Fall of Avalon

The Fall of Avalon, also referred to as the Battle for Avalon, was one of the bloodiest battles in the Human-Covenant war, taking place on the Unified Earth Government super-colony of Avalon during the early months of 2552. It's destruction had severe economic implications for the Post-war UEG, with large benefactors based in Avalon's economic capital, Camelot, losing much of their capital and wealth.

Close to 60% of the civilian population were killed with almost 90% of defending UNSC, ADF and reserve forces being erradicated by the Covenant invaders. Imran Sachin managed to preserve hundreds of surviving personnel trapped in the Ironhill by secreting them in the Ironhill's Retreat, a hidden bunker located a kilometre below sea level. These survivors were cryogenically frozen and recovered in 2557 during recolonization efforts.

Battlegroup Aeolus made a blind slipspace jump from the battle and is reported missing though wreckage of the Rhea was recovered in 2558, floating near a large and previously uncategorised world.

The death toll reached just under the Fall of Reach's 700,000,000 and all UNSC remnants were swiftly crushed.

First Battle over Avalon
"I smiled as the bastards burned, oh that was a short-lived victory but damn was it satisfying."

- Ikram Sancho, 2556 Between the 5th of May, 2551 through to November the 23rd the UNSC Avalon Defence Fleet, supported by the Wayland Private Military Corp.'s private navy and Avalon's orbital defences waged a sizeable battle with a large Covenant force, used to the light resistance provided by UNSC fleets previously encountered by the Covenant navy, they were unprepared for the tactical ability and technological superiority of the Avalonian force. While not quite surpassing the Covenant's technological dominance, the Avalonian fleet, supported by Orbital Defense Platforms and Wayland Shipyards's private ships and crew, was able to best the invading force at the cost of half of their own navy, much of the victory attributed to a rear flank masterminded by Ava Grieve who assumed command following the death of her predescessor Fleet Admiral Dalton van Schie during the early stages of the Battle. The UNSC defenses exterminated the attackers with ruthless efficiency after being pushed back to the planet, losing half their fleet and the Orbital Defense Platform over Camelot, despite this the Covenant sustained twice as many losses including several CAS-class assault carriers. The moon colony of Arthur is glassed and all 120,000

Prelude Skirmishes
Prior to the arrival of a larger and better armed Covenant fleet, several Avalonian patrols were engaged small pickets of Covenant ships while a supercarrier was spotted by a satellite positioned in deep space near Avalon. A special taskforce was fielded to investigate aboard an ONI Prowler. The prowler was discovered by an unseen LSS-Class Stealth Destroyer which it quickly dispatched, however the damage was done and the team were forced into a retreat.

Several patrols consisting of a single Llamrei-class battlecruiser supported with somewhere between two and five Claudin-class Destroyers came under fire from patrols of three to seven LSS-class Stealth Destroyers and the occasional leading CCS-class battlecruiser, the patrols avoided conflict as it was likely they would be overwhelmed.

Second Battle over Avalon
The CSO-class supercarrier spotted by the prowler prior to the battle exits slipspace with a fleet numbering twenty ORS-class heavy cruisers, and some fifty CCS-class battlecruisers and some sixty SDV-class heavy corvettes. The Covenant forces used the decimated colony of Arthur as a staging ground for their attacks on the planet's orbital defenses.