UNSC Heart of Courage (CA-740)

The UNSC Heart of Courage was a Halcyon-class Heavy Cruiser Refit. She was launched from the Reyes-McLees Shipyards at NS Cubi Station, Reach on the 11th of November 2510.

She is one of the longest serving Halcyon class vessels and was considered to be a very unlucky ship to serve aboard, with crew assigned to her often taking demotions to avoid serving aboard. She would invariably end up in the thick of battle and end up badly damaged with severe losses in crew, however this was more likely a reflection on the reckless and hard-charging command style of her first two Captains, RDML Stedall and RDML Peterson. Both of whom were capable commanders, but the imagined shame of having been placed in command of a seemingly useless cruiser, caused them to push the ship and crew in a quest to prove themselves and climb the ranks.

Battle damage caused her to be almost completely rebuilt 4 times, leading to her nickname "The HOC", a play on both her name and "Ad Hoc", because of all the repairs and patches done to keep the ship operational. Other nicknames included "The Fleet's punching bag" and "The Reach School of Engineering and Repairs".

Despite the overwhelming negative reputation she gathered, she participated with distinction from the Retaking of Harvest right through to the Battle of Jericho VII in 2535, where RDML Stedall was killed and the HOC was forced to retreat barely operational with loss of 84% of her crew. She scarcely made it to Reach, where she was rebuilt again, and on behest of her new commander RDML Peterson, a second MAC cannon was added in an over/under configuration and the missle carrying capacity radically increased. In fact the Admiral refused to take command of the vessel if these changes were not performed, having been passed over for command of a Marathon-Class cruiser. His years of service and knowledge and his threat to reveal details of certain "rumoured" operations, caused High Command to cave to the Admiral's demands and the Heart of Courage was significantly upgraded.

It was also this time, that RDML Peterson selected a new first officer CPT Booyens. The man whom eventually succeed him. Under RDML Peterson's tenure as captain of The HOC, the ship started to gather an impressive kill count in Covenant vessels, and despite taking insane beatings, it continued to return from patrols and battles. Only to be repaired, patched and sent out again. It participated in the Battle of Psi Serpentis accounting for a significant number of kills, before being forced to retreat due to Admiral Cole's orders and critical damage to the reactor and superstructure. During the retreat the bridge had been directly hit by a Plasma torpedo, killing most of the command crew including RDML Peterson. CPT Booyens was severely burnt and despite this guided the HOC through the Cole-protocol required slipspace jumps, before returning to Reach.