Zashk-pattern Draugr

The Zashk-pattern Mobile Fortress, more commonly known simply as the Draugr, is a gargantuan mobile fortress employed by the Covenant military as the centrepiece in a large ground campaign.

Design details
The Draugr is a massive vehicle employed by the Covenant, featuring a gravity lift and heavy-duty energy shielding. It is among one of the largest and most powerful land vehicles of the Covenant, with only the Harvester and Kraken surpassing it in scale. The front of the vessel is fitted with two wings bearing anti-gravity pods that provide lift for the vehicle to traverse the environment. The vehicle's aft contains an extended troop bay with a similar wing and pod setup, with a tower above fitted with an anti-air cannon. The troop bays have doorway openings large enough to fit a light vehicle such as a Warthog through, and a boarding ramp at the fore of the vessel to allow for the deployment of troops and light vehicles manually without the need to use the gravity lift. When opened, the ramp was described as resembling a "giant mouth".

Due to its size and mass, the Draugr is extremely slow - though is noted to make up for it with its sheer firepower. Its mass is such that two Pelican dropships would be unable to lift it.

Armament
The Draugr is equipped with five focus cannons. The aft tower of the vessel contains one such weapon used as an anti-aircraft cannon.

Usage
The Draugr is employed by the Covenant as the centrepiece of their largest mobile field armies, where they are flanked by Scarabs for protection. They can house legions of combat troops inside their shield dome, and thus make a useful tool when the Covenant wish to completely annihilate a well-entrenched enemy.

Operational history
The Draugr was seldom seen during the Human-Covenant War. One such craft was used by Covenant invasion forces during the invasion of Concord in December 2551. During the battle, the vehicle was used as the base of operations for Covenant troops stranded on the planet after the elimination of their orbital support by UNSC Navy vessels. With limited reinforcements and supplies, the Covenant elected to use the Draugr to attack the numerous lightly defended smaller towns and villages littering the Hinterlands region of the planet as opposed to the larger and more fortified cities - hoping to take down as many humans as possible before they were killed themselves. At 1405 hours on December 12, the Draugr was involved in a push on the township of Skathi, and was spotted by NOBLE Team scout Jun-A266, who sent a live feed of the vehicle's arrival to the rest of the Spartans. In response and with minimal resources, Catherine-B320 devised a plan to eliminate the threat before it could be brought to bear on the town proper. A small team consisting of Kat, Rosenda-A344 and Thom-A293 used an M862 Arctic Warthog to board the Draugr, with Thom distracting the vehicle's focus cannons and armoured escort while Kat and Rosenda drove the Warthog off a rocky outcropping to board the vessel and take it over. After eliminating the vessel's crew, Kat took over the vehicle and used it to wipe out the rest of the attack force, before eventually driving it back to Skathi for recovery and analysis by the UNSC.

Production notes
The Draugr was initially conceived by Isaac Hannaford under the working name "Siege Engine" during the production of Halo: Reach. At the time, the vehicle was to be the centrepiece of a cut level later in the game and can be seen in several pieces of concept art. Hannaford designed the vehicle based on the H-K Tank from Terminator.

The vehicle was later brought back and canonised in the Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition), and prominently featured in the Winter Contention short story.

Trivia
A Draugr is a type of undead creature from Norse mythology, akin to zombies. This is to keep in the Covenant's tradition of naming most of its vehicles after undead mythological entities.

List of appearances

 * Winter Contention