Battle of Actium

"Let no one here question our place in human history. That we are here right now is not a coincidence or accident. It is our fate. And this war, our birthright, our legacy. Our generation was born to fight the Covenant, and you, my fellow soldiers, were born for this very day. Today the enemy will hear the roar of humanity, and they will fear us."

The Battle of Actium was a military engagement that occured between UNSC forces and the Covenant Empire between May and June 2545 on the colony world Actium.

The battle
In 2545, a Covenant armada invaded the planet in an attempt to conquer and glass the world.

By May 10th, Colonel Acono Menteith had assumed command of the UNSC's 53rd Armored Division and gave his famous speech to the surviving UNSC forces. Later that month he led the remnants deep into Covenant-held territory in a suicidal attempt to take out three large-scale Covenant Army staging areas - three of the largest in recorded history. Detonating two HAVOK Tactical Nuclear Weapons, the Covenant Army took heavy casualties at the cost of the UNSC forces that activated them.

With no significant military presence remaining, the Covenant Navy was no longer under threat and the colony was subsequently glassed.