UNSC The Heart of Midlothian

Halberd-class
Ship history
	Unified Earth Government
Name:	The Heart of Midlothian
Class:	Halberd-class light destroyer
Namesake:	Heart of Midlothian F.C.
Identification:	Hull classification symbol: DD-366
Operator:	UNSC Navy
Manufacturer:	SinoViet Heavy Machinery
Fate:	Self-destructed per the Cole Protocol, 2548
Artificial intelligence(s):	Mo Ye
General characteristics Type: Destroyer Length: 485 meters (1,590 ft) Mass: 1.8 million metric tons Power plant: Fusion reactor Maneuver drive: Four primary fusion drives Four secondary fusion drives Slipspace drive: Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine Crew: 250 sailors Complement: 2 F-29 Nandao squadrons (optional) 2 Pelican dropships Troops: 50 Marines (optional) Hull: 2 metres (6.6 ft) Titanium-A armor Sensors: Mk. 45 long-range fire director Armaments: 1 14B11R2 MAC battery Twin-linked 1170mm/647mm (46"/25.5") high-velocity coilguns 26 M58 Archer missile pods 4 M870 Rampart point defense guns 3 Shiva-class nuclear missiles Air facilities: 1 hangar bay fitted with a gravitic/electromagnetic catapult launch/recovery system

UNSC The Heart of Midlothian (hull classification symbol: DD-366) was a Halberd-class light destroyer used by the Navy of the United Nations Space Command. It served in the Human-Covenant War until its destruction shortly following the Algolis Invasion in 2549.

Service history

Human-Covenant War

Main article: Human-Covenant War

In 2549, Heart of Midlothian was deployed alone to the Algol system to assist in the defence of Algolis from the Covenant. The ship's deployment was rushed due to reports from civilians evacuating the colony, and as such the UNSC had very little intelligence to work with on what to expect on the planet.

Upon arriving in the system the ship was intended to conduct a slingshot around the gravity well of a gas giant in the system, placing it on a trajectory to intercept Algolis, where it was to deploy a force of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and link up with a frigate to assist in evacuation of the colony. After evacuation and destruction of prototype weapon systems, the two vessels would then leave orbit and escape before a large Covenant fleet could arrive. However, the ship never made it to Algolis, and was intercepted by a Covenant fleet upon emerging from slipspace, including several never-before seen ships. The Covenant seemingly-knew where Midlothian was set to emerge from slipspace and ambushed the destroyer as soon as it reentered realspace, having placed themselves inside the minimum effective range of its weapons and inflicting over 200 breaches on the hull before the ship's AI Mo Ye could respond. After this, the Covenant launched a wave of R'sisho-pattern Tick boarding craft to board the ship and capture data from its navigation computer.

At the time Midlothian entered slipspace to Algolis, one of the ODSTs aboard - Sergeant Michael Baird - was undergoing a routine surgery that left him unconscious due to anesthesia. As such he was the only survivor of the Covenant attack as the aliens believed the unconscious Baird to be dead. He was later woken 23 hours after initially going under for surgery, where he proceeded to fight his way to the bridge. The Covenant force which boarded the ship, apparently a special operations group of some kind, had used a Huragok to lock Mo Ye out of the systems and as such, she was unable to enact the Cole Protocol. Once at the bridge,