Editing Attack on Crow's Nest

[[File:Crow's Nest bomb.jpg|thumb|left|250px|The bomb in Crow's Nest's operations center]]  

After their failure to take the south hangar, Covenant forces began to heavily assault the base from alternate approaches. They dispatched swarms of [[Yanme'e]] into the the facility's ventilation shafts while simultaneously attacking several key areas of the base such as the operations center and motor pool. A large pack of Jiralhanae led by a [[Pek-pattern plasma cannon|plasma cannon]]-wielding [[Jiralhanae War Chieftain|War Chieftain]] stormed the barracks, massacring most of the men inside and taking the survivors captive for sport and for food. As the Covenant assault intensified, Johnson urged the Chief to return to the operations center. Back in the vehicle access corridor, a pair of Marines waiting for the next evacuation Pelican heard loud banging in the pipes above them as a large group of Yanme'e made their way through towards the operations center. The Marines opted to follow John as he returned to the control room. In the cave before the operations center, a Marine waving to John in greeting was suddenly lifted into the air by a Drone as an entire swarm of the insectoid Covenant soldiers poured into the room from the piping behind the Marine's defences. As the panicking Marines opened fire on the Yanme'e, their sergeant ordered them to use short, controlled bursts of weapons fire to effectively put down each Drone. Despite the large number of Drones, John and the defending Marines were able to use superior cover, accurate gunfire and a nearby turret to wipe out the majority of the swarm before Marines entering from the operations center killed off the stragglers. In the control room, the base's personnel were in the process of wiring a [[Improvised UNSC bomb|bomb]] that would be used to destroy Crow's Nest after all of it's personnel had extracted, in order to deny the base to the Covenant. Commander Keyes, now on board Pelican ''Kilo 023'' wished them good luck before cutting the feed. Johnson, knowing that the Covenant had captured the barracks and [[Recovery of John-117#Rescuing Sergeant Johnson|familiar]] with Jiralhanae treatment of [[Prisoner of war|captives]], told John to rescue what survivors he could and escort the survivors to the nearby landing pad for extraction.{{Ref/Reuse|crows}}

John left the operations center and arrived in the base's motor pool, which had recently fallen to the Covenant. The [[Jiralhanae Chieftain]] in the room detected the Spartan's scent, and ordered his [[pack]] to find him. As the Jiralhanae dispersed, John begun his assault. Despite the arrival of reinforcements, John continued to prevail. As the Jiralhanae's numbers started to dwindle, the Chieftain charged John with his [[Gravity hammer (fiction)|gravity hammer]] but he fell along with the rest of his pack. Victorious, John moved across the motor pool and entered another corridor. A cave in forced the Spartan to drop down through a hole in the floor, landing in an area with opened maintenance pipes through which Yanme'e were traversing. Here, John experienced a [[Character interludes|hallucination]] of [[Cortana]] repeating a line made by [[Catherine Halsey|Doctor Halsey]] to him and the other [[SPARTAN-II program|Spartan-II]] candidates at the age of six, immediately following his abduction by the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]]. Beyond the vents, John arrived in time to witness Thel 'Vadam attempting to convince several Yanme'e to rebel against the Covenant, to no avail. After assisting the Arbiter in killing the Drones, Thel told him that the Jiralhanae had taken several Marines in the barracks prisoner. Knowing the barbarity of their foes, the two moved into the barracks while watching for survivors. They arrived just as a Marine was thrown head-first into a concrete pillar. The rest of the barracks was filled with Jiralhanae, many of them holding Marines up by their necks or ankles. Acting fast, John managed to save a Marine moments before he was killed. The Marine armed himself as John and Thel continued to push down the barracks, killing large numbers of Jiralhanae and rescuing several more Marines. The War Chieftain and his [[Jiralhanae Bodyguard|bodyguards]] stood in their path to the exit but they were eventually slain. With as many UNSC personnel saved as possible, John and Thel left the barracks where the Spartan called down a service elevator that would take them up to the landing pad where ''Kilo 023'' was waiting to extract them.{{Ref/Reuse|crows}}

[[File:H3 CrowsNestCaptive.png|thumb|left|250px|A UNSC Marine held captive by Jiralhanae in Crow's Nest's barracks.]]

===Re-arming the bomb===

{{Quote|Chief, get back to the Ops Center. Kill those Brutes. Rearm the bomb. I've gotta get these men out of here. But I'll radio with another exit. Good luck.|[[Miranda Keyes|Commander Keyes]] ordering [[John-117]] to re-arm the bomb.}}

John made his way along the vehicle access corridor that Johnson had came from, passing by numerous destroyed Warthogs and dead Marines testifying to the losing battle the UNSC had been fighting. As he approached the door to the road that would lead back to the motor pool he experienced another vision of Cortana reciting part of Dr Halsey's induction speech to the Spartan-IIs. The roadway to the motor pool was heavily fortified by [[Pek-pattern plasma cannon|plasma cannons]] and numerous Unggoy and Kig-Yar patrols, forcing John to fight his way through. He eventually made it back to the operations center, where he overheard a conversation between the Prophet of Truth and the commanding War Chieftain in the room. When the Chieftain nervously reported that he had not yet discovered the UNSC's plan to stop Truth, the Prophet angrily told him to find the information he needed or be left behind on the [[Covenant religion#The Great Journey|"Great Journey"]] before cutting the feed. As the War Chieftain ordered his subordinates to tell the Yanme'e to search the machines for information, John-117 attacked. The War Chieftain unlimbered his [[Pez'tk-pattern fuel rod gun|fuel rod gun]] and returned fire but the Master Chief eventually defeated all of the Covenant in the operations center and managed to re-activate the bomb. As the now-active bomb was linked to many other smaller charges throughout Crow's Nest, the entire base began to explode.{{Ref/Reuse|crows}}

[[File:H3 CN FleeingPhantom.png|thumb|left|250px|A Phantom abandoning Unggoy in the exploding Crow's Nest]]