Halo: Reach

=== Setting and characters ===
Reach takes place in a futuristic science fiction setting; the year is 2552, shortly before the events of the video game Halo: Combat Evolved, and during the events of the novel Halo: The Fall of Reach. Halo: Reach largely ignores the canon and timeline of events established in the novel, leading to several plot inconsistencies in the franchise. Humans, under the auspices of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), have been waging a long war against a collective of alien races known as the Covenant. By the events of Reach, almost all of humanity's interstellar colonies have fallen. Reach itself is an Earth-like colony that serves as the UNSC's main military hub in the system of Epsilon Eridani. The colony is home to over 700 million civilians in addition to the military presence there.
The game follows the actions of "Noble Team", a UNSC special operations unit composed of elite supersoldiers known as Spartans. Players assume the role of a new addition to the team identified by the call sign Noble Six. Noble Team's leader is Carter-A259, a no-nonsense soldier. His second-in-command, Catherine-B320 (referred to by other team members as "Kat"), has a bionic arm; together, Carter and Kat are the only remaining original members of Noble Team. The other current members include heavy weapons specialist and surviving Spartan-II Jorge-052, assault specialist Emile-A239, and marksman Jun-A266.

Plot

Noble Six meets the rest of Noble Team, shortly before they are dispatched to investigate why a communications relay has gone offline. They discover Covenant forces have invaded Reach. The team is relocated to defend Sword Base, an Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) installation, from a Covenant assault. After repelling the attack, Noble Team meets Catherine Halsey, a scientist and the mastermind behind the Spartan program and their MJOLNIR powered armor. Halsey enquires about Noble's engagement at the relay, suspecting that the Covenant were attempting to retrieve highly classified ONI data from the site.
Jun and Six discover an invasion force gathering on the planet. The UNSC launches an assault the next morning to repel the invasion. Noble Team assists the strike force, targeting key artillery stations and command posts. A cloaked Covenant supercarrier reveals itself; lacking a conventional weapon to destroy the carrier, Jorge and Six smuggle a slipspace engine onto a Covenant corvette en route to refuel at the carrier. With the timer damaged, Jorge drops Six out of the hangar of the corvette, remaining behind to detonate the engine manually and destroy the carrier. Another Covenant fleet arrives soon afterwards.
Back on the surface, Six assists with city defense and civilian evacuation and reunites with Noble Team, but Kat is killed by a Covenant sniper. Recalled to Sword Base for a scorched earth demolition mission, Noble Team is redirected underground by Halsey to an ancient alien artifact, which she believes is vital to winning the war against the Covenant. Noble Team is entrusted with transporting the artificial intelligence Cortana and her data on the artifact to the UNSC ship Pillar of Autumn, docked at a shipyard. Jun leaves the team to escort Halsey to safety.
En route to the Pillar of Autumn, Carter is wounded and sacrifices himself to allow Six and Emile to reach the shipyard. Emile uses a mass driver emplacement to defend the Autumn against enemies while Six gives Cortana to Autumn's captain, Jacob Keyes. When Emile is killed, Six remains behind to operate the gun and ensure Autumn's escape. Cortana, using the data from the alien artifact, leads the Autumn to a Halo ringworld, leading to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved. In a post-credits scene, Six fights a last stand against overwhelming Covenant forces. In 2589, Six's helmet remains on the grassy plains of a now-restored Reach. A narration by Halsey eulogizes Noble Team, who enabled humanity's victory over the Covenant.