Battle of Harpa

Harpa
The Battle of Harpa took place from the 1st to the 15th of March, 2552. Harpa was a small colony world on the edge of the Epsilon Eridani system.It had been colonised in 2521 and the UNSC had built several Millitary installations there. However, there were several Forerunner artifacts and structures there that the UNSC had been excavating when the Covenant Cruiser, The Justicar arrived on planet.

The First Attack
The Covenant Destroyer, under the Command of Shipmaster Felo 'Ranakee, arrived in Orbit over Harpa at 0400 hours and obliterated the small defence fleet and Harpa's only MAC Defence platform. It then glassed three out of Harpa's four continents and began deploying landing troops. The defending UNSC forces from the Halcyon-Class Cruiser, Konakli, which was in one of Harpa's shipping yards for repair and re-armament. Although the Covenant's initial forces were beaten back, the Shipmaster deployed several Scarabs,which pushed back the defenders. One Scarab was destroyed while entering Harpa's Capital, Andama, by Sergeant Major Marco-025 of Spartan team Sigma, which was stationed on Harpa at the time.

Sigma Team
Sigma Team, a 7-man Spartan II team, was Stationed on Harpa when the battle began. General Fenn-145 sent out Marco-025 and Jax-007 to help on the front lines, and recalled Nef-015, Resk-063 and Wulf-041 from a reconnaissance mission to a Forerunner structure. Kane-099 was at the base at the time, but was not sent out for several days. He instead stayed and gave tacttical information to Spartans and Marines in the Field. Jax-007 was withdrawn after his unit was almost obliterated and managed to save the lives of the others by getting them to a pelican whilst under heavy fire. Nearby Covenant forces would have overwhelmed them while they waited at the evac point had it not been for Marco-025, who led a marine sniper team to the area to provide cover before he quite literally 'dropped in' on the enemy, using a captured Brute shot to wipe out the attacking enemy forces, Marco had since then modified the Brute shot to fire Human as well as Brute grenades. After making it back to Hammer Base, the UNSC operations centre, Jax was ordered to recover a prototype EMP bomb from an ONI testing facility to the North. Jax took a Pelican to the base, while Fenn tasked Kane-099 with locating Nef-015, Resk-063 and Wulf-041, who had gone missing in the city.

The Glassing of Andama
After over a week of Harsh fighting, Felo 'Ranakee had had enough. The humans had been more resilient than he had first thought. The UNSC Konakoli had badly damaged his destroyer's shields, but not before The Justicar had been able to take out two of the three Frigates escorting the Cruiser before destroying it with a barrage of Plasma Torpedoes. He had ordered seraph fighters to destroy any escape pods and went to check on the battle below. It was a disaster.Three of the five Scarabs had been destroyed and his forces, though they had the upper hand, were taking heavy losses. The retreat was sounded on the ground as the Justicar began to Glass the farmland cleared outside the city.

When the Covenant forces began to fall back, the UNSC forces surged forward, taking the city. Nef, Resk and Wulf had found Marco-025 in a ruined building with a platoon of Marines. He had been fighting for nearly three days without sleep and his armour was scorched and filthy. His left shoulder plate had been blown off by a plasma grenade.The four Spartans quickly led the surviving marines in a charge up a Covenant-held hill, destroying several wraiths in the process. It was only when the UNSC forces reached the top of the hill did they realise what was happening: The Covenant forces were redeploying away from the city as the glassing began. The Spartans in the City would have been killed had it not been for Kane-099, who came in with an escort of several pelicans. They were airlifted out of the city as it was destroyed, and the Covenant began Massing for what would be a final assault on the humans.