Malak Elohim Class Battleship

The **Malak Elohim** (English: "Lord of Angels") class battleship is the successor to the Ghaz Malak class battleship, featuring innovations thanks to shared Formian technology.

## Technical and Development History

The Malak Elohim began development as the second ship in the Malak class. It was still under construction during the Battle of Rodull. Due to the damage suffered by the RMV-01 Malak, it was mothballed, with the incomplete vessel to be turned into its successor, the RMV-01 Malak-A.

The Malak Elohim follows the same design philosophies as the original Malak, improved with new technologies and deadlier weapons.

### Key Design Improvements

* The Malak's solar sails have been removed, proving too fragile to be a proper backup drive system. Low-energy movements can now be achieved through the more efficient Ahab Thruster and Verniers.
* The ship's maneuverability, and thus accuracy of its Dimensional Disruptor Cannon, is drastically increased by the replacement of its Laser-Induced Fusion engines with a combination of Ahab-propulsion systems. It can make seemingly structurally impossible turns due to its Spatial Torsion Driver rotating space itself rather than the vessel.
* Half of the vessel's launch catapults have been replaced with large Quantum Information Translators, or 'Transporters' as a new method of deploying its battlesuit compliment. The former apertures for the catapults have been armored over. The freed up space allows the vessel to carry 10 more battlesuits.
* Four of the Particle Lances on the dorsal and spinal aft section have been replaced with TADA turrets otherwise identical to those on the Muejaza class.
* The Dimensional Disruptor Cannon has increased range and resistance to FTL interdiction to allow its use in the presence of Nisser subspace manipulators, and Formian gravity well generators.
* The bay used to house the Time Phased Sphere has been used to instead house the Spatial Torsion Driver, due to Formian-pattern Slipspace drives having more advanced reconciliation methods.
* The Skitterer drones have been phased out for DBS-2 Malakhim units.

## Equipment and Design Features

* 6x *Gravitic Catapult:* More durable improvement over the electromagnetic catapult, uses artificial gravity to cause battlesuits to rapidly 'fall' out of the launcher.
* 10x *Quantum Information Translator:*Also known as 'Transporters', these bays allow the vessel to teleport personnel and machinery to and from the vessel. Six bays are large enough to accommodate battlesuits, replacing half of the craft's launch bays.
* Many x *Anti-Particle Dispersant Launcher:* Fires a canister that can be remote detonated to disperse a cloud of material that absorbs the heat from particle weaponry.
* *β Nanolaminate Armor Gen II:* In addition to its protection, this armor acts as an Active Camouflage system that allows the equipped vessel to be rendered effectively invisible to eyes and most sensors. The more complicated nanomachines that make up armor can replicate the vessel's surroundings to mask it visually, as well as deflect sensor waves and contain the ship's Ahab waves. However, energy emissions such as firing its weapons, can reveal its position.
* *MIC-Pattern Ahab Deflector:* Using advances in Ahab particle field manipulation and compression, the Ahab Deflector completely replaces the original energy shield of Skapari-origin. This efficient system allows the Ahab field surrounding the vessel for propulsion to also be used for defense. Future iterations are planned to include phase modulation.
* 6x *Utility Drone Launcher:* Used to deploy a variety of specialized drones.
	+ *Slipspace Sensor Drone:* Deployed in Slipspace, the drone can safely be sent long-distances to seek out and detect enemies in either Slipspace or Realspace.
	+ *Shield Projector Drone:* A remote drone that contains an energy battery that is capable of generating a powerful energy shield for a brief time. Works as an emergency deterrent against enemy fire.
	+ *Decoy Drone:* Similar to Formian decoy drones, can be used to create illusionary vessels with exceptional detail.

* 2x *Spatial Torsion Array:* Similar to the vessel's Spatial Torsion Driver, this array can be used to disorient smaller approaching craft and misdirect enemy missiles.

## Fixed Armaments

* *3x MIC-Pattern “Zhulfiqar” MKIII 1000mm Tri-Barrel Linear Munitions Cannon:* Improved linear weapon using gravitic launch methods to reduce wear on the weapon. Each Zhulfiqar MKIII is turret mounted and fed by its own dedicated ultracompact vacuum reactor. Rounds are initially launched via plasma charge, and further accelerated by artificial gravity. The three barrels allow the weapons to be programmed for a variety of firing patterns.  The Malak Elohim class mounts all 3 turrets on its aft section, with two being on top and one being on the bottom. The weapon weapons can also be loaded with different amunitions as the target requires.
	+ *EM Scrambler Warhead:*The projectile consists of a number of high-power field generators meant to distort and disrupt enemy shields. Depending on the strength of the shields and the angle of the attack, can even force enemy shields to turn in on and deal damage to their projecting vessel. The projectors burn themselves out in a matter of seconds, relying on carefully timed assaults or remote activation.
	+ *Nano-Precision Warhead:*Projectile is coated in nanolaminate armor to increase durability. Opposite to NLA’s usual usage concentrates the force of the impact on the tip to increase penetrating power against enemy armor.
	+ *Proton Munitions Warhead:*A hybrid warhead that replaces the traditional plasma warhead with a proton explosive. Small AI built into the warhead actually allows the projectile to burn some of its reactant material to make course corrections to improve accuracy at extreme ranges. This allows the weapon to intelligently trade power for accuracy as need be.

* 4x  *Denizcilik-Pattern Type-0 TAchyon De-Accelerator (TADA):* Tachyons are particles that defy Special Relativity, possessing the ability to travel faster than the speed of light. Constructed from Formian technology, Tachyon weaponry actually applies drag to ambient Tachyons, generating vast amounts of energy. Mounted as turrets on the spinal and torso aft-section, while capable of impressive ranges, the weapon possesses escalating power the more one limits the effective range of the weapon by slowing the particles.
* *8x MIC-Pattern MKII Alternating High-Energy Particle Lance:* A turret-mounted particle lance making use of Tibanna Gas to increase its firepower by a factor of three. Xura-licensed alternating charge technology allows subsequent attacks after an initial hit have improved accuracy. Adjusting the focusing coils allows the weapon to fire a concentrated beam, or spread for a wide-angle lower power attack adept at hitting smaller craft. Four are mounted on the ship’s prow while the rest are spread across the ship’s aft section, guaranteeing any enemy faces at least 4 lances from any angle with the TADA complimenting their firing arcs.

* 24x *MIC-Pattern Particle Blaster CIWS:* Replacing the typical shredder CIWS of its predecessor, advancements in cooling and energy production has led to particle based CIWS systems. Due to the longevity of Tibanna-based particle weapons, the vessel can put up a staggering barrage of defensive fire without worrying about running out of ammunition.

* *1x MIC-Pattern Dimensional Disruptor Cannon:* Inspired by the ‘Slipspace Drivers’ used by Archdruid Darthr’s “Brimmir” battlesuit, the DDC weaponizes the ship’s Slipspace drive. Producing Slipspace ruptures stable enough for a ship to enter and exit is a delicate and complicated process. As a weapon however, this is not a concern. The front half of the ship, and even some of its aft sections, are dedicated to high-power cycle particle accelerator field projectors. These create what is known as an “Óttarr Field” in front of the vessel. This field is typically used to generate microscopic black holes. Because of their low mass, Hawking radiation gives them a lifetime of around a nanosecond (or potentially a little longer than a whole second), before they evaporate into useless thermal energy. In that nanosecond, the engine manipulates them into forming a rupture between normal space and the slipstream. The large number of projectors on the vessel allow it to create an unstable Slipspace rupture many times larger than the stable ones used for proper Slipspace transits. Due to the unstable nature of the rupture, it lasts for a shorter time, but any matter that gets caught in the area of effect is scattered at a molecular level across Slipspace and real space.

## Trivia

* Out of universe, the ship derives its name and role largely from the Pegasus class from *Mobile Suit Gundam* with its name being derived from the Archangel from *Gundam SEED.*
* A 'Malak' in Ghaz mythology is believed to be the sometimes troublesome guardians of their ancestors. As most of Ghaz mythology is based on distorted stories of their origins, its likely the Malak are in fact the Nisser.
* The first ship of the line, the Malak-A is a reference to the rebuilt NSC-1701 Enterprise-A of *Star Trek*.