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| After briefly unsuccessfully trying to explain the state of the galaxy to Petrov, Petrov attempted to attack the Sangheili again, though was ultimately incapacitated by a chemical agent deployed by [[Crei 'Ayomuu]]. In the tense standoff that followed, 'Vadam let the other humans go and promised to release Petrov once she had recovered and he had a chance to talk with her. The interrogation was interrupted by the deployment of forty UNSC [[Pelican]] dropships, and the subsequent turnaround of the mountain runner that was crossing the basin towards the landing site. As such, most of the landing party retreated into a nearby cave for cover as 'Kvarosee used the Divine Hand to destroy the UNSC insertion force.{{Ref/Reuse|Out7}} The only survivor of the carnage was the [[D102 Owl]] stealth dropship carrying Olympia Vale and ODST [[Tango Team]], which was able to escape 'Kvarosee's notice thanks to the dropship's stealth features.{{Ref/Reuse|Out8}} After getting a chance to more thoroughly talk, Petrov agreed to help 'Vadam and the Sangheili and offered them a ride to the tel with her own mountain runners, with 'Vadam in return promising that he would hand her over to the UNSC and ensure her escape from the planet.{{Ref/Reuse|Out9}} | | After briefly unsuccessfully trying to explain the state of the galaxy to Petrov, Petrov attempted to attack the Sangheili again, though was ultimately incapacitated by a chemical agent deployed by [[Crei 'Ayomuu]]. In the tense standoff that followed, 'Vadam let the other humans go and promised to release Petrov once she had recovered and he had a chance to talk with her. The interrogation was interrupted by the deployment of forty UNSC [[Pelican]] dropships, and the subsequent turnaround of the mountain runner that was crossing the basin towards the landing site. As such, most of the landing party retreated into a nearby cave for cover as 'Kvarosee used the Divine Hand to destroy the UNSC insertion force.{{Ref/Reuse|Out7}} The only survivor of the carnage was the [[D102 Owl]] stealth dropship carrying Olympia Vale and ODST [[Tango Team]], which was able to escape 'Kvarosee's notice thanks to the dropship's stealth features.{{Ref/Reuse|Out8}} After getting a chance to more thoroughly talk, Petrov agreed to help 'Vadam and the Sangheili and offered them a ride to the tel with her own mountain runners, with 'Vadam in return promising that he would hand her over to the UNSC and ensure her escape from the planet.{{Ref/Reuse|Out9}} |
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| The surviving Owl dropship landed on the Tel and deployed its payload; two [[Mongoose]] scout bikes, Vale, the two civilian contractors and Tango Team.{{Ref/Reuse|Out10}} The dropship was then instructed to retreat into the mountains surrounding the site to hide.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Out13|HOut|Chapter=13}} The Mongooses were tasked with encircling the perimeter of the tel in the hopes of finding an entrance, though this was cut short when the vehicles became bogged down in the churning desert sands. Instead, Rosa Fuertes suggested looking for an entrance on the tel itself; the [[Netherop species|species]] that had inhabited Netherop built their cities underground, meaning that the tel was actually comprised of the waste material extracted from the underground digging and dumped on the surface. As such, she reasoned there had to be a haulage shaft somewhere. The humans began to dig into the tel spaced at three-metre intervals though were interrupted in an ambush attack by the Defenders of the Sanctum. The Defenders used their knowledge of the Precursor technology within to manipulate the internal structure, opening a section up to cause several members of the party to fall inside and become vulnerable to attack. Vale was one of the victims of this, falling alone into the pit that had been opened beneath her and coming into close combat with the Defenders. In the chaos, the Defenders were able to open sinkholes that killed several of the party, resulting in them capturing Fuertes and attempting to capture Iyuska.{{Ref/Reuse|Out10}} | | The surviving Owl dropship landed on the Tel and deployed its payload; two [[Mongoose]] scout bikes, Vale, the two civilian contractors and Tango Team. The Mongooses were tasked with encircling the perimeter of the tel in the hopes of finding an entrance, though this was cut short when the vehicles became bogged down in the churning desert sands. Instead, Rosa Fuertes suggested looking for an entrance on the tel itself; the [[Netherop species|species]] that had inhabited Netherop built their cities underground, meaning that the tel was actually comprised of the waste material extracted from the underground digging and dumped on the surface. As such, she reasoned there had to be a haulage shaft somewhere. The humans began to dig into the tel spaced at three-metre intervals though were interrupted in an ambush attack by the Defenders of the Sanctum. The Defenders used their knowledge of the Precursor technology within to manipulate the internal structure, opening a section up to cause several members of the party to fall inside and become vulnerable to attack. Vale was one of the victims of this, falling alone into the pit that had been opened beneath her and coming into close combat with the Defenders. In the chaos, the Defenders were able to open sinkholes that killed several of the party, resulting in them capturing Fuertes and attempting to capture Iyuska.{{Ref/Reuse|Out10}} |
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| After the initial skirmish with the Defenders, Vale's group were joined by 'Vadam and Petrov. Petrov suggested that the Arbiter make the next attempt to enter the tel - this was for three purposes; as fellow Sangheili the Arbiter may have a better chance at talking the Defenders down, she promised to allow the Swords the first shot at retrieving the Divine Hand (in reality as she expected them to die first), and because she was still ultimately interested in assisting the UNSC over any aliens.{{Ref/Reuse|Out11}} 'Vadam agreed to this and deployed into the pit that had been opened up alongside several Varo rangers. The group encountered the seven Defenders lying in an ambush, which 'Vadam attempted to talk down to little success. Despite his attempts, 'Kvarosee remained too ingrained in his zealotry to accept that an Arbiter may lead the Sangheili, nor his alliance with humanity and acceptance of female warriors and kaidons.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Out12|HOut|Chapter=12}} As such, the Defenders began to retreat and offered the Arbiter the chance to leave with his life, though 'Vadam ultimately chose to pursue, with Crei 'Ayomuu able to track the Defenders' location thanks to a tracking [[tetht]] he had placed on their captive, Fuertes. The group were then ambushed by the Defenders, who used their ability to manipulate the Sanctum's walls to great effect. In the chaos, the Defenders' [[Sanctum's Hide|unique armor]] proved highly resilient against the [[plasma weaponry]] of the Swords. However, it did prove susceptible to a [[Chemical weapon|chemical agent]] deployed by Crei 'Ayomuu which managed to kill several of the Defenders alongside Ghe 'Talot. Thel 'Vadam engaged [[blademaster]] [[Meduz 'Ra'ashai]] in single combat, only interrupted by the blasting of the UNSC's [[C-12 shaped charge|C-12 explosives]] elsewhere in the compound which made the visibility inside almost zero due to the dust in the air. As such, 'Ra'ashai offered to join 'Vadam's forces, citing his wish to see his homeworld again before he died. 'Kvarosee saw the C-12 explosion as a ruse in which the Arbiter had been sent to distract him and thus elected to leave the Sangheili in the tunnel to die to 'Ayomuu's poison gas while he saw to the UNSC infiltrating the site from behind.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Out14|HOut|Chapter=14}}{{Ref/Reuse|Out18}} | | After the initial skirmish with the Defenders, Vale's group were joined by 'Vadam and Petrov. Petrov suggested that the Arbiter make the next attempt to enter the tel - this was for three purposes; as fellow Sangheili the Arbiter may have a better chance at talking the Defenders down, she promised to allow the Swords the first shot at retrieving the Divine Hand (in reality as she expected them to die first), and because she was still ultimately interested in assisting the UNSC over any aliens.{{Ref/Reuse|Out11}} 'Vadam agreed to this and deployed into the pit that had been opened up alongside several Varo rangers. The group encountered the seven Defenders lying in an ambush, which 'Vadam attempted to talk down to little success. Despite his attempts, 'Kvarosee remained too ingrained in his zealotry to accept that an Arbiter may lead the Sangheili, nor his alliance with humanity and acceptance of female warriors and kaidons.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Out12|HOut|Chapter=12}} |
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| While the Arbiter distracted the Defenders, the UNSC forces under Petrov's guidance moved to an old ventilation shaft that her guerillas had discovered while combating the Defenders some years prior. After digging into the outer layer of the shaft (which had been sealed with the self-repairing [[nanotechnology]] of the [[Inner Sanctum]]), the UNSC rappelled into the shaft with Spartan Vale taking the lead. Tango Team's First Squad joined Vale alongside Commander Petrov and Keely Iyuska, while Second Squad and the rest of Petrov's soldiers remained on the surface. First Squad arrived at the bottom of the shaft to find a back entrance into the Defenders' Inner Sanctum, which they could use to infiltrate from behind.{{Ref/Reuse|Out13}} They emerged into the Sanctum's hydroponics garden which was full of various fruits being grown by the Defenders.{{Ref/Reuse|Out17}} While exploring the complex, they encountered the remains of the Guardian that had been downed on Netherop millennia prior, though were interrupted by 'Kvarosee's remaining troops who used the [[active camouflage]] granted by their nanotech armor to launch ambushes on the UNSC. Ultimately, three Sangheili attackers were killed at the cost of five ODSTs. Iyuska used the opportunity granted by the fighting to run away from the group to find the Divine Hand herself.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Out19|HOut|Chapter=19}}
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| ===Space engagement (November 23)=== | | ===Space engagement (November 23)=== |
| Throughout the engagement on the ground, the Sangheili flotilla and UNSC stealth cruiser largely avoided one another's presence. After deploying its Pelican air wing, UNSC ''Hidden Point'' retreated to the first moon of Netherop to mask its presence. However, once the Divine Hand was fired by Nizat 'Kvarosee on the ground, the Sangheili flotilla also moved into a higher orbit; both sides remained unaware of the Banished task force on the second moon. At the time of the Divine Hand's firing, the second moon housing Atriox's flotilla was on the side of the planet facing away from the Divine Hand meaning that the Banished remained uncertain what had happened, only knowing that the Pelican flight had been destroyed in a large flash of light beyond Netherop's horizon. However, Atriox was able to discern that it was likely the Divine Hand and that it had likely been fired by some kind of Covenant survivors on the world - noting that they had allowed the Phantom dropships onto the world but not the human Pelicans. However, with the knowledge that 7 Sangheili vessels and a human stealth cruiser were active around Netherop, he could not risk his inferior task force in engaging them to begin deploying Banished troops onto the ground.{{Ref/Reuse|Out15}}
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| Unfortunately for all parties, the two decoy karves which had been tasked with keeping the Created harrier vessels distracted in the outer reaches of the Ephyra system ''were'' situated in the arc of sky that allowed them to see the flash of light from the Divine Hand's firing, with the first karve situated around 2.5 light-hours from Netherop and the second situated three light-hours. With both vessels instructed to remain comms-silent, Atriox's flotilla had no knowledge of their current status. This meant that when the Banished sensors detected two unknown signatures on an inbound trajectory to intercept the Sangheili flotilla, Atriox surmised that the harriers had seen the Divine Hand's firing and destroyed the two karves before turning back towards Netherop. Had either of the karves noticed the harriers were no longer tailing them, they would have jumped back to Netherop immediately. Atriox instead altered his plan: if the two harriers engaged the allied Sangheili-UNSC flotilla around Netherop, they would provide a perfect distraction to allow him to slip past the battle and take the Divine Hand for himself. However, the second harrier began to alter its trajectory, instead pivoting to observe the battle as to then leave the system and report back to the Created once the battle's outcome was clear. The Banished estimated it would only take four hours for the Created to respond to the battle once the harrier left the system: one hour for the harrier to reach Created command, two for the Created to marshal a fleet, and another hour for that fleet to arrive at Netherop. With no time to spare, Atriox put his plan into effect, sacrificing ''Hammer of Fate'' to let the forces in control of the Divine Hand believe they had destroyed his ship. Secretly though, this destruction was intended to mask the deployment of hundreds of [[drop pod]]s in the debris field which would be able to make landfall on Netherop and overpower everyone left alive on the ground.{{Ref/Reuse|Out15}}
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| The harriers began to attack the Sangheili flotilla, with [[weapon-ship]]s engaging the light corvettes on the outer screen of the flotilla. The weapon-ships did not attempt to manoeuvre, instead using their sheer numbers to overwhelm the [[Point-defense gun|point-defences]] of the Sangheili ships and their mass to ram them - the light corvettes were quickly overwhelmed and destroyed. ''Sword of Harmony'' did deploy a wing of [[Elsedda-pattern Banshee|Banshee fighters]] to fend off the attack and faired okay, though the medium destroyer and heavy corvette were also rapidly overrun. UNSC ''Hidden Point'' was also engaged and similarly overwhelmed. The engagement was interrupted by Thel 'Vadam on the ground, who used the Divine Hand in an attempt to save his ships. While Thel initially only wanted to target the harrier ships that were overpowering his own, the Divine Hand also revealed to him the presence of the Banished drekar that was now on an intercept course with Netherop. When 'Vadam attempted to fire the Divine Hand, he was interrupted by Tam 'Lakosee, who saw the Forerunner harriers in a reverant light and refused to allow them to be harmed. The result was that the Divine Hand reacted to both individuals' wishes and targeted ''all'' ships in the immediate orbit of Netherop - destroying UNSC, Sangheili, Banished, and Forerunner alike. The only ships unaffected were the karves, which had yet to engage or reveal themselves to the battle.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Out20|HOut|Chapter=20}}
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| ===Final standoff===
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| ==Production notes== | | ==Production notes== |
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| *''[[Halo: Battle for the Blood-Moon]]'' {{Mo}} | | *''[[Halo: Battle for the Blood-Moon]]'' {{Mo}} |
| *''[[Halo: Empty Throne]]'' {{Im}} | | *''[[Halo: Empty Throne]]'' {{Im}} |
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| | ==Notes== |
| | {{Ref/Notes}} |
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| ==Sources== | | ==Sources== |
