UNSC Iron Duke

The UNSC Iron Duke is a Vanguard-class battleship currently serving with the Commissioned in 2494 as part of a UNSC initiative to 'outgun' the during the , the Iron Duke would see no major action during the conflict, being placed into reserve in 2519. Stripped for parts, the Iron Duke would be the last Vanguard to be reintroduced into the fleet after spending several years in refit, not entering service until 2531. Fighting in holding actions across the Outer Colonies, it was during the in 2545 when the Iron Duke, heavily damaged by relentless Covenant attacks, would jump to slipspace before exiting in an unknown system. Shutting down all major systems and entering crew survivability mode, the Iron Duke would lay dormant until 2560, when she would be reactivated by a small UNSC flotilla fleeing the Created. She now leads the small squadron in uniting UEG worlds and combatting Covenant remnant incursions into human territory, acting as a beacon of hope for UNSC assets scattered across the Outer Colonies.
== Service History ==
Like the preceding three Vanguards, the Iron Duke would be built above Mars in the dockyards of . Laid down on the 15th of May, 2488, at the Ganymede Orbital Dockyard, the as-of-now unnamed Battleship Hull 26 would progress in a regular fashion. Following its sister ships that had been laid down the year before, Battleship Hull 26 spent four years under construction, before being launched to much fanfare on the 7th of September 2492, formally receiving the name Iron Duke. 
=== Insurrection Service ===