Third Fleet

The Third Fleet was a Fleet in the UNSC Navy, that was once under the command of Admiral Preston Cole.

Early History
At some point before 2530, Admiral Cole came to control the fleet and the was assigned to the Fleet. An incident involving a Marine, John Forge, prompted Cole to personally assign him to the Spirit of Fire.

The Great Bear
On Christmas Eve of 2530, Cole and the Everest would engage the Covenant at Groombridge 1830. A meeting with a Covenant POW would spur Cole to create a protocol that would be enforced by himself in his fleet, until implemented by the UNSC proper.

Harvest Investigation
On January 3, 2531, ONI requested aid from the fleet. Admiral Cole didn't feel it was important enough for purpose-built Warship and personally assigned the Spirit of Fire to the job. They were to investigate Covenant activity at Harvest and recover personnel from the. The rest of the fleet would be engaged elsewhere. The Spirit would arrive on February 4, 2531. The Spirit would fail to save the crew of the Prophecy; however the Spirit would discover that the Covenant were going to go to Arcadia. After confirmation with Cole, the Spirit left for the colony.

Arcadia
The Spirit of Fire would arrive mid-battle on February 9. The Spirit would join ground operations. During these operations, ONI Doctor Ellen Anders would be captured. This would force the Spirit to chase the Covenant, away from Arcadia. Admiral Cole and other elements of the fleet would also participate in the battle.

Continued Operations
The fleet would survive to 2552. On October 10, 2552 a battle group from the Third would engage an unknown force near Saturn's moon Enceladus. One ship was lost and the Battle Group retreated.

2530s
At the end of 2530, the fleet would have at least 17 ships. 11 of them were destroyerss, two were Marathon-class heavy cruisers, one Halcyon-class cruiser and one frigate. At the beginning of 2531, the fleet contained at least 6 frigates, 4 s and 3 s.