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{{Era|H2|H3|GOO|UP}}
{{Status|Canon}}
{{Ratings}}
{{Battle infobox
{{New Content}}
|name=New Phoenix Incident
{{Triple battle infobox
|prev=[[Raid on Ivanoff Station]]
|prev=[[Battle of Installation 05]], [[Covenant Civil War]]
|conc=
|conc=[[Battle of Onyx]], [[Battle of Voi]], [[Battle of Cleveland]]
|next=[[Battle of Installation 03]]
|next=[[Battle of the Ark]]
|image=[[File:H4-ComposerFiringOnPhoenix.jpg|300px]]
|name=Second Battle of Earth
|conflict=[[Post-Covenant War conflicts]]
|image=[[Image:Halo3 E3 TRAILER 2007 720p30 ST 6300Kbps 002 0001.jpg|350px]]
|date=[[2557#July|July 25, 2557]]<ref name="catalog">[https://forums.halowaypoint.com/yaf_postsm2969311_Catalog-Interaction.aspx#post2969311 ''Halo Waypoint'': ''Catalog Interaction - page 14'']</ref> approx. 1240 UTC{{Ref/Note|Id=time|Once Earth comes into view, it can be seen that the Eastern and Central Time Zones of the United States are in sunlight, while the Pacific is in darkness. The sunlight is just cresting at New Phoenix, indicating that it is sunrise in the Mountain Time Zone region. This would occur around 5:40 AM in late July, which corresponds to 12:40 PM UTC.}}
|conflict=[[Human-Covenant War]]
|place=[[Earth]], [[Sol system]]
|date=[[2552|November 3, 2552]] - [[2553|Early 2553]]
|result='''UNSC victory'''
|place=[[Earth]] , [[Sol System]]
*Promethean threat to Sol system neutralized
|result=Mixed
*Population of [[New Phoenix]] composed (seven million)
*UNSC/Seperatist victory on the ground
|side1=*{{Icon|UEG}} [[Unified Earth Government|UEG]]
*Strategic Loyalist victory with portal withdrawal
**{{Icon|UNSC Post}} [[United Nations Space Command|UNSC]]
*Large portions of the Africa continent glassed
|side2=*{{Icon|Didact}} [[Didact|Didact's]] [[Prometheans#Mechanical Prometheans|Prometheans]]
|side1=[[UNSC]]/[[Covenant Separatists]]
|commanders1=[[Captain (NAVCOM)|CAPT]] [[Thomas Lasky]]
|side2=[[Covenant Loyalists]]
|commanders2=[[Ur-Didact]]
|side3=[[Flood]]  
|forces1=*[[UNSC Home Fleet]]
|commanders1=*[[Fleet Admiral]] [[Terrence Hood]]
**{{UNSCShip|Infinity}}
*[[Ship Master]] [[Rtas 'Vadum]]
**[[Battle Group Dakota]]
*[[Thel 'Vadamee|Thel 'Vadam]]
**Multiple squadrons of strike fighters
*[[Miranda Keyes]]
*[[Orbital defense platform]]s
*[[Fleet Admiral Harper]]  
*1 [[F-41 Broadsword]]
|commanders2=*[[High Prophet of Truth]]
**[[MCPO]] [[John-117]]
*[[Lepidus|Jiralhanae Chieftain Lepidus]]
**AI [[Cortana]]†
|commanders3=[[Gravemind]]
|forces2=*''[[Mantle's Approach]]''
|forces1=*[[UNSC Marine Corps]]
*[[Composer]]
*[[UNSC Home Fleet]]
*Hundreds of Promethean infantry
**298(assumed probably less) [[Magnetic Accelerator Cannon]] Orbital Defense Platforms
|casual1='''Military'''
**[[Second Fleet]]
*Light casualties, few ships and aircraft destroyed
**[[Seventh Fleet]]
*[[Cortana]]
**[[Sixteenth Fleet]]
'''Civilian'''
***[[Sol Defense Group 3/A-5]]
*Entire population of [[New Phoenix]] composed (seven million)
*[[UNSC Prowler|Prowler]]s
|casual2='''Infantry'''
**{{UNSCShip|Dusk}}  
*All Prometheans killed
*[[C709 Longsword-class Interceptor|C709 ''Longsword''-class Interceptor]]s
'''Material'''
**[[7-89]]
*''Mantle's Approach'' and Composer destroyed}}
*[[SPARTAN-II]]s
{{Quote|And yet, still you fail.|The Ur-Didact to John-117 on his failure in attempting to prevent him from activating the Composer}}
**[[Spartan-058]] (Linda)
The '''New Phoenix Incident''',{{Ref/SpOps|Id=departure|Departure}} or the '''Fall of New Phoenix''',{{Ref/Comic|Id=HE7|Halo: Escalation|Issue=7}} was a brief engagement fought between the [[United Nations Space Command|United Nations Space Command (UNSC)]] and the [[Ur-Didact]] and his [[Promethean]] forces in close proximity to [[Earth]] on [[2557|July 25, 2557]].{{Ref/Reuse|HE7}}{{Ref/Level|Id=midnight|Halo 4|[[Midnight]]}}
**[[Spartan-104]] (Fred)
**[[Spartan-043]] (Will)
**[[Spartan-117]] (John)
*[[Voi Factory Workers|Armed Civilians]]
*[[Fleet of Retribution]]
**[[Shadow of Intent]]
|forces2=*[[Fleet of Furious Redemption]]
**three [[Assault Carriers]] and 27 [[CCS-class Battlecruisers]] planetside  over [[Kenya]]
*[[Forerunner Dreadnought]](Note that these are the ships that survive the Battle. There were probably many more that were destroyed)
*[[Covenant Destroyer|Destroyers]]
**''[[Bloodied Spirit]]''
*[[Seraph]] fighters
|forces3=*{{Class|CCS|Battlecruiser}}
*[[Pure Form]]s
*Sangheili Combat Forms
*Human Combat Forms
*Jiralhanae Combat Forms
*[[Infection forms]]
*[[Carrier forms]]
|casual1=Numerous UNSC ground / air forces, Sangheili and civilian casualties due to orbital bombardment<ref>Level crows nest opening scene</ref>
|casual2=Heavy losses, survivors escaped through the [[Portal]]
|casual3=All Flood
}}
{{quote|Earth...is all we have left.|[[Terrence Hood]]}}
 
The '''Second Battle of Earth''' was one of the largest battles of the [[Human-Covenant War]]. It was fought on and around Earth from November 3, [[2552]] to early [[2553]]. A vast fleet of [[Covenant Loyalists]], led by the [[Prophet of Truth]], assaulted a heavily defended [[Earth]] in order to finally reach the [[Ark]] and begin the "[[Great Journey]]". [[UNSC]] and [[Covenant]] forces were heavily engaged around the planet, but exact numbers and details are impossible to determine. The battle set the stage for the events on the [[Ark]], where the fate of the galaxy was decided.
 
The battle was the follow up to the [[High Prophet of Regret]]'s first attack on [[Earth]] on October 20, [[2552]], when he invaded [[Mombasa]], [[Kenya]]. The Prophet of Truth's intention was to activate [[The Ark]], fire the [[Halo]] rings, and begin what he thought would be the "Great Journey".
 
The immediate results of the battle were mixed. Although the Covenant Loyalists had broken through Earth's space defenses, there were still a large number of military equipment and personnel available to the humans in its immediate aftermath. However, when combined with the engagements directly succeeding the Second Battle of Earth on the Ark and taking into account the significant losses the Covenant Loyalists had suffered in the battle, it was apparent Covenant Loyalists had suffered a crippling defeat.


==Background==
==Background==
Having retrieved the [[Composer]] from [[Ivanoff Station]], the [[Ur-Didact|Didact]] set out to attack Earth in his ship, ''[[Mantle's Approach]]''. The Didact was unaware, however, that [[John-117]] and [[Cortana]], in a [[F-41 Broadsword|Broadsword]] fighter, had managed to breach the ship's shields and make the [[Slipstream space|slipspace]] journey along with it.{{Ref/Level|H4|Level=[[Composer (level)|Composer]]}}


[[SPARTAN-104]], [[SPARTAN-058]], and [[SPARTAN-043]] defended Earth during the span of two weeks shortly after [[UNSC In Amber Clad|In Amber Clad]] disappeared pursuing the [[Prophet of Regret]]. The SPARTANs conducted surgical strikes against Covenant Forces in the Antarctic, Mexico, and Cuba. On November 3, 2552, shortly after completing an operation in which involved using the [[Centennial Orbital Elevator]] in Havana, Cuba to stop deploying Covenant forces in the area, Blue Team was re-directed to aid Dr. [[Catherine Halsey]] on [[Onyx]]. Blue Team captures the ''[[Bloodied Spirit]]'' and heads straight for Onyx.
==The battle==
 
[[File:H4-Broadsword-HUD-Autocannon.jpg|250px|thumb|left|John-117 and Cortana inside the Broadsword Fighter assaulting the Didact's ship.]]
Meanwhile, the Prophet of Truth, along with the other [[High Prophets]], faced trouble at home on [[High Charity]]. The [[Elites]] were unimpressed by their decision to replace Elites with [[Brutes]] in positions traditionally held by the former. This escalated in to a [[Great Schism|full-scale conflict]] within the Convenant, between the [[Covenant Loyalists]] and [[Covenant Separatists]], and resulted in the Covenant's loss of High Charity, and the death of the [[Prophet of Mercy]]. The Prophet of Truth appeared unconcerned, boarded a [[Forerunner Dreadnought]], and led the Loyalist fleet towards [[Earth]]. The Prophet of Truth's intention was to activate [[The Ark]], fire the [[Halo]] rings, and begin what he thought would be the "Great Journey".
As the ship emerged near Earth, the [[UNSC Home Fleet]] was mustered in Earth's defense; including the {{UNSCShip|Infinity}}, now under the command of [[Thomas Lasky]]. Despite this preparation, the fleet's efforts were rendered useless by the advanced technology of the Didact's ship. Earth's orbital defense grid went into Red Alert, but even the [[orbital defense platform]]s proved ineffective. Hunting for the Composer aboard ''Mantle's Approach'', John-117 and Cortana proceeded to destroy the turrets defending the ship's main weapon, allowing the ''Infinity'' to fire upon the Didact's ship to open a hole for the Master Chief's Broadsword. However, the interior defenses made the passage too narrow for the fighter to pass through and caused it to crash, forcing the Chief and Cortana to carry their [[HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon|HAVOK]] payload to the Composer on foot.{{Ref/Reuse|midnight}}
 
==Battle==
===Orbital Combat===
 
On November 3, the [[High Prophet of Truth]], leading a large [[Covenant Loyalist]] Fleet to Earth, arrived at Earth and engaged the massive [[UNSC Navy]] fleet and hundreds of [[Orbital Defense Platform|Orbital Defense Platforms]] surrounding the human homeworld. The exact details of this opening stage of the battle are unknown. However, it was apparent late in this stage that the [[Orbital Defense Platform]] [[Cairo Station]] was still intact and [[Lord Hood|Fleet Admiral Hood]] was still in command of all [[UNSC]] forces.
 
The Covenant Loyalist fleet did eventually gain an advantage, and swept past Earth's orbital defenses, bombarding the Earth in East Africa.<ref>[[Halo 3]], [[Crow's Nest (Base)|Crow's Nest]]</ref> Human casualties were reported as "extreme".  [[SPARTAN-117]] - the [[Master Chief]], having been onboard the Dreadnought and briefly held captive by the Covenant, escaped by jumping from the ship and entered Earth's atmosphere, crashing into an East-African jungle.
 
===Invasion of Earth===
{{main|Battle of Voi}}
 
The Covenant invaded primarily on the east coast of [[Africa]]. It was in this area that the Covenant began digging in the area of what was formerly the city of [[New Mombasa]], where a [[Forerunner]] artifact had been partially uncovered by the in-atmosphere slipspace jump of the Prophet of Regrets carrier during the First Battle of Earth. The Covenant's excavation revealed and disclosed what was then thought to be the Ark, but eventually turned out to be only a [[The portal|portal]] to the Ark.
As the Covenant ships excavated the artifact, Truth deployed Covenant forces throughout East Africa. Earth's [[UNSC]] defenses suffered significant casualties in the ongoing days.
 
During these happenings, the [[Master Chief]] was retrieved by [[Sergeant Major Avery Johnson]], along with the [[Arbiter (Character)|Arbiter]] and a group of marines. The company then fought their way through the Covenant captured territory and were extracted and taken to the [[Crow's Nest (Base)|Crow's Nest]] - one of the last UNSC strongholds and bastions in Africa. Here, [[Commander Miranda Keyes]] and Lord Hood planned a last-ditch and last-resort effort to cease Truth's activation plan. Shortly after the Chief's arrival, however, the outpost was discovered and quickly attacked by Covenant forces. After the base was taken over, the Marines, with the help of Master Chief destroyed it using a bomb, killing all the [[Covenant]] in the base. The [[Master Chief]] activated the bomb and was barley able to escape the explosion. Scattered, the UNSC forces then fled the base along the [[Tsavo Highway (Level)|Tsavo Highway]] and were given orders by Commander Keyes to head to the city of [[Voi]].
 
===Counterattack===
Upon reaching [[Voi]], the [[Humans]], with almost all organization collapsing, launched one last desperate plan. With the help of the [[Master Chief]], the human forces destroyed a small section of the defenses around Truth and the artifact, allowing [[Lord Hood]] to lead the last reserves of ships in an attempt to destroy it.
 
Nothing came out of this however, because the human ships did seemingly no damage to Truth's ship, who activated the artifact, creating a large slip space portal into which most, if not all of the Covenant Loyalist ships on Earth retreated.


At this exact moment, a [[Flood]] controlled ship arrived at Earth and infested the area around [[the Portal]], spreading throughout the city of Voi. [[Covenant]] [[Separatists]] arrived from their quarantine of [[Delta Halo]] to relieve the battered humans and glassed the city of Voi and surrounding countryside, destroying the Flood threat.
[[File:H4-Infinity-Mantle.jpg|thumb|250px|left|''Infinity'' engaging the ''Mantle's Approach''.]]
As John-117 and Cortana reached the Composer, the Didact activated the device, composing seven million people{{Ref/Reuse|HE7}} in [[New Phoenix]], a major population center in North America. After fighting past significant opposition from the [[Promethean Knight|Prometheans]], the Master Chief was able to approach the center structure, only to be ambushed by the Didact. During the struggle, Cortana was able to manipulate the [[hard light]] bridge on which the Didact stood, trapping him. This bought the Master Chief enough time to activate a [[pulse grenade]] and plant it on the Didact's armor. The resulting explosion knocked the Didact off balance and sent him falling into a slipspace rupture underneath the Composer. As Master Chief activated the HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon, Cortana was able to [[Slipspace translocation|translocate]] the Spartan a safe distance away from the blast. The majority of Cortana's processes remained aboard ''Mantle's Approach'', and were presumably destroyed in the nuclear blast. She maintained herself long enough to bid farewell to the Spartan inside a box of hard light she had generated somewhere outside the immediate blast radius. Master Chief was found by [[Pelican 096|a Pelican]] floating among the debris and was returned to the ''Infinity''.{{Ref/Reuse|midnight}}


==Aftermath==
==Aftermath==
After the battle, Covenant Loyalist forces reached the Ark. The Human-Covenant Separatist alliance followed in hot pursuit, stopping the Flood from inhabiting the galaxy and the Covenant from activating the remaining Halo Arrays, therefore saving all sentient life in the galaxy.
Due to uncertainty over the finality of the Didact's defeat, the [[UNSC Security Council]] decided to hide the details of the attack from the public, concealing it as an attack by the [[Covenant remnants]] stopped by the return of humanity's greatest hero, the Master Chief.{{Ref/Comic|Halo: Escalation|Issue=8}} Additionally, the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] quarantined [[New Phoenix]] for a year. Six months later, however, ONI public relations officer [[John Sullivan]] released a statement to the press confirming the Covenant were not responsible for the attack.{{Ref/Reuse|departure}}
 
[[File:H4 - NewPhoenix Streets.png|The empty streets of New Phoenix in the aftermath of the Didact's attack|thumb|right|200px]]
==Known Participants==
The UNSC leadership's doubts about the Didact's "death" were not unfounded; the Promethean general had actually survived his fall into the Composer's slipspace rupture. The portal took him to the vicinity of the [[Composer's Abyss]] on [[Installation 03]], where he slaughtered Spartan [[Black Team]]. Allying himself with [[monitor]] [[859 Static Carillon]], the Didact then traveled to the [[Composer's Forge]] through a portal in the Composer's Abyss, intending to acquire new Composers and other instruments for his crusade against humankind. John-117 and [[Blue Team]] were [[Mission to Installation 03|deployed to Gamma Halo]] immediately after the massacre and confronted the Didact in the Composer's Forge.{{Ref/Comic|Halo: Escalation|Issue=9}} Although their confrontation with the Didact proved perilous and nearly fatal, the Spartans eventually managed, with the aid of Static Carillon (who turned on the Didact after the latter broke an agreement between them), to "contain" the Didact as a threat by using five Composers on the Didact himself.{{Ref/Comic|Halo: Escalation|Issue=10}} Despite the Didact's mutations giving him a resistance to the Composer's power, they were unable to stand up to the raw destructive neural physics of five Composers exploding at once, resulting in the Didact being composed himself and his physical death.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi5|Epi|5}}
===UNSC===
*[[Fleet Admiral]] [[Sir Terrence Hood]]
*[[Colonel]] [[James Ackerson]]
*[[Lieutenant Commander]] [[Miranda Keyes]]  
*[[Commander (UNSC)|Commander]] [[Richard Lash]]
*Lieutenant Commander [[Julian Waters]]
*Lieutenant Commander [[Xaing Cho]]
*[[Lieutenant]] [[Bethany Durruno]]
*[[Lieutenant]] [[Joe Yang]]
*[[Lieutenant, Junior Grade]] [[Fred-104]]
*[[Master Chief Petty Officer]] [[John-117]]
*[[Sergeant Major]] [[Avery J. Johnson]]  
*[[Gunnery Sergeant (UNSC)|Gunnery Sergeant]] [[Pete Stacker]]
*[[Gunnery Sergeant (UNSC)|Gunnery Sergeant]] [[Reynolds]]
*[[Petty Officer Second Class]] [[Linda-058]]
*[[Petty Officer Second Class]] [[Will-043]] ([[KIA]])
*[[Corporal]] [[Benjamín M. Nùñez]]
*[[Lindemuth]]
*[[S. Hartley]]
*[[T. Rymann]]
 
===Covenant Separatists===
*[[Thel 'Vadamee|Thel 'Vadam]]
*[[Rtas 'Vadum]]
*[[N'tho 'Sraom]]
*[[Usze 'Taham]]


===Covenant Loyalists===
During the [[Requiem Campaign]], the UNSC ''Infinity'' recovered a Forerunner [[Durance]] called the [[Didact's Gift]] from the Covenant. The device, said to contain the "soul" of a [[Promethean Knight]], revealed images of [[New Phoenix]] during the attack, indicating that the consciousnesses of the composed New Phoenix residents had been transferred back to Requiem and converted into new Prometheans. Adding to the mystery, the images also revealed that another [[Requiem slipspace artifacts|Forerunner artifact]] had been present in New Phoenix during the attack.{{Ref/SpOps|Memento Mori}}
*[[High Prophet of Truth]]  
*[[Jiralhanae Chieftain]] [[Lepidus]]  


===Flood===
On [[2558#March|March 24, 2558]], eight months after the battle, the [[city]]'s quarantine was lifted. A "Rebirth" ceremony was held in the city, presided over by [[President of the Unified Earth Government|UEG President]] [[Ruth Charet]].{{Ref/Reuse|HE7}}
*[[Gravemind]]  


===Forerunner===
After being sent to the outer boundaries of the [[Domain]] following his own digitization, the Didact discovered that the humans composed in New Phoenix had ended up in the human rift alongside the [[Ancestors]]. This gave the Ancestors hope that humanity had survived, although they were unable to find out for sure as the composed essences were unable to communicate yet. [[Forthencho]], after learning that the Didact was responsible for this, told the Promethean that it would take centuries for the newcomers to settle and even longer for them to pull themselves together as the ancient humans had done. Having regained his sanity, the Didact felt remorse for what he had done to them.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi22|Epi|22}} The Didact later welcomed the essences of those composed in New Phoenix into the Domain along with the rest of the Forerunners and humans, giving them a home, a place to heal and rest, to commune and explore.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi26|Epi|26}}{{Ref/Novel|Id=Epi27|Epi|27}}
*[[343 Guilty Spark (Monitor)|343 Guilty Spark]]


==Gallery==
==Gallery==
<gallery>
<gallery>
Image:Mac.jpg|[[Frigate]]s launching an attack on the Forerunner Dreadnought.
File:H4-Concept-Midnight-Composer.jpg|Concept art of the incident for ''[[Halo 4]]''.
Image:H2 Forerunner Ship Second Battle of Earth.jpg|Space battle around [[Earth]]
File:H4-Infinity-Firing.jpg|''Infinity'' firing her fore weapons.
Image:Halo3 E3 TRAILER 2007 720p30 ST 6300Kbps 005 0002.jpg|A Frigate firing its MAC gun.
File:H4-Midnight-Composer-Panorama.jpg|The Composer is used on Earth.
File:HTMCC-H4 John117VsDidact.png|John-117 and the Ur-Didact fighting aboard ''Mantle's Approach''.
File:New Phoenix population composed.jpg|[[Gabriel Thorne]] having a nightmare of New Phoenix's population being composed in ''[[Halo: Escalation]]''.
File:HINF-Poetry4.jpg|A hologram of John-117 and Cortana after the ''Mantle's Approach'''s destruction on [[Installation 07]] in ''[[Halo Infinite]]''.
</gallery>
</gallery>


==References==
==List of appearances==
<references/>
*''[[Halo 4]]'' {{1st}}
**''[[Spartan Ops]]'' {{mo}}
*''[[Halo: Escalation]]''
*''[[Halo: Spartan Strike]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Halo Mythos]]''
*''[[Halo: Legacy of Onyx]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Halo: Renegades]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Halo: Shadows of Reach]]'' {{Im}}
*''[[Halo Infinite]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Halo: Outcasts]]'' {{Im}}
*''[[Halo: Sunrise on Sanghelios]]'' {{Im}}
*''[[Halo: Trial of Reckoning]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Halo: Epitaph]]'' {{Mo}}
*''[[Halo: Meridian Divide]]''
**''[[Meridian Homecoming]]'' {{Mo}}
 
==Notes==
{{Ref/Notes}}
 
==Sources==
{{Ref/Sources}}


{{Human-Covenant War}}
{{Post-Covenant War conflicts}}
[[Category:UNSC]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:New Phoenix}}
[[Category:Human-Covenant War]]
[[Category:The Covenant]]
[[Category:Battle|Earth]]
[[Category:UNSC Victories]]

Latest revision as of 23:50, November 16, 2024

Previous:

Raid on Ivanoff Station

Next:

Battle of Installation 03

New Phoenix Incident
H4-ComposerFiringOnPhoenix.jpg

Conflict:

Post-Covenant War conflicts

Date:

July 25, 2557[1] approx. 1240 UTC[Note 1]

Location:

Earth, Sol system

Outcome:

UNSC victory

  • Promethean threat to Sol system neutralized
  • Population of New Phoenix composed (seven million)
Details
Belligerents
Commanders

CAPT Thomas Lasky

Ur-Didact

Strength
Casualties

Military

  • Light casualties, few ships and aircraft destroyed
  • Cortana

Civilian

  • Entire population of New Phoenix composed (seven million)

Infantry

  • All Prometheans killed

Material

  • Mantle's Approach and Composer destroyed
 

"And yet, still you fail."
— The Ur-Didact to John-117 on his failure in attempting to prevent him from activating the Composer

The New Phoenix Incident,[2] or the Fall of New Phoenix,[3] was a brief engagement fought between the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and the Ur-Didact and his Promethean forces in close proximity to Earth on July 25, 2557.[3][4]

Background[edit]

Having retrieved the Composer from Ivanoff Station, the Didact set out to attack Earth in his ship, Mantle's Approach. The Didact was unaware, however, that John-117 and Cortana, in a Broadsword fighter, had managed to breach the ship's shields and make the slipspace journey along with it.[5]

The battle[edit]

John-117 and Cortana inside the Broadsword Fighter assaulting the Didact's ship.

As the ship emerged near Earth, the UNSC Home Fleet was mustered in Earth's defense; including the UNSC Infinity, now under the command of Thomas Lasky. Despite this preparation, the fleet's efforts were rendered useless by the advanced technology of the Didact's ship. Earth's orbital defense grid went into Red Alert, but even the orbital defense platforms proved ineffective. Hunting for the Composer aboard Mantle's Approach, John-117 and Cortana proceeded to destroy the turrets defending the ship's main weapon, allowing the Infinity to fire upon the Didact's ship to open a hole for the Master Chief's Broadsword. However, the interior defenses made the passage too narrow for the fighter to pass through and caused it to crash, forcing the Chief and Cortana to carry their HAVOK payload to the Composer on foot.[4]

Infinity engaging the Mantle's Approach.

As John-117 and Cortana reached the Composer, the Didact activated the device, composing seven million people[3] in New Phoenix, a major population center in North America. After fighting past significant opposition from the Prometheans, the Master Chief was able to approach the center structure, only to be ambushed by the Didact. During the struggle, Cortana was able to manipulate the hard light bridge on which the Didact stood, trapping him. This bought the Master Chief enough time to activate a pulse grenade and plant it on the Didact's armor. The resulting explosion knocked the Didact off balance and sent him falling into a slipspace rupture underneath the Composer. As Master Chief activated the HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon, Cortana was able to translocate the Spartan a safe distance away from the blast. The majority of Cortana's processes remained aboard Mantle's Approach, and were presumably destroyed in the nuclear blast. She maintained herself long enough to bid farewell to the Spartan inside a box of hard light she had generated somewhere outside the immediate blast radius. Master Chief was found by a Pelican floating among the debris and was returned to the Infinity.[4]

Aftermath[edit]

Due to uncertainty over the finality of the Didact's defeat, the UNSC Security Council decided to hide the details of the attack from the public, concealing it as an attack by the Covenant remnants stopped by the return of humanity's greatest hero, the Master Chief.[6] Additionally, the Office of Naval Intelligence quarantined New Phoenix for a year. Six months later, however, ONI public relations officer John Sullivan released a statement to the press confirming the Covenant were not responsible for the attack.[2]

Streets of New Phoenix as seen from above.
The empty streets of New Phoenix in the aftermath of the Didact's attack

The UNSC leadership's doubts about the Didact's "death" were not unfounded; the Promethean general had actually survived his fall into the Composer's slipspace rupture. The portal took him to the vicinity of the Composer's Abyss on Installation 03, where he slaughtered Spartan Black Team. Allying himself with monitor 859 Static Carillon, the Didact then traveled to the Composer's Forge through a portal in the Composer's Abyss, intending to acquire new Composers and other instruments for his crusade against humankind. John-117 and Blue Team were deployed to Gamma Halo immediately after the massacre and confronted the Didact in the Composer's Forge.[7] Although their confrontation with the Didact proved perilous and nearly fatal, the Spartans eventually managed, with the aid of Static Carillon (who turned on the Didact after the latter broke an agreement between them), to "contain" the Didact as a threat by using five Composers on the Didact himself.[8] Despite the Didact's mutations giving him a resistance to the Composer's power, they were unable to stand up to the raw destructive neural physics of five Composers exploding at once, resulting in the Didact being composed himself and his physical death.[9]

During the Requiem Campaign, the UNSC Infinity recovered a Forerunner Durance called the Didact's Gift from the Covenant. The device, said to contain the "soul" of a Promethean Knight, revealed images of New Phoenix during the attack, indicating that the consciousnesses of the composed New Phoenix residents had been transferred back to Requiem and converted into new Prometheans. Adding to the mystery, the images also revealed that another Forerunner artifact had been present in New Phoenix during the attack.[10]

On March 24, 2558, eight months after the battle, the city's quarantine was lifted. A "Rebirth" ceremony was held in the city, presided over by UEG President Ruth Charet.[3]

After being sent to the outer boundaries of the Domain following his own digitization, the Didact discovered that the humans composed in New Phoenix had ended up in the human rift alongside the Ancestors. This gave the Ancestors hope that humanity had survived, although they were unable to find out for sure as the composed essences were unable to communicate yet. Forthencho, after learning that the Didact was responsible for this, told the Promethean that it would take centuries for the newcomers to settle and even longer for them to pull themselves together as the ancient humans had done. Having regained his sanity, the Didact felt remorse for what he had done to them.[11] The Didact later welcomed the essences of those composed in New Phoenix into the Domain along with the rest of the Forerunners and humans, giving them a home, a place to heal and rest, to commune and explore.[12][13]

Gallery[edit]

  • Concept art of the incident for Halo 4.

    Concept art of the incident for Halo 4.

  • Infinity firing her fore weapons.

    Infinity firing her fore weapons.

  • The Composer is used on Earth.

    The Composer is used on Earth.

  • John-117 and the Ur-Didact fighting aboard Mantle's Approach.

    John-117 and the Ur-Didact fighting aboard Mantle's Approach.

  • Gabriel Thorne having a nightmare of New Phoenix's population being composed in Halo: Escalation.

    Gabriel Thorne having a nightmare of New Phoenix's population being composed in Halo: Escalation.

  • A hologram of John-117 and Cortana after the Mantle's Approach's destruction on Installation 07 in Halo Infinite.

    A hologram of John-117 and Cortana after the Mantle's Approach's destruction on Installation 07 in Halo Infinite.

List of appearances[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Once Earth comes into view, it can be seen that the Eastern and Central Time Zones of the United States are in sunlight, while the Pacific is in darkness. The sunlight is just cresting at New Phoenix, indicating that it is sunrise in the Mountain Time Zone region. This would occur around 5:40 AM in late July, which corresponds to 12:40 PM UTC.

Sources[edit]

  1. ^ Halo Waypoint: Catalog Interaction - page 14
  2. ^ a b Halo 4 - Spartan Ops, episode Departure
  3. ^ a b c d Halo: Escalation, issue 7
  4. ^ a b c Halo 4, campaign level Midnight
  5. ^ Halo 4, campaign level Composer
  6. ^ Halo: Escalation, issue 8
  7. ^ Halo: Escalation, issue 9
  8. ^ Halo: Escalation, issue 10
  9. ^ Halo: Epitaph, chapter 5
  10. ^ Halo 4 - Spartan Ops, episode Memento Mori
  11. ^ Halo: Epitaph, chapter 22
  12. ^ Halo: Epitaph, chapter 26
  13. ^ Halo: Epitaph, chapter 27

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⇦ Post-Covenant War conflicts ⇨
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Venezia (2553-2557) • Charion VI (2554-2555) • Gaenir Beta (2554-2555) • New Caracas (2554-2555) • Joint occupation zone (2553-2555) • Operation: BELLINGHAM (Pre-2555) • Operation: LATE TAXI (Pre-2555) • Operation: OCEAN RAPTOR (2555-2558) • Salia III (2555-2558) • Tribute negotiation (2555-2558) • Cascade (pre-2557) • Terceira (pre-2557) • Thales Expedition (pre-2557) • Operation: COUGAR REDEMPTION (pre-2557) • Hat Yai (2556-2558) • Boundless Artifice (2556-2558) • Arcadia (2556-2558) • Operation: DAWN ECLIPSE (2556-2558) • Operation: POLECAT (pre-2558) • Palghanar • Harrow • THRONE • STONEBREAK
Conflicts
Netherop conflict (2526-2559) Sangheili-Jiralhanae war (2552-ongoing) • Insurrection (post-war resurgence) (2553-ongoing) • Blooding Years (2553-ongoing) • Keepers Eradication Campaign (2557-2558) • Created uprising (Engagements) (2558-2559)
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