Factions:
Navy from HALO(before Covenant War – 2525)
Alliance Navy from MassEffect(before First Contact War – 2157)
Both System Alliance (SA) and UNSC represent the most powerful human faction in their universe. But which one is stronger? Let's find out! But before that, the rules:
are not allowed to reverse engineer another party's technology, but they can improve their own.
fill the lack of knowledge about ships, we will use images made by independent artists(Right to quote).
this knowledge, and my own thoughts, we will calculate the number of ships, people, and so on(Right to quote).
factions start with the same morale.
other faction can intervene.
Now that the rules are clear, let's do it.
The UNSC is the main armed force of the United Nations that represents humanity in the world of HALO. The organization was founded in 2163. Its main objectives were: Maintain and support the policy of the United Earth Government. To provide for the safety and security of territories, possessions, and areas of the Unified Government of the Earth that are essential to its interests. In 2291, the FTL drive, SlipSpace, is discovered. By the end of the 24th century AD, 210 internal colonies had been established. The peak of this colonization movement came in 2492 when more than 800 worlds were on the territory of the United Nations Security Council, and many of them were intended for human habitation. In the early 25th century, Insurrection began to slowly expand in the UNSC's Outer Colonies. Over time, many Brushfire Wars began to explode, and the UNSC, which until then was primarily an anti-piracy force, was tasked with suppressing the revolt. In 2513, the UNSC ordered Operation: TREBUCHET to quell the rebellion. The operation itself lasted until the beginning of the Human-Covenant War. By the end of 2525, many rebel cells were still fighting, although many chose to rejoin the UNSC to fight the alien threat. This is no war of extermination here, so they won't join.
The Insurrection led to many important elements that influenced the history of the UNSC, such as the SPARTAN-II program and the major modernization of the fleet. According to the calculations of EckhartsLadder, in 2526 AI mentioned 2034 ships of the creators. Considering the rapidly built ships, and that not all humans were members of the UNSC, I will give them 1,800 ships. According to Instalation00, the population is 58 billion. In his video, he explained why he thinks so, and I think it is correct. The FTL drive before 2525 has a speed of only 3 Light Years per day.
The main defensive equipment of the UNSC ships was Titanium-A Armor. Depending on the ship, the armor was 60 centimeters to 2 meters thick. Still, one MAC cannon hit during The Insurrection allowed it to penetrate the armor of any ship. Besides, UNSC ships had AI on board that coordinated weapons and Cyber-warfare systems.
Speaking of the MAC cannon, it is the main armament of every UNSC ship. The weakest MAC cannon mounted on frigates and cruisers fires a single 160-ton missile at speeds of 30 kilometers per second. This is the equivalent of 72Terajoules(TJ) (1TJ = 1,000,000,000,000J). Slugs made of depleted uranium fired by the Paris-class heavy frigate can weigh up to 600 tons (frigate built after 2525). It is the equivalent of 270TJ. Super-MAC was build after the Human-Covenant war begin. The downside is that it takes a long time to charge the weapon's energy before firing again at full power. In addition, UNSC ships are equipped with numerous M58 Archer missile launchers. There is usually at least one nuclear missile on each ship. The last type of weapon is the Point-defense gun. It is a type of magnetic accelerator weapon mounted on a UNSC spaceship. Although there are several models, the most common type of point weapon fires 50mm high-explosive shells. Also worth mentioning is the short-stroke capability of FTL. It is extremely difficult for the UNSC ships of this period, but Preston Cole proved it was possible.
For support, UNSC ships carry Space Fighters such as Longsword.
Taking all this into account, I will define the UNSC's forces as:
4 supercarrier
40 carrier
260 crusiers
400 destroyers
700 frigates
350 corvettes
50 prowlers(stealth-capable corvette)
200 SPARTANS
THIS is a great strength. I wonder how System Alliance will do, but first a short review of its history.
In 2148, the ruins of an ancient civilization on Mars were discovered - the Protheans. This discovery caused such a stir in human society that a year later the Systems Alliance was founded and the first Mass Relay was activated. Through Mass Relay, System Alliance ships can travel at 900 light-years per day, without only 12. They also allow for intra-system jumps.
Just before the outbreak of the First Contact War in 2157, the System Alliance had about 200 ships - and that's the only information we have, but given the time and some information in the Codex, we can conclude that the pre-war population of the Systems Alliance is some 11 billion and a maximum of 20 planets. As we do not have ANY information about warships from this era, or even from the next era, except Normandy, we have to use ships invented by independent developers. In this case, it is euderion. It brilliantly described several types of ships that might have been in use during the First Contact War. The main defensive equipment of the System Alliance ships was the kinetic barrier, protecting the ship from all kinds of kinetic weapons and missiles, but it also has a large chunk of armor. GARDIAN lasers are anti-missile and anti-fighter weapons.
The main armament is the MassEffect gun. On the Everest-class dreadnought, the fired projectile has a muzzle velocity of 4025 kilometers per second and weighs 20 kilograms, resulting in a kinetic force of 160 TJ. This weapon can fire every 2 seconds, and thanks to the much higher muzzle velocity, it has a much greater effective range. Personally, I use the distance that the projectile will fly in 15 seconds as the effective range of a kinetic weapon. After this time, the ship may have time to change position and the slugs will simply pass it. Of course, this is for a dreadnought, and smaller ships will be much weaker, Berlin-class cruiser will have a muzzle velocity of about 2 times lower and a much lighter missile, Genova-class light cruiser is at all, so we'll take 20TJ for Berlin-class and 2 TJ for Genowa-class. Additionally, Berlin-class and Everest-class have MassEffect broadside guns, but they are only for close range.
The Systems Alliance also uses aircraft carriers, and this was revolutionary during the First Contact War, but not against the UNSC, which also has these types of ships.
Additionally, each ship has SA marines for protection and boarding operations. Systems Alliance uses VI to improve the coordination of systems.
For support, they use triden MK3 fighters that are small, fast, agile, with torpedo launchers, MassEffect weapons, and kinetic barriers.
Taking all this into account, I will define the SA forces as:
2
Everest-class dreadnought
2 Einstein-class carrier
80 Berlin-class cruiser
120 Genowa-class light cruiser/frigate
As already explained, it's time to duel.
If someone has not noticed yet, I will explain it quickly. System Alliance ships outclass UNSC ships in almost every respect. Even the upgraded Genowa-class ships will be better than their counterparts. The only advantage on the 1v1 battlefield for the same weight class for UNSC is their use of AIs that are superior to Alliance VI. And here's the problem.
UNSC ships are much larger than UNSC ships and there are definitely more of them. The advantage in firepower will also be short-lived, as the UNSC was undergoing a major fleet modernization at that time. So while SA ships will still have an advantage, it will not be that much of a difference with time. Another plus for UNSC is their use of nuclear weapons. It is by far the most effective weapon against SA as kinetic barriers don't block heat. Another advantage of UNSC is experience. During The Insurrection, which lasted some 25 years, the UNSC acquired many qualified commanders for its navy, while the SA was the first of its kind.
However, distance and speed is a huge asset for SA. Their ships, even without Mass Relay, move 4 times faster, which, combined with the tactics of the alliance, gives him a great advantage. Thanks to the rules of this duel, UNSC will take a month to move from one SA system to another, while they can do it overnight with Mass Relay. When it comes to boarding actions, the SA has an advantage again, thanks to personal kinetic barriers for the marines. This is until the Spartans show up. Everyone has to admit that even the N7s are completely outclassed by the Spartans.
And so we come to the last factor, time. Time is very much on the side of UNSC. UNSC has existed as an organization for over 370 years, SA is only 8 years old. In addition, the huge territorial, numerical, industrial, and resource advantage allows you to build much more warships in shorter time. Additionally, Element Zero, or 'eezo' if you prefer, who is responsible for a significant technological advantage, is extremely rare and expensive, which will greatly affect the development of the SA fleet. This territorial advantage and the SA's use of Mass Relay allows the SA ships to quickly deduce where SA ships came from, even as if it were 9,000 light-years from there.
There is another advantage that UNSC has, stability. Before the First Contact War, the SA was considered by the citizens to be an organization only on paper, and only after its 'victory' in the war did it manage to form its own government. It's not that easy here.
The result is probably predicted by the majority, UNSC will win by far. A long war of destruction, but it will win. The only chance for the SA is to attack the capital of the UNSC quickly, which is very unlikely given the differences in the territory. The Cole protocol was written during the Covenant War, so it is possible to intercept this data, but even with that in mind, SA ships are simply too low in numbers.
You can ask for specific faction death battle in comments, and I will try to do this, if I now universes enough. If somebody want to use it in his e.g. video, you can without question, just let link to this(like I did - right of quote).
watch?v=97ArgMdBkSY&t=357s - Calculating the size of the UNSC Navy (before the Covenant War) | Halo Lore(EckhartsLadder).
watch?v=CSseuWPpYVI - Human-Covenant War - Human Casualties ft. HALO CANON(Instalation00).
.org – information about UNSC.
euderion/art/Alliance-First-Contact-Era-Starships-592657749 – Berlin-class crusier and Everest-class dreadnought.
euderion/art/Einstein-Carrier-597239272 – Einstein-class carrier
euderion – account of euderiona
euderion/art/Geneva-class-Light-Cruiser-Overview-713892257 – Genowa-class light crusier/frigate
euderion/art/Alliance-Fighter-types-661707241 – triden MK3 fighter
21.04.2021 - Quick fix of the bug shown by TexasBrigade