Boarding craft

A Covenant Tick boarding craft latched onto Cairo Station during the Battle for Earth.

"They're using our lifeboat airlocks to attach their boarding craft! We go out and they come in! Clever bastards..."

— Cortana regarding Covenant boarding craft during the battle over Installation 04.

Boarding craft (also referred to by the Covenant as ship breachers) are a kind of a aerospace craft predominantly used by most spacefaring military forces for conducting naval boarding actions during space warfare. They are used for latching onto, cutting into, and deploying infantry forces inside an enemy spacecraft or space station. In this regard they have some crossover with dropships, and some boarding craft may even consist of regular dropships modified to include specialised equipment to facilitate boarding actions. Depending on the nature of the boarding action, conventional dropships may be used to deploy directly into a target vessel's hangar bay, bypassing the need for specialised boarding craft entirely. Likewise, during peacetime boarding craft may be used to serve secondary functions as regular personnel and cargo transports.

Covenant boarding craft

Boarding craft were staples of the Covenant military, with numerous types used throughout the empire ranging from single-occupant pods to large ships capable of holding dozens of troops. This usage has continued into the post-war era among the Covenant remnants.

At the height of the Covenant, boarding actions were rarely conducted as the Covenant almost always had a technological and firepower overmatch against their enemies, meaning that it was rarely necessary to conduct extremely dangerous boarding actions unless specifically decreed by a fleetmaster or precentor. The largest exception in this regard was during the Human-Covenant War, where capturing UNSC starships with intact navigation databases containing the locations of human colonies was paramount. For this reason, the UNSC developed the Cole Protocol to prevent the capture of any vulnerable ship.

• Brhi Xur-pattern Leech: a boarding craft related to the Spirit family of dropships, armed with a single plasma cannon and with some secondary utility as a general-use shuttle. These craft are unable to cut into an enemy ship, instead taking advantage of preexisting openings in the hull such as lifeboat bays and exterior airlocks.
• R'sisho-pattern Tick: an unarmed large, high-speed, high-capacity boarding craft capable of quickly latching onto an enemy ship and cutting through the hull.
• Ogoro Workshop Tronto: a boarding craft developed by the Sacred Promissory for use by Jiralhanae boarding parties, and now utilised by the Banished. These craft ram into their targets at high-speed, punching through armour plating into the hull.
• Modified dropships: some dropships, such as Ru'swum-pattern Phantoms, can be modified to include specialised boarding tubes.
• Ship-bore: a single-occupant pod used for special operations missions, capable of covertly latching onto, cutting into, and deploying a warrior inside an enemy ship.

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  Brhi Xur-pattern Leech.

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  R'sisho-pattern Tick.

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  Ogoro Workshop Tronto

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  A Ru'swum-pattern Phantom modified to include a boarding tube.

Human boarding craft

It is unknown if the United Nations Space Command or Colonial Military Authority employ specific craft designated for conducting boarding actions. The only known technology used by humanity for this purpose consists of the soft-seal modification for a standard Pelican dropship, developed for counterinsurgency actions during the Insurrection. Soft-seals can be extended around the entrance to the Pelican's troop bay to provide an airtight cover for boarding parties cutting their way through the hull of a given vessel.

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  UNSC Marines using a soft-seal to provide cover while they cut into the hull of UNSC Prophecy.

List of appearances

• Halo: Combat Evolved (First appearance)
• Halo: The Flood
• Halo 2
• Halo Wars: Genesis
• Halo: Evolutions
  • Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian
• Halo: Evolutions motion comics
  • Halo: Midnight in the Heart of Midlothian
• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
• Halo 4
• Halo 2: Anniversary
• Halo: Fleet Battles
• Halo: Shadow of Intent
• Halo: Envoy
• Halo: Retribution
• Halo: Empty Throne