Barrow

"Barrow was a prime agro-world. Situated conveniently in the outer colonies to supply food and goods to most of them, brining in a lot of revenue and a lot of loyalty. O.N.I. didn't like its vassals being loyal to someone else..."

Background
Originally an agricultural world located within the outer colonies Barrow was the modern day Istanbul meets spice trade route of the U.E.G. outer colonies. Garnering significant loyalties and revenue. Established in 2482 Barrow was a leading force in establishing the outer colonies and thus saw its population grow significantly through the years leading up to the Human-Covenant War. By the time of the insurrection Barrow had already expressed fondness towards independence and its many allies had openly supported a Barrow-Succession movement. In 2515 Barrow, in secret, established the Barrow Trade Federation with its nearby allies and began building militant cargo and freight vessels for an eventual succession. In 2525, that succession opportunity would be at hand.

Human-Covenant War
When the Covenant arrived at Humanities door, Barrow was relatively close to hear the knocking. After Harvest went public the Barrow Trade Federation accelerated its weaponization and established long term mining operations within the Barrow home system along with sponsoring operations with its allies. Barrow transitioned from a purely Agro-world to a fully autonomous industrial stronghold.

As the outer colonies fell rapidly the B.T.F. organized patrol fleets while preparations were made to hide the populations in underground shelters in hopes of convincing the covenant that Humanity had evacuated and abandoned the colonies. In 2535 Patrol Group Thirteen would identify a battlegroup of covenant ships nearby, by now the B.T.F. had been living in underground shelters for little over a year. Arriving in B.T.F. space in the following weeks the colonies of the federation would be invaded, their capitols glassed, but otherwise assumed already abandoned as the Covenant would move on to the next world. This strategy actually proved to slow the Covenant's onslaught as they glassed empty cities while inhabitants in subterranean bunkers outlasted the bombardments, Barrow included.

Post-War
Following the end of the Human-Covenant War, Barrow remained the head of the B.T.F. and had amassed a considerable military power.