On August 31, 2552, as soon as the Fall of Reach had officially ended, the Covenant's Fleet of Consecrated Contribution, a large yet vastly underestimated armada whose sole purpose during the battle was to barricade the outskirts of the Epsilon Eridanus System, was assigned a new task. Having been granted specific coordinates to yet another Inner Colony world, the fleet was left in charge of its own planetary invasion. The Loss of Hope had officially began on the morning of September 2, 2552 on the colonized planet Hope.