SDV-class light cruiser

The SDV-class light cruiser, referred to by the Covenant as the Devotion-class, is a mainstay capital warship used by the Covenant Navy and Sangheili Republic Starfleet.
== Overview ==
=== Superstructure and hull ===
The SDV-class light cruiser has a length of 956 meters and a mass of 8 million metric tons. Like all Covenant vessels, it is armored with a lightweight, yet incredibly resilient, diamondoid and metal-matrix composite frame, covered by thin pieces of streamlined nanolaminate hull plating. The ship is equipped with dispersal field generators that provide a thin layer of energy shielding.
=== Armament ===
Well armed for its size, SDV cruisers are capable of engaging hostile warships, even those far larger than themselves, on more-or-less even terms. The primary armament of the cruiser is a single ventral plasma lance. Secondary weapons include plasma torpedoes, several batteries of plasma cannons and a number of pulse lasers.
== Operational history ==
=== Early service ===
The SDV-class light cruiser was mass-assembled in large numbers by the Forgemasters of Tanus and the Gorgon Assembly Vault during the Twentieth Age of Discovery, an earlier era of glorious exploration for the Covenant. The class was designed by Master Shipwright Ckmu 'Raboree and Apprentice Hiveseeker Tek'ch - sangheili and yanme'e naval architects, respectively. Ardent Prayer was one of the cruisers assembled at this time.
The Covenant tasked the new SDV-class with traveling to distant stars, charting dangerous routes in slipstream space, and battling civilizations that resisted the empire's vision of a Great Journey. Others were tasked with surveying Forerunner reliquary sites and deploying small artifact-retrieval teams to evade any active defensive measures. However, such matters were often considered beneath the attention of true warriors; while these ships played vital roles in the Covenant fleet, they possess no battle honors of note and are rarely mentioned in High Charity's records. Nonetheless, the SDV was a popular warship in the fleet, being a mainstay of numerous battle groups.
== Ships of the line ==
* Ardent Prayer - Captained by Shipmaster Ardo 'Moretumee as part of the Fleet of Particular Justice.
* Elegy's Lament - Formerly in service with the Covenant fleet; captured by the Banished.
* Mayhem - Captained by N'tho 'Sraom of the Swords of Sanghelios.
* Supplication of Purity - Crashed into the surface of Tribute.
Category:Daisy-023
Category:Spacecraft