Ket-pattern battlecruiser

"Mother of God...I'd never thought I'd get close to one of these things. How the hell are we suppose to get inside that monster?"

- UNSC Marine during the raid on the Truth and Reconciliation.

The CCS-class battlecruiser is a heavy warship in the Covenant Navy and is one of several Capital ships in service. The battlecruiser is one of several warships in a broad class of vessels spanning a number of sizes shapes and functions.

Background
The Covenant CCS-class battlecruser, is one of the mid-sized capital ship that served in the Covenant Navy that are used in both offensive and defensive roles. This type of ship is known for its large personnel and equipment capacity which makes them ideal for infantry, supplies and vehicle deployments during ground engagements. CCS-class battlecrusiers are well known for their offensive capabilities often participating in naval engagements with enemy forces in ship-to-ship combat. They are also commonly tasked with glassing operations. The CCS-class battlecruiser while not the largest of the line of cruisers in service, is the most prominent of ships and appear in large numbers at the heart of nearly every Covenant invasion.

Nearly two kilometers from stem to stern, the standard battlecruiser follows the typical architecture of a Covenant ship—a sleek amphibious design with sweeping contours, bulbous sections and perfect symmetry. It is shaped this way to allow for mobility in atmosphere during the deployment of infantry, as well as for a significant level of agility when in combat in orbit. Unlike the larger assault carriers or the more aggressive CPV-class heavy destroyer, the battlecruiser serves a role somewhere in between—a fully weaponized warship with the ability to apply meaningful military deployment. It is for this reason it is frequently utilized, easily surpassing the numbers of any other known Covenant vessel.

Operational history
Since the very beginning, the Covenant's primary mode of intergalactic transportation has consistently been the battlecruiser. For the centuries leading up to the human-covenant war, the battlecruiser has been involved in every major event in the Covenant's history; both conflict and peace in the Covenant's long brutal history. These conflicts however pale to their large scale use during the war with humanity that started in 2525 CE, throughout the war countless CCS-class battlecrusiers were used in destroying human ships both military and civilian as well as glassing planets. The two most notable deployment of CCS-class battlecrusiers is during the Battle of Reach in August of 2552, a large portion of battlecrusiers followed the UNSC Pillar of Autumn to Installation 04 and the ensuring battle on the Halo construct. During the battle on the ring, SPARTAN-117 and several groups of Marines assaulted the Truth and Reconciliation as it ferried troops and supplies between the ship and ground, eventually stealing their way inside the vessel and recovering Captain Jacob Keyes, who had been captured by the Covenant.

Only two months later, the Prophet of Regret would lay siege to Earth with a small fleet composed of two assault carriers and thirteen battlecruisers — the latter of which were eventually tasked with the weighty responsibility of maintaining the Covenant's war effort after the humans had quickly destroyed one of the assault carriers and forced the other to retreat. These battlecruisers kept the UNSC's naval presence occupied in space, while deploying a bevy of expeditionary and reconnaissance forces planetside — a coordinated effort to locate a significant religious artifact. A short time after Regret departed New Mombasa, two larger fleets arrived at Earth where the real battle for humanity's survival began and lasted until the Battle of Voi which ended with the arrival of a Flood infested battlecrusier.

In the mist of the Covenant civil war multiple battlecruisers were destroyed, captured, or infested during the Battle of High Charity. Sangheili Shipmasters fought to the bitter end to keep control of their ships from both Jiralhanae and Flood control

After the destruction of Voi both Elite and human military commanders met and devised a plan to stop the Prophet of Truth from activating the Halo rings at the Forerunner installation known as the Ark. The Fleet of Retribution, an armada of eight battlecruisers, traveled through the portal and clashed with Jiralhanae controlled battlecrusiers high above the Forerunner installation that ultimately halted the Covenant's swath of devastation and ended the war high above the Ark.

In the post war era Sangheili shipmasters hunted and battled the remnants of Covenant Jiralhanae in what battlecrusiers they controlled.

Armaments
CCS-class battlecruers are typically armed with several dozen energy weapons, however Covenant capital ships come in varying classes and sizes. There is also a great deal of variance — weaponry, length, estimated tonnage, fighter compliments, speed and so forth within a particular class of warship. None of the less the CCS-class battlecrusier is armed like a warship, its armament consists of Pulse Laser Turrets which are very powerful speed-of-light weapons, that fire a high intensity laser bolt, radiating energy in the blue wavelength of the spectrum. The turrets themselves are chitinous pods featuring insect-like antennae and are located at various points around the vessel. At the front end of the ship is the anterior plasma cannons, which are used as artillery weapons in both space and ground engagements. The battlecrusier also has different weapon placements along the lateral lines of the ship, the lateral weapons array consists of plasma torpedo launchers which are plasma turrets that launch long, powerful lances of plasma contained and guided by a shaped magnetic field. It is a devastating weapon that can be used in ship-to-ship combat and planetary bombardment, the torpedo launchers are are located along the lateral edges of the ship. The ship also possesses two energy projectors located on the underside of the ship these weapons also referred to as ventral cleansing beam these energy projectors are used in low altitude bombardment in glassing operations and can be fired in either charged, or free flow.

Aircraft
CCS-class battlecruisers have an extensive line of Banshees and Banshee Interceptors that are stored in the ships storage bays and can be launched from the one of four hanger bays along the ships port and starboard side. In addition CCS-class battlecruisers carry a number of both Phantom and Spirit troop carriers. In addition CCS-class cruisers are known to carry a small contingent of Seraph-class Starfighters.

Military units
CCS-class battlecruisers hold a large number of troops and were under the command of a Sangheili shipmaster until the Great Schism when Jiralhanae assumed control of these ships. During the war CCS-class ships were crewed by all species in the Covenant with segmented areas for each species natural habitat.

Internal layout
Within the CCS-class battlecruiser, various bays consist of engineering, medical, armory, barracks, and religious facilities, all compartmentalized and interconnected by a network of narrow corridors and lifts. The internal layout of this Covenant ship is best known to UNSC forces, due to the extensive amount of time spent aboard the Truth and Reconciliation by SPARTAN-117 and groups of UNSC personnel.

Control Center (Bridge)
Buried deep within the vessel's heart is the control center and Combat Information Center or CIC, where the entire ship's operations are coordinated from. Typically occupied by only the highest-ranking officers the CIC is a large room with a centralized bridge platform overlooking the rest of the room. Holographic controls line the outer perimeter of the raised dais. The viewscreens are also holographic projections, visible at the forward end of the room near the ceiling. The viewscreens can either display exterior views of the ship's surroundings or can display tactical data. They can also be tied in to the security cameras on board and display ship schematics.

Brig
The CCS classification has at least two brigs for holding prisoners, though they may have more since these ships have not been fully explored. Each is a rectangular room with four force field-secured cells on either side, for a total of eight per brig. Each cell can accommodate a large number of prisoners, although normally only one is placed in each cell, probably for security purposes against the possibility of an organized escape attempt. The brig cell shield barriers are similar technology to portable shield barriers on the battlefield or even the shields in use in the ship's shuttlebays to retain breathable atmosphere in the bays. In the brigs on board the cruiser, the translucent energy fields prevented matter of any kind from penetrating them. Even plasma shots and ballistic projectiles could not pas through the fields. The shield barriers can be lowered by a holographic control panel on a raised platform on the far side of the brig opposite the entrance, the guards post. The cells are arranged at the periphery of a spacious room, with guards patrolling them. The guards usually have active camouflage, using their stealth to monitor the prisoners.

Storage bays
CCS-class battlecrusiers have multiple storage bays on board that are connected to cargo hatches and corridors that allow the transfer of the vehicles from other bays on board, to either the gravity lift rooms, or the hanger bays. The storage bays are two-level expanses that contained standard Covenant weapons, food, and military equipment crates, in addition to storing both land and air vehicles in the bay.

Shuttle bays
The CCS-class battlecruiser contains four bisected bays; two to starboard and two to port side. They are each three-tiered, with a large amount of space between the floors and ceilings of each level. Each three-tier bay has two retracting metal doors and then the bays themselves feature energy barriers over the openings to allow ships to pass through them while retaining atmosphere and pressure inside the ship. It denies the movement of all forms of matter attempting to enter or leave the shuttle bays. Each launch area in the bay is capable of housing a dropship and Banshee fighters. Retracting elevators in the decking of each bay are used to ship Covenant ground and air craft into the bays for launching or for gravity connection to a waiting dropship. These elevators lower into holding areas adjacent to cargo bays.

Gravity Lift Bay
The gravity lift bay is similar to the cargo bays except they are only one level high. The gravity lift's door mechanism is situated in the center of the room, with cargo and personnel hatches located around the rectangular bay's walls. Several gravity lift bays are on board the cruisers, not far from the cargo and shuttle bays. Each grav lift bay has four cargo hatches along opposite walls for vehicle transfer.

Gravity Lift
Like most warships in the Covenant fleet, the CCS-class battlecruiser is equipped with a single ventrally-mounted gravity lift, enabling the quick and easy transportation of personnel, vehicles, equipment and supplies to a planet's surface. The gravity beam itself can both attract and repel objects within its influence. the gravity lift is characterized by a purple shimmering curtain of energy surrounding the lift, objects or personnel placed in it are propelled upward or downward rapidly by an anti-gravity field, and are able to gently disembark, despite the high speeds occupants can reach. Inside it has been remarked that time seems to slow inside the beam, the strange glow that surrounds a living being makes their skin tingle as if it were asleep. A large round structure on the ventral surface of the cruiser along its centerline. The gravity lift can make use of a large circular platform which can be detached and lowered onto a planet's surface the platform has six interlocking hinges and is carried with the ship itself, when the cruiser is in position over a planet's surface, the six interlocks retract and the beam repels the platform at a controlled decent to the surface. Once on the ground the platform acts as an anchor for the ship. The ship can make use of the gravity lift without the platform, but it has to manually remain in position.

When attached to the ship, the central gravity platform also doubles as the firing port for the energy projector.

Corridors
Most of the ship is comprised of a labyrinth of network of corridors, with circuitry concealed behind purple metal casings. At junctions, gaps in the ceiling and floor appear to accommodate Huragok maintenance personnel, allowing them to float between levels easily and quickly. The corridors appear to be of a curved shape, with doors that open by a three-way system.

Doors
There are various, virtually indestructible doors upon the CCS-class. Unlocked ones are outlined in white light, while locked ones have crimson light. They are protected from electronic intrusion by a 128,000-bit modulating encryption key, but this key can be penetrated by a UNSC AI, such as Cortana, after a couple of minutes.

Engines and engine room
While not seen in-game, every ship presumably features an engine room. CCS-class battlecruisers, like all the capital ships in their fleet, are capable of both sublight and Slipspace propulsion. Battlecruisers have two large Repulsor engines at the back of the ship for sublight propulsion. Slipspace generators on board are fine-tuned enough to make a much more efficient and low-power transition to Slipspace than UNSC ships and are therefore faster at traveling in the alternate dimension. Covenant ships are also capable of greater precision in exiting Slipspace at a given location. Covenant shipboard reactors utilize tritium plasma as a fuel source.

Trivia

 * "CCS" is an acronym for Covenant Capital Ship.
 * A "CCS-class Battlegroup" generally consists of at least three CCS-class ships.
 * All "CCS-class Battlecruisers" have the Marathon logo on their launch bays
 * The Cruisers featured in Halo 3 have four fins instead of two, like those of the Truth and Reconciliation in Halo: CE. This could be simply because of better graphics than the previous games.
 * The only CCS-Class battlecruiser to be controlled (however briefly) by humans was the Truth and Reconciliation.
 * During the development of Halo 2, Solemn Penance was originally going to be a CCS-class battlecruiser, as seen in the E3 2003 demo.
 * According to an ONI report, CCS-class Battlecruisers were first encountered by humans when Admiral Cole's fleet arrived in the Psi Serpentis system in 2543. However, this contradicts both Halo Wars: Genesis, which clearly depicts Cole's fleet engaging CCS-class Battlecruisers as early as 2526, and Halo Wars, in which two such vessels - which have been identified by the UNSC - are engaged in orbit over Arcadia.
 * In the level New Alexandria, if you perform the Flyable Pelican and Phantom easter egg and you fly inside one of the the CCS-Class battlecruisers outside of the map, then you will find a small cube in the center of either ship. It is a cube map, which contains the texture for the vessel.
 * If the Mythic skull is turned on while playing Halo: Reach, the CCS-class battlecruiser at the end will also be affected, and now take two shots from the Onager to take down.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Combat Evolved
 * Halo 2
 * Halo 3
 * Halo Wars
 * Halo 3: ODST
 * Halo: Reach
 * Halo: The Flood
 * Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
 * The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
 * The Return
 * Halo Graphic Novel
 * Halo: Uprising
 * Halo Legends
 * The Duel
 * Origins
 * The Package