UNSC Infinity

The UNSC Infinity (INF-101) is an experimental warship of the UNSC Navy commissioned following the end of the Human-Covenant War and the lead ship of her class. Built in secret using technology recovered from Forerunner and Covenant sources during the war, the Infinity is the UNSC's largest and most advanced warship to date. Infinity serves under the direction of Fleet Command and is captained by Thomas Lasky, a young and proficient naval officer. She was created as the Navy's newest flagship even before her commissioning.

The first ship of her class, Infinity had been secretly deployed in combat by 2553. In 2557, the vessel was officially recommissioned after being refitted with technology that would add scientific and diplomatic endeavors to her capabilities. By summer 2557, Infinity had a crew of 17,151 sailors, Marines, Spartans, ONI operatives and civilian personnel, as well as a number of Huragok specialists. The Infinity is escorted by a formation of twenty to forty vessels, consisting of s, s, and internally-docked s. The shipboard AI is Roland.

Infinity's combat capability was far superior to earlier human, and most Covenant, warships. It's secondary armaments were powerful enough to destroy two CCS-class cruisers during the battle of Requiem, and its primary MAC guns were capable of cracking the armor of the Didact's personal flagship. The Infinity was also superbly armored, resisting Covenant plasma even without its shields. The ship's hull integrity was decisively demonstrated when the vessel destroyed a Storm cruiser by ramming it, taking no damage in the process.

Hull and complement
From stem to stern, the Infinity is 5,694 meters (18,681 feet) in length, making her the longest warship the UNSC Navy has commissioned. Aside from various Forerunner vessels, her length is surpassed only by the Covenant's gargantuan 29-kilometer. Infinity is considerably larger than the previous UNSC record holders such as the supercarriers and s.

The ship's sublight power plant is a XR2 Boglin Fields: S81/X deuterium fusion reactor. Translight power is provided by a Mark X Macedon/Z-PROTOTYPE #78720HDS mounted on a remote carriage. The ship possesses energy shields, which would make it the first UNSC ship to be fitted with shielding systems. These shields are shown to be strong enough to withstand direct impact with a CCS-class battlecruiser with negligible or minimal damage to the hull.

Armament
The Infinity ' s primary armament is four CR-08, Series-8 magnetic accelerator cannons. Infinity boasts a significant missile network that can be implemented for ship-to-ship combat, anti-air defense, orbital gunfire support for Marine forces, among others. Emplaced throughout the ship are 1100 missile pods of three types: Archer, Rapier, and Howler. The M42 Archer missile provides secondary armament for Infinity with 350 pods that can launch 24 missiles simultaneously. Additional missiles include the M75 Rapier (250x30 missiles) and the M96 Howler (500x20 missiles). Close-in defense against enemy missiles, fighters, and boarding craft is the primary mission of the M965 Fortress point defense network, a series of 830 70mm automatic cannons.

Construction
The ship was constructed in the Oort cloud surrounding the Sol system, with construction beginning circa 2537. Secrecy was ensured by having workers permanently stationed there over several years with a total communications blackout in effect. The ship's massive building expenditures, however, prevented ONI from keeping the Infinity a complete secret. Many senior members of the Admiralty, such as Rear Admiral Saeed Shafiq of UNSC Procurement, are fully aware of the ship's existence. This later developed into the Fleet, rather than Naval Intelligence, taking control of the vessel. Andrew Del Rio took command of the Infinity and her pre-commission crew years prior to the end of major hostilities in the war.

As of March 2553, technology discovered on Trevelyan, a shield world located in the Zeta Doradus system, was planned to be incorporated into the ship. Huragok assistance in refining the ship's slipspace navigation capabilities, in particular, were expected to push the final construction milestones ahead of schedule. Unlike older warships which only had areas such as a gym or hangar space for Marines and SPARTANs to train in, the Infinity is the first known vessel to include a state-of-the-art virtual reality combat deck capable of replicating environments from across the galaxy using holography and pneumatic riser fields.

Trials
With the additional upgrades from Trevelyan, the first space trials of the Infinity were undertaken in mid-2553 with Del Rio at the helm. A number of SPARTAN-IVs, the newest generation of the supersoldier program, were assigned to the Infinity before her maiden voyage; additional Spartans were included in the ship's contingent as time progressed.

Action on Sanghelios
During the Sangheili civil war, the Infinity arrived and destroyed several of the vessels assaulting Vadam Keep.

Requiem
In 2557, the UNSC commissioned the Infinity into service. In summer 2557, Infinity picked up the distress call of the and her two surviving crew, John-117 and his smart AI companion Cortana, now surviving on the Forerunner shield world Requiem. During the attempted rescue, the ship's control systems were hacked by the Didact and promptly crash-landed on the conservation sphere's surface. The Chief then had to round up as many survivors as he could and meet up with the high-ranking officials of the Infinity. Eventually, she was repaired and her complement of Marines and Spartans would later assist the Master Chief in combating the Didact's forces.

Senior staff

 * Captain Thomas Lasky — Commanding officer (July 2557 — present); formerly executive officer (2552-July 2557)
 * Commander Sarah Palmer — Commander, Infinity Spartan Forces
 * Armstrong — Executive petty officer
 * Master Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Lowell

Former

 * Captain Andrew Del Rio — Commanding officer (2552 to July 2557)
 * Glassman — Chief engineer (2553 to February 2558)

Junior officers

 * Lieutenant Austen — Principal weapons officer
 * Lieutenant Cameron
 * Lieutenant Priselkov
 * Lieutenant Junior Grade Campbell

Science personnel

 * Dr. Catherine Halsey
 * Science Team Gagarin

Crewmen

 * Petty Officer Richardson
 * Wolfkill

Marines

 * Master Sergeant Marcus P. Stacker
 * Hacksaw Squad

Former

 * Paolo J. Jiminez (Unknown - July 2557)

Production notes
This advanced ship plays a major role in Halo 4, serving as the fictional backdrop for War Games and Spartan Ops, the competitive multiplayer and episodic cooperative campaign modes in the appropriately named Infinity section. War Games, in which players take control of SPARTAN-IV supersoldiers serving aboard the warship, train against one another in the ship's environment-replicating combat deck. Spartan Ops puts up to four players in the role of Majestic Squad in a series of weekly episodic campaign missions following the ongoing story of the Infinity and her crew.

The webseries Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn chronicles the early military career of Thomas Lasky; Lasky will play a prominent role in Halo 4, having become a commander aboard the Infinity. On April 17th, 2012 episode of the TBS late night comedy show Conan, hosts Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter announced that they will be voicing Navy deckhands, with whom the player will be able to interact while they lift crates in the Infinity hangar bay. They can be encountered towards the end of the game.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Glasslands
 * The Commissioning
 * Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn
 * Halo: The Thursday War
 * Halo 4