HALO: Contact Harvest (First Gallery Books trade paperback edition)

The New York Times bestseller-part of the expanded universe based on the award-winning video game series Halo! 2524. Harvest is a peaceful, prosperous farming colony on the very edge of human-controlled space.

But humanity has unknowingly trespassed on holy ground-straying into the path of the aggressive, theocratic empire known as the Covenant.

What begins as a chance encounter between an alien privateer and a human freighter soon catapults all of mankind into a struggle for its very existence.

But humanity is also currently locked in a bitter civil war of its own: the Insurrection.

With resources strained to the breaking point, the ultimate survival of Harvest's citizens falls to a squad of battle-weary UNSC Marines and their inexperienced colonial militia trainees.

In this unlikely group of heroes, one will stand above the rest-a young Marine staff. sergeant named Avery Johnson...