New Phoenix Incident

"Earth...it's all we have left."

- Terrence Hood

The Second Battle of Earth was one of the largest Covenant and United Nations Space Command battles of the Human-Covenant War. It was fought on and around Earth from November 3, 2552 to early 2553. The battle set the stage for the events on the Ark, where the fate of the galaxy was decided.

Background
The Second Battle of Earth was the follow up to the High Prophet of Regret's first attack on Earth on October 20, 2552, when he invaded Mombasa, Kenya. The battle was briefly seen in Halo 2 when the Forerunner Dreadnought arrived near Earth when exiting Slipspace and the Master Chief declared that he was "finishing this fight " to Admiral Hood. UNSC and Covenant forces were heavily engaged around the planet, but exact numbers and details are impossible to determine. However, it was apparent that the Orbital Defense Platform Cairo Station was still intact and Fleet Admiral Hood was still in command of all UNSC forces.

Blue Team's Defense and Disappearance
SPARTAN-104, SPARTAN-058, and SPARTAN-043 were defending Earth during the span of two weeks shortly after In Amber Clad disappeared pursuing the Prophet of Regret. The SPARTANs were conducting surgical strikes against Covenant Forces in the Antarctic, Mexico, and Cuba. On November 3, 2552, shortly after completing an operation in which involved using the Centennial Orbital Elevator in Havana, Cuba to stop deploying Covenant forces in the area, Blue Team was re-directed to aid Dr. Catherine Halsey on Onyx. Blue Team captures the Bloodied Spirit and heads straight for Onyx.

Orbital Combat
On November 3, 2552, the High Prophet of Truth, leading a large Covenant Loyalist Fleet to Earth, swept past Earth's orbital defenses and bombarded the entire Earth. Human casualties were reported as "extreme", and the population of Earth quickly dropped to 200 million. SPARTAN-117 - the Master Chief, having been onboard the Dreadnought and briefly held captive by the Covenant, escaped by jumping from the ship and entered Earth's atmosphere, crashing into an East-African jungle.

Invasion of Earth Itself
The Covenant invaded primarily on the east coast of Africa. It was in this area that the Covenant began digging in the area of what was formerly the city of New Mombasa, where a Forerunner artifact had been partially uncovered by the in-atmosphere slipspace jump of the Prophet of Regrets carrier during the First Battle of Earth. The Covenant's excavation revealed and disclosed what was then thought to be the Ark, but eventually turned out to be only a portal to the Ark. As the Covenant ships excavated the artifact, Truth deployed Covenant forces throughout East Africa. Earth's UNSC defenses suffered significant casualties in the ongoing days.

During these happenings, the Master Chief was retrieved by Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, along with the Arbiter and a group of marines. The company then fought their way through the Covenant captured territory and were extracted and taken to the Crow's Nest - one of the last UNSC strongholds and bastions in Africa. Here, Commander Miranda Keyes and Lord Hood planned a last-ditch and last-resort effort to cease Truth's activation plan. Shortly after the Chief's arrival, however, the outpost was discovered and quickly attacked by Covenant forces. After the base was taken over, the humans destroyed it using a bomb, killing all the Covenant in the base. The Master Chief activated the bomb and was barley able to escape the explosion. Scattered, the UNSC forces then fled the base along the Tsavo Highway and were given orders by Commander Keyes to head to the city of Voi.

Counterattack
Upon reaching Voi, the Humans, with almost all organization collapsing in the area, launched one last desperate plan. With the help of the Master Chief, the human forces destroyed a small section of the defenses around Truth and the artifact, allowing Lord Hood to lead the last reserves of ships in an attempt to destroy it.

Nothing came out of this however, because the human ships did seemingly no damage to Truth's ship, who activated the artifact, creating a large slipspace portal into which many, if not all of the Covenant ships on Earth retreated.

At this exact moment, a Flood controlled ship arrived at Earth and infested the area around the Portal, spreading throughout the city of Voi. Covenant Separatists arrived and glassed the city of Voi and surrounding countryside, destroying the Flood threat.

Aftermath
After the battle, Covenant Loyalist forces reached the Ark. The Human-Covenant Separatist alliance followed in hot pursuit, stopped the Flood from inhabiting the galaxy and the Covenant from activating the remaining Halo Rings, therefore saving all sentient life in the galaxy.

UNSC

 * Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood
 * Colonel James Ackerson
 * Commander Miranda Keyes
 * Commander Richard Lash
 * Lieutenant Commander Julian Waters
 * Lieutenant Commander Xaing Cho
 * Lieutenant Bethany Durruno
 * Lieutenant Joe Yang
 * Lieutenant Junior Grade SPARTAN Fred-104
 * Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN John-117
 * Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson
 * Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker
 * Gunnery Sergeant Reynolds
 * Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN Linda-058
 * Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN Will-043 (MIA)
 * Corporal Benjamín M. Nùñez
 * Lindemuth

Covenant Separatists

 * Arbiter
 * Rtas 'Vadum
 * N'tho 'Sraom
 * Usze 'Taham

Covenant Loyalists

 * High Prophet of Truth
 * Jiralhanae Chieftain Lepidus

Flood

 * Gravemind

Forerunner

 * 343 Guilty Spark