Loss of Hope

The Loss of Hope (also known as the Battle of Hope) was a major engagement having taken place within the later-half of the First Great War. Unlike most other battles in the war, the Loss of Hope was the first to involve over three factions, including Insurrectionist and the neutral Forerunner AI. It was also among the first military conflicts to display general cooperation between United Nations Space Command and rebel forces. This demonstration of humanity uniting in great times of hardship is still remember today as the only true bond connecting the UNSC and the rebels.
== Battle ==
== The Covenant Invasion ==
On August 31, 2552, as soon as the Fall of Reach had officially ended, the Covenant's Fleet of Consecrated Contribution, a large yet vastly underestimated armada whose sole purpose during the battle was to barricade the outskirts of the Epsilon Eridanus System, was assigned a new task. Having been granted specific coordinates to yet another Inner Colony world, the fleet was left in charge of its own planetary invasion.
Captain Christopher Costello of the UNSC Eternal Peacekeeper, a starship attempting to leave the vicinity of the system, takes note of the fleet's warp positions, calculates the data, and reports his findings to ONI. Section Zero briskly responds, ordering that the ship immediately follow them. The Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine utilized by the Peacekeeper, however, being far less advanced than that of the Covenant, results in late arrival. The invasion has already begun, while limited to the continent of Icaria, and the local military force stationed on Hope is forced to engage the Covenant alone for the first few days of the invasion. Unfortunately, the stationed force is only enough to temporarily halt the assault.
In order to provide greater defenses, the Peacekeeper embarks on a suicide mission to enter the barricaded planet's atmosphere deploy its entire crew of military personnel, and request backup. Although the addition of a few more platoons of marines and ODSTs would normally be deemed useless in such a situation, humanity had been in luck. The Eternal Peacekeeper was a fairly new vessel and had contained multiple Spartans, enough to delay the invasion even further until the arrival of a UNSC defense fleet. The marines and Spartans were deployed from the underside of the Peacekeeper.
The Loss of Hope had officially began on the morning of September 2, 2552 on the colonized planet Hope.
== Battle of the Super-Spire ==
Soon after the initial deployment, an arrangement of Covenant Spires as well as a single Super-Spire were discovered in a formation, stretching over 6 miles. It was later figured that the arrangement supplied enough energy to cloak the entire Covenant fleet over the continent of Icaria, or the just the fleet's flagship, the Valiant Seraphim. That would explain why the Covenant's first strike was limited to the isolated continent of Icaria.
Soon after initial deployment, a large strike team composed of Riley-G311 and First Sergeant Dennis Moore, with his team of Centaurions supported by ODSTs such as Eirikur Quinn and once-Yakuza hitman Shouji Komoro, invaded the Super-Spire, in an attempt to reach the structure's teleportation hub at the peak and destroy the cloaked Covenant Suppercarrier. They planned to do so using a thermonuclear weapon. The team successfully achieved their goal, with the loss of a few minor soldiers and Kerbo, a recruited Unggoy. 
While in the belly of the Suppercarrier, the team rendezvoused with another team composed of Matthew-123, Ryder-G231, and Turok 'Moramee, a recruited Sangheili. After the activation of the time time bomb, the sudden deactivation of the Spire's teleportation system had seemed to have trapped them. The group had eventually managed to hijack two Phantom dropships in order to make their getaway. The crew of the stolen Phantoms had made one quick return to the site of the Spire, in order to rescue the possibly living Kerbo, however, it had soon became apparent that he had been killed in the massacre. Upon their return, Riley had received an emergency transmission that had been broadcast from a Covenant outpost stationed on another planet in the system's natural satellite. Surprisingly, this message was a desperate request for any possible methods of evacuation composed by stranded MIA soldiers Spartans Jake-093 and Ed-094, along with marines Miranda Lopez, and Randy Cambell.
== Skirmish at Hades ==
Once the Super-Spire was destroyed, multiple fireteams of Spartans, ODSTs, and marines were transported to Hades in order to secure the missing soldiers, and to keep the Covenant from gaining ahold of any of the UNSC's MJOLNIR Mark V combat exokeletons. Multiple UNSC starships, such as the UNSC Grapes of Wrath and the UNSC Siren's Call had escorted the rescue teams. This had ultimately caused an inconvenience, as the constant flow of incoming UNSC ships were all directed to Hades. More ships than anticipated were destroyed, as well as the Siren's Call. The UNSC would later come to consider this battle controversial, as the UNSC's navy would remain lightly compromised for years to come, due to this incident. The stranded soldiers were found gathering in a cave carved into a geographic feature dubbed Mt. Persephone. As Covenant warships swiftly began to glass the barren planetoid, multiple fireteams would escape via the Grapes of Wrath, however, all of the Spartan's and one group of marines would remain to take down the Covenant comms center that Jake had utilized to transmit the message. Most of them would ultimately escape to a UNSC Frigate known as the Beowulf via Bravo 029.
Category:Battles
Category:Loosing Hope
Category:Aftermath Universe
Category:Gaining Faith
Category:Conflicts (AU)