Canon

UNSC Iroquois

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Iroquois
HM SigmaOctanus.jpg
The Iroquois prepares to engage the Second Fleet of Solemn Accord
Ship history
Unified Earth Government

Class:

Halberd-class light destroyer[1]

Identification:

DD-906[2]

Operator:

UNSC Navy

Laid down:

2551[2]

Commissioned:

April 2552[3]

Captain(s):

Commander Jacob Keyes

Motto:

Alea Iacta Est (The Dice is Cast)[2]

General characteristics

Type:

Destroyer[4][5]

Length:

485 meters (1,590 ft)[6][7][8][5]

Mass:

1.8 million metric tons[4][5]

Power plant:

Fusion reactor

Maneuver drive:

Slipspace drive:

Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine[4]

Crew:

250 sailors[4]

Complement:

Troops:

50 Marines (optional)[4]

Hull:

2 metres (6.6 ft) Titanium-A armor[6][7][3]

Sensors:

Mk. 45 long-range fire director[2]

Armaments:

Air facilities:

1 hangar bay fitted with a gravitic/electromagnetic catapult launch/recovery system[4]

 

UNSC Iroquois (hull classification symbol DD-906)[2] is a Halberd-class light destroyer of the UNSC Navy.[1] Commissioned in April 2552,[3] Iroquois was the first ship to respond to the Covenant fleet en route to Sigma Octanus IV on July 17, 2552. Her first commanding officer was Jacob Keyes, who executed the famed "Keyes Loop" maneuver during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV; his exemplary performance would lead him to be reassigned as commanding officer of the cruiser UNSC Pillar of Autumn.

Overview[edit]

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Design details[edit]

Iroquois is outfitted with spinal-mounted, twin-linked Magnetic Accelerator Cannons (specifically 1170mm/647mm high-velocity coilguns), 26 oversized Archer missile pods, and three Shiva-class nuclear missiles.[2]

Iroquois is covered with two meters of Titanium-A battleplating and Vanadium steel alloy. She is painted with non-regulation red war stripes painted on each side of the name "Iroquois," a reference to the namesake Native American tribe.[3] The ship also features a circular shaped bridge. Commander Keyes approved of the war stripes painted on the ship, but intended to have them removed anyway. Both stripes would be damaged during the Keyes Loop. The commanding officer of the repair ship UNSC Cradle offered to repaint them for Keyes, but Keyes refused the offer, choosing to leave the damage intact to display the destroyer's battle history.

Service history[edit]

Early operations[edit]

Iroquois was constructed at the UNSC shipyards orbiting Reach. The keel for the ship was laid in 2551[2] and the ship was launched in April 2552. Her first commanding officer was Commander Jacob Keyes. The destroyer was later assigned to Battle Group Leviathan under Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth. In July 2552, the battlegroup was deployed in the Sigma Octanus system, with Iroquois tasked to conduct routine patrols. As such, when a Covenant fleet was detected on an inbound course to Sigma Octanus IV in the early morning (around 0300) on July 17, Iroquois was the first ship able to respond to the intrusion. Commander Keyes immediately contacted Vice Admiral Stanforth to request reinforcements, though they would take some time to muster; as such, Keyes decided that his (and the crew's) duty was to assist the millions of people on Sigma Octanus IV who were now threatened by the Covenant. Keyes initially tasked his navigator with enacting the Cole Protocol and plotting a randomised exit vector from the system to ensure that the ship could not be boarded and captured by the Covenant, though struggled to come up with ideas on how to significantly engage the Covenant; the intel reported by RSO Archimedes suggested a task force comprised of four Covenant frigates - something which could be a match for seven Halberd-class destroyers like Iroquois. However, when the fleet emerged from slipspace, Archimedes' estimated sensor projections had been wrong: the Covenant fleet consisted of two frigates escorting a larger Wik-pattern light destroyer,[10] and a larger carrier.[3]

After considering his options, Keyes settled on a new strategy which would later be famously coined the "Keyes Loop", the crux of which involved using the Covenant's naval weapons against their own ships.[3] He ordered a course adjustment which intentionally put Iroquois on a collision course with the destroyer; the two frigates broke off from the battlegroup to engage Iroquois though the carrier and destroyer continued their course toward Sigma Octanus IV. Thanks to Iroquois' lack of an installed AI, the ship's point-defences were severely underequipped to deal with a potential strikecraft threat posed by the carrier. Iroquois fired off a Shiva-class nuclear missile on a trajectory behind itself away from the Covenant fleet, and then used its emergency thrusters to dodge the impact of the plasma torpedoes fired by the frigates. With the torpedoes now trailing Iroquois and coming back around to reacquire a lock, Iroquois initiated a hard burn towards the destroyer, ramming it at a glazing angle to disrupt the destroyer's energy shielding and render the vessel susceptible to weapons fire. The plasma torpedoes trailing Iroquois followed up and impacted the destroyer, causing extreme damage and taking it out of the fight with a salvo of M58 Archer anti-ship missiles fired from Iroquois to finish the job.[11]

After taking the Covenant destroyer out of the fight, Iroquois entered a tight orbit around Sigma Octanus IV, skimming the atmosphere and coming back around to engage the two remaining frigates. By this time, the frigates were situated close to the Shiva nuke that Iroquois had fired earlier in the engagement. As such, when Commander Keyes remotely detonated the nuke, its force was enough to disable both ships' shields, leaving them vulnerable for a follow-up strike by Iroquois's conventional weapons; a salvo of Archer missiles followed-up by twin Magnetic Accelerator Cannon rounds. At this point, the now-lone carrier chose to disengage from the system entirely, now without an escort (though not before deploying 34 dropships to begin a planetary invasion). Iroquois did not pursue the carrier, with Keyes instead choosing to let the UNSC Marine Corps handle the ground invasion while the rest of Battle Group Leviathan arrived.[11]

After the Keyes Loop, Iroquois needed major repairs due to the damage she had received: The ship needed replacement ventral armor; a full engine overhaul; replacement of 15% of electronic systems; five new superconducting magnets; and a replenished supply of Archer missiles, MAC rounds, and Shiva nuclear warheads. The ship was repaired on the refit station Cradle, which arrived in the Sigma Octanus system along with the rest of Battle Group Leviathan. However, full repairs were not possible as full-scale battle began in earnest with the arrival of a larger Covenant fleet.[12]

Battle of Sigma Octanus IV[edit]

Main article: Battle of Sigma Octanus IV
The UNSC Iroquois rams a Covenant ship.
Iroquois rams a Covenant stealth craft over Sigma Octanus IV.

At around 2120 hours on July 18,[13] the Covenant's Second Fleet of Solemn Accord emerged at the Sigma Octanus system edge, intending to making a second strike at the colony - this time with much larger numbers.[2] Vice Admiral Stanforth ordered all ~48 ships of Battle Group Leviathan to assemble at a rally point situated between Sigma Octanus IV and Highpoint, its moon. This positioning allowed the fleet to fight with its back to the wall. During this second engagement, Iroquois was ordered into formation with the other frigates and destroyers of the fleet, clustered into a tightly-packed phalanx. The unusual clustering prevented the fleet from manoeuvering, but allowed them to hide behind the Cradle once the fighting started. After Leviathan fired their first salvo of MAC rounds, Cradle moved to shield the fleet from the Covenant's return salvo, sacrificing itself to buy vital time for Leviathan to recharge their guns. After firing a second MAC salvo, Stanforth gave permission for individual ships to break off and begin engaging the Covenant at will, having damaged the enemy fleet enough to begin engaging it conventionally. By this time, 12 Covenant frigates and destroyers had been taken out of the fight, leaving only 8 remaining destroyers and cruisers left.[13]

Iroquois disengaged from Battle Group Leviathan at a near-right angle. Due to the lack of AI and the damage sustained in the previous engagement, the ship was operating at a fraction of its full capacity and could not risk standing up in a full fleet engagement. Instead, Keyes used the ship to search for the source of what he perceived to be errant sensor glitches across the battlefield, eventually finding a cloaked Covenant stealth ship in close orbit over the city of Côte d'Azur. Iroquois initially fired upon it with her Archer missiles, though the stealth ship's electronic warfare caused the missiles to lose their guidance locks. With few options available, Keyes ordered that Iroquois ram the enemy stealth ship, using its far superior mass to completely destroy it before coming about to intercept the data that had been transmitted to it from the Côte d'Azur Museum of Natural History on the ground. A Covenant destroyer peeled off from the main naval engagement to engage Iroquois and prevent the UNSC from acquiring the data that the Covenant had retrieved from the ground, though Iroquois was able to signal for help, resulting in the remaining eight ships of Battle Group Leviathan firing upon and destroying it.[13]

With the simultaneous ground operation on Sigma Octanus IV's surface won by the actions of a SPARTAN-II deployment, termed Operation: OCEAN BREAKER, what remained of the Second Fleet of Solemn Accord disengaged and left the Sigma Octanus system - leaving humanity with a rare naval victory against the Covenant.[2][13] After the battle, Iroquois joined the other ships of the fleet as they searched for survivors in the debris field orbiting Sigma Octanus IV. During this time, Office of Naval Intelligence personnel boarded Iroquois and took possession of the data the ship had intercepted in the battle before purging the ship's logs and leaving, with Iroquois itself then recalled to Reach for debriefing and repairs. While in the debris field, Iroquois unknowingly picked up a Covenant spy probe that was lurking in the debris; the probe attached itself to Iroquois and would later report the ship's position when it arrived in the Epsilon Eridani system.[14]

On August 12, 2552, UNSC Iroquois arrived in the Epsilon Eridani system and headed to Reach.[15] Keyes' command of the Iroquois, in particular the Keyes Loop of July 17, ultimately made him stand out to Vice Admiral Stanforth as an officer capable of being assigned to the then-upcoming Operation: RED FLAG.[16] As such, Commander Keyes (now promoted to Captain) and his crew were reassigned to the Halcyon-class light cruiser UNSC Pillar of Autumn.

Crew[edit]

Keyes and his fellow officers on the Iroquois bridge.

Non-canon and dubious canon appearances[edit]

Silver Timeline[edit]

Main article: Silver Timeline
HTV-SilverTeam logo.png
 This article contains information about the Silver Timeline, and is not a part of the established Halo canon.

The UNSC Iroquois (hull classification symbol DD-906) is a destroyer in service in the UNSC Navy and was assigned to Battle Group Leviathan. It was captained by Jacob Keyes following the Battle of Raas Kkhotskha. It was to assist the Admiral Michael Stanforth in finding High Charity.[17]

Trivia[edit]

Iroquois' motto, "Alea iacta est, Latin for "The die is cast," is derived from the words attributed to Julius Caesar as his forces crossed the Rubicon during Caesar's Civil War in 49 BCE.

Gallery[edit]

  • Iroquois engaged in combat.

    Iroquois engaged in combat.

List of appearances[edit]

Sources[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Have S'moa (Retrieved on Mar 28, 2019) [archive]
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l Halo Mythos, page 82-83
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 16
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j Halo: Warfleet, page 32-33
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 124
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Halo Encyclopedia (2009 edition), page 248
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition), page 259
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Halo Waypoint, UNSC The Heart of Midlothian (Retrieved on Mar 25, 2011) [archive]
  9. ^ Halo: Oblivion, chapter 12
  10. ^ Halo: The Essential Visual Guide, page 48
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 17
  12. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 18
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 21
  14. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, chapter 23
  15. ^ Dr. Halsey's personal journal, page August 12, 2552
  16. ^ Data Drops: Data Drop #5
  17. ^ Halo: The Series, Dr. Catherine Halsey's Computer (Retrieved on Mar 25, 2022) [local archive] [external archive]
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