Anchor 9

Anchor 9
Production information
Class:	Refit station
Role:	Repair and refit
Specifications
Armament:	Seven M870 Rampart point defense guns
Service information
Destroyed:	2552
Participated battles:	Fall of Reach
Affiliation:	UNSC Navy

This article is about the space station. For the Halo: Reach multiplayer map, see Anchor 9 (map).

Anchor 9 (SRRS-01007) was a service, repair and refit station in service with the UNSC Navy, and one of 18 such stations orbiting the colony world Reach during the Human-Covenant War.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

Overview[edit]

Design details[edit]

The station consisted of three main hubs, each with its own hangar (capable of storing space fighters such as FSS-1000 Sabres) and repair station. The station was constructed from a series of modular storage cells, communication nodes, habitat blocks and point-defence batteries.^[5] In addition, it had docking ports for larger vessels such as cruisers and frigates.^[2] The station also was surrounded by a number of build-and-repair facilities, which had several half-built frigates in them.^[6]

One sector of the station was dedicated to the medical rehabilitation of injured soldiers, including a suite for the verbal reconstruction of individuals who had lost their ability to speak.^[7]

Service history[edit]

The station was used to rehabilitate UNSC personnel who had been injured during the evacuation of Harvest. On January 17, 2526; Chris Preston, undergoing medical rehabilitation on board Anchor 9, recorded a message for David Dominguez's parents recounting his sacrifice in securing Kig-Yar point defense gauntlets during the evacuation of Harvest.^[7]

The station was in permanent orbit around Reach and in the later decades of the war was charged with the production of numerous warships to supplant the Navy's eroding firepower. By 2552 it was responsible for the construction for a number of Paris-class heavy frigates, with several still being assembled by the time of the Covenant's arrival.^[6] Its naval yards were also responsible for the construction of cruisers.^[5]

During the Fall of Reach in August 2552, Anchor 9 was defended by a team of Sabres during Operation: UPPER CUT. The station's defenses were offline when the Covenant attacked, and one squadron was deployed to repel the incoming waves of Elsedda-pattern Banshees and later Morsam-pattern Seraphs. When the third wave of Covenant fighters arrived, Anchor 9's point defense guns came back online. During the third wave, several Kez'katu-pattern Phantoms arrived and attempted to attack the station, but were destroyed. After the Phantoms were destroyed, the remaining Seraphs and Banshees retreated.^[6]

SPARTAN-B312 and Jorge-052 then docked in one of the station's hangars. Jorge left the Sabre to arm a slipspace drive attached to a Pelican dropship; this Slipspace drive would be used as an improvised bomb against the Long Night of Solace, a Covenant Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier. The UNSC Savannah soon detached from Anchor 9 to provide cover for the Sabres as they attacked and attempted to board an enemy corvette which was inbound to refuel with the supercarrier. Almost immediately after the supercarrier was destroyed, the Covenant arrived en masse over Reach.^[6] The station was subsequently destroyed by a Covenant support fleet, which arrived several days later.^[2] Although Anchor 9 did not survive the space warfare over Reach, it was able to bring some of the half-derelict ships it was servicing online to a limited degree.^[5]

Production notes[edit]

The station was nicknamed the "space wafer" during the development of Halo: Reach. It was initially designed by Jaime Jones, later redesigned by Isaac Hannaford.
Anchor 9 is also the setting of a multiplayer map of the same name. Despite the name of the map being Anchor 9, the actual space station does not look like the Anchor 9 from campaign. The colors of the station are more white and yellow, and the geometry of the station is quite different.

Gallery[edit]

Concept art of the station for the campaign.
Concept art of Anchor 9's hangar bay for the campaign.
Concept art showing Anchor 9 docked with what appears to be a Marathon-class heavy cruiser.
Concept art of Anchor 9 for the multiplayer map.
3D high-poly render of one of Anchor 9's drydocks.
Another 3D high-poly render of one of Anchor 9's drydocks.
The UNSC Savannah docked with Anchor 9.
An overhead view of Anchor 9. The UNSC Savannah is moored to the station.
Anchor 9 being defended by Sabre fighters.
One of Anchor 9's defense turrets.
Anchor 9's defense turrets firing at a Seraph.
The interior of Anchor 9 as seen in the multiplayer map.
Another view of the interior as seen in the multiplayer map.
View outside a hangar bay as seen in the multiplayer map.