Battle of Harvest

"The enemy ship destroyed and 13 of ours obliterated. It did not bode well."

- Admiral Preston Cole The Second Battle of Harvest was a massive UNSC operation to retake the glassed colony of Harvest from the Covenant. The orbital engagement was a human victory, but the single warship in orbit annihilated thirteen of Cole's ships. The battle was a close-matched one, and Cole only won due to his overwhelming numbers, and a last-minute tactical maneuver.

Background
On February 3, 2525, the Tiara Space Elevator anchor station above Harvest detected the Covenant Cruiser Rapid Conversion on long-range Radar. An attempt to facilitate a peaceful meeting between the UNSC and the Covenant resulted in bloodshed after a nervous Unggoy killed a militiaman and so the First Battle of Harvest was ignited, which resulted in the planet being glassed and over twenty thousand civilians killed as they tried to evacuate.

After the cessation of communications from Harvest, the Colonial Military Administration sent the, a small scout ship, to investigate. On April 20th, 2525, the Argo arrived in the Epsilon Indi System. It sent a single confirmation message before ceasing communications. It was destroyed by a Covenant ship in orbit over Harvest. The Artificial Intelligence Mack tried to warn the Argo, to no avail.

The Colonial Administration then sent a battlegroup of two UNSC Frigates: (The and the ) and one UNSC Destroyer (The ). The battlegroup was led by Captain Maribeau Veredi, the Captain of the Heracles.

The battlegroup arrived in the Epsilon Indi System on July 10th. Upon arriving in the system, the battlegroup encountered the same Covenant ship, what appeared to be a Covenant Supercarrier. Veredi followed UNSC first contact protocol perfectly. The Covenant ship sent a broadcast to the battlegroup, stating Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument before opening fire on the ships. The battlegroup retaliated as best as it could, and one of the UNSC ships fired Archer Missiles at the Covenant ship, which eliminated many of the missiles with Point Defense Lasers, and those missiles that managed to hit the ship were deflected by the ship's shields. The Arabia and Vostok were destroyed by the Covenant ship's advanced laser weaponry, while the Heracles was heavily damaged. The Heracles retreated to Reach, but due to the heavy damage it took, the Heracles took several weeks to get back to Reach.

The Battle
Vice Admiral Preston Cole was given the task of retaking Harvest. Cole's fleet of approximately twenty warships arrived at Harvest on March 1, 2526. Upon arrival, Cole's fleet they engaged the Covenant ship. It immediately took down multiple UNSC ships, including the and the. The UNSC continued to fire upon the ship, but their nukes had no effect on it. Cole realized the ship was using energy shields, similar to the one the UNSC had encountered earlier in the Chi Ceti System. As a last-minute tactical maneuver, Cole ordered all of his ships to fire all weapons at the Covenant ship at the same time. The combined force of the nuclear warheads and other weapons finally took down the ship's shields and obliterated it.

Despite his superior numbers, Cole still lost two-thirds of his fleet.

Aftermath
The battle was a victory for the UNSC, but a costly one at that. ONI Section II overplayed Cole's achievement in propaganda broadcasts to boost recruitment levels, but claimed that Cole had fought an Insurrectionist weapon platform instead. They later recanted their statement.

The Covenant were not fazed by their defeat, and celebrated the "Victory of Epsilon Indi" through fasting and prayer. The Covenant would attack Harvest again in 2531, leading to the Third Battle of Harvest, determined to claim the Forerunner artifact buried under Harvest's north pole.

2525

 * February 3rd: Harvest detects a contact on its long range radar, and soon afterward, all contact is lost with the planet. The UNSC scout ship Argo was sent to investigate the loss of communication.
 * April 20: The Argo arrives in-system and makes one confirmation transmission. No further reports are received.
 * October 7: A UNSC battle group consisting of one destroyer, the Heracles, under the command of Captain Veredi and two frigates the Arabia and the Vostok enters the Harvest system and discovers that in some parts of the planet the surface has melted down to glass. This is later dubbed "glassing". In orbit around the remains of the colony world is a single alien ship, which proceeded to attack the battle group, destroying both Arabia and Vostok and badly damaging the Heracles. Intercepted communications identify the enemy as "The Covenant". The message "Your destruction is the will of the Gods..and we are their instrument" is broadcast in perfect English.
 * November 1: Vice Admiral Preston Cole mobilizes the-then largest space fleet in Human history to retake Harvest.

2526

 * March 1: Admiral Cole's fleet engages the alien warships gathered in orbit over the destroyed colony, scoring a victory (though the battle cost Cole two-thirds of his battle group). Only a last-minute tactical inspiration turned the tide of battle.

Related Pages

 * First Battle of Harvest
 * Third Battle of Harvest
 * Human-Covenant War