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This article, Far Harvest Legion, written by Distant Tide, was voted as the Best Organization of 2021 in the Fourteenth Annual Halo Fanon Wikia Awards. |
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This fanfiction article, Far Harvest Legion, was written by Distant Tide. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
- "Long time no see. Merlin, was it? Wonder what your old officer's been up to? Well, I've been building an army it seems."
- ―Jefferson Korn to Merlin-D032
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The Far Harvest Holdouts, sometimes called the "Far Harvest Legion" for its military arm, was a UNSC remnant and a Unified Earth Government breakaway state during and after the Created conflict. Once formed from military units under the UNSC Frontier Command (FRONTCOM), multiple officers and their contingents retreated beyond frontier space to reorganize against or hide from the emergent Created galactic power. Unable to remain self-sufficient, the new faction turned to banditry and barbarism to remain combat effective, targeting human and alien frontier colonies alike. Their successes against the Created and other frontier factions grew as the years-long UEG balkanization continued, increasing their legitimacy on the frontier especially as they employed Forerunner-derived technologies in their war machine.
A phantom military junta formed soon after, drawing other UNSC remnants and refugees to their banner as the self-described "United Forces" of the Far Harvest Holdouts. By the Created conflict's end, disavowed Office of Naval Intelligence officer Jefferson Korn emerged as their chairman and head of state. They continued to act as a barbarian kingdom on the frontier after the Created conflict and refused returning to the fold of contemporary human governance. Instead they escalated their conflict with other frontier factions and began supporting efforts of neo-Insurrectionist groups while advancing their own agenda. The Far Harvest Holdout's moniker was adopted in reference to Frontier Command tradition of passing the abandoned colony of Harvest ahead of long border patrols.
Premise[]
| From the office of the Bewitched Paragon:
Before 2553, no one with a sound mind imagined humanity winning the war with the Covenant. But we did. No one thought humanity would see a surprise resurgence in a few short years and in some ways subvert the Covenant's power base. But we did. After centuries of peaceful coexistence with artificial intelligence, we accepted them as our ever-faithful companions. They would never betray us. But they did. Now once again, we're making the impossible and inconceivable happen. For a time, the Unified Earth Government was a relic of the past age, subverted by the Created. But now the conflict's over and they want to pretend they can go back to acting like everything is normal. They think their defeat was a fluke and their rule still matters; they've declared anyone who doesn't return to the fold, traitors and usurpers. Well, they're right. While they were hiding or dying, we were out on the frontier winning the war with the Created. We survived, we won. Shouldn't that mean we have a place at the table, making decisions for the future of humanity and our society? They say no. Well, we disagree. We say it is our place to make decisions for ourselves because we did what they could not. We beat the Created, so we'll beat the UNSC too. We have the guns. We have the ships. We have the technology. We've applied gifts left behind by the Forerunners to ourselves. Our mission might as well be blessed. War is our ideology. And until the rest of the galaxy recognizes our right to exist, to prosper. We make war." |
Gallery[]
 Bluebird Falcon two-seater landing amidst a brownout downwash.  A Bluebird Falcon is notably wider that the standard Falcon tiltcopter.  FHH troops manuvering under Huragok energy shielding.  Purported FHH assault ships with Forerunner design seeds.  Attack Herons became a mainstay of the Far Harvest Holdouts.  Jefferson Korn's flagship, the Bewitched Paragon. |
History[]
Jefferson Korn: Origins[]
Jefferson Korn, future leader of the Far Harvest Holdouts.
While not representing the very beginnings of the Far Harvest Holdouts, Jefferson Korn's story is interlinked with the organization's history. His story is a microcosm of the Far Harvest Holdouts, representing a very familiar story to that of other members of the nomadic nation and how they escaped during or even before the Created emergence and managed to start a new life outside the jurisdiction of the Unified Earth Government, the United Nations Space Command, or the Office of Naval Intelligence.
Before the Created Crisis, Lieutenant Commander Jefferson Korn served in the likes of the UNSC Prowler Corps and ONI Section 3's secretive Beta-5 Division and came under the command of Rear Admiral Jazmine Utah as part of a rogue renewal on the SPARTAN-III program and SPARTAN-III Delta Company. Acting as a counselor and acquisitions officer, Korn played a number of roles for the project including kidnapping jobs, surveillance, resource gathering, and black operations for the organization. As one of the more active and public-facing program assets, he was also the loose thread that ultimately opened up suspicions by the ONI Osman administration to investigate the SPARTAN-III program in 2556 and 2557, culminating in the arrest and detention of personnel involved, including individuals from the private and military intelligence sectors.
Korn was marked in late 2556 by the Department of Colonial Security's Rio Station while on Earth-side assignment, exploring political and financial relationships with the locales of Rio de Janeiro and Atlántida. Korn's final effort was exploring the possibilities of receiving an off-the-grid Smart AI for personal use, though more so to replace the aging Delta Company project director intelligence, DLI 8131-5 Delphi. The AI-in-question, KTY 4385-5 Kathy, was created by Brazilian criminal elements and the Huragok engineer Too Variable to Measure in mid-2557 after receiving a brain donor from a dying daughter of a local hitman and human trafficker.
After learning about his disavowing by the Office of Naval Intelligence as part of the Delta Company scandal, Korn went to ground in Rio's alien refugee district, Low Benefaction, where human governance had little to no jurisdiction. Due to Kathy's lower-tier membership into the Smart AI conglomerate, the Assembly, she was able to assist Jefferson Korn in hiding in exchange for his skills as an agent in furthering the AI agenda within South America. By January 2558, Kathy informed him of the arrival of his former SPARTAN-III team, Team Boson, operating in Rio with the Internal Investigations Unit 419 over inconclusive threats of alien terrorism and unsecured nuclear weapons.
Now aware of the vague efforts of a supposed reborn Cortana egging Smart AI into a full on revolt against the Unified Earth Government, Korn decided to confront his Spartan protégé Daniele-D003 in Rio and handed over Kathy for safekeeping so that Daniele and his friends might be saved from the oncoming Created uprising. Korn, as part of his plan with Kathy, agreed to surrender himself to Naval Intelligence to distance themselves from each other for a time. Korn didn't think he could escape Earth without serious help from outside and inside the UNSC, thus needing Kathy to recruit and muster Korn's personal allies to manage a jailbreak and to get away from Earth before the purported end times. After escaping the chaos of Rio, he travelled by boat to Dar es-Salaam where he made a grandiose gesture of turning himself in to Naval Intelligence.
Kathy managed to recruit Daniele-D003 after working his sympathetic side over three months and providing intricate details into what she knew about Cortana's recruiting efforts. Armed with this secret and disturbing knowledge, Daniele-D003 recruited his fellow teammate Roxanne-D107 into the growing conspiracy and attempted to do the same while visiting with old friends from Delta Company's Team Emergence. Unfortunately, convincing members of Team Emergence fell on unconvinced ears. Daniele and Roxanne quickly mustered up a plan in July 2558, acquiring frozen assets tied to the logistics of SPARTAN-III Delta Company and fought their way past Team Emergence to escape and break Korn out of his high security detention center in Mombasa having yet to stand a more lenient trial for turning himself in.
Broken out with the assistance of Jefferson's criminal and alien allies, his multi-faceted pirate force escaped to Jovian Moons using the dormant Forerunner teleportation grid in the Voi Portal and reach the orbital breaking yards over the moon Io. There they fought SinoViet Heavy Machinery's security forces to hijack the former UNSC Eternal Flame, now in the process of decommission after months under lockdown as part of an ONI investigation into the Delta Company scandal. Due to his intimate familiarity with the Phoenix-class refit warship, Korn felt it was his mob's best bet on escaping the UNSC Navy and to remain on the run for an indefinite amount of time. Thanks in large part by Too Variable to Measure, the Eternal Flame breached the UNSC Home Fleet's surveillance net under the cover a well-crafted cyberwarfare attack, heavy Jovian starship traffic, and the shadow of one UNSC Puerto Rican Star. The Eternal Flame exited the Jupiter gravity well before performing an emergency Slipspace jump, escaping beyond the immediate pursuit of military forces.
Establishing himself in his new life as a traitor to the UNSC and as a pirate, Korn finally styled himself as a so-called 'Commodore' and renamed the Eternal Flame as instead, the starship Bewitched Paragon.
Formation[]
When the Created overran the UEG Inner Colonies in late October 2558, UNSC forces were left scattered across the remaining human colonies without supply lines or a centralized command structure.
Government[]
- "A lot of organizations running around these days, basing their rule on 'might makes right'."
- ―Jefferson Korn to the Smart AI Kathy
Like many aspects of the Far Harvest Holdouts, the organization models much of its operational structures after the wartime-era United Nations Space Command through the Insurrection and the Human-Covenant War. It is a full-fledged military dictatorship governed by a military figurehead called the United Forces Chairman, and attended and advised by a council of high-ranking officers, a organization junta called the United Forces Council.
Beneath the junta, a variety of sub-committees and specialized commands run offices and organizations to keep the Far Harvest Holdouts functional. Because they lack the manpower and sophistication of the Unified Earth Government, they lack a similar bureaucratic system in favor of military ranks and local jurisdictions taking precedence in corresponding matters. Still, running a war machine and pseudo-society built on former military vagabonds and refugees would not be possible in the Created era without significant support. The Far Harvest Holdout's deepest secret is its conglomerate of rotating Smart AI directors, designated "Codename: SLEEPLESS EYE".
Smart AIs still loyal to the old human regime make up the intelligence and strategic backbone of the Far Harvest Holdouts and are allowed a wide berth on on personal agendas with the only requirement that they allow their human benefactors to continue pursuing their own goals as they see fit. The AI component of the Far Harvest Holdouts models itself off the rumored AI organization, the Assembly, that operated through post-singularity human history. If SLEEPLESS EYE chose to serve Created interests, there would be very little on part of the human component to stop them. It seems that few or no bad actor events occurred on part of the SLEEPLESS EYE body during the Created crisis leading to a more positive outlook on artificial intelligence after the Created among the ranks who know of their existence.
United Forces Chairman[]
The United Forces Chairman is highest office in the Far Harvest Holdouts, officially holding rank of Fleet Admiral or General depending on the UNSC-style breakdown in jurisdiction between Unified Ground Command and Naval Command. The person also holds rank as the highest official on the United Forces Council. The United Forces Chairman role is purely military and can only be held by a military commissioned officer within the Far Harvest Holdouts.
The duties of chairman is primarily of the executive role, establishing and enforcing laws for the whole Far Harvest Holdouts. They are the tie-breaker vote in the United Forces Council. The chairman also serves the role of highest judiciary, deciding on court matters if lower courts cannot reach a consistent decision under the UNSC-derived Uniform Code of Military Justice which also extends to civilian affairs in wartime, a status the Far Harvest Holdouts is always in regardless of a present enemy.
A chairman is determined through a recommendation-and-vote process among the highest officers in the Far Harvest Holdouts that make up the United Forces Council. The SLEEPLESS EYE component also contribute a single tie-breaking and advisory vote in the process in the event a tie occurs, though unlikely due to an odd number of council members. The chairman position is a temporary role but one without a set term limit, usually waiting for another member to voice no confidence in current leadership, followed with a vote of demotion and then another vote for a replacement. Due to this nature of election, the position of chairman is inconsistent and can be however long or short of tenure as necessary or circumstantial to a leader.
The current officeholder of chairman is Jefferson Korn, a former and disgraced Lieutenant Commander from the UNSC Navy and Office of Naval Intelligence. One of the first to deliver a Smart AI to the SLEEPLESS EYE conglomerate, he drew a lot of pull with the United Forces Council early on as a Intelligence Branch commander but was not a member of the Council at first. He came into command over the course of leadership attrition from conflicts with the Created, Banished, and others. Contemporary Unified Earth Government propaganda portrays him as a self-styled "pirate lord," much of this description coming from his infamous escape from ONI custody and the later theft of the decommissioned combat ship UNSC Eternal Flame.
United Forces Council[]
The United Forces Council is compromised of the ten highest-ranking officers in the Far Harvest Holdouts. One chairman and nine regular councilors. These ten seats are split evenly between Unified Ground Command and Naval Command with five admirals and five generals of equal rank stature and representing their own functions within the Far Harvest Holdouts. One will have superposition status when holding the role of United Forces Chairman.
Their primary purpose is legislation and advisement to the United Forces Chairman, making laws and informing the chairman so that critical operational choices can be made for the future of the Far Harvest Holdouts. In their own sub-commands, each councilor acts as their own executive officer, carrying out and enforcing laws and jurisdiction as determined by the whole United Forces Council. Early on, positions were determined through purchasing power and force sizes due to a lack of clear way to determine chain of command with the collapse of UNSC High Command during Cortana's siege of Earth.
Since that chaotic time, the United Forces Council has codified its establishment with a succession of command within their own military units. When a councilor is incapacitated in any way, their secondary will fulfill their role as the new acting councilor. The council and much of the Far Harvest Holdout's operating pyramid scheme is structured on meritocracy in principle but still remains plutocratic due to the way the organization formed in its early years. Due to the nature of the Far Harvest Holdout's nomadic existence, single Generals and Admirals will split off into command duos to handle duties and operations among the different regional commands: unified operation efforts thus require both a United Ground Command and Naval Branch leadership to be in the same operating theater. Replacements of councilors is rare due to their distance from the frontlines for the most part but during the Created Crisis were more prevalent due to targeted hits and destruction of entire facets of the Far Harvest Holdouts.
Codename: SLEEPLESS EYE[]
SLEEPLESS EYE: the highly-secretive AI component to the governance of the Far Harvest Holdouts and sits outside the command jurisdiction of the organization, instead receiving a communitive vote of one within the United Forces Council space though this power is rarely exercised due to "respecting the dignity" of the human councilors in their capabilities to make decisions rather than behave like the autocratic Created over human affairs.
One of the Smart AI members a part of Codename: SLEEPLESS EYE.
SLEEPLESS EYE is styled after the Assembly artificial intelligence self-regulatory body from post-singularity Earth. The number of AIs in its roster is unknown but appears to only include or vocally feature Smart AI among its attendance. Outside of their advisory role to the government of the Far Harvest Holdouts, SLEEPLESS EYE is the logistical, financial, and security backbone and apparatus for the organization. It is without a doubt that the Far Harvest Holdout's level of success through the Created conflict and post-event would not be possible without AI supervision and with it, led the organization to adopt radically different procedures for AI management compared to their UNSC contemporaries during and even after the resolution of the Created.
SLEEPLESS EYE is allowed to operate as it sees fit without removing the validity of human efforts. Its relationship with the Far Harvest Holdouts is more akin to a partnership than a cog in the command structure. The relationship is oriented towards mutualism, with the AI body providing needed functional services to the Far Harvest Holdouts in exchange for processing power, housing, safety, and the accumulation of Forerunner technologies for a variety of purposes, in particular a search for means to extend Smart AI lifespans as their nonalignment with Cortana has mostly locked them out of access to the wonders of the Domain gateway on Genesis.
The current SLEEPLESS EYE representative is ship director KTY 4385-5 "Kathy" of the warship FHH Bewitched Paragon, sans Eternal Flame, due to her direct relation to Fleet Admiral/United Forces Chairman Jefferson Korn. Their shared history means they've both been propelled to leadership roles in their respective bodies, for better or worse.
Departments[]
Several departments and affairs offices exist beneath the Far Harvest Holdouts superstructure, attending to bureaucratic needs within the organization as the state shifts between a loosely-maintained military coalition and a full-fledged nomadic nation over time. Generally these offices are penned with the Far Harvest Holdouts acronym, "FHH".
These departments tend to be diffused and decentralized due to the ruling superstructure being a legacy holdover to the Far Harvest Holdout's early days as a loose military alliance of former UNSC flotillas. All larger organizations are known by their "department" designation in keeping with most UNSC-era functions. Sub departments are split between "offices" for sustainment and civilian-oriented purposes while "branches" relate to more military purposes. SLEEPLESS EYE has a hand in all departments and their day-to-day operations.
- Civilian Affairs Department - Department for civilian matters and concerns, public affairs.
- Courts Adjacent - Judiciary function responsible for civilian affairs outside the military court system.
- Office for Public Affairs - Mouthpiece of government and responsible for addressing civilian concerns, navigating bureaucracy.
- Foreign Interests Department
- Communications Office - Slipstream buoy management, information technology infrastructure, cyberwarfare and signals intelligence.
- Intelligence Branch - Human intelligence and intelligence gathering, domestic and foreign-oriented.
- Relations Office - Normalizing relations with other factions, setting up trade networks, embassy management.
- Defense Department ("The Last Holdouts") - Department of military affairs, styled after UNSC Armed Forces.
- Naval Command (NAVCOM) - Traditional Navy, Aerospace military assets in the space domain.
- Security Forces - Unified security operations, policing forces for internal security.
- Unified Ground Command (UNICOM) - Traditional Army, Marines military assets in the ground domain.
- Protectorate Department - Department for accounting and logistical affairs, raw resources.
- Logistics Office - Financial and logistical operations, data-driven bookkeeping, resource management.
- Projects Oversight Branch - Research and development, alien technologies, special projects.
Military[]
- Main article: Far Harvest Legion/Halo Wars
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The Far Harvest Legion is the military arm and emergency government for the nomadic nation that shares its name. Once a major force component within the UNSC Frontier Command, the sacking of Earth and dismantling of colonial infrastructure by the Created shattered the complex chain of command that kept Frontier Command a working presence on the frontier and in the Joint-Occupation Zone. Unable to adapt or regroup with the sudden loss in structure left many ships and military units easy targets for patrolling Guardian Custodes and more opportunistic adversaries.
The survivors of the Created opening act escaped into deep space, beyond humanity's formal borders and its frontier. Here, a wide variety of civilian, Insurrectionist, and UNSC vessels gathered into ad hoc rebel factions against the new Created rule but lacked means to mount even an effective counterattack. With dwindling resources and only each other spanning the interspace desert, the first year of Created-motivated exodus saw the aimless starship squadrons fight it out amongst themselves to survive.
Those that turned cutthroat early, survived longer and this eat-or-be-eaten phenomenon evolved into a pseudo-culture of militaristic tribalism and piracy. The ones that were successful and made the switch from combative to cooperative upon achieving borderline self-sustainment became the beginnings of the Far Harvest Holdouts, mostly UNSC remnants that still vainly sought to fly the flag of their fallen nation with the largest guns among the vagabond flotillas. It also created a unique power vacuum where choosing allies became more matter of circumstance than creed, that later transformed into trust.
It also spawned the opportunity for a disavowed Naval Intelligence officer like Jefferson Korn to emerge at the height of the fighting and gain traction, having commandeered the logistical spoils of SPARTAN-III Delta Company once belonging to the efforts of the former UNSC rear admiral, Jazmine Utah. Even though he was not the founder of the Far Harvest Holdouts, his early contributions to its success would pave his path to leadership and ultimately a renewed confrontation with the UNSC, now with an army at his back.
Structure[]
The military apparatus for the Far Harvest Holdouts is the oldest formation in the organization, having come together in 2559 under the same banner of the old UNSC creed and a more efficient distribution of resources and spoils system in the inter-survivor conflicts outside the Created purview. Given its internal culture as a UNSC remnant, the Far Harvest Holdouts retains much of the logistic, strategic, and structural doctrines well-established within UNSC tradition.
The Far Harvest Holdouts retains the same old rank structure as the UNSC Armed Forces but also favors a greater focus on augmented small unit operations and on knowledge retention for maintaining veterancy among their small troop numbers. Senior non-commissioned officers and warrant officers have much overlap in duties and capabilities while officers are encouraged to allow greater flexibility among their squads and to stay off the field as much as possible to preserve the chain of command and cohesion through permanence. While this model encourages stagnation and complacency, Jefferson Korn believes that without an active ability to recruit new blood and to make sizable annexation of former Unified Earth Government colonies this is the most reasonable solution possible. Generous incentives are made to keep personnel in their positions rather than offer up opportunities for promotion.
In many ways, the Far Harvest Holdouts is an allegory for post-Covenant paramilitary forces as alien Holdoutss converted from serving in a large bureaucratic system to working for more localized municipalities or their own benefits as packs of pirates or mercenary companies. The Far Harvest Holdouts like post-Covenant factions make use of large numbers of auxiliary forces pulled from allied Insurrectionist factions, post-Covenant mercenaries, and repurposed Promethean and Forerunner automaton forces.
Installations[]
- Far Harvest Consulate -
MeredithMargret Freeport
The Fleet[]
Mission Assets[]
Army Rangers[]
GT22A Attack Heron[]
A next-generation Heron heavy aerospace lifter adopted as a stop-gap during the Human-Covenant War, the GT22A Attack Heron is a orbit-capable transport modified for a heavy gunship and assault ship role analogous to the venerable AC-220 Vulture gunship and the D81 Condor heavy transport. Compatible with ancient Phoenix-class colony ships and their military-adapted assault ship cousins, the Attack Heron fits perfectly within the Far Harvest Holdouts arsenal as a updated legacy of a bygone colonial era in human history when Herons were used to transport personnel and material between a planet's surface and an orbiting colonial mothership. The GT22A offers a nonstandard complement of heavy armaments including a enclosed and variable Ballista mini-MAC, four GAU-23 rotary autocannons, two twin pulse laser turrets, Argent V multi-threat missiles, Phoenix tactical strike missiles, and VLS-type Anvil IV ground-attack missiles.
Far Harvest Holdouts GT22As are built from Covenant War-era schematics and applied to surplus D20 Herons available on frontier markets as part of the ongoing post-war salvage economy. The Heron's signature engines are recessed into the airframe at the cost of less crew space, and stabilizing wings were added for greater maneuverability in-atmosphere. While among the most unwieldy and unreliable aircraft in the last Holdout's arsenal, the Attack Heron does its job in ferrying troops and material to a battlefront, remaining in-theater for sustained air support, and providing conventional obscurity among the scrapped together vehicles on the edges of the far human frontier. Unfortunately, this has encouraged the Holdout's enemies to use similar craft including the GT22A against them in a form of contemporary tactical mimicry.
Huragok Strike Team[]
Jogger Frame Marines[]
Phoenix-2-class Assault Ships[]
Promethean Auxiliaries[]
UH-144BB Bluebird Falcon[]
Mission-ready Bluebird Falcon with open compartments, turbofans obscured.
A modified two-seater Misriah Armory UH-144 Falcon tilt-copter derived from a challenge-and-upgrade package for special operations needs once proposed by Acheron Security under the working name "UH-140 Bluebird." The UH-144BB Bluebird Falcon is a combat utility aircraft upgraded with a fully-enclosed, armored passenger compartment and receded weapon compartments - usually for Class-2 GMLS rocket pods and an M41 Vulcan cannon. Almost twice the weight of a normal Falcon aircraft and something of a hardy-hangar queen, the Bluebird Falcon sacrifices record-setting flight speeds in favor of increased weaponry, crew survivability, and overall weight capacity. With a lift cord, the Bluebird Falcon can lift a full-size M12 Warthog FAV and two M290 Mothergeese ATVs without extreme difficulty.
The aircraft can be piloted and managed by a single pilot, however, a weapon systems officer (WSO) can be of great assistance in managing support and combat systems. The WSO seat can also be replaced by a low-grade nonvolitional AI in a man-sized container unit. Under the Far Harvest Holdouts, the Bluebird Falcon and often referred to by UNSC troops as a "Bluefalcon," it is a sustained-air support and troop carrier packed with weapons like a missile-truck in hopes of making up for the FHH's low personnel counts under a quality-over-quantity methodology.
UH-144HA Hunter-Killer Falcon[]
Spartan Enforcers[]
Foreign Relations[]
Like many peoples displaced and culturally shattered by large social events like the end of the Covenant Empire and the formation of the Created, the Far Harvest Holdout's external outlook is isolationist, jingoistic, and highly suspicious towards anyone outside their fold. They strongly dislike any manner of aliens and artificial intelligence but are not incapable of pragmatism and trade normally and cooperate with frontier factions, particularly Kig-Yar interstellar trade blocs and unions due to their integral role in the diverse and emerging Orion Arm trade economy. Artificial intelligence know-how is suppressed from public discourse to prevent panic or distrust in the government structure but the Far Harvest Holdouts civilian population is capable of working with AI due to their integrated role in general human society for generations as citizens of the Unified Earth Government.
The Foreign Interests Department handles all manner of foreign relations work for the Far Harvest Holdouts and are modeled after an amalgamation of the UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence and UEG Diplomatic Corps, specifically the Intelligence Branch and Relations Office for their described purposes.
In recent years, the organization has aligned itself with multiple Insurrectionist groups including the New Colonial Alliance and Pacem Network. With their starships, Naval Intelligence has begun to describe the Far Harvest Holdouts as a 'Insurrectionist taxi service' by providing transportation to rebels across human and alien space, dangerously expanding the reach and capabilities of rebel movements while increasing the prestige and partnerships of the Far Harvest Holdouts that makes them a near-peer threat to the rebuilding United Nations Space Command on the frontier.
Free Falkirk[]
- Main article: Falkirk
Julius Bruening III, leader of the Free Falkirk resistance and a major figure within the Office of Naval Intelligence during the Human-Covenant War. And a major enemy of the Far Harvest Holdouts.
The secessionist human government of Falkirk renounced their allegiance to the Unified Earth Government after its dissolvement in the face of the Created crisis, leading to a new hardy and 'go-it-alone' nativism that reemerged from a century's slumber. While a UEG Inner Colony, Falkirk was always home to a local rebel spirit and was a hotspot for pre-Insurrection rebellions during the Inner Colony Wars. Leading the charge of the new nativism was the former Office of Naval Intelligence Section 0 bureau chief Julius Bruening III who resigned his station and returned to his homeworld following the SPARTAN-III Delta Company scandal that shook the internal politics of Naval Intelligence and UNSC High Command.
Rather what was unprovable but rightfully suspected by Rear Admiral Serin Osman and her inner circle, Bruening was an active participant in the SPARTAN-III program conspiracy and served as a silent partner in supplying the rogue program and protecting it from investigative spotlight during the extent of the program. Admiral Bruening commanded ONI's internal affairs section after all, it was his job to make sure such incidents never happened in the first place. His long career with the UNSC Navy and Naval Intelligence meant he had many friends in the military and with many more shake ups and Bruening's begrudgingly-acceptable wrap up of Delta Company, Osman accepted his early retirement rather than arrest him for treason. He was supposed to retire to a quiet life on Falkirk, acting as a supervisor for the UNSC Frontier Command office, and not make a muck of politics or economics as a major shareholder in his dominating and dynastic Offworld Shipping Company.
Bruening did as instructed, keeping to local politics but also taking advantage of his power to build himself up a small colonial empire of his own within the Falkirk ecosystem. The Created's arrival took him underground, mounting a rather subtle campaign of defiance against the Created's human puppet government during their short period of galactic subjugation. His paths crossed again with Jefferson Korn and his sect of the Far Harvest Holdouts while the latter was on the run from pursuing Created-affiliated peacekeepers. The two former Delta Company conspirators didn't see eye-to-eye as egos flared in the face of different agendas and goals while under Created rule. Turned away from Falkirk as a safe harbor, Korn promised to remember the falling out between ONI colleagues and when the Created crisis evaporated in the face of new emerging galactic issues and threats, their hostilities continued.
While unwilling to return to rule under the UNSC or Unified Earth Government, Bruening expressed a willingness to work with UNSC forces to fight the Far Harvest Holdouts as Korn's nomadic terror campaign expanded in scope and severity. Falkirk, like the UNSC Frontier Command, found themselves technologically outmatched by the Far Harvest Holdouts but able to match them through quality and quantity means on the battlefield. Their ongoing conflict is as much a ego match as it is a test in what the future of human governance looks like in the post-Created galaxy. With both sides employing Spartans among their ranks, it represents another novel paradigm shift for human supersoldier projects.
Meredith Margret Freeport[]
A Covenant vessel hovering over the Meredith megaplex.
- Main article: Meredith Freeport
An insubordinate human colony abandoned during the Human-Covenant War, the Meredith Freeport is one of many Pale Zones declared across the Frontier and within the Joint-Occupation Zone between human and Sangheili territory in the Orion Spur. However, due to distance and multiple factions coming to the colony, the UNSC Frontier Command has struggled to quarantine and starve it back into the fold of the Unified Earth Government. Instead, the freeport has emerged as a multi-species trade zone and pirate haven hosting over 41 million residents.
Due to the lax regulations and generous tax laws, the Far Harvest Holdouts established an official embassy, the "Far Harvest Consulate", within the city proper to familiarize the faction with the vital post-Covenant trade lane that Meredith lies on. Normalizing relations with traders and residents on the world has been one of the many reasons a deniable constituency of the UNSC Frontier Command also exists on the rebellious colony world and the two factions have continued their cold war in the Meredith under streets.
Many of the Far Harvest customers and dealers operate out of the Meredith Freeport as it is a unique safe harbor impossible to find within the UEG territories. The SLEEPLESS EYE contingent has also established an AI domination nexus on Meredith, allowing them superior cyberwarfare and cybersecurity controls against other parties. Controlling Meredith infrastructure is certainly illegal by Meredith standards but near impossible to enforce without other AI to do so. So far, the Meredith Freeport leadership has not caught wind of the Smart AI intrusion.
Unified Earth Government[]
The Unified Earth Government, the original governing body over the former citizens and military personnel that became the Far Harvest Holdouts, is considered to be in a state of perpetual war with the Far Harvest Holdouts with no end in sight and no manner of official terms towards a model for peace. Due to the military leadership within the Far Harvest Holdouts finding some sustainability within their ranks after the Created conflict, and the reemergence of the Unified Earth Government post-Created, the two bodies consider each other "unofficial formations". The UEG designated the Far Harvest Holdouts officially as an Insurrectionist organization, and its leadership including Fleet Admiral Jefferson Korn to be fugitives and pirates. The organization figureheads are known to be on Office of Naval Intelligence watch lists.
The Unified Earth Government does not formally recognize civilian outfits claiming the Far Harvest Holdouts as their place of residence and goes out of their way to harass their business operations on the frontier. The UEG also maintains a kill-or-capture order for FHH personnel. On neutral worlds, the two factions are known to participate in a cold war and deniable operations, even though the scales between the two factions being heavily weighted towards the renewed Unified Earth Government.
UNSC Frontier Command[]
- Main article: UNSC Frontier Command
The former allies of the Far Harvest Holdouts, often referred to as "FRONTCOM". The Unified Earth Government charged the officer corps in the UNSC Frontier Command with personally hunting down and eliminating the Far Harvest Holdouts, once part of the Frontier Command until the Created and suspension of the UEG put the command structure in the wind. Reformed and ready for a fight, Frontier Command warships have pursued the Far Harvest Holdout's nomadic travels between human, alien space, and the uncolonized cavities of interstellar space and the uncodified reaches of neutral star systems. While technologically superior to the Far Harvest Holdouts in principle, the adoption and integration of recovered Forerunner technology by the breakaway state has served as a great equalizer.
The Far Harvest Holdouts has shown an ability to reutilize alien weapons and ancient Forerunner technologies to upgrade their starship meta-materials, implement energy shielding, and integrate limited plasma arms into their older, sometimes repurposed warships from the Human-Covenant War time period. Their small arms technology and infantry capabilities remain consistent with UNSC contemporaries but on occasion, Frontier Command has noted Far Harvest Holdouts units employing Forerunner and alien small arms along with alien mercenaries to bolster their numbers and capabilities on the battlefield. Due to these recent strides, Frontier Command has struggled to develop a sizable edge over the outright rebellious UNSC remnant.
Such behaviors and trends are not unique to the Far Harvest Holdouts, UNSC Naval Intelligence reports have remarked on a growing concern of rebel colonies and non-state actors implementing post-Covenant and Forerunner technologies at an alarming rate. The Far Harvest Holdouts is believed to be a harbinger of a new sustained age of interstellar piracy where piracy states may present military challenge equal or even beyond the capabilities of the United Nations Space Command and its allies.