Battle of New Century

"Men...it has been my greatest honor to serve beside you. Thank you."

- General Lewis Meriwether's final words. The Battle of New Century was a battle during the    that was fought between the    and the   from November 1st till December 10 2545. The battle saw the loss of the spartan fireteam Bravo Team and the destruction of the UNSC Hamlet.

Background
The colony of New Century was a middle colony and acted as a trading and economic hub for nearby human colonies. The planet was also considered an agricultural world with its vast ecosystem and resources to use.

First Day
On November 1st 2545, an unnamed Covenant Fleet arrived at New Century. With only a small orbital fleet to defend the planet, the is issued and reinforcements are requested. The Covenant fleet is able to break through the defense fleet and the enter the planet with the on high alert. Several military units are called into battle and attack the incoming Covenant forces.

General Lewis Meriwether began to mobilize his forces against the incoming Covenant troops. The Covenant forces opened fire on the capital of New London, prompting a quick UNSC response. Meriwether deployed several arial response teams to combat the Covenant threat as he and other advisers led UNSC evacuation efforts of the city. Covenant land teams began to engage UNSC troops and outpost lining the city. Due to overwhelming response, Meriwether ordered an evacuation effort. However, due to the large Covenant presence already in the city, several outpost and barracks were left behind still holding troops.

Alpha-Zulu Response
The following day, the UNSC Hamlet arrived with other UNSC frigates and destroyers. Captain James T. Avery and General Meriwether begin to discuss possible solutions to the recapture of New London. Captain Roderick-A207 and LTJG Benjamin-B300 suggest and drop led by Spartans. Operation: DIVE BOMB is given the green light.

On November 3, Bravo Team, Echo Team, Foxtrot Team and Gamma Team are deployed to different locations of New London with ODSTs and issued to recapture the city. The spartans deployed and were able to capture a majority of the city, leading up towards New Dawn Base, a UNSC army base within the city. The spartans were successful, and thus Alpha Team deployed to Next Dawn Base along with Delta Team to prepare their next assault in OPERATION Red Rover. Far into the night, Delta Leader reported the operation a failure as several marines laid dead and soon, Delta went dark. Roderick would send Bravo to save Delta with both teams made it back alive.

Operation: PHEONIX
After the success of Operation: DIVE BOMB, General Meriwether was given permission to use the Alpha-Zulu Corps for planetary defense. As a result, he sent Juliet and Sierra Teams to Kronos Square to take out a Covenant dig site on a mountain there.

Sierra Team took command and lead Juliet to ridge lines and Covenant mine fields. Sophia-A335 and Otto-A444 were sent to a ridge to prove cover while the rest of the spartans were sent to the site. Once at the site, Sierra's Hoffman went into the Covenant systems while Juliet explored the area. Discovering the site was found by codes from Crowe Research Facility, both teams of spartans retreated the area and set charges around the site in hopes of destroying the artifact.

After returning to the Hamlet, it was learned that the artifact was not even scratched and that the Covenant launched more ships to uncover the rest of the artifact. Redeploying back to Kronos, Juliet found a pathway down to the artifact and cleared out the local Covenant resistance. After clearing out the local Covenant forces, the spartans placed around the artifact, but before they left a  came to the area and began to study the artifact.

Contacting command, the spartans were ordered to kill the prophet and set of the nukes. Sophia and Otto successfully killed the prophet and regrouped with the rest of the spartans and called in a evac. Once at a far enough distance, Ace-A220 detonated the nukes and destroyed the artifact, burying it under 40,000 tons of rock.

Operation: SANDSTORM
Afterwards the Covenant captured the Lapus Desert and Gorge, forcing Roderick and Avery devised Operation: SANDSTORM. Spartan Teams Alpha, Bravo, Echo, Yankee, and Zulu were deployed each attacking three massive Covenant stating areas in the Lapus Desert. During the attack, George-A255 and William-B303 found and hijacked a and began to use it to aid the spartans. Bravo Team then joined in as Julius-B301 managed the weapons while Benjamin-B300 provided outside fire. Echo Team would join Bravo and hijack but only after one of their own died by a wraith blast.

As one successful unit, the spartans made their way to three massive stating areas in Lapus Desert. Willian-B303 and George-A255 used the scarab they hijacked to obliterate the center area while Benji, Julius and Echo Team cleared the far east area about four klicks out. Alpha Yankee and Zulu were then tasked with eliminating the area to the west about 10 klicks away from the central area. After four hours of battle, Roderick reported the operation as a success despite the heavy air force causalities and the single dead spartan.

Attacks on New London
Just six days after the recapture of the Lapus Desert, New London was hit hard by multiple Covenant ships. Benjamin then deployed Bravo Team to assist with civilian evacuation and UNSC retreat to somewhere either off world or to the Lapus Desert. On the 24th the Covenant began to attack Next Dawn Base with Bravo being deployed to secure the area. While Julius and George stayed at the base to drive off a, Benji and Will went to the surrounding buildings to rearm several around the facility. Successfully driving the Covenant away from the base, Bravo Team gave the go on using orbital rounds, said rounds destroyed the corvette.

Battle of Argo City
Deploying to Argo City, Juliet Team was paired with Garret Rogers' squad dubbed the Renegade Commandos. Once at the city, the commandos took point while the spartans went on recon and provided cover fire for the marines. After a few minutes of ground work, the teams encountered Covenant and stored away on a spirit by hijacking a. After arriving at a Covenant, the teams cleared out the hanger bay and divided and conquered. Mia, Meredith, Jackson, Rogers and Bazin attacked the bridge while Anna, Sophia and the rest of the commandos covered Lucas and provided a distraction.

After clearing the bridge, the spartans took command of the ship and began to glass some other Covenant cruisers and, but it was not enough. The ship was shot down by a carrier and crashed beyond Argo City. After waking up from the landing, the humans discovered the city was glassed and were evacuated to the UNSC Altman via.

Battle of the Southern Ice Plains
Acting as Sierra's first ever classified operation by, the spartans were assigned to guard the head scientist, Dr. Matthew Willson of Project: ICON, to the Southern Ice Plains where a suspected artifact was located. Moving through the terrain, the group was meet with Covenant forces who began to race the UNSC to the artifact's location which was already in Human hands. Arriving just a few minutes after the Covenant, the spartans were able to link up with Whiskey Team and help defend the facility.

While Doctor Willson began to take scans and prepare data for transport, the spartans defended the outside permitter from the Covenant. However, a group of Spec-ops elites broken through the facility and killed the scientist and allowed Covenant into the building. Within time, the spartans became surrounded and soon almost over ran if it was not for Foxtrot and Xavier Teams saving them. Before leaving, Xavier placed several beacons around the facility and once the group was cleared, MAC rounds bombed the station, burying the artifact and Covenant. After the blast, the spartans were redeployed to the UNSC Altman and escaped the planet.