Siege of Madrigal

The Siege of Madrigal was an engagement between the COG and the Locust Horde during the Locust War in A.E. 5.

The City of Madrigal
Madrigal was one of the few COG-controlled cities outside of the Jacinto Plateau that still existed after E-day. It contained a number of birthing farms, though not as many as Jilane had.

Locust Mining Project
Prior to A.E. 5, the Locust were unaware of human activity in Madrigal, thanks to dangerous seismic activity deep beneath the city. However, in A.E. 4, the violent quakes in this area threatened to collapse part of the Hollow, forcing the Locust to find a way to correct the issue. The Locust mined along the faults, releasing the built-up seismic energy in harmless, controlled amounts.

Unexpected Consequences on the Surface
By A.E. 5, the ground had shifted considerably, breaking underground human gas and power lines. Of course, the humans tried to fix these, disrupting the Locust's efforts, and alerting them to the presence of humans in the area.

The Locust Respond
General RAAM ordered Sikrar Kli Xizius, the Kantus of Famine, to organize an assault on the humans that were endangering the Locust mining efforts.

Emergence in Madrigal


Three weeks later, the Locust emerged just outside of Madrigal. They stormed the outer fringes of the city, easily purging it of what little resistance it contained. Word of the Locusts' emergence quickly reached the rest of the city, and many citizens panicked. They tried to flee, only to be slaughtered by machine guns and snipers.

COG Response
Damian Gregor, chairman of the city's breeding farms, quickly learned of the Locust's emergence, and called for reinforcements from the Jacinto plateau. In the meantime, however, he ordered the handful of Gears already present at the farms, including SSG Craig Randall, to be prepped and ready to fight at a moments notice. SSG Randall organized many of the breeding farm staff into an effort to gather the patients and nearby civilians for evacuation.

Nightfall & the Kryll
Once the sun had set, the Locust released swarms of Kryll from their emergence holes. The Kryll quickly tore apart anything outside of the light, including hundreds of frightened Madrigali citizens hoping in vain to use the darkness to hide from the Locust, as well as many foolish Drones. Their release prevented COG troops from entering the city until sunrise.

Locust Blockade
Reinforcements arrived at dawn aboard King Ravens, Assault Derricks, and Armadillos, supported by Centaur tanks. The ground vehicles stopped just outside the city limits, where they and the troops they carried dug in to punch a hole in the Locust blockade so that they could enter. Strike teams used the the Hammer of Dawn kill the Seeders that were spewing out Nemacyst air support for the Locust ground troops. Once the Nemacyst had been eliminated, the Ravens continued onward, landing at the breeding farms.

Trivia

 * The name of this battle is a reference to a musical piece of the same name. Siege of Madrigal, originally from Bungie's RTS game Myth, has been featured as an easter egg in every Halo game to date except Halo Wars.