Battle of Kasir

The Battle of Kasir was a major offensive during Operation: **** that targetted a recently discovered Covenant mining operation on the planet of Kasir in the Tanaan system. Unknown to both the UNSC and Covenant, the battle was orchestrated by Forsaken agents within the Covenant fleet to achieve their own ends.

Prelude
On **** ****,**** a UNSC task force stumbled upon a destroyed Covenant corvette stripped of anything of value with the exception of its navigational core. After analyzing its contents, the UNSC discovered the location of Kasir a minor Assembly Forge that supplied a minor amount of resources to Covenant fleets heading off to fight the UNSC but was intentionally led to believe it was much more significant through falsified data. Along with information about the location itself, it informed them of the small defensive fleet that guarded the planet, allowing them to come up with a task force to destroy the facility.

The battle
As Covenant forces laid siege to the border of the Inner Colonies, the UNSC assigned Admiral Albert Hambra with a task force to attack the facility on Kasir, including a strike team consisting of three Spartan-IIs that would assist in taking down the shield generator. When they arrived in-system they were only opposed by a trio of CRS-class light cruisers, each of which had been sabotaged by the Forsaken weeks prior and defeated by the UNSC task force relatively easily.

Landing
Before making their descent to deploy their ground forces, the UNSC ships conducted orbital bombardment to eliminate surrounding defences that resided outside the Covenant shield. However, after losing the UNSC Hauler to a planetary defence cannon underneath the shield, the UNSC was forced to deploy their ground forces far from the actual facility. The landing zones themselves were attacked by waves of Banshees and other Covenant vehicles but eventually repelled due to UNSC air forces who eventually achieved air superiority for the majority of the battle as they provided air support. After landing and securing the area, UNSC forces began a long march against the Covenant facility and only stopping to refuel or to wait for air support.

As the majority of UNSC forces gained the attention of local Covenant forces, three Spartan-II and a platoon of ODSTs burrowed their way underneath the shield itself (with the assistance of UNSC Engineer Corps) and infiltrated the Covenant stronghold. Not noticing the human infiltration, the Sangheili General Kuga 'Nagim convinced the local San'Shyuum, Rarn Lank, deploy a major portion of their remaining strength against the human convoy in an attempt to wipe them out of stale them until help arrives. However, with the UNSC having air superiority, the Covenant would take massive losses but would not be deterred.

Infiltration
With Covenant and UNSC fought around the facility, the infiltration team moved through its corridors until reaching the generator room. Unfortunately, they alerted General Kuga 'Nagim who confronted the team when they arrived. While the Spartans held Covenant forces off, the ODST troopers planted charges to destroy the generator. Kuga 'Nagim was killed after the charges and generator exploded, leaving the facility vulnerable. As they left the building they disabled the anti-aerospace cannons keeping their ships and transports out of range.

UNSC reinforcements would arrive in the form of additional air support and quickly eliminate all remaining Covenant ground troops and destroyed their target by orbital bombardment, but not before Rarn Lank himself escaped.

Aftermath
The UNSC's attack on Kasir was declared a success by HIGHCOM, but with the Covenant pushing hard on their military, they were forced back to the front lines, knowing their successful assault would hinder the Covenant war effort. While leaving the world, UNSC captured various pieces of Covenant material that they studied to help their understanding of the Covenant and to potentially find some weaknesses in their adversaries.

With the Covenant out of their way, the Forsaken would proceed with phase two of their plan, to access the cache of Forerunner artifacts discovered by the local Covenant forces, whose transmission of their findings were intercepted by the Forsaken to prevent the discovery from reaching the ears of the Covenant at large. The Forsaken managed to excavate a sizable portion of Forerunner technology before escaping off planet and destroying the cache itself when Covenant forces arrived weeks later. With their victory, the Forsaken would continue to manipulate Covenant and humans into believing they were attacking rather insignificant locations by planting evidence they were much more important than they actually were.