Sovereign-class dreadnought
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Production information
Manufacturer:	Collectors of the Cycles
Model:	Sovereign
Class:	Dreadnought
Operator(s):	The Reapers
Preceded by:	Proto-Reaper
Succeeded by:	Maleficent-class
Technical information
Length:	2km
Width:	672m
Height/depth:	721m
Max acceleration:	22 kilometers per second
Engine unit(s):	Element Zero Drive Core
Power plant:	1 Element Zero drive core
Shielding:	Kinetic Barrier
Hull:	7m of Carininium
Sensor systems:	LIDAR Celestial imaging Radar Spectroscope Electromagnetic Spectral Imaging
Targetting system:	Shipwide AI
Armament:	10 thanix cannons: 3 bow, 2 starboard, 2 port, 3 mounted on each leg. 47 Anti-aircraft point defense guns
Crew:	None
Complement:	Hundreds of thousands of different types of husks
Usage
Commissioned:	11000000000 BCE
Decommissioned:	24 September 2186 CE
Role(s):	Engage enemy fleets/power projection
Era:	All cycles and eras
Affiliation:	The Reapers

The Sovereign-class dreadnought was a classification of dreadnought and one of many Reaper subtypes that made up their enormous armada. By far the most instantly recognizable and one of the most powerful Reaper subtypes of the Reaper fleets, and considered a symbol of their power, the first Sovereign-class dreadnought was built at the end of the First Cycle, created from the harvested remains of the Strot'oil and named Ministry: however, the Reapers never officially classified their own vessels, and as such, the term Sovereign was a name given to the ship class by the asari cycle, and each cycle has had a different name for the subtype. The Sovereign-class was one of the more powerful, and larger, Reaper subtypes, possessing enormous firepower and defenses at its disposal, making it one of the more fearsome and indomitable ships unique to the Reaper arsenal. Meant to tackle entire fleets, the Sovereign-class came with thick armor and powerful kinetic barriers for defensive options, and 10 powerful thanix cannons as its main armament, plus an additional 47 individual point defense guns meant for enemy fighter squadrons and swarm tactics, and although these smaller weapons are only a fraction of the power its thanix cannons hold, they can inflict significant damage on enemy capital ships nonetheless. The Sovereign-class has shields capable of withstanding continuous fire from an entire fleet, although the heavier the firepower, the sooner they are drained: in spite of this, the Sovereign-class could hold its own against a dozen dreadnoughts and has the firepower to win such a theoretical engagement. As such, the ship was rightly feared by the cycles who faced it, especially when faced against Sovereign-class squadrons of seven or more, which were common. The Sovereign-class was also, like all other Reaper subtypes, capable of not just performing in the atmosphere of planetary bodies, but could physically land on them: its three gargantuan legs enabled it to move around whilst on the ground as well, and while this limited it to being only able to use seven of its ten thanix cannons at a time (as the other three, being mounted on its legs, were unusable), this in no way limited its destructive capability, and Sovereign-class Reapers were a common sight on any urban battlefield during the cycles, often found sweeping city streets with their thanix cannons to level buildings, vaporize entire battalions, annihilate evacuation centers, and generally hamper attempts at any resistance. Its immense size made it impractical for entirely pacifying ground forces however, which is why smaller Reaper subtypes, such as the Destroyer-class, were more suited to the meticulous task of rooting out entrenched enemy troops, while the Sovereign-class could use its mere presence alone to demoralize their enemy, while also levelling anything that moved and eliminating the possiblity of orbital support.

Despite its fearsome reputation, which was well deserved, the Sovereign-class was by no means invincible, and it had many weaknesses. Due to its significant size and weight, the Sovereign-class was slow and had difficulties turning quickly enough in engagements, especially when enemy fire came from behind it: compounding this issue was its lack of any rear-mounted weaponry, as the Sovereign-class was built to face its enemy head on and with brute force, and therefore it would need to turn around to be able to starting firing at an enemy coming from behind it. And while the ship was able to pull off turns that would shear the ships of their organic adversaries in half at the attempt, and were capable of great bursts of speed when they had the momentum, this required an enormous amount of energy to pull off, and was often exploited during the Reaper War when UGC ships would isolate a Sovereign-class ship and then hit it from all sides, not giving the Reaper a chance to prioritize a target and overwhelm it. Another weakness was its lack of armor compared to other Reaper subtypes, as the strength of its defenses lay with its nigh impenetrable shields. This was first observed with the eponymous Sovereign at the Battle of the Citadel who, once its shields were down to a power overload, was very easily destroyed by sustained fire from the Fifth Fleet. While the Sovereign-class still had thick armor plating, it was nowhere near what ships such as the Atlas-class or Harbinger-class had, and this too was also exploited. Nevertheless, the Sovereign-class was more than just a formidable opponent for the ships of the cycles it was often pitted against, and despite its weaknesses, they were overshadowed by its strengths, and it still dominated almost every naval engagement it took part in.

In the asari cycle, the first Sovereign-class dreadnought was sighted three years before the Reaper War. Sovereign proved to be the asari cycle's first look at not only the Sovereign-class, but the Reapers as a whole. This proved a startling and horrifying first look at the horrors to come, as Sovereign mercilessly and effortlessly tore apart the Citadel Defense Fleet at the Battle of the Citadel, managing to destroy a turian dreadnought without firing a shot, simply ramming into it: it then proceeded to open up the full array of its armaments when attacked by the Alliance's Fifth Fleet, and only its exposure through hacking Saren Arterius, and the resulting feedback loop that overloaded the Reaper that occurred from Saren's second death, allowed the Fleet to finally bring the Reaper down: at the end of the day, a single Sovereign-class Reaper had wiped out nearly two fleets on its own. By the time the Reaper War itself rolled around, Sovereign's breathren proved no less powerful, and dominated on nearly every battlefield the Reapers fought on. Regardless, the Reaper War was won on 24 September 2186 CE with the activation of the Crucible, which successfully wiped out the Reapers, leaving thousands upon thousands of harmless, lifeless Sovereign-class derelicts. Many were destroyed as per the terms of the Reaper Scrapping Act, but the Systems Coalition and Republic of Rannoch secretly hoarded many more, and eventually managed to reintroduce them as weapons of war, but this time fighting for them and controlled by them. These reintroduced ships were renamed as the Maleficent-class, granting the Galactic Dominion a fleet of unmanned dreadnoughts to use at their disposal. These were used up until the end of the Dominion Civil War, and afterwards these too were finally totally destroyed as per the UGR's Better Tomorrow Act, which abolished the use of any remaining Reaper technology, and dictated its immediate, final and total destruction in order to finally move on from the harvest. Only one Sovereign-class ship was preserved, stripped of its weapons and internals to render it totally inert and harmless, and is on display at the rebuilt Reaper War Museum on Eden Prime.

The class had no official name, but the name used by the asari cycle to name the vessel, the Sovereign-class, was derived from the first ship of the class that the cycle first encountered and the vanguard of the asari cycle, that being Sovereign itself. Due to the final victory over the Reapers on 24 September 2186 CE, this name has entered official nomenclature, and has been used to describe the class ever since. Other terms during the war included "Reaper capital ship", "Reaper dreadnought", "Model I Reaper" and "Sovereigns", while informal terms such as "Sovies" and "big squid" were used as colloquialisms by common troops and other personnel.