Didact's ship
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Didact's ship | |
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| Production information | |
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Manufacturer: |
Forerunner |
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Class: |
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Role: |
Transport |
| Specifications | |
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Engine: |
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Slipspace drive: |
Yes |
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Complement: |
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| Service information | |
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Year introduced: |
c. 97,452 BCE |
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Destroyed: |
c. 97,452 BCE |
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Known commanders: |
Didact |
This unnamed vessel[1] served as transport for the Forerunners the Didact, Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting, and the humans Chakas and Riser. The ship was "grown" from a design seed planted under Djamonkin Crater by the Librarian.[2] It was destroyed shortly after its activation, during the Battle of Janjur Qom. The ship had no name, and Bornstellar lamented that it never received one before its destruction.[1]
History
When the Librarian brought her husband's Cryptum to the Djamonkin Crater on Erde-Tyrene, she hid a design seed she had acquired from the Builders with it for him to leave the planet with. When the Didact awoke, his war sphinxes excavated the mountain for the materials;[3] ten days later he activated the design seed to begin constructing the ship. He subsequently left the planet with Bornstellar and his two human guides, who had been responsible for his reawakening.
The ship traveled to Charum Hakkor and then to Faun Hakkor, where its instruments detected that all life on their surfaces with a neurological system had been killed.[4] Lastly, it arrived at Janjur Qom, the San'Shyuum homeworld, where its weapons were confiscated by the Confirmer aboard the Deep Reverence. He was quarantining the planet, and required them for security in exchange for letting the ship descend to the surface. However, he betrayed them and alerted the Builder fleet in low orbit.[5]
With no weapons, the Didact's ship was helpless and was quickly surrounded by confinement fields, preventing it from speeding away or entering slipspace. The commander of the fleet, Master Builder Faber, ordered that they transfer control of the ship to him or be destroyed. Knowing there was no hope for escape, the Didact yielded to him, letting suppression AIs infiltrate and absorb his ship's own ancillas.[6] Gravitation inside ceased, and the walls melted away by an orange glare. The ship attempted to fight back by raising walls of hard light and releasing war sphinxes, but seekers arrived to cut through them and capture the crew. As the two Forerunners and two humans were dragged out to be taken to Janjur Qom, the remains of the ship were left in orbit, dissolving yet trying to reassemble itself.[1]
Design details
The ship was not "built" in the traditional sense, but rather "grown" from a piece of technology known as a design seed. The seed contained all the schematics and plans required to construct the ship, as well as the ship's slipspace flake, a piece of a much larger crystal used by the Forerunners in their slipspace drives.
Most of the raw materials for the hull of the ship were apparently drawn from the central peak of Djamonkin Crater. The mountain was first dismantled and turned into several pillars arranged in a circle with an elevated platform in the center.[7][8] As the Didact, Bornstellar, Chakas and Riser stepped onto the central platform, the pillars began to spin rapidly, reconfiguring to form the hull of the ship.[9][10]
The vessel was highly advanced, even by Forerunner standards, as the Librarian had been updating its design as technology progressed.[2] It changed its overall configuration depending on the need; in space, the ship was an ovoid over 800 meters long.[11] When entering a planetary atmosphere, it took on a more aerodynamic shape, bowing out at the sides and growing massive landing pads as well as fluxor shields to protect against the blowback from atmospheric entry.[12]
Approximately one-third of the ship's mass was composed of fuel and engine reactants. The remaining space was used to accommodate personnel and could be configured at will, using various forms of hard light. Being new, the walls and floor were immaculately clean, and its living quarters were mazes of cubicles and service facilities. Stasis fields inside inspected the ship and kept all its parts and weapons in prime condition.[11]
It was stated as having enough space and services for 5,000 Warrior-Servants, providing training docks, armor repair, refit shops, and mess chambers. Although newly constructed, the ship came fully equipped with a contingent of picket cruisers and an armory stocked with spare combat skins, thousands of hand weapons and a host of other military devices, including the Didact's war sphinxes.[11]
List of appearances
- Halo: Cryptum (First appearance)
- Halo: Primordium
Sources
- ^ a b c Halo: Cryptum, page 198
- ^ a b Halo: Cryptum, page 98
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 84
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 132-133
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 192
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 193
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 88-89
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 94
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 96-98
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 97: "The circling pillars sprouted bulkheads, beams, and stanchions - all the necessary parts. The skeleton of a slipspace voyager was growing around us, almost too rapidly to track - until the pillars were walled in, the sky and the swirling ships vanished, and we were completely enclosed."
- ^ a b c Halo: Cryptum, page 124-128
- ^ Halo: Cryptum, page 111
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