Operation: LONGREACH

Operation: LONGREACH was a naval operation conducted by the UNSC's Battlegroup Hellas, an elite tasking comprised of a hunter-killer group of Artemis-class battlecruisers and its squadron escorts. LONGREACH, after several weeks of tracking and locating a Covenant fleet, culminated in the Battle of Terra Invicta III, which resulted in the destruction of 54 Covenant vessels, including a DOS-class supercruiser and a CAS-class assault carrier. The victory catapulted its commander, Vice Admiral Joseph Harper into the spotlight, and lead to the largest UNSC offensive into Covenant-held space of the war: Operation: FLY SWATTER. 
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== The History ==
=== Background ===
By 2540, humanity was running out of time. Almost all of the Outer Colonies had been found and glassed by the Covenant, and they were moving on into the Inner Colonies. In 2541, the Drakon Campaign came to an end, and whilst the UNSC was able to beat back the Covenant forces there, it cost a tremendous amount of men and equipment. Fully five UNSC carriers had to be taken out of operations to undergo lengthy repairs, and another dozen capital ships of all sizes had been destroyed in the engagements around the planet. The Covenant, meanwhile, had only lost two DDS-class carriers and a CCS-class battlecruiser, along with several CPV-class heavy destroyers. UNSC FLEETCOM at both New Alexandria and Sydney agreed that something had to be done to halt the extreme losses for little strategic gain. Fortunately for FLEETCOM, Vice Admiral Joseph Harper had a doctrine he had been developing to remedy these Pyrrhic victories.
Vice Admiral Harper had been quietly patrolling with his squadron around the colony of Isandoa, occasionally battling smugglers and Jackal pirates. During this time, he had spare time to write a thesis on conducting operations deep inside Covenant space. Titled Operations in Splitlip Space, it raised a few eyebrows at FLEETCOM headquarters on Reach. However Admiral Preston J. Cole read the report, and was impressed with Harper's knowledge of slipspace engines, and the real effective range of the MAC guns on the Artemis-class battlecruisers. 
Harper received transfer orders in late 2541, and took command of Battlegroup Hellas, the UNSC Navy's premier hunter-killer group. Comprising of six Artemis-class battlecruisers and numerous escorts, the squadron had proven itself adept when two of its ships, the Devana and Apollo, destroyed a Covenant battlegroup comprised of several CCS-class battlecruisers and SDV-class heavy corvettes over the human colony world of Nereid. 
In June, the operation, now codenamed LONGREACH, had reached maturity, and was authorised by Reach FLEETCOM. ONI Section 4 Prowlers had discovered a large Covenant fleet darting throughout systems, towards an unknown destination. The ONI prowler Bletchley had made an approximate slipspace destination target to the system of Terra Invicta III. Upon arrival, they found the fleet and a large Covenant refit station orbiting the gas giant. Several smaller bases were detected in one of the system's two Oort Clouds, and regular patrols from DAV-Class patrol corvettes. 
The information was relayed to Harper, and he obtained permission to begin the operation. On the 15th of June, the battlegroup left the Epsilon Eridani System, where they then travelled to the Omega Nocturnis System, after a brief stop in Harvest for PR purposes and a memorial service. When they arrived there, a small ONI Prowler maintenance base briefed Harper on new information. The fleet he was going to be attacking had been seriously augmented by the arrival of two dozen new warships. Whilst originally the mission was to have a 2:1 ratio of ships in favour to the Covenant, it was now 3:1, a serious disadvantage. Nevertheless, Vice Admiral Harper was determined to continue on, and the fleet left the Omega Nocturnis System on the 1st of July. 
=== The Battle of Terra Invicta III ===
Upon arrival in system, the Marathon-class cruiser Canberra rammed a Covenant DAV-class corvette upon exiting slipspace. This would prove to be fortunate, as it gave the ships time to set up battle formations. All ships immediately detected 49 of the 56 ships of the Covenant's Fleet of Ardent Resolve. Harper ordered all ships to hold fire until targets were identified, and then at 25:32 Standard Reach Time, the battlegroup opened fire.
Immediately, 15 Covenant ships were destroyed by the first volley. 11 CCS-class battlecruisers, whose shields had been powered down due to the system having been identified as 'safe', were torn from stem to stern by the capital ships and escorts of the squadron. The other four targets consisted of 3 SDV-class corvettes and 1 CPV-class heavy destroyer. The destroyer itself was demolished by a combined volley from the Centurion and Canberra, with an immediate explosion upon the MAC's impact with the destroyer. The remaining Covenant ships turned their eyes to the fleet, and shields began to power up. An ORS-class heavy cruiser that had gone unscathed due to being behind a refit station had powered up its shields, and launched a furious volley of plasma torpedoes towards the first ship in site, the destroyer Bagration.
The torpedoes ripped off the destroyer's Titanium-A hull plating, and scorched dozens of compartments. Another torpedo slammed into the fusion engines, causing a tremendous explosion that tore the ship in half. Finally, several dozen manually guided plasma lances hit the ship directly, tearing through the armour and melting the two MAC guns, which had begun the firing sequences when the lances were hit. The MAC guns misfired, which blew apart the ship in a huge detonation. The ORS-class then turned its eyes to a frigate, the Stuttgart, and began to power up its plasma torpedo launchers, however was halted by the intervention of the Ares' Fist.
An technique the crew of the Ares' Fist had learnt was the capability for their MAC systems to fire three rounds successively of Depleted Uranium projectiles at a low velocity. These weapons, whilst not especially effective against shields, could rip apart the hull of any Covenant warship. The captain of the Ares' Fist, one Captain Julius Transon, had trained his crew to load one MAC with a DP round and the other with an EMP round. The DP round would be fired first due to its lower velocity, followed by the EMP round, timed so that the EMP round would arrive mere seconds before the DP.
The ORS-class heavy cruiser got the first ever use of what would be known as the Transon Volley in combat, as the EMP round ripped through its shield and hit the Covenant ship in the stern, disabling some of their engines. The DP round then hit the middle of the ship, tearing through the hull and destroying shielding, weapons and controls. The ORS-class was dead in the water, and was scuttled by its crew a minutes later.
This victory would be followed up by another five kills, this time on a cluster of SDV-class heavy corvettes racing to an intercept position near the Oort Cloud. Making use of 'tag-team' tactics, the corvettes were destroyed without loss to Battlegroup Hellas. They then turned their attention to the orbiting refit station, where three CCS-class battlecruisers were docked, desperately powering up their shields and engines in order to fight. Harper ordered the Devana and Hercules to target the station, whilst the Centurion, Thunderstruck and Canberra took aim at the battlecruisers. 
Heavy MAC rounds slammed into both the station and the ships, wrecking internal systems and the space station's armaments controls. The CCS-class battlecruisers were all destroyed, and another salvo into the station would see its destruction. So far, the UNSC had taken one casualty, the Bagration, and had dealt 19 casualties to the much larger Covenant fleet.
At this point, Harper gave the order to engage individual targets, with each ship picking and choosing their own. However, the DOS-class supercruiser and the CAS-class assault carrier were nowhere to be found. Harper concluded that this meant they were on the far side of the planet. No later than he cautioned to beware of the missing forces, the CAS-class carrier came tearing out from behind the planet, followed by an unorganised group of 5 CCS-class battlecruisers. Harper ordered the Centurion, and any available heavy units to turn towards the threat. 
The first salvo from the battlegroup's assets that were concentrated at the carrier did no damage. This was not because of a failure in accuracy, but because the CCS-class battlecruisers became meat-shields for the carrier, taking heavy damage and rendering themselves inoperable to save the carrier. At this time, 7 of the 15 ships in the UNSC battlegroup were firing at the assault carrier. The shields of the assault carrier would absorb the fire, however they would sputter as another salvo was fired.