Hieroglyph-class heavy-lift dropship

The Hieroglyph is a class of heavy-lift cargo dropships used by numerous Ministries of the Covenant Empire, as well as regional powers. It performs orbit-to-surface heavy lift and asset recovery missions. The Hieroglyph and other craft of its class fill a niche between smaller dropships like the Type-25 Spirit and atmosphere-rated starships that can deploy entire legions to a planet’s surface.

Specifications
There are many varieties of dropship in the Hieroglyph class. All are unarmed, carry cargo in the open span between their wings, and boast sturdy energy shields capable of weathering the forces of re-entry. Their lifting capacity is usually between 9,000 and 35,000 tons, depending on the specific design.

Although all heavy-lift dropships with an open span are called “Hieroglyph” by the UNSC, superheavy dropships (30,000-40,000 ton capacity) are referred to as “Orthoglyphs” or “Royal Hieroglyphs” by fighter pilots. The distinction is made because super-heavy lift dropships have stronger energy shields that are difficult to drop in a single pass.

Heavy-lift cargo dropships with internal storage are usually called Ideograms.

Armament
Hieroglyph and Ideograms were, by definition, unarmed.

Hieroglyphs are designed to deliver buildings, bulk materiel, and excavation walkers from orbit to surface, and retrieve that cargo when necessary. The Ministry of Tranquility and the Ministry of Resolution both defined these missions as non-combat roles. Since the Hieroglyphs were procured for non-combat missions, they were built without armaments and crewed by skilled slaves rather than warriors.

For that reason, the Hieroglyphs requires escorts, or it is a sitting duck for UNSC air defenses.

Many Hieroglyphs were destroyed in the first decade of the war, crippling the ground operations they were supposed to supply. Young field commanders begged their masters to arm the Hieroglyphs or grant them more substantial fighter escorts, but the commanders prosecuting the war had been chosen for their adherence to dogma rather than flexible thinking, and so they refused. It was unthinkable to arm slaves, and after all, the role of the Hieroglyph was to be a non-combat one. If there are still defenders to shoot down a heavy-lift dropship, then that is the fault of the fighter squadrons for not suppressing the enemy air defenses.

In the last decade of the war, many experienced officers were promoted to positions of high command, and so began the politically fraught process of arming the Hieroglyphs. After all, innovation can stray into heresy, and the Prophets in charge of the war effort were not above leveling accusations of heterodoxy to ruin an upstart officer’s career.

Beyond the political problems, adding armaments to a craft that was never designed to carry them is a non-trivial task that often results in a substantial reduction in performance. The weapons that were installed were usually mounted in pods, and were often underpowered for the task of staving off UNSC fighter craft.

By the waning years of the war, many commanders despaired of uparming the existing Heiroglyphs, and procured armed variants of heavy-lift dropships from contacts in minor Ministries, or from the regional military powers of their homeworlds.