OPERATION: TITANIUM SPEAR

"'That's a first..'""- James Coleman during the destruction of the Supercarrier."OPERATION: Titanium Spear was a decisive battle fought between the UNSC and the Covenant above the planet of Biko on the 9th of December, 2536. The minor Covenant force present was taken by complete surprise and suffered almost total destruction, while the UNSC took comparatively less losses.

Background
Biko was a planet in the Outer Colonies which was glassed during 2526, being one of the first worlds to be destroyed by the Covenant. Beginning in 2530, the Covenant began to construct a CSO-class Supercarrier over the planet of Biko, and attached a moderately sized defense fleet to the project.

By 2536, as the focus of the war shifted away from the Outer Colonies, the Covenant had drawn most of it's naval resources away from the project, leaving the Supercarrier relatively undefended apart from 3 dedicated warships. It was in late 2536 that the UNSC discovered the project being undertaken by the Covenant following the Second Base Incident, and the UNSC would immediately assemble a strike-force under Captain James Coleman, incorporating elements of the II. Groombridge 1830 Battlegroup.

Battle
The strike-force exited slipspace over Biko, immediately moving to engage the unprepared Covenant fleet. In the initial strike, heavy damage was dealt to a Covenant corvette and a number of construction and support vessels would be pulled into the battle to supplement the Covenant fleet. James Coleman would manage to break through the Covenant defense with three vessels and would commence an attack on the Supercarrier, forcing the Covenant fleet to withdraw and defend it. Now knowing of the UNSC's true goal, the Covenant would begin to selectively engage ships that targeted the Supercarrier, with the radical strategy change stunning the UNSC and causing two frigates to be destroyed.

As the battle progressed, the Covenant defense fleet was gradually weakened and damaged while the UNSC fleet continued to overwhelm them. Spartan Team Coastal would be deployed alongside Fireteam India to the Supercarrier, the battle taking place allowing them to board it without major resistance. Now inside the massive vessel, both teams proceeded towards the engine room, battling through the ship's constructors with little effort. Once the Covenant realised the situation at hand, a Corvette, the Humble Righteousness, retreated to the far side of the Supercarrier and began to deploy forces to the vessel to bolster the crew. Forced to work under a new time-limit, that being before the Covenant could deploy an overwhelming number of forces to the ship, both teams would move with haste to the engine room where a HAVOK tactical nuclear device would be planted, and the teams would fight their way to the incomplete hangar bay, where they would be evacuated by pelican.

As both teams fought their way through the Supercarrier, the battle outside progressed, with the Covenant successfully destroying a UNSC Destroyer while the UNSC managed to seriously damage and incapacitate the remaining Corvette. The Cruiser would have been moving to engage the UNSC Ivory Coast when the HAVOK device was remotely detonated, annihilating large sections of the Supercarrier and causing it and all resources aboard and nearby to explode violently, destroying the Corvette hiding on the far side of the Supercarrier and also heavily damaging the Covenant cruiser. The UNSC Punic-class Supercarrier would be caught in the outskirts of the blast and would suffer minor damage.

The battle would soon after come to a close with the swift destruction of remaining Covenant assets, which at this point were either heavily damaged or overwhelmed. Surviving Covenant forces would evacuate aboard the remaining Construction vessels, one of which would have been caught in the outskirts of the blast and incapacitated. Following the deployment of Fireteam Yesterday, the vessel would be captured and crucial information on upcoming Covenant projects would be brought back to the fleet, which would recall all assets and retreat from the system before Covenant reinforcements could arrive.

Aftermath
Directly following the battle's conclusion, a Covenant Super-Destroyer, the Sword of Faith, entered the system. The Super-Destroyer would retrieve the survivors from Construction Vessels that had withdrawn from the area, and would investigate the scene. It'd report back to the Covenant that the UNSC had destroyed the Supercarrier, and would begin probing slipspace beacons for the fleet, but to no avail.

On the UNSC's end, large celebrations were held as the operation was considered one of - if not the most decisive UNSC victory in a long time. For ONI, their job had just gotten more intense as they were forced to scour the information retrieved from the battle. ONI probes that had access to the Covenant Battlenet discovered that the operation had the additional affect of flinging the Covenant into disarray and confusion, and the Covenant would spend the next month hunting for the strike-force in the Outer Colonies. The Battle made the Covenant believe that there was an ongoing guerrilla war within the Outer Colonies involving a large UNSC fleet, and as such, a large number of ships were tied down elsewhere, allowing the UNSC a momentary respite and some time to breathe.

The Battle caused James Coleman and several other junior officers present to become highly distinguished among UNSC forces, and receive multiple medallions. A member of Spartan Team Coastal would receive the Purple Heart Medallion while all members of the boarding party would receive the Legion of Honor with the exception of Spartan Team Coastal, who already possessed the award.