Battle for the Control Room (Installation 05)

Previous:	Battle of the Quarantine Zone
Concurrent:	Fall of High Charity
Next:	Battle of Havana (Battle for Earth)
Battle for the Control Room
Conflict:	Human-Covenant War Battle of Installation 05 Great Schism
Date:	November 3, 2552
Location:	Installation 05, around the Control Room
Outcome:	Strategic UNSC/Covenant separatist victory Activation of Installation 05 prevented. Halo Array placed on standby mode Chieftain Tartarus killed
Details Belligerents United Nations Space Command Covenant separatists Covenant Commanders CDR Miranda Keyes SgtMaj Avery Johnson Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee Special Operations Commander Rtas 'Vadumee Chieftain Tartarus† Strength UNSC Marine Corps 3 Marines 1 Scarab Covenant High Council Surviving Sangheili High Councilors Covenant Special Operations Special Operations Sangheili Sangheili Unggoy Mgalekgolo Ghosts 1 Spectre 1 Wraith Banshees Covenant military Covenant Honor Guard Jiralhanae Honor Guardsmen Jiralhanae Kig-Yar Yanme'e Ghosts Spectres Wraiths Banshees Phantoms Casualties Moderate-heavy Chieftain Tartarus Majority of ground forces

The Battle for the Control Room was an engagement during the latter stages of the larger Battle of Installation 05 in which Sangheili forces led by Arbiter Thel 'Vadamee fought to reach the Jiralhanae-held Control Room to prevent the activation of the installation, ultimately forging an uneasy alliance with the surviving crew of the UNSC In Amber Clad.

Background

Following his brash and unprepared arrival at Earth, the High Prophet of Regret was forced to withdraw as his small excavation fleet was overwhelmed by the planets defenses and his ground forces in the city of Mombasa were pushed back by UNSC ground forces. The Prophet had his flagship, the CAS-class assault carrier Solemn Penance perform a slipspace jump directly over New Mombasa, having discovered the location of Installation 05 using information he had gleaned from the Luminary recovered on Meridian. Unbeknownst to the Prophet, his ship was followed through slipspace by the UNSC Stalwart-class light frigate UNSC In Amber Clad. The two warships arrived in the Coelest system on November 2, 2552. As the Solemn Penance deployed ground forces to the surface, the human vessel deployed a strike force of ODSTs led by Spartan John-117 to assassinate the Covenant Hierarch. Despite the arrival of the Covenant holy city High Charity and it's vast defense fleet, the Covenant were unable to prevent Regret's death at the hands of the Master Chief. Truth instead recalled the flotilla of Phantoms the fleet had dispatched and allowed his fellow Hierarch to die, having the fleet glass the temple instead.

The following day, the Prophet of Truth had the Sangheili of the Covenant Honor Guard replaced by the Jiralhanae, using the assassination of Regret to discredit the Sangheili and further his own agenda to ultimately take sole control of the Covenant. The Prophet of Truth sent the Arbiter of the Covenant, disgraced former Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice Thel 'Vadamee to the Sentinel wall encircling the Library in order to deactivate the shielding and allowing the Covenant to secure the Activation index that would allow them to ultimately activate the ring. While Thel was successful in this task, he inadvertently allowed the Flood within the quarantine zone to spread and infest both Covenant troops and UNSC personnel of the In Amber Clad and gain access to weapons, vehicles and ultimately, control of the human frigate which they would later use to infest High Charity. After fighting through hordes of Flood and Sentinel defenses, Thel and a team of Special Operations Sangheili made it to a gondola that would take them into the Library, following in close pursuit of remaining UNSC forces led by Commander Keyes and Sergeant Johnson. Thel engaged Keyes and Johnson immediately after the former had retrieved the Index, incapacitating Johnson before Tartarus arrived, seizing both Keyes and the Index. As Tartarus' Jiralhanae surrounded Thel, the chieftain revealed his intent to initiate the Great Schism on Truth's orders, before knocking the Arbiter into a deep pit below the Library.

Sangheili High Councilors murdered by the Jiralhanae.

A short time later, Tartarus' second-in-command, Captain Melchus, led a contingent of heavily-armed Jiralhanae into the control room, where the Sangheili High Councilors and many of their former Honor Guards were gathered to witness the activation of the ring and the culmination of the "Great Journey". The Jiralhanae proceeded to massacre the Sangheili, catching the unprepared Councilors off-guard. While they fought back, all of the Sangheili were eventually killed, with only one surviving due to his fall from the platform being broken by the dead bodies of his compatriots.

The Arbiter's own fall was broken by the Flood Gravemind, who resided deep below the Library. Here, Thel was confronted with not only John-117, who had similarly been captured by the Gravemind, but also the Monitor of Installation 05, 2401 Penitent Tangent and the reanimated corpse of the Prophet of Regret. While both the Gravemind and the Master Chief attempted to tell Thel of the true purpose of the Halo rings, the Sangheili refused to listen. The Gravemind promised to show the defiant Arbiter the truth, using the installation's teleportation grid to send Thel to the cliffs near the control room.

The battle

Thel 'Vadamee: "Tartarus. The Prophets have betrayed us."

Tartarus: "No, Arbiter! The Great Journey has begun. And the Brutes, not the Elites, shall be the Prophets' escort!"

— Thel attempts to reason with Tarta