UNSC Home Fleet
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
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Defense of Earth and the Sol System |
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The UNSC Home Fleet is a fleet in the UNSC Navy. Their assignment is to protect Earth and the Sol system from an invasion or attack.[4]
Prior to his death, Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb was the commander of the Home Fleet.[1] Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood, the Chief of Naval Operations would inherit the role sometime after.[2][3] Following September 5, 2552, Fleet Admiral Joseph Harper would be given tasking and administrative lead over all aerospace assets in the Sol system,[5] requiring coordination between himself and Lord Hood.[6]
History[edit]
Human-Covenant War[edit]
Battle for Earth[edit]
- "So then the Covenant fleet really starts to tear into the orbital defenses. It's getting ugly up there. Major skirmishes with the Second, Seventh, and Sixteenth Fleets."
- — Sergeant Laura "Smokes" Tanner[7]
The Home Fleet's first known engagements with the conglomerate of alien races known as the Covenant were during the last stages of the Human-Covenant War in the Battle of Earth, where it successfully defeated the Fleet of Sacred Consecration directly commanded by a member of the Covenant's leadership in Earth's orbit. The engagement, however, was against a very small fleet of two assault carriers and thirteen battlecruisers. This engagement, commanded by both Fleet Admirals Hood and Harper, suffered a number of casualties as the fleet of sixty-seven frigates and eight cruisers under Harper's command attempted to hold back the enemy cruisers from reaching the orbital defense platforms.[8]
On Cairo Station, Fleet Admiral Hood was awarding MCPO John-117 and Sergeant Major Avery Johnson for their actions at Installation 04 and the subsequent Operation: FIRST STRIKE. When Cortana received a slipspace rupture report near Io, she relayed the information to FADM Hood. When the Covenant force arrived, the Home Fleet was ready and waiting. Opening up with Marathon-class cruisers and MAC shells, they decimated the Covenant fleet, but suffered heavy losses themselves. Also during the engagement, the Covenant released boarding pods to occupy and destroy the MAC platforms using antimatter charges. Stations Athens and Malta were both destroyed, but Cairo was spared destruction by John-117, who later took the bomb and destroyed one of the two assault carriers, the Day of Jubilation.[8]
At New Mombasa, the UNSC followed the surviving assault carrier, the Solemn Penance, to the surface. The UNSC In Amber Clad's ground forces, commanded by Miranda Keyes, engaged the Covenant until, in retreat, the carrier fled the battle.[9] The UNSC In Amber Clad, UNSC Paris, UNSC Redoubtable, UNSC Coral Sea and the UNSC Dusk made it into the slipspace rift before it closed.
Shortly after the Battle of Mombasa, the full-scale assault on Earth has been launched; numerous Covenant fleets began to arrive in the following days and weeks, spreading all across the planet and targeting many areas and cities. Simultaneously, the rest of the Sol system, including colonies, were attacked. Despite the colossal battle, most of well-organized Jiralhanae forces (under the command of the Prophet of Truth) remained preoccupied for the excavation effort of the Forerunner portal in the East Africa.[6] By November 3, three expeditionary fleets of the Home Fleet: the Second, Seventh and Sixteenth Fleets had participated in major skirmishes against dozens of Covenant warships as the enemy fleet was scattering the orbital defense grid.[7] Concurrently, the Great Schism began with the Sangheili and Jiralhanae now turning to each other,[10] with many Sangheili and their loyal forces joining Thel 'Vadam's faction and allying with the UNSC forces.