UNSC Fearless (Spartan 501)

The UNSC Fearless was a Halcyon Class Cruiser in the UNSC Navy from 2510 to 2537, where it became stranded during the battle of Installation 00. Created in 2510 and designated to be scrapped like the rest of its class, the Fearless was reactivated in 2533 to serve as a Scientifc Research Ship, it was loaded full of scientists and marines, as well as there families, and in 2536, it set out into unknown space. It quickly found a small moon and dumped the majority of its supplies there. It then headed out into the unknown, and discovered Installation 00.

After several months of research down on the surface and no action up in space, supplies began to dwindle, so the Fearless set out for the moon once again, leaving volunteer Michael Harrington on the surface to look after the extensive sattelite network surrounding the installation. During slipspace, its captain forgot he had never made a call to the UNSC telling them of their location, he had been so excited he forgot. When he emerged he sent a message and picked up the supplies, but it was blocked by a Covenant picket operating in the area. A battle ensued, and the Fearless, sorely undergunned as she was, damaged the picket and then began the long trip back to Installation 00. However, unknown to them, they were followed by the damaged picket.

When they returned insystem, they dispatched a small group of marines down to the planet to pick up Harrington. For almost two weeks the Fearless waited up in space for the Strike Force to return with their station commander, but in vain. No word was heard at all. Until one day when sensors picked up a drop pod streaming up to meet the Fearless. However, it was not to be. Covenant forces who had landed on the ground attacked with a crude but powerful energy cannon, and though the Fearless suffered minimal damage becuase it only caught the edge, the EM wave knocked out the drop pods power, and they lost it once again.

The captain decided to take matters into his own hands. He dispatched an engineering team to Outpost Rio to collect the sattelite network data, a marine fireteam to investigate the Strike Force's location, and a Search and Rescue team of three ODSTs to look for the station commander, who presumably also had the Station AI with him. Word came first from the Marine Fireteam. The entire strike force was dead by ambush, but it appeared the station commander had taken out the entire covenant force by himself. Word came next from the S and R team, who were pinned down by what they called "Dinosaurs".

They were succesfully lifted out, and brought to where scanners had pinpointed the drop pod went down; a snowy patch on the ring. The engineering team collected the personal logs and data inputs, and returned to the Fearless. The Marine Fireteam also returned, slightly shaken. The S and R team searched around the wreck for six days with no luck, but where engaged on the sixth by a Covenant Wraith tank. The Pelican Eagle One managed to take the Wraith down with a ASGM-11 Missile, but it was now clear that the Covenant were indeed on the ring, and could not be allowed to escape. The battle had begun.

The S and R team was safely picked up by Eagle One, and it began its return trip to the Fearless. However, the Covenant had other ideas. They fired the Energy Cannon, and this time the Fearless took a direct Broadside and sustained heavy damage. The captain ordered an immediate retreat to get them out of range of the energy cannon. Sensors detected that Eagle One went down thanks to the EM burst that the blast released, which caused a failure in the dropships electronics. Tension rose on the ship, and the technicians reported that the long range comm unit was completely destroyed, as well as the slipspace drive.

Finally, after several days of waiting around and hoping for word, the Captain decided they would have to risk transports. Becuase of the range to the ring, they were stripped down, and were given instructions to land once they offloaded their troops. It was a risky venture, but it was their only chance. Sending off the transports, the Fearless watched as they took fire from the cannon and lost over half the troops in space. Those that made it landed and began an assault on the Covenant base, which was the location of the energy cannon. The troops took heavy casualties, but there was no way to send in reinforcements.

However, this changed when the energy cannon suddenly went offline. Moving quickly, the Captain ordered immediate reinforcement of the planet. Scorpion tanks, warthogs, and infantry alike were sent in, and before long, the Covenant were driven back and killed. It was then revealed that the station commander and his AI were responsible for it going offline. The captain met up with him and congratualted him on a job well done. A funeral ceremony was held the next day for those dead in the battle, and the Captain gave Harrington the Tranquility, a modified Longsword that the Fearless carried. The Fearless then went and began shuttling down people to the ring, where they were repopulating the settlement and enlarging it to a full size town. The slipspace drive was down and could never be repaired; the same went with the long range comm. They offloaded all personell from the ship, and left a Station AI to keep it in a steady orbit around the ring. However, the captain was the last to come off, and most of the bridge crew, including him and the ships AI, Kaylee, did not leave for several months.

This paid off. Several months after the battle, three picket ships were detected entering the system. The marines groundside rushed to the energy cannons, and the civilians were all shuttled up to the fearless. However, one team of ODSTs and scientists had not finished with their duties. They had been assigned to survey a site that the Fearless's scans could not penetrate, a valley near the ocean. The Captain told Kaylee to get commander Harrington working on getting them, and sent a message to Harrington to get to them, appraise them of the situation, and return them to the outpost until the Fearless returned. The Fearless was going into hiding inside the Nebulas most concentrated area, taking the majority of all the personell with it.

However, only a few days into their hiding, they got word from Arthur that it was safe for them to come back out; a surprise attack from the energy cannons had decimated the Covenant forces. Also, the crew learned that Harrington and Andrea had discovered a huge infestation of unknown creatures, and they were asked to come to the valley and prepare to nuke it from space. However, it would take them approximately a week to come to the valley.

When it finally arrived, the Fearless found that everything was over. The ODSTs were safe, the Covenant ships had been destroyed by Marine gunners, and the infesation was obliberated. The men and woman aboard the Fearless were shuttled back down to the surface to begin their lives anew, and the Fearless was once again left floating in an orbit around the ring.