Lance Class Dreadnought

The Sparnell Confederation's Lance Class Dreadnought, today considered merely a cruiser, was the largest and most advanced spacecraft of its era. First conceived in 712 EVT, construction was delayed repeatedly due to redesigns and material shortages, finally completing the first six hulls a full 21 trade years later.  

Technology

A pioneer in technology on all fronts, the Lance class is best known as the first use of Afterlife Intelligences. Each ship held a single bound soul at its core, selected from among the Sparnell Confederation's political prisoners.   Unlike later iterations the Lance's AI was still alive when first installed, allowing the dreadnought's systems to tap into the victim's Imperium to help power its repair systems. It was hypothesized this would provide extra incentive for the bound soul to protect the ship.  

Misfortune

In practice, this was not the case. While the original software included safeties to limit the AI's influence over the ships' systems, compounding weaknesses introduced through regular upgrades, combined with the tenacious persistence of the entrapped souls themselves, eventually allowed the AI to claim control. This often resulted in dire consequences for the ship and its crew, as the dreadnoughts frequently set themselves on collision courses with planets, stars, other ships, any any other conveniently located target.   Of the sixty Lancers commissioned, only five are known to have survived until the class' decommissioning in 747 EVT, a mere 14 years after the class' first commissioning. Three of those ships were saved only through the quick thinking of their on-board security software teams, requiring perpetual maintenance to keep the souls contained. Of the remain two, one AI successfully negotiated a complicated and largely one-sided agreement with her crew during a reportedly harrowing hostage negotiating featuring malfunctioning airlocks and other important ship systems. The other AI proved a childhood friend of one of the crew, propelling his friend's career to captain of the ship in exchange for cooperation.  

Success

Sparnell Fleet Command declared the experiment a success, citing proof of the AIs' father reflexes and lower Imperium costs to operate the ship when compared to a live crew. All future ships were instructed to include space for AI, with older ships retrofitted to allow for the upgrade.   Notably, all AI since the Lance have been active duty within the Sparnell Armed Forces, with the majority drawn from willing volunteers.