Unyielding Hierophant
Ship history
	Covenant
Name:	Unyielding Hierophant
Operator:	Covenant
Fate:	Destroyed duringOperation: FIRST STRIKE,September 13, 2552.
General characteristics Type: Space station (Harborage)[1] Length: 29.9 kilometers (18.6 mi)[2] Width: 10.0 kilometers (6.2 mi)[2] Height: 3.2 kilometers (2 mi)[2] Power plant: 2 512 terawatt[3]pinch fusion reactors[2] Slipspace drive: Borer Shielding: Energy shielding-equipped[3]

"I'm not sure what that thing is. Don't look like any 'uneven elephant' to me-—more like two squids kissing."

—Avery Johnson^[4][2]

Unyielding Hierophant was a largespace station operated by theCovenant during theHuman-Covenant War. It was used as a mobile command-and-control base for theCovenant fleet,^[5][6] alongside operating as a refit hub^[1] and support base for hundreds ofstarships. In2552, the station was present in theTau Ceti system and used as the site for an enormous fleet massing, done in secret by theProphet of Truth, who intended to use the station's attendant fleet toattack thehuman homeworldEarth.^[5][6] However, the station, and the majority of its fleet, were destroyed by a team ofSPARTAN-II supersoldiers in a daring mission dubbedOperation: FIRST STRIKE.^[7]

The station was an example of a Covenantharborage; a massive city-station used by the Covenant to centralise the power ofHigh Charity and keep theirvarious worlds in line; so important that evenhierarchs struggled to move them without great caution.Unyielding Hierophant was one of two such harborages lost during the war with humanity, the other being theRing of Mighty Abundance, an orbital construction ring encircling the planet ofZhoist.^[1]

Overview[edit]

Design details[edit]

Unyielding Hierophant was an enormous construction, even by the standards of the Covenant, comparable in scope only to theSh'wada-pattern supercarriers. Its design consisted of two teardrop-shaped bulbous sections connected at the centre, each 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) in length (or a total of 30 kilometres (19 mi) from end-to-end). A ring was present at the middle of where the two sections joined which could dock with various Covenant spacecraft for repair, refit, and rearming; this ring was capable of individually docking with at least 60 Covenant ships as large as acarrier. Long spokes connected the ring to various points on the bulbous hull, along with a series of thin, filament-like tubes that extended from the bulbous sections to cover the surface of the ring.^[8]

The interior of the station was hollow, similar to anO'Neill cylinder. Inside the curved inner surface was a city containing spires, pyramids, and temples that served as living spaces for the station's crew. A beam of light was constructed running through the centre of the space to provide the illusion of daytime on aplanetary surface. Decorative elements in the interior included waterfalls in which water flowed along the inner walls in spiral patterns before flowing "up" into the middle of the space to meet large towers built on the opposite wall. Internal transportation was managed via a series of catwalks that crisscrossed the space alongside tubes with capsules that moved passengers about.Banshees (and presumably other aircraft) flew about the space, along with flocks of "headless birds" and large clouds of butterflies. This construction was achieved thanks to the Covenant's mastery ofanti-gravity technology. The outer hull had a large transparent window that could be used to view the external docking bays.John-117 felt that this level of ornamentation was excessive for what he had assumed to be a military station.^[3]

The station was powered by twopinch fusion reactor complexes, one located in each lobe, each capable of generating 512 terawatts of energy. The energy of the combined reactors is used to power a protectiveenergy shield that can, according toCortana, "repel the collision of a small moon". The reactors' control system is isolated from the station's generalproselytization network, meaning that it cannot be remotely accessed.^[3] Each complex housed 512 individual reactors (presumably each capable of generating a single terawatt), externally looking like flattened spiral seashells, stacked in rows and columns eight deep. Each reactor was the size of aPelican dropship and gave off massive amounts of heat. The reactors gave off errant bursts of plasma, which was collected by magnetic vortices within the chamber into wispy clouds. Upon seeing the complex, John-117 wondered if the site had been built into a small asteroid originally, with the rest of the station built around it. The station had its ownartificial intelligence which was used for internal security.^[9]

At the time of the station's destruction,a fleet of over 500 warships were present nearUnyielding Hierophant. These includedcarriers,Ket-pattern battlecruisers,^[8]Sinaris-pattern heavy destroyers,^[10] and a handful ofRasus-pattern interdictors.^[8]

Service history[edit]

Spartans fighting inUnyielding Hierophant.

At some point prior to aroundmid-September 2552, theProphet of Truth had managed to discover the location ofEarth, the homeworld of humanity. Secret from the otherhierarchs, Truth began to amass a fleet of over 500 warships atUnyielding Hierophant in theTau Ceti system.^[7] At this time, the station was orbiting an unnamed world. The orders to begin amassing at the station were intercepted byCortana and a small group of human survivors from theFall of Reach, who had managed to commandeer a CovenantRuma-pattern light carrierAscendant Justice.^[5] After escapingReach, news of these orders pushed Vice AdmiralDanforth Whitcomb to immediately move the carrier back to Earth so that theUNSC Home Fleet could be warned of the imminent invasion. However, the SPARTAN-II cohort of the survivors instead pitched an alternate idea dubbedOperation: FIRST STRIKE: use one ofAscendant Justice'sDextro Xur-pattern Spirit dropships to infiltrateUnyielding Hierophant and destroy it from the inside, dealing a major blow to the Covenant and giving humanity a fighting chance.^[6] Whitcomb initially refused to consider the plan, though ultimately agreed - noting that the Spartans were on their own and on a one-way trip.^[11]

The mission began at around 0530 hoursMilitary Standard Time on September 13, 2552, and included SpartansJohn-117,Grace-093,Frederic-104,Linda-058 andWilliam-043. The group reinforced the armour of their Spirit dropship withTitanium-A battleplate, lead, and carbon molybdenum steel I-beams so the ship could withstand immense pressures, departed and made the transition fromSlipspace to normal space in one piece. After emerging, Cortana signalled one of the manyCovenant tugs operating around the station's space to bring the dropship in for repairs.^[8] The Spirit was brought to ahangar bay capable of housing hundreds ofspace fighters and the Spartans managed to exit without alerting station security, thanks to the only attendants in the bay beingHuragok engineers. They then inserted Cortana into the network, who was able to provide the Spartans with schematics and intel. After identifying the route to the reactor complex needed to destroy the station, Cortana instructed the Spartans to enter a conduit that ran the length of the station; a gruelling eleven-hour walk that ensured the Spartans could reach the reactor unhindered.^[3] They then crossed an open plaza on the station's interior to reach the reactor complex, losing Grace-093 in close combat with a Jiralhanae, before triggering the reactors to overload. Thanks to theAI copying program that Cortana had dissected aboardAscendant Justice, Cortana was able to copy herself throughoutUnyielding Hierophant's network, filling its internal communications channels with error codes and slowing the Covenant's ability to respond to the Spartans' presence.^[9]

The Spartans attempted to flee using capturedBanshees, now taking heavy fire from the Covenant forces aware of their presence.^[9] After destroying one of the plaza's windows, they managed to escape, hijacking a floating Covenant dropship and intending to make their way behind the nearby moon to hide fromUnyielding Hierophants imminent explosion. Amid the journey, they were intercepted on a UNSC communication channel by Vice Admiral Whitcomb, who explained that he and LieutenantElias Haverson had elected to hideAscendent Justice in Tau Ceti'sOort cloud as to confirm the station's destruction, though ultimately came to the conclusion that with the weight of forces being brought to bear on Earth, even a fraction of the ships surviving the explosion would still be many dozens or hundreds of ships. As such, they detachedAscendant Justice fromUNSCGettysburg (aParis-class heavy frigate that had been docked withAscendant Justice since their escape from Reach) and provided the frigate for the Spartans to use to escape back to Earth.^[12] Meanwhile, Whitcomb manoeuvredAscendant Justice into the heart of the Covenant fleet, using a hologram of theMenachite Forerunner crystal to trick the Covenant fleet intoboarding his craft and crowding near the station rather than firing on him - keeping them within the blast radius. WhenUnyielding Hierophant's reactor blew, it left only a handful of surviving ships in the debris - estimated by John-117 to be no more than a dozen.^[4]

Aftermath[edit]

Only a small handful of ships limped back to the Covenant's capital-stationHigh Charity,^[10] which were able to provide reports on the incident toTartarus. After providing what little information was available on the station's destruction to theProphet of Truth, Truth ordered that all battle-ready warships assemble at the site ofUnyielding Hierophant's destruction.^[13] This fleet was later used by the Prophet of Truth toinvade Earth, spurred into action early thanks to theProphet of Regret launching his own parallel invasion effort with theFleet of Sacred Consecration. Truth's fleet reinforced Regret's after Sacred Consecration were repelled by the UNSC Home Fleet, deploying Jiralhanae across Earth and beginning a month-long planetary siege.^[7][14]

InNovember 2559,remnant Covenant forces most likely serving underLuro 'Taralumee were involved in salvaging the remains of the station and its fleet. On November 13,SPARTAN-G059 was given a briefing in which the UNSC believed a warlord serving the Covenant remnant was conducting salvaging operations at Tau Ceti, leading to the Spartan (and herWinter-class prowler,UNSCFrom the Ashes) being deployed to conduct reconnaissance.^[15]

Production notes[edit]

Unyielding Hierophant was first given a visual depiction inTerminal #15 inHalo 2: Anniversary. However, this design is based on a fan design created by D4rkSt0rm99, who posted their fan-made silhouette for the station on DeviantArt in 2011.^[16] This design has since gone on to be reused in a piece of artwork produced byLeonid Kozienko forHalo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo.^[10] D4rkSt0rm99 was later credited in theHalo Encyclopedia (2022 edition) as the concept artist for thePoint Blank-class prowler, whose design was officially canonised in a collaboration between the fan modSins of the Prophets and343 Industries.

The2009Halo Encyclopedia lists the dozen ships that survivedHierophant's destruction as the vessels of theFleet of Sacred Consecration, used by the Prophet of Regret to invade Earth inHalo 2.^[17] This sentence was removed from the book's2011 reprint,^[18] following later establishments that Truth's fleet were used to reinforce Regret's forces on Earth to glassNew Mombasa and uncover thePortal at Voi during the events ofHalo 3: ODST and after.^[7]

Trivia[edit]

A hierophant, according toWebster's Dictionary is a "priest in ancient Greece; specifically: the chief priest of theEleusinian mysteries".

Gallery[edit]

• 

  A hologram ofUnyielding Hierophant inBlue Team's debriefing.^[19]

• 

  A hologram ofUnyielding Hierophant displayed in an ONI briefing room.^[19]

List of appearances[edit]

• Halo: First Strike(First appearance)
• Halo: Ghosts of Onyx(Mentioned only)
• Halo 2: Anniversary
  • Terminals(Hologram only)
• Halo 5: Guardians
  • Limited Edition dossiers(Indirect mention)
• Halo Mythos

Sources[edit]

• Covenant ship classes
• Space stations