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United Nations Space Command

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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 (UNSC) is the military, exploratory and scientific arm of the United Earth Government. Formed in the 2160's, during a period where remnants of old cultural ideologies clashed for supremacy in the Sol System, the UNSC served mainly as an overseer of United Nations military operations in space. After initiating massive militarization propaganda throughout its off-world colonies, through the UNSC, the UN, 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 Interplanetary 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 known as the UNSC.

Prior to the Covenant's attack on Harvest in 2525 [2], humanity was in chaos, fighting in multiple fronts, on planets, against a group known as the Insurrectionists who wanted independence from the UEG government. The UNSC, more specifically, the UNSCDF, constantly battled against the Insurrectionists. In an attempt to help end the long running war against the Insurrectionists and rebels, the UEG commissioned the SPARTAN-II Project, which created elite super-soldiers to combat separatists and the insurrections they spawned. When the Covenant-Human War began and the alien invaders began decimating the Outer Colonies, these Spartans became humanity's best hope against the technological superiority of the aliens. When the war began, the UNSC truly became humanity's greatest (and arguably only) defender. This fact allowed the UNSC to override civilian rule and establish itself as humanity's primary government. Although the United Earth Government was more open to step down, the Colonial Administration, the arm of the UEG ruling over the colonies, resisted the UNSC's rise to power, and was thus stripped of its power.[3]

By A.D 2552, Earth was the last remaining major Human bastion; and fell under attack by Covenant forces. The Human-Covenant War finally came to an end after a UNSC and Covenant Separatists force eliminated the Covenant leadership and destroyed the Flood threat.

By the time the war began, humanity, and thus the UNSC, had reached Tier 3 of the Forerunner civilization achievement rank system. Humanity’s rank continued to rise due to the capture of Covenant technology and equipment, which was studied and adapted for human needs. The very best and cutting edge of UNSC equipment was supplied to the SPARTAN-II Project. One such example of imitative human technology is the energy shielding adapted for use on the MJOLNIR armor.

During the First and Second Battle of Earth, the UNSC fought the Covenant Loyalists on Earth to prevent humanity's extinction, and eventually won their right to survive thanks to an alliance with the Covenant Separatists.

Background

File:7thHelljumpers.jpg
The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, a special forces unit of the UNSC, are deployed by drop pods that land at the mission site.

The United Nations Space Command 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 UNSCs defensive military force is the UNSC Defense Force (UNSCDF), and consists of the UNSC Air Force, the UNSC Army, the UNSC Marine Corps and the UNSC Navy. [4]

The UNSC is run by the UNSC Security Council, under the jurisdiction of the Security Committee and is Earth's main military force, most recently fighting the Covenant. The Navy houses the divisions of UNSC Marines (including the special forces branch of the UNSC Marines known as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers more commonly know as ODSTs or "Helljumpers"), Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), and the Fleet. The UNSC was originally designed to keep the peace, order, and control, thus serving as an executive governmental branch between neighboring planets and star systems. When certain rebellious factions began to rise in the late 2510s, the UNSC was forced to police its protected colonies tirelessly to keep privateers and pirates from raiding the colonies and any UNSC ships.

The Unified Earth Government and the United Nations still exist and operate the UNSC. It acts as a democratic world government, where all the participant nations share the same legal system as the UNSC and act as smaller parts of the greater 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 United Nations Space Command Flag is described as "...a blue field with stars and Earth in the corner." [5]

History

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–)
Main article: History of the UNSC

Interplanetary War

The UNSC has its roots in World War II, which would form its parent organization, the United Nations. The UNSC was actually formed and fashioned as the result of a series of brutal conflicts 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.[6] 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 Colonial Advisors 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

File:H3 Zune Marine.jpg
A UNSC Marine in battle uniform

The four-year long war put the spotlight on problems facing the overpopulated planet, and the Rain Forest Wars also exacerbated the problems relating to food distribution. The ensuing famine and societal problems related to the post-war population boom providing the spark to change the political nature of governance on Earth and elsewhere, leading to the political system seen in the 26th Century.

These pressures also helped make space colonization seem more attractive in later centuries, as the UN 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 Shaw-Fujikawa 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 United Nations with the raw materials that made the macro-economy work; the political power, however, remained with the before 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.

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, the unification of a divided and fractured human race, and the first contact of humanity and an extra-terrestrial intelligence, the Covenant. It would also see a majority of the UNSC's 800 colony worlds glassed, and billions of colonists and military personnel slaughtered by orbital plasma bombardment and planetary invasion. Thus began the Human-Covenant War with the First Battle of Harvest.

Stemming from the chance encounter of Human and Covenant forces at Harvest, the first contact made between humanity and the Covenant involved the ship Minor Transgression, and was less peaceful than the second contact made between the two factions. A less aggressive meeting between representatives of the two factions took place on the fields of Harvest, but the 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.[7]

On April 20, a scout ship, Argo, was sent to investigate the cessation of communications between Harvest and the rest of the UNSC. Before being destroyed by Covenant forces, it discovered that everything on the planet had been completely incinerated, and the surface covered by fields of magma, leaving nothing alive. Soon after the Heracles battle group, consisting of the frigates Arabia and Vostok and the destroyer Heracles was sent to find out what had happened. On October 7, the battle group dropped out of Slipspace and to Harvest. 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.[8]

Since the later Second Battle of Harvest in 2531, where a huge human Fleet led by Vice Admiral Preston 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 the majority, if not all of the Outer Colonies, and a portion of the Inner Colonies. By 2552, the UNSC Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Militia, outnumbered and out-gunned, had managed to slow down the Covenant's inexorable progress through former human space, but the situation was dire. In desperation, HIGHCOM ordered 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 began, the Covenant found and destroyed the planet Reach, killing most of the Spartans and a large portion of the UNSCDF, inadvertently stopping the operation and rendering most of the Spartans MIA.

A single ship, the Pillar of Autumn managed to escape the planet, with two Spartans on board, Linda, who was presumably dead in the Battle of Reach and the Master Chief. The ship followed co-ordinates derived by the AI Cortana to a Ring-world known as Halo. There the Master Chief destroyed a large Covenant fleet and the ringworld itself. After hijacking a Covenant Flagship known as Ascendant Justice, the Spartan reunited with the remaining survivors from Halo and the destruction of Reach and attacked a force of Covenant ships in Operation: FIRST STRIKE, one of the most successful UNSC operations against the Covenant in the entire war.

By October of 2552, the Covenant had 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. They encountered staunch resistance, and were initially fended off. Further complications arose from the political and religious crisis that emerged 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 was left of the Covenant Loyalists had subjugated large parts of Earth, devastating much of the planet. Only their retreat through a Forerunner portal in Africa, and the arrival of the Sangheili Fleet, stopped the utter destruction of the UNSC and Earth itself.

The UNSC and Elite forces launched 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 Covenant's last remaining leader, 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, with most major military outposts destroyed except for Earth as well as many, if possibly not all, colonies destroyed, although it seems that most of the colony worlds were not glassed during the war, with only seventy-six worlds known to have been totally destroyed. However, it is presumed that untold billions of humans had been killed from 2525-2553.

Organization

Unified Earth Government or United Nations

Template:UNSC Organizations

Economy

The 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. For transporting food and raw materials between colonies, the UNSC maintains a merchant navy, run by the Department of Commercial Shipping.

Military

The UNSC's military arm is the United Nations Space Command Defense Force, which is divided into the UNSC Army, the UNSC Air Force, the UNSC Navy, and the UNSC Marine Corps. The Defense Force took control of the UNSC during the Human-Covenant War.

File:T 8567.jpg
United Nations Space Command Defense Force emblem

UNSC Personnel

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

Template:UNSC Officer Ranks Template:UNSC Enlisted Ranks

Template:UNSC Services

UNSC Weaponry

Main article: UNSC Weapons

These are the weapons that the UNSC employs against the likes of the Covenant or the United Rebel Front.

Held weapons

Template:UNSC Infantry Weapons

Missiles and other larger weapons

UNSC Vehicles

Land

  • Scorpion Tank - The Main Battle Tank of the UNSC. Has a 90mm high-velocity cannon and a 7.62mm machine gun. An extremely powerful tank that can hold up to four passengers on its tread-mounted jump seats.
  • Warthog - M12 LRV capable of mounting a chain gun, rocket launcher, Gauss cannon, or a passenger cage with room for three.
  • Mongoose - Unarmed All-Terrain Vehicle.
  • Cobra - An offensive Anti-building heavy vehicle.
  • Elephant - Siege Vehicle and Infantry Carrier. Powerful but extremely slow.
  • Rhino - Heavy Tank/Self Propelled Artillery Vehicle.
  • Wolverine - A half-tracked armored Anti-Aircraft Vehicle.
  • Grizzly - A heavier variant of the Scorpion, fields a dual cannon and a flamethrower.
  • Cyclops - Normally used for logistics duty, this is a Marine Corps heavy melee "mech" platform.

Air

UNSC Vessels and Stations

See UNSC Navy

Template:UNSC Ships

Known UNSC Military Units

Main article: UNSC Military Units

UNSC Technologies

Main article: Technology

Unlike the Covenant, human technology is still based on comparatively primitive mechanisms - projectile weaponry, wheeled vehicles, and combustion engines. The UNSC's grasp of scientific concepts is far more advanced than the Covenant, but turning these concepts into functional machinery has proven more problematic. Recently, the UNSC has introduced a variety of Covenant-derived technologies into their arsenal: gravity plating aboard ships, energy shields to protect Spartan-II soldiers, and limited use of directed energy weapons, usually lasers, for example, the Spartan Laser, though the Covenant still retain their technological advantage.

Sphere of influence

See: Category:UNSC Colonies.

UNSC territory is known to encompass several dozen worlds in several star systems, in various stages of colonization, from the well developed Inner Colonies to the relatively recent and struggling Outer Colonies.Though there were over 800 Human colonies before the War, only 38 have been referenced

The territory encompassed by the Inner Colonies seems to stretch in at least a 10.5 lightyear radius around Earth, and the Outer Colonies beyond that. By 2525, the outermost colony was Harvest, at 11 lightyears - later, colonies were founded well beyond the Outer Colonies. The furthest known UNSC colony is Beta Centauri, at 525 light years away.[10] Colonies may have been settled after Harvest, or founded during the Human-Covenant War.

Colony Systems, Worlds, and Cities

Sol System

Epsilon Eridani System

Sigma Octanus System

Lambda Serpentis System

Zeta Doradus System

Epsilon Indi System

Chi Ceti System

Hellespont System

111 Tauri System

Procyon System

Ectanus 45 System

23 Librae System

Other Colonies

UNSC bases

Nations

Information suggests 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

Major UNSC Events

UNSC Laws

See UNSC Laws

Trivia

  • The UNSC is the navigation and military arm of the Unified Earth Government and the Colonial Administration Authority, thus it does not administrate the colonies without the consensus of the CAA or the UEG.
  • The UNSC was accidentally referred to as the "USNC" in the book Halo: Ghosts of Onyx.
  • The United Nations Space Command Marine Corps has an ostensible inspiration from the real world USMC, the United States Marine Corps.
  • The majority UNSC vehicles are named after animals that live on the planet Earth, such as the Pelican, the Mongoose, Warthog, Scorpion, Albatross, etc. The exceptions, of course, being the 'Longsword', 'Shortsword', etc.
  • Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, are the only Marines who have received proper training to use Human Entry Vehicles.
  • The SPARTANS were named after the Greek soldiers of Sparta, who were said to be the best soldiers that ever lived; they were renowned for their discipline, superior fighting abilities, and superior arms and armor (facts reflected by the SPARTAN IIs).
  • In real life, UNSC is an acronym for the United Nations Security Council.
  • The UNSC was saved from destruction near the end of the Human-Covenant war, by the Covenant Separatists.
  • In Red vs Blue: Reconstruction, at the end of chapter 19, Sarge mentions that the Red Team have been given new vehicles from the UNSC. When questioned what it was by Grif, he says "I don't know, never heard of it. Sounds made up."

References

  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. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest
  3. ^ HBO Interview with Frank O'Connor and Robert McLees
  4. ^ HBO Interview with Frank O'Connor and Robert McLees
  5. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 37 (One should see a similar banner, in the game: Halo 3, where the player can see a blue banner with the UNSC emblem/eagle.)
  6. ^ http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/h/halo/storyline.htm
  7. ^ Halo: Contact Harvest
  8. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, page 96-98
  9. ^ Letter - Re:Antilon Mine
  10. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach
  11. ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach
  12. ^ Halo:The Fall of Reach
  13. ^ Halo:First Strike
  14. ^ I Love Bees
  15. ^ Halo 2
  16. ^ Halo:Ghosts of Onyx
  17. ^ Halo:Ghosts of Onyx
  18. ^ Halo 2

Template:Major Factions

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