Battle of Seoba
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The Battle of Seoba was an engagement early in the Human-Covenant War between forces of the United Nations Space Command and several Insurrectionist factions, and later the Covenant. It took place on the moon of Seoba, the third moon of Biko.
Background
Operation: SILENT STORM
- Main article: Operation: SILENT STORM
Early in the war with the Covenant, UNSC leadership realised that they would not be able to match the Covenant one-for-one in space combat. Following successful SPARTAN-II boardings of the Unrelenting and Radiant Arrow, Vice Admirals Preston Cole and Michael Stanforth decided that the Spartans would next be employed to take on a larger operation - boarding and destroying a Covenant fleet of warships, while Battle Group X-Ray provided a distraction.[2]
To assist the operation, Task Force Yama was assembled consisting of several Razor-class prowlers and the Point Blank-class stealth cruiser UNSC Vanishing Point. Twelve SPARTAN-II supersoldiers and the ODST 21st Space Assault Battalion were assigned to the fleet, with Captain Halima Ascot in charge of the Prowler fleet and Colonel Marmon Crowther given operational command of ground forces. The planet Biko, home to three resource-rich moons and a series of shipyards, was in the path of the Covenant conquest and thus selected as a staging ground for the operation. If the Covenant skipped attacking the planet, then the UNSC had a forward operations base in what would now be Covenant space; if the Covenant did attack the planet, Yama would be able to attack the Covenant while they were distracted.[2]
Insurrectionist presence
By 2526, the war with the Covenant was still largely unknown to the general public, with the large fleet movements to the Outer Colonies something of a mystery to the civilian populace, including the Insurrectionists. On March 12, many rebel organisations had been summoned to the frigate Bellicose for a meeting; there, General Harper Garvin of the URF and Lyrenne Castilla, captain of the Bellicose, informed many rebel faction leaders of the stark reality of the Covenant and their war against the UNSC. Petora Zoyas, representative for the Gao Liberation Force, informed the congregation of the SPARTAN-II program and Operation: SILENT STORM, citing a source within Task Force Yama for the information. With the news that the Covenant would be attacking Biko in short order, Erland Booth vocalized his concern for the planet and the Biko Independence Army. The meeting devised a plan to help the Insurrection take advantage of the situation; many rebel groups would supply troops to assist the BIA in executing a coup on the Bikon chancellor, taking over the planet and offering it to the Covenant in the hopes of being able to ally with the aliens against the UNSC.[1]
The insurrectionists established their base in an old abandoned ice quarry on Seboa, the planet's third moon. The insurrectionists planned to use the quarry as a staging ground, before attacking and controlling Biko's orbital facilities.[1] The combined Insurrectionist force fortified the quarry with several bunkers, M41 Vulcan rotary cannons, a convoy of Civet armored fighting vehicles and hundreds of infantry.
Operation: ICE DANCE
- "All personnel: Operation: ICE DANCE is no longer a drill. Repeat, no drill."
- — Marmon Crowther.[3]
Independently to the Insurrectionists, Task Force Yama also selected the same quarry as a perfect place to hide their prowlers until such a time as the UNSC and Covenant began the Battle of Biko. Operation: ICE DANCE was formed as an opportunity to let the SPARTANs and ODSTs of the 21/SAB rehearse a deployment under fire. With a full platoon, a SPARTAN-II in Mark IV MJOLNIR and an ONI special advisor - Avery Johnson - in the drop bay of UNSC Ghost Song - the troops would practice the deployment on landing in the quarry. Upon exiting slipspace however, the mission changed; the Prowlers had detected the insurrectionist plans to overthrow the chancellor, and the mission was now one of clearing the quarry so the Task Force could hide there.[3]
To this end, the Task Force intended to keep operational secrecy, and would thus use the cover of being Battalion Five of the Chancellor's Guards, intending to let the rebels believe that their operation had been discovered by the Bikon planetary security forces as opposed to UNSC. To prevent word from getting out, the Vanishing Point was on station to work on jamming Insurrectionist communications, while the prowlers would work to make sure no reinforcements could reach the ground. The Task Force's Ghost Flight would drop the 21st's Alpha Company, led by Captain Zelos Cuvier, at the docks, at the base of a mass driver once used for launching ice from the quarry to Biko for terraforming. At the top of the mass driver lay an insurrectionist communications outpost.[3] The outpost was hit by an air strike from the prowlers, rendering it temporarily inoperable.[4]
At 14:33 hours, the attack had begun, with the Ghost Song dismounting First Platoon, including John-117. The first four troopers jumped out of the craft and were torn about by groundfire from one of the rebels' M41 Vulcans. The second four-man team suffered a similar fate before bullets began to ricochet around the drop bay, downing more troops inside the prowler. The Ghost Song began to accelerate out of Seoba's gravity well, leaving scatters of ODST bodies across all four designated landing zones. A number of survivors had successfully made ground, and were now taking heavy fire from three sides while trying to reach cover by the ice-coated docks. The insurrectionist bunkers were well-camouflaged, identifiable only by the muzzle flashes of the guns inside. John-117 took the initiative and jumped out of the Prowler followed by Blue Team, using his thrusters to control his descent and land in the quarry. While he fell, he used an M41 SPNKR rocket launcher to eliminate two of the hidden bunkers, while the others were eliminated by the other Spartans. [4]
The rebels began to filter infantry down into the quarry, while a convoy of Civets began climbing the road towards the top of the mass driver and the communications outpost - within as little as half an hour, they'd be able to repair the array and potentially begin requesting help. By this time, Ghost Flight had turned around and began an attack run, using their 30mm cannons and M28 Shrieker missiles to bombard the rebel fortifications while they deposited the rest of Alpha Company to reinforce the six ODSTs who had survived the initial landing. Rebel return fire managed to take down UNSC Ghost Star, resulting in Lt. Commander Nyeto ordering the remaining prowlers to back off their attack. Nonetheless, the prowler air strike had managed to take out half of the convoy's vehicles, leaving at least seven still operational.[4]
Johnson, the rest of Blue Team and First Platoon leader Lieutenant Nelly Hamm joined John at the dock, wherein Hamm proceeded to argue with the Spartan over his taking of initiative. A trio of friendly troops began to make their way toward the group, prompting John and the Spartans to begin providing cover fire, picking off the irregular troops they were fighting. The fireteam used M301 grenade launchers to fire on the rebels, with the ODST platoon proceeding to take out those who tried to run from the projectiles. The trio that had reached the main group including Company Captain Cuvier, who proceeded to form a plan with the Spartans on how to proceed. Hamm suggested sending the Spartans up the mass driver, as they were the fastest personnel the company had available. Cuvier agreed to the plan, providing Blue Team with M705 incendiary jet tools and C-7 foaming explosive to help clear ice blockages inside the structure.[4]
Climbing the mountain
Blue Team formed up on the loading breech for the mass driver, using thermite-carbon cord and one of the flamethrowers to cut through some of the ice that had gathered around it to cut their way inside. While Blue Team entered the mass driver, the rest of Alpha Company was to launch a feint attack on the rebels to distract them from the Spartans. Johnson suggested instead putting First Platoon inside the pipe as their armour wasn't as bulky, but John refuted this due to his belief that the Spartans used for distraction would only reinforce the beliefs held by Colonel Crowther.[5]
The Spartans crawled into the tube and began to use their thruster packs to ascend up the five-kilometre stretch. Linda-058 was placed on sniper detail, though she was only equipped with an MA5B assault rifle. Fred-104 would follow ohn, with Kelly-087 bringing up the rear with a SPNKr rocket launcher. The Spartans maintained a twenty-metre separation, though the heat generated was also noticeable on the outside of the tube, with ice plumes rising off the exterior. The plumes could alert the rebels to the ruse if noticed, though the mock-engagement by Alpha Company and the mass of fog rising off Seboa in the wake of the battle left whether the rebels had seen the plumes questionable. By the time the Spartans had been inside the mass driver for eight minutes, they estimated they were two-thirds of the way up the mountain, roughly on level with the Civets. At this time, the tube ahead was pockmarked by gunfire likely from a weapon similar to the M41s from earlier. The gunners were unsure of Blue Team's position, and firing ahead of the team to prevent them from travelling further - hoping to bait them into using their rocket launchers and let the gunners know where to return fire.[5]
The team noticed that the gunner was firing repeatedly in the same place, indicating he was inexperienced and predictable. To counter this, the team placed thermite cord low on the tube wall, set for thirty seconds. The team then placed the flamethrower against the explosives and set a cord for thirty seconds, using the gaps in the gunner's fire to jump ahead. By the time the team had made it 200 metres, the cord was burning and shortly after the rebels fired on the site of the thermite with a missile launcher, similar to the one used against Ghost Star. It was at this point that Blue Team realised that the plan they had agreed to was not the plan being employed by Hamm - Blue Team were being used as a decoy for the rebels, while an additional prowler dropped off another team above. The ODST attack had taken down the remaining Civets, using the Logistics Comm channel to avoid the deception leaking to Blue Team.[5]
By the time the Spartans reached the top of the shaft, Alpha Company First Platoon was already planting charges inside the comms centre, supervised by Hamm. She explained that she'd needed the Civets distracted so that Nyeto could drop off the second wave of ODSTs, and that the deception was revenge for John's brash actions at the start of the mission.[5]
Covenant arrival
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List of appearances
- Halo: Silent Storm (First appearance)
Sources
