Battle of the Alamo

The Battle of the Alamo occurred in February-March 1836, during the Texas Revolution. Over two thousand Mexican soldiers besieged the Alamo Mission, a small fort in San Antonio, Texas, with just one hundred and fifty-five Texans defending it. Although the Mexicans over-ran the fort eventually, they had six hundred casualties due to the tenacity of the defenders.

The battle is notable in the Halo Universe as Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb compares his situation to that of Colonel William Barret Travis, one of the commanders at Alamo. Whitcomb is surrounded by thirty Covenant ships, with just the Ascendant Justice-Gettysburg hybrid ship available. He faces a moral dilemma - whether to die fighting the Covenant and be a hero like Travis, or to do the logical thing and flee, leaving the rebels to die. Whitcomb chooses the latter option, stating "This isn't the Alamo and I'm not Colonel William Barret Travis, although I dearly wish I were. No, we're running. We're trading hundreds of lives for billions."