Battle over Clifton

"With respect..."captain", if you want your little demons back then let us make the arraignments."

- Ship Master Kaliv Rahgath to Captain Damon Janeiro The Battle over Clifton was a single day long operation involving the UNSC Rio and the spartans of Shield Team allied with the against Kaliv Rahgath and his sub-fleet of Gracious Allies. The battle saw the destruction of Kaliv’s fleet and the Ship Master himself along with the deaths of Logan-G026, and Brian Mack.

Despite he losses and the destruction of a, the battle was still in favor of the joint and Swords forces against the power of the Gracious Allies.

Background
After hunting down Rahgath for over three years, the finally located the Ship Master near the colony world of Clifton. The location was currently within a UNSC, dark zone in space, not receiving any contact for more than a week. In response, the UNSC deployed a cruiser to the colony.

After some time with no report from the cruiser, deployed Shield Team to deal with the Covenant.

Attacking the Fleet
The UNSC Rio arrived at Clifton on December 15, 2561 along with the Fleet of Glorious Redemption for reinforcements. Upon arriving at the planet, the Rio and Glorious came under heavy fire from Rahgath and his forces. As the Rio entered an attack position, Shield Team deployed from and took off into battle. The spartans flew towards the flagship, Shadow of Death, with the intention of taking out Rahgath early on. Kyle-A245, and Michael Cross and Kevin Miles were able to break into the starboard hanger with support from Glorious Redemption’s. Logan-G026, Spartans Maya Vono and Brian Mack remained outside and fired off rounds against the Gracious Allies’ fleet.

While moving under the, the Helper of Truth began to unleash rounds onto the lower hull of the ship. Rahgath ordered the on his ship to fire. ‘Solok was able to move his ship out of the way just in time, but both Logan and Mack were killed in the blast. Vono began to continue to fire along the permitter of the carrier and took out several guns in the process. Back inside the Shadow of Death, the remaining three spartans entered the bridge only to have several honor guards and infantry troops attack them as Rahgath taunted them through a holo message. Soon enough, the three spartans were defeated and captured by Rahgath and his forces and thus made ransom demands for their lives. While the were somewhat willing to somewhat negotiated, although Vono and ‘Solok disagreed and boarded the carrier to free the spartans.

Capturing the Fleet
As Vono moved throughout the carrier, ‘Solok launched a few teams to capture three of Rahgath’s while Vono freed her teammates. Vono snuck into the prisoner bay and killed and the guards and freed her teammates. Breaking into the bridge, Cross shot Kaliv in the leg and the rest of Shield killed the bridge crew. Interrogating the Ship Master on the location of the other sub commanders for Krudom, but not getting what they wanted, Kyle killed him for revenge for his former team.

‘Solok meanwhile was successful in his mission and captured the three destroyers and arrested or killed their crews.

Aftermath
Once the battle was over, the three captured were given new crews and assigned to the Fleet of Glorious Redemption. From there, the UNSC continued their hunt for the remaining Sub-Fleet forces. While the spartan loss was great with two confirmed dead, Shield Team volunteered themselves to continue their hunt for the missing fleets.

On Clifton however, heavy civilian casualties were reported from the planet’s surface with it’s new colonist. UNSC relief craft reached the surface of the world and saw utter destruction and death from every major city or instance of civilization. Finally, initial reports from over two weeks prior come through jammed frequencies. Reports indicated out of Clifton’s 700,000 citizens that repopulated the planet over 650,000 were killed in orbital bombardments and invasion forces.

In response, deployed fire teams and battalions to wipe out the remnants of Gracious Allies forces on Clifton. Overtime, Rahgath’s forces were killed and Clifton was liberated from Gracious Allies’ forces.

December 2

 * Sub-Fleet of Gracious Allies arrives at Clifton.
 * Clifton’s radio signals are jammed and response crews are unaware of the fight.

December 9

 * After no response from Clifton on any regular or  channels, the UNSC deploys an  to investigate the planet.

December 13

 * After four days with no response, deploys Shield Team and the UNSC Rio to investigate the planet.
 * The Fleet of Glorious Redemption chooses to investigate as well to assist UNSC forces.

December 15

 * The Fleet of Glorious Redemption and the UNSC Rio arrives at Clifton and engages Gracious Allies.
 * Shield Team deploys to arrest or kill Kaliv Rahgath.
 * Rahgath orders the ventral cannon on his flagship to fire and killed Logan-G026 and Brian Mack.
 * Shield Team is captured and held for ransom by Rahgath.
 * Maya Vono enters the flagship to recuse her team while Zaz ‘Solok orders three of Rahgath’s destroyers to be captured.
 * Both groups are successful and Rahgath is killed.
 * Battle ends.

December 21

 * deploys fire teams to Clifton to finish off remaining Gracious Allies forces.
 * UEG relief services arrive at Clifton.