Only two days had passed. By the afternoon of September 12, 2552, something new had finally happened on Reach, which had been peaceful for nearly half a month...
After a major battle in Sector 04, the UNSC survivors had successfully destroyed the Halo and foiled some of the Covenant's and certain monsters' evil schemes. They included John-117, a Spartan-II Master Chief; three members of Noble Team—Carter, George, and Emile; a certain highly intelligent AI named Cortana; Sergeant Avery Johnson; an ODST lieutenant colonel; several Helljumpers; and a lucky Pelican pilot. At last, they had successfully returned to Reach.
Naturally, after detecting a slipspace rupture and seeing a Covenant warship dare to land on Reach, some UNSC Marines and Geth forces on the planet had quietly surrounded the ship's landing site. They planned to wait for the enemy to come out, then rush in and seize the ship so they could obtain useful intelligence, such as the Covenant's important navigation databases.
But who could have expected...
Before they could burst out of their hiding places and overwhelm the enemies foolish enough to come swaggering to Reach to get themselves killed, they were astonished to see through their binoculars that the people walking down the ramp of the Covenant warship were UNSC soldiers.
Among them, there seemed to be several familiar figures wearing the distinctive Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor used by Spartan warriors.
So Noble Two, Three, and Six, who had also taken part in the ambush, along with a little girl who had been so bored with nothing to do that she just had to come and watch, emerged from their hiding place. They drove two Warthogs toward the Covenant ship's landing site...
"That's..."
"Fantastic! It's that little one and the other three members of Noble Team. I can't believe they're