Transcendent Passage

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"You think or Jaeter are special with all those species intermingling, let me tell you about the vacation starliner!"

- Jeffery Korn small-talking Elena Zaytseva about the Transcendant Passage.

The Transcendent Passage is an unusually-luxurious Syfon-pattern assault carrier currently in the employment of the Blue Star Sacred Destinations organization, a former Covenant-sanctioned raiding congolmerate turned semi-legitmate luxury-business organization. Originally crafted for the Minister of Abnegation, the Passage would become the flagship of the formidable fleet, spearheading attacks into Human space for the better part of a century. Being almost a size-and-a-half of any other CAS assault carrier, the Passage was proportionally better-armed and shielded. However, based on proportions, the vessel was lightly-armoured for its size and only carried the same assembly of troops as a regular carrier.

Despite its position as the spearhead of the Ministry's fleet, the Passage would take tremendous damage during the Fall of Alluvion, forcing the commander at the time, Vice Minister, to abandon ship along with many of his crew. It would remain drifting in orbit around Alluvion for almost a decade until a scavenger by the name of Dast Eru rediscovered it. Trading away most of its weapons for a profit on, Eru would convert the Passage into a mobile luxury habitat that appealed to the criminal underworld and the charmed wealthy of the galaxy. It now serves as an enormous space-venturing city-state, beginning official operations in.

Construction
"I have waited too long for this. How can a ministry responsible for ideological purification function without a symbol of our own?"

- Minister of Abnegation.

The Transcendent Passage was first laid down in Vermire's massive drydock in the human year of 2417, under the request of the future Minister of Abnegation Sarb Fropta. A prodigy at politics, Fropta was one of two rising stars that were on the fast-track to being the successors of the current triumphant of Hierarchs. To represent the power he humbly wielded, Fropta approached the current trio of High Prophets and was given special permission to use a Syfon-pattern assault carrier as his Ministry's flagship. Designed in conjunction with Master Shipwright 'Ladumee, the most advanced miniaturised fabrication generators, the newest in luxury fads and above all the toughest shielding of the period were all applied to the new ship. However, to Fropta's displeasure, the Hierarchs placed a limit on its weapons, speed and armour that, while allowing it to outgun all but the Kerel-pattern assault carrier and, significantly limited its attack potential.

During construction, numerous issues had to be addressed at Vermire. The first was the shipyard's capacity, as Fropta's insistence for an "assault carrier to dwarf, all carriers" was proven to be too costly and impossible to do with Vermire's current infrastructure. As a result, the Passage was downgraded to a length of seven and a half kilometres - still larger than every ship except the supercarrier. During construction, the workforce proved to be restless and sabotaged the project on numerous occasions, forcing the construction teams to be massacred in 2424 and replaced with the more reliable  workers. Finally, construction had to be temporarily halted when it was revealed that the ship wasn't structurally sound, requiring approval and infrastructure upgrades to proceed. Fortunately, pirates were a non-existent threat, with Abnegation's forces deterring most raiders except those backed by rival Ministries.

The Transcendent Passage was finally released from drydock with fanfare on January 1st,. It was christened by the newly-ascended Sarb Fropta, who christened the ship's name and took it on its maiden voyage. He brought it to bear ordering a brief campaign against local pirates and heretics while secretly attacking the logistics of another, rival Covenant department, the Ministry of Fortitude, of which Sarb believed was the faction who attempted to sabotage the carrier during the construction phase.

Early Service and Hunt for the Doomed Penance
"Do not misuse my generosity, Shipmaster. An assault carrier is a tool of destruction, capable of beating entire fleets unaided. If you abuse it or my trust for anything beyond the mission I've gifted you, you will not only bring shame upon your house or your entire planet, but I will personally decapitate your skull and hang it above the door to its command centre as a lesson to all who disobey me."

- The Minister of Abnegation, minding on the dangers of misusing the Transcendent Passage, to Xytan 'Wattinree.

The Passage saw a lot of use from Abnegation. Despite traditionally being used for political maneuvering, the new Minister entered the field quite regularly, searching for signs of relics he could secretly retrofit onto the carrier. During these times, the Passage was used to defend the ministry's logistical routes and protect strategic interests from rivals, especially as the prominent grew more powerful in the political sphere with time. A cold war waged between the two Ministers and their ministries; the minor conflict saw Fortitude's fleet backing off once the Passage became involved, although occasional fighting continued to occur. Whereas Abnegation presented a technological advantage, he sorely lacked the capabilities to support an internal war -machine against another Covenant ministry; the internal conflict continued to sap Sarb's assets. Finally, Abnegation felt he lost too many assets to continue fighting, and sued for peace with Fortitude. Fortitude agreed, on two conditions. The first was that Abnegation offered the services of the Ascetics to Fortitude's Ministry, the second was that the loser surrender forty percent of his remaining military forces to the victor. Faced with no room to manoeuvre politically, Abnegation agreed to the terms.

While he faced a major setback with Fortitude, Abnegation was certain in his intent to ensure his prized flagship would not suffer any deficiencies. The Passage continued scanning different worlds in search of overlooked Forerunner artifacts, until he hit a breakthrough in. On, an ancient San'Shyuum data-module was recovered that revealed a potential lead on the legendary megastructure dubbed the "Doomed Penance" - a legend that even the thorough Ascetic databanks had little actual information on. Requiring a fleet, Abnegation struck deals with various military personnel to gain access to a fleet large enough to begin properly scouring Covenant space for the space station. He would give the Passage itself to honourary-fleet master Xytan 'Jar Wattinree, a rising-star naval commander whose connections would guarantee a valuable ally to Abnegation, or a means to destroy the disgraced Sangheili upon learning of his potential failure.

Xytan would search far and wide, using the Passage to purge the Covenant's deepest territories of disloyal and rogue elements of Covenant society. For years, he and the Passage would search for the legendary station, until finally in he found it. Bringing forward the Passage to board with Penance, Xytan sought great treasures within. He would later, however, use the carrier's weapons to destroy the starbase when it was revealed that a massive infestation existed within the asteroid the station was built around. The ship's crew would fight in an attempt to capture the station's legendary Forerunner weaponry; they succeeded in removing both the Shard of the Forefathers, a Forerunner Slipspace drive, and the Blade of Varulim, a weapon amplifier. Upon Xytan's return, he was glorified for bringing back the Forerunner weapon, although the Shard would mysteriously go missing. Now with his orders complete, the Passage was returned to Abnegation's personal fleet and Xytan returned to his naval duties.

Recommissioning and Refit
"Ba-bee-Kkk-oooong. Cutlass. Throat. Your dashed slices will feed my nest well."

- Dast Eru, executing a Jiralhanae captain-major.

Reduced to a burning, holed husk of a warship, the Transcendent Passage was left adrift in orbit of Alluvion with the smashed corpses of its crew, and for more than a decade served as a mourning ground for Sangheili and San'Shyuum warriors. The destruction of a single assault carrier was an infrequent yet not unheard-of occurrence, but the death of a high-ranking San'Shyuum like a Minister was a different story. Against the Prophet of Truth's wishes, Thel 'Vadamee declared that the region would become a battlefield preserve, and dedicated a handful of his forces to prevent the derelict ships from being robbed by scavengers and rogues. Throughout the war, it would become customary for relieved troops heading away from the front lines to visit the wreckage, with a soldier ceremony quickly developing around how to pay tribute to the lives lost. For example, one of the ship's most famous attractions was started during this time, when legions would scratch a line into a battle-poem, each line chosen by each individual lance.

However, with the onset of the, the site became the subject of many large pirate raids. A particularly large one was led by an Dast Eru, a self-proclaimed 'pirate prince' who has established himself in many attacks on Covenant warships. It was he who discovered that not only was the Passage was intact, but many of it's propulsion systems were still structurally intact. For months, he and a large team of dedicated engineers secretly worked on it, applying repairs to it and fighting off rival groups from 'their' salvage. However, in a small Jiralhanae-led  arrived and began searching the debris field for anything of value - weapons, combat harnesses, but above all ships. As a result, it was inevitable they would approach the Transcendent Passage first. As they drew in closer, Eru activated the engines to full power, with light shielding to ward off the brutes. A few managed to board the ship before it jumped to Slipspace, resulting in a days-long fight between the pirates and the Covenant forces.

Unfortunately, as they cleared out the Jiralhanae, a new threat revealed itself. A battlegroup of four, detecting the large prey, slipped out and were surrounding the Passage in attack position. Eru opened negotiations and lied by saying his weapons were targeting the battlecruisers, forcing the battlegroup to stand down to avoid being destroyed. Allowing the fleet master to fly over to the carrier by shuttlecraft, the commander would be shocked to discover that not only was the threat baseless but that it was led by a Kig-Yar. In a short firefight, Eru would convince one of the fleet masters guards to step in and assassinate the Sangheili commander just moments before Eru himself would've died. The guard revealed his name was Mruda 'Serattin, and was lured in by his promises of compensation and work from The Syndicate.

With a fleet at their disposal, Eru ordered the Passage and it's escorting fleet to travel to the colony of. A prominent world with significant ties to Covenant succession factions, Eru made an order to secretly refit his carrier. Trading away the ship's weapons, he would hollow it out and rebuild the Passage 's interior from the ground-up, inspiring to use it to pay off the ship's repairs while he figures out where to go from now. Repairing the entire ship took the better part of five years due to numerous material shortages and costs, so Eru convinced 'Serattin to raid trade ships and use his soldiers to collect bounties to hasten production. Repairing the entire ship took the better part of five years, with it finally being relaunched in late- under the cover of a cruise ship.

Ports of Call
To increase the net gain and economic wealth that was being funneled through the Syndicate, the leadership of the underground nation promoted both legal and illicit activities across Human and alien space. Integration of trade and black market dealings along already existing space lanes also increased by a push from the Syndicate. Following the refit of the Transcendent Passage, the Syndicate identified that the maturation of their economic domination of the colonial frontier was well on its way to completion. The Passage became a sign of power for the Syndicate

Jaeter
"Only thing good about this backwater is the artifacts. You'll want to get out of this system ASAP, bunch of fucking trigger-happy hippies."

- Anonymous mercenary.

One of humanity's newest colonies established prior to the Human-Covenant War, Jaeter has quickly begun establishing itself as a planet of note. Protected by a military that is growing increasingly-large from year-to-year, Jaeter is located in the between Sangheili and  space. It has become known for it's wonderful landscape of rainforests bordering large, soft deserts, and large tidal waves caused by it's three moons should have made it the ideal world for surfers across human space. However, the frequency of derelict ship crashes and the less-then-stellar discipline and ambitions of it's military has made Jaeter avoided by most of humanity. Instead, the colony has become host to a large alien population who call the world home. Thanks to the Jaeteran Defense Force's close association with the UNSC, many large criminal groups - with the exception of the Syndicate - have been removed from Jaeter, although smaller, independent roves of bandits still prow the untamed areas of the planet.

However, Jaeter has a secret that has made it popular among the rogues of the galaxy - it's expansive network of Forerunner ruins. Due to the JDF's low manpower, many of these ruins are as of yet unexplored and undefended, which sees a large number of treasure-hunters come to Jaeter to strike it rich. This is the primary reason why the Passage calls Jaeter one of it's Port of Call.

Originally founded only a few decades before the Human-Covenant War, Whispering Trees is a rather small Sangheili colony that has established itself as a neutral world free from the supervision. It has been established by the descendants of the loyal shipwrights and workers the legendary Xytan 'Jar Wattinree brought to the planet, and it is they that uphold the colony's reputation for engineering excellence. With little in the way of infrastructure, the clans on Whispering Trees are entirely dependent on trading their advanced engineering skills and technology to prevent themselves from being starved out, and frequent food shipments must be protected or else risk a planet-wide famine. Because of this, and the lack of the usual martial nature of its inhabitants, the planet's small but significantly-powerful defence fleet is composed entirely of mercenaries who are loyal only to the colonial government.

It is because of this technology, their engineering skill and vulnerability to trading that Whispering Trees is a frequent stopping-point for the Transcendent Passage. The master shipwrights are frequently taken on-board for a tour of the ship to consult the carrier's crew on where to expand, what needs to be fixed, and what is too dangerous to be living near - the latter is largely ignored. The wealthy elite will often buy their expensive sloops and yachts here. Beyond this, however, the planet has little to offer, as it's rugged terrain and strong storms makes it an unpopular destination to stay at.

Palamok
The homeworld of the insectoid Yanme'e species, Palamok has not always been a stopping point for the Passage. After the war, the planet was engulfed in a massive civil war, with hundreds of hives all fighting for superiority. In fact, it was only after the Created Crisis that the Napret system finally united under a single leader, the Master Queen Victi'eme. In an astonishing turn of events, she opened up Yanme'e space to the rest of the galaxy, and today the planet has become famed for its illegal tourism acts. While mass-slavery of Yanme'e is no longer permitted, the slave-trade still thrives from well-bred Sangheili, Jiralhanae and Grangore workers. Most of these species are bred only for one purpose - to fight and die to pleasing crowds in gladiatorial arenas. In fact, the Yanme'e have become famous for breeding the best new gladiators, with queens keeping their trade a close secret. Visitors can also hunt either the Grangore slaves or the vicious wildlife in massive enclosures, although it's not always guaranteed that the clients will survive.

However, by far the best reason to come to Palamok is its cheap labour force. Even after numerous reforms, many Yanme'e queens will often trade cheaply-made appliances for ludicrously-low prices, sometimes just for food. This is cheaper than many slave-based worlds and results in a higher-quality of craftsmanship as the Yanme'e drones are literally bred for a single job.

Valhalla
"Valhalla's a pretty good stop. Taxes aren't great, but overall it's pretty hands-off on the type of stuff that gets sold there. Long as you aren't selling literal poison, the government isn't really gonna bother you."

- Lance Floyd

The capital colony of the Federal Commonwealth of Valhalla, Valhalla is an anomaly on the colonial frontier. While it's not alone in it's region for wanting to build up a sizable military force, Valhalla has instead opened up it's borders and encouraged for aliens to emigrate to it's landmasses. An icy world, the planet's cities are protected in massive climate-controlled domes to ensure a comfortable temperature for new arrivals, although frontier settlements exist outside of these cities as well.

Valhalla is notable among the galactic community for two things. Firstly, the planet's government harshly regulates corporations operating inside it's borders to ensure they meet the minimal wage and safe work practice laws. Social welfare packages are plentiful to give even the poorest citizens a far better chance at surviving. Secondly, the planet has untouched Forerunner and Waquishi ruins that has inspired a population explosion from migrants travelling here in an effort to strike it rich. These ruins contain highly-advanced technology that could give Valhalla a potential trump card over any faction that looks upon the world with envy. While this is officially why the Passage comes here, as many of the planet's population are relatively well-off, the government's military actually pays a bounty for any faction that turns in human or Covenant weapons technologies. As a result, the Passage made frequent stops here for arms merchants to turn a profit from this bounty.

Although a popular stopping-point after the Human-Covenant War, the Sturluson War forced the cruiserliner to prevent making stops in it's region until the war finally came to an end.

Security Apparatus
Following the acquisition of the Transcendent Passage and the sell-off of its weapons and anything of original value, the former assault carrier is a shell of its former self in more ways than one. To protect the new cruise liner after a refit, outside parties were brought onto the carrier's security detail to augment the giant vessel's diminished firepower. While the likes of the Indomitable Mercenary Guard are the backbone of the Passage's security force, it is not the only one, with each faction maintaining their own PMCs to protect and 'out-compete' rivals.

Indomitable Mercenary Guard
Indomitable Mercenary Guard, or IMG, is the main security force that maintains peace between the vying factions on the Passage, and the sole reason that the ship hasn't been overtaken by any number of Covenant remnants. An incredibly disciplined force, IMG is a Sangheili-led private military company that specialises in ensuring order and security aboard starships and in a vacuum environment. As such, every member of IMG has extensive training in zero-g and with hazardous surroundings, even security teams that are expected to be deployed planetside. They are well-equipped, preferring carbines, pistols and reversed-engineered from stockpiles left behind by the Covenant. Explosive weapons and flamethrowers are an unusual but not unheard-of part of their arsenal.

Flotilla of Enduring Prominence
The Flotilla of Enduring Prominence is a small group of powerful warships that act as the first line of defence for the Transcendent Passage. Operated by the IMG, the Enduring Prominence isn't a very large fleet, being composed of only a dozen warships proper, but these ships make it up by being unusually large and powerful. At it's peak, four, one and five  could be found patrolling the space around where the Passage has arrived. Each crewmember is a battle-hardened veteran of the Human-Covenant War, and new recruits often gain experience quickly from dealing with the travel hazards that threaten the Passage on the colonial frontier and the. The flotilla is commanded by Mruda 'Serattin, a former fleet master, and privateer who is known for being loyal only to the coin. Even his loyalty to the shipmaster of the Passage is questionable.

Originally, the Flotilla emerged as a small Covenant secessionist faction that formed together for mutual protection in the Jiralhanae territories.

Blue Star Sacred Destinations
"Blue Star might seem legitimate but all they are is another major Syndicate breeding ground."

- Anonymous

Prominent Passengers

 * Tyvo 'Protehamee - Pastor for . (Secretly a spy for the .)
 * Argo 'Varvin - Permanent resident with VIP status of sorts, known history with the colonial black market. (Secretly an intelligence asset employed by ONI Section I.)

Appearances

 * RP:Light of the Abyss