Second Battle of Requiem

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"They believe this is the home of one of their gods. If those freaks want to meet God, then it is our duty to help them along."

- Commander Palmer to Spartan fireteams at the start of the battle

The Second Battle of Requiem, also known as the Requiem Campaign by the UNSC, was a major space and ground battle between the UNSC, the Storm Covenant, and Promethean forces.

Introduction
After the First Battle of Requiem the UNSC Infinity returned to Earth. Andrew Del Rio was stripped of his position as captain of the warship, and the newly promoted Captain Lasky took his place. Six months after Didact's attack on New Phoenix, the Infinity was ordered to return to Requiem by FLEETCOM, this time with a full battlegroup from the elite Home Fleet. The strength of this battlegroup, designated Battlegroup Dakota, numbered one Infinity-class warship, carrying several light frigates in its deployment centers, thirteen light cruisers and twenty-eight heavy frigates, plus a compliment of thousands of Pelican gunships and Broadsword fighters, for a total of 46 ships-of-the-line. In addition, several new Spartan and Marine fireteams were deployed to the Infinity along with hundreds of engineers and scientists.

The Space Battle
Shortly before 0500 hours (5:00 a.m. Zulu Time) on February 7th, 2558, Battlegroup Dakota arrived in system and entered orbit around Requiem. The Infinity emerged in the midst of a Covenant fleet under the command of Fleetmaster Jul 'Mdama, and destroyed the fleet's flagship before it realized what was happening. As the rest of the battlegroup arrived, Infinity launched its compliment of four Charon-class light frigates and literally thousands of Broadsword fighters. Infinity and the cruisers in the battlegroup began preparing a strike force for deployment to the interior surface of Requiem. Hundreds of Scorpions and Warthogs were loaded onto Pelican dropships, plus dozens of Spartan and Marine fireteams. As soon as enough Covenant ships had been cleared to make a clean shot for Requiem's portal to its interior, the ground forces were deployed in a massive, straight-up invasion code-named OPERATION: LAND GRAB. As the waves of ground forces continued to swarm into Requiem, Battlegroup Dakota decimated the Covenant occupation fleet. Whether the entire Covenant battlegroup was destroyed or if some ships escaped is unknown. By February 8th, the space around Requiem was firmly in human hands.