ORS-class Heavy Cruiser

The **ORS-class Heavy Cruiser** is a type of heavily armored and armed Covenant cruiser used for planetary occupation and naval command, as well as to support Covenant flagships. If no capitol ships are present, than the ORS-class Heavy Cruiser could act as de facto proxy.

## Class History

### Human-Covenant War

An ORS by the name of Strongest Wills chased down a UNSC Frigate called Endless Horizon to a Forerunner Shield World called Lumoria. Here, under the command of Imperial Admiral Lor' Darram, the Strongest Wills stationed itself above Lumoria to support Covenant forces through reinforcements against both Sentinel and Human forces.

## Design

### Characteristics

The ORS-class Heavy Cruiser is equipped with with a variety of stealth technology, an energy projector, and plasma turrets, the ORS-class is considerably more powerful than any other cruiser class used by the Covenant such as the more common CCS-class Battlecruiser.

What is unique to this class of cruisers is the fact that it has a number of Forerunner shrine-core power plants of various sizes. Drawing their untapped potential is a risky affair, as it can destroy the cruiser. As a result, their full power is restrained by devotional seals and interlocks, which is then harnessed by Covenant control and weapon systems.

In contrast to other Covenant ships which has some form of primitive automation systems, the ORS is incredibly labor intensive. Around 1,286 hand-picked personnel needs to be effectively manned in order for the ship to function at full capacity. These are led by sixteen Sangheili, with seventy Huragok for maintenance duties, and Menials make up the rest.

The reason for this is because these cruisers are old, dating back to the Covenant's early centuries. Special interpreters and scholars are required on the warship's bridge, as many of the ship's controls and data feeds only display now-cryptic messages in an early Sangheili dialect.

### Armament

As a Heavy Cruiser, the ORS is well armed and heavily armored, supported with specialized systems. It is equipped with a Ventrax-pattern heavy plasma lance as its heaviest ship-to-ship weapon, which fires a tightly-focused stream of plasma which travels almost as fast as light. These weapons do damage via a combination of thermal and kinetic effects, and have proven capable of bisecting unshielded warships at close range.

In addition, three Felo-pattern plasma beam emitters are installed. Due to power restraints, only one of these weapons can fire at once, with the ORS-class typically combining its forward-mounted projector with two plasma torpedoes. For ship-to-ship combat, forty-eight Melusean-pattern heavy plasma cannons and sixteen Qur-pattern plasma torpedo silos are installed, with the plasma torpedoes being preferred because of their tracking capabilities. Defending the ship against fighters, attack ships and missiles are eighty Ferriel-pattern pulse lasers.

For ground attacks, the ORS-class has two types of weapon systems to bring to bear. The first is its Phar-pattern superheavy excavation beam, which is capable of Glassing worlds in the name of the Covenant and excavating Forerunner artifacts. Sixteen Fet-pattern plasma bombardment mortars are there for smaller, more precise attacks.

## Ships of the Line

* Strongest Wills (Flagship over Lumoria)

## Trivia

* The ORS is shown quite close with the UNSC Frigate, Endless Horizon, during the final battle of Lumoria. Despite this, these two ships never fire on one another.