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Battle of the Great Bear

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Concurrent:

Harvest campaign[1]

Battle of the Great Bear
File:Battle of the Great Bear.jpg

Conflict:

Human-Covenant War[1]

Date:

December 24, 2530[1]

Location:

Groombridge 1830 system[1]

Outcome:

Pyrrhic UNSC victory[2]

Details
Belligerents

United Nations Space Command[1]

Covenant[1]

Commanders

Preston Cole[1]

Unknown

Strength

Three warships[1]

Casualties

Eleven destroyers[1]

All warships[1]

 

"Seventeen of our ships against three of theirs. Eleven destroyers lost. Two enemy vessels killed. One crash landed."
— Admiral Preston Cole[1]

The Battle of the Great Bear,[1] designated as GB-5546,[4] was an engagement between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant during the Human-Covenant War, taking place on December 24, 2530. The battle ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the UNSC fleet, which was commanded by Admiral Preston Cole. The battle also resulted in the capture and interrogation of a Sangheili prisoner, expanding the UNSC's knowledge on the Covenant.[1]

The battle

Admiral Preston Cole: "I seem to remember us destroying your ships yesterday. Did you think we were going to let you just waltz right in?"
Subject 386: "Yesterday? Three ships, human? You boast about [unintelligible] three of our vessels when you had five times that many, and lost almost all?"
— Admiral Preston Cole and Subject 386[4]

On December 24, 2530, a Covenant fleet of three warships,[1] including a CAS-class assault carrier,[4] engaged forces of the United Nations Space Command led by Admiral Preston Cole in the Groombridge 1830 system. Cole's fleet, consisting of seventeen ships, battled the invading Covenant warships, destroying the enemy force but losing eleven destroyers in the process. Two of the Covenant ships were destroyed directly in combat,[1] while the assault carrier attempted to flee to the surface of the nearby Groombridge-1830, a human colony. However, the assault carrier was damaged disabled by pursuing UNSC forces, and the ship crash-landed on the planet's surface.[4]

Aftermath

"You have been judged unclean! A scourge that must be burned away! Every one of your worlds will be reduced to ash."
— Subject 386 to Admiral Preston Cole[4]

Two heavily armed tactical strike teams recovered a Sangheili survivor within an enclosed compartment which survived landfall at Waterford, Lemuria on Groombridge-1830 that day at approximately 1805 hours MST. The Sangheili was interrogated by Cole and First Lieutenant Richard Barclay.[4] Through this interrogation, the UNSC learned that the Covenant were wiping out humanity because they had been deemed "unclean." More importantly, Cole discovered that the Covenant were largely unaware of the size and whereabouts of human space, leading to the formulation of the Cole Protocol.[1][2]

Gallery

  • ColesInterrogationAtGreatBear.png

    Admiral Cole interrogates the Sangheili prisoner

List of appearances

Sources

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Halo Wars: Genesis
  2. ^ a b Halo: Evolutions, "The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole", page 470
  3. ^ Halo Legendary Crate, Crate #2
  4. ^ a b c d e f Halo: The Fall of Reach (2010), Adjunct: "ONI Directorate Memorandum Interrogation Findings"

v • d • e
 
⇦ Battles of the Human-Covenant War ⇨
Unknown date
Alpha Cephei (pre-2541) • HEMORRHAGE (pre-2552) • Odenli'sh (pre-2552) • DIRE MORNING • FANCY DRESS
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Outer Colonies (2525-2536) • Inner Colonies (2536-2552)
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