Rasus-pattern interdictor

"Covenant battleship" redirects here. For the larger Covenant sniper vessel, see Kewu-pattern battleship.

Rasus-pattern interdictor
Production information
Class:	Battleship
Technical specifications
Length:	2,000 meters (6,600 ft)
Width:	1,000 meters (3,300 ft)
Mass:	90 million tonnes
Engine(s):	Repulsor engines
Slipspace drive:	Equipped
Hull:	Nanolaminate hull plating Equipped with energy shielding
Armament:	12 Worthy Fire-pattern relic lances 10 Luxor-pattern heavy plasma beams 24 Melusean-pattern heavy plasma cannons 4 Jaet-pattern plasma torpedo silos 110 Reskuk-pattern pulse lasers
Chronological and affiliation
Era:	Human-Covenant War
Introduced:	Twenty-Third Age of Doubt
Affiliation:	Covenant

Chief Weapons officer: "How many of the Archers, sir? How many Shivas?"

Preston Cole: "All of them, Lieutenant."

— Preston Cole and the Chief Weapons officer of UNSC Everest during the Battle of Harvest

The Rasus-pattern interdictor, nicknamed the "Covenant battleship" and "Covenant super-destroyer" by humanity, was a type of Covenant warship that was in service within the Covenant's fleet during the Human-Covenant War.

Overview

Design details

The Rasus-pattern interdictor is approximately two kilometers long and one kilometer wide. It is larger than many Covenant warships, even surpassing the keel length of the Ket-pattern battlecruiser, but itself is dwarfed by other starships such as Covenant carriers. The super-destroyer's hull is composed of five bulbous sections - a swollen prow, two lateral lobes, a dorsal bulb and a protruding stern - presumably housing the array of ancient and puissant Forerunner weapon-cores that the ship is built around. The loss of any of these ships was considered a tragic event, with a super-destroyer impossible to replicate without finding an appropriate new trove of weapon-cores.

Given the ship's Forerunner-derived armaments, its classification as an "interdictor" may be based on the Ecumene navy's own interdictor ships.

Armament

The interdictor is equipped with enough weapons and firepower to destroy most United Nations Space Command fleets from long range. Considered a mobile altar of wrath, the ship is one of the most heavily-outfitted warships in the Covenant arsenal. It boasts enough firepower to take on dozens of enemy ships at once, with twelve Worthy Fire-pattern plasma lances, ten Luxor-pattern heavy plasma beams, twenty-four Melusean-pattern heavy plasma cannons and four Jaet-pattern plasma torpedo silos forming the core of its anti-starship armament.

Defenses

Alongside the aforementioned weapons complement, the Rasus is outfitted with a considerable point-defense of 124 Reskuk-pattern pulse laser turrets. Though most of its power is likely used up by its large number of weapons, the ship can project a shield strong enough to protect it from multiple nuclear missiles and Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC) rounds. However, the shield and hull will buckle under concentrated fire, as occurred when the twenty-seven ships left in Cole's fleet were able to destroy one.

Ships of the line

• Heaven's Brilliant Bier

Operational history

Heaven's Brilliant Bier attacks the CMA's Battle Group 4.

The interdictor Heaven's Brilliant Bier was encountered by the Colonial Military Authority's Battle Group 4 during its investigation of Harvest in July 2525; the CMA frigates Arabia and Vostok were destroyed after a minute-long skirmish, while the destroyer Heracles was heavily damaged and was forced to retreat. Vice Admiral Preston Cole's forces later encountered the same vessel during the Second Battle of Harvest in March 2526. It single-handedly destroyed thirteen ships in Cole's battle group before being destroyed by concentrated fire.

Several interdictors served in the Fleet of Particular Justice during the Fall of Reach on August 30, 2552. Weeks later, several battleships were among the vessels comprising the Prophet of Truth's secret fleet gathered at Unyielding Hierophant. Though these vessels were intended to attack Earth without the knowledge or consent of the other Hierarchs, a team of SPARTAN-IIs sabotaged the platform before the invasion could commence; the battleships, as well as hundreds of other warships, were destroyed along with the station.

Production notes

For the longest time, the "Covenant super-destroyer" as described in The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole and the "Covenant battleship" as described in Halo: First Strike were considered to be two separate ship classifications, with no source explicitly tying the two together. The 2022 release of the Halo Encyclopedia explicitly provided the name and statistics for the "super-destroyer" as almost identical to those described in First Strike - which included a ship two kilometres long and equipped with a dozen energy projectors. The Rasus' encyclopedia-given stats match this description accurately, effectively confirming that the two ship classifications were one and the same.

Errors and inconsistencies

Halo: Fall of Reach - Boot Camp and Halo: The Fall of Reach - The Animated Series replace the super-destroyer encountered at Harvest with the cruiser Rapid Conversion.

In the Halo Encyclopedia (2009 edition) and its 2011 reprint, the "Covenant battleship" is erroneously listed as having a length of 656 feet (200 m).

Gallery

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  Heaven's Brilliant Bier being destroyed by an all-out barrage from UNSC forces.

List of appearances

• Halo: First Strike (First appearance)
• Halo Wars: Genesis
• Halo: Evolutions
  • The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
• Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo (Mentioned only)
• Halo: Silent Storm (Mentioned only)