Like many capital ships throughout history, the Ascendant Spear had a dagger-like hull shape, as with many cruisers, destroyers, battleships, etc. affiliated with the Sith. It had two long-range sensor towers on its dorsal surface towards the back of the ship set at a forking angle. The ship was also one of the empire's fifteen largest capital ships, all of which were equipped with a black cipher.
The reason the Ascendant Spear was classified as a superweapon was because of its unique capabilities. Darth Mekhis created the ship to be the perfect union of man and machine. Through bionic implants, the former apprentice of Darth Malgus, Darth Karrid, communed with and controlled the ship directly. However, this required intense concentration and a steady stream of power flowing from her apprentices to bolster her own. Because of this, Darth Karrid would only assume command of the ship during combat. Karrid's ability to channel the dark side of the Force into the ship's systems enhanced its capabilities, allowing it to exceed its class 0.5 hyperdrive rating and enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of its weapons and other systems to flawless precision.
The Ascendant Spear was one of the most devastating Sith warships of its period. Darth Karrid regularly wiped out entire Republic fleets, as well as Sith ships who opposed her or attempted to flee from the conflict. Its weapons were capable of draining the shields of a Republic capital ship by 30% with a single volley, and cutting a Hammerhead-class cruiser cleanly in half. They were also precise enough to target and shoot down BT-7 Thunderclaps with ease. Its point defense system was powerful enough to destroy frigate-sized warships like the Thranta-class corvette.
Using the Sun Razer, the Sith Empire was able to complete its creation in years instead of decades. All the projects fueled by the Sun Razer were overseen by Darth Mekhis and discovered by Theron Shan and Jedi Master Ngani Zho upon their infiltration and capture in the Vesla system. Although the Sun Razer was destroyed by Shan, the Ascendant Spear survived its destruction and passed into the hands of Darth Karrid.
The Ascendant Spear participated in multiple military engagements of the Galactic War, always tipping the scales of the battle in the empire's favor. In 3640 BBY, Karrid was nominated by Darth Marr for the position of head of the Sphere of Technology of the empire's Dark Council, but was overshadowed by her competitor Darth Gravus. In response Karrid took the Ascendant Spear to the Leritor system where she eliminated her rival and the combined Republic and Imperial fleets in the Second battle of Leritor. In order to keep her occupied while Marr dealed with the political fallout of her usurpation of Gravus, the Ascendant Spear and Karrid were sent to the Boranall system by Davidge, the Minister of Logistics, to put down an insurrection in the system. Upon arriving in the Boranall system, the Spear destroyed several Republic ships and bombarded the surface of the system's primary planet of Boranall during the Battle of Boranall.
Theron Shan played a key role in destroying the Ascendant Spear.
In 3640 BBY, Theron Shan and Jedi Master Gnost-Dural (Karrid's former master) captured one of the Empire's few black ciphers from the Minister of Logistics' office on Ziost and used it to intercept Imperial communications in order to track the Ascendant Spear's location as part of Operation End Game. The two agents then snuck aboard the Ascendant Spear at Reaver Station with the help of Teff'ith in order to plant a computer virus into the ship so it would be vulnerable when the Republic navy ambushed it at the Battle of Duro. Theron Shan, however, realized the ship's computer architecture was too advanced for a virus, and had to actively slice and covertly sabotage the ship while Gnost-Dural allowed himself to be captured and interrogated by Darth Karrid, in order to lure her into an ambush. The Ascendant Spear arrived too late to assist the navy of Moff Nezzor, which had been ambushed by Jace Malcom's Republic fleet, and destroyed the fleeing Imperial warships before moving to engage the Republic navy. Although Theron was initially able to mis-calibrate the Spears weapons and divert power from its shields so it would be exposed to Republic fire, but Darth Karrid discovered his interference and was able to cordon him off from the primary systems. As a result Theron resorted to freeing Gnost-Dural to take down Karrid directly, which he was able to do by forcing her command pod to disconnect by tricking it into thinking the entire ship was going down with a flood of false data. Unable to respond to the outside battle, the Republic fleet which had been evading the Spears weapons moved back to surround and engage the ship, and Shan killed Karrid by throwing an overloaded blaster into her command pod, before escaping the ship. The Spears hypermatter annihilator failed when the coolant systems were destroyed under Republic bombardment, and the ship was torn apart in the ensuing blast.
- The Essential Reader's Companion
- "Blaster" — Star Wars Insider 137