Harvest

Harvest was a new colony world in the outer reaches of UNSC space, in the Harvest System. Harvest was one of the UNSC's more productive and peaceful colonies. The original population of Harvest was three million, but it was destroyed by the Covenant in 2525.

Harvest was a small planet, approximately one-third the size of Earth with only 4,000 kilometer (2,484 mile) equatorial diameter, slightly smaller than the Sol planet Mercury. The surface of Harvest was grasslands and forests, lush fields and rolling hills, and a thousand lakes swarming with schools of fish. At night bats were known to frequent the skies.

In 2502, Avery J. Johnson was involved in the assassination of Jerald Mulkey Ander, the head of the People's Occupation Government on Harvest as part of the ORION Project's Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE.

Harvest was the first colony to be attacked by the Covenant and the first human world to be glassed. It was also the first time humanity had made contact with the Covenant. Obviously, the resulting war has created less than desirable relations with the alien superpower.

During the first Covenant attack on Harvest about one in six human refugee ships managed to escape the planet. On these ships was at least one future member of the Spartan-III project.

Vice Admiral Preston Cole fought in and barely won the Battle of Harvest in 2531, six years later. This battle was the single most titanic battle ever fought by the two opposing forces before the Fall of Reach in 2552, and resulted in the creation and implementation of the Cole Protocol.