Battle of Himita

"The only resort we have is to leave. Let them have the planet. We have another day to fight."

- Captain Marcus Locke The Battle of Himita was a battle that took place during the   that was fought between the  and the  from February 4 2536 till April 1st 2536. The battle decided the ultimate fate of the colony which was abandoned by humanity due to the heavy Covenant presences.

Background
Over a decade into the, the Covenant Fleet of 1st Vengeance discovered and arrived at the colony world Himita. From there, the Covenant began preparations to invade due to the presences of not only humans but also Forerunner artifacts.

Opening Salvo
On February 4, 2536, the 1st Covenant Fleet of Vengeance emerged from Slip-space to the colony world of Himita. After only a minute of waiting, UNSC responded to the Covenant by deploying one of their defense fleets, fleet three. While the human fleet was large in size, it could not compare the the size and firepower that was the Covenant's mass.

Under the command of Vice Admiral Arnaldo Ford, the defense fleet formed a massive blockade around the planet as troops and supplies began to fly their way from Faller Base. Ship Master Ripa Stormaee ordered his ships to keep with the surprising fire and have his carrier, the Demeter ram into the blockade.

The ship's crew did as ordered and flew directly into the blockade's line, heavily damaging the carrier, yet also allowing Covenant access onto the planet's surface. Behind the carrier came several more Covenant ships which blasted away the smoldering remains of the blockade. However, Ford ordered the remaining ships in his fleet to return to different posts around the planet and initiate the Winter Contingency. Covenant ships landed on secluded land masses of the planet and deployed troops to begin their invasion. Meanwhile, Ford transmitted out a SOS to UNSC High Command and requested reinforcements. He was granted the request and expected the UNSC Liberation and Spartan Team Orange at the planet soon.

Invasion of Faller Base
At 8:37 hours on February 8th, the Covenant launched an invasion force towards the UNSC base, Faller in the northern hemisphere. The base proved to be a blockade for both orbital deployments and stood as a guard between the Covenant and human civilization for the planet.

United Nations Space Command forces attempted to repel the attack, using all possible resources to keep Covenant troops out of the main atrium of the compound and at the docks. However, after a constant push by Covenant forces along the docks, human forces were forced back into the main building of the compound. Though, a half-hour later, Orange Team was deployed to the base as Liberation began running arial interference along the base. After clearing the docks, Clark-055 began to run statistics on the base while his spartan comrades began to clear the Covenant presence in the base. But Clark discovers a drone nest underneath the base, forcing Orange Team to destroy it. Clark, Aidan-007, Dane-074 and Timothy-127 found and planted explosives around the entrance to the hive in order to blow it. However, while on their mission, the hive was awoken and drones began to attack. Aidan and Clark covered Tim and Clark as the latter planted explosives. After the explosives were planted, the spartans evacuated the base and destroyed it on their flight back to the Liberation. After the destruction of Faller Base, the Covenant began to attack New Boston.

Battle of New Boston
The Covenant Fleet moved into the city of New Boston and began to fire at civilian skyscrapers and communications buildings. Marine and army response was quick as both Vice Admiral Ford and Colonel Trevor Raji began to led naval and army troops throughout the city. Raji would deploy troops to several parks around the outskirts of the city to act as evac points while Ford would command the naval defense with Henry Fawlkins.

Troops entered the city and began to clear out some several towers infested with Covenant troops. After deploying ODST troops, to assist with the evacuation efforts, Raji developed the idea to use ODSTs to ran an op to eliminate the Covenant fleet. Personally leading the deployment from Vice Admiral Ford's ship, Raji and his company of ODSTs and army soldiers landed on several Covenant cruisers. Ford also led the rest of the Defense Fleet and Liberation against the remaining Covenant forces.

While in the fight, Brigadier General Gregory Holden sent out the fighter squadron known as the Seekers to assist Ford in the defense of the city. Raji and his troops landed on the cruisers and began to clear out hanger bays and plant explosives within them and the engine rooms. After remotely detonating the engine room explosives, Raji and his troops were evacuated and remotely detonated the hanger bay bombs, forcing several ships to the ground.

Due to the great loss of the Covenant ships, Stormaee ordered his fleet to retreat and thus the remaining 10 ships of the fleet raced away towards the Arigo Desert near the equator of the planet.