Transcendence-class dreadnought-carrier
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Production information
Manufacturer:	Jafer-Nocsky Shipbuilders Transgalactic Builders Conglomerate (in colloboration)
Model:	Transcendence
Class:	Dreadnought-carrier
Operator(s):	Systems Coalition Navy Rannoch Republican Navy Tuchankan Confederate Navy Dominion Dissident Front Unified Galactic Navy Virminian Navy
Succeeded by:	Galaxy-class
Generation:	Second
Technical information
Length:	3400m
Width:	550m
Height/depth:	720m
Max acceleration:	120 kilometers per second
Engine unit(s):	Element Zero Drive Core
Power plant:	6 Element Zero drive cores
Shielding:	Energy Shielding
Hull:	1100cm of Silaris-D Modular/Ablative Super Armor
Sensor systems:	LIDAR Radar Spectroscope
Targetting system:	Shipwide AI
Armament:	2500 Pilum-C anti-ship cluster missiles 1250 port side 1250 starboard side 12 heavy plasma guns 6 port side 6 starboard side 18 Generation II GARDIANs 400 plasma torpedoes 200 port side 200 starboard side 1 bow Generation V MACs 64 Vulcan CIWS 32 port side 32 starboard side
Crew:	26,000
Skeleton crew:	2,790
Usage
Commissioned:	14 September 2235 CE (by Dominion Navy) 2 July 2393 CE (by Virminian Navy)
Decommissioned:	10 November 2304 CE (by the UGN) 30 October 2785 CE (by Virminian Navy)
Role(s):	Providing air cover and engaging enemy capital ships
Era:	Human Cycle Dominion Era Post-Cycle Pax Aeterna Era
Affiliation:	Systems Coalition Republic of Rannoch Krogan Confederacy Unified Galactic Republics Virminian Republic

The Transcendence-class dreadnought-carrier was a classification of dreadnought-carrier that served in the Systems Coalition Navy, Rannoch Republican Navy and Tuchankan Confederate Navy from 2235 CE to 2253 CE, in the Unified Galactic Navy from 2253 CE to 2304 CE, and in the Virminian Navy from 2393 CE to 2785 CE. Built as part of the Dominion Strategic and Tactical Arms Exchange after the Post-Apocalyptic War, an agreement reached between the Systems Coalition Navy and Rannoch Republican Navy to each produce specialized ship classes that would be used by both navies, the Transcendence-class dread-carrier was designed as the Dominion's direct response to the dominance displayed by the Covenant Navy's White Wolf-class dreadnought carriers, forcing them to play catch up. The Transcendence-class would end up becoming one of the most expensive classes of warship ever built for the Dominion Navy, alongside the equally costly Pandorica-class program and Project Requiem, requiring enormous resources and funding for research in the project's concept stages and, later, for construction of the finalized ships. Of the class, it was envisioned that 30 would be built, but this proved unrealistic due to budgetary constraints, and this was ultimately cut down to just 7, with construction beginning on the first 3 by early 2235 CE and the last 3 by 2237 CE, with the seventh being cancelled after 50% of the hull was completed. In 2235 CE, the Transcendence, Deep Savannah and Michael Faraday were finished and commissioned, and in 2237 CE, the J. Robert Oppenheimer, Meadow's Plight and Sergei Yudin were also finished and commissioned. Construction on the seventh cancelled ship would resume later that year when a deal was finalized with the Tuchankan Military Confederacy to purchase the seventh unfinished Transcendence-class ship, and it would be commissioned in early 2238 CE as the Steel Grinder instead of its original name, Eric Tigerstedt, and would go on to be the only Transcendence-class ship to ever serve in the Confederate Navy.

Built to be used in the attritional warfare of the Terra-Rannochian War, and as a direct answer to the Covenant Navy's White Wolf-class, the Transcendence-class would, despite a shaky beginning, ultimately prove to be the perfect counter to the Covenant White Wolf-class, the latter of which had become a boogeyman to the Dominion fleet, as its unique strike capabilities and usage in combat left it without any Dominion rival, making the Covenant without peer in naval combat and allowing them to dominate most fleet engagements and attack Dominion facilities beyond the operational capabilities of their Dominion counterparts. The introduction of the Transcendence was intended to tip the balance of power back in favor of the Dominion, and its baptism of fire would come with the Battle of Sowilo, the single largest carrier-on-carrier fleet battle in the whole Terra-Rannochian War, with three Transcendence-class dread-carriers (the Deep Savannah, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Meadow's Plight) facing off against three White Wolf-class dread-carriers (the Armageddon's Messenger, Judgment's Fortress and Dancing with the Void) protecting a large Covenant convoy. The result was a decisive Dominion victory, resulting in the complete destruction of all three White Wolf-class dread-carriers present and none on the Dominion side, with only two Transcendence-class ships suffering light to moderate damage, a victory which avenged the inadequate performance of the Deep Savannah at the Second Battle of Fortis a few years before. This finally shattered the myth of the invincibility of the White Wolf-class, placing them permanently on the defensive, with the exception of the 2250 counteroffensive, where the Covenant would achieve minor vengeance for Sowilo by destroying the Meadow's Plight and severely damaging the Deep Savannah at the Third Battle of Caestus. Despite the setback at Caestus, the Transcendence-class had proven itself an invaluable strike asset, although only two, the Deep Savannah and J. Robert Oppenheimer, would serve in the Maginot Armada, with the Michael Faraday attached to the Coalition Second Fleet, the Steel Grinder to the Confederate Sixth Fleet, the Sergei Yudin in the Coalition Fifth Fleet and the Transcendence in the Rannoch Attican Fleet, far from the action and leaving the Deep Savannah and Oppenheimer as the only remaining battle-tested and battle-hardened Transcendence-class ships in the Dominion Navy, which prove to be pivotal when the Dominion Civil War came around in late 2252 CE. In mid 2251 CE, a replacement for the Meadow's Plight, called Paradise's Shield began construction at the Koris Shipyards over Kaddi, but a union strike, followed by bureaucratic interference and pessimism following the defeat Caestus led to its construction being delayed by a full year, and construction wouldn't resume by the time the civil war broke out.

With the outbreak of the Dominion Civil War in late 2252 CE, the Steel Grinder became the only Transcendence-class ship to fall into the hands of the insurrectionist DDF as most of the Tuchankan Confederacy declared for the rebels. The Sergei Yudin would be severely damaged and forced to retreat at the Battle of Phoenix where the Coalition Fifth Fleet suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of a DDF fleet and due to infighting within their own forces, with the Sergei Yudin being fired upon by its own escorts and subsequently losing a carrier engagement with a DDF controlled light carrier, an embarrassment that led to the captain committing suicide after the battle. After escaping the battle with the remnants of the defeated loyalists of the Fifth Fleet, separatists onboard the ship proceeded to sabotage it, and upon discovery, infighting erupted aboard the ship, with a call for help sent to the rest of the fleet to send reinforcements to take back the ship. While Coalition marines would ultimately retake most of the ship, separatists in the munitions center started a chain reaction in the ship's forward magazines that caused a series of explosions that gutted the starboard side of the Sergei Yudin: an evacuation order was given and moments later the fleet retreated to a safe distance. 20 minutes later, secondary and tertiary explosions would completely obliterate the bow of the ship, flash vaporizing the entire bow and leaving its stern to float through space. The Michael Faraday would be destroyed at the Battle of Mars as it was in the middle of participating in an orbital bombardment. The Paradise's Shield was left abandoned in its birth yard as workers tried to escape the battle happening around the shipyard, and in February DDF forces would finally capture the shipyard, as well as the unfinished ship. The Transcendence would join the escort fleet for the Ark as it attacked and destroyed Titan, broke through the Maginot Line (with the Transcendence briefly engaging its sister ship Deep Savannah in a carrier battle) and defended it as it merged with the Citadel, where it was finally destroyed at the Battle of the Citadel-Ark. The Oppenheimer and Deep Savannah would both participate in the Battle of the Maginot Line, with the Oppenheimer taking severe damage during the battle, both ships joining the DDF when Xerxes declared for the rebels, and joined late in the Battle of the Citadel-Ark, where the Oppenheimer was destroyed. Post-war, only three Transcendence-class ships would survive: the Deep Savannah and Steel Grinder that were in active service, and the Paradise's Shield, which would be finished and finally enter active service in 2255 CE.

Following the rise of the Unified Galactic Republics, the future of the remaining three Transcendence-class ships was secured with the Deep Savannah becoming the flagship of the Milky Way 4th Fleet, the Steel Grinder part of the Milky Way 1st Fleet and the Paradise's Shield attached to the Rannoch Home Fleet. All three would have long service lives, with all three remaining in service until 2304 CE when they were replaced by the UGR's Galaxy-class and were subsequently decommissioned and mothballed. The Paradise's Shield would be sold to the Virminian Navy in 2393 CE where it would serve a whopping four centuries before it was finally replaced by a Galaxy-class ship purchased from the UGR, seeing action in the December War and War of the Ten Colonies. Both the Steel Grinder and Deep Savannah would be refitted and turned into Colossus-class colony ships for use in the Grand Andromeda Expeditionary Fleet, and were finally scrapped in 2917 CE.