Operation: GREY VEIL

The Raid on Heian was a United Nations Space Command assassination mission during the Human-Covenant War. Taking place between 2540 and 2552 on the planet Heian, the raid saw the successful assassination of a Covenant Prophet, as well as the discovery of a series of ruins that were of particular scientific interest.

Prelude
Heian was the site of an important Covenant logistics base, from which supplies were delivered to the rest of the planets in the system, as well as the entire sector. The UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence had discovered that a Covenant Prophet was on the planet, and that its death would compromise Covenant logistics operations in the sector, giving the UNSC a strategic advantage. In addition, the planet possessed a series of ruins that pre-dated both the Covenant and the UNSC. As well as killing the Prophet, the assault team had the secondary objective of photographing these ruins.

A team of four Orbital Drop Shock Troopers led by Master Sergeant Cortez was ordered to carry out the mission. However, the killing of the Prophet was to be handled by a SPARTAN-II commando, Cal-141. This caused some resentment among the ODSTs that remained throughout the mission.

The raid
The team was deployed via SOEIV from the UNSC destroyer DD-993. Entering the planet's atmosphere under cover of a meteor shower, one ODST, Checkman, was killed after his pod entered at a bad angle. The surviving pods landed in close proximity to each other, but one ODST, O'Brien, landed in a swamp. His pod sinking, O'Brien was saved from drowning by Cal. However, as Cal had replaced him as sniper for the mission, O'Brien's contempt for the SPARTAN-II increased.

The team moved north through the ruins to gain a vantage point, taking photographs as they moved. Contact was made with a patrol of Unggoy led by an unidentified Jiralhanae Chieftain. Though the Unggoy were successfully taken out, O'Brien was nearly killed by the Chieftain and had to be saved by Cal. The Chieftain was thrown over a waterfall and presumed dead, but in fact survived and followed the team to their sniping position.

The team arrived at the sniping point with only two minutes before the Prophet arrived to inspect the ruins. However, they were ambushed by the Jiralhanae Chieftain and Cal was mortally wounded before she could fire on the Prophet. O'Brien, despite hesitating, fired on and killed the Prophet.

Aftermath
The UNSC's objective had been completed. Cal died shortly after the Prophet's death, giving Cortez the recordings of the ruins. These sparked interest within the scientific community after the Human-Covenant War, and the Department of Xenoarchaeological Studies at the University of Edinburgh was commissioned by ONI to research the ruins.

Relations between ODSTs and SPARTAN-IIs seemed to warm in the aftermath of the mission. Cal's actions during the mission and her saving O'Brien's life many times until the loss of her own changed the team's thoughts and opinions on the SPARTANs. Upon their return to DD-993, the surviving ODSTs reacted aggressively to an Army Specialist who suggested the SPARTANs were inferior to them based on Cal's death. Later in the war, ODSTs showed few convictions against working with SPARTAN-IIs in combat.

List of appearances

 * Halo Legends
 * The Babysitter