their final assault. You ready?" He nods. He looks over his shoulder at her. The look on her face. He hopes hes smiling when it happens.
There were actually a few people that survived the glassing of Reach. They're featured in Halo: FIRST STRIKE, the book that bridges the gap between the end of Halo: Combat Evolved/The Flood and Halo 2. It's a great book, highly recommend.
"Yeah, I was there. I actually lived in New Al'. Had a great apartment. I was a firefighter, and man, was that day busy... So y'know.. when everything happened and the Covenant showed up, it was hell. I don't know if it was the flashing lights on the truck, or the fact that they like.. knew we were first responders, but that hovering tank thing just lobbed a round at us. It blew up beside us, and I was flung out of the truck. Thank God I still had my gear on, it protected me from the fire. That's how I first found out they were using plasma. Plasma just burns a certain way, y'know? Anyway, me and a buddy who was pretty hurt ran to the nearest shop while that thing hovered down the street. The Army showed up though, they were like a block over or something. Had a tank of their own and everything. Then the Marines and those ODST guys showed up an hour later. Me and my buddy had eventually gotten our ways over to the space port, but we ended up staying for a long time. We just got too caught up helping the Army and the Navy with the people. Even if you hated the UNSC, everyone was kinda on one side that day. Crazy to think about now. You have any other questions? I have a 24-hour shift tomorrow. "
I know I'm late to this, and I know no one will see this so may this fall into the abyss: Listening to the various voices, it really makes the song feel a lot more raw. They all sound so desperate, and human. There's one of a youngish sounding guy going "he's bleeding, I don't know what to do" and it's so fucked, and so good? It sort of captures how much of a human struggle Reach was in a way
The cacophony of war sounds & UNSC COMM Chatter wasn't just the icing on the cake. It was a composition in of itself. It all worked together to achieve a singular purpose: To remind us how hopeless and over it felt for us on Reach. We knew that if Reach fell, Earth would follow. Lasky said it best. We could only react to the Covenant because they were too damn overwhelming. It was simply too much to coordinate our attention everywhere. What would have happened had Earth Fell? Would the Human race have gone nomadic into the farthest reaches of the Galaxy? There were barely any Colony worlds left, so it would be likely we couldn't stay in one place for long. The fact that it took a Schiism and a Flood Wave within the Covenant to give us a decisive edge speaks a lot about our desperation to survive as a species. But, it also speaks to how in response to a need, we can come up with some serious shit. Like, how once we were able to catch our breaths, we could create thousands of Spartans and mass-produce technology (MJOLNIR) that was Hella expensive before.
We all saw our team die on reach. We all stayed behind to fight a last time. We all lost at least one special person on reach. You all did a good job spartans. Remember Reach.
*FORGE'S LAST GOODBYE* this comment includes spoilers from Halo book - ''Smoke and Shadow'', so if you didn't read it, do so. \/ ''Hey, kiddo.'' His words lodge in his throat, his expression searching, looking for the right way to begin. But there are no good words for this, no good way to say what he needs to. So he shrugs, there's nothing he can do now. ''I'm out of time, Lucy... This war, it's coming on hard and fast..'' "When you see this, you'll be older. I told Serina to wait. Don't be mad about that. Little you doesn't need to grow up with this on her shoulders. But...'' He shakes his head; a muscle ticks in his jaw. He is struggling. ''Can't go without saying good-bye. We have a deal, you and me. Always be straight with each other. I'm not going to back out of it now.'' ''Without a reactor, Spirit will drift a while before she's found or makes it back home. Serina will hold on to this message and make sure you get it when enough time passes. She and Cutter promised me that.'' He looks away and rubs his jaw again, ''Look, kiddo.. What we're facing.. It doesn't look good. There's a fleet of alien ships here. Tech like we've never seen before. If it falls into the wrong hands, we're done for. You, your mom, your granddad, Aunt Jill - everyone. So I'm doing my part, okay? This is what it takes. This is a sacrafice I knew came with the job.'' ''You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Never doubt that. Never think that what I do now means I don't love you, cuz, kid.. I swear my heart is full.'' His eyes turn glassy. He knows that and gives them a quick swipe. The next part seems to hurt him the most. ''You're going to be one hell of a lady. I'm already proud of the person I know you'll be.'' He stops, and his breath is shaky as he tries to get a hold of himself before looking back into the camera, ''So this is good-bye. I'm so sorry. I hope one day you can forgive me for leaving you. Until then, chin up, shoulders straight, and you never, ever be afraid of to take life by the horns and make it what you want it to be.'' He gives a sharp nod, kisses his fingers, and then slaps them onto the camera lens.
It's so sad that Noble 6 and the rest of Noble Team's contributions to humanity's survival are so classified, that no one will ever know about their sacrifice and no one will honor them. Not even the chief knows. Halsey, June know. But they're not ones to talk.
There is a museum dedicated to the war. They had the statue of Nobel team as a memorial. They took off Nobel 6's statue due to his past. Probably just gave him a platue.
When you're in a no win situation all you get to do is decide how you face it. Do you just give up because you can't win or do you give everything you have left to give?
The first time i played Reach, i was going in blind. I knew nothing about it aside from it being before Halo 1. That alone had me guessing at the end, but on that final mission, seeing the Pillar of Autumn in its berth prepping to leave, i knew how it was going to end, and I'll admit it made me laugh. I dont know why, but it did, and it's one of those things i think im going to remember for a long time.
Same, it introduced me to the gritty world of what sci fi can be, and the messages that it can send, I remember being so anxious whenever a cut scene was about to play because I was afraid of a jump scare. But as time moves on, I became less afraid, because what’s the point of shivering in fear, everyone in that world was afraid, so a 10-11 year old boy just needed to be brave.
“‘Well uhh I don’t have the same tales of bravery as other units I was in the 82ND AA deployed 20ish klicks from sword base, 2 days before sword fell my company was told we would be last unit out, I rember seeing a group of locals walk by with old earth hunting rifles and we gave them some of the MA40s and MA3s around. We dropped into a abandoned spaceport on the other side planet who knows how many miles from the city’s which were about to glassed if not already turned into a racetrack. we fended off around 10 companies of jackals and grunts before what the Helljumpers captain or gunny or whatever his men called him called “ a rare dosage of zealot split jaws” ran at us with just plasma pistols and grenades, right after the ODSTs were taken off, we saw only 3 falcons get out with 1 being shut down between max local radio and long range radio. We were going to be pulled off on the next ship but a platoon of marines arrived with only 10ish men all loaded onto one warthog with one of them tied on top of the “cockpit”, we gave them a spot on the transport but there master sergeant who was missing an arm said his unit could make it for a few more hours. 2 more ships leave and there both shot down with a total of 3 escape pods actually making down we think, still don’t know. We all got on after there was a break in weather something about broken arrow on red team or something else. We got out and split up at Cryo station,marines stayed and we were deployed to New Albany so that we could scope out the Kig Yar. We survived the war of course but man the time between hearing reach fell and earth was attacked felt like 3 minutes for us,I lost people in Jacob’s field and Detroit.
this reminds me of the radio chatter from the Modern Warfare 2 campaign, during the Russian invasion. If you haven't watched a video of that, i would highly recommend it. It was a time where studios actually cared about the game they were making, not just making a quick cash grab
Do you like this one? I kindly ask you check out the remaster!
ruclips.net/video/V8PChEfMgT8/видео.htmlsi=34irnr8ODG8gjP26
What’s the radio chatter from
"He gave his life thinking he saved the planet, we should all be so lucky."
"Big man forgets what he is sometimes."
Jorge never forgot, the guy's a hero, that's why we never forget Reach.
Big man always was sentimental
Slip Space rupture detected. Slip Space rupture detected. Slip Space rupture detected.
This can't be happening... it's the whole damn Covenant fleet!
*AUGHHHH!!!*@@roninskater1128
"Listen, Reach has been good to me. Time has come to return the favor. Don't deny me this.Tell 'em to make it count." They sure did 😢
"It didn't take long for Reach to fall. Our enemy was ruthless. Efficient. But they weren't nearly fast enough. For you had already passed the torch. And because of you, we found Halo, unlocked its secrets, shattered our enemy's resolve. Our victory - your victory - was so close... I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything...except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild."
To Noble Six
To Noble Six🫡
The unsc’s heaviest defended planet, home of the spartan-II’s, resource filled world reduced to ashes in a month.
Where is that quote from
@@oldomen3788 Halsey the end of the game
"I know we're losing. I want to know if we've lost."
Unfortunately, they lost the second the Covenant slipped that spy probe on the Iroquois.
Deep shit
Coronal Holland on the radio communicating on an open channel
That made my heart sink. The human covenant was was so hopeless.
@@tuiman5212 seriously, even though 343 guilty spark tried to fire the rings and killeed jhonson, he did accidently save humanity by revealing the truth to the elites.
This is something modern Halo is missing. Just how well and truly screwed humanity was until a bunch of tiny scattered phyrric victories combined to turn the tide at the end.
Feels like the banished brings that kind of potential. We went through a weird cold war like event in the halo universe nearing the end of the covenant. Then the construct event, now humanity is back on its knees again, but it feels oddly watered down.
I mean that war ends in Halo 3 though of course there would be a change in the dynamics of the galaxy after humanity manages to escape being destroyed
@@Back_in_ur_holeit feels watered down because it's just a rebranded covenant at the end of the day
@@Gofaw I mean yeah, they need to come up with new enemies. Im excited for whatever is locked under zeta halo, but my hopes aren't too high.
@@Back_in_ur_hole The banished are pretty lame, I can never really take them seriously and their reasons for fighting us are cartoon villain stuff.
Compared to the Covenant where they were fighting us on a lie perpetuated by their religious leaders for the promise of salvation, very realistic stuff that.
"Should we send search and rescue birds?"
"Negative dispatch.....no point."
that scene always got to me.
@@lostwizardcat9910 Where was that said?
@@zakattack1945 the mission after carter dies, its in a section where you fly in a falcon before getting out to turn on AA guns. its not a cutscene, its a background scene off the right side of the falcon.
@@lostwizardcat9910 *jorge, its the exodus mission
@@ereynolds72 I always forget his name doesn't use common spelling.
There are more meaningful short stories in this comment section by fans than the entire Halo TV show
That's cause the writers were there.
Halo TV show writers thought it was a pop song documentary
I feel that newer Halo writers whether for the show or for the games missed the part where Halo isn't just about Spartans being heroes, where humanity is under threat of extinction from the alien menace, that it is also about the grey in-between, the infighting, the troops on the ground, the shady parts of the UNSC, etc. I feel an aching in my heart, when Infinite's campaign ends just like that, no big underlying military operations, not much of the bigger picture, too much of what would be a first mission if it were linear, it's too much soft of a soft reboot to me. I think Infinite has one of the best gameplay and aesthetics in the franchise, but is severely bogged down by its presentation and service issues. I might nominate it second to CE in my book. Halo in general has that old Aliens/Starship Troopers feel, if they focused on that instead of the whimsy of modern Star Wars then they would get a better foundation.
More than 343 in the last 12 years
@VorenusXIIII mean tbf murdering children is something ONI is probably a big fan of
It’s not so much you’ve been left behind. It’s more there’s no one left to save you
All the culmination of your humanity fine tuned into one calling:
*Resistance*
For your species, for your genetic code, for your DNA, and for your memories not to be lost in dust and echoes.
One final stand.......
I’m in need to be save by whom?
We have been given the honor of the rear guard. We will not survive, but will trust in those we left behind to keep fighting
It's not fighting to save themselves it's fighting to take as many of the split lip bastards with us
Ouch.
I physically felt that.
Reach and Cadia stand alone in their eerie ability to feel real. And to mourn for those who dont exist.
FML I didn't even think of Cadia. Gives this shit a whole new meaning lol
I was just thinking about Cadia and then stumbled upon this comment.
Cadia Stands
Halo Wars reference
“Hyper lethal indeed…”
-Trazyn, probably
Keep'em, he gave'em to you. I'll honor him my own way."
Emile-A239
"Fourty eight hours? That's imminent?"
Jun
“That lone wolf stuff... it stays behind." Carter-A259
Your on your own noble make it count - Noble 1
@@binary1045
"That thing is crushing us and we're waiting on backup? They'll be backing up a graveyard!"
Kat
“I’m ready! How bout you?!”
"We were just a radio station.
The last left broadcasting. Splitlip bastards missed us in the first barrage, focused on the troops outside in the valley below. The blast had taken out everything digital, so all we had was a box of antiques from Earth that the boss kept.
He never made it to work that day. When we called him, he said he was fine, and he was with his family. That they were getting out of there. We saw the pelicans get shot down. We knew there was no making it off that sinking ship we were all on.
So we did what anyone would do. Kalowski got the backup generator running, since the power grid was out from the bombardment. David, he took a shotgun we'd been hiding in case of insurrectionists... walked out into the fray. Last thing we heard from him was a few shots and plasma bolts.
Me though, I picked up some of those old relics from the blue marble and I started playing em. They were real oldies. Two-hundred years, some of them. Names you'd see in music class, like Elvis Presley, John Lennon, and of course Johnny Cash.
It's the last thing I remember before waking up on the shoulder of an ODST.
Now will you ONI bastards let me go home?"
Dang, where did you get this text? I’m interested now.
I just saw everyone else writing something, so I did too.
Mission log: T-788
5,475 Days since PROMETHEUS
Location Reach
To anyone reading this. You already know the Covenant are on Reach… Ironic isn’t it? I knew coming here would be the end of my story. ONI is putting all their eggs into two baskets and I used up the last of my luck picking the right one for them, the Tyrants.
I can understand, fully endorse the Cole Protocol and the lengths taken to enforce its compliance. It has bought us time to fight, to bleed the Covenant dry and try to figure out how to survive the next day.
I understand the hard choices of this and respect the dead hero’s who went headfirst fighting and enraged into the dark abyss of those choices.
What I will not stand for is the cowardice required to sacrifice the many for the few. Those who believe they can buy their way into the Covenant good graces and would be spared. Like those of who sold out my brothers and sisters all those years ago. They who purposely lead the Covenant to blacked out colonies settled in the hopes to hide out the genocide.
I hunted them since that day just as they hunted me. 117 of us survived the Shipyards, 43 survived the Nuclear Traps ONI left for us because it would be apparent someone sold us out and was trying to clean up their mess. As time went on we would fall, one by one. Either by death of a thousand cuts or in nuclear pyres. Last year there was 3 of us.
Now it’s only me with my mission completed.
The head of ONI still eludes me and probably always will but I got most of their rat groundwork ablaze. Whatever is left of humanity will be able to actually fend for itself without the traitorous cancer within poising it. Hopefully they can stand without feet for the beating we taken in the time it took.
End of Log
____
Mission log: T-789
5,476 Days since PROMETHEUS
Location Reach
In these final hours I did what any Spartan would do. I fought and killed as many as I could. I found marines escorting civilians to evac zones. I did my best to get as many as I could to the ships from afar.
Must have been hella nerve wrecking having a Guardian Angel with a Beam Rifle and a Fuel Cannon. I remember a far too young policeman waving in my direction and saying “Thanks Angel” in Hungarian on the radio.
While searching for more patrols I found a platoon of Hell Jumpers who definitely looked the part. Tough bastards looked like walking corpses with bloodied bioform bandages making up more fabric on them than their uniforms and their armor is patched up with police and army armor pieces but still fought through a clan of brutes with just more scrapes and bruises.
Though their only marksman kept taking pot shots as me occasionally. Can’t blame them as I been using alien weaponry and she must of thought I was a skirmisher. Still I shot her cigarette and burned her hair bun in return as a way to warn them of incoming covies twice. Yes I was petty too.
End of Log
______
Mission log: T-790
5,476 Days since PROMETHEUS
Location Reach
The platoon made its way to a radio broadcasting station. They must have sent a signal because covies started swarming the area. Fighting got brutal but they were too focused on what they could see and not what was around them. I seen a prowler land nearby and the Troopers withdraw to it. I seen on carrying a civilian that must have been in the station because he was not in the group beforehand. Two Phantoms show up to pick up the remaining forces and I take the chance to destroy one with the last of the fuel rod ammunition. The prowlers roars off into the sky but not before blowing the other phantom into pieces.
Pieces that directly fall onto my position.
The sky was still a bright golden orange with the sun about set when I lost consciousness. The sky was dark and raining when I awoken, only light being that of the plasma fires and the light show of the carriers classing the planet.
I took refuge in the radio station and hear music from within. Coming from some truly ancient looking equipment that I admittedly won’t touch because I am unsure of the fragility of it and the melody it plays is both haunting yet comforting.
I listen to it as I write this as my last statement. I have done all I can and will be forgotten. As I await the end I can only ask myself and the void if everything I done was enough and would my brothers be proud?
End of log.
_______________
Agent’s notes: TacPad and Data log found at Relay Station Gamma. Inter footage shows footage of the remains Crimson Company fighting off hostile pratrols with a 4 hours gap between Crimson’s departure and an Unknown Spartan entering the Station. Spartan appears heavily injured as he inspects the old record player before sitting down and typing on the data log. Footage cuts away an hour later as the Spartan appears to be resting or has passed on due to his wounds and is disabled. Next footage shows the data pad in the same spot as before but the spartan is no where in sight and a small pool of blood where he sat as entry teams enter two years later. We have no clues on where he left or was taken.
The record player was still playing though we don’t know how.
good job i like it@@defective7340
No sir, not until we can confirm your story and ensure you aren't one of the insurrectionists.
Somehow, a video game made the fictional destruction of a planet into what feels like a very real global tragedy mourned by Millions whenever someone mentions the name...
*Reach*
I wanted to like your comment, but you're now at 117 likes.
@@dejeffrelot Unfortunately trying to keep a comment's Like count at a certain number is like asking cats to stop batting things off of the shelf.
That was the whole market campaign lol "Remember Reach"
Remember Reach…
We will always remember Reach.
“We’re dead anyway Spartan, let’s take as many as we can with us”
- Deceased Spartan at Rally Point Omega
is this from a novel?
@@PhilCoulsonthebald typically rally points are checkpoints from the games. not sure if it is but could be from a terminal.
@@PhilCoulsonthebald Rally point omega is the last level of Reach, where you hold your ground against an infinite number of covenant troops. As far as I could find, no one actually says this line, but it is a good one
"Word from the other battalion remnants is that the planet is lost... The brass is pulling out."
"They haven't taken this ridge yet."
"They won't while I still draw this rancid, dusty air"
"For us the storm has passed. The war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure."
The phrase “howling dark” always goes so hard
Hard to believe he's gone
@@zambekillerWere it so easy.
"Valkyrie what is your status? Valkyrie what is your status?"
"Uhh... Birdeye... this is Valkyrie, over"
"Where's Lieutenant Lopez Valkyrie?"
"Carlas' dead, ma'am, brutes found her... there's only 4 of us left, we've got about a dozen army troopers with us" *distant protest* "and a marine, ma'am. we've got a couple of resistance fighters as well. They speak, Polish or Russian or something."
"Confirmed, move to the ridge on the far end. Extract will take you to the evacuation, you can get out of this."
"I'm calling broken arrow on our position, and we're running."
"I can't allow that Birdeye, your odds aren't good"
"Respectfully ma'am, I knew we were fucked the second they told us to hot drop in to slow the split lips advance. Send it Ma'am!"
"... confirmed Valkyrie, sending rounds now. God save you"
"Give 'em hell Birdeye"
-Transcript of last known contact with echo company of the 84th UNSC Airborne division, codename VALKYRIE. During the latter stages of the reach campaign many units were organised in ad hoc battalions. Various men from across the services fought and died together. Some who were evacuated report never having seen the people in their ship till today.
- REMEMBER REACH -
"**distant protest** 'and a marine, ma'am.'" I love that little tid bit so much.
Nice that someone else cares about UNSC army airborne
Lol and a marine
Where is this from?
@@AnakinSkywakkaI’m still chuckling to myself. World falling apart, planet about to be glass, but that marine will be damned if they are going to be lumped in with the army.
“It was a shit situation, no doubt about it. I just didn’t think my luck would hold out the way it did.” SSG Michael Langston drew a long puff on his cigar. The Marine Veteran stared off into the corner, avoiding my eyes but clearly reliving the horror on Reach. He finally turns his head to meet my gaze and I proceed with the interview. “You were part of the 21st Regiment, correct?” His eyes lit up at the mention of his unit. A small smirk crossed his face. “That’s right, formed up in ‘42. Gave the covies a black eye at Sigma Octanus. Felt good. We lost some good men though.” His smirk faded and he took another buff. He continues, “Their sacrifices meant something, yanno? We won because of them. Sure, the Spartans did what they did best. But we still pulled in our weight.” I asked him about the Spartans. Particularly on Reach. “Man…. I didn’t get to see many. At one point, I was trapped in New Alexandria. We ended up fighting alongside Army guys. Those damn covies were everywhere. Grunts, jackals, fucking brutes. The bastards just kept coming. We were trying to protect the civvies and then our damn flanks started to fold. Ever fought a Brute in a fucking hallway? They can do a number on a squad, even without shields. Shotguns is usually the go to. But still….” I noticed his eyes began to water. I didn’t say anything and just let him process his memories. His tears stopped short as it seemed he remember something. “When the covies were practically bringing hell to the planet. When we were surrounded, doing what we can to save lives, I’ll never forget seeing the most amazing thing that day.” I listened intently, wondering what saved him. “What was it, Sergeant?” “Not a what, but who.” I waited, anxious to hear. “It was a Spartan, kid. My squad and I were trying to take down this damn chieftain. Yanno, the hammer wielding fucks? He took out two of my marines, injured another, and was heading for myself along with…..” he choked at the thought. “SGT Sierra is the bravest woman I ever met. We put as much fire on him as possible. His shields depleted, she pumped shotgun shells in his damn face like no tomorrow. One smash to the ground sent us both flyin’. When I came to, it wasn’t lookin good for Sierra. Then out of nowhere, I heard another assault rifle. Whoever it was, they were pepperin this fool like it was nothin’. Chieftain gets pissed, then like lightning the spartan just came out of view. I just remember seeing black armor and an orange visor. And man….. he was quick. The chieftain swung for his head, but he was too fast. Two quick punches to the gut later and the chieftain stammered. From PUNCHES. Spartan whipped out a plasma grenade and stuck it to that bastards face. Head exploded like a piñata.” The Marine smiled at the thought. “I thank God everyday for that Spartan. I’ve heard of the Master Chief. I mean, who hasn’t? But this guy…. I swore he was a guardian angel. My only regret is he didn’t come sooner.” I looked at my notes from the previous interviews. Particularly of the injured marine, PVT Ramirez. So this confirms it. Noble Six. Hyper lethal. Hero of New Alexandria. “Thank you, Sergeant. You’re dismissed.” Before I left, the Marine stopped me. “Hey. You ONI or somethin’?” I replied, “Just a man looking for the truth. My mother told me of a Spartan that covered her evac ship that day. Black armor. Orange visor.“ The Marine nodded his head and kept his curiosity in check. “Beware for what you diggin’ for. ONI don’t take it kindly when you start snoopin for somethin’ you ain’t supposed to smell in the first place.” I motioned him out the door. “I’ll take my chances, Sergeant.”
New Mombassa, Earth
November 21, 2554
nice
pin this mans comment his fingers are gone honer them!!
is this from a novel
@@PhilCoulsonthebald no I wrote it. I saw a couple of people write stuff and I wanted to try myself. Figured it was good practice since I’m trying to write a story myself.
@@PhilCoulsonthebald no. Wrote this on the spot since I saw other people write stuff
“He died thinking he just saved the planet, we should all be so lucky”
Reach and Halo really gave me a reality check on what potential interstellar war would be like.
Like damn...I know the UNSC are the under dogs of the story, but even in this game you weren't safe no matter who you were.
If you think Halo is a reality check I think you should read some warhammer 40k books
Ah yes.
The universe so incoherent everyone has a galactic war winning unit they genuinely are too stupid to use and so the war continues on end and the 800 authors cant decide whether lasguns are lasers or not.@shadedwulf
I always liked Killzone as a depiction of an intersolar/interstellar war.
@@shadedwulfwhen I'm in a "try not to one up people" competition and my opponent is a Warhammer fan:
@@shadedwulf as a warhammer fan, that was dumb to say, all the inconsistencies and warp magic... but yeah "reality check" right.
"You're on your own, Noble. Carter out."
Hardest line in the entire series. My favorite a character. “I have the mass”
@@LukeLDCHF "Solid copy. Hit ‘em hard, boss”
This really does capture the desperation of Reach. Humanity realized they couldn’t hold it, but they could buy some time. Every second was another life that escaped the fire.
Had a dnd campaign of halo with a few friends, my girlfriend, and her little sister who never knew of halo.
That feeling of horror and hopelessness when their first evac zone was overrun, only for them to fall back, dying one by one just for their pelican to be shot down right before picking them up.
Her little sister was devastated. :)
Wonderful job capturing the feeling of sheer hopelessness lol
Currently doing a fallout dnd
Wacthed as my newest friend sacrificed himself by slamming a cargobird( vertibird made for cargo transport) filled with mininukes into the Chicago enclave behemoth. Because of his sacrifice we won the battle . Our alliance with the bos broken our civilians hurt and injured .but our spirits are not broken we shall take the kovdoc satellites and sending it piecing into the heart of the Chicago enclave for Kennedy for the true enclave
Next time promise to make her a Spartan, complete with the tragic upbringing, and then just as she’s winning, give her another tragic ending.
You traumatized a child sir...great work 👍
Same feeling as wh40k... Getting stuck with rearguard action as an Imperial guard...
This just makes me imagine a lone ODST marksman. His entire plantoon was wiped out by the covenant.
He fights with marines and army troopers in New Alexandria. Listening to the last radio station playing this song as the city falls.
Covenant carriers fly over and start their glassing beams. Everyone else still has some fighting spirit, this ODST has given up any hope.
He mans a missle pod and tells the rest of the troops to get to an evac. He holds off the covenant advance as long as he can before finally being overrun as a wraith fires nearby, the shockwave knocking him to the ground.
A group of brutes walk up the stairs to him. Laughing as they think of how to tear him limb from limb. He chuckles back and pulls a detonator from his side. He set the position to collaspe.
"Checkmate." His final words before detonating the charges, blasting away a few dozen covenant and sealing off the fastest route to the evacuating troops.
Ghosts of Onyx vibes. I love it.
@@Teavila198 Dirt as well
"You only see one man, but I... C-4."
@@Wolfiewolfiewolfie "C4?!?!?!"
"We got the orders to pull out. But we didn't want to leave a job half-finished." -Unknown, attributed to a Military Volunteer who stayed behind on Reach, located on the wall of New New Alexandria's UNSC Military Base, 2610.
Lone Wolf feeling be like:
"Negative sir. I have the gun"
Your on your own noble make it count - Noble 1
That always hits
"Remember Reach"
Remember Reach
Remember Reach
Remember Reach
When we received news that first contact had been made on the outer reaches of the solar system, there was a sense of apprehension and hope, i mean- it was like a movie. we had all dreamed of this moment. Speculation ran rampant, there was plenty of fear, true; but mostly... we were excited- y'know, to be alive during the era of first-contact. We were gonna see aliens! I remember the internet was abuzz with the words "we're not alone!" 3 months later, i was fighting alongside a squad of 3, as the last escape ships fled a planet, no longer habitable by my species. We were tasked to stay behind and fight, they told us that after the colony ships were safely out of orbit they would give us a rendezvous point for our own escape. but it's been 3 hours since atmospheric exit now, it's become clear that they left us here to die. the worst part is the not knowing. not knowing whether they would make it out of sol alive. not knowing if this was the end for our species. the, uncertainty if... our sacrifice was worth it.
"You ever wonder what's up there?"
"Like what?"
"Maybe someone up there is wondering what it's like here."
"I guess. Do you think we'll ever meet them?"
"I hope so. Don't you?"
This hits harder than a Pelican Dropship at full speed.
It doesn't have the firepower, but it has the mass
@@cpob2013 you're on your own noble. carter out.
"This is Sierra-259, we've got Spartans on the ground sir, we're not going anywhere."
And they never did. Their bones protect Reach now.
"It is an undeniable, and may I say fundamental quality of man, that when faced with extinction, every alternative is preferable." - Some.guy named after an old earth religous building
Dr. Leonard Church🔥
Just finished rewatching rvb again.
A skirmisher crawled through the long grass of a soon to be burnt world the humans called Reach. Ged Moc was barely keeping himself together with a mix of terror, excitement and anticipation, this was his very first mission. But nearly as soon as it began he had become separated from his recon partner when a bridge collapsed, each T'voan had ran in opposite directions. His thoughts are interrupted by a noise. "Is that singing?" He asks himself as he slowly gets to a postion where he could see where this singing is coming from. Through the scope of his needle rifle he sees a lone human sitting on a chair in the ruins of what he thinks is a farmhouse. He nearly squawks in excitement,his first human and one that is such an easy shot. One light press and he will have his first kill,but something isn't right. Where's the human's armor,where is their weapon? He was told he was going to fight those most foul and dangerous heretics,amd get well paid for it,but theres nothing threatening about the one he sees in his sight. The human looks old,by what Ged can assume by its features. 'Theres no way someone that age could be a warrior.' Ged thinks to himself. He hesitates,then just listens to the song he can't understand and in the end, crawls away.
Is this actual lore? And if so where can I find it? If it isn’t and u made it up, well done friend - very convincing
@@DatBoi127 That was right off the cuff.
@@elchjol2777it sucks a lot of blood and guts has to come form fannon
Very well written, however I think the soldiers invaded Reach (and the worlds before it) knew they were going to mostly be killing civilians from the start of the invasion.
I always wonder how the Covenant species reacted after the Great Schism and the revelation that The Prophet’s lied. Did they feel any guilt? Imagine finding out that you committed genocide on a galactic scale based on a lie. Surely it would way heavily on your conscience?
A cool guy said this:
Warhammer 40k is what Humanity believes if they were to fight Aliens
Halo is what happens to Humanity if they were to fight Aliens
Which dumbass said that
@@lukalovric2463 PancreasNoWork
The only question is, who’ll be the covenant, and who’ll be “humanity”.
For all we know, we could be the monsters glassing worlds.
So we still win? Epic
@@Kladjos yup, barely
Hearing the sound of that covenant CCS class battlecruiser pass over at 0:17 while he says "we are being overrun!" Just gives you that sense of hoplessness
There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after.
But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith.
Ain't that a bitch.
nice rvb reference
God I love this quote
Should've just ended the show right there.
'Hurt' by you've realized 343 has killed your beloved series.
Bro woke up and said "imma make the male fantasy today" awesome job
The line " The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything" hits so hard in the context of halo
Why is the mist pink?!?!
He's probably thinking about other girls...
Me:
*_You're on your own, Noble... Carter out._*
Just got recommended this and the Kickstart my Heart Coruscant one, talk about a tone shift... Gonna go watch all of them now, incredible work keep it up!
Thank you! This one was definitely a switch-up from the usual fast-paced, action-packed style I usually do for these. I based it heavily off of the more famous one about “hurt but you’re evacuating Kabul”.
Honestly I love both styles, these kinds of videos are always my favourite to come across.
Holy cow that’s where I just came from!
“Hurt” but your a Helldiver on Melevon Creek with no reinforcements.”
I was a part of 4 Charlie 27, I was in New Alexandria, some club in the high-rise, I was a Lance Corporal at the time, those hunters, the way they killed, I'll never forget, and I'll never forget how we were saved, a Spartan, he came in VIA falcon then blasted his way through the hunters with a shotgun and took care of the last hunter with a spanker, then he took down the jammer, after that he gave me his shotgun in exchange for my AR, I guess he knew the rest of my time in that city, 9 hours, would be CQB, me and 4 other survivors, PFC Elrod, PFC Miller, LCPL Philips and PFC Falred, got off world VIA emergency extract alongside a team of ODSTs, turns out I had picked up very important intel that O.N.I. wanted their hands on, after that, I was debriefed, then I was at Earth, I'd never been, I was born on the Lunar colony, but somehow didn't go to Earth, anyways I was at New Mombasa with the 405th out of Diego Garcia, I was meant to be there temporarily until they could find me proper placement, but I jumped straight on that pelican and into New Mombasa I went, I'd say it was on par with the brutality of New Alexandria. Those brutes weren't as merciful as the elites I fought in New Alexandria, they'd put you out of your misery quickly, but the brutes, they prolonged your suffering, I saw one of them rip a leatherneck's arms off, then shoot him and throw him into a window, that day I saw where they got the name "Brute".
"Yeah, I remember when my squad first encountered Brutes. My unit was doing this long flank maneuver through a small city in... God's what colony world was that? Oh anyways to take out and commandeer a high position that was chock full of Covvies with everything and including Fuel Rod cannons. Picking our way through the streets, I'd known that the evacuation of the civilian pop. was haphazard, and many people got stuck all over that battlezone.
I didn't know that the pieces of, this wet and red "stuff" were Something, much less parts of humans, until I saw a half of a small hand... it had a little girls bracelet wrapped around it still. 'pauses' Her family were in pieces near that position, too. But as we moved through that charnel house... I mean, I've walked through some meatgrinders before, and I've seen fellow marines get blown into nearly unidentifiable pieces, before. A plasma grenade singes the parts of people at around 8 meters instead of vaporizing some, blowing away people completely the closer you get... ... Sorry Lieutenant, I haven't thought back to that particular place in awhile. Some thing's about the charnal warehouse we were making through had changed. Less the usual battlefield weapon effects. More like people were being cut apart, limbs all along our paths. Then we found the jiralhanae, the "Brutes" and they were, preoccupied to notice us. We got to this forward unit of theirs, "trimming" apart this man. They had nailed him to this Bistro's outer wall, using one of their "Spiker" carbines to do that trick. 'pauses' Saying that the brutes were carving him up would be an understatement. As my fellow officer corp would say in slightly archaic words, "We held no quarter, so we Gave those Brutes No Quarter." We held at least a minute amount of Quarter to treatment of the rest of the Covenant, but the Brutes, we Always treated with "Extreme Prejudice." They learned how we felt about all their actions in the war."
@@dragonsword7370 I was at the Siege of Paris IV, back in 49, place was a meat grinder, covies shelled the shit out of one of the space ports, I was in it with 2 Police officers and 4 men from my Regiment as security, PFC Jarid, PFC Baits, LCPL Henderson and CPL Dickens, I was a PFC back then, 3 months out of training from Reach. The first wraith barrage hit the area where me and the guys were, Dickens was vaporised, Baits turned to red mist, the rest of us were alright, I had a shard of glass in my neck, nothing too serious. The civies weren't as lucky, I had befriended a few of the kids, I wanted them to not be scared, to be brave, I gave them some of my rations, the chocolates. That was their last meal, I had to pick the bodies up and bury them, 4 kids. What was left of them anyway. For the next 4 hours we were barraged, then came the siege, the elites led it, I was on the 2nd floor of Terminal 6, just me, PFC Jarid and Officer Dragun, we held out for 3 hours before military evac was ordered, we evacuated with 7 civilians, 3 mote police officers and a Leatherneck, PFC Perez. I got hit 3 times by plasma rounds, I still bear the scars and the memories.
We were the last thosand or so humans on this dying planet. Most of use huddled in a trench trying to fight the millions of aliens currently breaching our defenses at every angle. Every marine getting gunned down by atleast a dozen sangheili in the most brutal and humiliating way possible. At every turn, hundred's are shredded down, as we try and last as long as possible, delaying the inevitable. Every man scrambling and clawing at each other for the chance to escape the pounding fist of the covenant, only to get turned to ash like rats in a corner. Smoke covered the purple sky, as we are outnumbered 1,000,000,000 to 1. In just an hour, we go from a million army soliders, marines, ODST, Spartans, even civilians - to just a few hundred. Running scared, crying, some ending themselves right then and there.
A hundred, a thosand, a million. Gone. A planet, Gone.
The last soilder, on the last day of the last battle that this planet would ever fight felt one thing.
Fear.
Yet they stood in the face of adversity. Odds hopelessly against them, outmanned and outgunned, fighting back to back tooth and nail for the planet they called home and it's people.
Remember reach.
I NEED A MEDIC PETRA WAS HIT!!!
Your not dieing on me marine you have a family to return to and no one wants to bury you SO LIVE DAMNIT!!!!
- Some unsc marine corporal
Bullshit. The UNSC wouldn't be reduced from millions to hundreds in such a short amount of time. We need to give our non-augmented humans more credit. Bungie writers need to modernize the UNSC.
The elites actually described the war much differently, believing mankind to the single most challenging and noble race they’ve ever fought (besides the prophets). They saw us as dangerous and honorable apes that almost always fought instead of fleeing when cornered. The blue elite from Halo 3’s co-op campaign was actually a member of a political party that wanted to annex humanity into the Covenant instead of annihilating us, they had a lot of pull in the government and were a reason why the Covenant had a huge civil war that saved humanity.
@@brotherhoodofsteeld.c.chap1917 wort wort wort
It's a well made position. Places to change positions and hide from shelling. Air defenses to knock down artillery and aircraft. Soldiers and armored vehicles dug in and emplaced behind armored shields.
They buy time. That's all they can do. But it is with pride.
“Go to the light” but you’re making your last stand in the Prison of Elders
I will certainly add it to my list and see what I can do!
I think its already been done
@@silverbloodborne9495 where?
@@CaydeTheSixth in the forsaken trailer 😆
I wasnt on Reach, not many who were are here to tell the tale. But one of my best friends Spc. Thomas Kewalski was a weapons engineer on the U.N.S.C. Savannah when she gave her jump drive to a group of Spartans for their crazy plan to use it as a bomb to destroy a real big Covenant carrier that had brought the first invasion waves to Reach. As far as what I was told he manned the mass drivers even as his frigate broke apart around him, refusing to board an escape shuttle so he could buy that Spartan team just a little more time. I suppose it was a mercy he didn't live to see Reach fall. But he always believed that the human spirit would prevail in the end. He was right. Semper Fi.
Noble-6 wasn’t trapped on Reach with the Covenant. The Covenant were trapped in Reach with Noble-6
"I'm alone.
The screams, the shooting, the hell from the sky, the archaic animal roars, and the movement.
All gone.
I don't know how long it has been. Long enough for my frame to shrink to skin and bone. That's with even my knack for survival on this once beautiful rock. I grow tired now. I find it hard to write this.
I am Allen Middleton.
I was a mechanical engineer working on wind turbine projects for the local farmers of our valley. Their names have faded from my starving mind. Their faces stay with me.... both of their past joys.... and their ends.....
They burned it all......
Nothing but smoke for a long time. The air is thick and wrenching. I don't know when the last time was that I stood on soft ground that didn't cut or shatter at my footsteps.
I grow so tired.
I wish for humanity to have lived.
However if my words are the last to be known of our species. Let it be known we fought to the bitter end.
Except hunger quelled us.
Not the Covenant......."
- excerpt of added text from within a class 4 wind turbine operation manual. No remains were present at site of discovery.
"Never has the name Hell Jumper been this literal. This is my very first jump, and most likely my last. Our mission is to take a covenant position near New Al, and provide covering fire for a convoy of UNSC and civilians to evacuate the planet. We'll be dropping in far behind enemy lines, jumping feet first into Hell. To either win, or drag as many bastards with us..."
This holds truer to the tragedy of Reach than that bs of a show's trailer for season 2.
Remember Reach
With the possibility of getting drafted and dying for no reason getting bigger every day, this really hits. I don't want to be afraid anymore
This feels real somehow.
I was there...
@@blueberrybird2147 im still here......im a S2 i never left there was a lot of them even for me never forget Reach and remember us
It's not just a planet, it's where the halo franchise truly ended, it is truly the end... Remember Reach
god this was something horrifying but oddly beautiful. I love these edit videos
The sound of the cruisers passing overhead is haunting
“Dragged my buddies through hell and the devil only to watch as everything we stood to defend turned to ash and glass. One by one we dropped onto the broken earth for a lost cause. But we gave as good as we got, and made those freaks pay for every bloodied, ash ridden, glassed inch of Reach.”
The artillery barrage began at 0800, on the dot. For the next forty eight hours the guns didn’t stop firing. They blanketed the Szurdok Ridge with more firepower than had been unleashed on the whole of Europe during the Second World War. And not just that, but mortars, rockets, MLRS, pretty much anything that could carry an explosive charge. I swear, I thought the ground beneath was going to crack open and swallow the bastards whole.
First Armored Battalion made contact with the Covenant tanks at 0805. I was driving lead Scorpion of Second Platoon. Each platoon was made up of six Scorpions, four Badgers, two Cobras and a complement of Warthogs. We were ready, man. Ready to get it on.
We hit them with everything we had. Longsword bombers carpet bombed the shit out of the place. We unleashed a wall of fire that God himself would have trembled to behold. It was the single most awe-inspiring display of lethal force I had ever seen.
We should have known we were driving into a trap. The plan had never been to break out of the valley, it had been to draw us in so that the cruiser they’d had hidden in orbit could annihilate the entire strike force. The Covenant were experts in conventional and psychological warfare. They knew how to kill us and they knew how to instill terror in us. When I close my eyes at night…I can still see that cruiser, blotting out the sky, charging up its plasma cannon…
Amazing
I can only hope that one day, some enterprising studio decides to make a game with as much heartfelt storytelling and breathtaking action as the original Halo series. Anything after 4 was a disservice to the franchise, and even 4 was pushing it, but 1-3, ODST, and Reach were the pinnacle of heroic storytelling through the medium of video games.
May we all be so lucky as to experience such a thing for the first time again.
Agreed, after the disappointment of H4, I gave up on the franchise. I tried Halo infinite the other day and it felt like a hollow shell of the originals. They had a dressed up forge world map that made me remember my youth but it was fleeting and felt wrong. I quit it after a few hours.
God, the fact that it ends with the overwhelming sound of yet another Corvette's engines approaching directly overhead.
Sometimes the best stories are where the bad guys win, and when it does happen. It’s always memorable and it hits you the hardest
“We weren’t left behind. we were the vanguard. Reach still stands, if only in our hearts, but let it be known… the planet fell before the marines did.”
"This is cody. I know i'm just here as a technician on reach, but I somehow lived this massacre. I hear the screams of people outside right now, and I'll be joining them soon, so don't forget us. This planet has had millions die for it, so don't you dare forget a single one of em. May god have mercy on me and forgive what I must do now. I didn't secure this pistol for nothing...
*loud bang followed by a heavy thud* "
Just found your stuff today and I love these kinds of videos. Here's my own suggestion: "Zombie" but you're at Yonkers (World War Z) and the hordes are approaching.
Wait I love that idea. Absolutely.
Thats cool. Like battalions of US Army soliders in full chemical dress and BDU as the hoarde approaches and it gets worse every second and more hopeless
Hell yes this is great,
I never hear from Any other world war Z book enthusiast
"The Trooper" but you're fighting to reclaim the land from zack.
Reach broke before the marines broke
You should do one for the humans that stayed to fight the Reapers on Earth in Mass Effect 3.
They were literally getting slaughtered like cattle for months.
Damn dude this is insanely well done. Remember Reach.
"We setup a hasty defensive line outside New Alexandria, with a ragtag assortment of Army, Marine, and Reservist units, all understrength, but knowing what we had to do.
The first orbital bombardment started soon after sunset, the plasma beams cutting through the gloom of night and superheating the air just enough that we could see them light up the horizon like a dozen tiny suns, and it was then that we began to lose hope. That maybe, just maybe, Reach wouldn't make it through that dark night.
Unfortunately for us, that would turn out to be more truth than we'd like."
Missed opportunity at 0:40 to have the needler firing in the background.
What's beautiful is that, even after reach and its surface was glassed to oblivion, people survived reach. I forget where it's mentioned in the extended lore but pockets of the UNSC Army and militias were active and hidden in bunkers and anywhere deep enough to survive.
In the current day of the Halo universe, Reach is in the process of being terraformed again, and the indomitable human will to survive has given life to a dead world.
Let it be known. The guns of reach did not fall silent 🫡
I work on a dusty ass job site doing Tile work and I used my finger on dust to write in big letters on a slab of glass,
“REMEMBER REACH”
I’m almost certain no one understood the reference. 😭
Listening to the radio transmissions in MP of the Beta-red spartan team and the troopers. You really get a sense of how hopeless the situation was. An 11-man Spartan team running straight up into 2 armored covie divisions of 30,000 just to give the men and civilians time to escape. Crazy.
Was a real big fan of Halo in my youth, all the way back when i found a battered copy of Fall of Reach in a thrift store, but didn't have an xbox so i didn't get to play the games themselves until about 3. When i finally got an 360, i was excited to catch up on everything, and burned through up to Reach really quick. The emotional gut punch i felt every time a cutscene ended hit hard, and i don't think I've ever felt that way about a game before or since. Not even Johnson's death in 3 hit me as hard as Noble team.
This got me tearing up more than i expected.
Well done
This sends my mind back to a war I never even fought in. To all the friends I didn't lose, and the battles I never lost.
This video speaks to the true spirit of humanity
iy, we can be total bastards a lot of the time, but in a crisis most of us become heroes to an extent that surprises even ourselves.
"The Humans, I think, knew they were doomed. But where another race would surrender to despair, the Humans fought back with even greater strength. They made the Mimbari fight for every inch of space. In my life I have never seen anything like it. They would weep. They would pray. They would say goodbye to their loved ones. Then throw themselves, without fear, or hesitation, at the very face of death itself. Never Surrendering. No one, who saw them fighting against the inevitable could help but be moved to tears by their courage. Their stubborn nobility. When they ran out of ships, they used guns. When they ran out of guns they used knives, and sticks, and bare hands. They were, magnificent. I only hope that when it is my time, that I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes at the end. They did this for Two. Years. They never ran out of courage. But in the end, they ran out of time."
-Babylon 5 "In the beginning"
Just to think about during Pillar of Autumn mission, you're on your way to deliver the package to Captain Keyes, but you look at the background and see the battle miles away, Scorpion Tanks, Warthogs and Troopers fighting off a distant battle againt the Covenant with their Wraiths and Scarabs, they know full well no matter the outcome of their battle, they will be left behind either way....
“This death is ours, we choose it. And we deny you your victory.”
"Even as the planet burned, the guns of Reach did not fall silent."
“The planet broke before the guard did.”
We need a Halo game where you’re just a marine fighting with your squad. I think it would make for a pretty good story, and a chance for some new gameplay mechanics perhaps large battlefield style levels, completing objectives while fighting your way through with your platoon. The Marines need their time to shine.
I think we need a game like this for every fandom lol. No special abilities, no super soldiers, no main characters already established. Just a Marine in Halo, or something like a normal ass rebel or clone trooper in Star Wars
@@steveystoveythat kind of happened for SW back in the day with the old Battlefront games
Even the ones who made it out alive died on Reach… none of us left the same.
Of all the Halos, nothing is like Reach. In an odd way it felt very fitting, Bungie’s Magnum Opus in gritty storytelling, not shying away from desperation & sheer hopelessness. Humanity comes closest to “extinction” in Halo, than WH40K that treats it as Galactic Fantasy Soap Opera. Factions upon factions with terrible plot armors.
Everyone who died on Reach is and will forever be a Hero of mankind truly the bravest of the UNSC while faced with Certain Death
She grips the steering wheel with white knuckles. Yanks to the left. Swerves around a burning warthog. Yanks to the right. The tyres bump over bodies. She loses control. The car slams into a wall. She feels her left leg snap. The engine hisses. A tyre screeches as it spins. His crying brings her back to consciousness. She jerks around. He isn't hurt. Thank God, the baby belt held! Sobbing with relief, the pain flashes white hot. She cries out, then covers her mouth. A flash of purple light ignites the mist. Growling in the distance. Alien screeching. Aircraft fly low, quick. Fireballs ignite in the sky. A blastwave smashes the car. Glass pricks her cheek. She grits her teeth. She presses a hand agains the door. Screaming, she glares at her dislocated fingers. With her other hand, she heaves on the door. She falls to the ground outside. Its a sewage ditch. Stinks. She adds to it. She presses against the car and lifts herself up with one leg. So damn hard. So damn... purple flashes. Alien grunts. Gunfire. She rips open the back door. Clicks open his baby belt. Soothes his grumpy wails with a desperate smile. Tears streak her dirty face. She bundles him close. His mouth searches for a nipple. She collapses to the ground. A shadow looms. She raises a hand. A soldier! ODST. A sob of relief spasms through her chest. She holds up a hand. Her dislocated fingers. He...shakes his head slowly. She knew it. She'd always known. All the pelicans are gone. She shoots a glance down at Jack. The soldier removes his helmet. She looks up at him. My God, just a boy. She begs with a pleading look. Smiling, nodding, begging. He hesitates, his eyes aching. Slowly raises his rifle. A smile breaks her face. "Thank you" she whispers. Closing her eyes, she kisses Jack's head. Smells his baby smell. Smiling, she releases her nipple to his toothless, hungry mouth. Two gunshots echo into the dull mist. He stares for a long time. It's almost peaceful. No more shouting. No more gunshots. Then, a shadow appears behind him. "C'mon. Covvies are prepping their final assault. You ready?" He nods. He looks over his shoulder at her. The look on her face. He hopes hes smiling when it happens.
Good lord, I hope you're a writer and not just wasting your obvious talent at making idiots like me cry
God this wrecks my heart
"You're on the Noble team... Make it count."
POV: you're the only man who survived on reach.
There were actually a few people that survived the glassing of Reach. They're featured in Halo: FIRST STRIKE, the book that bridges the gap between the end of Halo: Combat Evolved/The Flood and Halo 2.
It's a great book, highly recommend.
"Good luck to you Spartan".
- Captain Keyes
"Yeah, I was there. I actually lived in New Al'. Had a great apartment. I was a firefighter, and man, was that day busy...
So y'know.. when everything happened and the Covenant showed up, it was hell. I don't know if it was the flashing lights on the truck, or the fact that they like.. knew we were first responders, but that hovering tank thing just lobbed a round at us. It blew up beside us, and I was flung out of the truck. Thank God I still had my gear on, it protected me from the fire. That's how I first found out they were using plasma. Plasma just burns a certain way, y'know? Anyway, me and a buddy who was pretty hurt ran to the nearest shop while that thing hovered down the street. The Army showed up though, they were like a block over or something. Had a tank of their own and everything. Then the Marines and those ODST guys showed up an hour later. Me and my buddy had eventually gotten our ways over to the space port, but we ended up staying for a long time. We just got too caught up helping the Army and the Navy with the people. Even if you hated the UNSC, everyone was kinda on one side that day. Crazy to think about now.
You have any other questions? I have a 24-hour shift tomorrow. "
this is why I loved the mission new alexandria, because of all of the backround radio chatter that would add so much to the enviorment
These are so fucking good man, love all of them!
I know I'm late to this, and I know no one will see this so may this fall into the abyss:
Listening to the various voices, it really makes the song feel a lot more raw. They all sound so desperate, and human.
There's one of a youngish sounding guy going "he's bleeding, I don't know what to do" and it's so fucked, and so good? It sort of captures how much of a human struggle Reach was in a way
Hurt being played over the sound of desperate fighting feels more like Halo than the last twelve years of games (and the "Halo" TV show).
The cacophony of war sounds & UNSC COMM Chatter wasn't just the icing on the cake. It was a composition in of itself. It all worked together to achieve a singular purpose: To remind us how hopeless and over it felt for us on Reach. We knew that if Reach fell, Earth would follow. Lasky said it best. We could only react to the Covenant because they were too damn overwhelming. It was simply too much to coordinate our attention everywhere. What would have happened had Earth Fell? Would the Human race have gone nomadic into the farthest reaches of the Galaxy? There were barely any Colony worlds left, so it would be likely we couldn't stay in one place for long. The fact that it took a Schiism and a Flood Wave within the Covenant to give us a decisive edge speaks a lot about our desperation to survive as a species. But, it also speaks to how in response to a need, we can come up with some serious shit. Like, how once we were able to catch our breaths, we could create thousands of Spartans and mass-produce technology (MJOLNIR) that was Hella expensive before.
We all saw our team die on reach. We all stayed behind to fight a last time. We all lost at least one special person on reach.
You all did a good job spartans.
Remember Reach.
When the only objective is “Survive”.
*FORGE'S LAST GOODBYE*
this comment includes spoilers from Halo book - ''Smoke and Shadow'', so if you didn't read it, do so.
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''Hey, kiddo.'' His words lodge in his throat, his expression searching, looking for the right way to begin. But there are no good words for this, no good way to say what he needs to. So he shrugs, there's nothing he can do now. ''I'm out of time, Lucy... This war, it's coming on hard and fast..''
"When you see this, you'll be older. I told Serina to wait. Don't be mad about that. Little you doesn't need to grow up with this on her shoulders. But...'' He shakes his head; a muscle ticks in his jaw. He is struggling. ''Can't go without saying good-bye. We have a deal, you and me. Always be straight with each other. I'm not going to back out of it now.''
''Without a reactor, Spirit will drift a while before she's found or makes it back home. Serina will hold on to this message and make sure you get it when enough time passes. She and Cutter promised me that.''
He looks away and rubs his jaw again, ''Look, kiddo.. What we're facing.. It doesn't look good. There's a fleet of alien ships here. Tech like we've never seen before. If it falls into the wrong hands, we're done for. You, your mom, your granddad, Aunt Jill - everyone. So I'm doing my part, okay? This is what it takes. This is a sacrafice I knew came with the job.''
''You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Never doubt that. Never think that what I do now means I don't love you, cuz, kid.. I swear my heart is full.'' His eyes turn glassy. He knows that and gives them a quick swipe. The next part seems to hurt him the most. ''You're going to be one hell of a lady. I'm already proud of the person I know you'll be.''
He stops, and his breath is shaky as he tries to get a hold of himself before looking back into the camera, ''So this is good-bye. I'm so sorry. I hope one day you can forgive me for leaving you. Until then, chin up, shoulders straight, and you never, ever be afraid of to take life by the horns and make it what you want it to be.'' He gives a sharp nod, kisses his fingers, and then slaps them onto the camera lens.
It's so sad that Noble 6 and the rest of Noble Team's contributions to humanity's survival are so classified, that no one will ever know about their sacrifice and no one will honor them. Not even the chief knows. Halsey, June know. But they're not ones to talk.
amen
There is a museum dedicated to the war. They had the statue of Nobel team as a memorial. They took off Nobel 6's statue due to his past. Probably just gave him a platue.
When you're in a no win situation all you get to do is decide how you face it. Do you just give up because you can't win or do you give everything you have left to give?
The first time i played Reach, i was going in blind. I knew nothing about it aside from it being before Halo 1. That alone had me guessing at the end, but on that final mission, seeing the Pillar of Autumn in its berth prepping to leave, i knew how it was going to end, and I'll admit it made me laugh. I dont know why, but it did, and it's one of those things i think im going to remember for a long time.
I’d wager you laughed because you subconsciously never believed that would happen. Lol
Same, it introduced me to the gritty world of what sci fi can be, and the messages that it can send, I remember being so anxious whenever a cut scene was about to play because I was afraid of a jump scare. But as time moves on, I became less afraid, because what’s the point of shivering in fear, everyone in that world was afraid, so a 10-11 year old boy just needed to be brave.
"Negative, I have the gun. Good luck Sir."
"Good luck to you Spartan."
This vudeo is do well done! The radio chatter capped off with Johnny Cash! Chef's kiss
“‘Well uhh I don’t have the same tales of bravery as other units I was in the 82ND AA deployed 20ish klicks from sword base, 2 days before sword fell my company was told we would be last unit out, I rember seeing a group of locals walk by with old earth hunting rifles and we gave them some of the MA40s and MA3s around. We dropped into a abandoned spaceport on the other side planet who knows how many miles from the city’s which were about to glassed if not already turned into a racetrack. we fended off around 10 companies of jackals and grunts before what the Helljumpers captain or gunny or whatever his men called him called “ a rare dosage of zealot split jaws” ran at us with just plasma pistols and grenades, right after the ODSTs were taken off, we saw only 3 falcons get out with 1 being shut down between max local radio and long range radio. We were going to be pulled off on the next ship but a platoon of marines arrived with only 10ish men all loaded onto one warthog with one of them tied on top of the “cockpit”, we gave them a spot on the transport but there master sergeant who was missing an arm said his unit could make it for a few more hours. 2 more ships leave and there both shot down with a total of 3 escape pods actually making down we think, still don’t know. We all got on after there was a break in weather something about broken arrow on red team or something else. We got out and split up at Cryo station,marines stayed and we were deployed to New Albany so that we could scope out the Kig Yar. We survived the war of course but man the time between hearing reach fell and earth was attacked felt like 3 minutes for us,I lost people in Jacob’s field and Detroit.
this reminds me of the radio chatter from the Modern Warfare 2 campaign, during the Russian invasion. If you haven't watched a video of that, i would highly recommend it. It was a time where studios actually cared about the game they were making, not just making a quick cash grab
I believe the person who made this chatter (not me, see pins) took heavy inspiration from MW2!
Stand strong marines! Hold the line! This planet will break before we do!
Hold Fast Boys! Wait till we see the whites of their eyes!
Oo-rah!
This has been one of my most favorite songs of all time, thank you for using it.