The Fall of Sera

This fanfiction article, The Fall of Sera, was written by Major Rawne 001. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission.

The Fall of Sera
Conflict:	Human-Covenant War
Date:	08/29/2538-09/12/2538
Location:	Sera
Outcome:	Covenant Victory, Colony Glassed
Belligerents UNSC Covenant Empire Commanders General Bardry Solomon Field Marshall Uzil Ra'amee Zealot Kantumee General K'arnee Strength 5 Divisions 88,000 Troops UNSC Army 6th Division 2nd Battalion Engineers 26th Infantry Battalion 5th Tank Regiment The Fusiliers of Andius 12th Artillery Battalion 25th Sherrith Calvary Tank Regiment 26th Special Forces Group 4th Division 4th Light Infantry Regiment 9th Division The Dukes of Tollen Regiment 81st Special Forces Division 1st Pesanga Rifle Division 5th Grenadiers UNSC Marines 26th Marine Division The Onxy Guard UNSC Maritime Navy 30 Vessels 12 Carriers F-99 Wombats D-77 Pelicans Fleet of Just Annihilation 3 CAS Assault Carriers 8 Reverence Class Cruisers 30 CCS Class Cruisers 40 CRS Class Light Cruisers 10 CPV Class Heavy Destroyers 70 SDV Class Corvettes Ground Forces Oracles Host Over 140,000 troops Elites Brutes Grunts Jackals Hunters Drones Engineers Vehicles Wraiths Ghosts Scarabs Banshees Insertion Pods Phantoms Spirits Seraphs Revenants Spectres Choppers Civilian casualties 297,000,000

The Fall of Sera was the 17 day invasion and glassing of the Human Inner Colony world of Sera. It saw a large scale Covenant Fleet assault the relatively defenseless planet as no orbital assets were in system. The densely populated world of 300,000,000 located near the edge of the inner colonies saw its fleet assets taken away to build up the system fleet to protect other more valuable worlds. The defense and evacuations were set entirely on the UNSC Army and Marine ground forces who fought to the very end despite overwhelming odds.

Fleet of Just Annihilation

A Planet of War

Sera is an Inner colony established early on in humanities expansion into the stars. The Ocean world was found to be temperate and ideal for human colonization on its few but massive continents surrounding the two oceans. The large planet with 26 hour days and circled by twin moons quickly grew into a hub of activity. Metropolis' and large manufacturing cities with sparse suburbs and farmland spread all across the continents. While the CMA was the central government there were several independent nations that controlled different parts of the continents. It was not long that inter-national wars broke out. As the wars raged, the government focused efforts on improving their military. Funds were spent to construct forts and military installations on the surface. Defense from the stars was never a thought. These international wars raged on and off until the arrival of the covenant in 2525.

When news of Harvest fell, the forces of Sera called a ceasefire and raised and trained their military forces in preparation for the coming war. UNSC officials informed the world leaders that the UNSC would be drafting units from the planets defense forces to bolster frontline units. When the outer colonies fell, the inner colonies defenses were bolstered. A naval fleet was positioned in orbit for some time, however as the Covenant fleets advanced further and further into the Inner colonies, this fleet was once more redeployed to bolster a fleet elsewhere. It was only two months later that the Covenant found Sera.

Landfall Day Zero

On August 29th, the Covenant Fleet of Just Annihilation entered high orbit of Sera. The fleet arrived unopposed and unannounced and wasted no time in prosecuting the extermination of the humans on Sera. Under the command of Field Marshall Uzil Raamee the Covenant entered in atmosphere and launched numerous simultaneous attacks on the cities of the world. The Field Marshall informed his sub commanders that the fleet's oracles detected numerous forerunner relics hidden on the planet. The orders for the covenant was to clear out the human cities, search for the relics, then burn the city to glass when they were finished. Raamee divided his fleet of 160 ships up across the entire planet and began the assault. While scans of the planet came back from the picket ships Raamee picked his targets. The scans indicated numerous areas of potential relics along the southern portion of the main continent. Raamee selected these areas for immediate attack while he personally assaulted a major city with a large UNSC garrisoned within. As the fleet separated and ships entered orbit over their targets, they launched their first waves. Hundreds of infantry lances deployed via drop pods simultaneously striking several cities. As the ships moved lower in atmosphere, they were followed by secondary waves of phantoms and spirit drop ships deploying heavy units and armor while aerial attack craft joined in.

Covenant Drop pods land all over Jannermont

Elites smash into the city centers

Jannermont- The UNSC had no warning of the covenant assault on their planet. The citizens sleeping in the first cities to be invaded were woken up to the impact of Covenant drop pods smashing into the streets, gardens and homes. In the southern city of Jannermont the Covenant invasion landed during the morning commute. The streets were packed with civilians heading to work in the heavy industrial sector of the city while others drove or took public transit ways to offices in the down town. The usual morning sunrise was accompanied by hundreds of burning meteors. People stood in confusion and shock as the sounds of explosive impacts landed all over the city. The shock turned to horror as pods slammed amidst crowds of people and cars backed up on high ways killing hundreds. This was nothing compared to the horror and bloodshed that occurred when the Covenant forces led by their Elite vanguards emerged and murdered all in their sights. While pods landed all over the city, Raamee led a vanguard straight into the UNSC military base stationed within Jannermont. The army troops there had just returned from an overnight training march and were in the middle of stripping down and turning in their weapons when the Covenant landed in their base. Raamee had planned on using the element of surprise to cause the most amount of damage and mayhem possible. It took the military base 15 minutes to begin to establish a coordinated defense and 15% of the bases occupants were already slaughtered. The soldiers stationed there fought for 30 minutes to get access to the primary armory and equip their men, it took another half hour for them to repel the covenant from within their walls.

Raamee had succeeded in causing city wide panic; and while the city of Jannermont burned beyond the bases walls, the second wave of heavy vehicles and reinforcements was already landing. Raamee fled the base to begin the overtaking of the city. While the civilians were already running in mass panic, most tried to flee however no one knew where to run, and the covenant had already strategically cut off most of the main throughways. Local police forces did their best to direct and protect the noncombatants running for their lives but they were no match for the covenant. The surviving army units in the base launched a rapid counter attack to try and break through the covenant positions to allow evacuation. The UNSC fought valiantly for 24 hours before the city was completely taken by the covenant and 100,000 of it's residents were dead.

Mattino- Like Jannermont, the coastal city of Mattino was attacked by a massed force of covenant arriving via drop pods. The police and mayor of the city issued an immediate lock in place order while the company of UNSC army troops from the 25th Sherrith Calvary deployed to counter the covenant attack. Mounted in Scorpion battle tanks, cobras and warthogs, they were able to use the open streets to full effect to fight off the covenant invasion without the concern of civilians being caught in the crossfire. The tank company made excellent progress against the covenant, pushing them back wherever they fought, however the aliens were able to flank around the heavy armor units and overwhelm them from cover until banshee air support and armor reinforcements arrived to eliminate the defenders and exterminate any citizens found. The covenant forces then moved on to regroup with other assault forces leaving the burning city to be glassed later by their vessel.

Port Ogari- The Coastal port city was a major hub of fuel transportation and oil drilling. a half mile off the coast were dozen of ocean oil rigs. Despite the importance of this trade, the city was lightly defended. Home to a UNSC Navy's maritime destroyer and home to 80 marines set to guard the docks and single war vessel. When the covenant drop pods smashed into the residential sectors outside the docks, the only defenders were the local police forces. The marine defenders mobilized to help secure evacuation routes, however their main support, the UNSC destroyer was out at sea patrolling the coast. When reports of the covenant attack reached the destroyer, the vessel turned around and rushed to the port to assist in the defense. The ship was fifteen minutes away from shore when a pair of SDV corvettes appeared through the clouds over the ocean coast. A massive lightning storm signaling their arrival. The two covenant space craft opened fire on the destroyer and the oil rig platforms turning the ocean coast into an inferno of burning fuel and bodies. The city and its inhabitants would meet a similar fate soon as no one survived the covenant assault.

Mercy- Mercy was a small fuel pumping town of 5,000 built into a cliff face. Unlike the other cities, it was one of the first to be attacked directly by forces from Covenant ships passing nearby. Phantoms and Spirit dropships landed kill teams in the town while banshees began bombing runs. The town, on the very edge of land controlled by any major city and mostly isolated had some bomb shelters built during the insurrection years of war however the only armed presence was local militias numbering 200. The townsfolk had seen the covenant ships approaching and as such had already begun evacuations. While the militia and other volunteers from the town armed themselves, women, children and elderly were herded into the few bomb shelters. As the covenant ships landed the militia fought as best they could to buy time for their families to hide and escape. Despite their weaponry the militia was swiftly overran by the elite kill teams of the covenant. None of the shelters were meant to hold the entire populace. Never the less the townsfolk jammed as many in as they could, sealing some unfortunates outside the reinforced doors. Their screams, pleas and pounding fists echoing through the packed bunkers until they were silenced by the covenant or forced to run and hide. The towns people had hoped that by hiding in the bunkers, the covenant would lose interest, if they couldn't be seen, why would the covenant make an effort to search for them in their tiny town. To their horror they were wrong as the reinforced blast doors were ripped from their hinges by Hunters or blown open from plasma mortars of deployed wraiths. The entire population was massacred. With their duty done, the covenant left Mercy nothing more than a ghost town. The evidence of their bloody deeds would be found some time later when stranded survivors reoccupied the town. The bodies of slain families still in the bunkers meant to protect them, now turned into mass graves.

Nordesca- As the covenant's assault reached into it's third hour, the UNSC was still reeling from the hammer blow attacks. News studios were getting unconfirmed reports from refugees fleeing the burning cities that were their homes. With no footage the reports were limited to radio news only and no one from the UNSC or ONI would speak with the news stations. This lack of knowledge started a mass panic across the planet as cities watched and waited to see if they were next. Many people began to flee the cities. Many of the cities police forces tried to keep the populace calm and in the population centers should they need to evacuate. The city of Nordesca was one such city caught up in the panic of uncertainty just as covenant dropships flew over the city.

As banshees strafed the streets and phantoms deployed ground troops amid the crowded streets, Covenant armor was closing in from the city outskirts. As refugees fled, ghost hunter squadron patrolled the outskirts gunning any down. The UNSC defenders stationed in the city were already deployed to help control the crowds. While the few forces there rallied around the city center and along the major roadways. While the troopers and police officers fought defiantly till the end, it was ultimately futile and the entire city was left with no survivors.

Hanover-

The Sixth Hour

As the first battles for Sera were reaching it's sixth hour, news reports on the attacks starter circling through the UNSC news broadcasts plane-side. The reports were almost entirely over the radio as no footage of the covenant attacks were found. With the element of surprise gone, the second phase of attacks on the planet began.