UNSC Restless (FFG-3061)

UNSC Restless (FFG-3061) was a Remembrance-class frigate of the UNSC Navy. Constructed above, Restless served a short but active service life between her commissioning on August 23, 2549 and her destruction at the.

Battle of Reach and destruction
During the Battle of Reach, Restless participated in the defence of the, making herself available to be tasked with fire support missions. By August 30, Restless had stayed aloft for fifteen days at the highest combat alert, without resupply or rest, assisting UNSC ground forces and under constant threat from Covenant anti-air batteries. During this time she destroyed a battalion-sized force of Covenant armour and infantry, in addition to three AAA guns and one  as it entered the upper atmosphere.

In the early hours of August 30, Restless mustered in orbit with all other available ships, over 150 warships in all, in an attempt to repulse the. In the ensuing exchange of fire, the majority of the UNSC Navy's ships were destroyed or mortally damaged, including Restless, which sustained catastrophic damage. Restless was hit by two plasma torpedoes most likely fired by a Covenant vessel of assault carrier tonnage or higher, judging by their size as these vaporised the lower third of the frigate, including the lower prow and the majority of the ventral superstructure. Restless was also struck by a significant quantity of high velocity debris caused by the destruction of. The combined effect was to render all of the frigate's primary systems inoperable. Restless survived these hull breaches by automated sealing of breached compartments, but emergency thrusters were not enough to prevent her being knocked out of her stable orbit and undergoing an uncontrolled re-entry. Restless remained pressurised and largely intact during her descent, being destroyed on impact with the ground, which occurred approximately 60 kilometres northwest of New Alexandria. The position and angle at which she came to rest indicates someone onboard managed to reinstate engine thrust and/or control surface authority during the descent, but that this was insufficient to recover the frigate's course, and instead only lessened the impact.

Restless hit the ground at roughly 470 kilometres per hour, with an estimated deceleration at impact of well over 150 g, far beyond crew survivability levels. The bodies of 350 Navy personnel were found onboard on exploration of the wreck in 2589, constituting roughly half of the ship's crew at that time. Thirty three of the ship's complement of 60 Mark 4 lifeboats had been launched, indicating that at least half of the crew managed to escape the ship as it descended, although no records exist of any of the crew members escaping Reach itself.

Legacy
The wreck of UNSC Restless was rediscovered in 2564 as part of a detailed orbital study of Reach's surface. One of the UNSC Navy's seven recolonisation vessels intended for Reach sited its first settlement approximately three kilometres east of Restless ' s, leading to the early exploration of the wreck. The bodies of her crew were buried in August 2589 in a new cemetery specially sited for the role, which would eventually become the Reach War Memorial Cemetery, the largest of its kind on the colony. Her ship's bell was recovered and displayed in in the reconstructed New Alexandria, and was moved in 2610 to the.