Here's a stark look into the wartorn lives of a group of marines and ODSTs during the events of the first Halo title, as lovingly recreated by a group of fans. The prologue reel for Halo: The Fallen, viewable above, has a wizened veteran relive the first battle with the Covenant on Reach, complete with professional-quality CGI Elites, Grunts, plasma rifles and bullets.

The Halo: The Fallen prologue film is not-for-profit and was made with $200 to showcase the creators' talents, the YouTube description reads. If we could pay people in our own humble respect, these guys would be millionaires.

Update: This post originally credited the Halo: Helljumper folks as having created the above piece of video, which is inaccurate. It also referred to "Elites" as "Arbiters," which, frankly, we find inexcusable. Those responsible in the Department of Halo Alien Class References have been summarily sacked.

A group of dedicated Halo fans have put some serious time, sweat, tears (we assume) and talent (we can see) into a coming webseries, Halo Helljumper, based on the short story "Dirt" by Tobias S. Buckell. The film series will tell the tale of one ODST battling the Covenant before the fall of Reach. The first episode is set to premiere in January. Check out the trailer above and get some more information about the cast and props right here.