Battle of Harvest

The Second Battle of Harvest was a massive UNSC operation to retake the glassed colony of Harvest.

2525

 * February 3rd: Harvest detects a contact on its long range radar, and soon afterward, all contact is lost with the planet. The UNSC 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 everything on the planet has been completely incinerated and the surface 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 UNSC language.


 * November 1: Vice Admiral Preston Cole mobilizes the largest space fleet in human history to retake Harvest.

2531
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. After returning to Earth, Cole-promoted to Admiral-learns that a number of outlying colonies have been destroyed, leaving behind no survivors.

Cole begins to move his fleet around, trying to intercept the invaders. Ground and ship-to-ship battles begin in earnest, raging throughout the Outer Colonies. During one ground engagement, Human forces capture one of the aliens. Before succumbing to his wounds, interrogators learn that the aliens refer to themselves as "the Covenant".

United Nations Space Command
Commander: Vice Admiral Preston Cole

Covenant
Commander: Unknown

7-10 Warships of various classes, plus numerous legions of the Covenant Army.

Trivia

 * In Halo Wars, the main focus is on the planet Harvest with the UNSC and Covenant. However, Harvest is glassed in 2525, so it is figuratively and literally impossible for UNSC forces to still be on a glassed colony between 2525 and 2531. It should be noted, however, Mack survived on the glassed planet for a period of time after the glassing, so it is theoretically possible that not all planets lose their atmosphere in the bombarding process, and that Humans could survive on a glassed planet.


 * However, it states in First Strike that part of the destroyed Halo had some still habitable parts on the big pieces of the ring, like the one that crashed into the other one when it was witnessed in Halo 2. If some parts of Halo were still habitable, maybe a glassed Harvest is too.

Related Articles

 * Human-Covenant War