Glorious Heritage

The Glorious Heritage (Ship Registration Code XMC) Heavy Cruiser is a fictional starship class in the television series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.

The Glorious Heritage Heavy Cruiser is the bright star of the High Guard fleet. As the most visible symbol of the reach and power of the Commonwealth, command of these vessels is reserved for the best and the brightest. Capable of high-endurance, independent operations, XMCs are often called upon to perform disaster relief and refugee support operations due to their spacious interiors and ability to ferry large quantities of emergency supplies and additional personnel. During peacetime, XMCs are most often tasked with independent intergalactic exploration, charting and documenting the star systems of the Local Cluster. They are also the preferred platform for first contact missions, given their formidable combat capabilities and their ability to operate without a battlegroup - often critical to assuring potential Commonwealth members that the High Guard comes in peace.

After the Fall of the Commonwealth, the Andromeda Ascendant was the only known surviving XMC cruiser. Later in the season 1 episode, the crew discovered the Pax Magellanic, another Glorious Heritage starship and sister to the Andromeda Ascendant in the remnants of a destroyed planet. It was later revealed that the Pax Magellanic had actually destroyed the planet by ejecting her Slipstream drive into the atmosphere. The Pax Magellanic was later destroyed by the crew after trying to destroy Andromeda. Andromeda didn't intend to destroy it, but the ship lowered its defenses so a strike meant to disable destroyed it as the ship wanted to die. A large number of other ships were eventually recovered from a POW camp in the second season.