QMFV Idenna
From FABT
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| Production information | |
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Manufacturer: |
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Class: |
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Operator(s): |
Hegemony Navy |
| Technical information | |
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Length: |
487m |
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Width: |
68m |
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Height/depth: |
130m |
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Max acceleration: |
17 kilometers per second |
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Engine unit(s): |
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Shielding: |
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Hull: |
320cm of Arma'kef Ablative Medium Armor |
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Sensor systems: |
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Armament: |
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Crew: |
700 (during Hegemony service) |
| Usage | |
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Commissioned: |
16 October 1929 CE (by Hegemony Navy) |
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Decommissioned: |
8 April 1973 CE (by Hegemony Navy) |
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Role(s): |
Support and logistics vessel during wartime, transport and supply vessel during peacetime |
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Engagements: |
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Affiliation: |
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Fleet: |
Arsha Fleet (1929 CE - 1973 CE) |
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Commander(s): |
Captain Ysin'Mal (2159 CE - 2201 CE) |
QMFV Idenna (formerly the BRS Pillar of Infinity) was a Hensa-class light cruiser in the quarian Migrant Fleet and formerly of the Hegemony Navy. Commissioned in 1929 CE into the batarian navy, the Pillar of Infinity was assigned to the Arsha Fleet where it would serve for twenty years as an escort for the dreadnought Ragbastar's Anvil before being pulled for patrol duties along the Hegemony's northern border. In 1973 CE, whilst on patrol near the edge of the Uifa'ar Nebula, the Pillar of Infinity detected the presence of a lone quarian vessel (the Laeji): the captain, Igay Rac'fakk, ordered the ship to perform long range sensor sweeps to deduce if any other quarian ships in the area were present, becoming suspicious as to the ship's purpose and intent getting as close as they did to batarian space. Rac'fakk repeatedly ordered the Laeji to identify itself and leave, claiming it had violated batarian sovereignty, but when the Laeji didn't respond, he ordered it to hold position and prepare to be boarded, ordering the Pillar of Infinity to dock with the Laeji and take its crew into custody. This process went by without incident and the crew were taken into custody, but despite learning the Laeji was only overseeing a mining operation on a gas giant nearby for the Flotilla and was merely a civilian ship, the Rac'fakk refused to believe them and planned to take the crew to Khar'Shan to stand trial for spying and espionage, with the true intent to sell them as slaves to make some easy money. Unbeknownst to Rac'fakk, two more quarian ships at the gas giant learnt of the trouble the Laeji, and alerted the Migrant Fleet, which was only a system away. Before Rac'fakk realized what was happening, a squadron of quarian warships from the Heavy Fleet consisting of three light cruisers, one heavy cruiser and two frigates, personally led by Admiral Risin'Lol, arrived in system and closed on the Pillar of Infinity's position, ordering the surrender of the Laeji's crew and that they would escort the ship back to batarian space. Rac'fakk refused and discoupled from the Laeji, hoping to withdraw safely to nearby batarian space. Risin'Lol's ship, the heavy cruiser Zaazh Xilon, engaged the Pillar of Infinity while his two frigates closed off the ship's escape, with two of his three light cruisers launching shuttles to board the Pillar of Infinity. Quarian marines boarded and after an hour of heavy fighting, Rac'fakk was forced to surrender. Rescuing their crew, Admiral Risin'Lol exacted additional tribute from his batarian adversary, claiming the Pillar of Infinity as a consolation prize, with the batarian crew allowed to take the ship's shuttles back to batarian space. Despite pontification from the Hegemony afterward that threatened war if they didn't return the ship, the Migrant Fleet swiftly left the area, and the Hegemony knew their war would lack diplomatic legitimacy, as it had occurred outside batarian space, and so they swiftly backed down. The Laeji incident, as it would go down in Hegemony history, was one vehemently denied to have ever happened, and a major embarassment for the Hegemony, such that Rac'fakk was quietly executed for his role in its events.
With the Pillar of Infinity stripped of its armaments and converted to a civilian ship, it was handed over to the Civilian Fleet, where it was renamed the Idenna, entering service only a week after its capture by the Fleet, one of the only ships in the Fleet's history that was claimed as a result of capture by force. While keeping its classification of a light cruiser, the ship would be used for civilian housing, possessing only modest defenses, with much of its armor and weapons taken to be outfitted for Heavy Fleet warships. With a crew of 2,000, most of which were the families of the crew themselves, the Idenna also had the distinction of being refitted to act as a transport and supply ship for the Fleet, with a sizable space given to a hangar bay and two shuttles, the Bavea and Cyniad, stationed there and under the ship's direct command at all times. In 2184 CE, the Idenna would be welcome to several non-quarian guests in the form of Alliance officers Kahlee Sanders and Hendel Mitra and biotic students Gillian Grayson and Nick Donahue, brought to the ship by Idenna local and pilgrim Lemm'Shal, who were seeking refuge on the ship from Cerberus, who wanted to capture Gillian. At this point, the Idenna was commanded by Ysin'Mal, a man who was both a maverick and a visionary, being a staunch supporter of the New Home program and seeking a new homeworld, and he willing permitted the humans to hide on his ship, which was further confirmed by the Admiralty Board who allowed it for a short period, largely due to the belief that nobody would dare attack the Fleet directly, or even bypass their defenses. However, aided by a quarian exile named Golo'Mekk, Cerberus was able to capture and kill the crew of the Cyniad when lured to Shelba, obtaining updated communication codes from the shuttle's mainframe and using Golo to give the Fleet's countersign, allowing it bypass the Fleet's defenses and dock with the Idenna to catch it unawares. What resulted was a massacre, with a Cerberus commando platoon led by Pel Ladges and accompanied by Golo and Cerberus operative Paul Grayson, Gillian's father, moving through the ship, killing anything that moved as they fought their way to Gillian. The quarian marines put up a stiff resistance however and, bolstered by the 12th Explorer Platoon under Tali'Zorah, were eventually able to stall the Cerberus advance through the ship, inflicting heavy casualties. Golo would be killed and Paul would be captured, and eventually the entire Cerberus platoon would be forced back to the hangar, where they were cut off and killed, the quarians showing no mercy even when some commandos surrendered. The Cerberus raid took the lives of 57 civilians, some of them children, and sent political shockwaves throughout the Migrant Fleet, with the quarians adopting an outwardly hostile stance towards Cerberus in the future. Despite this, the raid led to an outpouring of support for the crew of the Idenna, and its marines were praised for their defense of the ship, entering the Idenna into both infamy and fame across the Flotilla as a result. Kahlee and Nick would return to the Alliance with Paul in custody (although he escaped soon after), with Gillian choosing to remain behind to join the crew of the Idenna along with Hendel, who joined the ship's security team.
Shortly after the incident, Ysin'Mal was successful in his campaign to petition the Admiralty Board to allow the Idenna to depart the Fleet on a four-year expedition as part of the New Home program. Despite concerns regarding being able to protect the Idenna, the Fleet agreed to supply two years of food and water to the ship and gave the expedition its blessing, and the Idenna would depart the Fleet only four months after the Cerberus raid, with Gillian and Hendel remaining onboard as honorary crew members, with Gillian granted the title "nar Idenna" and Hendel "vas Idenna" as signs of respect, making the Idenna the only ship in the Migrant Fleet's history to have non-quarian crew members. In late 2185 CE, the Idenna dispatched the Cyniad to Gei Hinnom to survey the planet, but engine problems resulted in the ship being forced to make a crash landing, with much of the crew either dying in the crash or afterwards from varren hunting and killing them afterwards: the Idenna would arrive a few days later to recover survivors, although only Forzan'Cee, one of the marines on the shuttle, was left alive and badly wounded: in the end, Gei Hinnom was deemed unsuitable for quarian habitation, and the Idenna moved on after recovering its dead, the Cyniad and putting their dead to rest. In March 2186 CE, the Idenna was in the Sigurd's Cradle when it was attacked and ambushed by a batarian slaver ship, the Glory of Khar'Shan: quickly disabling the Idenna's engines and boarding it, the batarians expected an easy conquest, but the quarians, having experience in repelling a boarding party after Cerberus' last attempt, and led on by Gillian and Hendel, swiftly counterattacked, catching the batarians offguard and resulting in the quarians capturing the slaver ship and freeing its captives, among them a former Cerberus operative named Hal McCann. Learning from McCann that her father is dead, Gillian becomes resolved to avenge her father, requesting leave from the ship's captain: Ysin'Mal grants it, gifting her the Glory of Khar'Shan as a reward for her service, and declaring her "vas Idenna", saying their victory here was as "much of a pilgrimage gift as I could reasonably expect." Hendel left with Gillian, and the Idenna returned to its expedition. In June 2186 CE, two days before the Reapers began their invasion of the galaxy, the Idenna was recalled to the Fleet, cancelling its mission as it made all preparations for war with the geth and to reclaim Rannoch: Ysin'Mal adamantly opposed the war but returned out of a sense of duty, with the Idenna assigned as a support and logistics vessel, making up the Fleet's baggage train, and as such it was kept far from the fighting. After the war concluded, the Idenna remained at Rannoch for a short time before once again being deployed as a support and logistics vessel for the final assault on Earth.
Following the Reaper War, the Idenna, following a reunion with Gillian (Hendel had died during the war) on Earth, the ship returned to Rannoch with the rest of the Fleet, where it spent the next few years being used as a freighter and cargo vessel. Long after the original crew had left, with Ysin'Mal retiring in 2201 CE, the Idenna would see limited use during the Post-Apocalyptic War, used entirely as a transport ship, having been stripped of all weapons and military equipment following the Reaper War. Once that war concluded, the Idenna returned to Rannoch for one final time, where it was subsequently decommissioned, and in 2216 CE it was scrapped, ending a long and prestigious career for the ship.