Holding chamber

Holding chambers (also known as Holding Pens) are Covenant prison cells.

They are found within High Charity and in various other Covenant ships. They are used for holding traitors, prisoners of war and convicts. They have some sort of energy barrier on the front, which can only be deactivated with a switch, in the case of the CCS-class Battlecruiser. Shooting these barriers will cause them to flicker a dark blood red and make all ammunition being fired at it, besides plasma, ricochet off. However, on High Charity the prison cells had bars on the front, much like modern day jail cells.

Trivia

• These holding chambers are similar to those used in the buildings on Uprising near Installation 05's Control Room and it is possible, if not probable, that the Covenant designed their holding chambers around the Forerunner chambers.
• Another example of Covenant holding chambers can also be found in the level Sierra 117, where the temporary cells of Sergeant Johnson and his men resemble the ones on board the Truth and Reconciliation.
• The Holding Chamber on High Charity were used to hold Marines taken prisoner at the Battle of Installation 05, and at one point a trio of Jackals.