Kewu-pattern battleship

The Covenant Supercruiser is a classification of extremely powerful capital Covenant warships within the Covenant Navy.

Background

Physical Characteristics and Armament

Its length of 3.5 kilometers was over three times that of the UNSC Marathon-class Cruiser.

These ships were durable enough to withstand one nuclear mine detonation, or even three Magnetic Accelerator Cannon rounds and nearly five hundred Archer missiles. However, during the Fall of Reach, it used a hit-and-run tactic to avoid fire from the Orbital Defense Platforms' "Super" MACs.

Operational Use

One of these warships led the Covenant invasion Fleet during the the Fall of Reach in August 2552, where it destroyed many UNSC ships, like the Musashi, the Minotaur and the Herodotus, but was destroyed by the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. The two ships battled it out, with the Autumn using its upgraded MAC gun and over 500 missiles to drop the shields and damage it. The supercrusier's shields were so powerful that only a handful of the 500 got through each time, but the purpose was to drop the ship's shields. The Autumn launched a remote controlled Longsword armed with a Shiva missile under the Supercruiser's shields, multiplying the destructive blast exponentially, by having the shields containing the blast. During the fight between the two, the supercruiser hit the Autumn twice with its main weapon, but due to the Autumn's design and the tactics of its captain and AI, the ship survived, albeit badly damaged.

Weapons

The Covenant supercruiser's weapon systems seem limited, but extremely powerful. It possesses an Energy Projector which shoots a thin needle beam at light speed, enabling it to cut through the hull armor of several UNSC ships at a time. First described as a type of sniping ship because of its combat tactics, this weapon can be described as similar to the Type-50 Sniper Rifle System. This weapon needs to charge over time, but once charged, it can be fired with pinpoint accuracy.

Another thing the supercrusier possesed that worked in its favor were incredibly powerful shields that took a lot to drop and seemed to recharge fast. It took three MAC rounds and over 500 Archer missiles hitting the ship to drop the shields and even then only a handful of Archer missiles would get through and cause minimal damage. However, the Pillar of Autumn was able to use this against the supercrusier by dropping the shields and landing a remote-piloted Longsword interceptor on the ship armed with a nuclear missile and letting the shields return before detonation, using the supercruiser's own shields to amplify the blast as they were powerful enough not to collapse immediatly even with a nuclear blast inside them. This also saved the Pillar of Autumn: the shields held long enough for the Autumn to escape the blast radius.

Complement

Given its gigantic size, (second only to the assault carrier and supercarrier), it is likely able to carry hundreds of Seraph-class starfighters and dropships. Moreover, it probably carries large numbers of ground vehicles and troops, possibly entire legions.

List of appearances

• Halo: The Fall of Reach