Insurrectionist

The Insurrectionists, also known as insurgents and rebels, are groups of human individuals devoted to complete liberation from the influence of the Unified Earth Government and the United Nations Space Command. They were the UNSC's main enemy during the Insurrection, an undeclared civil war between the UNSC and the several insurgent factions. The various Insurrectionist cells made up a loose alliance, which was led politically by a single head of state, while its military was run by a triumvirate of generals. They are commonly called Innies by the UNSC Marines, a satirical name, as they actually "wanted out."

Beginning
Most insurrectionist movements stirred in the Outer Colonies in the late 25th century, where many colonists started to demand independence from the Earth government, which they considered to be oppressive and imperialistic. However, over the next two decades, the fighting spread to some of the Inner Colonies, particularly the Epsilon Eridani system, the heart of the UNSC military. At the early years of the Insurrection, the rebels used a variety of tactics to combat the UNSC, ranging from terrorist attacks to ship-to-ship combat.

Around 2511, the rebels based in the Eridanus system had overthrown the colonial government of Eridanus II and largely controlled all activities within the system. The UNSC responded harshly, seeking to put down the rebellion forcibly. Also in 2511, a major insurrectionist terrorist attack occurred on Mamore, when rebels detonated a nuclear device in the Haven arcology, killing two million people and injuring 8.3 million.

Starting in 2513, Operation: TREBUCHET was one of the largest and farthest reaching operations ever conducted in UNSC military history. It was devised in order to rid UNSC-controlled space of the insurrectionists once and for all. In 2513, a space battle occurred between the Eridanus rebels and the UNSC as part of Operation: TREBUCHET. During the battle, the UNSC achieved a Pyrrhic victory with the loss of four destroyers. Unfortunately, elements of the rebellion escaped into the nearby Eridanus asteroid belt.

In 2525, the Office of Naval Intelligence reported that it had uncovered a breach within UNSC Fleet Command: there were several spies for the Insurrectionists within FLEETCOM. They had also discovered that the rebels were led by Colonel Robert Watts and that they had connections to the outside world and were being supplied by outside sources such as the cargo freighter Laden. That year, a group of SPARTANs underwent a covert operation and captured Watts from the very heart of the rebel operations base, the rebel stronghold at Eridanus Secundus, killing many rebel soldiers and civilians who were present at the base.

During the Human-Covenant War
Following the beginning of the Human-Covenant War in 2525, Operation: TREBUCHET was promptly abandoned due to the Covenant threat. Despite the common threat for all mankind, many Insurrectionist movements continued to live on, still causing problems for the UNSC and forcing them to fight a two-front war: one against the Covenant and one against the insurrectionists.

By 2531, the Insurrectionists' operations had been disrupted by a four-man team of SPARTAN supersoldiers known as Blue Team. The team disrupted rebel operations including Station Jefferson, the destroyer Origami, a saboteur cell on Reach, an incident in Micronesia, and a high-explosives manufacturing facility at an unspecified location. In response, the rebels gathered three stolen FENRIS nuclear warheads at Camp New Hope in a way so sloppy that the Office of Naval Intelligence easily noticed, then contacted the UNSC and offered to trade the nukes in exchange for medicine for their people suffering from Boren's Syndrome. They then set a trap for Blue Team, whom they anticipated would be sent. During the raid on Camp New Hope, the rebels successfully ambushed John-117, Frederic-104, Kelly-087 and Linda-058 by using an antigravity plate. However, the rebels were unaware of the presence of a fifth SPARTAN; a new addition to the team, Kurt-051, who had avoided the trap. Kurt was able to free the other members of Blue Team and they then retreated from the camp with the recovered warheads before the camp could launch a proper counterattack. General Howard Graves was killed in the process.

During the Human-Covenant War, Insurrectionists from the Outer Colony of Madrigal colonized and inhabited the Rubble, a sophisticated asteroid habitat orbiting the gas giant Hesiod. In the Rubble, an uneasy truce existed between the humans and the Kig-yar who had originally helped the Insurrectionists build the habitat. While the most of the Rubble's population were Insurrectionists, the Rubble also protected most of the surviving civilian populace of Madrigal.

During the Battle of Psi Serpentis in 2543, Insurrectionists actually helped Admiral Cole. During the battle, an insurrectionist fleet led by the Bellicose suddenly entered the battle and launched a blitzkrieg-style attack against the Covenant fleet, decimating it, then just as it appeared the insurrectionist fleet jumped right back into slipspace. Ironically, this was the same ship Cole engaged three times earlier in his career.

By 2552, most remaining Insurrectionist factions had ceased active aggression against the UNSC in order to concentrate on surviving the seemingly unstoppable Covenant advance. Still, some rebel movements actively opposed the UNSC on worlds such as Harmony and Reach as late as 2552. In 2552, the SPARTANs returned to the Eridanus asteroid belt aboard the -Ascendant Justice hybrid vessel to make repairs. Governor Jacob Jiles was the leader of the rebels at that time. Jiles engaged in a brief "showdown" with UNSC Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, in which Whitcomb threatened to fire Ascendant Justice's plasma turrets, while Jiles claimed to aim nuclear weapons at Ascendant Justice. The two soon revealed to one another that all but one of Whitcomb's plasma cannons were nonfunctional and that Jiles' nukes were fake. Suddenly, a Covenant cruiser that had followed the trail of the vessel appeared in the system. After a short fight, the Covenant ship was destroyed after dealing severe damage to the Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice. Several days later, three dozen Covenant vessels appeared in the system, forcing the Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice to retreat. The Covenant then eradicated the base entirely. The Eridanus rebels were massacred in the process.

Post-war
After the end of the Human-Covenant War, many Insurrectionist movements which had ceased their operations during the war began to resurface. Entire colonies under Insurrectionist control had intentionally cut themselves off the UNSC's communications relay network during the war. Despite the UNSC's attempts to broker peace with the surviving Outer Colonies and Fleet Admiral Terrence Hood embarking on a diplomatic mission to discuss reconstruction, entire colonies refused and cut all ties with the UNSC, which, according to them, had abandoned them during the war. After the end of the war, many Insurrectionist cells were also able to acquire copious amounts of Covenant and UNSC weapons and equipment circulating in the black market.

Of particular significance to the reemerging Insurrectionist movement was the colony of Venezia, which had become a nexus for rebel operations during the war, its Insurrectionist government having declared itself sovereign and eliminated the local CAA authorities.

Resources
The Insurrectionists have a highly organized intelligence division and a far-flung network of facilities, comprised of a network of different rebel movements, such as the Eridanus rebels. They have commanded facilities across human-controlled space, including Eridanus Secundus, Camp New Hope on planet Victoria, and Station Jefferson, which was located in the asteroid belt of Eridanus. They also had a high explosives manufacturing facility, operations of an unknown kind on Micronesia, and a saboteur cell on Reach. All these operations were shut down by the SPARTANs of Blue Team.

The various Insurrectionists also possess a multitude of warships and many operate fleets of varying sizes. Their most prominent fleet, commanded by Lyrenne Castilla, would continue to exist well into the Human-Covenant War and unexpectedly aid Admiral Cole in the Battle of Psi Serpentis. At one point, the Insurrectionists managed to capture the destroyer Origami.

Eridanus cell
The Eridanus-based rebels utilized numerous vessels, including upgraded Pelican dropships, Mako-class corvettes, and Chiroptera-class stealth vessels as an improvised fleet. They had at least a hundred such vessels in their fleet at any time. Two Laden-class freighters were also used as part of their improvised fleet, being used to tow the damaged hybrid vessel Gettysburg/Ascendant Justice back to Eridanus Secundus. They received almost everything in their armament and ships from pirating other vessels, including both civilian merchant vessels and UNSC warships. They also used Parabola-class freighters such as the Laden, to ship diverse equipment, resources, and weapons from planet systems to their base.

Their ability to infiltrate the UNSC ranks caused the UNSC to keep a small orbital force in the system to respond to rebel attacks. Another reason for their success was their location, which was extremely difficult and time-consuming to discover and was easily defended against even medium-scale assaults.

111 Tauri cell
Camp New Hope, the headquarters of Graves' rebel cell, had an impressive security system, even by SPARTAN standards: motion and seismic sensors, a triple layering of guards, trained dogs and overhead MAKO drones. They also had a number of arms, ranging from military grade MAKO drones and FENRIS nuclear warheads to Archer missiles and .30 caliber "Confetti Maker" machine guns.

They also made use of a jury-rigged Warthog armored personnel carrier. They possess some "old technology that never panned out", such as the antigravity plate, which Graves' cell used to fool the Spartans' armor systems into thinking they were in a 10 G environment, temporarily giving them decompression sickness, otherwise known as "the bends."

Secessionist Union
The Secessionist Union was a small insurrection group on the planet, Harvest. Their leader, Jerald Mulkey Ander, was assassinated by Corporal Avery Johnson during Operation: KALEIDOSCOPE.

Unidentified rebel group
An unnamed rebel group operated against the UNSC on the planets Harvest and Arcadia, with possible influence on other colonies. The seal of this organization is of a stylized white fist on a red circle, and is found on nearly all of their units. They mainly used stolen technology from the UNSC.

Freedom and Liberation Party
The Freedom and Liberation Party was a terrorist group on Mamore. The group claimed responsibility for the Haven arcology bombing in 2511, and later demanded that the Colonial Military Administration leave the Eridanus sector.

People's Occupation
This rebel group was known to have operated on Reach, and its ultra-radical wing was initially suspected of causing the communications blackout at Visegrád Relay before the discovery of Covenant forces.

Venezian movement
Throughout the Human-Covenant War, the Insurrectionist movement established a base of operations on the colony world of Venezia. All contact with the colony was lost by 2543 and it is presumed to have come under the control of an Insurrectionist government as the colony remained intact in 2553. They are suspected to be planning a strike against Earth in a direct assault on the resurgent Unified Earth Government.

Taking advantage of the disparity of the post-war situation, the Insurrectionists on Venezia had managed to acquire heavy weapons of both Covenant and UNSC origin, such as Type-38 "Tyrant" AA cannons and M71 "Scythe" AA guns.

Tactics
Different groups used different tactics.


 * The Insurrectionists of Epsilon Eridani preferred to use terrorist tactics, striking targets with explosives to sow fear and chaos in the region.


 * A common tactic was to use performance-enhancing drugs known as rumbledrugs that radically increased the subject's physical strength and pain tolerance, but would also cause irreversible physiological damage that would kill the user shortly after. Notably, they were used to combat the Spartans due to the temporary superhuman strength they granted.


 * Another prominent group focused more on space combat, capturing UNSC warships, such as the corvette Callisto and the frigate Bellicose, and turning them against the UNSC navy in bloody ship-to-ship duels throughout the Outer Colonies.

Notable Insurrectionists

 * Jerald Mulkey Ander
 * Peter Bonifacio
 * Badia Campbell
 * Lyrenne Castilla
 * Diego Esquival
 * Howard Graves
 * Jacob Jiles
 * Jason Kincaide
 * Partch
 * Robert Watts
 * Soren-066
 * Staffan Sentzke

Trivia

 * In skirmish mode in Halo Wars, most empty bases and unoccupied Forerunner artifacts are occupied by insurrectionists. The player must defeat them to claim the area.
 * Jorge-052, though supportive of the concept of colonial self-rule, nevertheless condemned the insurrectionists, as he disagreed with their methods.
 * A longstanding error made by Halopedia caused a prevailing misconception that there exists a major faction of organized Insurrectionists known as the "United Rebel Front". However, the title does not actually appear in any of the novels as a proper name. A singular reference to a "united rebel front" is made in Halo: Ghosts of Onyx, but the lowercase lettering indicates the term is simply a descriptor used to refer to the nature of the Insurrectionists in question as opposed to being a proper name. This misunderstanding was carried over to the Halo Encyclopedia, as a sizable portion of the content in the book is seemingly based on that of Halopedia. For example, the rebel destroyer Origami is referred to as the "URF Origami", apparently because Halopedia had formerly titled the article as such; the ship is only referred to as the Origami in the original source. Additionally, a reference to a "URF" is made in Halo: Reach radio conversations, where it is used by a UNSC trooper to refer to the Insurrectionists, though given the context, it can be interpreted as an unofficial nickname or an acronym for a yet-unidentified organization. Since it has not been used as a proper name in any of the novels or directly confirmed to be a proper name in reference materials, the usage of the title "United Rebel Front" in official material is regarded as an error originating from a widespread fan misunderstanding.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: First Strike
 * Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo Wars
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * Pariah
 * Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian
 * Dirt
 * The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
 * Halo Legends
 * Origins
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: Glasslands

Related links

 * Frieden
 * Koslovics