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Random House Publishing and Ballantine books—in cooperation with Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie— present two best-selling novels from Del Rey publishing set in the worlds of the Xbox™ game, Halo™….
Follow the exploits of the Master Chief, Cortana, and the battle-hardened men and women of the UNSC military as they battle the fearsome Covenant—from the war-torn remains of human worlds to theunexplored mysteries of the ancient ring-world, Halo...and beyond!

“Halo: The Fall of Reach” and “Halo: The Flood” are available now at a bookstore near you! “Halo: First Strike” available in December 2003.

Excerpts from “Halo: The Fall of Reach”, “Halo: The Flood”, and “Halo: First Strike” are... Del Rey Books Published by The Ballantine Publishing Group Copyright © 2003 by MicrosoftCorporation All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by The Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Bungie, Halo, Xbox, and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United Statesand/or other countries. Used under license. © 2001 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Del Rey and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. www.delreydigital.com ISBN 0-345-45132-5

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Excerpt from “Halo: The Fall of Reach”
by Eric Nylund
As the bloody Human-Covenant War rages on Halo, the fate of the human race may rest with one warrior, thelone SPARTAN survivor of another legendary battle…the desperate take-no-prisoners struggle that led humanity to Halo—the fall of the planet Reach. Now, brought to life, here is the full story of that glorious, doomed conflict.
While the brutal Covenant juggernaut sweeps inexorably through space, intent on wiping out humankind, only one stronghold remains—the planet Reach. Practically on Earth’sdoorstep, it is the last military fortress to defy the alien onslaught. But Reach’s defenders have another, higher priority: to prevent the Covenant from discovering the location of Earth itself. Outnumbered and outgunned, the soldiers seem to have little chance against the Covenant, but Reach holds a closely guarded secret. It is the training ground for an elite group of super soldiers, codenamedSPARTANs. These highly advanced warriors, specially bioengineered and technologically augmented, are the best in the universe—quiet, professional, and deadly. Now, as the ferocious Covenant attack behins, a handful of SPARTANs stand ready to wage ultimate war. They will kill, they will be destroyed, but they will never surrender. And at least one of them—the SPARTAN known as the Master Chief—willlive to fight another day on a mysterious and ancient artificial world called Halo…
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0500 Hours, February 12, 2535 (Military Calendar) / Lambda Serpentis System, Jericho VII Theater of Operations

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ontact. All teams stand by: enemy contact, my position.” The Chief knew there were probably more than a hundred of them—motion sensors were off the scale. He wanted to seethem for himself, though; his training made that lesson clear: “Machines break. Eyes don’t.” The four Spartans that composed Blue Team covered his back, standing absolutely silent and immobile in their MJOLNIR combat armor. Someone had once commented that they looked like Greek war gods in the armor ... but his Spartans were far more effective and ruthless than Homer’s gods had ever been. He snakedthe fiber-optic probe up and over the threemeter-high stone ridge. When it was in place, the Chief linked it to his helmet’s heads-up display. On the other side he saw a valley with eroded rock walls and a river meandering through it ... and camped along the banks as far as he could see were Grunts. The Covenant used these stocky aliens as cannon fodder. They stood a meter tall and wore armored...