Defender of Faith

Defender of Faith was a Covenant destroyer of unknown classification. The ship was prominently employed in the service of the Servants of the Abiding Truth during the early stages of the Blooding Years, captained by Shipmaster 'Rduan. The vessel was destroyed during its attack on Vadam keep in 2553 by intervention from 'Vadam-allied United Nations Space Command forces.

Design details
Defender of Faith was a destroyer of unknown classification. The vessel had a nose comprised of silver nanolaminate, and measured 1200 m in length - considered to look relatively small by Covenant destroyer standards when viewed by UNSC Navy personnel. The vessel was known to Margaret Parangosky, Commander-in-Chief of the Office of Naval Intelligence, who considered the class a rare one - commenting that "[you] don't see many of those" - likely in relation to the Covenant's more common and s, respectively.

The vessel did not have employ energy shielding when used in 2553, allowing Swords of Sanghelios forces to score a number of hits directly on the hull with their own anti-ship artillery.

Armaments
The destroyer was armed with a ventrally-mounted energy projector. It was also equipped with a missile delivery of some kind (presumably plasma torpedoes), which were ineffective at breaching the point-defence networks of, alongside an plasma weapon of some kind used to target Thel 'Vadam's forces in Vadam keep. The weapon fired, described as a "silent bolt of light" when viewed from orbit on a viewscreen, may possibly be some form of plasma cannon, plasma bombardment mortar or pulse laser turret.

Service history
In March 2553, Defender of Faith was used by the Servants of the Abiding Truth to support a large attack on 'Vadam keep, on Sanghelios. The ship was used to support the attack, at first simply hovering over the opposition camp assaulting 'Vadam for intimidation value - with Avu Med 'Telcam hoping to draw Thel 'Vadam out from the keep to face him alone. The ship's presence put an end to the exchange of weapons fire between the two sides, though ultimately the defending 'Vadam forces struck the ship three times with a plasma artillery weapon - making their intent clear to the attackers. Defender of Faith was used to provide bombardment support for the ensuing assault, eventually leading to 'Vadam agreeing to allow to fire upon it due to the unavailability of his own naval support. Defender of Faith attempted to lift into orbit to engage Infinity directly, rapidly climbing to an altitude of five hundred and then two thousand meters before Infinity fired three pods of Howler missiles - totalling sixty missiles - at the destroyer.

Defender of Faith attempted to return fire in kind with its own missile complement, though none of these weapons were able to breach Infinity's point-defences before the Howlers were able to strike Defender of Faith after only ten seconds of flight. These missiles were not enough to destroy the ship, but did breach the hull - leaving a gap which Infinity exploited with a further two pods of Howlers. The resulting impacts tore Defender of Faith's bow open, faltering the drives and resulting in the ship's remains impacting back down on Sanghelios five kilometres to the west of Kolaar Mountain.

List of appearances

 * Halo: The Thursday War