User:RelentlessRecusant/Raid on Beryl

"Make ready the team for Beryl. We will execute immediately."

- Admiral Gibson to Colonel Cooke

The Raid on Beryl was an assault on the homestead of Nazareth on the planet of Beryl during February 2554, a covert operation sanctioned by the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence, Section Three.

Casus belli
It was authorized in January 2554 by Admiral Gibson, the Director of Special Intelligence of Section Three, after Beah Schore announced the successful generation of SCARLET, and ONI moved to collect human assets for in vivo experimentation. The ONI assault was led by Colonel Cooke and supported by assets of UNSC Naval Special Warfare (NAVSPECWAR).

Events
"Administrator, we have a solar flare. It’s breaking up communication with the Cyclopean and the five homesteads on the far side. The communications are down too—no more footage from my plant seekers."

- Gagne to Aygen

The ONI assault commenced at 0230 hours in the morning, the dead of night when most civilians were likely to be asleep. Broadband signals jamming was commenced by the invading forces, mimicking a "solar flare" that would disrupt long-range communications and prevent distress signals. NAVSPECWAR stealth attack craft and dropships closed on the townstead, their stealth capability and the townstead's inadequate sensor technology allowing them to achieve the element of surprise as NAVSPECWAR gunships gunned down civilians and NAVSPECWAR and ONI field operators inserted by means of dropship, clearing the residential section module-by-module, selectively killing the men, the elderly, and the children. In the first moments of the battle, the town's command center was raided, with two high-ranking colony officials, Aygen and Gagne, killed with the opening shots of the battle.

"Local resistance neutralized."

- NAVSPECWAR operator

Several objectives—codenamed Objective Red, the town's command and communications center, and Objective Green, the town's power generators—were initially secured, destroying the possibility of calling for help or organizing a resistance. Afterwards, the indiscriminate slaughter of all the unarmed men of the colony by well-armed and experienced NAVSPECWAR operators led the remnants of the town—women of young and middle age, alive. The women were captured and taken aboard cargo haulers for transport to Asphodel Meadows Naval Special Warfare Center. Civilian resistors that attempted to resist the invasion were summarily executed by lining them up against concrete walls and then bayoneting their throats.

The Raid on Beryl was considered an influential success by ONI and NAVSPECWAR, providing Cooke and Section Three with four thousand biological assets for screening.