Fall of Avalon

The Fall of Avalon refers to a broad range of engagements prior to, during, and following the fall of the UEG industrial manufacturing and processing super-colony Avalon in late 2552. 
The engagement, largely seen as a final 'kick to the teeth' to a bloodied and beaten UEG became infamous for the bloodshed inflicted by both sides in such a short period. In particular, the brutality of the UNSCDF tactics employed largely by Marine Corps General Imran Sachin and his naval counterpart Vice Admiral Ava Grieve costing countless human and Covenant lives would be remembered starkly, particularly by Sangheili shipmaster Sar'yan Ing 
In 2612, memorials were built both on Avalon and on Earth commemorating the UNSCDF resistance on Avalon. In particular a reconstruction of the Ironhill was created on Earth at the Museum of Humanity, and the real Ironhill restored. Statues were built in both locations of UNSCDF Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force personnel present during the fighting. 
== Chronology ==
=== First Skirmish Near Avalon ===
Camelot Provincial Time - CPT, is the accepted standard time used for Avalon
==== 9th September ====
==== 0530 CPT ====
Two UNSC Llamrei-Class battlecruisers, Arthur's Excalibur II and Claymore, investigating radio silence at a naval listening post built into a large asteroid in the region are ambushed by an unidentified vessel almost immediately identified as Covenant. A distress signal is sent out by the Claymore before she is obliterated. The Arthur's Excalibur II is able to survive long enough to break contact over the course of an hour though sustains heavy damage. During the fighting, the Excalibur II's Captain is mortally wounded, leaving his XO, a Commander, to assume command authority as CO. 
The Excalibur II's reactor is critically damaged causing a quickly contained, but lethal, radiation leak. Furthermore, the ship's manouvering engines are damaged, and many subsystems are rendered non-functioning. Large sections of the ship are breached. Her Magnetic Accelerator Cannon is also compromised
==== 0700 CPT ====
The Excalibur II's Captain expires of his injuries. Much of the crew are either dead, suffering from lethal exposure to radiation from the ship's damaged reactor, or otherwise wounded and incapacitated as a result of the damage to the ship. The acting-CO and the new XO have all survivors likely to recover in UNSC care transferred to the ship's troop and cargo transports. Meanwhile, volunteer teams of marines and the 'walking-dead' radiation victims equip themselves for combat with vacuum suits. 
The ship's escape pods, and several pelican dropships, are loaded alternately with explosives or boarding teams. 
The survivors are evacuated from the ship in their transports.
The CO has the cruiser manouvre to face the Covenant ship. Engineers override several safety locks on the ship's engines allowing for the ship to accelerate at a previously unattainable for a short period of time. The Excalibur II thrusts toward the Covenant vessel, the engines catastrophically fail, however the ship continues moving with the acceleration it has and collides at an angle with the Covenant ship. The escape pods are launched into the Covenant ship's hull with the crews leaving the vehicle and breaching the hull manually or infiltrating via the breaches created by the explosives-filled pods with an intent to distract and delay. Meanwhile, the Excalibur's CO tasks the remaining engineers to force a nuclear detonation of the ship's reactor, or otherwise devise a plan to further damage or destroy the Covenant ship the Excaliber has pierced.
==== 0745 CPT ====
Covenant forces board the Excaliber. The bridge crew are slaughtered with a Sangheili officer sparing the CO only to taunt him. The CO detonates several explosive devices in the bridge killing himself and that element of the boarding party. Meanwhile, the acting-XO and the engineers are able to use the ship's reactor to all but annihilate both ships.
Elements of the UNSCDF boarders survive briefly in the Covenant wreckage and broadcast distress signals and create recordings before succumbing to radiation poisoning
==== 1420 CPT ====
A small battlegroup consisting of a Pendragon-class vessel, four Llamrei-class and several Charon-class frigates arrive at the location to find the wreckage. Over the next few hours, recovery teams locate the bodies of several thousand UNSCDF personnel amongst the wrecks, as well as personal recordings, and the black boxes of the Excalibur and the Claymore.
==== Aftermath ====
The engagement is kept a secret from the public. A small ceremony to honour the fallen is held on Bristol Orbital Defence Platform.
Admiral Ernamuse Redmane of the UNSC Navy has Vice Admiral Ava Grieve reopen several groundside projects in preparation for a potential defence of Avalon. In particular in lines with agreed HIGHCOM contingencies, the Office of Naval Intelligence's Gatehouse facility in the Glastonbury province is reactivated and naval projects recovered. An army battalion is stationed at the facility to pick through old projects and technologies to commit to the planet's defence. 
Key of the assets recovered from the Gatehouse, more specifically it's ship-building yards, is the UNSC Ouranos, an incomplete but functional capital warship utilising advanced shield technology, armour plating, and weaponry. The raising of the Ouranos from the dry-docks within the Gatehouse boundary is explained to the public as a preliminary motion to the relocation of the ship to the Sol system to potentially defend Earth.
Troops are covertly regarrisoned, with either multiple small trips to move equipment and personnel over several weeks, or by use of personal and civilian charter vehicles as not to raise alarm. 
Redmane and Grieve conduct several experiments with slipspace timings between known points and Avalon. They are able to discern a journey that would take the Ouranos and a small group of designated ships just over an hour to complete, emerging near Avalon's sole moon, Etna.
=== First Battle Over Avalon ===
==== 29th September ====
==== 2225 CPT ====
A CCS-class battlecruiser appears at the extreme permiters of Avalon's planetary defenses, just beyond range of a UNSC Navy picket at Avalon's moon, Etna. The cruiser holds it's position for a short period before turning and reentering slipspace.
==== 30th September ====
==== 0005 CPT ====
A CAS-class assault carrier appears near Etna. It is followed by several CCS-class battlecruisers, SDV-class corvettes, CPV-class destroyers, and other CAS-class carriers. Avalon goes into high alert. Motions for mass civilian evacuations are begun. 
The Etna picket, unable to outrun the advancing Covenant fleet and unable to simply leave the mining establishments on Etna to their fate, make a final stand against the Covenant fleet. Manouevring off of the Covenant's line of attack to the moon, the picket engage the Covenant forces, buying time for the evacuation of the colony to Avalon. The picket is annihilated however adequate time is bought and many civilians are able to survive the Covenant onslaught.
Etna is glassed. Admiral Redmane takes the Ouranos and a small flotilla into slipspace, leaving Vice Admiral Grieve in command of the fleet, captaining the UNSC King Arthur. 
==== 0225 CPT ====
The Covenant reorganise and cease glassing of the Etna establishments and bear down on Avalon. The battle begins in earnest with Grieve intentionally drawing Covenant ships further and further into fighting range. The Avalon Defence Fleet is able to put up considerable resistance to the Covenant onslaught, with the fighting almost levelling to a stalemate.
The UNSC Gallahad and the UNSC Brave Sir Robin are destroyed in the fighting however not without the infliction of heavy casualties on a brash Covenant fleet. 
==== 0330 CPT ====
The Ouranos and Redmane's flotilla reemerge from slipspace near Etna, flanking the Covenant fleet. Immediately, Redmane's group begin inflicting severe damages on the Covenant force, which has been thrown into disarray. 
The collisions of Covenant warships attempting to manoeuvre to face the Ouranos battlegroup in addition to the firepower to the front, rear, and increasingly the flanks from manuevering groups of UNSC warships overwhelm the Covenant fleet forcing a withdrawal. 
==== Aftermath ====
Following a plan from Vice Admiral Grieve, two Covenant CCS-class battlecruisers are captured in the fighting, Redmane considers using them to perform an identical manoeuvre to that executed before, but instead, using them to infiltrate the Covenant force and wreak havoc in a suicide mission. Numerous officers volunteer.
A sixth of the Avalon Defence Fleet is destroyed, a third of it (including those destroyed) is rendered combat ineffective, another third is operating at reduced capacity, and two fifths of the Avalon Orbital Defence Platforms are destroyed.
Incapacitated or destroyed ships are scuttled for intact slipspace drives, nuclear ordnance, ammunition, and other supplies. 
HORNET mines, and improvised nuclear traps were installed within the wreckages of UNSC ships from the engagement and dragged out into the open space around Avalon. 
During the fighting, a Covenant corvette was able to land undetected on Avalon's surface. Upon discovering this, a joint Air Force - Army operation to dislodge the incursion resulted in the Battle of the Round Top
=== Battle of the Round-Top ===
Olympia Provincial Time is the standard time for the Olympia Province
==== 30th September ====
==== 0845 CPT (0200 OPT) ====
The UNSC Air Force land a battalion of UNSC motorised infantry supported by an artillery battery and an armoured tank squadron. The Air Force begin aerial reconnaissance operations while the Army establish their position and consolidate ground.
==== 1000 CPT (0315 OPT) ====
Air Force assets locate the Covenant staging area. Strike fighters launch a debilitating assault on the grounded Corvette. Army assets mobilise to strike the Covenant force. A UNSC Paris-class frigate is drawn from the naval defence to augment the joint operation. 
==== 1200 CPT (0515 OPT) ====
The Army engage the Covenant in an uphill Battle to the Round-Top plataeu. Artillery assets establish themselves on a nearby spot height and use the exposed nature of the Covenant's staging site to wreak havoc with bombardment. Air Force drones pick off key Covenant assets. 
==== 1330 CPT (0645 OPT) ====
A team of ODSTs are able to infiltrate the Covenant fortification on Round-Top and destroy the Covenant's artillery and anti-air assets, allowing for deployment and better use of Air Force and Navy assets. In addition to this, the team's secondary objective of planting a nuclear warhead in the Covenant camp is successful though, with the army in withdrawal, and their exfiltration vehicle shot down, the team are forced to detonate the device while still within range. 
==== 1500 CPT (0815 OPT) ====
As day-breaks, Covenant survivors are eliminated and the operation concluded
=== Second Battle Over Avalon ===
==== 30th September ====
==== 0900 CPT ====
A covenant fleet lead by a CSO-carrier arrives near Etna. Gradually, small elements of the fleet arrive one by one and harass UNSC forces. Redmane sees this as the perfect opportunity to have his captured CCS-class ships infiltrate the Covenant fleet. 
He puts a picket out in the wreckage field between Avalon and Etna, drawing the Covenant forward, a small battlegroup from the Covenant advance and are obliterated in the minefield
==== 0945 CPT ====
As the Covenant move to assault, Redmane's captured ships arrive near the massed Covenant fleet at Etna and join the ranks unnoticed. They manuever progressively deeper into the Covenant ranks before weaponised slipspace engines, based on similar ideas drawn from Reach, are detonated inside both CCS-cruisers dealing catastrophic damage to the fleet. The CSO-class carrier is not destroyed, but is incapacitated. 
==== 1120 CPT ====
Massive reinforcement to the Covenant force arrives, the battle begins in earnest. A close engagement, the Covenant begin to wear down the limited resistance of the UNSC Naval defence.
==== 1st October ====
==== 1400 CPT ====
The Ouranos is critically damaged in a head-to-head duel with an CAS-class carrier and its escorts. While the Ouranos leaves the engagement victorious, it is almost completely annihilated in return. Grieve leads an attempt to rescue Admiral Redmane, only to find him dead on the bridge, leaving her in command of the naval defence.
With the key flagship of the defence incapacitated, Covenant ships are able to break throught the UNSC lines and put ships over major cities, in addition to landing troops on the surface, and establishing staging areas on the ground. 
The navy's resistance continue to collapse
==== 2nd October ====
==== 1430 CPT ====
Four frigates are detached to protect the Glastobury province
==== 4th October ====
The Covenant's attempt to plant anti-matter charges on the Battlegroup Nelson command vessel, the UNSC Queen Vicky, backfires when the charges are instead flown back to the Covenant by Pelican dropships and detonated in three Covenant CCS-class cruisers.
==== 12th October ====
==== 1500 CPT ====
Remaining UNSC cruisers withdraw to conduct hit and run strikes on overly bold CAS, or CCS-class warships. The Glastonbury Station Orbital Defence Platform remains the sole surviving ODP. Covenant forces are drawn away from the assault on Avalon for reasons currently unknown to the UNSC.
Grieve suspects that, following reach, the Covenant may be beginning their assault on Earth.
==== 15th October ====
==== 1600 CPT ====
A Nargal-class carrier and a frigate escort intervene over Camelot.
==== 19th October ====
==== 1750 CPT ====
As the naval defence all but fails, with the Covenant seemingly anxious to end the invasion. Grieve dedicates all remaining efforts to protecting the evacuees of Camelot, where the civilian population has been concentrated. With a the Covenant fleet bearing down on the surviving vessels of the fleet, Grieve has her crew, save a team of volunteers, evacuate the King Arthur for Camelot before ramming the flagship into the largest cruiser in the vicinity and firing the ship's MAC cannon directly into the ship's hull. Grieve subsequently evacuates as the Covenant board the King Arthur. The distraction allows many civilian transports and their escorts to escape.
==== 1900 CPT ====
A few frigates and some surviving battlecruisers are all that remains of the Avalon Defence Fleet and regroup on the far-side of the planet
==== 21st October ====
==== 2100 CPT ====
Under Grieve's orders, the remainder of the UNSC Defence Fleet, barring those dedicated to the protection of key cities, are dispatched to Earth, officially concluding the naval engagement over Avalon.
=== Battle for Glastonbury ===
=== Battle of the Bodmin Ranges ===
=== Battle for Tintagel ===
=== Battle for Camelot ===
=== Battle at Ironhill ===
Category:Battles