United Nations Space Command

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UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND

The United Nations Space Command is the main faction of future humanity, spanning multiple worlds besides Earth. Formed in the 2160s, during a period when remnants of old cultural ideologies clashed over supremacy in the Solar System, the UNSC primarily served as an overseer of United Nations military operations in space. After initiating massive militarization propaganda throughout its off-world colonies, the UN, through the UNSC, defeated Neo-Communist and Neo-Fascist forces in a conflict generally known as the "Interplanetary War", consisting of several side-battles that took place on Mars, the Jovian Moons and the South American Rain forests. Although the war brought a great deal of suffering to both the colonial population and the residents of Earth, it also united humanity's military forces into a common armed force by the end of the 22nd century: the UNSC.

Before the Covenant's attack on Harvest, humanity is in turmoil, with the more remote colonies fighting for independence from the UNSC. To help quell the revolts, the UNSC commissions the SPARTAN Project, which creates elite supersoldiers to stealthily eliminate insurrectionists. When the Covenant began decimating the outer colonies, these Spartans became humanity's best hope against the technological superiority of the aliens. By Halo: Combat Evolved, Earth-- whose location is kept secret from the Covenant-- is the last remaining Human bastion; it falls under attack during Halo 2. The end of the Human-Covenant war only comes after one of the Spartans, MCPO John-117, helps to eliminate the Covenant's leadership and destroy the Flood.

Military

The UNSC is the military arm of the Unified Earth Government, or UEG. According to Halo story architects Frank O'Conner and Robt McLees, during the events of Halo the UNSC exercises considerably more power than its civilian counterpart. The UNSC is divided into multiple subbranches, very similar in structure to the current-day US military, as well as including medical and science divisions.

The commanding offices of the UNSC military are CENTCOM (Central Command), and HIGHCOM (High Command). The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the most secretive branch of the UNSC, responsible for gathering intelligence and distributing propaganda. In the novels The Fall of Reach and Ghosts of Onyx, ONI is responsible for the development of the SPARTAN II and SPARTAN III supersoldiers under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Halsey and Colonel James Ackerson, respectively.

The primary force in the UNSC, the UNSC Navy is seen to use a varied fleet of warships, ranging from retrofitted Colony ships and fighters to stealth ships and cruisers. Among the UNSC's armaments are coilguns known as "Magnetic accelerator cannons", or MAC guns. First mentioned in Halo: The Fall of Reach, the cannons play an important role in Halo 2 as part of Earth's defense grid. Aboard Navy ships are the UNSC Marine Corps, seen throughout the games and novels as the primary ground force of the UNSC. One of the UNSC's Special Forces units are the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (also known as "Helljumpers"), which specialize in orbital combat insertions. As characterized by author William C. Dietz in Halo: The Flood, the future Corps shares thematic similarities to the present-day United States Marines. The UNSC also has an Army, which serves as a ground defensive force within the UNSC military along with the UNSC Air Force, and in the novel Halo: Contact Harvest train militias on each colony, in part to stem insurrections against the UNSC on the colonies.

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