Editing Battle Group Leviathan

|size=50 vessels {{C|July 17, 2552}}{{Ref/Novel|Id=FOR18|HTFoR|Chapter=18}}<br>

29 vessels {{C|August 30, 2552}}{{Ref/Reuse|Scen8}}

Around 2120 hours [[Military Standard Time]], the Covenant's [[Second Fleet of Solemn Accord]] emerged in the Sigma Octanus system, sounding the call for the Epsilon Eridani Fleet to begin their defence of the world. Stanforth rallied the fleet between Sigma Octanus IV and its moon [[Highpoint]] as to not leave the fleet trapped with its back against a metaphorical wall of the planet's gravity well. The admiral placed the fleet into a tightly-packed grid formation in the shape of a phalanx - an unorthodox placement as it left little room for manoeuvre once the enemy fleet fired their opening salvo. The [[refit station]] {{UNSCShip|Cradle}} also joined the fleet, positioning itself above the main UNSC formation. Stanforth aimed to use the battle group to fire a single massed salvo at the Covenant fleet, coordinating firing solutions as to knock out the fleet's shields, before delivering a second salvo to kill the ships for good, akin to 17th century infantry tactics. After firing their first salvo, the Covenant fleet returned in kind, only for Stanforth to reveal the trick hidden up his sleeve - using the massive ''Cradle'' repair platform as a shield to block the plasma shots inbound toward the fleet and buy time for a second salvo to fire. ''Cradle''{{'}}s sacrifice was not in vain, and bought the time required to launch the second salvo before Stanforth gave permission for the fleet to break apart from its formation and begin to manually engage the eight remaining Covenant targets. Both fleets took heavy losses, ultimately bringing Battle Group Leviathan down to just eight operational vessels by the battle's conclusion including UNSC ''Leviathan'' and UNSC ''Iroquois''.{{Ref/Novel|Id=FOR21|HTFoR|Chapter=21}} An after-action report of the battle group's status noted that over twenty ships were fully destroyed.{{Ref/Novel|Id=FOR23|HTFoR|Chapter=23}}

''As of the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, July 17, 2552''{{Ref/Note|This article largely ignores the ship visualisations provided in the ''[[Halo: Fall of Reach]]'' comic, which do not line up with the numbers presented in the original novel.}}

*50 ships{{Ref/Reuse|FOR18}}

**1 {{Class|Marathon|heavy cruiser}}  

***{{UNSCShip|Leviathan}}{{Ref/Reuse|FOR18}}

**2 [[UNSC carrier|carriers]]{{Ref/Reuse|FOR18}} (presumably at least one {{Class|Epoch|heavy carrier}})

**14 {{Class|Halberd|light destroyer}}s{{Ref/Note|Id=Halberds|In the second salvo of the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV in Chapter 22 of ''[[Halo: The Fall of Reach]]'', Battle Group Leviathan fired a barrage of MAC rounds described as a "21 gun salute three times over." If taken literally, that is a total of 63 rounds fired by the 48 MAC-equipped ships which participated in the battle. Assuming that the ''Marathon''-class cruiser ''Leviathan'' and the ''Halberd''-class destroyers in the fleet all fired both of their respective MACs, this means that 15 vessels in total were firing twin MACs to make up the difference, coming to 1 cruiser and 14 destroyers. All of the other 33 ships in the fleet were thus single-MAC frigates.}}

***{{UNSCShip|Iroquois}}{{Ref/Reuse|FOR16}}

***{{UNSCShip|Lancelot}}

**31 [[UNSC frigate|frigates]]{{Ref/NoteReuse|Halberds}}

***{{UNSCShip|Allegiance}}{{Ref/Reuse|FOR16}}

***{{UNSCShip|Gettysburg}}{{Ref/Reuse|FOR16}}

***{{UNSCShip|Fair Weather}} - destroyed in the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, collided with a Covenant destroyer{{Ref/Reuse|FOR21}}

**1 [[refit station]]{{Ref/Reuse|FOR18}}

***{{UNSCShip|Cradle}} - destroyed in the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, sacrificed itself to protect the rest of the battle group{{Ref/Reuse|FOR18}}{{Ref/Reuse|FOR21}}

**1 [[prowler]] - did not participate in the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV{{Ref/Reuse|FOR18}}