New Phoenix Incident

The Battle of Earth was one of the first engagements of the Human-Promethean war, fought in-close proximity to Earth in July 2557. The details of the event were covered up by the Office of Naval Intelligence and it was later referred to as the "New Phoenix Incident" in the media.

The battle
Having retrieved the Composer from Ivanoff Station, the Didact set about attacking Earth in his ship, the Mantle's Approach. However, Master Chief and Cortana, in a F-41 Broadsword, had managed to enter the Didact's ship's shields and travel through Slipspace with it. As the ship emerged at Earth, the UNSC Home Fleet had mustered for Earth's defense, including the, which was now under the command of Thomas Lasky. However, none of them were able to make an significant effect on it. Hunting for the Composer, John and Cortana proceeded to destroy the main weapon's surrounding turrets, allowing the UNSC Infinity to fire upon the Didact's ship and open a hole for the Master Chief's Broadsword. However, the interior grew too tight for the fighter to travel through, causing it to crash forcing Chief and Cortana to carry their HAVOK nuke 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. As Master Chief activated the HAVOK tactical nuclear weapon, Cortana was able to manipulate the hard light bridge and shield Master Chief from the blast. However, 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. The Didact, seemingly surviving the destruction of his ship, gives a speech in the battle's aftermath, swearing his vengeance against humanity will continue, and he will see the Forerunners return to power at any cost.

List of appearances

 * Halo 4