Battle of the Rubble

The Battle of the Rubble was an engagement fought between various factions of Covenant and human forces mainly for navigational data that led to Earth and other human population centers, as well as a large asteroid called Exodus. It took place at some point in 2535.

Background
While the Prophet of Regret was unable to find the Human homeworld, the Prophet of Truth devised a plan to have a group of Kig-yar merchants ally themselves with humans in order to find its location. The Kig-yar found a human population around a group of asteroids called "The Rubble", trailing the gas giant Hesiod in the 23 Librae system. Originally, they pretended to be allies with the Insurrectionist and refugee citizens, and even made a trade agreement with the Insurrectionists that they would hand them Covenant weapons in exchange for slipspace drives whilst waiting for the opportunity to capture navigational data that led to Earth. Lead by Reth, the Kig-yar bided their time and waited for the right moment to strike.

The weapons the Insurrectionists were handed were modified and sent to other Insurrectionists across UNSC space. When Regret found some of the weapons on sale on High Charity, not knowing that they were part of Truth's plan, he sent some of the Covenant's top soldiers to silence the "rebels". Meanwhile, the UNSC sent the stealth-equipped light frigate to investigate the source of the Covenant weapons. Earlier, the SPARTAN-II Gray Team had been sent to the Rubble to eliminate all traces of navigational data with Earth's coordinates.

Battle
When Gray Team arrived at the Rubble, they immediately set about to prepare for a prolonged stay. They managed to steal a freighter, the Petya, and fitted it with a military-grade Slipspace drive.

Meanwhile, Ignatio Delgado was assigned by the Rubble Security Council to protect a data chip that contained the coordinates to Earth. However, he and his wounded copilot, Melko Hollister, were attacked by some Kig-yar who wanted the data. Delgado managed to distract the Kig-yar long enough for Hollister to escape and board their ship, Distancia. Delgado however was wounded and was about to be killed when he was rescued by one of the Spartans of Gray Team, Adriana-111. She asked for the data in exchange for helping him. Delgado refused however. She performed first-aid on Delgado and gave him an emergency contact beacon, telling him that if the data chip was attacked again, he should activate the beacon.

The Kig-yar ship A Psalm Every Day attacked and disabled the Sangheili-held Covenant destroyer Retribution's Thunder as they arrived at the Rubble. Thel 'Vadamee and his crew were taken captive and stored within one of the habitats. The Midsummer Night arrived shortly after while stalking the Kestrel and was taken out with a mass driver round and missile fire from the Rubble Defense. Commander Dmitri Zheng was shot by Lieutenant Campbell but pushed himself to lock the arm codes for the Shiva-class Nuclear Missiles on board. As Zheng died, Keyes was forced to take command of the ship. Keyes surrendered the ship to save the crew, resulting in them being imprisoned on the Rubble as well.

The Shiva missiles caused an EMP effect which shut down the lights and the antigravity generators inside the habitat where Thel 'Vadamee and the rest of his crew were imprisoned. Using an improvised spear made out of a broken leg of a cot and tied to several coils of sheets, they managed to spear their Unggoy guard and steal his plasma rifle. Saal used the rifle to destroy the lock and open the door, which allowed the Sangheili to escape. They managed to board a Kig-Yar shuttle and take over a large Kig-Yar ship, which had a crew of Unggoy on it. They used the ship and information gathered from the Unggoy to launch a raid on Metisette and capture Reth. It was then that the Sangheili discovered that the Prophet of Truth had ordered Reth to observe the entire operation. Reth managed to escape while unattended and arrived back at Metisette. He decided to begin the invasion of the Rubble.

The Rubble's resident AI construct, Juliana, now had the proper forces to defend the Rubble from the second Kig-yar assault, and she collaborated with Gray Team and Keyes to infiltrate a docked Kig-yar ship Infinite Spoils in order to confirm the possibility of the assault. The Mighty Sparrow, filled with ODSTs, latched onto the Infinite Spoils, allowing them to plug Juliana into the Kig-yar battle network, while another group of ODSTs assaulted the airlock outside the ship. This allowed them to gain data on the upcoming invasion by Reth from Metisette. During the infiltration the Sangheili under Thel attacked the Mighty Sparrow which was docked with the Kig-Yar raider. Aboard Infinite Spoils, Thel encountered Jai-006 and declared him a demon before the Spartan retreated back to the docking bay.

Aftermath
The battle led to the Battle of Metisette in which Keyes used the Midsummer Night to attack a Kig-yar settlement known as the Redoubt. He entered the atmosphere and air braked while ejecting HEVs to destroy the anti-space defense to use the abandoned rubble as weapons. The Shiva nuclear warheads were used to destroy the defense system leaving Metisette open to the Rubble bombardment leaving nothing left of the Kig-yar city or Reth's forces. The human forces on Metisette were picked up by pelicans, and the Habitat Exodus was launched, jumping away to Falaknuma in the 18 Scorpii System. Lieutenant Keyes was briefed by none other than Admiral Cole himself. Afterward, Keyes was promoted to Lieutenant Commander for his protection of 1 million people.

Back on the Infinite Sacrifice, the Prophets of Truth and Regret meet with Thel 'Vadamee personally. After some discussion on the very lives of the crew under Thel's control, Zhar enters the room, armed with his inactivated Energy Sword. After Zhar asks some heretical questions attacking the Hierachs, Thel draws out his own sword. Zhar refuses to stand down. Thel activates his sword and Zhar attacks, but Thel kills his old friend. This visibly shocks and frightens the Prophet of Regret, but the Prophet of Truth becomes interested. He allows Thel 'Vadamee to live. Back on High Charity, the Prophets of Truth and Regret discuss the result of the "experiment." Although Regret is displeased that it didn't produce anything except human-sympathizing Kig-yar and Unggoy, the Prophet of Truth seemed rather satisfied by the discovery of three new human worlds to attack. The Prophet of Regret resolved to follow Truth's plans for the time being.