UNSC Starry Night

UNSC Starry Night was a commanded by Captain Halima Ascot of the UNSC Navy. The vessel acted as the flagship of both Night Flight and Task Force Yama during the opening events of Operation: SILENT STORM. The Starry Night would be shot down on Seoba by a Covenant flotilla, resulting in the deaths of much of its crew, including Captain Ascot.

Specifications
As with all prowlers in service with the United Nations Space Command, the Starry Night featured a stealth ablative coating that hid its radar signature, making it virtually invisible in the blackness of space. The vessel had a deployment bay fitted with a tactical monitor on the bulkhead, allowing those within to watch what the Starry Night could see with its array of sensors. This same bulkhead also included alert lamps that could be changed from red to amber to green, signifying the time until deployment. The lights in the drop bay could be changed from white to a pale purple, the later of which was less noticeable to any potential onlookers if the four meters square jump hatch was opened in space or any other dark location. For those within the bay, this darker lighting would also help their eyes to adjust before entering low-light conditions. In the event that the jump hatch was opened in the vacuum of space, the drop bay could be sealed off from the rest of the ship. It could also be pressurized or depressurized on command.

Armament and countermeasures
As comes standard on s, the Starry Night featured 30mm autocannons and M28 Shrieker missiles, which could be used for ground support. In the event that the vessel was compromised, it had a self-destruct system tied to a one-megaton Fury tactical nuclear weapon, which would completely pulverize the ship, any technology or data within it, and any hostile party that may be trying to access it.

Skirmish over Netherop
In March 2526, the Starry Night acted as the command vessel during a mission to capture a Covenant warship so that humanity might learn more about its new enemy and their technology. To accomplish this task, the prowler was stocked with a complement of twelve Spartan-II soldiers, whom would be boarding the Covenant vessel. While remaining hidden in orbit over Netherop, Captain Halima Ascot and her prowlers observed the Covenant vessels in orbit for over a day. When the Spartans were ready to make their move on March 5, 2526, Ascot was somewhat hesitant to give the Spartans' leader, John-117, permission to initiate the operation at the time he requested. John assured her his assault squad could handle the mission, even to the point that Ascot warned him to be careful about pissing her off. Though she wanted to continue to wait for a more opportune moment to present itself, the Spartan was eventually able to get her to admit that the longer they waited, the more chance there was that something could go drastically wrong. Once they both agree, Ascot contacted the bridge and then informed John that the Starry Night would begin a slingshot maneuver in five minutes' time. John thanked the captain but she made it clear that her acquiescence to his arguments was not meant as some sort of favor to him. Once the Starry Night initiated the maneuver, the Spartans leapt from the prowler's deployment bay, drifting through space toward their target.

After the Spartans departed for the Covenant frigate, Ascot monitored their progress as best she could from the Starry Night. Ultimately, the mission went south when a sensor operator on another prowler "mistakenly" broadcast to the Spartans' SQUADCOM, revealing their presence to the alien crew. In reality, this sensor operator was aligned with the Insurrectionists led by Lieutenant Commander Hector Nyeto, and the intent of the broadcast was to get the Spartans killed. While the Spartans did need to evacuate the Covenant ship when its shipmaster activated its self-destruct sequence, each of the twelve survived and were picked up by Ascot's prowlers.

Flagship of Task Force Yama
On March 8, 2526, the Starry Night was made the flagship of Task Force Yama, an offshoot of Vice Admiral Preston Cole's Battle Group X-Ray. This would be for the duration of Operation: SILENT STORM, the UNSC's plan to slow down the Covenant's advance through the Outer Colonies by boarding their vessels and destroying them from the inside. Captain Ascot herself would command the task force from the bridge of the Starry Night. Colonel Marmon Crowther of the 21st Space Assault Battalion would command the infantry tasked with boarding the vessels, a job assigned to his own Black Dagger ODSTs and John-117's Spartan supersoldiers. Ascot's prowlers would transport these warriors into battle, using camouflage technology to get them close enough to board the Covenant ships. It was theorized that the Covenant's next target would be the colony of Biko, so an abandoned ice quarry on its moon of Seoba was chosen to hide the task force until they arrived. With the operation underway, the Starry Night led Task Force Yama into slipspace.

Arrival at Seoba
On March 18, 2526, they arrived in-system and approached Seoba, planning to practice the mass deployment of their ODSTs and Spartans into the quarry. Unbeknownst to the task force, the Biko Independence Army and United Rebel Front had planned to overthrow Biko's government in preparation for the Covenant's impending arrival at the colony, and they had chosen the very same ice quarry as the staging ground for their coup. Operation: ICE DANCE quickly became a warzone when the prowlers' sensors discovered the insurrectionists hidden amidst the ice. Thanks to the actions of John's team, the Black Daggers, and Nyeto's Ghost Flight, the battle ended with the UNSC taking control of the quarry. The next day, as the task force was still preparing for their attack on the incoming fleet, a Covenant flotilla appeared in-system and set course for Seoba. Captain Ascot, who was in the middle of a debriefing discussing the events of the previous day's battle, rushed back to the Starry Night, ordering the rest of her prowlers to prepare for takeoff immediately.

Destruction
Mere minutes later, much of Task Force Yama had launched from Seoba, taking the Black Daggers along with them in hopes that a boarding opportunity would present itself. The Starry Night and the rest of Night Flight received the last company of ODSTs as Ascot was informed of an incoming bombardment from the alien flotilla. With the plasma heading right for them, Ascot ordered Night Flight to launch immediately. As the Starry Night rose into the Seoban sky, one of the blasts hit the prowler, causing it to crash back into the quarry. The impact killed Halima Ascot and much of the vessel's crew.

Although Crowther wanted to send a unit of Black Daggers to search for survivors after the Starry Night could not be raised on comms, none of his men remained on the moon, and sending them back would require putting them and another prowler into extreme danger. As such, John-117 diverted himself and his Spartans to assist, once they had completed their assignment of loading the captured insurrectionists onto a transport to be taken to Biko. The Spartans were able to rescue the survivors and activate the Starry Night ' s self-destruct to keep the ship out of Covenant hands, though this was made more complicated by the fact that the only one capable of remotely-activating the self-destruct was Ascot.

Blue Team managed to rescue the surviving crew and activate the ship's self-destruct, a one-megaton Fury tactical nuclear weapon. The blast destroyed an intrusion corvette that was attempting to capture the Starry Night intact.

Trivia
The ship was likely named after the Vincent van Gogh painting of the same name.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Silent Storm