Battle of Visegrád

The Battle of Visegrád was a battle between UNSC forces and the Covenant in Visegrád on Reach in July 2552. It revealed the previously-unknown presence of the Covenant on Reach.

Prelude
On or prior to the night of July 23, 2552, the Covenant Fleet of Valiant Prudence arrived at the human Inner Colony of Reach undetected by its defending forces. A small strike, including artifact-hunting Sangheili Zealots was dispatched to the Visegrád Relay in Visegrád to cut off communications between Reach and other UEG colonies. The Office of Naval Intelligence assumed that the communications blackout was caused by local Insurrectionists; in response, Colonel Urban Holland dispatched several Army fireteams to the relay. After losing contact with the troopers, SPARTAN Noble Team was sent to investigate as the UNSC could not afford to have Reach cut off from the other colonies.

Aftermath
After killing the last of the Covenant, Noble Six reset a junction at the request of Kat-B320 who determined that the plasma damage to the relay would cause it to need at least two weeks of repairs to get back online. However, by splicing into the main overland bundle, Kat was able to get Carter-A259 a connection to Colonel Urban Holland while Jorge-052 attempted to get answers from Sára Sorvad without success. Carter reported the presence of the Covenant on Reach to a horrified Holland and that the WINTER CONTINGENCY was now in effect.

Two days later, while en route to defend ONI's SWORD Base from the Covenant, Kat attempted to access the information on the data module that she had recovered from Professor Sorvad's body. Alerted to the intrusion, Doctor Catherine Halsey explained to NOBLE Team after the battle that the Field Marshall and two Zealots they had encountered were an artifact-retrival team that was most likely after the abundance of ONI excavation data held at the relay, data that they most likely got away with since the Field Marshall had escaped. However, Halsey revealed that the recovered data module contained a "latchkey discovery" made by Professor Sorvad before his death and took possession of the module from Kat. The data recovered from Visegrád would ultimately prove to be the key to decoding the data on the Forerunner ship beneath SWORD Base.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach