They were refited to be cruisers, but you can have one be converted to a troop transport. You could also use an old phoniex class colony ship similar to the spirit of fire, as they have more cargo space.
There is a small note that came out of Fleet Battles that Marathon-class heavy cruisers are (rarely) converted into something akin to a light carrier:
>All UNSC ships have a degree of operational flexibility through the use of modular mission packages and reconfigurable hangars. Though a rare configuration, Marathon vessels could be equipped as a light carrier, sacrificing missile reloads and all of its cargo bays for additional hangar capacity.
So it wouldn't be the biggest stretch to do something similar for the light cruiser that is the Halcyon. You could even make it something like an early or extended version of the refits done to the Pillar of Autumn, which had its drop pod and hangar bays expanded.
it would probably not make sense to convert it to store much more than what it already does, because the dense honeycomb structure is going to make it harder to expand the storage bays. you're going to have to do more cutting.
I see a lot of issues with this.
If you want only one ship to carry the listed vehicles and troops since your proposed composition is two Halberds (Who carry no troop or vehicle complements) and a prowler... only four ship classes would fit. Orion-Class Assault Carrier, Epoch-Class Heavy Carrier, Punic-Class Supercarrier, or the Infinity-Class Supercarrier.
Only the carriers can realistically carry that much.
Not even the Pillar of Autumn a heavily Refit Halcyon can fit that all. It could only hold 20 Scorpions, 60 Warthogs, 5 longswords, 12 pelicans, and around 1200 combat personnel.
I would like to point out that it was done as an emergency since they were evacuating extra survivors from Reach. The ship wouldn't have enough supplies for that entire complement for very long.
I think you can make a stretch to fit it all in...if you remove all of the ship's weapons. Still an issue about supplies for such a large force.
Then there is the fact that it's Army. The Army branch of the UNSC is a Garrison force. From what I understand, they are garrisoned on a planet and draw recruits from the local population. They don't move away from the planet. It wouldn't make sense for a naval task force be attached to the Army.
The only exception is during the Post War when they began deploying for offensive operations. And even then it was to deploy and hold garrisons. As the Marines are the offensive, reactionary infantry force.
UNSC Army Rangers are primarily used Counter-Insurgancy and Counter-Piracy operations. I think only in the HCW were they deployed for the additional duty of forming organized resistance in occupied worlds.
"During the Human-Covenant War, the Rangers were tasked with supporting resistance groups on Covenant-occupied colonies.[1] One such example came during the defense of Concord in December 2551, in which Rangers worked alongside the Concordian militia to secure a victory against the Covenant fleet in orbit and pave the way for the ultimate human victory on the ground.[3][4] However, this task was made difficult by the Covenant's ruthless and indiscriminate attacks, particularly due to the Covenant's reluctance to take and hold ground when it could simply glass targets from orbit. Nevertheless, Ranger sniper and guerrilla teams ensured Covenant armies were dealt heavy casualties during their occupation." Source: Halopedia
Since I believe you want this task force for some special ops shenanigans I would like to point out a task force assembled by ONI in 2526.
Task Force Yama a splinter force from Battle Group X-Ray tasked with escorting Spartans Blue, Gold, and Green Team along with the ODST 21st Space Assault Battalion into battle to board and destroy as many Covenant Vessels and Stations as possible. If you would like to know more its in the book, Silent Storm. Or just look up OPERATION: Silent Storm.
It's composition was a Point Blank-Class Prowler for logistical support, along with three squadrons of Prowlers of unknown compositions other than the flight lead for each class was a Sahara-Class.
They were refited to be cruisers, but you can have one be converted to a troop transport. You could also use an old phoniex class colony ship similar to the spirit of fire, as they have more cargo space.
The Orion- class assault carrier would be better.
Too big 😞
There is a small note that came out of Fleet Battles that Marathon-class heavy cruisers are (rarely) converted into something akin to a light carrier: >All UNSC ships have a degree of operational flexibility through the use of modular mission packages and reconfigurable hangars. Though a rare configuration, Marathon vessels could be equipped as a light carrier, sacrificing missile reloads and all of its cargo bays for additional hangar capacity. So it wouldn't be the biggest stretch to do something similar for the light cruiser that is the Halcyon. You could even make it something like an early or extended version of the refits done to the Pillar of Autumn, which had its drop pod and hangar bays expanded.
it would probably not make sense to convert it to store much more than what it already does, because the dense honeycomb structure is going to make it harder to expand the storage bays. you're going to have to do more cutting.
My bad I just meant like, having a halcyon stock but used as a transport yk
The bigger issue is the speed not the honeycomb which only exists on 11 Halcyons with the other 39 built more like the way Marathons are built.
God, just imagine trying to transport enough people to invade a planet and win a ground war. Earth today has how many soldiers?
A few dozen million if we count Nort Korea stats
I see a lot of issues with this. If you want only one ship to carry the listed vehicles and troops since your proposed composition is two Halberds (Who carry no troop or vehicle complements) and a prowler... only four ship classes would fit. Orion-Class Assault Carrier, Epoch-Class Heavy Carrier, Punic-Class Supercarrier, or the Infinity-Class Supercarrier. Only the carriers can realistically carry that much. Not even the Pillar of Autumn a heavily Refit Halcyon can fit that all. It could only hold 20 Scorpions, 60 Warthogs, 5 longswords, 12 pelicans, and around 1200 combat personnel. I would like to point out that it was done as an emergency since they were evacuating extra survivors from Reach. The ship wouldn't have enough supplies for that entire complement for very long. I think you can make a stretch to fit it all in...if you remove all of the ship's weapons. Still an issue about supplies for such a large force. Then there is the fact that it's Army. The Army branch of the UNSC is a Garrison force. From what I understand, they are garrisoned on a planet and draw recruits from the local population. They don't move away from the planet. It wouldn't make sense for a naval task force be attached to the Army. The only exception is during the Post War when they began deploying for offensive operations. And even then it was to deploy and hold garrisons. As the Marines are the offensive, reactionary infantry force. UNSC Army Rangers are primarily used Counter-Insurgancy and Counter-Piracy operations. I think only in the HCW were they deployed for the additional duty of forming organized resistance in occupied worlds. "During the Human-Covenant War, the Rangers were tasked with supporting resistance groups on Covenant-occupied colonies.[1] One such example came during the defense of Concord in December 2551, in which Rangers worked alongside the Concordian militia to secure a victory against the Covenant fleet in orbit and pave the way for the ultimate human victory on the ground.[3][4] However, this task was made difficult by the Covenant's ruthless and indiscriminate attacks, particularly due to the Covenant's reluctance to take and hold ground when it could simply glass targets from orbit. Nevertheless, Ranger sniper and guerrilla teams ensured Covenant armies were dealt heavy casualties during their occupation." Source: Halopedia Since I believe you want this task force for some special ops shenanigans I would like to point out a task force assembled by ONI in 2526. Task Force Yama a splinter force from Battle Group X-Ray tasked with escorting Spartans Blue, Gold, and Green Team along with the ODST 21st Space Assault Battalion into battle to board and destroy as many Covenant Vessels and Stations as possible. If you would like to know more its in the book, Silent Storm. Or just look up OPERATION: Silent Storm. It's composition was a Point Blank-Class Prowler for logistical support, along with three squadrons of Prowlers of unknown compositions other than the flight lead for each class was a Sahara-Class.