The Battle for Epsilon V

Major Rawne 001 04:23, August 7, 2010 (UTC) The Battle of Epsilon V took place on August 15th 2535. The Evacuation

After the loss of Epsilon IV the remaining two planets, Epsilon III and V began Evacuations. On August 9th. On August 11th Epsilon III's civilian transports were attacked by the covenant and destroyed. This massive act of genocide committed by the Covenant was known as The Massacre of Epsilon III. Unlike Epsilon III however the remaining ships from the Epsilon Battle Fleet were stationed above the planet useing it as a tempoary staging ground. By August 13th 70% of Epsilon V's civilians where aboard 7 of the 10 transport ships. On August 14th the Epsilon Battle Fleet picked up 7 Covenant ships exiting slipspace just outside of the planet. Fleet Admiral Vor knew he couldn't engage the Covenant ships without taking unacceptable losses. He was prepared to order the fleet and 7 transport ships to enter slipspace and leave the civlians on the ground to have the same fate as the planet. Being glassed. This didn't sit well with Spartan 117,and he proposed a plan to stop the Covenant and buy time for the transports.

 Chiefs Plan 

The master chief's plan consisted of the three spartan II teams to board several of the covenant ships and disably and destroy them. The team would deploy using Open Frame 92 Extra-Vehicular Activity craft. The Three spartan teams each took a separat ship. Red and yellow teams would each take a light cruiser while the Blue team led by Master Chief took the assault on the Cruiser. The spartans would each land near the engines and immedieatly destroy the slipspace drives. At this point the teams would split up. One group would stay with the engine room to set charges on the engines themselvs while the other goes to take the bridge. For the other teams these objectives were simply but since Blue team consisted of 4 Spartans, John 117,Kelly 087, Malcom 059,and Linda 058 At 12:32am the Spartan teams launched their attack. to cover their approach a long range missle barrage was fired from the UNSC fleet.The Spartan teams each boarded their targets flawlessly and went to work. At 1:10pm each spartan team held control of the engine room and the bridge. With Master Chief in control of the operation he still maintained contact with the other teams. John saw the opertunity at hand ordered the spartans to have their ships fire on the remaing covenant ships in the fleet. After a few minutes of getting to know the controls the three Spartan controlled covenant warships began to fire on the unsuspecting loyalist ships. The fleet was quickly destroyed with out a hostile shot fired back. With the real threat eliminated the spartans began their escape.The Chief sent word to the other spartan team leaders to have them crash the ships into the evacuated cities on the surface of Epsilon V. Chief ordered Malcom and Linda to meet the Chief and Spartan Kelly at the hanger and secure the team a Phantom. After Chief punched in the coordinates to the ships engines he and Kelly destroyed all of the bridges consols so the covenant couldn't stop the course the ship was taking. Before destroying the last consol Kelly launched all the empty escape pods so all the covenant would die. Only when the bridge was destroyed did John and Kelly run for the hanger.

Escape.

While John and Kelly were making their way to the hanger Spartans Linda and Malcom had a phantom dropship secured and were holding of scores of covenant.Malcom had already detonated the charges on the engine crippling the engine room's consols and mechanics but leaving the engines themselves functioning. While Blue team was making their escape the Spartan Red and Yellow teams were already making their way out of the ships. Within ten Minutes of leaving the bridge John and Kelly made it to the hanger and blue team fled the hanger as the ship plummetted towards the surface. The three spartan teams made it back with all their members. The daring mission bought the civilians enough time to get all 100% of the population of the surface and onto the ships. This was the first mission and last mission that was a human victory with no loss of life. As for the Covenant all of their soldiers were killed and the fleet destroyed. This mission yet again proved to ONI how valuble Spartan IIs are in combat. On August 16th the remaining ships of Battlefleet Epsilon and the 10 transport ships all entered slipspace and headed for the Sigma Octanus system.