Battle for Earth

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"Earth...is all we have left."

— Lord Terrence Hood

The Battle of Earth was one of the largest engagements fought between the Covenant and the United Nations Space Command, which took place on and above the planet Earth and across the Sol System from October 20, 2552 to November 17th. It was one of the most significant battles of the Human-Covenant War as the fate of humanity depended on the survival of their homeworld. The battle concluded when the Prophet of Truth's Dreadnought left Earth through the Portal with the purpose of activating the Halo Array from the "The Ark".

Background

Truth Strikes Toward Earth

Main article: Operation: FIRST STRIKE

The Covenant discovered the location of Earth after the Fall of Reach. The Prophet of Truth withheld knowledge of this discovery from the Covenant and other high ranking officials. To attack the UNSC homeworld, he ordered an assault fleet to secretly assemble at Unyielding Hierophant station in the Tau Ceti System. The fleet would overwhelm Earth's defenses in a single decisive strike.

The Covenant assault fleet was discovered by the UNSC AI Cortana. A pre-emptive strike led by Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb and SPARTAN-II John-117 destroyed Unyielding Hierophant and almost the entirety of the assembled fleet, some 500 ships.Template:Fact Earth was granted a small reprieve.

Regret Strikes Toward Earth

The Prophet of Regret also learned of the location of Earth, albeit indirectly. He discovered the location of the Portal, a Forerunner artifact leading to the Ark, and set off to uncover it. The Prophet was not aware that the Portal was located on Earth; not being privy to Truth's information, Regret unknowingly led his small fleet, a mere two Assault Carriers and 13 CCS-class Battlecruisers, straight into Earth's formidable defenses.

Truth belatedly learned of Regret's attack, and dispatched a large Jiralhanae-led fleet to reinforce the attack. They arrived only after Regret had fled.

Battle

Regret Arrives

"Something's not right. The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size!"

— Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood

Regret's fleet was detected near Io, Jupiter, as a series of Slipspace "whispers". Probes were sent to investigate, but shortly afterward the Covenant fleet reverted to realspace near Earth, just outside the killzone of the planet's Orbital Defense Platforms (ODPs). UNSC forces went to TACCON Alpha 2. Fleet Admiral Harper ordered his battle group to attack, but quickly received new orders from Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood to fall back and defend the ODPs.

The Assault Carriers converged on the battle cluster including Athens Station, Cairo Station and Malta Station. From there the first Covenant troops to ever set foot on humanity's homeworld engaged in the first land engagement of the Battle of Earth. The UNSC In Amber Clad descended near Mombasa, and deployed three Pelicans, one with John-117 onboard, with the intent of infiltrating the Carrier and capturing the Prophet of Regret.

Meanwhile in orbit, Regret's fleet was nearly defeated, with the UNSC taking heavy casualties. Ships of the Home Fleet, including the UNSC Say My Name in Earth's low orbit, deployed teams of ODST, most of which were tasked with assaulting the Carrier by breaching its hull. Under orders from Truth, the Jiralhanae took command over the remaining ships from Regret's fleet, killing their Sangheili crews. A Jiralhanae-led occupation force was also inserted into New Mombasa, where they killed any remaining Sangheili infantry. This was a part of the Prophet of Truth's plan to eventually replace the Sangheili with the Jiralhanae as the Covenant's primary warrior race.

The surviving UNSC and NMPD personnel clashed with this force for control of the city. A squad of ODSTs, with the assistance of Marine and NMPD survivors, as well as the city's AI Superintendent, participated in various battles. Despite their efforts, the city was eventually lost to the Covenant due to their overwhelming force. After this, the recently-arrived Covenant ships started uncovering the Portal to the Ark, glassing the Mombasa area along with its surroundings.

In the following weeks, the desperate battle for Earth was far from over. More Covenant occupation ships arrived, attacking targets and digging for Forerunner artifacts around the globe, with ships in orbit battering the UNSC Home Fleet. The Spartan Blue Team, SPARTAN-104, SPARTAN-058, and SPARTAN-043 partook in numerous battles around Earth, including many orbital zero-gravity operations, the Battle of Ross Island in the Antarctica where they neutralized a Covenant excavation with a HAVOK tactical nuke.Template:Fact Operating from Base Segundo Terra in Mexico City, they performed an underwater mission off the Yucatan Peninsula, and on November 3, they partook in the Battle of Havana in Cuba, which ended in the Centennial Orbital Elevator collapsing.Template:Fact After this, the team was re-directed to aid Dr. Halsey on Onyx. They captured the Bloodied Spirit and headed straight for Onyx.

With the Spartans gone, during the weeks that followed, almost the entire UNSC resistance on Earth was crushed, at least in the East African Protectorate. The Covenant set up heavy defenses around their excavation for the Portal, including heavy AA Batteries in Voi and the surrounding regions. The constant orbital battle left the UNSC Home Fleet's numbers greatly reduced. During this time, unbeknownst to the Covenant, the UNSC reactivated an old military base, Crow's Nest near Voi.

Truth's Arrival

"Master Chief, you mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?"

— Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood

"Sir, finishing this fight."

— Master Chief

On November 3, the Prophet of Truth left High Charity in the Forerunner Dreadnought, destined to arrive at the Sol System on November 8, unknowingly carrying the stowaway John-117. 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".

During the ongoing battle in Sol system, the Covenant forces invaded the city of Cleveland on Earth, looking for an artifact known as the "Key of Osanalan", which eventually turned out to be a hoax. During this time, Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, Arbiter and Commander Miranda Keyes arrived at Earth from Installation 05, Commander Keyes taking command of Crow's Nest on the ground. Meanwhile, a battle took place in Earth's Sector Six, Afghanistan, where a group of Marines struggled to retrieve a Laser Designator, which they used to track the Spartan's fall, making locating him easier.

Turning point

Main article: Battle of Voi

"The Commander's come up with a good plan. But without you, I wasn't sure we could pull it off."

— Lord Hood to John-117 at Crow's Nest

In the morning, the John-117 was retrieved by Sergeant Johnson, along with the 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 - 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 John's arrival, however, the outpost was discovered and quickly attacked by Covenant forces. After the base was taken over, the UNSC forces decided to destroy it using a bomb, killing all the Covenant in the base. John-117 activated the bomb and was barely able to escape the explosion.

Scattered, the UNSC forces then fled the base along the Tsavo Highway, regrouping on their way out. Soon, they were given orders by Commander Keyes to head to the city of Voi. John-117, with the help of Marines, eliminated Covenant resistance on the Highway, clearing the way to Voi.

Counter-attack

"Marines, the Prophet of Truth doesn't know it yet, but he's about to get kicked right off his throne. You will take our city back. And drive our enemy into the grave they've been so happily digging. One final effort is all that remains."

— Admiral Terrence Hood

Upon reaching Voi, the Humans, with almost all organization collapsing, launched one last desperate plan. With the help of the SPARTAN-II supersoldier, 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 Slipspace portal into which most, if not all of the Covenant Loyalist ships on Earth retreated.

Flood on Earth

"Quickly! Let us find their ship. Make short work of this abomination!"

— Thel 'Vadam

The Flood-infected Battlecruiser arrives.

At this exact moment, a Flood-controlled ship arrived at Earth, crashing in Voi. It infested the area around the Portal, quickly spreading throughout the city of Voi.

The UNSC decided to contain the infestation by detonating the Flood ship's reactor, a task which was assigned to John-117. Soon after this, Covenant Separatists arrived from their quarantine of Installation 05, having chased the Flood ship. They deployed teams of Elites to the ground, to retrieve the UNSC AI construct, Cortana, which they believed was being held inside the Flood-controlled ship, and after this, glass the area to destroy the Flood threat. To attack such a heavily prized and defended world, a fleet of greater size than the fleet at Reach would be required.

Not only this, the fact that only one city on Earth was attacked left UNSC strategists baffled. At the bare minimum the invading force would have to attack and occupy multiple areas, providing at least some strategic benefit, synchronously. Given the Covenant's tactical history it seemed unlikely that they would be prone to overconfidence.

Compared to the invasion force at Reach the two simply did not match up. The Covenant force at Reach was not only massive in numbers, it was knowledgeable of the terrain. The invasion force at Earth was small and displayed confusion (not an attribute the Covenant are known for).

The fleet that attacked Reach even took their time glassing the surface prior to sending in ground forces. Again the fleet that attacked Earth did almost the exact opposite, rushing to get to the surface. These observations could suggest that this Covenant fleet was not an invasion fleet at all but rather a planetary reconnaissance, search, and dig team.

Although capable of combating a small colony and/or aggressive native lifeforms, the expeditionary fleet lacked the strength in force or numbers for a full-scale invasion attempt. Speculation arose that, following the Covenant's discovery of Delta Halo, they found some form of Forerunner technology that led them to the location of a Shield World.

Another possible scenario explaining the events, but highly inadmissible due to lack of timeline during the events of Halo 2, is that after the seizure of 343 Guilty Spark, and subsequent interrogation, the location of the end of their pilgrimage was located. Even if the specific name "Earth" was used by the monitor, it would have raised no caution in the Covenant ranks; to their knowledge, the location of planet Earth was unknown to humans. It could be hypothesized that due to the assuming nature of Forerunner Monitors, Guilty Spark would have made no mention of Humans living there unless specifically asked.

There is also the suggestion that the Covenant were following a signal which emanated from the Forerunner Deep-Space Artifact brought to Earth aboard the Apocalypso when it was deactivated by Jersey Morelli . The burst of EMP, Slipspace, and Realspace signals could be what drew the Covenant to Earth. This would make sense if Regret's fleet came to Earth looking to recover the artifact and knew nothing about the planet itself. While it had been previously revealed that the Covenant knew the location of Earth, it is not known what value they assigned to it. To them, it may have simply been the location of the artifact in Chawla Base, not the human home world.

The Covenant's extensive knowledge of the MAC stations orbiting Earth might be seen as evidence that the Covenant knew the planet was at least occupied by human forces. However, Covenant forces had already encountered such orbital MAC platforms before, over Reach. Recognizing the serious danger these platforms represented, the fleet halted just beyond their firing range and commence boarding and sabotage actions using smaller craft.

Although losses weighed more heavily on the Humans than the Covenant, the UNSC nevertheless fought a successful holding action at New Mombasa. However, it is probable that UNSC High Command deliberately neglected to tell the medium and lower ranks that the Covenant task force was really but a vanguard of a much larger invasion fleet that would surely be imminent now.

According to the Halo Encyclopedia, "the entire population of Earth was cut in half as the First Battle of Earth began." It does not however specify whether it means half of Earth's population were killed, or if a significant number were evacuated, although the latter is more probable, as the Covenant did not commence planetary bombardment, and the statement is in regard of the situation at the beginning and not the end of the battle). Template:Conjecturalization End

Trivia

• Based off the events of Halo 2 and Halo 3 and before the release of additional information in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx and later, Halo 3: ODST, it was assumed that there were two separate Covenant invasions on Earth; Regret's failed invasion on October 20th and later, the arrival of Truth's forces in late November. As newer sources have shown, reinforcements sent by Truth arrived only mere hours after Regret's failed assault. Consequently, this led to classifying the battles as the "First" and "Second" Battles of Earth. This is also the way the battle is listed in the Halo Encyclopedia.
• The Battle of Earth is featured in more Halo games than any other battle, taking place in three games. (Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 3 ODST)

Gallery

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  The UNSC Home Fleet before the Covenant arrive.

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  UNSC Forces approaching New Mombasa during the early stages of the Battle of Earth.

• COVENANT ASSAILT CARRIER.jpg

  Regret's Carrier prepares to jump.

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  The Covenant occupation fleet uncovering the Portal.

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  John-117 and the Dreadnought entering Earth's atmosphere.

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  UNSC Frigates launching their MACs on the Forerunner Dreadnought.

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  The Portal begins to open after the UNSC's failed assault on the Dreadnought.

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  The Covenant Separatist ships glass Voi and its surroundings to contain the Flood threat.

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  UNSC and Covenant Separatists hold their meeting aboard the Shadow of Intent after the battle.