Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE

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Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE
Conflict:	Post-Covenant War conflicts
Date:	Around May 14, 2553–July 6, 2553
Location:	Gao, Cordoba system
Outcome:	United Nations Space Command repelled from Gao; Intrepid Eye captured by the UNSC;
Details
Belligerents
Commanders
Strength
Casualties

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"The bloody battle on the colony of Gao was an object lesson for the UNSC about the risks of dealing with independent colonies that harbored hatred towards the UEG."

— Curator on the battle^[1]

Operation: JOVIAN WHISTLE^[2] was an operation conducted by the UNSC on the human colony of Gao in order to retrieve Forerunner technology on the planet.^[3]

Prelude

In 2553, the UNSC's 717th Xeno-Materials Exploitation Battalion escorted by the Spartans of Blue Team arrived on the planet Gao to investigate a transmission believed to have originated from a Forerunner ancilla on the planet. Following the transmission, there had also been reports of miraculous cures found inside the planet's vast Montero Cave System. The research battalion's arrival was followed by several brutal murders of Gao natives in the caverns, prompting the Gao Ministry of Protection to dispatch Special Inspector Veta Lopis and her field team to investigate. However, the situation escalated into an all-out crisis when Insurrectionist sympathizers within Gao's government, headed by would-be president Arlo Casille, decided to eliminate the UNSC forces and take control of the ancilla. They allied themselves with the militant cult Keepers of the One Freedom and smuggled them on Gao, seeking to use the Keepers as a proxy force through which to accomplish their goals without attacking the UNSC directly.^[3]