Crescenda-II

Crescenda-II was a former United Earth Government colony at the edges of human space. Since 2553 the planet has remained under quarantine by the Office of Naval Intelligence. Officially it was glassed by Covenant remnants in early-2553 though realistically the planet is one extremely few to ever make contact with the Flood, the encounter proving disastrous. The colony is only known instance of the Keyes Protocol being enforced on a UEG colony. An ONI monument stands in the heart of it's former political capital city, Superior, in testament to the utter and complete loss of all UEG assets and civilians in the enforcement of the Keyes protocol. A second monument nearby denoted the 'Monument to All Our Sins' details the list of casualties caused by action of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Space surrounding the planet is, of 2557, defended by two UNSC battle-fleet rotations at any one time. Personnel without supervision of ONI represenatives are not permitted on the world's surface and are not informed of ONI's activity on the surface.

Forerunner Colonisation
At an unknown point prior to the Forerunner-Flood war, the Forerunners settled on Crescenda-II and established two major cities below the surface. One housed a major military industrial complex with eighteen sentinel foundries, three shipyards, a shipbreaking facility, and three armiger foundries producing specialist Etherean Keepers for defence of various Forerunner structures. The other city house research and engineering facilities. The two were connected by a rapid transit system. During the Forerunner-Flood war a large number of specimens were kept in a double containment system built below the second city, at some point the first level of containment was breached allowing the flood to overrun a small area, capturing the singular Forerunner staff member inside, this staff member was eventually twisted into the voice and mind of the flood consciousness brooding below the second city. It is believed that all life on the planet was wiped out, with the exception of the flood in cold storage below, with the firing of the Halo Array. The armigers, the sentinels and various other constructs maintained the two cities and kept the foundries running to replace failing armigers and sentinels. A Forerunner keyship was present in the first city. As the planet's plate's moved and as the world changed outside, the two cities became buried beneath a shallow ocean.

Human Colonisation
In 2381 the Aurelian colony ship made planetfall on Crescenda-II. With colonists hailing from Danish-Greenland, Canada, the northern U.S.A and Iceland, the Aurelian was used to begin work on the first city, named after Minnesota's largest lake, Lake Superior. The planet was colonised for vast silicon and rare metal deposits and likewise for the great agricultural potential of its soil. Immediately farms began springing up, founding the basis for towns, which provided even more industry.

By 2525 the colony was composed of four metropolis' and much of it had been explored. It was in March of 2525 that the Office of Naval Intelligence became aware of the two cities, now located just beyond a prominent city built on its fishing trade, some three kilometres below the seafloor. The cities bought immense interest to ONI who spent the next five years attempting to communicate with senior sentinels while the sentinels themselves attempted to produce an armiger capable of liasing with the humans. Following the creation of Beowulf in 2531, the sentinel's solution to liason with the humans, The Office of Naval Intelligence personnel were guided through the facility. Inquiring into their status as reclaimers. Beowulf dismissed the questions. Office of Naval Intelligence asset, army Major Dan Kurtis remained with Beowulf for a period of several days within the first city, absorbing as much as he could about the civilisation left behind. Beowulf remarked in various records held in the first city that Kurtis was remarkably pure intentioned for a military man, not seeing the facilities as technological advancements for his own war but as an marvel of nature. Beowulf likewise thought this both parts extremely naive yet intelligently mature and couldn't make up his mind on the Reclaimer's nature. Beowulf refused to cooperate well with other Office of Naval Intelligence personnel, citing them as cold, calculated, advantangeous, cruel; minds unsuited to wield the Mantle of Responsibility. For this purpose Major Kurtis became ONI's bridge between Beowulf, and by extent the entire facility they'd uncovered. ONI's exploration and negotiation with Beowulf was key to many developments of the Human-Covenant war. The armiger-ancilla hybrid did however hold back much information from the humans, citing that, should they know the full truth, they'd become more dangerous than anything the galaxy had ever seen, correctly assuming that the Office of Naval Intelligence would use the Flood to experiment and try to control it, believing the organisation to be founded on deep hubris unsupported by capability.

Rainy, a coastal fishing, tourist and marine research city plays host to the Crescendan Circuit in 2532, a cross-colony assessment of physical aptitude with representatives of each territory or city participating. The event is broadcast across the planet. In 2553 marine Colonel Orlando de Croix will look back on his joint first place victory with his husband and use it to temporarily resist the influence of the Flood proto-gravemind as he waits to be killed by orbital bombardment from the UNSC Paul Bunyan.