Anodyne Spirit

"My Dreadnought, the vessel that has so long been the focus of our worship, now rests on its true pedestal. Even now, its engines spark greater ones below, relics long without power, yet ready to fulfill their divine purpose. Stand fast! Keep our enemies at bay! Soon, my brothers, we will all have our reward!"

- Prophet of Truth to his troops during the Battle of Earth.

The Forerunner Dreadnought, colloquially known as the Forerunner ship, was the Covenant name for a Forerunner keyship originally discovered by the San'Shyuum on their homeworld, Janjur Qom.

The keyships were a large part of the Forerunner strategy against the Flood, as they were the only vessels capable of activating slipspace portals to reach the Ark. One of these keyships, later known as the Dreadnought to the Covenant, would later be found and used by the San'Shyuum, and would later become an integral part of the Covenant religion, as well as power for the Covenant holy city, High Charity. Featuring a power generation capacity and shielding unparalleled by human or Covenant technology, the ship was used as the flagship of the High Prophet of Truth in the final battles of the Human-Covenant War.

Prehistory
During the Forerunner-Flood war, keyships were used by the Librarian to index and catalog life in the galaxy and transport it to Installation 00 as part of the Conservation Measure, including the Dreadnought. The Librarian, however, destroyed her keyships to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Flood, who with them, would be able to instantaneously travel to the Ark, rendering the Halo Array useless. Near the end of the war, the keyships were part of a strategy to hold off the Flood for nearly 79 years, although this advantage would be foiled by the massive computing power of the Flood.

After the activation of the Array, several keyships automatically were sent out into the galaxy, containing numerous specimens of various alien races, to ensure that life would go on. One of these vessels re-seeded life to the San'Shyuum homeworld Janjur Qom. As the keyship departed for Janjur Qom, a fragment of Mendicant Bias escaped onto the keyship. After the keyship arrived at the planet and re-seeded the San'Shyuum, Mendicant Bias attempted to take control of the vessel and travel to Earth to make amends for the crimes it committed against the Forerunners during the Forerunner-Flood war by aiding humanity. However, an unknown complication occurred and the keyship crashed onto the surface of Janjur Qom, its impact forming an immense sea later known as the Great Apothtea. After the Human-Covenant War, ancient Covenant records which may contain information on this matter were researched jointly by human and Sangheili scholars on Sanghelios.

Rediscovery
Over several millennia, the Forerunner Dreadnought became partially buried in rock and submerged below the Great Apothtea off the coast of Janjur Qom's main continent. Early in the history of the San'Shyuum, before 2200 BCE, the species discovered and partially uncovered the Forerunner Dreadnought on their homeworld and began to worship it. These early worshippers were split over the usage of the ship, as the Stoics refused to enter the vessel, while the radical Reformists wished to explore it. The division in San'Shyuum society led to the violent San'Shyuum Schism. During the climax of the civil war, around one thousand Reformists stormed the Dreadnought and barricaded themselves inside. The Reformists occasionally raided Stoic territory to collect and stock the ship with plants, wood, seeds, and other goods from the planet, and made preparations to depart Janjur Qom. Eventually, the Reformists commandeered the keyship and left Janjur Qom, taking a gigantic piece of the planet with them.

The massive crater left behind on Janjur Qom was filled in by the Apothtea sea. The Stoics watched as the Dreadnought left them behind, but they were unwilling to fire upon the object of their reverence, and grudgingly allowed the Reformists to leave. Though, the Stoics did send them messages warning them that they would be damned by the "gods" for their theft of the vessel. Utilizing some of the terminals located about the Dreadnought, the San'Shyuum solidified their religion and realized the Path to the Great Journey. However, they had mistranslated the terminals and incorrectly believed that activating the Halo Array would initiate the Journey. With the help of the Forerunner technology from the Dreadnought, the Reformists were able to survive and travel the galaxy.

War of Beginnings
The massive piece of rock taken from Janjur Qom was later refitted into the rocky dome of High Charity, along with the Dreadnought atop it. The San'Shyuum eventually encountered the Sangheili, who also had familiarity with Forerunner technology. The Dreadnought landed on the Sangheili frontier colony of Ulgethon, and San'Shyuum diplomats were sent to meet with the Sangheili, led by an Arbiter. The San'Shyuum believed that incorporating Forerunner technology was allowed by their religion. To the Sangheili, such a thing would have been unthinkable. The opposing beliefs led to war, and the Dreadnought left the world, after the San'Shyuum discovered that the Arbiter had killed the diplomats.

During the war, the Sangheili had an early advantage, with each warrior comparable in skill to ten San'Shyuum in battle. However, the San'Shyuum's technological superiority, and possession of the Forerunner Dreadnought, meant that they had the advantage in space. The San'Shyuum installed a number of weapons on the keyship, powered by the ship's immense power generation capability. The San'Shyuum used the weaponized keyship to great effect in devastating hit-and-run strikes against the Sangheili fleets. During a skirmish at the Planet of Blue and Red in 860 BCE, the Dreadnought was used to eliminate Sangheili ground forces from orbit. Eventually, the Sangheili were forced to amend their position of the treatment of Forerunner technologies and began incorporating elements into their own designs.

Additionally, the San'Shyuum were able to weaponize the Dreadnought's own contingent of Aggressor Sentinels to serve them in combat. By the time the war ended, these Sentinels had been wiped out almost entirely, only a select few having been preserved aboard the keyship.

Eventually, in order to ensure the survival of both races, the two races merged to form the early Covenant with the San'Shyuum as the head religious leaders and the Sangheili as their protectors, and head of the military.

Centerpiece of High Charity
The two races then penned the Writ of Union, which formally established the Covenant, and decommissioned the Forerunner warship, removing all known weapons, and placing it within the partially completed High Charity. It was then used to power the city, with its engines at partial power. The Dreadnought then became the purview of the ascetic priests, who studied the vessel's systems and tended to the Oracle, in fact a fragment of the rampant Forerunner ancilla 05-032 Mendicant Bias.

After the Taming of the Lekgolo, the Prophets used the newly incorporated Lekgolo to explore Forerunner relics, and after ages of experimenting on lesser relics, finally worked up the courage to explore the Dreadnought's pathways. At first, these explorations were slow and deliberate, as the priests feared damaging the Dreadnought or offending the Oracle. But with no response from the Oracle, the priests began to continue the explorations until the practice became common place, often with the aid of Huragok. One of these Huragok was Drifts Randomly, who internalized data from the keyship which later allowed it to activate the Portal at Voi on Earth in lieu of the keyship itself. Afterwards, at least twenty Mgalekgolo remained on guard around the Dreadnought.



Before the start of the Human-Covenant War the Forerunner Dreadnought, the founding of the Prophet’s religion, would soon become the place where their religion was proven false. During the 23rd Age of Doubt in 2525, the Minister of Fortitude, and the Vice Minister of Tranquility went to the Dreadnought for confirmation of two symbols found on the missionary vessel Minor Transgression. These two symbols were “Reclamation” and “Oracle”, which were found on what was known to humanity as Harvest. After the Philologist entered the data into the "Oracle" inside of the keyship, it began a series of cryptic messages, listed below:


 * FOR EONS I HAVE WATCHED
 * LISTENED TO YOU MISINTERPRET
 * THIS IS NOT RECLAMATION
 * THIS IS RECLAIMER
 * AND THOSE IT REPRESENTS ARE MY MAKERS
 * I WILL REJECT MY BIAS AND MAKE AMENDS
 * MY MAKERS ARE MY MASTERS
 * I WILL BRING THEM SAFELY TO THE ARK



During this series of messages, the Oracle began a launch sequence, which would rip the keyship from High Charity and destroy the Covenant capital with it. Fortunately for the people of High Charity, the Dreadnought was short-circuited by Lekgolo exploring the pathways. The Oracle was soon disconnected, but this caused a spiritual crisis for Fortitude, Tranquility and the Philologist. Through the Oracle’s messages, the Forerunners (or their descendants), were still alive, which would shake the foundations of the Covenant itself to the core: if the masses learned that they might be left behind, then they would revolt against the Prophets. In an attempt to keep the religion itself intact, they covered up the encounter, and would try to eradicate these Reclaimers.

Fall of High Charity
When the Flood attacked High Charity at the end of the Battle of Installation 05, John-117 was on his way to stop the High Prophet of Truth from escaping. He was able to board the ship as Truth uncoupled it from the city's power grid by narrowly making it through a conduit and into the opening it connected to. The Forerunner Dreadnought lifted off, and jumped into slipspace in the midst of a large battle between the Covenant, now commanded by the Jiralhanae and the San'Shyuum Prelates, those ships still under the control of the Sangheili, and the Flood.

Battle of Earth
Five days after leaving High Charity (infected by the Flood), the Dreadnought arrived in Sol system. While the Dreadnought was passing Jupiter, John-117, onboard the ship, was contacted by a station on Io, but after going into radio silence, he killed four Unggoy, a pair of Kig-Yar and then another group of four Unggoy. It is unknown what happened immediately afterward, but soon, the Spartan was found unconscious by a group of Jiralhanae. The Jiralhanae interrogated him, asking him where the Key of Osanalan was, but the Spartan managed to escape by sticking his captor with a plasma grenade.

After making his way to the Prophet of Truth’s position, he reported to the UNSC that one Prophet Hierarch was on board and that he would transmit more information later. Then, Spartan-117 took aim at Truth with a Carbine and fired. Just before the Master Chief could get a good shot at Truth, a Kig-Yar with a Carbine shot and hit the Chief.

Now aware of the immediate threat within his ship, Truth ordered a jump deeper in the system, straight to Earth, where the battle was still raging between the battered remains of the UNSC fleet and Truth's forces. As the Dreadnought transitioned from Slipspace, now in range of Earth's orbital defense platforms, Admiral Hood was about to give the order to attack the ship. He only stopped because he found out that the Master Chief was aboard. The Keyship, leading the Covenant loyalist fleet, eventually broke through Earth's already-weakened defenses, and headed for Earth.

Nine days after the ship's arrival in the system, the Dreadnought entered Earth's atmosphere. John-117 jumped from the ship as it continued descending, using a hatch as a heat shield, and falling two kilometers into the African jungle near Mount Kilimanjaro. The Dreadnought continued its descent and landed on the Portal to the Ark, which the Covenant fleet was excavating.

The remaining UNSC forces in Africa planned to launch a surprise strike on the Keyship to eliminate Truth and stop him from activating the structure they thought to be the Ark. The Master Chief led a Marine assault on a Covenant anti-air battery sector in the town of Voi and successfully disabled the battery, giving the UNSC a clear shot at the Keyship. Lord Hood then attacked the ship with multiple squadrons of Longsword fighters and three UNSC frigates. The Dreadnought's advanced Forerunner shielding allowed it to survive multiple MAC rounds and hundreds of Longsword-launched missiles and emerge completely unharmed, and the UNSC attack was halted when the Portal was activated by the Keyship.

After activating the portal, the Dreadnought entered it and landed on the Ark. It did not take part in the battle, instead flying to the Ark of its own accord. Truth was untroubled by this automated action, but unbeknownst to him the Keyship was reuniting the last fragment of Mendicant Bias' compound mind to the rest of itself kept on the Ark. Mendicant Bias managed to successfully contact John-117 through a series of terminals, seeking atonement for the Forerunners. The Dreadnought was destroyed when the Master Chief prematurely activated Installation 04B.

Trivia

 * In the Halo Uprising comic series, almost every background on the Dreadnought was modeled after a location in Halo 2. For example, the Dreadnought's hangar bay looks identical to the Threshold gas mine hangar bay in Halo 2, including a docked Seraph. In addition, areas identical to the Valleys of Tears as well as the High Council Chamber in High Charity can be seen. This may be a case of artistic interpretation by the artist to capture the look of Forerunner and Covenant architectures.
 * Originally, a level referred to as forerunnership was supposed to take place on the vessel right after defeating Tartarus in the level The Great Journey in Halo 2. The level was cut due to time constraints.

List of appearances

 * Halo 2
 * Halo: Uprising
 * Halo 3
 * Halo: Contact Harvest
 * Halo: The Cole Protocol
 * Halo Legends
 * Origins
 * Halo: Broken Circle
 * Halo 2: Anniversary
 * Terminals
 * Halo: Hunters in the Dark
 * Halo 5: Guardians
 * Halo: Shadow of Intent
 * Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo