It was the Secondary base of operations for all UNSC forces...It was there repair HUB, it was there secondary Ship building planet... ...yea.

Because they make ships and ammo and stuff there.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] WAKAxTrollxWAKA It was the Secondary base of operations for all UNSC forces...It was there repair HUB, it was there secondary Ship building planet... ...yea.[/quote]Basically this. But, as we know, they weren't successful going forward because of some guy named Master Chief.

^ I'd say they were pretty successful. Until the end of Halo 3 anyway.

Forerunner tech.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] lime013 Forerunner tech.[/quote] This. Or at least, that's how Bungie explained it after revealing that Reach was actually just a planet of farmers and apparently had no real military presence at all. Actually, I have to say, Reach's story is a mess. I don't like to think about it...

Reach was the last line and major defense the UNSC had before the Covenant could reach Earth. It was a major stronghold that produced, equipped and trained hundreds of thousands of troops and perhaps the main shipyard the UNSC had.

If you read the book "Fall of Reach." A group of Generation III Spartans find a forerunner relic buried under an Office of Naval Intelligence base, as they flee from covenant forces trying to break through. It was an highly radioactive object which could move within space and time by itself. It was taken off reach by the same group of Spartans. But, a marine who was taken with the Spartans and Doctor Halsey, committed suicide by throwing a grenade on the relic. But obviously, since the object was, to understate it, an anomaly. It amplified the explosion killing him. But the relic survived, using its ability to pass between space and time, to pass through the walls of the ship into the slipstream. Being lost to the covenant and humans alike forever.... this is why I do not currently have a girlfriend

whoops posted twice :p [Edited on 09.29.2012 8:30 AM PDT]

just saying, the only reason that Covenant attack planets is for forerunner technology or the fact Humans exist on the planet.

Covenant want to wipe out all human life. Humans live on Reach. What is there to miss? However, their reasons are obviously a little more detailed than how I said it.

If there were only Humans on the planet and no Forerunner relics, architecture etc. The Covenant would simply Glass the planet; Humans exterminated. Job done.

Spartans are born there.

@OP: Because that's what the Covenant have always done, as long as there are signs of human life they can detect or humans that they know of they'll stick around and try to destroy them, or send reinforcements if the first wave is destroyed. Considering that the Prophets lied and claimed humans were an abomination to the Forerunners, the Covies are going to try their hardest to kill every single human on every single human world that they find....and they probably at first mistook Reach as being humanities' homeworld. [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Ghost 4119 If you read the book "Fall of Reach." A group of Generation III Spartans find a forerunner relic buried under an Office of Naval Intelligence base, as they flee from covenant forces trying to break through. It was an highly radioactive object which could move within space and time by itself. It was taken off reach by the same group of Spartans. But, a marine who was taken with the Spartans and Doctor Halsey, committed suicide by throwing a grenade on the relic. But obviously, since the object was, to understate it, an anomaly. It amplified the explosion killing him. But the relic survived, using its ability to pass between space and time, to pass through the walls of the ship into the slipstream. Being lost to the covenant and humans alike forever.... this is why I do not currently have a girlfriend[/quote] I think you mean Spartan IIs, not IIIs. Fred, Kelly, Will, and all of them were from the first Spartan Program, Spartan II, not III. The only Spartan IIIs that we've actually had officially confirmed on Reach are Noble Team, except for Jorge who was a Spartan II. And actually the Slipspace Crystal was destroyed, it was broken into multiple different fragments, one of which Truth acquired. And actually the Marine had been with Chief on Halo and escaped from there, IIRC, not from Reach with Halsey and the Spartan IIs. [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Skillet98 This. Or at least, that's how Bungie explained it after revealing that Reach was actually just a planet of farmers and apparently had no real military presence at all. Actually, I have to say, Reach's story is a mess. I don't like to think about it...[/quote] Oh great -_- back to this fething bollocks again *sigh* Ya know, I thought debates and troll hate comments about Reach were done here, but I guess I was mistaken :/ By your standards then I guess Earth must just have that one little, outdated military base buried in the deeps of Africa and New Mombasa and Voi must be the only cities and factories that are on the planet since that's all we ever see. And Earth apparently has no military at all except for a handful of Frigates and Marathon Cruisers and three SMAC platforms. Assuming that everything we see in the game is all that there is is a grossly erroneous and fallacious assumption to make. As the player we simply can't be absolutely everywhere or see every single thing at once, we're limited by where our character(s) is/are deployed to and by what is seen by him/her. Like the Arbiter for instance, we know he and his ships and R'tas Vadum were all at Alpha Halo....yet we never see them in Combat Evolved, that hardly means they don't exist or weren't there and the developers are trying to lie to us.

oh sorry, my bad. I was mixing up the storyline of Ghosts of Onyx and Fall of Reach, bad idea, sorry. Oh and by the way, there was a mention of the Spartan I's, but apparently, they were just genetically altered clones which lived in agony until they died a few months after their creation. So officially the spartan II program was the first, but technically it was the second program.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] MasterVegeta SP Spartans are born there.[/quote] Just saying, spartans are not born, they're made.

If i remember correctly it had to do with the three Prophets figuring out that Humans were Reclaimers and thus needed to destroy them to protect their religion and Reach just happened to have Humans on it so yea commence making a planet a giant space marble.

Read FoR. There was a precursor artifact there.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] cameo_cream Read FoR. There was a precursor artifact there.[/quote] Exactly, does no one else but me and this person remember that there was an artefact? geez >.>

There was a Forerunner crystal on Reach.

I think they recover a Forerunner artifact, I read that in either Fall of Reach or First Strike. Even without that though, Reach was a big Naval hub so they had every reason to attack it.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] cameo_cream Read FoR. There was a precursor artifact there.[/quote] It was never said to be Precursor; that's just a theory, since it seemed far beyond anything we've seen of even the Forerunners before or since, and the Menachite complex it was housed in was described almost like a temple. [Edited on 10.04.2012 5:28 AM PDT]

Reach had lots of oil so they wanted to get there and do some drilling.

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Make117 Reach had lots of oil so they wanted to get there and do some drilling.[/quote] Something is telling me that you just trolled us good sir

It was never said to be Precursor; that's just a theory, since it seemed far beyond anything we've seen of even the Forerunners before or since, and the Menachite complex it was housed in was described almost like a temple.[/quote] Far out people they were called fore-runners... *rolls eyes* unless 343i screwed up and made them 'precursors' now. >.>

[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Ghost 4119 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Make117 Reach had lots of oil so they wanted to get there and do some drilling.[/quote] Something is telling me that you just trolled us good sir[/quote]Really? And what might that something be if I may ask?