Invasion of Murtada

==Discovery==
The Inner Colony World of Murtada rests in the Gliese 667 C System 21 light years from Sol. The Temperate and Mountainous planet, besides being easily terraformed and habitable initially held very little strategic importance to the UNSC. Due to the Mountainous terrain, the colonists were forced to set up their population centers very far between across the world in the handful of mountain valleys. Outside of the 19 cities, the colonists set up numerous mountain villages along trails that passed through the cliffs.
It was these traits of having a sparse population rural land scape that prompted ONI to set up several research and development bases. Several of these bases maintained manufacturing capabilities allowing self sufficient production of prototype gear and equipment, providing a safe and quiet region to conduct top secret experiments. With the Fall of the Inner Colonies, the research sites became to become more active, but being out of the way of other major Colonies, the threat level of Covenant invasion was extremely low. Still, the UNSC supported 12 military bases across the planet and a defense fleet of 4 Stalwart Class Frigates. By 2550 with the Covenant getting ever further into the Inner Colonies, the UNSC Navy decided to redeploy the 4 Frigates to another front line battle fleet in order to replenish severe losses. With no Fleet in space, the defense of the planet was left primarily to the 3 UNSC Army Regiments. These Regiments were supported by 12 Regiments of planetary Militia. The militia units were left over from the disbandment of the CMA in 2525.
On the early morning of 06/25/2550, A fleet of 31 Covenant Ships entered the system. The field marshal, following the direction of a Luminary, led his fleet into low orbit over the planet under the promise of multiple forerunner relics on the surface. Unsure where the relics were located as the Luminary showed each of the Human population centers holding large amounts of relics. The field marshal divided his forces up and launched multiple assaults against the human cities and towns. Under the order of the Prophet of Antiquity, the Covenant forces where forbidden to glass the cities until ground forces scoured the locations for relics. Only when the cities were cleared where the human settlements to be glassed, but conventional bombardment was permitted for the attacks. With the lack of any fleet defense present, the Covenant forces believed resistance to be light. The ground forces were split up and deployed across a wide front to cover more ground in their search efforts. In addition to searching for relics, the Covenant lances initiated open warfare against the humans. Any human found was immediately killed regardless of age. As mass evacuations began and large crowds of people fled through the streets, Covenant dropships and Banshee attack craft began indiscriminately attacking the crowds as Sangheili special forces dropped into the cities via Orbital Insertion Pods. Landing amongst crowds of people they immediately began killing.
Category:Battles
Category:Human-Covenant War