Battle of Harvest: Difference between revisions

==Prelude==

{{Quote|Vice Admiral Preston Cole is mobilizing the largest fleet action in human history to retake the Epsilon Indi system and confront this new threat. Their transmission made one thing perfectly clear: they're looking for a fight.|Vice Admiral [[Michael Stanforth]]<ref>'''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]''', ''page 120'' (2010)</ref>}}

In [[2525#February|February of 2525]], the [[Unified Earth Government]] [[Outer Colony]] of [[Harvest]] was discovered and [[First Battle of Harvest|attacked]] by the [[Covenant]]. The planet was partially [[Glassing|glassed]] by the [[Covenant cruiser]] ''[[Rapid Conversion]]'',<ref>'''[[Halo: Contact Harvest]]''', ''page 382''</ref><ref name="for117">'''Halo: The Fall of Reach''', ''pages 117-126'' (2010)</ref> though many of Harvest's residents managed to escape their own destruction by fleeing the [[Epsilon Indi system]] aboard [[DCS light freighter|freighters]].<ref name="goo72">'''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]''', ''page 72''</ref> In response to the loss of contact with Harvest, the unarmed scout ship {{CMAShip|Argo}} was sent to the planet to investigate. When transmissions from the scout ship suddenly ended, the Harvest situation was deemed highly important and a [[Colonial Military Administration]] [[battle group]]—[[Battle Group 4]]—was dispatched to Harvest,<ref name="for117"/> fearing that [[insurrectionist]] forces had taken control of Harvest.<ref>'''[[Halo Mythos]]''', ''page 63''</ref> Upon arriving at the system, Battle Group 4 was immediately attacked by a [[Covenant super-destroyer]]. Only {{CMAShip|Heracles}} was able to escape destruction and limp back to [[Reach]] in the [[Epsilon Eridani system]] several weeks later with word of the hostile alien threat.<ref name="for117"/>

==The battle==

{{Quote|Fix bayonets.|Vice Admiral Preston Cole during the final charge, quoting Colonel [[Wikipedia:Joshua Chamberlain|Joshua Chamberlain]] from the American Civil War<ref>'''Halo: Evolutions''', "The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole", ''page 471''</ref>}}

On [[2526|March 1, 2526]] at 0120 hours [[Military Standard Time|MST]], the forty-[[warship]] strong [[UNSC]] [[Battle Group X-Ray]] arrived near [[Harvest]] in the [[Epsilon Indi system]]. Moving towards the planet, the [[battle group]] descended below Harvest's planetary plane and detected the single, stationary [[Covenant]] [[Covenant super-destroyer|super-destroyer]] near the planet. Increasing velocity, Vice Admiral [[Preston Cole]] plotted a parabolic course to allow the battle group to engage the Covenant ship through a slingshot maneuver around Harvest. Now accelerating towards the ship, Cole ordered the battle group to fire upon the hostile vessel at will. As the UNSC warships fired their [[Magnetic Accelerator Cannon]]s and hundreds of [[Archer missile]]s at their target, the Covenant super-destroyer's powerful [[energy shielding]] prevented the ship's hull from taking any damage.<ref name="Harvest"/> Realizing the effectiveness of the Covenant warship's energy shielding, Cole resolved that an overwhelming attack from Battle Group X-Ray's entire armaments needed to be used against the ship to destroy its shielding.<ref name="genesis"/>

The super-destroyer responded to the attack by firing its [[pulse laser turret]]s to destroy two [[UNSC destroyer]]s: {{UNSCShip|Lance Held High}} and ''[[UNSC Sacramento|Sacramento]]''. As the battle group fruitlessly attempted to destroy the Covenant ship by using [[nuclear weapon]]s, the super-destroyer obliterated five more destroyers: ''[[UNSC Austerlitz|Austerlitz]]'', ''[[UNSC Campo Grande|Campo Grande]]'', ''[[UNSC Midway|Midway]]'', ''[[UNSC Tharsis (Harvest)|Tharsis]]'', and ''[[UNSC Virginia Capes|Virginia Capes]]''. Though a subordinate officer attempted to order a retreat, Cole belayed the order and the battle group continued on its slingshot course around Harvest. As Cole ordered Battle Group X-Ray into a new trajectory towards the Covenant ship, he ordered the battle group's warships to fire their entire armaments upon the super-destroyer. When the UNSC ships approached the Covenant vessel, the super-destroyer began to fire upon the battle group. However, Battle Group X-Ray's warships fired a salvo of MACs upon the super-destroyer, followed by the battle group's entire complement of Archer missiles and [[Shiva-class nuclear missile]]s. While the {{Class|Halcyon|light cruiser}} ''[[UNSC Constantinople|Constantinople]]'' and ''[[UNSC Troy|Troy]]'' were destroyed and the prow of ''[[UNSC Lowrentz|Lowrentz]]'' was damaged by the Covenant ship's [[plasma]] armaments, thousands of Archer and Shiva missiles impacted upon the super-destroyer. Another salvo of Covenant plasma destroyed ''[[UNSC Excellence|Excellence]]'', ''[[UNSC Maelstrom|Maelstrom]]'', and ''[[UNSC Waterloo|Waterloo]]'', but the remaining, undamaged twenty-seven warships of Battle Group X-Ray had recharged their MACs. As the second salvo of MACs disabled the Covenant super-destroyer's shielding, the battle group fired its remaining missiles upon the ship's hull, destroying the super-destroyer.<ref name="Harvest"/>

{{Clear}}

==Aftermath==

{{Quote|It was a Pyrrhic victory that left Cole's fleet severely damaged. Now Cole has been jumping his fleet around from engagement to engagement throughout the Outer Colonies, wherever the Covenant showed up. So far, there'd been no repeat of the retaking of Harvest.|[[Gage Yevgenny]]<ref name="he126"/>}}

Directly after the destruction of the [[Covenant super-destroyer|super-destroyer]], the [[battle group]] to veered away from the remains of the ship and begun searching for survivors of the thirteen [[UNSC]] ships lost in battle.<ref name="Harvest"/> With the loss of thirteen [[warship]]s in contrast to the [[Covenant]]'s one super-destroyer, Vice Admiral [[Preston Cole]] realized the disparity between UNSC and enemy losses "did not bode well". Regardless, the [[Office of Naval Intelligence|Office of Naval Intelligence's Section II]] propaganda exaggerated the victory to encourage recruitment; initially the foe was claimed to be an [[Insurrectionist]] weapon platform that had captured [[Harvest]]'s [[communications satellite]]s,<ref name="genesis"/> but this was later recanted. By [[2552]], the Battle of Harvest was recognized as a Pyrrhic UNSC victory.<ref name="he126"/> After the battle, Cole returned to [[Earth]] where he was promoted to admiral, at least publicly.<ref name="timeline"/><ref>'''[[Halo 3: ODST]]''', multiplayer level, ''[[Alpha Site]]'s [[ONI memorial]]''</ref> The Covenant were undaunted by their defeat. The [[Prophet of Regret|High Prophet of Regret]] ordered for the "Victory of Epsilon Indi" to be celebrated through fasting and prayer; [[Kig-Yar]] and [[Unggoy]] food rations were eliminated for the following three work periods, while [[Sangheili]] and [[Jiralhanae]] were ordered to spend two rest periods in public prayer. Those who "failed their duty at the Victory" were publicly executed.<ref name="timeline"/>