User:BaconShelf/Sandbox

The  was a large Combined Fleet of the Covenant. Throughout the first few decades of the Human-Covenant War, the fleet was responsible for the majority of Covenant operations within the Human Sphere, though was eventually broken up for the war's final decade.

Formation
In the earliest months of the Human-Covenant conflict, the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience commanded by Nizat 'Kvasoree was responsible for conducting the campaign against the humans. The fleet was successful in carving out the earliest swaths of what would become known as Ingress Zones Alpha and Bravo; the first invasion channels employed by the Covenant to bridge the large void to human space. The singular fleet led by the CAS-class assault carrier Pious Rampage was deployed on what was believed by the Covenant to be little more than a pest control operation; the human presence on Harvest was light, and it was unlikely they'd occupy more than the handful of systems within Harvest's immediate stellar neighbourhood. Unfortunately for 'Kvasoree, this was proven false as more and more systems were discovered, ultimately leading the fleetmaster into overextending his forces and supply line, leaving them open for a critical strike at Etalan and again at Zhoist. The human attack resulted in the destruction of the Ring of Mighty Abundance and two of the Ten Cities of Edification; a heinous crime and proof that the human vermin were a bigger threat than previously believed. In response, the Covenant High Council dictated the creation of a grand fleet to enact a holy crusade against the heresy of the human menace, as a means of enacting the Covenant's revenge against such a heinous act.

Fleetmaster Xytan Jar 'Wattinree was appointed as the Imperial Admiral of this great fleet, and a call was sent out to all of the Covenant's subordinate ministries, vassals and martial organisations to provide a tithe of ships and manpower to the effort. In an unusual sign of great co-operation, this saw forces from multiple ministries including the Ministry of Tranqulity, Resolution and Fervent Intercession to all pledge extensive forces nominally under the command of the Imperial Admiral. The fleet assembled at High Charity for two months, wherein thousands of capital warships made their transit to gather in the Holy City's docking spires - one of the single-largest concentrations of Covenant military might in recorded history. The months of assembling this fleet saw a time of simulataneous celebration and mourning within the Covenant.

By June of 2526, the fleet had amassed twenty supercarrier or other similarly-sized mobile habitats, over a hundred assault carriers and thousands of other capital warships, and began their journey from High Charity's orbit of Zhoist to the human space beyond. The fleet that departed did not consist of the full forces of the Fleet of Virtuous Ascendancy, with many more ships inbound from further anti-spinward regions of the empire ensuring a steady stream of inbound reinforcements for months to come. The fleet split its forces into multiple groups, which began to probe human space on multiple fronts; throughout the next few years, the Fleet of Virtuous Ascendancy would open several more ingress channels into humans space.

Early campaign
During the turmoil of the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience's destruction and the Combined Fleet's assemblage, the weakened Covenant invasion push had allowed the UNSC to reinforce their position, with some human strategists even giving weight to the possibility that the success of Operation SILENT STORM may have broken the back of the Covenant. During this time, Preston Cole was able to retake Harvest and a handful of other systems. Throughout the later weeks of June 2526 and the ensuing months, the forces of the Combined Fleet began to sweep across several previously-scoured human systems, putting to rest any notion that the Covenant may have been broken. In these early months, the Imperial Admiral was as focused on the search for the Halo Array as he was the military campaign the fleet had been assembled for, and put great resources into searching unoccupied systems for any hint as to the presence of a ring. Other matters soon presented themselves, further dividing the fleet's attention from its primary objectives - the search for the now-rogue Nizat 'Kvarosee, the deceptions caused by the the Cole Protocol and Operation: WORM BOX and the intra-fleet politics of the various Covenant factions soon began to make clear the fleet was not as cohesive a unit as the humans believed. A number of losses at the hands of Vice Admiral Cole grew an ever-more present thorn in the Imperial Admiral's side, resulting in a massive combined counterattack at Harvest led by the Fleet of Glorious Interdiction. The campaign soon turned into a bitter ground war as both sides became firmly entrenched within the BS Indi system.

Breakdown and mid-war years
Despite these setbacks, the Combined Fleet made notable success during the first decade of the war, glassing dozens of planets and scouring hundreds of systems. However, many of the logistical problems behind-the-scenes continued to build up and, combined with increasing effectiveness on the part of ONI subterfuge operations and the ever-widening scope of the Outer Colonies, soon saw the fleet begin to lose the momentum it had in the campaign's early years. Many of the crews began to question their purpose in such an increasingly unpopular war, and infighting between the various factions began to become more severe; with so many different groups and commanders with so many different objectives and goals, managing task assignments became an ever-increasingly complex task for the Imperial Admiral. System searches were seen as a low-effort task for the lowliest crews, and glassing operations and attacks on civilian targets dishonourable. Grudges, boredom and a lack of return on the promised glory, honour and spoils of war saw the beginning of desertions and mutinies, with several ships proclaiming to head back to their own worlds and families. Restless commanders began to choose their own targets, resulting in a handful of UNSC victories in which an understrength rogue Covenant force attempted to attack a human colony world to little success, and a handful of friendly-fire incidents between rival forces. The destruction of Shield World 0459 and death of an Arbiter in 2531 further hurt morale, and Xytan began to rapidly lose his authority in the fleet.

Throughout the later 2530s, the Imperial Admiral was seen with more and more disdain by the Hierarchs, with the decision made in 2542 to remove the Imperial Admiral from service in preference of a more pliable puppet. Ironically, this commander (name needed) would meet his death only eight months later, when his flagship and 300 other warships were destroyed by Vice Admiral Cole in the Battle of Psi Serpentis; falling into a trap the Imperial Admiral had advised against pursuing for months.

Subordinate units
During the early-mid years of the Human-Covenant War, the Combined Fleet of Virtuous Ascendancy was senior to nearly all Covenant forces operating within human space. Some of the more notable elements are listed below;
 * Fleet of Glorious Interdiction
 * Fleet of Swift Justice
 * Fleet of Righteous Vigilance
 * Fleet of Rigorous Prayer
 * Third Fleet of Glorious Consequence
 * 200-strong mega "flag" fleet needs a name
 * 100-strong fleet needs a name