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UNSC Home Fleet

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UNSC Home Fleet
Fifth Fleet - H2A.png

Affiliation:

United Nations Space Command

Branch:

UNSC Navy

Type:

Fleet

Role:

Defense of Earth and the Sol System

Size:

Engagements:

Commanders:

 

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.[3] By 2552, the Home Fleet's chief commanding officers were Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood, the Chief of Naval Operations,[2] as well as Fleet Admiral Harper, who commanded the attached Fifth Fleet.[4]

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.

Human-Covenant war

Fall of Reach

After the Fall of Reach and Operation: FIRST STRIKE, the few Epsilon Eridani Fleet survivors of the Covenant attack on the Epsilon Eridani system, including the UNSC Aegis Fate and UNSC Gettysburg, were recalled to Earth. After the Gettysburg arrived—aided by a Covenant slipspace drive taken during FIRST STRIKE—its occupants warned the Home Fleet that the Covenant could locate Earth at any time, giving the UNSC time to prepare for their arrival. The surviving ships from the fleet, along with all other fleets, were consolidated into the Home Fleet for Earth's apparent final stand.

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.

The Home Fleet engages Truth's fleet as the Forerunner Dreadnought ferrying the Prophet closes in on Earth.

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, though the Coral Sea arrived before the onset of the Great Schism and hid from the Covenant fleet in the system close to the surface of Delta Halo, and the fates of Redoubtable and Paris are unknown.[5]

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. [6] 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.[7]

Onyx Conflict

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.[8] 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 self-destructed, 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 Patterson's battle group 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.[9]

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.[10]

Late Battle of Earth
File:Storm3.jpg
Several frigates attached to the Home Fleet attack the Forerunner Dreadnought activating the Portal leading to the Ark.

During the later stages of the Battle of Earth in November 2552, the Home Fleet was still fighting the Covenant 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.[3] 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 from the Home Fleet, including the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, 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.

Battle of Installation 00

The UNSC Forward Unto Dawn fought during the last battle of the Human-Covenant War, the Battle of Installation 00. There, the Dawn helped UNSC Marines and the Sangheili against the Prophet of Truth's forces.[11][12] The UNSC and Sangheili forces fought valiantly, until they were ordered to evacuate due to the imminent firing of Installation 08. 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.

Post-War

Invasion of Earth
Main article: Invasion of Earth

Discovering that the Halo Array had been remotely activated, the UNSC planned to send a force from the Home Fleet, led by the cruiser Template:UNSCship, to the Ark to deactivate the signal, and invited advisors from the Swords of Sanghelios, briefing them on the situation and asking for their assistance in activating the Voi portal to reach it. When the portal activated, a Forerunner Retriever emerged, and began to harvest the surrounding countryside, but was destroyed by the Endeavor with support from air forces from a nearby UNSC military base. While the UNSC wanted to send a larger force aboard the Endeavour, Shipmaster N'tho 'Sraom refused to wait, and took his own ship, the Covenant heavy corvette Mayhem, through on his own initiative, with UNSC personnel aboard.

The Home Fleet, consisting of dozens of ships, was in place to respond when 000 Tragic Solitude sent through hundreds of Retrievers to strip Earth and the rest of the solar system to repair his installation. These sentinels were rudimentarily armed, but were destroyed in large numbers by Home Fleet, though it took heavy casualties and was on the verge of defeat until a stalemate on the Ark between the Mayhem's crew and Tragic Solitude, forcing the Retrievers to withdraw through the portal. Afterwards, the UNSC sent reinforcements through the portal to investigate the threat and discovering that the Mayhem's crew and passengers had survived. The carrier Template:UNSCship recovered Mayhem within one of its hangars, and carried it back through the portal to Earth.[13]

The Didact's attack
Main article: New Phoenix Incident
File:Dakota 3.jpg
Battle Group Dakota of the Home Fleet help Spartan-117's Broadsword defend Earth from the Mantle's Approach during the 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 and failing to inflict damage upon the ship. As the battlegroup engaged Mantle's Approach, Infinity was contacted by the Master Chief who was flying beneath the Didact's shields in an F-41 Broadsword armed with a nuclear weapon. In order to allow the Master Chief to destroy the enemy vessel, the Infinity used two of her forward batteries to blast a hole in the ship's hull after the Master Chief took out Mantle's Approach's point-defense weapons, allowing the Master Chief to board the ship. The battlegroup subsequently disengaged from the fight, staying on station instead while the Master Chief destroyed Mantle's Approach and the Composer from the inside with his nuclear weapon.[14]

Rise of the Created

In 2558 when Cortana reemerged as the new leader of the Created after her presumed destruction during the Didact's earlier attack, she activated a series of Forerunner Guardians to enforce the will of the Mantle, now believing AIs to be the true Reclaimers of the galaxy. The Infinity and her escorts again rushed to Earth's defense as a Guardian appeared above Earth, with the Home Fleet and the orbital defense grid scrambling their defenses in the wake of this new threat. However, having witnessed the capabilities of the Guardians, the crew of the Infinity instead chose to retreat, narrowly escaping the massive EMP blast that shut down all technology on Earth, rendering the Home Fleet utterly defenseless as their own vessels were also disabled in orbit.

Known vessels

Carriers

Cruisers

Destroyers

Frigates

Corvettes

Prowlers

Orbital defense platforms

Mediterranean battlecluster

Caribbean battlecluster

Central American battlecluster

Subordinate units

Consolidated Survivors of the Fleet / Battle Group


List of appearances

Sources

  1. ^ Halo 2, campaign level The Armory
  2. ^ a b Halo Encyclopedia, page 73 (2011 edition)
  3. ^ a b Halo 3, campaign level, Crow's Nest
  4. ^ Halo 2, campaign level, Cairo Station
  5. ^ [https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/universe/locations/delta-halo Halo Waypoint: Delta Halo
  6. ^ Halo 2, campaign level, High Charity
  7. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 182-183
  8. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 286-300
  9. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 325-333
  10. ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, pages 375-378
  11. ^ Halo 3, campaign level, The Ark
  12. ^ Halo 3, campaign level, The Covenant
  13. ^ Halo: Hunters in the Dark
  14. ^ Halo 4, campaign level Midnight

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