Battle of Briar

The Battle of Briar, later hailed as the Requiem for the Outer Colonies by the and The Hard-Learned Lesson by member species, was a defensive campaign by forces against the Covenant on the of Briar in 2539. Atypical of engagements during the Great War, the UNSC anticipated the discovery of Briar and took the initiative in preparing the colony as a favorable battleground. Their preparations relied on inferences made about Covenant battle theory from firsthand experience during their invasions of the . These efforts were spearheaded by Brigadier General Juan Luis Lopez in collaboration with Admiral , numerous veterans of the Outer Colony campaigns, and eventually select members of the .
The results of these preparations would prove devastating to the Covenant. Having been lured into a ground engagement through simple psychological manipulation, their forces were baited into unfavorable combat conditions time and again through the UNSC's exploitation of their cultural regard for personal glory. While the UNSC suffered heavy casualties in maintaining relentless pressure on their enemy, the Covenant detachments involved lost not only the majority of their force strength, but in many cases entire generations of certain clans' warriors. These mounting losses had far-reaching impacts on the Covenant's political status quo. The resulting power vacuums led to chaos and a reevaluation of the Covenant's entire military doctrine in their war against humanity. Some have even speculated the failure of traditional warfighting strategy during the battle contributed to the motivations behind the .
==Background==
From the Human-Covenant War's outset, the had been dealt a series of near-endless defeats at the hands of the . The alien hegemony not only possessed more advanced weaponry and technology, but their expansive empire lay in the regions of space beyond humanity's furthest exploration, limiting the UNSC's ability to effectively retaliate. As they had done at and , the Covenant fleet would establish orbital superiority, then a human world without even putting their own warriors in danger. Typically, the only times the Covenant would offer a ground engagement was when their detected the presence of artifacts, their religious doctrines demanding they ensure the safety of these relics. While the UNSC had markedly better success in ground engagements, such victories were rendered meaningless when the Covenant secured their objectives and glassed the planet, rendering them inhospitable to human life.
But as the war continued into the 2530s, attitudes toward ground engagement began to change in Covenant circles. The species in particular—the Covenant's premier military caste—upheld a culture which attributed great renown to those credited with deeds of martial prowess. While their orbital bombardments were swift and effective, the trivial ease of their execution afforded little glory to the Fleetmasters who carried them out. Their rare ground assaults, however, offered not only the chance to reclaim sacred fragments of Forerunner technology, but the opportunity to earn distinction in facing the heretic humans' more formidable ground forces and even the prowess of their rare . With the glory, titles, and power to accompany them so easily in reach, some Fleetmasters began more frequently ordering ground assaults ahead of glassing human worlds, justifying their deployments with less and less substantial evidence of Forerunner artifacts. Though some Sangheili clans looked down on the practice, other lineages began to treat the war with humanity not only as duty, but sport.
Allowances were made for these overzealous ground deployments, however, due to both the Covenant's appetite for recovering Forerunner relics, and the Sangheili military hierarchy's close ties to the . Further, while of little inherent strategic value, the increase in public morale and support for the war with humanity placated many detractors in the . Ministries which reported victories by the fleets they had sponsored reflected well on their public image, further incentivizing figures both in and outside of the Covenant military. The Minister of Resolution in particular gathered power by embracing this new attitude towards the war by awarding command of legions, ships, and entire fleets her ministry sponsored to Sangheili willing to abide by her control, elevating yet more proponents of ground warfare as the more pragmatic were sidelined. Despite a higher rate of defeat than in naval engagements, materiel and personnel losses remained insignificant and easily replaced. The brunt of casualties were rarely carried by Sangheili officers, and levies of two hundred thousand Unggoy could be raised in just six weeks, making even mass infantry losses inconsequential.
The , meanwhile, found itself with a new crisis every time a battle was lost. When a colony ceased to exist, its industrial base disappeared and the loss of its exports caused neighboring trade partners to suffer shortages and sometimes famine when agricultural worlds fell. The careful balance of supply and demand the UEG had negotiated between its colonies to prevent insurrection was thrown into chaos, and military supply lines had to be rerouted. Worse still, the surviving populations of glassed colonies became a tide of refugees their neighbors were unprepared for, resulting in hastily-constructed camps and shantytowns on dozens of worlds. In uncontrolled conditions like these, criminal organizations like the Iskandar Syndicate flourished. All of this would repeat as soon as the Covenant discovered the next colony, forcing refugees to relocate again and the survivors of a whole other planetary population to join them.
One understated consequence of these realities was the widespread personal loss common among personnel. A high percentage of servicemen and women had enlisted or transferred from units in the Outer Colonies, which were the first to fall. Being stationed light-years from home, many only received news after the fact that their homes had been destroyed, and they were sometimes the only survivors of whole families. Depression, suicide, and usage skyrocketed, with some military bases and vessels requesting doubled or tripled allowances of anti-depressants, , birth control, and even medical-kit doses of . Many grieving servicemen sought discharges, sometimes medically recommended due to mental health, but the UNSC's desperate need of troops led to denials even in all-too-frequent legitimate cases. Many were left with no recourse but resigning themselves to the increasingly-bleak outlook of the war.
==Prelude==
The architect of Briar's defense would be Brigadier General Juan-Luis Lopez, a native of Madrigal who had himself been displaced by the war. Lopez had served in the UNSC Army during the Insurrection, a veteran of and the campaign before opting for an early retirement. After surviving the glassing of his homeworld in 2528, he relocated to and again witnessed Covenant tactics firsthand when the planet was attacked in 2531. The next year, he began to petition for a reinstatement of his rank to return to the service, but had little success until a chance meeting in 2534 with Abigail Cole, a lobbyist for the rights of refugees and sister to Admiral . Through Abigail's introduction, Lopez gained Preston's support for reinstatement and was granted his choice of assignments. While experienced leadership was greatly needed on the war's rapidly deteriorating front line, Lopez selected a remote agricultural world after many private correspondences with Preston: Briar.
Lopez had brought to Cole's attention certain results of ONI's substantial time spent analyzing Covenant culture. Specialists in Xeno Intelligence (XENOINT), Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), Technical Intelligence (TECHINT), and Cultural Intelligence (CULTINT) curated data gathered over years of interrogations, intercepted signals, technical analysis, and cultural analysis. Extensive efforts were devoted to looking at ways the Covenant's structure and values system could be exploited on a tactical and strategic level. These efforts produced the Pendleton paper (2532) and the Luca-Beridze paper (2537). The ideas put forth in both documents had been seldom used, however, due in part to the various classification levels of their sources in disparate intelligence branches. Lopez gained access to them through old acquaintances and, finding they agreed with his own experiences, brought them to Cole as the basis of his strategy. Once Cole used his own authority to track down evidence of their successful use, mainly by SPARTAN deployments, Cole threw his full support behind Lopez's plan.
===UNSC Preparations===
Upon arriving on the planet in late 2537, Lopez faced two chief obstacles to setting up his defense of Briar: justifying the transfer of manpower and materiel in the quantities required away from the war's front lines, and secrecy to ensure he kept what he acquired. Briar was far from a priority in the UNSC's defensive considerations, and any forces he managed to gather could be reallocated by HIGHCOM on a whim, while the ever-present eyes of made secrecy a near-futile effort. Lopez managed to secure an ally, however, in Governor Signe Lindqvist. The head of Briar's colonial government had been grateful to receive such a veteran officer to oversee their wartime defense, as the UNSC continually pulled any personnel with experience for the war against the Covenant and left gaps in its hierarchy. While Lopez hid his intentions to bring the Covenant to Briar from her, their discussions on how the colony might retain a substantial fraction of its own military personnel led to the discovery of egregious loopholes in Briar's original charter, which had allowed the colony to fund and maintain its own Colonial Guard as a security force. While attention would need to be paid to nomenclature and terminology, the charter failed to stipulate maximum populations for such a force.
While Governor Lindqvist began to press for expansion of the Colonial Guard in Briar's government, Lopez knew the agricultural world's meager population would never produce enough volunteers to amass the forces he imagined. Instead, he turned to Admiral Cole for support, and received more than he could have ever dreamed. Under his command, the had become the de facto garrison of numerous UNSC Marine Corps and Army units in the course of the many engagements Cole had led his fleet into. When their previous headquarters, either planetside or aboard other Naval assets, were lost as the Covenant won in naval engagements and glassed worlds, the Third Fleet were responsible for their evacuation, and transferring these military refugees off of Cole's cramped and swiftly overcrowded vessels had become a logistical pinch point. Further, as many of these troops were natives of fallen colonies, leaving them neither home nor family to return to, their presence had a profoundly negative effect on fleet morale. When Lopez requested help securing troops for his plans, Cole swiftly drew up the preemptive paperwork to transfer many displaced personnel to Briar.
Admiral Cole was, however, forced to consider Lopez's intention to bring the Covenant to Briar. Troops he dedicated to the planet would ultimately participate in what would be a vicious battle. Rather than consign decimated units to Briar without warning of what was to come, Cole quietly used an inspection tour of the Third Fleet's troop-hosting vessels to ask for volunteers. In a series of short speeches, without revealing specifics Cole made clear transferal to Briar would amount to an eventual suicide mission, but with the ultimate goal of pioneering tactics which could disrupt the Covenant's nearly unhindered advance through human space. In spite of these dire prospects, thousands of displaced soldiers and marines accepted. The units hosted by the Third Fleet had in many cases been reduced to less than half or quarter strengths, some so nearly annihilated they'd been folded together into new formations, made up of Outer Colonists who'd lost everything resembling home, family, and comrades when their worlds fell. Grappling with loss too great to heal, often alone given the inadequate supply of psychiatric care for such high demand, throwing their lives away to lash out at the aliens who'd broken them was all they could ask for, as Cole had hoped.
The sudden arrival of so many troops on Briar would bring headaches of its own. Briar's existing military installations were too small to accommodate so many, and the UNSC's meager defense budget for the distant agricultural world could not sufficiently provide for them. Mass temporary housing was erected in the agricultural world's continual summer heat with help from the colonial government's disaster response stockpiles, but in such conditions enforcing military discipline among men and women whose morale had been brought so low was impossible. Black market trading and other criminal activity skyrocketed as a result. Brigadier General Lopez was forced to turn to Briar's government, who resented being made to shoulder the burden of so many military refugees and the problems they caused. In desperation, Lopez struck a quick but unfavorable compromise with other powers in the UNSC. In exchange for expanded funding to Briar's defense to construct new bases and their required housing, the colony would set aside significant sums of recently-deforested land intended for future agricultural expansion for new UNSC military training facilities, helping churn out more soldiers for the UEG's war effort against the Covenant.
Though placing even more UNSC resources inside Lopez's sphere of influence would prove a boon to his plans, especially 's Saint Isidore School of Military Engineering, the Briar Colonial Government came away from the negotiations disgusted but powerless to argue with the UEG's unilateral decision. It also soured the rapport Lopez had established with Governor Lindqvist, who had to this point been a valuable liaison and ally. Their divide came at a critical time, as the combination of anti-Earth sentiment and readily-available trade in weapons, drugs, and other illegal goods became fertile ground for the Syndicate and elements of the latent human . Small propaganda and recruitment efforts by the became apparent, with sabotage efforts on construction sites for the new UNSC facilities discovered by mid-2538. While the URF seemed more interested in using Briar as recruitment grounds for their enclaves elsewhere rather than upset the local balance of power, their presence brought greater UNSC scrutiny down on Briar, putting Lopez's stockpiling of men and materiel without HIGHCOM's express permission in jeopardy.
In December of 2538, Lopez's fears were first realized when an Office of Naval Intelligence counter-insurgency team was dispatched to Briar. Though Lopez at first attempted to stonewall the team leader's demand for support from local forces, he was soon privately confronted by a Major Selma Dupre, who alleged the evidence her team had found could earn him charges from misuse of military property and misleading officials to forgery of military documents. When given the chance to explain his reasons, however, Dupre became intrigued and revealed her team was made up of only two other agents: a pair of commandos, Vinh-030 and Isaac-039. After consulting the supersoldiers, Dupre offered her assistance in stalling the inevitable discovery of Lopez's plan, even reaching out to the SPARTAN-IIs' commanding officer to consider sending additional support. In response, dispatched a further three SPARTANs: Ajax-013, Elise-070, and Mike-028. Their contributions would prove invaluable to the planning efforts, with unique expertise in combat engineering and experience with Covenant battle psychology providing new insights into where and how to structure their defenses.
With their tactical plans finalized, both the construction of Lopez's network of fortifications and training maneuvers for his forces accelerated, which became impossible to hide. He began to face inquiries from both the UNSC and civilian government, yet continued to deflect scrutiny as best he could. Thanks to Major Dupre, a final necessary puzzle piece was secured by offering a deal with ONI to fund a research site for the in exchange for overlooking the excessive force placed under Lopez's command, more befitting of a Major General by this point than a Brigadier. While they could not be certain, Lopez and Dupre pinned their hopes on the XEG bringing artifacts to the lab on Briar for study, which would inevitably be discovered by Covenant . While Lopez intended to exploit the Covenant's desire for honorable combat to lure them into a ground engagement, the presence of such artifacts would serve as a backup means of preventing the aliens' navy from simply glassing the planet.
At last, in February of 2539, Lopez's bluff was called. With her reelection chances hurt by supporting his agenda, Governor Lindqvist had enough evidence gathered of Lopez's activities to request a formal inquiry by the UEG into the military forces gathered on Briar. Forced not by the Covenant's impending advance but pressure from his own government, Lopez curbed his hopes of waiting longer for additional forces or strategic insights and committed to the battle with those already at his disposal. Contacting Admiral Cole, Lopez gave the go-ahead to begin their operation. Using one of the Third Fleet's prowlers, a was dropped in Covenant space with a message addressed to the Covenant's military leadership. The message contained stellar coordinate references to the Chi Hristar system and Briar in particular, daring the Covenant to send their finest warriors to face the UNSC's ground forces in a ground campaign.
====UNSC Forces====
By the end of February, 2539, the efforts of Lopez, Cole, and their associates had gathered more than 1.2 million armed service personnel on Briar. While all officially-stationed UNSC forces of the unimportant agri-world were at his command, the bulk of Lopez's manpower came from the Briar Colonial Guard: the planetary militia provided for in its charter. Due to the lack of stipulations on force size, this supposedly-small security force had expanded to three full army groups. Despite being a colonial force, the majority of these troops were not Briar natives. Admiral Cole had offered honorable discharges, or in some cases authorized dishonorable discharges, to UNSC Army and Marine servicemen carried by the overburdened Third Fleet in order to have them relocated to Briar. Upon arrival, these trained soldiers and marines enlisted in the Briar Colonial Guard. This kept their mass reassignment out of the eyes of HIGHCOM and swelled Lopez's ranks with men and women who had nothing to lose fighting the Covenant to the bitter end.
Properly outfitting these forces, however, had proved a significant challenge, relegating the Colonial Guard to a mostly-unsupported infantry force. The official UNSC contingents would be the better-equipped sources of strength and capabilities. Their assets, from heavy weapons to vehicles to aerospace assets, would be depended on to prevent the defense from collapsing entirely. Additionally, the two years Lopez had spent preparing Briar had resulted in expansive fortifications across its largest continent. These included hidden bunkers which troops could quickly appear from or disappear into, extensive study of existing terrain, minefields in key locations, and time his troops spent drilling on what was to be their battlefield. The expertise and even insightful theoretical exercises by students of the new Military Engineering school were applied to prepare Briar and its defenders as thoroughly as possible.
*Briar Colonial Guard 
**Briar First Army 
***I Corps 
****1st Infantry Division 'Briar Patch': Considered an elite and premier unit, they are mostly made up of hardened veterans and dogmatic fighters, fully willing to fight to the death. 
****2nd Infantry Division: Mostly built from survivors of the earliest outer colony defeats, 2nd Division had a higher than tolerated medical issuance, but countered this with an absolute willingness to throw their lives way. 
****1st Armoured Division: Recently re-equipped with current UNSC tech, 1st Armoured where mostly veterans from Harvest, Jericho VII, and Madrigal. In battle against the Covenant, they held a distinct edge from their veteran tank crews. 
***III Corps
****3rd Infantry Division 'Jerichoan Ghosts': Formed from survivors of Jericho VII, most were desperate for vengeance for their fallen home world, many having never had to the chance to defend her. 
****2nd Armoured Division: Primarily CMA survivors, and reconstituted from no less than five destroyed divisions, they have returned to full strength, and carry the shared knowledge of the survivors. 
****1st Airborne Division 'Burr's Buzzards': Mostly survivors from elite CMA combat units, they were formed around Lars Burr, a former CMA Major General, and an important figure in their continued fight against the Covenant. 
***IV Corps
****1st Mechanized Division: Experienced veterans, they would primarily be used as mobile reserves to plug important gaps in the battle line. 
****4th Infantry Division: Primarily green recruits made up of young men and women displaced by the Covenant's invasion, they have been rapidly trained by hardened CMA and UNSC veterans with the intention of creating bulked numbers for the coming battle. 
****5th Infantry Division: Primarily discharged UNSC personnel with no world to call home, they've answered the call for Briar, forming the 5th Infantry. 
**Briar Second Army 
***V Corps
****6th Infantry Division: War can make for strange bedfellows, with amnesty for the UNSC's former enemies in exchange for fighting a common. A mixture of former URF fighters and CMA fighters, they've been deployed to menace covenant forces in unconventional methods. 
****3rd Armoured Division 'Beachhead': Experienced CMA fighters, the 3rd Armoured have been mustered to engage Covenant forces where possible. Most of their unit is constructed from survivors from the CMA's disastrous defence of Gadyberg. 
****1st Mountain Division: Elite light infantry formed to wage battle over Briar's mountains, they've been utilised as specialists to prevent the Covenant from flanking over impassable mountains. 
***VI Corps
****1st Shock Division: Gathered from survivors of CMA and UNSC special forces units who were damaged, decimated, or otherwise rendered incapable of combat, the 1st Shock Division was armed and equipped similarly to an ODST division. They were not deployed en-masse, but instead deployed in smaller attachments with other divisions, where they experience could be quickly leveraged. 
****2nd Shock Division: While partially made of surviving CMA special forces units, it also contained significant numbers of surviving veterans. While not technically classified as special forces, the 2nd Shock Division was held as a vital reserve, with the aim to drive them deep into the heart of the enemy when weakness was shown. 
****7th Infantry Division: Reconstructed from two near-destroyed Divisions, 7th Infantry is a mix of combat veterans from different campaigns. Most are hardbitten soldiers desiring vengeance. 
***IX Corps
****8th Infantry Division 'Messina Volunteers': Young men and women from the glassed colony of Messina, volunteers were quickly trained into a green, but determined fighting force. 
****1st Air Assault Division: Elements of the 120th, 119th, and 334th CMA air assault divisions were merged to form the 1st Air Assault Division of the Briar Army. 
****9th Infantry Division 'Old timers': the 9th Infantry Division was recruited largely from CMA personnel who had retired either through injury, or through age, resulting in a division of older personnel who's experience came with their long service. 
**Briar Third Army
***X Corps
****4th Armoured Division: 
****2nd Mechanised Division 
****1st Motorised Division 
***XI Corps
****10th Infantry Division 
****11th Infantry Division 
****5th Armoured Division 
***XIII Corps
****6th Armoured Division 
****3rd Mechanised Division 
****12th Infantry Division 
**Briar Third Army 
***XIV Corps
****13th Infantry Division 
****14th Infantry Division 
****4th Mechanized Division Division 
***XV Corps
****7th Armoured Division 
****5th Mechanized Division 
****15th Infantry Division 
***XVI Corps
****16th Infantry Division 
****2nd Mountain Division 
****2nd Airborne Division 
**Briar Fourth Army 
***XVII Corps
****17th Infantry Division 
****2nd Mountain Division 
****3rd Mountain Division 
***XVIII Corps
****2nd Air Assault Division 
****3rd Shock Division 
****3rd Airborne Division 
***XVIII Corps
****18th Infantry Division 
****19th Infantry Division 
****8th Armoured Division 
**Briar Fifth Army 
***XIX Corps
****9th Armoured Division 
****20th Infantry Division 
****21st Infantry Division 
***XXI Corps
****10th Armoured Division 
****11th Armoured Division 
****22nd Infantry Division 
***XXII Corps
****23rd Infantry Division 
****24th Infantry Division 
****12th Armoured Division 
**Briar Sixth Army 
***XXIII Corps
****4th Airborne Division 
****25th Infantry Division 
****5th Mechanized Division 
***XXIV Corps
****26th Infantry Division 
****6th Mechanized Division 
****13th Armoured Division 
***XXV Corps
****14th Armoured Division 
****15th Armoured Division 
****7th Mechanized Division 
**Briar Seventh Army 
***XXVI Corps
****27th Infantry Division 
****28th Infantry Division 
****29th Infantry Division 
***XXVII Corps
****30th Infantry Division 
****31st Infantry Division 
****16th Armoured Division 
***XVIII Corps
****3rd Mountain Division 
****3rd Air Assault Division 
****32nd Infantry Division 
*Briar Air Force 
**1st Briar Air Force 
**2nd Briar Air Force
*UNSC Army 
**Nineteenth Army 
***XVI Corps
****11th Armoured Division "Iron Eleventh"
**** Division 
**** Division 
***XXI Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
***XIX Corps
**** Division 
****18th Highlanders Division 
*****191st Black Watch Regiment
**** Division 
**Twentieth Army
***XVIII Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
***XXX Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
***XXXI Corps
**** Division 
****142nd Airborne Division 
**** Division 
**Twenty-Second Army
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
**Twenty-fourth Army
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
**Twenty-fifth Army
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
*** Corps
**** Division 
**** Division 
**** Division 
**UNSC Army Corps of Engineers
***2 divisions 
*UNSC Air Force 
**56th Air Force 
**58th Air Force 
*UNSC Navy
**Third Fleet
***UNSC Chinook
**UNSC Naval Construction Battalions
***101st Naval Construction Battalion 
***122nd Naval Construction Battalion 
***301st Naval Construction Battalion 
***332nd Naval Construction Battalion 
*UNSC Marine Corps 
**7th Marine Expeditionary Force
**13th Marine Expeditionary Force 
**26th Marine Expeditionary Force 
**27th Marine Expeditionary Force
**64th Marine Expeditionary Force 
**71st Marine Expeditionary Force 
**101st Marine Expeditionary Force 
**155th Marine Expeditionary Force 
**183rd Marine Expeditionary Force 
**200th Marine Expeditionary Force 
**UNSC Marine Corps of Engineers
***191st Combat Engineering Division (Hades) 
*UNSC Special Forces 
**Orbital Drop Shock Troopers
***105th Shock Troops Division
****21st Battalion 
****16th Battalion 
***6th Shock Troops Division
****102nd Battalion
****114th Battalion
**UNSC Marine Raiders
***8th Marine Raider Battalion 
***14th Marine Raider Battalion
**Special Circumstances Aerial Reconnaissance, and Extraction (SCARE)
***16th SCARE squadron
***21st SCARE squadron
***49th SCARE squadron
**UNSC Army Ranger Corps
***304th Ranger Division (Ghouls): While they had not yet fought in the HCW, the 304th had ample experience with the Insurrection, and had drilled endlessly in preparation for armed conflict with the Covenant. The tactics once used against them became tactics they could use against the Covenant in turn. 
***333rd Ranger Division (Hatchet): 
**UNSC Army Hazardous Environment Corps
***91st Mountain Division (Olympians): Garrisoned at the foot of Olympus Mons, the Olympians are an elite Mountain Division who cut their teeth on the snowy wastes of Mars. Experts in Mountain fighting, they became a distinct threat against the Covenant forces. 
***122nd Mountain Division (Mountain Lions): the 333rd are primarily recruited from kivas from Szurdok ridge, Visegrád, and other mountainous communities on reach, resulting in natural born alpine fighters. 
**UNSC Army Special Forces
***6th Special Forces Battalion (Arcturan Raiders): Elite special forces nominally based on Arcturus, the Arcturan raiders have experience from counter-terrorism during the Insurrection, and expertise at black operations against Covenant forces. This expertise was leveraged as a long range strike force intended to keep the Covenant invaders off balance, and stop them from getting comfortable in their positions. 
***21st Special Forces Battalion 
***33rd Special Forces Battalion (Goldeneye) 
**Special Tasks Aviation Support
***3rd Special Tasks Aviation Battalion
***21st Special Tasks Aviation Battalion
**Navy Special Warfare
***SPARTAN-IIs
****Crimson Team
****Green Team
===Covenant Preparations===
The arrival of General Lopez's message brought a number of longstanding rivalries in the Covenant's intersecting military and political circles to a head. From the war's outset, the Covenant's leadership had stated humanity's extinction was in accordance with the will of their gods, and the ongoing success of their campaigns evidence of their favor. The few setbacks had been caused by the cunning and inherent wickedness of their foes, spiteful as they were of the Covenant's divine providence. Thus, when Lopez's challenge was brought before the , its lure proved irresistible. Lopez had not only acknowledged their claim to be the gods' chosen, but challenged it in what seemed to be, for once, a direct and fair fight. Victory over this upstart human would provide irrefutable proof not only of their military superiority, but their inherent righteousness. The question in the council chamber would not be if the challenge was accepted, but who would have the honor of leading the response.
And yet, there was some opposition voiced by Sangheili members of the Council. A divide had emerged between the most zealously spiritual Councilors and the more worldly representatives. In policy, the spiritual faction, which became known as the Ecclesiasts, supported a near-total dedication of the Covenant to the war effort against the humans, finding popular and financial support in claims of the war's righteousness. By contrast, the Pragmatists—mocked as the Hesitants by their opponents—were concerned with the overall effect of the war on the Covenant's structure, citing labor shortages in economic sectors outside the military. Both sides had strong ties to the Covenant military, but the Ecclesiasts' connections were stronger with its Army while the Pragmatist Councilors were frequently former Ship or Fleetmasters. The San'Shyuum delegation was all too happy to exploit this obvious divide, but so far had found little success. But when the humans' challenge to a ground war was received, it immediately became a point of contention.
The Pragmatists, led by , pointed out the plainly insignificant human world could be dealt with by Fleet bombardment in a day with minimal expenditure. But this fact did little to sway the few neutral Councilors. The Ecclesiasts, incited by the San'Shyuum, drowned out their protests with bold claims of Briar as a trial of the Covenant's worth, a chance to show humans the folly of their resistance and perhaps damage their morale with the resounding defeat they would surely receive. Notably, the floor was briefly held by a visiting liaison of the Navy, there to deliver a report: Kaidon , a Shipmaster in the . Thel observed the open challenge was antithetical to human behavior as he'd encountered it, but the objection was soon dismissed. The most heated debates, as it happened, were between Ecclesiast Councilors endorsing different Fleetmasters—often their own relatives—to lead armies against Lopez's forces.
Ultimately, the honor was claimed by Fleetmaster Abilr 'Nar 'Kzadee of the Fleet of Untenable Devotion, an Ecclesiast ally whose list of battle honors sprawled longer than any other, due primarily to his repeated indulgence in unnecessary ground campaigns against human forces. Supporting them would be the Sixth Fleet of Excoriation under Fleetmaster Qreth 'Bracadee, bringing the logistical support of Jiralhanae and Yanme'e units alongside its own Sangheili legions. Additionally, the orders insisted on attaching entire chapters to the invasion force, ostensibly both to observe and record the battle and investigate the human world for Forerunner relics, despite no evidence of their presence on Briar. In truth, their inclusion was a political obligation for Fleetmaster 'Kzadee to appease their orders, and a chance for the orders to spy on the Navy and Army's strengths.
====Covenant Forces====
Fleet of Untenable Devotion
*Profligate's Reward
**Vas'tavanon Grand Commandery: The principle unit of the Covenant invasion force was a collection of some of the most elite, venerable, and honoured Legions from the Covenant. Some had names who stretched back to the dawn of the Covenant, and some even older than the holy Covenant. As the senior unit, they had their choice of targets, and as a consequence picked the most prized targets. As a consequence, they suffered the most extreme casualties. 
*Edict of Suban
**Strana macha'darr Grand Commandery: While perhaps not as well known in name as those in the principle Commandery, the Legions in this force are equal in dead, though perhaps not in name. Fighting alongside such vaunted name instilled them with a desire to prove themselves in the thickest of fighting. 
**Fleet Security
***Stealth Operations 
***Ranger Detachment 
Sixth Fleet of Excoriation
*Hierophant's Displeasure
**Anada kos'virt Grand Commandery: Due to the process of bidding for fighting between Covenant forces, many Legions of less vaunted names made it into the forces. Some earned their position through honourable trials, battle record, or through the manoeuvring of Councillors, Kaidons, and Prophets. As a result, this Commandery featured a mix of Legions, some of unusual nature, including even those led by Jiralhanae. 
**Fleet Security
***Stealth Operations 
***Ranger Detachment 
Special Warfare Group 
*Special Operations 
**Bedukar Legion 
**Savedin Reavers Legion 
**Stygian Harbingers 
**Silent Shadow 
Zealot Chapters 
*One Thousand Blades of Kalmaras 
*Victorious Concordat 
*Order of the Risen Star 
==The Battle==
On March 1st, 2539, sensor outposts which Lopez had placed on high alert detected large slipspace disturbances on the edge of the Chi Hristar system. Even before confirmation of the arrivals as Covenant, Lopez declared and ordered the civilian government to begin planetary evacuation. Governor Lindquist, however, had long suspected the Brigadier's activities and protested the order for being premature. This delay was quickly resolved by a personal call from Lopez, in which he insisted he had inside information regarding Covenant movements and pled for her cooperation. Electing to trust him a final time, Lindquist authorized the evacuation, which thanks to Lopez's pushing for regular drills was carried out with near-ideal efficiency. By the time the arrival of the Covenant fleet was confirmed, the evacuation was well underway.
After destroying the Remote Sensor Outposts nearest to their entry, the joint Covenant fleet struck into the system on a direct course for Briar. Each clustered around their carriers, the Profligate's Reward and Edict of Suban of the Fleet of Unteneble Devotion and CAS-class Hierophant's Displeasure of the Sixth Fleet of Excoriation, supported by squadrons of cruisers, frigates, and smaller vessels. The UNSC, meanwhile, had managed to put many civilian and military transport ships in place for the evacuation, but next to no naval force. Only the UNSC Chinook was on station to oversee the evacuation effort.
By the time the Covenant passed the orbit of Briar's moons, the planet's civilian evacuation was complete. Rather than cover the UNSC ground forces, Captain Meghana Laghari took the Chinook out of orbit and fled for the cover of Briar's neighboring gas giant. Dismissing the vessel as a threat, Fleetmaster K'zadee ordered the corvettes Bright Pupil and Obeisant Bride to give chase and flush them out while the carriers entered Briar's orbit. Blessings were given to Field Marshal Svak 'Henetonee to start landing troops, and the planetary invasion began.
Using scans of Briar taken only upon the combined fleets' arrival in the system, 'Henetonee assigned seven principle landing points to himself and his commanders. Each legion would deploy aboard dropships escorted by wings, and led by the commanders' personal Efreet Command Landers.
===Vacuna Gap===
The first legions to make landfall would be of the Vas'tavanon Grand Commandery, under the direct control of Field Marshall 'Henetonee. Their intended targets were Briar's two largest population centers: the capital city of Demeter, and the metropolitan Saint Isidore. Each city stood at one end of the Vacuna Gap, the only natural break between the Upper and Lower Vacuna Alps. Once they'd hammered the humans' most significant presence on the planet to rubble, 'Henetonee reasoned, he could shift troops on the ground in the unlikely case of humans achieving air superiority. Selecting a landing zone west of Demeter, the drop wing spotted a target of opportunity: a human armored column, advancing toward their drop site. While the vehicles could make disembarking troops difficult, the vehicles were easy prey from the air without support of their own.
With 'Henetonee's leave, the landing wing's Banshee escorts and several better-armed landing craft broke off to engage the column for the honor of drawing first blood. What their sensors had failed to distinguish was the column's makeup. Rather than tanks to engage ground forces, Lopez's opening counter was comprised of half-tracks mounted with MLRS. Taken by surprise, the Vas'tavanon's light Banshee squadrons were annihilated by UNSC surface-to-air ordnance. Once the escorts were gone, the Wolverines began wreaking havoc on the slower Spirits, knocking several out of the sky with their full troop complements. The damage was only curtailed when 'Henetonee angled his own Efreet lander into the engagement.
With the Efreet's firepower and the rally of surviving infantry from the crashed Spirits, the tide quickly turned against the Wolverine column. The Briar Army's Third Armoured Division refused to break, however. Its members had survived the Covenant's slaughter of CMA forces on Gadyberg, losing homes and families in the fighting. With nothing left to them but revenge, the members of this vanguard force had volunteered fully aware the assignment made death a practical guarantee. By the time they'd been wiped out to the last man, a fourth of the Vas'tavanon's landing wing had been damaged or destroyed, including the Field Marshall's lander. With them had been lost almost a fifth of the Commandery's force, either dead or wounded too severely to fight. Further casualties were suffered as, without their Banshee air support, the dropship wing made vulnerable targets for UNSC strike drones and aircraft blitzed in to take advantage of the situation. These, however, were shortly chased off by Seraphs dispatched by Fleet Master K'zadee from the Profligate's Reward.
The poor result blunted confidence among officers as well as rank-and-file warriors. K'zadee in particular was upset by the outcome, noting how the loss of their first contact marred the story to be told of the great campaign he'd secured leadership of. His offers of reinforcements, however, were refused by 'Henetonee. The humans, he believed, had played their trick, and with their reduced strength, the story of the Vas'tavanon's accomplishments would be all the better regarded once victory was achieved. After clearing the Vacuna Gap, he reasoned, his forces would be joined on its eastern end by other legions. Satisfied, K'zadee turned his attention to other theaters and left the Vacuna Gap to 'Henetonee, who rallied his forces to march on Demeter.
Despite their losses, the veteran Asanka Themata had reorganized by the following day and move out at 'Henetonee's word. Scouts from the Legion of Third Sons on observed human sentry posts keeping watch on their advance, but avoided direct engagement. 'Henetonee took this to mean their defenses would be clustered around Demeter itself and hastened his advance. This would prove a dire error, as his troops were funneled into fewer routes entering the western end of the Vacuna Gap. As some units were forced to halt and give way to their seniors, hidden UNSC mortar emplacements and mobile artillery opened fire on the static targets. Efforts to escape their range were hampered by the artillery teams' targeting of vanguard and rearward units, bottling their targets up in the narrow trails.
'Henetonee attempted to regain control by recalling his scouts to scale the bluffs and harass or eliminate the emplacements, but this proved impossible. Focused on their UNSC reconnaissance counterparts, the Ghost riders had failed to detect hidden bunkers sunk into the rivers running the floor of the gap by the Corps of Engineers. From these emerged two Scorpion tank companies and heavy weapon support, who swiftly engaged the marked scouts with vastly superior firepower. Cut off from their main force and in unfamiliar territory, the Legion of Third Sons lost many accomplished scouts hailing from respected houses on Sanghelios.
The battle wouldn't prove a complete coup for the UNSC, however. After learning of the lost scouts, 'Henetonee abandoned attempts to keep the advance's momentum and dug in. Sending his surviving Wraiths into the shelter of the Gap's thicker woods, he charged the force's surviving dropships to move in and provide air support and detection. This would cost the dropship wing's remainder heavily, making themselves easy targets for human artillery and the freed-up armoured companies, but they succeeded in identifying each emplacement. With their targeting data acquired, the Wraiths of the Nok'mandar Legion turned their plasma mortars on the aggressors. Lacking the mobility of their opposition, the static emplacements were annihilated by the Nok'mandar's veteran tankmasters, their Kodiaks lacking the time to even unlock stabilizers between the start of the Covenant counter-attack and their final elimination.
===Warzone 2===
===Warzone 3===
===Warzone 4===
===Warzone 5===
===Warzone 6===
===Warzone 7===
==Aftermath==
==Notes & References==