Battle of Meridian

The Battle of Meridian was an engagement between the United Nations Space Command and Covenant on Meridian in 2551, during the Human-Covenant War.

The battle
Meridian was first attacked by the Covenant earlier in the Human-Covenant War, though the UNSC was able to repel the alien invaders. In 2551, the Covenant returned to the world and the Battle of Meridian began. The first prototype for the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark IX "Mantis" ADS engaged in an action known as the "Cherbourg Run", in which it successfully engaged 18 heavily guarded Type-27 Anti Aircraft Cannons, also known as "Mantis". The success of the prototype in the "Cherbourg Run" is one of the theories of why the walker was eventually called "Mantis". However, the Covenant succeeded in glassing the planet.

At least three s glassed the planet, including Solemn Penance. Following the battle, a Covenant Special Operations team was dispatched by the High Prophet of Regret to the planet's surface to search for Forerunner artifacts. The team retrieved a Luminary and delivered it to Regret aboard his flagship.

Aftermath
Some time later, the High Prophet of Regret's Stewards successfully decrypted the Luminary, which revealed the existence of the final home of the Forerunners, as well as a portal that led to it. The Luminary also revealed the location of this portal, "Erde-Tyrene". Regret assembled the Fleet of Sacred Consecration and ordered the fleet to head for the world at once. Unbeknownst to Regret, Erde-Tyrene was the Forerunner name for Earth—the homeworld of humanity.

Chalybs Defense Solutions had numerous facilities on Meridian that were abandoned during the battle, and later destroyed when the world was glassed. As a result, companies such as Acheron Security and Naphtali Contractor Corporation took over production of many of CDS' products.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach
 * Dr. Halsey's personal journal
 * Halo 2 Anniversary
 * Terminals