Operation: UPPER CUT

Operation: UPPER CUT was a UNSC Army/Navy/Marine Corps joint operation to destroy the Covenant Supercarrier, Long Night of Solace, in the early stages of the Fall of Reach on August 14, 2552.

Background
The Battle of Viery was completely disrupted by the appearance of a cloaked Covenant Supercarrier in low orbit of Reach. The UNSC had no available nuclear weapons or large orbital assets to strike down the supercarrier, prompting the SPARTANs of Noble Team to improvise. Recalling a slipspace drive accident near Cygnus, SPARTAN-III LTCDR Catherine-B320 concieved an unorthodox plan to use a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine as a makeshift bomb. To reach orbit, they decided to appropriate the top-secret Sabre starfighters stored at the Sabre Program Launch/Research Range at Farkas Lake. Colonel Holland reluctantly approved the operation, with Noble Six, a qualified Sabre pilot, leading the space portion of the attack.

Ground battle
At the start of the operation, the launch facility was under heavy attack by Covenant forces deployed from orbit. Large numbers of Type-31 "Seraph"-class fighters and Type-25 "Spirit"-class dropships were swarming the airspace around the site. Noble One, Two, Five, and Six fought their way through the Covenant forces on the beach, linked up with Army units inside the facility and temporarily secured the site. Noble Six and Jorge-052 boarded their YSS-1000 "Sabre"-class fighter, and launched into space with the other four Sabre fighters.

Space battle
All five Sabres rendezvoused with the at orbital station Anchor 9. After docking, the Savannah's slipspace drive was removed and mounted on a D77-TC Pelican dropship for transport to a nearby Covenant corvette. The corvette, at the time, was on a refueling run to the Covenant supercarrier, providing UNSC forces an opportunity to commandeer the corvette and approach the supercarrier undetected.

While EVA teams transferred the drive, the Sabres were called to defend Anchor 9 and Savannah against the waves of Seraphs and space capable Banshee starfighters. At the start of the engagement, Anchor 9's Point-Defense Guns were offline, and bringing the defenses online required several minutes. Worse, multiple Type-52 "Phantom"-class dropships attempted to board the station. These attempts, however, were prevented by the Sabres.

With the space around Anchor 9 clear of Covenant forces, Jorge-052 separated from Six's Sabre and boarded the Pelican to secure the makeshift Slipspace "bomb". The UNSC managed to jam the Covenant corvette's communications and disable its engines, while the Sabres escorted the Pelican to the corvette and neutralized the enemy's defensive starfighters. Savannah, still combat-effective without its slipspace drive, provided support fire to divert the corvette's attention from the Pelican.

Once cleared of high-level resistance, Noble Six and a squad of Marines boarded the corvette and secured the docking bay, allowing the Pelican to land. With Jorge-052 defending the makeshift bomb, Six and the Marines fought their way to the corvette's bridge. At the same time, the Savannah finally succumbed to the corvette's plasma barrage and was destroyed with all hands. After successfully taking over the bridge, Six manually locked the ship's course to the supercarrier, preventing any potential course corrections. After heading back to the docking bay, the surviving Covenant crew assaulted the UNSC forces, attempting to retake the docking bay and destroy the package.

After the short engagement, Jorge-052 discovered several problems. Damage done to the corvette had blocked the path back to the Sabres, and the Pelican's thruster gimbal has been heavily damaged - the only way off the ship was a space jump. In addition, the timer on the slipspace drive was damaged by plasma fire, requiring a manual detonation when the ship reached the supercarrier. Jorge-052 volunteered to activate the bomb manually and forced Noble Six off the Covenant corvette. As the corvette came in range of the Long Night of Solace, the bomb detonated and created a slipspace rupture. The rupture sent the corvette into slipspace along with the mid-section of the supercarrier.

Aftermath
The success of Operation: UPPER CUT was short lived. Only minutes after the supercarrier was destroyed, a portion of the enormous Fleet of Particular Justice exited Slipspace above Reach and launched a full-scale assault on the planet.

List of appearances
Halo: Reach