Battle of Meridian

The Battle of Meridian was a major orbital and planetary battle between forces of the and defending United Nations Space Command. Seeking to consolidate their major victory at , the Covenant on September 12, 2552, invaded the major UEG colony of Meridian, like all surviving core worlds, a vital source of war personnel and materiel. Superior numbers and tenacious defending allowed the UNSC force to lock the Covenant in costly attritional warfare long enough for a considerable portion of the planet's population and materiel to be evacuated. Much of the fighting had seen both sides relatively evenly matched, on several times the defenders exploiting the Covenant's tendency to expose themselves through over-aggressive tactics. On September 28, however, by which time most of the UNSC's withdrawal from the world had been completed, a much larger Covenant reinforcement force arrived, sealing Meridian's fate at heavy cost.