Attack on Crow's Nest

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Attack on Crow's Nest
Conflict:	Human-Covenant War Battle for Earth Battle of Kenya
Date:	November 17, 2552
Location:	Crow's Nest, Kenya, East African Protectorate
Outcome:	Strategic UNSC victory Base personnel extracted Crow's Nest destroyed
Details Belligerents United Nations Space Command UNSC Air Force UNSC Marine Corps Covenant separatists Fleet of Retribution Covenant Commanders CMR Miranda Keyes SGTMAJ Avery Johnson MCPO John-117 Arbiter Thel 'Vadam High Prophet of Truth Unnamed Jiralhanae War Chieftain† Strength Several air vehicles D77H-TCI Pelicans Multiple AV-14 Hornets Chaingun Warthogs Truth's fleet 1+ Ket-pattern battlecruiser Many air vehicles Several Ru'swum-pattern Phantoms Multiple Irdnekt-pattern Banshees Many ground forces Jiralhanae Unggoy Kig-Yar Yanme'e Casualties Heavy Heavy

Marine Technician: ""Ma'am, squad leaders are requesting a rally point. Where should they go?"

Commander Miranda Keyes: "To war."

— Miranda leading the defense of Crow's Nest while pulling the slide of her M6G2 magnum back.

The Attack on Crow's Nest was an engagement during the Battle of Kenya in which Covenant forces assaulted the UNSC local command center Crow's Nest in Kenya, Africa on November 17, 2552, shortly after UNSC forces recovered John-117 from the jungles of nearby Tanzania.

Background

During the Battle of Kenya in November 2552, the re-purposed 20th century military base was serving as the command post for UNSC forces fighting the Covenant, as well as a holding area for the numerous Marines wounded during the continuous fighting. On the morning of November 17, 2552, the High Prophet of Truth arrived at Earth on board the Forerunner keyship Anodyne Spirit along with a swarm of Covenant warships under his command, including the splintered High Charity defense fleet, which routed the UNSC Home Fleet and the orbital defense grid in orbit upon Truth's arrival on the planet.

Overwelmed by the Covenant forces during the Battle of Kenya, many wounded UNSC personnel were brought into Crow's Nest. As the keyship descended towards the newly-excavated portal beneath Mombasa that would lead to the Ark, Spartan-II John-117, who had been on board, was forced to exit the ship. The Spartan made landfall in a jungle south of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. His re-entry point was acquired by UNSC forces fighting in Sector Six, Asia allowing several squads of Marines led by Sergeant Major Avery Johnson and Arbiter Thel 'Vadam to easily locate him. After recovering the Master Chief, the Spartan, Thel and Johnson were extracted by Pelican Kilo 023 and delivered to Crow's Nest, which was under the command of Commander Miranda Keyes following her return from Installation 05.

Battle

Beginning

"You are, all of you, vermin. Cowering in the dirt, thinking what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No. Your world will burn until its surface is but glass! And not even your demon will live to creep, blackened from its hole to mar the reflection of our passage... the culmination of our journey. For your destruction is the will of the gods! And I? I am their instrument!"

— The Prophet of Truth threatening the base's personnel, prior to the attack.