Harvest was a UEG Agriculture World. The colony was the seventeenth to be settled, and the most remote at the time of its founding. It was founded in 2468 by the UNSC Skidbladnir.[2] Located in the Epsilon Indi System,[3] the planet had the unfortunate distinction of being the first human planet discovered and destroyed by the Covenant. After disastrous First Contact, the planet was subsequently glassed by the Covenant during the First Battle of Harvest, but most of its population managed to escape in freighters.[4]
History
Harvest before the Covenant assault.
The Forerunners
Harvest was known to the Forerunners approximately 100,000 years prior to the Human-Covenant War, and possessed at least one relic, a holographic stellar cartographer that pointed the way to another star system, Procyon. It is unknown whether the relic pointed to other Forerunner worlds and installations, or whether it was specifically built to guide users to a particular system. It is unknown whether Harvest held any other significance to the Forerunners.
Human colonization
Harvest was founded in 2468 when the UNSC Skidbladnir arrived transporting colonists, then dismantled to form the core of Utgard. The seventeenth colony world founded by the UNSC, as well as one of the furthest and most isolated, the population was still small when Sergeant Avery J. Johnson engaged in his first mission on the planet. By the time he returned in 2525, the population of Utgard alone had doubled.
UNSC breadbasket
In 2502, Avery Junior Johnson was involved in the assassination of Jerald Mulkey Ander, the head of the People's Occupation Government on Harvest as part of the ORION Project's Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE.
Harvest was the first colony to be attacked by the Covenant and the first human world to be glassed. It was also the first place humanity officially made contact with the Covenant, after the incidents on This End Up and Minor Transgression.
In 2524, Staff Sergeant Johnson returned to Harvest along with Staff Sergeant Byrne and Captain Ponder, all survivors of Operation: TREBUCHET. They were to train a Colonial Militia and, unbeknownst to them, fend off what UNSC had believed to be Insurrectionist attacks on ships in the systems.
On February 3, 2525, the Harvest orbital platform, the Tiara, made long-range radar and spectroscopic contact with Rapid Conversion. Contact with Harvest was lost thereafter.
Escape from Harvest
Harvest, partially glassed by the Covenant
- Main article: First Battle of Harvest
The citizens of Harvest soon found themselves in the middle of the first battle between the Covenant and Humanity, using their newly trained Militia to herd hundreds of thousands of civilian survivors from Gladsheim, Vigrond and other locations to the Utgard Space elevators to escape the planet. During the first Covenant attack on Harvest about 250,000+ humans managed to escape the planet by packing into 236 freight containers which were then loaded into seven elevator depots in Utgard. Every five to seven minutes, seven pairs of freight containers were loaded into the Space elevator. Loaded ahead of these freight containers were seven "grease buckets", maintenance containers, two which were loaded with Johnson's men and Jilan al-Cygni. The other five were decoys rigged with claymore mines which were used to soften the Brutes, Grunts and Drones which had boarded and taken control of Tiara.[5] While the other two "grease buckets" holding Johnson and Co. stopped and they were fighting off the Covenant, the number seven strand of the Space elevator snapped a few thousand kilometers above its anchor due to the stress caused by the load becoming unbalanced. There were 11 pairs of freight containers on the strand when it snapped, killing around 40,000 people.[6] The remaining freight containers carrying the survivors of Harvest continued up the elevator, out into space, where they met up with propulsion pods that Sif had placed previously. Once Johnson and Co. finished fighting the Covenant on the Tiara, they joined the survivors and used the propulsion pods to enter Slipspace.[7]
At the time of these occurrences, the first prototypes of the Brute Chopper was made by a Huragok named Lighter Than Some. However, these were destroyed by JOTUNs commanded by the AI Mack.
After the destruction of the Tiara, the now rampant AI Mack buried its strands in a form of a funerary ritual for the AI Sif, who he was in love with.
The discovery of Humans on Harvest was the catalyst for the attempted Covenant genocide of the Human race, due to a mistranslation of Forerunner glyphs by the Prophets, as seen on many writs and machines amid Covenant technologies.
Contact Lost
Harvest, with frozen Poles as a result of the "nuclear winter" effect caused by the Covenant's glassing.
By April 12, 2525, the Colonial Military Administration sent the scout ship CMA Argo to investigate. Other than confirming its arrival at Epsilon Indi no other transmissions were sent, and the Argo was presumed MIA.
On October 7, 2525, the CMA assembled Battlegroup 4 to investigate, due to the fact that the Harvest situation was deemed to have become serious. The battle group consisted of the destroyer CMA Heracles, commanded by Captain Veredi, as well as the frigates CMA Arabia and CMA Vostok. They entered the Harvest system only to find the planet's surface almost entirely melted down to glass. While there, the battle group encountered an unnamed Covenant Battleship. This vessel immediately fired on the inferior human vessels, and the Vostok and Arabia were lost with all hands. The Heracles managed to jump out of the system, but took several weeks to return to Reach due to damage sustained in the battle.
UNSC Retaliation
- Main article: Second Battle of Harvest
Cole's victory in the Second Battle of Harvest.
Upon hearing Veredi's report and realizing the scale of the threat, the UNSC was placed on full alert and a fleet was assembled to meet the threat.[8]
Vice Admiral Preston Cole fought and barely won the Second Battle of Harvest in 2526. The UNSC was able to retake the planet but with the loss of 2/3 of their fleet, even when they had outnumbered the single Covenant ship in Harvest orbit.[9]
Harvest Campaign
- Main article: Harvest Campaign
Marines celebrating a victory early on in the campaign.
Harvest would continue to be contested in the following years, as not long after, the Covenant attacked again. The battle for control of the planet lasted for five years until 2531, when Admiral Cole led a group of ships, including the UNSC Spirit of Fire into the system and neutralized the Covenant force. They later discovered that the Covenant had established a presence on the planet's surface, and more shockingly, had uncovered the previously unknown Forerunner relic which lead the Spirit to Arcadia.[10] and later a Shield World, Shield 0459, where they were able to stop a major Covenant plot.
It is unknown if the UNSC still maintained control of Harvest with the war's conclusion in 2552, but Harvest likely lost whatever strategic value it held during the conflict by this point in time. However, as glassed worlds like Reach were later re-terraformed, it is possible Harvest was restored to a habitable state. Reach was however only partially glassed and its environment hadn't changed as much as Harvest had.
Government
The highest ranking government official on Harvest was the Governor. This position was held by Nils Thune when the planet fell.[11] The Parliament of Harvest was involved in governing Harvest and they met in the Harvest Parliament Building in Utgard.[12] There was a total of 24 members in the parliament.[13] One of the other positions in parliament was the Attorney General, which was Rol Pedersen when the government fell.
Economy
Trade
Harvest was one of the UNSC's more productive and peaceful colonies. Within two decades of its founding, it had the highest per capita agricultural manufacture of any outer colony. Major crops, such as corn, wheat, watermelons, peaches, apples, grapes, and numerous other produce, nourished the inhabitants of more than half a dozen other colonies. The capital city of Utgard, was also home to Harvest's seven Space elevators connected to the Orbital Space Station, Tiara, which helped get produce off world and to other colonies.
Corporations On Planet
There were plenty of businesses on Harvest. Some corporations were either based on Harvest or were smaller companies. These include:
Defenses
The first line of defense was the Harvest Colonial Militia. There were 72 men apart of the militia.[14] The militia was officially endorsed by the UNSC and as such, were trained by members of the UNSC. As well, prior to the fall of Harvest, UNSC members were on the planet, targeting Insurrectionists. Known UNSC members on the planet were; Staff Sergeant Avery Johnson, Staff Sergeant Byrne, and Captain Ponder.
As well there was also one known police force on the planet, the Utgard Constabulary.[15] They had many roles in law enforcement in Utgard, including guard Governor Thune's office[16]
Culture
Many of the population of Harvest were of American descent, specifically the Mid-Western states of the United States of America. Most locations on Harvest were named in reference to Norse mythology, as were its A.I.s Sif and Loki.
Harvest as well, had its own planetary anthem and an official planetary introduction that was recited by the head of agricultural operations, AI Mack. This introduction was played to any visitors traveling to the planet via the Tiara's space elevators.[17]
The citizens of Harvest as well partake in the Solstice Celebration, an annual event held in Utgard. Part of the celebration is for the AI Mack to shoot off Mass Drivers.[18]
Topography
Panorama landscape
Harvest was a small planet, approximately one-third the size of Earth with an equatorial diameter of slightly more than 4,000 kilometers (2,484 miles), making Harvest slightly smaller than the Sol planet Mercury.[1] In terms of surface area, Harvest possessed ~50 million kmĀ², roughly one-tenth the surface area of Earth. Harvest orbited Epsilon Indi extremely quickly, much faster than most other UNSC colonies, at roughly 150,000 km/h, or ~41 km/sec (by comparison, Earth orbits Sol at roughly 30 km/sec). Harvest had no natural satellites. Harvest also has a day/night cycle only 17.5 Sol hours long. Out of a total of five planets in the Epsilon Indi System, Harvest was the only habitable planet, as well as being fertile for farming. The super-continent Edda dominated the planet, taking up roughly 67% of its surface. Two low-salinity seas covered the remainder of the planet, Hugin to the north, and Munin to the south.[19] Almost 86% of Edda is within 500 meters of sea level, the only major change in elevation is the Bifrost, an escarpment that "cuts" Edda in half.
A large agricultural facility and orbital tethers on Harvest.
Harvest's surface was once beautiful, covered in grassland and forests, lush fields and rolling hills, and a thousand lakes swarming with fish. The orchards were filled with luscious crops. At night, bats filled the skies.[20] After being glassed, however, the surface was reduced to a layer of melted glass, the destruction visible from orbit.[21] The environment suffered a catastrophic blow as a result, the once glorious landscape turning into a nearly frozen tundra, causing most species to quickly go extinct. Soon, all that remained of Harvest's original ecosystem were the scavengers, feeding off the rotting remains of the planet's once abundant wildlife, and even they perished before long.
Ground Locations
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Orbital Locations |
Ecology of Harvest |
Known Residents
These are the people who are known to have been born on Harvest, or have lived on Harvest for an extended for an extended period of time.
- Dale
- Finn
- Lars
- Nils Thune - Governor
- Healy
- Dass
- Wallace A. Jenkins
- Forsell
- Osmo
- Habel
- Wick
- Stisen
- Burdick
- Critchley
- Jepsen
- Vallen
- Fasoldt
- Rol Pedersen
- Anderson
- Gage Yevgenny
- Felicia Sanderson
- Eric Santiago
Inconsistencies
- When the colony is first mentioned in Halo: The Fall of Reach, Harvest is described by Admiral Stanforth as having a population of approximately three million. This was later revised to about 300,000 in Halo: Contact Harvest.
- There is ambiguity as to whether the planet was truly glassed by the Covenant. Typically, a planet that has been glassed becomes a barren, uninhabitable wasteland with no atmosphere. However, the UNSC spent five years in a campaign to regain this supposedly dead world. It seems unlikely that such an operation would be undertaken if Harvest was destroyed, unless Coleās forces simply intended to engage and defeat any Covenant force and Harvest was simply the site of the battle. However, Halo Wars and Homecoming seem to suggest that Harvest was heavily devastated but was not fully glassed. The atmosphere remained breathable, the poles were frozen enough to allow snow to fall, and battles took place in ruined human settlements. It is now known that most of the planet was glassed, like the surface of Reach, with only the northern polar region spared because of the risk of damaging a Forerunner artifact the Covenant later returned to uncover.
Trivia
- Harvest is seemingly inspired by the Norse and Scandinavian outlying cultures and customs, they were practical hard-laborers fairly comparable to Harvest's populace as is one of its A.I.s, Sif.
- The first UNSC casualty was a young Colonial Militia soldier named Osmo who was killed when a pack of Grunts broke rank and ambushed him.
- Harvest has a name relevant to its role, being an agricultural capital of the UNSC, like Reach, which was relatively near to Earth, and thus being easily within reach.
- Prior to Halo: Contact Harvest, there is no indication that there were any Harvest colony survivors or that Avery Johnson was among them. Though this may have been due to misinformation, as the details on the attacks were vague, and Johnson, along with any other survivors may have yet to have been rescued by UNSC forces.
- Harvest may have been re-terraformed similarly to Reach, although the current winter climate may prevent it from returning to its previous climate.
- The map Harvest from the Crimson map pack is set at the base of one of Harvest's Space elevators prior to its destruction.
- Harvest is the homeworld of April Orenski.
- In Rooster Teeth's Grifball mini-series, there is a Grifball team called the Harvest Kings.[22]
Gallery
Appearances
- Halo: The Fall of Reach (First appearance)
- Halo Graphic Novel
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (Mentioned only)
- Halo: Contact Harvest
- Halo Wars
- Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
- Halo Legends
- Halo 4 (Simulation)
Sources
- ā 1.0 1.1 Halo: Contact Harvest, page 33
- ā Official Halo Wars Community Site: Game Info - Timeline
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 32
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 387
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, pages 351-352
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 372
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 352
- ā Halo: The Fall of Reach, page ??
- ā Halo Wars Timeline
- ā Halo Wars, level Relic Interior
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 115
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 79
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 322
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 108
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 168
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 324
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 73-74
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 117
- ā Halo: Contact Harvest, page 74
- ā Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 75
- ā Halo: The Fall of Reach, page ??
- ā Halo Waypoint: Grifball: "Expansion" 2