R'sikosh-pattern man o' war

"Elegant galleon with extraordinary maneuverability and multi-purpose armament."

- Curator

The R'sikosh-pattern man o' war is a class of Sangheili warship used prior to the War of Beginnings and during the Blooding Years.

Design details
The R'sikosh-pattern is a relatively small warship by Covenant standards, though considered fast, deadly and perhaps most importantly, easy to operate. The man o'war was created utilising secrets gleaned from reverse-engineering Forerunner relics prior to the formation of the Covenant, and in may respects these advancements were never quite equalled even at the empire's height. As with most pre-Covenant designs, the R'sikosh has many operational quirks, and crews which do not respect these peculiarities (particularly in respect to the ship's temperamental flux-plasma reactor) often perished for their failure to adhere to ancient rites of maintenance.

Armament
Despite its small size, the R'sikosh is heavily-armed, boasting a loadout of one, two Corven-pattern plasma beam emitters, eight Gadd Naran-pattern plasma cannons and four Eriu-pattern pulse laser turrets.

Ships of the line

 * Reckless Pursuit

Operational history
The R'sikosh-pattern entered service during The Former Age of Sangheili spaceflight prior to the War of Beginnings. During the war, Pelahsar the Strident engineered the man o' war Reckless Pursuit to test Forerunner-derived weapons technologies, intended for use against the Keyship operated by the San'Shyuum, Anodyne Spirit. Reckless Pursuit was successful in this endeavour, and during the Battle of Sanghelios was responsible for successfully bringing the keyship down and ultimately forcing peace negotiations between Pelahsar and the San'Shyuum.

In October 2558, some of these ships were present during the Battle of Kamchatka, the attack on Argent Moon, and the Battle of Sunaion. Created by the Sangheili through Forerunner technology prior to the War of Beginnings, the Man O' War is considered to represent the pinnacle of Sangheili warship design, one that in many respects was never equaled by Covenant warship designs. By the time the Blooding Years began Man O' Wars had been upgraded to modern specifications. To this day, Sangheili shipwrights remain tight-lipped regarding the full details and capabilities of these warships to outsiders.

Trivia
The man-of-war was a powerful ship of the line used by European navies from the 16th to the 19th century, armed with up to 124 guns. This in turn inspired the name for the Portuguese man o' war, an extremely venomous organism related to jellyfish. It is likely from one, or both, of these that the Sangheili ship class takes its name.

List of appearances

 * Halo: Fleet Battles
 * Halo 5: Guardians
 * Halo Mythos