Fall of Reach

The Fall of Reach was one of the largest and bloodiest engagements of the Great War. It was fought on and around the UEG colony world of Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system, between the United Nations Space Command and the Galactic Empire from August 30 to September 22, 2552.
== Prelude ==
Following the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, an Imperial tracking beacon had been discreetly attached to one of the UNSC Iroquois' impulse engines as it left the system, allowing Imperial Intelligence to track the ship's movements and eventually discover the location of Reach despite strict adherence to the Cole Protocol. The Empire also dispatched several stealth corvettes to Epsilon Eridani to gather further intelligence.
== The battle ==
=== Opening moves ===
At 0500 hours on August 30, 2552, remote scanning outpost Fermion registered a large number of Imperial ships approaching the Epsilon Eridani system. The station's commander, Lieutenant McRobb, sent an emergency message to FLEETCOM and ordered self-destruct to prevent the station's data from falling into enemy hands. Several minutes later, 300 Imperial ships exited hyperspace at the edge of the Epsilon Eridani system. Admiral Roland Freemont issued UNSC Alpha Priority Transmission 04592Z-83, ordering all ships in the Epsilon Eridani, Alpha Centauri, and Sirius systems to rendezvous at Reach in preparation for the coming assault. The Empire moved in on the orbital defenses before the UNSC fleet fully consolidated. Fifty-three belated UNSC ships, including the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, ran a gauntlet of screening Imperial warships as they attempted to link up with the main fleet. At this time, only about a hundred UNSC ships were readily available to defend Reach, with reinforcements from Alpha Centauri and Sirius expected to arrive within the next 48 hours.
=== Attack on the orbital defense generators ===
The Empire deployed a full legion of Stormtroopers in an attempt to destroy the orbital defense generators, these forces were intercepted by Marine forces who were able to defend against the initial probing attack at the cost of heavy casualties. While three Spartans (led by John-117) deployed to Gamma Station the remaining supersoldiers, designated Red Team, and deployed to Orbital Defense Generator Facility A-331 to assist in the defense of the complex. Their Pelican transport, Bravo 001, was escorted by several Longsword strikecraft, with three of the four eventually peeling off to hold off some pursuing TIE fighters. The Pelican was eventually shot down, however, crash-landing in the Military Wilderness Training Preserve in the Highland Mountains. The Spartans were forced to bail out of the doomed Pelican, resulting in the deaths of four Spartans, and the wounding of several more. Due to their familiarity with the terrain, the Spartans were able to put up a meaningful resistance against the Imperials.
Near their crash site, the surviving Spartans discovered the shell-shocked remnants of Charlie Company's Gamma 1. Charlie Company had been assigned by Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb to recover prototype NOVA bombs from a base in the region. They were forced to help defend the orbital defense facilities on their way to their objective with Gamma 1 at Generator A-331. Unfortunately, as the Empire neared the orbital defense generators, someone at HIGHCOM panicked and ordered Longswords to bomb everything within 500 meters, resulting in the destruction of the Imperial ground forces in that location, but also catastrophic friendly fire: Charlie Company was reduced to four men, and its leaders: Lieutenants Jake Chapman and Wyatt Buckman were cut off from their subordinates.
The Spartans, after being briefed on the situation by Charlie Company, responded to a distress call from Whitcomb, who requested immediate evacuation. Frederic-104, commander of the Spartans, split the remains of Red Team into four groups: Team Alpha, which was tasked with eliminating an Imperial staging area, Team Beta, tasked with defense of the orbital defense generators, Team Gamma, ordered to retrieve Whitcomb, and Team Delta, ordered to secure the Spartans' fallback point at CASTLE Base.
Team Alpha hijacked three combat airspeeders, approached the Imperial staging area, and used Fury tactical nuclear weapons within the shields of the Imperial ship, destroying the encampment and negating the EMP effect that would have disabled the orbital defense generators. Joshua was killed in the process by anti-aircraft fire. The remaining Spartans of Team Alpha then fell back to CASTLE Base, blasting their way through the remaining Imperials in the area with two commandeered fighter tanks. Team Gamma accomplished its mission and fell back to Camp Independence with Whitcomb. Team Beta were overwhelmed by an Imperial armored column and declared code "Broken Arrow", whereupon the UNSC destroyer Majestic was authorised to fire on the Imperial ground forces at Generator A-331, ultimately resulting in the deaths of Team Beta.
=== Mission to Gamma Station ===
During the space battle, the AI Doppler (DPL 8575-6), controller of Reach Station Gamma, was unable to destroy the vital information on board the UNSC Circumference, an ONI prowler involved in Operation: HYPODERMIC, due to the ship having been isolated from REACH DOC NET by Codename: COALMINER. As the Empire deployed troops to seize the station, Doppler reported this violation of the Cole Protocol to the Pillar of Autumn before self-destructing in order to keep from further violation. In response, Captain Jacob Keyes sent John-117, James-005, and Linda-058 to the station. They accomplished their task and destroyed the NAV database on board Reach Station Gamma, but at the cost of James and Linda. While on board, they rescued some Marines on board the station: Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson and Privates Wallace Jenkins, Enzo Bisenti, and Lawrence O'Brien. They were then evacuated by Pelican back to the Pillar of Autumn. Linda-058 was clinically dead, but there was still a chance of saving her, so she was placed in a cryo chamber. John-117 asked Lieutenant Hall to scan for James (who had been blown into space) but they were unable to find him.
=== Battle of Asźod ===
Imperial forces attempted to prevent the UNSC Army from evacuating a large number of civilians, going so far as to deploy armor units against the convoys attempting to reach the Asźod shipbreaking yards. Navy Flight Captain Emile Vickers sacrificed himself when he steered his damaged Pelican into an AT-AT, destroying it, and allowing Army fireteam 4 Echo 6 to push towards the ship breaking yards and rendezvous with the scant UNSC forces still attempting to defend the facility. After clearing most of the facility, Lieutenant Norman Sanders and several Trooper squads rendezvoused with Captain Carol Schwartz of the Phoenix-class colony ship Drifting Dream, successfully delivering a datachip containing vital intelligence to the captain. He subsequently destroyed a Victory-class frigate with a mass driver, which allowed the Drifting Dream to escape Reach's surface unmolested.
With the orbital battle all but lost, Captain Keyes gave the order to retreat from the system. The Pillar of Autumn ran the Imperial blockade and made a slipspace jump away from the Epsilon Eridani system, utilizing coordinates that Cortana had obtained from the Sigma Octanus artifact.
=== The battle continues ===
Over the next week, Imperial ground forces landed on the planet and their ships began bombarding targeted areas. A major siege lasting from the 1st to the 8th of September broke out in the city of New Alexandria, with large numbers of civilian evacuation transports being shot down by Imperial air and ground forces. Though the UNSC Army succeeded in clearing the city of ground troops, Imperial naval assets began to target the city from orbit. Elsewhere, the evacuation stations in Manassas and Esztergom were attacked and eventually stopped responding.
As the situation on the ground deteriorated, ODST Fireteams Eagle and Cobra were ordered to destroy the Imperial-occupied WHITE TOWER in a "torch-and-burn" operation. In the early hours of September 5, all UNSC fleet actions in the Reach Defense Coordination Zone ceased.
Category:Daisy-023
Category:Battles