Banished dreadnought

Banished dreadnought
	A dreadnought over Installation 07 in May 2560.
Class attributes
Operators:	Banished
Manufacturer:	Irusk Workshop
In service:	2553-present
General characteristics
Type:	Dreadnought
Length:	2,665 meters (8,743 ft)
Mass:	127 million tonnes
Maneuver drive:	One repulsor engine
Complement:	Wraith mortar tanks; War-skiffs; Chopper scouts; Ghost scouts;
Troops:	Carrying capacity up to "Over ten thousand warriors"
Armaments:	At least 1 stasis beam; 1 Superheavy grav-impact driver; 6 Light plasma lances; 10 Incinerator plasma cannon clusters; 40 Scindere arrays; 24 Plasma torpedo silos; 70 Pulse laser batteries;
Air wing:	Drop pods; Phantom dropships; Drop bases; Banshee flyers;

The Banished dreadnought^[6] is a Banished capital warship utilizing heavily modified Covenant ship hulls upgraded by the Irusk Workshop.^[1] While originally created to support Jiralhanae planetary occupations, they have since become a lifeline of Jiralhanae civilisation in the wake of the destruction of Doisac, the Jiralhanae homeworld.^[2]

Overview

Design details

Banished dreadnoughts were originally intended as full-scale occupation ships, carrying everything needed to invade a world. Because of this, they can carry a massive amount of vehicles, drop-bases, and Outposts.^[2]

Propulsion

Dreadnoughts are propelled by a single massive repulsor engine.^[4]

Crew and complement

Banished dreadnoughts can carry over 10,000 warriors, as well as many vehicles.^[2]

Armament

They possess many pulse laser turrets, as well as plasma torpedoes, plasma lances, scindere arrays, and a superheavy grav-impact driver.^[2] The ship itself can also simply ram into enemy vessels, presumably using the aforementioned gravitic impact driver to inflict more damage.^[4] Task forces of dreadnoughts have been compared to the ogre-wolves of Teash, using pack-hunting tactics to hunt down and destroy any opponent they choose.^[2]

Ships of the line

Dreadnoughts are named for spirits and legends originating from the Jiralhanae's native culture, much of which was lost following contact with the Covenant in 2492 CE. The practice was originally intended to honour and preserve what had been lost prior to the Great Immolation, the nuclear war that engulfed Doisac centuries ago, but the Razing of Oth Sonin and Doisac's total obliteration has seen the practice given a new meaning for the survivors of the holocaust.^[2]

Operational history

Dreadnoughts were used to ferry the remnants of Jiralhanae civilisation to safety during the destruction of Doisac.

The dreadnoughts were first created in 2553, using salvaged and old hulls of ex-Covenant starships heavily modified by the Irusk Workshop. They rapidly became the most common warship class in the fleet of the Banished, intended for use in supporting planetary occupations and raiding in the wake of the Covenant empire's collapse. As such, their outfit with long-term occupation equipment made them ideally suited for ferrying the survivors of the Jiralhanae away from the now-shattered remains of Doisac, following its destruction by the Guardian Custode at the behest of Cortana.^[2]

Installation 07 conflict

During the Battle for Zeta Halo in December 2559, many dreadnoughts were deployed to engage the UNSC Navy fleet near Installation 07 and in high orbit around the planet Ephsu I, with at least two used to ram the UNSC Infinity multiple times to brutally damage her. During that time the leader of the Banished, Warmaster Atriox, led boarding parties inside the UNSC supercarrier, defeated John-117 and threw the Spartan-II out of a hangar and into space. Banished Phantoms fired upon Pelicans and life pods as they fled the burning and broken carrier. Eventually, Infinity was forced to crash land on Installation 07 alongside many UNSC frigates, with her fleet devastated by the enemy armada. However, Installation 07 was damaged during the battle and moved from the Ephsu system to an unknown location; even with the advantage of their dreadnoughts and total space superiority in the ring's locale, the Banished were just as stranded as the UNSC survivors.^[4]

Numerous dreadnoughts remained stationed in close proximity to Installation 07 as of May 2560 to support the Banished occupation.^[4] One such vessel, Ghost of Gbraakon, captured the Pelican Echo 216 with its stasis cannon after the Pelican's pilot exposed his position by recovering John-117 who have been drifted in space for months. The Spartan boarded the Banished warship after going EVA through a UNSC and Banished asset debris field, and as he made his way to the ship's bridge, he observed that it was preparing to land a massive invasion force on the ring to eradicate the surviving UNSC presence. The Master Chief eventually freed Echo-216 from the stasis cannon and catastrophically damaged the warship in the process, causing it to plummet into Zeta Halo.^[5]

A Banished dreadnought was positioned in the skies directly above the shattered portion of the ring. This warship had a bird's eye view of the Master Chief's activities, and over the course of the Installation 07 conflict it deployed numerous reinforcement troops onto the ring's inner surface via Phantoms and drop pods in order to counter the Spartan.^[4]

Gallery

Development images

Concept art of the Banished dreadnought's development for Halo Infinite.
Concept art of a Banished dreadnought from the front.
Concept art of a Banished dreadnought from the back.
Concept art of a Banished dreadnought deploying structures to Installation 07.
Concept art of the interior of a Banished dreadnought.
Concept art of scraps, including Pelicans, Spirits, and Hornets, collected inside a Banished dreadnought.
A detail paintover of the dreadnought that rams the UNSC Infinity in the opening cutscene of Warship Gbraakon.