Babd Catha vessel (Earth-5875)

"Commander, you're wondering what your SPARTANs died for? They died for this."

- - Dr. Catherine Halsey to Carter-A259

The "Babd Catha vessel" was a ship of forerunner origin which was embedded beneath the Babd Catha Ice Shelf around 97,445 BCE.

History
The ship crashed in the Babd Catha Ice Shelf, in Eposz, on Reach, circa 97,445 BCE, for unknown regions.

The vessel was discovered by the Office of Naval Intelligence for one year prior to the Fall of Reach, although its origin was unknown and it was believed to be unrelated to the xenomorph species, the Derelict or its pilot, first found on Acheron in 2528. By early 2552, ONI had marked many sites that formed a trail leading to Castle Base, which was the site of the Menachite Complex, suggesting the vessel was traveling to that location, for unknown reasons.

Professor Laszlo Sorvad, and later Dr. Catherine Halsey, believed the vessel held secrets that would help humanity turn the tide on the First Contact War, a discovery on the proportions of the conical bullet and the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. However, she was unable to fully decrypt the thousands of codes lying on the ship when the Covenant attacked her facility on August 29, 2552. With the help of M8 Wolf Spiders, the surviving SPARTANs of Noble Team was able to hold the Covenant warriors long enough for Halsey to finish her decryption and interface the data with her Auton synthetic Cortana. Later, the ship, alongside all of Sword Base, were destroyed by an explosive charge placed there by ONI.

Later, Halsey was able to retrieve the data from Cortana, which contributed to the discovery of Installation 04.