| United Nations Space Command | |
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The United Nations Space Command, also well known as the UNSC, is the main government of humanity, spanning multiple colony worlds along with Earth. Formed in the 2160's, during a period where remnants of old cultural ideologies clashed for supremacy in the Sol System, the UNSC served primarily 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 known 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 choas, with the more remote colonies fighting for there independence from the UNSC. To help quell the revolts, the UNSC commissioned the SPARTAN Project, which created elite super-soldiers to 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 comes after UNSC forces eliminate the Covenant's leadership and joint UNSC-Sangheili forces destroy the Flood threat.
The UNSC's military 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 at 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, and eventually won the War after allying themselves with the Covenant Separatists.
Background
The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) was formed by the United Nations during the Interplanetary War. After the eventual UNSC victory, overpopulation on Earth became a major issue in the early 22nd century. This issue was resolved and disaster averted by colonizing and building vast cities on 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, 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/UEG and the United Nations/UN still exist and are operating the UNSC. 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 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."[2].
History
- Main article: History of the UNSC
Interplanetary War
The United Nations Space Command was formed and fashioned as the result of a series of brutal wars across the Solar System and Humanity's space confines between 2160 and 2164, most prominently among them the Jovian Moons Campaign, The Rain Forest Wars, and a series of battles on Mars.[3] The United Nations Space Command, as organized and orchestrated as it seems is actually an emergency military government formed in such strifes. 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 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
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 ever 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 more then 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 humanity 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. According to Dr. Catherine Halsey the UNSC had 20 years before war broke out. With the human empire expanding, they ruled out the possibility of alien contact, making them easier prey for the Covenant.
The Human-Covenant War
- Main article: Human-Covenant War
2525 marked an important turning point in human history. It would mark the beginning of the 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 majority of the UNSC's 800 colony worlds destroyed, and billions of colonists and military personnel slaughtered by orbital plasma bombardment and planetary invasion. Thus began the Human-Covenant War with the Battle of Harvest.
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 most of the colony's population. [4]
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. [5]
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 had managed to capture and glass nearly every, if not all Outer Colonies and a majority of the Inner Colonies. The UNSC Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Militias, outnumbered and out-gunned, 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 rendering most of the Spartans KIA.
A single ship, the Pillar of Autumn managed to escape the planet, with two Spartans on board, Linda and the Master Chief. This ship follows co-ordinates derived by the AI Cortana to a Ring-world known as Halo. There the Master Chief destroys a large Covenant fleet and the ringworld itself. After hijacking a Covenant Flagship known as Ascendant Justice, the Spartan reunites with the remaining survivors from Halo and the destruction of Reach and planned Operation: FIRST STRIKE on an amassing force of Covenant ships, one of the most successful UNSC operations against the Covenant in the entire war.
By October of 2552, the Covenant have haphazardly discovered the position of the human home world, Earth, and sent 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 Sangheili 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 ended in a victory for the UNSC and the Covenant Separatists, 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
- Unified Earth Government or United Nations
- Colonial Administration Authority
- Central Command (CENTCOM)
- High Command (HIGHCOM)
- UNSC Security Committee
- UNSC Security Council
- Administrative
- Personnel Command (PERSCOM)
- Navigation Command (NAVCOM)
- UNSC Astrophysics
- UNSC Medical Corps (MEDCORPS)
- UNSC Engineering Corps (ENGCORP)
- UNSC Logistical Corps
- UNSC Test and Evaluation Corps
- UNSC Ordnance Committee
- Administrative
- UNSC Navy
- UNSC Marine Corps
- UNSC Army
- Other
- Commerce
- High Command (HIGHCOM)
- Central Command (CENTCOM)
- Colonial Administration Authority
UNSC Personnel
- See Characters for a list of UNSC personnel.
- See Bases for a list of UNSC Military Bases.
Rank Structure
It's believed that the United Nations Space Command ranking structure is much like that of the United States of America. This is exemplified in Halo 3 Multiplayer.
- See UNSC Navy
UNSC Marine Corps
UNSC Army
- See UNSC Army
Little is known about the United Nations Space Command Army Division, given that the games, books, and graphic novel focus more towards the Spartans and the UNSC Marines. However, the Army is believed to be a planetary force that remains on the inner-colonies as peace keepers as opposed to the Marines.
Colony Systems, Worlds, and Cities
See: Category:UNSC Colonies.
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Other Colonies
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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.
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 Halo: Contact Harvest and I love bees website
- Combat Knife
- MA2B Assault Rifle
- MA5K Assault Rifle
- MA3 Assault Rifle
- HMG-38 Rifle
- M99 Special Application Sniper Rifle
- M19-B SAM Missile Launcher
- Electric Baton
- Confetti Maker
- Lotus Anti Tank-Mine
- Antlion Anti-Personnel Mines[6]
- Moray Space Mines
- Type 14 Magnetic/Anti-Tank Mine
- Asteroidea Anti-personnel Mine
- MLA Autocannon
- M202 XP Machine Gun
- Fury Tactical Nuclear Warhead
- Shiva Nuclear-tipped missile
- FENRIS Nuclear Warhead
- Nova
- HORNET Mines
- HAVOK nuclear mine
- VX 7 Nerve Gas
- Magnetic Accelerator Cannon
- 102mm SC-HE Rocket Turret
- Fougass
- Satchel Charge
- C-7 Foaming Explosive
- C-12 Shaped-charges
- Narcozine Gas
- Thermite-Carbon Cord
- Hard Sound Rifle
UNSC Vehicles
Land
Air
UNSC Technologies
UNSC Vessels and Stations
UNSC CurrencyThe UNSC uses the United Nations Credit monetary unit to organize its economical stability by selling or buying military equipment, supplies and 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
Major UNSC Events
UNSC Laws
Trivia
Sources
Template:UNSC Services Template:UNSC Organizations Template:Major Factions |
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