Hades Raids

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"I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him."

- Revelation 6:7-8

In just fifteen years, the have been left largely in ruins, the  has depleted more than half of its capacity, and the never-ending advance of the  had finally reached their last obstacles in laying waste to —the. For humanity, their time was quickly running out, and their brief existence was now on the verge of being snuffed out for good.

In 2541, recently promoted Rear Admiral Allison Spurgeon proposed Operation: AVANTGARDE—later known as the Hades Raids—as a temporary solution to the eventual Covenant invasion of the Inner Colonies. Designed to distract and wreak havoc to Covenant military infrastructure and supply lines, the proposal offered to provide the UNSC the time necessary to evacuate the most at-risk colonies and complete production of much-needed warships to reinforce the Fleet. Hades Raids would be the first real major offensive against the Covenant, after nearly two decades of being on the defensive. This campaign presented a number of risks for the UNSC, as previous offensives against the Covenant proved disastrous and costly.

Despite initial reluctance to the campaign, the desperation felt by the UNSC's leaders eventually caved in to Spurgeon's proposal. The first raids of the campaign were initiated later in the year, with the Navy providing Spurgeon a small battlegroup to conduct the operation to be spearheaded by the. The limited success of the battlegroup yielded results to the UNSC that saw greater potential in escalating the raids. Before the end of the year, Rear Admiral Spurgeon was given command of the Sixth Fleet, where she used the fleet's large concentration of to form the bulk of the raids.