Battle over Installation 04
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| Battle over Installation 04 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Over Installation 04, Soell system | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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UNSC Strategic Victory
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On September 19, 2552, the Halcyon-class light cruiser UNSC Pillar of Autumn entered the Soell system. What followed was a battle over Installation 04, as forces of the Fleet of Particular Justice attempted to stop the human forces of the cruiser from landing on Installation 04.
Prelude
On August 30, the Pillar of Autumn fled the Fall of Reach, along with its complement of personnel. The ship was followed by the Fleet of Particular Justice, led by the Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadamee, who hereby ordered all vessels of the fleet to contribute two fightercraft to advance recon pickets to ensure the human cruiser would not be able to slip past the fleet defenses, while the fleet held position on the far side of the ring.[3] The fleet had arrived earlier than the Autumn thanks to their superior slipspace drive technology.[2] The Minor Prophet of Stewardship would declare the matter one of religious significance and invoke his right to leadership, though this would be contested on the grounds of 'Vadamee, who insisted he would not relinquish command to a politician in combat. The two would convene aboard the fleet's flagship Seeker of Truth to contact High Charity for guidance,[3] though no contact was able to be made, and no decision reached.[4]
Upon arriving in the Soell system, the Pillar of Autumn deployed GA-TL1 Longsword fighters for sentry screening.[5] The Prophet would order the Covenant fleet to hold fire on the cruiser for fear of damaging the ring,[3][4][6] though 'Vadamee would later ignore this order anyway.[2][4] The prophet would order the deployment of Leech boarding craft and an Ossoona,[5] alongside ordering the battlecruisers Purity of Spirit and Undiminished Entelechy to perform secret close-range surveys of the installation.[7]
The battle
The first shot fired in the battle was suffered by the Pillar of Autumn only twenty minutes after its arrival when a Seraph managed to slip through the cruiser's sentry screening. The fighter was shortly destroyed by one of the escort Longswords, though another wave of fighters would be inbound, with the boarding craft behind.[5] As the cruiser cleared the gas giant Threshold, the crew were met with the sight of a gargantuan megastructure of neither human nor Covenant origin.[5] Cortana was able to identify four battle groups of three Ket-pattern battlecruisers, estimating she'd be able to use the cruiser to get 3-4 kills on the Covenant fleet with those odds. At this time, technicians Samuel Marcus and Thom Shephard were authorised to wake up Spartan John-117 from stasis.[2]
The cruiser would continue to be assaulted by several Morsam-pattern Seraphs and Elsedda-pattern Banshees throughout the battle, who would be fended off by the ship's M910 Rampart point defense network.[8] Later on, the ship would take fire from Covenant pulse laser turrets.[2]
Unbeknownst to either side, the Forerunner installation was not inert. Monitor 343 Guilty Spark attempted to contact the Pillar of Autumn and warn of them of the ring's danger, insisting the cruiser retreat to a safe distance of one light-year. The monitor prepared several Confidence-class weapon arrays to fire on the vessel and gave it thirty seconds to change course, though he stopped once he realised the ship belonged to