Editing United Nations Space Command (section)

==History==
{{UNSC History}}
===Origins===
{{Main|Jovian Moons Campaign|Rain Forest Wars}}
By [[2160]], two dissident movements had formed in opposition to the [[United Nations]] and the [[national government]]s of Earth across the Solar system; the [[Koslovics]] and the [[Frieden]]s.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}} Despite empowering the United Nations to stem violence from these two new blocs, it only exacerbated it leading to the Jovian Moons Campaign and eventually the dreadful siege known as the Rainforest Wars.{{Ref/Book|Id=enc22pg21|Enc22|Page=21}} In response to this,{{Ref/Reuse|enc22pg21}} the United Nations would in [[2163]] commission the creation of a military force primarily composed of naval and marine forces.{{Ref/Reuse|waypointuniunsc}} These marine forces would be composed of the spaceborne forces of several nations.{{Ref/Reuse|Enc22Marines}} Overall, it was to be a powerful military arm to defend Earth and her colonies called the United Nations Space Command.{{Ref/Reuse|enc22pg21}} 

===Mars Campaign===
{{Main|Mars Campaign}}
In the most spectacular offensive since the start of the bloody tripartite war, UN command adopted a military strategy long-forgotten throughout the peace-dominated period prior to the outbreak of the Jovian Moons Campaign in 2160 - the "Blitzkrieg"-style lightning ground assault. After capturing both Frieden and Koslovic forces on Mars, the UN delivered the first space-deployed contingent of the newly-established [[UNSC Marine Corps|Marines]] in December of [[2163]] on a mission to crush communist infantry encampments in the basin of [[Argyre Planitia]], marking a turning-point in space warfare through dedicated deployments of Marine forces in ground assaults and ship-[[Naval boarding|boarding]] operations that would follow during the war.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

The offensive was an incontestable success for the UN side. As a result, military theory and strategy implemented the use of Marines in high-priority missions as a baseline for successful operations, especially within the context of larger conflicts.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

However, the most important consequence of the anti-totalitarian campaign was of both political and military nature. The United Nations itself did not control a dedicated space military prior to the Mars Campaign, a lacking element which it would replace with a special emergency military force that would come to represent humanity's overall military might. In the wake of the success of the UNSC Marines on Mars, the UN used its growing influence to not only take control of Earth's national governments, but also absorb Earth's national military organizations into a single, organized force; the United Nations Space Command was created.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

[[File:HINF - Emblem icon - Eddy the Eagle.png|120px|thumb|left|"Eddy the Eagle", the UNSC logo at the time of the Interplanetary War.{{Ref/Game|HINF|[[:File:HINF - Emblem icon - Eddy the Eagle.png|Eddy the Eagle emblem description]]}}]]
===Interplanetary War===
{{Main|Interplanetary War}}
As of [[2164]], psychological results of the campaign on Mars were formidable; civilian trust in the newly-formed UNSC military was boosted by massive televised propaganda, providing the UNSC with large waves of enthusiastic volunteers from all military services around the world. A sense of urgency, courage and hope helped UN forces scramble extraordinary divisions of Marines, infantry and fliers for a final campaign to annihilate remaining communist and fascist outposts and strongholds on Earth as well as throughout the inner planets and beyond Jupiter. The final campaign for peace lasted from 2164 to [[2170]] in a series of brutal crackdowns on Frieden and Koslovic hardliners. The result of this war gathered strong civilian support for some sort of powerful international military that could repel revolts and uprisings wherever they may occur. The UNSC emerged as the leading force to further those goals.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

Coincidentally, the war formally ended where it had begun: in the Jovian Moons. The [[Callisto Treaty]] was signed in 2170 by commanders of Koslovic and Frieden forces in the presence of [[United Nations colonial advisers|UN colonial authorities]], definitively ending the 10-year-long conflict with a victory of UNSC forces and democratic leadership.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

[[2170]] saw the creation of the first multinational and multicolonial representation of democracy in outer space. Faced with concerns of overpopulation and starvation on Earth, consequently coupled with a looming destabilization of capitalist economy, the [[Unified Earth Government]]—up until then lacking concrete power—was formed into a full-fledged governing body in a time of cultural and military reconstruction.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

The brutal ten-year-long war put the spotlight on problems facing the overpopulated Earth, and the Rainforest Wars also exacerbated issues relating to food distribution; this, along with the UN overmilitarization that occurred during the war, presented immediate problems for the postwar United Nations Space Command. The ensuing famine and societal problems related to the postwar population boom provided the spark to change the political nature of governance on Earth and elsewhere, leading to widespread political reform.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

===The Colonial Era===
{{Main|Domus Diaspora|Human colonies|Inner Colonies|Outer Colonies}}
[[File:HM-DomusD 1.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[colony ship]] readying for departure during the ''Domus Diaspora''.]]
The pressures engendered by the Interplanetary War made space colonization seem more attractive in subsequent centuries, and the Unified Earth Government would sign off on the first large-scale interstellar colony ship program that was revealed in [[2310]] to ease the burden of an overpopulated Earth. This would not have been possible without the invention of the [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]] in [[2291]], which allowed the ships to travel vast distances within a reasonable time by opening portals into [[Slipstream space]].{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}} At the same time, the UEG established a separate colonial governing body known as the [[Colonial Administration Authority]] as well as the [[Colonial Military Authority]], a dedicated military force to police the colonies.{{Ref/Book|H4EVG|Page=228}}

In [[2362]], the first colony ship, the ''[[Odyssey]]'', was launched, beginning the period of human history later known as the ''[[Domus Diaspora]]''.{{Ref/Book|HM|Page=52}} This initial colonization effort was concentrated in the [[Epsilon Eridani system]], which would later become one of the centers of humanity's interstellar empire.{{Ref/Book|Id=Enc11p42|Enc11|Page=42}} Vast numbers of citizens and soldiers elected to travel to these new colonies, stabilizing the overpopulation problem on Earth and giving the military new tasks to handle. As the first colonists are stringently selected, the Inner Colonies eventually formed an elite society of the best physical and mental human specimens. A core ring of 210 Inner Colonies were not fully developed until the end of the 24th century.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

The apex of this colonization movement would come in [[2492]] when more then 800 worlds were inside UNSC territory, many of them targeted for human habitation. These settlements ranged from fairly well-tamed planetary strongholds to tiny hinterland settlements. During this period, the planet [[Reach]] (orbiting Epsilon Eridani, right on Earth's metaphorical doorstep) became the UNSC's primary naval yard and training academy. Reach was a major producer of warships and colony vessels, as well as a training ground for covert operatives and [[UNSC Special Forces|Special Forces]].{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

Over the course of humanity's interstellar expansion, a number of alien artifacts were discovered; while unknown at the time, these were the works of a long-vanished civilization known as the [[Forerunner]]s. However, virtually all of these findings were discreetly concealed by the UNSC's [[Office of Naval Intelligence]], which exerted virtually complete control over the research and information flow about [[xenoarchaeology|xenoarchaeological]] discoveries. A noted example of this is [[Onyx]], originally surveyed as an ideal world for human settlement but declared off-limits by ONI due to the alien technology discovered there.{{Ref/Reuse|Enc11p42}}

[[File:H4FUD UNSCTodayTomorrowForever.jpg|left|130px|thumb|An Insurrection-era UNSC propaganda poster on display at the Corbulo Academy of Military Science.]]
===The Insurrection===
{{Main|Insurrection}}
By the final decade of the 25th century, a chain of [[Outer Colonies]] was providing the UEG with valuable raw materials; the political power, however, remained with the aforementioned Inner Colonies. These differences in wealth distribution and political power, led to new threats of secession from the outer territories. Over time, ideological and political causes resulted in many of the Outer Colonies engaging in open rebellion. A [[Insurrection|series of brushfire wars]] across human space sprang up, with hundreds more threatening to erupt as well. By [[2511]], UNSC estimates, largely based upon [[Carver Findings|the projections]] of [[Elias Carver|Dr. Elias Carver]], put massive, overwhelming, and uncontrollable rebellion at less than twenty years away.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

Military conflicts began disrupting UNSC authority in the [[Outer Colonies]] where several uprisings among working-class agriculturalists and other social classes grew unhappy with the UNSC's largely inconsiderate governance. This unrest gave rise to the [[Insurrectionist]] movement, a loose collection of violent colonial separatists with the shared goal of liberating the Outer Colonies from the Unified Earth Government's influence.
{{Clear}}
====Spartans====
{{Main|Spartan}}
[[File:HW-Red Team.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Spartan-II [[Red Team]] in MJOLNIR armor.]]
Fearing the consequences of the possible breakup of their fledgling interstellar empire, while wishing to preserve as much infrastructure as possible, the United Earth Government would embark on a series of covert efforts to quickly and quietly deal with insurrections without incurring massive civilian casualties.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

Before the UNSC expanded its forays into [[biological augmentation]] to create successful Special Forces programs in the 26th century, the [[Colonial Military Authority]] experimented with a prototype Special Forces project in the 24th century that tested the effects of bioaugmentations on [[UNSC Marine Corps|Marine Corps]] and [[UNSC Navy|Navy]] personnel. The experiments proved ineffective and were formally canceled as a result, marking the first attempt to create a specialized force of covert-warfare operators in response to insurgent outbursts within the domain of the Unified Earth Government.

Due to increasing risk of insurrectionist activity in the late 25th century, the UNSC's [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] conceived a project to train Special Forces soldiers in counter-insurgent and counter-revolutionary warfare. The ORION Project, retroactively termed as Spartan-I, was an [[UNSC Special Forces|Naval Special Warfare]] program, overseen by the CMA, created to train special advanced warfare squads to combat the Insurrection. They became experts in counterinsurgency operations, assassinations, raids, and eliminating high value targets—all considered black operations.{{Ref/Novel|Id=HCH|CH|Chapter=Prologue}} However, expectations for the new soldiers were not met, and the project was deactivated in 2506, and all members reassigned to other Special Operations units.{{Ref/Game|HW|HW:Timeline|Timeline}} In the coming years, ORION's methodologies would be uses as basis for a reform in the [[Orbital Drop Shock Troopers]],{{Ref/Game|HR|Data pads#Data pad 11|Data pad 11}} the most famed special operations force of the UNSC Marines.

Several years later, ONI's alarming projections on colonial instability prompted them to initiate a second generation supersoldier project which would come to be known as the [[SPARTAN-II program]]. Partly informed by the pioneering efforts of ORION with new methodologies conceived by [[Catherine Halsey|Dr. Catherine Halsey]], the new program introduced highly unethical aspects such as the covert conscription of mentally and physically gifted children who would be molded into the perfect instruments to quell insurgent leadership and thus prevent the predicted scenario of indefinite all-out war. [[SPARTAN-II augmentation procedures|Physically augmented]] and equipped with state-of-the-art [[MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor|MJOLNIR powered armor]], the Spartan-IIs would prove to be the most effective soldiers fielded by the UNSC, although not in the role they were originally intended for; the attack of the genocidal [[Covenant]] quickly saw the Spartans reallocated to combat the new enemy.{{Ref/Book|Dr. Halsey's personal journal}}

During the Covenant War, the success of the Spartan-IIs would convince the ONI leadership to use similar methodologies to create hundreds of supersoldiers in the [[SPARTAN-III program]]. Despite various refinements in their training and augmentation processes, most of the Spartan-IIIs would be less well-equipped than their predecessors for budgetary reasons, and the majority of them would ultimately perish on strategically important, high-risk deployments.{{Ref/Book|HM|Page=76}}

[[File:Halopedia Era UNSC.png|90px|thumb|left|The [[Symbols of the UNSC|UNSC Eagle, Globe, and Banner]].{{Ref/Site|D=23|M=9|Y=2020|URL=https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/cosplay-guide-the-rookie|Site=Halo Waypoint|Page=Official Cosplay Guide: The Rookie|LocalArchive=:File:H3ODST Cosplay Guide.pdf}}]]
===Human-Covenant War===
{{main|Human-Covenant War}}
[[2525]] marked the most important turning point in human history. It would mark the beginning of the great technological advancement, the unification of a divided and fractured human race, and the [[First Battle of Harvest|first contact]] between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence; the [[Covenant]]. It would also see a majority of the UNSC's colony worlds destroyed, with billions killed by orbital plasma bombardment, a technique latter known as [[glassing]]. The most important war in the history of the human race began with a disastrous first contact at the distant colony of [[Harvest]].

By this time, the UNSC overrode the UEG, and thus became the central civilian authority throughout its territory and Earth itself. Although the central government was more willing to step down given the magnitude of the crisis, the [[Colonial Administration Authority]] was far more reluctant. As a result, the UNSC stripped it of most of its power. By the middle to late stages of the war, the government of humanity could be accurately described as an "emergency military" force.{{clear}}

====First contact====
{{Main|Massacre of the Outer Colonies}}
[[File:HWG SecondBattleOfHarvest.png|thumb|250px|Admiral Cole's victory at Harvest.]]
Stemming from the chance encounter of human and Covenant forces at [[Harvest]], the first contact made between humanity and the Covenant involved the ship ''[[Minor Transgression]]'', and was less peaceful than the second contact made between the two factions. A meeting between representatives of the two factions took place on the fields of Harvest, but the attempt at diplomacy soon turned into a bloodbath. The Covenant claimed the planet for the numerous "[[Forerunner]] relics" their [[Luminary|luminaries]] had detected, and slaughtered most of the colony's population.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}} The vast majority of the Covenant remained unaware that the humans they were sworn to annihilate, were in fact the very [[Reclaimer]]s (mistranslated as "Reclamation") their ancient texts spoke of.{{Ref/Novel|CH|Chapter=16}}

On April 20, a scout ship, the CMA sent in a scout ship, the ''[[CMA Argo|Argo]]'', to investigate the cessation of communications between Harvest and the rest of the UEG's colonies. Before being destroyed by Covenant forces, it discovered that the planet had been incinerated, and its surface covered by fields of magma. Soon after, [[Battle Group 4]], consisting of the frigates [[CMA Arabia|CMA ''Arabia'']] and [[CMA Vostok|''Vostok'']] and the [[UNSC destroyer|destroyer]] [[CMA Heracles|CMA ''Heracles'']], were sent to investigate. On October 7, the battle group dropped out of Slipspace and to Harvest. In orbit around the remains of the colony world was a single alien ship which proceeded to attack the battle group, destroying them all except one. Intercepted communications identified the enemy as the Covenant, a caste-driven, theological organization made up of several alien species. The message "''Your destruction is the will of the gods...and we are their instrument''" was broadcast in perfect [[English]].{{Ref/Novel|TFoR|Chapter=21}} The war for mankind's very survival had begun. 

[[File:Covenant assault - 2.png|thumb|left|250px|The Covenant invade a population center on a human world.]]
Since the later [[Second Battle of Harvest]] in [[2526]], where an [[Battle Group X-Ray|enormous human fleet]] led by [[Vice Admiral]] [[Preston Cole]] barely won against a [[Rasus-pattern interdictor|single Covenant ship]] in a symbolic "victory", the UNSC's grip on their territories declined significantly. While the UNSC fought a formidable defensive action against the Covenant's onslaught, the Covenant's technological superiority in space overwhelmed humanity's naval defenses. Over the next 27 years, the Covenant had managed to destroy nearly all of the [[Outer Colonies]], and a portion of the [[Inner Colonies]].{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}} Recognizing that it was fighting a losing battle against a superior enemy, the UNSC adopted and enforced the [[Cole Protocol]], drafted by Admiral Cole to ensure that the Covenant never learned the location of Earth as the war continued to spread into human space.

The UNSC's military victories against the Covenant were few and far between, with Admiral Cole winning a decisive victory against the Covenant at the [[Battle of Psi Serpentis]] in [[2543]], destroying an entire enemy fleet at the cost of his own life. Behind the scenes, humanity began to extensively reverse-engineer technology recovered from both the Forerunners and the Covenant in a bid to bridge the gap between the Covenant and humanity's technological advancement. The deployment of the [[Spartan-II program|Spartan-II supersoldiers]] proved devastating to the Covenant and enabled the UNSC to stave off several major Covenant offensive operations. However, the Covenant's encroachment of human space continued largely unabated, and the ongoing war of attrition took a toll on the UNSC's offensive capability as the threat to Earth's survival drew closer.

====RED FLAG and Halo====
{{Main|Operation: RED FLAG|Fall of Reach|Battle of Installation 04}}
[[File:Autumn Arrival.png|thumb|250px|{{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} arrives at Installation 04.]]
By [[2552]] the UNSC, outnumbered and outgunned, had nonetheless managed to slow the Covenant's inexorable progress through human space. However, the situation remained dire. In desperation, [[UNSC High Command|HIGHCOM]] ordered a [[Operation: RED FLAG|high-risk operation]], sending the SPARTAN-II supersoldiers to insert into Covenant space, capture one or more high-ranking [[San'Shyuum|Prophet]], and return to UNSC space. With such valuable hostages, the UNSC would then attempt to ransom these leaders for a truce. Before the operation began, the Covenant [[Fall of Reach|found and destroyed]] the fortress world of [[Reach]], destroying a large portion of the UNSC's military forces, inadvertently stopping the operation and, seemingly, killing most of the Spartans.{{Ref/Reuse|xbox}}

A single ship, the {{UNSCShip|Pillar of Autumn}} managed to escape the planet, with one active Spartan on board; [[John-117|Master Chief John-117]]. The ship followed coordinates derived by the AI [[Cortana]] to a [[Forerunner]] ringworld known as [[Halo Array|Halo]] [[Installation 04]]. There, John-117 encountered a parasitic lifeform known as the [[Flood]], which Halo had been built to eliminate by destroying all life in the galaxy. John-117 destroyed the ring before it could be fired by detonating the [[Fusion drive|reactors]] of the ''Pillar of Autumn''. After hijacking a [[Ascendant Justice|Covenant flagship]], the Spartan reunited with the survivors from Installation 04 and the destruction of Reach. This small band of soldiers attacked a force of Covenant ships in [[Operation: FIRST STRIKE]], one of the most successful UNSC operations against the Covenant in the entire war.

====Final months====
{{Main|Battle of Earth|Battle of Installation 05|Battle of Installation 00}}
[[File:H2A - BattleofEarth.png|thumb|left|250px|The [[UNSC Home Fleet]] engages the Covenant over Earth.]]
Starting [[2552#September|September 5, 2552]], all remaining naval assets were recalled to Earth and amalgamated into a single command grouping under the [[UNSC Home Fleet|Home Fleet]] in preparation for an impending Covenant invasion.{{Ref/Generic|Id=NRA|Heading=[[Halo Legendary Crate]]|Subheading=[[Halo Legendary Crate/Data Drops|Data Drop #2]]|Detail=[[:File:LC 002 Doc 3.jpg|Naval Records Archives]]}}

By [[2552#October|October of 2552]], an estimated twenty-three billion civilians were killed since the dawn of the Human-Covenant War,{{Ref/Anthology|Evo|Story=Palace Hotel}} and the Covenant haphazardly discovered the position of the human homeworld, Earth, and sent a [[Fleet of Sacred Consecration|preliminary task force]] there, believing it to be the location of the [[Installation 00|Ark]], an ancient Forerunner relic. They encountered staunch resistance, and were initially fended off as soon as more Covenant reinforcements continued to arrive in-system days and weeks after the [[Battle of Mombasa|initial invasion]].{{Ref/Film|Id=Oct20|Film=Halo Waypoint|Story=Ten Twenty|StoryLinkText=Ten Twenty}}{{Ref/Reuse|H2M}}{{Ref/Generic|Id=FTH|Heading=[[Halo Legendary Crate]]|Subheading=[[Halo Legendary Crate/Data Drops|Data Drop #2]]|Detail=[[:File:LC 002 Doc 1.jpg|First Twelve Hours]]}} Further complications arose from the political and religious crisis that emerged in the wake of a UNSC operation to [[Assassination of the Prophet of Regret|assassinate]] the [[Prophet of Regret]], and the [[Changing of the Guard|secession]] of the [[Sangheili]] from the hegemony, leading to the [[Great Schism]].{{Ref/Level|Id=deltahalo|H2|H2:Delta Halo|Delta Halo}}{{Ref/Reuse|gravemind}} Overnight, the Covenant was thrown into chaos.{{Ref/Level|Id=gravemind|H2|H2:Gravemind|Gravemind}} Nevertheless, by November, the forces loyal to the [[Prophet of Truth]] had already subjugated large parts of Africa since its arrival shortly after Regret's departure from Earth by attempting to excavate a long-buried [[Excession|large Forerunner structure]].{{Ref/Level|Id=H3RCoast|ODST|H3ODST:Coastal Highway|Coastal Highway}} Later, Truth took the majority of remaining Covenant loyalist fleets with him after he departed aboard the Forerunner [[keyship]] ''[[Anodyne Spirit]]'' for Earth.{{Ref/Novel|BC|Quote=He has taken what is left of the Covenant fleets and is heading for the human world, Earth. He is seeking the Ark.|Quotee=[[G'torik 'Klemmee]]}} Upon their arrival in the [[Sol system]], the final Covenant fleets devastated much of the planet, mostly via [[orbital bombardment]], after routing the numerically-inferior [[UNSC Home Fleet|Home Fleet]] on November 17.{{Ref/Level|Id=Truthfleet|H3|H3:Crow's Nest|Crow's Nest|Quote=The Prophet of Truth's ships breached the Lunar perimeter. Smashed what was left of the Home Fleet. Terrestrial casualties from the subsequent bombardment were… extreme.}} Only the [[Battle Group Victory|offensive]] led by [[Commander]] [[Miranda Keyes]] through the [[Excession|Forerunner portal]] uncovered in [[Africa]], and the help of the [[Sangheili]] [[Fleet of Retribution|fleet]] prevented the eventual destruction of the UNSC and Earth itself.{{Ref/Level|Id=TheCovenant|H3|H3:The Covenant|The Covenant}}

The UNSC and [[Fleet of Retribution|their Sangheili allies]] launched a joint operation to destroy the Covenant once and for all at the Ark. Fighting against a [[Truth's fleet|massive Covenant fleet]] (3:1 numerical superiority in space), and even greater forces garrisoned on the Ark, the allies were able to stop Truth from firing the Halo Array.{{Ref/Level|Id=TheArk|H3|H3:The Ark|The Covenant}} In addition, the Sangheili known as [[Thel 'Vadam|the Arbiter]] killed Truth, the Covenant's last remaining leader, while SPARTAN-117, leading the ground effort to destroy the Covenant's remaining forces, deactivated the Halo Array before the Halo installations could be fired.{{Ref/Reuse|TheCovenant}} On March 3, [[2553]], the Human-Covenant War officially ended in a victory for the UNSC and the Sangheili, but at a high price.{{Ref/Level|Id=halo3epilogue|H3|H3:Epilogue|Epilogue}} Most major military outposts, along with countless colonies had been destroyed. Earth, despite the loss of billions to orbital bombardment,{{Ref/Reuse|Id=Truthfleet}} remained battered but standing. 
{{Clear}}

[[File:UNSC insignia (post-war).png|90px|thumb|Following the war, UNSC branding was reworked. The new logo is bold, strong, and ascendant.<ref name="new symbol">[http://halo.xbox.com/blogs/Headlines/post/