CAS-class Assault Carrier

Name: CAS-Class Assault Carrier
Craft: Covenant Empire CAS-Class Assault Carrier
Type: Carrier / Heavy Warship / Flagship
Scale: capital
Length: 5,346 x 2,118 x 746 meters
Skill: capital ship pilot
Crew: 26,730; skeleton: 2,673/+10
Passengers: 100,000 troops
Cargo Capacity: 19,200,000 metric tons
Consumables: 15 years
Slip Space Drive: x13.69
Nav Computer: yes
Maneuverability: 1D
Space: 8
Atmosphere: 365; 1,050kmh
Hull: 12D+1
Shields: 9D+1
Sensors

• Passive: 150/2D
• Scan: 300/3D
• Search: 450/4D
• Focus: 15/5D

Weapons

• Infernus-pattern superheavy excavation beam

Fire Arc: ventral
Crew: 1
Scale: capital
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 1-23/45/90
Atmosphere Range: 1-45/90/180km
Damage: 12D

• 2 Urpeon-pattern superheavy plasma lances (firelinked)

Fire Arc: forward
Crew: 1
Scale: capital
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-19/38/75
Atmosphere Range: 1-9/19/38km
Damage: 7D+

• 8 Luxor-pattern heavy plasma beams

Fire Arc: turrets
Crew: 1
Scale: capital
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-19/38/75
Atmosphere Range: 1-9/19/38km
Damage: 5D+2

• 16 Plasma Cannons

Fire Arc: turrets
Crew: 1
Scale: capital
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 1-19/38/75
Atmosphere Range: 1-9/19/38km
Damage: 5D

• 24 Mictix-pattern heavy plasma torpedo silos

Fire Arc: 8 forward, 8 port, 8 starboard
Crew: 1
Scale: capital
Skill: capital ship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-15/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 1-30/60/120km
Damage: 8D

• 700 Ferriel-pattern pulse lasers

Fire Arc: turrets
Crew: 1
Scale: starfighter
Skill: starship gunnery
Fire Control: 3D
Space Range: 1-5/10/20
Atmosphere Range: 10-500/1,000/2,000m
Damage: 4D

Complement

• 64× Seraph strikecraft
• 192× Banshee Fighter strikecraft
• 20× Tick boarding pods
• 44× Phantom dropships
• 8× Phantom gunboat assault ships
• 3× Scarab platforms
• 600× Banshee flyers
• 196× Wraith mortar tanks
• 44× Shadow transports
• 700× Ghost scouts
• 250× Insertion pods

Description: “Look at the size of that thing!”
— Edward Buck after an Assault Carrier arrives over New Mombasa.

The CAS-class assault carrier is a Covenant capital ship classification of the Covenant Navy.

Function

These ships possess an extensive hangar bay, capable of transporting large numbers of Seraph fighters, Phantom dropships, boarding craft, and large fleets of Ghosts and Wraiths, along with a number of massive Scarab Walkers, and - later - the frigates UNSC Forward Unto Dawn and UNSC Aegis Fate would dock inside the vessel's launch bay, a testament to the vastness of these ships.

Assault Carriers are also used as Flagships, leading Covenant Fleets into battle. Though designed for planetary combat, they also excel at ship-to-ship combat, possessing multiple point-defense pulse laser turrets, Plasma Torpedo launchers and at least two energy projectors.

Background

Assault Carriers are much larger than CCS-class battlecruisers, Covenant supercruisers, DDS-class carriers and most other Covenant ships; they are more rare and more heavily armed than either of them. They are armed with at least two Energy projectors, as well as plasma torpedo launchers and pulse-lasers. They also possess gravity lifts, used for ferrying supplies, personnel, and vehicles from the ship and to any solid surface. From their name, and actions in Halo 2, it would appear that an Assault Carrier is designed to fight through an enemy world's defenses and head right into the planet's atmosphere and drop off its troops.

Two such crafts led the Fleet of Sacred Consecration to Earth, where they engaged the UNSC Home Fleet in orbit above Africa. Solemn Penance, carrying the Prophet himself, managed to penetrate Earth's orbital defenses. The second attempted to follow, but was subsequently destroyed by John-117.

Solemn Penance fled to slipspace, as UNSC forces were likely to recapture the city of New Mombasa and board the ship, with UNSC In Amber Clad following close behind in its slipspace wake, leading Human Forces to Installation 05.

Another Assault Carrier was later repossessed by Rtas 'Vadum and the Sangheili, and became the flagship of the Fleet of Retribution, leading it to Earth in pursuit of the Flood-infested Indulgence of Conviction, arriving in time to glass the infected area of the planet. Shadow of Intent and its escorting Cruisers joined forces with the remnants of the UNSC Navy to launch a joint attack on the Covenant at the Ark, destroying their Fleet and providing a distraction while ground forces engaged the Loyalists that had landed. It later evacuated the UNSC and Sangheili personnel and returned to Earth for a short time before returning to Sanghelios.

In the post-war era, the Covenant Remnant CAS-class assault carrier Song of Retribution led a fleet of CRS-class light cruisers on an expedition to Requiem.

Armament

Because these enormous vessels are often employed as capital ships, it is necessary for them to be heavily armed. Assault Carriers possess energy projectors which are powerful enough to cut through UNSC capital ships on its ventral and dorsal surfaces. They also possess multiple pulse-laser turrets used for intercepting enemy missiles and fighters, and plasma torpedoes for engaging in ship-to-ship combat and assaulting planetary defenses.

Assault Carriers are also equipped with at least one gravity lift, capable of dispatching troops, personnel, vehicles and equipment to the surface of a planet rather quickly. They also possess a large main hangar, capable of carrying multiple Seraphs and Banshee fighter crafts, Phantom dropships and boarding crafts, or a UNSC Frigate. In addition, Assault Carriers possess the ability to launch Drop Pods, tactically delivering Sangheili warriors into areas without resorting to bulky and obvious dropships. These ships also carry the dreaded Scarab walkers in their holds for quick deployment. Thanks to these innovations, a single Assault Carrier can easily launch large-scale invasions quickly and effectively.

Characteristics

Assault Carriers, like the vast majority of other Covenant ships, are characterized by their bulbous, whale-like front, sleek silhouette and pale white/blue hull. However, they also tend to be characterized by their unique "hooked" bow section that would (theoretically) be a massive weakness as the ship could be blown in half comparatively easily, given its shields were down. Rather than possessing multiple smaller hangar bays, like smaller cruisers, Assault Carriers use a single, gargantuan hangar bay for storage of fighters, dropships, boarding craft and small capital ships, at least 500 meters long, 320 meters wide and 120 meters high. In Halo 3, however, there is a second hangar bay visible, near the stern of the Assault Carrier, above the main engines. For propulsion, Assault Carriers rely on large deuterium-tritium fusion reactors, housed in cavernous chambers, which power the ship's vital systems, as well as the three aft-mounted plasma drives that propel the ship, capable of operating in a vacuum or in an atmospheric environment. They also employ non-reactive gravity drives for standard maneuvering and hovering above the surface of a planet, resisting its gravity.

The Assault Carrier is also fitted with Modular Dispersal Technology, giving it the ability to completely detach sections of its outer hull as well as whole corridors, as seen during the Battle of the Unnamed Star System. They can also separate into two distinct sections which leaves the rear section (with the main engines) behind and allows the fore-section to move away with previously hidden engines, the fore section (and likely the rear) are still slipspace capable. Unlike its unorthodox means of use by the Fleet Master in an attempt to disperse the advancing Spartan forces, the dispersal feature is actually intended to be used in order to detach sections of the Carrier that sustained extensive damage in order to increase the chances of saving what is left of the ship and its crew for future use.

The frigates UNSC Forward Unto Dawn and UNSC Aegis Fate were small enough to fit inside Shadow of Intent's Hangar together. Therefore, it would be plausible that the Assault Carrier could easily carry small Covenant ships, such as a CRS-class light cruiser or several SDV-class heavy corvettes, or even DDS-class carriers.

Source:

• Halo Wiki: CAS-class assault carrier
• thedemonapostle