The UNSC Spirit
of Fire, was a Phoenix Class Colony Ship, constructed in 2473 and converted into a Warship
more than fifty years later, following the outbreak of the Human-Covenant War.
Following its Refit, the Spirit of Fire filled the role of a Heavy Support Ship and Launching
Platform for planetary invasions.
The vessel carried a massive force of Mechanised Ground Vehicles, Aircraft and Infantry as
well as several Prefabricated Ground Bases.
This allowed the Spirit to quickly establish a foothold for an invasion force on a planet’s
surface and field a sizeable army in a fairly short time.
The Spirit of Fire is 2500 meters in Length, and 800 Meters wide.
The ship carries a complement of over 11,000 personnel including ground assault forces,
and is propelled by eight massive thruster engines taken from the scuttled destroyer
UNSC Calcutta and mounted on the ship’s stern, giving the ship 37% higher thrust output
than the stock vessel.
Like the vast majority of human spacecraft, the Spirit is also equipped with a Shaw-Fujikawa
Slipspace Drive, allowing for Faster than Light Travel.
The Spirit of Fire is exceedingly well armed for a support ship, boasting 22 Large Calibre
Deck Guns, dozens of 50mm Point Defence arrays, several ATAF Missile Turrets and, like most
UNSC Warships, a single massive calibre Magnetic Accelerator Cannon or “MAC Gun”.
The Spirit of Fire was commanded by Captain James Cutter during the Harvest Campaign and
the events that followed.
The ship was equipped with an advisory Smart AI known as “Serina” and carried several
civilian consultants including Professor Ellen Anders.
The Spirit partook in the First Battle of Arcadia, alongside the Armstrong, Belfast,
Texas and Pillar of Autumn.
Across the course of the battle, ground forces attached to the Spirit of Fire were able to
evacuate a large portion of the planets population, saving them from the Covenant assault, and
were even successful in neutralising a Covenant Super Scarab.
However, during the events of the battle, Professor Anders was captured by the Covenant
Arbiter, and the Spirit of Fire was forced to abandon their position above Arcadia, and
pursue the Arbiter into deep space.
In the course of their pursuit, the crew of the Spirit of Fire discovered an ancient forerunner
shield world known as Shield 0459 and became the first humans ever to encounter the parasitic
lifeform known as “The Flood”.
Unfortunately, the crew of the Spirit would never be able to report their discovery to
the rest of humanity.
In order to destroy Shield 0459 and prevent the Prophet of Regret from securing Advanced
Forerunner Warships from the Shield World, Captain Cutter was forced to authorise the
use of the Spirit’s FTL drive as an offensive weapon, destroying the Planet and the Forerunner
ships stored within.
Though the Spirit of Fire escaped the destruction of Shield 0459, the ship was left without
the capacity for Superluminal travel, forcing the crew to consign themselves to indefinite
cryogenic hibernation, as the ship began its long journey back to Earth at sublight speeds.
On February 10th 2534, the Spirit of Fire was declared lost with all hands by the UNSC,
and was memorialised on the “Living Monument” after the war, along with numerous other ships
lost in battle with the Covenant.
However, many continue to speculate about the ship’s true fate.