Halo : Reach Notes

I choose Normal for first playthrough

Left and right analogue sticks for aiming and moving as usual.
Left bumper is run.
A is jump.

cut scene shows Reach from orbit, cuts to a broken spartan helmet on the ground.
We see a warthog driving in the wilderness, helicopters overhead.
The warthog arrives at a base and our character gets out.
We meet Noble team, it seems a relay has been blown up which has knocked out the planets detection apparatus.
Some rebels are blamed, Noble team is sent to investigate.
On the choppers on the way to the relay contact with base camp is lost.
The choppers fly in close to the base and let us off.

Mission 1
We have to go to a marker to investigate a distress beacon. Down a hill into some smoking buildings and there are no bodies but a distress beacon. There is blood on the ground and residue from plasma weapons.
Some chocobo style birds appear, but don't attack, just flee like wild animals.
next building is a large house, identified as a farmhouse. Inside we find some locals, they say something killed one of their family out in the fields.
They speak a different language, one of the other Spartans interprets.
Heat signatures are also in another nearby building.
Inside the next building are two dead soldiers, seems they were interrogated.
We come outside and meet our first covenant troops. The team are excited and dismayed to see them on Reach.
We fight the grunts and some elites as we progress through the valley.
I come to a vehicle and am told to run interference on the ground while other team members are taking to the air.
We drive through the valley and find covenant all over the place in buildings. we are looking for remnants of the human soldiers.
We find them and covenant drop ships drop in heavy troops for us to fight.
We then take to the air and are heading to the relay station to help there.
when we get to the relay station the covenant are not far behind.
We have a fight in the yard of the station then get forced back inside.
The doors close and we go deeper inside.
Pressing left on the dpad turns on night vision.
We find some soldiers and what might be rebels or more farmers.
A bunch of Elites turn up and we are into the fight.
We fight them then are told to get a switch pressed.
A cut scene shows the spartans trying to get communications back up.
There are too many spartans all at once,
Kat seems techy but grumpy
Jorge is a big brute but sensitive
The one with the skeleton mask is a twat.
Comms are restored to the base camp.
The girl we find is concerned about her dead father.

Mission 2
We are on route to sword base where we are to help with defence. The base is under heavy attack.
We are dropped into a firefight against covenant and then pick up some new toys once they are defeated.
I find that i can swap my abilities, the right bumper has been sprint so far. By picking up a new ability i now have armour lock up instead. This makes the armour lock and presumably makes the wearer take less damage from explosions.
I am told that two outposts are under attack, we need to go and stop the covenant from taking them.
Wraiths appear and we can use the target locator we have found to call down an airstrike.
The two outposts are on the same map. We can choose which one we want to do first, though it seems to make no odds.
Each one is a different structure, one new and shiny and military with a huge aa gun.
The other an old shack type affair with power generators.
Each on has switches to pull and lots of enemies to fight.
We get to take over ghosts and drive them back to the base.
Now a new door is open in the base and we go inside to find large covenant.
After taking these two down we go into an elevator.
At the top in the naval base we fight our way up to the top through the covenant forces.
At the top we have a covenant cruiser to shoot down with rockets
The mission ends when we do.
Orbital lasers take out the large covenant ship.
We go and speak to Dr. Halsey
She is interested in the elites we met at the first mission and what they were looking for.
It seems that the girl we saved is the daughter of a scientist who was studying the elites.
Halsey wants the data that Cat took from the old man.
There  is some tense words about it.
Jorg seems to have a special relationship with Halsey

Mission 3
We are out on recon with sniper rifles at night. Jun is with us.
We come to a base and snipe most of the enemies in it.
Then another small occupied building.
Emplaced gun here that we can pick up.
Then we come to an open area where we find the covenant being attacked by large indigenous creatures.
They attack us as well and need a good few shots to take down.
We come to an area where human soldiers are fighting heavy covenant attack. We join them and find that they are residents who are protecting their homes, they have stolen UNSC weapons.
We come to a tunnel and are led through it to a covenant taken area which is being  used to jam the radar networks. If we can destroy this we will be able to see what is really going on.
Assault the base and flick the switch. Then survive the backup as it arrives, two of the large aliens give me some trouble.
We are told that we still can't see into the dark zone and we will have to progress further.
We do so encountering stiff resistance.
We come to a cut scene where we see a large amount of covenant hardware.
It seems that this is a full scale invasion.
The UNSC rally to fight back on all fronts.

Mission 4
We are part of a large force heading into battle As we arrive at the fight our warthog convoy is blasted by flying covenant fighters.
We crash and have to get out of the warthog.
Straight into heavy battle.
We are asked to take out an aa gun which is making life hard for our air support.
I fight my way into it using a warthog with rockets on the back fired by a handy soldier.
I then have to go inside and shoot out the core of the gun.
We then encounter a wraith and a bridge is dropped into place by air support so we can progress.
We then head to a mining facility which is in covenant hands and take it back.
Then to an aa gun, we get to drive a revenant which is a mid range vehicle between the ghosts and the wraiths.
Once the Wraiths and two goliaths are down the aa gun can be shot in the core and blows up.
A helicopter comes in and gives us a lift. We get to fire guns from it's side.
A short sequence of blowing up some covenant ground forces from the air ends with the site of a covenant spire. This is a large tower which is projecting a dome force field.
Apparently whatever is under the dome is invisible to radar, it is imperative that we know what the covenant are hiding.
The chopper goes in and loses power. It crashes and only the two spartans survive, Six and Jorge.
I get to pick up a jetpack armour power.
Which is fun, though you can go so high that hitting the ground will kill you.
We now have to fight our way to the base of the spire and up inside it to the control room.
Inside we have an energy sword wielding super elite to deal with.
Once done a cut scene shows Six jumping to a copter then flying away as a frigate named Grafton comes into the atmosphere to blow up the spire. As it does a really big covenant ship shows up and blasts the Grafton into pieces.
This isn't looking good.

Mission 5
Cat has a plan. If the Spartans can get a slipspace drive up onto the Covenant ship and misfire it it will destroy the ship. There is a secret research base with a ship that is suitable. We just have to get the ship, fly it to the cruiser and get it aboard.
We start the mission on the approach to the Sabre base which is the name of the super secret research vessel we are going to use.
We have a fairly quick fight along a beach to the facility which is coming under heavy covenant attack. We get inside and make our way to the sabre and use it to take off into orbit.
Once in orbit we find our ship to be part of many other Sabres around a space station and some larger frigates.
There are a few waves of banshees and Seraph's to take on.
Then some Phantoms to take out.
We have missiles and a rapid fire gun.
Missile lock on. The Seraph's shields are best taken down with machine gun then a missile to finish them off.
We approach the covenant ship and have to land on top of it.
Then we enter it and fight to disable it's comms so it can't warn the bigger ship.
We then have to go to the hangar.
Inside the ship we still need space suits and the gravity is much less than on the ground.
The hangar needs to be cleared then the door force field taken down. We allow Jorge to fly the sabotaged slipstream drive inside on a specially rigged ship.
We must now go to the control room while Jorg stays to guard the bomb.
The plan is to send this smaller ship to the larger one for refueling and blow the bomb.
We go to the bridge and kill all the covenant there, then set the course.
Then back to Jorg in the landing bay where we have to defend to bomb for a while until we get near the big ship.
The time comes to evacuate and the ship is damaged. The only way is to jump and hope the armour will get the spartans down to Reach unharmed.
Jorg has to stay and detonate the bomb manually as of course the bomb has been damaged in the fight.
We see him throw Six from the ship and then detonate the bomb cutting the larger ship in half.
Six is falling through the atmosphere when suddenly the whole covenant fleet turns up making their efforts useless. The one capital ship has just became hundreds.

Mission 6
Six is now Alone on Reach, civilians are being rescued.
We join the fight to evacuate the civilians.
We are trying to get to a rooftop to help some ODST's
We are now fighting brutes with their spikers and gravity hammers.
We have to wait for an elevator which means some waves of brutes.
Then up on some gantries where we get the jetpack for some platform style jumping around.
Lots more brutes in corridors and open areas.
We are making our way up to the roof where we find two aa guns and have to destroy them.
Once we do that a rescue ship comes in and takes the civilians and troops away. We then join an evacuation convoy and are escorting a bigger transport said to have 600 people on board. I don't know if I screwed up or it's scripted but it goes down and is lost.
We then have to land and turn on two missile batteries and then go to the firing switch.
Once done missile batteries fire on the covenant corvette which is shooting down the civilian transports.
We see them get away and Six is reunited with Noble team.

Mission 7
We now have to fly a Falcon to a nearby tower and go inside to take out a covenant jammer.
Inside the tower we meet heavy brutes resistance until we go way down the tower and switch off the jammer.
We then have to fly through the city until we get to a tower top where soldiers are under attack, we help them from the air and a pelican comes in and extracts them.
We then go to another tower with a jammer.
When we get inside it's quiet, too quiet. We are ambushed by the flying covenant after we hit the jammer and have to get back to our falcon through heavy fighting.
Some fighting with Banshee's and then to another jammer.
The final jammer is in a night club and is guards by four goliaths.
Then back to Oni base where an evacuation mission is being hampered by six turrets.
Taking them out we land and a cut scene starts.
Six is back with Noble team who are worried wether the war is lost already.
The general calls on an open channel which isn't the best.
The city is nuked and Noble team make a run for it.
The next mission they have been given is to go back to sword base and destroy it. It appears the covenant are looking for Dr. Halsey's research.
The objective is to keep it out of their hands if they were willing to invade Reach for it, then it must be of desperate importance.
Cat is sniped as the team run.

Mission 8
Sword Base.
We arrive and have to take out anti aircraft guns so the air support can do it's job.
We get a scorpion tank for this.
We can either go inside and blow the core or shoot the aa guns  with the scorpion tank.
We then have to get back inside the heavily occupied sword base.
Once inside the elevator we took the last time is out so it's through another route.
We fight through the base until we come to a dead end.
The gang are about to suggest that the a.i. controlling the mission has glitched, when a more senior a.i. takes over and opens a secret passageway to an underground train station.
We are spoken to by Dr. Halsey. There is an alien structure buried deep in the ground. She has been trying to discover it's secrets and is very close to doing so.
She needs more  time and the covenant are already on the way.
We have to activate four turrets and defend the lab doors to give her the time she needs.
Once done we go inside and meet Dr. Halsey.
The data she is extracting is from a forerunner computer.
She had packed it into a special a.i. It is Cortana.
Cortana is trusted to Six and we are to get it to the Pillar of Autumn and get it the hell off Reach.

Mission 9
Jun goes with Dr. Halsey and is told to kill her rather than lett her fall into Covenant hands. The Forerunner structure is blown up.
Three spartans are left. Emile, Six and the commander.
The commander is shot up on the way and tells us to go on foot. Emile and Six jump and the commander goes down with the ship leading them away from the two spartans.
We get to ride mongooses around like nutters and a scarab is dropped almost on our head.
It doesn't care about us though it seems to be intent on getting the Pillar of Autumn.
We come to a road block and have to fight heavy covenant forces.
Then a wraith and loads of brutes.
Then into caves. We come out face to face with the scarab, the commander saves the day in cut scene and ploughs into it with the pelican.
We then fight the flies in the caves.
We come through an industrial complex which is utterly swarming will all types of covenant.
Now out onto a landing platform. We have to clear the platform of lots of waves before Keyes comes down on a pelican and takes the a.i.
A cruiser is coming in to attack and a large gun is tasked with protecting the Pillar of Autumn until it can get away.
Emile is killed by Elites as he is trying to fire the gun.
Six vows to protect the Autumn and go to fire the mass driver.
We now have to get up there through heavy elite resistance.
The mass driver needs to take down lots of phantoms until the cruiser is in range.
Then hit it in the guts and it's over.
We see Keyes get back onto the Autumn and take off.
Six watches it go and the cruiser crash into the ground.
We then see the autumn heading towards the Halo as the credits roll.
15:13 on game clock. 175 achievement points.
After the credits we are left alone in a map with little weapons and hordes of enemies.
This is a last stand, once we die a cut scene shows Elites overpowering Six and killing you.
The scene then shows Reach after the war and a voice over tells of the rebuilding and how noble team's sacrifice was a vital link in the chain of events that ended the war.