Earth

“We ran from them. They followed. We thought they’d never find us… we were wrong.”

-Cortana

Despite the precautions of the Cole Protocol, the Covenant eventually discovered Earth. Subsequently, the Covenant set out to “glass” the planet, or blast the planet with such an intense b0mbardment that its surface would turn to glass. In what proved to be a historical move, the elite separatists led by The Arbiter formed an uneasy alliance with humanity and began to fight alongside their new allies.

In the midst of the fighting, a portal to The Ark, also known as Installation 00, was discovered in the small African village of Voi. While the entirety of The Covenant forces were sent through the portal, about half of the human forces went through. The other half remained behind to fight the Flood. The Battle of Installation 00 had begun.