Hieronymus Michael Stanforth (Earth-8573)

"That was a helluva piece of astrogation you pulled off. People noticed. Not to mention the morale boost it's given to the entire fleet. Now, that's the reason we're all here. We need a victory. It's been too damn long—us getting whittled to pieces by those alien bastards. This has got to be a win. No matter what it takes."

- - Michael Stanforth to Jacob Keyes

Vice Admiral Hieronymus Michael "Harold" Stanforth (service number: 00834-19223-HS) was a flag officer of the UNSC Navy, formerly acting as the head of the Section Three division of ONI. He was an important figure in the formation of the SPARTAN-II Program, and by the middle of the First Contact War, he left the agency to become the naval commander of the Epsilon Eridani system. When the Covenant attacked Reach, Stanforth was killed by their forces.

Early life
"You've got three hours. Find Lyrenne before ONI gets her. Bring her in yourself. That'll go a long way toward clearing your name and ending this."

- - Michael Stanforth Preston Cole Hieronymus Michael Stanforth was born on July 3rd, 2476, in Bliss, and when he was 17 years old, he enlisted in the UNSC Navy. By 2503, he had reached the rank of admiral, and on June 13th, he sent a message from his ship, the UNSC Leviathan, to then-Captain Preston Cole, with information regarding the discovery that his ex-wife, Lyrenne Castilla, was an Insurrectionist infiltrator in the UNSC, leading her insurgent forces from the ship Bellicose. Stanforth had, in fact, breached UNSC law to warn Cole he had three hours before HIGHCOM sent an arrest order for Lyrenne. Cole was eventually court-martialed and sentenced to capital punishment for treason, but the admiring public persona of Cole and Stanforth's inner workings permitted Preston to be released without any charges, and all those involved in the case kept it classified.

By 2507, Stanforth became a captain, and in this year he noticed the appearance of the young scientist, Dr. Catherine Halsey, after she was able to successfully correct the works of Dr. Elias Carver. From that point onward, he started to give support for Halsey, including her secret project. While many in the UNSC believed her idea to be flawed and inhuman, Stanforth believed it to be the only way to stop the Secession. By the end of 2510, he achieved the rank of vice admiral. Not long after, he held a seat at the UNSC High Command.

ONI operative
"The group consisted of the destroyer Heracles, commanded by Captain Veredi, as well as the frigates Arabia and Vostok."

- - Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth to SPARTAN-II Blue Team Michael eventually became the head of ONI's Section Three, beginning in 2512, where he was involved in three top-secret projects: GUNGNIR, SPARTAN-II, and MJOLNIR, which he devised with the help of his protege, Catherine Halsey, protecting them from intending saboteurs such as James Ackerson. In 2517, Stanforth allowed Halsey to use the diplomatic shuttle Han, but only with the help of one of his chosen escorts: then-Junior-Grade Lieutenant Jacob Keyes.

On November 2nd, 2525, Stanforth gave the first briefing to all SPARTAN-IIs at the Reach Naval Officers Academy, on Reach, showing them video recording of the fall of Shanxi, alongside schematics and diagrams of unggoy and kig-yar warriors. There, he revealed that the training for the SPARTAN-IIs would need to be accelerated to succeed in combating the Covenant, including the early issuing of the MJOLNIR Powered Assault Armor. For the next years during the First Contact War, Michael exerted complete control over the ground and orbital operation of the SPARTAN-IIs.

In 2530, Stanforth left ONI in order to be more active into defending the Outer Colonies from the Covenant, all the while he kept his support over the SPARTAN-IIs. Upon getting his new job at the Epsilon Eridani system, however, his main assignments consisting into defending the Inner Colonies, and in May 7th, 2531, Vice-Admiral Preston Cole sent Stanforth a message, outlining numerous recommendation for the protection of Earth, which he named the Cole Protocol. Shortly after, Stanforth sent the same message to CINCONI Admiral Margaret Parangosky.

In 2535, he held a reunion discussing the budget of ONI and how to deal with MJOLNIR, proposing the project to take generational systems in order to serialize the money directed at it. The SPARTAN-II Program was made public in 2539, at Stanforth's insistence, to boost the morale of the UNSC and the UEG's inhabitants.

Battle of Sigma Octanus IV
By 2552, Stanforth acquired command over the protection of the Sigma Octanus system, being the first informed about the coming Covenant onslaught at Sigma Octanus IV by Commander Jacob Keyes. Before they arrived, he assembled 29 UNSC ships at Sigma Octanus IV's orbit - from two carriers, one refit station, five cruisers, seven destroyers, and nine frigates - in order to protect the planet. Following a improvised tactical maneuver performed by Keyes, later named the "Keyes Loop", the commander was able to destroy three Covenant ships, forcing its carrier to escape. This led Stanforth to personally travel to the UNSC Iroquois to praise Jacob for his feat, promoting him to captain. At Keyes' request, Ensign William Lovell took command of the Iroquois, while Keyes himself was given the command of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn.

Another Covenant fleet arrived at the system six hours later, prompting Stanforth to lead the combined fleet from his flagship, the Marathon-class cruiser UNSC Leviathan. He had the fleet holding a perimeter between the planet and its moon, which allowed the fleet to shoot their MAC cannons at the Covenant ships, but restricted their mobility to evade the Covenant's plasma torpedoes. Duo to the UNSC's MAC guns, the Covenant was severely weakened, but instead of ordering an attack, Stanforth asked for the cessation of fire by his ships, ordering them to hold their positions. The UNSC Cradle then broke from formation to act as the rest of the fleet's shield and absorb the first salvo of the Covenant. With the attack of the Covenant deflected, at the cost of the Cradle, Stanforth ordered all ships to break from their formations and attack the Covenant vessels before they could recharge their weapons.

With the breaking formation, the UNSC Iroquois destroyed a Covenant stealth ship that attempted to glass Sigma Octanus IV. During the ensuing battle, Michael was injured duo to the damage the Covenant ships were giving to the Leviathan, and soon after he helped Keyes destroy a Covenant destroyer that was attacking the Iroquois. The remaining eight ships then fired at the destroyer, but despite it survived the attack and continued towards the Iroquois, only to leave alongside the fleet. Following the Covenant's retreat, Stanforth deemed the battle a victory for the UNSC that would inspire their soldiers, giving an after-action report of the battle to Dr. Halsey, which he came to regret once he realized she could ask about the crystal contained in the data.

On July 18th, 2552, Stanforth sent a battle report to Admiral Paragonsky, revealing that he estimated it would take eight years to fully repair the damage the Covenant did to Sigma Octanus IV's surface. As he planned to return to HIGHCOM Facility Bravo-6, in Sydney, on Earth, Paragonsky had other plans, ordering him to go to Camp Hathcock, on Reach, as she believed the Covenant would naturally find Reach after finding Sigma Octanus IV, stating it was time to initiate Operation RED FLAG.

Fall of Reach
"Either the Covenant pack those bombs up and take them home for study, a possibility that I hope to God happens. A bomb like that could crack their homeworld in two. Or, the bombs stay here and they'll stop the Covenant on Reach ..."

- - Michael Stanforth Following Paragonsky's orders, Stanforth ordered Keyes to return to Reach alongside him, and by August 1st, 2552, he stood at Epsilon Eridani to safeguard it against a possible Covenant attack, taking with him what remained of his forces at Sigma Octanus. There, he revealed his fears for the enactment of RED FLAG, considering that losing Reach, the death count for humanity would be too severe and reach a no-turning point. However, he left his concerns behind and sent the document of the operation to the CINCONI.

Following the arrival of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence and later the Fleets of Particular Justice and Righteous Vigilance on the system, Stanforth commanded his forces to battle them. During the battle, he secured his secret project, the devastating NOVA bomb, when the UNSC High Command's base at Reach was destroyed by the Covenant, leading him to become the highest-ranking officer in the entire planet. After a series of engagements on Tribute, Stanforth and Keyes went to Camp Hathcock on Reach to debrief soldiers. They later returned to their battle groups to find that the Covenant were searching for a complex within the system's Oort cloud, and that they killed the scientists on it. Michael attempted to lure the Covenant from the site and set a trap over Reach. While the battle between the two faces became even, Stanforth lost most of his ships. On August 27th, 2552, Stanforth and Halsey briefed SPARTAN-IIs about RED FLAG.

Death
On August 30th, 2552, Stanforth supported Halsey regarding the accusation that James Ackerson attempted to sabotage the field test of both John-117 and Cortana. Later on, he boarded the SPARTAN-IIs that would participate of RED FLAG in the Pillar of Autumn alongside Keyes, before he led the remnants of his fleet at the Leviathan to defend Reach, being killed with the destruction of his ship as the Covenant broke through the planet's last line of defense.

NOVA bomb
"This is the prototype NOVA bomb, nine fusion warheads encased in lithium triteride armor. When detonated, it compresses its fissionable material to neutron-star density, boosting the thermonuclear yield a hundredfold. I am Vice Admiral Hieronymous Michael Stanforth, in command of the Epsilon Eridani Fleet on Reach. To the Covenant sons of bitches that might be listening, you have a few seconds to pray to your damned heathen gods. You all have a nice day in hell..."

- - Vice Admiral Michael Stanforth's transmission The NOVA bomb was recovered by the Covenant from the post-glassed Reach aboard the CSO-class supercarrier Sublime Transcendence. He was able to reactivate the device, seeing a recording threat from Stanforth. Later on, a huragok the bomb from Kwassass and was able to fix the bomb's circuits, which then activated and destroyed the entire Covenant colony Saepon'kal, obliterating its moon Malhiem and destroying the Combined Fleet of Righteous Purpose alongside its Imperial Admiral, Xytan 'Jar Wattinree.

As Stanforth was responsible for destroying an entire Covenant colony, it made him the individual to amass the highest individual kill counts in the UNSC during the entire First Contact War, even surpassing that of all combined SPARTAN programs over the years, causing the highest Covenant death toll ever since the Battle of Psi Serpentis by Vice Admiral Preston Cole.

Personality
Michael Stanforth was a leader known for inspiring respect on his peers, as well as for his competence and creative strategic mind, something which was able to guarantee the victory of the UNSC at the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. He was selfless, and was willing to risk his own life to save those under his command. He was noted to be a humanist, having a close friendship with both Captain Jacob Keyes and Dr. Catherine Halsey. He respected John-117, believing him to be an exceptional soldier.

Stanforth was also humble, and did not care about displaying his naval uniform, preferring to use a black uniform without any of his medals and ribbons. When he did, it were in rare occasions, such as during his tenure at the UNSC High Command. His "uncaring" demeanor passed down to most of his subordinates, much to the dismay of some of his fellow, more image-conscious leaders, such as Fleet Admiral Sir Terrence Hood. He occasionally drank Martian whiskey and smoked Sweet William Cigars in private.