Horn of Plenty

The Horn of Plenty (DCS.REG# HOP-000987111) was an unmanned human civilian interstellar freighter of unknown classification operating in and before 2524.

Background
Under the management of UNSC Department of Commercial Shipping, the Horn of Plenty has the dubious distinction of being the vessel to make first contact with the Covenant race.

First Contact
On September 3, 2524 the Horn of Plenty was making a shipment of melons from a Harvest colony to a Madrigal colony when its slipspace drive malfunctioned due an overload in the coolant tanks, fatefully forcing it out of slipspace near the Kig-Yar raider Minor Transgression.

The Covenant ship, crewed by Kig-Yar, Unggoy, and Huragok, attacked and disabled the vessel by destroying its engines, cameras, and MASER dish with pulse lasers, and then stripping it of salvageable materials such as the cargo and the navigational computer. Having suffered a hull breach, the freighter sent a message to the DCS, which responded by sending an ONI operative because they feared the destruction was the result of Insurrectionist attack.

Description
It had a cargo capacity of at least 2,500 metric tons, and was powered by a pair of compact reactors. It possessed a Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace Drive in its propulsion pod, described as being one-tenth the size of the cargo container, coupled to the craft at the rear through a magnetic coupling.