Fall of New Carthage

The Fall of New Carthage, also known as the Battle of New Carthage, was a major orbital and terrestrial battle that occurred in 2549 on the inner colony of in the Wolf 424 system. A small Navy force entered the system on 29 November and attacked the colony the following morning, which the UNSC defeated through a combination of mines and fire from orbital defence platforms. On 2 December, a significantly larger Covenant force entered the system and blockaded the world, simultaneously preventing civilian vessels from escaping the system and attempting to force the UNSC into a decisive battle. 
After a prolonged and costly battle, UNSC forces were defeated and the planet was rendered uninhabitable from orbit by the Covenant. However, this was not before most of the planet's two million inhabitants were successfully evacuated.
==Background==
New Carthage was a strategically important world located approximately 14.2 light years from Sol. A significant naval port in the region, New Carthage provided the UNSC with a sizeable port from which to dispatch quick reaction fleets, as well as providing access to the few remaining outer colonies nearby. New Carthage was also situated between the 's rough axis of advance and , Humanity's second world and most important stronghold after . Additionally, New Carthage held importance for its large population, a source of recruits for the UNSC, its deuterium refineries, and its simple existence as one of a shrinking number of inner colonies. As a result, a significant UNSC Navy force was maintained on orbit comprising a robust defence fleet and sixteen 'super' MAC platforms, in addition to two UNSC Army Corps defending the planet's surface. Standing orders for the present UNSC force were to repel hostile forces and retain control of the colony, or, in the face of a superior force, to fight a delaying action sufficient to evacuate the colony's population.
==Opening skirmish==
UNSC forces began preparing late on 29 November, after anomalous slipspace movements were detected by Timaeus. Preparations included putting UNSC Army forces at full readiness, moving rural populations to prefabricated camps close to space ports, and making the entire planet's civilian power grid available to the sixteen orbital defence platforms at a moments' notice. The first Covenant vessels appeared from slipspace at 04:49 the following morning. Because of the unique nature of the Wolf 424 system, in which a dense asteroid field encapsulated the system, only a small number of routes were relatively safe to transit to and from the planet. The UNSC had heavily mined all but two of these routes in the assumption that the Covenant would utilise them, but had also mined the region of clear space beyond the field in the knowledge that the Covenant would re-enter normal space here. The Covenant fleet completely ignored the 'safe' routes, surmising them to be booby trapped, and instead attempted to simply slipspace jump to the other side of the asteroid field. The first twelve Covenant vessels, seven and five , were destroyed outright by nuclear mines laid there, after which subsequent ships jumped beyond the range of the minefield. Twenty seven Covenant vessels now bore down on the UNSC world, but the delay had proved sufficient to begin evacuating the planet's substantial population.
Once the Covenant fleet was beyond the asteroid field, each force could get a detailed look at the composition of the other. The Covenant force was outnumbered with twenty seven vessels to the UNSC's fifty one. However, Covenant forces almost never retreated, even in the face of poor odds, and had regularly prevailed in the past even with such numerical disadvantages. The Covenant's force comprised twelve CPV-class destroyers and fifteen , something the senior UNSC officer, Rear Admiral Oskar Freeman, was aware of through optical and infrared sensors. As the vessels drew nearer, Freeman ordered his sixteen orbital defence platforms to open fire at the very limit of their effective range, at a distance of just under nineteen million kilometres, aiming initially for the destroyers. This attack took the Covenant completely by surprise and eliminated eleven of the twelve of the destroyers in the first salvo. In the twelve seconds between this and the second salvo of slugs, the remaining one destroyer aimed, charged and fired its single energy projector, obliterating the orbital platform Versam (ODA-401) in a fireball that lit up the night sky in the city below. Additionally, the Covenant ships began taking evasive manoeuvres, making them significantly harder to hit. The second MAC salvo destroyed the remaining destroyer and five of the frigates, leaving ten frigates advancing on the world. With no energy projectors between them, however, and therefore no means to retaliate against the UNSC defence platforms, the remaining frigates opened a slipspace rupture and exited the system, ending the battle. The UNSC had scored a minor victory, though Freeman was certain the Covenant would amass a much larger force to assault the world.
==The battle==
The UNSC received reinforcements on 1st December in the form of the 6th Defence Fleet, totalling 76 vessels trained and equipped for planetary defence. The 6th Defence Fleet was stationed at New Carthage and was, by happy coincidence, returning to the world already when the Covenant first attacked. Rear Admiral Freeman had informed HIGHCOM of the situation first on 29th November and again on the 30th, however no other reinforcements would reach the colony until 4th December at the earliest. At 15:09 on 2nd December, a second, far larger Covenant force, consisting of one hundred and twenty two warships, entered the system and bypassed the asteroid field, holding position at fifty million kilometres. At this safe distance, the Covenant's commander, Supreme Commander Ikha 'Dovaree, was able to detect a significant UNSC force surrounding the planet, but not exact numbers, and was additionally mindful of the destruction wrought on the previous Covenant force by a thus-far unknown number of orbital defence platforms. In light of this, 'Dovaree instead opted to blockade the world.
The Covenant blockade served two purposes; firstly, it would prevent further UNSC reinforcement of the world or evacuation of civilian vessels; and it would, with any luck, force the UNSC into an offensive action in which the Covenant could defeat them unharrassed by the planet's concentration of orbital defence platforms. The Covenant plan involved using Fleet Master Cirha 'Lodamee's force of ten battlecruisers and twelve destroyers as bait to lure the UNSC Navy into the heart of the Covenant fleet. This tactic would allow them to crush the UNSC fleet in one swift blow, leaving the planet relatively undefended. However, the UNSC still prioritised retaining the well-defended world and in any case, suspected the Covenant trap. On 1st December, Freeman had relinquished command of the defence effort to Fleet Admiral Yasmin Ferreira, commander of the 6th Defence Fleet and highly experienced in the defence of colony worlds. Ferreira divided her forces into three main groups centred around two cruisers each, dispersed to prevent the Covenant being able to concentrate plasma torpedo fire.
==Aftermath==