UNSC Gettysburg

The  was a frigate in service with the UNSC Navy during the Human-Covenant War.

Battle of Sigma Octanus IV
On July 17, 2552, the Gettysburg responded to a distress signal sent by Commander Jacob Keyes from the Sigma Octanus System. The vessel later fought in the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV with Battle group Leviathan.

The vessel then returned to the orbital space dock of Reach, where it was heavily damaged in the Battle of Reach. There the entire crew was killed in the battle.

Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice
Eventually, SPARTAN-117, along with several survivors of Battle of Installation 04 and Fall of Reach, used the Gettysburg, fusing it with the Covenant ship Ascendant Justice, thus becoming the first human-Covenant hybrid vessel in history. It was used because the Ascendant Justice could not do the two Slipspace jumps in and out of a group of Covenant ships fast enough using just its own reactor.

Operation: FIRST STRIKE
Eventually, the vessel was unlinked from the Ascendant Justice so that Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb and First Lieutenant Elias Haverson could use the Ascendant Justice to lure a Covenant battle fleet to the Unyielding Hierophant, which was about to explode. The Gettysburg was refitted with the slipspace drive from the Ascendant Justice prior to unlinking.

After Operation: FIRST STRIKE, the Gettysburg and its skeleton crew headed back to the Sol System.

Trivia

 * It is named after the Battle of Gettysburg. The American Civil War battle took place on July 1-3 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Earth. This is interesting, in that it was fused with a Covenant vessel, just as the two factions of the American Civil War eventually rejoined into one country.
 * The Gettysburg has an onboard Officers' Club, housing a massive table of oak, scored with numerous gouges and scorches from a hundred cigars set upon its surface. There was a bar stocked with bottles containing a rainbow collection of liquors. It also housed the UNSC gold-fringed blue flag, photographs of past officers and captains of the Gettysburg, and a tin Civil War daguerreotype that displayed battlefields of charging men, cavalry and cannons.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: First Strike