Siege of Falkirk

The Siege of Falkirk was a major battle in the . One of several conflicts starting up after the fall of the Parisian Front in , the Siege of Falkirk saw the combined forces of the local and the Free Commonwealth of Falkirk stand united against the massive Covenant invasion. Between the ruthlessness of the brute commanders and the determination held by the defenders, the Siege would enter history as one of the most vicious battles of the war, although ultimately the Covenant would achieve orbital superiority needed to bring a decisive end to the battle.
== Prologue ==
On February 24th, 2551, a Covenant fleet of fifty vessels entered the Gaelic system and immediately powered towards the inhabited colonies. 
The main Covenant fleet mostly bypassed Sgothein, a middling mining colony in favor of attacking the more heavily populated planets. However, a splinter group did break off from the main fleet to attack the mining colony, consisting mostly of Kig-Yar privateers. Sgòthein was never supposed to be defended, as it was intended to be abandoned before the battle began in favor of protecting the larger colonies in system; But the Covenant splinter force struck before the population could be completely evacuated.
Another battlegroup, this one significantly more sizeable than the last, broke off to attack Ffyniannus, while the remaining main fleet continued on course for Falkirk itself. 
== The Battle ==
===Opening Maneuvers===
The main Covenant battle fleet, under the command of the Jiralhanae Fleetmaster Octavius, did not immediately attack Falkirk, but instead hung just outside the engagement zone, choosing first to test the waters by launching a series of probing attacks and skirmishing with the human fleet, trading fire but never fully committing to an attack and attempting to whittling down the defending ships. 
This lull in the fighting served dual purposes. First was that it kept the bulk of the human naval forces trapped at Falkirk, unable to reinforce their forces at Ffyniannus. The second was that it was also a calculated psychological move on Octavius’ part, he desired to let the other two colonies be destroyed first, in full view of the population before launching the final attack, hurting the morale of the defenders of the most heavily defended planet and instilling fear.
Command of the defending human forces fell primarily on two individuals, Protector Kamala Costa of Falkirk and Admiral Sun Lei of the UNSC. The two commanders differed in their plan of action; Kamala wished to throw in all their reserve forces into the battle immediately, but Sun Lei wished to keep their full strength concealed from the enemy, keeping some forces hidden in reserve as to not show their hand and keep the enemy on their toes. Costa of course protested against this, arguing that holding their forces back now would result in terrible death tolls for her people. However, Lei was a battle-tested veteran of the war against the Covenant, and she stated that regardless of what they did, or what strategy they implemented, the losses at Falkirk would be tremendous either way.
===Ground War===
===Reinforcements===
== Aftermath ==
The loss of Falkirk resulted in a tactical disaster for the UNSC. They immediately abandoned the system, lacking the manpower to maintain a hold in the system. This decision had widespread consequences on the wider view of the war, with a number of Inner Colonies being completely separated from the main territory of the . Fleets now heading to either sector had to instead travel along a number of secured star systems, increasing the travel time by a staggering six months on average. As they could not respond in the event that a colony was compromised, HIGHCOM ordered the Battlegroups Sulacco and Consular to perform a staggered evacuation, escorting large fleets of unarmed transports to the closest colony before heading back to begin it again. Unfortunately, only two trips were completed by the time was attacked, with the two battlegroups reassigned to defend the vulnerable core colonies.
The conclusion of the Siege did have a single positive impact. Having been successful with distracting the Covenant at Falkirk, they were able to successfully evacuate the population centres at Ffyniannus. This meant that the Covenant did not need to glass the planet, only bombing the most visible cities from orbit. The remaining infrastructure would later be adapted by a number of users, first salvaging technology from the massive debris fields and then by Covenant privateers, with a Covenant remnant led by the Brute warlord Ferrus ruling the system with an iron fist. He would later be defeated when the original colonists returned to reclaim their former homes, returning the planet back under human control. With so much of planet surviving the conflict, the colonists were able to accelerate the system into a new era of prosperity.
== Participants ==
Category:Battles of the Human-Covenant War
Category:Gaelic Saga
Category:Human-Covenant War
Category:Battles