Hammer of Fate

Hammer of Fate was a drekar constructed by the Covenant and stolen by the Banished following the empire's collapse. It was used by Atriox as his flagship during his mission to Netherop in 2559, during which the ship was used as bait and destroyed via the activation of the Divine Hand.

Construction and commissioning
Like its sisters, Hammer of Fate was a drekar constructed by the Covenant during the empire's final years. The vessels were personally commissioned by the Prophet of Truth in preparation for his civil war, with a number of these vessels stolen by the Banished during the tumultuous years of internecine warfare following the empire's collapse.

Conflict at Netherop
Following his return to the galaxy in October 2559, Atriox took command of Hammer of Fate and used it as part of his renewed plan to fight against Cortana and the Created. In early November of that year, only weeks after the destruction of the Jiralhanae homeworld Doisac by Cortana's Guardian Custodes, Atriox took Hammer of Fate and a squadron of four karves to the Ephyra system with the intent of recovering an ancient superweapon hidden on Netherop with the power to destroy a Guardian. Recovering this artefact would allow the Banished to fight back against Cortana and take revenge for their homeworld. Upon arriving, a reconnaissance yawl was used to locate and listen in for the superluminal beacon used by the Created to report on activity within the system, while a trio of karves performed a slingshot maneuvre around Netherop to locate and distract the two s assigned to the system. With the defences distracted, Hammer of Fate then had a window to sneak through the system and destroy the superluminal beacon, cutting off Ephyra from the Created and preventing the harriers from easily calling for reinforcements, also destroying a third harrier that had come to investigate in the process. The task force then took up position in orbit of Netherop and began the slow process of clearing through the myriad of communications satellites that had been abandoned in orbit by the United Nations Space Command and Covenant during their engagements around the planet during the Human-Covenant War in 2526.

The Banished task force originally intended to then meet Keely Iyuska at Netherop so that they could begin excavation; however, they were interrupted by the arrival of a Sangheili fleet also intent on securing the Guardian-killer for themselves—forcing them to take cover on the surface of Netherop's second moon, hiding beneath a Cloaking Generator to prevent the group from being noticed. As part of this stealth, Hammer of Fate was the only vessel authorised to conduct observation of Netherop, as it was the only vessel suitably equipped to do so without being detected.

Due to their concealed nature, Hammer of Fate and its escort were unaffected when Worldmaster Nizat 'Kvarosee activated the superweapon he had termed the Divine Hand upon seeing an orbital insertion of forty UNSC D77-TC Pelican dropships launched from the. After four cycles of no communications from the surface from either the UNSC or Swords of Sanghelios landing parties, the harriers on the system's edge began to return to Netherop to investigate the activation of the Divine Hand—ultimately setting their sights on the Sangheili task force in orbit and the UNSC stealth cruiser hidden in orbit by Netherop's first moon. With the enemy ships distracted by the harrier attack, Atriox realised it would be only a short amount of time until the Created were alerted and a Guardian sent to investigate—meaning he had to speed up his plans. As such, he decided to take advantage of the distracted combatants to slip Hammer of Fate into Netherop's atmosphere with the intent of using it as bait for the Divine Hand—triggering its activation and then allowing his karves to drop their ground complements onto Netherop unopposed to take the weapon for themselves.

Inside the Inner Sanctum, the drekar was noticed by Arbiter Thel 'Vadam, who used the Divine Hand to destroy Hammer of Fate alongside the Forerunner harriers attacking his fleet. However, due to Tam 'Lakosee's interference, the weapon also targeted the Sangheili fleet and UNSC Hidden Point, destroying everything in orbit around Netherop except for the Banished's squadron of karves. As such, the karves were able to deploy a wave of drop pods with hundreds of infantry onto Netherop's surface, allowing the Banished to take the Divine Hand for their own.

Crew

 * Atriox - commanding officer
 * Tovarus - executive officer
 * Kallo - bridge overseer
 * Eto 'Saljhoo - xenoarcheology expert
 * Unnamed Sangheili communications officer
 * Unnamed Kig-Yar gravitics reader
 * Unnamed Kig-Yar bridge officer

List of appearances

 * Halo: Outcasts