Halo: First Strike

Halo: First Strike is the third novel written by American author Eric Nylund for the Halo series, originally titled Halo: First Strike. Together with the first volume, Halo: The Fall of Reach, and the second, Halo: The Flood, it forms the Chinese translation of the Halo trilogy, published in Sichuan Science and Technology Press's "World Popular Science Fiction Series." The story follows directly from the game Halo: Combat Evolved and leads into Halo 2: after destroying the ringworld Halo, the Spartan John-117 (the Master Chief), who escaped successfully, gathers what remains of the scattered human forces and strives to return to Earth. But Reach was not completely destroyed by the Covenant, and many of John's subordinates are still alive—because Reach holds a "relic" left by Halo's builders that the Covenant covets. With superhuman, tireless fighting, John seizes an enemy ship and fights his way back to Reach to rescue his subordinates, who have already obtained the "relic." On the return voyage to Earth, they discover that the Covenant has assembled some five hundred warships and is preparing a massive assault on Earth—the human homeworld is in mortal peril. The book alternates between space fleet battles and small-scale ground combat, bearing a strong military science-fiction flavor, and is an important work for understanding the storyline connecting the main Halo games.