Forerunner fleet

Forerunner ships combining their firepower.

A fleet was a contingent of starships maintained by the military forces of the Forerunner ecumene. Most Forerunner fleets were historically operated by the Warrior-Servants, until their diminishing by the Builders, which saw many of their fleets transferred under Builder Security. Later, during the Forerunner-Flood war, all Forerunner fleets were led jointly by Fleet Command.

History

The Forerunner Dreadnought powering High Charity.

Throughout Forerunner history, from their ancient civil wars to the Human-Forerunner War and later the Forerunner-Flood war, a great number of deciding battles were fought between naval fleets. It is evident that the total Forerunner fleet consisted of millions of ships, given the numbers of the losses suffered during the war and the fact that a single AI would take personal command of a core fleet alone of one thousand ships, combined with the three million worlds that the Forerunners controlled. However, this number was severely whittled down over three centuries of war. During the course of the war, Forerunner fleets attempted to prevent the Flood from landing on the surface of various planets, and when the Flood invariably did, the fleets' main concern was to evacuate as many civilians as possible. At a certain point during the war, the Forerunners drew their final defensive line at the protected boundary of the Orion complex - the Maginot Sphere - leaving all systems beyond the line to fend for themselves. However, this was not a permanent solution, as the Sphere and its Line installations had failed in the past.

The Forerunners had created a master AI, 05-032 Mendicant Bias, to coordinate all of their strategic movements against the Flood. However, Mendicant Bias defected to the Flood after direct contact with the Gravemind, and began to actively work towards its creators' destruction. More setbacks followed with the Flood growing in numbers and power, forming compound intelligences of enormous power called Key Minds. By this point, the Forerunners had resorted to more extreme means to control and contain the Flood, burning entire star systems by initiating premature supernovas. Late into the war, the Flood began to reactivate and use Precursor artifacts against the Forerunners. The Forerunners had no effective defense against the neural physics-based technology, which could either pummel them by sheer force or remotely deactivate their systems, making their ships easy prey to the Flood.

As the Forerunners realized that they had no chance of militarily winning the war, they eventually resorted to the firing of the Halo Array, their ultimate last resort which would cleanse the galaxy of all sentient life. The Flood and Mendicant Bias realized this, and led their fleet of over five million ships to the Maginot Sphere to access the lesser Ark directly and stop the firing of the Halos. However, the IsoDidact, overall commander of the remaining Forerunner military, had dispatched Offensive Bias, a loyal AI commanding the remains of the Forerunner fleets, to meet Mendicant's fleet at the Maginot Sphere. During the ensuing battle, the IsoDidact fired the Halo Array, which neutralized Mendicant Bias's giant Flood-controlled fleet, which had until this point, vastly outnumbered Offensive Bias. With the odds much more even, Offensive Bias managed to defeat the rampant AI's remaining core ships and delivered Mendicant Bias to the Ark for study.

Without any Forerunners to guide them, some Forerunner ships crashed onto various objects and were later found by the races of the Covenant, some utilizing the ships' advanced technology. For example, the Forerunner Dreadnought was used to power the Covenant capital of High Charity.

Technology and capabilities

Forerunner vessels were extremely powerful and well protected in comparison to those used by the modern civilizations. Many were also enormous, far beyond the scale of anything that came after, although certain classes were designed to be fast and maneuverable. A single Keyship could power a structure the size of an entire moon by using less than a tenth of its total power output. In a UNSC naval assault against the Covenant in the Battle of Voi, three UNSC frigates fired their Magnetic Accelerator Cannons at the Forerunner Dreadnought but it remained intact. This makes it even more powerful than a some of the most powerful Covenant ships, which could only barely take the impact of three special light MAC rounds and five hundred Archer missiles. One class of dreadnoughts can combine their fire into a large singular beam capable of slicing a ship in two, before causing a massive explosion. The Forerunners were also capable of artificially inducing premature stellar collapses in the event the Flood overran a star system.

Known units

• Suppression Fleet
• Security Fleet
• Emergency Circumstance Fleet
• Primary Pioneer Group
  • Advance Survey Team Alpha

Known ship types

• The dreadnought was a class of combat vessel commonly used during the Forerunner-Flood war.
• Keyships such as the Forerunner Dreadnought were used to open gateways to the Ark and to transport lifeforms away from the Array's effect, as well as back to their homeworlds. They also possessed powerful shielding and weaponry.
• Forerunner cruiser
• Fortress-class vessel
• Planet-breaker
• Forerunner Builder ship
• Forerunner picket cruiser
• Dignity-class escort
• Preservation-class escort
• Falco-class space pod
• Fast frigate

Known commanders

• IsoDidact
• Bitterness-of-the-Vanquished
• Examiner
• Faber
• Falchion
• Tactician
• Mendicant Bias
• Offensive Bias

Gallery

• 

  Forerunner ships held at a shield world.

• 

  Keyships serving out their mission to reseed life throughout the galaxy.

• 

  Flood-infected Forerunner ships.

• 

  The Forerunner Dreadnought in flight.

List of appearances

• Halo 2 (First appearance)
• Halo 3
• Halo Wars
• Halo Legends
  • Origins
• Halo: Cryptum
• Halo: Silentium