UNSC Make My Day (DD-441)

The UNSC Make My Day (DD-441) was a Diligence-Class cruiser (redesignated light destroyer) constructed by SinoViet Heavy Machinery in a drydock above Reach, commissioned on July 30, 2436. She was the eighth Diligence-Class cruiser produced. Though retired in 2488, the ship was reinstated on November 3, 2526, in response to the loss of thirty-seven ships at the Battle of Alpha Aurigae on October 21, 2526. She was extensively retrofitted to face the new Covenant threat, and put under the command of Captain Richard J. Mackensen, a sixty-eight year old naval veteran of the CMA whom fought the Insurrection in many naval battles.
== Early service ==
The Make My Day served a long, yet undistinguished career as an Outer Colony patrol ship of the CMA. She was involved in nine successful drug interdictions around the outer colonies of Asphodel, Mesra, and Levosia between 2458 and 2461, and participated in the suppression of minor anti-governmental revolts across a dozen outer colonies later in her career. In 2488, she participated in her final peacekeeping operation before her planned retirement- supporting a CMA anti-piracy raid on Venezia to locate several recently stolen slipspace drives. The operation resulted in the recovery of the slipspace drives, the seizure of 4 tons of stolen military hardware, and the arrest of 39 criminals wanted by the UEG. With this final highly publicized victory, she was retired on a high note from her fifty-two year military service, and was placed in long-term storage at a SinoViet facility in high stationary orbit over Harmony. 
She did not serve in the war against the Insurrection that began six years after her decommissioning.
== Recommissioned ==
Upon first contact with the Covenant, and the subsequent string of defeats humanity suffered in the opening two years of the war, the UEG initiated a program of reactivating and retrofitting retired vessels, including the Make My Day, which had lain dormant in orbit over Harmony nearly four decades. This turn of events proved to be fortuitous for the aging Diligence-Class ship, which, by late 2522, had been slated for final dismantlement at the Asźod ship breaking yards on Reach. With this imperative call to action, she had no more than seven months remaining before scheduled disassembly.
Upon recommissioning, the vessel journeyed to Naval Yard AS-9, stationed in orbit above Reach, for comprehensive retrofitting and rearmament.
== Retrofit ==
A list of the modifications, upgrades, and additions to the Make My Day in Reavian Orbit:
* The ship's forty M35 Ares missile launchers were replaced with modern M58 Archer missile pods. An additional ten pods were constructed along each side of the armored hull, bringing up the ship's total number of missile pods to 50
* Large sections of the hull were reinforced with supplemental armor plating, with some localized regions, mainly the flanks, bow, and engines, being similarly armored to that of a Halcyon Class cruiser
* Various hardware upgrades, including new communication systems, modernized life support systems, improved fusion reactor, improved targeting systems, and improved radar, among others
* Greatly increased hangar space, with the ability to carry 9 S-14 Baselard fighters, and 5 F-29 Nandao fighters
* She was not fitted with outrigger Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, being one of the few frontline vessels lacking MACs in active service
* The M710 Bulwark point defense turrets were modernized with M870 Rampart point defense guns
== Service in the Third Fleet (2526-2537) ==
Upon reintroduction, the Make My Day joined the UNSC Third Expeditionary Fleet, led by Admiral Preston Cole. 
=== The Battle of XI Boötis A ===
Her first space engagement occurred on February 13, 2528, at the Battle of XI Boötis A. Lacking a MAC herself, she assumed a support role alongside other vessels. The Day, alongside several other destroyers, bombarded one of the eight Covenant CCS-class battlecruisers with their Archer Missiles and MAC rounds, sufficiently weakening the energy shields for a Halcyon-Class cruiser to destroy it. Thirty of seventy human ships were lost, for eight Covenant ships destroyed.
=== The Battle of the Great Bear ===
Her next space engagement occurred almost twenty-three months after her first, at the Battle of the Great Bear, on December 24,2030, against three Covenant warships, including a much feared CAS-class Assault Carrier. The two escorting Battlecruisers were destroyed, at the loss of eleven destroyers, not including the Day.
=== The Battle of Vodin ===
She fought in the Battle of Vodin, in 2532 against several Covenant battlecruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers. Notably, a Covenant CRS-class light cruiser used one of the planet's skyhooks as cover, leading to the Make My Day unintentionally destroying the skyhook with her Archer Missiles, indirectly causing the disappearance of Spartan II Randall-037.
== The Battle of New Harmony ==
In April of 2537, the Day participated in the Battle of New Harmony under the leadership of VADM. Danforth Whitcomb. Though UNSC ground forces were routed by the Covenant, the fleet action above resulted in one of the few decisive human naval victories of the war. In the battle, a UNSC prowler named Razor's Edge, managed to attach a telemetry probe to a retreating Covenant frigate, ultimately leading to the costly victory of Operation: PROMETHEUS.
=== The Battle of New Constantinople ===
Her final battle as a member of the Third Fleet occured at the Battle of New Constantinople in April of 2537. She was moderately damaged in a close encounter with a Covenant CRS-class light cruiser, suffering plasma damage on several surfaces of her port armor plating. This was her last officially confirmed participation in a battle of the Human-Covenant War.
== Covert Reassignment ==
On May 19, 2537, once repaired, she was reassigned to a newly established covert military unit; the Long Range Strategic Strike Fleet, under the command of ONI Section Three. She was once again retrofitted, this time, to participate in ultra-deep strikes on military facilities, manufacturies, and refineries far within Covenant territory. One of her sister ships, the UNSC Kronstadt (DD-993), was integrated into the unit as well, having her armor stripped, and converted into a stealth vessel. In contrast to the Kronstadt however, the Day was uparmored, with several thin sheets of scavenged Covenant Nanolaminate armor being affixed to her most vital regions, and much of her 3.2 Meter thick Titanium A plating being removed to lighten her. Very little information is known of the Make My Day after this point, with very few, unconfirmed operations known. 
== Operation: BLANK CHEQUE ==
Operation: BLANK CHEQUE was a multi-year ONI operation involving upwards of eighty deep strikes on strategic and tactical targets throughout the Covenant empire, as well as occupied former human systems. The Long Range Strategic Strike Fleet (LRSSF) was formed out of over a dozen various ships acquired by ONI from 2535-2538. The known classes of ships within the LRSSF are two Diligence-Class destroyers, four Halberd-Class destroyers, several Lancer-class corvettes, and various prowler classes, including the Sahara, Eclipse, and a Point Blank-Class prowler
=== Raid on the eight remaining Cities of Edification on Zhoist ===
The first unconfirmed operation of the Day was a strike on the planet Zhoist deep within Covenant space. This was the first human activity in the Buta System since Operation: SILENT STORM on April 15, 2526. The Make My Day alongside an unknown number of other human ships, destroyed the final 8 remaining cities on Zhoist that were untouched in Operation: SILENT STORM.
=== Raid on the Doisac System ===
Sometime in 2540, a raid on the Crucibles of Dovotaa, and other essential Jiralhanae forges on Teash was her most daring raid, and was the longest range military op in the entire Human-Covenant War. The Day, alongside several other destroyers and an Eclipse-class prowler entered the home system of the Jiralhanae, one of the primary Covenant species, and destroyed twenty-four major assembly forges. This raid single handedly set back production of equipment for Brute Clans all over the Covenant and Doisac itself by at least eight years.
=== Unnamed Operations ===
She unofficially made dozens of raids on Covenant logistics convoys and distribution centers, straining Covenant supply lines, dramatically hindering the Covenant advance in several sectors across the war. 
=== Final Raid on Heian ===
Her final known activity was a raid on the planet Heian on April 27, 2545; the same planet that her sister ship, the Kronstadt, visited a year prior during Operation: GREY VEIL. It is assumed that she was sent to retrieve an Ancient Human artifact of some kind, but she never returned. and was declared Lost-With-All-Hands after a one month absence. 
== Aftermath ==
On December 26, 2554, during a research expedition, the remains of a Diligence-Class ship were discovered on the surface of Heian, and later identified as the Make My Day. No human remains were found in the vicinity, and no obvious cause of destruction could be determined. An investigation has been ongoing since early 2555 to piece together the puzzle of her mysterious destruction, and conspiracy theories abound of her crew's fate.
Category:Ships
Category:UNSC
Category:History