Battle of Installation 04

Summary
DATE: September 19-22, 2552

LOCATION: Installation 04, above planet Threshold

Involved: UNSC, Covenant, Flood, and Forerunner construct forces.

Synopsis: The Covenant and Humans both race to uncover the secrets of the mysterious ring, only to discover its horrible purpose. A huge melee ensues between four factions, and eventually the Halo itself is destroyed.

Outcome: The Halo is destroyed. Most Covenant, Humans, and all Flood perish. A handful of human survivors and 343 Guilty Spark escape.

UNSC
Commander: Captain Jacob Keyes

1 UNSC Cruiser: (The UNSC Pillar of Autumn)

1 Spartan supersoldier: Master Chief "SPARTAN-117"

1 Ship full of UNSC employed Men and Women (including Marines)

The Covenant
Commander: The Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice (later promoted to arbiter)

1 Covenant Fleet (The Fleet of Particular Justice)

The Forerunner Constructs
Commander: 343 Guilty Spark

Hundreds of Sentinels.

The Flood
Commander: None

Hundreds of Combat Forms

Thousands of Infection Forms

Timeline
July 17, 2552: The Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. The Covenant recover a Forerunner artifact that contains coordinates to Installation 04. The UNSC recovers the coordinates also, but does not understand them.

August ??, 2552: The Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice arrives at Inststallation 04.

August 30, 2552: The Battle of Reach. A single UNSC AI named Cortana, hypothesizes that the data recovered from the artifact are coordinates. She sends her ship, the UNSC Pillar of Autumn into a slipspace jump towards the installation.

September 19, 2552:
 * 0103 Hours: The Pillar of Autumn exits slipspace over Installation 04.
 * 0127 Hours: Covenant forces begin attacking the Pillar of Autumn. Though outnumbered a dozen to one, the vessel manages to destroy at least four Covenant ships and damage some others. One, the Truth and Reconciliation, retreats and descends to Halo's surface to make repairs. Captain Keyes orders all hands to abandon the vessel. SPARTAN-117 is revived from a Cryo-chamber and escapes the ship via Cortana. The ODST compliment as well as a flight of Pelicans escape as well, along with many of the personnel.
 * 0441 Hours: Captain Keyes is captured by the Covenant. The command crew is executed. The ODSTs begin their assault on a butte they dub "Alpha Base". They are sucessful in capturing the base, and Human survivirs flock to the base.
 * 1038 Hours: SPARTAN-117 and the ODSTs launch an assault on the Truth and Reconciliation. The raid lasts through the night, but the Humans sucessfully rescue the captain and escape in a captured Covenant Dropship.

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