Malevolence/Legends

The Malevolence was a heavy Separatist warship active during the Clone Wars.

Characteristics
The Malevolence was the flagship of the Confederate Navy. It was fitted with two gigantic ion cannons, capable of firing a focused and directed ionic pulse at Republic capital ships and completely neutralizing their power systems. It was also armed with considerable amounts of standard secondary weaponry to destroy the ion cannon's victims. Turbolasers were fitted to both its sides and dorsal superstructure, being clustered in large banks to defend against any ship that avoided the main ion cannons.

Towards the stern, a tower with a communications array was located, which was similar to the one found on the Providence-class. The command center was also located in this tower, which had a multi-storied structure at the top.

History


Like the Invisible Hand, the Malevolence was built by Quarren Separatists on Pammant. It served as General Grievous' flagship prior to his use of the Invisible Hand and destroyed dozens of task forces.

Its existence became known to the Republic following the destruction of over a dozen task forces, but the details of the ship remained unknown due to the absence of any survivors from the attacks. Commentators speculated that the weapon could be a weaponized space slug variant, or a starship equipped with cloaking devices.

During an attack on the vessel using BTL-B Y-wing starfighters, the Republic forces managed to score hits on the two heavy cannons.

Behind the scenes
The Malevolence was originally based even closer on a concept art for a Separatist warship meant to be used in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Trivia
In the online comic, a schematic of the Malevolence is shown, despite the fact that the ship has not left any survivors for its raids up to that point.

In the Clone Wars episode: Shadow of Malevolence Skywalker commands the Y-Wing bombers to attack the starboard ion cannon, but the visuals showed that it was the port cannon that was destroyed.

Appearances

 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars (novel)
 * The Clone Wars: Prelude
 * HoloNet News — A Galaxy Divided
 * The Clone Wars: Shakedown
 * The Clone Wars: Procedure
 * The Clone Wars: Procedure

Notes and references
Malevolence