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Timeline of the Human-Covenant War

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An image of the futile human resistance against the Covenant from Halo Legends - Origins II.

This article is part of a series on the Human-Covenant War

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Silver Timeline

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v • d • e

This is a timeline of the events slightly before, during, and slightly after the Human-Covenant War. The war began in early 2525, with the First Battle of Harvest, though the broader UNSC and UEG wouldn't become true and active participants until near the end of the year. The war would end in 2552. For the Covenant, the war marked the beginning of and took place during the 9th Age of Reclamation.

Concurrently with the Human-Covenant War was the end stages of the Insurrection, the creation and subsequent raids by the Banished, the Raid on the Threshold gas mine, and the entirety of the Great Schism.

2524 (Pre-war)[edit]

  • A damaged human civilian freighter, Horn of Plenty, suffers a slipspace drive malfunction from Harvest to Madrigal, forcing the unmanned freighter to exit back into normal space. A Covenant vessel, Minor Transgression, comes into contact after hours of the freighter's isolation. The Covenant vessel targets the freighter, and a Jackal boarding crew enter.

2525[edit]

  • The first conflict between humanity and the Covenant takes place prior to the outbreak of the war. Humanity attempts to gain a truce between the races through a pictogram of trade and peace between the Covenant and humanity, but to no avail. (Pre-War)
  • The Covenant launch a full-scale assault on Harvest, glassing the planet. Afterward, the Minister of Fortitude, Vice-Minister of Tranquility, and the Philologist become the High Prophets of Truth, Regret, and Mercy, and declare war on humanity.
  • The Human-Covenant war begins.
  • The Battle of Chi Ceti takes place, marking the first real ship-to-ship engagement between humanity and the Covenant. It is also the first uncontested human victory.
  • The Battle of Alpha Corvi II takes place; the Covenant launch a major assault on the city of Jamshid. While the UNSC Navy engages the Covenant in orbit, the Spartan Blue Team is deployed to discreetly aid the UNSC Marine Corps ahead of a major counterattack. An alliance with the United Rebel Front prevents the Covenant's acquisition of Forerunner artifacts, but the UNSC is unable to stop the invasion. The UNSC ultimately retreats, and the entire rebel force is annihilated when they are refused evacuation.[1][2][3]

2526[edit]

  • Battle of Harvest. The UNSC and Covenant meet in a fleet-action for the first time; though only one Covenant ship faces a UNSC battle-group of 40, it is a rare, exceptionally powerful super-destroyer. The battle is a high-priced victory for the UNSC, costing the UNSC 13 ships—about one-third of the battlegroup that was assembled to face the threat. The Covenant would return to Harvest later in the year, and the battle for the planet and its surrounding systems, dubbed by the UNSC as the Harvest Campaign, would last for the next five years.
  • Battle of Circinius IV. The Covenant attacked the UNSC Corbulo Academy of Military Science on Circinius IV, catching the cadets there off guard and sparking a massive ground battle for control of the academy. The Spartan Blue Team was deployed to fight the Covenant soldiers and to evacuate the trainees who were forced to engage the enemy in close-quarters combat. The battle resulted in the near-complete extermination of the planet's population, including those of the Corbulo Academy save for the survivors of Hastati Squad.
  • Battle of Alpha Aurigae. Another ship-to-ship battle, where the UNSC outnumber the Covenant almost 10–1, but lost a third of the ships. This was one of the rare naval "victories" for the UNSC, won because of their numerical superiority over the Covenant in that battle.
  • Battle of Mesra. The Covenant invade Mesra in the Qusdar system, occupying the planet and seizing the planet's many mining facilities in order to seize the planet's plentiful resources. To ensure the success of the operation, they do not commit to the immediate glassing of the colony. In response, Admiral Cole deploys Blue Team to spearhead the UNSC's attempt to retake the planet, negotiating a truce with the Militia of Mesra in order to wipe out the invaders. Blue Team succeeds in destroying the mines before the Covenant can exploit their resources.

2528[edit]

  • Battle of XI Boötis A, the UNSC fleet of 70 warships destroy 8 enemy vessels, losing 30 of their own in the process.
  • Madrigal is glassed by The Covenant.

2528 or 2529[edit]

2530[edit]

  • The Covenant glasses the UNSC colony world of Eridanus II
  • Battle of Groombridge-1830, 11 UNSC Destroyers are lost in attempt to defeat a Covenant fleet of 3 warships; the battle ends in a costly victory in which the UNSC learns from the interrogation of a Covenant prisoner of the reason for their intended extermination.

2531[edit]

  • The UNSC finally manages to retake Harvest, ending the five-year long Harvest Campaign in a UNSC victory.
  • Battle of Arcadia, UNSC victory; the humans successfully repel the Covenant after a costly holding action.
  • Battle of Trove, UNSC victory; human forces eliminate a Forerunner fleet reactivated by the Covenant; the UNSC Spirit of Fire is drifting through unknown space and eventually declared lost with all hands.
  • Kurt-051 is kidnapped by Section III of ONI to train the classified SPARTAN-IIIs, in a need for more supersoldiers to fight the Covenant.

2532[edit]

  • Battle of Vodin, Covenant attack the UNSC colony, but the planet is not destroyed; Spartan-II soldier Randall-037 is listed as MIA.

2535[edit]

  • In an effort to better protect the remaining human worlds, the UNSC implements the Cole Protocol.
  • The Covenant destroys the UNSC colony world of Jericho VII in the Battle of Jericho VII.
  • Battle of Charybdis IX.
  • Battle of the Rubble.
  • In the course of four short years, UNSC forces have been hammered, despite excellent leadership and tactical brilliance. It is simply a matter of being outgunned; Covenant kill ratios tend to top three to one in ship-to-ship combat. By 2535, virtually all of the Outer Colony worlds have been glassed by the Covenant.

2536[edit]

  • Covenant forces begin to swarm into the Inner Colonies. For several years the war falls into a pattern: humans win isolated battles, typically during ground operations, but at a horrible cost and rarely without the Spartans' assistance. In space combat, the humans are losing at a precipitous rate, and one by one, the colonies fall.

2537[edit]