Battle of Venezia
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The battle of Venezia was a conflict fought on, and around, the colony world of Venezia between the Banished and an allied force consisting of the United Nations Space Command and Swords of Sanghelios. The battle took place on November 21, 2559, two weeks after the destruction of the Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac by the Created. The engagement initially began as an attempted capture of the San'Shyuum High Lord Dovo Nesto by the UNSC/Swords, though by chance his Banished allies were present on the planet and managed to evacuate him into space. As such, the fighting spilled out into a larger naval engagement in orbit, pitting the Banished fleet present at Venezia against the two allied capital ships.[3][4]
Prelude[edit]
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The battle[edit]
Ground engagement[edit]
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Battle in space[edit]
As the three allied dropships entered orbit in pursuit of Severan's Trespasser, Victory of Samothrace and Shadow of Intent became aware of the Banished fleet lurking behind Venezia's moon, consisting of six dreadnoughts and their flagship Heart of Malice. At this point, Jai recommended shooting down the Trespasser to deny Dovo Nesto to both sides, though Vul 'Soran (who was secretly working for Nesto) objected, citing that such a loss would only hinder the allied effort to find the Lithos. Captain Cole agreed with 'Soran's suggestion and recalled the dropships to intercept with Victory as dozens of other craft launched from Staithe on the planet below to begin their own attacks. The Banished fleet opened the battle in space with a salvo of missiles launched from long range, while Victory and Shadow both began to coordinate fire on their assailants. Cole suggested targeting the closest dreadnought to Dovo Nesto's dropship first and provided Shadow her ship's firing solution. Victory opened fire with its twin MACs first, the first softening the dreadnought's shields and the second punching through, with follow-on strikes by Shadow of Intent's superheavy plasma lances providing the kill. Cole credited the rapid downing of the first dreadnought to Victory's unique upgraded SARISSA MAC configuration.[3]
At this point, the Banished began to launch their own strikecraft complements, resulting in a response in kind from the allied ships; Shadow of Intent launched its Banshees and Seraphs while Victory launched five squadrons of FSS-1000 Sabres and three squadrons of F-41 Broadswords. The Banished ships aimed to get in close, maximising the ability of their close-ranged weaponry (in particular their superheavy grav-impact drivers) and minimising the threat of Victory's most powerful armament, its keel-mounted MAC. Ideally, the Banished aimed to get in close and either ram or shear the allied ships, before coming around to fire upon them from behind, similar to an Ancient Greek diekplous. Two dreadnoughts manoeuvred to shield Nesto's Trespasser, putting them in range of Victory's 75 M58 Archer missile pods while the other three moved to engage Shadow of Intent.[3]
A dozen of Victory of Samothrace'S missiles successfully hit one of the dreadnought's amidships, where the shielding was weaker, softening it enough that a follow-on strike by Victory's MACs was able to damage, but not disable, the dreadnought - which returned in kind with its own weapons. Only one of its plasma beam weapons hit Victory by virtue of Victory being able to edge just out of range, resulting in minimal damage to the UNSC cruiser. By this time, the three dropships were returning to Victory, allowing the cruiser to begin to engage in more evasive manoeuvres starting with a hard shift 30o starboard, exposing its port flank to the enemy. Another MAC strike destroyed the lead dreadnought and leaving only one left, allowing Victory to turn its focus to the Banished flagship Heart of Malice, which was now docking with the Trespasser dropship. Cole ordered that Malice be damaged but not killed to ensure that Nesto would not be accidentally killed in the carnage. Shadow of Intent, was able to bring down a third dreadnought before the other two peeled off to engage Victory of Samothrace and defend Nesto - exposing their aft to Shadow of Intent's fire.[3]
The Banished ships began to pummel Victory of Samothrace with their weapons, putting Cole in a tricky position. In response, she executed a Marien maneuver, pitching Victory above the battle plane and beginning to climb while spinning and trading fire below as to avoid the ramming attacks of the Banished. Heart of Malice followed against Cole's expectations, eager to secure the kill, though was beaten to the punch by word that the Banished Griever bombers had broken through Victory's fighter screen and were now attacking the cruiser in combination with the smaller craft launched from Venezia's surface. The cruiser then began to turn to port to meet with Shadow of Intent, passing over Heart of Malice with both ships trading heavy fire, Victory suffering the loss of multiple interior compartments on its port side.[3]
Amid the fighting, a number of sensor contacts appeared at the far edge of the battlefield, just inside Victory's sensor range. When initially pinged they registered as Covenant contacts, something which caused confusion for both sides, with Victory of Samothrace's bridge crew speculating them to be echoes of Shadow of Intent.[3] In reality, they were forces belonging to Sali 'Nyon, an ex-Covenant warlord who was allied with Dovo Nesto under the Order of Restoration. Due to Nesto's deliberate misleading of Severan, Severan and the Banished remained unaware that the Covenant fleet was on their side and thus reacted to their perceived threat accordingly.[4] By the time that Victory was directly engaging Heart of Malice above the battleplane, the Covenant ships had advanced to within sensor range and could be made out as consisting of 14 warships; two assault carriers, eight battlecruisers and four corvettes. Realising they were outnumbered, Shadow of Intent and Victory of Samothrace made preparations for an emergency departure from the system. Before this could be achieved, Severan made a transmission to Victory of Samothrace as the cruiser left the effective range of its weapons, taunting the ship over the imminent destruction that the Banished were planning to bring to Earth in recompense for the loss of their own homeworld. Victory of Samothrace accordingly then jumped into slipspace, followed by Shadow of Intent.[3]
When Sali 'Nyon's fleet first appeared over Venezia, Severan initially suspected the Covenant ships to be Swords of Sanghelios reinforcements aligned with Shadow of Intent, though soon ascertained this was not the case after observing his enemies' reactions to the new party. Suspecting the fleet to be under the command of 'Nyon or some other warlord come to retrieve Nosto, Severan had no desire to engage them in combat (despite them having made no hostile moves yet) and thus made his own preparations to leave the battlefield. An additional time presence persisted in that neither side was eager to draw the attention of a Created Guardian Custode, and every minute they lingered made the possibility ever-more likely. As such, Heart of Malice, along with the two surviving dreadnoughts Ghost of K'rryk and Ghost of Voranth entered slipspace to rendezvous with the Banished fleet amassing to attack Earth.[4]
Aftermath[edit]
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At the battle's conclusion, both Victory of Samothrace and Shadow of Intent were damaged, with the former receiving heavy damage to its port side including the destruction/disablement of the port side weapons. Victory returned to Earth with haste, arriving back on December 11 to warn the UNSC Security Council and UNSC Home Fleet of the imminent attack.[5]
List of appearances[edit]
- Halo: Empty Throne (First appearance)
Notes[edit]
Sources[edit]
