Worthy Silence

Worthy Silence
Production information
Class:	Intrusion corvette
Specifications
Engine:	Repulsor engines
Slipspace drive:	Yes
Armament:	1 anti-ship plasma cannon 2+ light point-defense plasma turrets
Complement:	Multiple Bloodstar squads Sangheili Jiralhanae Kig-Yar Several Karo'etba-pattern Ghosts
Service information
First sighted:	2526
Destroyed:	March 19, 2526
Participated battles:	Battle of Seoba
Fleet:	Bloodstar Flotilla
Affiliation:	Covenant

The Worthy Silence was a Covenant intrusion corvette that served as one of five vessels in the Bloodstar Flotilla early in the Human-Covenant War. It participated in the Battle of Seoba in March 2526, but was destroyed by Spartans as it attempted to recover a downed UNSC prowler.

Design details

The Worthy Silence was shaped like a pair of teardrops connected by a thin center fuselage, lined with rows of blue lights. On the underside of the vessel was a hangar with a hatch large enough to admit a Razor-class prowler. The corvette was equipped with a single anti-ship plasma cannon, and a gravity lift that could be used to move troops and equipment.. Being an intrusion corvette, the Sacred Whisper featured an advanced active camouflage system. Working in tandem with this system, the vessel's specialized repulsor engines would let out only a small amount of thermal emissions, such that any thermal scopes could pick up only a momentary red flare from the vessel during takeoff.

History

Tool of the Silent Shadow

As they scouted the human colony of Amasa in early 2526, First Blade Tel 'Szatulai's squad of Silent Shadow was approached by a courier representing the United Rebel Front. They were offered information on the United Nations Space Command in exchange for the insurrectionists' survival. 'Szatulai took this information to Fleetmaster Nizat 'Kvarosee of the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience, who instructed the warrior to accept their offer of a meeting on Biko's third moon of Seoba, with the intent to gather what information he could. However, once these rebels outlived their usefulness to the Covenant, they should be destroyed. To carry out this mission, 'Szatulai took the Worthy Silence and the other four intrusion corvettes of the Bloodstar Flotilla to the Kolaqoa system, commanding the small force from aboard the Sacred Whisper.

Mission to Seoba

Main article: Battle of Seoba

On March 19, 2526, the Bloodstar Flotilla arrived in high orbit over Biko without the planet's defense force noticing. Despite the intrusion corvettes' active camouflage, the UNSC force that had just captured the rebels' ice quarry base on Seoba detected the incoming flotilla and began to deploy its prowlers. However, none of the corvettes' sensors could pick out anything that suggested that human stealth vessels were leaving Seoba. Aboard the Sacred Whisper, 'Szatulai was able to notice their departure with his own eyes and he reported it to the vessel's shipmaster. Despite double-checking that the instruments were not faulty, he was certain that human vessels were indeed rising from the ice quarry that was their intended meeting location. As such, the First Blade ordered the corvettes to fire on the quarry, despite the extreme range and lack of vessels to target. The shipmaster of the Worthy Silence complied and began bombarding the quarry along with the rest of the flotilla. 'Szatulai's hope was that they would get lucky and manage to down one of the stealth vessels so that it could be studied.

Destruction

The barrage successfully downed the UNSC Starry Night, the flagship of the human task force. Impacting the quarry wall, the prowler's fuselage was heavily damaged and an avalanche was caused, resulting in the prowler coming to a rest atop a massive ice pile. Realizing that the barrage had yielded the desired results, 'Szatulai ordered the flotilla to move in to recover the disabled stealth vessel, all while fending off the other human ships. As the corvettes approached the quarry, they detected a single transport take off from a maintenance grotto. All five corvettes fired on the vessel as it fled toward Biko. The Worthy Silence reached the crash site before the others, deploying multiple Karo'etba-pattern Ghosts and EVA-equipped Sangheili, Jiralhanae, and Kig-Yar warriors via its gravity lift to secure the wreck. Before it could be recovered, a team of twelve Spartans arrived and contested them. While the corvette and its Ghosts started firing on the supersoldiers, a second intrusion corvette arrived to assist.

With the tide clearly turning in favor of the Bloodstars, the Spartans were forced to restart the avalanche with their grenade launchers, burying half of them in the ice, but also delaying the Worthy Silence by knocking the prowler to the quarry floor. As the Bloodstars fought the Spartans for control of the Starry Night, two more of the intrusion corvettes approached to harass the supersoldiers. Despite this, the humans gained access to the prowler and its nuclear self-destruct system, and a strafing run from the task force destroyed two of the flotilla's corvettes and chased off a third. The Worthy Silence, however, was left unscathed because the current commander of the task force was secretly an insurrectionist and was trying to get the Spartans killed. After the Spartans fended off another Bloodstar boarding party, the Worthy Silence began slowly lifting the prowler into its hangar bay with its gravity lift. This was done too late as the team inside the prowler had already armed the nuke and fled in an escape pod. The gunners manning the corvette's point-defense turrets attempted to destroy the lifeboat, but were caught off-guard and missed their shots. Ultimately, the effort was in vain anyway as the nuke's explosion pulverized both the Starry Night and the Worthy Silence, with the forward fuselage of the latter crashing to the quarry floor.

Legacy

After the battle, members of Task Force Yama combed through the wreckage of the Worthy Silence for any salvageable technology. They discovered its kelguid on the bridge and carefully cut it out of the deck, taking it to the UNSC Vanishing Point for Dr. Catherine Halsey to examine. Following the UNSC's successful counterattack on the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience's supply convoy at Etalan, Fleetmaster 'Kvarosee called for another convoy to be sent from Zhoist. When Tel 'Szatulai was informed of this, he worriedly informed the fleetmaster that the humans had recovered the kelguid from the Worthy Silence, believing that it could be used to determine the location of Zhoist. Despite the Minor Minister of Artifact Survey's worry that the UNSC could utilize the kelguid to find High Charity, 'Kvarosee and 'Szatulai agreed that Zhoist was a significantly more likely target. As such, the Fleet of Inexorable Obedience and the Bloodstar Flotilla fell back to defend the key supply world.

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List of appearances

• Halo: Silent Storm (First appearance)
• Halo: Oblivion (Mentioned only)