Canon

Operation: RED FLAG

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Operation: RED FLAG
UNSC Pillar of Autumn departs for Operation: RED FLAG, from Halo: Fall of Reach - Invasion Issue #2.
UNSC Pillar of Autumn departing from Reach to begin Operation: RED FLAG at 0530, August 30, 2552.[1]

Conflict:

Human-Covenant War

Outcome:

Operation abandoned

Details
Belligerents

United Nations Space Command

Covenant

Commanders
Strength
 

"Assembled here tonight are all surviving Spartans save three, who are otherwise engaged on fields of combat too distant to be easily recalled. In the last decade of combat there have only been three KIAs and one Spartan too wounded to continue active duty. You are to be commended for having the best operational record of any unit in the fleet. It is very good to see you all again."
— Dr. Halsey beginning her briefing.

Operation: RED FLAG was a planned United Nations Space Command operation designed to put an end to the 27-year struggle of the Human-Covenant War. It was initiated by ONI Section Three in mid-2552, though its foundations were laid by Operation: METEORITE the previous year.[3] It was a desperate attempt to avert humanity's imminent defeat at the hands of the Covenant; however, the operation was never carried out due to the Fall of Reach and the UNSC's subsequent retreat to Earth.[4]

Background

By 2551, UNSC High Command was under the belief that humanity would definitively lose their ongoing war with the Covenant within a year. As such, they were desperate to find solutions that could allow them to strike at the heart of the Covenant and its leadership. Such an opportunity presented itself in July 2551, when a lone Covenant starship—the Triumph of Tolerance—was discovered alone in orbit of the recently-glassed world Promise. The UNSC were quick to take advantage of this situation in a mission codenamed Operation: METEORITE. Inspired by a similar mission earlier in the war, the UNSC were to deploy two supersoldiers—Spartan John-117 and Orion Avery Johnson—to the vessel to capture a starholo containing navigation data that may assist with a strike at the heart of the empire.[5] The two infiltrated by Triumph by means of a captured Spirit dropship with support from the destroyer UNSC Burden of Proof, ultimately succeeding in their mission to capture the starholo. This revealed the existence and current location of the Covenant's capital-station "High Charity", which in turn allowed planning for a strike to begin.[6]

Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth began work on operational recommendation documents in March 2552. On July 19 of that year—around a year after Operation: METEORITE—Parangosky recommended that the UNSC began seriously considering RED FLAG after the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) had predicted that the Covenant had an 87.2% probability of stumbling upon Reach by the end of the year.[7]

Multiple sources indicate that the UNSC were able to conduct some kind of covert infiltration of High Charity, presumably after learning of the station in July 2551 and RED FLAG's intended initiation date in late 2552. During the battle for Tribute, Connor Brien claimed to have have been part of a mission that boarded the station and exfiltrated successfully.[8] Rumours in the post-war era suggest that early revisions of the RANGER-class Mjolnir armor were used to infiltrate High Charity.[9]

Operation

Data Drop Four PDF file.
Vice Admiral Stanforth's writeup of RED FLAG's objectives.

The operation was to be executed in four phases,[10] around a colony under attack by the Covenant; Admiral Stanforth preferred one with a large amount of Forerunner relics. Reach was at first only a hypothetical option, but ONI was willing to sacrifice the planet after calculating the inevitability of its discovery.[7][11] Although the operation was initially planned to be a Spartans-only mission, a battalion of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers—the 105th Shock Troops Division, 22nd Tactical—under the command of Major Antonio Silva were also assigned to RED FLAG possibly out of concern that the Navy would be unable to handle it alone.[12] MA5B assault rifles issued for RED FLAG were fitted with high-density magazines holding up to 60 rounds.[13]

  • Phase One — The first objective of the operation consisted of the disabling and capture of a Covenant flagship carrier (either a CAS-class assault carrier or a CSO-class supercarrier). For the first phase, Dr. Halsey selected Captain Jacob Keyes for his exemplary performance during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, and his newly fitted cruiser, the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. For the completion of the mission, Stanforth was willing to risk his own ships in order to bait any artifact-retrieval ships into going planetside.[10]
  • Phase Two — Involving the boarding of the captured Covenant vessel by a group of SPARTAN-IIs. They would then neutralize the onboard defenses and commandeer the ship. They, with help from a then-unidentified mission specialist, would then crack the navigation database of the ship and discover the location of the Covenant capital world, "High Charity".[10]
  • Phase Three — With the help of the mission specialist, the Spartans would then pilot the captured Covenant carrier to High Charity.[10]
  • Phase Four — The final phase of the operation involved the infiltration of High Charity and the capture of one of the three Covenant Prophet Hierarchs for negotiating purposes. The UNSC hoped that by capturing a Hierarch and holding him hostage, they could force the Covenant into agreeing to a truce, thereby ending a war that the UNSC would most certainly have lost. Killing the Hierarch was out of the question, as ONI's analysts predicted it would just incite the Covenant to vengeance, thereby escalating the war.[10]

Outcome

Long Night of Solace

ONI predicted in July 2552 that the Covenant would likely attack Reach within the next six months;[7] this was proven correct a little over a week later, when the Fleet of Valiant Prudence stumbled upon the Epsilon Eridani system after their victory at the battle of Beta Eridani. The fleet was led by the CSO supercarrier Long Night of Solace, a vessel suitable for use as outlined in RED FLAG. The ship was first identified during the battle at Szurdok Ridge on August 12, and the UNSC subsequently scrambled to react to it.[14] On August 14, two missions were enacted; operations UPPER CUT and LEFT JAB. LEFT JAB involved the use of Stanforth's Battle Group Leviathan to spread the Covenant escort fleet thin, while UPPER CUT allowed for a Spartan team to infiltrate a Covenant corvette, Ardent Prayer, and use it to attack the supercarrier. A miscommunication between UNSC Naval Command and Unified Ground Command meant that where Stanforth intended for Long Night of Solace to be made vulnerable for capture per RED FLAG, UNICOM instead proceeded to destroy it with a jury-rigged SFTE bomb.[15] This error meant that by August 27, RED FLAG had yet to be initiated, by which time Reach was under siege[16] and Pillar of Autumn's refits were around 98% complete.[2]

Activation and cancellation

To preserve morale for the intended crew of RED FLAG, shipboard communications aboard Pillar of Autumn were restricted[2] and the ship ordered to remain in geosynchronous orbit over Lábatlan, meaning the crew did not have a full picture of the fighting around Eposz.[12] While Captain Keyes was informed about the deteriorating situation on the ground, he was forbidden from telling the crew of the ship, keeping them in the dark about what was happening below them. Despite this, navy scuttlebutt meant that rumours circulated aboard the ship, including some sourced from EVA technicians able to observe the planet below[2] and others sourced from detections of electromagnetic flashes and strange sensor readings coming from that side of the planet and its moons.[12] The crew's unrest interfered with Keyes' ability to command. Around August 27 the captain filed an unscheduled report to Vice Admiral Kopano N'Singile, in which he requested permission to inform his crew of the battle for Reach so that they could be prepared for the knowledge that the planet would be likely destroyed by the time they returned—considering it unfair that he had been able to conclude his official business but the crew would be unable to.[2]

The request was evidently rejected, and by the early hours of August 30, the crew remained in the dark.[12] Around 0400 the ship departed from Reach to the edge of the Epsilon Eridani system with the intent to begin the operation. However, this was interrupted by the arrival of a massive combined Covenant armada, beginning the final Fall of Reach.[17] All ships in the system were ordered to return to Reach and defend the planet, including Pillar of Autumn, leading to RED FLAG's cancellation.[18]

Alternatives

Death of the Prophet of Regret.

Despite the Fall of Reach, the loss of most of the SPARTAN-II force assigned to the operation, the death of almost all Pillar of Autumn's crew, and the destruction of the vessel at Battle of Installation 04, John-117 had every intention of continuing Operation: RED FLAG—even despite opposition from Lieutenant Elias Haverson and Cortana. During the skirmish over Threshold, the Master Chief led the capture of a Ruma-pattern light carrier Ascendant Justice, inadvertently succeeding in the first intended stages of RED FLAG. However, he lacked the personnel to continue the mission. The Master Chief only agreed to not continue the mission after proper instructions were given by the Admiralty on Earth.[19] RED FLAG was also considered as a possible way to stop the planned Covenant attack on Earth, but was discarded as an option as John-117 knew that they couldn't risk the Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice. Instead, the Spartans went with Operation: FIRST STRIKE.

The invasion of Earth began shortly after the few survivors from Pillar of Autumn arrived back there, effectively scrubbing any chances of a high-risk offensive by special warfare units accompanied by fleet support.[20] UNSC forces attempted a similar objective to RED FLAG in the early hours of the battle, deploying a massive amount of materiel into New Mombasa in an attempt to board and capture the Prophet of Regret's carrier Solemn Penance.[21] A major component of this was Operation: BUMRUSH, the deployment of ODSTs from ships in orbit to attack the carrier from above.[22] Ultimately Regret was able to escape Mombasa just as UNSC forces converged on his position, with only a single light frigate, UNSC In Amber Clad, in tow.[23] When Solemn Penance and In Amber Clad arrived at Installation 05 on November 2, John-117 successfully led the assassination of the Prophet of Regret.[24]

Regret's assassination triggered a crisis in the Covenant that blew up into a civil war. Amid the confusion John-117 attempted an assassination on the Prophet of Truth after the latter allowed for the Prophet of Mercy's death at the hands of the Flood.[25] This was unsuccessful, though was followed-up in December during the Battle of Installation 00, which saw Truth's death at the hands of Thel 'Vadam, ending the Human-Covenant War.[26]

Trivia

In Halo Infinite, the first part of the Master Chief's deletion code for the Weapon is RED FLAG followed by 034 SAMUEL.

List of appearances

Sources

  1. ^ Halo: Fall of Reach - Invasion, issue 2
  2. ^ a b c d e Halo: The Fall of Reach, Adjunct: UNSC Transmission 34670J-17
  3. ^ Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Lore de Force (Retrieved on Jul 7, 2026) [archive]
  4. ^ Halo: Reach, Limited Edition: Dr. Halsey's personal journal
  5. ^ Halo: Hungry Buzzards
  6. ^ Halo: Campaign Evolved, campaign level Heavy Burden
  7. ^ a b c Data Drops: Data Drop #3
  8. ^ Halo: Evolutions - Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss
  9. ^ Halo 4: The Essential Visual Guide, page 162
  10. ^ a b c d e Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 26
  11. ^ Data Drops: Data Drop #4
  12. ^ a b c d Data Drops: Data Drop #6
  13. ^ Halo: Campaign Evolved manual, page 17
  14. ^ Halo: Reach, campaign level Tip of the Spear
  15. ^ Halo: Reach, campaign level Long Night of Solace
  16. ^ Data Drops: Data Drop #5
  17. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 29
  18. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 32
  19. ^ Halo: First Strike, chapter 9
  20. ^ Halo 2, campaign level Cairo Station
  21. ^ Halo 2, campaign level Outskirts
  22. ^ Halo 3: ODST, campaign level Prepare to Drop
  23. ^ Halo 2, campaign level Metropolis
  24. ^ H2:Regret, campaign level Regret
  25. ^ Halo 2, campaign level High Charity
  26. ^ Halo 3, campaign level The Covenant
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