The Pillar Of Autumn

takes place at the beginning of Halo: Combat Evolved, aboard the UNSC cruiser Pillar of Autumn as it drifts through space after escaping the Fall of Reach. By 2552, humanity had been fighting a losing war against the Covenant for nearly three decades. Entire human colonies had been glassed from orbit, and Reach—humanity’s primary military stronghold and second only to Earth in strategic importance—became the Covenant’s next target. Reach housed the headquarters of the UNSC Navy, critical shipyards, orbital MAC gun platforms, and was the training ground of the SPARTAN-II program created by Dr. Catherine Halsey. As the Covenant fleet arrived in overwhelming force, orbital defenses were annihilated, hundreds of UNSC ships were destroyed, and ground forces were crushed despite fierce resistance from Spartans and Army units alike.

Originally, the Pillar of Autumn had been prepared for Operation: RED FLAG, a desperate plan to capture a Covenant Prophet and force negotiations to end the war. Captain Jacob Keyes had been selected to command the mission, and the AI Cortana was assigned to the ship. However, the Covenant invasion of Reach interrupted those plans. As the planet fell, Keyes was ordered to retreat under the Cole Protocol, which strictly forbade leading Covenant forces to Earth. Cortana, using fragmented Forerunner star map data recovered from Reach, calculated seemingly random slipspace coordinates for escape. Under heavy fire and with much of the fleet destroyed, the Pillar of Autumn made a blind jump to slipspace. Against all expectations, Covenant ships followed.

When the Autumn exited slipspace, it found itself near a massive ringworld structure—Installation 04, though they did not yet know its purpose. Almost immediately, Covenant ships emerged behind them, confirming they had been tracked. Cut off from the rest of humanity, deep in enemy territory, and with Reach destroyed, the Autumn was effectively alone. In the opening moments of the game, Captain Keyes asks Cortana whether they lost the Covenant, and her response makes clear they did not. With no viable escape and the ship heavily outmatched, Keyes orders evacuation and prepares to crash the Autumn onto the ring to deny the Covenant an easy victory. Master Chief is awakened from cryosleep, Cortana is transferred into his neural interface, and the crew abandons ship as Covenant forces board the vessel. The Autumn’s desperate flight from Reach, the catastrophic fall of humanity’s greatest stronghold, and the blind jump into unknown space all lead directly to that tense moment on the bridge—where they realize they are not just fleeing the war, but standing at the edge of something far more dangerous than they could have imagined. Current events of halo ce

UNSC Pillar of Autumn, (hull classification symbol C-709), was a Halcyon-class light cruiser in the UNSC Navy. It was informally referred to as the Autumn, and, in some cases, the Pillar. It was the sister ship of UNSC Dawn Under Heaven and UNSC Toulouse.

Prior to the Fall of Reach Pillar of Autumn was selected to support Operation: RED FLAG, a SPARTAN-II mission to capture Covenant leaders. Captain Jacob Keyes was placed in command. The operation was forestalled by the Covenant assault on Reach; the cruiser carried some of the few UNSC survivors and fled the system having lost most of its intended SPARTAN-II passengers.

Service history: UNSC Pillar of Autumn was constructed at the Reyes-McLees Shipyards on Mars. The ship began construction in 2507, and was launched on December 1, 2510.

Human-Covenant War: During the Battle for Arcadia in February 2531, Pillar of Autumn engaged two Ket-pattern battlecruisers alongside the UNSC Belfast, UNSC Texas and UNSC Armstrong. Along with the other three ships, Pillar of Autumn destroyed the battlecruiser designated CCS-U321 after catching it with its shields down, but the battlecruiser designated CCS-U624 was able to make it to the surface of Arcadia. In the battle between the UNSC and Covenant forces, Pillar of Autumn was badly damaged along with Armstrong while Texas and Belfastwere destroyed. Upon the arrival of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, the smart AI Serina reported on these events to Captain James Cutter. Later in the battle, at the request of Spirit of Fire, Pillar of Autumn contributed several M145D Rhinos to the ground battle, enabling Spirit of Fire's forces to take down a Covenant energy shield. The cruiser was decommissioned with the remaining Halcyon-class light cruisers, but was reactivated as the war worsened. Pillar of Autumn was pulled from long-term storage and was refitted in 2550 to serve as an emergency support ship in a conflict near Zeta Doradus.

Crew: Captain Jacob Keyes — Commanding officer (August - September 2552) Cortana — Temporary shipboard AI Wellsley — ODST battalion AI assistant Officers: Lieutenant Dominique — Communications officer Lieutenant Aki Hikowa — Weapons officer Lieutenant Hall — Operations officer Ensign William Lovell — Navigation officer Ensign Ellen Dowski — Junior bridge officer Lieutenant Commander Gail Purdy — Chief engineer Office of Naval Intelligence: Lieutenant Elias Haverson Crewmen: Chief Petty Officer Thom Shephard — Cryogenics Technician Petty Officer First Class Mary Murphy — Air Traffic Technician Petty Officer Third Class Samuel N. Marcus — Technicians Officer Petty Officer Third Class Pauley — Radio Technician Petty Officer Third Class Xaing Cho — Radio Technician R. Abiad — Coda shuttle pod copilot Wang Singh Other Naval Personnel: Captain Carol Rawley — Flight officer, 23rd Naval Air Squadron (Pelican Pilot - Echo 419) Lieutenant Peterson — Flight officer, 23rd Naval Air Squadron (Pelican Pilot - Echo 136) Lieutenant Rick Hale — Flight officer, 23rd Naval Air Squadron (Pelican Pilot) Lieutenant Frye — Pelican Co-Pilot Warrant Officer Shiela Polaski — Flight officer(Pelican Pilot) Mitchell — Flight officer (Pelican Pilot) Crew Chief Cullen — Communications Officer Spartans: Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 Petty Officer Second Class Linda-058 Marines: Major Cammarano Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto Staff Sergeant Stacker Corporal Lovik Corporal Wilkins Private First Class M. Fitzgerald Private First Class Chips Dubbo Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins Private Bisenti Private Kappus Private Manuel Mendoza Private O'Brien Private Riley ODSTs: Major Antonio Silva — Commanding officer, ODST Battalion First Lieutenant Melissa McKay — Executive officer, ODST Battalion Valdez - Hospital corpsman Second Lieutenant Dalu — Supply officer; formerly platoon commander (replaced by Lister) Second Lieutenant Oros — Platoon commander Master Sergeant Lister — Platoon commander(replaced Dalu) First Sergeant Tink Carter Company sergeant, ODST Battalion Gunnery Sergeant Waller Sergeant Corly Sergeant Parker Lance Corporal Jones Corporal Locklear Private First Class Hosky Private Marie Postly Private Satha Al-Thani Ethan Graves Marcus Hudson Dawkins Ava Lang Victor Ramos Suzuki Private Kaleb H. Spencer.