Sardior

Sardior is a temperate planet in the Asgorath system. Well known for it's jungles, Sardior was once a populous world. However, it's jungles and salt plains hid a dark secret. Once a world of the forerunner Ecumene, Sardior was filled with Forerunner artifacts. These artifacts were soon pinpointed by the Covenant when war broke out, and were the reason that the planet was attacked by the alien empire. However, because the artifacts were considered sacred by the Covenant, the planet was not glassed, with attacking humanity being swept aside by the Sangheili commanders in favour of recovering the technology. This allowed the remaining UNSC presence to continue to operate, and eventually drive the Covenant off the planet. Postwar, the planet still remains under the control of the UNSC faction, with the planet being assumed lost by ONI and highcom. 
== History ==
=== Forerunner Ecumene ===
Sardior in ancient times was known to the Forerunners as Shalom, due to it's abundance in natural resources. The salt flats of the planet were known to sparkle from orbit, which was seen as a sign of beauty brought by the resources. In 400,000 B.C.E, the planet was settled by the Forerunners, and was used mainly as a centre of commerce, with the abundance of resources bringing in profits for the Builder Caste that theoretically owned the planet. The profits allowed for the construction of several cities, with a prominent one being the city of Tarak-Ao. The planet, with it's natural resources, was seen by the Warrior-Servants as an ideal military construction facility and training ground. This brought them into conflict with the builders, who sought to continue strip-mining the planet. By 109,000 BCE, this conflict was still ongoing, but the Ur-Didact had entered surreptitious negotiations with Master-Builder Faber. These negotiations ended with the Warrior-Servants constructing a military base, along with an array of technology, with several large cannons being mounted in Tarak-Ao. While the population of the planet did protest, the protests were shut down quickly by the Warrior-Servants themselves, and Shalom was rapidly converted into a strip mining facility. However, the tyranny of the Warrior-Servants was arguably what saved the planet during the Forerunner-Flood war.
=== Forerunner-Flood War ===
During the Forerunner-Flood war, Sardior was a frequent target, due to it's importance to the Warrior-Servants. However, due to the extensive Forerunner defence system, Sardior was never breached by the Flood enough to infect the entire planet. The defence system resulted in Sardior being one of the last remaining Forerunner strongholds by the time of the firing of the Halo Array. 
=== Post Flood war ===
After the firing of the Halo Array, a population of less than 200 Forerunners relocated to Sardior, and attempted to reconstruct the Ecumene with Sardior as the capital. However, debates as to the role that the Forerunners would play in the postwar galaxy created a split in the population, and two major sides emerged: 1st, one that proclaimed that the Forerunners should dominate the Galaxy once more, and a smaller, less influential group that advocated noninterventionist ideologies. Ultimately, the tensions between the two groups boiled over into a conflict. At first, the larger group had the upper hand, with superior numbers, but after the second side gained armiger reinforcements, the two rammed each other into the ground. The last of the noninterventionist group, Sunburst-Illuminates-Darkened-Skies, with the aid of the facilities monitor, M478 Melodious Note, succeeded in freezing the seven survivors of the domination group in a Cryptum. Sunburst then went into stasis himself, awaiting Melodious Note's reactivation signal.
=== Human Colonization ===
In 2479, a human freighter stumbled across Sardior on a miscalculated jump. The computer transmitted the data, including the coordinates, back to ONI. Knowing that Sardior was ideal for colonization, the UNSC soon sent seven Phoenix class colony ships. These colony ships, as was the procedure, established a group of settlements. However, the commander of the fleet was under orders to surreptitiously investigate the Forerunner structures found on the planet. These orders were carried out, but yielded nothing. During the colonization period, a young boy stumbled into one of these Forerunner facilities, and unknowingly activated a terminal that proceeded to mark him as a reclaimer. The boy left the ruins shortly after, carrying a Forerunner birthright with him.
=== Covenant Invasion ===
In 2534, an Axtri'Calli scout ship found Sardior on an expedition to find human worlds. This scout ship, using a Covenant luminary, detected the high levels of Forerunner artifacts on the planet. Knowing that the Covenant would pay handsomely for this information, the scout ship returned to the arranged meeting point and explained their discovery. Wishing to both seize the artifacts and destroy the humans on the planet, the Prophet of Mercy sent the 3rd fleet of Glorious Vengeance. The fleet arrived at the planet within a week. However, Sardior was guarded by a UNSC fleet, led by the UNSC Avenger, one of the five Punic-Class Supercarriers. This delayed the Fleet of Glorious Vengeance, but the fleet retreated planetside before the Covenant could destroy it. The Covenant proceeded to land forces, invading the capital city of Thistlewaite. The resulting battle was referred to in later years by inhabitants of the planet as the Slaughter of Thistelwaite. Underprepared and outnumbered marine personnel were ill-equipped to deal with the Covenant forces, and could do little more than provide a brief nuisance to the Covenant before succumbing to high casualties. The Covenant proceeded to raze Thistelwaite, with the commanding Sangheili officers allowing the Kig-Yar troops to hunt the human civilians for sport. However, a strike force of Longsword fighters managed to eliminate the Covenant troops that had yet to land. The loss of the UNSC forces in the early stages of the battle would eventually lead to the ultimate defeat of the UNSC for the time being at the Battle of the Salt Flats.
=== Battle of the Salt Flats ===
The UNSC, however, was far from defeated at Thistelwaite. Organizing all ground forces into a single army, led by the officer General Arcturus McQuillan, the force also proceeded to mobilize D-Series Power Armour in an attempt to give them a necessary amount of ground superiority. The force included almost all marines who hadn't succumbed to the Covenants ground offence, along with two members of SPARTAN-II Omega Team, Martin-204 and Karen-096, having been deployed to assist Sardior by ONI. The battle started well, with few Covenant soldiers slipping through the barrage of fire from a group of ODSTs. This group of ODSTS proceeded to charge directly into enemy advance forces, completely gunning down several enemy sangheili warriors. However, as the group was celebrating their victory, the entire group was killed abruptly and unceremoniously by wraith fire. The Covenant then proceeded to march into view of the UNSC ground troops, numbering in the thousands.