The Missing Wall

"They are all just missing in action"

- The first etching on the wall

The Missing Wall is the name of the hidden memorial located on the glassed planet of Merken. Built toward the end of 2554 by surviving members of Gamma Company the wall is the surviving Spartan-III's most closely guarded secret, known only to a handful of people outside their ranks. The Missing Wall itself is a long stretch of wall inside a small cave etched with the name of every Spartan-III to have fallen in battle, from the start of Alpha Company to every death suffered by Gamma Company. The wall holds a great deal of reverence for all that know about it especially for Spartan-III's who see it as something of a hallowed area. Since its creation many spartans have 'gone to find The Missing Wall' in order to write the names of dead comrades on the wall.

Merken
Prior to its glassing Merken was a world of long grass plains and rolling hills. It wasn't hugely colonized, sporting only five major settlements across it's three large continents each of which clustered around an orbital elevator of considerable size. While not a world rich in people it's position on the edge of the Inner Colonies made it an idea transit point for any ship travelling in or out of the Outer Colonies. As such it enjoyed a higher amount of trade than most other worlds its size something that the large orbital dock that once sat in geosynchronous above its atmosphere was great proof of.

With the onset of the Human-Covenant War Merken saw a change of situation and it's orbital stations were quickly refitted to repair and rearm UNSC vessels going out on patrol and it's settlements quickly saw an increase of transit from UNSC marines and navy men coming to spend their off duty time. This suited the Merken status quo just fine and the world soon blossomed with the increased transit as it became a hub of UNSC work in the sector.

However as the war dragged on the situation worsened. With the Covenant war machine pushing ever deeper into UNSC Space many UNSC Battle-groups begun moving their rearming stations deeper into the Inner Colonies. As such Merken lost out on much of its business as the bulk of the UNSC forces slowly moved backward. The issue soon became two fold as refugee's from the outlying worlds caught in the Covenant's attacks were brought to Merken and left to fend for themselves. This late in the war the UNSC no long has the capacity to watch over every world and combat the alien menace and so many worlds had to do with their planetary garrisons to deal with internal strife.

As the riches of Merken dried up many people went out of business and soon many of the original inhabitants were as poor and destitute as the refugees that had joined their world. Soon after this happened riots and fights broke out between Merken's original inhabitants and members of the refugee camps that had sprung up around the cities. Rumors of an insurrectionist movement didn't help matters and soon the situation turned dangerous as the UNSC troops in the area tried to step in to bring order back to the cities.

Before the situation could worsen further a Covenant Fleet transitioned in system. On May 16th 2552 Merken was glassed. UNSC forces resisted for just over a day during which they were able to evacuate much of the civilian population due to an unexpected warning from out system. However in the end their enemies superior numbers won out and the last major city was overrun as the second day broke. Doing a quick sweep of the planet and finding nothing of value the Covenant fleet glassed the planet and promptly left the system. Leaving Merken a scorched and battered wasteland.

OPERATION:RHO AIAS
"This is cold, even for you Margaret. At least the last two companies died off achieving something. And now you want to throw a perfectly good company of spartans to their deaths for what? Buy us a day or two?"

- Rear Admiral Rich noting his dislike for Operation:RHO AIAS

The arrival of the covenant fleet in the Merken system wasn't entirely by accident. A few months earlier ONI's Section Three was busy deciding the soon to be completed Gamma Company's mission target. Deciding that this late in the war a strike against the Covenant would be both time consuming and potentially impossible due to lack of resources Rear Admiral instead sought to use the company in a delaying action against the Covenant.

Toward the end of the war many ONI analysts had determined a link between Covenant appearances and ancient alien ruins that were often found on worlds they attacked. While they didn't fully understand why the aliens often appeared on planets baring these ruins it was a parallel ONI couldn't ignore. The plan for what was dubbed Operation:RHO AIAS was to lure the Covenant into a system garrisoned by Gamma Company using a faked signal that mirrored reading taken from Harvest and other sites of the ruins the Covenant seemed to seek and bring the aliens into a battle of attrition that would hopefully delay their movements into Human Space.

The Operation was never put into practice however as was able to bargain more time for his third company, citing that to be at full effectiveness they would need a few more months of additional training. Section Three agreed to Kurt's requests and the Operation was scrapped.

Quotes
"I'm going to look for The Missing Wall"

- A common saying among Spartan-III's when one of their number leaves for the wall