ORA-class Interdictor Cruiser

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"Ourselves and the Prospero were both in slipspace transition, running from the Covenant fleet. Then the Prospero broadcasts an SOS, and drops out of slipspace without warning. Last we saw of it... There was something chasing us, some predator we've never seen before."

- Commander Katya Konev

A rarely-seen relic of the early expansion, the ORA-class Interdictor Cruiser is a predator that is utterly lethal in ambush tactics. Devised as a chaser, it could delve into the alien realm of Slipspace, find its prey, and pull them out into realspace, where they are at its mercy. Despite its age, rarity, and complexity, such vessels remain in Covenant stockpiles. During the, it was used to chase ships fleeing the Covenant's might, and destroy them, or capture them. Many starships remain as slagged wrecks, floating in the darkness between stars where the Interdictor has found them.

Human-Covenant War
It was proven almost impossible to piece together just how many Interdictor attacks were mounted on the UNSC. With intelligence gleamed from surviving sources, at least five ORA-class Interdictor Cruisers were active, with only three being known by name. The Unending Testament, Fervour and Fury, and the Protean Soul have fragmentary records, detailing actions and operations. Furthermore, the UNSC only possesses four records of engagements, though the actual number of engagements is estimated to be close to twenty, having simply left no survivors in their wake.

The first recorded engagement is with the cruisers UNSC Prospero and the UNSC Vercingetorix, though at the time the attacking ship was not identified. Both were departing a fleet engagement, and following the. The Prospero broadcast an emergency SOS then disappeared, falling out of communications and sensors. The captain of the Vercingetorix elected to disengage and continue their escape, not being familiar with the threat. Prospero 's wreckage was never found.

The second recorded engagement is between a ship later identified as the Fervour and Fury, and Battlegroup Milan. In an expert display of the ship's power, it managed to shunt the seven ship battlegroup into realspace, and destroyed half the armada immediately. In a single pass, two destroyers and a frigate were destroyed, and the cruiser Admiral Carmichael was left drifting on emergency power. Attempting to form into a coherent squadron, a further destroyer was disabled, and the Carrier Milan was heavy damaged by an energy projector blow close to the secondary reactors. Routing emergency power, the Carmichael attempted to engage with its missiles and secondary weapons, but failed to deal any damage. During this, Lieutenant Commander Beni Madrigal, captain of the Frigate Vega Star escaped, dumping most of its nuclear warheads and engage in three short ranged jumps to avoid its enemy. The Prowler Nomad of Bengal was able to track the battle site, and found the blasted remains of the Carmichael, and wreckage identified as belonging to the Milan, but could not find the ship itself. With such catastrophic damage, it could not have left under its own power.

The third engagement was in the aftermath of the, where the Cruiser Prince Arslan, and the Destroyer squadron Brawler were retreating following the UNSC Navy's general call for retreat. This time, the Protean Soul shunted them from slipspace, forcing the ships into real space. This time, the battle was far less coordinated, with the Covenant ship damaging the Cruiser, and annihilating two destroyers, but failing to claim a victory immediately. Instead, the Prince Arslan, a refitted, survived the first fusillade then began to mount a fierce defence, pulling the Soul into a short ranged fire fight. Regrouping, the Destroyer squadron concentrated fire on the Covenant cruiser, and managed to score a number of its despite its advanced stealth technology. The Protean Soul was reinforced by two, throwing the battle in the Covenant's advantage. Seeing an unwinnable fight, the captain of the Prince Arslan elected to ram the enemy ship with the full bulk of his ship, to buy time for the Destroyers to escape. The battle ended with the Soul damaged, and the Arslan destroyed, and the best details yet of one of these mysterious hunters.

The fourth recorded engagement, is perhaps the UNSC's only victory against a ORA-class Interdictor Cruiser. The Unending Testament shadowed the Cruiser UNSC Viscount Nelson. Prowling for ships to capture, the ORA-class shunted it into realspace with the intent to cripple and board the vessel. Instead it found a ship at full alert and combat readiness, after all, Captain Beni Madrigal had seen such ambushes before. Quickly turning the tables, the Viscount Nelson scored a number of hits against the Testament, forcing it to disengage to fight from a safer distance. This battle turned into a game of hide and seek, while a FTL-capable Condor from the Nelson made a jump to the naval base at Heligoland to alert them to the Covenant engagement. In response, the Forty-Seven Ronin and the  Argon and Marduk set out. Joining the battle after eleven hours of cat-and-mouse, they swung it in the UNSC's favour. The Testament was crippled by repeated fire, and disabled. While ever mindful of the threat of Covenant reinforcements, an ONI site team took the opportunity to analyse the stricken ship, while ODST's fought in a boarding action. With their time up, they left the vessel and destroyed it, before evacuating the system.

Weapon Systems
"Reactor is fried, sir! Deactivating non-essential systems and switching to emergency power."
 * "There are multiple calls for help across the fleet, captain, while at least two ships are not responsive."

- Recovered black-box from the Milan Massacre, where a single ORA-class Cruiser ambushed the entire battle group.

As a stealth predator that little in the way of defensive systems, the ORA-class Interdictor Cruiser cannot hope to outlast its opponent like many other Covenant ships can, and this truth manifests itself in its arsenal. Rather than carrying a large suite of lighter, rapid-firing cannons - as is favoured by most Covenant warships - the guns on the Interdictor Cruiser are chosen specifically for their power to allow it to overwhelm opponents in a single, massive barrage. Few of these large weapons are capable of firing particularly quickly and have a substantial power draw that cannot be sustained by the ORA 's reactors for long. To make up for this, most of its armaments are linked up to a series of massive capacitator banks mounted along its flanks to power them for a short time, which are depleted quickly if their weapons are overcharged beyond their usual capabilities.

Lining its frontmost surface, the eight Udam-pattern super-heavy plasma cannons are powerful weapons that match those mounted on far larger carriers, and are purpose-built for the ORA 's needs. Divided into an upper turret that resembles a Sangheili skull, and a lower base to supply the power, these weapons closely resemble the employed by. Using two independent plasma shaping systems in a single open chamber with an oversized cooling system, it can deliver punishing salvoes of plasma at a rapid rate with little-to-no pause. A single hit is enough to breach the thick hulls on destroyers, and sustained fire from multiple turrets can bring down opposing cruisers. The actual turret is heavily-reinforced against damage, and floats wirelessly high above its anti-gravity mount to give it a very wide field of fire. However, these weapons place incredible strain on the cruiser's reactors, and once their capacitor banks run out only a handful of turrets can fire at once. Worse, the systems used to give the Udam its devastating punch are in actuality quite fragile. If time is not taken to properly maintain them, then the entire turret emplacement can explode spectacularly as its internal energy systems destabilise, potentially killing nearby personnel. When not in use, the upper gun section directly attaches itself to the base to minimise wear.

To supplement its bow turrets, and to provide coverage across the rest of the ship, anywhere from twenty to thirty Melusean-pattern plasma cannons are fitted. One of the heaviest plasma cannons in common use, these stalk-like weapons are heavy-hitting, releasing unguided plasma bursts that can that can quickly penetrate the outer armour and gut opponents. They are directly attached to their mounts, which allows most of their circuitry to be hidden deeper within the hull for increased protection. They have a restricted range of movement, and are slow to fire, which encourages shipwrights to mount them in groups of three to allow them to overcome this weakness. They are well-regarded for their accuracy as well as their power, and so are used for medium-range combat against fast-moving targets.

Its heaviest weapons lie within its array of three, with no excavation beams; an odd oversight for a Reverence-class vessel, whose duties also involve the unearthing of relics. The heaviest of these is its solitary Eraax-pattern heavy plasma lance  mounted on top of its midsection. One of, if not the, fastest-charging weapon of its class ever devised by Covenant engineers, the Eraax-pattern is capable of rapidly firing a beam of highly-destructive potential for its size. Directly linked to the reactor of the ORA, it charges by ignoring many sacred interlocks to flood their power stores with massive, dangerous energy currents until they are ready, essentially brute-forcing its way into readiness. Its split-second-long, highly-condensed beam then burns through its target, oftentimes brutally cutting right through smaller ships and stations. All this power, unfortunately, comes at a massive cost. The charging process must be delayed for significant repairs to be undertake after every two or three shots, as the focusing equipment simply is not designed to be so quickly heated, used, and cooled. The damage becomes so devastating that no Eraax-pattern plasma lance can be used after thirty times, demanding a replacement system. Ignoring the time-consuming maintenance protocols sees the beam losing accuracy and precision, which can affect lethality. In extreme cases, there have been reports for these emitters to suddenly explode, cutting their ships in two.

Esoterica
In its role as apex predator of slipstream space, it carries two pieces of 'Esoterica'; technology of Covenant or Forerunner make that is either not fully understood, or is rare and exotic. The first, is its sensor. Designed to work within slipspace, it works with standard slipspace sensors, which can detect a slipspace transition, and process the terminal point. It is also designed to work within the indescribable realms of slipspace, where the normal laws of physics do not apply. These sensors were designed and built by Covenant engineers, though their secrets are largely forgotten now. They track and trace signals related to slipspace drives, creating a 'scent' for the ship to track.

The second element of its Esoterica is the Ervirol-pattern Shunt. Reverse engineered from technology recovered from an ancient battle site, the Shunt creates a pocket of unstable slipstream phenomena around it, affecting the ability for FTL drives to maintain their presence in slipspace. With exposure of only a few minutes, slipstream space completely collapses, effectively ceasing, and by phenomena of Reconciliation, forces anything inside it into realspace. When anything trapped within this bubble is forcibly shunted back to realspace, it causes a jarring transition that rocks the vessel. Smaller ships, of insubstantial creation, may be torn apart. Once back in realspace, the ships are at their mercy. The Shunt is extremely power hungry, and to use it, it sacrifices its ability to escape for several hours, at least without sacrificing weapons and/or shields. In this regard, it creates a risky dilemma for the crew, because if they fail to kill their prey, they may be left vulnerable and unable to escape. The Shunt itself is a pernicious device, being unstable and difficult to control. Huragok do not respond to the machine as normal, and its programming language, and holy glyphs are of a strange nature, requiring special translation from San'Shyuum scholars of older languages.

Role
The ORA-class is a stealthy predatory, capable of picking off foes at the most unexpected moment. Though the Hierarchs alleged that this weapon was to chase pirates, traitors, and heretics who had escaped to the safety of slipspace, the truth was much darker. It was a tool of assassination, targeting enemies of the Hierarchs where they believed themselves safest, and furthest from harm. Since the wreckage would be deposited far from view, there was rarely any evidence of an assassination, and it could be chalked up to a slipspace accident. While initially these vessels were classed as Examiner vessels, at the beck and call of the Hierarchs, when the Covenant became a more stable, peaceful domain, these ships fell from use, and became better characterised as Executioner. Often commanded by would be pirates, or assassins, these ships never took direct part in battle, and only lingered on the edge, chasing escapees. During the Human-Covenant War, the ORA-class was directed to attack stragglers and fleeing vessels, and while there was little honour to be had in ambushing fleeing prey, these ships offered their crew honour in a different way. They were also charged with capturing enemy vessels, or any actionable intelligence, disabling them in an ambush then seizing the ship through boarding crews.

When the war ended, the surviving ORA-class ships were scattered, most of their crews taking on a mercenary nature as assassins or procurement specialists, accepting money from the highest bidders. Some would swear their allegiance to a faction, and those who joined the Swords of Sanghelios  were welcomed as honoured allies, a strange sensation for them. These crews would still operate as assassins and hijackers, but afforded with all the honour any other warrior of the Sword would receive.

Foebane-pattern
Many crews became assassins-for-hire, or mercenaries, going from one job to the next. But to some, the Swords of Sanghelios offered greater succour. A place of honour. No longer were they vagabonds, set to regain honour on unknown battlefields, but now at the right hand of Fleet Masters, dispatched to harry the enemy, and act as privateers. Never before had these crews been offered a place at the table, and for many, that was enough to sway their loyalty. Such ORA-class vessels were refitted with newer technology, with overhauled Pinch fusion Reactors, new stealth systems, and ever more accurate weapon systems, allowing it to rapidly punch out enemies, even above its tonnage. Thoroughly modernised, these ships became the bane of the enemy, tearing at their sides and rear like a beast, and even engaging in fleet actions as a skirmisher.