Operation: SPEARBREAKER: Difference between revisions

|commanders2=[[Colony]]

'''Operation: SPEARBREAKER''' was a UNSC operation during the Banished occupation of Installation 00 to keep Colony's forces from capturing a Forerunner fighter.<ref name="Gate">''[[Halo Wars 2]]'', campaign level, [[Gatecrashers]]</ref><ref name="Watch">''Halo Wars 2'', campaign level, [[Not on My Watch]]</ref>

In 2559, the long-lost [[UNSC Spirit of Fire|UNSC ''Spirit of Fire'']] arrived at [[Installation 00]] via unknown means, encountering [[Banished]] forces led by [[Atriox]]. The two groups began a long campaign for control of the [[Forerunner]] megastructure, ultimately ending with the assassination of Atriox's lieutenant [[Decimus]], the destruction of the [[CAS-class assault carrier]] ''[[Enduring Conviction]]'' and the release of a [[Halo Array|Halo ring]], [[Installation 09]], intended to request help for the UNSC forces stranded on the Ark. With ''Spirit of Fire'' lacking a [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine|slipspace drive]]<ref name="HW">''[[Halo Wars]]''</ref> and the Banished's forces now completely stranded on the installation, many months away from potential reinforcements, both sides begun a long and brutal campaign for control of the Ark.

To Atriox's end, he tasked many of his officers and overseers with seeking out and securing caches of Forerunner and former-[[Covenant]] technology that would help bring an advantage in the conflict. One such leader, the [[Mgalekgolo]] population known simply as "[[Colony]]", would seek out and begin the recovery process of restoring a Forerunner [[Despair-class fighter]], a powerful weapon that could be potentially utilised to destroy the ''Spirit of Fire'' or call for Banished reinforcements back in the [[Milky Way]] galaxy.

With the path to the fighter launch site open, UNSC forces attempted an air strike via the deployment of a Condor gunship. During the strike, Banished forces seemingly ignored the craft, before it was destroyed by a vast EMP strike. Thanks to data recovered from the Condor prior to its destruction, however, UNSC forces were able to learn that the pulse came from four charging columns, which were also facilitating the construction of the craft. With this came one complication; the fighter would be complete in fifteen minutes. Sunray 1-1 comes across the first of these columns, but quickly learns that their firepower isn't enough to seriously damage it; instead, a [[HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark II (J) Colossus]] is requisitioned to "stomp" the pad. With the column down, the ship's launch was delayed by ten minutes, allowing Sunray the time they needed to further disable the remaining three charging columns, fighting Sentinels and Banished along the way. Eventually, UNSC forces rallied for one final assault on the launch site to permanently bring the fighter offline, encountering a [[Mgalekgolo Captain]] deployed to prevent the attack from succeeding. The assault force was able to damage the captain, resulting in it retreating to be healed by Goliaths. The captain is eventually brought down, allowing the UNSC forces to send in a final wing of [[AV-14 Hornet]]s, destroying the Forerunner fighter by dropping [[Satchel charge]]s into the construction site from above.{{Ref/Reuse|Watch}}

With the ''Despair''-class fighter destroyed, neither Banished nor UNSC would be able to employ it for their purposes. Instead, Atriox would seek out other means of advancing his campaign on the Ark, tasking warlords [[Pavium]] and [[Voridus]] with salvaging the wreckage of the Covenant holy city [[High Charity]], which had crash-landed on the Ark in the [[Battle of Installation 00]] at the climax of the [[Human-Covenant War]]. This excursion would result in the release of the [[Flood]] from its quarantine zone, forcing Atriox to abandon several of his fortifications to contain the parasite.<ref name="Manifestation">''Halo Wars 2'', campaign level, [[Manifestation]]</ref>