Vestige

Vestiges are an organisational order of starships used by the Covenant. They are vessels that are considered obsolete in mainstream use.

Characteristics
In the Covenant's High Antiquity, following the signing of the Writ of Union, Covenant technology advanced with massive leaps as the nascent hegemony put its vast resources to exploring and reverse-engineering Forerunner reliquaries. Although Sangheili battle fleets remained exceedingly numerous, many ship classes were rendered obsolete virtually overnight in the ages that followed, by advances in propulsion, defenses, weaponry, and other subsystems. After they could no longer realistically keep up with modern vessels, older warships were marked as Vestiges: weapons of war that were outdated and no longer needed. Some were reused as missionary vessels, extensively refitted for exploration, others were used against the Sangheili as occupation vessels and tithe ships. Others still were mothballed, kept barely active and ready to be reactivated during conflicts. Over the centuries, many were taken to shipbreaking yards to be broken down and recycled.

Some vestiges have survived, hidden from the Covenant by Sangheili who refused to bend to their will, and knew that one day they would be needed to throw off the shackles the Covenant imposed on them. Hidden in secret, many of these Vestiges would remain hidden for millennia, until they were needed again. Occasional, these would be found, but were often dismissed as a forgotten ship graveyard, rather than a stockpile. Today, Vestiges from the War of Beginnings are exceedingly rare, mostly found as memorials or in the collections of wealthy kaidons; most of them are no longer operational, and such ships would be about as useful in a naval fight as an Age of Sail-era galleon would have been against a 21st-century destroyer. Some Vestiges from later ages, such as the Covenant's later Antiquity or the Feudal Period, remain somewhat viable, and many continue to be fielded by regional fiefdoms and guilds even as they have been long decommissioned in ministerial service.