Dreadnaught

"My throne world is vulnerable. I am going to move it." "Where?" "Into a mighty dreadnaught. I shall keep my glorious mind cosmos inside a titanic warship."

- Oryx and Kagoor

The Dreadnaught is a massive Hive spaceship that serves as the fortress of Oryx, the Taken King, who came to the Solar System to enact his revenge against the Guardians for killing his son. Accompanied by a fleet of Hive warships and Tombships, the Dreadnaught entered into orbit around Saturn after having been stalled by the Awoken, and stayed there for the rest of the Taken War until Oryx's defeat.

History
According to an analysis by Ghost, the Dreadnaught may pre-date the formation of the Earth, making it at least 4.54 billion years old.

Oryx decided to construct the Dreadnaught to house the High War, his Ascendant Realm, after a Vex incursion accidentally caused by his son, Crota, demonstrated its vulnerability. Once it was completed, his first act with it was to attack the Nicha Thought-ship and the Harmonious Flotilla Invincible that defended it. While the Flotilla was easily destroyed by the Dreadnaught's death impulse weapon, the Thought-ship proved to be a trap set by Quria, Blade Transform, who launched a second invasion of Oryx's throne, but was quickly defeated.

When Crota was killed by Guardians in revenge for the Great Disaster, Oryx was wroth with fury. Setting everything he had planned aside, he brought his fleet to the Solar system to exact retribution upon the Guardians—specifically the one who struck the killing blow. When he arrived at the Solar system, in the vicinity of Saturn, Oryx and his ships were met by the Awoken. After a fierce battle he ended it by obliterating both sides. Without a fleet to continue his crusade Oryx turned his attention to the Martian Cabal, who were already aware of him, and halved their forces to build his Taken army.

The Cabal uncharacteristically sent out a distress call from Phobos, which was answered by none other than Crota's killer, who barely escaped with their life when Oryx discovered them. Back on the Dreadnaught Oryx and his lieutenant, Ecthar, Sword of Oryx conversed about his captives. Later, the Guardian approached in Eris Morn's jumpship equipped with modified stealth tech, attempting to infiltrate the Dreadnaught; unfortunately, the cloak fell away and the Dreadnaught detected them anyway. Nonetheless, as their ship was destroyed, the Guardian entered the Dreadnaught. After disabling its superweapons and encountering an entrenched Cabal force, the Guardian tracked a Cabal Commander and his men to an active portal; after the Cabal were destroyed, along with attacking Thrall, the Guardian unsuccessfully tried to enter the portal, and then departed, denying Oryx his vengeance a little longer.

Returning again, this time armed with Crota's vestige, the Guardian entered the heart of the Dreadnaught and faced Oryx. After a pitched battle, Oryx's physical body was slain and he was forced back into his Ascendant Realm, taking his power with him. Eris Morn later approached the left behind Willbreaker and retrieved a crystal to construct a weapon, seemingly following a plan she and Mara Sov had created earlier. This crystal was incorporated into one of the three swords Shaxx constructed for the Guardian's usage, purified of its Darkness.

Guardians later began mapping the Dreadnaught to patrol and keep in check the Hive and Taken, and discovered the Court of Oryx in the process. At the urging of Eris and the Vanguard they challenged the Court and slew them all. Shaxx's Redjacks also secured a training ground aboard the ship at this time. In addition, following Dead Orbit's report, Guardians stopped a Cabal team from destroying the Dreadnaught core, and later on, a distress signal from within the Dantalion Exodus VI. Alak-Hul, a Darkblade present during the first failed attempt on Crota's life, is located and murdered in the ship's depths; a Hive ritual to infuse an Ogre with Taken power is stopped as well. Finally, a Guardian Raid team, led by Crota's killer, penetrated into the Ascendant Realm and challenged and slew the rest of the Ascendant Hive, killing Oryx once and for all.

Without Oryx and his family, the Dreadnaught remains in orbit about Saturn. Malok, Oryx's nephew, attempted to seize control but was driven away to the Moon.

Design
The Dreadnaught's hull is carved out of a segment from the corpse of the Worm god Akka, whom Oryx had previously slain in order to learn the power to Take. Oryx turned the High War "inside out" by tying it into the structure of the Dreadnaught. In effect, his Ascendant Realm has become the Dreadnaught and vice versa, becoming physically mobile and thus more difficult to attack. Its design is a consistent rectangular hexahedron along its length, while the ends curve inward like an inverted pyramid. Four main spines protrude from the bow while the aft has one engine. Numerous lesser spines protrude outward from both bow and aft.

One of the Dreadnaught's most notable features is a massive parabolic twin-mounted dish built into its side nearest the aft, which is the emitter for a paracausal superweapon capable of decimating fleets and even destroying a portion of Saturn's rings. As the weapon charges, energy travels laterally along the Dreadnaught's waist from each end until it reaches the dish, where it is collected and released in a devastating spherical pulse that expands outward from the ship, destroying or severely damaging anything in its path. Designed by Ir Halak and Ir Anûk, the weapon draws on Oryx's power to briefly evert the Ascendant Realm within the Dreadnaught out into the physical realm. This is essentially the same principle as an Oversoul death impulse. The blast radius created by the weapon is approximately fifteen thousand kilometers in diameter.

Apart from this weapon, the Dreadnaught is also capable of remotely generating "eversive breach events," creating interdimensional rifts either to Take nearby organisms or to attack a given area with a short-lived stream of energy, and can wreck havoc with the mind. The Dreadnaught is capable of maneuvering in a manner impossible for conventional spacecraft because of its paracausal origins; furthermore, it continuously emitted exotic radiation in the form of sterile neutrinos, phaetons, mass growl, gravity waves, and axions, with significant spikes in this radiation being correlated with the breach events taking place across the Solar system at the onset of the Taken War when active. The Dreadnaught also generates its own gravitic field.

The Dreadnaught has a unique method of faster-than-light travel. Adopted from Xivu Arath's dimensional slicing, "wounds in space", the twin daughters of Oryx stand at the bow and aft of the vessel respectively. Ir Halak cuts open the fabric of reality with her "blades", likely special systems after the manner of the superweapon, allowing the ship to slide through. Behind her Ir Anûk takes the fragments and threads of torn space and reweaves them together, infusing it with dark magics.

Interior
The inside of the Dreadnaught is vast and dangerous. Reports indicate the ship is host to numerous biomes hostile to all life except the Hive and Worms. Hadium and Wormspore litter the ground in many areas, including beautiful orbs called sootpearls buried inside the rot. Sacrifial stones entombed with the souls of lesser Hive dot the place in strange nooks and cranies while prisons to torture the Hive's captives are found deeper inside.

Locations

 * Hull Breach
 * Mausoleum
 * Dantalion Exodus VI
 * The Bridge
 * The Narthex
 * Trenchway
 * Altar of Oryx
 * The Founts
 * The Asylum
 * The Hanging Crypts
 * Hall of Souls
 * Court of Oryx
 * The Crux
 * Portico
 * Basilica
 * Golgoroth's Cellar
 * Transept
 * Threshold
 * Cathedral of Dusk

Secret Chests
There are a number of chests hidden within the Dreadnaught that can only be opened with keys. To obtain the keys, one needs to kill Hive in the Hull Breach area until one drops the Wormsinger Rune. Use the rune on a console inside one of the side rooms in the Hull Breach area to summon a Hive Ogre champion. Killing the Ogre drops a Wormfeeder Rune; killing fifty more enemies turns the rune into one of nine keys which are used to open any of the chests below:

Activities
The Dreadnaught is a massive destination with its own Patrol mode and other activities. The Dreadnaught includes many Raid-like secret locations and puzzles that players can revisit and solve to earn special rewards. Players will not only have to find a way inside the Dreadnaught in story missions, but also plant the beacons to be used later in patrol. Though it is a Hive ship, it is defended primarily by Oryx's personal army of Taken; in addition, a Cabal strike force has breached the interior and can be encountered engaging both the Hive and Taken.

Patrol

 * Court of Oryx
 * Secret Chests

Story Missions

 * The Dreadnaught
 * Enemy of My Enemy
 * Regicide
 * Outbound Signal
 * Dread Patrol

Strikes

 * Shield Brothers
 * The Sunless Cell

Raid

 * King's Fall

Crucible

 * Cathedral of Dusk

Trivia

 * Fan theories abound as to the actual size of the Dreadnaught. Devoted fans used known data about Saturn's rings and the size of recently investigated comet (based on the comet from the initial trailer cinematic ) to estimate that the Dreadnaught is approximately between 3444 to 3500 kilometers (2140.002 to 2174.799 miles) long. To put that in perspective, that is equivalent to the width of the continental United States, or the size of Earth's, making it one of the largest ships to appear in science fiction, surpassing even the 160 kilometer  of  or the 385 kilometer High Charity of Halo.
 * Sterile neutrinos, phaetons (or dark photons), and axions are all hypothetical particles proposed in connection to dark matter.

List of appearances

 * Destiny
 * The Taken King