Helisa'Kah-class heavy cruiser

Helisa'Kah-class heavy cruiser
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Production information
Manufacturer:	Yala-Koris Shipyards
Model:	Helisa'Kah
Class:	Cruiser
Operator(s):	Greater Rannochian Navy Geth Navy Migrant Fleet
Preceded by:	Dara'op-class
Succeeded by:	Zarasis-class (role) Neema-class
Technical information
Length:	687m
Width:	174m
Height/depth:	200m
Max acceleration:	17 kilometers per second
Engine unit(s):	Element Zero Drive Core
Power plant:	2 Element Zero drive cores
Shielding:	Kinetic Barrier
Hull:	200cm of HRA-E6 Ablative Ship Armor/Martyr
Sensor systems:	LIDAR Radar Spectroscope
Targetting system:	Shipwide AI (geth)
Armament:	6 GARDIAN 600 cluster missiles 300 port side 300 starboard side 22 anti-armor defense guns 11 port side 11 starboard side 40 rail cannons 5 nuclear missiles (pre-Treaty of Kaddi)
Crew:	5,000
Usage
Commissioned:	December 12, 1817 CE
Decommissioned:	March 10, 1932 CE
Role(s):	Defend borders of the Old Republic against foreign threats (pre-1896 CE) Defend Migrant Fleet (post-1896 CE)
Era:	Asari Cycle Pax Galactica Era
Affiliation:	Greater Rannochian Navy (1817 CE - 1896 CE) Migrant Fleet (1896 CE - 1932 CE)

The Helisa'Kah-class heavy cruiser was a classification of cruiser that served in the Greater Rannochian Navy from 1817 CE to 1896 CE, and the Migrant Fleet from 1896 CE to 1932 CE, and was the successor to the Dara'op-class. Named after the first quarian to make first contact with the Council, the Helisa'Kah-class was impressive for its state-of-the-art GARDIAN targetting systems, its use of geth programs to micromanage and vastly improve management of data and its use of the then-new experimental "Martyr" armor plating. The class became a monumental boon for the quarian military at the time, especially when repelling batarian slaver attacks on the Old Republic's frontier. The cruiser also originally possessed a limited compliment of nuclear missiles, but these were removed after the Treaty of Kaddi, which came about after a skirmish in the Tassrah system.

During the Morning Crisis, most of the geth programs were successfully removed from most of the Helisa'Kah-class ships, but some were hijacked by their geth VIs and used as part of their makeshift navy. By the end of the First Morning War, the quarians only had 120 ships of the class left. Due to the high maintenance cost of maintaining the vessels, they were eventually all scrapped and rebuilt into the newer, but inferior, Zarasis-class light cruisers, which replaced the Helisa'Kah as the mainstay of the quarian navy for the three hundred years following.

The ship was named after Helisa'Kah, the quarian responsible for making first contact with an alien race (in this case, the asari) and subsequently the first quarian ambassador to the Citadel.