Malevolence/Legends

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

Dimensions


The Malevolence was the flagship of the Confederate Navy. It was their most powerful battleship, and was designed very similar to both the Providence-class carrier/destroyer and the Recusant-class light destroyer, only more than 5km long.

The battleship was covered with a thick armor that allowed it to recieve heavy turbolaser bombardement from multiple enemy capital ships without being knocked out. 16 thrusters were positioned at the vessel's stern.

Offensive and defensive systems


The battleship 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.

The Malevolence 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. They consisted of at least two different types - light and heavy dual turbolaser cannons.

Complement
The warship carried several Vulture-class droid fighter squadrons, which could launch from multiple hangars on the side of the warship, right behind the ion array. The hangars had their own dedicated firefighting droid teams, which could quickly respond to any emergency in the bays.

The ship was large enough to have its own dedicated internal rail jet transportation system. The rails transported both passengers and materials on several levels and were connected with the various hangars. The rail-jet car design was similar to that of the Multi-Troop Transport.

Bridge
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, defended by multiple turbolaser batteries.

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.



After destroying dozens of task forces, General Grievous set his sights on the Kaliida Shoals Medical Center, which housed over 60,000 wounded clones and was the primary Outer Rim medical facility for the Republic. In an attempt to stop him, the Republic sent a squadron of brand-new BTL-B Y-wing starfighters, nimble bombers that could avoid the ion cannon's bursts. The Republic force, led by Anakin Skywalker, managed to damage the two heavy ion cannons, causing them to overload,also causing the hyperdrive to be disabled.

After a brief chase, Senator Padmé Amidala and C-3P0 entered the battle, being led to believe they would be meeting IBC officials for a peace treaty that would lead them to leave the CIS. In reality, it was a trap set up by Darth Sidious to ensure that the Malevolence could escape. They were captured by a tractor beam, but escaped by destroying their ship.



Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and R2-D2 then entered the ship in the chaos and began searching for Amidala. Padmé contacted them, leading Anakin to find her, but C-3PO got lost and Obi-Wan went looking for him. R2-D2 then found him and Kenobi went to damage the hyperdrive further, which had almost been fixed at the time.

In the generator room, Kenobi was attacked by General Grievous, but escaped and met up with Anakin, Padmé, C-3PO, and R2-D2, who hijacked the hyperdrive beforehand and escaped aboard the Twilight. Grievous attempted to give chase in his starfighter, together with several Vulture droid fighters. Meanwhile, the droid crew aboard the Malevolence, believing the hyperdrive to be fixed, prepared to jump to CIS space, but Skywalker's "hijacking" caused it to jump into a nearby moon, destroying the ship. Grievous, however, escaped to his secret hideout and the Twilight returned to the awaiting Republic ships. The Malevolence's threat was over.

Behind the scenes


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. The finished version incorporates elements of the Home One and the GR-75 medium transport. According to Director Dave Filoni, the Malevolence and its story was 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 however, 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 (novel)
 * The Clone Wars: Prelude
 * HoloNet News — A Galaxy Divided
 * The Clone Wars: Shakedown
 * The Clone Wars: Procedure
 * The Clone Wars: Agenda
 * The Clone Wars: Agenda
 * The Clone Wars: Agenda

Notes and references
Malevolence