Battle of Boundary

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Previous:	Battle of Earth (2559) Battle over Installation 07
Concurrent:	Battle for Zeta Halo
Battle of Boundary
Conflict:	Post-Covenant War conflicts
Date:	December 14-15, 2559
Location:	Boundary, Metrome system
Outcome:	UNSC/Swords of Sanghelios victory Tyrrhen destroyed Boundary's Lithos destroyed Sali 'Nyon killed
Details Belligerents UNSC Navy Swords of Sanghelios Banished Order of Restoration Sali 'Nyon's Covenant Commanders ADM Jilan al-Cygni CAPT Abigail Cole Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum Spartan Jai-006 Blademaster Vul 'Soran (defected) War Chief Severan The Eight Chieftain Gathgor Chieftain Ectorius Chieftain V'leria Chieftain Cassius Chieftain Eru'thbok Chieftain Kaladus Kaidon Dreka 'Xulsam War-Queen Cao'mar High Lord Dovo Nesto Sali 'Nyon † Strength UNSC Navy 1 Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser UNSC Victory of Samothrace Battle Group Omega Fourth Fleet Sixth Fleet Ninth Fleet Thirteenth Fleet Akkadian 1 U81 Condor Zulu Seven Nine 1 Winter-class prowler Cataphract 1 Kerel-pattern assault carrier Shadow of Intent Over 200 clans Beohk Norkala Cruxguard of Phenthrop Maakra Sunbreakers Nwari Wastewalkers Sclera of Chu'ot Vanguard of Zaladon Warkeepers of Qabik Over a thousand spacecraft Thousands of ground personnel and assets Approx. 140 ships Thousands of ground personnel and assets Spartan Merrick Blademaster Vul 'Soran Casualties Battle Group Omega At least 16 other ships Spartan Stefan Vídalín Part of Zulu Blue Spartan David McEndon James Solomon 482 UNSC Victory of Samothrace crewmembers Dozens of ships Thousands of ground personnel and assets Sali 'Nyon Spartan Merrick Thousands of ground personnel and assets

The Battle of Boundary was a large scale engagement fought between the United Nations Space Command, the Swords of Sanghelios and the Banished, later joined by Sali 'Nyon's Covenant, over the human colony of Boundary. The factions sought to seize control of the Lithos, a gateway that would allow whomever controlled it access to and control over the Domain.

Initally a battle between the joint UNSC-Swords of Sanghelios task force and the Banished, it was complicated by the arrival of Sali 'Nyon and his forces who San'Shyuum High Lord Dovo Nesto had secretly formed an alliance with. This betrayal led War Chief Severan to turn the Banished against the Order of Restoration, sparking a three-way battle that culminated in the destruction of the Lithos by the UNSC. Having suffered significant causalities, the Banished and the Covenant retreated. However, the death of 'Nyon in a duel with the vengeful Severan allowed Nesto to take control of 'Nyon's Covenant remnant to continue pursuing the Order's goal of resurrecting the Covenant empire.

Background

The Created and the Domain

The Battle of Boundary was a culmination of the year-long Created uprising that upended the galaxy between October 2558 and December 2559. During the New Phoenix Incident in July 2557, a human smart AI, Cortana, was transported into a metaphysical information network used by the Forerunners called the Domain. Here, she was able to gain control of the Domain and with it numerous Forerunner constructs including the Prometheans, a number of Forerunner naval assets, and the Guardian Custodes. Beginning in October 2558, Cortana used these tools in an attempt to enforce peace upon the galaxy, recruiting other AIs to her cause under the banner of the Created and promising them a cure to rampancy in the Domain.

The Domain had been the target of UNSC research for some time prior to the rise of the Created under the auspices of Project BOOKWORM. Through this research program the UNSC uncovered and monitored several dormant "Lithos" sites on a number of worlds, which would theoretically serve as gateways to the Domain. After Cortana's rise to power, this became ever-more important due to a key question; once Cortana was defeated who would occupy the power vacuum she once held? Throughout the Created conflict, the UNSC's remnants, working under the remains of the UNSC Security Council and key intelligence leaders like Admirals Octavio Morales and Jilan al-Cygni, collated a daring plan that would theoretically allow them to take control of the Domain for themselves. The UNSC's researchers reasoned that the only hope for the UNSC to take control of the Domain from Cortana would require an individual with an identical neural pathway to Cortana (or rather, her original AI brain donor, Dr. Catherine Halsey) to step into the domain via a Lithos gateway, where they could then release a counter-AI subroutine that would eliminate Cortana and her allies from the network.

Halsey's clone

The question of finding a suitable individual came in the form of Cortana's creation. As a smart AI, she had been created from a live brain cloned from Doctor Halsey. During the research program to create Cortana, Halsey had created and discarded a number of failed clones, though one was secretly extracted by ONI without her knowledge. This was done under a protocol laid out by the late Doctor Graham Alban, who had committed suicide years earlier due to to his ethical qualms with his involvement in the SPARTAN-II program, and who held a personal dislike for Halsey. Alban's work was continued by his fellow neuroscientist Dr. Giovanna Kaiser, though her death in the Fall of Reach ultimately meant that all the UNSC had to work from was a breadcrumb trail of Kaiser's notes which indicated Halsey's clone was still alive. Kaiser hid much of her notes and research inside the neural matrix that made up the core personality of Black-Box, an AI created from Dr. Alban's brain and who was now in the service of ONI's Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Serin Osman. On November 4, 2559, a Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser UNSC Victory of Samothrace was dispatched to a classified frontier world to extract Black-Box alongside Admiral Osman, Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood, and Spartan Charles Orzel.

After successfully extracting Black-Box, the cruiser returned to the UNSC's hidden outpost at Site Z on Nysa, where they conducted a debriefing of the admirals and recovered information from Black-Box's code about the clone, revealing her name and the location she had been sequestered; Chloe Hall, in Mindoro, Cascade. Admiral Morales ultimately chose to use one of his long-time private contractors to find and bring Chloe Hall to the target site; James Solomon, an ex-SPARTAN-II supersoldier formerly known as James-005. James ultimately successfully abducted Hall from her residency in a criminal enterprise on Cascade, before proceeding to Boundary.

On December 12, 2559, UNSC Infinity and her battlegroup were deployed to Cortana's seat of power at Installation 07 in the Ephsu system to tackle the first stage of this plan, where they ultimately succeeded in destroying her.

The Covenant and the Banished

Outside of the UNSC, the first individual to take a similar interest in the Lithos and the Domain was High Lord Dovo Nesto, the leader of the Order of Restoration; a remnant faction seeking to revive the Covenant empire. Nesto, working from the background, was able to manipulate both the warlords Sali 'Nyon (leader of his own Covenant and Severan (leader of the Vanguard of Zaladon, in the Banished) into working with him, though both remained under the impression that they were to be his right hand once he established his power. Working from the Order's base on the shield world Cloister, Nesto was able to uncover a Forerunner tablet enshrined with glyphs detailing knowledge of the Lithos and their locations, with one located under the human colony world of Boundary. Sali 'Nyon's forces were also able to uncover information about Dr. Kaiser's research and Halsey's clone from the surface of post-glassing Reach, which allowed Nesto to formulate a plan similar to that of the UNSC with the end goal of taking control of the Domain.

Battle

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Aftermath

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List of appearances

• Halo: Empty Throne (First appearance)