United Rebel Front
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The United Rebel Front (URF), commonly known as the Front,[2] is a prominent faction of human Insurrectionists devoted to complete liberation of human colonies from the influence of the Unified Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command, both before and after the Human-Covenant War. Led by a triumvirate of generals as of 2531,[3] the United Rebel Front is not a singular group, instead containing many cells across human-controlled space.
History
Insurrection
After defecting from the UNSC Marine Corps, Colonel Robert Watts led the Secessionist Union and allied cells on Eridanus II and overthrew the Eridanus Government. The United Nations Space Command eventually responded by harshly putting down the rebellion and eliminating a large percentage of Watts' faction and other allied cells.[4] The surviving insurgents left the Eridanus system and were reorganized under Watts' control. In the subsequent years, Watts led insurrectionist forces throughout the Outer Colonies as the Insurrection spread.[5] With Watts in command of most of the insurgents,[6] the UNSC branded Watts' faction a "united rebel front". Although this term was intended to be a pejorative, the rebels adopted it as a badge of honor and became known as the United Rebel Front.[5] After regaining enough assets, the URF attempted to retake Eridanus II, but their uprising was anticipated by the UNSC and Operation: TREBUCHET was launched in response. After a long battle in space and on the planet's surface, the URF pulled back from Eridanus II and retreated into the system's largest asteroid belt,[7] where the United Rebel Front established a base in one of the asteroids—Eridanus Secundus.[5] While the URF attempted to rebuild their strength yet again, they were initially forced to rely on piracy to replenish their supplies.[8]
In 2525, the Office of Naval Intelligence reported that it had uncovered a breach within UNSC Fleet Command: there were several spies for the URF within FLEETCOM. They had also discovered that the rebels were led by Colonel Robert Watts and that they had connections to the outside world and were being supplied by outside sources such as the cargo freighter Laden.[9] That year, a group of Spartans undertook a covert operation and captured Watts from the very heart of the rebel operations base, the rebel stronghold at Eridanus Secundus, killing many URF soldiers and civilians who were present at the base.
Human-Covenant War
With the outbreak of the war against the Covenant in 2525, various Insurrectionist cells would find themselves cooperating with the UNSC in several engagements where it became practical for both sides to abandon their disputes for the sake of their survival against this new threat.[10] In 2525, one such cell of the United Rebel Front based on Alpha Corvi II was confronted by a four-man team of SPARTAN supersoldiers known as Blue Team when the Covenant attacked the colony in search of Forerunner artifacts. From their primary base at Black Reef the rebels, commanded by Captain Whitaker fought a costly ground action against the Covenant when the Spartans encountered the rebels and negotiated an alliance in order to repel the invasion. Despite lingering hostilities, the URF forces supported the Spartans in their mission and killed many Covenant soldiers despite being hopelessly outmanned and outgunned. Despite the success of the operation, Black Reef soon fell to the Covenant and Blue Team was ordered to evacuate. The UNSC High Command however had given no priority to the survival of the rebel forces who had aided the Spartans, and left them to find their own means of escape despite the protests of Blue Team. All United Rebel Front soldiers were eventually killed and the UNSC abandoned the colony.[11][12][13] Another such incident involving cooperation between Spartans and rebel elements would be later discovered by Michael Sullivan, in which the cadets would express confusion at what appeared to be UNSC and insurrectionist personnel working alongside one another.[10]
By 2531, the United Rebel Front's operations had been disrupted by Blue Team, who had resumed their campaign against the Insurrectionist faction even as they continued to engage the Covenant. The team disrupted URF operations including Station Jefferson, the destroyer Origami, a saboteur cell on Reach, an incident in Micronesia, and a high-explosives manufacturing facility at an unspecified location.[14] In response, the rebels gathered three stolen FENRIS Nuclear Warheads at Camp New Hope in a way so sloppy that the Office of Naval Intelligence easily noticed, then contacted the UNSC and offered to trade the nukes in exchange for medicine for their people suffering from Boren's Syndrome. They then set a trap for Blue Team, whom they anticipated would be sent. During Operation: SMOKING ACES, the rebels successfully ambushed John-117, Frederic-104, Kelly-087 and Linda-058 by using an antigravity plate. However, the rebels were unaware of the presence of a fifth SPARTAN; a new addition to the team, Kurt-051, who had avoided the trap. Kurt was able to free the other members of Blue Team and they then retreated from the camp with the recovered warheads before the camp could launch a proper counterattack. General Howard Graves was killed in the process.
In 2552, the Spartans returned to the belt aboard UNSC Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice hybrid vessel to make repairs. Governor Jacob Jiles was the leader of the rebels at that time. Jiles engaged in a brief "showdown" with UNSC Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, in which Whitcomb threatened to fire Ascendant Justice's plasma cannons, while Jiles claimed to aim nuclear weapons at Ascendant Justice. The two soon revealed to one another that all but one of Whitcomb's plasma cannons were nonfunctional and that Jiles' nukes were fake. Suddenly, a Covenant cruiser that had followed the trail of the vessel appeared in the system. After a short fight, the Covenant ship was destroyed after dealing severe damage to the Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice. Several days later, three dozen Covenant vessels appeared in the system, forcing the Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice to retreat. The Covenant then eradicated the base entirely. The Eridanus rebels were massacred in the process.
Post-war resurgence
Even after the Human-Covenant War, the United Rebel Front was still a formidable force. After the war, they had multiple planets under their control, Talitsa and Terceira being a known two. SPARTAN-IVs were sent to these two planets, to conduct raids, with widespread use of the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor/Wetwork in the former,[15] and to help reclaim the latter.[16]
In 2554, the United Rebel Front launched an invasion of the newly resettled colony of Draco III, occupying the capital city of New Albany and establishing themselves in the capital building. The UNSC immediately responded to the threat, deploying ODSTs and a team of SPARTAN-IVs led by Sarah Palmer to eliminate the threat. These URF forces, led by Captain Ingridson attempted to defend their hold on the city, but were swiftly routed by the UNSC who regained control of the city as the surviving URF forces made a last stand in the capital building. One of these ODST squads, Alpha-Nine attempted to corner and overpower Ingridson's forces but one of their members, "the Rookie", was taken hostage during the engagement. In their final stand against the ODSTs and Spartan forces, the URF soldiers were wiped out and Ingridson neutralized, but not before executing the Rookie during Alpha-Nine's attempt to save him. The entire URF force was killed or captured, effectively restoring order to Draco III.
In August 2555, the United Rebel Front had managed to capture the ONI Huragok now known as Vergil and his human handler, Sadie Endesha and held them in one of their strongholds on Talitsa. In response, the UNSC sent SPARTAN-IVs Edward Buck, Michael Crespo and Kojo Agu to rescue them, but Crespo had been colluding with the URF and helped set a trap for the rest of his team. Even though Buck and Agu were captured by a large number of rebels led by Dr. Schein, they ultimately managed to fight off the rebels and the rogue Spartan and successfully rescued Sadie and Vergil.[17]
The Created
In October 2558, after the Guardians' resurgence and led by Cortana, the Created subjugated some URF sites, including Talitsa and Cassidy III.[18]
Military assets
The United Rebel Front has a highly organized intelligence division and a far-flung network of facilities, comprised of a network of different rebel movements, such as the Eridanus rebels. They have commanded facilities across human-controlled space, including Eridanus Secundus, Camp New Hope on planet Victoria, and Station Jefferson, which was located in the asteroid belt of Eridanus. They also had a high explosives manufacturing facility, operations of an unknown kind on Micronesia, and a saboteur cell on Reach. All these operations were shut down by the Spartans of Blue Team.[14]
Camp New Hope had an impressive security system, even by Spartan standards: motion and seismic sensors, a triple layering of guards, trained dogs and overhead MAKO drones.[19]
They also have a number of arms, ranging from military grade MAKO drones and FENRIS nuclear warheads to Archer missiles and .30 caliber "Confetti Maker" machine guns.[19] They used Parabola-class freighters such as the Laden, to ship diverse equipment, resources, and weapons from planet systems to their base. They even managed to acquire the destroyer Origami.[20] Graves' rebel cell also made use of a jury-rigged Warthog armored personnel carrier.[21]
In 2526, Lyrenne Castilla estimated that the total fleet of the URF's members was made up of several dozen outdated frigates and a few hundred corvettes at best. This presumably would have also included her flagship Bellicose.[22]
They possess some "old technology that never panned out", such as the antigravity plate Graves' cell used to fool the SPARTANs' armor systems into thinking they were in a 10 G environment, temporarily giving them decompression sickness, otherwise known as "the bends."[14]
The Eridanus-based rebels utilized numerous vessels, including upgraded Pelican dropships, Mako-class corvettes, and Chiroptera-class stealth vessels as an improvised fleet. They had at least a hundred such vessels in their fleet at any time. Two Laden-class freighters were also used as part of their improvised fleet, being used to tow the damaged hybrid vessel Gettysburg/Ascendant Justice back to Eridanus Secundus. They received almost everything in their armament and ships from pirating other vessels, including both civilian merchant vessels and UNSC warships.[23]
Their ability to infiltrate the UNSC ranks caused the UNSC to keep a small orbital force in the system to respond to rebel attacks. Another reason for their success was their location, which was extremely difficult and time-consuming to discover and was easily defended against even medium-scale assaults.
List of affiliated rebel cells
- Biko Independence Army[22]
- Freedom League[22]
- Gao Liberation Force[22]
- People's Occupation[22]
- Secessionist Union
Production note
The usage of the term "United Rebel Front" in official media results from a widespread misinterpretation originally appearing on Halopedia. The term was never used as a proper name in official material before its erroneous adoption by this wiki; this is because article titles on Halopedia were once capitalized as if they were proper nouns (e.g. "UNSC Carrier"). This misunderstanding was carried over to the Halo Encyclopedia, a sizable portion of which was derived from this wiki. For example, the rebel destroyer Origami is referred to as the "URF Origami"; Halopedia had formerly titled the article as such, but the ship is only referred to as the Origami in the original source.
The origin of this misconception is a singular reference to a "united rebel front" in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx (p. 37), in which the lowercase lettering indicates the term is simply a descriptor used to refer to the nature of the Insurrectionists in question as opposed to being a proper name of a group. Years later, Colonel Robert Watts' biography on Halo Waypoint clarified that although the name began as a simple descriptor (as used in Ghosts of Onyx) it was adopted by many insurgents as a badge of honor, hence the treatment of "United Rebel Front" as a proper name in newer media.[5]
List of appearances
- Halo: The Fall of Reach (First appearance)
- Halo: First Strike
- Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
- Halo: Contact Harvest (Mentioned only)
- Halo: The Cole Protocol (Mentioned only)
- Halo: Reach (Mentioned only)
- Halo: Fall of Reach
- Halo 4 (Mentioned only)
- Halo: New Blood
- Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series
- Halo Mythos
- Halo: Collateral Damage
- Halo: Bad Blood
- Halo: Silent Storm
Sources
- ^ Halo Mythos, page 55
- ^ Halo: New Blood, Preview
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 37 ("Howard Graves was one of the three men believed to be in charge of the united rebel front.")
- ^ Halo Encyclopedia, pages 44-45 (2011)
- ^ a b c d Halo Waypoint: Colonel Watts
- ^ Halo: Evolutions, "Dirt", page 109
- ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, pages 96-98 (2010)
- ^ Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp, Issue #2
- ^ Halo: The Fall of Reach, pages 76-77
- ^ a b Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
- ^ Halo: Collateral Damage, Part 1
- ^ Halo: Collateral Damage, Part 2
- ^ Halo: Collateral Damage, Part 3
- ^ a b c Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 36
- ^ Halo 4, Wetwork Armor description
- ^ Halo 4, Oceanic Armor description
- ^ Halo: New Blood, Chapter 17
- ^ Halo: Bad Blood, Chapter 14
- ^ a b Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 31
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 37
- ^ Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, page 34
- ^ a b c d e Halo: Silent Storm, Chapter Six, page 93
- ^ Halo: First Strike, page 254
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