Editing Flotilla of Unsung Piety

{{Status|Canon}}
{{Military infobox
|name=Flotilla of Unsung Piety
|image=
|formed=[[2526]]
|affiliation=[[Nizat 'Kvarosee]]
|branch=
|type=Mutineer flotilla
|role=
|size=10 ships{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB5|Oblv|Chapter=5}}
|nicknames=
|battles=[[Battle of Netherop]]
|commanders=[[Fleetmaster]] [[Nizat 'Kvarosee]]
}}
The '''Flotilla of Unsung Piety''' are an organisation of originally-[[Covenant]] stealth [[Covenant starship|spacecraft]]. In mid-[[2526]], they were stolen by the exiled ex-[[Fleetmaster]] of the [[Fleet of Inexorable Obedience]], [[Nizat 'Kvarosee]], to avoid punishment for his failures during the [[Battle of Zhoist]].{{Ref/Book|Id=Enc22|Enc22|Page=252|Detail=Nizat's bio notes that he "stole the Flotilla of Unsung Piety"}} During the [[Battle of Netherop]], the flotilla was mostly destroyed in combat with the [[Covenant]]'s [[Fleet of Swift Justice]] and the [[UNSC Navy]]'s [[Task Force Pantea]]; however, two vessels - ''[[Quiet Faith]]'' and ''[[Silent Truth]]'' - were able to survive and escape the reach of the Covenant's retribution.{{Ref/Reuse|OB21}}

==History==
===Formation===
In early [[2526]], the [[Covenant colonies|reliquary world]] of [[Zhoist]] came [[Battle of Zhoist|under attack]] by [[Task Force Yama]] of the [[United Nations Space Command]]. During the battle, two of the [[Ten Cities of Edification]] on the planet's surface alongside the [[Ring of Mighty Abundance]] and the under-construction supercarrier ''[[Hammer of Faith]]'' were lost, along with several warships of the [[Fleet of Inexorable Obedience]]. As such, Fleetmaster Nizat 'Kvarosee was recalled to [[High Charity]] to formally meet with the [[Hierarchs]] and to meet his punishment for such a great failure. Arriving at the [[Sanctum of the Hierarchs]] with his [[steward]] [[Tam 'Lakosee]] and nine other guards - the majority of whom [[shipmaster]]s of the fleet whom had volunteered to serve as Nizat's bodyguard - he presented the Hierarchs with seven shards of glass encased in boxes fashioned from the native stone of a different planet. These were intended for addition to the [[Shard Chamber]], to display a shard of glass from each of the worlds [[Glassing|glassed]] by the fleetmaster in his crusade. The eighth box held a [[Luminal Beacon]] - a [[Forerunner]] quantum entanglement communications device and one of two entrusted to Nizat when he and his fleet set out on the conquest of humanity (the other having been lost when the warship ''[[Almighty Persuasion]]'' was destroyed over Zhoist).{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}}

Ultimately, Nizat failed in his primary goal; having resigned to his fate of an inevitable assassination by the [[Silent Shadow]], he intended to at least ensure that his honour could be restored by conferring his experiences fighting against the [[SPARTAN-II program|SPARTAN-IIs]] and the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] to future Covenant fleetmasters, as not to repeat his mistakes. He offered a hypothetical plan for the Hierarchs' consideration, that could allow the Covenant to find and destroy ONI; to hide the Luminal Beacons inside a nondescript piece of Covenant technology and allow ONI to take it back to their primary headquarters - then use the beacons to locate the facility and destroy it. However, the news that one such beacon had been destroyed caused the Hierarchs to deny Nizat's request and instead order him to return to the remaining beacon to the [[Beacon Keeper's Vault]], and then to his [[Covenant carrier#Assault carriers|assault carrier]] ''[[Pious Rampage]]'' for "reassignment" at the hands of the Silent Shadow. Once arrived at the Vault, Nizat instead made the decision to grab Tam 'Lakosee's [[Energy sword (fiction)|energy sword]] and kill the [[Covenant Honor Guard|Honor Guard]] [[blademaster]] that had escorted the group, before dispatching the remaining two Honor Guards posted by the vault's entrance.{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}}

'Kvarosee's escort then hid the bodies of the guards before moving into the vault - rousing the [[Beacon Keeper]] from his sleep and forcing him to open the coffers where the final remaining beacon and its reception units were housed. While Nizat originally ordered the Beacon Keeper to be bound and thrown inside one of the lockers to keep from sounding the alarm, [[Yey 'Mootasee]] instead pointed out that the vault was a mystery to them and the Beacon Keeper could have some other way of sounding the alarm. As such, all ten Sangheili plunged their energy swords into the Beacon Keeper in unison, sealing all of their commitment to Nizat's mission; to find and destroy ONI, and restore their lost honour. In this regard, Nizat viewed his followers as disciples.{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}} After this, Nizat and his shipmasters stole the Flotilla of Unsung Piety{{Ref/Reuse|Enc22}} - ten [[intrusion corvette]] stealth vessels and the [[Covenant frigate|frigate]] ''[[Steadfast Strike]]'' - and headed for [[Netherop]]; a barren world so-chosen by 'Kvarosee due to his belief that the UNSC would not deign to send Spartans to such a world.{{Ref/Reuse|OB11}}

===Enacting the plan===
To enact their plan to destroy the Office of Naval Intelligence, Nizat intended to use a suitably impressive target to draw their eye - namely the frigate ''Steadfast Strike''. At 21:00 hours on June 3, ''Steadfast Strike'' engaged with the [[UNSC destroyer]] wolf-pack [[Task Force Pantea]], consisting of five {{Class|Halberd|light destroyer}}s. During the engagement, the frigate was "downed" by the destroyers - in actuality a deliberate act{{Ref/Reuse|OB11}} - and crash-landed on Netherop.{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB4|Oblv|Chapter=4}} The humans would be allowed to board the frigate wreck and find the Luminal Beacons planted inside an [[Energy shielding|energy shield]] emitter and a [[Anti-gravity belt|anti-gravity harness]] used by the [[Yanme'e]]. The flotilla's [[Sangheili Ranger|Fleet Rangers]] would then deploy to the frigate to drive off the humans with their captures, before the frigate self-destructed to reinforce the ruse and also prevent it from being captured in a second attack.{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}}{{Ref/Reuse|OB11}} As such, despite all appearances, the frigate was still mostly-operational, and capable of launching back into space if needed.{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB14|Oblv|Chapter=14}} 

The flotilla then lay in wait and observed as the ONI salvage ship {{UNSCShip|Phyllis Wheatley}} arrived at Netherop and dispatched its [[S-14 Baselard]] fighter complement to begin conducting reconnaissance around Netherop's moons. Shortly thereafter, the intrusion corvette ''[[Divine Whisper]]'' began to track the sudden appearance of a UNSC [[D75/r Pelican]] dropship - though could not ascertain where it had been deployed from - indicating the presence of an ONI [[prowler]]. Fearing that the dropship may house a team of Spartans and thus pose an actual risk of capturing ''Steadfast Strike'', Nizat ordered the firing of a [[Guarding Spear]] on the Pelican, resulting in its destruction and alerting {{UNSCShip|Night Watch}} to the flotilla's presence.{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}}{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB6|Oblv|Chapter=6}} As such, [[Lieutenant Commander]] [[Amalea Petrov]] decided to deploy Spartan [[Blue Team]] onto Netherop's surface by directly descending ''Night Watch'' into Netherop's atmosphere, attracting the presence of a few of the flotilla's [[Banshee]] [[Space fighter|fightercraft]] and resulting in their destruction - at the cost of the crash-landing of ''Night Watch'' herself.{{Ref/Reuse|OB6}}

With Nizat's plan already going awry, he began discussing alternatives with Tam 'Lakosee - with the steward suggesting a slight alternative; allow a team of [[UNSC Marine Corps|UNSC Marines]] to board ''Steadfast Strike'' and recover the Luminal Beacons while holding off the Spartans. If the Spartans made it to the ship, it can simply be self-destructed or leave before they get to it. However, this was interrupted by the confirmation of the arrival of the Covenant's [[Fleet of Swift Justice]] and their intention to hunt down the Flotilla of Unsung Piety. ''Quiet Faith'' shipmaster [[Qoo 'Weyosodee]] suggested that if the flotilla were to leave Netherop now, they could survive with most of the ships escaping. However, Nizat pointed out that Swift Justice had emerged from [[Slipstream space|slipspace]] on the opposite side of Netherop to the UNSC fleet, which had itself been gathering in numbers. Unless the flotilla acted fast, they would be caught between both the hostile Covenant and human fleets. Rather than follow 'Weyodosee's suggestion, Nizat instead decided on a less conventional plan; use a gravity assist around Netherop to bring the ships of the flotilla low over ''Steadfast Strike''; the [[repulsor engine]]s of the corvettes firing would alert the UNSC to the flotilla's presence, leading them to attack and drawing them into a combat with the Fleet of Swift Justice. Meanwhile, Nizat, Tam, and a cadre of Rangers would drop onto Netherop via [[Covenant drop pod|breaching carapace]] and begin to enact the plan discussed prior - with the flotilla emerging back into space now behind the UNSC fleet. With the Fleet of Swift Justice about to quickly eliminate the human presence in orbit, Nizat now intended to manually plant a beacon aboard UNSC ''Phyllis Wheatley'' rather than simply wait for the Spartans to find it, while leaving the other aboard ''Steadfast Strike''.{{Ref/Reuse|OB11}}

===Destruction===
While Nizat and his crew began their attack on ''Phyllis Wheatley'' on the ground, Task Force Pantea engaged with the Fleet of Swift Justice in orbit, and were eventually able to confirm to the UNSC's ground forces that the stealth corvettes of the flotilla had begun exchanging fire with the fleet in orbit.{{Ref/Novel|Oblv|Chapter=17}} Despite this, the shipmasters of the fleet remained hesitant to fight the Covenant, and awaited the orders of Fleetmaster 'Kvarosee. As his ground force, alongside ''Steadfast Strike''{{'}}s Ranger complement, began to attack the security complement from UNSC ''Phyllis Wheatley'', the Ranger [[First Blade]] [[Gri 'Waqilsee]] volunteered to be sacrificed in battle to deliver the Luminal Beacon to the Marines. His energy shield emitter would be replaced with a faulty module that would not self-destruct upon his death, allowing his body to be recovered and the Luminal Beacon discovered on his corpse.{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB18|Oblv|Chapter=18}}

As the flotilla continued to battle in space over Netherop, the fleet was gradually whittled down. Eventually, an {{Pattern|N'weo|Gigas}} fighter-bomber was deployed from the Fleet of Swift Justice to bomb ''Steadfast Strike'' and destroy the frigate while a Silent Shadow contingent continued the battle on the ground against the UNSC resistance. Following this, a trio of [[Covenant Honor Guard]]smen were deployed onto Netherop's surface to personally interrogate and execute Nizat, with the [[Helios Ultra]] leading the trio initially hesitant to do Nizat the honour of even informing him of the flotilla's status. However, Nizat lied and claimed that the Luminal Beacons' receivers were aboard two vessels in the flotilla - meaning the Ultra would be forced to inform him of the flotilla's status to have any chance of recovering them. As such, the Ultra revealed that that ''[[Silent Truth]]'' and ''Quiet Faith'' had escaped the carnage, though would soon be hunted down by the Covenant. Having in actuality hidden the beacon receivers aboard ''Quiet Faith'', Nizat then informed the Ultra that he had in fact hidden the receivers aboard ''[[Still Devotion]]'' and ''[[Worthy Silence]]'' - one of the vessels destroyed in orbit and one vessel destroyed during the [[Battle of Seoba]] earlier that year.{{Ref/Reuse|SS15}} If the Covenant believed the beacons were lost, then shipmaster 'Weyodosee may have a slight chance of finishing the Flotilla's mission and restoring Nizat's honour.{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB21|Oblv|Chapter=21}}

With this lie unveiled, the Ultra elected not to simply execute Nizat - believing that his failures were too great for such a quick death. Instead, the Honour Guardsmen stripped Nizat of his [[Sangheili harness|armour]] and then marooned him on Netherop alongside Tam 'Lakosee and a few other survivors of the battle - Silent Shadow and deserter alike. These troops would eventually band together for survival against the ragtag human outcasts also stranded on the planet commanded by [[Lieutenant Commander]] [[Amalea Petrov]] - later coming to find the [[Sanctum of the Ancients]] and branding themselves as the [[Defenders of the Sanctum]] for the ensuing war over the next thirty years.{{Ref/Novel|Id=Out9|HOut|Chapter=9}}

It was left unclear what happened to the remaining ships of the flotilla or their mission to destroy ONI, although ONI still existed by [[2559#November|November 2559]] when the UNSC and the [[Swords of Sanghelios]] returned to Netherop in search of the [[Precursor]] weapon that was being guarded by the Defenders of the Sanctum. The [[Battle of Netherop (2559)|subsequent battle]] led to the complete destruction of the Defenders of the Sanctum, aside from a Silent Shadow member who surrendered to [[Thel 'Vadam]].{{Ref/Novel|Out}}

==Composition==
===Ships===
At the outset of the fleet's mission on Netherop, it was composed of ten [[intrusion corvette]]s; a type of [[Covenant starship]] designed for stealth operations,{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}} alongside the frigate ''[[Steadfast Strike]]'' - which was used as the bait to tempt ONI into action on Netherop.{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}}{{Ref/Reuse|OB18}} The fleet also had within it a number of [[Banshee]] fighters for air support,{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB7|Oblv|Chapter=7}} and some [[Wasal]] surveillance craft.{{Ref/Novel|Id=OB11|Oblv|Chapter=11}}

By the end of the battle on Netherop, all but two intrusion corvettes were destroyed; ''Quiet Faith'' and ''Silent Truth'' had successfully escaped the Fleet of Swift Justice.{{Ref/Reuse|OB21}}
;List of named ships in the flotilla
*[[Intrusion corvette]]s
**''[[Quiet Faith]]'' - [[flagship]] of the flotilla; commanded by [[Shipmaster]] [[Qoo 'Weyodosee]]{{Ref/Reuse|OB11}}
**''[[Divine Whisper]]'' - commanded by Shipmaster [[Yey 'Mootasee]]{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}}
**''[[Silent Truth]]''{{Ref/Reuse|OB21}}
**''[[Still Devotion]]''{{Ref/Reuse|OB21}}

At the conclusion of the engagement on Netherop, Fleetmaster 'Kvarosee claimed that one of the Luminal Beacons had been housed aboard the corvette ''[[Worthy Silence]]''.{{Ref/Reuse|OB21}} However, this corvette was in actuality destroyed in the [[Battle of Seoba]] earlier that year.{{Ref/Novel|Id=SS15|HSS|Chapter=15}}

*[[Covenant frigate]]
**''[[Steadfast Strike]]'' - commanded by Shipmaster [[Ob 'Nathisee]]{{Ref/Reuse|OB18}}

===Personnel===
Despite its small size, the Flotilla of Unsung Piety nonetheless numbered over 3,000 crew strong - so much so that Nizat 'Kvarosee was unable to keep track of the names of all of the troops under his command.{{Ref/Reuse|OB18}} The founding members of the fleet consisted of Nizat himself, alongside his steward Tam 'Lakosee, and eight other loyal shipmasters from the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience.{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}} Due to the quick nature of the mission, 'Kvarosee had been unable to secure the allegiance of a [[kaidon]] - as such, he felt that the warriors he commanded were less loyal to him as a mere Fleetmaster than they would have been to their own kaidons.{{Ref/Reuse|OB18}}
;Named personnel of the flotilla
*[[Fleetmaster]] [[Nizat 'Kvarosee]]
*[[Steward]] [[Tam 'Lakosee]]
*[[Qoo 'Weyodosee]] - [[shipmaster]] of ''[[Quiet Faith]]''{{Ref/Reuse|OB11}}
*[[Yey 'Mootasee]] - shipmaster of ''[[Divine Whisper]]''{{Ref/Reuse|OB5}}
*[[Ob 'Nathisee]] - shipmaster of ''Steadfast Strike''{{Ref/Reuse|OB18}}
*[[First Blade]] Fleet Ranger [[Gri 'Waqilsee]]{{Ref/Reuse|OB18}}

==List of appearances==
*''[[Halo: Oblivion]]'' {{1st}}
*''[[Halo: Outcasts]]'' {{Mo}}

==Sources==
{{Ref/Sources}}
{{Covenant Fleet Units}}
[[Category:Factions]]
[[Category:Covenant fleets]]