UNSC Home Fleet

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. Its Commanding Officers are Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood and Fleet Admiral Harper.

History
The UNSC Home Fleet's known history is short but distinguished. It is likely that the UNSC Home Fleet existed ever since the formation of the UNSC in the 2160s; most likely for the defense of Earth during the Interplanetary War, and also against the Insurrectionists.

Battle of Earth
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 a fleet 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 cruisers. This engagement, commanded by both Fleet Admirals Hood and Harper, suffered a number of casualties as the sixty-seven Frigates and eight Cruisers under Harper's command attempted to hold back the enemy cruisers from reaching the Orbital Defense Platforms. ODPs were an important asset in the Fall of Reach which proved themselves to be valuable in the battle, though were destroyed when the Covenant delivered a final push on the colony's defenses.

On Cairo Station, Fleet Admiral Hood was awarding Master Chief John-117 and Sergeant Major Avery Johnson for their actions at Installation 04 and the subsequent Operation: FIRST STRIKE mission. When AI 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 bombs. Stations Athens and Malta were both destroyed, but Cairo was spared destruction by SPARTAN-117, who later took the bomb and destroyed one of the two Assault Carriers.

At New Mombasa, the UNSC followed the surviving Assault Carrier to the city. The only known ship in this engagement was the ; commanded by Miranda Keyes. The In Amber Clad's ground forces engaged the Covenant until; in retreat, the Assault Carrier fled the battle. The In Amber Clad,, , and the  made it into the slipspace rift before it closed.

Battle of Installation 05


Only In Amber Clad successfully kept pace with the carrier. The Dusk arrived days later, while the Coral Sea; Paris and Redoubtable never arrived at all; most likely due both to the imprecise physics of Slipspace and the UNSC's rather limited technology for slipspace navigation, along with their unfamiliarity of their location in the galaxy.

The In Amber Clad deployed her ODST contingent on Installation 05, along with SPARTAN-117 to assassinate the Prophet of Regret; who had escaped back from Earth in the Assault Carrier; itself no longer a target. The rest of the In Amber Clad's crew and remaining Marines went to find the Index. Avery Johnson and Miranda Keyes fought through the Quarantine Zone before encountering Thel 'Vadamee; an Arbiter, and being captured by the Covenant leadership. They were taken to High Charity and afterwards, the control room to fire Installation 05. In Amber Clad, however, was taken over by the Flood and made a precision jump out of the rings atmosphere, appearing inside High Charity. AI Cortana originally planned to destroy High Charity by detonating the Clad's fusion reactors, though due to subsequent events, this plan never took place. Cortana would make a second attempt to destroy High Charity by sending a message to the UNSC, in hopes that they would send ships from Earth to NOVA bomb the station.

Battle of Onyx
The UNSC Home Fleet dispatched Battlegroup Stalingrad; commanded by Admiral Carl Patterson to Onyx to recover Forerunner artifacts reported by Dr. Halsey. When the battlegroup arrived, they engaged two Covenant Destroyers. was the first to be destroyed when it purposely turned into plasma fire from the destroyers intended for the. They believed they had won the engagement, destroying one ship and heavily damaging the other. The damaged ship fled to the unseen side of the planet, with the UNSC ships in pursuit.

Twenty Covenant Ships that had been hidden on the other side of the planet appeared from the gravity well of Onyx, and began to attack the Battle Group. In the ensuring mayhem, the remaining UNSC ships attempted to accelerate through the gravity well of the planet through the lines of the Covenant ships coming from surface of Onyx. The got in between eight Covenant Warships, and detonated a nuke inside of its engine room, sacrificing itself to destroy two Destroyers. Only five UNSC ships made it through. These ships disengaged when Sentinels destroyed three Covenant Ships using plasma capture. In an attempt to escape the Sentinels, the Covenant assigned a rear guard of two ships to protect the rest of the fleet. This helped them escape the gravity well of Onyx at the cost of these two ships.

The planted fourteen Hornet Mines around the moon of Onyx. Then, the surviving ships of Battle Group Stalingrad launched an attack. The attack however, was a trick to lure the Covenant force into the mine field. The mines detonated, but four Covenant Destroyers made it through the nuclear fireballs. The rest of the UNSC ships thought they would win the engagement, until thirty-two Covenant vessels, reinforcements from Joyous Exaltation arrived. They destroyed the surviving ships of the battle group.

The only ship to make it out alive was the, which stayed dark and was lucky enough to not get hit by the reigning debris or be detected by the Covenant ships. It eventually escaped to slipspace by narrowly missing the shockwave when Onyx exploded.

Late Battle of Earth
During the later stages of the Battle of Earth in November 2552, the Home Fleet was still fighting the Covenant Loyalists above Earth. However, they seemed to be holding their own against a second fleet sent in by the Prophet of Truth, judging by the order of Admiral Hood regarding Truth's ship (before SPARTAN-117 contacted him) - "It's not one of ours, take it out.". A mere day later, Truth's fleet arrived and, according to Commander Keyes, "...smashed what was left of the home fleet...". At about this time, the Home Fleet had significantly less ships and was almost to the point of destruction. The UNSC was using its last reserves of ships to launch hit and run attacks on the Covenant.

During the Battle of Voi, three ships of the Home Fleet, the, , and a third vessel led a strike force of C709 Longsword Interceptors over -what was believed to be- the "Ark" in Voi, Kenya. Although they damaged the Forerunner Dreadnought, it escaped though the slipspace portal.

It is unknown what actions the Home Fleet took after the Forward Unto Dawn took off into the slipspace portal, but it is known that they were able to hold off the Covenant long enough to win the War.

Battle of Installation 00
At least two ships of the Home Fleet, the and the  fought during the last battle of the Human-Covenant War, the Battle of Installation 00. There, the Dawn and the Fate helped UNSC Marine and Covenant Separatist forces against the Covenant Loyalist Army. The UNSC and Covenant Separatist Forces fought valiantly, until they were ordered to evacuate due to the imminent firing of Installation 04 II. The was badly damaged, but the  was possibly evacuated on the Shadow of Intent's cargo bay.

Orbital Defense Platforms

 * ODA-142 Cairo Station
 * ODA-143 Malta Station
 * ODA-144 Athens Station


 * ODA-??? Nassau Station

Subordinate Units

 * Sixth Battle Group
 * Sol Defense Group 3/A-5
 * Battlegroup Stalingrad