The Fall of Reach: The UNSC's Darkest Hour
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- Опубліковано 18 чер 2024
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/ @pancreasnowork9939
Reach has been found. And it won't hold.
0:00 - Intro
1:31 - Prelude
4:11 - Siege of Reach
9:32 - Things Are Getting Bad
13:07 - The End
18:12 - Conclusion
19:09 - Halsey Sucks
Music:
Halo: Reach - Winter Contingency
Halo: CE - A Walk in the Woods
Halo 3: ODST - We're The Desperate Measures
Halo 3: Warthog Run, Sierra 117, Halo Reborn - Ігри
I don’t have anything to say for the pinned comment so have this ua-cam.com/video/tLt-TBiA62c/v-deo.html
Erbus did nothing wrong
Hey can we have a video going over how the Covenant and Forerunners would fair in the Star Trek universe ( I'd go with the Star Trek Online version as the lore is better) do not include the Flood as it's a foregone conclusion they'd win.
Borg showing up in 40k could be cool
@@IDKIDK-eg5jj Borg effectively the Flood of Star Trek.
@@pov-aliogator unlike Magnus
ONI being a mix of bafflingly evil and strangely incompetent at times is the most realistic thing about this setting.
Almost like Actually shady intelligence agencies, also ONI beat out the CIA
I want to imagine they have a ridiculously long list of their assassination attempts on Thel Vadam similar to the CIA's on Fidel Castro
Because it is based on American Intelligence agencies.
@Dahrkvulf FU
It *is* an American intelligence agency, look it up.
@@Arkancide intelligence agencies in general really
Remember Reach.
I forgor💀
They say as the planet finally cracked, the glow of weapons fire could still be seen as guardsmen stood defiant until the end
@@ian5395 now i remember, it was "Planet cracked before the UNSC did" Right?
Reach for what?
@@davf5915 Reach was glass before the Army gave up.
So little thing on six's last stand, the Elite squad sent to kill them wern't just any old elite squad, they were a complete squad of Elite Generals, the highest field rank of a species solely promoted through kill count. The squad sent to kill them was the covenant equivelent of a full set of spartan II's each close to blue team's level and six still killed multiple of them while dying and one of their last acts was to kill one of them in a single punch. God I love just how badass that last stand was thanks for dedicating an entire segment to it.
Specifically they were, based on their colors, the same group of relic hunters and spartan killers from throughout the game. You managed to kill a couple of them, but both Kat and Emile were killed by members of their order. And even in the end it too several to take 6 down
He doesn’t kill on by punching it. The punch is just enough to disable the shield.
@@DocLeQuack one falls over dead from the last shooting part before the melee. But yeah the punch does nothing
He/She doesn't kill the split-lip by punching it, but they do knock it down with its shields disabled and then summarily execute the fucker
@@thewerdna Six took down everyone before dying of his wounds.
They avenged their squad in the end.
I’m just now realizing that there isn’t a single main individual antagonist in Halo Reach. It’s just a horde of Covenant and somehow it tops 90% of every Halo media ever made.
You could say that thel vadamee is after the second half of the game, but is more of a hidden antagonist most like halo ce
It’s not really the story of Six, or even the story of Noble Team. It’s the story of Reach, as witnessed by Six. The enemy is the Covenant army as a whole, not really any one member.
From a certain point of view that would be Rho 'Barutame and by extension his Devoted Sentries that are speculated to have hunted down Noble Team after he was killed in Long Night of Solace's destruction.
It's a whole other thing entirely.
The Elite Zealots from the first mission are the clossest to antagonists. They killed Kat and Emile, and every time you see a zealot in the campaign, they are from that squad
its just that the 10% includes halo CE, 2,3 and ODST. I.e all good halo games
As my first Halo game knowing nothing about Halo going in I remember saying “Why the fuck can’t we just win!?”
That only makes playing the other games in order a proper comeback haha!
Congrats. You just had the authentic UNSC experience up to that point.
@Bongibot with this situation, playing the other games would basically be like playing as the lamenters from wh:40k, just not stop getting ur shit pushed in a as u try to make any progress 😂
Skill Based Matchmaking bro, that shit got worse in the 2550s
@@jewgiengaming5033 more like reach is the lamenters, then a single Ultramarine shows up and wins the day
I could use like 2 sentences to describe the entire experience of the UNSC on reach.
"We've won the battle, this is a turning point in the war!"
"Yo shit is that more covenant?"
More like "and then, despite the humans winning the ground war, the covenant glassed the planet"
@@BirdRaiserE I don’t think the unsc won this ground battle… going off the fact outside of evacuated personnel and the POA EVERYONE present at reach that was part of the unsc died
@@Gold-qn4dv I meant more in general than at Reach
@@BirdRaiserE funnily enough they didn’t win often, even on the ground they often got shat on
@@BirdRaiserE Even on the ground, humanity lost almost every battle. It was certainly far closer, though.
The full time between the pillar of autumn mission and the final mission was actually 9 days. He survived for over a week against the covenant
Imagine getting your ass handed to you for nine days by one guy who is just too pissed to croak
Man that explains why they sent a full team of the highest field rank elite just to kill that one guy, useless in the end, since as we all know... Spartans never die
Did he not take out an entire covenant army group during his last stand, which was why they had to send a full team of their best troops because he was just bleeding them of troops and the situation was fucking ridiculous
@@goodgammer3978They also glassed the surroundings so he couldn't get out of there anymore because well, the ground around was radioactive molten glass and lava.
@user-xx7kl7sr6i meh just an orbital glassing beam from a destroyer 6 could easily take 10 of those
The split mountain in the background with Noble 6s Helmet damaged but still intact is such a statement. You can break us but never our spirit
“The Mountain split before the Marines did!”
"Tickle us, do we not laugh, prick us, do we not bleed. Kill us, do we not die... wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
I remember trying to "win" the last mission so badly. Like if somehow I could just keep killing things we would get a different ending..
supposedly if you last long enough a covenant ship just glasses your ass
@@MothFable which is the canon ending
@@PeachDragon_ 6 dying to the elite.
@@MothFable the canon ending for six is dying because of the glassing because no dumbass split lip could take him down and i Will not accept contrasting opinions
@@PeachDragon_ I feel the same way man. I like to believe he gave them so much trouble that after their army was slain they had to glass him. Sadly bungo has confirmed this to be non canon
Pancreasnowork: _mentions ODST_
Me: "You deserved better, Rookie..." 😢😢😢
Not much they could do. I mean if they made him an actual character people would rant and yell like children
Why did you go to Draco III, Rookie.. why?! 😭
@@forwarduntodawn. the insurrection must be stop
@@mariobadia4553 Like Hell we would.
@@JL32506 yeah he would have to take that helmet off onscreen at some point and look how well that did the Halo show. People freaked out when they saw a master chief that doesn't live inside his armor. If they gave the rookie and actual name and background people would lose their minds because it would go against the head Cannon they have for who he is
One scene that's always stuck with me more than any other from this game was the conversation between Kat and Carter whete Kat goes "I know we're losing, I want to know if we've lost."
Idk if you ever managed to get the "score 150,000 points in lone wolf achievement, but it really does feel pretty crazy taking out basically a whole army in your last stand
and a pain in the butt as well.
Lore accurate Noble Six. Like, he actually did that.
@@forwarduntodawn. And the most tragic part is that for the Covenant, that was basically a random statistic of the invasion.
"We have lost hundreds of warriors to take out that final human"
"Ah. Well, enlist several thousands more to replace them, it shouldn't take long."
The Covenant war machine was just that scary.
@NolDragon yup. One thing that many fail to understand is that each member race of the covenant was more than humans in terms of population.
Humans were out numbered 50:1
The fact we held our ground as we did was why thr elites were like. Umm can the humans join us because they are def worthy.
And the prohpits are like NO AND UR A HERARICS SO LETS HAVE A CIVIL WAR.
@@NolDragoncovenant were so op
This is a certified
**
moment
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RIP Thomas Reach, gone but not forgot big guy
Thomas Reach was never killed, he is missing in action.
who?
@@sorcierenoire8651 Thomas Reach, main character in Reach
@Sorcière Noire I've never heard of "Thomas Reach" before but I'm gonna guess its a joke based on the "John [insert franchise name]" joke, and the fact that the original Noble 6 was named Thomas, who died before the events of Reach, our spartan was his replacement
@@iamk7567are you talking about John halo?
I love how the lone Wolf mission really does only end when they kill you. There is no fade2black that last cutscene does not play until the covenant actually kills you. I have kept that mission going for hours it is a blast.
Did you know that each squad member has an ironic death?
Emile is a close combat expert and is stabbed in the back.
Kat is a technical expert as is killed because of a technical malfunction.
George is a demolitions expert and dies in an explosion. (Also wanted to die on Reach but died just outside it.
Commander Carter goes down with his ship.
Noble 6 is a human player that must lose the last mission no matter how good they are.
Noble 6 also known as a “Lone Wolf” Dies Alone
Did you know Viggo Mortensen actually broke his toe
Jun the sniper, isnt seen again.
@@KampzOnXbox Long Range expert keeps a distance from Reach and survives (He’s seen again in the books)
He trained the 4s
If any of you haven't seen it, an animator called SODAZ did a fuckin' FANTASTIC animation following the war on reach a few weeks back. Highly recommended looking then up, it gives halo more justice than 343 ever did
I just watched it. You weren't wrong. That was so well directed, paced, timed with music. How crazy is it that these days so many fan films just fucking dominate over AAA releases?
Right? It was the little things for me, like the army, ODST and Spartans working together, Spartans covering the ODSTs bodily, like a pride of lions working together with a pack of wolves. Hell, even just the Gungir Spartan hopping off a warthog and watching it tilt back and giving him actual weight. The music choices, letting the humans get some wins but then showing us them fall, all with enough emotional gravitas.
SODAZ also did a fantastic STALKER video a few months back too, and if you search 'SODAZ 40K' you'll see reposts of his older videos showing off Kriegers (which he took down because dumbasses gave him flak for signing a GW NDA, back when GW were full swing in eliminating fan animations).
They did a fantastic job. Crazy how fans seem to understand the feeling of halo more than companies with millions in resources
It's just someone who loves the series putting some soul and effort into it, compared to millions of dollars but a crew who are just there for a job and have little to no knowledge about source material. Passion always beats profit, they just conflict in these matters sadly.
@@Nomadith GW didn't remove any fan animation to my knowledge, the only thing that they did was make the update to community guidelines in which said that they would "have zero tolerance for fan animations" and then did nothing
One thing I really love about Reach actually stems from that "From the beginning, you know the end" marketing. Going through mission after mission, taking L after L, always fighting a losing battle, but knowing once you need to get Cortana to the Pillar of Autumn - that's victory right there. You get here there, then take over te mass driver and destroy wave after wave of phantoms, banshees, and finally a whole covenant ship, letting the PoA take off. Cutscene starts, then roll credits...except credits don't roll. A new mission starts up, a new objective: survive. For how long, against how many? You don't know. But fight and fight you do, until eventually, your visor cracks, eventually, you fall, only to ask the question: how long do I need t survive for something cool to happen? Is there a secret ending, a hidden cutscene, just a small easter egg? No, none of those things, nd we spent hours and hours there back in the day just trying to kill as many covenant as possible, survive as long as possible, on every difficulty from easy to legendary. Rumors abounded, people completely made stuff up.
But it really does encapsulate the rest of the game and the whole of humanity's struggle against the covenant. There is no "winning" on Lone Wolf. There's only holding out as long as you can, hoping for a victory that you can't be certain exists, taking as many as you can with you. And it's a nice, poetic capstone to the rest of the game. We know what Cortana, Chief, and co do, but for just a moment, you're given a taste of hope that this isn't the end for Noble 6. This isn't the end for Reach...only to finally fall, the only measure of victory the covenant bodies laying in the dirt with you.
And a severely missed opportunity by Bungie to add a very badass Easter egg... Like I don't know... Noble 6 going and capturing the prophet of truth and reconciliation for I don't know surviving a ridiculous amount of enemies...
Like just how many truly glorious opportunities that are constantly missed.....
Why... Because Bungie had a story to tell.... Didn't want to deal with the insperational back last and left it to a brand new company... So no shit the narrative hit the gutter... Bungie left it in a terrible place... Why do you think people don't talk about destiny... Because of that same fear.... That Bungie will just go....
"Time to drop it.... It's getting to much attention"
And begin projects on a different game entirely in a different setting...
Because... Let's be honest... Bungie can pull a narrative structure out their asses... But never truly finished a narrative... Halo 4 was beautiful.... And then everything started falling apart... As their was no real... Clear idea on how to move forward...
Well I have an idea...
Noble 6 survived... And the forunners have a lot more future tech for us to think of and give purpose....
For that is what humanity is.... Is the apex predator of the setting... Like literally...
Went through evolution twice....
The covenant did not.... Same with the forunners...
The only difference... Is that the forunners got wronged by humanity by accident then set them back to the stone age technology wise...
Then realized what humanity was protecting the rest of the Galaxy from... A little to late... As the flood had already imbedded itself in the minds of the weak... And where working on defiling the more stronger minds... All because the forerunners prevented humanity.. from continuing to contain an otherwise completely uncomfortable asset's...
I mean was it not... An ai created by the advanced artificial technology that was made by humanity at the time....
Yes forunners may have had advantage of prison tech...
But humanities research and development... We're only second to none....
@@falloutfable1049 I feel like you’re missing the driving point of Reach’s story. There never was going to be a triumphant victory for Noble Team, they were and always will be outcasts created for the explicit purpose of going on suicide missions and succeeding no matter the cost. In a sense they did succeed, the trio that would go on to take down the Covenant survived Reach because of Noble Team’s efforts, though none of them were ever going to see it. The reality is that victory comes at a cost, for thirty years humanity has been paying for it and the fall of Reach was their biggest sacrifice to date. There was no other way, mankind would survive, but for that to happen they needed to die. The Spartans understood to severity of their mission and carried out their duties to the bitter end. Reach is a tragedy, the lowest point for humanity, a scene of despair and desperation so profound, and yet hope burns still. Even as the Covenant overpower you and cut you down there is a strange feeling of triumph within you. You, your comrades, and the entire planet died on that day, but the spark of hope that you nurtured would one day burn bright enough to tear the very foundations of the Covenant asunder before a defiant humanity. As far as I stand the story is as it should be.
@@EnigmaEnginseer and I don't disagree with you... I'm just saying... Their are many different ways for the stories to be told... For instance... Noble team the entire team... Besides noble 3 died... And noble 3 has to be the only one that has to make up for it when the time comes...
Or...
Noble 6 and all the other Spartan 3's and 2's that where left behind with the last command...
"Survive"
Yeah the Spartan 2's would be "likely"
But ultimately...
I should just say...
"That could be the storie that reached the light"
Because just imagine the ethical reintegration of noble 6...
A battle hardened veteran... Abandoned by the very same people who thought there was no hope...
I don't know about you... But that sounds pretty... Tantalizing to think about...
What it would take... To survive all the covenant has to offer...
Then I realized... That's exactly what John -117 is doing...
So who is to say...
As the star is bright...
"Their is always a shadow casted by it's light"
And also...
Thank you for putting it into words I don't have to anymore...
I have understood this from the beginning... But just like how you like the morality implications of a doomed planet... Dieing... For humanity to survive... I understand... For it would most definitely be as you said...
But again... As it is extremely good...
What about the shadows casted by that light...
And maybe...
"Something could emerge from the shadows... That belongs to humanity"
(Noble 6 Incase you didn't get it... And any others with a slight possibility of survival... For they would adapt to take after the master chief... The Spartan 2's that is... While Spartan 3's would most likely abandon the light casted by John 117 and take up the fire spread by noble 6...
And the odst unit's would be caught between a rock and a hard place...
As they would have witnessed the sheer division in the tactics of the two very different... Very much the same Spartans...
Spartan 2's taking up the roles of commanders...
And Spartan 2's providing the bruising of the military force
All while odst's and unsc foot soilders where taking on final directives... Then attempting to join the Spartans with taking the fight to the covenant
Or attempting to re join the original fleat... And getting lost in their wake...
Because of the shenanigans of the didactic...
And flood... And what not...
Need I say more... And about what... Because I will... Just ask me....)
@@EnigmaEnginseer might I add as well...
The Spartan 3's
"Are still growing"
And Spartan 2's have stunted their growth... And it is showing in halo infinity... Do we not realize..
"Humanity is not the only one adapting"
What happens when research... Turns to
"Just another invasion"
Then turns to...
"A problem"
You get the banished...
And the banished are severely underestimated...
I mean think about it...
Brutes almost met the Spartans in strangeth to begin with...
And this is just explaining the evolutionary Prosses...
But yes I will admit... The...
"Execution"
Was pretty fucking bad...
Like yeah...
Halo reach was extremely good about what it was...
Same for basically anything Bungie
"Did"
Just wondering if the stories...
"Are going to be expanded on"
I don't really care about the cash grab... People will do what people do...
I'm just wondering if Thier going to miss opportunity when it's so clearly left right there to be done...
And all they need to do...
Is listen to what is being said...
And just
"Do"
Like how me and you are right here discussing it...
Hits even harder watching SODAZ’s Reach animation. Right when you think it’s all over, you see the anti-air MAC spin up, the familiar piano keys drop, and you see the PoA rise up into the air.
And in spite of all the pain you just experienced, all the grief for these new Spartans you just got to know over the course of just a few minutes, all the reopened wounds for your old memories of Noble Team, you inevitably end up thinking:
“It was all worth it….”
The Covenant was so powerful that they could destroy PNG files just by existing.
Reach is the epitome of wining battles but losing the war. A lot of tactical or even strategic victories but never decisive. The covenant suffered extreme losses but the UNSC lost most of the Spatans, Military ppersonnel (I.e. army troopers), most of the entire Fleet, and almost all of HIGHCOM.
The war was won by luck and sacrifice.
That's why it was so imperative to capture a prophet. No matter what damage the UNSC did it would never be enough to seriously set back the Covenant. And prior to the Halo that looked like the only thing that they could use to end the war.
@@acua3I do actually believe that the UNSC could have won the war conventionally. It’s a theory I’ve put together over 15 years and believe it or not humanity actually had a shot
@@Aden_III They did not, the covenant could have steamrolled earth on Halo 3 if they wanted to you know?
@@agentc7020 You only read my comment to respond, not to understand.
Of course they couldn’t win in 2552. But at the start of the war, knowing what we know now of what the covenant is, what the Prophets were doing to hide the war from prying government eyes, and how the Elites were questioning the war everytime the casualty figures came back, we can conclude that had humanity inflicted enough casualties, held enough ground, and used the tactics of Admiral Cole, Commander Keyes, and Spartan Fhajad, then the UNSC could make the war so costly to the Covenant that they internally begin to question the war sooner rather than later.
It’s very doable, if not an outright win then a political one
@@agentc7020 that was mostly because of their ships and over-whelming man power. 1 on 1 the UNSC would win most ground battles. But that doesnt mean much when you have a carrier start glassing your position
My favorite detail in reach are the squad of zealot elites you fight in the first mission if you pay attention they follow noble team through out the game picking them off one by one.
The one who shot Kat from the phantom was one of the elite zealots hunting them.
Is that confirmed?
@@peterstamerra445 yes it is the elites even kill emile and im pretty sure the phantom in pillar of Autumn begging foloowing carters pelican and at the end when destroying keyes escort pelica are the same
@@peterstamerra445 Yup, although it's only the Field Marshal that escapes the first mission with his squad, the 2 zealots, staying to cover his escape (and die). He shows up again to snipe Kat and then makes his only gameplay appearance in the second to last mission. He's the zealot with the fuel rod between you and the big gun. Another shows up for 6's death cutscene so there are more than one, but I think the 3 encounters are the same guy.
@@wavetactics13 Did we get to kill them all by the end of the game? I can't remember.
@@Laneous14 Emile kills 2 of them and you shoot another before killing the martial
I'm glad we can all agree Tip of the Spear's opening is one of the greatest cutscenes ever created.
Seeing The UNSC Grafton getting shot down by The Long Night Of Solace was epic at that part of The cutscene
Almost gives you hope that it can be different this time.
@@RicardoPerez-rz8puit was high courage
5:30 “if it moved and had a gun on it, it was thrown at the Covenant to get them off the planet”
My favorite part of that cutscene was seeing (what my family affectionately called) “The Little Mongoose That Could” among all the Warthogs. Little guy looked so awesome charging down the battlefield amongst Wraith artillery. 🥰
Haha, I always notice him in that cutscne
Legend says that its still charging at wraith batteries to this day.
@@Peusterokos1maybe he survives, makes it off Reach to earth and is one of the fellas with bazookas on Mongeese taking down a scarab with you.
Reach was the second (and final) Halo game I beat with my mom, who got me into Halo in the first place, so naturally Reach makes me feel more than a little nostalgic. It never occurred to a 10-year-old me that I was playing a game filled with despair until way later.
Cool mom 👍
Really cool mom
Gamer mom
-“THE PLANET BROKE BEFORE THE GUARD DID!!”-
“NOT EVEN THE PLANET BROKE!!”
Reach. Remember Forever.
That actually would make the Cadians jealous
The planet glassed before the marine did!
Literaly the planet melted down into glass before the UNSC did
@@JIMT412They be Emperor damn proud imo
@@JIMT412why? Not like Reach got a blackstone fortress launched at it
No matter in what state Halo is, stories like Reach reminds me why I was so obsessed with the franchise when I was little, genuinely one of the greatest out there
Also Reach was the perfect send-off to Halo from its founders. Bungie made something beautiful and their work will always be a part of me
If I remember correctly less than 2% of the population of the planet escaped. Given that the planet had a population of 703 million people that means maybe 14 million. Granted the 2% comes from one of the radios you find and 2 unsc people talking there's a high probability that the number of survivors is much smaller.
The Imperium are the Covenant. The Tau are the UNSC. The Damocles Gulf Crusade deserved the atmosphere of Halo Reach.
What fire warrior could've been, instead of a space marine jerk off piece from the perspective of a tau.
Please do a remake, and make it good someone...
personally i kinda prefer how the damocles crusade went in 40k. the imperium got too cocky and so got their shit kinda rocked because the tau use actual sane military tactics in a wargame where no one cares about that for some reason.
the imperium is too juiced up sometimes in my opinion because everyone loves humanity, however this is a time where the imperium was incorrect in its assumption of superiority, and was beaten not by hellish powers or magic wielding space elves but by someone using basic military tactics. hell the most interesting part is at the end of the crusade as the imperium troops pull out they actually negotiate with the tau to leave their space unimpeded. in 40k any amount of diplomacy is rare and the tau using it often is honestly why they have been able to create a respectable empire despite their limitations.
Unless it's the video games. Then Master Chief is an unstoppable godlike Primarch bulldozing through legions of xenos like they're made of tissue paper.
@@Rawnblade13 not on legendary. That feels earned. And in the second game *you're* the tissue paper
@@bongibot1104 I more mean story-wise than actual gameplay, although gameplay is part of it.
In the deeper story and the lore not in the main series of games, humanity just loses to the Covenant on all fronts, even almost all SPARTANS not named Master Chief are getting their shit kicked in by the Covenant.
But then look what happens. Master Chief appears, and all of a sudden, LEGIONS of Covenant DIE. He's an unstoppable force of destruction that just obliterates them and humanity just wins out of the blue. xD
The fall of reach book is so criminally underrated. Even Chief knew it was hopeless even if they had more Spartans 2s. The covenant pulled up way too hard 😭
But First Strike was amazing. It was the biggest 'well f*ck you too!' delivered by the UNSC before the Covenant broke up. A handful of human forces wiping out a massive Covenant fleet was exactly how humanity evened the odds (and made Halo 2 and 3 possible)
The coolest thing about Reach was how it took a story about superhuman badasses and made them feel vulnerable. Master Chief always had an air of goofy swagger and camp to him (which was great) but Reach helped to re-ground the setting by making a whole story about those same supersoldiers coming to terms with grief and despair in real time. It's often important for settings (especially scifi) to take chapters to unempower their heroes or else they and their successors become parodies of themselves in a constant game of one-upsmanship (eg Star Wars, Star Trek, LOTR, and 40k only gets a partial pass because of "tongue in cheek"). Also, it can be really interesting watching how characters you thought you knew deal with situations and feelings you didn't expect them to explore.
since halo 5 they completely dropped that
Almost getting killed by that Zealot in the first mission just after Jorge and Emile getting into an argument about mental health was very good.
I played the first halo when i was a kid, at that time I spotted a game whith a cool supersoldier on the box, and from that time my love for sci fi was cemented.
But reach came when i was a teen, and it was at that point i undestand how desparate humanity was in the halo universe.
And i loved that kind of tone (years laters and i found wh40k, such joy).
Remember reach guys.
Reach stands, the Planet broke before the Spartans did.
Covenant and Forerunners from Halo vs Star Trek ( online continuity version). Also fun fact Epsilon Eridani exists and is 10 light years from Sol System. But in Star Trek it's a minor footnote and no known colony exists there.
Star Trek wins via the Q, I guess.
No lady space jesus 😂😂😂
Damn, if only they took a peek on the planet and found all the forerunner “Funny Antimatter Small Arms” stashed there.
(This is a joke.)
@@synth8519 not far off when in Star Trek Online the Romulans have figured out how to weaponize black holes. Also Photon torpedoes are the equivalent of Covenant antimatter bombs but can track and destroy ships.
startrek on screen firepower is insane, a handful of ships glass half a planet in seconds in one scene. its just the writers and special effects people keep things looking tame and balanced for plot.
The coolest cut scene in video games is the first contact with the zealot team.
"5! 6! Clear the hole!" and then the drop from the song, perfect!
Du dudu duwa-Dugaduga- Du dudu duwa
Have you seen SODAZ's halo reach fan animation?
Its 25 minutes long and tells the story of a different Spartan team on Reach. Its honestly fantastic and if you hadn't watched, I hope you do.
I think you're giving Dr. Halsey significantly less credit than she deserves and ignoring antagonistic factors. While the SPARTAN-II program (and related MJOLNIR armor project) is absolutely Halsey's brainchild, Halsey never once reduced the SPARTAN-IIs to being 'just' weapons and did not dehumanize them; she made a point of being able to call them by name and was familiar enough with all of their mannerisms and body language that she could tell two spartans in identical body armor apart by the way they moved. She ensured that the SPARTAN's weren't just killers but also thinkers and had well rounded educations (at least one of the Wash Outs from the program whose augmentations went wrong went on to be a pretty successful scientist studying slipspace nonsense).
Halsey did a monstrous thing (kidnapping children and turning them into super soldiers), but did it with as much kindness to the children as possible and went out of her way to do right by them within the confines of her mission.
After the original set of SPARTAN-IIs graduated, she was asked to do a second class of them, and she (canonically; there was at least one ARG that implied there was a second set) declined, citing that there weren't enough genetic matches (for compatibility with all the augmentations) and her previous candidates had aged out. She would go on to study the shit out of Forerunner stuff (and continued work on the MJOLNIR armor system).
Meanwhile, ONI would go behind her back to produce the SPARTAN-IIIs (who were refugee children), train them up explicitly to be a disposable fire and forget weapon, and the only reason Noble Team even existed was because highly placed members of that program were willing to sneak around behind high commands back and make sure that the best and brightest weren't just disposable troops. Halsey laid a metaphorical Golden Goose and did the absolute best that she could for her children, had her bosses steal her work and cut out her involvement, and didn't even tell her that they'd done it until Noble Team walked through the door to her lab, slapping her in the face with a secret that she didn't know about.
Carter and Kat getting lip from her aren't getting it because she's some monster in human skin, they're getting it because they just walked into her lab wearing the gifts that she made for her children (who she arguably knew better than her actual biological child that she never saw).
343's decision to villainize Dr. Halsey has always struck me as a weird angle to take, since it wasn't like she was some rogue agent who did it entirely without support. High Command knew what she was doing, paid her to do it, supported her actions every step of the way, and when she decided to stop doing it ONI went and did more of it without her (and possibly without informing High Command).
This, I also like this. Thank you puma man.
I agree, with all of it,
I've always found the total villanisation of Halsey just another cheap crap move by 343 who have no idea what they're doing, completely ruined the point of her character
Is 343's writing really so shitty that we've reached a point where we have genuine Halsey apologists? If anything, they've actually been moving towards making her more sympathetic in more recent stories, at least judging by her portrayal in Infinite's audio logs. Which I honestly find to be very strange and it feels like they can't commit to a direction for her. She's narcissist with extremely flexible and arbitrary morals who can justify anything as being for the greater good and has the audacity to take a moral highground against Mendez for his involvement in the SPARTAN-III program. She's right about that program, but it's the reason she takes it that bothers me. Just because she's set up as a pariah by ONI for doing the exact same thing ONI did doesn't make her some misunderstood good guy
And if she hadn't done it the entire Spartan programme, II,III and IV would never happened and humanity would have been wiped out. So strange for 343 to demonise her. The games portray her terribly. More butchering from people who couldn't read and understand the books commissioned by Bungie.
Agreed. But you're also overglorifying her. Facts remain;
The S2s were her idea, made to be child soldiers. How she ensured their training was a different matter. They still went through physical and mental challenges to make them the moat effective UNSC soldiers, without approval of their guardians/parents.
No matter what anyone thinks, Halsey believed that her spartans were the only answer to the insurrection, vindicating it using her corrections to Carver's study. History has proven that there is no such thing as a single, ultimate answer.
The augmentations were also her idea. She knowingly authorised them knowing the very high failure rates, justifying that ONI would do it with or without her. Admiral Ysionris said as much. Fhajad i believe you refer to, still works as part of ONI's research division. He was made cost effective by using his mind, over his body, same to most washouts.
The point of S3s being suicide soldiers is essentially what the entire UNSC army was throughout the war, buying time with lives. The Army never won. That's where Ackerson came from. He wanted soldiers that could make a bigger impact before eventually dying. He went to Halsey for help, she refused. Would you have him not create S3s and have the UNSC destroyed by 2550? His meeting with Parangosky showed his views and the general consensus behind the S2s and S3s.
S2s were expensive, mostly in their armor. S3s still had Mendez and Kurt with them, and equal or better training and augmentations(minus the 3rd class).
Halsey is whatever we believe, based on our views. Her own views have her regret her choices when or after she makes them and realises the futility of going backwards, not before.
UNSC's chosen to try her as a criminal for valid reasons. S2s look up to her as a mother for valid reasons.
Just pointing out some of the supposed 'antagonistic sides'.
I'm a Grunt fan personally. Weak and cowardly individually, but the bedrock of a galactic theocracy. Every man a fuel rod!
Jackal squad
I fact grunts would be awesome for a impresive army, if they werent basically childs send with a basic training of a few weeks to the battlefield (they are one of the most fastes learners of the galaxy, and are actually much more stronger than humans, aside of that the have an exoesqueleton of bone quite resistand and with spikes on it)
I'm a prophet Stan. Fuck everyone who isn't us!
@@martinnavarrete5279 Pretty sure one tore a guy apart with their bare hands in the Contact Harvest book.
Friendly reminder that the Grunts put up such a fierce rebellion that it took the near totality of the Covenant's military to bring them back in line and a fucking Arbiter to bring them to heel. And that was only after glassing half of Balaho.
This was a really good retelling of reach while connecting the dots with the book, really gives you a bigger scale of what happens with the invasion especially with the sense of dread....
I MISS YOU 6 YOU AND YOUR BATTLE DAMAGED ARMOUR WILL ALWAYS LIVE IN MY HEART
Book and game lore is not compatible. Ghost of Onyx accounts for all Spartan IIIs and none were on Reach. The Covenant could not have infiltrated the planet as represented in the game. It's shame, the effort put into the game could have amplified the book instead of conflict it.
@razorbird789 That is not true as other books even state that certain IIIs are put into hunter killer pairings which is where 6 comes from so it wouldn't be far fetched if more got split off for other purposes
"Slipspace rupture detected" x10. Still gives me chills.
Another point to how fortified reach was how, out of the 700,000,000 people on reach, half of its population were active duty unsc personnel
Edit: the total number given is 385,000,000
Halo suffered the Warhammer 40k syndrome, numbers being way lower than they should, there's 8,000,000,000 people on earth right now, the world that's touted as the shield of the homeworld should have at least half that number, the ratio of soldiers to civilians is still impressive don't get me wrong but bungie should have made a bigger number of civilians at least (to also justify Reach being the "forge world" of the UNSC. 300,000,000 people supplying billions sounds like a bit of a...reach, pardon my pun).
@@agentc7020Not really. The vast majority of weapons, vehicles and equipment are supplied by a minority of people.
Of the 8,000,000,000 on modern earth, a small minority or so provide the majority of manufacturing capacity.
The vast, vast majority of industry in Halo is automated, why would they need billions of workers?
@@Kurogumohe doesn't believe atomization would reduce population sizes. There's no justification for his assumption
@@agentc7020the UNSC actually has automation in its industries unlike the Imperium, so you can have more soldiers without needing to sacrifice building supplies
Jesus Christ that was.... Fucking depressing honestly.... It's like cadia but without the honor, and without a bullshit excuse for the defeat, instead it was just cold, calculating and grinding, It was like the planetary equivalent of choking somebody to death while they try to resist, they fought back and never stopped fighting but slowly That fight became smaller and smaller and then it just ended.
Honestly I have seen a lot of tragic defeats in fiction, but this one is now going to be burned into my soul, It feels so real, like something ripped right out of the pages for history book, It's actually scary not like "Oh no look It's a sleneshie cult that suddenly decided that turning babies into super a good idea" scary You know that is overwhelming and shocking but clearly fake no instead this is scary like the bombing of Warsaw, or the starvation of Stalingrad no this it's different....
It’s realistic that’s why. An advanced alien theocracy curb stomping human troopers who still run around with ballistic weapons is realistic. Even in the books it’s emphasized just how fucked humanity was at times, even showing off a grunt (the thing you basically brush off in the games) tearing off a dude’s arm.
@@Cairo40000and yet humanity still managed to give the Covenant quite the bloody nose here, sure it was a catastrophic loss for humanity but they managed to destroy an entire fleet and even a CSO class carrier which has never been done before and never will for the rest of the war
Not to mention the ending, so while the Covenant won the battle of Reach it definitely cost them a lot to do so and we all know the ending to this story
i would love to see something like that with humanity and tyranids, just humanity winning battles and gaining victories, but they take so many loses while the tyranid just don't stop coming, and eventually they're beaten not because of incompetence, but because their enemy was just that much strong than them, i think that could be fun
@@____Carnage____ they had destroyed several cso carriers but most of them where through strategic genius or using the absolute most powerful weapons they had at their disposal ie super mac defense platforms. However the one destroyed at reach was by far the most efficient kill only requiring a relatively simple bomb a single spartan 2 and a destroyed frigate to pull off. It usually took a lot higher dedication of resources, way more sacrifice or both
@@Cairo40000 it wasn't about the balistic weapons. Those were actually fairly capable. The problem was other tech like shields and super alloys
In the original lore wasn't Halsey just the one with the metaphorical knife in her hand? Like I remember a pov that more or less had her frustrated at the potential deaths her modifications would cause but also knowing that anyone asides her would fuck it up even further. It might just be my memory tho
You're correct, while Dr Halsey isn't by any means a good person ONI is chock full of people much worse than her.
Halsey seemed to believe in necessary evil to get what she wanted but she also believed if these acts had to be committed she wouldn’t leave it to anyone else. ONI then does way more shady shit and completely throws her under the bus when the war ends.
@@greganator111 which is absolutely realistic
It is a rather depressing game when we play as a super soldier and we still lose horribly. I remember a friend telling me that he thought the ending was just sad since Noble Six just dies alone despite taking hundreds or thousands of Covenant with them.
"Stellaris players making bargain basement IoM" I have never hated something more that I completely agree with. Also if its not broken don't fix it
RIP Noble 6 you may be gone but the memories we made with you Will live in our hearts and minds forever
Noble 6 is not dead, Spartans don't die they go MIA.
Remember Reach
Remember Noble Team
When I read the Fall of Reach book on part really stuck out to me, it during the space battle between the UNSC and Covenant ships. The UNSC we staying close to Reach and it’s SMAC’s and using 3 shipyards as body shields, they were waiting for the Covenant to get in range of the SMAC’S. A single Covenant ships begin to stand out on sensors, it’s building up a colossal amount of energy. It unleashes a barrage of particle beams that insta kills 20 UNSC ships. It then slinks away, keeping out of range.
i played reach as a kid, and the story touched me deeply, glad to say that it isn't one of those cases of nostalgia over objetivity given that i replayed it in the master chief collection and it continues to be a sad and emotive story
Could we get a lore video about everything that ONI did wrong? I know that they did alot of greasy shit but Idk their entire list of war-crimes
Would probably be shorter to list what they didn't do wrong
I mean reading at least 15 novels i can say their list is soooo big
One could argue that oni may have been behind the mona lisa as well
One could argue that oni may have been behind the mona lisa as well
The Fall of Reach was what the fall of Cadia should've been. The beginning of the end for the human faction's hope for a conventional military victory.
Didn't reach only stand for like 9 hours?
@@OniLeafNin Thanks to Covenant glassing beams. Before they were used, the UNSC ground forces had the upper hand.
Meaning that yes, the planet broke before the army did.
"The beginning of the end for the human faction's hope for a conventional military victory."
The Lore made it clear from the beggining that the UNSC can't win conventionally.
@@nobleman9393 Not quite. Had the invasion of Reach not happened, the Spartans would've launched their mission to kidnap the Covenant hierarchy and force a gunpoint truce upon the Covenant. Before Reach fell, they had enough Spartans to stand a chance. Afterwards, not so much.
an F in chat for all those lost defending reach. I must say that the events surrounding Reach are probably some of my favorite parts of the lore, including what happened before and after the war. its such a unique feeling planet, and incredibly important to humanity, I'm glad there trying to rebuild it :D
One small note, the Forerunner structure beneath Sword Base held the information that led the Pillar of Autumn to Installation 04. The crew thought they were making a random jump away from Reach but Cortana intentionally plotted a course to the coordinates the Forerunner data led her to. Like Halsey said, Humanity found Halo squarely because of Noble Team.
To anyone wondering how that admiral pranked the covenant ""This is the prototype NOVA bomb, nine fusion warheads encased in lithium triteride armor. When detonated, it compresses its fissionable material to neutron-star density, boosting the thermonuclear yield a hundredfold. I am Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, temporarily in command of the UNSC military base Reach. To the Covenant uglies that might be listening, you have a few seconds to pray to your damned heathen gods. You all have a nice day in hell..."
- Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb's recording on the NOVA bomb, right before it is activated in the space adjacent to the planet Joyous Exultation."
Very funny prank
@@pancreasnowork9939 very
I always knew that the destruction of Reach was pretty much 9/11 in Halo land but I had no idea just how important that planet was to humanity
While 9 11 was a tragedy, the scale of the two isn't comparable. Reach falling was an existential threat to humanity's survival in the halo games, 9 100 was a terror attack, but in no was a devastating to the US as reach was to the UNSC. A more comparable example would be a scenario where a greater enemy force just keeps throwing shit at you until you lose more than half of your fleet of warships and major logistical centers. Like if aliens came today, and bitch slapped all the world's powers and took over earth within a couple of months.
Think of it less like 9/11 and more like an alternate universe where imperial Japan captures half of the US and are closing in on Washington DC
@@halinaqi2194 I've heard americans compare 9/11 to the Holocaust. A planet could explode and it'd be the same as 9/11
It’s like if Pearl Harbor was nuked by the Japanese instead of bombed and the Imperial army was invading Alaska and already pushing through Canada towards the US.
Reach always reminded me of the battle of the Alamo in a way. The tenacity. The fighting until the end. Very different, but they both mean something very similar to me.
F for Grafton. 🕯️
🫡
F
I love halo and i love warhammer 40k. The comparisons you made between them just made me smile. The UNSC is the iconic face of humanity in the halo universe just as The Imperium of Man is the banner under which all (or at least the majority of) humanity is represented. Both count on the efforts of their soldiers and supersoldiers to carry their battles against their enemies within the galaxy. "Spartan's never die they're just missing in action" ," The fallen shall be forever remembered as The Emperor's finest"
I didn’t know six’s last stand lasted that long and it makes it all the more impactful. I like to think the intro to the lone wolf mission is a in between of wave wave after wave and we get to see the end of the several hours battle
I remember the first time I made it to that level, played for like two hours till I finally died, thought I lost even after the cutscene. It was just so enthralling so different from halo. It always sticks out in my memory.
If Noble 6 survived Reach, the Covenant would have tried to figure out how to make another Halo Ring just to take them out.
would love a video on Onyx, such a cool storyline. F in the chat for Kurt
He was the tallest spartan II and was obe of the more simpatetics, like jorge, i biggest spartan were actually the most humans (sad that all of them died)
I like to think Reach is the official turning point of the Elites' opinion on humanity.
An honourbound race of warriors cannot ignore such a heroic last stand as Reach's.
I mean, someone in the chain of command had to atleast whish they could have spartans on their side after looking at all it took to take down Noble 6.
The atmosphere of somber defeat and sacrifice as reach falls is unmatched
*Jorge sacrifices himself to destroy a Super Carrier*
UNSC: “We’re you killed?”
Covenant: “Sadly yes…”
*”Slipspace rupture detected”*
Covenant: “But I lived!”
It'll bug me unless I say it. Halsey wasnt called out by an ONI Spook in Halo 4's intro, or at least she implied he wasnt ONI. "The others before you were ONI but you-you're something else." Like everything in 343 Halo, it was probably alluding to another plotline that got dropped.
It’s funny how the covenant only found humanities two most important planets because they were looking for forerunner tech. Both times they basically had no idea what the planets were or that humans were even there.
Discovered your channel thru the halo videos yesterday AND just finished the Fall of Reach book today, this timing is crazy. Quality stuff
👏Remember 👏Reach 👏 and never 👏 forgive 👏 the elites 👏
If y’all remember SODAZ he made an absolutely god tier animation about this on his channel and it’s some of the best shit I’ve seen for halo in a LONG time.
I really hope you continue these kinds of videos on the Halo universe. I’d love one following the Battle of Installation 04 and the absolute clusterfuck that followed after the release of the Flood.
Never seen your videos before but this one has made me a lifelong viewer you've got my support Spartan
9:13 my god that cutscene captures the entire feeling of the game so perfectly. Despite everything, humanity’s efforts are futile. We can get victories here and there that feel significant, but from the beginning we always knew how it was going to end
I loved the beginning of First Strike and it's events in the Reach Radio messages and it's portrayal of the fall of Reach. The pelican the Spartans are on it pushing itself past acceptable tolerances to get do lwn to the planet faster, the longswords are sacrificing themselves together then there, and then the cockpit gets blown up, so the Spartans have to jump out killing and injuring more of themselves. Then they get to the generator to find the few surviving troopers are all shell shocked from getting hit by UNSC air support that wiped all of the covenant attack and most of them. And then there is more coming and the Spartans of Beta-Red sacrifice themselves to let the troopers get away, with a pelican flying in past 3 covenant Corvettes in an attempt to pull the Spartans out while the UNSC is forced to mac round the Spartans with the Corvettes as the window is closing fast and there is no real likelihood of the Spartans making it out.
After watching SODAZ’s halo animation, makes me love Reach all the more.
Hey pancreas I’ve been bingeing your content for a while now and I gotta say man it just gets more enjoyable every video. Keep up the amazing work
I think it’s cool that the Arbiter is the secret villain of Halo CE and Reach.
Yes, i love the adjunt in halo the flood were he sends a message to a cousin saying that he knows he will be heavily punish for the rings destruction but he is at peace with it at least
F for UNSC Grafton
F in the chat for:
>> UNSC Grafton FFG-318
>>Jorge-52(S-053)
>>Noble 6 (S-B312)
+++MAY WE NEVER FORGET THESE BRAVE SOLDIERS WHO JOURNEYED INTO THE HOWLING DARK, NEVER TO RETURN+++
I'd love to see more Halo vids from you. Your explanations were accurate and funny and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
There's something about Reach. And I know a lot of the viewers are probably young to mid 20's at this stage. But, I was 22 when this game dropped and I can't describe the emotions tied to it for my gen. We literally grew up with the Halo Franchise as it was being established. Going into this game, we all knew what was going to happen; especially those of us that read the book. But when the first member of Noble died, we were shook to our core. Bungie did a masterful job of portraying the absolute abject terror and hopelessness that In-Universe Humanity probably felt. I remember that many of us played the last mission dozens of times trying to see if there was a way to save Noble 6. We wanted to desperately to have some form of a happy ending. And when we didn't get it, the melancholy set in and we understood what Reach was. It wasn't telling the story of Reach's fall, or setting humanity up for an ultimate triumph. No, it was Bungie in no uncertain terms saying "Goodbye" to the franchise and making it clear that no matter how hard we as a community tried changing the outcome, they were moving on. We lost one of the few connections to our childhoods we had left with Reach and many of us still lament the loss of Bungie. They didn't always hit the mark on the Halo Games, with Halo 2 being the prime example. But between the story and soundtrack, it was Bungie and the community collectively shedding a final tear and eulogizing a true Titan
I don't see anyone talking about this bit if you have subtitles on after Kat dies you can see the civilians in the bunker freaking out over the Spartans
And scared about the glassing
I remember playing Reach when i was younger and not getting much from the cutscenes. I liked Jorge since he was nice and despised Emile for being mean to my boy. Now that i'm older and have watched/played through the game a few more times I noticed that that Corvette was the top of the mountain: It was all downhill from here and not in a good way.
Remember Reach, always. o7
The irony of reach death of noble is so great, the more you look into the irony the deeper it gets for every single one of them
It's sad that 343 didn't Depict anything about how humanity was recovering from the war, we had two missions but they were really insignificant... about 90% of human population on earth were destroyed by the covenants and the only real solution they had at the moment was to load the Infinity with humans and sail to the unknown in hopes to start again and now they don't have any idea where the franchise is going aside the tomb
This is my biggest problem with 343 Halo, it's too soon after the war ended. If it took place a couple decades later I'd have much less of an issue with the worldbuilding.
@@the_corvid97 there was a good plot there, they could have explore more that facet of the halo universe after the war, the rebirth of Hope and Humanity yet they yeeted everything no one but three times now! The different plots in three main games that's absolutely unacceptable. The only plot I genuinely loved from 343 is what they did in Halo Wars 2 because there you can feel the struggle of the Spirit of Fire and it's crew, the fight for survival and the rebirth of hope after they won against overwhelming odds because that's what Halo is, not matter how dark it is there's hope down the line.
UNSC: The planet melted before the Guard did.
If your pancreas doesn't work your life objective becomes survive.
Love hearing the passion while talking about Tip of the Spear, Keep it up chief :D
Everyone always tells you to remember Reach but no one ever tells you to remember the Grunts. They’re just funny little guys committing a little tomfoolery
*Tomfoolery from the SpongeBob soundtrack plays*
"Its no one's fault, general... Just the Covenant's, evidently. What worries me mord is our answer to this incursion. They've decimated our fleet."
...
Hood turned to Acketson.
"'Decimated' is not the right word colonel. We would have been decimated if we'd lost one of ten ships." He raised his voice. "Instead, we lost 10 ships for every one we saved. Its been a disaster."
-Admiral Hood during a meeting with the UNSC's security council on Earth.
I find it funny that The Covenant saw Reach and instantly assumed it was Humanity's Homeworld
I mean, Reach was more or less Second Earth in lore. Economic powerhouse, like the most militarized planet in the UNSC, literally where Spartan 2s came from.
This is easily the funniest halo lore video I've watched you've def earned a sub, underrated channel
Reach is the one I played into adulthood, it has that more sobering and grim tone to it you would get from one of the last remaining colonies of original 800.
F for the Grafton and Savanah
Any chance for a "what if Noble Team survived?" video? Like, the whole team. Figure it's easy enough, just say one marine survived the firefight when deploying the slip-space bomb so 6 AND George were able to drop from orbit, George body-blocks the shot that would've killed Kat, and between the lot of them they're able to just barely make it onto the Autumn with Chief. I've seen vids where George or 6 survive, but I've always wanted a more lore-knowledgeable take on what a whole team of Spartans backing up Chief would've looked like in Halo 1 through 3.
Short answer: a BUNCH more Covenant bodies get stacked.
-Entire Covenant ground force just dies in 30 minutes into Halo 1: Combat Evolved
-Never had the chance to discover the Flood and/or blow up Halo cuz no need
-Oops
yo brother, this video was amazing, genuinely, tugged on the nostalgia strings just right. i'd love to see a video on halo 3: odst at some point in the future, they're just both top teir and id love to hear your commentary on the story, you're funny af.
“Noble 6 is totally dead guys he didn’t sit in a cave for 50 years.”
Yeah okay ONI psyop, whatever you say.
Our victory - your victory - was so close, I wish you could have lived to see it. But you belong to Reach. Your body, your armor - all burned and turned to glass. Everything… except your courage. That, you gave to us. And with it, we can rebuild.
This game will always hold a special place in my heart. I love reach somce it was my first big game. And why it usually stands as my number one is because of one sentence that always sends a chill down my spine.
Slipspace rupture detected.
Just one sentence that always gives me chills. I have yet to find another game that can do that with a single sentence.
Thanks for the video!
The Human-Covenant War and the Yuuzhan Vong War in Star Wars have always, to me, been the most insanely apocalyptic wars in any fiction ever. The Covenant attacked for over 30 years, killing tens of billions of humans and basically ending every colonization effort ever started by the UNSC, and the Vong legitimately killed HUNDREDS OF TRILLIONS of sentient beings on their rampage through the Galaxy. I think what really makes them stand out to me is just how completely different all of the aliens are, but the Covenant and Vong are the same kind of civilization-ending alien invaders who basically are unbeatable until some really lucky shit happens
Also, the UNSC fought so bitterly for Reach that the Covenant genuinely believed that Reach was Humanity's homeworld. That's the main reason that they accidentally discovered Earth with a single tiny fleet, they genuinely believed that it would only be mopping-up operations after Reach, and that might also be why the Covenant got absolutely pummeled trying to find the Portal to the Ark even though they broke through the UNSC's Orbital MAC's and fleet and had their way with Africa.