Battle of Spiro-108

The Battle of Spiro-108 was a major engagement during the Human-Covenant War.

Prelude
Several days before the battle during a classified mission, an ONI prowler tracked a Covenant battle group entering slipspace. They tracked their slipspace vector and determined that its destination was the Spiro-108 system. Local forces were notified and placed on high alert. CENTCOM gathered what ships they had in the area and a force of thirteen Charon-class light frigates, one Ulysses-class cruiser, and two Gorgon-class heavy destroyers was assembled.

The Battle
On February 16th, 2528, four CCS-class battlecruisers exited slipspace within ONI’s estimated projections. Upon arrival, the Covenant fleet transmitted one cryptic message “Your destruction is the will of the gods”, and immediately moved on the waiting battle group, prompting the UNSC fleet to open fire with a full volley of MAC rounds and began firing Archer missiles. Most of the missiles were shot down before they could hit while all MAC rounds struck the advancing ships, but nothing pierced their energy shields. In turn, the Covenant warships charged up their weapons and fired their energy projectors, destroying the frigates Tigershark, Bargreen, Volga, and Trident in quick succession before firing the rest of their weapons.

It quickly became apparent to the UNSC that they did not have the firepower to stop them. To make matters worse they had no nuclear weapons available to speak of. Both fleets were now firing at will, the Covenant’s plasma torpedoes were destroying their ships in one shot and the UNSC was losing more ships to each salvo. Even their MAC cannons were ineffective against the Covenant’s shields as their ships continued to shrug off their MAC rounds. Then the heavy destroyers, Tornado and Nike, were destroyed by plasma torpedoes. By now they had lost half their ships.

As the battle continued to go badly for the UNSC, the Derringer, Botswana, Gordon, Boulder, Yorktown, and Timbuktu were all destroyed. As battle turned ever farther against them, the Volkov was struck by a plasma torpedo, taking its MAC cannon offline. With the situation untenable, the remainder of the UNSC fleet made a hasty retreat into slipspace.

Out of a fleet of sixteen ships, only three survived, two frigates, the Sigrid and Zama, and the Volkov. The Covenant suffered no losses and with the UNSC fleet in retreat proceeded to begin glassing.