Suraka

Suraka
Overview
Location:	Carrow
Population:	1 million
Governed by:	Government of Suraka

"We have lost Suraka before and come back. This isn’t new territory for these folks. And we will come back again. But only if we save our people first."

— Lamar Edwards arguing to evacuate the city.

Suraka is the human capital of Carrow, a former human Outer Colony and currently a planet in the Joint Occupation Zone. The city was abandoned during the height of the Human-Covenant War and was the center of the Carrow Conflict fought by human, Sangheili, and Jiralhanae forces in September of 2558.

Overview

Suraka is a major urban area with a population of around one million people. The city contains a number of large skyscrapers to the point that it has a distinct skyline. It is divided into at least thirty-one sectors, with Sector 24 containing agricultural infrastructure and Sector 31 being located at the most northeastern limits of the city. Suraka contained a substantial residential district that was most likely in the southeast portion of the city. It also contains a financial district with its own stock exchange located in the Wulandari Building. There are various industrial and commercial businesses operating in Suraka, including Rughet Factories and Finlay Ice Creams. As of the end of the Carrow Conflict, the surface of the city has been devastated by the fighting. The residential district was entirely destroyed during the fighting after being glassed and bulldozed by the Voice of Maardoth forces and getting caught in a nuclear explosion during the final stage of the conflict. The rest of the city also suffered significant damage from the Voice of Maardoth and Sharquoi attacks. The extent to which the city has been able to rebuild in the years since the conflict remains unknown.

Build beneath Suraka were a vast network of bunkers and tunnels that the Surakan government and the Surakan Militia Volunteers intended to use to shield themselves and civilians from a large scale attack. This network consisted of a central command bunker located underneath the Wulandari Building and various smaller bunkers that were located around the city. These nodes in the system were connected and supplemented by a series of tunnels, armories, and fortified basements. . These bunkers were well equipped, as the central bunker boasted a substantial militia presence as well as a command center that was connected to a substantial number of |surveillance drones and satellites. These bunkers were also well furnished, containing multiple offices and conference rooms that were primarily used by the Surakan heads of state and military commanders. This complex was powered by a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon that had been partially deconstructed and utilized as a nuclear reactor. As with the surface, a majority of these tunnels and bunkers were severely damaged or destroyed due to the Sharquoi attack.

Also lying beneath Suraka was an ancient Forerunner facility known as a Sharquoi hive. This was destroyed at the end of the Carrow Conflict with the detonation of a Havok nuclear warhead.

Known residents

• Aru
• Cameron
• Rae Carson
• Dizzy
• Lamar Edwards
• Ellis Gass
• Jeff Gass
• Grace
• Kait Adelie
• Kapoor
• Brandon Rhodes
• Senj
• Travis Pope
• Wyse

History

Forerunner-Flood War

During the height of the Forerunner-Flood war, the Forerunners built a Sharquoi hive underneath the surface of where Suraka would later be located.

Human colonization

When humanity colonized Carrow in 2435, the first settlers founded Suraka around an oasis in the Uldt Desert. This settlement would gradually grow into a substantial city.

Human-Covenant War

In the opening years of the Human-Covenant War, the Covenant were moving through and destroying the Outer Colonies at a fast pace. In response to this, the Unified Earth Government and United Nations Space Command decided to evacuate Carrow in 2531 and move the colonists to the better protected Inner Colonies and the Sol system. As such, Suraka was left abandoned for the remainder of the war.

Post-war

After the war came to a close, former residents of Suraka and other human settlers began returning to the city in 2553. Their greatest initial goal once they resettled the city was to bolster their defensive capabilities, as they were wary of the Sangheili city of Rak that had been established on the other side of the Uldt mere months before the colonists returned to Suraka. Under the leadership of Governor Kait Adelie, the city greatly expanded their military strength, both through their own steps to strengthen the Surakan Militia Volunteers on the ground and in orbit and through support from various groups such as the New Colonial Alliance and Sapien Sunrise. It was during this period that the network of bunkers and tunnels underneath the city were constructed. This focus on military buildup diminished after the first Surakan gubernatorial election in 2557, in which Ellis Gass, an engineer who had played a large part in building the bunkers, was able to oust the incumbent Adelie with a campaign that promised to restore Suraka's dated infrastructure. Under Ellis's leadership, a significant portion of military spending was redirected towards civilian projects.

During Ellis's term, the relations between the Surakans and the Sangheili in Rak began to deteriorate rapidly. Confrontations between the Sangheili and smaller human settlements in the Uldt occasionally warranted the SMV to intervene, leading to skirmishes between the two species. Additionally, a growing group of Sangheili wanted to wipe the human population of Carrow out and take the planet for themselves. In response to this, Ellis organized a peace summit between herself and Kaidon Rojka 'Kasaan, the leader of Rak. The goal of the talks would have been to find a way for both species to coexist on the planet and it was to be mediated by a UEG Diplomatic Corps team led by Melody Azikiwe. These talks were never started, however, as the Carrow Conflict began one day before they were set to begin.

Carrow Conflict

On September 1, 2558, A rogue Sangheili naval force under the command of Thars 'Sarov launched an attack on Suraka, immediately disabling all long-range communications and destroying any slipspace capable craft that were in the city's arsenal. Effectively cut off from the rest of humanity, the Surakan forces scrambled to react while Rojka and Thars's forces engaged each other in orbit. At this point, the Voice of Maardoth arrived in orbit and engaged Rojka's fleet while the Varric-pattern heavy cruiser Foebane made its way to the surface. The cruiser arrived above Suraka and deployed Jiralhanae and Unggoy forces under the command of the Jiralhanae Chieftain Hekabe. They touched down in the residential district and began demolishing buildings in the area, using the Unggoy to clear the debris from the area and using Foebane's energy projector to begin burrowing underground, creating a crater in the middle of their controlled area of the city.

By this point, the Surakans had relocated to the underground system of bunkers and were formulating a way to strike back against the Jiralhanae forces. Led by Ellis, vice-governor Lamar Edwards, and Generals Grace, Aru, and Kapoor, the SMV began probing the Voice of Maardoth's defenses for weaknesses, though they suffered around twenty percent casualties in these attacks. They also addressed the humanitarian crisis, evacuating civilians to Sector 31 of the city and allocating resources for these people.

After learning that her son had been killed in one of the probing attacks, Ellis became increasingly aggressive in her strategies. Thus, the Surakans enacted Operation: BUZZHAWK, where they would distract *Foebane* with attacks from ground-based artillery and Pelican dropships while their remaining ships pulled asteroids into a collision course with the cruiser. This plan worked, as the asteroids struck *Foebane* and brought the ship down over the Uldt.

While the Surakans celebrated their apparent victory, they were unaware of the fact that Hekabe had excavated and entered the Sharquoi Hive that was buried under the city. Using a device known as the Vertex, the chieftain was able to gain control of the Sharquoi, a species of extremely powerful aliens that are controlled through a hive mind. As the Surakans attempted to push into the structure, Hekabe unleashed the Sharquoi upon them, quickly overrunning their position and wreaking havoc upon the city. They inflicted almost complete casualties on the forces that opposed them, although Ellis was able to escape the scene on a Pelican. At this point, the Spartan-IIs of Gray Team and Rojka 'Kasaan's remaining forces arrived in Suraka. After briefly meeting with Ellis, they carried an assassination attempt on Hekabe, which ultimately failed and led to the deaths of the remainder of Rojka's forces.

After the failure of the assassination attempt, Ellis relinquished control of the situation to Lamar Edwards, who ordered the evacuation of the city. He began this by detonating a series of thermobaric mines that were planted around the edge of the crater, slowing down the stream of Sharquoi that were entering the city and forcing Hekabe to retreat back into the Sharquoi Hive. Lamar then redeployed most of the remaining Surakan military forces to assist with the evacuation, focusing on getting people away from the city and to various oases and settlements in the Uldt Desert. Back at the crater, Ellis rallied the Spartans and Rojka in a last-ditch effort to defeat Hekabe and the Sharquoi. This plan worked, leading to Ellis gaining control of the vertex and killing Hekabe. She then called all the Sharquoi back to her position and detonated a HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon that the team had brought, sacrificing herself to destroy the Sharquoi presence on Carrow.

Aftermath

After the Carrow Conflict, Suraka was left in an extremely damaged state. Under Lamar Edwards, the city aimed to work closely with the surviving keeps of Rak to piece some form of normalcy back together on Carrow.

Gallery

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  A map of the Uldt Desert containing Suraka's location

List of appearances

• Halo: Fractures
  • Oasis (First mentioned)
• Halo: Envoy (First appearance)