In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, who is given a top secret mission by ONI that will take him deep behind enemy lines. Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, where survivors, helped by human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to an asteroid belt for refuge, forming a settlement known as the Rubble. They have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar and somehow survived, forming an unlikely treaty. This uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad tasked with wreaking havoc from behind enemy lines. The Prophets have also sent their best, an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality.
In the first, desperate days of the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC has enacted the Cole Protocol to safeguard Earth and its Inner Colonies from discovery by a merciless alien foe. Many are called upon to rid the universe of lingering navigation data that would reveal the location of Earth. Among them is Navy Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, who is given a top secret mission by ONI that will take him deep behind enemy lines. Out beyond the Outer Colonies lies the planet Hesiod, where survivors, helped by human Insurrectionists, are fleeing to an asteroid belt for refuge, forming a settlement known as the Rubble. They have come face-to-face with a Covenant settlement of Kig-Yar and somehow survived, forming an unlikely treaty. This uneasy alliance is in the path of the Spartan Gray Team, a three-man renegade squad tasked with wreaking havoc from behind enemy lines. The Prophets have also sent their best, an ambitious and ruthless Elite, whose quest for nobility and rank is matched only by his brutality.