History written by survivors (TPF)

The professor wanted groups of two to study a battle and write a report about the event. Every group picked the Battle for Earth given the historical accounts and how it was an influential battle in ending the Great War. Samuel knew the Professor’s AI wouldn’t let him pick Earth and he settled for an easier battle, Reach.
His partner was an enthusiastic history nerd who wanted to specialize in studying the Great War. She agreed with Sam on the idea of writing about the Fall of Reach. Their presentation required a holoprojection about a specific combat engagement, lessons learned, and a strategical analysis of the battle compared to the rest of their conflict. To receive a bonus point, a direct source from the battle was considered to be instrumental in designing the combat engagement.
“So, which battle do you want to do?” Rowen asked.
Sam studied the prospects, Battle of SWORD Base, the Szurdok Ridge Offensive, Siege of New Alexandria, Battle of Dabas Valley, and the Defense of the Highland Mountains. Her selection brought back memories of his time with Red Team and their valiant defense against the overwhelming Covenant forces.
“Hmm, Highland would be the best. I remember Vanadinite Mountain pretty well,” said Sam.
“Really? Vanadinite sucks. All the good fighting happened at Menachite from the accounts,” replied Rowen.
“True, but Vanadinite was the left flank and gave Reach High Command the necessary time to evacuate and pull out. We weren’t there to fight, we were there to delay.”
Rowen stared at her partner and wondered how he had such a detailed account of what happened at Vanadinite. She remembered getting next to nothing about his career in the military expect for him serving about 20 years. It would’ve put him right at the Fall of Reach.
“Wait a minute, were you at Reach?”
“Yes.”
“Holy shit. You were at Vanadinite?”
“Yes.”
She tried to compose herself before exploding in excitement with questions about his time. It seemed like a fantasy for her partner to be from one of the biggest colonial battles during the Great War. On top of it all, she was also partnered with someone who participated in the final battles against the Covenant before the colony fell.
“What was it like? I mean, you were staring down a massive Covenant force looking to wipe you out and everything. They had like ten legions charging into Highland and you were there to fight them? What was that like?!”
Sam knew her curiosity would get the better of her. Taking a breath, he suppressed the emotions he was felling about his fallen friends and focused on the battle itself.
“We were buying time and hoping we’d hold out long enough to wear them out. What the Covenant lacked in tactics; they made up in numbers. They threw everything at us to get through us. By the time we were ordered to retreat, we had cut through two legions and were working on a third. We lost people, but we killed more of them.”
Rowen took a few notes listening to Sam, hoping to gather any useful information. She pulled up a holo presentation with the idea of mapping out the timeline and the sketches.
Nothing about Vanadinite was appealing to Sam, he lost his mentor during the battle. Despite O’s perfect setup, the Covenant pushed through and decapitated the resistance on the left flank with the help of air power. It was an unfair fight with the odds stacked against the UNSC. The Covenant never played fair and it reminded Sam that war was never fair.
“From your perspective, what did you think of the Covenant tactics?” she asked after setting up the holotable. “I get you might not hold them in high regard, but at least the on-the-ground perspective of them is better than what the books say.”
“The Covenant force was stupid. They kept running into our kill zones, their strategies were horrible. Which helped us tremendously. We killed them by the hundreds and destroyed their morale.”
Rowan wanted to point out how the UNSC was fighting a losing battle, but she held back knowing the importance of Reach. From her view, she knew Earth was next and the UNSC would win. From his, Reach was the last bastion of hope in a generational conflict with no end sight. If they failed at Reach, it was certain Humanity was going to be beaten.
“And their air support played a role. That’s when you know the Covenant can’t wage a ground war. If they start calling in orbital bombardments, you know you’re doing your job.”
Realizing they got off track, Sam turned back to the requirements they needed for the assignment. Their battle was Reach, engagement was Vanadinite Mountain with a first person account, they needed to outline the focus of the lessons learned, and then complete a strategic analysis in the grand scheme of things.
One of the most crucial errors made during Reach was the battle being done during a logistical cycle. Things were being moved in and out of the system when the Covenant invaded. Following the Cole Protocol made things complicated with returning supplies and rerouting the supply chain. A fortress world was not equipped to defend against the Covenant, no matter what. Compare Earth to Reach, there was a significant difference in preparation and Earth learned from the faults of Reach.
At a strategic level, Reach became the biggest loss and drove home the idea of Earth being the last stand. At the policy level, people were putting together plans to save the human race while the military threw together RED FLAG with the hope of eliminating the Covenant leadership. Everybody was prepared for Earth and took the failures of Reach to ensure they didn’t happen at the capital world.
Sam remembered the Covenant got the location of Earth from Meridian. The Fall of Reach was not needed, but it became a crucial key in helping the UNSC prepare their defense strategy. Had the Covenant not attacked Reach, Earth would’ve ended differently. But he didn’t want to tell his partner, because he didn’t want to disgrace those he fought alongside and watched die. They were defending Reach like it was their final stand.
“Do you still want to do Reach?” she asked after a long silence. “You been getting wrapped up in your thoughts a lot. Even when I’m rambling, I know you’ll drift off, but this seems different.”
“Let’s do it. Reach is getting overlooked and I think we can spin a good argument as to why Reach remained important,” he said after a sigh. “Might piss off the Professor, but he’ll learn to deal with it. His idea of classic warfare doesn’t fit into what Reach was, so to say.”
Nothing felt right about doing a project on his dead friends. History had a weird way of teaching lessons.
Category:The Weekly