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. Accompanied by a fleet of Hive warships and Tombships, the Dreadnaught has entered into orbit around Saturn while Oryx prepares to enact his revenge against the Guardians for killing his son.

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.

One of the Dreadnaught's most notable features is a massive parabolic dish built into its side nearest the bow, 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 hull 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.

Apart from this weapon, the Dreadnaught was 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. The Dreadnaught was 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.

History
Oryx decided to construct the Dreadnaught to house the High War, his Ascendant Realm, after a Vex incursion 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 Nicha Thought-ship proved to be a trap set by Quria, Blade Transform, who launched a second invasion of Oryx's throne and was quickly defeated.

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.

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

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:
 * Breach—"Near the breach where foes invade, nestled with worms in a cave." Requires Key of Eir.
 * Breach—"Near the breach but down below, where only heroes dare to go." Requires Key of Ur.
 * Breach—"Not the breach, but on the path where lords and princes feed their wrath." Requires Key of Xol.
 * Court of Oryx—in a cave near the Court, "along the road where maggots pave." Requires the Key of Akka.
 * Court of Oryx—in an area near the Court, "where debts are paid, on the ledge where faith is laid." Requires Key of Yuul.
 * Court of Oryx—"In the Court of Oryx and just below, where but the bravest dare to go." Requires the Key of Gnashing Teeth.
 * Mausoleum—"In the Mausoleum find the key where maggots lurk blind." Requires Key of Maggots.
 * Mausoleum—"Along the Mausoleum walk, toward the Breach where invaders dock." Requires Key of Wyrding.
 * Mausoleum—"In the Mausoleum, 'tween a path the living have not seen." Requires Key of the Spawn.

Trivia

 * Fan theories abound as to the actual size of the Dreadnaught. Recently, a devoted fan used known data about Saturn's rings and recently investigated comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko's size 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 Moon, making it one of the largest ships to appear in science fiction, surpassing even the 160 kilometer Death Star II of Star Wars.
 * 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