UNSC Southern Cross

"Magnitudo animi constantiam spirat."

- Ship motto

The UNSC Endeavor (hull code: DD-347) is a venerable Beagle-class assault destroyer, and one of two ships to have participated in the Harvest Campaign and the Siege of Sol. The latest in a lineage that hailed back to the seventeenth century, the Endeavor is one of thirty-five destroyers built to trial the installation of state-of-the-art hangar facilities on light-tonnage warships. While still possessing two full-sized fusion reactors, a relatively-high acceleration and as thick a hull as the baseline class, its armaments were lacking thanks to the removal of several Archer missile pods and the down-scaling of its Magnetic Accelerator Cannons. Despite these significant drawbacks, it remained a solid vessel which outlived the sisters it was built alongside.

Design
Like all Beagle-class destroyers, the UNSC Endeavor shares most of its hull and superstructure design with the Halberd-class destroyer. At 480 metres in length, it was only five metres shorter than the design it was based on. Past its arrowhead bow, the differences are minimal. This mainly involved replacing certain areas of the hull with 0.4 metres of durasteel armor, which sacrificed protection for speed, as well as a number of keel-mounted thrusters to hold it up while operating in a planet's atmosphere. The bow is slightly different, with a larger hangar bay that is half-again as large as on its more common counterparts, and a smaller upper hull. The hangar is divided into two sections; a long flight deck that is located on the upper floor, and a general-purpose bay that accommodated both dropships and ground vehicles on the lower one. Both decks use different airlocks, so they can launch and receive different squadrons at the same time. However, only aircraft entering the front hangar door can benefit from the advanced gravitic breaking system. The upper plate on the bow that ran between the raised plates of titanium-A battleplate is unusual in that had a series of automated elevators and armatures that could rearm and refuel up to three space fighters in the middle of battle. Intended as a forward-thinking feature, it was hoped that the UNSC would introduce a smaller interceptor model to take advantage of it. No such aircraft would ever reach the light of day, so the system lies unused. In homage to its maritime namesakes, the Endeavor is often seen sporting red-or-blue war paint resembling waves on its bow and wings.

In terms of armament, the UNSC Endeavor 's original ship-to-ship armament consisted of two Series-2, light coil MACs. The Series-2 MACs were intended for use on corvettes, and fired far smaller slugs in exchange for higher speed and quicker recharge times. Backing this up were 18 M58 Archer missile pods, each with five silos. These were general-purpose missile pods that are effective against other ships, but could also be used against larger gunships and space fighters if necessary. They could also carry a vast assortment of warheads, with armor-piercing and counter-shielding being the most popular. It lacks the M870 Rampart emplacements, and in their place are eight M37 Suppressor turrets, each with twin-linked 279mm naval autocannons. They could be used for defeating missiles, but they were intended for use against other ships and space fighters. Instead, 19 M710 20mm turrets were installed for this purpose. For use against far slower and heavier opponents, two M81273 fusion rockets were embarked, each with a variable payload. Like on regular Halberd-class destroyers, a Mark 45 fire director was used to vastly increase its accuracy at extended ranges of 50 kilometers or more.

Refits
As a former CMA warship, the Endeavor was typically initially passed over by UNSC officials when it came to upgrades, with any improvements made coming from reclaimed parts that belonged to scrapped vessels. This was partly fueled by their disapproval in combining the roles of destroyer and transport, as it was not able to fulfill either role as well as many other vessels already in service. However, as it continued to survive engagements with the Covenant, refits were eventually authorized that steadily built upon its capabilities, with these often being implemented between large-scale repairs.

By 2532, the Endeavor had received a small suite of improvements, as five years of constant action would obviously cause severe wear on its systems. While most of its systems replacements were minor and hardly affected its performance, with its powerplant, electronics, and even its superstructure being modified to some capacity, two significant changes were made. The first was the installation of a TN-91sy/n Triad targeting suite taken from the, an older computer network that allowed for better coordination of nearby Archer missile swarms and plotted more accurate fire from its naval autocannon battery. The second was a controversial array of radiators at exposed parts of the ship, which while it enabled the Endeavor to overclock its reactor and engines well above their designed limits, left holes in its armor that was never fully addressed over its lifespan. The only other noteworthy change was the increased complement of point defense guns, in a desperate attempt to better protect it from plasma torpedoes and the unexpectedly-resilient Covenant strikecraft. Because the shipwrights had to rely on whatever weapons were available, it was not composed of one homogeneous type of turret, including others such as the M810 Helix and various models of Rampart guns.

In 2532, after suffering extensive damage following the Battle of Boundary, the Endeavor limped to the regional shipyards of Passage, where she underwent its first major refit. This was an expansive affair, involving the modification of vital internal equipment, the movement or mutation of its armor and hull, and the removal of dozens of makeshift repairs made over the last seven years. Most prominently, its forward bow was angled downwards and expanded in size, originally to allow for the installation of a third MAC. However, high demand for such weapons saw the space being given over to supercapacitors, munition storage, and more accommodations for Marines and pilots.

Construction and commissioning
The destroyer that would be christened the Endeavor first began construction in orbit of Chi Rho by the local construction company Diadel Systems, who had been subcontracted by SinoViet Heavy Machinery to construct a number of modified destroyers for the Colonial Military Administration. It was first laid down on August 22, 2518 as the third of the thirteen destroyers built of its batch, which ended with the completion of the UNSC Heart of Midlothian in late-2522. As its previous two sisters allowed Diadel to identify and fix many issues with manufacturing and shipping of parts, the destroyer would suffer no construction delays, with its fabrication actually being accelerated at least two months ahead of schedule. It was launched on January 27, 2519 to complete the fitting-out process.

As construction came to a close, the destroyer was subjected to a rigorous set of space trials, intended to test the operation of its systems and general integrity. This consisted of a series of hard burn accelerations, sensory tests, and close-orbit passes. The third trials were notable in that the ship was caught in an intense comet bombardment that saw large and small shards of rock impacting to the destroyer's hull, forcing it to undergo extreme evasive maneuvers to escape damage. One of these turns saw it unintentionally collide with the MSV Ivory Tower, a large maintenance tug that attempted to rescue it. The damage would delay its commissioning, but the minimal, almost superficial extent showed that the destroyer was much more ruggedly built than was first believed by the shipbuilders. It was commissioned as the CMA Endeavor on March 19, 2519, and was delivered to the CMA a mere three days later. It would depart the Ectanus 45 system, manned by a new rookie crew under the command of Lieutenant Commander Asia Vespa.

Insurrection
The CMA Endeavor first served in the 173rd frigate flotilla, a light naval unit that operated in the Lurone, Rawadi, and Rowena Sectors of FLEETCOM Sector 2. In this guise, it was primarily used to conduct light troop movement through the region, where it ferried elements of the 276th Colonial Army Battalion towards unrest hotspots on Pumice and Cadence. It lent naval support where possible, but thanks to the small-scale of the fighting, and the Endeavor 's lack of atmospheric thrusters, its support was generally limited to logistics and coordination. Other tasks included convoy protection duties to the habitats of Campbell's Landing, in an effort to deter losses to piracy in a navigational hazard zone around it. Most of these tasks were quiet affairs, as nobody realistically wanted to pit themselves against a Colonial Navy destroyer.

In October 2521, the Endeavor was reassigned into the 114th Rapid Strike Squadron, as a replacement to the. Its first combat action with the 114th was during the rescue of the raided commercial freighter MSV Presidential Screwup on December 3, where a pair of Insurrectionist corvettes which had to be driven away. The attackers were driven off, and 148 merchant sailors and 26,000 metric tons of foodstuffs being saved by the Squadron. However, the impact of an improperly-calibrated Archer missile launched by the Endeavor damaged the freighter enough that it could not be repaired. This was the first of many instances that established it as the most incompetently-crewed and laziest ship of the fleet. Over the next year, it would be followed by minor issues such as incorrectly reading sensor reports, to far more major events where they allowed insurgent vessels to escape even when in an optimal pursuit position. It would not shake off this reputation until after the Human-Covenant War had started.