Battle of Installation 04

The Battle of Installation 04 was the name given to a series of skirmishes between the forces of the UNSC and the Covenant on the surface of Halo Installation 04.

In the latter part of the battle, the UNSC and Covenant were joined in battle by the Forerunner Sentinels and Flood.

September 19, 2552
Following their disastrous defeat at Reach and the loss of a third of her tech staff, the UNSC Pillar of Autumn made an apparently blind jump, but possibly planned by the AI Cortana, through Slipspace from where they would then make their way to Earth. The Pillar of Autumn and the approximately 1,100 humans on it were followed and, upon arriving in orbit above the planet Threshold, were intercepted by the pursuing Covenant vessels.

As the Covenant began boarding the Pillar of Autumn, the vessel managed to destroy four of the Covenant vessels and force one, the Truth and Reconciliation to retreat for repairs. As the boarding of Pillar of Autumn continued, Thom Shephard was ordered to release Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 from his Cryo-chamber by Captain Jacob Keyes. Thom was later killed by a conduit explosion.

The Master Chief then proceeded to the Bridge of the Pillar of Autumn where he was joined with the shipboard AI Cortana. He then evacuated to the recently discovered Installation 04 aboard a Bumblebee, along with most of the Pillar of Autumn's crew. The pod's descent systems failed in mid-flight and the following impact killed all of the marines on board, save for the Master Chief. Once on the ground, the marine battalion made a quick base but separated, with a company heading to the location where the ship's Pelican squadron had landed, Lieutenant McKay's company attacking a nearby butte, and the last two companies manning the base and repulsing an assault by a hundred Ghosts. The marines fended of the attack, killing more than 50 Elites, including a Zealot, but suffered twenty-three killed and sixteen wounded. McKay lost only one marine, while the fourth company lost a few more performing an aerial assault on the butte.

Upon arrival on the ring, Captain Jacob Keyes and the surviving command crew were captured and a squad of marines were executed by the Covenant. The Master Chief managed to rescue 63 naval personnel and Marines before executing a successful rescue operation aboard Truth and Reconciliation, with 36 marines and ODSTs killed and 3 marines plus the Captain rescued.

The survivors also raided a dozen other locations, stealing enemy equipment such as Shades and a large number of Banshees. This would motivate the Covenant to take the humans seriously and place a large amount of effort into stamping out the human forces.

The UNSC forces would also raid the crashed Pillar of Autumn, destroying a large force of Ghosts and a Spirit dropship as well as killing many Covenant troops. They then retrieved many Warthogs and Scorpions from the cruiser's vehicle bays and drove them in a convoy to Alpha Base. At a trio of hills, the Covenant attempted to ambush the convoy with Wraith tanks and air support, but only managed to inflict moderate damage before losing the tanks and a large portion of their ground forces to the Scorpions' return fire. The tanks would later see use around the ringworld, most notably in the defense of Alpha Base.

September 20, 2552
The following day, the crew of Pillar of Autumn launched an attack on the Silent Cartographer island, in their attempt to uncover the purpose of the ring. Fighting their way through the heavily defended Covenant positions, the Master Chief and a handful of Marines, supported by Echo 419 and Bravo 22, discovered the location of Alpha-Halo's Control Room. However, a pair of Covenant Dropships landed and engaged the defenders of the LZ, appearing to kill all the marines that were with the Chief.

Making his way to the Control Room with help from the marines of Fire Team Zulu, Master Chief discovered that the weapons cache that Captain Keyes was looking for was actually a Forerunner base, and that Halo wasn’t a Covenant construct. Master Chief left the Control Room for the swampy areas of the installation. Captain Keyes and Sergeant Johnson had led their two marine groups to the "weapons cache," losing a pair of marines from fire by Covenant defenders. Taking their dogtags and ammo, Fire Team Charlie with Keyes and Johnson continued on while Second Squad watched the exit.

After a short time, the "weapons cache" Keyes was looking for reveals itself in the form of the Flood. The Flood attacked second squad who barely got a message to Keyes and escaped. However the message was too late as the Flood attacked Keyes' Fire Team, infecting Keyes along with Privates Riley, Kappus, Jenkins, Mendoza, and Bisenti, and about 3 others before a pair of marines got out of the room, one of who was killed just outside and the Crazed Marine who escaped. Most of second squad escaped, but three marines were separated and six others were killed. The Chief fought his way into Alpha Halo's main Flood containment facility in his mission to stop the newly released Flood. He then attempted to get the surviving 10 marines of Corporal Lovik's second squad through the swamp to extraction, but was unsuccessful. Almost none of these marines survived long enough to extract.

Battle of Alpha Base
Meanwhile, the Covenant sent the captured Pelican Charlie 217 and its captured pilot Lt. Rick Hale to insert 30 Spec Ops Elites commanded by Zuka 'Zamamee to assassinate the (absent) Master Chief and clear a landing for six Spirit Dropships. Although several of the Elites managed to escape into the base, the majority were killed when the ODST forces burned Charlie 217 with jet fuel, killing the Elites that had remained on the platform. The surviving Covenant forces had by this time neutralized the human control rooms, and liberated a large number of Covenant prisoners.

However, the MLA auto-cannons and various other defense systems managed to destroy one of the Spirit dropships and killed many Covenant troops in the others. Groups of Rocket-using marines then added to the casualties. Despite their numerical superiority, the Covenant forces landing on the butte were soon either killed or captured, and the assault on Alpha Base stalled.

The Covenant ground assault, lead by a Zealot Field Master, made significant progress against the humans due to their use of Spirit dropships to clear the way ahead of the ground forces. However, the seeming rout was designed to lure the Covenant into the firing range of a pair of concealed Scorpion main battle tanks, which then tore into the ranks of the aliens and inflicted major casualties.

The Covenant Field Master was killed by the third shot from the tanks, throwing the alien forces into chaos, and of the 150 infantry with him, only a few survived to retreat.

Meanwhile, the Covenant Spec Ops team and the freed Covenant troops ran into a Marine ambush in which all members of both sides were killed other than the Elite Zuka 'Zamamee and the grunt Yayap. By this time, however, the Covenant ground assault was in full retreat.

The only known Covenant survivors of the aerial assault were Zuka 'Zamamee and the grunt Yayap who then fled the battlefield in a recaptured Banshee.

September 21, 2552
343 Guilty Spark then transported the Master Chief to the Library of Installation 04, where he was tasked with locating the Activation Index. After succeeding, Master Chief prepared to active the ring, but was stopped by Cortana, who, after a brief argument with 343 Guilty Spark, revealed the true function of the ring to John-117; 343 Guilty Spark delightfully confirmed Cortana's belief.

During this time, the humans of Alpha Base planned to counter attack the weakened Covenant. Using the debris from the destroyed Charlie 217 and "wounded marines," a 30 man platoon of marines were able to fool the Covenant into thinking a crash had occurred and that they had a chance to eliminate more humans, sending out a dropship. Once it landed though, the marine snipers and rocket launchers eliminated their two Hunters and 5 infantry. The dropship returned fire, letting the survivors get into cover. Then the Flood attacked both sides. Calling in reinforcements, the humans were able to win, but lost 15 ODSTs.

Master Chief, deciding not to activate the ring, made an enemy of 343 Guilty Spark and had the Sentinels sent against him. The Master Chief destroyed the three pulse generators that magnify the signal sent out by Halo, disabling the facility for the time being. The Chief was then teleported with Cortana to a Covenant cruiser, where Jacob Keyes was being held. During a second rescue attempt the Chief was too late to rescue Keyes, who had been taken over by the Flood and transformed into a Brain form. The Chief took the neural interface from Keyes, fought his way back through the ship, to the landing bay where he commandeered a Banshee; he then set a course for the Pillar of Autumn, with the intention of destroying the vessel.

September 22, 2552
By this day, only 312 humans (236 marines, 76 naval personnel) remained alive at Alpha Base. To escape, they attacked the Flood-infested Truth and Reconciliation and tried to use it to escape. However, knowing there was Flood still onboard, Lt. McKay destroyed the connection between bridge and engines, crashing the ship into Halo. Although killing the remaining personnel, it stopped the Flood from reaching Earth.

Crashing aboard the Pillar of Autumn, Master Chief made his way to the bridge of the vessel and activate the self-destruct sequences, only to have 343 Guilty Spark cancel the order. Realizing that only a manual self-destruct would work, the Chief made his way to the rear of the ship.

Finally arriving, the Chief destroyed the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors which initiates a chain-reaction of explosions. He raced toward the hangar using a Warthog to traverse the spine of the ship. The Chief then commandeers a C709 Longsword-class Inteceptor to escape. The Master Chief and Cortana, onboard the Longsword in the debris field of the destroyed Halo, would, after 2 weeks, find a a cryotube containing Spartan-058 Linda and a Pelican containing Sgt. Major Johnson, Lieutenant Elias Haverson, Warrant Officer Polaski, and ODST Corporal Locklear.

Flood Containment Facility
The Covenant accidentally released the Flood, and in panic, sealed the Flood in a room deep within the containment facility in order to protect themselves from the horror they had uncovered.

Captain Jacob Keyes, along with 2nd Squad landed nearby in Pelican dropship Victor 933 and proceeded to infiltrate the structure. They later met up with Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson's "Fire Team Charlie", who had proceeded to the structure and engaged the Covenant they encountered in the upper levels of the facility. After receiving a transmission from a troubled marine present further into the facility, they set out to provide aid.

While exploring the lower levels, the UNSC forces eventually come across a sealed door, locked down by the Covenant to prevent the escape of the Flood. With increased curiosity the UNSC open the door and explore the room. The Flood attacked the UNSC forces and begin to infect any available host present.

Later on, the Master Chief arrived near V933s crash site on board Echo 419. He then entered the lightly guarded structure, being watched by the Flood. After entering the Containment Room, he found Private Jenkins' helmet with a built in video camera. After seeing the gruesome events through the eyes of Jenkins, the remaining Flood spewed out of nearby doors. John-117 proceeds after the remaining UNSC forces, combating Infection and Combat forms. The Master Chief soon catches up with the remaining UNSC forces, who are advised by Echo-419 to take refuge at a nearby structure, the Library.

The survivors went through the swamp in search of a tower, which would be the Evac site for E419. After making it to the structure, the Marines are aided by a mysterious ally, floating constructs known as Sentinels. The Sentinels, commanded by a Monitor, 343 Guilty Spark, defend the marines, eliminating any Flood in the vicinity of the Library. The Monitor then teleports the Master Chief into the structure, referring to him as "Reclaimer".

Covenant forces from the crashed Spirit dropship flee the Containment facility, and are all likely wiped out.

Flood forces in the vicinity of the Library are wiped out, majority of Flood forces escape the Containment facility and spread across the Installation, infecting any appropriate hosts.

Master Chief and 343 Guilty Spark proceed into the Library, Sentinels and UNSC forces survive. UNSC forces are evacuated by Echo-419. Captain Keyes is captured by the Flood.

Ambush on the Covenant
This battle was the UNSC's first encounter with the Flood in which they actually survived/won, excluding John-117. It turned out to be a costly victory, as half of the attack force was massacred by the new threat/Covenant. Originally, however, it was meant to be only a small skirmish against the Covenant, but soon erupted as the Flood also participated.

Prologue
Before, Silva wanted to engage the Covenant in a medium conflict that would "take the hurt to them. Nothing big, not yet anyway, but the kind of pinpricks that still draw blood", leaving Lieutenant McKay to plan out the mission. She decided to use bait in order to draw the Covenant in with "crashed" Pelicans (really Charlie 217's burned-out remains), mock-injured Marines, and a phony distress call. Since Wellsley believed that the Covenant took the Marine force seriously after the Raid on the Truth and Reconciliation, they should monitor human radio traffic and regular recon flights, allowing them to easily pick the bait.

Battle
First, the preparation of arranging for the bait took several hours (They had to scourge for bodies of comrades killed on the butte for "volunteer" casualties.) Sure enough, thirty minutes into the wait, McKay saw a Shee and signaled for the operation to commence. Members of the third squad, some of whom had mock-injuries, pantomimed surprise and hurried back to cover as the Banshee shot plasma fire at them. The Banshee then went away, presumably to tell the Covenant about a new Human location.

Later, a U-shaped dropship appeared, dropping Jackals, Elites, Grunts...and a couple of Hunters. These were a surprise, though McKay quickly ordered all the heavy weapons and sniper fire to concentrate on the walking tanks. Soon enough, they went down. However, the dropship returned and hosed the entire area, forcing the Helljumpers to go back to cover. Thus encouraged, the Covenant rushed into the rocks to engage. However, the snipers managed to pick off five alien soldiers before the dropship exacted the position. Two snipers were killed by the harsh plasma, and another was wounded.

Soon, the mission turned ugly, as the Covenant engaged in hide-and-seek with the Marines. Just as McKay was about to order a retreat, something even worse appeared.

Suddenly, the bizarre creatures, also known as the Flood, attacked both groups. While the Covenant had experience with the Flood, the Helljumpers simply had never seen them before. Three members of the second squad were going down under the Infection forms, while another was being massacred by the Combat forms. Confused pleas and requests for extraction filled the radio, tripling the radio traffic. McKay received her first look when she noticed a Grunt with two Infection forms; she put down the trio with a sustained burst. However, then, Pvt Jenkin's Combat form jumped out. In order to collect a specimen, she sidestepped and restrained the Flood form. In order to kill the Flood, the Marines and Covenant joined forces, and eliminated the Flood after 15 minutes. Then, they proceeded to return to their hide-and-seek. Finally, with half the Marines killed, the UNSC claimed a victory.

Attack on the Truth and Reconciliation
The Master Chief and Cortana arrived at the Truth and Reconciliation so they could save Keyes and have him activate the Pillar of Autumn's self-destruct sequence. They found themselves in the middle of a battle between the Covenant and the Flood for control of the CCS-class Battlecruiser. They fought through their enemies and entered the ship. They found that Keyes had become part of a Proto-Gravemind, so the Master Chief punched a hole in the Proto-Gravemind and took Keyes's Command Neural Interface. This would allow them to activate the self-destruct sequence themselves. The Master Chief and Cortana then fought their way to one of the hangars, stole one of the Banshees and escaped to the Pillar of Autumn.

Survivors
It is assumed that only 7 members of the Pillar of Autumn were in space and therefore survived the blast, 6 of which were on a Pelican, and the other one was on a Longsword fighter. Every other person at the battle presumably died when Installation 04 was destroyed. However, since Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker and Private Chips Dubbo, among others, have been seen again in later games, it can be assumed that there were other survivors.

However, it is explained in Halo: The Flood and Halo: First Strike, that the Autumn was operating as a skeleton crew, as the remaining non-essential crew remained in cryo. When the Covenant infiltrated the ship, most of the crew were still asleep and their tubes were shot into space to save them from being killed in the crash.

The Chief managed to retrieve 3 tubes, one containing Linda. The people in the other 2 had died in sleep due to malfunctions. It is not known whether this was a malfunction in one of the cryo storage rooms, or if it happened to almost every tube.

It is unknown how many occupied tubes survived Halo; however, most, if not all, would have been destroyed by the time High Charity arrived.

UNSC

 * UNSC Pillar of Autumn
 * Captain Jacob Keyes
 * SPARTAN-II, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John-117
 * SPARTAN-I, Sergeant Avery Johnson
 * Crew of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn
 * Lieutenant Aki Hikowa
 * Lieutenant Haverson
 * Lieutenant Dominique
 * Lieutenant Hall
 * Lieutenant Commander Gail Purdy
 * Ensign William Michael Lovell
 * Ensign Ellen Dowski
 * Tech Chief Thom Shepard
 * Tech Officer Sam Marcus
 * Tech Officer (First Class) Mary Murphy
 * Petty Officer Third Class Pauley
 * Petty Officer Third Class Cho
 * Crew Chief Cullen
 * Crewman Wang
 * Crewman Singh
 * Crewman Abiad
 * UNSC Marines
 * Major Antonio Silva
 * First Lieutenant Melissa McKay
 * Second Lieutenant Dalu
 * Second Lieutenant Oros
 * Master Sergeant Lister
 * Gunnery Sergeant Waller
 * Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker
 * Staff Sergeant Marvin Mobuto
 * Sergeant Tink Carter
 * Sergeant Corly
 * Sergeant Parker
 * Lance Corporal "Snaky" Jones
 * Corporal Locklear
 * Corporal Lovik
 * Corporal Wilkins
 * Private First Class Wallace A. Jenkins
 * Private First Class Hosky
 * Private First Class Chips Dubbo
 * Private First Class M. Fitzgerald
 * Private First Class Suzuki
 * Private Bisenti
 * Private Manuel Mendoza
 * Private Marie Postly
 * Private Riley
 * Private Satha
 * Private Kappus
 * Al-Thani
 * Dawkins
 * "Doc" Valdez
 * Murphy
 * Yutrzenika
 * Mariness
 * Pilots
 * Flight Officer Captain Carol Rawley
 * Flight Officer Mitchell
 * Warrant Officer Shiela Polaski
 * Lieutenant "Cookie" Peterson
 * Lieutenant Rick Hale
 * Lieutenant Frye

Covenant

 * Fleet of Particular Justice
 * The Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Particular Justice

Forerunner Constructs

 * 343 Guilty Spark
 * Hundreds of Sentinels

Flood

 * At least one Brain Form
 * Thousands of Combat Forms
 * Thousands of Carrier Forms
 * Hundreds of Thousands of Infection Forms

Related Articles

 * Human-Covenant War
 * Installation 04
 * Raid on the Truth and Reconciliation
 * Battle of the Silent Cartographer
 * Battle of Installation 05