2552
Aug 30
"The remaining SPARTANS are divided into two teams: Red and Blue. John and the rest of Blue team (Linda and James), while on an orbital mission to ensure that a NAV database stays out of Covenant hands, end up onboard the Pillar of Autumn when she jumps away from the Reach system to evade Covenant forces. James is lost and Linda is mortally wounded, and the subsequent mission on Halo is left to the Master Chief to complete. "
this section shows when johns mission is completed and they initially jump to the first halo
2552
Sep 4
"Lieutenant Wagner returns to Earth and reports on the evident destruction of Reach to Colonel Ackerson, Admiral Hood, and General Strauss at an ONI facility in Sydney, Australia."
Reach has been destroyed and reported
2552
Sep 7
" The Time/Date Record Anomaly of Sep 23, 2552 most likely rejoins the timeline here. Dr. Halsey and members of Red team discover an enigmatic shard in an ancient installation below the ONI facility. Blue team (JOHNS TEAM) joins with team Gamma to retrieve Admiral Whitcomb, and rejoin the rest of Red team who have been besieged by the Covenant, who apparently revere the artifact that the humans have found. Dr. Halsey destroys ONI's underground facility CASTLE BASE on Reach, preventing the Covenant from gaining control of its secrets.
time anomaly and blue team join back
Unknown
The remaining Spartans, Admiral Whitcomb, Dr. Halsey, Sgt. Johnson, Lieutenant Haverson, Warrant Officer Polaski, and Corporal Locklear jump to Slipspace on board the Covenant/Human hybrid ship Gettysburg/Ascendant Justice, and discover that the shard seems to have the ability to bend both space and time.
everybody at this time including johnson and john etc slipspace back to earth for warning BEFORE SEP 12
2552
Sep 12
The Gettysburg/Ascendant Justice arrives for refit and provisioning in Eridanus system and meets with the rebels under Governor Jiles. Dr. Halsey sedates Spartan 087, Kelly, and absconds with her on Governor Jiles ship (the Beatrice), a Chiroptera-class vessel, the smallest UNSC classification that contains an SFTE. Before she goes, she gives the alien artifact to Corporal Locklear, with implicit instructions to destroy it.
merged ship with ascendant justice (which was at first halo un merged days later)
2552
Sep
13 Admiral Whitcomb and Lieutenant Haverson destroy the majority of the surrounding Covenant fleet by detonating the Unyielding Hierophant. John, Linda, Will, and Fred, the last known remaining Spartans, along with Sgt. Johnson, and, of course, Cortana, depart for Earth to warn of the impending Covenant invasion.
spartans together including john, yet at this point he is supposed to be en route to the halo on pillar of autumn.
2552
Sep 19
The Pillar Of Autumn arrives at Halo. A company of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (UNSC Naval Special Forces) led by Major Antonio Silva and his second in command, Lieutenant Mellisa McKay land on Halo via 'Human Entry Vehicles' and establish an operational firebase situated near a mesa a few kilometers away from the Pillar of Autmun's crash site. Alpha Base, as it was designated, had been supplied and heavily fortified with what remained of the Pillar of Autmun's arsenal.
Believing that the Master Chief was hiding out at Alpha Base, Covenant ground and aerial forces commanded by Zuka 'Zamamee and Noga 'Putumee attack the base in an effort to capture the Chief. The attack fails and the base is held by Major Silva.
events of halo occur starting here
2552
Sep 22
The Master Chief and Cortana, onboard a Longsword in the debris field of the destroyed Halo, find one remaining Pelican containing Sgt. Johnson, Lieutenant Haverson, Warrant Officer Polaski, Corporal Locklear, and a set of cryotubes containing Spartan 058, Linda.
linda in cryotube (damaged before halo when left reach) however you see a few days before she was active with the rest of the spartans AFTER the events which immobilised her
2552
Sep 23
The Master Chief, Cortana, Linda, Polaski, Sgt. Johnson, Haverson, and Locklear depart for Reach via Slipspace aboard the Covenant Flagship Ascendant Justice, captured near the Halo debris field. A Time/Date Record Anomaly continues from this point in the narrative, resolved above on Sep 7, 2552.
ascendant justice not merged with gettysburg here, even though this days AFTER merge occurs in timeline
So as you can see, this leads me to believe they do in fact travel in time back to before the events of halo, or during at least, and the story leads from there, which also goes along the lines of why they got back so early even though it should have taken longer, therefore managing to warn earth sooner.
While in effect they didnt jump through time, time shifts did occur.. whatever you want to call it, the fact remains that they were only gone for a fraction of the time it had seemed, and were able to "effectively" travel in time.
[Edited on 08.05.2009 5:58 PM PDT]