Editing Battle of Mombasa

====UNSC insertion====

{{Quote|no=three|Sergeant [[Avery Johnson]]|Pelican Pilots|[[Cortana]]|q1=Dear Humanity...we regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!|q2=Oo-rah!|q3=Regret is a name, Sergeant. The name of one of the Covenant's religious leaders. A Prophet. He's on that carrier, and he's calling for help.|Sergeant Major Avery Johnson and Cortana discussing a Covenant distress signal, while flying in on a [[Pelican]].{{Ref/Reuse|outskirts}}}}

Some time after the Covenant insertion to the city and during the civilian evacuation, the {{Class|Stalwart|light frigate}} {{UNSCShip|In Amber Clad}} of the [[Medii Battle Group]]{{Ref/Reuse|evg}} descended near Mombasa to reinforce the ground troops already present. Intercepted transmission from the Covenant forces had led the UNSC to correctly believe that it was the High Prophet of Regret in command of the opposing force, making his capture their utmost priority in the right line of the originally [[Fall of Reach|cancelled]] [[Operation: RED FLAG]]. Three [[D77-TC Pelican|Pelicans]], one of them with the [[Master Chief Petty Officer]] [[John-117]] onboard, were deployed by the ''In Amber Clad'' to board the ''Solemn Penance'' hovering near the [[Mombasa Tether]]. However, before they could get near the carrier, the formation ran across a {{Pattern|Protos|Scarab}} which shot down all of the Pelicans in Old Mombasa. The first was destroyed by the Scarab's main cannon, while the second, carrying an [[Orbital Drop Shock Trooper|ODST]] [[Second Squad#Battle of Mombasa|squad]] led by [[Gunnery Sergeant]] [[Marcus Stacker]], was shot down and crash-landed on the beach. The third Pelican, carrying [[Sergeant Major]] [[Avery Johnson]] and [[John-117]] crashed upside-down into a building in the heart of Old Mombasa.{{Ref/Reuse|outskirts}}

===After the Slipspace Event===

{{Quote|We need to get above this crap, link up with the [[UNSC battle network|bee-net]]. One of our drones must have seen where they hit.|[[Edward Buck]] to [[Kojo Agu]] after meeting in Tayari Plaza.}}

Large numbers of Covenant troops remained in the city even after Regret's withdrawal. While most of Regret's troops evacuated into the carrier, there was still a significant Covenant presence both on the ground and in orbit. Moments after Regret jumped, the [[Prophet of Truth]] seized the control of the battle and assumed the command of what remained within Regret's [[Fleet of Sacred Consecration|initial fleet]] while a large [[Truth's fleet|support and excavation fleet]] of [[Jiralhanae]]-led Covenant reinforcements was en route to Earth. The remaining Jiralhanae from Regret's forces were simultaneously given orders to execute the [[Sangheili]] forces on the ground and in orbit. This was a part of the Prophet of Truth's personal scheme for the Covenant, which would come to its conclusion two weeks later when the Sangheili were officially removed from their positions as the main warrior caste of the Covenant.{{Ref/Reuse|bnet}}{{Ref/Reuse|waypoint}}

====Assault on the Covenant landing zone====

{{Quote|no=three|Colonel|Taylor Miles|Colonel|q1=Trooper, you're almost at second platoon's location. Give 'em a hand and push to the primary objective!|q2=What is the objective, Colonel?|q3=You know the Covenant carrier that slipped away from the city? We need to secure its old LZ. Snatch a Tier One asset.|ODST [[Taylor Miles]] and the UNSC colonel at Uplift Reserve.{{Ref/Reuse|upliftreserve}}}}

Around thirty minutes after the slipspace event, unmanned [[F-99 Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle|F-99 UCAVs]] were sent to the city to maintain air supremacy over the Phantoms and Banshees. UNSC forces began to regroup, following the orders of [[unidentified colonel|a Marine colonel]]. The Marines were ordered to regroup at the colonel's position near the landing zone, and take control of Regret's carrier's former landing zone in the [[Uplift Nature Reserve]] in an effort to seize an unidentified enemy asset, later revealed to be groups of Huragok. Marines at the Uplift Reserve, led by [[Taylor Miles|a surviving ODST]], managed to break through Covenant defenses along the way to the landing zone. At this point, the Mombasa Tether, already damaged by the jump, collapsed, with miles of debris from the tether scattered across East Africa.{{Ref/Level|Id=tsavo|H3|Tsavo Highway}} The collapse also killed the colonel, who, in his final moments, ordered Marines to evacuate from the park. With the colonel dead and the Covenant transporting all Huragok away from the park, the UNSC forces gained little advantages from their efforts in the park.{{Ref/Level|Id=upliftreserve|ODST|Uplift Reserve}}

====Nightfall====

{{Quote|no=two|Michael Crespo|Edward Buck|q1=What do you see, Gunny?|q2=A whole lot of Covenant, gathering around that Slipspace crater. I wonder what they're looking for.|Buck and Crespo from Alpha-Nine observing the skyline from Kikowani.}}

By nightfall, nearly all human forces in the city had either been evacuated or destroyed. With Covenant forces controlling the city, remaining Covenant cruisers left by the Prophet of Regret began excavating the area around the crater created by the slipspace rupture.{{Ref/Reuse|firsttwelvehours}} Among the few human survivors were the members of Alpha-Nine, who arrived at [[Kikowani Station (location)|Kikowani Station]] near the city's northeastern seawall, only to realize that the station, as well as [[Kikowani|its surroundings]] had been flooded by [[water]], making escape through train tunnels impossible. The squad decided to hijack a Phantom dropship, in which they succeeded. Buck escorted the rest of the squad through the flooded sections of the city in a [[Irdnekt-pattern Banshee|Banshee]]. The area was filled with Covenant forces, including a [[Deutoros-pattern Scarab|Scarab]]. After destroying the Scarab, they managed to fly out of the city, when Buck suddenly realized he knew where Captain Dare was and decided to go back to find her, inside the Superintendent's [[New Mombasa Data Center|data center]].{{Ref/Level|Id=kikowani|ODST|Kikowani Station}}

====Extracting the asset====

{{Quote|no=two|Veronica Dare|Edward Buck|q1=When did ''this'' happen?|q2=They started showing up right before I went underground.|ONI agent Veronica Dare and ODST Edward Buck viewing a fleet of Covenant ships circling Mombasa.{{Ref/Reuse|coastal}}}}

Eventually, the Rookie managed to meet up with Dare inside the [[New Mombasa Data Center|Superintendent's Data Center]]. The two fought through the Yanme'e hive in sublevel 10, causing the Yanme'e to alert the Jiralhanae, who sent more reinforcements to the Data Center. Inside, Dare and Rookie discovered the Huragok [[Quick to Adjust]],{{Ref/Reuse|Catalog}} who had combined the Superintendent, namely its [[Vergil]] subroutine, with itself. As Quick disconnected from the core, the AI shut itself down, as all of its data had been transferred into the creature. At this point, Buck arrived into the complex and the ODSTs escaped back to the surface through the Covenant-occupied tunnels, while protecting the critically important Huragok.{{Ref/Reuse|data}}

==Aftermath==

===New Mombasa and Earth===

{{Quote|Before 2552, there was no way anything like that could happen on Earth. On one of those distant planets in the outer colonies, maybe. But an attack on Earth? Couldn't happen. Until it did. It's called [[glassing]]. Covenant warships rain plasma down on a planet until everything and everyone on the surface melts. Usually, it's complete world destruction. Earth only got a taste. The prolonged orbital bombardment destroyed East Africa, killing millions before it ended. None of us were safe anymore.|[[Benjamin Giraud]]{{Ref/Game|Id=hunt|Game=Hunt the Truth|Detail=Episode 01: A Hairline Fracture}}}}