In the cold world of the far future there is only war. After the Third World War in 2139, Earth was left on the brink of destruction. Then, a man of unknown origin appeared, proclaimed himself Emperor and united the human species under a single banner. His first goal for humanity was to leave the Earth's narrow borders and reach out for the stars. And so it happened. The galaxy proved to be a most unwelcome place to be and pushed humanity's strength beyond its limits. But the worst had yet to come as humanity came in contact with an alien confederation known as The Covenant in 2525. According to their beliefs, humans appeared as demons that had to be wiped out. So began an intergalactic war that would rain havoc on both sides for many decades. In order to fight back the Covenant superiority in both technology and numbers, the human government, the U.N.S.C. (United Nations Space Command), began a revolutionary project code named ''Spartan Program'' whose purpose was to create genetically and bio mechanically augmented soldiers, the Spartans. Their body armor enabled them to have superhuman strength and reflexes making them the most powerful warriors in the galaxy. With their aid, human victory was all but certain until the Covenant located the secret military base-planet of Menazoid Prime were the project's facilities where. All Spartans were sent in defense of Menazoid but after a two month long battle the planet fell and all but two Spartans, Spartan-116 and Spartan-118 survived the incident. The Covenant losses were high enough to force them to retreat giving humanity time to regroup. Because the war was leading to a dead end, both combatants searched for a new weapon that would enable them to strike a decisive blow on their enemy forcing them to surrender. In the end they did it, the humans developed a time machine prototype and the Covenant managed to use a weapon of an ancient alien civilization named Forerunners which would cause destruction on a galactic scale if fired. The year was 2552 when the war entered its most cruel phase.