Editing Ascendant Justice

{{Status|Canon}}
{{References}}
{{Title|''Ascendant Justice''}}
{{Center|''This article is about the Covenant flagship. You may be looking for the [[Ascendant Justice (blog)|blog of the same name]].''}}
{{Individual ship infobox
|name=''Ascendant Justice''
|image=
|manufacturer=
|class={{Pattern|Ruma|light carrier}}<ref name="canonfodder">[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/canon-fodder-have-s-moa '''Halo Waypoint''': ''Canon Fodder: Have S'moa'']</ref>{{Ref/Note|''Ascendant Justice'' is referred to as a "supercarrier" in the ''[[Priority Broadcast Log/Eleventh Cycle, Third Unit]]'' included in the Adjunct section of the 2010 edition of ''[[Halo: The Flood]]''. It was later clarified in a [https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/canon-fodder-have-s-moa Canon Fodder post] that this is an internal Covenant classification referring to the high-tonnage carrier classes ''DDS'', ''CAS'' and ''CSO'', rather than the {{Pattern|Sh'wada|supercarrier}} alone.}}
|length=3,000 meters<ref>'''[[Halo: First Strike]]''', ''page 36''</ref>
|engine=[[Repulsor engine]]s
|slipspace drive=Covenant [[Borer]] {{C|Taken by UNSC and retrofitted onto {{UNSCShip|Gettysburg}}}}
|poweroutput=
|shield ge= Yes {{C|Resistant to at least four plasma torpedoes}}
|hull=[[Nanolaminate hull plating]]  {{C|Resistant to at least two plasma torpedoes}}
*Equipped with energy shields
|armament=*[[Pulse laser turret]]s
*[[Energy projector]]s
*[[Plasma turret]]s
|complement=Several [[Seraph]]s
|crew=*Hundreds of [[Huragok]]
*About 100 [[Sangheili]] 
*Legion of [[Unggoy]]
|firstsight=[[2552#September|September 22, 2552]] - after the [[Battle of Installation 04]]
|destroyed=September 13, 2552 {{C|temporal anomaly}} - [[Operation: FIRST STRIKE]]
|battles=*[[Battle of Installation 04]]
*[[Skirmish over Threshold]]
*[[Raid of Reach]]
*[[Operation: FIRST STRIKE]]
|fleet=[[Fleet of Particular Justice]]{{Ref/Reuse|Rerelease}}
|affiliation=[[Covenant navy]], later [[United Nations Space Command|UNSC]]
}}

'''''Ascendant Justice''''' was a [[Covenant]] {{Pattern|Ruma|light carrier}},{{Ref/Reuse|canonfodder}}<ref name="Rerelease">'''[[Halo: The Flood]]''' (2010), Adjunct - ''[[Priority Broadcast Log/Eleventh Cycle, Third Unit]]''</ref> and a part of the [[Fleet of Particular Justice]]. In [[2552#September|September 2552]] the vessel was captured by [[SPARTAN-II program|Spartan]] [[John-117]] and the other human survivors of the [[Battle of Installation 04]].

==Background==
Armed with [[seven]] [[plasma turret]]s, the ship had a complement of 3,000 personnel. There was an unusually small number of combat personnel: a light company of [[Unggoy]] and only a hundred [[Sangheili]]. However, there were enough Huragok on board to merit them having an access tunnel of their own. John-117 noted that he "...hadn't seen anything like this on the ''[[Truth and Reconciliation]]''," and that it was "''armed like a ship of war, yet had the support staff of a refit vessel.''"<ref>'''Halo: First Strike''', ''page 63''</ref> It possessed an enigmatic [[Unidentified Covenant AI|AI construct]] that was seemingly based on modified, captured UNSC [[Artificial intelligence|AI]], which was equipped with hitherto unknown and unprecedented [[Artificial_intelligence#Covenant_AI_copying_program|software]] for replicating [[Riemann matrix|AI matrices]].

==History==
''Ascendant Justice'' was part of the Fleet of Particular Justice, arriving at Installation 04 just before the {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}}.<ref>'''[[Halo Legendary Crate]] 3''', ''[[:File:LC 003 Doc2.png|Data Drop]]''</ref> During the Battle of Installation 04, the [[Prophet of Stewardship]] alternated his base of operations between ''Ascendant Justice'' in orbit and ''[[Truth and Reconciliation]]'' just above Halo's surface. When [[Supreme Commander]] [[Thel 'Vadam]]ee sent a single infantry unit to relieve the Prophet for his constant force misappropriation, Stewardship ordered ''Ascendant Justice'' to destroy their transports on approach, warning that any other affronts to his leadership would result in equally lethal fates. 'Vadamee then assembled a strike force to retake ''Ascendant Justice'' and physically relieve the Prophet of leadership until the humans were eliminated, but Stewardship left for ''Truth and Reconciliation'' before they arrived, leaving orders for the crew to arrest 'Vadamee if he continued to interfere with the Consecration. When Thel's force arrived on ''Ascendant Justice'', no shots were fired and the crew acknowledged his authority.{{Ref/Reuse|Rerelease}}{{Ref/Note|Though ''Priority Broadcast Log/Eleventh Cycle, Third Unit'' provides a backstory for ''Ascendant Justice''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s part in the Battle of Installation 04, it does not explain why the ship's warrior complement was so small. It can be inferred that the Prophet of Stewardship killed most of the crew to quell any real or imagined affronts to his leadership. It is also possible that most of the crew was transferred off the vessel due to the Prophet's insubordination.}}

[[File:Fight on Ascendant Justice.png|thumb|left|250px|John-117, Corporal Locklear, and one of the other survivors fighting aboard ''Ascendant Justice''.]]
When Installation 04's destruction was imminent the Fleet of Particular Justice moved into cover behind [[Threshold]]. ''Ascendant Justice's'' scout group remained to search the wreckage for transmissions from survivors. It was soon [[Skirmish over Threshold|boarded and captured]] by a small team of human survivors, including John-117, Staff Sergeant [[Avery Johnson]], Lieutenant [[Elias Haverson]], Corporal [[Locklear]], Petty Officer, Second Class [[Shiela Polaski]], and the AI [[Cortana]]. The survivors then used ''Ascendant Justice'' to return to [[Reach]] and evacuate a small number of [[SPARTAN-II program|Spartan]] survivors, Vice Admiral [[Danforth Whitcomb]] and Dr. [[Catherine Halsey]], as well as a [[Forerunner crystal|Forerunner artifact]] from the planet, attaching to the wreckage of the [[UNSC frigate|frigate]] {{UNSCShip|Gettysburg}} for additional power. They then escaped through [[slipspace]] toward the [[Eridanus system]], becoming the first ship known to go into slipspace so close to a planet. En route to [[Eridanus Secundus]] ''Ascendant Justice'' was forced to engage multiple Covenant warships, including several [[Covenant cruiser|cruisers]] and {{Pattern|Ruma|light carrier}}s, in an alternate slipspace dimension caused by the Forerunner artifact. Furthermore, some surviving Sangheili crew members had sabotaged ''Ascendant Justice'''s main power conduit, forcing the Spartans to go on an [[Extra-vehicular activity|extravehicular mission]] on the outer hull. This mission resulted in the deaths of the entire surviving Sangheili crew, but also killed Spartans [[Anton-044]] and [[Li-008]] as well as Petty Officer, Second Class Polaski.
[[File:Polaski cam.jpg|thumb|250px|Shiela Polaski's [[Helmet recorder|helmet cam]] captures footage inside of ''Ascendant Justice''.]]
The ship received assistance from remaining [[Insurrectionist|rebels]] in the small asteroid colony of Eridanus Secundus, who provided personnel and repairs for the ship's weaponry, before being discovered by the Covenant. Though ''Ascendant Justice'' engaged the initial Covenant forces in ship-to-ship combat, reinforcements arrived ''en masse'', forcing it to abandon the colony to the Covenant.

After fleeing from Eridanus Secundus, the crew of ''Ascendant Justice'' discovered ''[[Unyielding Hierophant]]'', a Covenant refit-and-repair station which was being used to service a Covenant [[Truth's fleet|invasion force]] that was poised to invade [[Earth]]. Vice Admiral Whitcomb then initiated [[Operation: FIRST STRIKE]], in which the remaining Spartans boarded the station and set its reactors to overload. The Spartans escaped the station and traveled to the far side of a nearby moon where ''Gettysburg'' was waiting for them.

Vice Admiral Whitcomb and Lieutenant Haverson had detached ''Ascendant Justice'' from ''Gettysburg'' and taken it in a slingshot orbit around the moon. Vice Admiral Whitcomb pretended to have the Forerunner crystal by using a hologram and challenged the Covenant to come and claim it. The Covenant did not fire on ''Ascendant Justice'' for fear of destroying the artifact. The two used the momentum from their slingshot orbit to crash into the station even after the Covenant had cut the ship's engines off with laser fire. Whitcomb then ordered John-117 to see what was left of the Covenant and then "''...hightail the intel back to Earth.''" The last few seconds of visual and audio record from the ship showed the door crashing to the ground and the vice admiral opening fire on the boarders. The station's reactors exploded, destroying carrier and over 400 enemy vessels. Only a few Covenant ships survived the catastrophe, which delayed the [[Prophet of Truth]]'s plan to invade Earth. ''Ascendant Justice'''s slipspace drive allowed ''Gettysburg'' to reach Earth and warn the UNSC leadership of the Covenant's plans to invade Earth. 

Only four members of ''Ascendant Justice'''s original Covenant crew survived its capture. A [[Special Operations Sangheili]] who engaged the Master Chief in hand-to-hand combat was shot and pushed into an [[Covenant escape pod|escape pod]] and a few Huragok that were taken to Earth on the ''Gettysburg'' were turned over to the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]].<ref>'''Halo: First Strike'''</ref>

==Trivia==
*''Ascendant Justice'' is the second [[Covenant]] vessel successfully captured by human forces. The first was the {{Pattern|Ket|battlecruiser}} ''[[Truth and Reconciliation]]'' during the [[Battle of Installation 04]]. Like the ''Truth and Reconciliation'', the ''Ascendant Justice'' was captured for the purpose of getting the survivors of the battle home.
*The capture of ''Ascendant Justice'' effectively completed the first phase of [[Operation: RED FLAG]]: commandeering a Covenant vessel. Ironically, while the mission was slated to be performed by Spartans aided by the {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}}, ''Ascendant Justice'' was captured by [[John-117|a single Spartan]], [[Locklear|an ODST]], [[Avery Johnson|a Marine]], [[Elias Haverson|an ONI officer]], [[Shiela Polaski|a pilot]] and [[Cortana|an AI]] using only a [[D77-TC Pelican|Pelican]] dropship and a [[Longsword]] fighter.
*While aboard, Cortana successfully completed the first recorded in-atmosphere slipspace jump, a feat previously believed to be impossible due to the complexity of factoring in a planet's gravitational field. This information was later leaked to the Covenant fleet around Reach by the ship's AI. In-atmosphere slipspace jumps were subsequently performed by Covenant forces during the [[Battle for Earth]].
*The epilogue of ''Halo: First Strike'' strongly implies that Thel 'Vadamee (referenced indirectly as "the incompetent who lost ''Ascendant Justice''") was brought before the High Council and stripped of his rank because he allowed the ship to fall into human hands. Despite this, the novel clearly identifies the ship as part of a scouting party separate from the Fleet of Particular Justice; this also ignores the immeasurably greater significance of his failure to save Halo. Though his command vessel was [[Last Voyage of the Infinite Succor|established]] as the assault carrier ''[[Seeker of Truth]]'' following the novel's release, 'Vadamee's [https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/characters/arbiter-thel-vadam Halo Waypoint biography] erroneously refers to ''Ascendant Justice'' as his flagship.
*During ''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'', [[Blue Team]] captures the {{Pattern|Sinaris|heavy destroyer}} ''[[Bloodied Spirit]]'' with relative ease, especially compared to the capture of ''Ascendant Justice''. It's stated that their actions were made far easier due to what was learned from the capture of ''Ascendant Justice'' and what Cortana learned from its systems.
*During the [[Ur-Didact|Didact's]] [[New Phoenix Incident|attack on Earth]] in [[2557]], Cortana used the AI replication matrix from ''Ascendant Justice'' to split off the rampant elements of her personality construct array; this enabled her to operate in a quasi-normal state for a brief period. Much as she had done on ''Unyielding Hierophant'' years prior, she used these clones to infiltrate the [[Mantle's Approach|Didact's ship]], allowing the Master Chief to destroy it.{{Ref/Level|H4|[[Midnight]]}}

==List of appearances==
*''[[Halo: The Flood]]'' (2010)
*''[[Halo: First Strike]]'' {{1st}}
*''[[Halo: Ghosts of Onyx]]'' {{mo}}

==Notes==
{{Ref/Notes}}

==Sources==
{{Ref/Sources}}

[[Category:Carriers]]
[[Category:Covenant ships]]