The Fall of Novi

The Fall of Novi was a battle between the Covenant and the UNSC in which took place in 2551. The battle took place on the planet Novi, located in the (ill figure a name out eventually) system. The battle resulted in heavy covenant casualties, but unfortunately not nearly enough to stop the assault force. The UNSC was able to successfully evacuate a large amount of the population of the planet, but there were still over 25 million human casualties in the end. The UNSC mobilized a large force led by spartan Fireteams Spectral and Royal to try and defend the planet's most populous cities, but the effort was far from enough, and not nearly quick enough to fend off the ruthless attackers. 
== The Battle ==
=== First Encounter ===
On April 1st, a covenant corvette warped into the system and sent teams of troops down to infiltrate multiple relay stations to attempt to disable the colony's communications. However, the UNSC deployed Fireteam Spectral to find out what was attacking the other outposts. The team had split up, 3 members going to one of the already destroyed outposts while the other 3 members were deployed to the only outpost of the 4 on the main continent which hadn't been destroyed. The half of the team which was deployed to the still active station was ambushed by a squad of experienced elites, which forced them to retreat due to being heavily outnumbered and outgunned. They were able to escape on the falcon they arrived on. The team regrouped at a UNSC outpost in the middle of the Yarolvian Desert and contacted Captain Jason Samuel about the covenant presence. That night Samuel's ship, the UNSC Ironclad, detected multiple slipspace ruptures in the star system. 
=== Initial Strike/Battle of Rimske City ===
The morning of April 2nd, the covenant fleet Belligerent Wrath warped into the system. Multiple cruisers entered the atmosphere of Novi and began deploying an invasion force to attack Rimske City, the 3rd largest city on the planet with a population of over 10,000,000 people. Fireteam Spectral and Fireteam Royal were deployed along with thousands of marines to help defend it. They were able to successfully defend the city against the ground forces, but multiple covenant corvettes were bombarding the city with plasma cannons. One of the corvettes was destroyed by a halberd class destroyer, but the other turned its cannons upon a dam along a ridge that the city was built along. The corvette was destroyed, but not before it was able to cause significant structural damage to the dam, causing it to collapse and release a tidal wave upon the city. The tidal wave destroyed most of the buildings in the city, and was estimated to have killed over 7,000,000 people. After this, the UNSC began evacuating other cities on the planet. 
=== Orbital Defense Assault ===
The next day, the covenant went out of their way to destroy the planet's orbital defense stations. All three of the stations were destroyed, despite the UNSC's best effort to defend them. Multiple UNSC and Covenant ships were destroyed as well.
=== Attack on Auspeck Mining Facility ===
On April 6th, the covenant launched a large-scale attack on a UNSC base located in the Azurian tundra. The base was also a large mining facility which mined the large amounts of titanium in the planet's surface. A covenant cruiser approached around midday, and dropships began to approach, along with ground troops and vehicles. Wraiths began to fire at the base, leveling most of the buildings in the base before they were destroyed by the UNSC's counterattack. Fireteam Royal was dispatched to defend the outpost while Fireteam Spectral was deployed to recon on a spot where there were covenant vehicles spotted farther south in the tundra. The covenant eventually overran the UNSC's defenses and destroyed Auspeck, bombarding it with ground and air artillery. The UNSC suffered more troop casualties here than any other battle on the planet, losing nearly 5,000 ground troops and countless vehicles in the battle. Fireteam Royal and multiple squads of marines were extracted VIA pelicans after the base was considered lost.
=== Evacuation of Maniisen ===
Maniisen was the 2nd biggest city on the planet, only the coastal mega-city of Greensburg contained more people. Maniisen was also located in the vast Azurian tundra, more towards the southern edge of the continent. The city contained over 16 million people and was the commercial hub of the planet. It was located at the meeting point of 2 rivers which effectively split the city into thirds. As soon as Auspeck mining facility was destroyed, the covenant attacked the city, primarily by air with a large number of banshees and phantoms, dispatched from one of the CAS-class assault carriers that had arrived at the city. The city had already begun evacuating people to bunkers hidden in the mountains in northern Azure where they could then be transported away from the planet. 
==== Day 1 ====
The covenant began their assault on the city the night of April 8th with a plasma bombardment from multiple corvettes and cruisers. By the morning, they had completely destroyed the southwestern part of the city, with only a few buildings left standing. The leader of Fireteam Royal, Jules-088, was sent to a small outpost on the island of Mezaa where along with a squad of ODSTs to activate a nuclear missile battery at an abandoned UNSC outpost. Unfortunately, they encountered two elite generals and an Field Marshal Kepa 'Refumee. Jules and her team were able to take out the two generals and force the field marshal to retreat and escape on a banshee, but only Jules and one of the ODSTs survived the conflict. Jules also had her hand cut off while blocking a swing from an energy sword. They managed to activate the missile battery, with which they targeted two of the covenant corvettes above the city, however, the 2nd missile failed, and fell to the ground in the desert, not exploding.
==== Day 2 ====
On this day, multiple covenant cruisers began glassing the remnants of Auspeck and some other medium sized cities, most of which had been fully evacuated. The bombardment from the cruiser and the two remaining corvettes continued until a halberd class destroyer engaged the corvettes. Both of them were destroyed, but a CAS-class assault carrier warped into the atmosphere close to the city and quickly destroyed the ship. Rear admiral Moses Mossman knew that the CAS class would be unfazed by any outside attack that the UNSC had in their arsenal on Novi. He ordered Fireteams Spectral and Royal to infiltrate the ship, to set a charge in the ship's engine reactor and destroy it. The teams managed to get in through the hangar on a hijacked phantom. They fought their way through the covenant onboard the ship, and managed to plant the explosive charge, but it had taken enough damage that it couldnt be detonated remotely. Trevor B309 chose to stay behind and detonate the charge manually. After the rest of the spartans were off the ship, the charge was detonated and the ship crashed down near the outskirts of the already destroyed section of the city. During the fight, Alicia A242 was severely injured, losing most of her right arm in an explosion, and she was forced to return to the fleet's Orion Class carrier, the Spear of Darkness.
==== Day 3 ====
By day 3, over half of the city's population had been evacuated, and nearly a million civilians were being transported off of the planet each day. The Covenant's ground forces had pushed the UNSC defense forces all the way back to the bridges which crossed the river. The UNSC blew each of the bridges to prevent any covenant troops from entering the city that way. Maniisen's AA guns were still active, and took out multiple dropships which tried to bypass the defenses. The UNSC deployed artillery, including multiple Rhino mobile artillery units. They were able to beat the covenant ground forces back with the help of heavy air support. The covenant, however, had located where the majority of the civillians were being evacuated from the city, and sent multiple squads of elites to try and destroy the underground Maglev train tracks which had been built for the sole purpose of evacuation. Whenever the attack happened, Fireteams Spectral and Royal were sent over immediately to kill the elites and stop them from killing anymore civillians. Once they arrived, they fought off all of the elites, and had finished off all of them except for the squad that Fireteam spectral had run into while at the relay station. The squad consisted entirely of elite generals, zealots, and Field Marshal Kepa 'Refumee. The squad was fearsome, and managed to escape with minimal casualties even after being overrun. During this time, the covenant had begun scouting Greensburg with the intent to attack. Upon this discovery, the UNSC deployed the last of troops on the fleet's remaining ships to speed up the evacuation. 
==== Day 4 ====
The covenant continued to bombard the city, but the defenses held strong, with the city's Onager turrets keeping the smaller covenant ships at far enough from the city that they couldnt glass it. The covenant realized this and sent multiple squads of Brutes and Elites to try to destroy them. The last of the defense fleet had managed to destroy the bigger ships, leaving only the smaller CCS class cruisers and corvettes, although they still greatly outnumbered the last 5 ships of the Axion System Defense Fleet. The UNSC Ironclad descended into the atmosphere and began to provide air support. The UNSC had begun to thin out the covenant ground forces, but the attacks on the Onager guns were almost all successful. Only one of the portable mass driver turrets were still operational, and the ships were able to get closer to the city and continue to bombard it.
==== Day 5 ====
The evacuation had been very successful, but wasnt completely finished yet. At around 8:00 AM UTC, the covenant cruisers finally bypassed the defenses and began glassing the city. The UNSC immediately pulled all of their forces out of the city and redirected them to Greensburg, which had nearly been completely evacuated. The estimated casualties from the attack on Maniisen were over 3 million.
=== Staging Area ===
The UNSC Ironclad and Spear of Darkness launched MAC strikes and a great deal of missiles at a covenant staging area that had been discovered by Fireteam Spectral during the attack on Auspeck. The attack was a huge success, and multiple cruisers and corvettes were destroyed, along with thousands of ground troops. That gave them a few more days to ready the defenses of Greensburg, which would be the planet's last standing city. They knew they couldn't win the battle, so they focused on defending the city until it was completely evacuated