Battle of Crow's Nest

"You are, all of you, vermin. Cowering in the dirt, thinking... what, I wonder? That you might escape the coming fire? No, your world will burn until its surface is but glass! And not even your Demon will live to creep, blackened from its hole to mar the reflection of our passage; the culmination of our Journey, for your destruction is the will of the gods! And I? I am their instrument!"

- The Prophet of Truth, before sending soldiers to attack the base

The Battle of the Crow's Nest was a battle fought in the UNSC underground base located near Mount Kilimanjaro known as the Crow's Nest. It was fought between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant Loyalists.

Shortly after John-117, the Arbiter, and Master Sergeant Avery J. Johnson arrived at the base and began to discuss plans for attacking the Prophet of Truth's army at the Ark, the Prophet sent a transmission announcing his plans to destroy them and launched a massive assault on the Marine base. The UNSC forces, spread thin, fought against the Covenant forces in order to hold them back long enough to evacuate the wounded.

The Chief, alongside with squads led by Gunnery Sergeants Reynolds and Pete Stacker, led a strike against the bulk of the invaders while Johnson and the Arbiter guarded the ops center. The Chief soon had to return to the ops center, as the Brutes were attacking it. He swiftly defeated the invasion and learned that Keyes had ordered the massive bomb planted, which would explode and set off other charges in the base, obliterating it and all Covenant within. The Chief then had to go with the Arbiter to rescue Marines trapped by the Brutes in the barracks before the Brutes killed all the prisoners.

The Chief and the Arbiter rescued as many Marines as they could and had Hocus evacuate them (and the rest of the UNSC forces still there) via Pelican. The Chief and the Arbiter then fell back (again) to the ops center to defeat a Brute force that took it over and turned off the bomb. They reset the bomb and retreated, barely escaping as the bomb exploded and killed the remaining Covenant.