|  Author | Topic: United Nations Space Command (Read 261 times) |
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|  | United Nations Space Command
« Thread Started on Nov 20, 2007, 6:13am » | |
[references to game]
The United Nations Space Command or UNSC is a branch of the human world government in the fictional Halo universe. They handle law enforcement, military and exploration operations. In Halo canon, faster-than-light travel made possible the colonization of hundreds of worlds beyond Earth's solar system. Eventually, humanity made first contact with an alliance of several alien races—The Covenant—and in the next twenty-seven years fought a gradually more desperate war to hold back the alien invaders.
By 2552, the UNSC has lost most of its outer colonies. Its largest and most defended colony is Reach, falls to the Covenant in the book Halo:The Fall of Reach. This event sparks the beginning of Halo: Combat Evolved. In novels and subsequent games, the structure and society of the UNSC has been expanded. While still fighting with projectile weaponry, which is seen as pitiful by the Covenant, the UNSC is seen to have made several impressive technological advances, including cloning and the creation of the SPARTAN-II supersoldiers, of which one of the games' protagonists, Master Chief, is the principal figure.
Government structure:
While little of the workings of the UNSC are explained in the video games, the Halo novels feature much more exposure of the government and military. The UNSC is tasked with enforcing law and order, including suppressing rebellious insurrections, as well as protecting the Inner and Outer Colonies of the human space empire through the Colonial Military Administration. The government of the UNSC is said to have taken extraordinary steps in the wake of the war with the Covenant in order to defend humanity from the external threat. These include, but are not limited to, the aggressive suppression of armed revolts with overwhelming military support, extensive propaganda operations carried out by the Office of Naval Intelligence in order to prevent a general uprising or panic, and the recruitment and usage of specialized troops (including a third generation of the Spartan program) on missions against critical Covenant targets. The military appears to have complete control over the prosecution of the war and has never been seen to be hampered by the civilian government. The "Bestiarium" that ships with the Halo 3 Legendary Edition describes humanity's government to be "emergency military," which may suggest that the UNSC may usurp or overrule any civilian government that might otherwise be in place as long as humanity remains under threat.
Cole Protocol:
Following the devastation of many colonies, the UNSC decides to make sure no human ship gives away the location of Earth or any other colony. The "Cole Protocol", named after Admiral Preston Cole, states that no ship can leave a battle or encounter with the Covenant on a course that heads directly towards a human outpost - instead, a random jump must be made before returning to human space. Also, vessels must purge their navigational databases and self-destruct if captured, and shipboard AIs must be deleted rather than given to the Covenant. In Halo: The Fall of Reach, a human space station Fermion is destroyed by the commanding officer after discovering a Covenant fleet headed towards Reach. The Cole Protocol also inadvertently leads the Pillar of Autumn to Halo (and causes the events of Halo: Combat Evolved to unfold), after Cortana selects captured coordinates as the basis for the slipspace jump. It also includes a subsection stating that no intact captured Covenant vessel may come anywhere near human worlds for fear of tracking devices. This subsection is first shown in Halo: First Strike, and causes some issues for the protagonists.
Formation and space colonization:
According to the Bungie backstory, the United Nations Space Command was formed as the result of a series of brutal wars across the Solar System between 2160 and 2164, most prominently among them conflicts called the Jovian Moons Campaign and the Rain Forest Wars, as well as a series of battles on Mars. These conflicts were centered on United Nations clashes with several dissident political movements. Lasting over four years, these destructive wars raged across the Earth and its numerous off-world colonies. The brutal three-way war between the United Nations, Communist and Fascist forces sparked a massive buildup of arms and troops within the member states of the United Nations. Utilizing aggressive space-based Marine drops, the United Nations defeated Communist forces on Mars, which paved the way for the future incorporation of United Nations Marine Corps units as primary ground combat elements. It was at this point that the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) was first created to oversee United Nations deployments across the Solar System. The UNSC proceeded to use its overwhelming military might to crush all remaining enemy holdouts across the system, ending with a single Unified Earth Government under the auspices of the UNSC.
Massive overpopulation and a huge military with no enemy to fight in the decades following the defeat of rebel forces presented immediate problems for the postwar United Nations Space Command. Utilizing the newly developed Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive, in 2310 the UNSC deployed a vast line of colony starships to colonize the nearest planets and star systems, giving birth to the Inner Colonies. Vast numbers of citizens and soldiers travelled to these new colonies, stabilizing the overpopulation problem on Earth and giving the UNSC military new tasks to handle. As the first colonists were stringently selected, the Inner Colonies eventually formed an "elite" society of the best physical and mental human specimens. By 2490 the UNSC had colonized over eight hundred worlds in the Orion Arm of the galaxy. These colony worlds ranged from fairly well-tamed planetary strongholds to tiny, sparsely inhabited frontier settlements. Outward human expansion continued, and the Inner Colonies became a political and economic stronghold, though they relied heavily on raw materials supplied by the Outer Colonies.
During this period, the planet Reach in the Epsilon Eridani System, right on Earth's metaphorical doorstep, became the UNSC's primary naval fleet yard and training academy. Reach was a major producer of warships and interstellar colony vessels, as well as a training ground for covert operatives and UNSC Special Forces. However, this expansion did not come without cost, as ideological and political causes resulted in many of the Outer Colonies engaging in open rebellion against the UNSC. A series of brushfire wars across UNSC space sprang up, with hundreds more colonies threatening to erupt in rebellion as well. By 2517, UNSC estimates put massive, overwhelming and uncontrollable rebellion across human space at less than twenty years away. This resulted in the impetus for the start of the Spartan-II program, to create a powerful corps of human supersoldiers to quickly and quietly deal with colonial insurrections without incurring massive civilian casualties.
The Human-Covenant War:
In 2525, the UNSC loses contact with the Outer Colony Harvest. A scout ship sent to the scene never reports back. A UNSC battle group consisting of one destroyer, Heracles, and two frigates, the Arabia and the Vostok, enter the Harvest System. They discover that everything on the planet Harvest has been completely incinerated with the surface melted down to glass. In orbit around the remains of the colony world is a single alien ship, which proceeded to attack the battle group, destroying both frigates and badly damaging the Heracles. Intercepted communications identified the enemy as The Covenant. The message "Your destruction is the will of the Gods... and we are their instrument" was broadcast in English, a result of much study of humanity by the Covenant. Mobilizing the largest fleet action in human history Vice-Admiral Preston Cole leads UNSC forces to retake the Harvest system and destroy the alien fleet stationed there. The result was a victory; however, despite tactical brilliance and strong leadership, Cole lost two-thirds of his fleet to an enemy force one-third the size. The advanced defensive and offensive technologies of the Covenant were years ahead of the UNSC; the aliens had enormous firepower, greater speed and maneuverability, and extremely powerful defensive shielding - only a last-minute tactical inspiration allowed Cole to snatch victory from the jaws of death.
Soon other outer colonies fell under attack. The UNSC go from one planet to another, but are woefully mismatched compared to the advanced technology of the alien invaders. The Cole Protocol is enacted in an effort to stave off the discovery of the Inner Colonies, as well as Earth. Despite this measure, by 2552, UNSC estimates for how long they can hold off the Covenant from Earth has dwindled to months. The UNSC plans a bold move; a team of SPARTAN-IIs will board a Covenant ship, find the Covenant homeworld and capture a Prophet, in an effort to barter a truce with the aliens. Before the plan can begin, Reach is attacked. Despite a sizable effort, Reach's MAC guns are taken offline, and the colony falls. A lone ship, the Pillar of Autumn, escapes with the last known SPARTAN-II alive, the Master Chief.
Surprisingly, the Autumn discovers a massive ringworld of Forerunner origin, which the Covenant call "Halo". The ring has massive religious significance to the Covenant, who see the ring as some sort of weapon. Desperate for an edge over the Covenant, the surviving UNSC forces race to claim Halo's secrets for themselves. However, the AI Cortana makes a horrifying discovery; the Halos' weapons would actually destroy all sentient life in the galaxy in order to prevent the spread of the Flood, a deadly parasite that the Covenant accidentally release on the ring. The Master Chief and Cortana singlehandedly rig the crashed Autumn's fusion engines to explode, destabilizing the ring and cutting through key systems, neutralizing the threat of both the ring and the Flood. The plan works, stopping the Flood and destroying a massive Covenant arsenal, however only the Master Chief, Cortana, Sergeant Avery Johnson and three other UNSC soldiers survive the destruction. The team hijacks a Covenant ship, the Ascendant Justice, and flies to Reach, picking up survivors from the planet. The Justice is destroyed, as is the Covenant fleet around the station Unyielding Heirophant, in a massive explosion which the UNSC soldiers plan in order to annihilate a massive Covenant armada massing to attack Earth. Two crises averted, the last survivors of Reach and Halo speed back to Earth to report.
Despite the destruction of the armada, a much smaller Covenant fleet arrives at Earth soon after, during the events of Halo 2. Covenant ground forces invade and take control of Mombasa, Kenya. Miranda Keyes and her ship, In Amber Clad, pursue a fleeing Prophet Hierarch from Earth and discover another Halo ring. There UNSC forces and Covenant once again clash in dueling efforts to recover the key to activating Halo. Despite the release of the Flood, with the help of the Covenant Elite Arbiter, Keyes and Sergeant Johnson prevent the firing of Halo, although the unexpected shutdown of the Halo system triggers a fail-safe; all the Halos can now be activated from the "Ark"; at the moment of this discovery, the Master Chief arrives at a besieged Earth aboard a Forerunner ship, ready to "finish the fight".
Prior to the Siege of Earth, The Covenant was nearly torn apart by a civil war that led to the secession of the Elites, and their subsequent alliance with the UNSC. The Master Chief links back up with the remaining UNSC forces on Earth to lead a last ditch attack on a massive Forerunner structure that the Covenant uncovered which is assumed to be the Ark.To kill the Prophet Truth and end the Siege of Earth. However, in mid attack, Truth activates the structure and flees through the portal it creates just before the Flood land on Earth. The Elites glass half of the African continent to stem the spread of the Flood. At this point, The Master Chief, Sergeant Johnson, and Commander Keyes take one ship, the Forward Unto Dawn, and follow the Elites through the portal to kill Truth and find the solution to the Flood that a message from Cortana told them about. The remaining UNSC forces bunker down to defend Earth from the Flood and the remaining Covenant invaders. They arrive at a truly massive Forerunner installation far beyond the galactic rim which they later find out is the real Ark. After the humans and Elites kill Truth, they ignite a newly built Halo ring to kill all the Flood that came in High Charity, which had ignored Earth in favor of eliminating whatever danger to them was through the portal. With the Hierarchs all dead and the Brute leadership utterly destroyed, the Elites, led by the Arbiter and Ship Master Rtas 'Vadum, leave Earth and return to Covenant space, thus ending the Human-Covenant War.
Fifty years later in 2607, a non-national monument is built to commemorate the war, the UNSC, and Master Chief John-117.
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| | Re: United Nations Space Command
« Reply #1 on Jan 18, 2009, 6:42am » | |
They don't tell Master Chief tries to escape at the last moment inside a space ship, but that the ship is torn in two pieces due to closing of the slipspace portal, bringing the first piece at its destination, and bringing the last piece at a random location in space, somewhere near a planet wich is probably a Forerunner planet. And he didn't actually die.
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