Editing Harvest

{{Ratings}}{{Era|HW|FOR|GOO|CH|HGN}}
{{stub}}
{{Planet
|image=[[Image:HarvestOverhead.jpg|300px]]
|name=Harvest
|star, position=[[Epsilon Indi]]
|moon(s)=
|satellite(s)= none
|gravity= 
|atmosphere= 
|surface temperature=
|population= Three Million
|species=
|societal approximation=
|government=[[UNSC]]
|technology tier= Tier 3
|current threat to array=
}}

'''Harvest''' was the seventeenth [[UNSC]] colony world, and one of the most remote. Located in the [[Epsilon Indi System]]<ref>[[Halo: Contact Harvest]], page 32</ref>, the planet had the unfortunate distinction of being the first human planet discovered by the [[Covenant]]. After disastrous [[Halo: Contact Harvest|First Contact]], the planet was subsequently [[glassed]] by the [[Covenant]] during the [[Battle of Harvest]], and most of its population was killed due to the battle. 

==Population==
Harvest was one of the UNSC's more productive and more peaceful colonies, within two decades of its founding it had the highest per capita agricultural manufacture of any inner colony. Major crops, such as [[corn]], [[wheat]], [[watermelon]]s, [[peach]]es, [[apple]]s, [[grape]]s, and numerous other foodstuffs nourished the inhabitants of more than half a dozen other colonies. The population of Harvest was three million but was destroyed by the Covenant in [[2525]] by invasion and orbital bombardment. The capital city and largest population center was [[Utgard]], also home to Harvest's [[List of "Seven" references in Halo|seven]] [[space elevator|space elevators]] connected to the Orbital Space Station, [[Tiara]]. 

[[Image:Timeline010.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Harvest.]]

==Topography==
Harvest was a small planet, approximately one-third the size of [[Earth]] with only a 4,000 kilometer (2,484 mile) equatorial diameter, slightly smaller than the [[Sol System|Sol]] planet Mercury.<ref>[[Halo: Contact Harvest]], pg 33</ref> In terms of surface area, Harvest possessed ~50 million km², roughly one-tenth the surface area of Earth. Harvest orbited [[Epsilon Indi]] extremely quickly, much faster than most UNSC colonies, at roughly 150,000 km/h, or ~41km/sec (by comparison, Earth orbits Sol at roughly 30 km/sec). Harvest had no natural satellites. Out of a total of five planets in the Epsilon Indi System, Harvest was the only habitable planet. The super-continent [[Edda]] dominated the planet, taking up roughly 67% of its surface. Two low-salinity seas covered the remainder of the planet, [[Hugin]] to the north, and [[Munin]] to the south.<ref>[[Halo: Contact Harvest]], pg. 74</ref>. Almost 86% of Edda is within 500 meters of sea level, the only major change in elevation is the Bifrost, a escarpment that "cuts" Edda in half.

Harvest's surface was once beautiful, covered in grassland and forests, lush fields and rolling hills, and a thousand lakes swarming with fish. The orchards were filled with fruit trees that were able to grow several different fruit on it at once. At one point during his service on Harvest [[Sergeant Johnson]] noted both apples and pears growing on the same tree. At night, bats filled the skies.<ref>[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]], page 75</ref> After being glassed, the surface was reduced to a layer of melted glass, the destruction visible from orbit.<ref>[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]</ref> The environment suffered a catastrophic blow as a result, with most species quickly going extinct on the world due to the destroyed environment. Soon, all that remained of Harvest's original natural ecosystem were the scavengers, feeding off the rotting remains of the planet's once abundant wildlife, and even they too soon perished.

==History==
In [[2502]], [[Avery Junior Johnson]] was involved in the assassination of [[Jerald Mulkey Ander]], the head of the [[People's Occupation Government]] on Harvest as part of the [[ORION Project]]'s [[Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE]]. 
Harvest was the first colony to be attacked by the Covenant and the first [[human]] world to be [[glassing|glassed]]. It was also the first time humanity had officially made First Contact with the Covenant.

In [[2524]] Staff Sergeant Johnson returned to Harvest along with [[Byrne|Staff Sergeant Byrne]] and [[Ponder|Captain Ponder]], all survivors of [[Operation: TREBUCHET]], to train a Colonial Militia, and unbeknownst to them, fend off what UNSC had believed to be [[Insurrectionist]] attacks on ships in the systems. 

On February 3rd [[2525]] The Harvest Long range orbital platform made radar and spectroscopic contact with ''[[Minor Transgression]]''. Contact with Harvest was lost thereafter.

By April 12th [[2525]] the [[Colonial Military Administration]] sent the scout ship ''[[Argo]]'' to investigate, other then confirming its arrival at Harvest no other transmissions were sent, and Argo was presumed MIA.

On October 7th [[2525]] Fleet Command assembled a battlegroup to investigate, due to the fact that the Harvest situation was deemed to have become serious. The battlegroup consisted of the destroyer ''[[Heracles]]'', commanded by Captain Veredi, as well as the frigates ''[[UNSC Arabia|Arabia]]'' and ''[[UNSC Vostok|Vostok]]''. They enter the Harvest system only to find the planet glassed, The ''Vostok'' and ''Arabia'' were lost with all hands while the ''Heracles'' jumped out of the system, but took several weeks to return to Reach due to damage sustained in the battle.

===Escape from Harvest===
The citizens of Harvest soon found themselves in the middle of the first battle between the [[Covenant]] and [[human|humanity]], using their newly trained Militia to herd hundreds of thousands of civilian survivors from [[Gladsheim]], Vigrond, and other locations to the [[Utgard]] [[Space Elevator]]s to escape the planet. During the first [[Covenant]] attack on Harvest about +250,000 humans managed to escape the planet by packing into 236 freight containers which were then loaded into seven elevator depots in Utgard. Every five to '''[[seven]]''' minutes, '''seven''' pairs of freight containers were loaded into the Space Elevator. Loaded ahead of these freight containers were seven "grease buckets", maintenance containers, two which were loaded with Johnson's men and Jilan al-Cygni. The other five were decoys rigged with claymore mines which were used to soften the Brutes, Grunts and Drones which had boarded and taken control of ''[[Tiara]]''.<ref>Halo: Contact Harvest p.351-52</ref> While the other two "grease buckets" holding Johnson and Co. stopped and they were fighting off the Covenant, the number seven strand of the Space Elevator snapped a few thousand kilometers above its anchor due to the stress caused by the load becoming unbalanced. There were 11 pairs of freight containers on the strand when it snapped, killing around 20,000 people.<ref>Halo: Contact Harvest p.372</ref> The remaining freight containers carrying the survivors of Harvest continued up the elevator, out into space, where they met up with [[propulsion pods]] that [[Sif]] had placed previously. Once Johnson and Co. finished fighting the Covenant on the ''Tiara'', they joined the survivors and used the propulsion pods to enter Slipspace. <ref>Halo: Contact Harvest p.352</ref> In these freight containers was at least one future member of the [[Spartan-III]] project.

===The Battle of Harvest===
[[Vice Admiral Preston Cole]] fought in and barely won the [[Battle of Harvest]] in [[2531]], six years later. This battle was the single most titanic battle ever fought by the two opposing forces before the Fall of [[Reach]] in [[2552]], and resulted in the creation and implementation of the [[Cole Protocol]]. The [[UNSC]] was able to retake the planet but with the massive loss of 2/3 of their fleet.

==Trivia==
*Harvest is seemingly inspired by the Norse and Scandinavian outlying cultures and customs, they were practically hard-laborers fairly comparable to Harvest's populace.
*It has Norse Mythological locations such as Gladsheim, Bifrost, Midgard, and Utgard amongst others.
*Harvest may be named for its agricultural resources.
*Another name for Harvest that the Covenant use in their event dates is the [[Human|Alien]] colonized world, "''Reliquary''".
*The finding of Humans on Harvest was the catalyst for the attempted Covenant genocide of the Human race, due to a mistranslation of Forerunner glyphs by the Prophets, as seen on many writs and machines amid Covenant technologies.
*Harvest had no army when the Covenant attacked, only its [[Colonial Militia]], which had been designed for possible [[Insurrection]] attacks.
*Harvest is home to animals such as the [[Harvest Whale]] and the [[Arctic Beast]]

==Sources==
<references/>
{{Clear}}
[[Category:UNSC Colonies]]