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UNSC Home Fleet

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Template:Infobox Military Unit

The UNSC Home Fleet is a fleet in the UNSC Navy. Their assignment is to protect Earth and the Sol system from an invasion or attack.[1] Its chief commanding officers are Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood, the Chief of Naval Operations, as well as Fleet Admiral Harper, who commanded the attached Fifth Fleet.[2]

History

The UNSC Home Fleet's known history is short but distinguished. It is unknown how long the fleet has existed, but it is likely the UNSC has had a fleet of ships defending humanity's homeworld from external threats such as Insurrectionists since space warfare became a reality.

Battle of Earth

Ships of the Home Fleet engaging the Covenant during the early stages of the Battle of Earth.

The Home Fleet's first known engagements with the conglomerate of alien races known as the Covenant were during the last stages of the Human-Covenant War in the Battle of Earth, where it successfully defeated the Fleet of Sacred Consecration directly commanded by a member of the Covenant's leadership in Earth's orbit. The engagement however, was against a very small fleet of two assault carriers and thirteen battlecruisers. This engagement, commanded by both Fleet Admirals Hood and Harper, suffered a number of casualties as the fleet of sixty-seven frigates and eight cruisers under Harper's command attempted to hold back the enemy cruisers from reaching the orbital defense platforms.

On Cairo Station, Fleet Admiral Hood was awarding MCPO John-117 and Sergeant Major Avery Johnson for their actions at Installation 04 and the subsequent Operation: FIRST STRIKE. When Cortana received a slipspace rupture report near Io, she relayed the information to FADM Hood. When the Covenant force arrived, the Home Fleet was ready and waiting. Opening up with Marathon-class cruisers and MAC shells, they decimated the Covenant fleet, but suffered heavy losses themselves. Also during the engagement, the Covenant released boarding pods to occupy and destroy the MAC platforms using antimatter charges. Stations Athens and Malta were both destroyed, but Cairo was spared destruction by John-117, who later took the bomb and destroyed one of the two assault carriers.

At New Mombasa, the UNSC followed the surviving assault carrier, the Solemn Penance, to the surface. The only known ship in this engagement was the UNSC In Amber Clad; commanded by Miranda Keyes. The In Amber Clad's ground forces engaged the Covenant until; in retreat, the carrier fled the battle. The In Amber Clad, UNSC Paris, UNSC Redoubtable, UNSC Coral Sea and the UNSC Dusk made it into the slipspace rift before it closed.

Battle of Installation 05

Only In Amber Clad successfully kept pace with the carrier. The Dusk arrived days later, while the Coral Sea; Paris and Redoubtable never arrived at all; most likely due both to the imprecise physics of slipspace and the UNSC's rather limited technology for slipspace navigation, along with their unfamiliarity of their location in the galaxy.

The In Amber Clad deployed her ODST contingent on Installation 05, along with John-117 to assassinate the Prophet of Regret; who had escaped back from Earth in the assault carrier; itself no longer a target. The rest of the In Amber Clad's crew and remaining Marines went to find the Index. Avery Johnson and Miranda Keyes fought through the Quarantine Zone before encountering Thel 'Vadamee; an Arbiter, and being captured by the Covenant leadership. They were taken to High Charity and afterwards, the control room to fire Installation 05. In Amber Clad, however, was taken over by the Flood and made a precision jump out of the ring's atmosphere, appearing inside High Charity. Cortana originally planned to destroy High Charity by detonating the Clad's fusion reactors, though due to subsequent events, this plan never took place. [3] Cortana would make a second attempt to destroy High Charity by sending a message to the UNSC, in hopes that they would send ships from Earth to NOVA bomb the station.[4]

Battle of Onyx

The UNSC Home Fleet dispatched a battlegroup commanded by Admiral Carl Patterson to Onyx to recover Forerunner artifacts reported by Dr. Halsey. When the battlegroup arrived, they engaged two Covenant destroyers. UNSC Glasgow Kiss was the first to be destroyed when it purposely turned into plasma fire from the destroyers intended for the UNSC Stalingrad. They believed they had won the engagement, destroying one ship and heavily damaging the other. The damaged ship fled to the unseen side of the planet, with the UNSC ships in pursuit.

Twenty Covenant ships that had been hidden on the other side of the planet appeared from the gravity well of Onyx, and began to attack the battle group.[5] In the ensuring mayhem, the remaining UNSC ships attempted to accelerate through the gravity well of the planet through the lines of the Covenant ships coming from surface of Onyx. The UNSC Iwo Jima got in between eight Covenant warships, and detonated a nuke inside of its engine room, sacrificing itself to destroy two destroyers. Only five UNSC ships made it through. These ships disengaged when Sentinels destroyed three Covenant ships using plasma capture. In an attempt to escape the Sentinels, the Covenant assigned a rear guard of two ships to protect the rest of the fleet. This helped them escape the gravity well of Onyx at the cost of these two ships.

The UNSC Dusk planted fourteen Hornet mines around the moon of Onyx. Then, the surviving ships of Battle Group Stalingrad launched an attack. The attack however, was a trick to lure the Covenant force into the mine field. The mines detonated, but four Covenant destroyers made it through the nuclear fireballs. The rest of the UNSC ships thought they would win the engagement, until thirty-two Covenant vessels, reinforcements from Joyous Exaltation arrived. They destroyed the surviving ships of the battle group.[6]

The only ship to make it out alive was the UNSC Dusk, which stayed dark and was lucky enough to not get hit by the reigning debris or be detected by the Covenant ships. It eventually escaped to slipspace by narrowly evading the Sentinels that erupted from the disintegrating Onyx.[7]

Late Battle of Earth

During the later stages of the Battle of Earth in November 2552, the Home Fleet was still fighting the Covenant loyalists above Earth. However, they seemed to be holding their own against a second fleet sent in by the Prophet of Truth, judging by the order of Admiral Hood regarding Truth's ship (before John-117 contacted him) - "It's not one of ours, take it out." A mere day later, Truth's fleet arrived and, according to Commander Keyes, "...smashed what was left of the home fleet...". At about this time, the Home Fleet had significantly less ships and was almost to the point of destruction.[1] The UNSC was using its last reserves of ships to launch hit and run attacks on the Covenant.

During the Battle of Voi, three ships of the Home Fleet, the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, UNSC Aegis Fate, and a third vessel led a strike force of Longsword interceptors over what was believed to be- the "Ark" in Voi, Kenya. Although they damaged the Forerunner Dreadnought, it escaped though the slipspace portal.

It is unknown what actions the Home Fleet took after the Forward Unto Dawn took off into the slipspace portal, but it is known that they were able to hold off the Covenant long enough to win the war.

Battle of Installation 00

At least two ships of the Home Fleet, the UNSC Aegis Fate and the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn fought during the last battle of the Human-Covenant War, the Battle of Installation 00. There, the Dawn and the Fate helped UNSC Marines and Covenant separatists against the Prophet of Truth's forces.[8][9] The UNSC and Sangheili forces fought valiantly, until they were ordered to evacuate due to the imminent firing of Installation 04B. The UNSC Forward Unto Dawn was lost as the portal closed just as the vessel passed through and thus trapping the Master Chief in the void of space, but the UNSC Aegis Fate may have been evacuated on the Shadow of Intent's cargo bay.

The Didact's attack

Main article: New Phoenix Incident

In 2557, the Didact's ship, Mantle's Approach, arrived in-system to use the Composer to digitize humanity. Having been forewarned by the UNSC Infinity, the Home Fleet was ready and led by the Infinity, engaged Mantle's Approach. Battlegroup Dakota, led by the Infinity moved into position to confront the Didact's flagship, sustaining some losses due to the vessel's superior defenses. However, after learning that the Master Chief was on a Broadsword fighter with a nuclear weapon, the Home Fleet let him handle it, with the Infinity blasting a hole into the ship with her MAC gun so the Chief could enter after he took out the point-defense guns. After the ship was destroyed, the Infinity rescued the Master Chief from the debris field.

Known vessels

Carriers

Cruisers

Destroyers

Frigates

Corvettes

Prowlers

Orbital defense platforms

Mediterranean battlecluster

Caribbean battlecluster

Subordinate units

List of appearances

Sources

  1. ^ a b Halo 3, campaign level, Crow's Nest
  2. ^ Halo 2, campaign level, Cairo Station
  3. ^ Halo 2, campaign level, High Charity
  4. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 182-183
  5. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 286-300
  6. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 325-333
  7. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 375-378
  8. ^ Halo 3, campaign level, The Ark
  9. ^ Halo 3, campaign level, The Covenant

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Fleet elements of the UNSC Navy
Expeditionary fleets
Battle groups and task forces
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