Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
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Identification: |
UNSC Three-letter code: CSO[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Fourth Age of Conversion - present[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier[2] (UNSC three-letter classification: CSO-class supercarrier), is a powerful supermassive capital ship and one of the largest vessel classes formerly used by the Covenant,[Note 1] primarily designed for command and control duties for fleets, as well as support for occupation forces. Such vessels are typically deployed only during invasions of worlds with high strategic value.[4]
Overview[edit]
Design details[edit]
The supercarrier is an extremely large and well-equipped ornate capital ship, easily dwarfing most other Covenant starship classes. The vessel looks nearly identical to the Kerel-pattern assault carrier, sharing the smaller ship's design of several bulbous sections and a hook-like prow, albeit painted darker.[3][5] Despite this, it is not the only, or even the largest of the Covenant's supercarrier classes. The size of the vessel makes it more akin to a militarised city-fortress, and a vessel capable of supplying entire subordinate fleets or governing provinces of the empire when required.[2]
Armaments[edit]
According to their size, the Sh'wada is equipped with a massive and diverse array of heavy weaponry. These include 12 Urpeon-pattern superheavy plasma lances - a lance loadout only rivalled in number by the Forerunner-derived relic lances of the Rasus-pattern interdictor. A total of 100 plasma beam emitters are equipped on the ship, including 20 Ukk'Wa-pattern heavy arrays and 80 Luxor-pattern heavy emitters - the latter of which are a fairly common fitting on the more powerful capital warships of the Covenant fleet. These heavy anti-ship weapons are supplemented with 32 Mictix-pattern heavy plasma torpedo silos, a design shared with the Kerel-pattern and Syfon-pattern assault carriers of the fleet.[2]
For point-defence, the supercarrier employs a gargantuan array of pulse laser turrets. This includes 800 R'Aka-pattern rapid-fire pulse lasers and 490 Ferriel-pattern pulse lasers.[2]
The supercarrier is additionally equipped with a single Lux-pattern superheavy excavation beam array for glassing and artefact-retrieval purposes.[2]
Classification[edit]
The "S", or Salvation, in the supercarrier's three-letter classification code, "CSO" indicates that the carrier is a dedicated warship. The "O", or Ordained, indicates that the CSO-class supercarrier is not a mission type and has been improved upon with Forerunner technology.[6] The ship has a very broad overlap with the Covenant's ship classification of exarchs.
Along with the Covenant's assault carriers, the Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier was designated a Class-Five flagship carrier by the United Nations Space Command due to their use as a flagship of Covenant fleets.[4]
Ships of the line[edit]
- Long Night of Solace - Flagship of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence. Destroyed during Operation: UPPER CUT.[5]
Operational history[edit]
The Sh'wada-pattern of supercarrier was introduced during the Fourth Age of Conversion.[2]
During the Fall of Reach, the supercarrier Long Night of Solace spearheaded the Covenant invasion of Reach as the flagship of the Fleet of Valiant Prudence, deploying numerous ground assets to the surface of Reach via teleportation spires and destroying the UNSC Grafton.[7]
During Operation: UPPER CUT and LEFT JAB, Spartan Jorge-052 transported an improvised slipspace bomb toward Long Night of Solace aboard the corvette Ardent Prayer while SPARTAN-B312 locked course with the supercarrier. After SPARTAN-B312 was jettisoned from the hangar, Jorge manually detonated the bomb, destroying both the corvette and the supercarrier at the cost of his own life.[5]
Production notes[edit]
The supercarrier was first designed by Bungie for inclusion in Halo: Reach. According to concept artist Mark Goldsworthy; "The moment the Black Ship appears in Reach is a major surprise. I wanted to capture the immense and intimidating feel of the ship against the tiny UNSC Frigates that were fleeing. Thus, the camera angle is like an ant looking up at a giant. The Black Ship was a low poly in-game model that I increased the geometry resolution in order to give it a smoother look when rendered in mental ray. Then much post work was painted in Photoshop to create the illusion of the ship coming out of the clouds.".
During the production of Halo: Silent Storm, author Troy Denning intended for the under-construction supercarrier Hammer of Faith to be the sister-ship of Long Night of Solace - thus making it a Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier. This mention was ultimately removed from the book at the request of 343 Industries, leaving Hammer of Faith simply a supercarrier of unknown classification. Of note, Denning used an image of the Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier from this website as reference while describing Hammer of Faith, though at the time of the book's writing this page erroneously had an image of the assault carrier model from the same level in place - meaning that Denning was inadvertently describing the wrong ship than what he intended.[8]
Gallery[edit]
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Browse more images in this article's gallery page. |
Concept art and illustrations[edit]
Concept art of the supercarrier Long Night of Solace for Halo: Reach.
Concept art of the Solace's destruction.
Concept art of Long Night of Solace's crash site.
The Long Night of Solace in Halo: Fleet Battles.
Early concept sketches for the Covenant's deployment spire. Note the early ideas involving the Spire being comprised of a landed Covenant supercarrier.
Screenshots[edit]
Long Night of Solace orbiting Reach.
The underside of the CSO.
The supercarrier Long Night of Solace over Reach.
Long Night of Solace being destroyed by a slipspace rift.
Visual and scale comparison between a supercarrier and an assault carrier.
A view of a supercarrier's ventral suface, showing its darker coloration in contrast to an assault carrier's.
Merchandise[edit]
A side view of the CSO in Halo: Fleet Battles.
A front view of the CSO in Halo: Fleet Battles.
List of appearances[edit]
- Halo: Reach (First appearance)
- Halo: Fleet Battles
- Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo (Mentioned only)
Notes[edit]
- ^ Although Halo: The Essential Visual Guide referred the CSO-class supercarrier as the largest type of Covenant vessel, an unspecified model of supercarrier has been stated to have a larger size of 32,490 metres (106594 ft 6 in), as stated in the Halo Encyclopedia (2011 edition).
Sources[edit]
- ^ a b c d Halo: The Essential Visual Guide - Carrier, page 28
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), page 263
- ^ a b c d Halo: The Essential Visual Guide, page 111
- ^ a b Data Drop 4
- ^ a b c Halo: Reach, campaign level Long Night of Solace
- ^ Halo Waypoint, Canon Fodder - Have S'Moa (Retrieved on Nov 8, 2020) [archive]
- ^ Halo: Reach, campaign level Tip of the Spear
- ^ Twitter, Troy Denning (@TDenningauthor): "The CSO pic in Halopedia is what I was working from when I described it, and in mind, it was intended to be a sister ship to LNoF. But that's NOT official canon -- that decision is (rightly) for 343 to make." (Retrieved on Jan 23, 2023) [archive]
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