Second Battle of Harvest

The Second Battle of Harvest was a fought by the UNSC and the Covenant during the Human-Covenant War. It was the direct follow on to the First Battle of Harvest which resulted in the destruction of the Harvest colony and seizure of the planet by the Covenant. The UNSC carried the day with superior numbers and a last-minute tactical maneuver, but suffered heavy casualties.

Background
In early 2525, Harvest was attacked by the Covenant. The colony was destroyed with many colonists fleeing on freighters. A UNSC scout ship and two frigates were destroyed, and a destroyer heavily damaged, in an unsuccessful attempt to dislodge the single Covenant ship holding the planet.

A month later on November 1, the UNSC-wide mobilization was under way, with Vice Admiral Preston Cole assembling a fleet to retake Harvest. The fleet named Battle Group X-Ray, conceived as the largest ever assembled in human history, ultimately consisted of 40 ships with the admiral commanding from.

The Battle
"Fix bayonets."

- VADM Cole during the final charge quoting Col. Joshua Chamberain from the American Civil War.

The UNSC fleet arrived at Harvest on March 1, 2526, and engaged the lone Covenant ship through a slingshot maneuver around the planet. Multiple ships, including the and the, were quickly destroyed. UNSC weapons, including nuclear ordnance, had very little effect on the enemy. Cole realized the enemy was using energy shields, like the one previously encountered at the Battle of Chi Ceti, and ordered the fleet to fire all of its weapons simultaneously at the target. This overwhelmed the shields and destroyed the Covenant vessel.

Aftermath


The UNSC victory came at the cost of thirteen warships. Cole realized the disparity between UNSC and enemy losses "did not bode well". However, ONI Section II propaganda exaggerated the victory to encourage recruitment; initially the foe was claimed to be an Insurrectionist weapon platform but this was later recanted. For their part, the Covenant celebrated the "Victory of Epsilon Indi" through fasting and prayer.

Harvest continued to be contested. The Covenant continued searching for Forerunner artifacts and the UNSC refusing to withdraw. The UNSC finally prevailed in 2531, but the planet lost its remaining strategic value as the Covenant advanced into the Inner Colonies.

Personnel

 * Admiral Preston Cole
 * Everest Shipboard-AI Sekmet

Warships

 * UNSC Austerlitz
 * UNSC Campo Grande
 * UNSC Constantinople
 * UNSC Excellence
 * UNSC Lowrentze
 * UNSC Maelstrom
 * UNSC Midway
 * UNSC Troy
 * UNSC Virginia Capes
 * UNSC Waterloo
 * UNSC Troy
 * UNSC Virginia Capes
 * UNSC Waterloo
 * UNSC Virginia Capes
 * UNSC Waterloo

Trivia

 * The presence of 40 UNSC ships-of-the-line against one overwhelmingly powerful enemy ship strikes a remarkable resemblance to the Trek-Universe's Battle of Wolf 359. At Wolf-359 the Federation's (or Humanity's) numerically superior fleet of 40 starships took on a single Borg Cube. The results, however, were completely opposite to the Halo-Universe. The Federation lost 39 of its 40 vessels, and the Borg Cube left the battle without so much as a scratch on its hull and moved on towards Earth.