Canon

Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyer

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Sinaris-pattern
A render of the CPV-class destroyer modelled by Jared Harris for the fan mod Sins of the Prophets - used in the 2022 Halo Encyclopedia.
Class attributes

Identification:

UNSC Three-letter code: CPV[1][2]

Operators:

Manufacturer:

Primary Assembly Forges[2]

In service:

Second Age of Conflict-present[3]

General characteristics

Type:

Length:

1,664 meters (5,460 ft)[4][5][1][6][2][3]

Width:

1,350 meters (4,400 ft)[1][6]

Mass:

115 million metric tons[2][3]

Power plant:

Pinch fusion reactor

Maneuver drive:

2 repulsor engines

Slipspace drive:

Borer

Crew:

Complement:

Hull:

Nanolaminate plating

Shielding:

Energy shielding-equipped

Armaments:

 

The Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyer[3] (UNSC three-letter classification: CPV-class heavy destroyer) is one of several destroyer-type warships used by the Covenant and its remnants.[1][7]

Overview[edit]

Design details[edit]

The Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyer features a roughly teardrop-shaped fore section that droops downward, forming a bulbous protrusion housing the excavation beam; the dorsal surface of this section contains a recessed area known as "the Furnace," a pinch-fusion reactor that powers the beam during operation.[2] Near the aft, the hull splits into six sleek, wing-like structures, with at least two engines mounted on the junction point. The shortest pair face outward at a slightly upward angle, the mid-sized structures curve upward at an inward-facing angle, and the largest structures curve downward, also facing inward; these two house a single reactor each. Like all Covenant vessels, the hull is made of a lightweight but resilient diamondoid and metal-matrix composite frame covered in a thin layer of nanolaminate laid during the construction process by clouds of programmable nanomachines.[2]

Crew and complement[edit]

For normal operations, the Sinaris requires a total of 406 personnel. This includes four Superiors who command the vessel, along with four hundred Menials who man the ship's general systems. Two Huragok are provided for general maintenance duties. Service aboard these ships was frowned upon thanks to the destroyer's single-minded focus on combat and destruction, and as such their disgraced crews are generally considered unstable or unsuitable for other Ministry fleets. Even the shipmasters had their reputation tarnished by disloyalty or disobedience, and have few other ways to return to the rolls of honor.[2]

Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyers carry large complements for ground engagements, including numerous infantry and ground vehicles. They also carry a large number of aircraft, including Seraph exoatmospheric fighters and Banshee attack craft, and Vampire atmospheric fighters.[4] These are supported by 50 Obedientaries; warriors who have started down the path to command and must experience every facet of war. 100 Warriors and 1,900 Thralls support or operate the destroyer's fleet of vehicles and aircraft.[2]

Armament[edit]

As an executioner, the Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyer is built for heavy combat. Its main weapon is a ventral-mounted Infernus-pattern superheavy excavation beam (the same model as that found on the Kerel-pattern and Syfon-pattern assault carriers) which is often used in glassing operations.[1][8][9][10] Powered directly by the ship's forward pinch fusion reactor, the Infernus exhibits the same power as the excavation beams on assault carriers.[2] Their focusing arrays allow for a similar level of precision,[2] with the operators of the beam capable of tuning its entwining magnetic fields and plasma to burn sigils into the surface of human colonies or carefully expose detected Forerunner reliquaries.[7]

In planetside attack operations, this is supported by forty Carnax Et-pattern plasma bombardment mortars, with five mounted on either side of the central reactor. As the mortars are occasionally called to attack areas that have Covenant troops operating in them, the gunners are expected to obey all orders without question or mercy. For ship-to-ship combat, two Aljordan-pattern plasma beam emitters are fitted. The destroyer also sports twenty-four Melusean-pattern plasma cannons: two of these weapons are mounted on the vessel's anterior,[1] two more are mounted on the inside of each ventral wing structure,[11] and at least two more are mounted laterally.[2][11] An additional six Jaet-pattern plasma torpedo silos[2] are fitted laterally,[4] which fire powerful guided munitions which are difficult to avoid and can even loop back and hit their targets if they miss. Twenty Gon-pattern pulse laser turrets are carried for destroying incoming fighters and missiles, although their sheer heat allows for a minimal role in ship-to-ship combat.[2][3]

Despite its much larger size and different fleet role, the Sinaris is noted as carrying an identical armaments loadout to the smaller Wik-pattern light destroyer.[6]

Usage[edit]

The Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyer was the predominant offensive ship of the Covenant's now-defunct naval forces, used primarily for ship-to-ship warfare and glassing operations. These destroyers are deployed aggressively, often being the first ships in a fleet to engage the enemy.[1] They were used to crush enemy resistance and as part of the Covenant's "scorched earth" policy of glassing hostile worlds - in contrast to the lighter Wik destroyers used for escort and scouting duties.[6]

Within the Covenant's naval schema, Sinaris-pattern ships are considered part of the executioner category of naval vessels. While extraordinarily powerful ships in their own right, their existence was deemed too dangerous to High Charity to be constructed in large numbers in peacetime. As such, at the onset of the Human-Covenant War, these ships numbered relatively few in number. The concept of a vessel like the Sinaris - one with no other purpose but warfare - was considered distasteful to the Hierarchs and kept at arms-length from High Charity. As such, those heavy destroyers that served in the forces of the various ministries were largely assigned to crews deemed unfit for service aboard other ships, who had been condemned for disloyalty or disobedience, but whose actions did not warrant execution as heretics. These individuals hoped to earn redemption through service for themselves and their families and were given little other opportunity to redeem their failings.[2][3]

Most glassing operations were undertaken by heavy destroyers, as the work was considered distasteful or suicidal by other shipmasters, and human colonies attacked by the Covenant are littered with the wreckage of Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyers eliminated by the UNSC's ground-based fires and spacecraft in orbit during these engagements. Heavy destroyers were also assigned to combat human forces that a Supreme Commander considered beneath his notice.[7] Even escorting Zanar-pattern light cruisers were unenthusiastic about protecting their assigned ships, and could never be counted on to do more than their basic defensive tasks.[2]

Late in the Human-Covenant War, the crews of heavy destroyers had developed a kind of mercenary culture of their own, with many shipmasters offering their services to various ministries to secure artifacts and relics from conquered human worlds, working alongside or in opposition to artifact retrieval teams.[7] This mercenary adapted into the postwar era with surviving Sinaris crews offering themselves to remnant warlords as mercenary crews, enacting violence upon the targets of their commanders.[3]

Heavy destroyers are sufficiently equipped to serve as occupation vessels during planetary assaults, in lieu of the more occupation-centered Ket-pattern battlecruiser and Kerel-pattern assault carrier.[1]

Ships of the line[edit]

Operational history[edit]