Long Night of Solace

''Long Night of Solace redirects here. For other uses, see Long Night of Solace (disambiguation).''

Long Night of Solace was a Covenant and the flagship of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, which served as an advance invasion force on the planet Reach during the Fall of Reach in the summer of 2552. It was destroyed by UNSC personnel during Operation: UPPER CUT. Its Shipmaster was Rho 'Barutumee.

Operational history
On or prior to July 23, 2552, Long Night of Solace entered the atmosphere of Reach and was cloaked by a network of stealth pylons and Spires. The supercarrier was then able to covertly land troops on the surface of the planet, starting the advance invasion of Reach. It served as the flagship for the advance force, which was comprised of the supercarrier and at least five corvettes.

On August 12, the UNSC launched an attack on the Covenant base in Viery. After Spire One was destroyed, the Solace de-cloaked and engaged the UNSC. After its position was compromised, Long Night of Solace proceeded to destroy the and lay waste to several other UNSC deployments. It then retreated to Covenant-held space in orbit above the planet.

During Operation: UPPER CUT, an operation designed to destroy the ship, UNSC EVA teams boarded the Covenant corvette Ardent Prayer, which was on a refueling run with the supercarrier, and transported a Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine onto the corvette. During the battle aboard the ship, the detonation controls of the improvised bomb were damaged, forcing SPARTAN Jorge-052 to sacrifice himself by activating the drive manually. The unrestricted slipspace rift teleported the middle half of the supercarrier's hull into slipspace, destroying Long Night of Solace. The remains of Long Night of Solace then crashed into a mountain range on the surface of Reach as a larger Covenant fleet jumped out of slipspace over the planet.

On August 27, Vice Admiral Hieronymus Stanforth stated that Long Night of Solace would have been a prime candidate for use in Operation: RED FLAG. However, with the vessel destroyed, the Navy was forced to wait to enact the operation until the Covenant arrived in force days later.

Trivia
In early development phases, the Long Night of Solace was simply known as the "Black Ship".

List of appearances

 * Halo: Reach