First Battle of Earth

Summary
DATE: October 20, 2552

LOCATION: Sol System, above planet Earth.

Involved: UNSC, Covenant forces.

Synopsis: This battle was somewhat unexpected. Fortunately the UNSC was more than prepared to repel the Covenant's assault. The more important task now is defending the planet during The Second Battle of Earth.

Outcome: UNSC successfully repels the invading Covenant but all of New Mombasa is destroyed.

UNSC
Commander: Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood

300 Orbital Super MAC Cannon Platforms.

8 Cruisers (possibly ALL Marathon Class)

67 Frigates

4 SPARTAN-II supersoldiers, including SPARTAN-117

1 Possible Spartan-I soldier: Sergeant Avery Johnson

The Covenant
Commander: The High Prophet of Regret

2 Assault Carriers

13 CAR-class Battle Cruisers

Timeline

 * For more detailed information, see the Battle of New Mombasa.

No official timeline is given, however the events of Halo 2 sum up the basic attack. Lord Hood, SPARTAN-117, Sergeant Johnson and Miranda Keyes are in an awards ceremony on the Cairo Station when the Covenant task force exits slipspace just beyond the range of the MAC satellites. Fleet Admiral Harper, in charge of the Earth defense fleet, prepares to engage the Covenant, however he is overridden. The Covenant launch boarding craft at the vessels and stations. Several vessels and stations are destroyed by boarding Covenant forces. When they feel they have made enough damage, the Covenant punch a hole through the Human defense and land at New Mombasa, Kenya. SPARTAN-117 pursues the Covenant forces, who have dropped a Scarab on the ground. After it is destroyed, the Prophet of Regret and his Assault Carrier enter Slipspace inside the city. New Mombassa is destroyed, but the UNSC In Amber Clad follows the carrier through Slipspace, arriving at Installation 05. The remaining Covenant vessels around Earth either disperse or are destroyed.

0140 hours- Slipspace whisper heard by Io. Minutes later, the Covenant fleet arrives with about 15 capital ships.

Between 0140 and 0150 hours-Fleet Admiral Harper assembles the fleet. Covenant start sending small boarding craft to Cairo, Athens, Malta MAC gun stations to destroy them. Malta, unaware of the presence of a bomb, happily reports Covenant boarding parties fleeing. A few seconds later, Malta is destroyed by the bomb, followed by Athens shortly thereafter. Cairo is then granted permission to open fire on the Covenant fleet and Lord Hood sends the Master Chief to disarm the bomb.

Between 0150 and 1630 hours-Covenant start deploying forces in the area, including a Scarab for heavy armor. Sergeant Johnson and Master Chief's Pelican is shot down by the Scarab and hunker down at an isolated position to wait for extraction. Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker and a ODST squad move up the beach to Hotel Zanzibar and set up a bunker, wiping out several Covenant units along the way. Sergent Johnson is extracted to help with armored units entering the city while pinned down units in Hotel Zanzibar are saved by Spartan 117. Units at the bridge are decimated as the Scarab blows through any and all UNSC forces. Spartan 117 arrives at bridge to assess situation and reinforcements are sent, including a Scorpion Battle tank. The 405th out of Diego Garcia make landfall at the city square and are quickly surrounded by Covenant troops. The 105th ODST unit, lead by Spartan 117, are called to city square for a last defense. Scarab is single-handedly taken down by the Master Chief as the Prophet of Regret flees.

Additional Notes And Theories
UNSC High Command found it odd that a Covenant fleet so small in size, and carrying a Prophet, would attack only one specific location of their enemy's homeworld, where their forces can easily be flanked if additional UNSC defence forces were redirected. This at the bare minimum would require the invading force to attack and occupy multiple areas, providing at least some strategic benefit, synchronously. Given the Covenant's tactical history it seemed unlikely that they would be prone to overconfidence.

Compared to the invasion force at Reach the two simply do not match up. The Covenant force at Reach, was not only massive in numbers, it was knowledgeable of the terrain. The invasion force at Earth was small, and confused. The fleet that attacked Reach even took their time glassing the surface prior to sending in ground forces. Again the fleet that attacked Earth did almost the exact opposite, acting rushed and paniced to get to the surface. These observations could suggest that the Covenant fleet sent to Earth, then, was not an invasion fleet but rather a planetary reconnaissance, search, and dig team. Although capable of combating a small colony and aggressive native lifeforms, the expeditionary fleet lacked the strength in force or numbers to be a full-scale invasion attempt. Speculation arose that, following the Covenant's discovery of Delta Halo, they found some form of Forerunner Technology lead them to the location of another Shield World. Another possible scenario explaining the events, but highly unadmissalbe due to lack of timeline during the events of Halo 2, is that after the seizure of 2401 Penitent Tangent, a subsequent interrogation involved asking where the end of their pilgrimage was located so as to finally undergo the prophesied Great Journey. Even if the specific name "Earth" was used by the monitor, it would have raised no caution in the Covenant ranks; to their knowledge, the location of planet Earth was unknown to the humans - let alone inhabited by them. Due to the assuming nature of Installation Monitor's personality program he or any other Monitor would have made no mention of the Humans living there unless specifically asked.

The Covenant's extensive knowledge of the MAC stations orbiting Earth might be seen as evidence that the Covenant knew the planet was at least occupied by human forces. However, Covenant forces had already encountered magnetic accelerator cannons in combat, when confronted with a UNSC Light Capital Warship, Cruiser, Carrier, or Cruiser-Carrier. The MAC installations were simply up-scaled versions of a common UNSC weapons system. Based upon their prior engagement experience with such weapons, the Covenant strategy simply obeyed mathematical laws: the performance of smaller weapons was known, so this data was extrapolated for the larger scale, with gravity and other factors considered, to calculate the likely maximum effective range of the MAC platforms. The fleet then halted just beyond this calculated range to commence boarding and sabotage actions using smaller craft.

Although losses weighed more heavily on the Humans than the Covenant, the UNSC nevertheless fought a successful holding action at New Mombassa. However, it is probable that UNSC High Command deliberately neglected to tell the medium and lower ranks that the Covenant task force was a really just a small pebble off the boulder. Had the UNSC soldiers known that they barely prevailed against a task force, morale would likely have suffered and the defense effort might have collapsed altogether.

UNSC

 * ODF Malta Station
 * ODF-142 Cairo Station
 * ODF Athens Station
 * UNSC Dusk
 * UNSC Coral Sea
 * UNSC In Amber Clad
 * UNSC Paris
 * UNSC Redoubtable

Covenant

 * Pious Inquisitor

UNSC

 * Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood
 * Fleet Admiral Harper
 * Commander Miranda Keyes
 * Commander Richard Lash
 * Lieutenant Commander Julian Waters
 * Lieutenant Commander Xaing Cho
 * Major Easley
 * Lieutenant Bethany Durruno
 * Lieutenant Joe Yang
 * Lieutenant Junior Grade SPARTAN Frederic-104
 * Master Chief Petty Officer SPARTAN John-117
 * Sergeant Major A.J. Johnson
 * Gunnery Sergeant Pete Stacker
 * Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN Linda-058
 * Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN Will-043
 * Staff Sergeant Marcus Banks
 * Corporal Perez
 * Private McKenzie

Covenant

 * High Prophet of Regret