Able-class heavy destroyer

This unnamed heavy destroyer is a classification of heavy destroyer in the service of the UNSC Navy.

Design details
The heavy destroyer's bridge is designed with a raised platform in the centre, housing a padded chair for the ship's captain to sit in. The bridge crew stations surround this platform. The ship is capable of supporting an on-board artificial intelligence.

Armaments
The unnamed heavy destroyer class stocks at least eight Archer missile silos, alongside a complement of Helix point-defence guns for close-in defence. Perhaps the most notable feature on the ship is the introduction of the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon: while various classes of carrier had carried shipborne MACs since at least the 2470s, with cruisers and corvettes employing them at least by the 2490s, these ships were the first heavy destroyers to begin employing the weapons. became the first heavy destroyer to mount a MAC system during the 2490s, with the CMA Navy counterpart s later coming in 2499.

The MAC on the Gorgon had an extremely limited ammunition pool, when compared to later vessels. The vessel's MAC was capable of stocking only three MAC shells, though following three days and two battles without resupply, the Gorgon's cannon had been reduced to just one round.

Insurrection
These heavy destroyers entered service some time prior to 2499, and became the first heavy destroyer classification to be equipped with a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon - beginning with, captained by Captain Preston Cole. Cole took up captainship of the Gorgon in around 2499, after five years of captaining a corvette following the Callisto Incident in 2494. While commanding the vessel, Cole led a mostly-successful counterinsurgency campaign against the Insurrection, with the notable exception of the Bellicose - a stolen UNSC frigate which came into conflict with the Gorgon and was able to escape numerous times. By 2503, Cole was removed from command of the Gorgon due to the unveiling of his relationship with Lyrenne Castilla - an Insurrectionist leader and captain of the Bellicose who had used her relationship with the Captain to feed information to the rebellion, including details on the Gorgon's MAC. On January 2, 2504, Battle Group Tango, comprised of four heavy destroyers, were believed to successfully hunt down and destroy the Bellicose - albeit at the cost of heavy damage to two vessels of the battle group.

Human-Covenant War
Ships of the heavy destroyer class remained active well into the Human-Covenant War. The Gorgon was one of many vessels retained under the command of now-Vice Admiral Cole following his victory in the Harvest campaign in 2531. For at least five years throughout the 2530s, the Gorgon accompanied Cole's fleet during the Massacre of the Outer Colonies successfully.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Fall of Reach
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole