Battle of New Tyre

The Battle of New Tyre, also called the Fall of New Tyre, was a major engagement in the early years of the Human-Covenant War. For decades New Tyre had been a battleground between the UNSC and various rebel and secessionist forces attempting to break away from the Unified Earth Government. Host to almost a dozen disparate rebel groups, three of which had exo-assets, the planet had become a major hotspot for the Insurrection.

Shortly before the battle, conflict flared across the planet as the United Independence Front made their big gambit to capture the Illustrious, a Marathon-class heavy cruiser, and use it against the UNSC. The ensuing skirmish left both sides bloodied but intact. But the situation completely changed as a Covenant fleet entered the system.

The battle marked the first recorded incident of cooperation between the UNSC and the Insurrection against the Covenant as the UNSC and UIF allied to face the new threat. Through a combination of delicate planning, fortune, and self-sacrifice, their combined forces were able to successfully hold off the Covenant and ensure the complete evacuation of New Tyre.

WINTER CONTINGENCY
At 8:13 on May 13th, without warning long-range scanners detected seventeen slipspace ruptures at the edge of the system. From them a fleet of unidentified vessels emerged and their first act was the outright annihilation of the civilian space station Barbados and all two thousand lives aboard it. This slaughter was soon followed by numerous outposts over the next two hours. Civilian freighters and vessels were also chased down and destroyed without mercy. The situation between the UNSC and rebels quickly changed as the new force encroached further into the system, slowly and methodically destroying any human life along the way, station by station and ship by ship. What few picket ships that were out there tried vainly to stop the Covenant fleet before they were destroyed by powerful energy-based weapons.

The UNSC fleet under Rear Admiral Colt knew what they faced and what little time they had and immediately turned his attention away from the rebels. Colt contacted the planetary government and declared and ordered to begin the total evacuation of New Tyre effective immediately. The Admiral prepared to deploy his fleet against the Covenant, however with a mere twelve ships they were horribly outmatched and defeat was assured.

An Unlikely Alliance
"Admiral, you know just as well as I that your fleet doesn't stand a chance against these things. This world is our home. If you fail then everyone on it, everyone we love and cherish...is forfeit. You need our help, Admiral. And I am willing to offer it, for the sake of our world."

- General Hale, leader of the United Independence Front, to Admiral Colt

Colt would be surprised to be contacted by the insurrectionist leader, General Hale. Hale contacted the UNSC Admiral and demanded to meet with him and in a surprising move offered his assistance in repelling the alien invaders. Colt was of course skeptical and questioned why he should trust a rebel, let alone one he was only moments ago fighting. Hale retorted that the UNSC was completely outmatched anyway and reminded him that New Tyre was his home and that if they failed to protect that everyone will die. Colt contemplated this for a moment, his second in command, Captain Robert Gates, was skeptical that the rebels intentions were honest and suspected that they would turn on them the first chance they got. Colt considered this and made his decision, Colt reopened communications with Hale and accepted the rebel's offer.

Many of Hale's officers were outraged and railed against this calling it an act of betrayal to aid their long time enemy. Still Hale held a lot of support from his men, the more rational supported his decision, including his second in command, Lt. Golding. The dissidents, lead by Lieutenant Lancer Millers demanded that they use this opportunity to rally the people and overthrow the UNSC. UIF Command descended into fierce arguments of barely controlled aggression until Hale silenced them. He reminded them that they would achieve nothing and unless they, fellow humans, pulled together to stop the invaders, or else New Tyre would burn and everything they had worked for would be for nothing. For now Lieutenant Millers backed off and seemed to accept this.

"I don't suppose you have another secret fleet lying around somewhere do you?"

- Jeriah Colt to Hale on their situation

As a sign of good faith, Hale took a Pelican to the UNSC flagship, the Terra Firma, to discuss battle plans with Colt. With Covenant forces mere hours away the two discussed strategy. Even with there forces combined their prospects looked grim. Colt did his best to bring Hale and the UIF up to speed with the capabilities of the Covenant, their strengths, religious nature, and technological capabilities. He revealed that Battle Group Terra Firma was originally on it's way to rendezvous with Admiral Cole's fleet to confront the Covenant before they were pulled aside by the UIF's theft of the Illustrious. He half seriously inquired if Hale "had anymore secret fleets lying around" which Hale admitted he did not.

Colt then made it clear that they did not have the strength to fight the Covenant head on, and that their only chance was to draw out the fight as only long as they can for evacuations to complete, and if the Covenant decide to ignore or bypass them then they stood no chance. The insurrectionist General deferred command of their naval actions to Colt but also stressed that Colt should heed any his recommendation if the battle takes to the ground. After finalizing the last details of the plan, General Hale returned to the Spartacus and issued orders to not engage the UNSC and to prepare for "foreign" attack. Colt deployed the 20th Marine Division, 11th Shock Troops Battalion, and 3rd Air Wing to the surface to link up and dig in with the disparate Colonial Militias and the depleted 16th and 62nd Infantry Regiments below.



First Volley
With virtually every last outpost in the system destroyed the Covenant fleet converged on the planet itself. The combined UNSC-UIF fleet, a total of twenty ships, lay waiting in orbit. Colt had their fleet array itself in a checkerboard style formation in order to bring all their MAC cannons to bear on the incoming enemy. The Covenant moved as a single mass, their escorts orbiting their single massive CAS-class Assault Carrier that sat at the center of their formation.

The UNSC-UIF fleet did not wait for the Covenant to enter New Tyre's orbit or allow them to make the first move. As soon as they entered targeting range the fleet fired staggered volleys of magnetic-accelerated rounds at the Covenant fleet. MAC rounds slammed into ten of their ships, most of them were absorbed by their shields but one Covenant frigate was destroyed and another was damaged. The Covenant took the bait and rather than deploy to the surface moved into attack speed straight at them.

Even before the first shots struck the UNSC-UIF fleet was already turning to retreat. Colt knew that they wouldn't be able deal enough damage even if they concentrated their fire more efficiently. Having the escorts target the Covenant frigates while their capital ships blunted the shields of the cruisers was only to get their attention, if the Covenant took them too seriously then it would simply mean their own swift destruction.

The human fleet accelerated away from the pursuing Covenant and kept the planet's curvature between them. Colt kept their ships just barely within firing range of the Covenant, not moving at full power as to reveal their full capabilities, and keeping their attention on them. Colt led the Covenant all around the planet. Periodically the human fleet would briefly turn to form up and fire another volley at the Covenant from extreme range while their fighters duke it out. Each brief clash led the Covenant along further, but the cost was bloody.

Over the course of eight clashes more than half of UNSC-UIF fleet was lost. The UNSC lost four of their frigates, the Magdalene sacrificed itself to intercept a plasma torpedo meant for the Terra Firma. Two of their precious cruisers, the Falkland and the Sedan, were also destroyed. Meanwhile the UIF fair little better, having lost four of their five armed freighters in the second engagement and the Vercingetorix was nearly cut in half by a pulse laser. So far the other cruisers in the combined UNSC-UIF fleet only escaped long range fire by the Covenant by desperately using premature archer missile detonations inspired by the at the reccomendation of UIF Lt. Golding. At this point they had managed to destroy a further two Covenant cruisers and damaging a third.

This run-and-gun battle continued for another grueling ten hours, after which the Covenant caught on. Their Fleet Master had thought they could simply destroy the fleet at their leisure before deploying to the surface but that was taking too long. At noon of the second day of the battle, the Covenant fleet split in two. Four cruisers and four corvettes broke off from the main fleet and headed straight for New Tyre's main continent. And they were not alone. The rest of the fleet, including the massive Assault Carrier, deployed hundreds of dropships and fighters with the break-off group as an escort. With the gig up the UNSC-UIF fleet fired a salvo of archer missiles at the descending invasion force but ironically their carefully maintained distance prevented that.

Covenant Landfall
The Covenant army landed in overwhelming strength. They assaulted six of New Tyre's seven largest population centers and center-points of evacuations. The cities of New Tyzena, Azores, Korae, Aegea, Verde, and New Nassau all came under attack. Two cruisers lead the attack on New Tyzena while the other two cruisers attacked Korae and New Nassau respectively, meanwhile the four corvettes broke up in to two groups, one assaulting Aegea and the other Verde.

The two cruisers attacking New Tyzena, dubbed CCS-U166 and CCS-U167, began low-level plasma bombardment of the city and it's outskirts, devastating whole city blocks and suburban sections within minutes. The UNSC sent in a strike force of eight Longsword fighter and Shortsword bomber squadrons outfitted with GBU-2494/T MSNOs (Massive Shaped-charge Non-nuclear Ordnance) in an attempt to destroy the two cruisers. Despite a valiant effort the strike force fails to destroy either of the cruisers, their warheads proving ineffective at piercing their shields. As a result they were devastated with the surviving 14% returning to base. However the force of the bombardment succeeded in forcing the two cruisers to break off their attack and retreat several kilometers. Despite this momentary reprieve thousands of Covenant warriors were still mustering at their landing zones and within hours would lay siege to New Tyzena. Already they were testing the cities defenes were air attacks. On the others fronts a similar situations was playing out as Covenant vessels on the surface began low level bombardments of their targets.

As night fell of the first day of the battle the ground campaign began in earnest. Heedless of the nighttime conditions, the Covenant army launched a determined assault on the planet's capital, several legions backed by tank battalions and flocks of Banshees and dropships. Despite a determined defense by prepared UNSC defenders they struggled to hold back the tide. Combined forces of UNSC Army troopers, Marines, Colonial Militia units, and even New Tyre's Police Fore engaged them but were quickly being overwhelmed, outnumbered by short diminutive Grunts and outfought by ferocious Elites. Under the cover of heavy bombardment the Covenant chewed through the UNSC's initial defenses and forced them back street by street.

The elements of the 62nd Regiment were supported by the ODSTs of Kilo Company. Under the command of Captain Roimata Kiri they supported the Army troopers the best they could, providing overwatch and acting as an anchor that held the defense of the sector in one piece.

As the situation grew desperate suddenly abetted by withering sniper fire and rockets from above blasted the Covenant front ranks and felled several of their dropships while heavy machine gun batteries opened up from the high rooftops and drove off the Banshees. The embattled soldiers would be surprised to be suddenly relieved by reinforcements but they would be even more surprised to see that they were Insurrectionist soldiers.

Only to pull out through secret escape tunnels and then drop the entire building on top of them.

Space assest
Cruisers Destroyers Frigates Prowlers
 * UNSC Terra Firma, super-heavy cruiser
 * UNSC Verdun, Marathon-class heavy cruiser
 * UNSC Sedan, Marathon-class heavy cruiser
 * UNSC Falkland, Marathon-class heavy cruiser
 * UNSC Neptune, Marathon-class heavy cruiser
 * UNSC Havoc
 * UNSC Dusk and Dawn
 * UNSC Magdalene
 * UNSC Hornet
 * UNSC Arcadia
 * UNSC Lapis Lazoli
 * UNCS Blackjack

Ground forces

 * 11th Marine Expeditionary Force
 * 20th Marine Division
 * 11th Shock Troops Battalion
 * Echo Company
 * Kilo Company
 * 3rd Air Wing
 * 5th Artillery Regiment
 * 275th Tank Battalion
 * 16th Infantry Regiment
 * 62nd Infantry Regiment
 * New Tyre Colonial Militia
 * New Tyrian Police Forces

Personnel

 * Admiral Jeriah Colt
 * Captain Robert Gates
 * Colonel Jean Callahan
 * Colonel Richard Galloway
 * Major Rolph Macer
 * Captain Roimata Kiri
 * Captain Rika Mogami

Space assets

 * UIF Spartacus, Marathon-class heavy cruiser
 * UIF Vercingetorix, Paris-class heavy frigate
 * UIF Guevara, Mako-class corvette
 * UIF William Wallace, armed freighter
 * UIF Boudicca, armed freighter
 * UIF Washington, armed freighter
 * UIF Joan d'Arc, armed freighter
 * UIF Fawkes, armed freighter

Ground forces

 * UIF Revolutionary Forces
 * UIF Commandos

Personnel

 * General Nathaniel Hale
 * Lieutenant Naston Golding
 * Lieutenant Lance Millers

Space assets

 * URF Lafayette, modified Gorgon-class heavy destroyer
 * URF-aligned Freighters

Ground forces

 * URF 24th Volunteer Battalion
 * URF Commandos
 * UIF defectors

Personnel

 * Colonel Jacobs Keller
 * Captain Julia Myers
 * Lieutenant Lance Millers (post-defection)