Siege of Seneca

The Siege of Seneca, later known as the Senecan Disaster was a protracted campaign during The Great Insurrection between the separatist Alliance of Human Colonies and the Unified Earth Government. The Siege began on 23rd December 2564 when the 2nd Fleet of the Alliance invaded the Seneca System. Seneca was an important world for the UNSC as it had replaced Reach as the gateway to Earth. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, the Alliance undertook a campaign of frontier raids and misinformation, thereby drawing the bulk of the UNSC fleet away from Seneca and into other sectors. As such the vast Alliance fleet was able to quickly overpower and rout the remaining Task Force. The space victory allowed for a planetary invasion to begin, however the UNSC troops provided stiffer resistance than their naval counterparts. The Seneca Campaign would become characterised by series of long and drawn out attrition advances and retreats with neither side able to gain an advantage. However, as the Campaign progressed the blockade would eventually begin to starve out the planetary defenders. The UNSC, frightened at the potential loss of one of its largest military divisions, launched an ill-fated counter-attack in March 2565 in an attempt to rescue its beleaguered troops. In what would become one of the greatest military disaster since the Great War, the UNSC lost almost all of its rescue fleet with only a meagre 1/5th of its Seneca division being rescued.
==History==
===Prelude===
The first two years of the Great Insurrection were sparse in large engagements as neither side believed that had the means to win a protracted battle. The Alliance may have had the superior tactical position, with its officer core consisting of veterans of the but the UEG had the logistical advantage through its retained shipyards and higher total number of warships. The first serious engagement between the two sides was the Raid of New Carthage that took place just seven weeks into the war. The UNSC had committed only a single Battlegroup, the Orion, to the battle and was easily repelled because of it. The battle, however, forced O'Kelly to rethink his strategy. The decision to use only a single battlegroup to attack the enemy's capital had shown to O'Kelly that the UNSC could afford to take risks in their battle plans due to their control of the shipyards. As such, O'Kelly mandated that only small skirmish-style engagements were allowed by his forces and that should the enemy commit serious naval resources to defend they were expected to retreat.
===Opening Battle===
===Siege Begins===
===Reinforcements Arrive===
===Defeat===
====Fall of New Byzantium====
===Legacy===