UNSC Leander (CVG-42)

UNSC Leander (CVG-42) was an Argus-class carrier in service with the UNSC Navy during the Human-Covenant War and subsequent Remnant War. Commissioned in May 2552, Leander's first action was in August that year, when she participated in the battles of and Tribute. On August 24, while deploying her air wing above the New Alexandria area, Leander was ambushed and harassed by two squadrons of Covenant Seraph starfighters. Leander was relieved ninety minutes later by the frigate Aegis Fate and the destroyer Final Effort, but not before she had sustained irreparable damage to her Magnetic Accelerator Cannon and fire control radar, and the loss of most of her air wing.
Leander was thereafter repurposed as an evacuation ship and reassigned to Tribute, which was suffering from a lack of slipspace-equipped transports. Leander held orbit above Tribute for five days, embarking civilians ferried from the surface by orbit-capable civilian and merchant craft. By August 30, when Covenant forces finally bore down on Tribute, tens of thousands of civilians made their temporary home aboard Leander, occupying every compartment from the mess halls to the now-empty flight decks.
The seven ships of Battlegroup Swiftsure arrived in orbit above Tribute at 0712 on August 30, reinforcing the few vessels already stationed there. By this time, the UNSC fleet at Reach had been all but annihilated. Leander was given permission to retreat and, after wishing Swiftsure and the other nineteen ships defending Tribute good luck, initiated a slipspace jump at 0720. Leander ultimately escaped the Covenant onslaught with close to fifty thousand civilians onboard. The only other UNSC Navy vessels to survive Tribute were UNSC Resurgence, which returned to Earth severely damaged on September 12, and UNSC Sheffield.
On her return to the Sol system, UNSC Leander was repaired in drydock above Singapore, and returned to active duty in time for the Battle of Earth. Having survived the breach of Truth's fleet through the orbital defences and destruction of most of the fleet, Leander was crucial in denying the Covenant success in subjugating Europe. Later, Leander was instrumental in relocating UNSC Army and Marine Corps units to North Africa, where the bulk of the Covenant ground presence was concentrated.
After the UNSC's victory at the Ark, and the end of the Human-Covenant War, Leander continued to be worked hard as one of a handful of UNSC carriers in existence in the early post-war period.
Leander, UNSC