Battle of Fumirole

The Battle of Fumirole was fought between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant in April 2552 on Fumirole.

Prelude
As early as December 2551, UNSC intelligence was aware of Covenant activity near the Volanus system. As such, this led naval planners to believe that the hegemony was planning to attack the colony world of Fumirole relatively soon. With the conclusion of Operation: OFFSET EYE and the successful defense of Concord, NOBLE Team were recalled from Concord to Fumirole to assist in the planet's defence. However, only Carter-A259, Catherine-B320, Jun-A266, Thom-A293 and Jorge-052 were called upon, with Rosenda-A344 instead reassigned to other clandestine operations. Rosenda's slot on NOBLE team as Noble 4 was instead filled by Emile-A239.

The battle
During the Covenant invasion of Fumirole, the Sanctity of Purification was holding position over the colony's capital city. Lieutenant Commander Catherine-B320 of Noble Team came up with an operation to assault and destroy the ship with a FURY model Medium Fusion Destructive Device. Supported by the rest of Noble Team, UNSC Army infantry and air support by UH-144 Falcons, she undertook the task of delivering the nuclear device into the ship herself. However, she was wounded by a 's fuel rod cannon blast while on her way to the cruiser. The blast also severely damaged her right arm, which was later replaced by a robotic prosthetic.

Thom-A293 was the first to arrive to her position. Seeing as there would be no time to wait for backup, he picked up the nuke and used a jetpack to fly into the cruiser through its gravity lift. Just before the nuke's countdown ran out, Thom managed to toss it into a hangar bay where numerous Unggoy were massing for deployment. Mere seconds later, the MFDD went off, destroying the cruiser and killing Thom.

Despite the successful destruction of the battlecruiser, the battle was ultimately a loss for humanity - ending with Fumirole being glassed by the Covenant.

Aftermath
Noble Team was successful in destroying its target. However, Catherine-B320 and Carter-A259 both carried extraordinary guilt over Thom-A293's death, blaming themselves for the incident, despite the SPARTAN's own decision of self-sacrifice. Thom would later be replaced by SPARTAN-B312.

The battle was discussed as part of ONI Section Two's.

List of appearances

 * Remember Reach
 * Deliver Hope
 * Winter Contention