Editing Harvest

{{Ratings}}{{Era|HW|FOR|GOO|CH|HGN}}

{{Planet

|image=[[Image:Harvest2.jpg|300px]]

|star, position=[[Epsilon Indi]]

|moon(s)= None

|satellite(s)= Tiara

|gravity= Unknown, Likely circa 38% of Earth Normal

|atmosphere=

|surface temperature=

|population= Little over Three Hundred Thousand

|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. The colony was founded in [[2468]] by the [[UNSC Skidbladnir|UNSC ''Skidbladnir'']]<ref>http://halowars.com/GameInfo/Timeline.aspx</ref>. 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 [[glassing|razed]] by the Covenant during the [[First Battle of Harvest]], and most of its population was killed due to the battle.  

Harvest was one of the UNSC's more productive and more peaceful colonies. Within two decades of its founding it had the highest per capital 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 hundred thousand but most were killed by the Covenant in [[2525]] by invasion and orbital bombardment. The capital city and its 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|Utgard, capital of 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 other 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 as well as being fertile. 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 with luscious crops. 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, the once glorious landscape turning into a nearly frozen tundra, causing most species to quickly go extinct. Soon, all that remained of Harvest's original ecosystem were the scavengers, feeding off the rotting remains of the planet's once abundant wildlife, and even they perished before long.

 

#[[Harvest Whale]]

#[[Starling]]

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 place humanity ''officially'' made contact with the Covenant, after the incidents on ''[[This End Up]]'' and ''[[Minor Transgression]]''.

In [[2524]], Staff Sergeant Johnson returned to Harvest along with [[Byrne|Staff Sergeant Byrne]] and [[Ponder|Captain Ponder]], all survivors of [[Operation: TREBUCHET]]. They were 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 orbital platform, the ''[[Tiara]]'', made long-range radar and spectroscopic contact with ''[[Rapid Conversion]]''. Contact with Harvest was lost thereafter.

===Escape from Harvest===

The citizens of Harvest soon found themselves in the middle of the first battle between the [[Covenant]] and [[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 40,000 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> It should be noted that at least one of the future candidates for [[SPARTAN-III]] Program could have been on the freight containers.

The prototype of the Brute ''[[Chopper]]'' was also made by a ''Huragok'' Engineer named Lighter Than Some during the time it took for the citizens to escape.

After the destruction of the Tiara the agricultural AI Mack buried its strands in a form of a funerary ritual for ''Sif'' who he appeared to be in love with.

===The Battle of Harvest===

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 battle group to investigate, due to the fact that the Harvest situation was deemed to have become serious. The battle group consisted of the destroyer ''[[Heracles]]'', commanded by Captain Veredi, as well as the frigates ''[[UNSC Arabia|Arabia]]'' and ''[[UNSC Vostok|Vostok]]''. They entered the Harvest system only to find the planet's surface almost entirely melted down to [[Glassing|glass]]. While there, the battle group encountered an unknown alien vessel. This vessel immediately fired on the inferior human vessels, and the ''Vostok'' and ''Arabia'' were lost with all hands. The ''Heracles'' managed to jump out of the system, but took several weeks to return to Reach due to damage sustained in the battle.  

[[Vice Admiral Preston Cole]] fought and barely won the [[Second 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.

[[Image:Glassingship.jpg|300px|thumb|Harvest being razed by [[Covenant Carrier]]s.]]

Soon after Admiral Cole's victory, the [[UNSC Spirit of Fire|UNSC ''Spirit of Fire'']] arrived in the system and found the Covenant had once again returned to the planet's surface, and more shockingly, had uncovered previously unknown [[Forerunner]] relics. <ref>http://www.gametrailers.com/player/40831.html</ref>

==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 as is one of its A.I.s, [[Sif]].

*It has Norse Mythological locations such as Gladsheim, Bifrost, Midgard, and Utgard amongst others.

*Harvest may be named for its agricultural resources,  because it's main commerce/trade is crops.

*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 raised for possible [[Insurrection]] attacks, was stationed on the planet. There would have been a more efficient force, if not for the attitudes of the people: they didn't want armed guards all over their planet.  

*Harvest is home to animals such as the [[Harvest Whale]] and the [[Arctic Beast]].

*The [[Halo Wars]] game is based at Harvest.

*Many of the population of Harvest were of American descent. Specifically, the Mid-Western states(Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan) of the [[United States of America]]. This is the reason for Harvest's agricultural economy and largely North-European culture.

{{Clear}}

[[Category:UNSC Colonies]]

[[Category: Planets]]