Battle of Installation 05: Difference between revisions

The Battle of Installation 05 was an extremely costly battle with significant political-military consequences for the Covenant and remarkable ramifications for all sentient life in the galaxy. Hundreds or thousands of Covenant forces were slain in SPARTAN-117's quest to kill the Prophet of Regret, the race to acquire the Index from the Control Room, and the remarkable ground and orbital battles that took place on Installation 05, ''High Charity'', and the Covenant fleets hovering above the planetoid because of the [[Great Schism|Covenant Civil War]]. The Covenant was fractured, with the Elites rallying the Covenant Separatists against the Prophet-supported Jiralhanae, who controlled the Covenant Loyalists against the Sangheili and their allies.

The Covenant ruling system was destabilized, with the death of the Prophet of Regret on Installation 05 at the hands of SPARTAN-117 and the death of the Prophet of Mercy on ''High Charity'' at the hands of the Flood. The Prophet of Truth held the ultimate power now, with several Minor Prophets, completely re-shifting the political dynamics of the Covenant. The Brutes now held reign over the majority of the Covenant military, bringing their innate tenaciousness and ferocity to the front lines quite unlike the Sangheili had ever done. The Jiralhanae also assumed more lower-level Covenant military authority, now replacing the Sangheili as the leaders of field squads and teams. The Brutes also introduced a unique set of bloodthirsty weaponry into the Covenant's field arsenals. The Covenant fleet was believed to lose quite a bit of its technical proficiency without the innate technical knowledge of the Elites.<ref>'''Halo: Ghosts of Onyx''', ''page 194''</ref>

Sentinel defenses were completely trampled over, particularly in the Quarantine Zone, where within hours, the Flood had managed to infiltrate the well-defended Sentinel Wall and seize control of large tracts of the Quarantine Zone, even grounding an airborne Sentinel Constructor Factory ship. The Flood also permeated the Library and the surrounding grounds, eliminating almost all Sentinels from the skies, leaving only scattered Enforcers to do battle with them. The Flood also controlled UNSC and Covenant vehicles alike, reinforcing their considerable ranks with M808B Scorpion Tanks, M12 Warthog LRVs, Wraith tanks, and Ghost vehicles. Flood losses were remarkably high because of the Arbiter's actions in the Quarantine Zone and SPARTAN-117's combined with the Covenant loyalists' actions on ''High Charity''. However, it was inconsequential: the Flood managed to terraform and transform ''High Charity'' into another of their "wretched hives", scoring a notable victory on ''High Charity'', capturing the Covenant's mobile home planetoid.

UNSC losses were remarkably lower because of the small number of forces they brought into the theater of operations, almost solely the crew and soldiers of the UNSC ''In Amber Clad''. Hundreds of Marines and Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, however, were lost in UNSC ground operations: the assassination of Regret and the storming on the Quarantine Zone, and a large number were infected by the Flood and made continual appearances as combat forms in the Sentinel Wall, Quarantine Zone, and Flood-infested ''High Charity''. The crewmen of the ''In Amber Clad'' were presumably killed and reanimated by the Flood as well, bringing UNSC casualty rates possibly into the thousands, although the UNSC suffered by far the least casualties amongst the four warring factions in the Battle of Installation 05.

In many ways, the battle was the true turning point in the war and in the long term would break the back of the Covenant. The Elites eventually allied themselves with the humans bolstering their fleets and taking the military strategy mind away from the Covenant.