Battle of Circinius IV

The Battle of Circinius IV was a conflict between UNSC and Covenant forces on the colony of Circinius IV in mid-2526. It was not only one of the first battles of the Human-Covenant War, but also one of the first deployments of SPARTAN-IIs.

Prelude
After the first engagements on Harvest, ONI Section II kept the Covenant invasion secret from a large portion of the general population. This included the cadets and staff of the Corbulo Academy of Military Science on Circinius IV. However, the academy's superintendent, General Black, was informed. As preparation for a possible attack, Black discreetly increased the readiness of the UNSC Marine garrison posted in the academy and authorized limited communications blackouts under the guise of routine maintenance procedures.

Battle
"We are under attack!"

- Cadet Thomas Lasky

At some point in 2526, the Covenant began an assault on Circinius IV, targeting the Corbulo Academy of Military Science with three s. Locally stationed Marines provided an initial defense of the academy and the evacuation of the cadets via the school's space elevator was begun immediately. Orbiting UNSC vessels soon deployed Orbital Drop Shock Troopers directly onto the campus. However, one of the Covenant corvettes fired on the elevator, causing it to collapse on the school and halt the evacuation. Since all the cadets and staff had converged near the elevator for evacuation, the collapse of the elevator killed many members of the academy.

"John-117"

- Michael Sullivan Corbulo's officer cadets were caught off-guard by this attack. General Black was killed within minutes of the attack; Colonel K.L. Mehaffey attempted to organize the surviving cadets inside the tunnels, though she too was quickly killed. Soon, whatever UNSC forces left were eliminated and four members of Hastati Squad were the only human survivors on the entire planet. SPARTAN-II Blue Team were then subsequently deployed in response to the cadets' distress beacon. Cadets April Orenski, Thomas Lasky, Chyler Silva, and Michael Sullivan were rescued by Spartan John-117, who then opened the cadets' lockers and allowed the cadets to arm themselves.

The Spartan led the survivors to the academy's exterior, where they were ambushed by Kig-Yar snipers. After dispatching the snipers, they retreated from the combat zone in General Black's personal Warthog. During the drive however, Silva was killed and the rest group was almost killed by a pair of Hunters. Nevertheless, the group reached their Pelican dustoff point without more casualties just as the Covenant began glassing the planet.

List of appearances

 * Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn