On August 13, at 8:07 p.m., the Covenant's CSO-class supercarrier appeared alongside the Valorous Prudence fleet's flagship, Long Night of Solace, and ceased trying to stay hidden. The Covenant invasion of Reach had finally become open and all-out.
Naturally, caught completely off guard, the UNSC Command and Reach's defenses had been unprepared. The tide of battle turned sharply against them, plunging them into the worst possible situation—the one they had feared and least wanted to see!
In just over thirty hours, the Covenant had completely routed and wiped out the UNSC's attacking forces. The ground forces the UNSC had deployed suffered heavy losses, while the Covenant seized the canyon ridges at Viery and all the surrounding key locations, including the former UNSC assault force's headquarters and control center. They then began launching scattered probing attacks on nearby areas, including the city of New Alexandria.
With the situation this dire and no way to turn things around, the six Spartans of Noble Team had gritted their teeth, pulled back from the battlefield, and taken refuge in a cave like this one to make urgent repairs and discuss what to do next.
"Everyone!"
"Latest update: the UNSC has confirmed that Reach's situation really is even worse than we imagined! Those spires aren't just cloaking devices for Covenant bases; they also conceal Covenant supercarriers and serve as teleportation towers for Covenant ground forces. They pose an extremely serious threat to Reach."
"But there's some good news, too. The UNSC has alerted every planet and colony. Nearly sixty percent of the fleet is now rushing back to Reach from its deployment zones. The first UNSC battlegroup will arrive within forty-eight hours."
At last, after delivering a string of official-sounding nonsense, the dumb AI Auntie Dot managed to relay a "good" piece of news—not exactly