[ A brutal question -- but an understandable one, from an academic who's apparently studied a period of war. Wash is always a pragmatist, besides. He can appreciate the question. ]

It took five years, and it was five years of hell. Harvest wasn't much of a colony anymore, but it was of strategic importance, at least before the Covenant started moving further inward.

It was our first real victory against the Covenant, and it was invaluable if only for that. It told us that . . . [ A pause, and. ] It told us that they weren't invincible.

[ It was the first time when it felt like a war and not a desperate attempt to draw out the inevitable. ]