Summary
The Truth and Reconciliation was a Covenant CCS-class battle cruiser. It was part of the Fleet of Particular Justice.
It pursued the Pillar of Autumn to Installation 04. Cortana disabled the vessel as she tried in vain to defend the Autumn. The vessel was forced to drop to the surface 300 metres above the Halo's surface to make repairs. When it landed on the Halo, it became a sort of command post for the Covenant ground forces. A small group of the High Council of Masters convened there, namely Soha 'Rolamee and an unnamed Prophet. Zuka 'Zamamee went there to ask the Council permission to hunt the Master Chief, but they turned him down. As he was leaving, he confronted Captain Keyes who had been recently captured.
It was boarded the next day by the Master Chief and a handful of Marines and ODSTs trying to rescue Captain Keyes. They were responsible for the death of the Ship Master, as well as nearly 300 soldiers.
After the Flood was discovered, the Covenant ordered all ships to abandon the ring. Unfortulately the vessel was overwhelmed and disabled by the Flood. The Covenant sent in a strike team to repair the vessel in vain. A massive battle between Flood and Covenant crew and special op forces ensued. In the fight, the vessel's reactor was damaged. It had probably already gone critical by the time the Chief arrived. This is why he had to use the Pillar of Autumn to destroy Halo.
The Chief returned to it to attempt to rescue Captain Keyes, who he found had been converted into a Flood organism. After he took the late captain's neural implants with him and took a Banshee to the crashed Pillar of Autumn, ODST forces took over the ship. As seen in the novel Halo: The Flood, Major Silva wanted to fly it back to Earth, but it was destroyed by a Helljumper officer, First Lieutenant Melissa McKay, who realized that they could not risk taking the ship to Earth for fear or spreading the Flood and destroying humanity; if even 1 Infection Form managed to avoid the sterilization procedure, the whole of Earth could fall. She realized that Major Silva's lust for glory was clouding his judgment as UNSC personnel were getting the cruiser ready for lift off. The Combat Form PFC Jenkins still had enough mental faculties left to try and stop the ship himself. When he was restrained by 2 ODSTs, however, Lieutenant McKay finally understood his intentions and in a snap-decision, severed the primary optical fibre cable that linked controls from the bridge to Engineering, thereby causing the cruiser to lose control and crash onto the surface of Halo. Her actions caused the death of all humans, Covenant and Flood onboard whilst saving the rest of humanity from potential annhilation.
