Battle of Sargasso

The Battle of Sargasso was an engagement of the Human-Covenant War between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant on the planet Sargasso in 2546. During the battle, UNSC forces first encountered the Type-46 Infantry Support Vehicle, or Spectre.

The battle
The Covenant arrived at Sargasso in 2546 and immediately began to assault the planet. Although the UNSC Navy was successfully fending off the Covenant fleet, a large ground force was sent to the planet's surface.

On September 21, 2546, the Covenant sent soldiers to assault the town of Belisk to destroy its Lethbridge Industrial production facilities that were manufacturing new military-grade munitions for the Office of Naval Intelligence. Although the recovery of this data was not necessary in accordance with the Cole Protocol, ONI did not want their research and development to be wasted. In order to protect the technology, the ONI sent in Orbital Drop Shock Trooper squad Gamma-Six, led by Sergeant Pham, to defend the town. Meanwhile, squad Alpha-Nine was ordered by ONI operative Captain Veronica Dare to retrieve the facility's research data from a laboratory at Lethbridge's headquarters before the Covenant did. ONI intentionally kept the rest of the UNSC unaware of Alpha-Nine's mission. Dare believed that if the UNSC knew about the data, they would engage in standard operating procedure by encircling the lab and digging in. By doing so, the Covenant would become aware that the laboratory contained something valuable to the UNSC. Thus, Gamma-Six was intended to serve only as a distraction, while Alpha-Nine recovered the data. Alpha-Nine was required to be covertly dropped off by a dropship five kilometers away from Belisk, rather than by deployed in Human Entry Vehicles from orbit.

Taking command of a civilian truck, the squad drove to the town's Lethbridge Industrial headquarters and attacked Unggoy and Sangheili soldiers. As the squad eliminated the odd Covenant soldier in the building, they eventually made their way to the laboratory and eliminated all Covenant in the building after taking out a lance of Jiralhanae and Unggoy. While the rest of his squad stood watch or searched for new transportation, Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck located the data chip in the pocket of a scientist that died attempting to protect it. Commandeering a flatbed truck, the squad took off back to the UNSC base to hand the chip over to ONI. While en route, Buck overheard that Command was unable to provide Gamma-Six with extraction, and Sergeant Pham had been killed, with Lance Corporal Sarah Palmer taking control of the squad. Command ordered for Palmer and her squad to retreat to a safer location, as there was too many hostiles in their location to make extraction feasible. As two Type-26 Banshees assaulted Gamma-Six's position, Alpha-Nine ignored their orders to return directly to base and the squad set course to rescue the survivors of Gamma-Six. By the time Alpha-Nine arrived, Palmer was the last remaining member of her squad. Together, the ODSTs eliminated the Jiralhanae, Kig-Yar, Unggoy, and Banshees assaulting their position and returned back to base in the truck.

Aftermath
The research data recovered by Alpha-Nine was eventually transported to Concord, the planet where Lethbridge Industrial is based. Buck was reprimanded by Captain Dare for disobeying her direct order, but he did not receive any other apparent punishment.

List of appearances

 * Halo: New Blood