Rwaru-pattern carrack

"Versatile cruiser that ferries Sangheili warriors to far-flung battlefields."

- Curator

The Rwaru-pattern carrack is a class of merchant cruiser once used by the Sangheili during the War of Beginnings that was since adopted for use by the fleets of a dozen factions and would-be warlords.

Design details
Carracks are an ancient Sangheili starship design, dating back to The Former Age. They occupy a role broadly similar to merchant cruisers and continued to see service well into the reign of the Covenant empire - forming a key part of the empire's trade backbone.

Armament
Rwaru-pattern ships are armed with a complement of heavy weaponry, including three R'up-pattern plasma beams, two Kor'o-pattern plasma beam emitters and eight Pol Naran-pattern beam lasers.

Usage
While ostensibly a merchant cruiser, the Blooding Years have seen many carracks pulled away from their shipping work to serve double-duty as warships; serving the Swords of Sanghelios and Jul 'Mdama's Covenant as cruisers and carriers, thanks to their sizeable weapons complement and cargo carrying capacity.

Operational history
Rwaru-pattern ships have been in service for thousands of years, since the era of Sangheili spaceflight prior to the War of Beginnings and the formation of the Covenant. Unlike the multi-role warships used by the Covenant, older, single-purpose vessels such as the carrack have become important assets in Covenant remnant factions, as many of the warships of the Covenant have since been destroyed. Regardless, contemporary Sangheili fleetmasters have found carracks to be capable and resilient troop and materiel transports, using them as both carriers and cruisers. carracks can reinforce naval battle groups and transport entire armies. As in the days of the Covenant's foundation, their reactors burn with the fury of caged stars. By the time the Blooding Years began, carracks had been upgraded to modern specifications.

The deployment of carracks in the civil war led to a crippling of much of the larger interstellar trade that bound the ex-Covenant sphere. This action in turn exacerbated tensions between rival local Kaidons, resulting in many feudal nobles turning to reignite abandoned forges for the creation of new ships.

Covenant carrack Merchant Cruiser
This element includes a single carrack merchant cruiser.
 * Cost: 145 points
 * Movement: 4"
 * Damage Track: 11 • 10 • 6
 * Build Rating: 3
 * Hangars: 0
 * Boarding Craft: 3
 * Security Detail: 6
 * Systems loadouts:
 * Defence Array (1)
 * Hard Burn (4")
 * Point Defence (3)
 * Primary Weapon: Plasma Beam
 * Range: 16"/-
 * Weapon loudouts: Beam/Plasma
 * Firing Arc: Forward
 * Dice: 15/15/15
 * Secondary Weapon: Plasma Cannon Arrays
 * Range: 10/20"
 * Weapon loadouts: Plasma
 * Firing Arc: Port+Starboard
 * Dice: 11

Covenant Escorted carrack Merchant Cruiser
This element includes a carrack merchant cruiser and one ADP-class escort.
 * Cost: 165 points
 * Movement: 4"
 * Damage Track: 11 • 11 • 6
 * Build Rating: 4
 * Hangars: 0
 * Boarding Craft: 3
 * Security Detail: 6
 * Systems loadouts:
 * Defence Array (2)
 * Hard Burn (4")
 * Point Defence (5)
 * Primary Weapon: Plasma Beam
 * Range: 16"/-
 * Weapon loudouts: Beam/Plasma
 * Firing Arc: Forward
 * Dice: 15/15/15
 * Secondary Weapon: Plasma Cannon Arrays
 * Range: 10/20"
 * Weapon loadouts: Plasma
 * Firing Arc: Port+Starboard
 * Dice: 13
 * Additional Secondary Weapon: Plasma Torpedoes
 * Range: 12/24"
 * Weapon loadouts: Missiles/Plasma
 * Firing Arc: Forward
 * Dice: 5

Trivia
Carracks were armed, three-masted ships developed by the medieval Genoese, and heavily used by the Spanish and Portuguese empires, to carry cargoes to and from their imperial territories in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. It was a predecessor to the more well-known Galleon.

List of appearances

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