Invasion of the UNSC Infinity

Previous:	Skirmish at The Refuge
Invasion of the UNSC Infinity
Conflict:	Post-Covenant War conflicts Requiem Campaign;
Location:	UNSC Infinity, Requiem orbit, Epoloch system
Outcome:	Tactical UNSC victory Invasion repelled; UNSC Infinity secured; Strategic Covenant/Promethean victory Doctor Catherine Halsey captured;
Details
Belligerents
United Earth Government United Nations Space Command; ;	Jul 'Mdama's Covenant; Didact's Prometheans;
Commanders
Captain Thomas Lasky; Spartan Commander Sarah Palmer; Spartan Jared Miller;	Supreme Leader Jul 'Mdama;
Strength
Expeditionary Strike Group 1 UNSC Infinity; Spartan Operations SPARTAN-IVs Fireteam Crimson; Fireteam Kodiak; Fireteam Avalanche; Fireteam Lancer; ; ; UNSC Marines; 1 stolen Phantom; ;	Several CRS-class light cruisers; Numerous Banshees; Numerous Phantoms; Numerous Promethean Knights; Numerous Promethean Crawlers; Numerous Sangheili; Numerous Kig-Yar; Numerous Unggoy; Several Mgalekgolo;
Casualties
Moderate infantry losses; Stolen Phantom (accidental friendly fire);	Heavy At least 1 CRS-class light cruiser; Multiple Phantoms; Multiple Banshees; Most Covenant and Promethean boarders; ;

This article's title is a callsign, an alias, or a nickname, as no proper name for the subject has been revealed.

During the Requiem Campaign, the UNSC Infinity suffered an invasion by Jul 'Mdama's Covenant and Promethean troops looking to destroy the vessel and capture Doctor Catherine Halsey in order to further Jul's plan to acces the Librarian's imprint on Requiem.

Prelude

Six months after the Battle of Requiem, the UNSC Infinity returned to the shield world to set up research bases to study the Forerunner technology present while also fighting Jul 'Mdama's Covenant for control of the artificial planet.^[1] At the location known as the Cauldron, Spartan-IV Fireteam Crimson recovered a mysterious artifact^[2] which sucked in Doctor Henry Glassman when he accessed it aboard the UNSC Infinity.^[3] Subsequently, Doctor Catherine Halsey was brought aboard where she determined that the artifact was communicating information from the ship to Requiem.^[4]

As Halsey later attempted to understand the artifact, Jul 'Mdama utilized it to contact Halsey via her data pad to entice her into helping him, offering Halsey the truth about a great many things, including the Prometheans.^[5] As proof, Jul ensured that Fireteam Crimson retrieved "the Didact's Gift,"^[6] a durance containing the "soul" of a Promethean Knight who was originally a human digitized by the Composer during the New Phoenix Incident. Having provided proof, Jul further enticed Halsey by mentioning the Librarian, but Commander Sarah Palmer noticed Halsey's suspicious behavior and Captain Thomas Lasky had her arrested.^[7] However, Halsey subsequently escaped using an override code on Infinity's AI Roland and made contact with Jul whose identity she quickly deduced. Halsey offered Jul her help with the Librarian, but the communication was cut off by Roland who regained control of himself and alerted the ship's crew to Halsey's actions.^[8]

Battle

The invasion begins

As Doctor Catherine Halsey was about to be escorted to a cryo chamber on the orders of Captain Thomas Lasky, Jul 'Mdama started an invasion of the ship through the artifact that had been brought aboard the UNSC Infinity. Promethean boarders translocated in, surprising the Infinity's Marines, led by Commander Sarah Palmer, who were unprepared for such an attack. Despite their best efforts, the Prometheans were able to make it out of the hanger containing the artifact and into the ship's hallways. As Lasky retreated into an elevator with Halsey, he ordered all hands to battle stations to defend the ship.^[8] Palmer quickly ordered all Spartan fireteams to fall back to Infinity to help as well, even those performing operations on Requiem.^[9] To help prevent the Infinity from escaping, Jul used the artifact to tether the ship to Requiem using an interdiction web.^[10]

By the time Fireteam Crimson returned from an aborted operation in Apex,^[9] the Infinity was also under attack from several CRS-class light cruisers as well as numerous Phantoms and Banshees which had used Infinity's hanger bays to deploy Jul's Covenant troops aboard the ship as well. With the Infinity's defenses unable to pick out Crimson's captured Phantom from all of the enemy targets, the Phantom was accidentally shot down by friendly fire and crashed into Bay 450 on Infinity.^[11]

Securing the hanger bay

After the crash-landing, Fireteam Crimson were ordered by Spartan Jared Miller to help the Marines in the hanger secure it from Covenant forces, including reinforcements arriving in Phantoms while Fireteams Kodiak and Avalanche were ordered to secure Fore Armory Twelve-Seven. Once the hanger was cleared of Covenant, Miller directed Crimson to the hanger bay door controls, but the door failed to close and another Phantom made it inside followed by a second Phantom as Miller attempted to fix the problem with the systems. Miller managed to restore Infinity's COM systems and reestablish contact with Palmer and Roland. Roland determined that the artifact was causing some ship-wide problems and ordered Miller to have Crimson power cycle the engineering level server room in the hope that it would restore control of Infinity's systems.

After the hanger was cleared, Crimson made their way into the hallways while Miller attempted to establish contact with Lasky without success. With the Covenant having made it into the ship's hallways, Crimson encountered multiple firefights between boarders and Covenant troops and aided the friendly forces in killing the attackers. Reaching the server room, Crimson eliminated the Covenant inside and started the power cycle. However, Promethean Knights attacked and Crimson was forced to fight them off as the servers rebooted. Once the reboot was complete, Crimson restored the ship-wide data link, bringing Infinity's systems back online. However, Roland could not activate the hanger bay door controls as they needed to be activated locally after a power cycle.

Crimson fought their way back to the hanger bay through more Covenant and Promethean forces and found the hanger occupied by the Covenant again. As the Spartans endeavored to clear out the enemy and close the door, Roland contacted Miller with a new mission for Crimson dealing with a threat that could destroy the ship if it was not stopped. Crimson eventually managed to clear the hanger bay and activate the controls which successfully closed the hanger door and sealed out the Covenant Phantoms. Miller then directed Crimson to the engine room to deal with the threat that Roland had detected.^[11]