Battle of Sigma Octanus IV

"We've come to take Sigma Octanus IV back from the Covenant. To do that, we're going to kill every last one of them."

- John-117

The Battle of Sigma Octanus IV was fought between the UNSC Defense Force and the Covenant in mid-2552.

Opening actions
On July 17th, 2553, Ensign William Lovell logged a large gravitational anomaly inside Slipstream space. Deciding that it could not be a fleet of Covenant ships based on its huge size, Lovell passed it off as an asteroid, sent his hourly report, and thought nothing more of it.

However, over Sigma Octanus IV, Commander Jacob Keyes, commanding officer of the UNSC Destroyer, realized that the large mass was in fact a battle group of for Covenant ships (The Covenant ships were flying in close formation. Large masses bend slipspace more easily than in real space, creating the illusion of a large mass when there are in fact several). The ships were believed to be four Covenant Frigates. However, when the Covenant battlegroup exited slipspace, the Iroquois found itself outmatched by the arrival of not four frigates but one Covenant carrier, one destroyer, and two frigates (medium-sized ships).

Despite the hopeless tactical situation, Commander Keyes resolved to attack. The Iroquois set a collision course for the destroyer at emergency acceleration while launching a nuclear warhead in what seemed the wrong direction. The two escorting frigates proceeded to launch a salvo of plasma, but the Iroquois managed to evade by utilizing the emergency thruster. Having missed their target, the plasma came about and continued to track and home in on the UNSC warship.

The trailing ordnance was to prove critical to the success of Keyes' strategy. A last minute course correction allowed the Iroquois to merely "graze" (scrape) the destroyer's shields rather than smash directly into the ship properly, resulting in the destruction of a large portion of the Iroquois' armor (Keyes had torn through 2 meters of titanium and had breached every bottom deck of the Iroquois). However, the tracking plasma was unable to correct for the sudden maneuver of their target and, in consequence, impacted on the destroyer instead. A heavy salvo of Archer missiles sent the remaining Covenant warship to its destruction.

With the momentum built up during the first phase, the Iroquois performed a slingshot maneuver around the planet. Once safely away, the nuclear warhead deployed earlier, was detonated, completely draining the shields on the two frigates. Having completed its orbit, the Iroquois resumed its attack and destroyed the two frigates with two heavy MAC rounds and hundreds of Archer missiles.

Its escorts destroyed, the carrier then disengaged and escaped out system but not before leaving 34 dropships and a small ship, the Covenant Destroyer, to continue the ground assault.

Ground battle
With thousands of Covenant soldiers deployed on the ground, and the city of Côte d'Azur in their hands, the Marines were sent in. However, satellite scans were rendered useless by the fog and jungle canopy and General Kits failed to realize that the jungle was crawling with Covenant, including a new race as yet unencountered by the UNSC; the Hunters. Corporal Harland and his squad were sent by Lieutenant McCasky to observe Covenant activity in Grid thirteen-by-twenty-four. This may be why any Marines survived at all. When the squad returned, they found that Firebase Bravo had been glassed by Banshees. Headquarters had also been partially glassed, with only fourteen enlisted men surviving on the planet's surface.

With the failure of the Marine strike team, the SPARTAN-IIs were sent in. Arriving at the destroyed H.Q., the team, consisting of Spartan-117, Spartan-104, Spartan-James, Spartan-087, Spartan-029 and Spartan-058 slogged through the jungle, arriving at Côte d'Azur. Entering the storm drains, Blue Team discovered a new Covenant race, the Engineers. Investigating Covenant activity in the Côte d'Azur Museum of Natural History, Blue Team discovered that the Covenant were scanning what appeared to be a simple piece of igneous rock, and sending the information to a ship in orbit. The team entered a massive firefight with two Hunters, which was a victory at the expense of James' arm, recovered the rock, and escaped.

With a group of survivng civilians evacuated, the SPARTANs retruned to H.Q. and detonated a HAVOK Nuclear Warhead, destroying Côte d'Azur and removing the Covenant presence on the planet.

Space Battle
With the ground battle continuing, large numbers of UNSC ships arrived in orbit over Sigma Octanus IV. At 0625 hours, Covenant vessels were detected on the edge of the system. The space battle involved the UNSC fleet of 47 ships led by Admiral Stanforth against a smaller but technically stronger Covenant Fleet. This space battle was unique in two ways. First, because it was one of the few major victories that the UNSC had had in space (despite major losses) since Harvest was retaken. Also, in this battle, new tactics were used. One of the most prevalent was the usage of a refit station to provide cover for the UNSC fleet. This tactic was later reused at the Battle of Reach. Another is the staggered line tactic used by the UNSC fleet, allowing the first two salvos of MAC rounds launched by the first and second lines of ships to disable the enemy's shields while a third salvo launched from the first line's recharged cannons punched through the ships.

While the battle raged in space, the Iroquois intercepted the transmission from the planet's surface, which, it turned out, was all the Covenant had come for.

July 17, 2552

 * 0000 Hours: Ensign William Lovell, aboard the UNSC Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes, reports to Sigma Octanus IV concerning a large silhouette in Slipspace heading for the system. It is suspected to be a group of Covenant ships but it could also be an asteroid.
 * 0300 Hours: The arrives in system on patrol. The vessel's Commanding Officer, Commander Jacob Keyes, receives the sensor information and realizes it is a Covenant threat. He contacts FLEETCOM and informs them of the situation.
 * 0320 Hours: 4 Covenant ships consisting of 1 Covenant Carrier, 1 Covenant Destroyer and 2 Covenant Frigates arrive in the system. The UNSC Iroquois engages the enemy and requests reinforcements. The and  respond and begin heading for Sigma Octanus.
 * 0330 Hours: The Iroquois destroys all Covenant vessels save for the carrier using a maneuver later known as the Keyes Loop. The carrier launches landing craft toward Sigma Octanus IV, then retreats into slipspace.
 * 0345 Hours: Covenant ground forces invade the city of Côte d'Azur on the planet.
 * 0500 Hours: 47 additional UNSC vessels arrive in the system. Admiral Michael Stanforth, aboard the, takes command.
 * 0520 Hours: Reinforcements of 400 marines, led by General Kits, begin landing around Côte d'Azur
 * 0600 Hours: Covenant forces ambush and obliterate all marine forces on the ground. Only 14 enlisted men survive. Corporal Harland assumes tactical command.
 * 0625 Hours: Covenant vessels begin appearing on the edge of the system.
 * 0650 Hours: SPARTAN-IIs arrive on the surface to reinforce surviving marines.
 * 0900 Hours: Spartans assume tactical command on the ground.
 * 1800 Hours: Spartans and marines begin a counterattack on Côte d'Azur.
 * 2010 Hours: Spartans arm nuclear device below Côte d'Azur.
 * 2039 Hours: Nuclear warhead destroys all Covenant ground forces at Côte d'Azur.
 * 2120 Hours: General quarters is sounded aboard ships and the opposing Fleets close to engage.
 * 2130 Hours: Repair station Cradle moves to protect UNSC Fleet. First salvos are fired by Covenant vessels.
 * 0500 Hours:* All Covenant vessels either retreat or are destroyed. Battle concludes.

Aftermath
A spy probe attached to the destroyer Iroquois lead the Covenant to Reach, which they attacked the next month. It later transpired that the Covenant had learned the location of one of the Halos from the transmission, whic they planned to activate to begin the Great Journey.

As a result of the battle, there was much debris left in orbit around Sigma Octanus IV. HAZMAT teams swept the area but the area around the planet remained a navigational hazard for the next decade.

Discrepancies

 * There is an apparent time discrepancy in the continuity of Halo: The Fall of Reach as pertaining to the the exact times of the chapters. Chapter 19 begins at 600 hours while Chapter 20 begins at 1800, and it seems as though there is no significant lapse of time between them. Chapter 22 Begins at 2010 Hours and then Chapter 23 begins at 0500 hours, yet they all claim to have happened on July 17. This may have been a typo, with Chapter 23 meant to be on July 18 or a flashback of sorts.''
 * Page 156 of Halo: The Fall of Reach states that the Repair and Refit Station Cradle was over a square kilometer and that three Destroyers could be eclipsed by its shadow. Exactly how it could cover the entire UNSC fleet present is not made clear. The UNSC ships may have positioned themselves behind the Cradle in a line for protection.
 * When the book talks of the battle for Sigma Octanus IV it says that there were dozens of ships but after the Cradle took the plasma torpedoes to give the fleet a chance to fire again it says that it was a 21 gun salute three times over. This hints that there may have been 63 ships in the human fleet as apposed to the 20 Covenant ships. This would make sense because the humans only win when there is a 3/1 count in their favor. Also the fleet took out twelve Covenant ships before the Covenant could take out one of theirs. So it was 8 to 48 or 63 depending on how you interpret the data. This raises the question of UNSC casualties. According to Captain Keyes there were eight remaining human ships that turned to help the Iroquois when a Covenant Destroyer tried to attack it. So only nine human ships survived the battle, explaining why Keyes thought of the battle as an expensive victory.

Ships

 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes
 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes
 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes
 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes
 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes
 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes
 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes
 * Remote Scanning Outpost Archimedes

Characters

 * Commander/Captain Jacob Keyes
 * Admiral Michael Stanforth
 * General Kits
 * Lieutenant Dominique
 * Lieutenant Hall
 * Lieutenant Hikowa
 * Lieutenant Jaggers
 * Ensign William Lovell
 * Spartan-117
 * Spartan-104
 * Spartan-James
 * Spartan-087
 * Spartan-029
 * Spartan-058
 * Corporal Harland
 * Private Fincher
 * Private Walker
 * Private Cochran