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Covenant Boarding Craft Production information Class Boarding Craft Technical specifications Length 62.2 metres (204 ft) Width 35.4 metres (116 ft) Height/depth 28.1 metres (92.2 ft) Slipspace Drive None Armament Plasma Turret (1)[citation needed] Complement Up to 75 Infantry[citation needed] Crew Two Pilots[citation needed] Minimum crew Two Pilots[citation needed] Passengers Up to 75 infantry soldiers[citation needed] Usage Role(s) Boarding Craft Era(s) Human-Covenant war Affiliation Covenant

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The Covenant Boarding Craft is a Covenant ship specifically designed for boarding an enemy vessel.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Operation 3 Types of Boarding Craft 4 Trivia 5 Gallery 6 List of appearances 7 Sources

OverviewEdit

The Covenant, although fully capable of reducing most UNSC vessels to heaps of molten slag in a matter of minutes, have also shown a desire to board and hopefully capture a human vessel, in hopes of capturing valuable information from the ships onboard computers. Thus far, they have done so by using Boarding Craft. This has only been done a few times, at 23 Librae and on the Pillar of Autumn. Usually, the Covenant just eliminated opposition and glassed the planet. When the Covenant does use its Boarding Craft they deploy Infantry into the heart of a vessel for purposes the UNSC can only speculate. Suggestions and evidence collated so far for motivations have been;

• To collect information/specifications of UNSC military equipment, vehicles, weapons, etc.
• To capture key members of the vessels crew and thus unlock classified UNSC intelligence including the location of Earth.
• To destroy or capture a shipboard AI.
• To destroy the vessel from within (such as the Athens Station and Malta Station Orbital Defense Platforms during the Battle of Earth).

OperationEdit

When a UNSC ship is being attacked by Covenant forces, and the Covenant determines that the ship holds valuable navigational data, AIs, or other materials, the Covenant may attempt a boarding operation. In such a s

ituation, the boarding Craft is used. So far, the Covenant have proved highly intelligent in their entry points, having burnt holes through hanger bay windows or used the empty UNSC escape pod docking rings to board a vessel.

The boarding craft is a reusable vessel and is able to leave the UNSC ship and return to a nearby cruiser should the need to retreat occur. When the craft boards via windows it seems to use the outer edge of the boarding tube to super heat the glass, this way the glass does not shatter. It must be done quickly and carefully, because the vacuum of space will instantly cool the glass down and destroy it.

Types of Boarding CraftEdit

So far two variations of the Covenant Boarding Craft have been seen. They are first encountered in Halo: Combat Evolved, used by the Covenant to board the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. These craft were only viewed partially and internally with only the boarding tube being accessible and the cockpit being off-limits behind a locked door. These vessels usually carried a compliment of up to 8-10 Covenant warriors, usually Unggoy and Sangheili.

The second, much larger, type of boarding craft were responsible for the destruction of the ODPs of the Athens and Malta stations . These possessed the large bodied structure with an attached boarding tube. The entrance/exit to the boarding tube was covered with an impenetrable shield that only allowed their considerable complement of Covenant soldiers out. The boarding tube seemed to function on a similar basis to the gravity-bridges found in the Covenant holy city High Charity. The tube, once deployed, had a superheated rim to melt glass instead of shattering it, therefore cooling down so air cannot escape.

The boarding craft on Cairo Station at the chapter Authorized Personnel Only, from the rear it slightly resembles a Spirit Dropship. This is only spoken of in Halo: Combat Evolved because only the inside is seen.

TriviaEdit

• In Halo: Combat Evolved, they contained two Overshield power ups in the far corners of the pods, probably put there for the use of any Sangheili in need of assistance that were on board.
• The exterior of the Boarding Craft has a resemblance to a flower-like or palm tree-like shape.
• The boarding craft is non-canonically referred to by some fans as either an Apparition or a Poltergeist. Neither name is the true designation of the vehicle, although they do fit the Covenant's vehicle naming scheme, being named after death or otherworldly creatures.
• The tube appears to have some kind of anti-gravity function, as the troops being deployed float a little off the tube wall. This appears to be similar to the gravity bridges seen in High Charity.
• Even when the shields for the entrance of the boarding craft are turned off, players cannot enter.

GalleryEdit

List of appearancesEdit

• Halo: Combat Evolved (First appearance)
• Halo: The Flood
• Halo 2
• Halo: The Cole Protocol
• Halo: Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe
• Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
• Halo: Glasslands

SourcesEdit

Covenant Starship Classifications
Ground support aircraft	Banshee - Vampire
Starfighters	Seraph-class starfighter - Tarasque-class heavy fighter - Gigas-class fighter-bomber - Banshee-class interceptor
Dropships	Spirit - Phantom - Covenant boarding craft - Phantom Gunboat
Support starships	DAV-class light corvette - Agricultural support ship
Light capital warships	SDV-class heavy corvette - Frigate - CAR-class - Destroyer - CPV-class - RPV-class
Cruisers	Cruiser - CRS-class - CCS-class - Reverence-class - Battleship - Supercruiser
Carriers	DDS-class carrier - CAS-class assault carrier - CSO-class supercarrier
Space stations	High Charity - Unyielding Hierophant
Miscellaneous	Covenant Tug
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