UNSC Styx

Name: Styx

Nickname(s): Ole Reliable

Designation: UNSC Styx 0273

Type: Combat Support

Captain: Dexter Marshall

Shipboard AI: Equipped *(Erudito)*

 Year Built: 2549

Class: Phoenix-Class Assault Ship *(2500x800 metres)*

Crew Complement: 6952

- Spinal-Mounted MAC

- 270 Pods of Twenty Howler Missiles *(5,400 Total)*

- 60 Pods of Thirty Rapier Missiles *(1,800 Total)*

- Broadside ATAF Missile Turrets

- M965 Fortress Point Defense Network

Slip Space Drive: Equipped *(Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine)*

Assigned Fleet: Task Force Omega

Military Detachments: N/A

- ODST Deployment

- Spartan Deployment

- Marine Deployment

### Description:

Aging in design and offensive utility but still tactically useful on the front lines, the *Phoenix*-class Assault Ship is a large vessel that can haul copious amounts of UNSC forces. First introduced as the unarmed *Phoenix*-class colony ship in as late as the 24th century, initially the ships were designed for transporting thousands of human settlers to new colony worlds. However, when war with the Insurrection started to escalate many of these originally peaceful ships were refitted with offensive and defensive weaponry and tasked with supporting UNSC ground forces, a role the newly refitted ships performed very effectively. They continued their service through the Human-Covenant war and were still in use post war.

The UNSC Styx was completed on 04/09/2449, it’s original intent was to assist in the defence of Reach. As you may guess, things went bad quite soon. The Styx was charged with defending one of Reach’s twenty Orbital Defense Stations during *The Fall of Reach*. When the Covenant’s larger fleet attacked the station, the Styx was in charge of leading the offensive efforts in an attempt to buy the station time. As can be expected, the Styx and it’s fellow ships were soon either disabled or destroyed. And so, the Styx and it’s crew performed their first, of many, feats of pure luck. The crew watched as the Covenant blew the ODS out of the sky, all the while their engineers managed to temporarily fix the secondary engine array and their Marines had cleared out all boarding enemy forces. Ordering a quick retreat, the Styx assisted further on Reach, but was ultimately one of the few ships remaining, which were ordered to abandon the planet.

After going through extensive repairs and retrofits, the UNSC Styx was reassigned to Home Fleet, just months before the *Battle of Earth*. Her captain was once again at the ship’s helm and they were prepared to defend Earth where they had failed Reach. The Styx was part of the forces that were to defend the *ODS Malta*, however, a Covenant bomb placed by the boarding enemies meant the station was lost very early in the battle and the forces in charge of protecting her were scattered. The Styx was to thank for the scattered forces regrouping and performing a successful counterattack, halting many ships from reaching earth. This counterattack cost them dearly, and although it was a victory, it was a temporary one. When the Prophet of Truth’s fleet arrived, the forces the Styx had rallied were soon cut down, with the Styx surviving only thanks to the quick wit of her Captain and the luck that seemed to come with the ship. The crew remarked many times that the Styx is her own lucky charm. The Styx was badly crippled as a result of Truth’s attack, and thus she was put on the back burner only to be called upon if Lord Hood needed reinforcements badly. Many UNSC tacticians found use of her, turning the ship into a temporary, but efficient, mobile command hub for the duration of the battle.

At this point, the Styx undergoing extensive repairs and retrofits was becoming a joke. Not two months after the completion of the original respec, it was to go in for another. This time, however, the Styx got in many peaceful years of patrolling the Sol System before its next large scale encounter with enemy forces. The Styx was present at the battle against the *Mantle’s Approach* somewhat mistakenly, it had just finished restocking at an Orbital Defense Station when the massive ship came out of slipspace casting a shadow across her hull. Were it not for the crew of the *UNSC Acheron* using its superior hull armour to take a shot originally intended for the Styx, she would have been cut down. After the return of the *UNSC Infinity* and the end of the *Second Battle of Requiem*, The UNSC Styx was told to lend it’s luck to a group in much need of it; *Task Force Omega*.

Going in for refits one last time before being sent to the Task Force, the Styx was updated to allow the use of a shipboard AI. However, with the *UNSC Acheron* having come under attack and needing repairs, the ship was sent off without an AI, despite now being able to carry one. Luckily for them, the compulsive laziness of the *Acheron*’s AI, Dubito, caused a singularity which, in turn, gave them an AI.