The following is a rip directly from the appropriate [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/HaloStory/comments/3j0pyu/hi_could_someone_summarize_the_events_following/]subreddit[/url]. This is for those of us in Garning that still care about Halo.
[spoiler]On July 25, 2557 John was debriefed by the UNSC Security Council, though this questioning session as well as his survival were kept secret from Doctor Halsey. John confirmed that Cortana and the Composer were both destroyed over Earth, but he was unable to confirm the Didact's death. With there being no proof of a living Forerunner, the Council decided to tell the general public that the attack on New Phoenix was caused by the Covenant remnants and ended by the return of a hero, the Master Chief. Following his meeting with the Security Council, the Master Chief met with Lord Terrence Hood. Hood asked the Master Chief if he could advise a team on Installation 03 to investigate the loss of contact with a science team escorted by Spartan Black Team on the ring. The Master Chief then reunited with Blue Team, consisting of Fred-104, Kelly-087, and Linda-058.
John and the rest of Blue Team took a Longsword fighter to Gamma Halo and landed in near the science team's camp. There, the Spartans found the corpses of both the science team and Spartan Black. After being attacked by Promethean Knights, Blue Team discovered the former location of the Composer and within, the Composer's Abyss, a facility used to store the Composer's victims. The Spartans entered a slipspace portal at the end of the Abyss and were teleported to the Composer's Forge, housing six new Composers, where they were confronted by the Didact and his Promethean constructs. During the battle, 859 Static Carillon, the Forge's monitor, transported Installation 03 over the Forge by the Didact's request. The Didact subsequently took one of the Composers and departed for the Halo, intending to use the ring to eradicate humanity. Infuriated by the Didact bringing his Prometheans to the Composer's Forge, Static Carillon allied with the Spartans and escorted them back to the portal, holding off the hordes of Promethean machines.
Blue Team returned to the surface of Gamma Halo from the Composer's Abyss, arriving just in time as the Didact's new Composer rose from the pit. John fell behind while the Didact attacked and prepared to kill the others, starting with Kelly. Before he could do so, the Master Chief sneaked behind the Didact and stabbed him in the eye with his combat knife. Intending to correct his mistake of not having killed the Spartan when he had the chance, the Didact grabbed John by the head, lifted him in the air and squeezed, cracking his visor. However, the rest of Blue Team intervened, prompting the Didact to throw John aside. The Forerunner quickly disabled all four Spartans, but Static Carillon arrived and teleported the Didact into the Halo's control room before he could finish them off.
After recovering, John picked up the ring's Activation Index the Didact had dropped and intended to confront the Forerunner in the control room while the rest of the team returned to their Longsword. Using the Index to override the system's safeties, the Master Chief gave control of the Halo to Static Carillon who then ejected the section of the ring housing the control room, causing it to plunge toward the planet below. The monitor teleported John away just as the segment struck the Composer's Forge and the Didact was digitized by the Composers. John and Static Carillon materialized aboard Blue Team's Longsword, where the monitor bade farewell to the Reclaimer before departing to take Gamma Halo to an undisclosed location.
John returned to Earth with Blue Team where he was debriefed by Fleet Admiral Hood. While Lord Hood believed the Didact to be dead, the Master Chief considered it safer to call him "contained". Hood ordered John and the other Spartans to take a leave from combat, but upon returning to his team the Master Chief instead told them they were embarking on a new mission — evidently one of his own making. Blue Team then departed for their new activities; their whereabouts in the coming months would remain classified. After their departure, the Master Chief's behavior was discussed by two high-level individuals within ONI, who deemed his self-reassignment a predictable consequence of his nature and unwavering dedication to his career.
Eight months after the Didact's defeat, John and Blue Team were dispatched to investigate the abandoned ONI research facility UNSC Argent Moon. During the mission, John was confronted with an ominous vision of Cortana. Not long after this, John and Blue Team would apparently go AWOL.
John-117 and the rest of Blue Team discovered that an extremist organization known as Sapien Sunrise was planing an attack on Richard Sekibo on Biko. As a peace conference on Biko between the UEG and Sangheili representatives was coming to an end, John entered the embassy and instantly killed a member of Sapien Sunrise who was disguised as Richard Sekibo's bodyguard. A firefight began, in which a total of eighteen human lives were claimed. John fled the embassy alongside the Sangheili delegation, which he escorted to safety. Outside the embassy, the rest of Blue Team was waiting in an evac ship for John. Unfortunately, Sekibo was killed and John was unable to save him. His corpse was left behind in a field near the embassy on Biko. The next day, local officials discovered a signal beacon that led them to the body of Sekibo. After this event, the UEG and Biko government covered it up by making it appear that John had killed authorized bodyguards and Sekibo. This false story was spread throughout the inner colonies. The media started referring to John as "The Fallen Spartan". As Benjamin Giraud prepared to expose the cover up, and reveal the atrocities committed by the people behind the SPARTAN-II Program, the UEG and Biko undercut him by radically reversing their claims, admitting and denouncing the involvement of Sapien Sunrise in the attack, utterly discrediting Giraud. Even Senator Andrew Del Rio, who had condemned the Master Chief in an official statement, reversed his position and took some immediate leave.
With ONI having lost track of the Master Chief, they declared him AWOL and eventually tasked a special unit to recover him. Led by Lieutenant Commander Jameson Locke, the team of SPARTAN-IV soldiers consulted John's "old friend", Arbiter Thel 'Vadam, for the Spartan's whereabouts.[/spoiler]
Lord of Admirals, feel free to make any corrections. Your knowledge is vast and appreciated.
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Great post. I'm still a little bit shaky on the whole Escalations part