Malevolence/Legends

The Malevolence was a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser active during the Clone Wars. It served as the flagship of the Confederate General Grievous. The massive ship was longer than five Venator-class Star Destroyers and sported dual ion cannons, capable of disabling enemy ships, mounted on both sides of its hull. The ship was first spotted by Republic forces around 22 BBY by Jedi General Ares Nune and Clone Commander Kite, who were on an inspection in the Phu system. Grievous took the opportunity to fire the ion cannons on Nune's fleet, destroying it. High Jedi General Plo Koon led a fleet to engage the Malevolence after losing contact with Nune.

After destroying Koon's fleet, the Malevolence was revealed to the Republic after Koon was rescued by Jedi General Anakin Skywalker. Dooku assigned the Malevolence to a major clone trooper medical center near the Ryndellia system. En route to the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, the Malevolence destroyed a Republic medical convoy passing through the Ryndellia system. Before the warship could attack the medcenter, however, a group of BTL-B Y-wing starfighters, led by General Skywalker, intercepted the massive ship near the medcenter and disabled its ion cannons, as well as its hyperdrive.

Senator Padmé Amidala was taken hostage aboard the Malevolence, and Skywalker and High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi left to rescue Amidala. Prior to escaping the warship, Skywalker tampered with the ship's navicomputer. Grievous fled on his starfighter after noting that the battle has been lost. The battle droids stationed on the Malevolence believed that the hyperdrive had been fixed; however, the malfunctioning navicomputer caused the Malevolence to crash into a nearby moon.

Description
"Our ship is unstoppable."

- General Grievous

The Malevolence was a Subjugator-class heavy cruiser. Around 5,000 meters, it possessed two twin ion cannons. Once fired, the wave from the cannons would expand over greater distances and disable any enemy spacecraft upon impact. After the ion cannon had disabled an enemy warship, approximately 500 turbolasers were mounted on the ship's enormous hull to fire upon the disabled vessel. A panel of experts debated the warship's size on the HoloNet News, as many predicted how large the ship was.

The massive ship was designed with an internal rail jet system, which served as a hovertrain that transported ammunition, supplies, and sometimes troops throughout the ship. Its cars were similar in appearance to the Multi-Troop Transport. Equipped with 16 massive sublight engines, the Malevolence also had a powerful hyperdrive, and at one point, its commander, the Confederate General Grievous, was told that the Malevolence was fast enough to outrun Republic forces. The ship carried 2 tractor beam batteries that could pull any freighter or small vessel aboard one of the Malevolence docking bays. Complementing the ship, Vulture-class droid fighters were on board to eradicate enemy fighters. At least one Droch-class boarding ship, nicknamed a "pod hunter", was aboard the Malevolence, and was often deployed with rocket battle droids to seek and destroy jettisoned enemy escape pods. The Malevolence also held General Grievous' personal starfighter.

Rise of the Malevolence
"Until found this menace is, vigilant we all must be."

- Yoda commenting on the Malevolence

The Malevolence was designed by Ruggle Schmong, built by Quarren Separatists on Pammant and was the first of its class. It served as General Grievous' flagship prior to his use of the Invisible Hand and destroyed dozens of Republic task forces, including the Galactic Republic Fourth Fleet. It was known that the Malevolence possessed at least one sister ship, the Devastation.

The massive Malevolence was first spotted by Jedi General Ares Nune and Clone Commander Kite as they took three Venator-class Star Destroyers to the Phu system for an inspection. Commanding the Malevolence, Grievous took the opportunity to fire upon the Republic forces. The first wave from the cannons obliterated the shields of the Star Destroyer Laudable. Nune and Kite tried to evacuate their flagship, though the ship was doomed as the intense fire from the Malevolence progressed. After the Jedi Order received word of the new superweapon, Jedi Master Plo Koon volunteered to take several Venator-class cruisers to find and destroy the "mystery weapon," as the Malevolence had been dubbed. Aboard the Venator-class cruiser Triumphant, Koon tracked the Malevolence to the Abregado system.

Battle of Abregado
"Finding it is one thing. Finding a way to stop it is another."

- Mace Windu

When Koon tracked the massive Malevolence in the Abregado system, he intended to report as much information on the weapon in case of his defeat. After the Confederate Head of State, Count Dooku, arrived aboard the Malevolence to watch General Grievous' progress, he ordered the general to jam the Republic task force's transmissions. Koon and Clone Commander CC-3636 reported information to Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano via hologram, however, their communications were cut by the nearby Malevolence.

While the Malevolence was out of firing range of the advancing Republic fleet, Grievous, nevertheless, ordered the battle droids to discharge its ion cannon, which passed over the fleet and neutralized the Star Destroyers' shields. As the battle continued, the vulnerable Republic Star Destroyers were soon engulfed by the intense fire from the Malevolence numerous turbolaser cannons. After Koon and several clones jettisoned their fleet in escape pods, Dooku ordered the battle droids to deploy the "pod hunters" to track down and eliminate the survivors.

Using the last known report from Koon, Skywalker and Tano emerged from hyperspace in Skywalker's commandeered freighter, the Twilight. Both Jedi noticed the large debris field which had produced as a result of the battle. The Jedi went out to look for Koon, but Grievous had already sent out a pod hunter to seek Koon and his forces that had jettisoned in escape pods. Destroying all but Koon's pod, the battle droids were destroyed by Koon and his clone troopers. Following the rescue of Koon and the surviving clones, the Twilight detected the approaching Malevolence, Koon ordered Skywalker to shut down all of the freighter's systems. However, the group left an 2-1B surgical droid activated, and picked up the Twilight. Koon, Skywalker, and Tano reactivated their ship's power and fled the area. Grievous ordered the ion cannon to be discharged, but failed to stop the Jedi before they entered hyperspace. The Republic had learned of the warship and its ion cannons, and despite the fact that most of Koon's forces had been eradicated, Dooku considered the battle to be a defeat. The Sith Lord was most displeased with Grievous' failure to prevent the Republic from learning of the warship. His trust in Grievous shaken, Dooku left to discuss plans with his Sith master.

Ryndellia conflict
In the Ryndellia system, the Malevolence intercepted several Republic Pelta-class frigates that were passing through the system. A Venator-class Star Destroyer that was escorting the frigates tried to protect the medical convoys; however, Grievous attacked the Republic medical convoy with the Malevolence numerous laser cannons. After the Malevolence destroyed the small fleet, one of the frigates evaded the fire and began to escape. Grievous ordered the ship's ion cannons to be fired at the fleeing frigate. The electrical ion surge decimated the frigate's power, and the Malevolence then directed heavy fire at the frigate, destroying it.

Count Dooku, who had been watching Grievous' progress through a hologram transmission, told the cyborg general of the Republic's Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, treating over 60,000 wounded clones near the Naboo system. Dooku assigned the medical center as the Malevolence new target. Grievous was pleased with this new assignment, as it showed that the Count had not lost all faith in him since the defeat at Abregado.

Destruction of the Malevolence
En route to the medical facility, Dooku contacted Grievous through a hologram transmission, after he received intelligence from his master, Darth Sidious, that the Republic had launched a small group of fighters to attack the Malevolence. Grievous noted that the Malevolence hyperdrive was not fast and the warship's navicomputer was forced to recalculate its coordinates in order to go around the Kaliida Nebula. In an attempt to stop him, Skywalker and Tano retrieved brand-new BTL-B Y-wing starfighters, nimble bombers manufactured by Koensayr Manufacturing. Their squadron soon left and entered the Kaliida Nebula as a shortcut to arrive at the medcenter before the Malevolence, while High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and his fleet went around the nebula. The massive ship arrived near the medcenter and began to fire on the departing medical frigates. Upon emerging from the nebula, Skywalker led the Republic squadron to engage the Malevolence. Vulture droids were dispatched from the Malevolence and attacked the Republic group. As they engaged Skywalker's bombers, Grievous ordered the battle droids to fire the ion cannon at the approaching group. The ion wave deactivated the Vulture droids and two of Skywalker's bombers. However, the Republic squadron managed to damage the two heavy ion cannons, causing them to overload and explode and damaging the ship's hyperdrive in the process.

After the Republic disabled the Malevolence, Count Dooku contacted Grievous and informed him that his master had sent a senator to the warship's location. Sidious, using his alter ego of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, sent Padmé Amidala and her protocol droid, C-3PO, who were to negotiate a peace treaty with InterGalactic Banking Clan officials. However, Amidala wasn't fully aware of the situation, and she and her droid were captured by the Malevolence tractor beam, but evaded being captured after they destroyed their ship inside the warship's hangar. Firefighting battle droids that were stationed aboard rushed to the scene of the destroyed ship and began to extinguish the flames. Skywalker and Kenobi planned a rescue and left on the Twilight to board the Malevolence through an emergency airlock. Grievous and a squad of B2 super battle droids and B1 battle droids soon left the bridge while Amidala contacted Skywalker via a transmission box inside the Malevolence. The senator waited until Grievous and his entourage passed by her before entering the internal rail jet room. Noticing that there were intruders, Grievous ordered the battle droids to protect the internal systems of the massive warship and to fix the hyperdrive.

Inside the internal rail jet room, battle droids began to attack Amidala and C-3PO. Skywalker and Kenobi met up with Amidala inside the room, and Skywalker rescued Amidala on a separate rail cart while Kenobi went to rescue her droid, C-3PO. After Kenobi Force-pushed C-3PO onto storage containers outside the jet railings, Kenobi entered the hyperdrive room. Grievous confronted Kenobi, though the Jedi Master escaped to the rail jet room. Unbeknownst to Grievous, Skywalker and Amidala entered the bridge and destroyed all stationed battle droids there. As Amidala hid the destroyed battle droids inside a storage room, Skywalker tampered with the warship's navicomputer before the two left. Grievous followed Kenobi and engaged the Jedi in a lightsaber duel, but Kenobi escaped again and met up with Skywalker, Amdiala, C-3PO and R2 in the Twilight. Seeing that the battle has been lost, Grievous left the Malevolence in his personal starfighter, the Soulless One. Meanwhile, the droid crew aboard the Malevolence, believing the hyperdrive to be fixed, prepared to jump to Sector Four in Confederate space. However, the droids, who were destroyed by Skywalker and Amidala, did not contact the squad of B1 battle droids that were preparing to jump to hyperspace. The battle droids realized that the massive warship wasn't responding to the coordinates they entered and contacted Grievous. The general frantically ordered the droids to reset the navicomputer, but they failed to do so, resulting in the destruction of the ship. Grievous managed to escape, and the Twilight returned to the awaiting Republic ships. The Malevolence threat was over.

Commanders and crew
"Do not compound your failure this day by allowing our prized warship to fall."

- Count Dooku to Grievous

General Grievous was the leading commander of the Malevolence, and it served as his flagship. Battle droids assumed responsibility for maintaining and controlling the bridge. Grievous gave out orders for the battle droids; however, the relationship between Grievous and battle droids was shaken during his time commanding the Malevolence.

Count Dooku was on board at the time of the Battle of Abregado and acted as a adviser for Grievous. The Sith Lord also served as another commander, and often contacted Grievous via hologram to check in on the general's progress. He helped Grievous by orchestrating battle plans, as well as exploiting the maneuvers and attacks of the Republic forces.

Behind the scenes
Count Dooku named the Malevolence meaning "wishing evil to others." The Malevolence was originally based on a concept art for a Separatist communications ship meant to be used in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Designed in 2004, The warship was originally Grievous' flagship during the Battle of Coruscant. Its conception design was similar to the Invisible Hand, though the idea of the massive warship was dropped. The introduction of the Invisible Hand later became Grievous' flagship in Revenge of the Sith. The finished version of the Malevolence was designed by Russell Chong and was based upon the GR-75 medium transport. According to supervising director Dave Filoni, the Malevolence and its story were based in part on the real-life German battleship Bismarck, which was hunted relentlessly by the British Royal Navy during World War II.

In the The Clone Wars episode "Shadow of Malevolence", Anakin Skywalker commands the Y-wing bombers to attack the starboard ion cannon, but the visuals show that it is the port cannon that is destroyed. The explosion takes out both cannons, however, therefore making this statement moot. It is possible that due to either using the same power generator or really just being one, big, 2-way shooting cannon that can pick which side to fire from, that cause the destruction of one to cause a chain reaction that destroyed both guns, as well as causing extensive damage to most of the ship.

Henry Gilroy has suggested that the reason the Malevolence is able to receive holographic communications while in hyperspace is due to the size of the ship's internal gravity field.

Appearances

 * Star Wars The Clone Wars Volume 1: Shipyards of Doom
 * The Clone Wars: Prelude
 * HoloNet News — A Galaxy Divided
 * The Clone Wars: Shakedown
 * The Clone Wars: Procedure
 * The Clone Wars: Agenda
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars Secret Missions 1: Breakout Squad
 * The Clone Wars: Departure
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels
 * Star Wars The Clone Wars Secret Missions 1: Breakout Squad
 * The Clone Wars: Departure
 * Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels

Notes and references
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