I love bees

United Nations Space Command: Difference between revisions

From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
Line 78: Line 78:
On October 7, a scout ship, ''[[Argo]]'', was sent to investigate the cessation of communications between Harvest and the rest of the UNSC. The scout ship was also lost. It discovered that everything on the planet had been completely incinerated, and the surface had been melted down to glass. In orbit around the remains of the colony world was a single alien ship which proceeded to attack the battle group, destroying all the ships except one. Intercepted communications identify the enemy as [[The Covenant]], a caste-driven, theological organization made up of several alien species. The message ''"Your destruction is the will of the gods... and we are their instrument"'' was broadcast in perfect [[English]]. <ref>[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]], page 96-98</ref>
On October 7, a scout ship, ''[[Argo]]'', was sent to investigate the cessation of communications between Harvest and the rest of the UNSC. The scout ship was also lost. It discovered that everything on the planet had been completely incinerated, and the surface had been melted down to glass. In orbit around the remains of the colony world was a single alien ship which proceeded to attack the battle group, destroying all the ships except one. Intercepted communications identify the enemy as [[The Covenant]], a caste-driven, theological organization made up of several alien species. The message ''"Your destruction is the will of the gods... and we are their instrument"'' was broadcast in perfect [[English]]. <ref>[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]], page 96-98</ref>


Since the later [[Battle of Harvest]] in [[2531]] where a huge human fleet led by Admiral Cole barely won against a smaller covenant fleet in a symbolic "victory" for humanity, the humans' grip on their territories declined significantly in the course of their struggle. Of the more than 800 colony worlds, the Covenant has managed to capture and glass nearly every, if not all [[Outer Colonies|Outer Colonies]] and a significant number of the [[Inner Colonies]]. The UNSC Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Militias, outnumbered and outgunned, have managed to slow down the Covenants inexorably progress through former human space, but the situation is drastic. In desperation, [[HIGHCOM]] orders a high-risk Op, sending the [[Spartan-II]] super soldiers, the best soldiers ever fielded by humanity, to insert into Covenant space, capture a high-ranking [[Prophet]], and return to UNSC space in an attempt to ransom for a truce. Before the operation begins, the Covenant find and destroy the planet that would have served as its launching pad, [[Reach]], killing most of the Spartans and a large portion of the UNSCDF, inadvertently stopping the operation and killing most of the Spartans.
Since the later [[Battle of Harvest]] in [[2531]] where a huge human fleet led by [[Admiral Cole]] barely won against a smaller covenant fleet in a symbolic "victory" for humanity, the humans' grip on their territories declined significantly in the course of their struggle. Of the more than 800 colony worlds, the Covenant has managed to capture and glass nearly every, if not all [[Outer Colonies|Outer Colonies]] and a significant number of the [[Inner Colonies]]. The UNSC Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Militias, outnumbered and outgunned, have managed to slow down the Covenants inexorably progress through former human space, but the situation is drastic. In desperation, [[HIGHCOM]] orders a high-risk Op, sending the [[Spartan-II]] super soldiers, the best soldiers ever fielded by humanity, to insert into Covenant space, capture a high-ranking [[Prophet]], and return to UNSC space in an attempt to ransom for a truce. Before the operation begins, the Covenant find and destroy the planet that would have served as its launching pad, [[Reach]], killing most of the Spartans and a large portion of the UNSCDF, inadvertently stopping the operation and killing most of the Spartans.


By October of 2552, the [[Covenant]] have haphazardly discovered the position of the human home world, [[Earth]], and send a preliminary task force there, believing it to be the location of the [[Installation 00|Ark]], an ancient [[Forerunner]] relic buried in the sands of Africa . They encountered staunch resistance, and are initially fended off. Further complications arise from the political and religious crisis that emerges in the wake of a UNSC operation to assassinate a [[Prophet of Regret|Prophet]], and the secession of the [[Elite]]s from the hegemony, leading to the [[Great Schism|Covenant Civil War]], further throwing the Covenant into chaos. nevertheless, by November what is left of the [[Covenant Loyalists]] have subjugated large parts of [[Earth]], devastating much of the planet. Only its retreat through a Forerunner portal in Africa, and the arrival of the Elites' Fleet, stop the utter destruction of the UNSC and Earth itself.
By October of 2552, the [[Covenant]] have haphazardly discovered the position of the human home world, [[Earth]], and send a preliminary task force there, believing it to be the location of the [[Installation 00|Ark]], an ancient [[Forerunner]] relic buried in the sands of Africa . They encountered staunch resistance, and are initially fended off. Further complications arise from the political and religious crisis that emerges in the wake of a UNSC operation to assassinate a [[Prophet of Regret|Prophet]], and the secession of the [[Elite]]s from the hegemony, leading to the [[Great Schism|Covenant Civil War]], further throwing the Covenant into chaos. nevertheless, by November what is left of the [[Covenant Loyalists]] have subjugated large parts of [[Earth]], devastating much of the planet. Only its retreat through a Forerunner portal in Africa, and the arrival of the Elites' Fleet, stop the utter destruction of the UNSC and Earth itself.

Revision as of 14:34, April 16, 2008

Template:Ratings

United Nations Space Command
File:Perfect Black UNSC logo.png
Government overview

Type:

Emergency Military

Executive branch:

UNSC Security Committee

Legislative branch:

UNSC Security Council

Judicial branch:

Office of Investigations[1]

Societal overview

Official language(s):

English (Primary), Spanish, Swahili and many others

Historical overview

Formation:

From United Nations between 2160 and 2164

 

The United Nations Space Command is the main government of future humanity, spanning multiple worlds besides Earth. Formed in the 2160's, during a period where remnants of old cultural ideologies clashed over supremacy in the Solar System, the UNSC primarily served as an overseer of United Nations military operations in space. After initiating massive militarization propaganda throughout its off-world colonies, the UN, through the UNSC, defeated Communist and Fascist forces in a conflict generally named as the "Interplanetary War", consisting of several side-battles that took place on Mars, the Jovian Moons and the South American Rain forests. Although the war brought a great deal of suffering to both the colonial population and the residents of Earth, it also united humanity's military forces into a common armed force by the end of the 22nd century: the UNSC.

Before the Covenant's attack on Harvest, humanity was in turmoil, with the more remote colonies fighting for independence from the UNSC. To help quell the revolts, the UNSC commissioned the SPARTAN Project, which created elite supersoldiers to stealthily eliminate insurrectionists. When the Covenant began decimating the outer colonies, these Spartans became humanity's best hope against the technological superiority of the aliens. By Halo: Combat Evolved, Earth - the location of which has been kept secret from the Covenant through the Cole Protocol - is the last remaining Human bastion; it falls under attack during Halo 2. The end of the Human-Covenant war only comes after UNSC forces eliminate the Covenant's leadership and joint UNSC-Sangheili forces destroy the Flood threat.

The UNSC's military arm is called the United Nations Space Command Defense Force, used to protect human colony worlds and engage threats to the UNSC. By the time of the war the UNSC is in the tier 3 of the Forerunner technological achievement. This is likely to rise due to the capture of Covenant technology and equipment, which has been studied and adapted for human needs. The very best of UNSC equipment is supplied to the SPARTAN-II Project.

During the First and Second Battle of Earth, the UNSC fought the Covenant Loyalists on Earth to keep Humanity from extinction.

A UNSC fleet stationed over a human planet.

Background

File:Interplanetary War from Halo Wars.jpg
Battle scene from the Interplanetary War.[2]

The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) was formed by the United Nations during the Interplanetary War. After the eventual UNSC victory, overpopulation on Earth started becoming a major issue in the early 22nd century. This issue was resolved and disaster averted by colonizing other planets in the Orion Arm of the galaxy, the Inner Colonies and later the Outer Colonies.

The UNSCDF is run by the UNSC Security Committee, under the jurisdiction of the Security Council and is Earth's main military force, most recently fighting the Covenant. The Navy houses the divisions of UNSC Marines (including the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers), Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), and the Fleet. Originally designed to keep the peace between neighboring planets and star systems, when certain rebellious factions began to rise in the late 2510s. But the UNSC was forced to police its colonies tirelessly to keep privateers and pirates from raiding the colonies and any UNSC ships.

The Unified Earth Government still exists and operates the UNSC, and it acts as a democratic world government where all the participant nations share the same legal system, as a part of the UNSC as a whole.

It should be noted now that the UEG's specific functions, legal makeup and legal boundaries as they relate to the CAA and UNSC are not yet known in detail.

The UNSC Flag is described as "...a blue field with stars and Earth in the corner."[3].

File:7thHelljumpers.jpg
The ODST, a special forces unit of the UNSC.

History

Main article: History of the UNSC

Interplanetary War

The United Nations Space Command was formed as the result of a series of brutal wars across the Solar System between 2160 and 2164, most prominently among them the Jovian Moons Campaign, The Rain Forest Wars, and a series of battles on Mars.[4] These encounters were centered around UN clashes with dissident political movements, the most important of which were the "Koslovics" and the "Frieden." More specifically, the Frieden movement was a fascist organization based on the Jovian Moons, though they received backing from some corporations operating in the United German Republic on Earth, while their ideological opponents, the Koslovics, formed a Marxist-Leninist group centered around the leadership of Vladimir Koslov.

The war began with an attack on UN Military Advisers on the moon of Io, one of the moons of Jupiter, but would spread to Mars and parts of South America in the Rain Forest Wars. These events culminated in a large UN buildup in the 2160s, which would result in the second of the great reforms, the first being from the league of nations into the UN. The second reformed the UN from a largely diplomatic organization to a permanent United Earth Government as an ultimate power to lead the human race by 2170.

Colonization

File:H3 Zune Marine.jpg
A UNSC Marine from Halo 3

The four-year long war put the spotlight on problems facing the overpopulated planet, and the Rain Forest Wars also exacerbated the problems related to food distribution. The ensuing famine and societal problems related to the post-war population boom provided the impetus to change the political nature of governance on Earth and elsewhere, leading to the political system seen in the period of the Halo games. These pressures also helped make space colonization more attractive in later centuries, as the government would sign off on a colony ship program that was revealed in 2310 to ease the burden on the ailing home world. This would not have been possible without the invention of the Slipspace drive in the late 2200's, which allowed the ships to travel far greater distances than before.

It took 52 years before the first colony ship, the Odyssey, was launched, and what became the so-called Inner Colonies were not fully colonized until the end of the 24th century. The apex of UNSC colonization would come in 2492, when over 800 worlds were under human control and were at various stages of development. By this time, a ring of Outer Colonies was providing the UEG with the raw materials that made the macro-economy work; the political power, however, remained with the a fore mentioned Inner Colonies. The massive difference in wealth distribution and political power, which became a hallmark of the humans' civilization by this period, led to new threats of secession from the outer ring. Fearing the consequences of the breakup of the interstellar empire and seeing the benefits of avoiding all-out war to defend their hold on the colonies, the UNSC would embark on the predecessors to the SPARTAN-II program in 2491, beginning with the ORION Project.

The Human-Covenant War

Main article: Human-Covenant War

2525 marked an important turning point in human history. it would mark the beginning of great technological advancement, and the unification of a divided and fractured human race, and the first contact of humanity and an extraterrestrial intelligence, the Covenant. It would also see a lot of the UNSC's 800 colony worlds destroyed, and billions of colonists slaughtered by orbital plasma bombardment and planetary invasion. Thus began the Human-Covenant War.

Stemming from the chance encounter of humanity and Covenant forces at Harvest, first contact was less than peaceful. A less aggressive meeting between representatives of the two factions met on the fields of Harvest, but peaceful meeting soon turned into a blood bath, with the Covenant claiming the planet for the numerous "Forerunner relics" present, slaughtering much of the colony's population. [5]

On October 7, a scout ship, Argo, was sent to investigate the cessation of communications between Harvest and the rest of the UNSC. The scout ship was also lost. It discovered that everything on the planet had been completely incinerated, and the surface had been melted down to glass. In orbit around the remains of the colony world was a single alien ship which proceeded to attack the battle group, destroying all the ships except one. Intercepted communications identify the enemy as The Covenant, a caste-driven, theological organization made up of several alien species. The message "Your destruction is the will of the gods... and we are their instrument" was broadcast in perfect English. [6]

Since the later Battle of Harvest in 2531 where a huge human fleet led by Admiral Cole barely won against a smaller covenant fleet in a symbolic "victory" for humanity, the humans' grip on their territories declined significantly in the course of their struggle. Of the more than 800 colony worlds, the Covenant has managed to capture and glass nearly every, if not all Outer Colonies and a significant number of the Inner Colonies. The UNSC Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Militias, outnumbered and outgunned, have managed to slow down the Covenants inexorably progress through former human space, but the situation is drastic. In desperation, HIGHCOM orders a high-risk Op, sending the Spartan-II super soldiers, the best soldiers ever fielded by humanity, to insert into Covenant space, capture a high-ranking Prophet, and return to UNSC space in an attempt to ransom for a truce. Before the operation begins, the Covenant find and destroy the planet that would have served as its launching pad, Reach, killing most of the Spartans and a large portion of the UNSCDF, inadvertently stopping the operation and killing most of the Spartans.

By October of 2552, the Covenant have haphazardly discovered the position of the human home world, Earth, and send a preliminary task force there, believing it to be the location of the Ark, an ancient Forerunner relic buried in the sands of Africa . They encountered staunch resistance, and are initially fended off. Further complications arise from the political and religious crisis that emerges in the wake of a UNSC operation to assassinate a Prophet, and the secession of the Elites from the hegemony, leading to the Covenant Civil War, further throwing the Covenant into chaos. nevertheless, by November what is left of the Covenant Loyalists have subjugated large parts of Earth, devastating much of the planet. Only its retreat through a Forerunner portal in Africa, and the arrival of the Elites' Fleet, stop the utter destruction of the UNSC and Earth itself.

The UNSC and Elite forces launch a joint operation to destroy the Covenant Loyalists once and for all at the Ark, stopping the installation from firing The Halo Array, killing the Covenants last remaining leader figure, the Prophet of Truth, and destroying the bulk of the Loyalists remaining forces. On March 3, 2553, the Human-Covenant War officially ends in a victory for the UNSC and the Covenant Seperatists, but at a high price: most Outer Colonies and a chunk of the Inner Colonies were glassed. It is presumed that untold billions of humans have been killed from 2525-2553.

Organization

Minimum tour of duty = Two (Earth) Years

UNSC Personnel

See Characters for a list of UNSC personnel.
See Bases for a list of UNSC Military Bases.

Rank Structure

UNSC Navy

See UNSC Navy

UNSC Marine Corps

See UNSC Marine Corps

UNSC Army

See UNSC Army

Colony Systems, Worlds, and Cities

see: Category:UNSC Colonies.

Sol System

Epsilon Eridani System

Epsilon Eridanus System

Other Colonies

UNSC bases

Nations

The majority of information contained by weekly Bungie updates and several comic books indicate that at least some nations on Earth still exist and probably maintained their independence despite the global unification that was performed by the UN, UNSC and Unified Earth Government in the 22nd century during the Interplanetary War.

Template:Countries

UNSC Weaponry

Main article: UNSC Weapons

These are the weapons that the UNSC employs against the likes of The Covenant.

Note that all the hand held weapons in Halo 2 apart from grenades can be swapped with the appropriate class of soldier's weapons.

The Novels

The weapons exclusive to Halo: The Fall of Reach, Halo: The Flood, Halo: First Strike, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx and Halo: Contact Harvest.

Template:Col-7 Handheld Weapons Template:Col-7 Missiles Template:Col-7 Mines Template:Col-7 Grenades Template:Col-7 Machine Guns Template:Col-7 Nuclear Weapons Template:Col-7 Other

UNSC Vehicles

Land

  • Scorpion Tank - M808B Main Battle Tank
  • Warthog - M12 LRV with mounted chain gun, rocket launcher or gauss cannon
  • Mongoose - All-Terrain Vehicle
  • Cougar - Infantry Fighting Vehicle
  • Elephant - Siege Vehicle and Infantry Carrier
  • Rhino - Heavy Tank/Self Propelled Artillery Vehicle
  • Wolverine - Armored Anti-Aircraft Vehicle

Air

UNSC Technologies

See Technology

UNSC Vessels and Stations

See UNSC Navy

UNSC Currency

The UNSC uses the United Nations Credit monetary unit to organize its economical stability by selling or buying military equipment, supplies, costs for shipping etc. The UN Credit was implemented by the United Nations, probably some time before its dissolution and replacement with the United Earth Government in 2164.

Known UNSC Military Units

Main article: UNSC Military Units

Major UNSC Events

UNSC Laws

See UNSC Laws
Flag of the UNSC
History of the UNSC
Pre-UNSC period
- Creation of the United Nations (1945)
- Jovian Moons Campaign (2160)
- Rain Forest Wars (2162)
- Mars Campaign (2163)
Interplanetary War (2164–2170)
Inner Colony Wars (after 2362)
Insurrection (2494–2537, resurgence: 2553–)
Human-Covenant War (2525–2552)
Post-Covenant War conflicts (2553–)

Trivia

Sources

  1. ^ The Office of Investigations most likely investigates and judges the actions of all the arms of the UNSC, as it is the only known judicial organization of the UNSC.
  2. ^ http://halowars.com/GameInfo/Timeline.aspx
  3. ^ [Halo: The Fall of Reach]], page 37
  4. ^ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo/storyline.htm
  5. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest
  6. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 96-98
  7. ^ Letter - Re:Antilon Mine

Template:UNSC Services Template:UNSC Organizations Template:Major Factions

Retrieved from "https://www.halopedia.org/index.php?title=United_Nations_Space_Command&oldid=110642"