Fleet of Valiant Prudence

"That's no strike force. It's an invading army!"

- Jun-A266

The Fleet of Valiant Prudence was a Covenant fleet of the Ministry of Fervent Intercession that served as an archaeological research and retrieval group tasked by the Hierarchs with the security and stewardship of Forerunner artifacts.

History
After being selected by the Ministry of Fervent Intercession from among Zealots and ascended to the title of the Supreme Commander of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, Rho 'Barutamee was charged with locating Forerunner artifacts for the Covenant Ministry of Fervent Intercession. To assist in his duties, Covenant leadership granted 'Barutamee the use of a powerful Luminary to aid in his searches. Vowing himself to locate the Captital of the Forerunner ecumene, Maethrillian, 'Barutamee secretly amassed a collection of powerful Forerunner artifacts that helped point him in the right direction to the Capital.

Battle of Beta Eridani
Prior to the July 24, 2552, the fleet's Luminary detected Forerunner relics located in a planet in the human-occupied Beta Eridani system. To collect the Forerunner artifacts, the Fleet of Valiant Prudence set course for the Beta Eridani system.

At least ten warships of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence arrived in the system. As ten Covenant vessels approached quickly, the presence was quickly discovered by Lieutenant Robinson. As all warships of the UNSC Navy in the Beta Eridani system were crewed with cadets, Robinson ordered all forces in the system to flee as a portion of several Covenant warships pursued them in attempt to destroy the fleeing human forces. Over the course of the occupation of the system, a number of Forerunner artifacts were recovered and brought to Rho 'Barutamee aboard the Long Night of Solace, and 'Barutamee had them studied personally and "processed" through the Luminary and discovered that the relics pointed to another system. During the battle, Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth had led at least a pair of battle groups against the Covenant fleet. To prevent the UNSC forces in the system from following him to his next mysterious destination, 'Barutamee ordered the destruction of all remaining human forces in Beta Eridani, and at least one part of his forces engaged Stanforth's fleet.

As the UNSC were defeated after the battle, the Fleet of Valiant Prudence traveled to the system pinpointed by the Luminary: the Epsilon Eridani system. Little known to 'Barutamee, the system was home to major UNSC strongholds, including Reach.

Fall of Reach
On or shortly prior to the night of July 23, 2552, the fleet arrived on the planet Reach in the Epsilon Eridani system, undetected by the human defenses. Surprised to learn that the system swanked a significant human military presence in the form of a massive UNSC defense fleet, Rho 'Barutamee began preparing his fleet for the first assault on Reach, albeit had ulterior motives aside from destroying the planet as he had little interest in the Human-Covenant War, and focused on locating the Capital. The cloaked fleet dispatched a small strike force, including a team of artifact-hunting Zealots, to one of the three communications relays at Visegrád to cut off communications between Reach and other UEG colonies. The Office of Naval Intelligence assumed that the communications blackout was caused by local Insurrectionists; in response, Colonel Urban Holland dispatched several Army fireteams to the relay. After losing contact with the troopers, Spartan NOBLE Team was sent to investigate. The team discovered the Covenant presence on Reach and reported back to CENTCOM.

Over the next few weeks, the fleet continuously sent ground and air forces to attack the planet and gain intelligence. One of the corvettes in the fleet was sent to assault ONI's Sword Base, but was destroyed by an orbital defense platform's Magnetic Accelerator Cannon after the assault failed. The ground forces also focused on defending their fleet's landing zone at Szurdok Ridge, deploying anti-aircraft cannons and outposts around Szurdok Ridge; this effort, however, resulted in failure when SPARTAN Recon Team Bravo discovered the landing zone on the night of August 11.

As the battle began on the ground, the Fleet of Valiant Prudence in space began to engage UNSC naval forces across the system, such as light battlegroups. The declaration of WINTER CONTINGENCY on Reach forced the ONI research team at Teller Station to abandon their efforts at uncovering a Forerunner installation beneath the surface of a planetoid in Epsilon Eridani's Oort cloud, although their frantic efforts awoke senescent Forerunner systems, betraying the site's location to the Fleet of Valiant Prudence. As human scientists managed to recover an artifact from within the installation and departed the Oort cloud, Rho 'Barutamee, enraged by humans' insult to the Forerunner reliquary, deployed a "significant portion of his fleet" to recover Site 17, consisting of 13 s and 6 s, only to be engaged by 16 frigates and 10 heavy cruisers deployed by UNSC admiral Michael Stanforth. Though the Covenant forces were able to overrun the defences there, the humans were able to successfully extract Site 17's artifact. The Covenant attempted to board the human flagship to retrieve it, though Stanforth intended to use the artifact to lure the Covenant fleet away from the relic and into a trap near Reach itself. The battle group was able to fight free of their pursuers, and Stanforth was able to vector in reinforcements to stop the pursuing Covenant squadrons.

On August 12, 2552, the UNSC attacked the Covenant landing zone, destroying a Covenant spire in the progress. Subsequently, the UNSC strike force was forced to retreat when the fleet's flagship, the Long Night of Solace, was revealed to be holding position over the planet, having been cloaked by the Spires. 'Barutamee's vessels smashed the UNSC Army garrisons below before retreating to Reach's orbit. The UNSC on Reach, with little help until the arrival of reinforcements of sixty percent of the fleet from elsewhere in the Epsilon Eridani system, derived two operations to destroy the supercarrier: Operation: UPPER CUT created by Catherine-B320, and Operation: LEFT JAB to distract the Covenant fleet, were initiated on August 14, 2552, in an effort to destroy the supercarrier. NOBLE Team were deployed to repel a Covenant assault at the Sabre research site at Farkas Lake, prior to SPARTAN-B312, Jorge-052, and a team of Army pilots deploying to refit station Anchor 9 aboard the fighters rendezvousing with the frigate, to prepare for Operation: UPPER CUT. By this time, Supreme Commander 'Barutamee now realised the human treat presence on the surface and the importance of Reach, and the Ministry of Resolution had deployed a much larger fleet to the planet if this wasn't enough, and 'Barutamee's artifact-hunting teams were still bogged down on the surface and pinned by UNSC forces. A portion of Epsilon Eridani Fleet at Reach led by Stanforth engaged the Fleet of Valiant Prudence and had managed to spread the Covenant flotilla thin—probing the fleet's defences from all sides and leaving 'Barutamee's flagship open for a direct attack. With the Covenant fleet stretched thin, UNSC task forces were able to pounce on cut-off Covenant scout fleets.

The NOBLE Team and Army pilots boarded the Ardent Prayer and hijacked the heavy corvette at the cost of Savannah being destroyed by the Covenant ship, allowing NOBLE Team's Operation: UPPER CUT to go unnoticed following the jamming of their target corvette's communications. After the capture of Ardent Prayer, a makeshift "slipspace bomb" was activated, destroying Long Night of Solace. Though the fleet's flagship had been destroyed, the immediate arrival of another, larger Covenant fleet from the Ministry of Resolution arrived in the system to engage UNSC forces. As engagements continued in orbit over Reach with the Fleet of Valiant Prudence decimated, Shipmaster Kantar 'Utaralee assumed command of the splintered fleet, comprising one as the flagship, a pair of s, and eight s, and attempted to lead them in a final effort to recover a Forerunner artifact that 'Barutamee had attempted to claim for himself. 'Utaralee's forces moved to engage a small UNSC picket fleet of one, two pairs of s and ten s, that was defending the artifact's location, a space station near the moon of Turul.

At some point, Kantar 'Utaralee, as the fleetmaster of an unspecified Covenant fleet, possibly the remnants of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence itself, became the first to deploy the "Golden Path" Battle Group formation. A firm believer in the prowess of the, 'Utaralee moved to reinforce the medium sized cruiser with two s. The result proved to be devastating to its opponents.

CSO-class supercarrier

 * Long Night of Solace – Rho 'Barutamee commanding – Destroyed

SDV-class heavy corvettes

 * Ardent Prayer – Ardo 'Moretumee commanding – Destroyed

List of appearance

 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: Fleet Battles