Battle of the Great Bear

"Seventeen of our ships against three of theirs. Eleven destroyers lost. Two enemy vessels killed. One crash landed."

- Admiral Preston Cole

The Battle of the Great Bear, designated as GB-5546, was an engagement between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant during the Human-Covenant War, taking place on December 24, 2530. The battle ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the UNSC fleet, which was commanded by Admiral Preston Cole. The battle also resulted in the capture and interrogation of a Sangheili prisoner, expanding the UNSC's knowledge on the Covenant.

The battle
"Admiral Preston Cole"

- Subject 386

On December 24, 2530, a Covenant fleet of three warships, including a, engaged forces of the United Nations Space Command led by Admiral Preston Cole in the Groombridge 1830 system. Cole's fleet, consisting of seventeen ships, battled the invading Covenant warships, destroying the enemy force but losing eleven destroyers in the process. Two of the Covenant ships were destroyed directly in combat, while the assault carrier attempted to flee to the surface of the nearby Groombridge-1830, a human colony. However, the assault carrier was damaged disabled by pursuing UNSC forces, and the ship crash-landed on the planet's surface.

Aftermath
"You have been judged unclean! A scourge that must be burned away! Every one of your worlds will be reduced to ash."

- Subject 386 to Admiral Preston Cole

Two heavily armed tactical strike teams recovered a Sangheili survivor within an enclosed compartment which survived landfall at Waterford, Lemuria on Groombridge-1830 that day at approximately 1805 hours MST. The Sangheili was interrogated by Cole and First Lieutenant Richard Barclay. Through this interrogation, the UNSC learned that the Covenant were wiping out humanity because they had been deemed "unclean." More importantly, Cole discovered that the Covenant were largely unaware of the size and whereabouts of human space, leading to the formulation of the Cole Protocol.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Adjunct
 * Halo Wars: Genesis
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole