New Phoenix Incident

The Second Battle of Earth took place in 2557 after the Didact's ship arrived at Earth after the Raid on Ivanoff Station.

The Battle
Having retrieved the Composer, the Didact set about attacking Earth in his ship. However, Master Chief had managed to enter the Didact's ships shields and enter Slipspace as well. As the ship emerged at Earth, the UNSC Home Fleet had mustered for Earth's defense, including the UNSC Infinity. Master Chief and Cortana proceeded to engage the ship's turrets and disable a selection of them around the Composer. The UNSC Infinity proceeded to fire upon the Didact's ship and open a hole for the Master Chief's Broadsword to enter through. However, the ship crashed and Chief and Cortana were forced to make there way to the Composer on foot. Just as they had entered to room where the Didact and the Composer were located, the Didact had managed to start the Composer and open fire upon North America, killing thousands of people in New Phoenix, a major population area. After fighting through large groups of Prometheans, Master Chief was able to get close to the centre structure, before he was ambushed by the Didact. Cortana, however was able to manipulate the hard light bridge they were standing on to give the Master Chief enough time to activate a pulse grenade and push it into the Didact's chest. The resulting explosion from the grenade pushed the Didact into the slipspace rupture below him, seemingly killing him. As Master Chief activated the Havok nuclear weapon, Cortana was able to manipulate the hard light bridge and shield Master Chief from the blast. Unfortunately, the rest of her was killed in the explosion and she only possessed enough energy to protect Chief from the resulting explosion. Master Chief was found by a Pelican amongst the debris and returned to Earth.