UNSC Phyllis Wheatley
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| Phyllis Wheatley | |||||||||||
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Unified Earth Government | ||||||||||
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Phyllis Wheatley | ||||||||||
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Scuttled during the Battle of Netherop[1] | ||||||||||
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UNSC Phyllis Wheatley was a salvage ship operated by Section Three of the Office of Naval Intelligence in the early years of the Human-Covenant War.[6] In 2526, it was deployed to Netherop to assist Blue Team in the recovery of the downed Covenant frigate Steadfast Strike, though was ultimately scuttled in the battle.
Overview[edit]
Design details[edit]
The Wheatley resembles a large horsehoe in form, capable of landing on a planetary surface with the arch at the top, akin to a "∩" shape. The inner sides of the arch are lines with fifty large claws which can extend inward, allowing the vessel to grab onto any spacecraft with an overall beam of 400 meters (1,300 ft) or less. The top of the arch-shaped hull is lined with several bands of viewing ports that indicate the position of the interior habitation modules and the ship's bridge.[4] The "legs" of the ship rest atop struts as large as main battle tanks, with ten[3] fusion drive nozzles situated between the struts large enough to cover a 160 meters (525 ft) long Razor-class prowler.
The gargantuan ship was considered by the Covenant to be in the middle range of human direct-lift transports; the largest observed by Fleetmaster Nizat 'Kvarosee during his tenure as an officer in the Covenant military had only six fusion drives, used to carry out mass evacuations on worlds under attack.[3] This massive excess of thrust-mass ratio is due to the ship's intended function: descend into a planetary atmosphere and use its claws to grab onto crashed spacecraft (or other similarly-large object), before once again ascending back into space - making the slipspace transit back to its home base once clear of the planet's gravity well.[4]
Armaments[edit]
Despite being a noncombat salvage ship, the Wheatley is armed for self-defence with a loadout of unspecified missile pods and 50mm, high-explosive magnetic linear acceleration point-defense guns.[4] There are twelve point-defense turrets in total,[7] with six lining each side.[4]
Crew and complement[edit]
The Wheatley has at least fifty crew.[8] The ship stocks an air wing of two Pelican dropships and twelve S-14 Baselard strike fighters for additional defense.[5] Only twenty-eight crewmembers survived the Battle of Netherop which was a seventy percent casualty rate.[9]
Service history[edit]
The UNSC Phyllis Wheatley was selected for service during the Human-Covenant War, following the chance downing of the Covenant frigate Steadfast Strike over Netherop. While selected by ONI Section Three for the task, the ship's security complement were not considered to have the expertise or equipment necessary to clear the frigate of its defenders - leading to SPARTAN-II Blue Team being recalled from the Battle of Mesra for the task.[6] The ship arrived in the Ephyra system on June 7, 2526, and was noticed by the intrusion corvettes of the Flotilla of Unsung Piety launching its twelve Baselard fighters to begin inspecting the moons and Lagrange points of Netherop for potentially hostile forces.[3] This was accompanied by the arrival of the Razor-class prowler UNSC Night Watch, who launched a Pelican dropship onto Netherop following Wheatley's successful insertion into the atmosphere. Unlike Wheatley, the Pelican was shot down by one of the intrusion corvettes, confirming to the prowler crew that the salvage ship had been permitted to enter the planet's atmosphere by their then-unknown attackers.[10]
Captain Dkani sent a transmission warning all other UNSC forces that the ship was facing an imminent attack from one to two hundred Covenant with support vehicles and heavy weapons. However, Task Force Pantea revealed the approach of eight intrusion corvettes and a full Covenant fleet. John-117 informed Dkani that Blue Team would be there in thirty to forty minutes to help, but Dkani informed him that forty minutes would be too late and if the enemy crossed the canyon, he would have no choice but to scuttle the ship as Dkani didn't have the personnel to defend it. John also informed him about the Castoffs and their mountain runners. Dkani warned the Spartan that he was going to leave the Wheatley booby-trapped if he was forced to abandon ship.[2]
The Wheatley crew were forced to abandon ship, fleeing in eight Warthogs and on foot, chased by enemy forces. The crew lost a number of personnel and six Warthogs with the injured riding in the remaining two vehicles. However, Dkani's crew managed to inflict heavy casualties in the process[7] and the Covenant lost half of their forces to the UNSC counterattack and the planet's heat.[11] Nizat 'Kvarosee's intent had been to plant two Luminal Beacons aboard the ship for his plan to destroy ONI, but he realized that the ship was likely booby-trapped and shifted tactics.[7] When John, Fred-104 and Linda-058 arrived, it was to find the Wheatley abandoned with the Castoffs fighting six Sangheili who were armed with plasma cannons. Taking advantage of the skirmish, the Spartans finished off the Covenant forces and stopped the Castoffs in their attempt to claim the Wheatley for themselves.[4] After they left to try to capture the Steadfast Strike, an Umbra