Reach had finally fallen.

The colony Reach, as seen from space, was total, depressing, hell. Seen from space, what was once a beautiful, heavily-populated landscape was filled with darkness. The surface was just a wispy-yet-thick orange, burned to extreme temperatures beyond imagination. Even the sky and the atmosphere appeared to be on fire.

That was nothing, however, compared to the surface. It looked like a moon-sized volcano had erupted and the magma desecrated everything in it's path. In addition to the terrain itself being soiled, there was all sorts of wreckage. Depending on your location, you could see numerous buildings; what wasn't melted was severely damage, and every square inch was torn up, blown apart and on fire. In addition, there were dozens of destroyed ships from both factions involved in this disastrous conflict, both on the ground and up in space, obliterated fragments from destroyed frigates circled the planet like an asteroid belt. The most relatively intact ship on the was a United Nations Space Command (UNSC) Frigate that had crashed at the base of a two-peaked mountain.

And lying in the dust near this ship, was a beaten-up, cracked helmet...

July 24, 2552

SPARTAN supersoldier B312 sat in the sideseat of his M12 FAV transport, looking into his helmet, which he was holding. He wore an EVA helmet; first issued to him back when he was a starfighter pilot, and it had a beautiful, shiny silver visor, which he modified himself. After he finished cleaning his helmet, he put it back on, and as the Warthog transporting him neared it's destination, he looked around outside. Of course there were still the two UH-144 Falcon helicopters that were escorting them, and looking around, he noticed that this area was cloudy, wet, grassy, lush and mountainous-he knew he was almost to the base.

When the Falcons landed and the Warthog reached the base, B312 hopped out, and the Warthog drove to it's next destination. As B312 walked to the command building; unknown to him, another SPARTAN, clad in dark green armor sat in one of the nearby Falcon's seats, inserting high-caliber rounds into a magazine, while watching B312 with interest.

When B312 made it to the command building, the sliding doors opened, and he took a survey of everyone else in the room; all were SPARTAN IIIs like himself. The first one that caught his eye was a steel-and-brick colored SPARTAN, who was sharpening a curved kukri knife against his big, Security shoulder plate. He was wearing an EVA helmet, but unlike B312's, it had a different attachment, plus there was a skull design scratched onto the visor, presumably carved with his kukri. The carving SPARTAN looked up, and he and B312 made eye contact, but then a robotic arm suddenly moved in front of B312, which startled him greatly. The owner was a smaller, young woman, probably in her mid-to-late 20's, with short black hair and light blue armor.

"Commander", the woman stated, and two other SPARTANs turned around from their computer station. One wore a lot of armor from the "Commando" variant, had dark blue and grey armor, and was the same height as B312. Right away he knew that this guy was the leader of the group. The other SPARTAN, however was huge, and not because of his large armor. He was very tall and muscular; heck, he must've been a SPARTAN-II! He had an impressive mustache and stubble, and was a bit darker skinned than the commander and the robotic-armed woman.

"So that's our new #6...", the SPARTAN-II said. At first B312 couldn't for the life of him figure out what that meant, but then he remembered: he was now part of SPARTAN Noble Team, one of the UNSC's most elite, amazing special-operations group. So this meant that not only is his new callsign "Noble 6", but it was alright; catchy, easy to remember.

Then the other EVA SPARTAN spoke up, this time to the woman. "Kat; you read his file?" Well, at least Noble 6 knew one of these guys' names. Kat replied. "Only the parts that weren't covered in black ink." Ignoring the current conversation, the commander turned back to his screen, continuing his mission briefing with the leader of Noble Team, the UNSC Army Colonel Urban Holland. "...Anyone claim responsibility sir?"

"ONI believes it might be the local Insurrection. 5 months ago they pulled a similar job on Harmony. Hit a relay to take out our eyes and ears and stole two freighters from a dry dock. That cannot happen here; Reach is too damn important. I want that relay back online Noble 1." "Sir, consider it done", the SPARTAN replied. "Then I'll see you on the other side; Holland out."

After the conference ended, the SPARTAN turned to face Noble 6. "Lieutenant..." "Commander. Sir!" The SPARTAN then introduced himself: "I'm Carter, Noble Team's leader." Looking towards the rest of the group, who were standing up, he said, "That's Kat, Noble 2, Emile and Jorge; 4 and 5." Hm. Interesting, cool, unique names; they definitely match the striking, amazing armor. Carter continued. "You're riding with me, Noble 6."

As the team walked out the door to the Falcons, Carter resumed. "I'm not gonna lie to you, Lieutenant; you're stepping into some shoes the rest of the squad would rather leave unfilled. Me, I'm just glad to have Noble back up to full strength. Just one more thing: I've seen your file. Even the parts that the ONI sensors didn't want me to. That 'lone-wolf' stuff stays behind. Clear?" "Got it sir!" The green SPARTAN, who had introduced himself as "Jun", was sitting next to 6.

"Welcome to Reach..." Jun remarked.